94 G. L. SMEAD 



state and national conventions of that body. And in our 

 code of laws we have been classed as benevolent institutions. 



As American institutions for the blind, what are we then? 

 Are we infirmaries, or asylums, or hospitals, or charitable 

 institutions, or are we schools pure and simple? Some years 

 ago we changed the legal title of the Ohio school, from the 

 Ohio institution for the education of the blind to the Ohio 

 state school for the blind. The Ohio school was founded for 

 the instruction of the blind, and this change of title was urged 

 by our alumni in protest against even the suggestion that it is 

 any other than an educational institution. 



The National Educational association, in Boston, recog- 

 nized our schools as belonging to the educational system of the 

 United States by giving a place upon the program to a pres- 

 entation of our means and methods of education. The edu- 

 cational purpose of our schools is, I think, recognized by all 

 the educators of the blind in the country. The influence of 

 the American association of instructors of the blind is upon 

 this side of the question. By resolution this association, in 

 convention in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1902, expressed the 

 approval of that body, of a real affiliation with the National 

 Educational association, and that in connection with that 

 association there be a department of special education. 



But how shall we exclude the principle of charity from 

 our schools for the blind when so many extra things are being 

 done for them? We feed them, clothe them to some extent, 

 and supply means of instruction in literature, music, hand- 

 icraft, and physical culture. We employ expensive apparatus 

 in these different departments of education. If the educa- 

 tional department of our schools costs fifty dollars per capita, 

 probably twenty dollars is for music, which is an extra in 

 schools for the seeing; and then board and clothing, are not 

 these so much more than the expense of seeing schools? Look- 

 ing at the question from a civil point of view, not from the 

 sentimental side, what is the object of the state in educating 

 its youth? Good citizenship is the bulwark of the nation. 

 She is strong in proportion to the intelligence and integrity of 

 her citizens; and the state is to so educate her children as to 

 make of them self rehant, worthy men and women, who shall 



