THE EDUCATION OF THE BLIND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9564, 21 October 1892, Page 3

THE EDUCATION OF THE BLIND.

At yesterday's meeting of the Education Board the following comrauniciition, with reference to the teaching of blind children at the AVakari School, was receired from Inspector Goyen:— Education Cilice, September 2-1,1592. The Secretary Otago X lucation Board. Sir, —In reply to your memo, of the 10th just., I have the honour to say that the success achieved by Mr Paterson appears to me to place beyoud doubt the question of the practicability of teaching blind children in public schools. Thejblind children taught in the Wakari School were last year presented for examination with the pupils of class P (the class next below Standard I), this year they were presented for examination in Standard 111, thus virtually taking three standards in one year, and in nearly all the work they came out at the head of their class. They answered well in the class subjects (recitation, object lessons, and history); they read with fair fluency and nice taste both prepared and unprepared matter; spelt well; wrote a creditable composition exorcise, and gained, the boy SO aud the girl 70 per cent, of the marks given for arithmetic. A striking feature in the work of the last subject was the rapidity with which the computations were performed by the blind children, One of the most pleasing features in the examination was the interest manifested by the other children in the success of their blind class-mates.

The board's experiment is, I think, completely successful, and that it is so is owing partly to the industry and intelligenccof the children, but chiefly to the sympathy and enthusiasm with which Mr Piiterson has entered into the spirit of the board's scheme.

Dr Hislop said : I venture to express the opinion that the success which has attended Mr Paterson's efforts on behalf of his two blind scholars renders it incumbent upon the board to consider seriously what steps should be taken to gather into our schools all the blind children of suitable ages within the education district, and how we can best secure the hearty co-operation of school committees and teachers in regard to this matter. In order to make myself better acquainted with this important and interesting subject I have carefully perused an able and instructive article on the teaching of the blind, in the new edition of " Chambers' Encyclopedia," I have also studied the alphabet and initiatory lessons in the Braille " Primer for the Blind." I visited the Wakari School last Monday, and I have had a conversation with Miss Jones, of Clyde street, who lost her "sight when a pupil of Albany street School, and who was sent by her father to the Melbourne Blind Asylum for three or four years. The conclusion I have arrived at is that there need be no blind child of suit-

able age and fair intelligence who could not be admitted a pupil of one or other of our public schools, and successfully taught to read, write, and cipher, to ail extent equal to that of seeing children, if only the teacher would take the same interest in the work as has been done by Mr Paterson, of the Wakari School. .We all know that for many years the blind have been taughb to read by means of raised characters

instead of the ordinary printed letters Used by seeing people. Improvement after improvement has been effected, and the method of instruction has now been so much simplified that the work of teaching, which was formerly entrusted to experts only, can now be performc d by anyone of ordinary intelligence who can be led to take a kindly interest in ifc, while youug people, instead of being sent to special institutions amongst a crowd of other blind inmates, can now be successfully taught in the ordinary public schools along with their own brothers, sisters, and neighbours. For many years the system of teaching the blind to read, which, had been introduced by Dr Moon, of Brighton, was in very general use, but his method, as well as most of the others, has been almost wholly superseded by the great invention of M. Louis Braille, which was officially adopted in Paris in 1854-. M. Braille was bom in 1809, at a town about 23 miles from Paris. He became blind through an accident at the age of three years. When 10 years old he was entered as a pupil of the National Institution for Blind Children at Paris, aud showed such capacity that at the early age of 17 he was elected professor at the institution. Hitherto little or nothing had beeu done in the way of teaching the blind to write, their acquirement being almost wholly confined to that of ability to read by running the finger along the lines of raised characters. But both as a pupil and a professor M. Braille laboured long and hard to invent a simple system by which the blind could not only read but write in relief. He examined all the methods then in vogue, and at length devised the simple and beautiful system which bears his name, and which is now coming more and more into

