To the Honorable the Board of Trustees of the Rhode Island Institute for the Deaf:

GENTLEMEN:--I respectfully submit the following report for the year ending December 31, 1895.

On January 1st, 1895, there were fifty-two pupils enrolled; twenty-nine boys and twenty-three girls.

Six new pupils were admitted during the winter and spring, one a boy of eighteen, who had never attended school. He is a bright, industrious boy, anxious to learn, and will become, undoubtedly, a satisfactory student. When these children have been allowed to remain at home until the age of thirteen or fourteen they are slow at grasping ideas and school-room work is irksome. As the Institute and its work is better known throughout the State it is hoped that parents of deaf children will not neglect to avail themselves of its advantages. We are now trying to bring to the school a pupil of sixteen who has never attended school.

School re-opened September 10th with fifty-three pupils, and in course of time all returned, except one boy whose parents moved out ot the State. Five new pupils were admitted in September and October, making eleven admitted during the year, so that our number was increased to sixty-one, Thirty-four boys and twenty-seven girls, the largest attendance in the history of the school.

We opened as a boarding school January 1st, 1893, with thirty-eight pupils.

The general health throughout the school has been good.

There have been colds and slight accidents occasionally, but they have been comparatively few when we consider the number under our care.

On the 24th of November one of the pupils was taken ill with diptheria, which was epidemic at that time. In all probability it was contracted outside the Institute. The child was immediately taken to the hospital, which can be completely separated from the main building. There followed but one other case. The attendant who had charge of the patient, until a nurse came, took the disease, but both she and the child recovered.

During the past year the work in the school-rooms has been very satisfactory, but especially so the past few months.

The children take more interest in reading than ever before and they are learning to appreciate good and instructive books.

They are interested in the history of people and of different countries, and the teachers take an active interest in directing their reading. Such a desire to learn must stimulate the minds of these children so that they will advance, in all respects, faster than ever before. Carefully selected books are frequently added to the library, and they are taught, by collecting news items, to read the daily papers understandingly.

The teachers are provided with school papers and magazines and other necessary helps to teach.

Our most important work is to teach the use of the English language, speech-reading and speech. That the children may acquire the constant use of speech, they are first taught to understand spoken language by watching the mouths of others, not the lips alone, but the tongue, the lips, and the expression of the face, and thus they are taught to use speech as it is used by others. There has been a marked improvement in deportment. The boys are more manly and the girls are more womanly. We try to make life in the Institute as home like as possible, but of course this can be done only to certain extent, and only by the hearty cooperation of everybody, which, I can truly say, is given. And I would like here to thank the teachers for the cheerful assistance they so willingly give. Every evening some of them join the children in the sitting-rooms and take part in their conversation and games, and on Saturday evenings they teach the use of games that are both instructive and amusing.

A few changes have taken place in the corps of teachers. Miss R. E. Sparrow, for many years a teacher in Clarke Institution in Northampton, Mass., succeeded Mrs. Hurd as First Assistant. As the number of pupils increased it became necessary to add another teacher to our staff, and Miss A. D. Ward was appointed and has charge of a class of beginners in the Kindergarten department. Miss Townsend and Miss Ruggles were appointed in place of Miss Burrill and Miss Smith, who did not return after the summer vacation. Miss Gill, a teacher-in-training, assists in the class-room work a portion of each day, and observes the work done in the class-rooms the remaining time school is in session.

Industrial training has received as careful attention as the intellectual development. Printing is taught to five boys, and a small school paper, the What Cheer, is issued twice a month.

Printing is very helpful in teaching the pupils how to use the English language correctly.

We hope to increase the number under instruction as soon as the addition to the school building is completed and we have more commodious quarters.

The class in Sloyd is still in charge of Mr. Almgren and the boys are doing very commendable work. At present the boys' play-room is used as the Sloyd room. When the new buildings are finished more boys can be added to the class, and we hope to form a class, in Sloyd, of girls, as it has been found practical to teach this branch of industry to them as well as to boys.

We have an efficient shoe-maker, and four boys receive instruction on three afternoons of each week in shoe-making.

The sewing, for the household, is done by the girls in the sitting-room, under a teacher of experience.

The pupils are taught regular habits of order and cleanliness in the care of their rooms and different parts of the building occupied by them.

The day before Christmas the children were made happy by a beautiful Christmas tree laden with presents provided by contributions from Mrs. Weeden and others.

We acknowledge, with thanks, two pictures for the pupils' sitting-rooms, from Miss Adeline Brown; a box of fine oranges from Mrs. Wm. Gammell; some children's clothing from Mrs C. W. Lippitt; bric-a-brac, six water colors and an etching from Mr. M. J. Perry; a box of periodicals from Mrs D. B. Pond, and we thank Mrs Weeden and Mrs Wyman for collection the money, buying and framing a large photograph of the Madonna de San Sisto, by Raphael.

Thanks are also due Mrs S. S. Durfee for clothing, and Miss Mabelle C. Lippitt for books.

