Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-03-20
AN EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM.

The committee on public charitable in
situations has reported bills dividing up
the duties of the present state board Of
lunacy and charity between a super
visory board of insanity, a supervisory
board of charities and a department for
children, the latter to take executive
control Of the 1900 child wards of the
state, Who are now in charge of the
state board. The leading idea of this
change Is that insanity, pauperism and
the care of children are three different
subjects, and that the supervision of in
sanity and of pauperism and the ex-
ecutive care of 1900 children should not
be left to the same board. 1t Is true that
the insane who will come under the SUI
pervision Of the proposed board of in
sanity are most Of them paupers, and
that the children VINO will be in charge
Of the proposed department are also
many Of them paupers, while a consider
able proportion of them are criminals;
able for the reason That their pauper-
ism or criminality is not the most i'm
portant fact in regard either to the in
sane or to the children; it is not the
factor which chiefly determines their
treatment To deal with an insane pau
per a knowledge of the subject of pau
perism is no doubt desirable but a
knowledge of insanity is absolutely nee
essary. An alienist does not necessarily
have all the mental equipment which
would be found In the ideal superintend-
ent Of an institution for insane paupers,
but person who is not an alienist is
not a fit person to manage such an in
stitution at all; and board which has
situations for the insane, ought to be a
board some of whose members at least
have attained to emnence by their
knowledge upon the subject of mental
disease, and all of whose members are
specially interested in and competent to
deal with the problems arising in the
treatment of insanity and in the regula-
ton of its treatment upon the part Of
the state.
In the same way, the care and control
of the 1900 state children is not pri-
marily problem of pauperism or a
problem of criminology, but a problem
Of the treatment of children-that is to
say, an educational problem. A child
may be a pauper or criminal, but the
leading fact about him still is that he
is child-in other words, that he s a.
human being not yet so old but that he
may learn new ways and new views Of
life. For that reason he should he in
charge of a board whose only official
care and interest is the treatment
of children, whose members are Sc
lected for their special interest in the
subject of child-helping and education
and whose duty 1t shall be to devote
their whole official time and thought to
these 1900 child-wards of the state Nor
IS it simply question of the number of
hours that the members of the board
can give to the work although upon
that point alone there is sufficient argu-
ment for the creation of a department
for children in the enormous amount of
work that the present board has to do);
the principal argument is contained not
in the question Of hours but in the
question of interests. These children
need the attention of a board that will
give a certain number Of hours a week
to work done in their behalf, but they
need further than that, that the board
having them in charge shall have its
heart in this one piece Of work What is
wanted is a board composed of people
who will not only devote a certain num-
Der of working hours per week, but who
will lie awake nights trying to think