Annotated and Abridged Artifact

Abridged Text

TO THE PATRONS AND FRIENDS OF THE AMERICAN ASYLUM, AT HARTFORD, FOR THE EDUCATION AND INSTRUCTION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB, THE DIRECTORS RESPECTFULLY PRESENT THE FOLLOWING REPORT.

IT will be recollected by those who read the Report of the last year, that the Directors of the Asylum expressed a deep interest in the introduction of labour and mechanical employments [1 »] among the pupils, and gave an assurance that, notwithstanding the intrinsic difficulties which lay in the way of accomplishing this desirable object, no reasonable efforts would be spared to encounter, and, if possible, to remove them. -- Some of these difficulties were stated, for the sake of convincing the public that they were both real and great; almost inherent in the first stages of the progress of an Institution, so unlike all others in its design and the means of carrying this design into effect; and to be overcome only by patient and persevering exertion. [2 »]

It was observed, that it was important to procure some suitable person to superintend this department of the Institution, but extremely difficult to find one; that certainly at present, and perhaps always, a pecuniary sacrifice [3 »] must be made, in order to instruct the pupils in any of the mechanical trades, as their labour in this way, during the short time of their continuance at the Asylum, would not refund the expenses incurred; that the friends of the deaf and dumb demand impossibilities of them, and of those who are entrusted with their education, if they expect, that these infants in knowledge, although they may be men in stature, and labouring, too, under the peculiar embarrassments of their situation, are, by some mysterious process, to be taught, in the course of four or six years, what it takes children and youth who have all their faculties, some twelve or fourteen years to acquire; and that, therefore, either the public must be persuaded to keep the pupils longer at the Asylum, or else some sacrifice must be made, either on the part of intellectual improvement, or the acquisition of a mechanical trade.

In addition to this, it may be observed, that the materials out of which the mechanical department of the Institution is to be formed, are exceedingly heterogeneous.

Some of the friends of the deaf and dumb, regarding them as prodigies, gifted by Nature with a wonderful and secret power, perhaps as a sort of compensation for the difference which is made between them and their fellow-men; and recollecting the old adage that the loss of one faculty always, sharpens the rest; and thinking little, or knowing nothing, of the slow, patient, and gradual process which must, of necessity, be employed in the instruction of those who are excluded from the common sources of improvement, that children who are in possession of all their faculties, enjoy; -- consider two or three years spent at the Asylum, as quite sufficient to advance a pupil, from his alphabet, of which, at his admission, he is ignorant, to a correct knowledge of the English language, so that he may both read it with understanding, and write it with accuracy; to an acquaintance with moral and religious truth; to the use of figures; and to the outlines of geography. All this is to be accomplished, and, at the same time, some progress to be made in the acquisition of a mechanical trade; or, at least, the pupil is to contribute, in part, to his support by manual labour.

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To conduct an establishment for the deaf and dumb with success, the pupils should be assembled together. [4 »] To have them board in private families would exceedingly impair, if not quite destroy, the efforts made for their improvement and government. Now, they can as well be assembled in considerable numbers, as in small; for there would be no difficulty in providing for them, if suitable accommodations and instructors were furnished.