A Class of Backward and Defective Children
- Author:
Mary Belle Greene.
My class was organized in February 1908, in the Samuel J. Randall School, by authority of the Board of Education, granted at the request of the City Superintendent, and under the direction of Mr. Charles H. Brelsford, Superintendent of District No. 3, Philadelphia, Pa.
Two weeks after its organization sixteen children had been placed in the class, ten boys and six girls. They came from the first three grades and ranged in age from seven to thirteen years, being retarded from one to four years in school progress. The number varied through admissions and dismissals until altogether forty-one pupils had received special treatment.
Of the pupils treated in this class, eight have been returned to the grades to take up their regular school work, and twelve are now prepared to do the regular work when school opens in September. Of the eight who were promoted during the year, six were promoted to the next higher grade in June by exemption, one had to take the examination and passed, and one left school. One boy was exempt No. 1 of the class, but I consider him a bright pupil. Up to the time he was placed in the special class, he had done absolutely nothing but annoy the teacher and children in his class. After being with me about two months he decided that he would like to do his regular work, and since he has been settled in the grade his work has been very commendable. Three boys have been granted working certificates and are now making their living in an honorable way. Seven were withdrawn from school on account of death or removal from the district. This leaves eleven in the class who will need individual treatment next year, and I think it safe to say that they will always need special treatment, as eight of them are pronounced institutional cases. The medical inspector had suitable blanks printed and thoroughly examined each child. Twenty were found with defective eyes, three with defective hearing, eleven with defective nose and throat, fourteen with defective speech; seven with orthopedic defects ; eight, nervous temperament, and seven with lack of motor *This class has been supported by one of Philadelphia’s citizens widely known for his interest in all educational matters.
power. The report of the school nurse shows that seventeen of these have been treated or operated upon for defective vision or for enlarged tonsils and adenoids.
As the class increased in number, I found it difficult to give each child the amount of attention necessary, especially as the majority of them needed individual treatment. There were about ten children who impressed me as being backward children, and I believed that with special drill in some branches they would be able to return to their grade, not to do brilliant work, but probably to hold their own with the number in the grade who are rated as “fair”. The remainder of the class presented a very peculiar mixture, including a deaf and dumb girl about fourteen years old, two girls who were epileptics, one boy with very defective speech, and another little girl who had had St. Vitus’s Dance and was exceedingly nervous. At the suggestion of Superintendent Brelsford, we formed a morning and afternoon class, each consisting of twelve pupils. In the morning class were placed the backward children, and my chief aim was to awaken enough interest to enable them to work up in those branches in which they were deficient. Two hours were devoted to school branches in which they needed help, and one hour to physical culture, wood-work, pyrography, or any task which served the purpose of creating an interest in life, or proved the means of awakening their dormant powers. Lack of energy is one of the most marked traits of children of this class. They have drifted into a state of lethargy and they are perfectly satisfied to sit and do nothing unless their animal instincts are aroused, then they delight in teasing and hitting other children. If once they develop the trait of wanting to do, it is not such a difficult task to turn their energies in the right direction. In the afternoon class I was confronted with an entirely different and more difficult problem. Most of the children belonging to this class were pronounced institutional cases. Through the efforts of the principal and head nurse, applications have been placed for seven of them. In the afternoon very little regular school work was done. The most marked defects in this class are lack of concentration and motor control. Many had to be taught how to hold a pencil. We spent a great deal of time at the board making circles, curves, straight lines, etc., in order to develop a free movement of arm and hand, and to avoid the cramped position of the hand when resting on the desk. Physical culture has been a great help in overcoming these defects. I insist upon each pupil looking right into my eyes and making every motion together. The improvement here has been a great revelation to me. At first when I counted for the movements there was lack of precision. For example, when I stood before the class and went through the movements with them, nearly all the children in the class would raise their arms after I had said one, and lower them after two, instead of making the motion upon the count. After ten months of daily drill the majority of them learned to move on the count, and I consider this a great point gained. When they first came into the class, at the moment of dismissal I would say, “Children stand,” and it took fully a minute for the whole class to get on their feet. We are not good soldiers yet, but at the end of another year we may be.
