Education for the Blind 29 



Evening lectures for adults, lessons for the "sight conservation 

 classes" of the public schools, and loans of circulating natural history- 

 specimens and relief globes of the world have constituted the 

 Museum's principal activities in its instruction for 

 education the blind. The course of study for the children 

 for the consisted of a series of ten talks on natural science, 



blind geography and travel, industrial life and history: 



(1) Our Native Birds. Birds of New York, their 

 nests and songs. (2) The Solar System. Its origin, the sun, the 

 planets and their satellites, illustrated by a planetarium. (3) Flowers 

 of the Springtime. Flowers from the woods and fields. (4) How Our 

 Fur Friends Spend the Winter. Some of the animals that hibernate. 

 (5) A Trip to China. Houses, clothing, dolls, etc., from China. (6) 

 A Journey in Mexico. Houses, clothing, basketry, pottery, etc., 

 from Mexico. (7) Methods of Transportation. Models of boats, steam 

 engines, pack horses, a small hydroplane and the Panama Canal. 

 (8) The Story of Cotton, Silk and Wool. Cotton, silk and wool from 

 the raw material to the finished fabric. (9) How Cloth is Woven. 

 Model looms and examples of plain weaving, twills, etc. (10) The 

 Way in Which Primitive People Live. The food, corn, mortar and 

 pestles, fire drills and homes of some of the American Indian tribes. 

 The teachers selected from three to five of the topics and came to 

 the Museum with their pupils during school hours. 



When the lesson hour is over and the children have returned to 

 their class rooms, they sometimes write essays summarizing the lec- 

 ture to which they have listened. A little girl, totally blind, composed 

 the following story of Dr. Fisher's explanation of the changes of 

 season. It is printed exactly as it was written in Braille. 



The Solar System 



"Yesterday I went to the Museum and Dr. Fisher talked to us 

 about the Solar System. 



"Solar comes from a Latin word that means sun so Solar System 

 means the sun and all the bodies that move around it. The earth is 

 one of the worlds that move around it. The earth takes one year to 

 make the journey. 



"When the earth's axis is leaning toward the sun, it is summer 

 in New York, because the direct rays of the sun strike the Tropic of 

 Cancer. Then it is winter in South America. In winter the axis 

 leans away from the sun and the direct rays of the sun strike the Tro- 

 pic of Capricorn. Then it is summer in South America. When it 

 is spring or autumn the axis leans neither toward nor from the sun 

 and the sun's rays strike the equator. 



"One reason for the change of seasons is the revolution of the 

 earth around the sun; the other is the inclination of the Earth's 

 axis." 



In the evening entertainments for the adult blind, an unusual 

 experiment was made — a talk on Wild Flowers of Summer. Dr. 



