The Need for Special Classes Ie” The Public Schools
- Author:
IIeilman,
Harrison Fellow in Pedagogy, University of Pennsylvania.
The April number of The Psychological Clinic contains an article by Superintendent Bryan, of Camden, N. J., on the “Extent and Causes of Retardation.” In treating of the extent of retardation in the public schools of his city for the school year 1905-0G, he shows that 72 per cent of the pupils were older by at least one year than the age assumed by the school system to be the standard age for each of the several grades; 47 per cent were more than one year older than the standard age; 2G per cent more than two years older, and 12 per cent more than three years older. These figures give some idea of the amount of retardation in the schools of Camden, but this state of affairs also obtains in other cities. By examining the school report of New York City for 1903-04, and that of Kansas City for 1902-03, I found that the relative number of retarded children in these cities corresponded closely to that of Camden. The percentages for New York City, given in the above order, are 72, 40, 19, and 9; and for Kansas City, 72, 42, 19, and 5. As the school systems of these cities rank among the best in this country, I think it is not too bold an assumption to maintain that pedagogical retardation of surprisingly large proportions is both a widespread and a chronic affliction of our public schools.
Convinced of the nature and extent of retardation, measured in terms of school progress, I was easily persuaded to make a study of its causes. I began my work by subjecting to personal examination the 2G per cent group of Camden’s rotarded children,?those more than two years older than the standard age for their respective grades. Having just finished my work, I am far from ready to make known the results of the investigation, but I am prepared to say that school authorities, in failing to provide instruction which is adapted to the mental capacity and organization of many school children, are in a large measure responsible for the retarded progress, incorrigibility and truancy of a considerable percentage of pupils. I am preparing my material for publication in the form of a monograph, which will present a detailed analysis of the causes of retardation thorughout a city school system.
ISTo school system, however, need or can afford to wait nntil statistics of retardation have been gathered and analyzed by experts. Supervising principals and teachers are already aware of the existence of children in their schools who are unable to progress in the grades with normal children. Many children, indeed, who have been driven into the school-room by legal compulsion are totally unable to make the least acquisition, because an effective appeal to their mental capacities cannot be made without some reference to personal peculiarities of mind and body. Unable to take any part in school work, the children experience neither the pleasure nor the encouragement derived from accomplishment. Deprived of this groat incentive to school industry, out of harmony with school discipline, often inimical to their schoolmates, a burden to their teachers and a weariness to themselves, they defy the authorities of school and state, developing into truants and some of them finally into criminals to make society repent of its failure to provide properly for their intellectual and moral growth. Many cities have already in operation a system of special schools adapted to truants and incorrigibles. Some have even begun to make provision for the special training of backward children. It is not generally known how numerous the children are who require special treatment. The organization of a small number of special schools for a large city like Philadelphia is sometimes advocated as a solution of the problem. Such provision is entirely inadequate. It is a conservative estimate that every school of a thousand children contains a sufficient number of retarded cases to warrant the establishment of a special class for the retarded and mentally defective children.
This statement does not imply that in every school of a thousand children there will be forty or more mentally defective children. The number of retarded children assigned to a single teacher must be strictly limited. The Germans, who have far outstripped us in this work, regard twenty as the maximum number to be assigned to a single teacher. This is the practice in most of their schools; in Leipzig the number is limited to fifteen. Where the children are selected from the rest of the school to form a special class, Dr Gorke contends that the number of pupils should not exceed twelve to fifteen; while Ziehen fixes the number at from eight to ten.
If, then, it be admitted that the special class for backward children should not be composed of more than ten to twenty pupils, may we expect to find that every school of a thousand pupils has a sufficient number of backward cases to form a special class ? This article, which is based upon an examination of all the very backward cases in a single school, points to an affirmative answer. I undertook the examination to assist the supervising principal in determining the mental and physical characteristics of those children whom the grade teachers reported as deficient in progress. The results in this school may be taken as typical of what will be found in many schools of any large city. The name and location of the school are omitted because they are not necessary for the purposes of this article, and because it is desired to give no occasion for criticism on the part of those who regard this kind of investigation as likely to give offense to parents. The fear of the opposition of parents to the examination of their children is much exaggerated. Most parents are more than gratified at every sign of increased interest in their children shown by the school authorities. In more than a thousand cases examined by me during the past year, only one child refused to take the examination because of parental objection.
