The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-12-30
WOULD EXCLUDE
FEEBLE MINDED
State Teachers Association APP
prove Report Of Their Com
mittee on Subnormallty.
SCHOOL FOR UNFORTUNATES
This to Be Absolutely Separate
From the State Mental
Hospital,

! the other children,
"(c) That special classes. under
trained teachers. be organizcd through
out our school system for all mentally
snbnosmal and sluggish sho,Is children nInGao not
's(dD That nngraded rooms under
teachers especially qualified for such work
be organized for backward children. ana
such other children as may need tempo
rarily the benefit of individual instruction
and help.
| ical supervision in ell OF the schools OF
| the state. both private and public, from
the kindergarten TO the university
"UD That free medical and surgical
treatment be provided for such INDECENT
and defective children as give manifest
| evidence of the need of such treatment.
"g) That clinic for study and re.
| treatment OF subnormal children be es-
tablished in the state university as
department OF the state normal school.
'Oh) That the state board OF educa-
| ton make provision through printed In
structions for the careful observation OF
deficient children, and by means OF print
ed forms for the making OF such OBJ
| SeryanceS.
| Thursday morning the committee on
the physical basis of education, APP
pointed one year ago by the State
Teachers association, made an exhaus-
tive report, which was adopted on the
Investigation made. Letters of inquiry
were sent to county supcrintendents
| throughout the state, containing many
vital questions relative t the physical
| features of education. Subnormality is
the title under which the work has
progressed. Superintendent d. II. Chris.
tensen of the Salt Lake schools read
the report and made a strong plea for
the physically deficient child. The
meeting was the only session In which
men predominated: there were but few
women in attendance. The full COM
mittee is as follows; Superintendent
Christensen, Superintendent G. n.
mon, Superintendent Allen Molyneaux,
OK. x.Superntendent w. S. Rawlins and
George S. Gibbs. In part the report
reads:
lone or two decades ago. when COM
pulsory school attendance laws were not
enforced. mentally subnormal children
were rather inconspicuous in the schools:
because. under The law of the elimination
| Of the unfit. these children We're absorbed
| in society before their deficiency was
made prominent by repeated years OF fall
| ure TO progress In school studies, But
| nowadays. under the common opportunity
! and the more general necessity OF every
| child To attend school. the existence OF
| subnormality is forced into public view.
"School attendance officers in recent
| wears have been compelled by sense OF
| duty to perform many a painful task.
| Bows who were indeed bloclSheads at their
books have been taken under stress OF
law out of fields and factories where they
were efficient workmen. and forced into
schools where they were useless workers,
| II not idlers Eager parents, too, impelled
by the popular desire for education, have
| compelled their suSnormal children TO go
10 school.
| ain school by compuIsion. becoming a
| burden to the teacher, detriment to the
other children. and largely useless to
| themselves. these subnormaI children
| have often become subjects of expulsion.
This again has forced still more proml-
nently into view the problem of subnor-
| NAL mentality
| "The stimulating encouragement which
comes from the smiling word OF cheerful
artorobaton-that natural food OF child
| growth and common heritage OF normal
| child life-is largely denied the subnor-
NAL child in the regular schools. So mani
festly inferior he is among his more ia
vored classmates that even the sympa-
| thetic teacher who seeks to give the
needed encourag cement finds it difficult to
select words OF praise that are not OBJ
I viously a fabrication
tions is a depressing demonstration OF
| their inability 10 progress with their
classmates. Added to. this is the oeca-
ly mired In feelings OF inferiority inevita
bly, becomes the subnormal child
Teachers Worry Too Much.
Teachers frequently have presumed
and institute cbS IN often class ass
does not progress satisfactorily enough
for promotion. then either the. child
ity should be discredited. Consequently.
conscientious teachers have worried
much over their inability. to advance their
tient teachers have III treated many an
unfortunate child because he failed to
do that. which he was by nature totally
attitudes must now be modified. at least
10 some extent. in the minds OF school
teachers.
Oft ioI,, i,,
book learning has proved to be largely
a failure with subnor1nal children. the
natural conclusion is that. If feasible.
these children should be provided with
some other kind OF training, Since they
are incapable of receiving anywhere
nearly proper benefit from ordinary in
need is individual training in special
classes. where they may be treated in
agreement with their developmental pos
with blind injustice. compulsory
school attendance laws drive mentally de-
mouths with dry bread Then IL the
child resents this treatment he IS pun
ished as truart or an incorrigibe.
The fact that there Is such thing
as subnormalty In. mental capacity.
compels the conclusion that until the
law shall take consistent cognizance OF
this fact oui compulsory school attend
ance must be laws freighted with signal
injustice.
Errors in System.
The fact that boys who are mentally
incapable of acquiring a common school
education seem TO be industrially and
) socially efficient in Impractical life. throws
d bombshell into the ranks OF those
teachers who are cllnging tenaclously to
the bookish education of scholarship
! training. The curricula OF the common
: schools as at present organized may be
needful training for bookkeepers, bank
accountants. brokers. engineers lawyers.
physicians. teachers scholars and other
indirect builders of society. but for the
direct laborers themselves. the great
mass cf hand working citizens. COM
mon school education as at present or
ganized is evidently not OF very serious
need.