The Education of Exceptional Children Its Challenge to Teachers, Parents, and Lay-men
- Author:
Arch. O. Heck, Professor of
Education, College of Education, the Ohio State University. Pp. 536, illustrated. London: McGraw-Hill Publishing Com- pany. 1940. 26s.
The keynote of this book is struck in the initial chapter ” The Field and the Challenge It is a field which includes the socially exceptional
child as typified by the delinquent boy and girl and the truant: the physically exceptional, i.e. the cripple, blind, deaf, speech defective, hard of hearing, children with defective vision and delicate children. The Mentally exceptional include the feeble-minded, the specially gifted and the gifted.
While emphasizing that the exceptional child needs more careful individual study than the average, the writer points out that in both cases the aim of education is the same: to develop the individual in such a way that he is not only able to adjust satisfactorily to his present environ- ment but to whatever new situations may face him in his future life.
The challenge is a vast one. The needs of these children are not met as adequately as they should be for various reasons. Developments are hampered because there is division of opinion as to the proper allocation of responsibility? whether it should be assumed by the departments of public welfare or by the education depart- ments. The writer tends to the view, properly in our opinion, that all types of education should be undertaken by the education departments and particularly in the case of the delinquent child is this scheme advantageous in that the stigma of penal treatment is more likely to be avoided.
In each section of the book causes of defects are examined, though not exhaustively, guiding principles are laid down, the history of the different forms of special education touched upon, together with a study of the problems to be faced, descriptions of various schools, special classes and so forth.
Various successful methods of overcoming truanting, devised by teachers and by field- workers appointed in preference to attendance officers are worthy of note. It is suggested that the cripple child should remain at school as long as he needs its help?physically, educationally or emotionally. The necessity of State super- vision for the detection of defects at the earliest age is rightly considered to be a most important section of preventive work.
Careful consideration is given to the problem of mentally defective children since the cost of their care is likely to be grudged in times of financial stringency as such children can never be of much value, economically, to the State. The real problem is how to prevent the incidence of mental deficiency and whether legislation should be introduced in favour of sterilization and other measures.
It is unusual to find special attention paid to the problem of educating gifted and specially gifted children. In this book it does receive consideration?and the suggestion is made that the development of these children is of the highest importance to society and likely to have far-reaching effects. There will probably be many who will disagree with the view that potential leaders should be picked out and carefully trained.
General questions of finance, State administra- tion and control are dealt with and a programme of prevention and a State programme for exceptional children are outlined. Much in these chapters is of minor interest to English readers.
The book ends on the note ” when you have helped a man to help himself, your accomplish- ment leaps into the realm of the sublime “? In this truth lies the justification of increased provision for and expenditure on special education.
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.