Retarded School Children in Madison Wisconsin
- Author:
Smiley Blanton, M.D., J
University of Wisconsin.
The ordinary school curriculum taught by a teacher of average skill and patience is probably as good a test of a child’s mental ability as the Binet-Simon and similar mental tests. The curriculum tests the child’s mental capacity in a vital way: memory, attention, abstract reasoning are all used in mastering the various subjects. The argument that the ordinary school does not fit the child for life and does not give him a useful training has no bearing on the point in question?the ability of the school work to test the child’s mental capacity. The point is that the great majority of children are able to learn in a certain length of time a certain minimum proportion of the subjects which they have to study while in school. There is, however, in every school system a small percentage of children who either cannot learn at all this minimum amount of what is being taught them, or they take twice or more the amount of time required by the average. David Mitchell,1 in his report of the survey of the Cleveland schools, says that all such children, three or more years behind their grade, may be considered suspects and Goddard’s2 experience teaches that when these suspects are carefully examined at least two-thirds of them will be found to be feebleminded. Again, he says3 that the child who gets three years behind has, as a rule, stopped development and seldom progresses appreciably beyond that point. Method of Procedure.
It is usually conceded by educators that when a child is three years behind his grade without good reason, there is something seriously wrong. It is obvious, however, that there are many children several years behind their grades with good reason and who are not in the least dull and backward. There are doubtless people in this country with brilliant minds who cannot pass the second grade, because they never had the chance to go to school. It would be 1 Mitchell, David. Schools and Classes for Exceptional Children. Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation, 1916, 1 Goddard, H. H. Journal of Educational Psychology, May, 1916, p. 288. ? Ibid, p. 291. (250) absurd to assume, for example, that an illiterate Southern mountaineer lacked mental ability because he could not read or write. From this survey was excluded every child who was backward from any good reason and all those who were behind their grades: 1. Because of absence from school due to illness. 2. Because they had lived in the country where school facilities were actually lacking or very poor.
3. Because they had traveled about a great deal and had lost several years in changing from school to school; or had come from a different system, as from England or Scotland. 4. Because, although more or less regular in their attendance, they had yet had so much illness that it had affected their progress in school.
The figures were gathered by a personal survey. Each grade was visited and the ages of the children determined by the roll book. It was assumed that the normal age for those entering the first grade was about six years, for the second grade about seven years, and so on up to the eighth, where the child should not be over fifteen when finishing this grade. As was said, when the backwardness was due to entering school late, or irregularity in attendance, or changing schools, these cases were not counted. Only those were counted who entered school at the usual time, and though they had been regular in attendance, yet had not been able to keep up with their classes, and had dropped back to the extent of three years.
After determining from the roll those who were three years behind the age that had been allowed for the grade, they were each questioned as to the age at which they entered school, if they had been absent frequently from illness, as to the reason why they felt that they could not pass their grades, etc. The Binet-Simon tests and the Knox-Healy tests were given to fifteen of the worst cases to determine the amount of mental retardation. In every case, the opinion of the teacher was obtained as to the general intelligence of the child. Thus, by consulting with the teacher and questioning the child, most of the cases of backwardness due to the beforementioned normal causes were excluded. There is probably a very small percentage of error in the figures obtained.
It is obvious that this method of not counting the child backward until he is three years behind his grade does not give a failestimate of the backward cases in the first and second grades. There, children are found who are backward and even feebleminded, who have been in the grade for only one or two years. When such children were encountered, they were included, even though they had been in the grades for only one or two years. Great care was used in selecting these cases, and only those were included who were undoubtedly dull and backward, and who the teacher declared would not pass the grade. Probably no child of this type was included who will ever be able to pass the fifth grade, 110 matter how long he remains in school.
