TEXAS. Texas Institution for the Blind, Austin, Tex.-Increased facilities are needed in each of the three departments of the school, caused by the increase of its students. The children are prepared in the kindergarten for the regular course which consists of the usual common school studies, Euglish literature, and elementary science; both the line and point print are used. Nearly all the pupils are given an opportunity to study music, but failure to make progress after a fair trial is deemed sufficient proof that further exertions would be useless; the number regularly receiving musical instruction rarely exceeds one-half the enrolment. Broom-making is a satisfactory business in Texas, but brush-making, carpet-weaving, and upholstering are unprofitable. To stimulate and encourage the boys to overcome the natural propensity of the blind to sedentary habits and consequent indisposition to work, the superintendent has introduced a system of remunerating the pupil-worker, the pay he receives being about the same as would have been given him in a broom factory. III-STATISTICS. TABLE 78.-Number of schools for the blind, and the teachers and pupils in them, for 1886-87, by States and divisions. TABLE 78.-Number of schools for the blind, etc., for 1886-87—Continued. TABLE 79.-Receipts, expenditures, and property valuation of schools for the blind, for a Included here for purposes of comparison, though not so reported. 27,900 35, 016 36, 181 300,000 37,000 a37,000 7,500 12,000 20, 837 13, 575 90, COJ 76, 900 92, 853 49, 756 77,000 85, 523 35, 987 397,500 414,400 TABLE 79.-Receipts, expenditures, and property valuation of schools for the blind, for 1886-87-Continued. a For 1884-85. b Included here for purposes of comparison, though not so reported. TABLE 80.-Per capita expenditure of schools for the blind, for 1886-87. a Pupils of institutions not reporting expenditure excluded in making the computations contained in the column. b Pupils of institutions not reporting value of property excluded in making the computations contained in the column. e Georgia and Maryland. d Represented here by Oregon. Of the 3 institutions established since 1883, not including the dual institutions recently established in Wyoming and Texas, two are dual, a form that several times has been publicly objected to by the convention of American Instructors of the Blind (see p. 840, Convention), but which is especially necessary, perhaps, in thinly settled countries. The Alabama Academy, appearing here for the first time, was formerly the blind department of an institution of this dual class. No comparisons have been instituted or percentages obtained in which the number of "instructors and other employés" would have been a factor. In several cases the answer given in the return has been the number of teachers, and the fact stated, while in other cases it is probable that the same thing has been done without indicating it. In the future the inquiry will be "number of instructors." With the exception of the school for colored blind and deaf persons of Maryland and the department for the blind of the North Carolina school, it has been found impossible to separate the financial affairs of the dual institutions, and reference is made to the table for the deaf where receipts and expenditures, etc., are given for the whole institution. To prevent a fictitious increase or the reverse in receipts the Office has, in the tables by States arranged by divisions, assumed the appropriation to have been the total amount received. In computing the per capita expenditure and valuation of Table 80, the number of the pupils in attendance at institutions whose expenditure or property valuation is not given has not been included in the division when computing the percentage. |