Twenty-nine cases were reported to the supervising principal. I began my work with the examination of these cases. The supervising principal reported other cases and my examination is now being extended to those children who will fail to be promoted on their record for the year. Of the cases coming thus under my observation I have selected twenty for this report. They nre all from the first three grades; although they are the worst cases in these grades, there are doubtless other children in the school very nearly, if not quite, as backward as some of these. The total number of children in the first three grades from which this group of twenty is drawn is nine hundred and twenty-eight. The total registration of the school is close to seventeen hundred. For the benefit of the skeptic who may doubt the existence of twenty subnormal children among nine hundred and twenty-eight children of the first three years, I present a brief sketch of these twenty cases.
With respect to their capacity to profit by the instruction of the public schools, they may be classified under three heads: 1. Children who belong in special institutions but who, under present conditions, must be provided for by the public school system. 2. Children who can never bo expected to reach the grade standard of the normal child.
3. Children who may be expected, after one or more years of special treatment, to make moderate progress in the regular grades.
The determination of the group to which, a particular child belongs is difficult and often uncertain. The classification is based chiefly on the present mental status, though in some instances it must be determined with reference to the future condition of the child. To predict the outcome of special training with any degree of certainty, the child should have been taught for a year or more in a special class. Its physical defects also should have been corrected wherever possible. There is likely to be a difference of opinion as to the grade of a child’s intelligence. In the long run, those most competent to judge will be the teachers and supervising principals who have had the children under prolonged observation. This observation, to be effective, must call to its aid careful examination and study of individual charcteristics. 1. Children who belong in special institutions, but who, wider present conditions, must be provided for by the public school system. Case I. A girl eleven years old. She is in her third school year, but is still in the first grade with no hope of promotion at the end of this year. She has acquired practically nothing of the school curriculum and does not even know her letters. She can copy combinations of letters, but they mean nothing to her. The child is a middle-grade imbecile. She attends school very regularly, but licr conduct is deficient. She sulks for days, and is impulsive and stubborn. Her parentage is Irish; the home care and discipline are very poor. I could not test her eyesight and hearing because she refused to come into the office, nor did she respond for this purpose to her teacher in the school room. I could not even see her face, because she threw her head down upon her arms and finally crept under her desk.
Case II. A girl aged nine years. She has attended school for one year, and is in the lowest class of the first grade. With some assistance she can count to 17, but docs not recognize words and is unable to copy any writing. She barely reaches the level of a high-grade imbecile. Her attendance is very regular and conduct good. Her parents are Russian Jews who speak Yiddish at home. The home care and discipline are fair, but the support poor. Her health and nutrition are only medium. She has tea and bread for breakfast and also drinks tea at supper. Vision is with glasses and without them. Hearing is also somewhat defective. Muscular co-ordination is poor. She has crowded and decayed teeth, enlarged tonsils, and contracted chest. Her narrow forehead indicates a deficiency of the pre-frontal lobes, and her hands are cold and cyanosed.
Case III. A boy nearly seven years old. This is his tenth month in school and his progress is nil. He can neither write, count, nor copy words. lie seldom attempts to talk. He is an imbecile of barely middle grade. His attendance is regular, but his conduct is deficient. He is shy, very nervous and wilful. The home language is English, although the parents are Russian Jews. The mother is an intelligent woman, very solicitous about her child, whom she is unable to discipline. ITis health is poor, but nutrition and home care are good. Vision internal strabismus. Hearing seemed normal. His powers of co-ordination are very poor. The tonsils are hypertrophied, and the naso-pharynx obstructed. His eyes are widely spaced, and there is some cranial asymmetry. 2. Children who can never he expected to reach the grade standard of the normal child.
Case IY. A boy almost eight years old. His first year at school. He can neither read nor write. He knows about ten words and can count to ten. He is an extreme case of aprosexia. On account of his physical condition which could be improved, it is difficult to judge of his future intelligence, but at present it is not above that of a highgrade imbecile. Attendance is irregular and conduct deficient. His parents are Russian Jews and the home language Yiddish. Home care and discipline are good. The boy’s health is fair, but his nutrition is rather poor. He drinks coffee at breakfast and tea in the evening. Vision is only Hearing does not appear to be defective. Co-ordination is medium, but he is very inert. He is a mouth breather, with decayed teeth and exceedingly large tonsils. His hands are blue and cold, and the cranium is small.
Case V. At the end of his fourth school year, this boy, whose age is ten years, is still in the lowest class of the first grade. He cannot read nor add and subtract, but he can write and count to ten. He may be called a high-grade imbecile, for under special training he has shown improvement. He is a confirmed truant, very deficient in conduct, but when he attended a special class he was neither a truant nor incorrigible. He is sullen and wilful. He was born in Italy and the language of the home is Italian. Home care, discipline, and support ai’e poor. His health and nutrition are good. At supper he habitually drinks coffee and beer. His vision is only internal strabismus. Hearing is normal; co-ordination medium. His expression is dull, forehead low, and cranium brachicephalic. His hands are cyanosed.
