CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM A FUND RECEIVED BY BEQUEST OF WILLARD FISKE I 83 1-1904 FIRST LIBRARIAN OF THIS UNIVERSITY : 1868-1883 Cornell University Library arV16358 Education of defectives in the public 3 1924 031 238 342 olin.anx Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031238342 0|atneU Hninetaitg ffiibrarg BO.UGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE FISKE ENDOWMENT FUND THE BEQUEST OF WILLARD FISKE LIBRARIAN OF THE UNIVERSITY 1868-1863 )9C»5 EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS SCHOOL EFFICIENCY MONOGRAPHS iStibersion Education of Defectives in the Public Schools Caton Record Forms for Vocational Schools iKcianliteiii The Public and Its School Standards in English ^eati An Experiment in the Fun- damentals Newsboy Service SCHOOL EFFICIENCY MONOGRAPHS EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS BY META L. ANDERSON SUPEBTISOR OF CLASSES FOB DEFECTIVES, NEWARK, NEW JERSET lEOTUEEK ON liBTHODS OF TEACHING DEFECTIVES NEW YORK UNIVEHSITT With an Introduction by Henry H. Goddard DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OP RESEARCH OF THE TRAINING SCHOOL FOR FEEBLE-UTNDED CHILDREN, VINELAND, NEW JERSET, AUTHOR OF " SCHOOL TRAINING OF DEFECTIVE CHILDREN TONKBRS- ON -HUDSON, NEW YORK WORLD BOOK COMPANY 1917 WORLD BOOK COMPANY THE HOtrSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE Established, 1905, by Caspar W. Hodgson YONKEKS-ON-HUDSON, NeW YoBE 2126 Fraibie Avenue, Chicago Publishers of the following professional works : School EflBdency Series, edited by Paul H. Hanus, complete in thirteen volumes; Edu- cational Survey Series, three volumes already issued and others projected; School Efficiency Monographs, six numbers now ready, others in active preparation SEU : AEDPa-I Copyright, 1917, by World Book Company All rights reaened PREFACE TTHE work for defectives in the public schools is so J- new and experimental that the readers of this dis- cussion are asked to regard all the opinions here set forth as merely tentative, to be verified or discarded as later developments prove them right or wrong. The success of the schools for defectives in Newark has given the author courage to send this volume out to those who are interested in the why and how of their success. It is needless to say that the schools could not have been made a success without the splendid ability and wonderful cooperation of the staff of teachers, and this opportunity is taken to thank them again for their in- telhgent and hearty support of the author in all branches of work which have been attempted. [v] CONTENTS PAGE Intbodttction ix CEAFTEB I. Introduction 1 n. SeiiEction of the Childhen 6 in. The CtrBEicTTLUM op the Special School fob Defec- tives 11 . IV. Discussion of the Cubriculum in the Kindergarten Department 18 V. Departmental Division op the Special School 44 VI. Trade Classes 82 Vn. The Place of the Special School fob Defbcttveb in THE Public School System and in the Community. . 93 Vm. Conclusion 101 Index 103 [vii] INTRODUCTION ^ I "'HAT there are mentally defective children in the A public schools is a fact now recognized. How many there are is still an open question; evidence is daily grow- ing that 2 per cent of the school population is a con- servative estimate. Whether these children should be kept in the public schools and there trained, or be provided for by some other method, is a phase of the problem also under discussion. But whatever our opinion as to the theoretically correct or ideal procedure, the fact remains that in all probability these children will remain in the public schools for a long time to come, if for no other reason than the lack of adequate machinery to provide for them elsewhere. It has been hard for us as educators to admit that the failure of these children to progress in their school work is inherent in themselves. There are perhaps two reasons for this reluctance. First, we have all been brought up on the American doctrine of the equaUty of all men. While this doctrine was originally a pohtical one and related solely to man's position before the law, that all men have equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to equal opportunities, we have in our zeal carried it over to his intellectual quaUties and moral perceptions, and we have tacitly assumed that all men have the same capacity for intellectual development (barring possibly the idiot and the so-called genius) and that aU have the same power of perceiving moral principles. Secondly, we have become justly proud of oiu* educa- tional system. The great mass of children have made such progress, and have so well used the opportunities that we have provided for them, that we have naturally, [ix] INTRODUCTION if perhaps thoughtlessly, concluded that if any child did not improve those opportunities it was because of viciousness, laziness, or some other quality which he might change if he would. There are still those who do not admit the doctrine of intellectual levels, which teaches that there are many levels of inteUigence, that each individual grows to his level and then stops, and that while the majority attain at least to what we call the adult level, there are some who never attain to a level higher than that of a child. We know, to be sure, that a three-year-old child has what we may call three-year judgment; or perhaps we prefer to say that he has no judgment. What we have not realized is that while a nine-year-old child might have nine-year judgment, if his mental development should stop there, he would never have more than nine-year judgment, no matter how long he should live. And that is exactly what happens in many cases. There are two sorts of facts which will convince any one who will look into them of the truth of this doctrine. First, there are our institutions for the feeble-minded. Let the questioner visit these institutions and he will be convinced that there really are persons who never develop mentally beyond children of about twelve years of age. Secondly, there is the history of educational methods. The problem of the dull child has always been with us, and repeatedly some educational genius is divulging a new method to cope with it. For a time, at least, the inventor of this method believes that he has solved the problem and that henceforth there are to be no more dullards in his school. As far back as the history of education runs, we find one panacea after another for the cure of this malady. We have had Froebel and Pestalozzi, the Batavia system, the Gary system, the [x] INTRODUCTION Montessori method, and while all of these systems mark progress in our educational procedure and while oiu* schools have been more efficient because of the intro- duction of these newer ideas, yet the dullard is stiU with us. No amoimt of individual instruction, no special method, has ever cured the dullards as a class. There have been instances of children who are slow and duU for a period and after a time suddenly arouse themselves, or are aroused or appealed to by some particular teacher or some method, and who turn out normally bright, or even more than normally bright. But when we take the statistics these cases are relatively few and widely sepa- rated, — so much so that we are compelled in aU fairness to admit that they were probably not even the exceptions that proved the rule. They were cases of mistaken diagnosis; the child was only apparently dull, not in- trinsically so. Unfortunately, we never until recently had any means of determining mental status to a degree that even approached acciu"acy. This is no longer the case. We now have adequate mental tests whereby we may measure the mind's development. While as yet these tests are not so thofoughj^ standardized that we can always say with certainty that the child is of exactly a certain mental level, yet with them trained users find it not difficult to determine the mental age with an acciu-acy sufficient for practical purposes. What is the normal limit of variation, or in other words, how much retardation spells positive mental defect, or means that the growth of the intelligence has stopped, is still somewhat uncertain; but, allowing a certain leeway imtil this point is more accurately de- termined, we are still in possession of enough facts to settle with certainty the status of probably 90 per cent of backward children. A large majority of the remaining [xi] INTRODUCTION 10 per cent need only be left in the doubtful class for a year or two until time has shown where they belong. It is inevitable that a great deal of bad logic should creep into all discussion of this whole problem of mental development, and there are those who, when they have admitted that a child is feeble-minded, conclude that there is nothing to be done for it. We hear the complaint, "Why waste the pubhc-school money on these children who can never amount to anything?" That they never amount to anything is a false assumption. The feeble- minded child who is of sufficient mentality to go to the public school not only can but wiU amount to something. The seriousness of the situation hes in the fact that unless it is very carefully and wisely trained, this child will amount to a criminal, a thief, a prostitute, a drunkard, or some other kind of anti-social being. No feeble- minded child is by nature any one of these, and it is almost certain that a great proportion of them can be so trained that they will never fall into any one of these groups. These facts make clear what is the special problem of the pubUc school in the case of the dull, backward child. These children lack the power of abstract thought. They cannot deal with abstractions, hence they can never develop moral principles as such. This sounds hopeless, and would be hopeless were it not for one thing. Fortunately there is one power that comes in to save the day — the power of habit. These children, if trained in fixed habits, — habits of conduct, habits of health and hygiene, habits of activity and work, — become happy, harmless, and even helpful persons. How shall these habits be fixed upon them? The question of how defective children shall be trained in the public schools has never received the careful at- [xii] INTRODUCTION tention that the subject merits. The whole problem has come upon us so suddenly that we have not had time to work out the details. In practice we have worked out our methods by a trial-and-error procedure, modifying them step by step as our failures compelled us or as a little better understanding pointed to a better method. When first we began to admit that these children were naturally dull, not simply vicious or lazy or indolent, and when we consequently gave up trying to compel them by fear of punishment or other constraining method to do the work of the regular grade, our first conclusion was that it was only necessary to give them more time^ This was the theory acted upon not only in the public schools but even in some institutions for the feeble- minded. I have before me the report of such an institu- tion dated a number of years ago, in which the statement is made that the school work in that institution is as near like the public-school course of study for normal children as it can be made, and is practically the same except that it requires more time. As experience proved that this theory was an error, and that no matter how much time they had, defective children could not do the work, iastitutional schools gave less attention to the usual academic studies and finally arrived at the point where most such schools have stopped; namely, about half the time should be devoted to academic work and the other half to manual training. This combination of academic work and manual train- ing has worked so much better than anything ever before tried that as a rule we have failed to see that even this plan is not satisfactory. It has worked fairly well in the schoolroom, and we do not follow the children out into life with sufficient persistence and accuracy to find out whether or not our schoolroom methods have actually C xiii ] INTRODUCTION prepared them for life. Of course the most lo^cal thing to do would have been to find out the exact nature of the mentally defective child and plan a course of training that was adapted to that nature. Unfortimately we could not come to this procedure earlier, probably be- cause, as above stated, we have not discovered the extent of our failure, and secondly because not enough was known about the actual nature of the feeble-minded child. In situations like this it almost always happens that some seer arises who brings to bear upon the situation that quick intuition which sometimes characterizes the genius, and such a person proceeds to solve the problem for us. The genius in this case is the author of this book. Miss Meta L. Anderson. Instead of trying to get at the defective child by reaching from above down, she steps down at once to "where he is" and plans her work on his level. Others may have caught some glimpses of the truth, and may have for one reason or another worked into their practice certain elements which are also used by Miss Anderson. Perhaps stUl others have seen the whole plan clearly but have not had the opportunity of working it out. At least it has remained for Miss Anderson to work out a complete program free from all tradition of the methods with normal children, and based only on the needs of the children in her care, the procedure being constantly modified and corrected by the results. Nowhere, so far as the writer is aware, has the problem been so thoroughly worked out and a course of training evolved so perfectly adapted to the needs of the men- tality of the children and marked by such a complete appreciation of those needs, as in Miss Anderson's schools in Newark, New Jersey. Miss Anderson long ago gave up that will-o'-the-wisp, still shining more or less bril- [xiv] INTRODUCTION liantly for many teachers of defective children, that the end and aim of the work shall be to make these children normal and eventually to teach them the regular school studies. Experience taught her that this was seldom, if ever, to be accomplished, but rather that these were children with very definite mental limitations and that they would never be able to do more than make a meager living, that they must always be under the guidance and direction of a more intelligent person. Therefore the one thing to do for them was to train them to do some simple thing which would be useful. If a boy has barely sufficient mentality to become an assistant janitor, it is useless to attempt to train him to be a janitor, but we are wise when we train him to be the assistant. K a girl has only sufficient mentality to become a cook's assistant, it is folly to try to make a cook of her. This is the great truth which Miss Anderson has learned, and it is the principle upon which she has worked. First discover the mental capacity of the pupil and theirtrain him for some occupation within his Umits. Furthermore, choose, wherever possible, something for which there is a demand in the neighborhood in which he is likely to live. The results of the years of study, experimenting, and practical working out of this problem in the Newark schools are set forth in this volume, based, as we have already intimated, upon the only sound principle. Being the result of actual schoolroom practice, the method described in this book should be the guide for teachers of defectives for many years to come. The author has wisely confined herself to a general view of the method, preferring to give the teacher a comprehension of the system rather than to risk con- fusing and discouraging her by a multipUcity of details. The teacher who opens this book expecting to find minute [xv] INTRODUCTION directions for making a table, preparing soup, weaving a basket, or giving setting-up exercises, is sure to be dis- appointed. The book is intended primarily for teachers of initiative, originality, and executive ability; for teachers of sufficient intelligence and appreciation of the problem to read the book and, catching the spirit and general plan, to be able to work out the details to fit their own conditions; for teachers who recognize that this plan fits the natiu-e of defective children in oiu* schools better than anything that has ever been proposed. To such teachers the book will be a godsend. I cannot conclude this introduction without some further emphasis upon the spirit which underlies this program, for if that is missed, the book becomes no more than another volume added to the long hst of " methods." It is difficult to characterize by language the under- lying thought of a great discoverer. One who sees Miss Anderson at work jn her schools feels, rather than ex- presses in words,' what she is doing. It is a spirit of helpfulness, of happiness, of humanity. It is something of the spirit which actuates the philanthropic bodies of the present day who are taking the wreckage from the war. Here, for instance, is the man who has lost his sight. It is not a question of training him to see, but a question of taking him as he is. There are things that he can do; let us find them and help him to do them. Or here is the man with his legs shot off. It is not a ques- tion of training him to walk, but a question of finding something for him to do that he, with his limited powers of locomotion, can attain to. So with the defective children. They are lacking in various mental processes. It is not a question of restoring those processes, but one of finding what they can do with their limited intelUgence, and then training them to do that thing. [xvi] INTRODUCTION Moreover, the defect once recognized, nothing more need be said about it. Neither the child nor his family needs to be reminded that he is defective. We do not say what he can not do; we constantly impress the fact that there are things that he can do, and we train him toward these things. It is this spirit that solves the problem which is usually such a bugaboo to boards of education when they consider establishing these special classes. They are afraid parents will object to the classes, and in some cases parents have made trouble. We have just indicated the diflBculty, — too much emphasis is laid upon what the children can not do. Turn about! Lay the stress upon what they can do and do do ! Better than all, train them so that they go home and do some- thing useful, and parents are satisfied. This work of Miss Anderson's settles also the question of the special school as against the special class. The spirit of cooperation and helpfulness developed in the special school, to say nothing of the possibilities of grad- ing and classifying, is one of the vital factors in all training of defectives. In short, in these schools, and by these methods, the teachers work with a group of little human beings whose hmnan interests and human needs are provided for, and who are trained as fully as their hmited human capacity will permit. While this book is far from being the last word on the training of defectives, it nevertheless sounds the keynote for all such work, and however much the work may be modified or enlarged in the future, it will still be in harmony with the principles here laid down, just as these principles are in harmony with the nature of the defective child. Henbt H. Goddaed £xmi 3 EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS CHAPTER ONE Inteoduction 'TTEACHERS have always heard it said that any -1- one can teach a bright child, but that it takes an expert to teach a stupid one. Until recently they have accepted this dictum as final and have tried to promote all children in their classes. Still, as time went on, it became evident that one group of children did not learn under any teacher's instruction. Much attention was given to this group by principals and school authorities, who realized that more unusual methods must be followed if these children were to gain anything from their school activities. So much attention has been paid of late to this group of stupid children, so called, that citizens and even educators are complaining; altogether too I* • • • 1 1 Attention large a share of attention is paid to the attracted to the child who cannot learn, they tell us, while ehud who was , ., . not learning the child who can, the normal child, is being neglected. Can the schools, however, stop paying attention to the defective child if they would? When there is a defective child in the home, that child gets the bulk of the attention from his family because he requires it. He has to be washed, dressed, ,,, PI- 111 Attention paid and even fed, long alter his normal brother to the defective of the same age is able to care for himself. ='^*'nfie . , . » 11 . home Money is spent on mm out ot all proportion to his share of the family income. He is taken to the most expensive doctors, in the hope, too often vain, of EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES his being restored to normal mentality. In these and many other ways he receives an undue amount of care and attention from the members of the family, not be- cause they love him more than the other children, but because his condition demands their constant attention. When the child is old enough to go to school, he agaiu secures attention out of proportion to his importance, Attention said ^^^ agaLQ not becausc he is hked better than to the defective the Other children, but because his condition child In school jg^j^mig j^ jf jjg ^g ^u activc child, he probably disturbs his class and becomes a discipUnary case. The teacher must keep him in mind and watch him constantly, so that she can teach the rest of her class in comfort. As a troublesome chUd he is often sent to the principal, who spends much time needed in other work in trying to discipline him. If a defective child be an apathetic case, he probably does not take up so much of the teacher's or principal's time during the term; but at promotion time he is the subject of conferences and discussions between teacher and principal. He is again receiving an imdue amount of attention in the school, not because he is so important, but because his condition demands it. When this child is through school he receives attention from the charity organizations, not because Attention , i • i • i i given the they are more mterested m mm, but because defective child j^g (jjjgg ^q^- make good and needs their help. by the courts . .1.1 He receives attention trom the courts because he does not react in society in a normal way. Thus in the home, in the school, and in society the defective child is costing extra time and attention be- cause of his condition; and just so long as there are defective children in the world such children will receive special attention from the home, from the school, and C2] INTRODUCTION from society. The schools particularly are giving serious consideration to the education of these special children. Since the work with defective or feeble-minded children as a public-school problem is so new throughout the country, whatever is being done for them Experimental in the public schools is of coiu'se largely nature of work experimental, and often what in one year "^^ defectives is considered the final word in the training of defectives must be discarded the following year. This is very aptly illustrated by the story vouched for as true of a certain superintendent, who spent one year in sending out reports of work done ia his city and spent the next year in recalling them. However, experiments have been made in the public schools of Germany, England, and our own coimtry which, if they have not always shown us what to do, at least have shown us what not to do. We read in a Berlin report the following: "We propose to bring him (the defective) back into association with normal children as soon as possible, — that is, to replace special instruction with regular instruction at the earliest possible moment." This expressed the plan of the authorities everywhere when the movement for special classes for defectives was first started. This plan failed: by failure Failure of is meant that no defective was found to be *"'y s"*^ able to return to the regular grade and successfully com- pete with normal children. The German Hilfsschulen have long since given up the thought of returning their pupils to the regular grades. The plan then changed from that of restoring the defective children to normal work to that of keeping them more or less permanently ia the special FaUuie of class and giving them regular grade work, ^**' p'*"^ only at a much slower pace. To quote Shuttleworth on EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES this plan: "The system of special instruction for men- tally defective children carried on under the act of 1899 has necessarily undergone considerable modification in the course of its development. In the early days of its organization there was perhaps a tendency to model too much on the lines of the infant school, with which both teachers and inspectors were practically familiar. Experience, however, soon convinced those in the work that between the normal infant of five and the 'crys- tallized infant' of ten there were essential difPerences, which had to be provided for in the curriculum; and as time went on the paramount importance of hand work was increasingly recognized." We usually speak of the children in the defective classes as having the mentality of a normal child of from two to twelve years (probably no defective Mentality of , ., , , .