Nope Tjt, I think it was all about systematisation and control. It was a school for the blind so everyone had to be "blind" to fit into the same mould and anyone who deviated from that whether in behaviour or even in amount of vision had to be made to fall into line with their system.
My brother coined the term "clockwork mice" for those who'd finished specialist schools, and it was unfortunately quite accurate one.
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)