Education of the Backward Child
- Type:
Book Reviews & Abstracts
- Author:
David Kennedy-Fraser, M.A., B.Sc.,
F.R.S.E. Published by University of Lon- don Press, Ltd. Price 6/-.
In spite of the fact that we have had Special Schools for mentally retarded children for forty years, and that for the last decade at least, considerable interest has been taken in the problems presented by the dull and backward group, yet till now we have had only one Eng- lish book purporting to give some guidance regarding the methods of educating such child- ren. Here at last we have a second?and it is of Scottish origin ! Miss Bridie’s book was published in 1917 and the time has been long overdue for a fresh and thorough treatment of the subject in the light of modern develop- ments in educational theory and practice. Mr. Kennedy-Fraser, in his dual position as psy- chologist to the Glasgow Education Authority and lecturer in charge of the training of teachers for Special Schools in Scotland, has had unique opportunities for the collection of material for such a work.
The methods outlined in this book are for ” backward ” children, this group to include the type of children usually dealt with in Special Schools, as well as those of a slightly higher grade. The use of technical terms has been avoided in order to help the lay reader ” with no’previous experience of psychology.” We have no objections to such people reading the book but we sincerely hope they will not undertake the difficult task of educating back- ward children, even after having read this book!
The earlier chapters on ” What is the Back- ward Child? ” and ” The Diagnosis of Back- wardness,” deal with the use of the Binet Simon and standardised scholastic tests in the selection of backward children. The I.Q., the E.Q., and the A.Q. are discussed and sug- gestions are given as to other lines of investi- gation desirable. In his treatment of the sub- ject of ” School Reorganisation,” the author pleads for special provision for backward child- ren while they are still young, and repudiates the suggestion that they are better when taught along with children of average ability. In place of the recommendations of the Wood Committee with regard to the ” larger educa- tional unit,” which is not favoured, Mr. Fraser suggests ” Another type of grouping would seem to be much more practical, as follows: take all the children up to 60 I.Q. as a group to be handled in some form of Occupation Centre with slightly more of the three R’s in- cluded than at present for a maximum 50 I.Q., and then apply the technique which has by now been worked out in the best Special Schools, to the remainder of the retarded group from 60 to 85 I.Q. In large schools this might be done in a special department within the school, and in smaller schools centralisation from three or four neighbouring schools might provide large enough groups to be dealt with economically and efficiently.”
Not all of us, however, have such implicit faith in the reliability of the Binet Simon Test findings as to make the dividing line at I.Q. 60. We must remember that on any re-test we may expect a difference of as much as four points either way, and further that it is not at all un- usual to get an increase of quite six to ten points accompanying a period of marked in1’ provement in health and the provision of more appropriate education and general care. Mr- Fraser himself gives an instance later in the book of a case where the I.Q. increased frofn 70 to 83 following removal of tonsils and, may assume, improved physical condition.
It is therefore essential to allow for a mar’ ginal group at the lower as well as at the upPer level. It would be quite unsafe to make the lower borderline as high as I.Q. 60. Many case5 with I.Q. as low as 50 have to be kept undef very careful observation before being c?n’ sidered for exclusion from the Special Schools- Again, we must, too, give full recognition [? the fact that the Binet Simon Test rating 15 affected to the extent of over 50% by schofc5’ tic attainments,* and those children who ha^ a special disability in reading are severe^ handicapped. For this reason as well as t? others, the use of a scale of Performance Tes is advisable. It is found that quite a pr?P?r^ tion of children with the Binet Simon I-Q* 0 below 60 make a much higher score, compar^ tively speaking, when dealing with < 110 linguistic problems, and some of these child1”.^ are more likely to succeed when placed out * Burt’s Mental and Scholastic Tests, p. 183. the industrial world than the verbalists who niake higher scores in tests of the Binet Simon type. While, therefore, we realise the help that the Binet Simon Scale can give us in the selec- tion of backward children, we should at the same time recognise its limitations, and the dangers of any too slavish adherence to the *-Q. as a basis for classification.
In a later section of the book the author sug- gests the use of the Porteus Maze Tests to give the teacher some indication of the capacity of the children to profit from the various forms ?f handwork. These tests are quickly and easily administered but better tests of the Performance ” type have more recently be- come available.
