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Eleventh Annual Report Of The Trustees Of The Perkins Institution And Massachusetts Asylum For The Blind

Creator: Samuel Gridley Howe (author)
Date: 1843
Source: Perkins School for the Blind

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We have never had occasion to give him any lessons on propriety, either as to personal decency, or moderation in eating and yet in both respects his conduct is not only unexceptionable, but, as I think, remarkable. He is a very moderate eater, and chews his food very deliberately. He does not crave so much as most other children, hut is fond of odors, especially of flowers; and the pleasure which he derives from visiting a green.house seems almost equal to that obtained by persons with all their senses. He has a sense of property, and though not particularly acquisitive, asserts his right to his own, while he always respects the rights of others.

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I have said that he is cheerful and affectionate. There have been very few exceptions to this in his conduct. He has rarely shown marks of temper, and only when he had been teased or imposed upon, or thought he had been, and then he becomes passionate, and seems bold as a little lion. There is much manliness about him, and he takes great delight in those exercises which require strength and activity. In our gymnasium he is one of the strongest and most expert performers, leaping the bars, clambering the ropes, and swinging himself about in the air, with entire fearlessness. When injured, he bears it bravely; rubs the part injured, and conceals his emotion, or, if a tear is forced out, it is accompanied by a groan. He has a very strong frame, and is seldom ill; but when any thing ails him, he drops his head, sits quietly, or goes to bed, without any whining or any complaints. Sometimes, when he is grieved by a friend going away, he seems to be full of emotion, which, however, he conceals, though the tears sometimes trickle down his cheeks. He seems perfectly truthful and conscientious, though I am sure no one ever gave him any lessons upon the necessity of being so. Finally, without that remarkable degree of mental activity which makes Laura so apt a learner, he is in every respect a most interesting and beautiful boy, and it cannot be doubted that, by long and close perseverance in the course of instruction which has been adopted for him, his mind will be developed, and he will become an intelligent and happy man.

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S. G. HOWE.

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APPENDIX C. JULIA BRACE.

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This deaf blind mute, who became so widely known during her long residence at the excellent Institution for Deaf Mutes in Hartford, has been with us since April, 1842 and .It will be remembered that in the last Report a brief notice was made of her, though she had then been a pupil only a few weeks, and that much difficulty was anticipated, not in making her understand the connexion between arbitrary signs and things, and not in imparting to her a knowledge of many external relations, qualities, &c. which she did not possess, but from her want of interest in learning. She has, however, rather agreeably disappointed us in that respect, and she has kept up her interest in her new studies to the present time, being always pleased to learn a new word; but, unfortunately, she cannot remember the words any length of time. This is the natural result of the long inactivity of her brain, and of her having passed the age when the perceptive faculties are vividly and almost spontaneously at work.

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Following nearly the same course with her as with Laura and Oliver, she was taught to make the letters of the alphabet with her fingers, by taking articles having short names, as hat, pen, pin, &c., and putting the fingers in a particular position for each letter. These positions of the fingers thus became to her not three letters of the alphabet, but a triple sign for the object. Increasing the number of the objects, of course she gradually learned all the letters of the alphabet. She learned to combine these signs or letters in various ways, and can ask for many things, as mug, cake, bread, &c., but she does not like to do so if she can make herself understood by her old and imperfect signs.

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She has learned to use the metallic types with letters upon their ends, and can put down many words: for instance, her teacher gave her a piece of cake and spelled the words, Julia, eat, cake; after which Julia of her own accord went to her board and set up the words with her types, Julia, cake, eat.

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She was out one day this winter with the girls and her teacher frolicking on the snow. The day after she was in great glee at the recollection of it, and seemed by her sign, to try to recapitulate the events, and in her eagerness spelled on her fingers, "st fall snow;" st is an abbreviation of a person's name who was with her, and to whose fall on the snow she evidently alluded. It is perfectly obvious, therefore, that there was no natural incapacity for language, and that she might learn it now but for the long inactivity of her faculties, and for her possession of certain vague signs by which she can express some of her animal wants; for as to intellectual expressions she has none. Whether at her age, -- and from the limited advantage which she can derive from instruction, -- her guardian will consider it expedient to increase the necessary expense of the slow and tedious process of communicating knowledge to her, is very doubtful.

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