Twelve schools were visited, in which the aggregate attendance was 3631 pupils. Of this number, there were found 105 cases, or 2.9 per cent, who were three or more years behind their classes, and a few cases in the first and second grades who were obviously backward, but had been in school for one or two years only. Of the children examined, there were then about three per cent who were I II III IV V VI VII VIII Curve Showing Percentage of Retarded Children in the Different Grades l unable to stand the test of mastering the school curriculum to the extent of passing from one grade to another in the average time. These are the same figures found by Mitchell in the Cleveland survey. He finds that 2077 children, “approximately 3 per cent of the school population, have been in the schools three or more years longer than the grade in which they are would indicate.” And Goddard1 states that 2 per cent of all the children attending the public schools are feebleminded. The percentage of the backward children found in each class is seen in the curve. It shows that by far the greatest percentage occurs in the fifth grade. The reason for this is that the feebleminded child can never do more than fifth grade work, and when he reaches this point in his school development, he sticks here and is unable to make further progress. Reasons Given by Teachers for Retardation.
It is interesting to analyze these cases as far as possible and find out what is the cause of backwardness. The teachers, with a very few exceptions, gave three reasons for the condition:?
Laziness and lack of application.
That the child had been moving about from school to school.
3. The parents’ lack of interest in the child’s school work. Now, although these causes may play some part in the retardation of the cases noted in the survey, they play only a minor part. A normal child, no matter how lazy he is, will manage to pass his grade in some fashion. He can usually absorb enough from the classroom to pass the minimum requirements. And if we find a child who is so unusual that he refuses to apply himself and fails to pass his grade year after year, then something is wrong and the child should have a mental examination to determine what is the trouble. All backward cases from the second cause were not included. The third reason given is not sufficient to prevent the child from mastering his school work, especially during the early grades where the work is done in the school and the child is not expected to get his lessons at home. Of course, if the parents are immoral, drunkards, and do not furnish the child with proper food and shelter, the child’s work will suffer. But where we find terrible home conditions, as immorality, drunkenness, and extreme poverty in a town such as this, a prosperous well-to-do town of the middle west, it probably means that the parents are defectives, even feebleminded, and the child also is probably not of normal mentality. 1 Goddard, H. H. Diagnosis of Feeblemindedness, read at Chicago Medical Society, June 2, 1913. It is very hard for the teacher to admit that the child she has worked with so faithfully, and to whom she has probably become attached, is of subnormal mentality. Binet points out that the backward child is usually so quiet and well-behaved that the teacher feels quite kindly toward him, and does not like to admit that he is feebleminded. Goddard1 says that teachers and physicians have insisted that any child, no matter what his record, if he did not show certain stigmata of degeneration, certain conditions recognized as belonging to the imbecile, must come out all right… . “These children, besides being well-formed and pleasing to look on, are usually very affectionate, and we cannot believe that such children are incurably defective.” Often the teacher will not admit any abnormality even in the face of overwhelming evidence. In one school, there was a girl, H. M., sixteen years and ten months old in the sixth grade. She had not passed the fifth grade, but she had been put in the sixth because she had been two years in the fifth. She was overgrown, well-developed sexually, good-looking, but dull. The teacher gave as a reason for her backwardness that her parents did not take a proper interest in her school work. It was found that she had entered school at six years and had been two years in every grade. She had not really passed even the minimum requirements of any of these grades, but had been pushed on automatically after two years. Her brother and sister had both had a similar history. Neither had managed to pass the fifth grade. The sister was a houseworker and the brother a farm hand. When the teacher was told of the record of the brother and sister, she replied, “That just shows how little interest the parents take in their children’s work.” The girl was undoubtedly a moron, who would never be able to pass the fifth grade work, and her defect was probably shared by the other members of the family. Her backwardness may be due to heredity.
I would classify the 105 cases under five heads. The classificarion, though not logical, is helpful: 1. Feeblemindedness. Due to heredity and conditions at birth and early infancy. 2. Dulness. Due to same causes. 3. Backwardness. Due to some abnormality of the internal secretions. 4. Specialized defects. 5. Neuroses, preventing the child from adjusting himself to the school curriculum. 1 Goddard, H. H. Diagnosis of Feeblemindedness. RETARDED CHILDREN IN MADISON, WIS. 255 Of the 105 cases, 22, or 20 per cent, were placed under the first head, feeblemindedness. This is .60 per cent of all children examined. This is smaller than the percentage given by Goddard and other observers. The percentage they give is between one and’ two per cent. This .60 per cent includes only the obvious cases that can be diagnosed by their history and a casual examination. Undoubtedly many of the cases classed under the heading dulness, if they were given a thorough mental examination, would be found to be feebleminded.