He is one of several degenerate children. Cases VII and XIV are brothers of his. He has a sister three years old who is still unable to sit up. This case is interesting because when this boy was sent for several hours a week to a special trainer of deficient children there was a marked improvement in his conduct at home and in school. He also took an interest in his school work and did not play truant. Since the special instruction has ceased, he has lost interest and is again incorrigible and a truant. Case VI. A boy seven years old; has attended school for one year. He recognizes a few words, counts to about twenty, can add a little, but is unable to write. Improved physical conditions might place him above the high-grade imbecile. *IIe attends school regularly, but his conduct is very deficient. His teacher thinks he is likely to become a moral case. He is bold, but has a vacillating will. His parents are Russian Jews and speak Yiddish in the home. The home care, discipline and support are poor. His breakfast consists of coffee, bread and cake. He has beer for lunch and drinks tea in the evening. Sight is Hearing may be somewhat below the normal, especially in the left ear. Co-ordination is fair. His teeth are decayed to the gums, tonsils enlarged, nasal passages obstructed, and there is a marked cranial asymmetry in the frontal region. Case VII. A brother to Case V, seven years of age. Has been one year at school, but can recognize only a few words, count to ten, and do a little scribbling. He may rank somewhat above the high-grade imbecile in intelligence. School attendance is regular, but conduct deficient. He is shy, sullen, stolid, and stubborn. Birthplace Italy; home language Italian. The home care, support and discipline are poor. His nutrition and health are good. Beer and coffee constitute his regular evening stimulants. His attention was so poor and his answers so uncertain that his sight could not be tested with the illiterate card; strabismus. Hearing seems normal. His leptocephalic skull with marked flattening all along the temporal and parietal regions, indicates a decided deficiency of gray matter.
Case VIII. This unfortunate girl is seventeen years old and only in the third grade. She has attended school three years, having come from Russia four years ago, but her progress is so deficient that her teacher reports her as practically unable to do any third-grade work. Her general behavior is so little below the normal that she may be rated as backward and above the grade of imbecile. Her attendance is regular and her conduct excellent. The care of the home is fair; the discipline poor; and the support very poor. Her health and nutrition seem poor. She has coffee and bread for breakfast and drinks tea at supper. Vision Hearing normal. Co-ordination is rather poor, and she is very inert. She “is a victim of hemiplegia with scoliosis, which she says was consequent upon scarlet fever. The right arm and leg are paralyzed. The foot is clubbed and the hand contractured. Both show the usual vaso-motor disturbances. Her condition is pitiable. Her father, she says, is unable to keep her, and so she means to go to work after her hand is straightened.
3. Children who may le expected, after one or more years of special treatment, to make moderate progress in the regular grades. Case IX. A girl, in her eighth year, has been only ten months in school. She can count to ten. Her inability to progress is undoubtedly due to a number of remediable causes. She is very shy, stubborn and inert. Co-ordination is medium. Her sight and hearing appear to be normal. Iler parents are Russian Jews and speak Yiddish. The father is an inebriate and at present is confined in an institution for the insane. The family is supported by a Jewish society on ten dollars a month, five of which are devoted to the payment of rent. The home care, support and discipline are the worst possible. Iler health is very poor, and her haggard look and sunken eyes seem to indicate something more serious than bad nutrition.
Case X. This is an eight-year-old boy, in the lowest class of the first grade. He has attended school one year, and is still unable to read. lie knows about twenty words, writes a little, counts to forty, and can add and subtract numbers up to ten. In reciting he plays the parrot by calling out what he hears the other children say. He is backward in intelligence; attendance is very regular; conduct very deficient. The support and care of the home are poor, but his health and nutrition seem good. He drinks tea in the morning and evening. Co-ordination is fair. Vision is hearing normal. His voice is obstructed, teeth decayed, and tonsils enlarged. He breathes through his mouth and has a contracted chest. The hands are cold and much cyanosed. Case XI. The age of this girl is ten years, but this is her first year at school. Her writing is very good. She knows no words, is unable to read, and can count only with the assistance of blocks. She is no doubt retarded by her ignorance of the English language, for she was born in Russia. She is a backward case, but talks rather intelligently . She is inclined to be sulky and wilful; conduct is good; attendance irregular. The care of the home is good, support poor, discipline fair. She has good health and is well nourished. Her stimulants are coffee in the morning, tea at dinner, and beer in the evening. She has good powers of co-ordination. Both sight and hearing are normal. The teeth are decayed; the tonsils hypertrophied; and the hands cold and blue.
