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Bulletin No. 4 wo,<\
fifſ, 4, 1917
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Special Classes
in the
Public Schools
“In connection with the work the Committee has
already done in locating special classes and supplying
Superintendents of Instruction with literature for their
special class teachers, it is worth while to consider
whether the Committee might not be justified in under-
taking special propaganda work with a view to stimu-
lating the further development of these classes.”
(From report of the Executive Secretary of the Committee
on Provision for the Feeble-Minded, to the Board of Directors,
August, 1916.) t ... *
Printed by
The Committee on Provision for the Feeble-Minded
702 Empire Building, Philadelphia, Pa.
JOSEPH P. BYERS
Executive Secretary
ALEXANDER JOHNSON
Field Secretary
COMMITTEE ON PROVISION FOR THE
FEEBLE-MINDED
Central Office, 701-2-3 Empire Building
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
Bell Phone Walnut 1817
HOARD OF DIRECTORS
DR. MILTON J. GREENMAN, Chairman
E. R. JOHNSTONE, Secretary
R. BAYARD CUTTING, Treasurer
MRS. CAROLINE. B. WITTPENN
JUDGE HARRY V. OSBORNE
MIRS. C. C. RUMSEY
BLEECKER VAN WAGENEN
MISS MAUDE E. MINER
MRS. SIDNEY M. COLGATE
MEMBERSHIP OF THE COMMITTEE
MISS MINA M. BRUERE
City National Bank, New York City
AMOS W. BuTLER
93 State House, Indianapolis, Ind.
Sec'y Board of State Charities
MRS. SIDNEY M. COLGATE
363 Central Ave., Orange, N. J.
R. BAYARD CUTTING
32 Nassau St., New York City
Board Member, Training
Vineland
D.R. C. B. DAVENIFORT
Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y.
Resident irector, Eugenics
Office
DR. KATHERINE B. DAVIS
New York City
Chairman, Board of Parole
DR. E. J. EMERICK
Columbus, Ohio
Supt. School for Feeble-Minded
SAMUEL S. FELS
39th and Walnut Sts., Philadelphia,
Pa.
Board Member, School
Vineland -
DR. HENRY H. GODDARD
Vineland, N. J.
Director Research Laboratories
DR. MILTON J. GREENMAN
Philadelphia, Pa.
Director, The Wistar
Anatomy
MRS. MONTCOMERY HARE
109 E. 64th St., New York City
MRS. E. H. HARRIMAN
1 E. 69th St., New York City
HON. FRANKLIN C. HOYT
New York City
Judge of Juvenile Court
E. R. JOHNSTONE
Vineland, N. J.
Supt. Training School, Vineland
School,
Record
Training
Institute of
DAVID STARR JORDAN
Stanford University, California
Chancellor Leland Stanford Jr. Uni-
versity
ROBERT W. KELSO
State House, Boston, Mass.
Sec'y Board of State Charities
JOHN A. KINGSBURY
New York City
Commissioner of Charities
DR. JOSEPH T. MASTIN
Richmond, Va.
Sec'y State Board of Charities
MISS MAUDE E. MINER
130 E. 22d St., New York City
Sec'y Probation & Protective Associa-
t1 Orl
DR. J. MQREHEAD MURDOCH
olk, Pa.
Supt. School for Feeble-Minded
HON. HARRY V. OSBORNE
Newark, N. J.
Judge of the Court of Common Pleas
E. E. READ, JR.
604 Cooper St., Camden, N. J.
fºres. Board of Éducation
MRS. C. C. RUMSEY
Glen Head, Long Island, N. Y.
BLEECKER VAN WAGENEN tº
443 Fourth Ave., New York City
Board Member, Training School,
Vineland -
D.R. WILLIAM H. WELCH
Baltimore, tº
Professor of Pathology, Johns Hop-
kins University
MRS. CAROLINE. B. WITTPENN
1 Newark St., Hoboken, N
Board Member, Woman’s
tory
MRS. GEORGE WOODWARD
Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia
Reforma.
OBJECTS OF THE COMMITTEE: TO DISSEMINATE
KNOWLEDGE CONCERNING THE EXTENT AND MENACE
OF FEEBLE=MINDEDNESS AND TO SUGGEST AND INI =
TIATE METHODS FOR ITS CONTROL AND ULTIMATE
ERADICATION FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
2
THE SPECIAL CLASS IN THE PUBLIC Schools:
The Special Class is a recognition of the fact that all children
of the same age have not equal capacity for education and training.
If our public schools are to do their work with real efficiency,
the Special Class is a necessity. • , * .
In every school district there are children who, under present
conditions, are not receiving educational benefit commensurate
with the effort and money expended on them. They include the
retarded, the intractable, the backward and the mentally deficient.
The latter is probably the largest, as it is certainly the most
important of these groups. These children are a drag on the
classes and teachers, especially so where school attendance is
enforced. They account for a disproportionate share of absentee-
ism and truancy. They have the same claim upon the State for an
education as a normal child. This education can be made of largest
profit to the child and community if directed along lines that shall
give him industrial training and habits adjusted to his mental and
physical capacity to acquire and retain. In every graded element-
ary school and rural school district the number of these children
warrants the organization of one or more Special Classes.