• , , , , chudren In child has a mentauty above that of the the defective normal twclve-yeaj-old) . So it is evident that the special schools deal with young children, even though these children may be as old as twenty years chronologically. It might at first appear that the regular school curriculum for children up to twelve years of age would be suitable for the defective children of the same mentality. It must be remembered, however, that while we speak of a defective child having a given mentality, it by no means follows that the de- fective can compete in all things with a normal child of the same mentaUty. The advantage is always with the normal child. [4] CHAPTER TWO Selection of the Children THE ideal way to select children for the defective or backward classes would be to have every child in a given school or school system examined by intelli- gence tests and graded accordingly. Those retarded three years or more would be placed in Meal plan for classes for defectives, those retarded two seiecuon of , , , , , chlldien sent years or more m backward classes, and to special doubtful cases in observation classes. While <='asses this plan might easily be followed in very small school systems, it is obviously difficult in a community of large size because of the great number of expert workers it would require. The next best plan, perhaps, is to make an investi- gation of every over-age child in a school system, to determine the cause of such backwardness, j^ ^j ^^ from this group select those who are defi- for a small | nitely defective, and place them in special " °° ^y^**™ classes. This plan could be carried out very profitably in a system which has a school population of 25,000 or less. Even in a system of that size, to do the work with reasonable care would require an experienced person to supervise the work of the classes and an assistant who is an expert in using intelligence tests, to report on the over-age children. The makeshift plan which is generally used in larger school systems with a fair degree of success, as far as it goes, is to have the principal make a Ust of The usual plan the children in his school who are not only *" ""^e cioes old for their grade but, as far as he can determine, are not profiting from ordinary school work. The children on this list are then reported to a person employed for C5J EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES the purpose, who investigates each case and recommends for a defective class every child whom recognized in- TYPICAL CHAKT FOB NORMAL CHILD FooSO PUBUC SCHOOLS OF NEWARK, N. J. Dept^ Special Clauu 1 olu£E/oa.—S^ School^.;= Bon.^.-/.-<2£ napen Caid ( GiaIicant for a seat in a special class. If the pupil can do work equal to 6A Lang., 4B Read._, etc., place a X at the intersection of the 6A and the Lang, lines and at the intersection of the 4B and Read, lines, etc. Connect these X's with straight lines. Figures to the right have reference to conduct. 14 is excellent, 1 is very poor, 7 medium, etc. Check the number which describes the child's conduct. In every doubtful case the physical defects ought to be taken care of before the child is placed in a defective class. In obvious cases the child ought to pi^sicai be placed in a special class where the teacher defects and niu-se, having smaller groups to handle, ""*'* can more effectively and quickly see that each case has proper care and attention. A blank form is filled out by the principal for each pupil to be investigated. [7] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES Newark uses the above form because it ^ves the most information in the simplest manner. From such a chart one gets a picture of the child in a graphic cut to give manner. If a child be Usted as in fourth picture of grade, or fifth grade, for instance, the ques- tion immediately arises whether he is there because of his age, or because he can learn as much — or rather as little — there as he can anywhere else. With a chart like the above the teacher's actual estimate of the pupil, indorsed by the principal, is given. The child's mental age is filled in after the teacher's estimate curve is drawn on the card; and it has been gratifying to find that the inteUigence tests have usually corroborated the teacher's judgment of the children — or the teacher's judgment has been foimd to corroborate the tests, whichever you please. Does the plan usually followed get all the defective children into the special classes? No, it does not. It can be said without fear of contradiction defectives that under the above plan only defective found by children are assigned to the special classes. The doubtful cases are left in the regular grades or placed in classes for backward children, as the principal directs. It is true that many defectives are rejected as can- didates for the special classes and continue to remain Many true ^ *^® grades because they do not show at defectives an early age full three years' retardation, rejecte Thus it happens that children rejected at one time may be accepted at a later period when the full three years' or more retardation is noted. When the children have been selected and recommended for the special schools or classes, the next step is dealing with the parents. Very many parents cling to the forlorn [8] SELECTION OF THE CHILDKEN hope that mingling with normal children will lessen the abnormaUty of their own child. They think Atutude oi that because they Hke to see him among P"ents bright children it must be best for him to be there. The person to interview the parents and explain the benefits to be derived from special instruction is the prin- cipal of the school which the child selected for the special class has been attending. Presumably the principal has the parents' confidence, and they will probably be will- ing to trust to his judgment and agree at least to try the special instruction for a while. This plan sounds extremely simple, but it succeeds surprisingly often, especially if the child has been a so-called incorrigible. In that case the first marked good result of special-class instruction is very apt to be better behavior, greater interest in school, and less truancy. All of this, of course, gives a respite to the parents, who come to look upon the special class as some- thing that has relieved them of considerable worry. Great tact and care are needed when interviewing parents. Some parents are themselves feeble-minded; others are ignorant and do not understand ^^^^ problem why the regular schools do not want to keep of convincing their child. They often feel that the teacher i^™*^ or principal has a special grudge against their child. Many parents are most sensitive about their child who is "different." The feeble-minded parents do not pre- sent a problem when it comes to transferring their children (the plural is used advisedly) to a special school or class. The ignorant and sensitive parents do present a problem. The ignorant parent will say, "I can't read and write, but I want my boy to have an education. The school must give it to him." Noth- ing will convince him that the boy cannot take an edu- [9] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES cation as he understands it. There is but one thing to do, and that is tactfully and patiently to meet each in- terview with the truth, knowing absolutely that before the end of the child's school career an unhappy disillu- sionment will surely come. The sensitive parents object to having their children in the defective classes because they do not want any one to know they have a child who is different from other children. It is necessary to convince them that a child who really is a defective remains a defective no matter where you place him; that he is even more noticeably defective in a class with bright children than when placed among his own kind. One day, a Httle girl in a defective class was acting as an interpreter. The teacher concluded that she was saying much more to the visiting parent than Defective , „ , . , , , child's attitude She was Called upon to mterpret and asked, toward the "Lena, what are you saying now?" Lena special sdiool t i tt/^i t i ii- rephed, Oh, 1 am only telling her how smart we all got since we've been here." And that is just what the parents of a defective must reaUze, that the subnormal children come into their own when trained with children of their own sort and in the kind of work which they can be taught. It may be necessary even to use more than moral sua- sion and force the parents to send the defective children Arbitrary *° *^^ classes or schools provided at great rules may be expense for them, where they receive the necessary ^^^^ ^j instruction. Besides the benefit to the defective children, there is to be considered the prog- ress of the other children, for the teachers of the regular grades are thus left free to work with their rightful prob- lem — the normal child — to greater advantage. [10] CHAPTER THREE The CtTKRICXJLTJM OF THE SpECIAL ScHOOL FOR Defectives SINCE the defective child of a given mentality does not measure up in all-roimd development to the nor- mal child of even the same mentality, it is evident that whatever we teach him — his course of study — must be planned to fit him better how to live and must take into consideration his Umitations. A report of an EngUsh commission on the care and con- trol of the feeble-minded reads: "Schooling in personal habits was found to be the first step in edu- cation [oi the defective]. Then more and EngUsh more it was evident that the intelligence was ommissioa roused through the hands and eyes working together in making or doing some actual thing, rather than by the secondary and more abstract accomplishments of reading and writing and arithmetic. This suggested great changes in teaching. And now, in the opinion of many, the simple occupations of the earliest years of schooling should develop into systematic industrial train- ing, while the scholastic teaching should become entirely subordinate and, indeed, in some cases be entirely dis- continued." Tredgold says, "Industrial and technical training, therefore, is at once an educational factor of xredgoid considerable importance, as well as the only quoted on means of tiumng these unfortunate children ' "° to practical account." Dr. Goddard describes some experiments that have been tried at the Vineland Training School ur. Goddard's and says in conclusion: "It is a mistake to "pi^ons attempt to teach mentally defective children either read- [11] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES ing or writing or number work, and by mentally defective children in this connection we mean those very high grades which are only recognized by the experts — those who make up the special classes and the Hilfsschiden. . . . "Such children can be taught to do a great deal that looks like valuable work. They can make combinations; they can go through a form of reading; they can do a certain amount of writing; but that they do this intel- ligently or can be made to do it intelhgently, we are in- clined to deny." In the same paper Dr. Goddard also saj's: "The one thing that fits all these children, the one thing that draws out whatever is to be drawn out of them, is training of the hand, — manual training, industrial training. These things such children can do with wonderful success; in this they are interested; this they can do with great joy; it arouses in them a feeling of satisfaction at accomplishing something. Every one knows this, because all institu- tions and all special classes and Hilfsschulen devote some time to this sort of work. The only reason that more of it is not done is, I believe, because the persons in authority look upon this as play, and not as men- tal development, not realizing that for this class of children it is the only thing that means mental development." The experts all agree apparently on the kind of work most worth while to teach to defective children, and it is Agreement of ^^ ^^^ cuTriculum approved by experts that experts on the work in the classes for defectives should corric urn ^^ bascd. Therefore, the following subjects should be included in the course of study for the classes for defectives: habits of personal cleanliness, sense train- ing, manual training, physical training, vocational and industrial training, gardening, academic work; also [12] CURRICULUM OF SPECIAL SCHOOL speech training in so far as it is found to be at all worth while. The organization of the school for defectives calls for three departments: (1) the kindergarten department, in which the children are of the mentality of OrganlzaHon two, three, or four years; (2) the department o£ special organized on the departmental plan, in which ^^^""^^'"^ the children are of the mentality of five, six, seven, eight, and nine years; and (3) the vocational classes, in which are trained children of varying mentality, who are getting ready to leave school to go to work. Prac- tically the same subjects are found in all groups, but adapted to the mentality of the children in the several departments, after the same fashion that reading and arithmetic are found in all grades of the regular schools, but adapted to the mentality of the children in the several grades. It cannot be denied that much good work has been done, is being done, and will be done in special classes for defectives located in the regular graded Advantages of schools. It likewise cannot be denied that ^<'^°°^ ^°' 111 1 defectives over children can be better graded, the work can classes for be better organized and systematized, and defectives more can be accomplished in special schools for defectives. The principal in charge of a school for defectives is a person trained in that line of work. The school is under ejcpert supervision all the time. In a special school each teacher can be an expert in her special line of work. She can be and should be as well trained as any teacher of a special branch in the elementary or high school of any school system. It is evident that better work can be done with highly trained teachers in each subject than when each teacher has to teach every subject in the curriculum. C13] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES Type op Wobk in Special Classes Cobbelatbd with Tsedgolo's AND Goddabd's Classipications Tredgold Goddard Type of Work for Defectivea An idiot is so deeply Idiot There are practically no defective from birth Low (under 1 year) idiots in the special or from an early age 1. Helpless classes for defectives that he is unable to 2. Can walk guard himself 3. Has volun- against common tary regard physical dangers Middle (1 year) 1. Feeds self 2. Eats every- thing High (2 years) Eats discrimi- nately An imbecile is one Imbecile The children of this grade who, by reason of Low (3 and 4 years) are taught the following: mental defect exist- 3 years 1. Personal cleanliness ing from birth or No work 2. Sense training from early age, is Plays a little 3. Manual training which incapable of earn- 4 years consists of the crudest ing his own living. Tries to help kind of work involving the but is capable of large muscles. This group guarding himself shows a desire to make against common things physical dangers 4. Exercises of practical life, which consist of sweeping, dusting, scrub- bing, etc. 6. Physical training, which consists of rhyt,hm work of all kinds, such as skipping, running, sim- plest folk dancing, appa- CM] CURRICULUM OF SPECIAL SCHOOL Tredgold Goddard Middle (5 years) Only simplest High (6 and 7 years) Tasks of short duration Washes dishes Dusts Type of Work ratus work in gymnasium, and rhythmic games 6. Music. Rote songs which have action 7. Speech training Note. While the results with this group are crude, the improvement in chil- dren is marked This group is organized on the departmental plan The Kitchen These children wash dishes, wash and iron the simpler pieces, clean the smaller stoves, polish zinc count- er, help prepare the limch The Shop These children make simple problems which are also useful The Gymnasium Rhythm work of all kinds, command and imitative work, dumb-bells and wand drills, apparatus work, folk dancing, and games Music Rote songs Manual Training Basketry, brush making, rug making, sewing, chair caning [15] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES Tredgold Goddard Type of Work Academic Work Language, reading, writing Nature study, number A feeble-minded per- Morons The Kitchen son is one who is Low (8 and 9 Wash and iron more diffi- capable of earning years) cult pieces his living under 1. Errands Clean gas range favorable circum- 2. Light work Wash windows stances, but is in- 3. Makes beds Clean cabinets, closets, ice capable from defect boxes, scrub floors, cook existing from birth and serve luncheons or from an early- age (a) of competi- tion on equal terms The Shop Make larger and more diffi- with his fellows, or cult problems which are (6) managing his affairs with ordi- useful and often have commercial value nary prudence The Gymnasium Rhythm work Command and imitative work Dumb-bells and wand drills, apparatus work Folk dancing Tactics Mime Rote songs Manual Training DiflScult problems in bas- ketry, brush making, rug Middle (10 years) making, sewing Good institution Academic Work helpers Language, reading, number, Routine work writing. Nature study [16] CURIUCULUM OF SPECIAL SCHOOL Tredgold Ooddard Type of Work High (11 and 12 If there are middle and years) high-grade- morons in the 11 years special classes, the same Fairly compli- land of work is given them cated work with but the problems are of only occasional increasing difficulty oversight 12 years Uses machinery Can care for ani- mals Cannot plan The children are promoted from class to class as they demonstrate their ability to do the next higher-grade work. The best-trained children from the highest group in the departmental class- are promoted to the trade class, in which class are children of varied mentality, but all trained to do high-class work. C17] CHAPTER FOUR Discussion of the Cueeicultjm in the KiNDERGAKTEN DePAKTMENT A TEACHER of household science in a special school said, "It is not long after cleaning things that the children begin to clean themselves." One of the usual methods of getting children to come clean is firmly I. Habits of *° insist that their parents send them to personal school clcan, repeatedly sending the children home with notes to that effect. No doubt much may be said for this method, and while there is no question that the school should not take all the responsi- bility from the parent, still there are many disadvantages connected with the plan of sending defective children home to get clean. The biggest problem to meet and handle in so many cases of dirty children in a special school is that of the inabuity of feeble-minded parent. One noon a teacher feeble-minded called at a home to see why the boy had parent to e p jjggjj absent in the morning. She found four naked children in the room and the feeble-minded mother fumbling a heap of old clothes ia the middle of the floor, trying to find something that the children could put on so that they might go to school in the afternoon. Ap- parently she had been at it a good part of the morning but had not made much headway. In such a home the problem of getting clothes enough for the children to put on in order to go to school was so big that to have insisted that they be clean as well as have clothes would have quite overwhelmed the family. Children sent home to such a place to get washed would have been punished instead of cleaned, and nothing would have been gained [18] CURRICULUM m KINDERGARTEN DEPARTMENT in the training of the child, even if there had not been a distinct loss. Complicated with the feeble-mindedness of the parents there is more often than not a lack of faciUties for keeping clean. There is no hot water at all, no cold ^^^j. ^ water except that connected with a sink in facuiues a dark hallway, no soap or towels; conditions * °"® are such that it would be difficult for people of good in- teUigence to keep clean, much more those of weak intellect or worse. When one has visited these homes, the wonder is how the children come to school from such homes as clean as they do. While such conditions seem absolutely hopeless, they can be met with a surprising measure of success by working through the children in the school to the home. One teacher who had a group of children very low in mentaUty met the situation by devoting the first twenty minutes of the day to