By feeblemindedness is meant a lack of mental capacity to develop into an adult with ability to “float” in society. Measured by the Binet-Simon standard, it means that the child will never develop beyond the mentality of a twelve-year-old child; that no matter how long the child goes to school, he will never be able to master more than fifth grade work. Of course, such children may occasionally be found in grades above the fifth, if it is the custom of the school authorities to push the child on to the higher grade, regardless of whether he has mastered the lower grade. Only five cases under the heading feebleminded were given a mental test; the rest were cases that by means of their family history, their school history, their appearance, and a brief oral examination, were determined beyond any reasonable doubt to be feebleminded. The following is a list of these cases, giving a few facts from which the reader can draw his own conclusions.
1. First grade, age 9 years. Has been three years in the first grade. Keeps to himself on the playground, and does not join in play with the other children. Incontinence of urine during the day as well as at night. The child looks and acts “half-witted.” 2. Kindergarten, age 5 years, 10 months. He does not talk, acts peculiarly. Teacher says the child is “foolish.” 3. First grade, age 11 years. Four years in the first grade. 4. Second grade, age 12 years. Two years in the first and three years in the second grade. Cases 3 and 4 are brother and sister. Mother and father drink, teacher reports.
5. Sixth grade, age 16 years, 10 months. Two years in each grade. Brother was not able to finish grade, he is now a farm-hand. Sister left school after finishing the fifth grade, and is now a houseworker. 6. Second grade, age 11 years, 10 months. Has been five years in the first and second grades. He cannot learn numbers and cannot write legibly.
7. First grade, age 7 years. Although this boy is not three years behind grade, it is apparent from his appearance that he is decidedly abnormal. The teacher cannot teach him to count. She calls him “half-witted.”
8. Fourth grade, age 14 years. This child has repeated each grade. The principal reports that one brother is “half-witted.” 9. Fifth grade, age 15 years, 10 months. Has repeated each grade, he looks stupid and has the thick slovenly speech so characteristic of the feebleminded. 10. Sixth grade, age 16 years, 4 months. This case really does not belong in the sixth, but she was put here because she had been two years in the fifth. She has repeated all her grades.
Fifth grade, age 16 years, 2 months. Repeated every grade.
12. Fourth grade, age 14 years, 1 month. She started to school at the age of six, spent two years in the first, second, third, and fourth grades, and after two years in the fourth, she will not be able to pass it. This girl is good-looking, sexually well-developed, and with her poor mentality she must receive careful protection if she is to escape ruin.
13. Second grade, age 10 years, 9 months. Two years in the first and in the second grade and cannot yet pass the work. Teacher reports that both parents drink, and that the boy had a brother who could not pass the third grade after several years’ work. 14. Second grade, age 10 years, 9 months. Two years in first grade and has been two years in the second grade and still cannot master the work sufficiently to pass on to the third grade. The report of the. teacher is that “he is very dull and stupid.” This boy has a brother nine years old in the second grade. 15. Second grade, age 11 years, 8 months. “Very dull and stupid” is the report of the teacher. A decided microcephalic. 16. First grade, age 11 years, 1 month. “He just cannot learn,” says the class teacher. After four years in the first grade, he was placed in a special class where he is doing second grade work. 17. First grade, age 11 years, 8 months. After five years in the first grade without any progress, he was placed in a special class.
18. First grade, age 10 years, 2 months. After four years in the first grade without making any progress he was placed in a special class where he is doing about first grade work.
Cases 17 and 18 are brothers. Teacher reports that father is epileptic and mother is immoral and obviously incompetent mentally. 19. First grade, age 8 years, 1 month. After spending three years in the first grade without profit she was placed in the special class where she is doing about first grade work.
20. Second grade, age 13 years, 8 months. This boy was several years in the first grade, and was then placed in the special class, where he has been for three years doing about second grade work.
