Report of the Royal Commission on the care and control of the feeble-minded, Volume VIII.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the care and control of the feeble-minded, Volume VIII. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    »AMEXICAN INSTITTITIOIfS FOS THE FEEBLE-MINDED. Chapter XLI. Institutions for the Feeble-Minded in America. The system of education and training—contd. Vol. A ll., p. 83. Vol. VII., p. 84. Vol. VII., p. 83. Vol. VII., p. 84. Vol. VII., p. 85. Vol. VII., p. 86. The Custodial Asylum, Rome, New York State. Vol. VII., p. 21, Vol. VII., p. 20. Large estates attached to institutions for the feeble- minded. of tlie lirain sucli as those we have incliitled in the definitions (3) to (9) in Recommendation IV. Consistently with this he has framed a system of education, subject to the drawback, however, of tlie necessity of doing as much as he can for the children, while they are yet children and can remain in the wSchool. “ Owing to there lieing no power of detention and to the children being constantly taken away liy their relatives, every effort is made by intensive education to lit them as rapidly as possible for a life of freedom, efforts doomed, in the opinion of Dr. Barr, to failure in the vast majority of cases.” The actual classification of the School is shown as follows : There are 1,000 children; 303 are in the School Department, including 74 in “ Imjirovement Classes,” 277 are in the Custodial Department, including 79 in tlie Nursery. “ When the limit of educability is readied we send them to the Custodial Home,” Dr. Barr said. “ There is A^ery little to be done after the fifteenth year.” The rest—rather less than half, 428, are in the Manual and Industrial Departments, 215 being “in household service.” This shows Iioav, even here, education, in the sense of reading and ivriting, occupies the time of but a small part of the children ; and on the other hand music—a band and a large singing class, military training, and football and baseball teams, in which all who are capable of receiving anj’ training take part, become important educational means. Yet the limitation of the ivhole method, however revised and ini])roved, seems to no one, it would appear, more unsatisfactory than to Dr. Barr himself. A change of law in regard to detention might, however, alter the whole condition of the School. It would then become part of a larger organisation for the care of the feeble-minded—at least Dr. Barr’s statements suggest such a develojmient. He said : “ No really feeble- minded child ought CA^er to be released from an institution. . . The liigh grade cases are A-ery ti’oublesome ; the nearer they apjiroach the normal, the worse they are. . . Most of the parents of these children are feeble-minded. We haA^e quite a feAv cases of a third generation of defectives, nearly 100. . . Many of the children are absolute criminals. . . The absolutely bad children Ave cannot do anything AAutln We liaA^e fifty to sevent3-fiA’-e of them. I think the GoA'ernment should take up the question of these children. I should have these form a national colony on the bad lands of the West, to be taken care of under military discipline. . . Of the 270 custodial cases about 100 are of the loAvest grade avIio are unable to feed themselves.” “There is a large Avaiting list seeking admission,” the Commissioners point out; and “ there is no systematic drafting of the uneducable cases to a colony or other custodial institution.” In fact, there are the same conditions of isolation and block which affect our institutions for the care of the mentall,y defectiA^e in England. 857. But the more recently established institutions, or those practically remodelled under the influence of new ideas, adopt almost wholh' the manual and industrial method of education. The State Custodial Asylum at Rome, Ncav York State, Avas estaldished in 1893 originally as an institution for “ untrainable idiots.” It has a farm of 4(X) acres, which it is prepared to extend liy the purchase of 1,000 acres more. The inmates consisted of men, women and children who required to be ke]>t under control. “ There was only one trained and certificated teacher. Dr. Bernstein discouraged any education in the ordinary sense of the Avord. He stated it Avas useless in most cases, and, where it succeeded, did not make for happiness, but increased restlessness, and a desire to leaA^e the institution. He Avould like the Avhole of the time devoted to manual Avork, and this had been the case until lately More than 50 per cent, of the inmates were actually occupied in cleaning floors or in domestic Avork of some trifling des- cription ” Only one third were capable of doing work AAdiich had an estimable money Avalue. Apart from domestic work, painting, repairing, etc., the farm Avas the chief source of emjiloyment. 858. And the farm is prominent in many of the accounts of the American institutions. The New Jersev Training School for feeble-minded b(\ys and girls has a farm of 280 acres. “ In tlie spring the greater number of the children in the industrial classes are juit to AAnrk on the farm.” Part of the Aol. vii., p. 82.