CHAPTER XXXI.

NURSES' TRAINING SCHOOLS.

REMARKS ON THE STATISTICS.

As compared with the Report for 1887-88 the figures for the year under review show an increase of 145 pupils and 103 graduates. The corps of instruction is a difficult thing to define. In some instances the hospital staff has been returned as such, while in other instances the corps has been returned as composed of one or two instructors. Nine institutions report the "amount received from students at private nursing." The amount received from this source was $21,395.

As to the text-books used there can be no doubt that Clara Weeks's Text-book on Nursing is a favorite, for in sixteen instances it is reported as being in use. In five instances Gray's Anatomy is used. There seems to be no set of text-books generally used in these schools, each school adopting its own combination irrespective of what books have been adopted by other schools. In one case the answer to the question as to the text-books used is, "Optional with the lecturers," and in another case, "Medical and surgical reference books are obtained in library."

As a large city is the condition under which a hospital can flourish, so may it be said that the nurses' training school is conditioned in a great measure on the hospital for its field of instruction. In fact these schools are almost always intimately connected with a hospital. From this it naturally follows that the financial statistics of the nurse-training school can not be given separately from those of the hospital. TABLE 1.-Instructors and pupils in training schools for nurses for 1888-89: summary of similar columns in Table 2.

TABLE 2.-Statistics of training schools for nurses for 1838-89, or thereabouts.

1

2

3

4

5 67 8

Hospital for Children and Training School for 1880 Annie E. Dickinson, treas- 10 0
Nurses.

9 10

50 Average, $12 per month.

19 Brooklyn, N. Y

Long Island College Hospital Training School | 1883 | Miss Ida L. Sutliffe.. for Nurses.*

14

(33)

13 2

CHAPTER XXXII.

EDUCATION OF SPECIAL CLASSES.

I.-EDUCATION OF THE DEAF AND BLIND.

GENERAL REMARKS ON THE EDUCATION OF THE BLIND.

The most interesting question before the educators and friends of the blind is, how to educate them to make them self-supporting. The want of confidence in them on the part of persons who can see is the great obstacle with which a blind person has to contend. The question is almost universally asked, What can they do? We have numerous instances all around us of blind clergymen, lawyers, musicians, business men, farmers, mechanics, dressmakers, typewriters, and, in fact, in almost every occupation of life we find the blind at work with a success that contradicts the oftrepeated and mistaken idea that a blind person can not be successful in this great struggle. Courage, patience, and energy will bring the same reward to the blind as they will to the seeing. The mountain side may be steeper, the path may be rougher, but concentration and courage will crown the efforts of the blind with success.

The institutions of to-day for the blind are not only educating men and women in the theories of life work, but are imparting to them a practical knowledge of such subjects as each student seems to have an aptitude for. The broadened culture of the times, and the increasing competitions in trade, demand with emphasis the most skilled products of brain and hand. It is a serious thought that men in this age are liable to get out of place, and thus it behooves all to intensify and concentrate their life work on some specific occupation.

The teacher of the blind should study until he understands thoroughly each pupil placed under his charge so that he can educate and foster any talent that he may possess. If musical ability exists, let him cultivate this talent until the student becomes an expert-a specialist. If he finds that the student has a talent for teaching, let him give him all the advantages that the institutions of to-day possess, and make him an expert teacher. Whatever occupation the blind boy or girl makes choice of for his life work, let him or her be educated in that until success has been attained. A thorough mastery of some accomplishment, profession, or calling is the condition of success in after life for the blind, as well as for the seeing.

The committee appointed at the ninth biennial meeting of the instructors of the blind have abandoned the plan of a national university, and are asking of Congress an appropriation, to be apportioned among the States, to help blind pupils who wish higher education to attend the seeing universities and colleges. A bill to this effect has been placed by the committee in the hands of the House Committee on Education.

MEETING OF THE AMERICAN INSTRUCTORS OF THE BLIND.

The tenth biennial meeting of the American Instructors of the Blind was held at the Maryland School for the Blind, July 10, 11, and 12, 1888.

The schools of the United States and Canada were largely represented. Papers were read upon the following subjects: "Home teaching," "Higher education," "Facial perception," "Stability of office tenure," "Institution discipline," "Occupation available to the blind after finishing their school course," "The cultivation of memory," "Hints on teaching music," Methods of teaching."

