[Colorado-Talk] Separate schools for the deaf and blind

[Peggy Chong]

Hello All:

 

We talk about a separate agency for the blind and a separate school for our
blind kids.  Today, I want to share an article from 1904 about the Colorado
School for the Deaf and Blind.    So, for more than 120 years, many have
asked for a separation of the blind and deaf schools.  The reasons are still
the same as they were back then.

 

Peggy Chong

 

COLORADO INDEX., 

 

DECEMBER 1, 1904 

 

Since these pages are always open for any articles or items pertaining to
the well being of 

the blind the conductor does not hesitate to quote from an article now and
then in order to 

show to the readers just what the consensus of opinion is in regard to
certain debatable subjects. Prof. li. II. Johnson who has charge of the
pages regarding the blind in the West Virginia Tablet has a way of saying
things right from his very heart and since there is scarcely a more
whole-souled advocate for the highest good of the blind in the United
States, one naturally feels that items written by him ought to appear just
as they were written. Before discussing or at least commenting on his
editorial we will quote it which is as follows: - 

 

"The Washingtonian * and the "Rocky Mountain Leader" come with persistent
kindness to 

my private address, and, strange to say, I receive these papers with
exemplary regularly 

from the office. I am none the less grateful to the good friends who send
them directly to 

me, and should be glad to use a privilege extended to me long ago of sending
the Tablet 

to any one who should be indicated as the conductor of a page like this in
either of these, or any other papers from schools with a blind department.
The other papers reach me with 

so much irregularity that I cannot keep up with the progress of their work
as I could 

wish. I am sure it is only the result of an in advertance, which I do not
seek to locate; 

but it is sorely inconvenient sometimes. Thus I have missed No. 3 of the
"Notes of Travel," 

running for several of the early weeks of the term in the California News. 1
would fain 

hope that Mr. Caldwell gave some account of the Association of Instructors
of the Blind, 

which was held during this month at the L. P. Exposition, and which he
attended with delightful regularity. I am sorry to have missed anything he
may have written on the subject. The ssociation has been mentioned with
sparing hand if at all, by many of the papers, while I see numerous
references to the Conference of Principals held at St. Louis only a few
weeks ago. Not surely because the matter is less dear to the hearts of the
dual schools, but, for some unexplained reason, which I would gladly hope
has been merely an oversight. It is not to be wondered at In the schools
where the blind are gathered into schools with the deaf, they are, I
believe, without exception, largely in the minority, so low, sometimes, as
four to one, and the rule for the greatest good to the greatest number must
prevail. I cannot forbear the thought that this disparity of numbers ought
to attract some wise and effective attention. I am aware that there is an
inequality between the classes, and I thank God for it; but there are more
blind children than appear in these 

schools, and they ought to be brought into the enjoyment of the advantages
that have been 

so liberally provided for them. 1 note in the last Ohio Report, that Supt.
Smead has again 

had recourse to the Census Bureau, with such encouraging results as to have
brought to the 

shelter of his great Institution more than a hundred new pupils within
fourteen months. 

The fact seems to point a moral." 

 

The conductor of these pages of the Colorado Index agrees with Prof. Johnson


regarding the exchange of papers, at least, in those instances where there
are conductors 

appointed to take charge of the news which may be of interest to the blind
as well as to 

those who are in any way interested in the welfare of the blind as teachers
and others. 

 

As to the report of the meeting of the Association for the Instructors of
the Blind 

which met in St. Louis in July the excellent one given by Prof. Johnson is
the only one the 

writer has seen thus far. It has been the hope on the part of several that a
regular printed 

report might appear before the school year was too far advanced, thus giving
ample time 

in which to discuss some of the papers which were presented. 

 

That the heads of a number of these dual institutions were not present at
the Association 

for the Instructors of the Blind does not necessarily follow that their very
souls are not in the work to an equal degree in both departments. At the
same time those who are engaged in the work no matter whether it be for the
deaf or for the blind these things do not pass unnoticed. To a certain
extent it seems natural for the minority department to look with perhaps
altogether too critical an eye upon those who may be in authority. Colorado
has been singularly blessed by having those at the head of the institution
who have had some knowledge of the blind before undertaking the larger duty
of managing a dual school. There can be no doubt but what those in charge of
these institutions are all looking toward segregation as soon as the schools
get large enough to make it feasible from a financial standpoint, for all
will admit that it is from this standpoint alone that the two schools are
housed under the same roof. There are instances such as New Mexico and one
of the Dakotas in which after careful consideration it was deemed best to
have complete segregation at the very beginning and in other instances the
legislatures were wise in making provision for a future segregation. Were
the methods of discipline, and education similar the question of separation
would never arise but since there is nothing in common the question will
naturally arise from time to time. The conductor does not know how it is
with other dual schools but he feels confident that with the intelligent
management of the Colorado Institution the question of segregation will
eventually be settled properly, 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/colorado-talk_nfbnet.org/attachments/20220408/734fc635/attachment.html>