Till the child is at least four years old, the proper place for him is at home, and if he must be sent to one of the large public schools for the deaf it should not be till he is five or even six years of age. But during these years the mother can gain much knowledge that will help her by visiting as many schools for the deaf as possible. There are about a hundred and fifty such schools in the United States and eight in Canada. They vary in size, in character, and in methods of instruction employed. There are public boarding schools, and public day schools, free to the resident of the state, or city, in which they are located. There are private boarding and day schools, maintained by charity, or by the tuition fees. Some of each class are oral schools; that is, they employ only speech methods of instruction, without any signs or finger spelling. Others are called "Combined" schools; that is, they permit, and in some exercises encourage, the use of finger spelling and gestural signs, while they also give some instruction by the speech method. There are sectarian and non-sectarian schools, both oral and combined. A very considerable number of schools for the deaf in the United States and Canada still use manual, or silent, methods of instruction, at least in part. But the speech, or oral, method is steadily growing in popularity, and gradually supplanting manual spelling and gestural signs. The time will certainly come when the public will be too intelligent to any longer tolerate the use between teacher and pupil, or between any employee and the pupils, in a school for the deaf, any system of manual communication.