Are the Schools Responsule for Retardation?
NEWS AND COMMENT.
In the Biennial Report of the Schools of Erie, Pa., Superintendent H. G. Missimer devotes himself chiefly to the question of retardation. The faults discovered in his investigations, as well as his comment upon them, are worthy of the attention of students of this complex problem. He says in part:
“Retardation in the grades, on the above figures for the year 1908, was 36 per cent for the boys, 28 per cent for the girls, and 32 per cent for the entire grade enrolment.
“For the year 1909 the retardation for the boys was 44 per cent, for the girls 35 per cent, and for all 39 per cent. “This is a large percentage of retardation and there are two things about it that are noticeable:
“First. The boys show in Erie, as in all cities, greater retardation than the girls. The boy mind, in other words, is of slower development than the girl mind.
“Second. The retardation is greater in the upper grades. In the primary grades it runs from 1G per cent in the first grade to 37 per cent in the third grade. In the upper grades it shows 53 per cent for the fourth grade, 60 per cent for the fifth grade, 55 per cent for the sixth grade, and 45 per cent for the seventh grade.
“A certain proportion of this retardation is undoubtedly blamable, and can and should be overcome by closer and stronger supervision, by reducing irregularities of attendance, by more rigid enforcement of the compulsory law, by greater improvement in methods of teachlngj by the elimination of teachers who cannot improve, by the use of the latest and best text-books obtainable, and by provisions for the special teaching of those pupils who are mentally deficient. “No pupil in our schools of regular attendance and normal capacity stays in one grade for two years, or three years, or four years. Pupils of normal capacity and attendance go through on time. We have no record even of pupils of irregular attendance staying in one grade two years, or three years, or four years. Mental defectives may do so, but their place is not in the public school at all.
“The underlying principle of all school training should be the recognition of the individual capacity of each pupil. No pupil in any grade of our public schools should be kept marking time for those of less capacity to catch up. Machine promotion at regular intervals of the bright, the average, the slow, the dull pupils, all at one time and all together, kills all life and elasticity in a city school system. “Blamable. retardation or repeating, if any, is mainly due to the lack of a sensible provision for giving pupils the opportunity to go ahead according to their individual capacities. I am convinced that there is very little such retardation outside of this failure to provide for such promotion. The retardation talked about in educational conventions, as revealed by the scrutiny of school statistics by the special agents of school inquiries and ex-commissioners of education m some of our extra-constitutional colonial dependencies, is not retardation at all, but slow progress through the grades of a large percentage of pupils, due to natural conditions, for which the schools and teachers are about as responsible as they are for the rise and fall of the tides, or the picture of the man in the moon.
“Permit me to recite some conditions of slow progress beyond the control of schools, or teachers:
“First. Where does the responsibility rest for the incontrovertible fact that in every class in the schools there are always some pupils who are below the normal in capacity, or are confessedly dull and slow, and naturally require more time to do the work of the grade? The Creator of all things, alone, and only He can be held responsible. “Second. Is the school responsible for the social and economic conditions that produce the poverty that keeps children out of school for the want of necesary clothing and shoes, or compel many to work out of school hours to help to support the family, and so cause poor lessons, and slower progress in school?
“Third. Is the school responsible for irregularities of attendance caused by sickness and epidemic diseases, and the consequent loss of schooling under the vexatious enforcement of superficial regulations of a state board of health, which every year causes hundreds and hundreds of school children to lose, on the average, nearly two months’ schooling because the baby or some child in the house has the measles, the mumps, or the chicken-pox?
“Fourth. Irregular attendance caused by a lax enforcement of the compulsory law or the retention of poor teachers as factors of Retardation may be chargeable to the school system, but the remedy therefor does not lie with the school but with the school board upon whom rests the responsibility for the manner of enforcing the law and for the reappointment of inefficient teachers.
