History of deaf education in Scotland, 1760-1939

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to give an account of the education of deaf children in Scotland from the opening of the first school until the outbreak of war in 1939. The work has been brought up to date by the inclusion of a Chapter outlining subsequent developments. No previous investigation into this subject has been made and, as primary sources of information are fast disappearing, and are even now far from complete, it was felt that the development of this special branch of education should be recorded without delay.

An attempt has been-made to keep the work as objective as possible, giving explanations where these are required, but refraining, except in the last chapter, from opinions on controversial issues-Of course, the bias of the author towards oralism will probably be apparent, but. for this no apology is made.

It should be pointed out that the scope of the history has been confined to the education of children who were deaf. No attempt has been made to include work with blind-deaf children, nor the educational work carried on in connection with the adult deaf. Although. the work of private. schools has been considered in the earlier periods, at a time when their influence was great, it has been ignored when their existence ceased to contribute in any measurable degree to the general development of the education of the deaf.