Tenth annual report of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, for the year ending June 30, 1867.

  • Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb (Washington, D.C.)
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tenth annual report of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, for the year ending June 30, 1867. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    School exorcises are continued for two hours daily during the summer, and the teachers, or a majority of them, remain at their posts. The city residence of the institution is very complete and well planned. The buildings are elegant, and the interior arrangements as perfect as any I have seen in Europe—more so than any that have come under my notice in America. The director of the institution is Mr. C. Selesneff, a gentleman who has had ™<my years of practical experience in teaching, and evidently fitted in an emi- nent degree for the position he now holds. The number of teachers employed, including two inspectors not confined to classes, is sixteen. Hence it appears that the average number of children placed under the charge of one instructor does not exceed twelve; an arrangement , highly conducive to the progress of the pupils. The iaszs of instruction in this establishment is the sign language and the manual alphabet. Articulation is, however, accorded a prominent position, being attempted with all and persistently continued until plain evidence appears of the inability of the pupil to succeed, when all further attempts to teach it are aban- doned, and undivided attention devoted to the other essential branches of education. My examination* of the pupils in their literary attainments satisfied me that the instruction they received was thorough, and as successful as in our best institutions. In articulation I was accorded an opportunity of testing the vocal powers of more than sixty boys, beginning with the youngest pupil and proceeding in regular order up to pupils of four and five years’ standing. Of all these pupils there was not one who did not succeed in uttering articulate sounds, or who failed to imitate more or less perfectly the expressions given him by the di- rector. That some had harsh unmusical voices did not surprise me; that there should be occasional failures was to be expected; but that a very large proportion were able to pronounce words which Mr. Timerazoff declared to be especially difficult, and that so many read and imitated with ease words spoken by the director containing a great number of aspirate, hissing, and dental sounds, (which are the most puzzling to a deaf person,) did, 1 may say without exag- geration, astonish me. From the upper classes Mr. Selesneff selected pupils who were required to read from books, to converse with him and with their teachers, to write on their slates from his oral dictation, and also to recite in signs. The oral exercises Mr. Timerazoff pronounced very creditable, remarking that he could understand all that was said by the pupils, but that some of them gave incorrect and indistinct pi’onnnciations in certain instances. The sign exercises I could myself readily comprehend, the mimic language used here having been derived originally from the Paris institution. Unlike many teachers of articulation, Mr. Selesneff does not undertake to suppress signs, but admits their free use, and deems them an indispensable adjunct in the instruction of the deaf and dumb. Teaching articulation in this institution was commenced nine years ago, but it has been only since eighteen hundred and sixty-five, on the accession of Mr. Selesneff to the directorship, that all the pupils have had the benefit of instruc- tion in this particular. Articulation, however, is not here made the main end and object; the system * My companion and interpreter in thi.s in.stitntion was a young Russian gentleman who had acquired a thorough knowledge of English from his mother, she being of English birth. To Mr. Timerazoff, on whom I had not even the claim of an accredited introduction, but ■whose acquaintance I made through the kindness of an Luiglish resident of St. Petersburg, to whom I was a self-introduced stranger, I feel myself under many obligations tor his patient labors, extending over two entire days, and with whose intelligent assistance I was enabled to pursue my investigations as readily as though I had perfectly understood the language ot the country.
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