USA > Connecticut > New London County > A modern history of New London County, Connecticut, Volume I > Part 36
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The age of eighteen was decided upon as a desirable average for gradua- tion, to give time for development of body, mind and character through a four years course. That the substantial development of skill in mechanical arts might lead to further interest and opportunity, the related mathematics, science and social and political history were included in the course of study. One year of civics and four of English gave a base, from which English litera- ture and social and political duties and problems could be taught or discussed. After the third year, a group of students observing that at graduation a career in the industries would have greater opportunity for them if their education was continued in a technical college, a request came for language enough to pass entrance examinations. This was given out of school hours for a period of five years, and finally was added to the regular schedule of the school.
After the first year all machinery and equipment of the school was in- stalled by students, and after the third year all repairs to machinery were part of the regular instruction. Practically all small tools within the scope of the equipment have been made by students from the beginning.
The four years course in general woodwork, pattern making, draughting, tool forging and machine shop experience, combined with English, civics, history, mathematics, sciences and modern languages, has placed the young men who have graduated as follows : 77 per cent. in the trades or vocations taught in the school, 12 per cent. went to college, and II per cent. are at work in other occupations.
Of the girls who have completed the four-year domestic art and science courses, together with English, civics, history, literature, mathematics, sci- ences and modern languages, 64 per cent. are employed at vocations or teach- ing the branches studied in the school, 24 per cent. continued their education in summer schools or by going to college, and 12 per cent. who attended espe- cially with reference to the efficiency, independence and contentment afforded, have taken a measure of those attributes into their homes.
The skill and earning capacity of graduates leads a large percentage of them to take up work immediately in the productive vocations ; but the scope and thoroughness of the academic courses maintained enables students of good scholarship to enter colleges, either by examination or by certificate. A fair percentage of the young men have been accepted in colleges and technical
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schools and more are planning to continue their education in that way.
Considerable difficulty in obtaining teachers has been experienced from the first. Competent instructors in the trades could make more money in the industries than as teachers. Those at the heads of departments teach because they enjoy the life and service. The dressmaking, ladies' tailoring and milli- nery are carried to a degree of skill and excellence seldom found outside the trades. The analysis of the work may be copied by anyone, but the morale and efficiency of the department of domestic art has attracted some notice outside New England. A superintendent from the Middle West visited the school some years ago, and spent the day in copying details of the course in domestic art. Upon leaving he expressed his thanks for information obtained and stated: "That is just what we want in our city ; one matter troubles me, however; that is teachers. Where do you get yours?" Answer: "We gen- erally make our own." "Well, but you had to start somewhere. What do you have to pay a woman like the head of that department?" Answer: "That is a somewhat embarrassing question." "There is no secret about it is there?" Answer: "No!" "But you would not stand in the way of her advancement, would you? We could offer much more than that." Answer: "Well, if you are going to ask her to leave here, perhaps you ought to be told more about her." "Is there any 'out'* about her?" Answer: "Not that we know of, except that she married the principal about eighteen years ago, and they are edu- cating their own children here." The practical tailoring, millinery and art needlework have closely approached professional excellence from the begin- ning, due in part to the technical accuracy sought, but due more to the per- sonality and example of motherly refinement, dignity and efficiency of the teacher matron of the domestic art department, Mrs. E. L. Cheney Hitchcock.
In the shops and laboratories as well as in the tailoring rooms, competent heads of departments have extended their work by employing graduates of the school as assistants. Mutual helpfulness carried through the four years of study and practice has developed a constant supply of those who want to teach as a vocation. The most skillful have been glad to get experience for moderate wages under their old instructors, and the school profits by their eagerness to earn a recommendation to superintendents seeking teachers skilled and experienced in mechanical arts.
The very practical work of the students has brought appeals for extend- ing the work to smaller groups in grade schools and social service centers. Senior boys have taught mechanical drawing and general woodwork in the Y. M. C. A., Mystic Oral School and Montville. Senior girls have conducted classes in cooking or dressmaking in Mystic Oral School, Montville, and in the social service centers of New London. The work in Montville was started under the auspices of Mrs. Frederick A. Johnson, and has been instrumental in directing many toward a full four years high school course which later on they completed. Most of the extension work carried on by students was done evenings, on Saturdays. or during vacations. The immediate benefits have usually been followed by increased attendance at the Vocational High School.
Throughout the early years of the school the problem of maintenance
* "Out," a colloquialism meaning any weakness.
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was serious. The intention of the donor was to furnish buildings and equip- ment for practical instruction to youth of high school age, but the costs of materials, teachers, etc., were expected to be borne by the city or by the pay- ment of tuition. New London started by paying $500 per year, and when the amount some years later had advanced to $700 an effort was made to get aid from the State. The basis of approval by the State included forty-eight weeks of school of eight hours per day, per year, consisting of 50 per cent. academic and 50 per cent. shop work, each student confined to one trade which must be followed to completion.
