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Taken from: Annual Report of the Board of Education of the State of Connecticut Presented to the General Assembly, May Session, 1873. New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1873. pp. 102-108.

HOME SCHOOL FOR DEAF-MUTES AT LEDYARD.

As this institution now receives patronage from the State, I have requested the Principal to give an account of the school and of the peculiar methods of visible speech there adopted.

Mystic, Ct., May 19th, 1873.

[To] Prof. B. G. NORTHROP.

Dear Sir,—In regard to our mode of instruction I cheerfully give you the following outline.

I use objects, pictures, and natural signs to communicate the first ideas to my pupils. These ideas are associated with words as rapidly as possible, and as fast as words will be understood either written or spoken, all other means of communication are dropped and words alone are employed.

When the pupil has mastered a few words, reading lessons in sentences are introduced. In fact, I treat a sentence much as I do a single word; make it significant of the idea to be expressed. In this way my pupils learn the English language idiomatically, and are enabled to avoid many of the unfortunate mute-isms which mar the composition of so many deaf and dumb persons who were educated by signs.

I try from the first to make my pupils understand common things, and that involves a great deal of labor which I have as yet found no way to avoid. All the lessons must be prepared  by the teacher, and they must be concerning events just occurring or such as have occurred so recently that the recollection of them has not passed from the mind of the pupil. In this manner the pupil learns to use the words which he writes in expressing original ideas much sooner and more naturally than if confined principally to general reading exercises. Opportunities must be seized. Whenever the mute pupil attempts to express any idea by signs, then is the teacher’s opportunity to teach a new sentence and perhaps some new words. It will be seen at once that it requires much more industry and application on the part of the teacher to be successful in teaching the English language than would be required to instruct pupils in the Sign language. But the results, I think, fully repay, the extra labor.

In the above description I have not discriminated between teaching articulation and writing. The fundamental process is the same. In one case the spoken word is learned, in the other the written word.

In this connection I will refer to my “Natural Alphabet,” which is surely worth to me as much as the service of one good teacher, for it enables me to catch the fleeting motions and positions of the mouth and represent each one in a permanent form, where the pupil can see it at any time, and so after once gaining control of the organs of speech, read any word correctly and much more easily than if simply watching the teacher’s mouth.

The lines on the chart are capable, under the hand of a person who understands the action of the mouth in talking, of an almost infinite variety of relative positions, thus giving expression to not only the English elementary sounds, but other sounds such as might naturally be produced by a deaf person who has no knowledge of articulation.

A full explanation of the manner of bringing the deaf mute to a knowledge of the various motions and positions of the organs of speech would be too lengthy to introduce here. Now I will speak of the attainments of my pupils, Willie S. Downing, a congenital mute, 14 years old last January, in school 3 1/2 years, reads readily about common things, is an excellent speller, studies arithmetic, history, geography, grammar, and we are just now taking up natural philosophy.

We take up these subjects in conversations, and I find it makes it much more interesting for the pupil and more profitable, too, I think, than the manner pursued in most of the common schools. I adopted that course from necessity and not from choice, for I had never heard much about object teaching or the Normal School method. But owing to the fact that my pupils’ knowledge of language was extremely limited, I was compelled to teach them the different branches with the words which they knew, and could not place the text books in their hands for them to study, because they could not understand at all what they were reading about, even if they were able to pronounce the words.

Gertie M. Wood, 11 years of age, lost her hearing at 4 1/2 years, retained some knowledge of language, but could not speak so as to be understood by strangers at all; has been in school 2 years, can talk, read the lips and write about as well as Willie D; using language in speech more correctly than Willie, in regard to grammatical arrangement and fluency, but with no greater correctness of articulation. Understands what she reads as well as Willie would, probably, but does not know the meaning of as many words, and is therefore rather more restricted than he. Has more difficulty in getting the pronunciation of new words from the lips, but can pronounce any word readily and correctly when written with the letters of my “Natural Alphabet.” Gertie cannot spell nearly as well as Willie, but she is rather his superior in arithmetic. In other respects they are about equal, Gertie’s early knowledge of language making up for the shorter time that she has been in school.

Ira Rathbun, one of the State beneficiaries, has been in school since August 27th, 1872. Previous to that time he had attended a few months at intervals, very irregularly, owing to pecuniary embarrassment of his parents. He is now getting well started and bids fair to make a good scholar.

Nellie C. Crary has been in school since last October 1st. She is very intelligent and is doing finely. Begins to ask for what she wants, writes the names of many objects, and can pronounce nearly any word written in my new system.

We have just been building a new school-house and printing office, under one roof, —the building is 20 X 27 feet, two stories, —which we expect to occupy next week.

We labor under great disadvantages, having so little means with which to purchase needed books and school apparatus; but we are very much in earnest in our work, and what we cannot get we intend to succeed without.

By referring to the diagram at the bottom of the chart, it will be seen that a, a, represent the lips; e, e, the teeth; b, the tongue; c, the soft palate; and d, the direction which the voice takes in passing through the nose. A curved line drawn over a character means “voice through the nose.”

The letters of “Whipple’s Natural Alphabet” above the dotted line are parts of the diagram, pictorial of the organs of speech placed in certain relative positions, such as would be assumed by those organs in speaking the required sound. In other words, each letter of this alphabet is a reminder to the person who sees it to put certain parts of the mouth in certain positions relative to each other, in order to produce a certain elementary sound of the language.

The following is a description of each letter referred to by its number on the chart:

The letters thus far described all show a side view of the organs of speech. And the aspirates and vocals are distinguished from each other by the lines in the former being light, and in the latter darkly shaded; as, for instance; Numbers 2 and 3 are alike, excepting that No. 2 is shaded, which signifies “voice,” while the light lines of No. 3 mean that the breath only is used.

The remaining letters from 24 to 41 inclusive are the vowel sounds, and they are intended to show, by a front view, the degree of openness of the mouth and the shape of the orifice necessary to produce any given sound. It is not claimed that this portion of the alphabet is in every particular scientifically correct, for it does not follow that by placing the lips in a given position, a required sound must be produced; but it is claimed that these are the natural shapes and positions which a deaf person must be taught to look for and expect when these sounds are uttered. Though it is true that every one of our English vowel sounds can be pronounced with tolerable distinctness with closed teeth and without moving the lips at all, still it will be acknowledged by all that that is not the correct way to talk

In the vowels the difference in the shading represents the distinction between “long” and “short.”

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