A Comparison of the Educational Treatment of the Deaf, the Blind, and the Feeble-Minded

In the early decades of the nineteenth century thought was directed to the education of three particular classes who, by reason of physical or mental defect, were denied instruction in the usual manner of children in the regular schools. These classes were the deaf, the blind, and the feeble-minded. The deaf were the first to have special schools provided for their needs, and the feeble-minded. The deaf were the first to have special schools provided for their needs, and were soon followed by the blind. So great appeared the possibilities of education with these two classes that it was regarded as a natural consequence for means of education to be extended to the feebleminded as well. It was believed that by proper and suitable methods of instruction the feeble-minded could, even if not made whole in mind, be put on a practical level with the rest of the community, at least so far as self-support and orderly conduct were concerned. Procedure was often much the same for all three classes, and each drew devoted and able men to it. As time went on, the early hopes as to the deaf and the blind fully justified hemselves. Results s to the feeble-minded were disappointing. Education in the fullest acceptation of the term has been the correct policy with the deaf and the blind, and has accomplished much with them. With the feeble-mind ed education in its usual sense has proved but seed cast upon a stony soil. Training along certain lines has been discovered to be the necessary policy for them. This, with limited intellectual instruction, comes nearest to being "education" for them. Their general treatment by society requires a different basis

Deaf blind · Mathematics education · Natural (archaeology) · Pedagogy · Sociology · Special education · Hearing Impairment and Communication · History · Medicine · Psychology