Respectfully submitted,

LAURA DE L. RICHARDS,

PRINCIPAL.
Providence, January, 1896

* Deceased
1. Slight degree of hearing
2. Hard of hearing
3. Deafness partial
4. Not deaf
5. Not deaf. Impediment in speech

The receipt of the following periodicals is thankfully acknowledged, and their continuance respectfully requested:

Mute's Companion, Fairibault, Minn.; Daily Paper for Our Little People, Rochester, N.Y.; Our Children's School Journal, The Deaf Mute Journal, New York; Maryland Bulletin, Frederick, Md.; The Deaf Mute Voice, Jackson, Miss.; Kentucky Deaf Mute, Danville, Ky.; The Goodson Gazette, Staunton, Va.; Kansas Star, Olathe, Kansas; Deaf Mute Optic, Little Rock, Ark.; Deaf Mute Index, Colorado Springs, Col.; Juvenile Ranger, Austin, Texas; The Register, Rome, N.Y.; Nebraska Mute Journal, Omaha, Neb.; New Method for the Deaf, Englewood, Ill.; Weekly News, Berkeley, Cal.
 

a. Kindergarten Exercises.
b. Articulation.
c. Language.
d. Arithmetic.
c. Penmanship.

b. Elements, combinations, simple work and sentences; withh reading them from the lips.

c. Nouns; objects in class-room, articles of dress, articles of food, different parts of the body, with a limited number of verbs. Adjectives; good, bad, large, small, &c.

d. Counting and writing numbers, with addition and subtraction to 10.

e. Writing on slate and with lead pencil.
 
 

a. Articulation.
b. Language.
c. Arithmitic
d. Geography.
e. Penmanship.
f. Drawing

b. Thorough review of first year work. Nouns and verbs continued. Adjectives continued; their comparison. Pronouns as in first year, adding myself, herself, himself, with the plurals, and the relatives who and which. Adverbs; not, often, never, &c. Elliptical sentences; section and picture writing; journal and letter writing, and simple stories.

c. Practical exercises in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; United States currency; simple fractions.

d. School-room, building and yard, city and a limited knowledge of the State.

e. Copy book writing.

a. Articulation.
b. Language
c. Arithmetic.
d. Geography.
e. History
f. Penmanship.
g. Drawing.
h. Calisthenics.

b. Nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions continued as in Primary Course. Drill in active and passive voices; action and picture writing; stories from Natural History; Journal and letter writing.

c. Mental and written addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, with practical examples; United States currency and simple fractions continued.

d. City, State, and New England States.

e. Simple historical stories in connection with geography.

f. Copy-book writing twice a week.

g. Object drawing.

a. Articulation
b. Language.
c. Arithmitic.
d. Geography.
e. History.
f. Physiology.
g. Pennmanship.
h. Drawing.
i. Calisthenics.

b. Composition ; journal and letter writing; miscellaneous reading; newspapers and magazines; lessons on general subjects

c. Mental, written and practical.

d. Geographical Reader; Manual of Commerce.

e. History of the United States; Outline of General History.

f. Copy Book. Free-hand and object drawing and designing.

This school is for the benefit of children incapicated trough deafness, total or partial, for receiving proper instruction in common schools, and is free to all pupils who belong in this State.

The aim of the school is to teach deaf children to use the English languague with the spontaneity, correctness, and enjoyment of hearing children as far as this is practicable.

"Without language there can be no thought, no reason;" and as the highest aim of all instruction is the culture of the mental and moral nature in man, our first effort should be to furnish the deaf with a medium through which knowledge can be imparted and obtained. This can be done by signs, by finger alphabet, and by speech. Our method is the latter, or oral method by which the deaf can be educated, and at the same time furnished with the usual and most convenient way of communication in society and in the world at large.

It is very desirable that deaf children be sent to school at as early an age as possible. A parent will be amply repaid for sending a child as young as five or six years, even at some inconvenience. The Board of Trustees are authorized to receive pupils between the ages of three and twenty years.

If a child who has learned to talk is made deaf by disease he should immediately upon his recovery be sent to a school where his speech will be retained, and where he will be taught to understand from the lips. In such cases it is common to delay so long that serious loss of speech results.

Speech reading is an invaluable acquisition for those who are semi-deaf or even hard of hearing, as well as for those congenitally or totally deaf.

Every effort should be made to encourage the child to retain words by watching the lip motion and facial expression, or by feeling the muscular action or the breath; but no attempt should be made to teach him the names of the letters of the alphabet.

This school no longer exists as a day school, but has been merged into the Rhode Island Institute for the Deaf, and will be conducted as a boarding home and school. Application for admission should be made to the Principal at the Institute, corner of East Avenue and Cypress Street, Providence.

Transcribers notes: All spelling and punctuation are as in the original book.

Transcribed by Sally Jaquet Roberts
Proof read by Danyelle and Hayzel Bowen

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