Library Collections: Document: Full Text

A further object of training is to overcome the filthy and degrading habits in which the idiot has hitherto indulged; to transform this gluttonous, beastly creature, into a man, capable of observing all the proprieties of life, no longer greedy, selfish, voracious, and quarrel-some, but temperate, quiet, courteous, and thoughtful of the interest of others; to rouse the hitherto dormant intellect, to induce mental activ-ity, and stimulate thought and study; and above all, to awaken the consciousness of his responsibility to God, and of his duties toward his fellow man.

Do you say that the attainment of these objects is beyond the power of humanity? We answer that this result has been accom-plished, and is now in the process of accomplishment, in every school for idiots in this country and Europe. It requires, indeed, patience, intelligence, and love, all in active exercise; but these qualities have not yet deserted our earth, and there yet live men and women whose names should be held in everlasting remembrance, for that moral her-oism which has led them to devote the best years of their lives to the elevation of these, the lowest and humblest of our race.

The means adopted to accomplish such wonderful results are, of course, varied. Among these the apparatus of the gymnasium holds a high rank. By means of the ladders, swings, steps, dumb bells, &c., the muscular system is developed and invigorated; automatic move-ment overcome; the eye, the ear, and the muscles brought under the control of the will; concert of action and obedience to commands enforced; and the perceptions quickened and elevated.

The cultivation of the faculty of speech is a work of great diffi-culty, often requiring one or two years of patient labor before the enunciation of the first word. Instruction in this, as in every thing else where idiots are the pupils, must be of the most elementary character. It is necessary, for instance, in teaching the compound sounds, such as ch, th, gr, br, cr, to resolve them into their original elements, and teach the child each constituent, at first, separately, and afterwards in combination. The attention is attracted and the perceptive faculties cultivated by lessons in objects; form and size are taught by blocks of different sizes and forms, which the pupil is required to insert into corresponding cavities in a board; color by wooden figures of the same form but of different hues. Practice in working with crewels, and picture lessons have also proved of great advantage.

Words are next taught, not letters, for a word can be associated with an object, in the mind of a pupil, while letters can not; next, the ideas of form and size, already acquired, are put in practice by writing and drawing; Geography is taught by outline maps, and the elementary principles of grammar by exercises dictated by the teacher.

The idea of number is, perhaps, the most difficult of acquisition for the idiot. Very few can count beyond three or four when brought to the Asylum. This incapacity is overcome by patient and repeated exercises, until, step by step, the mysteries of numeration, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division have been unravelled. The process is slow and painful, but it is at last crowned with success.

In the development of the moral nature, great difficulties are encountered. The comprehension of an abstract idea is far beyond an idiot's capacity; his conception of goodness must be derived from the manifestation of it in his teachers and friends; of sin, from his own misconduct or that of others; hence, with him, love must be the key note of all progress, and under its genial influence, his stubborn and refrac-tory nature will yield like wax before the fire; his vicious and hurt-ful propensities become subject to control; and learning to love "his brother whom he hath seen," he soon attains to some knowledge and love for "God whom he hath not seen," and his humble, childlike faith should put to the blush many, who with more exalted intellects are wandering in the mazes of unbelief.

Not far from one-fourth of all the idiots in any State or country, are susceptible of improvement by the treatment we have described. In the countries where cretinism prevails, pupils over seven years of age are not considered as capable of successful instruction, but in other countries idiots are received up to the age of fifteen or sixteen, and in the English schools up to twenty-five or thirty, even. There is, however, far less hope of material progress in adults than in chil-dren -- and it is hardly desirable that those beyond fourteen or fifteen should be placed under instruction. Epilepsy, a not infrequent con-comitant of idiocy, is a serious bar to improvement, and where severe, entirely precludes the idea of any considerable success.

That the schools already established have been successful, in improv-ing the condition of idiots, beyond what their most sanguine friends dared hope, is a fact admitting of no question; that they are not yet perfect, none will more readily acknowledge than those who have labored longest in them; further experience will undoubtedly add to the resources of the teacher, and may render his labors less arduous, while it insures him a greater measure of success. What has already been accomplished may, perhaps, be more satisfactorily demonstrated by the narrative of a few cases, than by any other method.