First annual report of the trustees and superintendent of the Ohio Asylum for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth, to the fifty-third general assembly for the year 1857.

  • Ohio State Asylum for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First annual report of the trustees and superintendent of the Ohio Asylum for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth, to the fifty-third general assembly for the year 1857. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    explanations with the teacher upon things which may excite the reflective power Two evenings in the week this hour is devoted to a concert and a dance. Afte:; this comes the evening prayer, sung by all; and then, fatigued but happy, the] retire to rest. “ Such is a day at the school at Bi§etre. Every Thursday morning, the teache: takes them to walk in the country, and then inculcates elementary notions of botany designating by their names, and impressing by smell taste and sight the qualities of diflerent flowers and useful vegetables which they see.- At the same time, he explains, by locality, the first elements of geography. On Saturday evening, there is a distribution of tickets of good conduct, three of which, I have before observed! pay the rent of a garden, and one of which may buy off for another, with the con sent of the teacher, the punishment adjudged for certain slight acts of negligence You will see, at once, the effect this must have upon the generous sentiments O' the pupils. The sentiment of possession is developed; the rights of property taught; but its duties and its true pleasures are at the same time impressed.’^ For a detailed account of receipts and expenditures, you are referred to appen dix D, The appropriations needed for the coming year, though not large, are proper : tionably greater than will hereafter be required, on account of certain accruing liabilities incident to the opening of a new institution, and also the necessity for the erection of a room for a gymnasium, which is regarded as indispensable. The cos of such a building as is needed, with the materials now on hand, will not exceed the sum of ^500. There are doubtless two thousand idiotic persons in Ohio, who are not only not producers, but are mainly supported at public expense in the various districts where they reside. At a cost of ^1.00 each, the state is taxed ^200,000 annually foi their support. Many of those who to-day are a public charge, might have beeU; if allowed early proper treatment, producers instead of consumers only, earning an honest livelihood, a comfort and blessing to their friends. Viewed, therefore, by the very low standard of finance, they should, on the score of economy alone^ receive such knowledge and kinds of education, as will enable them comfortably to subsist by the labor of their own hands. In conclusion, we trust that help and sympathy will not be denied the feeble because from weakness they lag in the race, or because from darkness they have never been able to find the true way. Their feebleness, amid the darkness that surrounds them, will secure the needed help and light. The wounded must not be: left to perish upon the field, but the fragments must be gathered up. While other classes of infirm youth, and even the vigorous and strong, have: been long and liberally helped, shall not the hitherto most neglected, and at the: same time most afilicted, receive some small share of the Statens bounty which has: been so long withheld from them ? Have they not a moral, a social right to: such aid 2 These helpless idiots must be gathered up and cared for. Justice and mercy,j so long delayed, must not longer be withheld from them. They are human beings,, among us, and a part of us, upon the verge of mental death, and yet forbidden thei boon of death. They must be lifted from their degradation, and placed upon thei platform of humanity. Their reasonable wants must be supplied, until they can bei taught such useful arts and occupations, as will enable them ultimately to supply; their own reasonable wants. They must be governed and controlled with parental, kindness, and treated at all times with genuine sympathy. Their bodies and mindsi must be strengthened, and they must be taught to comprehend the idea of obedi-i ence, of a God, and moral obligation. R. J. PATTERSON. Ohio Asylum for Idiots, Columbus, Nov. 1, ^67.