Case XII. A backward boy, six years old, who has attended school one year. His writing is very poor and many letters are in mirror script. He makes many errors in copying his written work, counts to about ten, knows about twenty words, but cannot do the simplest addition or subtraction. His conduct is fair; attendance regular. His parentage is Russian Jewish, and he was born in Russia. Home care and support are medium. He is healthy and looks well fed. In the morning his diet consists of cocoa and bread. At dinner he drinks tea, and in the evening beer. He co-ordinates his movements well; has vision, and probably normal hearing. His tonsils are enlarged and his nostrils and nasopharynx filled with mucous. His hands are cold and slightly cyanosed.
Case XIII. Another first grade boy who is six years old and has attended school one year. Some of his writing can be read, but he copies words incorrectly. He can scarcely count to ten, but can add numbers up to three. He knows hardly more than ten words. Although lie is backward, his case is rather hopeful. lie appears to be exceedingly shy and is ratlicr sullen and obstinate. His conduct is deficient and his attendance irregular. The parents are Italian. The home care is poor and the support very poor. His health is poor and his nutrition only medium. Co-ordination good; vision hearing normal. The head is well shaped. When asked to do anything by his teacher he invariably rubs his fists into his eyes, then covers his face with his arms and frequently begins to cry.
Case XIV. The second brother to Case V, aged nine years. At the end of his third school year he is still in the lowest class of the second grade, can add small sums, but knows 110 tables; reads in the second reader, but only with much assistance. He is far more intelligent than his brother, and may be classed as backward. He is inclined to be bold, surly and stubborn; his conduct approaches incorrigibility, and he is so rude to the other pupils that he may be called vicious. Ilis attendance is regular, though he is an occasional truant. He appears well nourished and healthy. He drinks milk in the morning, coffee at lunch, and several glasses of beer in the evening. Co-ordination is fair; vision with strabismus. His hearing is rather acute. His head is much better shaped than that of either of his brothers, but his teacher says he sometimes falls into a stupor from which he is aroused only by being shaken. lie may suffer from petit mat.
Case XV. A girl, nine years old. Has attended school three years, but cannot do second-grade work satisfactorily. Her teacher thought she could not even count properly, though she knows the tables to five inclusive, and can add a little. Her birthplace is Russia. The home care is fair and the discipline good, but they are poor people. Her health and nutrition appear good. She drinks coffee and milk at breakfast, used to drink beer at dinner, and has tea for supper. She co-ordinates well and has normal sight and hearing. She has a sleepy look, breathes through her mouth, has an overgrowth of lymphoid tissue in the back of her throat, and the nasopharynx seems obstructed. Her hands have a nervous balance.
Case XVI. A boy who will be twelve years old in August. This is his fourth year at the school he is attending, but he is still in the lowest class of the second grade, and his progress this year has been very deficient. He reads in the primer with some assistance, knows the two-times table, can do simple addition and subtraction, and writes well. He is very well behaved, but attends school irregularly. His parents are Swedes, who speak the German and English languages in the home. The support of the home is poor; care fair, and discipline good. He has poor health and is not well nourished. His sight and hearing are normal, and his co-ordination is good. His voice is decidedly nasal, and he breathes through his mouth. He had adenoids and tonsils removed last summer, but on recommendation was taken to a specialist for the nose, who is now treating him for adenoids. His palate is only about one centimeter wide; his forehead is narrow, and his hand-balance very Case XVII. A boy, ten years old; has attended school at least three years. He is in the third class of the second grade and has made deficient progress this year. lie counts well, and his addition and subtraction are done by counting. He is unable to repeat any part of the multiplication table. He reads and spells fairly well. Owing to his extreme stupidity it took at least five minutes’ training before he could be tested with the illiterate card, and even then he was not able to respond correctly to the iipright position of the character. He is bold, sullen, stolid, and stubborn. His parents are Russian Jews, and the home language is Yiddish. The care of the home is good and the support medium. He has fairly good health and good nutrition. He drinks coffee at breakfast; sometimes he has beer once, sometimes twice a day. Co-ordination is fair; sight hearing normal. The teeth are decayed. His sullen disposition, stolid appearance, mouth breathing, and enlarged tonsils are indicative of adenoids.
Case XVIII. A girl who will be ten years old in October. In the lowest class of the third grade, she made no progress this year, and takes no interest in anything. She knows the tables to the fifth inclusive, but cannot add, subtract, or multiply. She behaves fairly well and attends school regularly. American parentage. The home care and discipline are good, and the support is medium. Health and nutrition are good. She drinks coffee in the morning. She has fair ability in coordinate movement; sight normal; hearing of the right ear slightly defective. Her teeth are decayed and notfched. She breathes through her mouth and is an adenoid case under treatment.
