THE EDUCATION OF THE BLIND.
THE duty incumbent on the community of attempting to alleviate the lot of its suffering members is now universally acknowledged ; hence hospitals and asylums have been founded for almost every ill that flesh is heir to. The Blind have come in for their full share of sympathy, though in this, as in so many other cases, wisdom has not always gone hand in hand with benevolence, and sometimes the good done has not been unaccompanied by much evil. No doubt can, however, exist as to the desirability of improving both the methods used for educating the blind, and also that education itself. A marked advance has been made during the last few years in both these respects, and what makes this the more interesting, is that this advance has been mainly due to the exertions of the -blind themselves. A controversy has been going on for many years as to the best form of letter to be used for tactile reading, and although opinions are still divided on this subject, yet some points appear to be finally settled, the first of which is that the blind who employ this tactile reading are the only persons who are qualified to decide the question, or indeed any other questions respecting the best methods of education by touch, and for a seeing person to venture to decide on such points is as ridiculous as for a blind man to give an opinion about the harmony of colours. This fundamental point being secured, all the rest will follow in due time. It was on this principle that the British and Foreign Blind Association was founded four years ago, with an executive Council composed exclusively of gentlemen who are either blind, or whose eight is so defective that they are obliged to rely on touch, and not on sight, and who for the most part are well versed from personal experience in the various means of education used by the blind in this and other countries. Their plan has been to bring to a focus the opinions of the intelligent blind of all countries, so as to find out, if possible, which are the means of education best suited to their wants, making due allowances for the differences that exist among them in intelligence and tactile power. The most widely useful for the young and for the intelligent of all ages appears to be a dotted system introduced into France in 1834 by M. Louis Braille, a blind pupil of the Faris Institution. The advantage of this system is that it can be written as well as read by the blind with extreme facility, thus giving the power of writing from dictation and of writing out exercises which can afterwards be examined by the teacher. Moreover, as the process of printing embossed books is an expensive one, it is a great advantage to the blind to be able to produce embossed manuscript copies of any work they may require. In addition to these
advantages, the method is extremely well suited for musical nota- tion, and a fair musical library already exists in this character, which is the one universally used by the blind in all countries where an embossed musical notation worthy of the name exists. At a conference of the American blind institutions held last year at Indianapolis, it was decided to adopt generally for the American blind a modification of the Braille character, which certainly, in some respects, is an improvement, but it is much to be regretted if a dotted character is decided on that this should not be universal. Most of the educated blind, both in the Old and the New World, for the reasons above stated, agree in their tendency to prefer characters consisting of prominent points to those formed by prominent lines.
A very great advance has been made during the pant year by the British and Foreign Blind Association bringing out two relief maps of England, one for its physical geography, the other con- taining the divisions of counties, &c. The geographical work in both these maps seems to be satisfactory, and the methods em- ployed to render the geographical facts intelligible to the sense of touch leave nothing to be desired. The coast line, rivers, moun- tains, tablelands, and watersheds are all indicated accurately both to touch and sight in the physical map. These maps, when more generally known, will no doubt become extensively used in ordi- nary schools, as well as in those specially devoted to the education of the blind, for, is addition to being embossed for the blind, they are coloured and lettered for the seeing, and are brought out at a price which has hitherto been unknown in good relief maps, the great coat of which up to this time has prevented their use in the ordinary national schools. In the map containing the divisions of counties, an ingenious use of the Braille method of numbering has made it possible to convey, without confusion, an amount of em- bossed information which has never been attempted before, as most of the important towns are numbered and referred to in an explanatory index ; the headlands, inlets, and rivers are numbered on the sea at a uniform distance of half an inch from the land, which allows the finger of the blind person to sweep freely round the coast, while the information respecting each prominent feature is always close at hand. It would not have been possible for the tactile principles contained in these maps to have been worked out by any but blind geographers. Tho principle on which embossed maps for the blind should be constructed haying now been settled, all that is required is a sufficient demand to make it possible to go on with the series, to enable the blind to have geography literally at their finger-ends.
An interesting attempt has been made at Greenock to educate blind children in ordinary schools along with the seeing, and as far as it has gone this attempt has proved highly successful, as the blind children by this means derive many great advantages from their intercourse with the seeing, and the expense and evils arising from their long-continued isolation in special asylums are avoided ; when, however, as in the case of those intended for the profession of music a high technical training is indispensable, then a residence in a well-arranged special school becomes absolutely essential, as the art of imparting such knowledge in the way most easily assimilable by the blind is known to very few.