21. Second grade, age 11 years, 2 months. Four years in the first grade without progress, then placed in the second grade. Has been here for two years doing about second grade work. This girl is good-looking and is just beginning to develop sexually, lacking the proper inhibitions because of her poor mentality. Unless she is watched and directed with the greatest care a stormy future can be predicted for her.
22. Third grade, age 12 years. He spent two years in both the first and second grades, and has been two years in the third grade without absorbing enough knowledge to pass. Since the age of six, he has been in the habit of running away from home and staying away until late at night. If now his parents discipline him to make him remain off the streets, he runs away and stays until morning. He looks dull and stupid. He has a sister in the ungraded class and another sister did not have the ability to finish the eighth grade. From the records of these cases, it is clear that these children are not receiving any good from the ordinary school curriculum and that some special work should be devised for them. A few of them have been placed in special classes, but the majority are still in the regular classes. Some are so bad that they should be sent to an institution where they can be properly cared for. Cases 17, 18, and 19 are obviously cases for an institution. They can never make their way in society, and if left alone they are bound to become public charges, the boys becoming criminals and paupers and the girls in many cases becoming prostitutes. Goddard1 says- “the feebleminded are potential paupers, criminals, prostitutes, and drunkards?if we would go into the schools to-day and pick out those children and take care of them, we could bring it about that they would become happy and contented and partially useful persons.” The frequency with which these cases commit crimes is too well known to need discussion.2 The unfortunate part is that in most cases society takes no steps to help matters until the crime has been committed. School serves to keep these children off the streets, and beyond this it gives them little help.
When it is realized that one feebleminded boy in a class can greatly retard the work of the class and take up a large amount of 1 Goddard, H. H. The Criminal Imbecile.
2 Since writing this article, Case 20 has been arrested and sent to an institution for burning a grocery store and later a barn.
the teacher’s time that should be given to the other children, parents of normal children will be more eager to meet this problem of the feebleminded in the schools.
The problem of the dull and backward cases is different from that of the definitely feebleminded. The backward cases can maintain themselves in society, if they are given an education fitted to their needs and mentality. Their failure to grasp the material taught in the ordinary school shows clearly that they are. not receiving the education they need. The ordinary curriculum may be all right for the ordinary child, but these children, backward and feebleminded, get little benefit from it. They cannot grasp what the teacher is trying to teach them, and as a result they drop farther and farther behind their grades, and become discouraged with their almost constant failures. They hang on to their disagreeable tasks as long as the law compels them, and then drop out to fight life’s battles without a training that has fitted them to make a living, and with a mentality below the average. In most cases, unless the environment is very simple, failure awaits these cases no less than it does the feebleminded. The tragedy of these backward cases is that they could have been saved from social failure by the proper training.
But how shall we determine what kind of an education is needed for these cases? This should be determined by an expert psychologist who should give a thorough mental examination to each child to determine the mental status and what special abilities and disabilities the child has. The psychologist could not only determine the mental condition, but he could point out the work which the child is best fitted to do. It may be said that little time should be wasted with these cases, in teaching them the abstract subjects. All efforts should be placed on making the boy or girl an efficient worker in the world. Some of these children show a surprising amount of talent or skill in certain lines. For example, I saw a little boy of about twelve who had not been able to pass the second and third grades, but who could draw and paint so well that he had received a fifty-dollar prize in an art contest. He was just on the border line between feeblemindedness and backwardness.
But if he is educated along the line of his special ability and properly looked after, he can make a good living out of his drawing and painting. Others have great skill in making things, and this ability should be encouraged, and the child be allowed to devote himself to this work almost exclusively. Some have special abilities in music. The psychologist could prevent such cases from entering a profession that they are not fitted for. If the individual lacks the ability to make quick decisions and is not able to make quick motor reactions, it is clear that he should not be, for example, a chauffeur. Before this problem of the backward children in our schools can be properly handled, parents must have a better understanding of it. Every parent hates to admit that his child is not bright, and so in most cases he keeps the child in the regular classes as long as possible, and bitterly resents the placing of the child in a special room, or even the suggestion that he shall not receive the ordinary education that the other children are getting, but rather a special education that will fit him definitely for a job. The average parent is determined that his child is to have all the culture that is coming to him.