teaching the children a successful how to get clean. The equipment was most ™«*i""i inexpensive and simple — a wash basin, a piece of soap, and a clean towel for each child, placed on his table ready for use when he came in. A pail of warm water was brought in by a capable child, and the basins were filled from the pail. It was not enough to teU the children to wash clean, it was necessary to show them how to do it. As the brighter children learned, they showed the more stupid ones. There was no exercise of the day more enjoyed than this one. This teacher also made a collection of bright-colored hair ribbons, and clothes which had been given her by friends. These were put on the children in the morning, and if possible their soiled clothes were washed. Per- mission was obtained from their parents to have their hair cut. C19] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES Improvement in all the children has been so marked that less and less time is needed for this cleaning up, and the children have in most cases learned to come clean from home — even from homes with conditions as de- scribed above. Another teacher, who had tubs with nmning water at her disposal, herself gave baths to the little girls and en- other couraged the big boys to take baths after successful school. The girls enjoyed the process so methods much that they would purposely get them- selves as dirty as possible so that the teacher would pick them out for a bath. In self-defense, and because of lack of time, the teacher finally said that she would give baths only to the little girls who kept themselves cleanest! Another teacher kept ordinary washtubs in an isolated cloakroom, where the children took baths as often as possible. The biggest boys would come in proudly bring- ing their clean underwear ready to put on after they had taken their bath. So, in the special class in any school, a condition of uncleanliness among the children can be met by the en- terprising teacher. Of course, there are stubborn cases sometimes. Two girls who needed baths very much in- deed said: "We won't take any baths. Only dirty people take baths; clean ones don't have to." It may be said that if the children enjoy these exercises so much, they will do as little as possible at home that Good teaching ^^^^ °^^y have the excuse in school. With and good good teaching that need not be true. When res ts ^j^g teacher is satisfied that she has taught a child how to get clean, she then teaches him to come to school clean. And it can be said without fear of con- tradiction that the result will be satisfactory if the method be that of teaching rather than punishing. [20] curriculum: in kindergarten department The children in the defective schools learn the begin- nings of how to do the tasks of everyday life by clean- ing their own classrooms. "The way to u E„rcises begin is to begin," and "Do the thing next of practical you," are two sayings often quoted in plan- ' ning work for the special children. The exercises in everyday life nearest defective children in the pubUc schools consist in the work of cleaning the room in which they live during the school day. They do not do it well at first, of course; in fact, they frequently upset the room more than they straighten it out; but with real teaching these exercises prove to be as valuable as any other school exercise for these children. Indeed, they seem sometimes to be more valuable than any other exercise. A certain time each day is allotted to cleaning, and the children do as much as they are able to do within that period and leave the rest imdone. The chief Planning the mistake of a teacher beginning housekeeping '"°'^ exercises is usually that she plans altogether too much work to do at one time, with the result that nothing is well done. A lesson given to the children on cleaning their room should be as carefully planned as other lessons. In this kind of work, as in other school work, the lesson must proceed from the known to the related unknown, from the simple to the complex. Each child must have his work assigned to him iu a way that he understands, and must be shown how to do it. Some children will be scrubbing their tables, some will be washing blackboards, some will be cleaning a table, others will be dusting chairs, and still others, perhaps, cleaning cabinets. The equipment, as well as the work, should fit the children. If the children's hands are small, the scrubbing [21] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES brushes should be small; if the children are small, the brooms used should be toy brooms. If the children cannot carry basins of water without spilling, they should be trained in this task until they can do it. Because they cannot do things is no reason why the work should be given up; in fact, it is a strong argu- ment for doing it. A certain teacher of household science has for her motto in the kitchen, "A place for everything, and every- thing in its place," and this should be the aim of the teacher in training defective children through exercises in practical life. Even low-grade children can learn to do these practical things so well that a class can be trained to clean a room Good results thoroughly in twenty-five minutes. The from training problem in this work, as in all work with de- fectives, is that of the large body to be directed by the small mind. In the low-grade groups where the children have the mentality of two-, three-, and four-year-old children — really too young mentally to be yet in school — one finds children from seven to seventeen years of age, some of whom have bodies equal to those of high-school children. The curriculum of the special schools must provide work which requires the physical strength of an eighth- grade child but only the mind of a baby! The work in cleaning, properly planned, provides much work for big muscles, and properly guided by a superior brain a very small mind can direct these muscles. In his book. The Normal Child and Primary, Educcdion, Dr. Gesell says, "The degree in which our minds wiU m. Sense be sesthetic and athletic depends on what training ^g have Seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and touched." He also says, "The development of the brain [22] cmoacDLUM m kindergarten department is indissolubly connected with the use of the sensory apparatus." Many things that normal children learn just by living in the world must be definitely taught to the defective chUd. Again, the normal child learns so xeacUng fast that it is often impossible to know just erson on the train. It is quite the opposite in the case of a slow- moving train or one that is standing still. When the train moves slowly you get a good look at the passengers; you can even recognize persons on the train. The mind of a normal child has been compared to the fast-moving train, the mind moving so fast that you cannot possibly see how it is working; the mind of a defective, on the other hand, has been compared to the slow-moving train, learning so slowly that an intelligent observer can almost see what is going on in that mind." In the training of the senses the normal child learns so rapidly and easily that few teachers outside the kinder- garten reaUze the important part senses play importance of in education. The defective child is mentally ^®"^^ training of kindergarten age much longer than any normal child, and there are many defectives who never get beyond the kindergarten age — mentally. When teaching defectives, the problem of the youth- fulness of their mentaUty is compUcated by the fact that [23] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES their bodies far outgrow their mentality. So, when plan- ning the education of a defective, not only the fact of the small mind is to be considered, but also the fact that this same small mind must often control a full-grown body. Sense training does not necessarily need to be a lesson by itself. Every subject taught diu-ing the day lends itself to the training of the senses. When Sense training i-iiii- connected with teachmg the Children habits of personal all subjects of cleanliness, the teacher strives to have the currlculuin children know how it feels to be clean. She teaches them the difference between hot and cold water, how much water to put in a basin in order not to spill any, and also how to carry the basin of water from the faucet or pail to their own tables without spilling. She teaches them how to wring out a washcloth, and the difiference between a wet towel and a dry towel. All these sense perceptions, and more, are likewise emphasized when teaching the exercises of practical life. Here they learn the difference in the looks of an object when it is soiled and when it is clean, the difference be- tween rough and smooth. They learn how to hold a broom firmly so as to sweep effectively, how to hold a scrubbing brush in order to clean well with it, and so on through all the practical exercises of life that are taught. All the foregoing differences are again emphasized in manual training, and the children learn also to know the difference between the sound made by a hammer when it hits a nail and the sound made when it does not. They learn differences in color, size, feel, and even sound in manual training. Throughout all the subjects of the curriculum of the special classes, the children learn how to see, hear, and touch, and often how to smell and taste, as well. [24] CURRICULUM IN KINDERGARTEN DEPARTMENT Some one has said that all knowledge is the building up of the sense of touch. It has been said that "Touch is chronologically the first in the history of the The sense of mind. With the possible exception of hunger, *°"'=*' it is the most ancient of all experiences." Certain it is that the infant gets his first knowledge through the sense of touch. He clasps and creeps and destroys and, as Ljr. Gesell says, "gets into mischief and into the knowledge of things." As with the infant, so with the defective, object teaching is not enough. He must feel and handle, he must ' get very definite sensations through the sense of touch. Dr. Seguin's book, Idiocy and Its Treatment by the Physiological Method, has long been used as an authority on sense training. Dr. Montessori, in her book. The Montessori Method, has based her principles of sense train- ing on those Dr. Seguin has worked out. The following table consists of a list of sense-training devices outUned by Dr. Seguin and used by Dr. Montessori: 1. DEVICES FOR TRAINING SENSE OF TOUCH Exercises for tactile sense: (1) Washing hands. (2) Show child how to touch. (3) Show child how to touch with eyes shut. Material for these exercises: Rectangular board al- ternately smooth and covered with sandpaper, and a collection of paper slips of all grades from smooth to coarsest sandpaper. Exercises for thermic sense: (1) Have the child feel of bowls filled with water of varying temperature. (2) Have children put hands into cold, tepid, and warm water. [25] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES Exercises for baric sense: (1) Form a miscellaneous group of tablets of different weights, and have children pick out tablets of the same weight. (2) Have children arrange in graduated order tablets of different weights. Exercises for steriognostic sense (recognition of objects through feeling): (1) Call attention of child to form of two solids, as cubes and bricks. (2) Let child feel carefully with eyes open. (3) Have child with eyes open separate cubes and bricks (24 in all). (4) Have child, blindfolded, separate cubes and bricks. (5) Discrimination between small forms of all descrip- tions, as in "mystery bag." 2. DEVICES FOB TEATNING SENSE OF SMEUj (1) Blindfold the children and give them familiar flowers. (2) Have the children smell and give the names. (3) Have the children smell kerosene, coffee, pepper- mint, and other things with famiKar odors, and give the names. (4) Have bottles filled with different liquids and have several different liquids. Have the children place together the bottles containing liquids which have the same odor. 3. DEVICES FOR TRAINING SENSE OF TASTE Have the children taste and name that which is salt, sweet, sour, and bitter. [26] CURRICULUM IN KINDERGARTEN DEPARTMENT 4. DEVICES FOB TKAIKING SENSE OF HEARING (1) Have various boxes filled with different substances, such as corn, sand, pebbles. Have the child shake the box, listen to the sound, and name the substance. (2) Games of silence: a. Listening to the clock. h. Listening to hear a child's name called, etc. 5. DEVICES FOR TRAINING SENSE OF SIGHT Exercises for training sight: (1) Catch eye by yours. (2) Place objects child knows and wants where he will have to look for them. (3) Use balancing pole. (4) Sort colored ribbons, cards, etc., and place Hkes together. (5) Arrange colors in graduated scale. (6) Recognize colors by name. Note. Do not confuse the child by giving him too many colors at a time. (7) Contrast differences in form. (8) Find similarities in form. (9) Teacher places blocks and child imitates, first in simple fashion and then in more complex ways. (10) Teacher creates combinations, first simple and then more complex, and destroys them, and the child builds up the Uke from memory. (11) Compare the longest and shortest parts of the "long stair." (12) Have children arrange "long stair" in order. [27] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES (13) Teacher separates two objects a certain distance, and children imitate. (14) Long and short distances to certain objects noted. (15) Teacher draws lines on blackboard, at first in simple designs and then more complex, and chil- dren imitate them. Materials used in training sight are: Colors, forms, combinations of forms, dimensions, distances, planes. Many defectives speak badly, and some do not talk at all. In every case medical opinion should be sought in IV. Speech Order to find out whether or not the cause of trauung pQQj speech be a physical defect. When the child talks badly because of mental defect, the training very properly falls within the teacher's province. Many curious cases of speech difficulties have come under the writer's observation. One odd case was that A case of of a girl twelve years old who could talk but speech defect ^Jjq jj^j never been known to talk in school. She had been sent to kindergarten when she was four years old, and up to the time of entering the special class, at twelve, she had attended school regularly. During those seven years no one in school, either children or teachers, had ever heard her utter a single word. A great interest had been taken in her and she had been closely watched, but nothing, whether on playground or in school, had brought forth any verbal expression. The child's mother insisted that she talked freely and distinctly at home. At first the teacher was inclined to doubt the mother's veracity, but later competent wit- nesses declared they had heard the child talk to her mother. It was impossible to test her by the Binet scale because she refused to respond in any particular, so she was sent to a class for defectives for observation. She was tried [28] CmOUCULUM IN KINDERGARTEN DEPARTMENT in the various grades of the defective school but was happiest and most active in the lowest-grade class. She entered into the spirit of everything in that group. The mother was sensitive about the girl beiug in a class of defectives and wanted to keep her at home, but the child was self-willed and insisted upon coming to school, rain or shine, whether or no. The teachers left her quite alone and watched her to find out the things she liked best to play with, and then put these things where they hoped she would ask for them. She would go without anything rather than utter a word to ask for it. However, after about a month in the special class she began to say a few things, — "Get out of the way" to the children, "Good morning" and "Good night" to the teachers, who always acted as if the fact of her saying something were not in the least unusual. When she did speak there was no apparent defect and words came very readily. It was in the music class that she made the biggest strides, for she would sing with the others and apparently enjoyed it as much as did the other children. At this stage of her development the family moved from the city, much to the regret of the teachers, who wanted to see her further development and improvement, which they felt sure would be brought about by continued training. Another case was that of a boy who had never been known to talk either in school or on the playground, although he had been in school for eleven Another case years before being assigned to a class for of speech defectives. The boy apparently wanted very much to talk, but efforts to induce him to do so met with no success. All kinds of strong incentives were used to encourage him to make supreme efforts, with the result [29] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES that he would finally repeat words of one syllable. Then it was apparent that the child, if he talked at all, would be a stutterer. Evidently, when he had attempted to talk, he had found it such hard work to bring the words out, that he had simply given up trying, as nearly all defectives do when they meet even a slight difficulty. This boy took so keen an interest in hand work of all kinds that the teacher made manual training the instru- ment of the appeal for him to make still greater efforts to talk. He was under training four years, and at the end of that time he would say anything that was absolutely necessary — but no more. He never talked freely. His parents sent him into the country to work on a farm, and the school has not been able to keep in touch with him. A number of such cases are found in the classes for defectives. These children are apparently stutterers and have not enough mentaUty to overcome the difficulty and try to speak, and so do not talk at all. A number of low-grade children do not talk because they are not yet of an age mentally to learn to talk. Some Children of this grade, given the right at- defecHre mosphere and right training in the school, chUdren too ... ^, if i , ii young mentaUy Will Icam to talk whcu they are mentally to talk Qy enough. Some, perhaps, will not grow mentally and never will talk; but the majority of children entered in the public schools will learn to talk, after a fashion at least, if given opportunities. The teacher must watch for defects and correct them as often as they occur, without nagging the child. If the child is absolutely silent and inactive, he must be trained to make a noise. When he has learned to Speech helped express himself in sound, much may be ac- through music complished through music, by the singing of rote songs which the chUdren love to sing. Children [30] CURRICULUM m KINDERGARTEN DEPARTMENT who will not utter a word in other lessons during the day will frequently join in singing with the group. It is well known likewise that stutterers never stutter when they sing. It is on this fact that Mrs. Scripture bases her very successful treatment for stutterers. After music, perhaps dramatization gives Speech helped the greatest opportunities for careful speech ^^^[jation training. To many teachers a special lesson in articulation and a definite order of exercises are helpful. In such a lesson it is better to begin with breathing exercises. Breathing All good professional teachers of voice cul- exercises ture and singing begin that way. Any exercise which "points" the breath is good. Blowing pinwheels, blowing feathers about, or blowing out an imaginary candle are good exercises to help "point" the breath; and children like them. Following this, a good vocal drill, such as those which are included in a music lesson, should be used; for in- stance, the scale with "loo," "boo," "lo," Vocal diills etc. "La" is a difficult syllable to place properly and should not be used frequently unless the teacher has had unusual training in voice culture. Ear training is important in speech training, because the child must hear correctly in order to imitate properly. Hence the vocal drill should be followed by Ear training an ear-training exercise. For instance, the teacher might sing certain syllables of the scale, or parts of a song with "loo," and have the children hsten and imitate. Following the ear-training drills, the exercises which Dr. Seguin recommends in his articulation Dr. seguin's exercises are most valuable; viz., have the '**^'* teacher give directions with her Ups, without uttering a [31] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES sound, and have the children obey her directions. Also, have the children give directions with their lips to other children, who act on these commands. It will be necessary to begin very simply in these exercises, perhaps with only one word at first, and that simple Up ^ child's name, and proceed gradually to exercises at the morc diflScult directions. This exercise °' sounds very difficult, but the children are often surprisingly quick to read the hps of the teacher or of other children. The exercise forces the children to watch the teacher's Ups and see how words are formed without her having to talk directly about the formation of the words, though in some cases it may be found helpful and necessary to do that. Mother Goose Complete the articulation exercise with rimes of driU ou Mother Goose rimes, which have "' wonderful possibilities for practice in good enunciation. For instance, "Mistress Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow? With cockle shells and silver bells. And fair maids all ia a row." and "Tom, Tom, the piper's son. Stole a pig, and away he run! The pig was eat. And Tom was beat. Which sent him howling down the street." Some teachers have said that the "big boys" do not want to repeat nursery rimes. In that case allitera- tions may be^ substituted for the rimes; as, "Peter Piper'itoie a peck of pickled peppers," etc. In this ex- ercise, as in all others for the special class, what the boys [32] CURRICULUM IN KINDERGARTEN DEPARTMENT and girls want to do depends very largely on the personality of the teacher. The Mother Goose melodies have been set to music, and if they are used in the music period, are a decided help in training defective children to speak better. Dr. Seguin says that there should be a definite grading from the simple to the difficult, in teaching children to use the various syllables. He also says that the syllables should be taught in the order in which they are emitted — from the lips backward, as, 1. pa, pane, pray. 2. fa, fame, fray. 3. ta, tame, tray. 4. za. 5. stay, state, stray. 