CHAPTER III

DEVELOPMENTS DIRECTLY AFFECTING THE

SCHOOLS (Continued).

Special Types of Pupils.

DEFICIENT CHILDREN.-Some of the things that are receiving most attention at present in dealing with deficient pupils are:

(a) Their physical handicaps. This includes not only a careful physical examination in the school but also careful and sympathetic inquiry into food and general home environment conditions. If there are undeveloped or paralyzed muscles, physical exercises in the form of games, drills, and manual work are given with a view of securing coördination of eye and muscle and of will and muscle. If hearing or sight is defective, care is exercised in regard to position in the room and in the kind of work given or the sense appealed to. If the teeth are defective, the coöperation of the home is sought to remedy the matter. If speech or breathing is defective, the child is examined for adenoids or enlarged tonsils, and surgical or other remedies are sought and many exercises in articulation and deep breathing are given. Cleanliness of body and clothes is insisted upon and an effort is made to arouse a helpful and wholesome pride in these directions.

(b) Tests for "mental age" are also given. are also given. The best known for this purpose are the Binet tests (see 1911 Annals "). The importance of knowing the stage of development in these deficients is of supreme importance, for the work must not be too difficult for their ability and yet the standard must be continually kept high enough to arouse their ambition and best effort. Tasks must not be impossible ones, and yet, when undertaken, they must be completed and without hasty or slovenly work. Every device is resorted to in order to discover the possibilities of the child.

(c) Careful observation is made to determine the line of best approach to the possibilities of the child. If the child is found to be auditory-minded, rather than visual, he is placed where he may study aloud and efforts are made to strengthen his visual memory. If, as is usually the case, the pupil is motor-minded, rather than thoughtminded, the efforts at first are to educate him through interesting practical work with his hands.

(d) Efforts are made to find out what the deficient child can do best. As most of them have to make their own living, it is important to find their line of greatest efficiency in order to place them on a basis of self-support in the community. It is not an unusual thing to find that, where reasoning power is weak, machine-like ability is great; hence, if proper channels of effort are found, the social service of the defective may become well worth while.

(e) Keeping as close as possible to normal conditions of life has been found to be of the greatest importance in the education of defectives. This does not refer of course to institutional cases, although even there the principle applies. It is often a matter of surprise how readily the abnormal child, under favorable conditions, can be educated into the normal life of his environment. Besides, it is often difficult to determine whether the case is one of real abnormality or merely a case of retarded development; and abnormal work and abnormal conditions merely emphasize the abnormalities to be remedied. On the contrary, normal activities and normal surroundings make a constant appeal to the self-pride and self-assertiveness of the pupil and tend toward less self-consciousness-a putting out of mind of the deficiencies of which so many of these children are painfully aware.

(f) Great tact and good judgment must be used in the management of such pupils. They are usually at first awkward in their movements, inefficient and hasty in their thought and actions, exceedingly self-conscious and diffident, and are often exceedingly self-willed and stubborn. A discipline of fear is usually disastrous; while, on the other hand, a tactful encouragement until they begin to realize self-control and a satisfying ability, builds up a

pride and self-respect that make the management of such pupils easy. Sympathy and interest that make each individual feel that he is worth while, and that he has a fair chance if he will do his best, bring results with these former waste products of society which are of great credit to modern pedagogy.

DEFECTIVES AS A MENACE TO SOCIETY.-Doctor Henry H. Goddard, of the New Jersey School for Feeble-minded children, Vineland, N. J., has ventured the statement that at least 2 per cent of the children in any school system are mental-defectives and that some of the people we meet on the streets, who are not idiots or imbeciles, are mentally defective. These people, he says, can only be detected by psychological test, and yet it is dangerous for them to be at large, because they can no more resist temptation_than can the child whose stage of development they have never outgrown. The vice problem which is now so acutely before the public mind, he says, will never be solved until we approach it from the viewpoint of defective mentality. “A big percentage of the girls of the segregated district are simply mental defectives. At least 25 per cent of all criminals are feeble-minded and commit crimes because they can no more resist temptation than can your own child of 5 or 8 or 10 years. One in every two habitual drunkards is feeble-minded. We are not sure that drunkenness causes feeble-mindedness, but we are certain that feeble-mindedness causes drunkenness.

