The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1929-09-19
GIVING The BACKWARD
MARYLANDPUPIL ACHANCE
Schools Plan More Attention
For Their Juvenile UnfOr-
Inmates
BY Katherine Scarborough, in the Bal
timore SUNDAY Sun

pointment to the public school system
of DR.. j. E. w. Wallin, is about to
make its public school really public.
Under DR.. Wailin's supervision the
hundreds of piteous little cripples
whose legs are twisted or whose backs
whom nature failed to supply with
hearts strong enough to permit them
to run and play and climb the stairs,
the shy, diffident, small fry to whom
the world of sound is closed, and those
who can't see or talk like the others
do will have the same big chance to
develop the resources they have in
them that has been given so lavishly
to normal children.
Some of this work has already been
begun in Baltimore, but it has been
carried on under tremendous handi-
caps. Lack of proper facilities has
stood in the way for cripples and chill
dren with heart trouble must be
housed on the ground floor of the
school building, and there are other
handicaps in this respect, in add
ton to scarcity of teachers trained
for this kind of work, but the rough
places have been provided for and the
education of Baltimore's handicapped
children will begin in earnest with the
opening Of the schools this fall.
In taking this step in behalf of its
juvenile unfortunates Baltimore will
assume a position in the front rank
of cities which are bestowing scienti-
fic attention upon the plight of their
future citizens who will have to face
life without the mental and physical
equipment of normal individuals.
And, incidentally, such work will re-
move from the city of the future a
great part of the burden humanity
has been carrying since civilization
began.
The theory that physically or men
tally handicapped persons are capable
of being trained to make their own
way in the world is scarcely a genera
ton old, but already it has proved it
self worthy of being developed to the
full. Scattered over the country in
almost all Of the large cities are men
and women of whom the world seldom
hears, but who, without the aid of
ewes or ears or other organs, are
earning their own living, strangely
happy and asking nothing more of
the world than the opportunity to
work.
Only a comparatively small number
of those who are suffering from disa-
bilities of one kind or another, how
ever, have had the opportunity to Sc
cure the training which will put them
on the road to financial independence.
The efforts made by educators in be-
half of such individuals on anything
like a large scale really dates from
the World War, when the need for
labor called into industry thousands
of persons who hitherto had been shut
outside the gates.
j
In Baltimore this work was taken
up as part Of the Strayer survey
made not long after the war. GLASSES
already have been established" says
DR.. David f. Weglein, superintendent
of schools, for cripples, the deaf and
hard Of hearing, children whose
speech needs correction, sight conser-
walton, cardiac cases, anaemic and I'M
dernourished children and those who
are in hospital schools. We also have
for children who are unable to go to
school at all special teachers who go
to their homes to give them instruc-
ton there.
"Mentally retarded children also
are recognized as claimants for spec
ial attention. For these we have
made provision, too. In every school
building, tests have shown, there are
three classes of pupils who can be
cared for under normal conditions
those who are unusually bright, those
of average ability and those who are
slow. In addition to these the school
population includes almost 1000 chill
dren who do not fit into these easy,
natural groupings, and who must be
taken care of by teachers specially
trained for the work.
"Children for these classes are Sc
lected as the result of examinations.
by trained psychologists. The work
of grading them and augmentlng
these classes, for there ought to be
a great many more of them than
there are now, will be carried out on
a much more elaborate scale when
DR.. Wallin assumes his duties here
than has been possible heretofore"
Investigation will show the work
done for handicapped children in
Baltimore already compares favorably
from an academic point Of view with
that accomplished elsewhere, but in
point of equipment necessary to take
care of them the city is conspicuously