One of the cases under the second head of dulness illustrates this point. H. S. is an overgrown, rather dull-looking boy of 16 years and 9 months. He did so poorly in the seventh grade, failing to pass after two years, that he was placed in a special seventh grade. All of his brothers and sisters failed to go very far in school, but the parents are determined that this boy shall go through college, so the teacher reports. Frequently, the mother visits the school and wants to know why her boy is not advancing more rapidly. Of course, the boy is doing as well as he can with the mind that he has. He has a rather hang-dog look, and when asked why he did not get along better in his school work, he said, “Aw, I can’t do arithmetic!” I asked him what he did like, and he said, with a perceptible brightening of his face, “Oh, I like to make things, tables and chairs and such things.” I learned that the boy did very well in his work in wood and manual arts. He might be trained to become a cabinet-maker or something of the sort. Certainly he will never fulfil his fond parents’ wishes by becoming a university man. His present work in school only serves to make him more and more discouraged with the whole business.
Parents would probably take the word of a trained psychologist regarding their child’s mental condition and the need for special education much quicker than that of the teacher or principal. And if the principal wished to place the child in a special class and the parents objected on the ground that the child was of normal mentality, they could be referred to the psychologist, who could show them the mental tests given and the record of the child, and thus the impressions and judgment of the teachers and principals could be backed up by an authoritative mental examination.
Under the heading of “Backwardness due to some abnormality of the internal secretions” are included only three cases. It is realized that many, if not most, of the feebleminded and backward cases may be due to some abnormality of the internal secretions, especially of the thyroid and the pituitary glands; but we have included here only those cases that show other signs of abnormality of the internal secretions beside that of mental retardation. 31. First grade, age 9 years. Very fat and lazy, moves slowly and is very large for his age. There is probably some abnormality in the secretion of the pituitary gland.
32. Sixth grade, age 14 years, 6 months. This boy is five feet and ten inches in height, and weighs about 140 pounds. He is loosejointed and has a shambling gait. He looks stupid and foolish. This is a case of overgrowth, almost of giantism, and is due to some abnormality of the pituitary gland.
33. First grade, age 9 years. Dwarf, not three feet tall, stubby fingers, characteristic of some abnormality of the thyroid gland. Probably both thyroid and pituitary are affected.
These children require medical treatment which is expensive and prolonged. This could only be obtained at the clinic of some of the hospitals or medical schools in the large cities. And even there it is not certain that they would be benefited, though there is a good chance that they might be. Treatment consists in supplying them with the secretion which they lack, the secretion being obtained from the glands of the sheep or the ox.
Under the heading “Specialized Defects’* are included those cases that are backward because of some special defect and not because of an all-round dulness. Seven cases are included under this head.
24. Second grade, age 10 years. This boy cannot read. He has been two years in the first grade and two years in the second grade, and his failure to pass has been due chiefly to his inability to read. His vision tested 20-20 (normal). 25. Fifth grade, age 14 years. This boy stutters badly, his retardation is due chiefly to his speech defect. 26. First grade, age 10 years, 4 months. This boy has a facial tic, and also is a bad stutterer. Retardation caused chiefly by this speech defect. 27. Fifth grade, age 14 years 2 months. Cannot do arithmetic. Has to do summer school work to pass the grade even after two years.
28. Sixth grade, age 15 years. This girl cannot learn arithmetic. She repeated second, third, fourth, and fifth grades. She was just passed along into the sixth, though she never passed the mathematics work of the fifth grade. RETARDED CHILDREN IN^MADISON, WIS. x 261 29. Third grade. This girl’s chief difficulty is in grasping arithmetic. She is fair in her other studies. 30. Seventh grade, age 16 years 2 months. This boy repeated the first, second, and third grades. He cannot read as well as a child in the third grade, and he cannot do the spelling of the seventh or .sixth grade. This defect in spelling is not an ordinary one. He seems to have little comprehension either in reading or spelling or writing of the sounds of the language. There is no defect in his hearing. For example, he spells:
Mosquito ? musto Horse ? hrorse Adjective ? adjectiveably. These words were given orally and he was made to repeat them before spelling them by writing them. In reading, we find the same defect. When he came to the word “enemy” he could not pronounce it. He was asked to spell it aloud. He did so, and then he pronounced it “enmy”, and he could do better after his attention was called to the “e” in the word. This boy does fair work in his other studies.