Following up his grouping of the very backward children as outlined in the passage Quoted above, Mr. Kennedy-Fraser makes sug- gestions as to the organisation of such a special department taking children of I.Q. 60 to 85. Either the lowest 10% or the lowest 15% may J^e relegated to the special classes in groups of .0 Pupils per teacher, there being a chronolog- lcal age range of 2 or 3 years among the child- ren. Considering the wide range of intelligence ^ Well as of age, the size of the class is larger nan one would have thought advisable, being greater than we have at present in the Special ‘ chools both in Scotland and in England. One ^?tes that the leaving age for all the children Irj, the group is assumed to be 14, so that much ?t what is advocated in Chapter XIII could ttot be carried out. There the author advises ne retention of backward children at school they are 16, but it is difficult to envisage ls as possible of execution where the special asses are part of the organisation of an Ele- mentary School.
^he author has many hints to offer teachers j Warding organisation of the class so as to eal with pupils of different types and capac- ^ es> and also with regard to the methods of v^aching the 3 R’s. The results of various in- Vnations, especially in America, are brought > bin easy reach of the class-teacher here, ba i attempt is made to develop a theoretical b c Sr?und; that the author has considered ca the scope of the present volume. A hel -1 study the chapters on method will itn ^ ^experienced teachers to tackle their ab e(liate problems and it will certainly bring aH-^t a more thoughtful and sympathetic U(le to the individual backward children. It is a book that should be read by all teachers in Elementary and especially in Rural Schools. The author has wide experience of teachers, their problems and their little weaknesses. The latter he deals with in a frank but always kindly and refreshing manner. His aim has been on the one hand to ensure that the back- ward child will enjoy school as much as the clever child, and on the other to point out what an interesting task lies before the teacher of a backward class.
E.L.S.R. The Insanity Plea. By Edward Huntington Williams, M.D. Baltimore. The Williams & Wilkins Company. 1931. Pp. xii + 170. Price 11/6 net.
The author of this book has had great ex- perience in medico-legal cases. He contends for an alteration in the present legal procedure in cases when insanity is an issue. This ques- tion has two sides, civil and criminal.
As regards the civil side, the book deals primarily with the procedure in California. In that State a patient in a mental hospital has the legal right to have the question of his de- tention determined by a jury. Some curious results of this are described. In one instance, a patient whose mental derangement is said to have been patent, was found ” not insane ” by a jury, because a medical witness had expressed the opinion that the patient was incurable. The jury was unwilling to incur the responsibility of sentencing a man to what was likely to be detention for life. As might be expected, when a similar case next occurred, the medical witness was careful to give a more hopeful prognosis.
In criminal matters the criteria for the estab- lishment of ” irresponsibility ” employed in America do not differ materially from those in use in this country, and they are open to the same objections. The author deals with var- ious difficult problems which may arise, for example in epilepsy and other conditions which may produce loss of memory. He also con- siders the possibility of malingering. He states that ” hundreds of innocent amnesic persons have been punished unjustly, and hundreds of guilty malingerers have escaped punishment by alleging amnesia.” Such may be the ex- perience in America. It is not so in this coun- try, where the general opinion among those best qualified to judge is that our present rules of law, whatever may be their theoretical im- perfections, work fairly and justly in practice. Why is there this difference? We believe that our superior position, in this particular, is due to a definite distinction in procedure. In America the customary plan is to engage, by the prosecution and the defence respectively, two rival sets of expert witnesses. The evi- dence of these witnesses is treated as hostile by the opposite side, and the resulting cross-ex- amination gives rise to most unedifying dis- putes. In this country the evidence of the prison medical officer is always regarded as absolutely impartial, and, in the vast majority of cases, his opinion is accepted by the jury. The book should do something to bring before the public how much mental abnormal- ities may act as causative factors in the pro- duction of delinquency. A number of striking medico-legal cases are described graphically and dramatically. The plea, with which we entirely agree, is made that any plan for the reduction of crime must contain a provision for the scientific study of individual offenders. But such individual study will have little effect, unless it is accompanied by the logical consequence, individualization of treatment.
M.H.S. Minds in Arrear : Some Practical Aspects of Mental Deficiency. By E. B. Sherlock, M.D., B.Sc., London., Barrister-at-Law. London. Bailliere, Tindall & Cox. 1932. Price 5/- net.
This book, according to its author, does not attempt to give an exhaustive account of men- tal deficiency nor is it designed to serve merely as an addition to the various text-books, in- tended for specialists, which are now available. Its appeal is rather to the increasing number of ordinary citizens who display an intelligent interest in the subject without having been brought into very intimate relation with it. The form which the book has assumed ap- pears to be that which is most suitable to the task essayed. There is, first, a preliminary survey of the nature of mental deficiency, and then an attempt is made in Chapter III to de- fine it in terms of mind, but as one cannot clearly visualize a defective mind until one has a definite conception of what is meant by ” mind,” Chapter II is devoted to some of the views of modern psychology which, the author avers, is a jungle, and if one desires to arrive anywhere, one must make a track through it to get there. The track which the author has made indicates that modern views of the nature of mind are largely mechanistic. Even though mind has elements outside the domain of physics and chemistry, so large a part of its activity is due to reflexes requiring nothing beyond the existence of a sensitive and respon- sive material that the direct influence of the environment may be accepted as its chief determinant of behaviour.
