[Ohio-talk] Models For the Blind

[Eric Duffy]

Please read the text pasted below in order to have an understanding of this project.

The Ohio State School for the Blind is in the process of raising $5,000 to restore the models that are the subject of a book and that were created in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Many of us enjoyed these models when we were at the Ohio State School for the Blind.

I have discussed this project with Richard and we are asking chapters, divisions, and individuals to help raise money so that we can present a check to the school at the convention. 

This means that we should have all funds for this project to Sherry Ruth by October 31.

Shelley and I have just moved back from Baltimore. We don’t have a lot of money, but I don’t believe in asking others to do what I am not willing to do myself. Therefore, we pledge $100 to this project, and Sherry will have it by October 31. Here is a small portion of the book. We must keep in mind the time period in which it was written. 
MODELS FOR THE BLIND 


Sponsored by The Ohio State 
School for the Blind


COPYRIGHT, 1941



PREFACE 

The Lincoln log birthplace and the Taj Mahal; an ox cart and a modern flying fortress, the Ohio Capitol and the National Capitol�--these and many other things are all in Columbus, Ohio. They are housed in a big room out at the State School for the Blind. The blind and partially sighted children who play on the swings and teeter-totters just outside the windows of this room can tell you how many windows there are at Mt. Vernon, what the portico at Monticello is like, and even how the guillotine works. For, from time to time, in this room and in the classrooms, their fingers play over the models of these and other objects, and they learn the minute details of each. 

The models were constructed at the school by a WPA project. Adding data to the research that guided this work, William Michel and John Batcheck compiled the basic manuscript for this book, written and pro�duced under the supervision of Emerson Hansel. Stress in the writing is laid not so much on the construction of these models as on the supple�mentary material, which helps create a proper understanding of the history and structure of the originals.

W. G. Scarberry, Superintendent of the State for the Blind, and his assistants have given valuable aid in the preparation of the book. The project concurs with Mr. Scarberry in the through that this description of the models not only will serve as explanatory material for the teachers and children at the school, but also may prompt other institutions, of all kinds, to construct such models for educational purposes.

HARRY GRAFF, State Supervisor
The Ohio Writers' Project



[handwritten marginalia in pencil - 7-15-42 L.M.O., Purchase, HV 1708 .W7]

STATE OF OHIO 
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 
STATE SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND 
COLUMBUS 

December 2, 1940 

Permit me to say that the educat ional models used as teaching devices for the sightless have made this school outstanding in t he field of tactual learning. This method and this distinction could not have been possible without the splendid services of the Work Projects Administration. 
 


Educational models have opened up wider fields of learning for our pupils and have brought into their horizons of conception many objects that before had only vague and fantastic meanings. Consider for a moment how futile it would be to attempt to give a blind child an ac�curate conception of the United States Capitol, of Lincoln's birthplace, or of a skyscraper unless it were presented in the form of a model. 

All of the models made and used at the Ohio State School for the Blind are accurately scaled and complete in every detail; thus, the teacher has no misgivings when she says, "Boys and girls, this is the way a Dutch windmill looks." She knows it is a true replica. 

Much credit for the many fine models that we now have should go to O. J. Hill, Supervisor of Elementary Instruction, who has been and is the co-ordinator of the project that constructed them -- in this capacity, securing information from teachers ond pupils as to what models are most desirable, and working with the local supervisor in order to have the ideas of the various staff members and pupils crystal�lized into tangible form. The entire staff of the school, the model�building project, and the Ohio Writers' Project are all to be congrat�ulated for this very splendid contribution to th'e cause 
of the education of the sightless. 

Very truly 

I break from the book to say this. Despite all of today’s technology, these models are a powerful educational tools. We should do what we can to support the work of the school.

Consider this project in upcoming meetings and activities. For more information about these models contact Debbie Baker, Paul Dressell, Eric Duffy, or others whom you might know that attended the Ohio State School for the Blind.



The rest of what is pasted below is just a brief history lesson:

 
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OHIO STATE SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND 

In 1837, the year Braille first published his complete system for touch reading, the Ohio legislature passed an act establishing the first State�-owned institution in the United States for the education of blind people. Schools for the blind in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia were supported by private donations and appropriations from State treasuries, but the Ohio State School for the Blind was actually the first in the Nation to be created and maintained solely by the State government.

The school resulted from the recommendation of physicians who met in Columbus in 1835 to discuss the erection and location of a "public asy�lum for the instruction of the blind." Following the legislature's suggestion in 1835, a survey of blind persons was made in the State. It was found that, in 55 counties, there were 202 blind persons. The estimate of the number of blind people in the State was 250. An act of April 3, 1837, es�tablished the institution and named the trustees, who were to secure the land and construct a building thereon. The trustees hired A. W. Penniman, a teacher from New England ; and a temporary school was opened in rent�ed quarters. Five pupils attended this first school. On July 4, the faculty and students were present at a meeting in the Presbyterian Church, where nine hundred persons were gathered to celebrate the sixty-first anniversary of the Nation's independence. By the fall of that year, the enrollment had increased to eleven. 

An act passed in the legislature on March 11, 1843, authorized the trustees to admit free as many pupils as they thought proper; to keep in school two years longer those too young to be dismissed; and to admit free and retain for two years, to learn a trade, all indigent persons more than 21 years of age. On March 11, 1851, the distinction between indi�gent and paying pupi ls was abolished, and the maintenance of all pupils from Ohio was provided for at the public expense. By an act of April 28, 1852, all State institutions were placed under the control of a board of nine trustees. In 1856, the institutions were again put under the control of sep�arate boards. In 1911, the Ohio Board of Administration was given charge of State institutions, and in 1921 the entire work of this board was taken over by the State welfare director, a member of the Governor's cabinet. Through the organized effort of interested persons, administration of the school was placed under the State Department of Education in August, 

5



1927. The school has since made rapid strides toward a position of parity with all first-grade schools in the State and Nation. 

About 1898, a significant change was made in the name of the school by an interested trustee, working along with others. Previously known as the Ohio Institution for the Blind, or more commonly as simply the Blind Asylum, the school now received a more fitting name, the Ohio State School for the Blind. In 1922, the State Department of Education granted the high school a charter with first-grade rating, thus enabling graduates to go directly to any State college or university without further preparation or examination. Courses of study at the school grew from a simple curriculum of literature, mechanical arts, and music to include three major depart�ments - academic, music, and vocational - each with its own corps of teachers. 

Immediately after their appointment in 1837, the commissioners re�ported that they had found a suitable plot of land just outside the city limits on the north side of the National Road; the land was to be donated by friends of the cause. Work on the school building began at once and was completed by 1839. Over-crowded conditions mode it necessary to lay plans for a new building in 1869. The next year 
work was commenced on the present main building, which required four years to complete. In 1933 plans were mode for new dormitories necessitated by the fire hazards and weakening supports in the old building. Two new dormitory units were opened in 1935. They are fireproof, sanitary, modern buildings in which surroundings meet present-day standards for the health, social life, and educational pursuits of the residents. The main stone building now houses educational and administrative personnel and has been fireproofed and modernized. 

In a little more than a century the Ohio State School for the Blind has grown from a school with one teacher and five pupils to a school with a faculty of 37 and on enrollment of 270 pupils. 

That concludes the text I am presenting here.  If you wish to read more, go to 

http://drc.ohiolink.edu/bitstream/handle/2374.OX/186736/models-for-the-blind.txt?sequence=206 <http://drc.ohiolink.edu/bitstream/handle/2374.OX/186736/models-for-the-blind.txt?sequence=206>

Of course the school is very different today.

Eric