general use. The alphabet- used under the earlier systems and the shapes of the letters very much resembled those used by the seeing. Statistics collected from seven institutions in America showed that by the older methods only about 34 per cent, of the pupils could be taught to read with facility and 31 per cent, moderately well. M. Braille did away with the use of theordinary letters of the alphabet, though retaining their several names, and invented arbitrary signs in their stead. These, consist of varying combinations of only sis points slightly raised above the level of the paper, and placed in an oblong three-tenths by twotenths of au inch. The vertical side of this oblong contains three points and the horizontal' two points. There are 62 possible combinations of these six points, so that after providing characters for the 26 letters of the English alphubst there remain 36 points-for punctuation, contractions, &c. Of course it is by running the tip of the finger along the lines of symbols thai; the blind learner is soon able tv make out, from the positions of the points, the lettei-3 signified, to spell the words, and to acquire the same fluency in reading as that attained by ordinary pupils by means of the eye. After a careful study of the "Braille alphabet and the initiatory lessons in the "Primer," I satisfied myself in a wonderfully short space of time that anyone' of fair intelligence and the requisite zeal could without much difficulty soon acquire the power of reading the Braille series of lesson books, and of instructing others to do so. Of course it would only be by practice and per.wvai-ance that a fair degree of celerity in making ou^ the letters and word-; could be attained. But in the case of the bliud the want of sight undoubtedly tends greatly to the strengthening of the memory and the quickening of the other seuses, notably that of touch ; and consequently the times taken in acquiring celerity in reading as well as in writing and ciphering by means of the touch is wonderfully short.

On the day I visited Wakari School the boy Wise only was pre-:eut, his sister having been prevented from attending by the bad roads. After ho had read fluently and correctly from the old " Royal Reader" a portion of his lesson for the day, I selected a lesson further on, with which he was quite unacquainted, and asked him to read it. I thought it right to teil him to run his Bugers along the lines before beginning to read aloud. He did not take long to do this, and he then read aloud with fluency and with fair modulation o»: voice ; in fact, his readiug could not be distinguished from thah of a seeing child in the same standard. It is only ssven months since he and his sister had Braille's reading books put into thek hands.

It would weary you to listen to a full description of the Braille writing apparatus and the mode of using it. It consists of a flat wooden board about 10 by 7 inches and about half aa inch in thickness. To this board is fitted a

thiii niefcai plate about 11 inch in width, which moves up and down at the will of the writer. This plate is jointed iv the middle, so that the two halves when they ;ue folded close together extend exactly across the board. These serre the purpose of a guide, and are kept in position by a very simple arrangement. The undsr guide, or bed as it may be called, is marked with groups o? little pits or dents, each group consisting of six pits corresponding with the obioug I have already mentioned when' describiug the reading signs. The upper guide is furnished with oblong openings, corresponding with the groups of pits in the lower guide. The paper corresponds in size with the writing boards, and is of the same kind as that used for drawing books. It is fastened at the top of the board by a very simple contrivance ; it is then laid over the under plats or guide, and the upper plate is fastened close to the paper, which is then ready for being operated upon. The writer then, by using a small stylo exactly resembling a blunted bradawl, and feeling for each oblong opening as he moves his hand along, makes through ihese a slight series of pits on ths piper next him. These show corresponding points or prominences on the other side of the paper, which represent the letters and words intended to bo written, and afterwards read. The reading of these points is done iv the usual way, from left to right, but the writing or making of the dents which produce the points is necessarily taken from right to left. This reversal presents no practical difficulty to the pupil, who soou takes in the idea that such is necessary. I should have mentioned that the

metal plate or guide contains two lines of writing; when these are finished the writer slides the guides down the boards to a proper distance for the next two line.-!, and so on till the sheet is filled. When I was present Mr faterson gave the Third Standard class an exercise in writing from dictation. Wise took his writing board and paper, the others took their slates. The teacher read to the class iv the usual way, and though Wise had to shift his guide every two lines, he had the seuteuces fiaished sooner than the slower half of his classmates. A3 Wise is improving in quickness in making the requisite dents, Mr Faterson expressed his belief that he would ba able to write

from dictation as spaedily as the smartest of his classmates. Wise spe.lfc and read to me what he had written to dictation. The only mistake he made was in writing "thankful!" instead of " thankful." It is stated by Principal Campbell in his article on the blind iv Chambers' " Encyclopedia " that "Typewriting machines, as constructed for the seeing, with very slight modifications, may be used with equaHacility by the blind." The arithmetical questions are worked by means of a ciphering apparatus, the best being said to have been constructed by the Roy. W. Taylor, of Worcester, England. This apparatus consists o£ a zinc box, about 12in by 10iu io length and breadth, and - 2 uiu in depth. The top of this box is perforated by rows of holes in considerable number, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, and so shaped that each hole has eight angles or corners in its circumference. Into these can be thrust metal pegs ?,bout an inch in length, and of sufficient thickness to enable them to go

