The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-01-02
Reorganization of Educational
System Is Proposed.
ChiIdren's Code Commission
Prepares Program for 1928.
UNDER DIRECTION OF GOVERNOR
DIR. SherbOn Makes Educational
Research in Kansas.
Suggests Course in Hygiene in
Training Schools.

Reorganization of the educational
system of the state so that children
may be graded according to their
mental age and allowed to acquire
knowledge as rapidly as their ability
permits is the proI sal of the Kansas
Society of Mental Hygiene and the
Kansas Children's Code Commission.
The code commission, working under
the general direction of the governor,
has just appointed committee to pre-
pare a program in mental hygiene for
presentation. to the next legislature.
One of the most important phases
of the suggested program is the extern
sion of ungraded or opportunity"
rooms.
children who lag and become re-
tarded in the regular treadmill OF
grade work often surpass regular stu
dents when given an opportunity to go
their own gait and grow according to
their mental pattern" declares Dr.
Florence Brown Sherbon, secretary of
the children's code commission. ''Edur
cational research show that every
child is retarded by the lock step
SYSTEM Heaven hasten the day when
every school room will become an
opportunity room and we will grow
trees instead of hedgerows."
A New Era in Education.
Doctor Sherbon states that new
era in education dates from the dis
covery that the child has three ages:
physiological age, indicated by bodily
growth and development a mental
age, indicated by ability to learn; and
a chronological age, as shown by the
calendar.
'gThe relationship of the three ages
to each other should determine our
treatment of the child" said Doctor
Sherbon. "Of these three, considera-
ton should be given first to physical
development and health, second to
mental development, and the least i'm
portant of all is the chronological age.
altho it has been the basis of educa-
tional Standardization thru the ages.
The big job of education is to har-
monte and preserve a balance be-
tween the three"
Program of the Commission.
The program which the code COM
mission hopes to crystalize into legis-
lative proposals is outlined by Doctor
Sherbon as fellows:
% Foster the segregation of the
unfit by establishing farm colony for
cI todial feebIeminded at the state in
stitution at Winfield.
(2) Provide a real training school
at Winfield for trainable or borderline
cases.
CD Provide for Identification of the
unfit by requiring mental examination
sible, the extension of mental exami-
nations in the pubic schools.
(D Extend ungraded rooms in the
public schools.
(5) Appropriate funds to the child
rsearch bureau, created by the last
legislature, which will enable it to
give diagnosis and study to the child
wards of the state.
Discussing the. care of the feeble
minded, Doctor Sherbon said:
"At present the capacity of the one
institution at Winfield is about 700.
The most conservative estimate which
has been made as to the number of
feebleminded in the state who should
have institutional care is 1900. Other
estimates place the number at double
this. These figures give US a rough
measure of the enormity and serious
ness of our neglect.
"A training school at Winfield for
borderline cases would be both a social
and a financial economy. At present
there is not in the state of Kansas a
a trainable mental defective can be
prepared to be seif-supporting. It IS
this class of mental detectives which
present the greatest menace to com
Ihunities and is also the class which
can be salvaged to the point of self
support or even more, by specialized
training
To foster the movement, Doctor
Sherbon suggests that the subject of
i mental hygiene be placed in the cur
riculae of the nurses training, normal
chiatric examiners be trained to give
mental evaluations and diagnosis; and
that special teachers be trained for
ungraded rooms