The advancement and elevation of this phase of educational work is greatly assisted by the holding of these conventions. The papers read and the methods discussed serve to stimulate every teacher in the good work.

The subjects discu-sed were all of the greatest importance to those interested in the education of the blind.

The paper on "The higher education and the future welfare of the indigent blind" was read by Mr. Doyle, of the Virginia Institution for the Deaf and the Blind. In it he says:

"First. Higher education for the blind is most desirable. * It is a fact proven abundantly by themselves that the blind have both the capacity and the desire for a higher education. * * *

"Third. All that is lacking to provide for them in this respect is a wise utilization of the means already in hand, and the securing of a certain and adequate money supply to enable the élèves of the institutions to enter the higher walks of learning after they have received the benefit of all the facilities that the institutions can furnish.

6

"Fourth. This certain and adequate money supply' can come from but two sources, private benefactions or public appropriations. The first can scarcely be hoped for, certainly it can not be depended upon. The second can be secured if only this association will set itself heartily, vigorously at work to secure it."

Mr. Doyle would care for the indigent blind by helping them to care for themselves. He says: "Surely if we want to raise the condition of the indigent blind man we should strive to do so, if it be possible, in such a way as to preserve his own selfrespect. He should be encouraged to help himself to the extent of his abilities, and when his endeavor fails the helping hand should be extended. In working for himself he will grow stronger as he surmounts difficulties. Every time a want is supplied by a man's own efforts the faculty which is called into play becomes stronger and the receiving want is smaller in proportion to the power of meeting it. Every time a want is met by the exertions of some one else, the power of meeting it by one's own effort is weakened."

He recommends that working homes for the blind be established in the different States similar to the working home for blind men in Philadelphia.

Mr. Parmalee, of the Nebraska Institute for the Blind, read a paper upon "The relation of school work to the future of the blind." In it he says: "More stress, it seems to me, needs continually to be laid upon the development of independent thought and research, the power to reason from cause to effect, of concentration upon a given subject, and such qualities of mind as courage, zeal, and persistence; a courage which is not daunted by defeat, a zeal not dependent on moods and caprice, and resoluteness of purpose and oneness of aim which shall not be turned aside by every east wind of opposition or adversity. And, further to the same end, we should persistently endeavor to assist our charges to rid themselves of all mannerisms, to form correct habits, and withal to be able to meet their fellow-man with clean hands and a pure heart. These are the qualifications and this the work necessary in building up a character and personality which shall make itself felt in the home circle, in social or church life, or in the body politic."

SOME CONCLUSIONS OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE DEAF, BLIND, ETC.

The most important event of the year in the education of those who have lost or who have never possessed sight or hearing is the long-awaited report of the Royal (English) Commission on the Blind and the Deaf and Dumb. It was before this commission that Professor Gallaudet, of the National Deaf College, testified as noted in our report for 1885-26, and subsequent y Prof. A. Graham Bell.

The commission was originally intended to investigate the condition of the blind, but subsequently the scope of the inquiry was enlarged to include the deaf and such feeble-minded persons as were educable. We are not, of course, concerned so much with the condition of the blind and deaf in England as with the conclusions that the commission has reached on the burning questions whether the pure oral method be the greatest good to the greatest number of deaf children, and what shall be done to help the blind graduate. On the question whether the New York Point is better than the Braille, a burning question in this country, there is no doubt in England; they have one system only--the Braille. It should be stated, however, in passing that classes for the blind have been established by the school boards of London, Bradford, Cardiff, Sunderland, and Glasgow. A public day school for the blind has not yet been made a part of any of our city systems of public schools, as far as this Bureau is aware. For the deaf, of course, day schools have been established for some years.

The commissior first defines the three systems of communication used by the deaf in the following terms:

"The three systems-sign and manual, oral, and combined-while having in common the desire to enable the deaf to earn their livelihood, work to this end in different ways. The first specially trains the deaf to communicate and associate with their fellow-deaf; the pure oral system specially trains the deaf to communicate and associate with the hearing and speaking world; the combined system, as its name implies, tries to combine the two former, the result being that, with few exceptions,