BLIND CHILDREN IN THE WAKARI SCHOOL.

Otago Witness, 14 December 1893, Page 23

BLIND CHILDREN IN THE WAKARI SCHOOL.

On Tuesday morning a party, consisting of the Hon. Thomas Fergus, Messrs J. Robin, M. Cohen, W. M'Gla3han (of Paisley, Scotland), and two press representatives, paid a surprise visit to the Wakari School for the purpose of seeiDg how the blind children in attendance there were instructed in their school course. At the time of the visit of the party the children in the Fifth Standard were being given a lesson in arithmetic on the blackboard. A sum in practice was, in fact, in a partially completed state on the board, and after the visitors entered the schoolroom it was worked out to its conclusion by the class. In the clasa were two blind children — a boy and a girl ; the former being 14, and the latter 12 years of age. In the working out of the sum they took part with the other children, and were quite as accurate in their work as their class-mates. The children were subsequently called upon to read and to write to dictation, and in doing both of these things the blind pupils manifested as great a degree of proficiency as others in their class. The boy afterwards worked a sum in multiplication by means of a cyphering apparatus, and the girl, also by the same means, worked a sum in compound addition, the computations in each case being performed with a good deal of, rapidity, and in the case of the girl with perfect accuracy. The boy, however, made a slight mistake in his addition, which he nevertheless quickly rectified when his attention was called to it. In reply to questions from the visitors, the headmaster (Mr W. A. Faterson), who has taught the blind children to read, write, and cypher, stated that his two sightless pupils learnt as readily as the other children in the school. The system adopted of teaching them to read and write is that known as Braille's system, a description of which was given in our columns some time ago by Dr Hislop, who, at a meeting of the Education Board in October last year, referred to Mr Paterson's efforts in the direction of teaching the blind. On that occasion it will probably be remembered Inspector Goyen reported to the board as to the progress made by the two blind pupils in the Wakari School, and said "the success achieved by Mr Paterson appears to me to place beyond doubt the question of the practicability of teaching blind children in public schools." This seemed evident to the party who visited the school on Tuesday. It should be stated that before the visitors retired the children were addressed by

Mr Robin, who said for a number of years he was a member of the Dunedin Schools Committee, when all the schools in Duuedin were under one committee. He took a great interest in the institutions, and he hoped that his work among them had been beneficial to the scholars and to all concerned. But although he had visited the schools many times he did not know that he was ever more interested in the work than he was in that which he had spen carried on at the Wakari School that day. The discipline of the children, too, was good, and it reflected credit not only on the teachers, but on the children as well, that while the two pupils had been going through their exercises their classmates had remained perfectly quiet and orderly. He was very much gratified to see the progress the two scholars he had referred to had made, In answering question, in their

•reading and their sums and the other exercises in which they had taken part they had, he thought, a great deal the advantage of the other children ; and he did not think the class would be offended with him for saying that. He thought their teacher, Mr Paterson. deserved great credit for the interest he had taken in the welfare and the advancement the two children had made. It was customary to send blind children throughout the colony to other institutions, but he thought that if the authorities who had this matter in hand had been at the school that day they would have eeen that there was no necessity to send them further than Wakari. He also hoped that Mr Paterson would receive all the encourgement he deserved in this excellent work, and he trusted that if there were any other blind children about the district they would attend the school, where they would, he was sure, make sufficient and satisfactory progress, as was the case with the two children whose efforts they had just witnessed.