BIOGRAPHY: Long Beach, California, newspaper. Date unknown. Circa l940's.

FAMOUS TEACHER OF DEAF IS VISITING HERE

Dean of American teachers of the deaf is Dr. J. W. Blattner of Sulphur, OKla., instructor of the hard of hearing for 60 years, who arrived last week to visit his sisters, the Misses Louise and Marie Blattner, 2320 Lime Avenue, and a brother Henry J. Blattner, 552 Magnolia Avenue. It is his first visit to Long Beach and he thinks the city is a paradise.

As a young teacher, Dr. Blattner made his first trip to California when he addressed the National Convention of Teachers of the Deaf, at Berkeley in 1886. So far as he knows, he is the only living teacher who attended that convention.

A native Iowan, he began his career as an instructor at the Iowa School for the Deaf at Council bluffs. He became principal of Colorado State School at Colorado Springs and then Texas State School at Austin, Texas. At Austin, he organized classes for the instructors, devised a method to teach the elementary sounds, and organized a summer training course out of which grew the summer School of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. He also wrote a book for primary teachers and prepared a course of instruction for schools for the deaf.

For three years he was superintendent at the North Dakota School for the Deaf at Devils Lake. Last June he retired after 25 years as Superintendent of the Oklahoma School for the Deaf at Sulphur. When he went to the Oklahoma school, it had three buildings; during his period of Superintendency, it grew to 13 buildings.

When Dr. Blattner began teaching the deaf, the approved method of instruction was to speak in sign language on the fingers. Now sign language is used only for emphasis, and students are trained in lip reading.

"Deafness is not the calamity that many think," he said. "Edison always said he was glad that he was deaf that it shut out the clatter about him. We have found that deaf persons can concentrate better than persons with their hearing, and they usually develop keener eyesight. Most deaf persons are eager for knowledge, and they have a great interest in vocational subjects. Some of the best craftsmen in the entire world are persons without hearing."

Mrs. Blattner, who has been associated with her husband in their work with the deaf.

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