Mentally defective children / Education Department, Leeds.

  • City of Leeds
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mentally defective children / Education Department, Leeds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    x INTRODUCTORY EFECTIVE persons provide the modern state with one of its D many problems—not one of the largest, perhaps, but one of the most difficult to deal with effectively. These unfortunate people are a misfit. They are a misfit in school, in employment, and in social life. Moreover, they cannot be ignored. Ignore them, and they speedily make their presence felt. Money must be spent on them or the com- munity pays even more dear. On the broadest survey, they fall into two groups; those who have enough in them to play some part in life, however humble, and those who are as helpless as babies; briefly, those who are employable and those who are not. The duty of society towards both groups is quite clear—the first have to be helped on to their feet, the second have to be looked after from birth to the grave, either by their relatives or by public authorities. It is the onerous duty of educa- tion authorities to seek out the defectives among the children, and to make the first and most important attempt to discriminate between the two groups; then, to pass the latter over to another authority, and to make adequate provision for the training of the former. These duties are not easy of fulfilment, and it has been felt for some time that in Leeds the arrangements made to carry them out are capable of consider- able improvement. In October and November 1926 several meetings were held to discuss various aspects of the work, at which School Medical Officers, Inspectors, Administrative Officers, and Head Teachers of Special Schools had opportunities of expressing their opinions. The following suggestions for improved ascertainment were considered— (rt) The avoidance of the term “‘Special’’ School. (2) Withholding certification until a few months before notification. (3) Lectures by the Certifying Officers to teachers in the Elementary Schools. (4) The attendance of teachers in Elementary Schools at certifying examinations. (5) Exemption of carefully selected cases from further attendance at Special Schools where approved employment is obtained. 7) (6) The institution of “backward classes’? in the Infants’ Depart- ment of ordinary schools to serve as a sorting ground. (7) The provision of a Roman Catholic Special School. The object of most of these suggestions was the removal of prejudice against Special Schools on the part of parents and teachers in order to secure earlier and better ascertainment. Suggestions I, 2, and 6 were not adopted, and number 7 is a question for the Roman Catholic com- munity; numbers 3, 4, and 5 were approved. The type of child at present 73
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