EDUCATION OF THE PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED. For a long period of years, a child who was born deaf or blind or who did not possess the full normal use of any of the organs or members of the human body has been called a defective. It has also been the practice to classify children who have lost the use of any of the organs or members of the body through disease or other causes over which they have no responsibility as defective children. This classification is not regarded by those who have had the largest experience with these types of children as either wise or proper. A child who has not the full normal use of any of his organs or of any part of his body is generally sensitive about his condition and needs the sympathy of his fellows who have not suffered the loss and disadvantages that grow out of such physical conditions. If there is a psychological or other advantage in the terminology which may be used in speaking of children of these types, it seems wise and de sirable to employ such terms in all references to or discussions of such children. It is not generous nor fair to these children to speak of them as defectives. The common meaning which such term conveys is too broad. Such term has a tendency to bring a degree of re proach upon such children which they do not merit. This is especially true when considera tion is given to the general view which pre vailed until within the last century and a half, in the civilized countries of the world, in re spect to these children. One hundred and fifty years ago they were generally looked upon as children who did not possess the mental capacity for training or for citizenship, who were not generally capable of self-support and who must remain a burden upon society. The belief that the deaf and blind could not be educated was so universal that within the last century they were actually referred to as children of °silence,° °solitude° and °dark ness,D °sorrow-stricken children of to his hard fate of wandering in darkness, the pitiable object of dismal The results achieved by extending to these children their inherent rights to an education and the standing which the deaf and the blind have attained for themselves in the general affairs of life, when given the same opportuni ties which have been afforded other children, have led to the adoption of an entirely different policy on the part of society and the state in relation to them. It is now universally recog
nized that these children are entitled to certain privileges as a matter of right which must be respected by the state and that there are cer tain definite obligations imposed upon the pub lic which must be discharged. These children should not therefore be classified as defectives or wards of the state. The modern and the most appropriately just classification for these children is to designate them either as deaf children, blind children, or crippled children, or under the general term, physically handi capped children.
The most reliable information obtainable shows that there are in the United States ap proximately 46,000 deaf persons and 60,000 blind persons. More than 35 per cent of the deaf are born in that condition and about 75 per cent of the deaf become so before they reach legal school age, which is generally, in the American States, five years. Eighty per cent of the deaf children are not able to speak. Less than 2 per cent of the blind are born in that condition and about 12 per cent become blind before they reach the age of 20 years. Statis tics show that these several classes of physically handicapped children are distributed through the several States fairly proportionate to the population thereof. The number is so large that it is necessary to provide a comprehensive, well-organized system of education adapted to their needs and conditions, if they are to be afforded the opportunities to prepare them selves for the responsibilities of citizenship which are at all comparable with the opportuni ties which are afforded the children of the country who labor under no physical handicap whatever.