“Fifth. Can the frequent changes of teachers caused by resignation, or sickness, in the teaching force; can the transfer of pupils from a country, or parochial, to a public school; can a change of teachers caused by a change of residence, and change of school district; can all these things affecting hundreds of children in every city school district, and naturally causing slow progress in their studies, be chargeable to the schools? “Sixth. Can the fact that a city has hundreds of foreign-speaking children in the public schools, who have to learn English first, and take twice as long to finish a grade as American children; can (the statistics men to the contrary notwithstanding) that be chargeable to the schools as blamable retardation?
“These foreign-speaking children rarely go through the grades. Their main object is to learn English, to learn to read, to write, to figure a little, and as soon as they reach the age when they may go to work, they stop school. We have every year in Erie, as the tables show, quite a number of foreigners of mature age, who come into the lower grades just to learn to read English. These pupils figure, of course, in the matter of retardation, but it surely cannot, and should not, be termed retardation at all.
“Seventh. Can the compulsory act, permitting children to enter school as late as eight years, be chargeable to the schools as retardation when such children are sixteen before they finish the grades? “Eighth. Can the loss of lessons caused by parents calling children out of school to run errands, or keeping them out of school every half day or so to mind the baby, be chargeable to the schools? “Ninth. Can the adenoid afflictions of many pupils; can defects of vision and hearing, and other physical disorders in hundreds of others, inevitably resulting in slow progress, be chargablo to the schools, as blamable retardation?
“Tenth. Can the presence of mentally defective children in the schools who are a burden upon the teacher; whose parents will not put them into the institutions provided for such children, and for whom school boards generally do not provide special schools, or whom they do not exclude from school, on the ground that they are the children of taxpayers, can the failure to advance such pupils be justly called retardation ? “Eleventh. In conclusion, one reason quite generally prevalent, of retardation in the schools lies in the fact that many parents do not wish their children to study at home. Social conditions have so generally changed in the last twenty-five years that, though it was once considered a wholesome thing for the children to stay at home nights and get their lessons, it is now considered too injurious to their health, and they must not have their growing activities and desire for play restrained by too much confinement. The public playgrounds, the nickel shows, the children’s parties, the boys’ clubs?the forerunners of the men’s clubs?and other innocent resorts monopolize the attention of many youngsters out of school, and at night, and are all considered necessary to their development, morally, spiritually and physically, while the confinement at home to get their lessons is quite hurtful, and may produce nervous collapse from over-study.
“Of the pupils admitted to the High School in June, 1909, about 39 per cent finished the grades in seven years and less; 38 per cent finished in eight, and 23 per cent finished in nine years and over. That is, 77 per cent finished on normal time or less, and 23 per cent ran overtime from two to nine months. “When we inquire into the causes of the retardation of these pupils, who comprise the 23 per cent, we find that sickness, poor health, late entry into school, changing schools by change of residence from one city to another, lack of capacity, slow mental development, poverty compelling many to work their way through school, cover each and every case of such retardation. These are legitimate reasons entirely beyond the control of either school or teacher, and such pupils have a positive, moral right to more time to do the work of the school, and such retardation is reasonable, fair, just, praiseworthy, right, and wholesome. The money it costs the taxpayers to permit such pupils to repeat is not wasteful expenditure at all, but is money well spent, and m the highest interests of the community.”
The readers of the Psychological Clinic may well feel that the writer has done too much honor to one or two students of the subject, m signaling them out and ignoring the contributions of Cornman, Bryan, Neal, Greenwood, and others. He does a service in pointing out that the causes of retardation are largely of a social character, and must be sought in conditions outside of the schools and their administration. This aspect of the case has not escaped the attention of other writers, but has perhaps not been so forcibly expressed by them. It is clear that while we have an increasing .knowledge of the general causes underlying retardation, we are still very far from any exact notions as to their relative importance. Until we gain this information a comprehensive program of remedial measures cannot be formulated, nor can we form any idea as to the probable outcome of any single measure which may seem obvious. If in certain parts of the report cited, one gains the impression that the writer believes retardation to be wholly inevitable, this is counteracted by other passages when it is conceded that some, if only a small part, of the retardation could be obviated.
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