HON. GRAHAM LEE, HAMLET, MERCER COUNTY. DAVID PRINCE, M. D., JACKSONVILLE, MORGAN COUNTY. ! REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES. To his Excellency Gov. JOHN L. BEVERIDGE: SIR: We respectfully present the following, which is the ninth annual report of the Illinois Institution for the education of Feeble-minded Children. The expenditures and receipts for the year ending Nov. 30, 1873, have been as follows: Total expenditures Total receipts . . Balance Dr.. $25,777 49 25,483 37 $294 12 A detailed statement of the receipts and expenditures will be found in the financial statement of the Superintendent, accompanying this report. Other requirements of the law of incorporation, in relation to statistical information, will be found in the report of the Superintendent, which will accompany this report. The testimony of the parents and friends of the pupils, showing the progress and results of the system of instruction pursued at the Institution, will be found in an appendix. The income of this Institution from the State treasury for its first eight years, including the amounts expended in the construction of buildings now occupied by 100 pupils, when averaged and divided by the annual attendance of pupils as reported for eight years, averaged, shows a cost per capita of three hundred and seventeen dollars per annum. An institution for feeble-minded children, though it has its regular school term and its annual vacation, is constantly in operation; for at least one-fourth and frequently one-half of the pupils remain residents the entire year. The vacation affords change and relaxation to the pupils from school room exercises during the summer months-July and August-but the only employees released from duty during that period of time are the teachers. As they are necessarily salaried by the year, no diminution of expense results from their temporary absence. The other officers and employees are constantly on duty during the whole twelve months of the year. Many of the pupils come from county poor houses, and to return them during the vacation, of course, involves the extra expense of transportation. If benefit would result from a temporary change, as is sometimes the fact with pupils from respectable private families, where the expense can be well afforded, such a course seems very proper; but to return a child to a county poor house for two or more mouths every year, when the aim of the school is to overcome bad habits and to improve the condition, is, to say the least, a practice which cannot be otherwise than prejudicial to the pupils. This and other considerations have prompted the Board to enforce the custom of sending away all pupils during the vacation much less rigidly than heretofore, believing that the best interests of the State, the pupils and the Institution are conserved by this policy. Without discussing the question of how far down in the scale of idiocy the work of education can go practically, it may safely be said that a large proportion of the applicants for admission to this Institution are teachable to an extent which would fully compensate for the amount of expense and labor which would be involved in their instruction. The Trustees are fully convinced that were a building provided calculated to accommodate two hundred and fifty pupils, it could be filled at once by children of this class, manifestly teachable, from applications already on file in the Institution. It is with pride and gratitude that we contemplate the liberal legislation by which the people of the State have provided comfortable buildings for the insane, deaf and dumb and blind. We only ask, in behalf of the class whose interests we have been commissioned by the State to represent, that a similar policy be exercised towards them, especially those who are already seeking admission, and who have reached that critical period in their lives when they must be improved in morals and instructed, or must remain a burden to their friends, or the counties in which they reside, the remainder of their lives. In our last report, upon the estimate of a competent architect, we requested that the sum of two hundred thousand dollars might be appropriated for the purchase of land, of furniture, and the construction of a building sufficiently commodious to accommodate two hundred and fifty pupils with their care-takers. In accordance with that proposition, two bills were prepared and introduced last winter. They were merged into one bill by the committee |