ARITY CONNECTION OF SCHOOLS

INSTITUTIONS SOMETIMES REGARDED AS EDUCATIONAL: SOMETIMES AS CHARITABLE

In considering the relation of the state to its schools for the deaf,
the question is raised as to the way they are regarded by the state, and
in what scheme of classification they have been assigned. We find that
with many of the states the institutions are held to be charitable, and
the further question is presented as to whether this is proper and just.

In times past this has been the usual classification, but of late years
an increasing number of states have made a change and now regard the
institutions as merely educational. It would be difficult to say with
precision to what scheme of classification the schools in the several
states should be ascribed; and in quite a number the lines shade off one
into the other. From what has been said in the preceding chapters and
also from certain legislative classification, it would seem that the
schools in the following states are regarded largely, if not entirely,
as educational: Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, District of Columbia,
Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts,
Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode
Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia. In
about half of the states, however, the institutions continue to be
regarded as charitable to a greater or less extent from their connection
with charity boards or from some other classification. Some are
recognized as educational, but at the same time not held altogether free
from the charitable touch.[507]

CHARITY IN CONNECTION WITH SCHOOLS FOR THE DEAF

Considerable difficulty at the outset rests with the word charity. In
its best sense, it is the finest word in our language, and from its
springs flow all benevolence, material and spiritual: when looked upon
scientifically much of the repugnance and prejudice felt toward it is
lost, and it becomes the touchstone for the remedy of human ills. In
one sense, education is most surely and deeply charitable, whether or
not it is held to be but the equipment of the state for its
self-preservation. This has long been accepted, and so unanimously have
the states undertaken the instruction of their children that its very
discussion is now unknown.

But popularly conceived, charity is still something doled out and
granted by the giver as a matter of grace, and to the recipient are
carried ass