A Special Teacher

WILLIAM E. BRAGNER '30 never forgets his kids' birthdays. And he's got 95 of them.

Though they are not his real children, in his job as Administrator of the Beverly (Mass.) School for the Deaf he is more father than manager.

Bill, who was once Hanover High School's principal, has been in education all his life. But the higher he climbed in the education profession, the more administrative his job became and the further away he got from the kids.

He has an M.A. from Boston University, but no special training for teaching the deaf. His wife Jo has, and it was her desire to get back into this field and his love for children that induced him to resign his job as superintendent of Metuchen, New Jersey schools and take the Beverly position. For ten years now he has been "back with the kids."

Beverly is a private, non-profit, coed day and boarding school for normal children whose hearing difficulties prevent advantageous attendance at public schools. About 85 per cent of them are profoundly deaf.

"The average first-grader is in command of 4000 to 5000 words," according to Bill, "but a child enters our beginners' class, usually between the ages of 4½ and 5, having no means of communication except rudimentary gestures to express his basic needs."

They begin at Beverly with three years of preparation in the lower school, learning speech, lip reading, and language - not the manual sign method of communication. "An advantage of this oral method of training," he explains, "is that the deaf person is taught to communicate with hearing people who have no special training."

Equipment throughout the school is the latest. All classrooms have a group hearing aid. There's a microphone in the center of the room and the kids all wear headsets to receive at least vibrations.

The middle school covers grades two through four; and the upper school, five through eight. Of the eight who were graduated last year, six are in regular high school. "And they've had pretty good academic records," Bill boasts.

He is responsible for finding vocational or senior schools for graduates, but some of his responsibilities begin even before students are admitted. The admission process requires strict medical screening and application for state aid for those who can't afford tuition.

Bill supervises the staff - from teachers to household help, hires new employees, meets with the school's two psychologists and social worker, and consults with parents. In each case he calls on his personal knowledge of the child to integrate every phase of his development.

"We often sit up till two in the morning discussing a particular child and how we can help," his wife says.

He lectures throughout New England trying to inform audiences about deafness. Often he advises them about the desirability of measle prevention shots. A rubella epidemic three years years ago resulted in the birth of 1500 deaf children on the East Coast alone.

Through Bill's efforts, Northeastern University in Boston has begun a training program for teachers who want to work with the deaf. He encourages undergraduates to enter this field.

"Teaching is a marvelous life," he says, "and I am more than satisfied with my niche."