6. ra, rain. AETICDLATION EXERCISES SUMMAKIZED (1) Breath control. o. Blowing pinwheels. b. Blowing feathers about. c. Imaginary blowing out of candles. (2) Vocal drills. Scale or .song with "loo," "boo," "lo," etc. (3) Ear training. Teacher sings intervals, as "do," "me," "sol,' "do," or song with "loo," and the children imitate. (4) Imitation exercises. a. Teacher gives direction with lips, children obey. b. Children give directions with lips, other children obey. (5) Mother Goose rimes, or alliteration exercises. [33] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES It takes, perhaps, an unusually optimistic, persistent teacher to see any possibility of good results from her V. Manual efforts during the beginnings of manual training training in this so-called kindergarten de- partment of the special school for defectives. The fact must be emphasized again that these children of infant mentality frequently have very large bodies. It is a fact that must be taken into consideration when planning manual training for them. Work involving large muscles should be given first, and wood working seems to furnish especially abundant Work for Opportunities for the play of the larger large muscles muscles. Wood working impUes to the aver- age teacher the making of something, and since the children cannot make anything, teachers may fear that they will take no interest in wood or tools. It must be remembered, however, that the children do not reaUze that they cannot make anything; nor do they comprehend that other children can make something with the wood and tools. Their joy Ues in the fact that they can handle the tools and make a noise. Their first manual-training lesson consists of just that, — making a noise with tools. The teacher gives each Simple lessons child a block of wood, a hammer, and some at first nails. The hammer should be adapted to the size of the children. Then the teacher patiently tries to teach each child separately how to hit the nail instead of the wood or his fiingers. The children thoroughly enjoy this lesson. Gradually one child after another becomes adept and is able to hit the nail more often than he misses it. The teacher then gives a more difficult problem. She Gradual Increase draws lines ou the block of wood, and In difficulty later intersecting lines, and the children L34] CURRICULUM IN KINDERGARTEN DEPARTMENT drive the nail on the hnes and on the intersection of the hnes. Then, gradually, one or two at a time, the children, experiencing all the joy of an original idea, will want to make a "box" or a "table." A "table" means to them a flat board with legs, the number of legs not being at aU important. That a "table" needs four legs of more or less even length is a lesson in itseK. One wise teacher put soil in the first boxes and planted seeds, and the children thus learned that they could make something which could be used. As the children get better control of their muscles they learn to use the scroll saws, with which they make toys, such as animals and doUs. The jointed toys are generally too difficult for children in this department. AU this crude work vith wood and tools has trained them to begin to know the difference between Q^^g^ long and short, thick and thin, big and httle, contrasts rough and smooth. They recognize only **™ the strong contrasts, but it is the first step to have them recognize any contrast at all. The children should be taught to handle the tools care- fully, but at the same time the teacher must remember that she is not saving tools but training the children. Good training in the beginning of much of the manual work which they wiU do later in the higher classes should be given to the children in this department. Grounding The handling of scissors, as in paper cutting, "^^^'^ •" , , the beglmdngs the handling of the needle when usmg sewmg of manual cards, and the weaving of the small mats, ti**"'^ apparently so worthless, aU help in the sewing and bas- ketry later. The children should not be kept at Tnaking anything useless one minute after they are able to do something better. [35] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES The children themselves do not always know the dif- ference between things useless and things useful. They must be trained to recognize it. One day a low-grade child complained bitterly to the principal of the special school that his teacher would not let him come early in the morning or at noon, and so he coidd not finish his work. The priucipal wondered what work such a child could do that would hold his interest to that extent. Upon investigation she found that he was working on a tiny, crude raffia mat! It was a miserable object, but far from worthless to the child. That kind of manual training is worthless only when children are kept at it too long. The wise teacher will know when to leave the raffia mat and begin to teach something else, something that has grown out of the apparently useless object, something of greater difficulty and greater usefulness. Some teachers have experienced difficulty in teachiog the children to weave and hence have been Inclined to think that their pupils could not learn to do it. The probabilities are that they did not begin with a simple enough problem. Sometimes it proves helpful to begin with the oilcloth frame, using the colored splints as weavers; at other times it is better to use the ordinary frame strung with alternate colors, so that the teacher can say "under the red and over the blue." When a child does not comprehend a given piece of work, a simple problem, and makes no progress, it is generally quite safe to assume that the teacher has not begun "where the child is" but probably far above him. When a child begins to use the scissors, let him, if he cannot do better, cut up papers just for the fun of using the scissors, which should be of a size to suit his hand. [36] CURRICULUM IN KINDERGARTEN DEPARTMENT As soon as he shows signs of any control, encourage him to cut out a picture from a newspaper or _ 11 SG Ox scissors from an old book. The teacher must not expect a clear-cut line, or even that the picture will come out intact. That is "where the child is," and it is from such a point that his training must begin. From crude beginnings the steps in the use of scissors and tools can be so graded that the child will come to full control of these instruments for useful purposes. Some children may be given to throwing the scissors when they begin to get tired. In that case the teacher should tie the scissors to the child's chair with a cord long enough to allow him good use of them, but also short enough so that if he throws them they cannot reach any other child in the room. While teaching the children how to foUow directions is not a part of the manual-training lesson alone, but is definitely carried through every lesson of 1 1 -11 111 1 ChUdren the day, still many good teachers have been taught to especially successful through lessons in paper '°"°'' olrsctloiis folding, using large sheets of paper, and through lessons in pasting the kindergarten squares and circles under direction. Although manual training is part of the curriculum of the kindergarten department as a separate subject, and a special time of the day is allotted to chUdren it, still throughout each subject of the day i«"ning the cmld is handling and feeling things, and dexterity in in various ways learning manual dexterity. "^ "'^'^ ""^ One subject grows out of and depends upon another, with no sharp hnes of demarcation. Each overlaps and supplements the other; each offers as many avenues as possible to the small mind which is to learn to direct the activities of the large body. [37] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES Dr. Home says, in his book, The Philosophy of Edu- cation, "All appeals to the mind, educational and other- VI. Physical wise, must be made through the agency of training ^jjg nervous System. The senses on the one hand, and the muscles on the other, are the first two gateways through which educational influences must proceed. The educator who would climb up into the mind by some other way is unaware of the nature of the child with whom he has to deal. The training of the senses and the doing well of things that require deUcacy of muscular adjustment are the begiimings of physical education, and only a sound physical education can support a sotmd mental education." While physical training is now very generally con- sidered a most important part of aU school systems, it is nowhere more important than in the special school for defective children. Every avenue through which the sluggish mind can be reached and, perhaps, aroused to some extent, must be used to the utmost, to the end that the weak will may be strengthened and some degree of accuracy of thought and expression secured. Physical training, like manual training, overlaps the other subjects of the curriculum and is not confined to a single period during the day. The sweep- part of ing, scrubbing, and dusting learned during physical ^jjg exercises of practical life require the use of the fundamental muscles. The ham- mering and the sawing of the manual training bring into play the larger muscles. The sense training and even the speech training require some muscular activity. In this department, called kindergarten for want of a better name, the same complication spoken of before — that of the big body governed by a small mind — makes [38] cmuRicuLUM m kindergarten department the planning of physical training especially difficult. The children in this department are mentally two. Difficulty „f three, and four years old. Considering their reiatioii mental age, they would scarcely be admitted m^^"a„d to the kindergarten. Chronologically they physical are from seven to seventeen years old; the **"'''i'"™' youngest, according to his body, would be in the second grade, the oldest, just finishing high school. Again, defective children must be taught what normal children learn naturally just by living in the world. They do not know how to run, walk, skip, or to ordinai? handle or use their bodies properly. These v^y^'^ 1 111* 11-1 activities to movements must be taught before the higher be taught and more complex activities can be mastered. ** ^^' Some one has said that "rhythm is a good friend of motor activity," and its help in teaching the children how to run, walk, and skip cannot be overestimated. These low-grade children have been so apparently helpless that at home many of them have had things done for them which they should have been taught to do for themselves; for instance, they have been carried up and down stairs when they should have been taught to walk up and down by themselves. One teacher was much distressed when it became necessary for her to take a classroom on the second floor. She complained that only about one half of her low-grade class could go up and down stairs themselves, while the other half had to be carried by the stronger ones. She was a teacher who always made the most of her opportunities, however, and she set about teaching all the children how to go up and down stairs properly. It took much time and pa- tience, but in the end the good results attained proved this to be a most valuable lesson. There is no building but has that much apparatus! [89] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES If a gymnasium is available, or if there is space in the classroom for apparatus, low-grade children can learn Apparatus ^th much benefit to use the walking beam, for low-grade the ladder, and even the rings and climbing chudren poles and ropes. In physical training, as in the other subjects, the foundation is laid in this kinder- garten department for the work to come later in the departmental division of the school. The use of the simple apparatus at this stage of the work lays a good foundation for the exercises which Foundatton follow in later grades, in the use of all ap- for good work paratus of a regularly equipped gymnasium, training In The ring gamcs and rhythm work in run- later grades mug and skipping lead to folk dancing, and the lessons ia walking lead to marching and military tactics. The games likewise lay a foundation for later imitative work, and throughout all the early work in physical training the children have been learning how to pay attention and take simple directions, which leads to the response work of the more complicated exercises of advanced grades. This aU sounds very formal, but it should not be so, for the play spirit should permeate all the physical training in this department. Dr. Home says, "Play is the best form and kind of physical training because it gives the most enjoyment," and the teacher of physical training to a low-grade class of defectives must remember that oidy when the children are having the most fun are they deriving the most benefit. The children in this department are too young mentally for even their parents to think that they ought to be vn. other taught reading or writing or numbers. The subjects In tjmg ^q consider their aptitude in those sub- klndergarten . , .11 1 department jccts does uot comc uutil they are promoted [40] CURRICDLUM IN KINDERGARTEN DEPARTMENT from the kindergarten department to the departmental division of the school. However, language is taught through stories and dramatization of stories. Some one has said that "lan- guage cannot be taught, it must be evoked." So language may be said to be "evoked" through every subject in this department, the reproduction of stories and the dramatization of them being only another means to that end. It is very much worth while for the teacher to have a collection of costumes and to make as much of a func- tion as possible of the dramatization, which not only adds to the children's interest, but also makes a begin- ning for the preparation of more pretentious plays that will be attempted later. The dramatization should be so simple and well adapted to the children that every child in the class may have a chance to take some part. In the reproduction of stories, also, every child should be given his chance of expression, however crude that may be. In some cases the expression may consist merely of a noise, or a single word, in others of the repeti- tion of a whole sentence or even several sentences. Music has already been spoken of as a valuable aid in speech training. Again it must be emphasized that every child must be encouraged to make some attempt to jom m the lesson exercise, if he be able to do no more than hum the time. With good teaching the dullest of the children will grow out of himiming the 'tune, into saying first a few words, then phrases, and, finally, to learning the whole song. Care must be taken to select songs which not only appeal to the children, but also are within their capabilities. The Mother Goose melodies used in the speech-training exercise are set to music and may be used to great advan- [41] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES tage in the music lesson, as well as the songs of the season and the kindergarten songs. The plan of work as outlined for kindergarten may sound very formal, and the work is, indeed, graded care- fully to suit the abilities of the children. However, if Vineland's motto, "Happiness first, and all else follows," is kept in mind and in spirit throughout the day's work, no one need fear the criticism that the work is too formal for this department. SUGGESTED PROGRAMS FOR LOW-GRADE OR KINDER- GARTEN CLASSES FOR DEFECTIVES KiNDEKGABTEN I — MENTALITY OP CHILDREN 2 AND 3 YeABS 9-9.10. Personal cleaning, and milk served. 9.10-9.25. Assembly — both kindergarten classes in room with piano. 9.25-9.55. Sense training. (Montessori apparatus used but supple- mented.) 9.55-10.25. Manual training. (Emphasis on big muscle work.) 10.25-10.40. Recess (supervised). 10.40-10.55. Physical training in gymnasium. 10.55-11.20. Household science (exercises in practical life). 11.20-11.35. Speech training, memory work. Noon. 1-1.40. Rest period. (Children rest in steamer chairs; windows open.) 1.40-1.65. Apparatus work in gymnasium. 1.55-2.15. Recess (supervised). 2.15-2.40. Songs and story hour. 2.46-2.50. "Good-by" assembly (all children in school). KlNDEBGABTEN II — MENTALITY OP CHILDREN 3 AND 4 YeAES 9-9.10. Personal cleaning, and milk served. 9.10-9.26. ' Assembly — both kindergarten classes in room with piano. 9.26-9.55. Manual training. 9.56-10.26. Sense training. 10.25-10.40. Recess (supervised). [42] CURRICULUM IN KINDERGARTEN DEPARTMENT 10.40-10.55. Physical training in gymnasium. 10.55-11.20. Manual training. 11.20-11.35. Speech training, memory work. Noon. 1-1.40. Household science (exercises in practical life). 1.40-1.55. Apparatus work in gymnasium. 1.55-2.15. Recess (supervised). 2.15-2.45. Songs and story hour. 2.45-2.50. "Good-by" assembly (all children in school). [43] CHAPTER FIVE Depabtmental Division of the Special School IN the departmental division of the special school it is very difficult to arrange a program for more than five classes or for fewer than five. If the day be divided into an assembly period and five class periods of forty minutes each, then each class can have a period in each room every day. Better results are obtained by this plan than by alternating the classes. The five periods j are as follows: Gymnasixmi, kitchen, shop, manual train- I ing, and academic work. In the departmental division the children are graded from low to high — ranging in mentaUty from five to nine years and chronologically from nine to seventeen years. The children are promoted from the lower to the higher classes as they show abihty. The shop should be equipped with a work bench for each child. Each bench should have a fuU complement of tools. There should also be tool cabinets, racks for holding wood, and a sink with running water. Of the five classes taught in the shop during the day, probably one or two will be girls' classes. There have been many objections offered to instruction in wood work for girls, because, on the one hand, girls never earn their living at wood work and, on the other hand, they do the work so poorly. But the arguments do not seem vaUd. In the first place, the shop work is not intended for voca- tional training, but as a means of training the mind of the defective through his hands. If the principle that "working makes strong the working brain" is sound, then it is as true of girls as of boys, and the girls should have whatiever opportunities of mental training the shop work offers. [44] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL The second reason so often given — that girls do shop work poorly — is the very best reason for giving it to them. The beginnings of wood work were made in the kinder- garten department. If aU the children in the defective school entered young enough to be placed in the kinder- garten at first and were then promoted to the lowest class of the departmental division, and from that on through aU the classes of this division to the vocational department, it would be a simpler matter to plan defi- nitely the kind of work and problems to be taught each group of children. As a matter of fact children are sent to the special school at varying ages and are of varying degrees of mentality when they enter. They must be graded according to their intelligence, regardless of their training. Therefore many of the children in the lowest class and some even in the higher classes of the depart- mental division have little more abiUty than the children in the kindergarten department, though they have more intelligence and therefore improve much faster. Their work consists mostly, then, in learning to use tools in a simple way. While from the teacher's viewpoint the work is a matter of teaching the use of tools, from the child's viewpoint it is a matter of being allowed to The use of hammer, and saw, and plane, and to make *°°^ leamed something that appeals to him. The question is often asked, "Is the child to make what he pleases?" The answer is both "yes" and "no." It depends on his stage of training. In wood work, as in other subjects, it is necessary to begin "where the child is." A good way to find out "where he is" is to follow the child's lead for a while and thus discover what his abilities are and where his interests [45] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES lie. When a child goes to the shop and says, "I want to make a table," or a bench, or a box, as the case may be, and is allowed to make what he wants to, the teacher finds out what the child can do when he really puts forth his best eflforts, as he does when he works on something that he actually wants to do. Then, when the teacher learns, as she generally does with this beginning group in the shop, that a "table" means to the child any flat piece of wood with any nimiber of irregular strips nailed for legs, or that a "box" or a "bench" means several pieces of board put together into something equally crude and useless, she realizes "where the child is" and knows just what the next step should be. The wise teacher, who allowed the children to fill their crude "boxes" with soil and plant seeds in them, thus definitely and concretely taught them that Learalng the , , . , satisfaction of they could make somethmg which could be making what used. With this Small beginning she care- fully led them to observe in what way the boxes could be improved, so that they would be more useful. Another group of children, a grade higher in mentality, seemed always to want to make benches. Benches are, on the whole, a good problem with which to teach sawing, planing, and nailing; but it was a puzzle to the teacher to imderstand why the boys wanted to make them, and why they would work at them so persistently, because to the teacher the benches, though a useful problem, seemed wholly uninteresting. A visit to the homes showed that these benches were much in demand for the mother and sisters at home to rest their feet on while sewing or otherwise doing sweat- shop work. The benches needed only to be strong — whether they were polished, or stained, or not, did not C463 DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL in the least matter to the users. This explained why the boys had taken no interest whatever in the finish oi the bench. It seems, then, that strength and use are the ideals which the children trained in the shop must be taught at first. Use must be judged, moreover, from the child's point of view. A coat hanger is a very useful article, but children who have never used one wiU take no interest in making a coat hanger. The teacher should not reason that because a certain article is usefid to her it wiU be equally useful to the child or his parents. Their needs are probably quite different. Another question often asked is, "Shall I insist that the child finish what he has begun before he begins some- thing else?" The answer is again sometimes "yes" and sometimes "no." Even the best of teachers will some- times make a mistake and give the child a problem which is far beyond him. In that case, the teacher cannot insist on the child finishing something which in all prob- abUity is too difficult for him to do. On the other hand, if the teacher knows that what she has asked the child to do is entirely within his abiUty, there is no reason why she should not require him to finish the problem which he has begim. The beginners in the shop should be given, with