Another difficulty to overcome is their inability to understand the English language. They do not know their right hand from their left, the top drawer from the bottom, under from over, in the desk from on the desk, etc., so we had daily talks about these things and each child was asked to do them so that the words would be impressed on their minds. We also had talks on cleanliness, good manners and morals, and I am very much pleased to say that they have not been without result.
Whenever I felt the time was ripe for a reading lesson or a number lesson it was given, and a great many children in this class can read a little in the primer and do simple number work. The others can recognize at least fifty words and read short sentences. In our very restless moments we work off the animal spirits by playing a game, or doing some sawing. To the visitor who goes into the class to observe, the results are not noticeable, but to the teacher who watches the repeated attempts and failures, the slightest improvement is discernible and gratifying.
The principal spent a great deal of time trying to place some of these children in institutions where they would be properly fed and cared for in every way. When the parents were consulted they refused absolutely to allow their children to go. In the majority of cases they are needed at home to help care for smaller brothers and sisters, and the parents are too ignorant to understand how much it will benefit the child. I have in mind just now the mother of the deaf and dumb girl. She is a very illiterate Italian woman, and when the principal was trying to induce her to let her daughter go to Mt. Airy, and was doing all in her power to explain how they could teach Concetta to talk and do so many useful things, the mother raised her hands, shrugged her shoulders and exclaimed: “Concetta, she born deaf, she die deaf.” In her mind that settled the matter. Of the two, the parent is the greater problem. If only some way could be found of dealing with them, how much easier it would be to instil into the minds of the children good moral habits and hygienic ways of living! After the child has attended school for a few years he is far superior to his parents in a great many respects, particularly where cleanliness is concerned.
In order to show that the time and energy expended on these pupils has not been without results, I cite the following cases: Case 10: Victoria D., thirteen years of age, was admitted to the class from second grade. She did not know the first grade work, but after sitting in the room for years without any apparent result, she was placed in the second grade for a change. Her teacher said she was perfectly hopeless. When I took her from the class room she seemed very much distressed and commenced crying, because she thought she was going back to the first grade. I comforted her by telling her that she was going to the third floor where all the large boys and girls were. She went into the room smiling.
When I examined her I found that the teacher was justified in saying she was hopeless. She could not read in the first reader or do the simplest number work. Her speech was very defective and she could not copy correctly the simplest words from the board. I picked out a primer that seemed attractive and tried to get her interested in it. As soon as she saw what kind of book it was, she informed me that she did not want to read in that “baby” book. She sat in her seat day after day in a perfectly listless attitude without noticing any work the class was doing. I tried to draw her attention to the board work, but she was not interested. I had a boy in the class doing third grade work, and one day I found her copying the examples he was doing, so I gave her some simple ones and she tried to do them, but without much success. I made up my mind then and there that the best thing for this girl to do was to forget books for awhile and learn something that she could do. I asked her how she would like to learn to sew, and her face was wreathed in smiles immediately. I got some gingham and cut out an apron for her. Her progress was slow, but she was so anxious to learn that the apron was finally finished and she took it home. She wanted to sew all day and I had to use a great deal of tact to get her into the physical culture exercises, the games, and down in the yard at recess. She had very silly spells at times. She would sit in her seat and giggle by the hour without any cause. We had a great many private talks about this habit, and it was agreed that if she saw anything funny she was to tell me, on the ground that I also liked to have a good laugh now and then. The spells came less frequent and finally were forgotten entirely. She made herself very useful around the room and loved to stay after school and help to put things in order. Her clothes were poor and she did not know how to put them on properly or how to do her hair. She came from a very poor Italian home and her surroundings were against her. Her mother was a very nice little woman, but ignorant; the father was an invalid and of very low mentality. He made from two to six dollars a week to support a family of seven. She had two younger brothers in the class, one a nervous wreck and poorly nourished and the other an habitual truant. Both were above her in mentality when under control. We had some talks about clean clothes and how the other girls arranged their hair, and to my surprise Victoria came to school the next morning with hair nicely braided and a bow of ribbon on it; before this she had it rolled up in a little knot on the back of her head, held in place with one hairpin. She gradually improved in appearance until there is now no cleaner, neater looking child in the school. Four months ago I started some of the children in the Sunbonnet Primer and I saw that Victoria was getting very much interested in the recitations. She listened attentively to every lesson. One day she came to me and said, “I never read any more.” I replied, “What would you like to read?” She said, “The Sunbonnet book.” She never missed a recitation from that time until the book was finished, and then she started a first reader. She would follow me around after school with the book in her hand, and ask all the words she did not know so she could read it at home. Her speech has improved very much, and I think she will learn to read. She will never be able to go back into the grade, because she is now over fourteen years old. If she had been placed in a special class when the first grade teacher found that she was not capable of doing the work, then, in all probability, these defects could have been overcome and she would have been a fair pupil. A child who sits in a class-room for five hours a day for six or seven consecutive years without understanding and with no interest in life, naturally forms habits of idleness and inattention, which take time and patience to overcome. The special class has been of inestimable value to this girl. She loves to go to school now and begs me not to promote her as she does not want to go back in the grade.
