The Washington herald., 1916-08-05
SEEN AND HEARD
BY GEORGE MINER

New York, August An looking ever the
various bulletins, programs and on sent out
by the numerous summer schools, my attention
was particularly attracted by one issued by the
New York University
1t was headed Detectives as Servants
That struck me as being about the most
truthful statement l ever read in a prospectus.
Ninety-nine per cent of them
Everybody knows that, so why teach it in
summer school?
Then as l read on was very much surprised
to find that this department of the summer school
claimed that detectives could be trained to be
servants who not defective. The folder
said:
Defective children will find useful niche
IN life and the servant question will be nearer So
luton when the plan now under consideration by
Miss Meta Anderson, supervisor of the Demon
stration School for Defective Children, is carried
out.
To train defective children to be house SER
wants is Miss Anderson's new idea.
Suburbanites especially would be benefited
increasingly difficult for dwellers in the suburbs
to keep servants. The servants want movies
and other forms of amusement which the suburbs
do not provide On the other hand, just such
unexcItlng surroundings, where they could live
useful life without being subject to the sights
Of other people, would be ideal for the mentally
deficient
Courses are now being arranged in accord
ance with the idea"
well, this seemed interesting even to people
who make no claim to being mentally deficient
MISS Anderson appears to be the moving spirit
in the scheme, and, fortunately Miss Anderson
was quite willing to talk and explain the whole
thing. This is what she had to say about it:
when one says mentally deficient the average
person is wont to visualize the lowest type OF
mentality. He does not know that manv a
woman in his employ whose Stupidity he has
noticed is Stupid because of mental deficiency,
There is not, of course. much hope for the low
grade mental defective except to put her where
she is we'll cared for and has the right kind Of
activity.
There is however. a place and great deal
OF hope for the woman or man incapable of
knowledge much beyond the C's of the
alphabet yet whose cleaning, dusting and even
cooking abilities are excellent
This argument does not apply to the family
whose demands critical but rather to the
type of family where general worker is boon
and necessity. The house must be kept clean
and busted and so long as the maid is presenta-
BILE it is not necessary that she answer the door
bell Immediately capped and aproned There are
any number OF mental detectives of the high
grade who are eligible to fit into this class Of
position
They are particularly valuable if taken fl ON
schools where they have been specially trained
You see, they are much like the Chinese They
do what you tell them and they do it thoroughly.
But they do make excellent workers. You
see their intellgences are not much above the
level OF mechanical things. They love to scrub
and sweep and dig in the dust. For one reason,
they have great deal of muscular strength and
to have something which to expend this
power gives them certain mental peace or con-
tentment. 1t must always be remembered in
handling them that they have the physical
strength of adults and the mental strength of
children"