few exceptions, problems which they can finish within the period, or even, sometimes, in a part of a period. Gradu- ally the children should be trained to begin work one day and finish it the next, and so on imtil they are trained to work on a given problem unt^ it is finished, no matter how long it takes. Their span of attention can be in- creased only by careful, imderstanding teaching. Still another question often asked is, "Shall the children take home or appropriate as their own everything they EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES make in the shop?" And still again the answer is some- times "yes" and sometimes "no." When the children first enter the shop, they will prob- ably want to make things for themselves only, and there chudren the shop teacher will have to begin. The w^^ior" child will make things for himself, at first, others and then with careful, persistent teaching will be trained to make something for some one in close touch with himself. Gradually he will be trained to do things for his school, or for other schools. This height of altruism is not to be attained iu a short time, even with normal children, much less with defective children. Thus far only the ideals of usefuhiess and strength have been mentioned. These are merely steps on the way to better things. The ideals in the shop of a defective school are no lower than the ideals in the shop of a high school, — at least, in so far as the same problems are at- tempted. Many of the same problems are attempted; bookcases, library tables, tables for use in the children's own classroom, chairs of various sorts, and so on are made in the defective school as well as in the high school. These problems are attempted only after the boys have had good training in the shop and are in the highest class of the departmental division of the school. Being well trained, they are then ready to turn out as well finished a product as is turned out of any school shop. By this time they have learned what it means to have a piece of work stand "true"; they know that an article must be thoroughly sandpapered and polished to be finished and look well. They learn not to be satisfied with anything less than strength, accuracy, symmetry, and polish. The shop in a defective school is apt to be at a dis- advantage because the teacher is not so well trained in her line as the shop teacher in a high school, for instance. C48] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL However, that drawback is rapidly being overcome by the teachers themselves, who take all the training neces- sary to equip them for teaching the subject, and the results are correspondingly improved. The point which needs most to be emphasized is that all the work must be carefully graded. As in all teaching, each step must proceed from an easier stage and lead to the next more difficult step. Not in wood work, more than any other subject, should a child repeat a problem after he has learned to do it reasonably well; he should be given a newer, more difficult piece of work. Defective children often have very definite notions of what they want to make and how they want to make it. These "notions" have been called delusions, jjejecuve and they too are no doubt very much akin. chUdren The teacher knows that the way a child is ^^^^ planning to make, a thing wiU not produce correct method the result. The child very often cannot be " ■"°"^'' convinced by mere talking that the teacher's method is right, — he recognizes no authority of a superior mind, — so he insists on his own method. And so by "trial and error" he makes the attempt, with the wise teacher near by to give suggestions of a better way when difficulties appear. Nowhere is it more apparent than in the shop, that even the slightest difficulty appears insurmountable to defective children. When the plane is a bit hard to push to get the right results, "there is something the matter with the plane," and it is laid aside imtil the teacher has time to look at it. She tries it and it works per- fectly — it needed only more muscle. When there is more resistance than usual in sawing a board, it is because "the saw won't work," and so on with each tool, — the cause of the difficulty is always with the tool, not with [49] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES the operator. This diflSculty may never be entirely erad- icated, but it is reduced to a minimum by careful teaching. There is often a very decided element of uncertainty in the result of the work of the defective child. When Results often the teacher is absolutely certain in her own uncertain mind that a given child can do a given prob- lem, and she leaves it to him to do, the results are often disappointing. For instance, a boy was making his second medicine cabinet. He had had practice in making and placing about five shelves, all of which had been most satisfactory. The teacher left him to finish the last one by himself. This last shelf was as crude and placed in the cabinet in as poor a way as could possibly be imagined, and the boy was much surprised to find that the result was unsatisfactory. Five times he had been successful, and the sixth time he failed utterly. The boy was a perfectly tractable child, much interested in his problem. The only reason that could be assigned was that he had become fatigued and had worked beyond his limit, and instead of talking and becoming a disci- plinary case, he had continued his work and ruined his problem. It is one of the problems of the shop to increase the period of successful work, and that again can only be accomplished by careful teaching and an understanding of the children. By carefully grading the children, and by promoting them from the lower groups to the higher classes as they „ . become capable, it has been proved that many Conclusion mt v children who, when they enter the lower classes, know nothing of the use of tools, by the time they finish the highest class are able to compete with the lower classes of the high school in the perfection and finish of their problems. [50] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL No defective children in the special classes in Newark have been found who could as yet be taught to read plans and working drawings suflBciently well to work from them, or even to be absolutely reUable in their measuring. To say that they must be most carefully supervised does not mean that the teacher does the work for them; it means that she teaches them how to do it, and supervises them while they are doing it. It may be that it would be possible to teach defectives to measure accurately and read working drawings as well, if they were kept in school long enough, or if their training were begun soon enough, both of which conditions do not appear at this time to be likely to be met. This, then, is a question still to be worked out to a conclusion; either it will be proved that defectives can- not be taught accurate measuring or plan reading, or some new plan will be forthcoming which will overcome these difficulties. A somewhat rough division of types of work among the different classes of children woidd be as follows : Low-grade boys — MentaUties of five or six years. Crude tables and boxes, sizes varying from about six inches to a foot Crude benches of a size to be practically useful Toys — toy wagons, automobiles, animals, sometimes furnishings for a playhouse With these problems they learn to use the plane, the various saws, and the hammer in the simplest ways. They learn also a little of the value of strength, because they will want a toy to last while they play with it. They learn, too, a little of the value of finish, because they want the toys to look well. [51] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES Middle-grade boys — Mentalities of seven or eight yfears. These boys can handle the simple tools reasonably well; they like to do what they call "real shop work." They make: Magazine racks Taborets Book racks Broom holders Wooden wastebaskets Knife boxes for the kitchen Salt boxes for the kitchen The boys make these articles strong and finish them well. While they make some things for themselves, they are most happy to make things for the school or for presents to some one they know. High-grade boys — Mentalities of eight or nine years. The work of these boys easily takes rank with the upper-grade work in the granunar schools. They make: Tables of various sorts, as Ubrary tables, tables for classroom use, tea tables Chairs of various sorts, as steamer chairs, mission chairs, soUd wood chairs Medicine cabinets for bathrooms Bookcases Desks Hat racks This furniture is aU made with the proper joints. There is no makeshift nailing in this class. The problems are strong, useful, and well finished. Low-grade girls — Mentalities of five, six, or seven years. The low-grade girls do about the same work as the low-grade boys. Toy dolls find much favor with this class. [52] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL High-grade girls — Mentalities of eight or nine years. These girls make various kinds of baskets for use in the sewing class or for presents to some one. They make devices for holding spools of thread, etc. When girls have learned this much in the shop, they are taken out of the shop and assigned to other work. There are many different forms which may be taught under the heading Industrial Arts, but the n. industrial time in school is limited and therefore a "*^ selection must be made. Although weaving is very generally taught in the pubUc schools, yet not a few defective children come from the regular grades to the special classes not knowing how to weave. Teachers have been heard to say that the children in their classes were so low-grade that they could not learn to weave. Again it is a matter of beginning "where the child is," and using material that is of size and quaUty that he can handle. The material for the beginner should be large and easily handled. With some children it has been a help to use the oilcloth strips with the slat weavers; with others, the ordinary weaving frame strung up with alter- nate colors, so that the teacher can say "under the red and over the white," for instance. While weaving is important in this branch of the work because it leads to basket weaving, rug making, chair caning, and even sewing and brush making, still it should not be overdone. The children should not be kept at this early stage of the work one minute after they are able and ready to learn something more useful and worth while. C5S] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES It is a temptation, apparently, sometimes to Jseep children at the weaving longer than necessary to teach them this phase, because the material can be kept in their desks and because it is quiet work. However, the object of teaching these defective children anytjiing is to train them to become more efficient, not merely to find work which is quiet and easy. The child who has learned to weave is ready to learn to make baskets. The material for the beginning baskets should be coarse enough to be easily handled, and the baskets to be made should be neither too small nor too large. There has been a tendency of late to think that basketry has taken up more time in the special classes than the results have warranted. In some places it has been taken out of the special classes altogether. There is no doubt that basketry has often been made too much of in many special classes. That a few people do not know the use of this subject as a means of training does not, however, prove that it is not in some degree worth while. If the child be led from the simple steps to the more difficult steps, basket making will serve as a very useful subject in manual training. There are, apparently, few opportunities for defective children — or any children, for that matter — to earn their living by making baskets, so it is doubtful whether there is great value to the children in making over and over again the same kind of basket, an article which has no sale value, except to philanthropic individuals. Since in this departmental division of the special school the training is intended to develop power which will lead to ability to take vocational training, the various subjects are considered from that point of view. [54] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL Vocational training derived from the same subjects will be discussed later. The rug weaving ought to be done on foot looms. The Ideal, the Little Dandy, and the John Lane looms can be recommended. The children should even- it i t ts ,5 11 1 R^ making tually be taught to set up the loom and to thread it. From the beginning the results may be of commercial value, if too ambitious patterns are not attempted. The connection between weaving and sewing may not be clearly seen. Through weaving, the child learns the control of materials and needles which is Scwlmr needed when she begins to sew. With that control taught before she begins to do any sewing, the girl is able to turn out better results and is not quite so discouraged at her first attempts. The first problems should be neither too large nor too small and should be interesting to the child. Dolls' clothes, while often having the element of interest to the child, are usually too small for beginning problems. Problems which have proved successful with some teachers are counterpanes made of squares of unbleached muslin upon which were drawn various animals which the children had outlined. The outlining of the ani- mals, the sewing together of the squares, and the finishing of the counterpane give the children the opportunity of learning the elementary principles of sewing. A sewing bag offers a very good beginning problem as well as one which has a definite use, provided the bag is sufficiently large. These merely illustrate the type of beginning problems. The girls are next ready to make an outing-flannel petticoat or kitchen apron for themselves. Caps and white aprons for the kitchen, middy blouses, and bloomers L552 EDUCATION OP DEFECTIVES are problems which follow. Lastly, the girls are able to make their own dresses. The girls should be encouraged to bring to the sewing class garments that need repairing and garments to be made over. This is a very important phase of the work, because the children in many of the special classes have to wear the cast-off or outgrown clothing of the older members of the family, or the cast-off and worn-out garments given to them through charitable agencies. If the work in sewing is carefully graded and the children well prepared for each step or stage of the work when they reach it, the results in repairiug and making over garments will be surprisingly satisfactory. A teacher who teaches sewing to defective children recently made the observation that when she foimd a child who was not interested in her sewing and who did not want to finish what she was doing, she invariably discovered that the cause of this was the fact that the child had been given a problem which was too di£Scult and for which she had not been properly trained. While hand sewing should be thoroughly taught and should not be neglected, still there is no reason why the Machine machine should not be used in making the sewing larger problems. The machines are not broken, nor do many accidents occur when even low- grade children are taught to use the sewing machines. The work on the machine is splendid for coordination as well as for its practical value. The child is allowed, at first, to stitch on a piece of smooth paper with the machine unthreaded. As she gradually gets control of the machine she is given a piece of paper with lines and she is expected to follow the lines. After practice with the paper she is given a problem of cloth on which she uses the machiae threaded, — such [56] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL as, for instance, an iron holder which will be stitched "hit or miss" and then an iron holder, perhaps, which wiU be stitched in rows; then she has a problem which involves the stitching of long seams; and, finally, she is given the more difficult and complicated work in garments, dresses, etc. The sewing on of buttons, hooks and eyes, the making of buttonholes, the darning of stockings, and so on, through the whole Ust of the practical apphcations, are problems taught in the sewing class. This discussion is not intended to teach a person who knows nothing about the subject how to teach sewing to defective children, but merely to outline the general principles. Many teachers complain that the pupils in the defective classes have unusual difficulty in chair caning, and even cannot learn to cane chairs at all. Others .. n t n ' Chair i'gning say that the pupils are so fond of camng chairs that they want to keep at the caning all day. Both these statements might be true of the same child at different stages of his training. Through careful teaching of weaving and other ele- mentary branches of the industrial arts the children should be led gradually to do chair caning. Practice in weaving with flat reed likewise should precede chair caning. Weaving frames may be useful in some cases, but for the most part children can be taught to cane by using a real chair from the beginning. A real chair has much more interest to the child than a frame, which has no particular value when it is finished. Chair caning is difficult, and it takes considerable "stick-to-it-ive-ness" to work at a chair imtil it is finished; therefore the children should be trained to the point where they are ready for this difficult step. If the teacher [57] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES gives this problem before the children are ready, the children should not be blamed or punished because they "balk" or become irritable and show no interest in their task. Chair caning as a vocational problem will be discussed later. Brush making has become a popular form of manual training in classes for defectives — and it seems de- servedly so.. Brushes are so varied in their size and finish that different grades of children can be taught brush making with much success. Let the teacher herself learn how to make the different kinds of brushes well, and she will have no difficulty in getting good results from the children. Here, as elsewhere, the work must be graded. The children must begin on brushes which will not take too long to finish, and the first material used should be that which is the most easily handled. One advantage which brush making has over some other forms of hand work is that even the poorest result may often be put to some use. Much care should be taken in cutting the bristles and in finishing the backs of the brushes. The brushes, when finished, may be sent to the supply department to be distributed to the various schools in the city, thus giving a return to the city and thereby lessening the ejcpense of the material or even entirely paying its cost. There are numerous forms of hand work which might be taught in the industrial arts department, such as other (oims bcnt-iron work, brass work, millinery, con- of hand work (.j-g^g work, and many others. Millinery is a practical subject. However, time in the defective classes is limited, as in other classes, to five hours a day, five days a week; so, while many different forms C58] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL of work are valuable and may even seem desirable, it is not possible to teach all that one would wish to. There- fore a selection must be made, and this selection must always be made according to the value to the children. Hitherto, emphasis has been placed on the forms of work just discussed. When these have fulfilled their purpose they will be replaced by other kinds of manual training. Concrete work and millineiy are best taught in the trade classes. If the manual training, the shop, and all other work were taken out of the school for defectives and only the kitchen left, it woidd still be possible to m. The train the defectives in the school in a credit- '^t<*™ able manner. The work in the kitchen not only is valuable as a means of development of common sense, but also has an important place in vocational training as well. Moreover, it appeals to a deep child-interest to play in water. By constant concrete repetition the defective children learn that hot water scalds and that hot irons scorch cloth and bum hands if handled without a holder. They learn the difference between clean and dirty in the laimdry work and in scrubbing. They learn how to cook and serve simple luncheons. They learn how to go to the store and buy the articles needed in the preparation of a lunch. In a himdred ways they learn in the kitchen to see, to think, and to act in such a way that each step is tested and adjusted as they proceed. The kitchen work is as valuable in training the boys as in training the girls, for the boys need just as much training in common sense as the girls, and since that is the chief value of the kitchen work in the education of defectives, there ia C59] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES every reason why the boys should have the benefit of such training. In order to get real training from the kitchen work, it is necessary that the work be as well graded as the other branches of school work. The teacher in the kitchen is training children rather than getting work done. Each child is kept at a certain piece of work only until he knows how to do it, and then he is given the next more diflScult step. The teacher is thus constantly teaching each grade of work to dififerent groups of children, gradu- ally taking away her support and direction in order to teach the children to use their own "judgment" in ac- compUshing certain tasks. Many of the children of the defective classes get work, when they leave school, at "odd jobs." They become dish washers in hotels, cleaning men or women in office buildings, or cooks' assistants, janitors' assistants, tailors' assistants, and so on down the hst. What more valu- able service can the school do than to train them for this? Of one boy it was said, "He has the cleanest barber shop in the neighborhood"; of another, "He is a big help in the bakery because he knows how to clean and be clean." When directed by a superior mind the work of cleaning requires muscle and not much brain, and hence the defec- tive with his man's body and child's brain can handle this kind of work. Many of the defective boys trained in this work, and especially the colored defective boys, would be valuable house servants. Theoretically this ought to be true of the girls in the defective classes. However, among the foreign population there seems to be an aversion to domestic service because it takes the children away from their homes, and so they seldom Usten to a prop- osition to be a servant in a household. C60] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL The routine in the kitchen is best described by Miss Burrow, a teacher of household science, who writes in Ungraded Magazine as