Report of the Commissioner of Education Made to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year ... with Accompanying Papers

teach them to rely more upon themselves and to utilize time lost by the oral method. He recommends the use of the New York Point in printing the majority of the books for the use of the blind, because it is more easily read by those whose fingers are less delicate to touch, and because the point is available for writing, "enabling pupils to take notes on their school work to preserve for future reference, and for purposes of correspondence." He says that higher education is desirable, and with the proper facilities provided the usefulness and happiness of the pupils will be secured, and the graduates will profit by the higher course. He recommends the addition of a collegiate department, equipped with the necessary teaching force and apparatus for acquiring the higher education.

This institution has a well-equipped manual-training department. In the tuning shop thirty-four young men are taught tuning and repairing. Eight pianos and five models of actions from different manufactories are used. Fifty-four pupils are learning to make brooms, who devote their time to this work when not occupied with other duties. In the cane-seating shop there are forty-six pupils under instruction. In the sewing department ninety-six girls are taught plain hand and machine sewing, darning and mending.

Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, Philadelphia, Pa.-In this institution the higher education of the pupils is recommended, and in the manual training department the selection of special trades for the blind is considered of the greatest importance. Trades that can be followed by individuals should be selected, and care should be taken to select such trades as are not likely to be interfered with by the introduction of machinery. The superintendent also recommends instruction in business methods, and that the pupils be taught to cultivate habits of self-reliance. This school claims to be the first to have formally introduced cooking as a regular branch of instruction.

"A room has been fitted as a kitchen, and here twice a week sixteen girls may be seen busily at work over their tasks, involving all the principles of the culinary art. Not only are they taught to bake and broil and fry, but the course goes deeper in the training in domestic economy, the arts of utilizing previously cooked foods, the making of palatable and nutritious dishes from inexpensive materials, undesirable cuts of meat, and the parts usually wasted; in fact, in the many petty household economies of which the French are masters and in which the American housewife is commonly deficient. The chemical composition of foods, as well as the requirements of the body, are all considered, and fact and rule take the place of judgment and taste, those terms so common in cook books.

"The experience of a year has shown it to be entirely practical and fully justifies the anticipations of success."

Remarks on the tables.

The Eastern Iowa School for the Deaf, at Dubuque, Iowa, and the Albany School, at Albany, N. Y., are private institutions for the education of the deaf and dumb and have been established since the preceding Report. The manual or sign method of instruction is used by the Eastern Iowa School, and the oral at the Albany School. Of the 75 institutions for the deaf appearing in the following tables, 66 have reported direct to this Office. Forty-two use the combined method of instruction, 15 the pure oral, and 9 the manual or sign method. The number of pupils taught speech and lip-reading in the schools using the combined and oral methods as reported to us is 2,274, or about 28 per cent. of the whole number of pupils reported in the institutions for the deaf and the dumb. Two hundred and eighty-nine pupils graduated from these institutions in 1888-89. The whole number of pupils graduated since the organization of the institutions is 5,075. The number of pupils in the kindergartens is 161, and in the manual training departments 2,757. The trades taught are photography, gardening, drawing, painting, sewing, dressmaking, carpentry, printing, shoemaking, molding, patternmaking, coopering, wood engraving, wood carving, charcoal drawing, crayon drawing, typewriting, tailoring, cooking, machine sewing, millinery, stocking knitting, fancy work, scroll sawing, modeling in clay, metal working, laundry, house painting, plumbing, bookbinding, glazing, and farming. The number of institutions that give instruction in kindergarten work is 6, and in manual training 38. The schools are raising the standards of their literary departments and are reporting progress all along the line.

The number of institutions for the blind appearing in the tables is 34, including the institution at Cheyenne, Wyo., from which no information has been received by this office. The 33 institutions reporting show an increase of 71 instructors and 274 pupils over last year's report.

In the cases of institutions for both the deaf and blind it has been found impossible to separate the receipts and expenditures of the departments for the deaf from those of the departments for the blind. In order to prevent confusion and a fictitious increase in these items, all the financial statistics received from such institutions have been placed in the tables of statistics of the education of the deaf. The school for the colored blind at Austin, Tex., is the only exception to this.

State.

Number of institu

tions.

Co Male.

Summary of statistics of institutions for the deaf for 1888-89.