The Backward Child
- Author:
Cyril Burt,
M.A., D.Sc., University of London Press, 1937. 20/-.
This is a worthy companion for ” The Young Delinquent”. Professor Burt has succeeded admirably in providing readable material for teachers and psychologists alike. It may be that every reader will be content to skim or omit some sections, but there will be sufficient material for study to satisfy the most selective. Professional psychologists will be grateful for the highly technical appendices. Written with the scholarly care and felicity of style that we have appreciated in the author’s earlier works, the book covers a very wide range of subjects, each being treated in so great detail that it is text-book of research methods as well as an indispensable work of reference.
Professor Burt defines backwardness in two ways. The backward comprise ‘ all those who in the middle of their school career would be unable to do the work of the class next below that which is normal for their age.’ (p. 77.) In alternative terms that child is retarded ‘ whose educational ratio falls below 85 per cent.’ (p. 79.) It may be said that these limits are arbitrary, but that would be the case with any others, and these are convenient in practice. The lower limit of the class is set by the upper limit of mental deficiency, a topic not treated in this book.Within these limits we have in England and Wales some half-million children, all presumably capable of some degree of education, and all required by the state to be educated, but none of them capable of profiting greatly by the instruction suitable for those of average ability. Such is the magnitude of the pedagogic and sociological problem which Professor Burt confronts. The causal factors of backwardness are submitted to close statistical treatment, with results which may distress too optimistic social theorists. ‘ The causes of backwardness prove unexpectedly numerous and varied : and in most cases not one cause, but several, are at work.’ (p. 564.) But the chief cause of backwardness is naturally dull intelligence, a condition beyond remedy. Most teachers and clinic workers will readily accept this conclusion, and attempts at reform must consequently be concentrated upon improving educational methods with a view to minimizing the secondary effects of dullness. Next, but a long way after, come social conditions, ‘ including under this term the intellectual and moral status of the home as well as sheer poverty.’ (p. 571.) The other factors of health, temperament, and specific disabilities are relatively unimportant statistically, though they may be decisive in individual cases. It follows from this analysis that the most far-reaching social and medical improvements could only slightly reduce the pool of backwardness, and make the path of the dull a little easier by removing additional handicaps. The essential problem would still remain.
So we turn to the author’s practical suggestions, which are, in brief, segregation and special training. He is aware of the difficulties of segregation, but it may be doubted whether he allows sufficient weight to them. The present writer knows a town which provides reasonable facilities for admission to secondary schools, and a very generous system of selective central schools.
The result is that the non-selective senior schools are in fact negatively selected. They contain the majority of the elder children and nearly all the ‘ normal’ intelligence of the school population, as well as the backward, who are in the minority. But they are definitely under a cloud. Scholars and parents are disappointed, and feel attendance at them to be something of a stigma. Can we disregard the social and emotional difficulties which would be introduced by further down-grading? Professor Burt suggests special classes for the backward to be conducted in the ordinary schools. This is a sound practice for cases of specific or remediable backwardness, but there remain the intellectually dull who will remain indefinitely in the class, which will be known by all the children for what it is. The most ingenious titles are thin disguises, through which children soon see. The experience gained from the ‘ B’ forms of secondary schools is discouraging.
The happiest solution would be such a reduction in the size of classes as would permit of individual teaching where required, together with a greater flexibility of internal organization. Even then the question of curriculum is a difficult one. We are warned against the fallacy of the common belief that the dull can compensate by manual skill. The clumsy mind usually directs clumsy hands. It may still be urged, however, that the education of the backward should be practical, provided that the term is not taken to mean manual and nothing else. The topic cannot be pursued here, but the chapter deserves the most careful study. It is impossible to offer a detailed review of a book of this wide scope, but we must express our thanks particularly for the chapter on ‘ Defects of Speech ‘. A. W. Wolters.
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