All of these cases of specialized defects require careful study by a trained psychologist to determine what is the cause of the defect. Such cases are a burden to the teacher who breaks her patience day after day trying to teach the child something that he cannot learn. The stutterers should receive some special training that would help them to overcome their difficulty. There should be some provision made to find these cases of speech defect as soon as they begin, and not wait until they have become fixed in the life of the individual. There were only three cases of neuroses found. There were undoubtedly more than these, but the brief survey did not discover them. By neurosis is meant a lack of mental adjustment, a mental conflict that prevents the child from moulding himself to the school routine. There is not lacking normal mental ability, but because of the lack of adjustment, the child is unable to use his mental powers to their full advantage. Perhaps stuttering should have been included under this head, for this is a neurosis caused in most cases by some mental conflict, but in the case of stuttering the neurosis shows itself through such a definite defect that we placed these cases under the heading of specialized defects. The three cases included under this head show no special symptom, but a general lack of adjustment. 34. Fourth grade, age 14 years, 4 months. Boy was reared in an orphanage. He does not know when he started to school; takes no interest in his school work, and is a playground bully. He does not seem dull, but impresses one as having some mental conflict, and to lack adjustment. It is probably that his rearing has made him quite anti-social.
35. Fourth grade, age 12 years, 10 months. Teacher reports that this boy’s mother is immoral. The boy has a shamed look all the time. He lacks interest in his studies. There is probably a mental conflict here due to home conditions that keeps the boy from giving his mind to his school work.
36. Third grade, age 11 years, 10 months. This boy has a facial tic and is very nervous and high-strung. The school routine is probably not adapted to his needs.
It is well to remember that the school routine is made for the average child, and there may be some whom the curriculum does not fit, even though they may have ordinary, and even above the ordinary, mentality. Are not school authorities inclined to act like Procrustes, who cut people off or stretched them out to fit his bed? I know of an individual who was never able to pass the fourth grade and who had to get her education in reading and observing and who is nevertheless splendidly educated, and quite capable of carrying on large affairs. The too hot and dry air of the school room, the hard and ill-fitting seats, the dull, uninteresting routine were more than her sensitive nervous system could stand. There was such a perpetual unrest that application to her studies was impossible. All of these cases of neuroses require a careful mental analysis to discover the root of the conflict and as far as outside circumstances allow, to adjust the child’s life so that good work is possible. In every school system, there are from two to five per cent of the children who are not being educated, despite the best endeavors of the teachers. The reasons for this are not simple, but are quite complicated. The problem cannot be dismissed by saying that the child is lazy or that he receives no encouragement at home. Adequately to meet the problem of the backward and retarded child in the school requires the services of a trained psychologist, assisted at times by a competent neurologist who has had experience in dealing with neurotic and backward children. A psychological clinic should be a part of every school system that numbers as many as three or four thousand children. Such a clinic will really save money, for it will take a burden off the teachers and enable them to do more and better work with the normal children. The backward and feebleminded should receive special training in special classes taught by specially trained teachers, the neurotic and those with specialized defects should be studied and given such treatment as needed. Often the principal is convinced that the child has need of special training, but he has no authority to say that the child must be placed in a special class. If there were a trained psychologist to make the examination, the parents would be more likely to abide by the decision of the expert in mental examination. This mental testing should not consist of the Binet-Simon test alone, but should include as many other tests as may be necessary to form a decision concerning the child’s mental ability in language and abstract subjects, as well as his motor control. In this way only can the backward and retarded children be saved from sure suffering and failure. A properly organized psychological clinic, and special classes for the training of the backward are as necessary for the school as is medical inspection.
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