The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1913-11-13
SEES DUTY TO DETECTIVES
Milwaukee Man Holds That Schools
Should be Provided for Especial care
for Children Who are subnormal in
order to Give Them Proper Training.

Speaking before the department of
special education Of the Wisconsin
Teachers Association, G. 6. Pearse,
president Of Milwaukee Normal, adyo-
Gated state supervision and expert as
sistance in teaching subuormal child
rem. He said:
The schools have always had in
them certain number Of children who
were a great trial to their teachers and
a hindrance to their schoolmates, and
who themselves received little benefit
and too often less pleasure from their
school attendance.
Teachers and the public, generally,
have understood that there are men
tally deficient children; there is a gen
eral knowledke that there are such
things as idiots and imbeciles who are
sometimes retained I'm their homes and
sometimes sent away to almshouses or
to state institutions for the care OF
such unfortunate beings. Most per-
sons have seen cases of this sort and
associate the vacant gaze and the re-
pulsive personal appearance and ac-
tions of low types of mental defec
tives; but it has only of late years
been at all generally understood that
numbers of children who have no no.
ticeable outward indications Of that
fact, are lacking in mentality and are
untitled to profit by the usual school
room instruction, are unable to learn
the things which can be taught to
other children, and who cannot work
successfully under ordinary school
room conditions.
How They are Treated.
Many subnormal children have been
in the past shouldered aside and push
ed out Of the educational procession
because their weakness was not recog-
nized. 1t is not yet known just what
proportion of our pupils are of this
class. Some authorities estimate one
per cent as the number; others place
the ratio much higher. The proportion
certainly varies in different schools
those in which pupils come from good
homes, where good material and moral
conditions prevail, show the smallest
ratio; the homes of wealth and luxary
are not exempt; the homes of the
wretched and the vicious show the
greatest number.
The proper classification of these
children is not easy. The class teacher
is not an expert in making these dis
tinctions, and net infrequently mis-
takes slowness, or a troublesome dis
position, or laziness, or the effects of
removable, or improbable physical de-
fects, such as poor eyesight or con-
dition of impaired vitality, for indi-
cations of sub-normal mentality. Child
rem nomin ted as candidates for
treatment in suh-normal classes require
careful s,ldy by teacher ard principal
and careful examination by competent
medical authority to make sure that
the apparent subnormality does not
lie in some other, and temporary con-
dition or inducing cause. After it
seems reasonably clear that other
causes than those mentic-ed must be
sought, the time has come for a
psychological examination, which, in
connection with those tests already APP
piled, should pretty clearly settle the
child IS status.
Glasses Must he Small
When the one, or one and a half
per cent of the children who require
segregation into these special classes
has been selected, special hours and
exercises, as well as special equipment
and specially trained teachers are need
ed. 1t is not possible to generalize in
this regard, classes very widely in the
characteristics and the needs of the
members, the age, the sex, the particu-
lar type of mental deficiency all must
be considered. Expert knowledge of
methods and materials, and of their use
is required here, as in the selection of
the children to be instructed in these
classes. This paper is not the place to
discuss these.
''The number of pupils in such a
class must not be large; a great deal
of individual teaching and attention is
required; as the pupils differ from nor.
NAL children, so they differ, and wide
ly. from each other. Each has his
peculiarites, his weakness, occasional
ly his special strength. According te
conditions, classes may vary from eight
or ten up to dozen or fourteen.
Causes of Failure.
Where these children must depend
on the regular classes for instruction
they find themselves unable to do what
their classmates do; they fail, and each
failure Injuries self-respect md saps
courage. Unable to maintain credit
able standing, as others do, they often