Ordinarily, 85 per cent. of the vocational students have to earn a part or all of the cost of their education out of school hours. The longer day and longer school year would have made attendance impossible for a large num- ber. Four hours academic work as taught in other high schools would have been acceptable, but in practice the subjects required failed to include those which form a basis for culture and make the way open to further training after graduation. No parents would consent to that plan. Neither would they consent to deciding upon one trade for children at the age of fourteen. Another factor leading to the abandonment of State aid was the cost of equipment and teachers for the long hours of shop work required. No reduction of expense would result for the city, but a large reduction in attendance would follow. The four years technical high school course was continued free to resident students and paid for by the city. Non-resident students met the increased costs by an advance in tuition. The struggle for support doubtless had a tendency to increase the attendance and advance the standards of the school. The threatened loss of all cultural training developed an appreciation of it, and English history, civics and general science received an impetus which sent an unusual number of graduates on to technical schools and colleges. One effect of the stimulated interest in English was the success of students in competition with other schools for literary prizes. A second prize of ten dollars offered by the Colonial Dames of America was awarded to Samuel Bittner, a junior in 1918. The Connecticut gold medal together with fifty dollars in gold from the Sons of the American Revolution was awarded to Louise Ernst, a sophomore in 1915.
In connection with the English and history classes, the school has given several plays each year which at first were staged in the history room of the school. The seating capacity soon proved to be inadequate, and the Lyceum Theater was used for "Higby of Harvard" in 1912. In 1914, through the bequest of $28,000 under the will of Mrs. Ellen Tyler Chapman, wife of the founder of the school, a fine auditorium was added to the building. A series of debates, prize speaking and plays became part of the student activity each year. "Mice and Men," "The Cricket on the Hearth," "Little Lord Faunt- leroy" and the "Birds' Christmas Carol" were enthusiastically supported by students and the public. The profit from the plays so far exceeded the expense that valuable pictures and many articles of furnishing and equipment were added to the institution. The school glee club and orchestra formed a begin- ning from which a general public interest in good music has grown. Musi- cians of national reputation and accepted merit have found the acoustic prop-
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erties of the school auditorium to be excellent. The audiences have been large and appreciative. Much of the achievement in dramatics and musical work is due to the talent and energy of Miss Eva M. Sherburne, teacher of English in the school.
In 1911, when the Hartford Graduate Club, represented by Mrs. E. V. Mitchell, Miss Mary Partridge, and Miss Elizabeth Wright, came to New London looking for a site for the Connecticut College for Women, and the city of New London proposed to raise $100,000, the short term campaign plan was proposed and carried out under the auspices of the New London Voca- tional School. Professor Ralph L. Cheyney of the Y. M. C. A. College, Springfield, Massachusetts, outlined the plan of the campaign. Frederick S. Hitchcock, principal of the Vocational School, in consultation with Mr. C. S. Ward, member of the international committee of the Y. M. C. A., organized the details of the drive. A committee consisting of Mr. Hitchcock, Mr. Alex. Campbell, superintendent of the New London Gas and Electric Company, and Rev. James W. Bixler, pastor of the Second Congregational Church, went to Philadelphia, where Mr. Ward was conducting a million dollar cam- paign. The organization and methods of work in that drive were practically duplicated in New London under the direction of these three men, with the addition of Mr. F. Valentine Chappell of New London. The Vocational School having suggested the plan of the business organization, was by its equipment and personnel able to carry on a large share of the practical work.
From President Burton, of Smith College, a statement of what Smith College has done for Northampton, obtained by Mr. Hitchcock, was used as a business argument in favor of the college. The office management organ- ized at the school was soon transferred to the larger office equipment of the Gas and Electric Company. The special directory and card indexing of the city began at the school with students' help, and was finished in the larger offices under the same management by paid stenographers and clerks. The filing cases and small articles were made entirely by students. In the rush to complete larger projects, carpenters and sign painters from outside the school were employed. The Daily Bulletin used at headquarters, the twenty- foot clock on the "Evening Day" building and the thirty-foot thermometer on the First Congregational Church lawn were made in this way. The clock, with materials furnished by Mr. Theodore Bodenwein, was begun on the school shop floor, but the sections would not go through the largest door, and it was transferred to the floor of the Konomoc Hose House. The lettering was done under great difficulty by A. Francis Watson, and the clock erected on the Day building by B. B. Gardner, in a morning of drizzle of sleet and rain. The thermometer in three sections was erected by the New England Telephone Company. Noonday lunches were a feature of the campaign, and with a hastily improvised kitchen they were managed and served by Miriam Marstow and relays of girls from the domestic science department of the Vocational School.