follows : Training the Defective through Household Science The departmental plan makes it possible for all children in the special school, except the kindergarten, to have training in the kitchen. The day is divided into five periods of forty minutes each. Most of the work of the morning classes consists of a prepara- tion for lunch which is served to about fifty of our children. The work of the afternoon classes consists of clearing away the lunch and cleaning the kitchen. The first-period class is a group of little girls who are about ten years of age, but who are only five or six years old mentally. It is not a difficult task to arouse interest for housework with these httle people. They are only too anxious to do things. With few exceptions these girls did nothing to help about the house at home. At first they were much more of a hindrance than a help. These little ones are particularly fond of having their hands in water, and, as milk is served every morning to all the children in the school, eight out of the fifteen are busy washing, drying, and putting away cups and milk bottles. There are many lessons connected with dish washing. First, the soiled cups must be collected, then each washer must get two pans of hot water, one for washing the dishes and one for rinsing. She must also learn the difference between dishcloths and washcloths. The driers must get trays on which to put the clean dishes. They must learn the difference between hand towels and dish towels. Those who put away the dishes have a more difficult task, that of carrying a tray of cups across the kitchen and arranging them in the closet. Of course, until they have done this many, many times, we have pans of water spilt, wet aprons, broken dishes, and burned C61J EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES hands. Eventually, however, they leam to do these things in a sensible way. Then, there is always plenty of laundry work to do. Hand towels, dish towels, tablecloths, curtains, and aprons must be washed and ironed. Four of this first class are usually busy learning to wash, two at the stationary tubs and two at large pans with small washboards. The two brightest from this class are sent to the store to buy what is needed for the luncheon. At first this means no more than taking a list to the store and returning with the suppUes; but later they learn to read what is written on the paper and what certain articles cost. Then they can be trusted with the money and wiU return with the correct change. A lesson on ironing must be very closely supervised. One little girl took hold of a hot iron without a holder, and then called to me, saying, "Oh, Miss B., it cooks!" A mother said to me not long ago, "Christine is so helpful at home since she has been coming to this school. Why, she would rather stay in and help me in the afternoons than play in the street with other children. She is so particular, she won't wash dishes in cold or dirty water." The second-period class is one of imtrained boys about twelve Low-grade years old, who have the mentality of six- and boys in the seven-year-old children. The three brightest kitchen boys prepare the vegetables, and luncheon is started. The others are busy scrubbing tables, counters, ice box, and wood work. Six small gas stoves are shined. This class also does laundry work and ironing. Much of the work of this class must be done over by the fourth-period-class boys, who are of the same mental age as these boys, but they are older and trained in the kitchen work, having attended the special school longer. The third-period class, "our big girls," about fifteen years High-grade old, but only seven and eight mentally, are a t^^^ problem. The ones who have had the training and have been promoted from the younger class do very good work. They iron tablecloths, window curtains, and aprons. C62: DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL They also set the table for lunch, cut and spread the bread, serve soup, make and serve the dessert and cocoa. With super- vision these girls who have had four or five years' training would make valuable helpers in a home. The ones who come to us at fourteen or fifteen years of age and stay only a year or two are apt to want to sit around and gossip, arrange their ribbons, jewelry, etc. The fourth-period class, or the first afternoon class, cleans the kitchen after the lunch. These boys are Middle-grade trained and succeed in making oiu- kitchen shine. •'"^^ Dishes are washed, dried, and put away, stoves shined, zinc counters shined, irons scoured, sink cleaned, pails scoured, and dish towels washed. In fact, everything is scoured and scrubbed except the floor. The floor is scrubbed by the fifth-period boys, "our big boys," who are over fifteen years old but only eight or High-grade nine mentally. These fellows don aprons, and '"y^ with pails of warm water, scrub brushes, scrub cloths, and soap, wait for the word "begin." In less then forty minutes they succeed in scrubbing a kitchen 44 X 51 feet. Pails and brushes are rinsed, cloths washed, and all returned to their proper places within that time. That which we strive for in the kitchen is to have a place for everything and everything in that place, also for hospital cleanliness in every particular. This high-grade or rather well-trained class of boys, which is about ready to be graduated from the kitchen into a vocational- training class, shows us what can be done to the little, unkempt, troublesome defective boy. It is not long after cleaning things in the kitchen that the child begins to be clean himself. Common sense is trained, not by thought, but by experience. He has also learned that he can get a job if he is able to clean well. A num- ber of these boys have work after school hours. One washes dishes at a restaurant; several clean windows and scrub the floors and counters in bakeshops. Ideals of sanitary living have been transferred to the home. Mike, who was such a dirty, apparently good-for-nothing little chap when he came to us four C63] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES years ago, invited me to come to his home. He said he had cleaned it just like the school kitchen — scrubbed the walls, floor, windows, table, and chairs — and that his big brother had made enough money at election time to buy a "white rag" to put on the table at the Thanksgiving dinner. And so our children receive from work in the kitchen not only training in common sense, but vocational opportunities as well. One hears teachers say, "The boys in my class are big and self-conscious and they don't want to sing." The same principle holds good in music as IV. Music . . . m other subjects — that it we are to succeed in teaching anything to the defective child, we must begin "where he is" — and if that place is where he will not sing, there is the place to start. Remembering that the defective child falls down before the most trifling difficulties, it is probably too much to ask him to learn both new words and new tunes before he is allowed to sing. Especially is this true when he reaUy does not want to sing at all. The question may be asked, "Is music important enough for us to persist in trying to overcome these big difficulties when the results will be only the singing of a few rote songs?" By aU means. The old saying that "Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast" seems equally true for the defective. Music has a wonderful disciplining effect on these children. Seguin divides sounds into three classes; viz., noises, music, and speech. He says: "These three classes of sounds speak, respectively, the noises to the wants, the music to the motive powers, the speech to the intellect." He further says: "Music pleases the child without hurting him, a few exceptions reserved; it gives rest from hard labor; it causes in the immovable child a [64] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL tremulousness of all its fibers, which is easily turned into iacipiency of action; it prepares the nervous apparatus in a similar manner, awakens, quickens, and supports the thoughts wonderfully; it dispels anger, weariness, melancholy, and disposes to gentle feeling; it is a moral sedative par excellence." The first step is to get the children to sing at all. Let them suggest what they will sing. They will do it, and in all probability they will want to sing some First step street song the words and tune of which *" ™"^"= they have picked up at a moving-picture show. That is the place to begin! Have them sing street songs until they have the habit of singing fixed. At the psychological moment the teacher suggests that they try to sing one of the songs she knows, and thus little by httle begins to substitute the better class of songs for the cruder ones of the street. The songs chosen to take the place of the children's own selection must be carefully picked out for their appeal to the children. Marching songs and soimds strongly syncopated usually catch the children's ear, and they sing almost in spite of themselves. It invariably follows that the children will lose interest in the street songs and ask to sing only the songs of the school. A phonograph is a wonderful help in training the children to be familiar with songs the teacher wants them to know. While the child is learning to sing he is learning to enunciate, and the music lesson is a valuable exercise in articulation. The superiority of the special school over the special class for defectives shows nowhere so plainly as in the work in physical training. In physical train- y. physical ing the better graded the class the better training the results. Even in a special school for defectives it [65] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES is very difficult to find fifteen children near enough in inteUigence to be able to respond to the same command, which means that the work will be too difficult for some, too easy for others, and that only a few will really get the work they ought to get. The compKcation of a small mind governing a big body is nowhere shown to greater disadvantage than in the physical training. The work must be severe enough to give a "pull" to the muscles and still not be too diffi- cult to be comprehended by mentahties ranging from six to nine years. The prime requisite to securing successful results from the teaching of physical training to the defective is a well-trained teacher. The more training the teacher has had iu physical training, the better she will be able to train the class. This, of course, is true of any subject and any class, whether normal or abnormal. One so often hears from teachers of defectives that the children in their classes carmot do this or that, and, after all, usually the lack of results is due to the lack of training on the part of the teacher. Whenever possible, thie physical training should be given in a regularly equipped gymnasium. The defec- tive classes being small, an ordinary room fitted up as a gymnasium will often answer the purpose. All the fittings of a regular gymnasium, such as walking beams, stall bars, ladders, ropes and rings, horses, and so on, and, of course, Indian clubs, dumb-bells, wands, basket ball and nets, are necessary for effective work. The physical trainLug exercise should cover the following: 1. Response work 5. Apparatus 2. Imitation 6. Games 3. Rhythm 7. Dancing 4. MiUtary tactics 8. Athletics [66] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL The response and imitation work may be taken from the regular course of study in physical training used in the grades. The grade of work must be se- lected by the teacher to fit the mentahty work adapted of her particular defective class. The teacher '" ™entauty ,, . .111. 1 ot children must constantly bear m mmd the fact that defective children frequently have muscular development equal to that of the higher grammar grade and high school boys. In rhythm the same exercise taught for the response and imitation work may be used with music accom- paniment. Under mihtary tactics fall the marching, facing, wheeling, and so on. Apparatus work falls under two headings: Hght apparatus, which consists of dumb-bell drills, Indian club drills, wand and hoop drills; and heavy apparatus, which consists of swings, ladders, chinning bars, bucks and ropes, and the like. The drills with light apparatus when accompanied with music would fall a-lso imder the heading of rhythm. All the work in rhythm lays the fotmdation for the dancing. The singing games likewise are rhythm drills. The games, however, vary aU the way from rhythm drills to basket ball and indoor baseball. Athletics grow out of the heavy apparatus work and the more strenuous games. There is no reason why many of the defective boys should not compete in any general field- day sports. The following are a few sample lessons planned by Miss Kaufman, teacher of physical training in Goes Place Defective School in Newark, New Jersey: Class: High-grade boys — One month's plan First week: Tactics: Fours left front into line [167: EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES Fours right or left by file Distinguish between line and file Apparatus: Light — Clubs Heavy — Bucks Free exercise: Lesson I. 7B Grade Games: Volley baU Letting three deep Second week: Continue work of first week Third week: Lesson II. 7B Grade Apparatus : Heavy — Rings Ladder for chinning bar Fourth week: Continue work of third week Begin on athletic events for field day High-grade girls First week: Tactics: Marching in hollow square Wheeling Front into line Free-hand work: Lesson I. 6B Grade Dancing: Tarentella [68] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL Light apparatus: Clubs — Head and arm Circles — Right Games : Comer ball Dumb-bell pass Second week: Continue first week's work Third week: Dancing: Practice technique Polka, mazurka, pas de Basque Combinations Free-hand work: Lesson II. 6B Grade Games : Touch center ball Fourth week: Light apparatus : Clubs — Head and arms circles with both hands Games : Dodge ball Dance : Combination of mazurka steps in a little dance Low-grade boys First week: Tactics: Marching in quicker time and prompt obedience to commands, with attention to square comers C69: EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES Light apparatus: Dumb-beU driU Rhythm: Sailor's hornpipe — Second part Second week: Light apparatus: Second series — Dumb-bell drill Games Third week: Continue second week's work Start on athletics Free exercise: Lesson I. 4B Grade Fourth week: Tactics: Right face Left face About face Left flank Building up from single file to four Free exercise: Lesson I. 4B Grade Games Low-grade girls First week: Rhythm : Sliding exercise — Two steps slide, going forward Free exercise : Lesson I. 4B Grade [70] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL Light apparatus: Hoop drill — First series Second week: Dance : Sailor's hornpipe Free exercise: Same as first week Rhythm: Mazurka time Third week: Dance : Kull dance Free exercise: Lesson n. 4B Grade Light apparatus: Hoop drill — Second series Games : File races Fourth week: Free exercise: Lesson H — Continued Light apparatus : Hoop drill — Completed Games: Singing game of Lassie The tradition that the regular school subjects, with emphasis on reading, writing, and arithmetic, should be taught in the schools, regardless of the fa«t vi. Academic of their usefulness or uselessness to the child, '"* is so firmly groimded, that even now it is with difficulty [71] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES that enough suitable work for the training of defectives can be introduced into the special school. The mentality of the highest-grade child Ln a defective class is usually about equal to that of a nine-year-old child. When the mentahty of the children in the special class measures more than ten years, the class is nearer a backward class than a defective class, and the curriculum of such a class would be planned for the backward rather than defective children. When a defective class has children assigned to it whose mentality is nine years or less, and whose chronological age is three years and more above their mental age, there will be no mistake in treat- ing that class as a true defective class. This discussion has to do with the curriculum of such a class. If by any chance a mistake has been made in diagnosis of a child and the child proves normal or merely back- _ . , ward, the teacher can and should make an chud given exception in his case and give him every op- ^"'y portunity to learn whatever he can in any opportunity .... ... ,. subject until it be possible to return him to his regular grade. With the true defective in the special class there can be no excuse for giving more than a minimum of time to teaching subjects which do not develop the child mentally, nor yet are of any proved use to him socially. More- over, with many a nervous child these studies have a definite tendency to increase the nervousness and have been known to cause insanity. To such a group of sub- jects belong the regular school studies of reading, writing, and arithmetic. A glance at the charts on pages 6 and 7 will show that a child of nine years of age should be in the fourth grade. Theoretically, at least, the child of fourteen with the men- tality equal to a nine-year-old child should be able to do era] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL the work of a foiirtli-year grade. Practically, that is not generally true of the children selected for a defective class. The defectives, if there are any, who can do the work of their mental age are probably retained in the regular grades, passing as duU children and not being recognized as true defectives until they are ready to leave school. The children in the defective class will be found to vary greatly in their ability to read and write and figure. One child will do fairly well in third-year reading, but will not have any number sense at all, and vice versa. Some will have extraordinarily fime memories; others will not be able to remember "lessons" from one day to the next. If, then, public opinion demands that some school time be given these subjects, what shall we teach and how shall we teach it? Language, reading, spell- if„„ter of ing, nature study, writing, and number or academic arithmetic cover all that usually can be ^„g^f^ attempted. The children to be taught in special cUss these subjects are understood to be able to talk and express themselves after a fashion. Considera- tion must be given to the fact that most of them are never going to have a higher mental level than they now possess. Hence, even if they have intelligence enough to begin a subject like reading, it is not worth while if they are never going to be able to read intelligently. The children sent to the defective class are taken from the various grades of the school where they have been failing in their work regularly. However, some will be found who can read and write and do sums in some degree. There are no special methods in these subjects which have become famous fcyr their great success when used with de- fectives. If there is a method which the teacher feels that 1173] KDITCATION OP DEFECTIVES she can use with success with her class, that is the method for her to use. Of all the school subjects, language is the most im- portant to the defective. Definite training in language Language most wiU help him to express himself better, and Important gy^h training has a direct bearing on helping the child maintain himself in the industrial world later. The language lesson must be planned to make the child think as much as it is possible for him to think. Just to illustrate how the teacher must get down to the child's level, and how low that level can be, and how simple the steps really are which make the child think a great deal, let me describe an oral and written language lesson with defective children. The group of children to which such a lesson would be given would be able to read and write a little, and perhaps be very imgraded in their abilities in these lines. For an oral language lesson the children told of the various things they had done in the kitchen during the previous period. They did it some- what after this fashion: "We went into the kitchen, and sat in our places until Miss B. told us what to do. We blackened the stove. A language We cleaned the sink. We pohshed the lesson counter (zinc). We washed the dishes and put them in the closet. We washed out the ice box. We washed the dish towels and htmg them out to dry. The bell rang. We sat in our seats. We did good work and Miss B. gave us extra O.K.'s. " Even though this content was more than famiUar to the children, it was obviously impossible for them to write all of that for a written language lesson without help. Many teachers, thinking that the numerous errors in .written language make that form of work utterly use- less, have the children copy the exercise from the board. [74] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL Copying work has no value for the defective chiM. In order to have written language for the defective which will make him think and at the same time minimize the num- ber of errors, he must be given just enough help to enable him to get the most out of the lesson and not enough to make him depend on it altogether. Therefore, before the teacher has the children write the above exercise, she should write the words on the board as the children give them to her, but not in sentence order; thus: We washed dish towels did cleaned dishes hung good the and them work sink put to Miss B, them dry gave blackened us stove in beU extra closet rang O.K.'s polished sat coimter out our ice box seats The children will write this exercise with the help that words on the board furnish them. They are ungraded, and some will be able to write only one sentence; others wiU be able to enlarge on the outline and write more. Each child should be allowed to do all he can do. The weakest child will change the words from the column form in the first group of words to the sentence form, and behold! he has written a sentence which he can read and understand. A httle stronger child will write the first sentence easily and also the second sentence. In the second sentence he must think first of what he wants to say, recognize the words that are given, decide what words are omitted, and if he does not know how to speU [75] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES them, go back to the first sentence to find them. And so on to the strongest child. Each tmy step mvolves its bit of thinking. The next day the exercise can be read from the board. As the children progress, the simple words which they know how to spell need not be written on the board, but only the more difficult ones. In criticism of this plan one might say that the children who could learn to spell would depend on the blackboard for help and so would not gain. This, however, does not work out in fact. The children do not take the trouble to look at the board to see how to spell the words they know. They look only for the words they do not know. The lessons should be carefully graded and carefully planned. The teacher should keep a good record of aU Lessons *^^ words givcn during the year. Such a carefully lesson lays not only a good foundation for planned ^^.