This psychological track leads the author inevitably to the fourth and final chapter of his book, where the ” practical applications ” ?* the theme are considered. Thus the reader learns to realize that such development as a defective mind is capable of achieving may he controlled so that its general direction does not diverge from approximately normal lines, even though the progress made falls far short of the normal termination of those lines. The policy indicated is one of training and guidance* directed by such knowledge of mental struc- ture as psychology can supply and by a clear perception of the end to be attained. What i-s that end, and how may its attainment be en- sured ? f
Dr Sherlock contends that a sound system 0 social relations must be based upon an eqmv?’ lence of rights and duties. If this principle 1? applied to the mentally defective, considere as individuals, it follows that the scientific of dealing with them is to require of the^ whatever services they can render as a set-o^ to the burden they impose. The part V^.Cn by institutional treatment in this connect!0 will be that of fitting the defective, by ^nea^{ of technical instruction and the implanting moral principles, to become, as far as PosS^at self-supporting. Experience has shown tn such development can take place. Much of world’s work is of a kind requiring the e%erCX^ of only a minimum amount of intelligence, a t this work defectives are not only able anxious to attempt.
The communal employment of defect! gives rise to its own special problems. Sherlock considers some of these and the <^ culties in connection with them. difficulties he believes may be obviated to s > extent by the use of hostels; additional ^ c. ance could be afforded by bringing the de ^ tive into touch with one or other or benevolent organizations, such as the Baden- Powell Groups, the Y.M. and Y.W.C.A.’s, and py utilizing the services of the voluntary assoc- ^tions devoted to mental welfare. He discusses ?ther methods of communal care, and regrets that while there is probably sufficient work of a Useful character available for all defectives who can work, circumstances should prevent their being given opportunities of doing so. He asks whether it is possible to discover a more favourable way of dealing with the problem, tie considers certain popular alternatives. The lethal chamber, he believes, would be ineffec- *lve, sterilization impracticable, and satisfac- tory segregation too expensive. His book, in :act, is a reasoned plea for the better utilization the community of the mentally defective and it deserves every success in its endeavour 9 convert the ordinary citizen to this point of view.
H. Frieze Stephens. Children We Teach. By Susan Isaacs, M.A., D.Sc. University of London Press. 1932. 3/6 net. . ‘ My aim is to help the teacher to renew his j^sight into the needs of children he deals with. y lifting his eyes from the immediate practical ^oncerns of the classroom, and borrowing the 1Slon of the psychologist from time to time, le teacher can often gain fresh interest in his t uPils as human beings, and increase his own jyactical resources and adaptability.” This is e aim which Dr Isaacs so successfully ac- 5>rnpiishes in her little book ” The Children W? Teach.” -the word ” renew ” is particularly signifi- nt. pOSition of the elementary school . acher is a difficult one. She begins her teach- ^ exPerience with certain ideals before her; i at any rate, a determination not to fall ? a groove. She finds militated against her, ^e or all of the following factors; a reaction- y ?r short-sighted Education Committee; the ST) ^^Pathetic attitude adopted by some in- fix Ci -S’ a dogmatic headmaster or mistress; a ac C time-table; and a rigid law of promotion age?rC^ng to chronological rather than mental Sll ‘ If her personality is strong enough to 1(j>unt these difficulties, the size of her class ? . isolation of her position may yet blind ,1Ilsight into the needs of the children she s with. She is then apt to become like the teacher of the backward class in which, as Dr. Isaacs says, each child was confronted with the mangled remains of one primrose, pin-eyed or thrum-eyed, as the case might be. She is sus- picions, and even resentful of the psychologist, who appears to her to demand the impossible. To all teachers in this position, and there are many of them, this book should particularly commend itself. The style is easy and pleas- ant to read; the meaning is never obscured by the technical phraseology of the psychologist. If every department were to possess a copy of this vigorous and stimulating work, I feel sure that there would be a tremendous impetus given to the readjustment of our values, which is fundamental to all progress in education. Finally, how much more exciting our lives and work as teachers would be if we were doing a little real psychological research of our own ! E.L.C.
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