In the College campaign, practically every individual, group, club and corporation united as with one mind to carry out a single plan, with every personal and business interest merged into an organized whole. The city
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awakened to a collective conscious effort and did what it set out to do. The Vocational School was only one factor among many contributing to the object sought. New London has done several bigger things as a city since 19II, but the school was ready in mind and skill and equipment to furnish its quota of service and cooperation when the opportunity came.
Upon the declaration of war with Germany, a large number of graduates and seniors volunteered in the army and navy, and several were promoted on account of their mechanical skill and general academic training. The remaining students were organized to put over the many drives to support hospitals, the Knights of Columbus, Young Men's Christian Association, Red Cross, Hebrew Welfare Association, and the Salvation Army, as well as for the sale of bonds. During the summer seasons many worked independently, and with the Boys' Working Reserve to increase the production of food. Under the auspices of the domestic science department, instructive courses were given in the school auditorium teaching better methods of conserving food in the home, and a series of demonstrations and lectures was carried over a period of two years for the benefit of housekeepers and women desiring to prepare for service by nursing. One by one the male teachers enlisted until every eligible man had gone. Women served well in their places where possible, but most of the academic branches of the school being correlated with technical work in shops and laboratories, made it difficult for women to do the work of men. Toward the end, senior boys carried some of the classes in mathematics and sciences. It was in a way a strain upon the student teachers and the classes, but the spirit under which they strove together brought no apparent loss to either. The student teachers have since done well in technical colleges, and some of the students have done the same. An added interest and application to study seem to have offset such weakness as there was in formal preparation.
During the fifteen years of its life to the present time the New London Vocational School has carried the approval of the State Board of Education for acceptable work as a high school. Making school work a business as much as storekeeping, manufacturing or office work, with that absorbing interest that leads to success, has helped somewhat. Keeping such standards in academic work, parallel with shop and laboratory practice, as would give a combination of thought and skill, have developed self-respect and a strong school spirit. Contact with and practical service to the interests of the city and the homes, has brought increasing attendance and financial support. In regard to the dignity of labor, Ruskin said, "We are always in these days endeavoring to separate intellect and manual labor; we want one man to be always thinking and another to be always working, and we call one a gentleman and the other a laborer, whereas the workman ought to be thinking some of the time, and the thinker to be working some of the time, and both
MYSTIC ORAL SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF
Miss Clara M. H. McGuigan has the written the following account of this school.
The Mystic Oral School for the Deaf, formerly known as the Whipple
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Home School, was founded in 1869 by Zerah Colburn Whipple. Zerah Whip- ple was descended on the Whipple line from Samuel Whipple and Elizabeth Eddy of Providence, Rhode Island, who removed to Connecticut prior to 1712. Samuel Whipple was an iron manufacturer and a successful business man. His mills were built on Saw Mill river, near Pocquetannock. No doubt from this line Zerah inherited his ingenuity and mechanical skill. When only a boy he made himself a very good violin, and later, as an aid to his work in teaching the deaf, he invented the Whipple's natural alphabet, an ingenious pictorial alphabet representing the positions of the lips, tongue, etc., in pro- ducing the elementary English sounds. He was also descended from the Wolcotts and Griswolds of Connecticut, families empowered with great intel- lectual and executive ability. His Bolles, Hempstead, Waterhouse and Rogers blood gave literary ability, musical and oratorical talent, and religious zeal. Two Scotch families, Grouch and Douglass, added strength to his fine English blood. Having the remarkable family inheritance that he did, it is no wonder that Zerah Colburn Whipple was endowed with the vision and ability of a genius. The inspiration for his work came from his grandfather, Jonathan Whipple, who had taught his own little son Enoch, deaf from birth, to talk and read the lips.
Jonathan Whipple was also endowed with all of the talents of his remark- able ancestors, but perhaps religious zeal was paramount. He was the first president of the Connecticut Peace Society, and the extent of his charities was boundless. He was a natural scholar himself, and gave his children a good common school education in the little red school house of his district, but he did so much for the poor and friendless that he hadn't the means left for the higher education of his children, so although all, including Enoch, had college minds, none had college advantages.
Enoch Whipple owned a farm and blacksmith shop adjoining his father's farm. He spoke and read the lips so well that he did business for years with an iron manufacturer in Norwich without anyone suspecting he was deaf. He married a cousin, a hearing woman of great literary ability. Their eve- nings were spent in reading the best books of literature, travel, etc., and their home with its extensive library was the gathering place for all the ambitious children in the neighborhood. They had the bound volumes of the "Century Magazine" from its first issue to the one at the time of their death, and their book-cases were filled with hundreds of fine books on every conceivable subject.
Zerah Whipple grew up in his grandfather's home. He imbibed his religious zeal and inherited his remarkable talents. He loved and admired his uncle Enoch and his cultured wife. He spent many evenings with them in their delightful home. As he grew to manhood, he began to wonder why other deaf people could not be taught to talk like his uncle Enoch, and his grandfather convinced him they could. He determined to make teaching the deaf and dumb to speak and read the lips his life work.