easily into and out of the holes. According to the angles into which these pegs are placed in the holes, the figures from I to 8 inclusive are represented, other simple means being taken to represent the figures 9 and 0. It is impossible, however, to describe in mere words the ciphering process. At the school we gave Wise a compound multiplication question to solve. While working with his pegs he named alouu every step oC thu process to be gona through in arriving ab the answer. The question was worked out correctly and as speedly as any good arithmetician in the same standard could possibly have done. The great rapidity with which he manipulated the pegs in the course of the operation was to me a sight worth looking at. Mr Paterson expressed his belief that after longer practice, Wise's celerity in solving arithmetical questions will still improve. I ought to state here that Me Patersou acknowledged his indebtedness to Miss Jones, whom I have already referred to, for the hints that enabled him to start the Wise children in the use of the ciphering apparatus.

MrPaterson informed me that the two blind children were sent to his'school fully 18 months ago, mainly by the advice (I believe) of the Rev. Mr Sutherland, of Kaikorai, aud that finding he could do very little for them without the necessary appliances for teaching the blind he requested the board, through Mr Pryde, to procure these for him. They were first made use of by him about seven months ago, aud it is within this short period that the progress described by Mr Goyen has been made. At that time Mr Paterson had no practical knowledge of the methods of teaching the blind Ihis he picked up gradually from a careful study of M. Braille's alphabet and reading Primer," and from the hints given him by Miss Jones. He told me, however, that a blind gentleman in Duuedin had given the children a very few elementary lessons ou the use of the writing frame, but that these proved of very little practical value.

It may he interesting to learn what Professor Campbell states regarding the " Braille Musical Notation." He writes as follows :—" Braille furmsb.es a musical notation less complicated and easier to learn than the ordinary staff notation. Any music whatever can be written. In instrumental music, a serious disadvantage arises from the fact that the blind performer has both to read and play with his hands ; the usual plan is to read with one hand and play with the other until the music is committed to memory. In vocal music this drawback disappears. During a performance before her Majesty at Windsor by the pupils of the Royal Normal College and Academy of Music for the Blind, a musician present sent up a short original composition in manuscript. It was dictated, quickly written down, and then sung from the notes with accuracy and effect by the blind choir."

The literature for the use of the blind is now somewhat extensive. Besides the original Braille "Primer," and some of Nelson's " Royal Readers," we have in the Education Office here sets of the " Geography of the World," "Natural History," the "History of England," and "Short Stories." I understaod that besides the Bible, numerous books in general literature are now printed in the Braille type. Miss Jones informs me that some of these, including two of the best of Scott's novels, have been read by her with much interest and pleasure. lam in hopes that before many years pass away we shall have in New Zealand libraries containing such books as I have referred to for the use of the blind people who have been taught in our schools, and who have had imparted to them the foundation of a good, solid school educition. I may mention before concluding that I have had a conversation with Mr Fitzgerald, the able rector of our Training College, on the subject of the education of the blind. He assures me that he takes the greatest interest in the subject and that he is fully prepared to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the methods of instruction and to impart a knowledge of the same to students preparing for the work of school teaching if he should be so instructed by the board. My object in making so long a statement is to convince the members of the board and others who may road the report of the proceedings at this meeting, if fully published, that there need be no blind person of suitable age and fair intelligence who could not be admitted a pupil in any of our public schools, and taught to read, write, and cipher in a manner equal to that of any of the seeing children, if only school committees and teachers in whose districts blind children are resident would take the same interest and trouble in the matter as has been taken by Mr Paterson, of the Wakari School. It is surely much better that children afflicted with blindness should receive a thorough schooi education, and at the same time reside with their own parents, and attend school with their own brothers, sisters, or neighbours, than that they should remain uneducated or be sent to distant institutions away from all parental and home influences. It may be found necessaiy in some cases to send blind persons to an institution for the purpose of learning some useful occupation or trade, but at present I am disposed to thiuk that in the case of children who have received a thoroughly substantial school education such a course may eventually be found to be less necessary than some people seem to think. Ido not think the question of expense need trouble the board. Parents in fairly good circumstances would do doubt cheerfully pay for the necessary books and appliauces used by their children, and the board would, I am sure, bs quite willing to bear the expense of such appliances in the case of children of pnor parents? For my own part I should strongly oppose the board's applying to the Education department or to Parliament for pecuniary assistance in connection with this matter. The cost would bo comparatively trifling, and we musi; not overlook the fact that the attendance of oco blind child at any of our schools raenns an addition of L 3 15s a year to the board's funds. It may be found advisable,' however, for the board or the Education department to grant bonuses to those teachers who may give satisfactory evidence of zeal and success in the teaching of blind scholars. I now beg to submit for the board's consideration the following resolutions :— (1) "That Inspector Goyeu's report respecting the results of the teaching o*f two blind children at Wakari School be forwarded to the Hon. the Minister for Education for his information."

