"How Shall I Learn to Teach the 

 Blinded Soldiers?" 



By W A L T V] \i (J. 11 (> L M K S 



President and JMaiuigcr of The Matilda Zii'ijlcr Mm/azinr for tho Blind^ 



NOT a week passes that several 

 persons do not conic to me and 

 ask what they must do to learn 

 to leach the hlinded soldiers. 



When I ask what exiiericucc llicy 

 have had with tlio blind, 1 usually get 

 the reply that they have had ncme, and 

 often they tell me that they have never 

 known or talked witli a 1)1 ind person. I 

 then advise them to look up someone 

 who is blind, among the 75,000 already 

 blind here in this country, and who 

 needs help. Then they ask, "What can 

 I do for him ?"' 



On one occasion I advised a lady to 

 find some blind persons who lived cir- 

 cumscribed lives and take them out to 

 "see" the world ; take them for a walk ; 

 take them to a theater; read aloud to 

 them ; take them to a museum ; or, best 

 of all, take them to the park or the 

 woods. She asked, "Why, what good 

 would that do them, they can't see?" 

 And such a woman thinks she can teach 

 the blind soldier — can lift him up and 

 make him feel that there is yet a place 

 for him in the world, to be useful and 

 happy ! 



The word "sec" has two meanings — 

 to see with the physical eye and to see 

 or comprehend with the spiritual eye — 

 and possibly it is througli llic spiritual 

 eye after all that the most of om- ])lcas- 

 ures come. 



If one wants a practical demonstra- 

 tion of this let him take a healthy nor- 

 mal blind person into the woods; there 

 show him the trees and their various 

 sizes, explain the bark of this and that 



tree, and il> lf;i\cs. T.ct him touch 

 with bis lingvrs the growing grass or 

 soft mosses; let him touch and smell 

 the blossoms of the growing plants. His 

 sense of smell being quickened, perhaps 

 he may get a deeper fragrance from the 

 ilower than you do. His sense of hear- 

 ing has been more cultivated than yours 

 and he will detect a sweeter note in the 

 bird's song than you do, and will hear 

 more in the singing of the tiny insects 

 that fill tlH> grass and the trees than 

 ever coiiics to your ears. You would 

 give such a person a day of infinite joy, 

 and food for happy thought and re- 

 flection foi' days to come, and you 

 would go home realizing that the blind 

 can "see" if we will only help them to 

 do so. 



You will find your blind friends ask- 

 ing you the color of each article or 

 flower. Of course, if they have ever 

 seen they will recall just what this or 

 that color is. l)ut if they have never 

 seen they will also get a satisfaction, 

 for they have a mental picture of each 

 color — incorrect no doubt — but who 

 knows thaf their mental picture of it 

 mav not be more beautiful than any 

 glowing color our oyos have ever seen? 



I once asked my In-other, blind from 

 infancy, to tell me his ideas of color, 

 for he always asked the color of each 

 new article he "saw." He told me that 

 he got great satisfaction from knowing 

 the color of things, hut I found the 

 j'ealixatioii of eneh color came to him 

 as a sound. He said he knew that 

 "rcnV was a dazzliui;' color and that 



1 The Matilda 7Af;iler Maf/azine for the Blind, of wliicli Mr. Holmes is president and manager, is a 

 monthly publication financed for the last ten years by Mrs. William Ziegler of New York City, at an 

 annual expense of about $25,000. Ten blind girls, two of whom are deaf as well as blind, are employed 

 in collating the sheets of the magazine. The maga/.inc is sent free each montli to every blind person 

 in the United States and Canada who can read. 



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