piano tuning, repairing and construction, and reed organ repairing; carpet and rug weaving; broom and brush making; hammock and nets of all kinds; basket making; pottery work. The School also prints all textbooks used in Braille Courses of Instruction. The Michigan School for the Blind is a part of the public school system of the State. The teachers are legally certificated and are graduates of normal schools or colleges. The course of study is practically the same as that offered at other schools, beginning with the kindergarten and continuing through the high school. It is planned to meet college requirements. Some of the students have gone through college very successfully but this is very expensive because in addition to the regular expenses of a college education the blind student must have all of his reading done for him. The majority cannot go to college for that reason. In addition to the literary course the institution offers excellent music and industrial courses. The course in music covers ten years and includes vocal and instrumental. Instruction is offered on the piano, violin, cello, pipeorgan and reed organ, as well as orchestral practice. Study of the piano is the backbone of all work in music and some piano work precedes that on any other instrument or the voice or tuning. The study of the piano continues along with that of any other line of music, unless, in the judgment of the faculty, there is sufficient reason why it should be discontinued. Pupils whose talents warrant it and who have reached grade five of the piano course may have individual lessons on the pipe-organ. The organ, though small, is sufficient to give a pupil a fair knowledge of organ music, and prepare him for holding a church position. The industrial courses include domestic science; plain and fancy sewing; knitting and crocheting; raffia and bead work; hammock and net making; piano tuning; repairing and construction, including the study of the mechanism of the modern piano player; broom and brush making; rug weaving; chair caning; and basket making. Domestic science and domestic art are of the greatest importance to the girls of this school as it helps them to be self-reliant. All the girls of the high school are required to take four years of this work. Two hours of each week are spent in the laboratory for theory and practical work. It is hoped by this course to develop an attitude of hopeful, cheerful interest toward the work of the home. The commercial course of four years includes typewriting, commercial law, bookkeeping, business forms, commercial arithmetic, commercial English, geography, civics, constitutional history, etc. The school has a well equipped banking and commerce department in which most excellent results have been obtained. The school begins the first Monday in September and continues forty weeks. There is a short holiday vacation. The advantages of the School for the Blind are free to every blind person in Michigan who is of suitable age and mental capacity. 11 MICHIGAN EMPLOYMENT INSTITUTION FOR Location. The Michigan Employment Institution for the Blind is located at Saginaw, West Side, Michigan. Purpose. The Employment Institution for the Blind is designed to afford necessary instruction and profitable employment to those worthy blind inhabitants of this state who, with reasonable assistance and encouragement, are able and willing to work. This institution is at once (1) a trade-training school for adult apprentices; (2) an industrial factory for the permanent or steady employment of those able and willing to work and earn at least the cost of their own support;(3) a working home for the boarding and lodging of those needing and wishing its care and benefits at cost, after learning a trade, as well as the gratuitous boarding and lodging of learners for a limited time; (4) a free school for the teaching of reading, writing, typewriting, etc., and affording some training in vocal and instrumental music and other minor branches; and (5) a free lending library for the blind of Michigan, at their homes, as well as at the Institution. It is not an asylum or retreat for the permanent free maintenance of aged or helpless blind persons, nor a hospital or infirmary for the cure or treatment of blindness or other maladies; but an agency to enable worthy blind people to share in the useful activities of life. It very properly gives chief attention to vocational instruction, training and employment. History. The Employment Institution for the Blind was established by an act of legislature in 1903. The present site was donated by citizens of Saginaw, Governor Bliss at the same time bestowing upon the city the fine park across the street from the Institution. In November, 1904, began the vocational instruction and wage-earning employment of blind men. Blind women were admitted to the Institution, for instruction, employment, or both, as early as January, 1905, and in the same month the state's free lending library for the blind was installed. This library was provided for in the charter of the Institution, and is maintained for the benefit of sightless readers throughout the state, the embossed reading matter being carried in the United States mails to and from such borrowers, post free. Buildings and Equipment. The Institution occupies a tract of land of about two blocks, purchased at a cost of $4,700. The buildings consist of a central administration building, a factory building, West Hall (the men's dormitory), East Hall (the women's dormitory), a warehouse and a barn. Work and Instruction. Blind men and women of ordinary health and strength between the ages of 18 and 60 are taught useful trades and occupations, such as broom-making, carpet and rug weaving, fine fabric work, chair caning, piano-tuning and repairing. They may also learn to read books printed in several forms of raised letters and to write dotted characters representing letters which they can read by touch for themselves. They may learn to operate an ordinary typewriter to enable them to write their |