(2) "That school committees be requested to co-operate with their teachers in ascertaining the number of blind children within reach of the schools of their several districts, aud to reporb to the board as soon as convenient the result of their inquiries, so that, if possible, there shall be no blind child within the Otago education district growing up without the means of acquiring us far as' practicable a thorough school education the same as other children.

(3) " That the rector of the Training School be_ requested to favour the board with his opinion as to the practicability of imparting such instruction to his students in training as would enable them to successfully instruct m_ reading, writing, and ciphering such blind children as may be entrusted to their care in the schools to which his students may hereafter be appointed.

W "That the secretary be authorised to procure as soon as possible such supply of reading books and appliances for the blind as may seem to be necessary, after consultation with the chairman and Messrs Fitzgerald aud Pateison."

Dr Stekhouse seconded the motions. It was a great hardship for parents to have to send their blind children to _a distance to be educated; and especially did this remark apply to New Zealand. Many people here had at present to go to the expense of exiling their children to Victoria in order to enable them to get that education and training that was necessary to fit them for their work iv after life. It seemed to him, from what ho had seen at Wakari and from hearing Dr Hislop's paper, that the teaching of the blind in the public schools could be carried out with very little difficulty. The matter depended a great deal upon the zeal and kindness of the teachers. No doubt the work of teaching the blind would entail a little extra labour upon them, but if they had any feelings of humanity they would bo prepared to undertake such work in the interests of those <vho were afflicted with blindness. Mr Paterson had given a great deal of time and attention to his work of teaching the blind, and he thought that be was entitled to some financial reward. He hoped that Dr Hislop would move in that direction. There was' another admirable use served by Dr Hislop's pa»er. There were a number oi! blind people in'the colony iv "mid life," and when they found how easy it, was to acquire the cart of reading and writing they would avail themselves of the opportunity, if it were afforded them, of learning the system to which reference had been made.

The On.uiiMAN thought that Dr Hislou w&s to be complimented in having gone so thoroughly into this matter, because there was no doubt that if the paper were published, the remarks ot Dr Hislop would not only be of benefit to cdildrcn, but to many blind people throughout the colony.

Mr Borrie thought that the thanks of the board aud the whole community were due to Dr Hislop for preparing his paper, and he hoped it would be published in pamphlet form.

The motions were then put and carried

— The cow-tree, the sap of which closely resembles milk, is a native of South and Central America. It is a f peeies of evergreen, and grows only in mountain regions. A hole bored into tho wood, or even a wound made in the bark of this remarkable tree, is almost immediately filled with a lacteal fluid, which continues to flow until it coagulates at the mouth of the wound, soon healing the abrasion. This curious iluid is both palatable and nourishing.

— During the last thousand! years there has often but one sudden rise of the Nile—that of 1829, when 30,000 people were drowned. After the waters recede each year tho exhalations from the mud are simply intolerable to all except natives. This mud' deposit adds .--.bout 3iu to the soil every century, and throws a muddy embankment from 12ft to 16ft into the s«aevery year. This being the ease, it is plain that the mouth of the river is thousands of feet further north now than it was at the times of the Ptolemies, nnd it is only a question of time when tile sediment will make a dam entirely across tho Mediterranean Sea.