Library Collections: Document: Full Text

The late John C. Spencer, then chairman of the board, thus gave expression to the prudent disposition of that body, in the second annual report of the asylum:

"A recurrence to our first report will show with what caution, not to say doubt, the trustees entered upon the discharge of their duties. The popular and current opinion that this class of afflicted humanity were incapable of any essential improvement had not been entirely changed by the imperfect information we possessed of the efforts made in other countries. Still, enough had been ascertained to justify an experiment on a moderate scale. It had been discovered that the term 'idiot' very inaccurately described the different conditions of imbecility of intellect; that there were grades and degrees at great distances from each other; that the effects of bodily injuries had been confounded with original organization; that ill treatment and neglect had obscured minds naturally healthy, and, finally, that by proper discrimination and training, adapted to each case, in many instances the intellect had been aroused or developed, and new creatures born into the world. Fearing to trust too much to the sympathies and glowing hopes which such feats were calculated to excite, the trustees determined to test the experiment which the Legislature had authorized, by the same rigid rule which they would apply to any new theory in physics, viz., to see for themselves how it worked; to compare the condition of the pupils when admitted, with their condition at subsequent periods."

They have done so; and they now say, as the results of their observations, of their comparisons and of their deliberate convictions, that the experiment has entirely and fully succeeded.

The points to be determined in the experimental school were, first, to what extent idiots could be educated; in what direction their training and instruction should tend; and, finally, how inclusive, as to the whole class, the efforts should be.

Entering upon the experiment in such a spirit and with such a purpose, there can be no surprise that when, in their judgment, satisfactory results were obtained, deep convictions followed that a permanent institution should grow out of it, and that their influence to this end was brought to bear in an effective manner upon the Legislature, in whose behalf they were acting.

The same spirit of judicial investigation of the subject was adopted elsewhere. So whenever, in any State, measures were proposed for the amelioration of the condition of the class in question, the same course of experiment was tried right over again, and with similar results.

The scope of the undertaking, here as elsewhere, was destined ultimately to comprehend the amelioration of the condition of the whole class of persons described by the generic term of idiot. It was the part of prudence to limit the range of the first efforts to that end, to some portion of the general field.

The distinctive feature of the class was a mental dullness that unfitted them for development under the common conditions of intellectual culture, and that thus left them incapable of doing ordinary life-work and life-duties. The first step, then, was to meet this primal want or defect, and try to obviate it, in the most impressable period of their lives, by some form or method of education that might be found practicable.

It was seen, at the very outset, that the general principles of education were not to be contravened in this case. It was seen that, if instruction were to avail, it must be because the germs of intelligence and capacity were in the pupils, and susceptible of an awakening under the special methods and appliances in the teacher's hands.

There was, perhaps, an unconscious assumption that education, when properly adjusted to the peculiar condition and wants of the subject of it, always adds not only to the mental power but social value. Applying this in a less positive term to the class in question, it was assumed that training and instruction, judiciously applied, must diminish their mental incapacity, must make their care and support less burdensome to society.

Another circumstance should not be overlooked. The experiment here and elsewhere had the sympathy and cooperation of those connected with kindred institutions previously established. Their experience was kindly lent in the proper moulding of the new enterprise. Their influence was freely given to draw thitherward the public confidence. In fact, it quite commonly happened that the initiatory and successive steps of legislation in the several States I have referred to were the result of the direct personal efforts of such officials.

In Massachusetts, Dr. Howe, known throughout the country in connection with the education of the blind, and still more widely known through his general interest in questions of social science, was the very soul of the new project of philanthropy. Wherever, in any country now, this cause has a footing his writings are freely quoted.