schools for the blind fail to turn out capable, cultured,
self-reliant boys and girls. Dr. Illingworth, the noted English
educator, gives the following qualifications for a teacher of the blind:
"a sound education, self-control in a high degree, a boundless
enthusiasm, a determination to succeed, should be kind and sympathetic,
and at the same time firm, and should be true to his word." These are
qualifications which should be possessed alike by the blind teacher and
sighted teacher, and only teachers so qualified should be entrusted with
the divine privilege of bringing light to the minds of these helpless
little ones. I wish to add a few more qualifications to Dr.
Illingworth's list, and they are these: a broad, comprehending sympathy,
a sense of humor, and a heart brimming with love for all children--a
heart capable of sharing the joy and grief of every child heart. And I
wish to emphasize, in a special manner, one of the doctor's
qualifications--namely, "a boundless enthusiasm," and to add yet
another, a living, breathing faith that teaching is a divine calling,
and that the opportunities for good or ill are limitless. To be
successful, a teacher should be able to bring himself to the level of
his pupil. I once heard a man say of a great teacher, "he had the heart
of a boy, and understood our every thought and feeling."

In many schools for the blind the inspirational value of a blind teacher
is overlooked or ignored. In this connection Dr. Illingworth says: "it
is almost as impossible for a seeing teacher to realize what it is to be
blind, and know all the difficulties of his blind pupil, as for a
congenitally blind person to enter into and share with one who can see,
the beauty of a glorious picture or landscape." Dr. Illingworth
continues, "it takes a seeing teacher to become what might be called a
naturalized blind person, that is, one able to see things from the blind
point of view; though he is never in the favorable position of a blind
teacher who can say to a child, 'do it so; I can do it--I am blind like
you.'" In the residential schools Dr. Illingworth recommends that the
ratio of blind teachers to seeing should be one to two. He says, "their
very presence is a continual inspiration and incentive to the pupils,"
and he adds, "the education of blind children in those subjects in which
the methods of instruction are necessarily and essentially totally
different from those of the seeing, is best in the hands o