In their special classroom, the children are taught Braille reading and
writing, and a great deal of time is given to these branches. They are
taught all sorts of handwork, basketry, weaving, knitting, modeling, and
chair caning, and, when old enough, they are sent with the other
children to sewing, cooking, sloyd and music classes. As soon as
possible, they recite with the regular classes, their lessons being
previously read or explained by the special teacher. This gives them the
contact with normal children, so necessary to the development of the
blind child. Those not in favor of special classes claim that this
competition is too severe a strain, and that it is unkind and unwise to
place blind children with those whose physical advantages and
opportunities for study are greater. But we have found that the plan
works admirably. The special teacher trains her pupils to be
self-reliant and helpful, insists that they join in the games of the
others, assuring them that, with greater effort, they, too, may play,
and it is delightful to watch them at recess or at noon, each blind
child affectionately led by a seeing child, the latter calling the
teacher's attention to the successful performance of some feat on the
part of his blind playmate. In the classroom, too, the spirit is the
same, the blind child remembering things for the one who sees, and the
seeing child using his eyes for the one who is blind. The special
teacher trains the memory of her pupils to the highest possible degree,
impressing upon them that their minds are vast storehouses in which to
keep all sorts of knowledge tucked away for future use, and that it is
disastrous to blind children to forget. In mental arithmetic, they
usually lead the class. Their presence in the school is of the greatest
help to the others with whom they work in class. Their success in
overcoming difficulties is a stimulus to the pride and an incentive to
the ambition of the seeing child. The presence of the blind children is
a constant reminder to them of their superior physical advantages, and
they are ashamed to have them outstrip them, as they so often do, in
intellectual work. And so the presence of the blind child is sure to
result in untold good, not only to the child so handicapped, but to the
entire school, removing as it must, the belief, now, alas, so general,
that when eyesight is lost, all is lost. Trained side by side with its
sighted companions, doing the same work as well, if not better, the
later success of the young blind seeker after knowledge is practically
assured; for, as I have said, in mental attainment, at least, the blind
child is the peer of the child with eyesight,--here, beyond cavil, the
chances are equal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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