I the Special School in Norway and Work connected with it
- Autj:
Julie Monrad Jacobsen
(Teacher in the Christiania Special School).
Above all the loudly voiced demands of the age the appeal of the weak and helpless members of the community is distinctly to be heard. The Special School is born of this appeal, and in the “children’s century” it came into being as a matter of course.
In Norway, the Urban School Law of 1889, Section 6, and the Rural School Law of the same year, Section 7, gave permission “to organise separate instruction for children whom the school authorities do not find to be fit for the ordinary school.” Long before that time, however, experiments had been undertaken. In the following I speak mainly of the Special School in Christiania because I believe that to be the most typical in our country. Because of its size Christiania has been better able than other municipalities in Norway to give this type of school a free and independent development.
After many groping experiments, partly private jbut supported from municipal funds, going right back to the fifties, the Christiania Special School began in ^Translated by Mrs. Ball and revised by the Author.
1892 as an entirely municipal institution, with ten forms, its own headmaster and its own staff, but in three sections. It was soon evident that the classes were a great boon and the number of pupils rapidly increased.
Our school has now two modern school buildings, one for the East and one for the West part of the town. There are altogether about 500 children (one third girls and two thirds boys) divided into forty forms. For these there are 39 teachers, 30 women and 9 men, with one headmaster for both sections. For purposes of comparison it may be added that Christiania lias 21 ordinary elementary schools with about 25,000 pupils. For these there are 601 women assistants and 215 men, with 19 headmasters and 2 headmistresses. Like the ordinary elementary schools the special school has seven successive classes.
The name ‘ ‘Special School’’ is used only as the professional term. By a resolution passed in 1914 by the Municipal School Board, these schools, like the ordinary ones, were named after the streets where they are situated. We thought that the children should not be unnecessarily stigmatised.
The children admitted arc those of small ability, often with bad hearing, weak sight and other physical defects as well, who demand individual treatment.
As a rule all children spend at least one year at the ordinary school. It is exceptional to send them direct to the Special School. In the second half of each educational year the respective class teachers point out the children whom they think are fitted for the Special School. For each of these a form is filled up, giving social, physical, and moral facts concerning him. The form, filled in by the class-teacher and signed by the headmaster and the doctor, is sent to the headmaster of the Special School, who now tests the child at his or her own elementary school. If the test confirms the opinion of the elementary school staff the child is transferred to the Special School at the beginning of the next educational year. It is exceptional to transfer him at other times.
The selection of the pupils is based mainly on the judgment of the teacher. We hold that this judgment should be at least an important factor when placing the child in the appropriate school. Here I may mention that in Bergen the Binet-Simon Intelligence Tests are used. They are applied by the school doctor after the form teacher has selected the child; the results of the tests are not regarded as decisive, only as suggestive. There are no Norwegian standards for these intelligence tests, though standards are now being worked out.
If it should happen that a child makes such progress as to enable him to benefit by the ordinary school teaching, he may be re-transferred. As the selection is made with more and more certainty, however, re-transfers tend to become rare. But the teacher in the Special School should bear the possibility in mind. The children are classified according to ability, not according to age, though some attention should be paid to age also. School ends at 15 years of age at the latest, and the child should if possible reach one of the highest forms so that his education may be complete in itself. Under our law the child may begin school at 6| years of age and leave after seven years if he has completed the ‘ ‘standards.’’ At 15, he may leave in any case.
Perhaps it would be of interest to readers if I here gave a few details concerning our schools for abnormal children. Between the ages of 8 and 21, the mentally defective child is entitled to eight years’ instruction at some institution for abnormals. He may stay an extra two years if he has not completed his eight years’ schooling at the age of 22. These institutions which are maintained by the Government, have of recent years been much used as special schools for the country districts and smaller townships, which have no special schools. It has been argued that bodily care, in Homes, should be sufficient alone for the feebleminded ; that the gain from instruction was too small in proportion to the outlay.
It may happen, nevertheless, that we shall go back to the original plan for the Government Institutions and nse them solely for teaching abnormal children. The Government Institutions, however, will always be in touch with the Special Schools. There will be borderline cases in both. Moreover, the law concerning abnormals has often been applied in such a way that the child was not sent to the Institution till about 13 years of age and in consequence the Special School has been burdened with a contingent of abnormals, taught to some extent in classes specially adapted to their needs.
The aim of the Special School I should define as follows:?To make our children contented and as far as possible useful members of society ,who can meet their fellows fairly freely and naturally, and adapt themselves to the community and its laws. Instruction is the means by which this goal must be reached, involving syllabuses, schemes, methods and the relative importance given to the various subjects. Our main principle is individual treatment; for this we need small forms with 10 to 18 in each. The aim of the curriculum is by few and simple steps to arrive at a result which shall be complete in itself, however modest, both with regard to the general curriculum and the separate subjects. The normal school course taken so far as we could follow it, would only be disturbing to the child, and he would never arrive at any definite result. Few things and few steps, but with light thrown on them from all sides, a richly varied method of approach, and continual repetition, which does not weary the child but just the opposite? these must be the principles of our work.