Case 18: Solomon I, six years old, was transferred to my class October 2, 1908, from another school. He had been in the first grade for five months and could not learn anything at all. He was a most forlorn looking creature as he walked into the room; his clothes were shabby and he was very much in need of a bath. He had a restless, roving look and his speech was very imperfect.
I insisted at his looking at me when I was talking to him, but could only hold his eye for a few seconds at a time. He appeared to be interested in everything the children were doing, and wanted to do something himself, but he lacked motor power. He could not hold a pencil or a piece of chalk. I held his hand and he made a few vertical lines on the board, but when he tried to do them alone the lines were wavy and of different lengths. Next he tried horizontal lines and finally he learned to put the two together and form a right angle. He worked so hard that the veins would swell and his face would be streaming with perspiration. At the end of the month he could cross the right angle and make the figure four. At first it meant nothing to him, but when he learned to put four pegs in the board and to make four straight lines and call them soldiers standing in a row, the idea of number came to him very quickly. Our next lesson was the figure seven, then he went a step farther and started on curves and circles. He worked a month before he could make a G and 9. It was at least five months before he learned to make the first ten figures. He progressed more rapidly with the mental work and was very quick in answering.
He was as helpless as a baby. He came to school with his shoe laces hanging and some other boy tied them for him. He could not catch a ball or bean bag. His playmates could do anything they wished to him and he offered no resistance. The children played ball and bean bag with him until he became quite an adept at the game, and could catch with one hand at a time. He made repeated attempts at making a raffia frame, but it ended in failure each time. At the end of two months he succeeded in finishing one and a prouder boy never walked to the office. He can now recognize about fifty words and read very short sentences; has more self-reliance, and I entertain great hopes for him in the future.
Case 20: Rose M., ten years old, was admitted to the class March 6, 1908. She had spent five months in the first grade, and her teacher told me that she mado no progress in the work. Her appearance and clothes bore every evidence of extreme poverty. Her face showed a surly disposition. She was so dirty and her skin had become so dark from want of water that some of the children gave her the nickname of “nigger”. In further study of the case I found that the home influence lent no support to the good impressions made at school. The mother was a very ignorant Italian woman who understood but little English. When spoken to about the cleanliness of her child it made no impression, for she was no cleaner than her offspring. After Rose had been with us one month, her brother Frank, twelve years old, was sent to my class from the House of Detention, where he had been held for stealing pipe from an empty house. Here was a problem in the form of a large, healthy boy, who was not deficient, but who, at the age of twelve, had never spent a day in school in his life. He did not know a letter or a figure, but was well versed in the “classics of the street.” He was very trying in his obstinacy, extremely aggressive, never more delighted than when teasing and hitting other children; yet he was tractable, and when I remonstrated with him in regard to his conduct, he would often be on the verge of tears, still the impression was not lasting. His former habits and training seemed to over-balance the good. In spite of his lawlessness he seemed interested in his work at times, and soon learned to read a little in the primer, and to do number work from one to twenty. It was by no means an easy task, but required untold patience, firm treatment, and constant vigilance, lie was then placed in first grade B, but being so much older than the other children, he was a source of annoyance to the teacher. He left shortly afterwards to attend a parochial school. I often meet him on the street and he is a much cleaner, brighter, happier looking boy than formerly, and I feel that all my efforts to change and mould his character have not been in vain. Rose was a different type of child, lazy, indifferent, the “don’t care” type. She was inclined to pout about trifles, and to be very disagreeable with her playmates. I had to draw the work out of her. After the summer vacation she seemed to have lost all she had learned the three months she spent in the grade. She spent the summer in the country picking berries. She learned to sew, and that seemed to interest her more than anything else; then she persuaded her mother to make her some new dresses, and she grew to be very neat. She became interested in her studies, and learned to read and write nicely. When the February promotions were made she was delighted at being placed in first grade B. At the end of three months her teacher commended her work and said she was a promising pupil for second grade work, to which grade she was exempt in June, 1909. During the year she had an operation for enlarged tonsils and seemed much better afterwards.
