To the Children's Special Assembly, delivered before the Lexington School for the Dear at Lexington, Kentucky (February 9, 1950)

Transcription

Dear boys and girls:

As a member of silent land, I am happy to greet you. I know every mile of the road over which you are traveling and I am proud of your pluck and determination.

The obstacles you encounter are many and progress seems slow at times. But there are wonderful events happening to the deaf and the blind too in which you will share if you only persevere.

Last week I met Dr. Norbert Wiener, a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and he told me many interesting things about the experiments he is trying out to make speech easier for the deaf. He believes that some day totally deaf children will feel vibrations in their fingers which will enable them not only to articulate but also to compare their own speech with that of those who hear. Besides, they will share more fully in the freedom of social life and companionship. It is a long story with lots of difficult words in it but I rejoice in the new discoveries awaiting you, -- more exciting than any you read in myth or fairy tale.

So you see there is always a bright vision. A great purpose to lead us on. In the days ahead rises our goal. We may not reach it but we can look up to it, believe in it and follow bravely wherever it appears.

Good-by children.