Special Schools and the Education Act
Correspondence
Sir, May I thank Miss Lindsay, through your paper, for her clear statement on the need of separate schools for children of sub-normal mentality. The case has never before been so well expressed or with such regard for the true facts.
As a teacher of much experience with these children I know that the good results achieved are due, first and foremost, to the fact that we have given the children their own school, suited, as the new Education Act says, to their aptitude and ability.
The development of the work has suffered from the evils of nomenclature, and from half-understood facts. People have not been able to see the human problem for the fog of words?Certification, M.D. Borderline, Stigma?a whole host of them. We who teach and live with them see a procession of boys and girls passing through the school, and the transformation and re-creation of characters and temperaments. We see these same boys and girls returning regularly to visit their school. They are good citizens, full of the zest of living. Neither small classes nor ” realistic ” methods of teaching (whatever that may mean) wrought this miracle?but the school itself, their school, to which, as I have said, they return with affection and much appreciation.
This week, as is quite usual, I have had visits from a number of ex-scholars. Let me show you two of them, and we will name them J. and B.
J. entered school with a report calculated to make the stoutest-hearted teacher quail ! Violent tempers, obstinate, a bully. His I.Q. was estimated at 55. B. had entered as a very quiet, diffident, ‘’ never been known to speak ” kind of boy?I.Q. 60, exactly opposite to the other. They left us established in temperaments, tempers conquered, and diffidence overcome. To-day, both are married. J. has a splendid wife and a good home. He brought his wife and small child to see me. His pride in his school was only equalled by his pride in his home. These feelings of pride will remain, I am sure, as a factor of stability in his life. B. has just returned from the East, having joined the Army in 1936. He has since written to say he is bringing his wife, also in the Forces, to school. Both these men are leading good lives of interest and happiness. They are not exceptional cases. Oh, no ! they are just typical of the subnormal group needing a school suited and devoted to its special needs.
This particular branch of education has never really been tackled. Always the issue has been avoided?it is unpopular, it is expensive, it is difficult. The new Act gives another great chance, indeed it appears to force the hand of the Local Education Authorities. These Authorities could now build schools, attractive, well equipped on modern lines, attractive to teachers, parents and children alike, and establish the Special School as part of the normal school system, fitting the school to the child. It is a very logical standpoint, surely. When the leaving age is the same from all schools, 95 per cent, of parental opposition will disappear, and when teachers can say to the parent, ” Look at this school and just see what a fine place we are offering your child “, the problem will have been solved.
Local Education Authorities who have no experience of this work need guidance, so that the duties now laid upon them of ascertainment and provision of education for the sub-normal children may be well and truly carried out.
A. C. COLLINGWOOD. Special School, Gem Street, Birmingham.
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