Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 31 May 1938 — Page 8

PAGE 8

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

Listen Through Fingertips

$ 3 Yoo

Martha Jean McConnell and Fred Van Sickle, pupils at the State School for the Deaf, are * listening” to the music played by their teacher,

Miss Lucille Latton. They “hear” fingertips.

by feeling the vibrations with their

8 5 »

Deat Students Enjoy Latest Swing Music Sic by Sense of Touch

Teaching music to boys and girls who can't hear is the life work of | Misses Florence Sundstrom and Lucille Latton, instructors at the State |

School for the Deaf.

Miss Sundstrom has been at it for three years and, upon looking back, |

said her most pleasant task is bring- ¢ ing the latest in swing music into |

the noiseless world of her charges. Asked how it's done, Miss Latton seated herself at the grand piano and motioned several pupils to take their places around the soundinig board As thev stood with outstretched fingers pressed to the piano, she started up the melod “Whistle While You Work.” “They are listening with their finge» ips,” she said. ‘Thev're Swing Addicts’ Smiling, the boys and girls tapped out accented beats with one hand Obviously they liked it. ‘They're swing addicts no diffizrent from anybody else,” Miss Sund-! strom said Right now the latest rage is| “Heigh-Ho” and in fact Disney has | no more enthusiastic fans than those | at the State School for the Deaf. | Other numbers in their music book | are “Blue Hawaii,” “Blossoms on | Broagway”’ and “Theres a Gold | Mine in the Sky.” But these pupils do more than Just tap out their music. The “rhythm band” plays it on such instruments as the tambourine, drum and bells. They chant it in their rhythm classes. They do everything but sing. “Signing” (talking on fingers) is | something strictly forbidden at the school, except by a sign artist at a | concert, which, incidentally, is not | called a concert at all but is a “demonstration.” That's because “signing” means using sign language, | which is done chiefly with the fin- | gers Accompanied by music makes a graceful moe Stress Oral Teaching However, the school is trying to adapt these pupils to living with “hearing” people. So only oral communication is taught Classes are in lip reading and the use of the vocal ~hords As for signing, it is considered in the same category with whispering and when carried on between pupils in a classroom it merits special pun- | ishment. Offenders stand in a corner. or are sent to see the superintendent or write “Signing Is a Very Bad Thing” 50 times. “It's hard to put a stop to.” Jack- | son A. Raney, superintendent. said | of signing. “because really it’s their natural language. Even the youneest who come here with no knowl- | edge of how to communicate with others pick up singing in a few weeks.” To banish the temptation of signing. he said, teachers try to fill the | children’s life with work and fun The chief subject taught is speech, which for pupils is work, and the chief method of teaching is by music. Music to the deaf means rhythm. That's important, Miss Lundstrom said, because the best-liked rhythms | are not always musical. The chil-| dren enjoy an auto ride because of the purring motor more than the intricate patterns of classical music.

Naturally Sensitive

Naturally sensitive, many are able to place a hand on a radio and tell! whether voice or instrumental music is on the program. The members of the rhythm band keep in time by receiving vibrations ranemiLea | through the wooden floor from the | piano where their teacher sits. |. There are as many people born | without a sense of rhythm as there | are color blind, the teachers said. Without rhythm the deaf pupil who | has an otherwise alert mind proves | backward in his studies, for he lacks | the handle to an education. Miss Lundstrom said many a small |

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child who comes to the school bare- | ly knows of the existence of voice. The only normal thing he has ever | used his voice for is to ery. He 1s | taught first the exciting fact of | “Mmmm.” This is done by placing | his hand on the teacher's face where | the sound vibrations may be felt.

Learns by Imitation

Now the child is ready to imitate. He says “mmm” and then “ahh,” soon graduating to his first word, “arm.” Then comes the piano. | Through his hands he “feels” the | difference between high and low | tones, and if his voice, which, of! course, he never hears, is pitched | either too high or too low the teach- | er moderates it during these rhythm lessons. As soon as the pupil gets beyond one-syllable words he faces a new problem—accent of syllable. Again the piano serves. There's a song for every word, and the song's a series of accented and unaccented chords. At the end of the first year the child has mastered a speaking and lipreading vocabulary of 300 to 700 words, teachers said. | After 10 years’ training he can lip read and even speak with a stilted awkwardness well enough to | take his place in society. Thirteen girls and one boy will | leave the State School for the Deaf June 10. Several will enter trades and professions, four will enroll for a college education.

INDIANA EDUGATORS TO MEET SATURDAY

Formation of Co-ordinating Council Is Purpose.

State educators are to meet Saturday at the Hotel Lincoln to form | the Indiana Council of Education, | a supercouncil to co-ordinate the | activities and policies of colleges |

| and educational groups throughout |

Indiana. | Invitations have been sent to 30 |

educational organizations, 18 col- | leges and universities and 20 State and sectional teacher groups to send representatives. The conference was scheduled for | last Saturday, but was postponed. | K. V. Ammerman, Broad Ripple | High School principal, is to open | the conference. Speakers are to |

include L. V. Phillips, Vincennes |

High School principal; E. B. Wethe- | row, La Porte school superintend- | ent, and Dr. E C. Elliott, Purdue | University president. | ee — FIRST MALAY JUDGE NAMED |

KUALA LUMPUR, Malay States |

| May 31 (U. P).—~Raja Musa Bin |

Raja Haji Bot, a member of one of | the Malay royal families, has been | appointed the first Malay Judge of | the Supreme Court of the Federated Malay States. All the other judges are British lawyers of the Colonial | Legal Service.

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