ON THE GERMAN SYSTEM OF TEACHING THE DEAF TO SPEAK. 217 



it was referred to this Committee to consider tlie best means of promoting 

 the adoption of this system throughout the country. 



In pursuance of this reference, they have made themselves acquainted 

 with the most recent pubhcations upon the subject, consultation has been 

 held with, and valuable information received from, persons of eminence 

 and known experience in this department of education, and lengthened 

 visits have been paid to each of the schools, in and near London, where 

 deaf children are taught upon this system. 



In the paper read at Sheffield, it was pointed out that other countries 

 performed their work of this kind better than it had hitherto been done 

 in this country : — 



1. Because they employ the ' German ' system in preference to the 



' French ' or ' Combined ' method, their pupils being taught by 

 ' Speech,' and not by ' Signs.' 



2. Because they employ a superior class and a larger number of 



Teachers, who, where it is possible, are specially trained for the 

 work, not promiscuously engaged in it, as with us. 

 To which may, we think, be added further: — 



3. Because this department of Education is undertaken and super- 



vised by the State in other countries ; not left, as here, to the 

 direction of bodies of men whose chief qualifications for the 

 office are their annual subscription and their kind-hearted- 

 ness. 

 More, probably, than any other person engaged in education, the 

 teacher of the deaf needs the encouragement which springs from an 

 intelligent sympathy. The entire field of education is a vast one. The 

 instruction of children who are deaf is bnt a very limited portion of that 

 field, into which very few persons thoroughly enter. To those who labour 

 in it, and those who are brought into connection therewith by family ties, 

 the close study of this subject has been almost exclusively confined. We 

 may add, also, in passing, that the repelling character of the sign system 

 is greatly to blame for this. And it has come to pass that those who 

 have supported the schools and asylums for the ' Deaf aud Dumb ' have 

 done so, not from any special knowledge or sympathy, but on the general 

 grounds of philanthropy, charity, or religion ; and those who have ad- 

 ministered their affairs have done so in utter ignorance of the peculiar 

 condition and necessities of the class over whom they were the, generally, 

 self-constituted guardians. The first feeling of surprise that the born-deaf 

 could be taught at all has sufficed to keep these kindly unintelligent 

 observers satisfied that something was being done. How inadequate that 

 ' something ' really was — how far below both the necessities and the 

 possibilities of the case, they knew not, nor cared to know. In recent 

 years, however, a change has taken place. The attention attracted to the 

 subject, by papers which have been read, and discussions which have 

 followed, in our own and kindred societies, the reported observations of 

 travellers abroad, and articles in the daily and periodical press, have all 

 gained for it a large amount of interest among men of science, medical 

 men, the clergy, and the educated classes generally ; and probably the 

 very first wish of all persons who have to deal with the future of any deaf 

 child has now come to be the wish to have it educated on the ' German ' 

 system. This advantage has, however, been all but unattainable, since 

 nearly all the public asylums and schools in the country ai-e conducted 

 on the ' French ' system. To discover and point out the advantages of a 



