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Idiot Asylums

Creator: n/a
Date: September 2, 1865
Publication: Littell's Living Age
Source: Available at selected libraries

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These are in truth the ideas which have been made to operate on the idiot with so much practical benefit both in Europe and in America, and if well reflected upon they will be found not merely to form the basis of the education of the imbecile, but, as has been hinted before, of those gifted with ordinary powers. All teachers may learn from the methods with idiots at Earlswood and elsewhere that no lesson, no pursuit, ought, when once attention to it has been obtained, to be made fatiguing, and that a prudent change from one object to another, at due intervals, is absolutely essential. A genius may be stunted by over-work and mental fatigue, in the same way as the little germ of thought which lies buried in a deficient organism may be apparently extinguished; but both may be brought out by proper means. The difference between the teachers of the two is, that the one must rends to the height of the mental powers and bodily capabilities, while the other must be able to probe to the lowest depth of the concealed and feeble faculties. We agree with Mr. Sidney that

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"the advancements made in the teaching of idiots will not be without great practical use in teaching others, and bringing to the mind many things of importance that have been overlooked. it will especially throw light on bodily training, as a valuable agent in assisting the mental and moral powers, though it has frequently been regarded merely as promotive of muscular strength and manual dexterity. Corporeal exercises in children need not be only idle amusements and useless pastimes -- they may be made of more service, both for the intellect and the organism, than ill-considered tasks and injudicious lessons.'

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The eminent medical gentlemen both in America, Great Britain, and other parts of Europe, who have assisted in the amelioration of the condition of the imbecile, ought to be regarded as amongst the truest benefactors of the pitable -sic- objects afflicted by this dreadful calamity. In England, the asylum at Earlswood is worthy of the benevolence of a great nation, and we trust it has become a model and a stimulus in the right direction to the entire civilized world; for where is the community that has not been troubled with the disfiguring presence of idiotcy, often studiously concealed and disregarded, but, till these days of highly developed Christian philanthropy and science, never attempted to be solaced or improved by the skilled and benevolent hand of enlightened charity?

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