physically or morally, the proper place for the little deaf child till
he is nearly, or quite, five, is with his mother. Very much can be done
for the little one before he is five to prepare him for the instruction
which should be given at that age, but it is possible for the mother to
do what is necessary, and even the simplest home conditions are
preferable for very little children to the institutional environment. It
is impossible, in a school of from one hundred to five hundred pupils,
to create a real home environment, such as the very little child should
have. It is really a pity that the child of five should have to be
placed in the institutional environment as it at present exists. If the
legislative bodies of our states, and the gentlemen who manage the
schools, could only be induced to adopt the cottage plan of housing in
small units, the disadvantages of institutional life would be enormously
reduced.




XVII

ORGANIZED EFFORTS BY PARENTS TO OBTAIN BETTER EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS


It should be possible for every taxpayer in every state who has a deaf
child and who has not the means or the wish to place that child in a
private school, to have the child educated in a free public school as
completely by the speech method as his hearing children are educated by
that method. He should not be compelled to send his child out of the
state or else subject him to the influence of signs and finger spelling,
with the probability that he will leave school a deaf mute.