"We must learn to locate the feeble-minded early in life, by psychological test at school, and treat them kindly, withdrawing them from the dangers and temptations of the streets. We must realize that the feeble-minded are seldom criminal, sullen, and dangerous when properly treated. They are merely persons whose mind has stopped growth at an early age, while their body has developed. It is possible to discover the age at which their mentality has halted and to train them to be splendid examples of the full, unrestricted, and uncontaminated mental development possible to that age. There is no more stigma attaching to the state of feeble-mindedness than should attach to your own child who is mentally at the age of the afflicted

person.

Both should be kept off the streets and away from dangers for the same reason. Both are incapable of resisting certain temptations at times."

Cost of Education.

COST PER PUPIL IN 1851.-The following extract from the Pennsylvania Freeman of April 10, 1851, is interesting as a basis of comparison: "Philadelphia educates in her public schools 45,000 children at $6.46 yearly. The expense of the system in Boston is about $8 per scholar. In Cincinnati we believe that the expense is about $15; in Baltimore, $14." This paper was published in Philadelphia and was edited for a time by Whittier, who during that period lived in Philadelphia. His connection with the paper, however, terminated in 1840.

NEED OF MORE FUNDS.-State Superintendent Evans, in an address early in the year, called attention in a forcible manner to the great need of a more stable teaching force for the public schools. "Hundreds of classes," he said, "suffer from a too frequent change of teachers, many of them having two teachers during the same term.” In his own State, Missouri, he found only 76 teachers, out of 8000 whose experience was investigated, who were teaching for the fifth term in the same school. He also found a number of school-districts in which the income from school taxes was ridiculously small and entirely inadequate. To remedy this condition he urged that the Missouri State school rate should be increased from 17 cents to 27 cents17 cents of the tax to be devoted entirely to public schools and the remainder to be apportioned to the State University, the Normal School, and various supplementary educational interests. Superintendent Evans indicated a condition which is but too prevalent elsewhere, especially in rural and semi-rural districts. This is particularly noticeable since the scope and importance of education have been so greatly extended in recent years.

MONEY VALUE OF AN EDUCATION.-The Massachusetts Commission for Industrial and Technical Education has prepared figures, based on a study of 2000 actual workers, to demonstrate the actual money value of an education.

As the results of this study are valuable in the comparison of the money cost of education with its money value, some of the main conclusions are here given. The average results reduced to individual cases would be something like this: "Two boys, age 14, are both interested in mechanics. One goes into the shops, the other into a technical school. The boy in the shops starts at $4 a week, and by the time he is 18 he is getting $7. At that age the other boy is leaving school and starting work at $10 a week. At 20 the shop-trained young fellow is getting $9.50 and the technical graduate $15; at 22 the former's weekly wage is $11.50 and the latter's $20; and by the time they both are 25 the shop-worker finds $12.75 in his pay envelope, while the technically trained man draws a salary of $31. As was stated, these figures are based on a study of 2000 actual workers in the field of industry, and, no doubt, are as representative as they are significant of the disadvantages of starting the life work with inadequate preparation. They also furnish one of the strongest possible arguments for adequate provision for making the schools as efficient as possible, both in their appeal and in their accomplishments.

CENSUS RETURNS AND ILLITERACY.-Preliminary figures show that in 1910 there were 47,332,277 males and 44,639,989 females in the United States, not including Alaska and its other possessions. This gives an average of 106 males to every 100 females, as against 104.4 males to every 100 females in 1900. The excess of males is mainly due to the extensive immigration, a much larger proportion of the immigrants being males. In the foreign-born white population there are 129.2 males to every 100 females. However, even the native white population shows a ratio of 102.7 males to every 100 females. In the negro population the number of females exceeds the number of males, the ratio being 98.9 to 100. Among the Indians the ratio is 103.5 to 100; among the Chinese in this country 14 to I; and among the Japanese 7 to 1. It is interesting to note that in most European countries the females outnumber the males, the ratio of males to every 100 females being as follows: In England, 93.6; in France, 96.7; in the German Empire, 96.9; in Switzerland, 96.4; in Italy, 99; in Austria, 96.7; in Hungary, 99.1; and in Russia, 98.9.