New Britain herald., 1918-04-22

ing his own living under IaVQraOle
conditions or circumstances, but is
incapable because of mental defect
| existing from birth or from an early
age, OF competing on equal terms with
| his normal fellows or of managing
himself and his affairs with ordinary
| prudence These children are often
! absolutely normal in appearance. AS
| visitors see them at work in a special
| room, to quote the definition, work.
| ing under favorable circumstances, 1T
! is difficult for them to believe that
| the children are Predetermined and
| they often say, But they are a
| bright looking group Of children, or
| they must have some brains to be
able to do this work. They have In
| deed brains enough to earn their
| living under favorable circumstances,
| they are often normal in appearance,
| frequently able to talk fuently. 1t Is
when they are in the classroom with
| normal children or whom they are
| outside Of school where they try to
! compete with their normal fellows
that We see their inability to manage
! their affairs or themselves with or
binary prudence.
1.-THE tea cher knows that Mary, for
| instance, does not compete on equal
terms with the rest of the class; that
she does not seem to grasp the work OF
the grade no matter how hard or how
long the teacher works with her; that
she does not conform to the discipline
of the room; does not learn to sit
still and not to talk; and the teacher
in an effort to do her duty by every
child in the room spends her strength
and energy in trying to make Mary
behave herself and her time in trying
to teach her the work of the grade.
the average citizen dealing with these
same children when they are older,
the teacher believes that Mary could
do this if she wanted to; she does not
realize that Marys limited intelligence
is the cause of all the trouble; that
she Is absolutely incapable Of doing
what is demanded of her.
1T is these defective children,
usually not recognized as such, who
take SO much more than their share
of the teachers time and strength.
They start In the lower grades, per-
haps repeating each grade: they may
eventually grasp most of the grade
work up to the fourth Or fifth grade.
Then it depends circumstances
whether they stay in that vicinity year
after year until the law allows them
to go to work at sixteen, or whether
they are pushed one. They are often
pushed on because they outgrow the
furniture and because a teacher can't
stand them for more than q year Last
year we found a boy in the seventh
grade; he was thirteen years old with
a mental age Of seven or eight.
| He had been in school eight
years had learned only what normal
children learn in two or three years.
He was arrested five times for stealing
and for imm orality.
The last time, it occurred to some
one that he might not be responsible
for his actions, and this proved true.
| He was feeble minded; his mental
| age was 7. He had reached the
seventh grade, although he could
| barely do second grade work; he was
mischievous and disorderly in school.
Special Classes Needed.
! ut is most unfair to the normal
! children and to the teachers to allow
such children to remain in the regular
classroom Many teachers say My
! room Is so different since you took
| that child The teacher spends her
valuable time trying to teach them to
conform to the life Of the school
| room and to teach them the work of
| the grades. It robs the normal chill
dren Of their rightful time and 1t
!
vitality, accomplishing nothing but
the aggravation and unhappiness Of
| the defective children.
ITO relieve his condition and to
| give our normal children the best
| possible training, we should have
| special classes for all the defective
children. We hear much criticism of
| the curriculum in the public schools.
Apparently nothing Is right, and we
need to start all over again. Whether
the criticism is justified or not, we
| obviously cannot throw out our whole
| educational system until someone be-
! comes sufficiently constructive to give
| us a working scheme in place Of the
| present one. We can however vastly
| improve our present system by re-
moving mentally defective children
| from the regular classroons, where
| they work untold harm to our future
citizens mentally and morally. Fur
| thermore, in this instance we have a
| working basis for correcting the evil
| by esta bl1shing special classes I want
to tell you of some of the children
| we have taken from the regular class
/ room.
| First, there IS Lyman. He is the
| prettiest child, looks about five years
old, has fair skin, pink cheeks, brown
| eyes, dark hair, as attractive as can
| be. He is really nine years old, how
ever, with a mental age of three, and
| his innocence is only In his appear
ance. Whenever he happens to feel
| like going to school, he wanders in,
| an hour or so late, but quite often
| the lure Of the dump heap and
garbage pail is too much for him, and
| he doesn't get to school at ALL Look
| ing out of the window one day [ saw
| two small feet waving wildly from one
| of those familiar green rubbish cans;
| Lol i,,vrn tnI FOR h