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Public Schools

Conservation of the vision of school children has received much attention at the hands of the Commission during the past two or three years. As a result of studies made in several Massachusetts cities, classes for children with impaired eyesight have been opened in Boston, Cambridge, New Bedford, and Springfield. Similar steps are under contemplation in other cities of the Commonwealth. After the establishment of these classes, no official connection with them is maintained. The nearest approach to this is the regular visits made by a conservation of vision agent of the Commission upon the pupils in one of the Boston classes. By means of these visits, an effort is made to keep the teacher of this class constantly informed as to the eye condition of her charges. As these special conservation of vision classes form but a very minute part of the general school system which maintains them, and as the average public school official knows very little about the problem which these classes are designed to meet, it is to be regretted that there is no scheme by which those in the State most interested and best informed upon this subject can insist upon general principles and standards in their operation. For example, it is to he deplored that, when a city opens classes which depend for their success upon a great deal of individual attention, a minimum enrollment should it he fixed which is so large as to make any amount of individual instruction impossible. I should recommend that some plan be worked out by which cities opening such classes may receive a State subsidy similar to that allowed by the States of Wisconsin and Ohio. The State assistance rendered vocational training schools in Massachusetts would, it seems to me, afford a valuable precedent. With such a subsidy, the State could exercise a supervision which would tend to standardize methods and greatly increase the efficiency of such instruction. This supervision should be removed as little as possible from the State scheme of public instruction. It would be most valuable, however, to give the State Commission for the Blind a certain voice in the direction of these classes which form so important a part of the conservation of vision work of the State. It would seem feasible to establish some joint arrangement between the State Commission for the Blind and the State Board of Education which would give to the direction of these classes the wisdom of the former and the prestige of the latter.

PROBLEM OF BLIND RELIEF.

At best, most of the work for the adult blind must be of a palliative nature. In the mind of the lay public, and to some extent among workers for the blind, there is a lack of definiteness of purpose in dealing with the problems presented by the blind men and women of the community. To a larger extent than in most social work must the individual be considered case by case, rather than as a member of a class. Some one has said that there is no problem of the blind. Each individual blind person is a problem in himself. However true this may be, there are a few rather clearly defined fundamental principles. The needs of those who come to the attention of an organization such as the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind are for the most part education, employment, recreation, or relief.

Any general work for the blind attempts, in a measure, to satisfy these four demands which stand in the way of self-expression. Sometimes these needs have been of so long standing that even the desire for self-expression has largely subsided. Then must the worker for the blind endeavor to stimulate and direct this desire. For the most part, however, one should endeavor to meet these needs and then step aside, so as not to interfere with freedom of expression.

Workshops and Augmentation of Wages

The workshops of the Commission were organized with two fundamental aims. The major consideration is that of employment; the minor object is to pay wages. It is the combination of these two aims, with the emphasis upon the element of employment, which justifies the expenditure of upwards of a dollar or more to pay the blind employee a dollar. The industry has not yet been discovered which can be operated with an unselected group of blind employees in such a way as to pay from the profits' a wage which will enable the less efficient members of the force to support themselves. Many employed blind persons, therefore, are still subjects for relief. It is the policy of some workshops, if not practically all of them, to pay larger wages than is justified by the profits on the enterprise. Up to a certain point this wage in excess of profits is the justifiable cost of meeting the need of employment. There is no agreement among workers for the blind as to just what relation this cost of providing employment should bear to the profit on the industry from which the true wages are paid. This is determined in each shop, either by the limit of the resources available or upon the grounds of policy.