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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    in the Leeds Special Schools was also considered. It was generally agreed that there was a preponderance of low-grade children in the schools whose names ought to be notified to the Local Mental Deficiency Acts Committee. The following suggestions were therefore made with a view to improving the type of child in the Special Schools— (x) That the low-grade cases should be segregated and taught in separate classes. (2) That the Head Teachers of Special Schools should submit lists of children who appear to be ineducable twice a year for examina- tion with a view to notification. (3) That School Medical Officers should examine all children in the Special Schools with a view to notification of the low-grade cases. (4) That in future low-grade cases should be admitted to Special Schools for a strictly limited period of probation. (5) That the Head Teachers of Special Schools should report upon all new admissions after six months, and also upon other children who are not making satisfactory progress. Of these suggestions the first was not adopted, the other four were approved. The question of the low-grade cases was further brought up at a meeting between the Director of Education and officers of the Board of Education, and it was understood that the Board were, in general, in favour of the policy of passing low-grade children on to the care of the Local Mental Deficiency Act Committee, leaving the Education Com- mittee to concentrate upon children most likely to receive benefit from instruction in the Special Schools. The Assistant School Medical Officer and the Chief Inspector were then deputed by the Director to prepare a detailed report upon the whole question. That report was duly pre- pared, and has been submitted for the consideration of the Board. The findings were (1) That 122 (out of some 280) children in the Leeds Special Schools were ineducable in the staple subjects of elementary education. (2) That the handwork done was of doubtful utility with the exception of the girls’ domestic work. (3) That the presence of imbeciles and very low-grade feeble-minded children in the schools was a great hindrance to the work of effective ascertainment and to the satisfactory working of the Special Schools. A number of useful suggestions were also made in the report, most of which reappear in a modified form in the present report. Soon after the report was submitted, some 20 children were notified as imbeciles or as feeble-minded ineducable. In the present survey of the position valuable assistance has been received from replies kindly submitted in
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