In 1830 the United States government took its first census of the blind. This census showed that there were 5,444 blind persons in the country. The superintendent of the blind schools at New York, Boston and Philadelphia took groups of their pupils to different parts of the country to demonstrate to the people the feasibility of educating the blind. These tours created a profound impression upon the people all over the country and developed a sentiment which resulted in the establishment of other institutions. In 1837 an institution for the blind was established in the State of Ohio. This was the first school organized purely as a State institution. Other States followed in the estab lishment of such institutions until at the present time there are about 50 State institutions at tended by more than 5,000 blind children. The last Federal census shows that there are about 60,000 blind people in the United States and that 10 per cent of these are of school age. In nine of the Statesprovision is made for the edu cation of the blind children who are under school age. The best modern thought is that children who are born blind should be placed under in struction at the earliest moment possible and that all children who become blind before they reach school age should also be placed under in struction as early as possible. The institutions for the blind are generally under the control of local honorary boards of trustees. This board selects the superintendent or principal of the in stitution. The institutions generally are subject to inspection by the State educational authorities.
Great interest has been manifested all over the country in the education of the blind within the last 20 years. The modern trend of thought is to provide for the education of blind children in the public school system. The first city in this country to try this experiment was Chicago. In 1900 that city organized a special class for the blind in one of its public schools. The ex periment was a success. Additional classes were organized in that city and soon thereafter other cities began to incorporate into their school systems special classes for the blind. Such classes are now maintained in the schools of Cincinnati, Milwaukee, New York, Racine, Newark, Jersey City and many others. Chicago has three schools located in different parts of the city so as to make them the most accessible possible to all the blind children in the city. In New York city special classes have been organized in 12 of the different public schools of that city. When a blind pupil enters a special class in a public school he is assigned to a special room with a special teacher. The number of pupils in a class varies from 5 to 15. In this special class the pupils are taught to read and write in American Braille. When the child becomes able to read and write, he takes his place in the regular school classes and re cites with the seeing children. He takes his turn in reading, writing, and in reciting in other sub jects. After the recitation is concluded, the blind child goes to a special room to prepare his lessons under the direction of a special teacher. The theory is to arrange the work of the blind child so that he will continually spend more and more time with the seeing children.
The course of study for the blind is quite similar to the regular courses of the public schools. The tendency is to start the blind child in the kindergarten. The blind children who have kindergarten training make better progress in their work than those who have not had it. The course includes reading, writing, numbers, history, geography, physiology. nature study, etc. Physical training and music are two vital features of every well-regulated course of study for the blind. The setting-up exercises, the usual games for children in the classroom and on the playground, folk dancing, skating, rope jumping, and all the usual games and sports for seeing children are adaptable to the blind children. These physical exercises are essential to their proper physical development and to their health. They also aid materially in developing independence, comradeship, and community interest in the blind child. The courses of study extend through the elementary school and the high school. Eighteen blind chil dren who completed the course of instruction in the elementary schools in New York city in the school year ending 1 July 1916 entered the high schools of that city in September of that year. These children are now trained for more extended service than in former years. In addi tion to the manual occupations, they are now trained for business positions, for teachers, for salesmen, typewriters, and several have taken up the profession of osteopathy. Many of them become fine musicians, organists, piano tuners, etc. That the blind have the capacity to obtain leadership is demonstrated by Huber, the nat uralist; Prescott, the historian; Rodenbach, the Belgian statesman; Fawcett, the English states man ; and Gore, United States senator from Oklahoma. The names of Dr. Howe, Dr. Moon, and Dr. Wait will always be associated in America with the development of methods for teaching blind children. They did a great work in this field of education.
The line alphabets which were used for many years in giving instruction to the blind have been abandoned. The point systems have come into general use. These are known as "braille? The base is a cell of six points. The characters used are made by various combinations of these six points; 62 characters are used. These char acters each represent a letter, a mark of punc tuation or a contraction standing for several letters. The system is named after its author, Lewis Braille, who devised it in 1825. There has been a long controversy between teachers of the. blind as to whether the braille system or certain modifications devised by American teachers is the better. There appears to be no great fundamental difference in these systems. The American modification of the system differs from the other simply in the assignment of the letters to the various combinations. The Amer ican idea was that such letters as E, 0, R, S, T, which occur most frequently in words, should be made with the fewest dots. One of the most noted teachers of the blind states that the New York point differs from braille by its characters being two points high and three wide instead of three points high and two wide. This author states that while the New York point system has many advantages, it has many disadvantages.