Annotated and Abridged Artifact
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Annual Report Of The Trustees Of The New-England Institution For The Education Of The Blind, 1834
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Abridged Text | ||
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| 14 | With regard to the hours of work and study, they are arranged as follows: -- | |
| 15 | Winter Term. | |
| 16 | First bell rings at half past 5 A. M. | |
| 17 | At 6 roll is called for the male pupils, while the females are engaged in making the beds. | |
| 18 | At half past 6 all assemble for prayers; after which school continues, also the work in the shops, until 8. [1 »] | |
| 19 | At 9 A. M. bell rings for school and work. [2 »] | |
| 20 | At half past 10 recess until 11. | |
| 21 | From 11 until 1 P. M. school and work. [3 »] | |
| 22 | From 1 until half past 2, recess. | |
| 23 | " 2 " 4, principally devoted to work. | |
| 24 | From 4 until half past 4, recess. | |
| 25 | " half past 4 until 6, school and work. | |
| 26 | " 6 to 7, recess. | |
| 27 | " 7 to 8, such as choose, listen to reading. | |
| 28 | At 8, prayers; small pupils retire to bed, and all retire at 10. | |
| 29 | On the Sabbath all the pupils are required to attend church: the rule of the Institution is, that each pupil may worship at whatever church he, or his parents, may select; but in case any other is selected than the one at which the majority attend, (at present the Park-street Church,) the pupil must furnish his own guide. It is desirable that the most perfect freedom in regard to religious matters should be enjoyed by the pupils; but it would be very inconvenient for the Institution to provide guides for each one; therefore this rule has been adopted. With respect to the religious services in the interior of the establishment, they consist of the reading daily of the Scriptures without any comment, and the Episcopalian form of prayer, besides a weekly meeting for reading and explanation of the Scriptures, at which the attendance is voluntary [4 »] Page 3: | |
| 30 | Strict attention is paid to the health of the pupils; and although the time during which they are occupied may seem long, it is so varied by music and by work, that it has no injurious effect. Every fair day the house and school-room is closed upon the male pupils, once at least, and sometimes oftener; so that they are obliged to resort to exercise in the open air. Once a week every pupil has the opportunity of having a warm bath; and on all occasions they are required to keep their persons clean. [5 »] | |
| 31 | The females, when not occupied in school, are under the care of the matron, whose duty it is to watch over their conduct. They are taught to do various kinds of house-work, needle-work, knitting, plaiting straw, &c. | |
| 32 | The object ever kept in view, is to enable the pupil to gain his own livelihood in after life, and for this purpose it is necessary to throw him on his own resources entirely; to teach him that the deprivation of one sense does not cut him off from the human family; that he is to compete for a livelihood with those who have an advantage over him no greater than may be counterbalanced by superior industry and ingenuity, and by the application of powers to such pursuits as require the aid of but four senses. There are many such pursuits; and, when we contemplate the field that opened for the Blind, in music, -- in the profession of teacher of various sciences, -- in the practice of several kinds of handicraft work, we cannot but anticipate for many of our pupils a happy independence, and for some an honorable distinction; for even were we without historical proofs of the intellectual eminence to which many blind men have raised themselves, we should find in our own school the sure indications of future mental superiority. [6 »] | |
| 33 | Independently however of any positive or pecuniary advantage to be derived by the pupils from a course of instruction, there is opened to them, as it were, a new world of intellectual enjoyment; the degrading sense of inferiority and dependence is removed, and the whole moral nature is elevated; while a constant and active use of the physical and intellectual powers gives health and strength to the body, and food and happiness to the mind. The expression of one of the pupils, "that she had never known before she began to learn, that it was happiness to be alive," may be applied to many. | |
Annotations
1. As in common schools, superintendents at schools for disabled children tried to inculcate Protestantism, seeing it as the key to a moral life.
2. Like common schools, schools for children with disabilities aimed to produce graduates trained in basic academic skills and proper morality and who could support themselves. Since most asylums for children with disabilities were residential schools, teachers sought to provide their pupils with training in life skills equivalent to what students would have learned at home. Female students learned to do basic housework such as making beds, sewing, ironing, setting tables, cleaning, and knitting. Boys, in turn, learned to make items such as mattresses, pew cushions, baskets, and doormats—skills that, in theory, they could eventually use to support themselves. All children were supposed to take care of their room and clothing themselves.
3. Howe structured the school day to mix academic and vocational training in order to prevent boredom. He criticized common school teachers for making students sit for six hours on a hard bench with just one brief break.
4. Both Howe and Horace Mann sought to teach liberal non-sectarian beliefs rather than orthodox Protestantism. Howe, a Unitarian, rejected the angry, vengeful God of Calvinist churches. When leading prayer sessions and Bible studies at the Perkins Institution, Howe emphasized benevolence towards the community, individual virtue, and personal responsibility.
5. Howe believed that blindness led to lethargy and poor physical development, faults that he thought were compounded by the tendency of students’ families to overindulge them. As a result, he enforced regular physical activity on all students at the Perkins Institution.
6. Like the superintendents of other state-funded schools for disabled children, Howe saw one of his primary goals as producing self-supporting graduates who would not need to depend on public aid. Such concerns reflected contemporary fears about rising public dependency. Howe knew that not all students would be able to support themselves through their labor, but he felt that all would gain increased confidence and self-reliance from vocational training.