Case 25: Louie D., at the age of seven years was sent to me from first grade. His teacher had worked with him for five months without any results. If a stranger entered the class-room, Louie would immediately jump out of his seat, run to the corner of the room and scream as loud as possible. lie did the same thing several times after he came into the class and he seemed more frightened at a colored person. My class always used the fire escape for fire drill and the first time he seemed unusually scared, held back and screamed. I took him by the hand and led him down. Lie went very reluctantly, but had no fear of it again. I tried the same plan with him when people came into the room. At first I had them talk to him, but it only increased his fear. After that I ignored him completely and I found it worked better. He would scream for a few seconds and when he found no one was noticing him, he would slip into his seat and commence work. He gradually improved until he reached the stage where he would show his work to strangers. He did not understand English at all, and very few words in Italian. He never talked to any one. He was active and played with the children, but appeared to have no vocabulary. Being the smallest child in the class, he received a great deal of attention from the other members of the class, and they called him “baby”. The first words he learned to recognize were “mamma” and “baby”. A few days after a little girl much smaller than ho was admitted to the class. He scrutinized her closely, then he walked to her, took her by the hand, led her to me, and said “baby!” He passed the honor along very gracefully and gave the little girl all the attentions that he had received from his playmates. Louie soon came out of his dormant state, learned to talk nicely, and became an interested, energetic little fellow. As soon as he could read and write a little, and showed a decided inclination to learn, I placed him in the first grade A. In June he was exempt to the first grade B. He has never shown any fear of any one or anything since he left the class.
Case 9: Mary S., a little Italian girl, nine years old, was admitted to the class from first grade. She had spent thirty-six months in grade, and being an institutional case, could not learn much with average children. She was epileptic, also immoral. She was absent from school a week at a time on account of injuries received from falls during epileptic seizures. Mary was almost as helpless as an infant, could not recognize words or figures and had very defective speech. The first step in training this child was to teach her self-reliance. Each morning she walked into the room and stood in the middle of the floor with hat and coat on, until some one took them oif and hung them up for her. I tried to teach her to hang them up in the closet as she came in and after a month’s training she could do it. She never played with the other children at recess; was very destructive in the room, tearing books and chewing points off pencils. She was more destructive than usual after an epileptic fit. One day I noticed her trying to jump rope with the other children. She soon became very active, played ball, ran and jumped, and was delighted to play a kindergarten game. For months she stood in the class with the other children when they were learning words and numbers and yet showed no signs of knowing what we were talking about. She never said a word and very seldom looked at the book or board. One day I asked for a story about a bird and she raised her hand and said, “A bird can fly.” For weeks we talked about familiar objects and then she began to recognize some written words. Now she recognizes about fifty words, can read short sentences and make a few numbers. Mary is a child who will never be fit for a grade, but even an epileptic can be taught, and I do not know of any child whom the class has benefited more than it has Mary. Her application is in at an institution and she will be placed there as soon as there is a vacancy. When she has a severe spell she forgets everything she has learned for a period of a few days. If the class has done nothing else it has at least changed her from a helpless child into a self-reliant one who is now capable to some extent of taking care of herself.
If time and space permitted I could write up about thirty more cases, all with some marked defect which has made them outcasts from their respective grades. The special class has been a blessing to all, and with the exception of two, all have been wonderfully improved. Surely more ought to be done for these deficient children. It is not just to the average child to allow the grade teacher to take time to teach them, and it is very unjust to the deficient child to place it under restrictions in a class-room. The one great thing needed for these children is frequent change of work, and here lies the great problem for the teacher. The question of discipline is solved to a great extent if they can be kept busy and interested.
In closing let me make an urgent plea for more of these classes, with sufficient supplies, and trained teachers.
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