TRAINING THE DEAF.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20620, 9 August 1932, Page 6

TRAINING THE DEAF.

THE SCHOOL AT SUMNER. VISIT BY HON. E. MASTERS. Remarkable instance* of the 'training of tho deaf to taka their rightful places in the community were given to the Hon. R. Masters (Minister for Education) when he visited 'the • Sumner School for the Deaf —the only one of its kind in the Dominion —yesterday. The visit was more or less informal and Mr Masters was met at the school by Messrs J. McCombs, M.P., and Walter Nash, M.P., and the principal, Mr T. F. Chambers. He was conducted through tho various classes and saw the methods of teaching children to understand their tutors and to speak their thoughts, from the smallest girl to a lad of 12 or 13 years. He was greatly impressed by the soundness of the training and results achieved, especially when it was explained to him —and he saw it for himself—that a small boy, whose ears possessed no aperture, could hear through the back of his head. Mr Masters congratulated the principal and staff on their work. Most of tho children showed an intelligence high above the average and the rapidity with which they grasped meanings was astonishing. While not by any means lax, discipline is relaxed to a certain extent in order to givo a wider scope to the teaching, and all tuition is carried out on the most modern lines, in the form of object lessons. The children recognised tho Minister immediately he entered the room, and for many reasons. One. was that he "came in first" and another that his photograph was in yesterday's Pkkss. Mr Masters was highly amused when ono of the children gave the Minister's private secretary, Mr W. Deavoll, the dignified description of "tall" and the Minister himself of "fat."