CHAPTER XLVI. REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON STATISTICS OF DEFECTIVE SIGHT AND HEARING OF PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILDREN. [This report has been furnished the Bureau for publication through the courtesy of Alexander Graham Bell, president of the department of special education of the National Educational Association. That department of the association was originally known as the "department for the deaf, blind, and feeble-minded." This name, however, did not prove acceptable, and at the Minneapolis meeting of the association in 1902 a platform was adopted giving the department its present name. Its object was stated to be "to bring persons engaged in the education of children requiring special methods of instruction into contact and affiliation with teachers in general for the interchange of ideas for mutual benefit." It was designed to discontinue at the department meetings the presentation of technical papers, such as would be addressed to special teachers at their own conventions, and admit only such nontechnical ones as would promote an interchange of ideas between special and general teachers. In his opening address Doctor Bell called particular attention to one common ground of meeting for the two classes of teachers: "There is one special point on which we can all come together. A large number of pupils are in the public schools who have defective sight or hearing, or are backward. The number having defective hearing probably outnumbers the total deaf-mute population. These pupils are not deaf enough for special schools. What is done with them, or for them? They are drifting along in the public schools, and teachers do not know what to do with them. Now can not we, who teach the totally deaf, give you information who are teaching the partially deaf? And the teachers of the blind and of the feeble-minded, can they not help teachers who have children in their schools who are partially blind, or who are backward? This department should give special attention to these pupils. "The basal idea of this department is the interchanging of ideas between specialists and ordinary teachers. So when we listen we want men, not specialists like ourselves, but some great, broad men to come to look down upon our little fields." Dr. Wm. T. Harris continued the discussion as follows: "It seems to me that this meeting will be considered an epoch, not only to the teachers of the deaf, of the blind, and of the feeble-minded, but to teachers of all other classes of children. I approve heartily of Doctor Bell's plan by which mutual benefit will result to special and general teachers alike. The special teacher focuses his mind on particular difficulties and defects; then invents methods and devices by which the defects are removed; then he writes out his ideas relating to these devices, and general teachers learn from his experience what is valuable for their own uses. "There are various obstacles over which we must lift our pupils; if they are not attended to, the children become morose and disheartened. What a stream of reforms we may expect to come in the way of new methods of special education through the meetings of this department. A single visit to a school for the feeble-minded in Lincoln, Ill., that I once made was worth far more to me than what I had gained from a long study of normal children. The will power is a necessary factor in developing the intellect, and the feeble-minded child is especially lacking in will power. He is trained upon the line of his defect. To gain a strong will is the first step; this taken, other steps may be followed. "The German poet gives answer to the query, what makes life worth living? Life is worth living if you can only do something by which you make others better.' The members of this body, by specializing, will systematize the matter of lifting defective children over the threshold of difficulty. Then by describing their methods to teachers of other schools they increase many fold the great benefits they confer."] BOSTON, MASS., July 10, 1903. To the President of the Department of Special Education of the National Educational Association. DEAR SIR: Your committee have experienced considerable difficulty in collecting statistics concerning the number and percentage of pupils in public schools who have defective sight or hearing, retarding their progress in school. Through the courtesy of the Hon. William T. Harris, a special circular of inquiry was sent out by the United States Bureau of Education to the superintendents of schools in cities having more than 25,000 inhabitants. The circular was sent to 160 city superintendents, 78 answers were received, and only in 19 cases were any statistics reported. Unfortunately there were only about half a dozen cases in which the figures were so arranged as to be capable of combination into a table. From the returns received by the Bureau of Education your committee have compiled the statistics shown in the appendix. Table I relates to defective vision: Total pupils examined, 34,426; defective in sight, 4,603 or 13.4 per cent. Table II relates to defective hearing: Total pupils examined, 57,072; defective in hearing, 2,067, or 3.6 per cent. In these tables minor defects have been ignored and only marked cases included. These results indicate that large numbers of children in the public schools are handicapped in their progress through school by defective sight or hearing; and they suggest the importance of urging upon all superintendents of schools the advisability of testing the powers of sight and hearing possessed by their pupils, and of publishing the results. Your committee suggests that the department of special education should appoint a committee to examine and report upon the various means employed to test sight and hearing in the public schools and to collect comparative statistics concerning the results. Your committee desire to express their great indebtedness to the United States Bureau of Education for so readily cooperating with them in their labors, and would suggest the propriety of asking the Bureau of Education to continue the collection of statistics of this character. NOTES. 1. Bayonne, N. J.-Superintendent Christie reported 4,610 pupils examined; total number defective, 618; number with defective eyesight, 353; defective hearing 115; other physical defects, 175. 2. Jersey City, N. J.-Superintendent Snyder submitted a report by Dr. Wallace Pyle, oculist, concerning the results of the eye examinations of the children of the grammar departments of public schools Nos. 1, 2, 15, 20, and 22. Number of pupils examined 1,100 (girls, 542; boys, 558). Ages ranged from 9 to 16 years. Cases astigmatism, 116 (girls, 56; boys, 60); defective distant vision, 251 (girls, 119; boys, 132); defective near vision, 33 (girls, 15; boys, 18); number wearing glasses, 23 (girls, 14; boys, 9); cases of cross-eye, 19 (girls, 11; boys, 8); inflammation of eyes, 51 (girls, 23; boys, 28); trachoma, 13 (girls, 4; boys 9). Number of cases having marked defective vision, and whose parents were notified of the existing defect, 197 (girls, 99; boys, 98). 3. Pawtucket, R. I.-Superintendent Hervey reported that during school year 1900-1901 the teachers tested 4,663 children and found 517 children who had onehalf or less than one-half of normal vision in one or both eyes, and that 200 had marked defects in hearing; also that a large number of children had adenoid growths. 4. Utica, N. Y.-Extract from 1897 report of Superintendent Griffith: During the spring of 1896 tests were made of the sight and hearing of all the children in the public schools. These tests were made by the teachers after instruction by a specialist. Snellen's test cards were used for testing the sight, and an ordinary watch for testing the hearing. A summary of the conditions revealed by the test is as follows: 406 In the ear test, those who could hear less than one-third the average distance for the class. Those one-half to one-third this distance. 399 Counting both tests, there were 1,202 different pupils extremely defective, and 965 others who seemed to be quite defective, enough so to need examination by a specialist. Thus we found about 35 per cent defective in sight or hearing or both. This condition, while not differing much from results reported from other places, demanded prompt attention. The school authorities immediately did two things looking toward a remedy or amelioration of this serious condition. First, all pupils who were nearsighted or hard of hearing were given the seats in school most favorable for seeing and hearing, and all pupils were given special instruction with regard to care and use of eyes and ears. Secondly, notices were sent or given to parents of all children found to be thus defective, calling their attention to what it was believed had been discovered, and advising that a physician or oculist be consulted at once. Our tests revealed many sad and critical cases, which were remediable because discovered at this stage of development. Many parents could not strongly enough express their gratitude to the teachers. Many children consulted specialists and were successfully treated. Cases of what had been considered dullness or willful inattention on the part of pupils were shown to have been due to inability to see or hear. 5. Utica, N. Y.-Extract from 1898 report of Superintendent Griffith: SECOND TEST OF EYES AND EARS OF PUPILS. During the spring of 1896, all the pupils in the public schools were tested by the teachers for defects in sight and hearing. The results of that test were published in the annual report for 1897. This fall a similar test has been made of all pupils |