^j language, but also a good foundation for written language and reading. This lesson is described to illustrate not a model lesson in anything particular, which it is not, but to show how very tiny the successive steps must be in planning lessons for defectives, how props must be provided at the right time and place and taken away at the psychological moment. The point is that the children must be made to think as much as they are able to think, even if the pace they set is slower than the proverbial snail's pace. There is no reading method for defectives which has been found infallible up to this writing. Some teachers find one method better than another, but so far as can be learned they do not by any means agree on any special method of teaching reading to defectives. The method which the teacher finds to give the best results is the one for her to use. She should [76] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL study the children and study methods until she finds one which to her seems better than the others. No true teacher will he content merely to hear the children read from books. In fact, the teacher should not be in too great haste to have the children read from books at all. The best foundation for reading is laid by having much, very much, blackboard reading of carefully graded lessons. These lessons should be thoroughly planned by the teacher and be within the children's interests or experiences. Much of the success in teaching reading to defective children — or in the teaching of anything to defective children, for that matter — depends largely upon how carefully each step is graded. It is just as important, in teaching defectives, whether it be reading or manual training, that the teacher lead from the simple to the complex, from the known to the unknown, as it is in the teaching of normal children. For some defectives, many of whom have prodigious memories, spelling is very easy; for others it is an im- possible achievement. Between these ex- tremes lie all grades of ability. The spelling work should, of course, be based on the language and reading. It should not overwhelm all the other work, but should be kept quite within bounds. Nature study should be a live, wide-awake subject in every special class. Muchof the language and , . 1 Nature study reading should center around the nature work. The subject matter in nature study wiU depend upon the season and the locaUty. There is no city district, however much congested, that will not furnish some na- ture material. Every city has its parks and recreation centers, and it is to these the teacher should take the children to find for themselves the nature material. [77] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES The old stand-bys of frogs' eggs gradually growing into frogs, cocoons from which burst the beautiful moths, the germination of seeds and the making of a garden, a real guinea pig, a rabbit, a dove, or a pigeon, may be shown in the classroom. Various kinds of woods used in the shop, the various kinds of materials used in manual training, the ingredients used in cooking, and so on ad infinitum, furnish the teacher with more material for nature study than she can possibly use in a year. The oft-told story of the experiment in number teach- ing, which was made at Vineland by a teacher who thought he could develop the minds of defective Number children by the proper teaching of this sub- ject, has made many thinkiog teachers doubt the wisdom of having arithmetic in the curriculum of a special school for defectives. This teacher had surprising success in teaching his pupils to add rapidly long columns of figures and to do rapidly and accurately simple examples in the other fundamental operations. Ten years later these same children, now grown to adulthood and working on the farm and in the household, were tested as to their knowledge of number. It was found not only that they could not add long columns of figures, either rapidly or slowly, but that they knew not what sum three and two would give unless it were made concrete. Furthermore, the problem needed to be made concrete in terms which they understood; for instance, three loaves of bread and two loaves of bread or three loads of coal and two loads of coal. However discouraging this subject may be, the true teacher will not be content to teach number by having the children "figure" over the same sums day after day, • — as some one has expressed it, "having the children do arithmetic by the yard." She will try to fimd a way to [78] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL develop whatever number sense they have — to give them an idea of large and small, long and short, wide and narrow, many and few, and so on. In all their work practical number has a part: in the shop, with its grading from crude to accurate measuring, with its estimates of size and quantities; in the kitchen, with the practical shopping with real money, with the practical measuring and estimating of quantities; in the manual training, with its estimating and measuring of various materials. It remains for the teacher of academic work to use all the knowledge thus practically acquired and to correlate her work with it and supplement and add to it whenever possible. Indeed, the number work may all be done in this connection without a formal class in number. The needs of the children in the other subjects — shop, kitchen, and manual training — give the clever teacher the clew to what she must teach in the nimiber period: practical measuring and estimating of all kinds, with liquid and dry measures, with inches, feet, and yards. It stUl remains for some clever teacher to prove how ac- curately the defectives can be taught to measure. Just at present it is uncertain just how far the rank and file of defectives can be trained to accurate measuring. How much of the work in fundamental operations, fractions, and decimals should be taught, each teacher will have to discover for herself. There is no special method of teaching writing to de- fectives that has had proved success in enough cases to warrant recommending it for all special „ . . Writiiig classes. Fortunately the special class is small enough so that each child can have his place at the blackboard, where he can do many of his writing exercises. These blackboard exercises should be large and varied. [79] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES Rhythm, the great friend of motor activity, should be freely used with the exercises. If interest lags, the ex- ercises may be used to represent interesting figures, as in mass drawing. Eskimo houses in winter and Santa Claus with his pack can well be represented with crayons on the blackboard. Many suitable designs which will correlate with the children's work in the other subjects and which will suit the varying mentahties will occur to the alert teacher. The first exercises on paper may be similar to the above exercises and may be done with colored crayons on draw- ing paper. Some of Dr. Montessori's devices have proved helpful to some children, especially those which require the placing of inserts of various designs on paper and fiUing in the openings sohdly with strokes of colored crayons. The crayons shovdd be large. The next more difficult exercise is one which requires the children to fill in designs, such as squares, circles, and octagons, which have been drawn on paper. The transition from such exercises to the exercises of actual writing is not siniple. The teacher must try, by persistence, to transfer the skiU of the hand and the con- trol of materials gained through the free exercises to the use of the ordinary pencil and paper and the making of letter forms. C80] DEPARTMENTAL DIVISION OF SPECIAL SCHOOL Depabtmental Program Kitchen (Cooking and housework of all kinds) Shop (Wood work) Gymnasium (Physical training and music) Academic work (Nature study and speech work) Manual training (Basketry, brush makinff, weavinj?, and sewing) rmsT PERIOD — 9-9.25 Milk served and assembly for all classes SECOND PERIOD — 9.25-10.05 Miss L's boys 1 Miss K's girls Miss H's girls Miss S's boys Miss K's boys THIRD PERIOD 10.15-10.40 Miss £'s boys Miss H's girls Mias L's boys Miss K's girls Miss S's boys RECESS — 10.40-10.55 FOURTH PERIOD — 10.55-11.35 Miss H's girls Mbs L's boys Miss S's boys Miss K's boys Miss K's girls NOON PIPTH PERIOD — 1-1.40 Miss S's boys Miss L's boys Miss K's girls Miss L's boys Miss H's girls RECESS — 1.40-1.55 SIXTH PERIOD — 1.55-2.40 Miss K's girls Miss S's boys Miss K's boys Miss H's girls Miss L's boys 2.40-2.50 "Good-by" assembly for all classes Csi] CHAPTER SIX Trade Classes OF what should vocational training for the feeble- minded consist? This question has not as yet been answered satisfactorily by any one. Much experimental work along this line has been done, but there is very much more to be done before we can feel the least bit certain of the kind of vocational training to give the defective. In the planning of vocational training for defectives there are some things of which the teacher can be practi- cally sure. First, that the feeble-minded will trades ncvcr enter the professions. While there defectiyes have been a few idiot savants who have accompHshed something in music or drawing, still the rank and file of defectives can never be trained to succeed in the professions. Secondly, the teachers of the feeble-minded can be certain that their pupils cannot be trained to enter the skilled trades. While some of the feeble-minded can be trained, imder close supervision and direction, to do work that approaches the work of the skilled workman, still they fail utterly when set to work without direction and close supervision. The work, then, left for the feeble-minded to do is the work connected with the unskilled and "blind alley" Work trades. The following is a list of the kinds defectiTes of work which the feeble-minded have done have done j^ various communities. This list is probably incomplete, but will serve as a basis for discussion. ^' 1. Handy men around a place 2. Dish washers in hotels 3. Window cleaners for trolley or railroad companies [82] TRADE CLASSES 4. Assistant janitors 5. Cleaners in bakeries, butcher shops, etc. 6. Helpers for drivers on wagons 7. Domestic servants 8. Barbers' assistants 9. Laimdry workers 10. Assistants to masons 11. Assistants to carpenters 12. Factory work which requires much repetition 13. Errand boys for tailors 14. Cobbling and shoe repairing 15. Bootblacks 16. Chair caners There are many other occupations which might be mentioned, but within the experience of a group of teachers the activities hsted above seemed to stand out most prominently. It might be argued that with good train- ing the level of work which the defective could do might be raised; this may be true, but the returns and data available are not sufficient to make one absolutely certain of it. If we look over the list of occupations for defectives, what is it that we find the schools can teach Work that that will train the children to go into the imskilled trades and make a success? The to get work in the kitchen will train them to be: 1. Dish washers 2. Window cleaners 3. Assistant janitors 4. Domestic servants 5. Laundry workers 6. Cleaners in bakeries, etc. 7. Handy men arovmd a place C8s: the kitchen helps children EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES 8. Errand boys and girls 9. Bakers' assistants (cleanliness being a prime requi- site) The work in the shop will train them to be: 1. Assistants to carpenters 2. Handy men aroimd a place In a "trade" class the defective can be taught, in addition to the occupations mentioned above, cobbling, boot blackening, chair caning, and concrete the shop work. Sewing, brush making, and box mak- heipschudren jjjg ^jg ^igQ being successfuUy taught in schools for defectives. All the general train- ing and discipline of the special school is good prepara- tion for factory work. An argimient often heard against special-class training for defective children and its consequent expense is that jyjjj ^ the defectives would do that kind of work training the auyway and therefore nothing is gained by defective their training. Any one famihar with feeble- minded incompetents in the industrial world knows full well how diflBcult it is for the feeble-minded to hold a job for any length of time, and how poorly he does even the simple work assigned to him. That is not success even at unskilled work. The aim of training the defective is to help him succeed in the work he is able to do, — in other words, to enable him to get a job at imskilled work, to do the work well, and to know enough to keep it even if the work is not altogether pleasing. The reports of cases of defective criminals show of what the untrained defective is capable. One boy killed his employer because he had asked him to do "things he didn't want to do." Another boy killed his teacher because under pressure from his parents she was trying C84] TRADE CLASSES to fit him for college when she should have been training him to do iinskilled labor. These stories could be mvlii- plied indefinitely. All the work in the schools for defectives is, in the last analysis, vocational training. What place, then, has the trade class in a school for defectives? If Trade class all the work in the special school for de- *" ^^ fectives is a preparation for a place in the industrial world, what is the purpose of the trade class? The trade class in the Newark special schools, where the plan of work as outlined in this discussion has been worked out, is a sort of "graduating " class. To this class are sent the boys who have had the balanced training of the other two departments of the school; viz., the kinder- garten and the departmental or preparatory classes. As has been pointed out, in the departmental group of classes the boys have been taught the different processes underlying wood working, basket making, and other manual work. Each step of the work has been graded from the simple to the complex. The boy in the de- partmental group does not duplicate a perfect model again and again. When he makes one good model, his next work is on a more difficult problem. Each step of the way is carefully worked out to suit the child's development. When the boy is sent to the trade class, he has learned to do all the activities of the school reason- xranswon from ably well. The year in the trade class is school to industiy presumably his last year before leaving school; therefore, the transition from school to industry must be made in the trade class. In the trade class every piece of work should fulfill the purpose for which it is intended. In this class the boys should be able to duplicate any number of models and have L852 EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES them all equally well done. In this class the /boys must learn not only to do their work well, but ^o to do it quickly. No matter how well a boy could cane a chair, if it took him one or two weeks to do it there yould be few, if any, opportimities for him to earn his living caning chairs. The boys must learn to work for others, — for those whom they do not know and probably never will know. This sometimes takes long and persistent fraining through all the various stages: making things for themselves, then for those whom they love, for those with whom they are associated, for home or school, and, finally, of doing the work for work's sake regardless of wherfi it may be sent or who may use it. In the trade class the boy must learn to keep at a piece of work until it is finished. If we can teach stick-to-it- ive-ness, regardless of backaches or annoyances, big or Uttle, we have done much toward placing the defective in industry and keeping him there. The subjects taught in the trade class have been largely determined by present conditions and perhaps even present knowledge. All work in this class is experimental. Many activities are, no doubt, taught for want of knowledge of something better to teach. The subjects in the trade class for boys are: wood work, rug making, chair caning, cobbhng, boot blackening, concrete work, brush making, box making. While a few, a very few, boys have gone out from de- fective classes and have worked at cabinet making, there is no feeling on the part of the trade-class teacher that she can make high-class in- dustrial wood workers of the defective children, even though they do superior work under her direction. Furni- ture repairing of all kinds comes under this head. That [86] TRADE CLASSES this work is practical is proved by the fact that the trade class for boys can satisfactorily repair furniture sent by the educational department from other schools. The models made in the trade class depend upon the market, the object being to sell the work and thus reduce the cost of the class. Those which have proved most serviceable and marketable thus far in the trade class in Newark have been hbrary tables, desks, window boxes, mission chairs, individual tables for use in special-class room, cutting tables for sewing room, cobbler's benches, frames for bulletin boards, picture frames, steamer chairs, taborets, bookcases, book racks, and medicine cases for bathrooms. This Ust is incomplete, but it serves to il- lustrate the kind of work under discussion. The Ideal, the Little Dandy, and the John Lane looms indicate the type that have proved very satisfactory looms for successful rug making. The rugs turned out should all have commercial value. The value should be measured by experts, and the buyers in the department stores are usually most w illin g to put a value on a given piece of work. In a trade class where the teacher expects results of commercial value, the value should be estimated in a way that is businesslike, not sentimental, and the estimate should be made by an impartial, competent person, such as a buyer would be. The rugs made in the various trade classes for defectives have been in great demand, and a market for them is very easily found. The defectives can be trained to be excellent chair caners. There is nothing new or original in having the boys bring in chairs, caning them and getting paid for it. It is a very practical thing to do and has been done with success in many places. Shoe repairing has been successful in many trade classes. [873 EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES It is a most practical trade, for even if the children do not go definitely into the trade, later they may be able to do their own shoe repairing and thus conserve a limited income. However, there is no reason why the trade of cobbling should not prove a very good one for defective children, especially in this day of or- ganized industry where the defective can work under a superior workman. The teacher should be well trained in the art of cobbhng before she attempts this work with defectives. As in all work, the well-trained teacher gets the best results. With good boss workmen to direct them the defective boys can usually make excellent bootblacks. There should be a boot-blackening outfit in every Boot blackening , 111 1111 trade class, and the boys should be taught to do the work well. The fad for concrete window boxes, flower pots, and garden ornaments has made a market for the concrete produced by the boys in the trade classes for defectives. This work seems to be very prac- tical, both because of the good commercial results obtained and also because of the small cost of the materials. Brush making has been well established as an activity for the children in the special classes. It has been proved beyond a doubt that the brushes made by the defectives have commercial value. De- partment stores have offered to buy them, and other ready markets have been found for them. The supply depart- ment of the board of education is willing and glad to send them to the shops and kitchens in the public schools and give the special-class department credit in the annual budget. While various kinds of brushes should be made in the departmental class of brush making, in the trade class [88] TRADE CLASSES the models which find a ready market should be the only ones made. Many industrial locaKties have box factories. There- fore, box making as an activity in the trade class is apparently a practical one. Special localities have other special trades for which the boys in the special classes may be trained. There are many other subjects which might be taught in the trade class for defective boys, but it seems best that too many should not be carried on at one time. Rather, the subjects mentioned should be supplanted, as trades more suitable to the defective come to the attention of the teachers. There is grave doubt that the best work for the mentally handicapped has yet been found. More, and yet more, careful investigation must be undertaken before there is any certainty of being on the right track. The above suggestions are intended only to meet a present need. This much, and this much only, can be said of the kind of work taught now to defectives. That more in- spiration and Ught will descend upon those working out trade education for defectives is devoutly hoped. There is quite as much uncertainty about the kind of work to teach the defective girls in a trade ^^^^^ ^^^ class as there is about the kind of work to for giris teach the defective boys. The present work in the trade classes for defective girls is an outgrowth of the manual-training activities already approved for children in the special classes. It may be that more practical and useful activities will be found, but at this time "the next best thing" is being done, while every one interested in industrial work for defectives is keeping a close watch for better opportunities for the mentally lacking and for the means of training them to grasp such opportimities. The subjects which now seem [89] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES best to teach in the trade class for defective girls are: household science, sewing, knitting and crocheting, millinery, rug making, box making. It has been said that many of the servants in house- holds are mentally inferior, and furthermore it has been Household fouud that some of the defectives make ex- science cellent servants. If this be true, the class for defective girls may be a great opportunity for such training. The teachers of household science to these girls have commented on the diflBculty they have had to give them what they think is only fair and mediocre training. Upon investigating the apparent discrepancy between the report of housekeepers and of teachers of defective girls, it be- came evident that the girls assigned to the defective classes in the public schools were of a much lower mentality than the servants