For it all there is but one remedy--the enactment of a strong compulsory education law and its uncompromising enforcement. No matter how strenuous and diligent may be the efforts to reach the children,[538] it is only when such a law is on the statute books that the state's really effective weapon is at hand to secure attendance.[539] However urgent are the needs of compulsory education laws for children generally, there are special reasons for them with the deaf. The deaf stand in particular need of an education, and without it their condition is peculiarly helpless and pitiable. Compelling reason is also found in the fact that, besides the ordinary schooling, industrial training is likewise afforded to the deaf, which is hardly possible elsewhere, and which may mean no little towards success in after life. Even though it sometimes seems hard to take a deaf child from his home, and separate him from his parents for a number of months at a time, especially if the child is in his tender years, the greater necessity of the law is but indicated if such children are to be kept from growing up in ignorance. The hardship in separation is rather apparent only and is temporary, while the gains are not to be measured. Not only should the deaf child be required to attend school, but for reasons equally strong it should be seen that he remains at school a sufficient number of years, and a sufficient length of time each year. It is a difficult matter as it is to secure full attendance, but too often also the temptation is at hand for pupils to leave early to take up work on their own account, or because the school routine seems irksome; and too often is a pupil called away to help on the farm or in the shop by what is sometimes hardly less than the greed of the parent, or by what is sometimes miscalled his poverty. The state should allow nothing at all to stand in the way of the child's best interests. PRESENT EXTENT OF COMPULSORY EDUCATION LAWS How important are compulsory education laws for the deaf is being generally seen, and the demand has become practically unanimous for their enactment, the feeling not being confined to educators of the deaf but shared in by others interested in them.[540] Such laws have begun to find their way upon the statute books, and are now being increasingly enacted. Already practically half of the states have them, nearly all of which were enacted since 1900. In other states the matter is also being agitated, with the likelihood that provisions will be extended to them in time. States with such laws now number at least twenty-three: California, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.[541]