26 Questions

26 Pre-Resolution Questions

The following are twenty-six questions divided into four sections which were submitted to the Congress for discussion before making the resolutions declarations. It is interesting to note from the proceedings in Day-to-Day Proceedings that Section III: Methods were the main focus of discussion throughout the week.

Section I. - Buildings - School Materials.

1. Is the School be a Building or Day School? (Describe advantages and disadvantages of both these methods in education).

2. The Day School only comprises the construction and management of classes , in accordance with certain hygiene rules made with a view to preserve and ameliorate the health of the pupils; the details of the school machinery - the arrangement of slates, desks, seats, etc.

3. The Building School comprises besides the classes, the construction –

i) OF dormitories of proper dimensions, allowing for a number of children all living together in common.
ii) Of a refectory.
iii) Of a covered yard.
iv) Of an infirmary.
v) Of one or more workshops so arranged as to answer the end contemplated, either that the Deaf-Mute should learn at School a trade in the usual course of study, or that he should be apprenticed in private workshops after leaving School.
vi) Lastly, it is necessary that a Boarding School should have large courts belonging to it and be well provided with gymnastic apparatus.

Section II - On Teaching.

1. Of what should the working plan of a Deaf-Mute School consist?

2. When is the best age for a Deaf-Mute to be admitted to school, either in case of being taught by articulation or by signs?

3. What are the physical and intellectual conditions necessary in order to enable a Deaf-Mute to be well instructed, and to obtain an intelligible pronunciation?

4. How long should the studies of a Deaf-Mute continue, whether he is taught by articulation or signs?

5. Is it necessary to separate congenital Deaf-Mutes from those who have become deaf from illness?

6. How many pupils can one teacher teach thoroughly, either by the articulation method or by signs?

7. Should Deaf-Mutes should be under one teacher during the whole period of their instruction, or should the teacher be changed when they have acquired a certain amount of instruction?

8. During lessons should the pupils usually sit or stand? Should they generally write on black canvas or slates?

9. What should be the length of each lesson? Should there be an interval between two lessons?

Section III - Methods

1. State the advantages of the Articulation Method over that of Signs, and vice versa (looking at it chiefly from the point of mental development without ignoring its relation in a social point of view).

2. Explain in what the Pure Oral Method consists, and show the difference between that and the Combined System.

3. Define exactly the boundary between so-called Methodical Signs and those called Natural Signs.

4. What are the most natural and effectual means by which the Deaf Mute will really acquire the use of his own language?

5. When, and how, should Grammar be used in teaching language - whether articulation or signs are used?

6. What should manuals or books be put in the hands of pupils? In what branches of instruction may they be suppressed?

7. Should not elementary Drawing, i.e., freehand drawing, form an integral part of the education of the Deaf-Mutes?

8. What amount of knowledge in different branches of study would a Deaf-Mute attain to a given time?

9. By what system of education is the best discipline arrived at the School of Deaf-Mutes?

Section IV - Special Objections

1. Will the Deaf taught by articulation forget when they leave School the chief part of the learning acquired there, and will they when conversing with hearing people prefer using gestures and written language to articulation?

If this reproach has any truth in it, to what must this state of things be attributed, and by what means can it be remedied?

2. Where, and how, can young people, whose deafness prevents their studying classes, obtain an education analogous or equivalent to that given in secondary Schools open to hearing people? Should it be in a special School? Should it be with their own teachers or with ordinary Professors?

3. What professions do Deaf-Mutes generally follow? Which offer most advantages to them? Can any fresh careers be thrown open to them?

4. Are there not diseases, and is there not a morbid state of health, more common in Deaf-Mutes than hearing people? Are there not (in consequence of the ordinary temperatures of Deaf-Mutes) certain rules for health which should be followed? And should not special care be bestowed upon the state of their health?

5. Does the number of Deaf-Mutes as given in the most recent Censuses in the different countries of Europe, compared with the general population of each country, increase or diminish? In either case, state the reason.

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