The stress should be laid on what is general, not on what is peculiar to the various subjects, and upon the connection between them. For the sake of this connection a class has the same teacher as far as possible for all subjects and for several years, not seldom for the whole school life.
It is difficult to give a brief statement concerning our methods. They are the same and yet not the same as in the ordinary school, always with modifications in order to adapt them to the needs of the individual. We make much use of vivid images in exposition and attach great importance to practice and to the satisfying of self-activity. Mind, body and senses in the child are pressed into the service of instruction; children in special schools are often strongly influenced through their senses.
The methods of the Special School differ from those of the ordinary school apart from the fact that they are adapted to the individual in the degree to which the various materials for instruction are employed, and in the proportion between them. A complete and varied teaching apparatus is essential and the principle is to give the child the object rather than the picture. The child can best understand what he can handle, and it is thus that the mentally defective child learns to fix his attention on what he is doing. The equipment for the first school year is that of the nursery:?horses, carts, cow-sheds, stables, dolls’ houses (kitchen, bed-room, parlour), dolls to dress and undress, etc. As a matter of course we also make much use of pictures, especially for religious instruction (beautiful pictures, the children love them!) but we maintain throughout the school the object rather than the picture.
The time-table is as follows:? Forms 1 to 8 (younger children). Forms 4 to 7 (older children). 5 lessons weekly. 7 1 ,, >? 4 ,i > > 1 <i ii Scripture .. .. 5 lessons weekly Scripture Norwegian & Norwegian writing …. 9 ,, ,, Writing Elementary Arith- Arithmetic metic .. .. 4 ,, ,, Singing Singing & Play .. 2 ,, ,, Object Lessons ..4 ,, ,, Observation Physical Training 2 ,, ,, lessons .. ..4 ,, ,. Needlework (girls) 6 ,, ,, Practical Occupa- ? or Sloyd (Boys) ..6 ,, ,, tions .. .. 6 ,, ,,
The girls have cooking lessons in Forms 5 to 7. In the 7th Form special writing lessons, as well as physical training for girls and singing for boys, are left out of the curriculum. The time set free is given up to Norwegian and cooking.
Every day of the week but one begins with a lesson in Scripture. While I am convinced that for all children it would be good if Scripture took an important place in the school, I am sure that for our children it is an absolute necessity. They can discriminate so little between the value of things; but if things can be connected with religious ideas the child will gain something to build on, and it is clear and definite fundamental ideas that these children of weak mind and often also of weak character, require. The Special School child’s delight in religious instruction supports the claim of scripture to a large place in his curriculum.
The Norwegian mother tongue comes next as an important subject. Here we use the method by which the children learn both reading and writing at the same time. Arithmetic is our greatest difficulty but is nevertheless a subject which has a very special interest for the children. Because children otherwise at the same stage of development have such varying ability with regard to this subject we adopt for it a movable classification, so that arithmetic is taught at the same time throughout the school and every child is put into the class that suits it. This method has always proved a successful arrangement. In Bergen a movable classification is also adopted for the mother tongue, but we think that this puts too much stress on skill in reading aloud, to the detriment of what is more important, viz., the understanding of what is read. The reading matter must be closely adapted to the children’s general stage of development.
Object teaching (in the first three years, observation) is the method of awakening the child’s intellect. In our lowest forms practically all our instruction comes under this head. The child must be led to clo and see for himself, and through that to arrive at his stock of ideas. Even the commonest ideas are lacking. The real object teaching begins in the Fourth Form and includes history, geography and science lessons. Here we are careful not to limit ourselves strictly to the subjcct matter of the lesson in hand. These three subjects together are intended only to give to the pupils the elementary ideas of the world in development, and nature as the home of man. Geography is intended to give the child an idea of the world he lives in and some knowledge of his own country in relation to other countries. For practical reasons we teach him to read a map. Hand in hand with geography goes history. But we prefer stories to history. The science lessons give the children some knowledge of the commonest animals and plants, their appearance, manner of life and usefulness to man. In these lessons we also try to give a very simple knowledge of the human body and of hygiene. The pupils use no book either for these or for the history lessons.
Weak-minded children should have much manual work. I refer to what I have already mentioned, the need for self activity. But manual and practical work alone is surely not sufficient, as some maintain. Even manual work itself requires that the intellect shall be developed.
The youngest children sew on embroidery cards with coloured cotton. The girls go on to knitting and sewing proper, but the boys have paper, sloyd and later, woodwork. However every boy must first learn to knit, to make his own apron for manual work and sometimes to darn and patch. To describe the subjects further would take us too far afield, but I must add that the children have homework, oral and written, every day. I mention this because some maintain that the mentally defective child must content himself with what he can learn in school.