He advertised for pupils, and November 15, 1869, a young lad of twelve years from a wealthy Quaker family of Wilmington, Delaware, was brought to the Whipple home in Ledyard, Connecticut, for instruction. The old
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grandfather showed Zerah how to begin his work in bringing speech to the dumb lips of the boy, and Zerah quickly acquired skill in teaching and obtained gratifying results. Although this boy was twelve years old when his education began, he acquired good, intelligible speech, was a fine lip reader, and had a liberal education when he left school at the time of Zerah's death in 1879. His taste for good literature was formed. He regularly sub- scribed for the leading magazines, was familiar with Dickens and other good writers, and was able to take his place in the class of society in which he was born and look after his own and his mother's business interests.
Other pupils came from all over the United States, and the old gambrel- roofed farm house had to be enlarged to accommodate them. All of the family were pressed into service as teachers except the dear mother, who was "Mother Whipple" to them all. The results were remarkable, for Enoch, who lived next door, was their model. He it was the parents saw and talked with when they brought their children to the school, and speech like his or approaching it was what they paid for and expected. Most of the pupils came from distant States, but the fame of the school soon began to be talked about in Connecticut. Parents of deaf children who hadn't money vis- ited the school and wrote letters begging Mr. Whipple to find a way to give speech to their children. There was no school in Connecticut but the sign school at Hartford where deaf children could be educated free. Then it was that Zerah Whipple applied to the legislature of Connecticut for State aid. This was granted July 24, 1872. From that time children from families in poor and moderate circumstances have had the privilege, if they so desired, of having their children educated by what is known as the Pure Oral Method.
By the Pure Oral Method is meant giving a deaf child speech and lip reading in an oral environment, so that he will unconsciously, by force of habit, use speech altogether in communicating with his fellow-men-in other words, restoring him to society. Now this can be done more or less per- fectly according to the ability of the child, the ability of the teacher and the child's environment. If we want our child to acquire French and talk French naturally and fluently, we place it in a French school in France, where it has a French environment. Such a method of procedure is absolutely necessary in acquiring fluency in any language. It is the same with speech for the deaf. A deaf child in order to acquire speech and use it spontaneously must have a speech environment. No school that teaches signs and finger spelling can give its pupils a speech environment. The child easily masters signs and finger spelling, and as they are easier at first, it will use them instead of speech. So it is in the schools called Combined Schools, where they have what is called an Oral department, speech is relegated to the class rooms and seldom if ever used elsewhere. In such schools the children think in signs and translate into speech when they use it. In Zerah Whipple's school this was not true. The pupils thought in speech and used speech as their mother tongue. Speech soon became spontaneous and natural. Because of this difference between Oral and Sign and Combined Schools, the Mystic Oral School has continued its work and because of this difference it is still needed.
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In a short time the Whipple School outgrew the farm house and its additions. The beautiful summer residence of a retired sea captain was pur- chased from his heirs, and in 1874 the pupils were transferred to their new home. There is where the school is still situated. It is in the town of Groton, about a mile from the village of Mystic. It is said the old sea cap- tain selected this site for his home because it commanded the most wonderful view of land and sea to be found on the southern coast of Connecticut. It is on a high hill overlooking river, village, valley and sound. It has country, seashore, and almost mountain air combined. The Mansion, as it was called, seemed particularly well adapted to fill the requirements of the Whipple Home School, and it grew slowly in numbers and flourished until 1879, just ten years after its establishment, when its enthusiastic and gifted principal died.
His loss was in a way irreparable, but as the members of his family had always assisted in teaching, they were able to go on with the work. His brother-in-law, Frank Whipple, who had been his partner for a time, became its principal and did excellent work. He finally sold out his interests to an uncle and aunt, and though retained for a while as a teacher, eventually he left Connecticut and went to California to teach speech to the deaf in the State School at Berkeley.
For ten years longer the school was conducted with varied degrees of success according to the efficiency of the teachers employed. Advertising ceased with Zerah Whipple's death. The private pupils were gradually withdrawn and placed in other schools or taught by a private teacher at home until none but State pupils remained. As the school was not endowed and had to depend almost entirely upon the State appropriation for its main- tenance, and as this was only $175 per capita per annum, it was impossible to secure experienced teachers and provide up-to-date equipment in the home.
In 1895, Hon. O. Vincent Coffin, then governor of Connecticut, visited the school and completely reorganized it. Its name was changed to the Mystic Oral School for the Deaf, and the per capita appropriation was raised to $200 per year. Dr. Clara M. Hammond McGuigan, daughter of the former principal and first cousin to Zerah Whipple, was asked to assume the responsi- bility of the school as its superintendent.
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