Case XIX. A boy, fourteen years old. Four years ago he was still in the first grade; at present he is only in the third, or lowest class of the third grade; his progress this year has been deficient. He is very childish, unable to repeat stories, has a bad memory, and cannot do problems in arithmetic. Sometimes ho knows his tables, and sometimes he can add, subtract and divide. He can read fairly well in the second reader. He will undoubtedly never get beyond the third grade. He is very shy, stolid and weak-willed. His conduct is excellent and attendance very regular. His parents are Russian Jews. The home care is good, discipline and support medium. His health and nutrition are apparently good. Drinks coffee, tea and beer. Co-ordination is fair; vision -|?; hearing of the left ear defective. His posterior glands are enlarged.
Case XX. A girl, fourteen years old. Has attended school seven years, and is regarded as exceedingly deficient in the third class of the third grade. What she acquires one day is lost the next. She knows her tables and can do the fundamental operations, but no problems. She is a very poor reader. Like the last case, she may never pass beyond this grade on any other merit than age. She is quite bold, surly, stolid and intractable; her conduct is very deficient; her attendance is iogular, though she is an occasional truant. She is of Russian Jewish parentage, but one of the home languages is English. The homo care and disciTHE NEED FOR SPECIAL CLASSES. 113 pline are poor, and the support medium. She has rather poor health. She appears fairly well nourished, but she eats no breakfast. Her coordination is fair; vision with glasses and without theniy^R and ^L; hearing is normal. The teeth are decayed and brittle; the half nearer the cutting edge is thin, rough, pitted, and poorly covered with enamel. Tonsils have been removed. Hands and arms cold and cyanosed; chest contracted. She never sleeps well, and almost every night her mother gives her drops to put her to sleep; she thought the name of the drops was “alcohol.” Sometimes, however, she is put to sleep by being allowed to smell at a bottle. These remedies for insomnia were recommended by a relative.
Of those twenty cases, two have been classed as middle-grade imbeciles, four as high-grade imbeciles and fourteen as backward children. Three are considered to be institution cases. It is probable that an even larger number would make better progress in an institution for mentally feeble children. At least eight of them arc unlikely to attain the grade standards of the normal child. Twelve of the number may possibly make normal progress in the ordinary grades after they have been taught for a year or more in a special class.
Of the data that may be obtained from collating the statistics of the twenty cases, the most interesting item is that of conduct. The conduct of five was reported to be excellent, of two good, two fair, five deficient, and six very deficient. Nine of the eleven cases of deficient conduct were said to be obstinate or stubborn, and seven were sullen or surly. Of the total number, eleven cases were reported as obstinate or stubborn and eight cases as sullen or surly. One case of deficient conduct was a confirmed truant, and two were occasional truants. This presents an illustrative example of the effect of inappropriate school methods upon backward children. Their deficient conduct is due not only to an unsuitable curriculum and erroneous methods, but also to inability on the teacher’s part to understand and properly control the child who deviates in mental and moral character from the usual type. Five of the children are nervous and thirteen are sluggish and inert or stolid. Most of these children would be improved by the mental training that results from physical exercise under direction and from manual training. Improper and insufficient food and drink are important items in causing mental retardation. Five of these children have poor health and six are not well nourished. A sufficient diet would strengthen their attention and improve their memory. Out of the seventeen cases, fifteen drink habitually tea or coffee or both, and nine (three of whom are girls) drink beer regularly. Some of these children confess that they have been drunk, and others may liave been intoxicated without having -realized their condition.
Four children are mouth breathers; eight have decayed teeth; nine have hypertropliied tonsils, and five probably have adenoids. Decayed teeth are associated with enlarged tonsils in every case. Five children have defective craniums; and one is a hemiplegia. Out of eighteen cases tested, thirteen have subnormal vision; four have strabismus. Four cases are subnormal in hearing. This list of deficient children, already so long, could easily bo increased, for I have the records of a number of others from the same school. I have now before me the record of a boy who has attended school three years and in all this time has not made a single promotion, his progress being very deficient even in his present grade. However, I feel that I have already presented a sufficient number of cases to form at least one special class. The teacher of this class will have few idle moments, even though her pupils are but half the number usually assigned to a grade teacher. As a matter of fact, several of these children should be sent to an institution for feeble-minded children, and two special classes should be formed, one for the.permanently backward children and another for children who can be returned to the grades after one or more years in the special class.
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