Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-10-05
CLASSES
WILL OPEN FOR
DEFECTIVE PUPILS
Education Board Acts and Des.
ignates the Places for
Instruction.

Final preparations have been made
for opening the classes for defective
public school children that the Board of
Education has had under way for sew
eral weeks. 1t has been decided to open
Ave classes, three at College place, one
at the Lafayette Street School and one
at the Seventh Avenue School.
These classes will be under the direct
supervision of Miss Meta Anderson, of
New York, who has had a long and va
ried experience in handling backward
children and forming classes devoted to
their instruction.
Up to the present time there have
been found AL children of both sexes
whom 1t has been deemed advisable to
place in these new classes and this
number is made up as follows; Feeble
minded, 1874 boys and SO girls; deaf and
dumb, 80 boys and So girls; blind, IS
boys and IL girls.
Class for the Mutes.
A special class for leaf and dumb
children will be opened at the James
Street School and another for blind
children at the Washington Street
School as soon as the necessary class
rooms are available. The crowded con-
dition of the schools has rather retard-
ed the work of the board in establish
ing these classes, but every effort is
being made to get them under way at
the earliest possible date.
At the Lafayette Street, Seventh
Avenue and College Place schools the
contractors are still busy fixing the
rooms up for occupancy, and it Is ex-
pected that the classes will be in
operation mex week. Considerable
difficulty has been experienced in get
ting teachers for these special classes,
as the work Is of a particular and most
eXacting character. 1t is expected that
this detail will be settled by the time
the classrooms are ready, n Super
intendent Poland, who has a the
work in hand since its inception, be-
lieves that these special classes will
prove unusually successful and helpful.
. Some trouble may be experienced at
first to get all the children to attend,
as some of them will have to &C quite
a little distance out of their way to at
end the new classes, and the strange
ness of the surroundings may take
some little time to wear off. This is
especially true in the case of feeble
minded children who, experience has
shown, do not take very kindly to
changes in the matter of teachers and
classmates.
To Inspire Interest.
1t is proposed, however, to make the
new classes for detectives SO attractive
and the work so pleasant that the chill
dreu will take to the new order of
things and manifest a real interest in
the special instruction that has been
decided upon for them.
There will be no attempt at first to
drill the children in the studies that
are usually employed in teaching chill
dren of the same age In ordinary school
work. The earlier efforts of the teach
ers will be in the direction of getting
the backward pupils interested In the
simpler forms of instruction and the
lessons will be presented in a way that
will be sure to hold the attention of
the children.
Gradually the children will be worked
up to a point where the more serious
studies will be approached and their
minds will be shaped along a course
that will ultimately prepare them for
the regular instruction intended for
children of their age.
Miss Anderson intends to make
manual training work an important
feature of the instruction for these
children and through the improved
kindergarten courses lead them up to
the more serious studies. Her expert
ence has taught her hat much can be
accomplished through the recreation
feature of instruction, and she has
found that children who ere extremely
backward when first admitted to these
classes very quickly pick UP the trend
of the work, if started along pleasant
and attractive lines of simple study.
A great deal of attention will be
paid to their physical condition and
every care will be taken to have their
bodily defects remedied.
The progress of the children as
signed to these classes will be watched
with a great deal Of interest, as this
is a radical departure from the lines
heretofore followed in the local public
schools in the care and instruction of
backward children, and every indica-