whose efficiency was commented on by their employers. The feeble-minded girls who later become good servants are classed in school as either backward or dull and drop out of school before they are recognized as truly feeble-minded. Perhaps in the future the truly trainable defective girl will be placed in the trade classes, but for the present the defective schools must do the best they can with the material sent to them. That so much is done with the poorest group of defectives speaks well for the excellent training given them. In the trade class the girls should be taught all the branches of housework, — laundry work; cleaning of all kinds, such as window cleaning, cleaning out of closets, cleaning stoves, and scrubbing; and cooking, — carried to the highest degree of which they are capable. The cook- ing should, of course, be as practical as possible. Much of it should be in connection with the preparation of real meals. An expert is needed for this work, — one who is [90] TRADE CLASSES satisfied with nothing less than hospital cleanliness in all branches of the work. Sewing has proved itself a very practical subject in the trade class for defective girls. The girls have gone out to shirtwaist factories, button fac- * ^ tones, and so on, and have been able to earn their small quota toward the family income. The models made should be useful and practical. Every problem made by the girls in the trade class should serve well the piupose for which it is intended, whether it be for sale or for personal use. The models should include all practical problems, from the simplest underwear to dresses and shirtwaiists, from hemstitching towels to embroidery. Knitting and crocheting have proved most useful to many defective girls. It is well to study the market in the locality and learn which problems are the Knitung and most in demand and which would, therefore, crocheung have the greatest sale. The defective girls will often knit and crochet during idle moments, and in that way are kept from associating with doubtful persons and getting into mischief. It is not claimed that knitting and crocheting are a panacea for immoraUty and mischief for defective girls; but if pterhaps one, now and then, keeps herself busy and interested in her simple manual occupation, something, however little, has been accomplished. Some classes have done much with hat making among defective girls. It is quite well worth the „ ... . , 1 r 1 • Milllneiy trial, if in the end the girls can only fashion their own hats, which, after aU, means much to any one with a limited income. Rug making and box making may be taught girls as well as boys. The girls also go into the factories, and they C9i: EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES need instruction in these branches. No mention has been Rug making made of academic work in connection with and box the trade classes. If it seems feasible and " ^ practical, some instruction along this Une should be given. Before they get to these classes the children have been trained or taught as much as it is probable they can learn, but if it seems best, some aca- demic work, closely correlated with industrial work, may be given. [92] CHAPTER SEVEN The Place of the Special School foe Defectives in THE Public School System and in the Community T"^HE special school for defectives has not by any means J- been completely accepted or recognized as a vitally needed part of every school system. It is therefore necessary for the teachers in the special schools in every legitimate way to attract the attention of their associates in the public schools and of the people in the community to the high-class scientific work done in the schools for defectives. There are many ways of thus attracting favorable attention, such as exhibits, mothers' meetings, entertainments, and home visits. Entertainments play a part in the curriculum of a defective school as well as of a regular graded school. They furnish not merely a source of pleasure, ,, ... ,,(.- Entertainments but also a means of trainmg the defective child. Sometimes the entertainment is a simple "party," with its games and refreshments, as a Hallowe'en party, and sometimes it is but Uttle more than a dramatization of some story, as at Thanksgiving time. Even in the simple dramatization of a story the children should have attractive costumes. To a good teacher nothing is too much trouble if it helps to make even the simple drama- tization a complete success. The biggest event of the year should be, perhaps, the Christmas play. The most successful of these are the "musical shows," as the boys call them. A "Santa Claus" cantata, which has lively songs and plenty of action, is likely to be the most successful, and even that may have to be revised and adapted to the abiUty of the children by the clever teacher. The success of the play will depend much on the planning [93] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES and organization which precede it. In most special schools the month of December is all the time that can possibly be spared for the preparation of the play, and even then it is important that the school program be broken up as httle as possible. Yet the children are not able to do much rehearsing after school or are not capable of doing it. AU this makes the Christmas play seem very difficult of ac- complishment, and so it is; but it is, nevertheless, entirely possible. In November the smallest details for the play must be planned. Each teacher in the school should know just what she is to do and how she is to do it. Every costume must be planned and every part assigned in organization. On the first day of December the work begins. The music period is devoted in part to the teaching of the songs. Every child must learn them, for the best play will have as nearly one hundred per cent of the ptipils as possible taking part in the play. The academic-work period will be given in part to teaching the words of the play. The physical-training period will be devoted to the drills and dances. The sewing classes will begin the work on the costumes, and the wood-work classes will make any necessary apparatus. Thus each activity of the school will be turned to account on the play in which the whole school is interested. The morning assembly will be used in part for the rehearsing together. There will be very Uttle change in program except during the last week before the play is given, when more rehearsals will perhaps be needed. There is much work connected with such an enterprise, but it is more than justified by the appreciation of the parents, — who have seldom, if ever, seen their unfortu- nate child take part in anything, — by the pleasure it C94] PLACE OF THE SPECIAL SCHOOL gives the children to be "in" something, by the develop- ment gained by the children in the training for the play, and, last, but not least, by the prestige gained by the school in the eyes of the community. By no means least important among the duties of the special-class teacher are the visits to the homes of her pupils. While it is desirable that the parents visit the school, interviews at the school building under no circumstances take the place of home visits. In order to teach a child how to live better, it is very necessary for the teacher to find out the exact conditions under which the children are trying to live. The de- fective children are frequently misunderstood to as great a degree in the families of the more well-to-do as they are in the poorer families. In order to do the most for a given child, it is often necessary to try to alter bad home conditions as weU as to train him in school to fit him to live in his home environment. The teacher wiU not use the time of the home visit to tell the mother how troublesome the child has been in school, because the chances are that if the child be trouble- some at school, he is far worse at home. The teacher will use the time to find out just how the child spends his time out of school hours. She will want to know the kind of work the child does well at home, and the kind he does poorly, so that she will know just what to teach him and just how to teach him and just what to emphasize in school. The home visit should give the teacher concrete data to use in teaching each particular child, because the special-class teacher works with iadividuals, not classes. She can say to the child, "When you go home you must do thus and so for baby Tony, and thus and so for your mother." [95] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES One little girl who had been taught in this way became very ill with pneumonia. She was conscious until she died, and knowing she was going to die, she said to her older sister, "Now you must do all the things for the baby and mother that Miss G. showed me how to do." She felt her responsibility, in her tiny way, to the end. To find out just how the children spent their time after school an investigation was made of every child in a Reports on number of special classes. The following chudren reports on these children are thoroughly typical of all the children in the defective classes except the lowest grade: 1. Carmine 0. Helps mother do housework. When not . thus engaged goes to Italian school. 2. Larry F. Goes for wood. The department stores throw away broken boxes which he takes home to his mother for firewood. 3. AngeloS. Helps mother do housework. The teacher's report reads: "I found Angelo sweeping the house and making the beds at 4.30, when I called. His mother said he did that every day, but that was all; after that he went out to play. She did not think he was able to work for any one else." 4. Ralph O. Helps a man unpack groceries every afternoon. 5. Joe J. Helps mother. Does it very poorly. 6. GabrieUe M. Works for tailor. Teacher's report reads : " Mother very feeble-minded. She does not understand child. Works for a tailor, but the tailor keeps him only because he is a friend of the father, who is serving time for killing a man." 7. Stanley P. Not able to do anything at home. Good home. Is well cared for. C96] PLACE OF THE SPECIAL SCHOOL 8. Louis L. Teacher's report reads: "Mother is very ill. Louis does most of the housework and cares for mother. Mother is either feeble-minded or else duU because of iUness. If he would go directly home would be of help to mother, but he has been in the habit of staying on the streets. I think his chief trouble has been the bad habits formed dur- ing months of truancy, when he has been on the streets, before he was assigned to a special class." Note. Since the boy has been in a special class he is doing better and is now working for a tailor and helping his mother at odd times. 9, James F. Helps mother do housework. Gets clothes for his mother, who does laundry work. 10. Henry S. Does errands. Shines shoes for father. 11. Sammy A. Helps mother. Goes on peddler's wagon. 12. Tony N. Can do nothing at home. 13. Pasquelle Z. Helps mother do housework. Father and mother both ill. He is needed to earn money. 14. Harry C. Helps in father's store after school and on Saturdays. 15. Nicholas M. Sells bananas from wagon. 16. Joe R. Goes for wood which he gives to mother. 17. Niel I. Works in fish store on Fridays. No work on other days. 18. William K. Helps at home. Mother ill. 19. Henry R. Helps at home. Mother ill. 20. Albert La P. Plays after school. Well looked alter by mother. 21. James F. Delivers goods for grocer until 6.30. 22. Dominic G. Helps mother do housework. 23. Daniel O. Caddy on Saturdays and Sundays. C97J EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES 24. Robert M. Goes home and takes care of house after school. Mother away workmg. 25. George T. Worked in a baker's shop. Gave it up because he said man cheated him out of money. Helps mother with housework. Feeble-minded family. Boy of no use anywhere. 26. William G. Helps mother do housework. 27. Norman K. Helps mother do housework. Mother away working. Very irresponsible boy. 28. Alphonse S. Helps mother with housework and takes care of babies. These are only a few cases, to be sure. The report of each child in the whole school reads much the same, with the exception mentioned, of the lowest grade of children. The teacher's visits to the home enable the school to have a degree of supervision over the children outside of school hours. Although the teacher has no Supervision /»..i i. ii-ii i> of homes omcial authority over the children out or through home gchool hours. Still, who Can say that the in- TlsltS fluence of such visits does not oftentimes equal actual authority? This "influence," though so difficult to measure, must show the state authorities the necessity of such super- vision by state-appointed visitors, of all defective children after they leave school and are in the industrial world. The discipline of the schools for defectives is often a very satisfactory means of attracting favorable attention to the schools. When children who have failed utterly in behaAdor in every other school are assigned to the defective school and become more tractable, the impression created is a very favorable one. With defective children discipline should be looked upon as a teaching process. The method of teaching in [98] PLACE OF THE SPECIAL SCHOOL discipline should begin with the simple and lead to the complex, should begin with the known and lead to the unknown, as in other subjects. There is no course of study to show the teacher what is "known" in discipline. She must find that out for her- self. In many cases the life of the ghetto is the "known" to the defective children. They know the roughest kind of talk. They defend themselves from their brothers and sisters and companions, and even from their fathers and mothers, by fighting. It is enUghtening to watch the children and even the adults of the slums at play. They often amuse themselves by banging each other on the back, by tripping each other, and in various other not very gentle ways. It is their idea of fun. With such standards and ideals set for them, it is too much to eicpect the children with low mentality to come to school and at once act in accordance with the teacher's ideals and standards. The teacher must begin "where the child is" and show him how to act. The methods to be used will depend on the child and will range all the way up the scale from merely diverting his attention and giving no heed to what he has done, to a sort of reasoning with the high-grade child. Kindness and firmness should be used with all children. All the work of the school, including discipline, should teach the child how to five better. Dr. GeseU says, "Moral power must grow as mental power does, with the opportunity to use it. The gospel of good discipline Kes in first making the child willing to do the right thing. The teacher's wiU, however strong, cannot control the child's conduct; he must do that for himseK, and he will do it if he is permitted to see that good conduct is a personal possession that works to his own advantage. Children's [99] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES standards are not altruistic; they are guided by conse- quences, and legitimate punishment should deal with such personal and practical consequences." Punishment should fit the child and not the crime. The V teacher, therefore, must understand the child and must be sure that he "knows better" before she insists that he does better. A teacher would not punish a lame child for limping, nor a blind child for not seeing; neither should she punish a feeble-minded child for acting fooUshly. The teacher must recognize the fact that different children will progress at different rates in behavior as they progress at different rates in their studies. To quote Dr. Gesell again, "The child's standards of right and wrong are not formed tomorrow, but yesterday and today, out of the joys, sorrows, duties, sacrifices, and companionships of daily living. Social contact builds up a sense of honor and a legitimate pride which all the formal ethics in the world cannot instill." [100] CHAPTER EIGHT Conclusion T7HIS discussion has treated of the education of the true J- defective, not of the backward or of the borderline case. It has been contended that the borderline and backward cases are the only ones to whom it is worth while to give the special education. This is doubtfully true. However, every school system has a large number of true defectives attending the regular schools. Most authorities say that two per cent of the school population is feeble-minded. These children must be taken care of. Each and every true defective cannot be expelled from school and left to roam the streets. No doubt some would be sent to institutions because of such a ruling, but there would be but a very few which would be gotten out of the community so readily. Whatever the opinion about keeping these children in the public schools, it is true that they are there and must remain there for a long time to come, the length of time depending upon how long it will take public opinion to recognize the true defective and upon how long it will take public opinion to build institu- tions for their permanent care. As long as the true defective is in the public schools, so long will he be a problem to be dealt with. The best way found, so far, is to segregate the defective in special classes or schools and train him how to live better. In connection with every special-class organization there should be classes for borderline cases. The cases for these classes should be as carefully tested and classified as are the cases in the classes for true defectives. The duU normal children should likewise be carefully assigned to classes for special instruction. Not until all children who deviate from the normal are Cioi] EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES so examined and classified, and are taught according to their ability to take instruction, will the public-school system be doing its whole duty to all the children en- rolled in the schools. The defective, the borderline, the backward, and the psychopathic children either should be in classes organ- ized under one department of a school system, or, if separated, should be organized in two well-coordinated departments. [102] INDEX Academic subjects, 73 Apparatus, 39, 40 Articulation exercises, 33, 66 Backward child, 72 Basketry, 54 Baths, 20 Boot blackening, 72 Borderline cases, 101 Box making, 89 Brush making, 58 Burrow, Clara, 61 Chair caning, 57, 87 Charts, for normal child, 6; for defective child, 7 Classifications, Goddard, 14, 15, 16, 17; Tredgold, 14, 15, 16, 17 Cobbling, 88 Commission, English, 11 Concrete work, 88 Copying, 75 Curriculum, 11, 12, 18 Defective, in home, 1; in school, 2; in court, 2; in graded school, 10; in special school, 10 Departmental, 13, 14 DiscipUne, 98, 99 Dramatization, 31, 41 Dull normal, 101 Games, 40 Geaell, 22, 25, 105 Goddard, 11, 12 Hand work, 58 Uilfsschiden, 3, 12 Home visits, 45 Home, 38, 40 Household science, 90 Industrial arts, 53 Industrial training, 12 Johnstone, Superintendent, 23 Kaufman, Molly, 67 Kindergarten, 13, 37, 38 Kitchen, 59, 60 Knitting, 91 Language, 41, 74, 75, 76 Looms, 55 Manual traming, 12, 34, 35, 37 Mentality of defectives, 4 Millinery, 91 Montessori, 25, 80 Music, 30, 41, 64, 65 Nature, 77 Number, 78, 79 Entertainments, 93, 94 Exercises of practical life, 21, 22; ear training, 31; lip, 32; articu- lation, 33 Experiments, in Germany, 3; in England, 3; in America, 3 Experts, 12 Organization of special schools, 13 Parents, 8, 9, 18, 19 Personal cleanliness, 18, 19, 20 Physical defects, 6 Physical training, 38, 39, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71 [103] mDEZ Flans, for early traimng, 3, 4; for selection of children, 5, 6 Play, 40 Principal, 13 Program, kindergarten, 42; de- partmental, 81 Reading, 76, 77 Reports on children, 96, 97, 98 Rug weaving, 55, 92 Scissors, use of, 37 Scripture, 31 Seguin, 25, 31, 33 Selection of children, 5, 6 Sense of touch, 25, 26; smell, 26; taste, 26; sight, 27; hearing, 27 Sense training, 23, 24 Sewing, 55, 56, 67, 91 Shop, 44, 84 Shuttleworth, 3, 4 Special instruction, 4 Special school, 13 Speech training, 28-30 SpelUng, 77 Trade classes, 82, 83, 84, 85, 89 Tredgold, 11 Types of work, 14, 15, 16, 17, 51, 52, 53 Vocational training, 13, 82 Weaving, 86, 63 Writing, 79 [104 ] Book Notices School Training of Defective Children By Henry H. Goddard THE problem of caring for mentally defective children is now meeting with more general recognition since Dr. Goddard and other psychologists have estimated that at least two per cent of school children are below normal. That the presence of such children in classes for normal children seriously handicaps both teachers and pupils; that the means of discovering defective children are at present in- adequate; that the care and training of such children is not, in most cases, properly understood; and finally, that the danger, both to themselves and to society in general, of allowing them to grow up at large is very great; — these are facts which the educational world is called upon to face and to deal with. For, whether the problem be rightfully a medical or an educational one, the public school system at present is charged with caring for defective children. In School Training of Defective Children, .Dr. Goddard considers the way in which the schools are carrying this responsibility and ofiFers suggestions for future procedure. Cloth. Illustrated. xxii-\-p8 pages. Price, $1.20 WORLD BOOK COMPANY YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK. CHICAGO ATLANTA DALLAS MANILA An important book of interest to every man who has I charge of a school system PROBLEMS OF SUBNORMALITY By J. E. WALLACE WALLIN, Ph.D. Director of the FEycbo-educational Clinic. ' Board of Education, City of St. Louis With an introduction by DR. JOHN W. WITHERS Superintendent of Schools, St. Louis THIS book is a history of the education of the subnormal child. It gives a consistent plan for organizing different types of special classes for different types of subnormal children, the practical serviceability of which has been demonstrated in the St. Louis public school system. It also contains a discussion of the larger educational, social, preventive, eugenic and state problems concern- ing feeble-minded, epileptic, backward, and other types of defective children. The report of the St. Louis committee on special schools and of the committee on defective children of the Missouri Children's Code Commission is included. The book is written in an attractive, readable style and contains a number of tables and graphs. *x'-l-485 pages $3.00 WORLD BOOK COMPANY YOHKERS-ON-HUDSON, NeW YoBK 2126 FxAiRiE AvEHUE, Chicago luiiuiiuiuiiiuiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiuuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim \ 1 ("/ I, . > V j'lf — *■ • u. " -'■■ . -•■ !•'• I* -, ■•'*■' ■ • ^^ ' a' ■" • tjr'^r ■■■> . •^''- ,. - ,".1 ", ' ■ • 1 r^'f-1 t K.^.'-t.^ stj; 1 '••MK'ir Y9 'i, 1''' '*' i'/ "iS^iMf: ■ , ,,, \,.,.:jLa .i./&fli«!; ■ '-■ " »■ « 3