During the past year such a school has been established to train the blind to support themselves as tuners, teachers of music, and organists. The greatest evil that the blind now suffer from is that it is so difficult for them to obtain remunerative employment. Hundreds of blind persons of both sexes iu London who are willing to work can find nothing to do, and the more favoured few who are employed in making baskets, brushes, &c., are subject to such severe competition from seeing workmen, that with the disadvantage of their blindness they can scarcely earn enough to support life, unless assisted by some form of charity. The case of men in this respect is bad enough, but that of women is still worse, and this evil is extremely difficult to remedy, for the only handicrafts which can be practised by the blind are those which require the least skill, and in which, therefore, there is the greatest competition ; we might, indeed, improve considerably by introducing mattress- making and upholstery as an industry for the blind, for this in Scotland is found to be their most lucrative trade, and this is also the experience of the best managed American institutions. But the experience of the most enlightened schools, both in the Old and New World, points to the fact that whenever the blind have the requisite talent, and are properly trained to the profession of music, there is no employment by which they can obtain so good a living as by piano-tuning, teaching, and as organists. In Paris pianoforte-tuning has long been considered the best business that the blind can follow. About 30 per cent. of the male pupils obtain their diploma as tuners, and these are all certain of success, mean- ing by this that they are able to earn upon an average about £100 a year. M. Guadet at the end of his treatise on the education of the blind as tuners thus sums up his experience :—" Whenever an art or trade is of such a nature that the blind can follow it on equal terms with the seeing, or in other words, that there is a peculiarity in it which causes a disappearance of the inequality generally existing between them, this art or trade is especially well suited to the blind, and it is our duty to teach it with as little delay as possible. Now, in pianoforte-tuning, the blind are not inferior to the seeing, but, on the contrary, possess certain advantages over them ; we must therefore train tuners. There is no fear of the demand ceasing, therefore we must train as many tuners as circumstances will permit."
At Boston, U.S., though the blind succeed well as tuners and organists, it is found that they frequently earn still more as teachers of music. There, the proportion of success among the pupils is even higher than in Paris, and the average earnings are also higher. In England experience would at first sight point to an opposite result, for probably not one per cent. of the pupils of our institutions earn as much as £100 a year by the profession of music, but when more closely examined, this very failure still points to the same conclusion, for the few who succeed have either had exceptional advantages or extraordinary musical talent, while many of those who have failed have done so simply because the musical education they received was so bad that it was not possible for them to succeed. One cause why most of our English schools have hitherto failed to give their pupils in music an education which would fit them to obtain a living is that the aim has been to turn out organists, whereas in those countries where music is successfully practised by the blind it has been found that, valuable as an organist's situation undoubtedly is as an auxiliary source of income, and as a means of introduction in a new place, it is not to be relied on as a sole means of maintenance. It is true that some of our schools profess to teach the rudiments of tuning, but the result usually is that very indifferent tuners are sent out, and the public imagine that the fault lies in the blind so that the prejudice against blind tuners is strengthened. It is, however, not neces- sary to go to Paris to see that the blind, are capable of becoming excellent tuners ; the best tuner in Birmingham is a blind man, who makes an extremely good living from tuning and repairing pianos. But not only do our schools generally neglect the most remunerative branches of the profession of music, but the teaching itself is not what it should be. It can hardly be credited, for instance, that with a perfect musical notation for the blind in general and daily use at Paris, within twelve hours of London, and which has been in full operation ever since 1834, we should be so apathetic as not to have introduced it into our principal blind schools long ago, yet such is really the case. Can we wonder, then, at the lamentable result that hundreds of talented English blind musicians are forced to obtain a scanty subsistence by basket- making, &c., or are obliged to perform in public-houses, while if they had received a better education they would have been earning a good living as respectable and useful members of society ? It is to wipe out this national disgrace that the "Normal College and Academy of Music for the Blind" has been established, with a view to give a thorough general and musical education to those who have sufficient ability to make it likely that they will be able, by the aid of a good education, to maintain themselves as musicians. The pro- moters, knowing the extreme difficulty of their task, have endeavoured to unite as many elements of success as possible. They have obtained the services as principal of the College of Mr. F. J. Campbell, a blind gentleman, to whom the success of music as an employ- ment for the blind in America is mainly due. Mr. Campbell was for thirteen years musical director of the Perkins Institution at Boston, where he has already done what he is now attempting to do for the English school. Dr. Howe, the head of the Perkins Institution, with a liberality and a largeness of view that cannot be too highly praised, has allowed Mr. Campbell to select the best teachers from his institution, so that the new school starts with the advantage of a highly-trained class of teachers accustomed to work together. The situation chosen is close to the Crystal Palace, where arrangements have been made to enable the pupils to profit by its many advantages,—musical and others. Special attention is paid to the due development of the physical as well as of the intellectual powers of the pupils, and gymnastics, running, and athletic games are carried on with vigour in the large playground attached to the College. It is amusing to see these blind town children climbing the trees just like other boys, and no doubt this climbing propensity, surviving even the loss of sight, would furnish Mr. Darwin with another proof of the arboreal habits of our ancestors. The mode of admission of pupils is either through payment by parents or friends, or, in the case of destitute children, by scholarships which are raised by local subscription. Some of the large towns have already subscribed for scholarships, and sent scholars. Liverpool, in this way, sends nine, Leeds two, Glasgow ten, and other towns are likely soon to follow their example. There are only two children from London, and these are not yet fully sub- scribed for. It is most desirable that some scholarships should be raised to provide for the education of some of the talented blind of London. It should be observed that these scholarships do not spring from a large endowment, but from annual subscriptions, so that the evils are avoided which generally follow in the train of rich endowments, and subscribers are likely to feel an interest in their pupils' progress, and may be expected to help them to obtain employment on the completion of their education.
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