New Britain herald., 1918-04-22
TWO PER CENT. OF
Children DEFECTIVE
Continued from First Page)

that have come to her attention to
said, In part:
Care of Defective Children.
When those who were working on
the problems of the mentally defective
or feebleminded suggested CARRYING
the work into the public schools they
were greeted with the statement
But we have no feebleminded children
in our schools Unfortunately there
are still many people who believe
that there are no feebleminded chill
dren in their community and who
have no conception of the seriousness
Of the situation. They think of a
feebleminded person as one who is so
conspicuously foolish that he is known
throughout the neighborhood as
crazy Jim or some such name. In
the neighborhood of two of our special
classes in New Haven there is Just
Isuch a person. The defective children
In those classes can tell you all about
her; even they call her Crazy Rachel.
her hair is bleached. her cheeks are
highly painted, her shoes so worn
that there is almost nothing left of
them, and her clothes, someone's cast
offs, are ridulously unsuitable. She
wanders aimlessly up the street fixing
her hair and hat at every mirror In
the windows and grinning foolishly,
while the children boot and laugh at
her. No one questions that she Is
mentally defective.
Then there Is little Oracle, seven
years old, who understands nothing
that Is said to her, who is kept quiet
In school, as far as her feet are con-
cerned. by the expedient of tieing her
To the leg Hf the miami Wa hauo vof
TO find a way to prevent her making
horrible noises and she destroys every
thing within her reach. She makes
such an impression on those who see
her that they always remember her,
and have been told that the picture of
her as she stands, feet wide apart
head down, mouth open, with no
spark of intelligence in her face. a
pathetic drooling creature, haunts
them for weeks. No one questions
that she Is feebleminded.
I'm Jennie we can almost see
Grade grown older. When she first
came to the special class. she climbed
on the steam pipes like 6, squirrel. and
could wiggle out from the strongest
rope connected with the piano leg.
Her favorite occupation was dancing
up and down, making noises that
sounded like curses, then rolling
around the floor Her mother was
dead and there was no one to really
care for her. Jennie did not care in
the least whether she had any clothes
on or not. Unless constantly watched,
she would go to the stove, put her
hand In the fire or turn on the stop
cock. After four years in the special
class she actually learned to sit quiet
ly in the hoolroom; she has not suf-
fcient m entality to learn anything fur
thor When she was twelve years old,
her father realized that he was un-
able to protect her. She was often
seen on the street surrounded by big
boys who were molesting her. In
about a year, Jenny was admitted to
LakeVille.
Children Are Classified.
Jenny, Oracle, Crazy Rachel, and
other conspicuously foolish individuals
are those the average citizen has in
mind when you mention the mentally
defective. They could never earn
their own living: they constitute a
pathetic menace to the community,
but the fact that they are commonly
known to be feebleminded somewhat
lessons the danger They are not the
ones who constitute the vital problems.
At the risk of repeating what you
know by heart, [ am going to give the
classic definition of a high grade