Our two Special Schools have each a garden in which the children work during school hours, and also in their free time.
We have always had mixed classes for the younger children. From the Fourth Form the sexes may or may not be separated. In the ordinary school mixed classes are exceptional and experimental.
The Special School has five lessons of 36 minutes each daily with seven minute intervals (a quarter of an hour for lunch.) The ordinary school has four lessons of 45 minutes separated by ten minute intervals (lunch interval fifteen minutes).
The Special School begins half an hour later than the elementary school. This prevents the children being ‘’ shouted after ‘’ by the others as they go to school. We also want our pupils to have a little more time in the morning. As there are only two special schools for the town many of them have a long way to come. Children who live more than a mile and a quarter away are provided with free tram-tickets by the municipality.
The Special School takes the same rank as the ordinary school in the educational system. The teachers are appointed on the same conditions, with a small additional salary.
About ten municipalities, all of them urban, have instituted Special Classes. Besides in C-hristiania, we have organised Special Classes in Trondhjem (1880)? four successive forms with their own headmaster and staff; in Bergen (1885) five successive forms separately organised in part; at Arendal two forms one for older and one for younger children, in connection with an elementary school. In the smaller townships there is a single form, sometimes with a special teacher, but usually taught by the ordinary staff in turn. In some places the backward children merely have an hour’s extra instruction (maximum three hours a week) to enable them to “keep up” to the standard?an arrangement not favoured in special school circles.
Of the three to four hundred thousand school children in Norway about 800, that is from a quarter to a fifth per cent., receive special instruction. In Christiania the proportion is two per cent. Naturally many factors work together and the large town, especially the large industrial town, will always have the largest percentage. But reckoning, as a percentage for the whole country, even a modest one per cent, several thousands of our children lack the instruction that they need. Still no country can afford that even the smallest ability shall be wasted or worse, misdirected. Prison and poor law institution can confirm that. It is morally and economically of the highest importance that every child shall receive the best possible instruction, viz., that which is suitable for the individual.
We have unfortunately no statistics that afford positive proof of the value of the Special School to society. But by letters, visits, and other means our pupils keep in touch with us and we with them. I believe that most make a good start, are contented, and are wholly or partially self-supporting. And God’s work is done by each one doing his own part, though small, in his own place.
The girls go mostly into factories or into domestic service. The boys become workmen, skilled and unskilled, go to sea, etc. But let me also add that we are sorry to let them go from us at a difficult age without being able to offer them any special support or further education, such as normal children can obtain in continuation and technical schools. The more normal children can learn and develop, the greater the difference, the more ours are defeated in the struggle for existence. The staff of one of the special schools collected a small fund to support and help those of our children who specially needed further education. But it did not go very far. We also founded a club for them which however, I am sorry to say, came to an end after a time.
At the Scandinavian School Conference in 1920, a circle of those interested, realising that work for the mentally defective must be extended, and certain that this is a righteous work, formed themselves into a ” Scandinavian Special Schools Union.” A committee with representatives in each of the three Scandinavian countries has the matter in hand. Our Union has members from both ordinary and Special Schools, for we hold that co-operation is of great importance to both.
Dr Montessori has shown as much by the splendid pedagogical results she obtained through work with abnormal children. The highest school authorities have also shown their sympathy and interest by becoming members; doctors,?especially doctors and psychiatrists,?poor law guardians, and others interested in social work.
The work of the Union will include:?The holding of meetings, the publication of a journal, the collection of instructive statistics, the setting up of Special Classes where these are needed, together with skilled child study, the investigation of methods of Special School instruction adapted to local conditions. In the near future the main problems for theTUnion are the standardisation of intelligence tests for Norwegian conditions, special courses for teachers, and ‘ ‘what can and must be done for children who leave the Special School.’’
In August last year a committee with representatives from the three countries was held in Copenhagen. It was decided to hold a meeting of the Union in some place in the country in Norway during the summer of 1922. There will be a course of lectures for Special School teachers in connection with the Conference. The provisional committee, which acts until the first all-Scandinavian Conference meets, has set itself the task of holding sectional meetings of narrower scope in the three countries. Denmark, from the geographical point of view the smallest country, but with the best opportunity for meetings, has founded its national union. But Sweden and Norway, extensive countries with difficult communications, have been obliged to set up small local unions, especially in the towns, in order to get an effective basis for work.
As we can without the slightest doubt maintain that the work the Union has taken up is valuable for the country, we have tried to obtain some government grant.
We believe in the future of the cause for it is a righteous one. These stepchildren of society less endowed by nature than the others, demand indeed more attention, demand a plus that will cancel their minus.
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