The Review of Reviews. 



March io. .906. 



School for the Deaf and Dumb, Sumner, Christchurch, N.Z. 



The Suptrintendent of the Mflbourne Institution 

 h;is had little experience as a teacher, having been 

 appointed from a shipping office two years ago. 

 The . head teacher, however, is an expert, having 

 served under Mr. I'. J. Rose and Mr. S. Johnson, 

 M.A. 



Beyond the allocation of the Charity Grant, the 

 States take little interest, about the full extent of 

 it being an examination of the pupils by ordinary 

 inspectors, a rather ineffective and insufficient pro- 

 ceeding, by the way. But these charity doles, while 

 yet welcome in the absence of a better system, are 

 quite inadequate. Education nowadavs is compul- 

 sory for normal children ; and, if compulsory for 

 children who can hear and speak, it should also be 

 compulsory for deaf and 

 dumb children, and if so. ,_ 

 the necessary- funds should 

 be provided by the State. 



It would be quite reason- 

 able to charge parents,' who 

 could afford it, something 

 for the keep of the children, 

 for it is necessary that they 

 should be gathered together 

 in one place, and expense is 

 great ; but the work should 

 be undertaken by the Educa- 

 tion Departments, and car- 

 ried on as a branch of them. 

 Then, it is to be assumed, a 

 change would be m.ade in 

 the method of inspection, 

 which would be carried out 

 b\ insDe'ctors who were 

 thoroughly conversant with 

 deaf and d'jmb methods : 

 although there is no reason 

 why that should not now be 

 done. 



THE HANDICAP OF THE DEAF MUTE. 



As a rule, deaf children are admitted into th - 

 Institutions at the age of seven years, and they 

 leave at the same age as normal children leave* th - 

 ordinary schools. It must not be forgotten that 

 the deaf mute is very heavily handicapped. Deaf 

 children start their education at a point far below 

 that of the normal child, and it requires several 

 years of education to reach the stage at which thr 

 average child begins attending school. Having no 

 knowledge whatever of language, the mind at fir>i 

 is almost a blank, and it requires infinite patience in 

 order to teach a child how it is to communicate it< 

 thoughts to those about it, and how to rightly in 

 terpret the meaning of outward things. Conse- 

 quently, a deaf mute will at the age of twelve be 

 about four years behind a normal child. The latter 

 is picking up things constantly ; the outside world 

 is tapping at the doors of its being all the time ; but 

 the former can only realise thf- world dir'-(-t'\ 

 through its teacher. 



METHOD OF TRAINING. 



A question which greatly interests any one who 

 comes first in contact with deaf mutes is that nt 

 how a deaf mutes brain is trained. We are so ac- 

 customed to sp.aking our thoughts to one another 

 that we cannot at first grasp how any one can make 

 themselves understood in any other way than by 

 audible speech and hearing. Of course, with the 

 ordinary person, gesture enters very considerably 

 into expression, but after all it is only subsidiary. 

 We could do without it. But how is a deaf mute 

 taught to speak ? Now, there are three systems, 

 the Oral, the Silent, and these two combined. 



Victorian Institution for Biird and Deaf and Dumb Children. 