THE SPECIAL CLASS IS PRACTICABLE
They have been successfully organized in approximately three
hundred cities and towns of the United States. In the smaller
places and in rural districts the number of retarded, backward,
difficult and mentally deficient children may be too small to justify
the attempt to provide separate classes for each group; therefore
it is desirable to form them into one class, the separation or classi-
fication of the different groups to be made as soon as conditions
may warrant. -
The objection of parents to the Special class can be and is
overcome when the benefits to the child, school interest, progress
and happiness, are made apparent to them by its operation.
The cost of the Special Class, equipment, teacher, and its pro-
portionate share of overhead expenses, has restricted its develop-
ment. If we compute the additional benefit both to normal and
Special Class pupils, the extra cost is more apparent than real; but
*Abstract of address before the National Education Association, Port-
land, Oregon, July 11, 1917, by Joseph P. Byers, Executive Secretary of the
Committee on Provision for the Feeble-Minded and President of the Depart-
ment of Special Education of the National Education Association for 1918.
3
in any event we must be prepared to pay the price, whatever it
may be, for increased school efficiency.
The enrollment in the class should be restricted to twenty.
The average attendance is likely to be reduced to fifteen by
absenteeism. -
Specially trained teachers, with successful teaching experience,
are essential. They must have sympathy with their work and abil-
ity in trade or manual instruction, and in physical training. It is
necessary to enlarge present facilities for their training. This can
be done through normal schools, teachers’ colleges and Summer
schools. An unnecessarily high standard for these Special Class
teachers will require higher rates of compensation which school
funds are seldom sufficient to allow in any marked degree. This
situation will result in discouraging teachers from taking up this
special work. Graduate teachers, with actual teaching experience
and strong personal qualities, may be intrusted with Special Class
work after a comparatively brief course in physical and vocational
training. . -
THE UTILITY OF THE SPECIAL CLASS
The normal class and teacher are relieved of a drag.
Retarded and slow children are encouraged and “speeded up.”
Intractable children become interested in school work and are
thereby brought under control.
Defective children are trained to do the things they can do.
While present information is not conclusive as to how far this
training will operate to prepare mentally defective children for life
outside of institutions, it is evident that with correlation of the
work of the Special Class with the institutions for defectives, a
large proportion of them can be prepared for useful and happy
lives under custody of the State. It is further reasonable to sup-
pose that some of them can be prepared for life in their own homes
or in the community through the organization of a “follow-up” or
“after-care” system, directed by authority, school or otherwise,
utilizing as far as possible efficient private agencies having facilities
for such work.
METHODS OF ORGANIZATION AND EQUIPMENT
Medical and mental (psychological) examination of children
by competent persons should precede the assignment of children
to Special Classes, especially to classes for defectives; otherwise
great injustice and lasting hurt may result. The class-room should
- 4
be equipped for manual training and physical exercises, under
experienced teachers who have temperamental qualifications for the
work. There should be considerable home visitation by the teacher,
So as to co-ordinate as far as possible the home care with School
training. This is an additional argument for small classes.
The direction of the manual (vocational) and domestic train-
ing should be along lines that shall enable the child, later, to find
employment in the homes or manufactories of the community, when
there is a reasonable expectation that they will not require perma-
nent institutional care.
An extension of the school day and the school year is possible
and desirable. The children would benefit from the more continu-
ous instruction and supervision, and there would also be a reduction
of the time they are subjected to possible undesirable home influ-
ences and the positive undesirable influences of the streets.
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
SPECIAL CLASS
The Special School for Special Class children is a reality in
some of the larger communities. It gives opportunity for classifi-
cation and better supervision and direction. The objection to this
on account of long distance from the homes of many of the children
can be overcome by furnishing means of transportation.
It should not be difficult to co-ordinate the work of the State
Department of Education and the institutions of the State so that,
at the proper time, defective children in need of permanent cus-
todial care may be transferred by the educational authorities to the
State's protection. Here they may live out their lives, usefully and
happily, while future generations are relieved of the burden of
providing for a race of “social misfits” that will otherwise be born
if these defective children are allowed to mate. -
The Special Class, more or less isolated, was the first step.
The assembling of them in a “Special School” when their number
warrants, is the second. The third logical step will be the estab-
lishment by Educational Departments, of residential Special
Schools, founded on the same principle that now enables school
authorities to organize “truant” and “parental” schools. -
The public schools should be equipped to do any and every-
thing in their legitimate field, for any and every child that can
receive benefit during school age by school training. When the
period of benefit has passed, the child should pass out of the school
5
system. It is the business of society to see to it that it does not
pass out into neglect, hopelessness and inevitable disaster. With
the establishment of the residential school the necessity for a sys-
tem of transfers to suitable State institutions will become more
apparent after the school has demonstrated its inability to equip
certain children for free life in the community.
A STORY OF A BEGINNING
A Special Class for Exceptional Children
Winthrop College, South Carolina
In October, 1915, the President of Winthrop College secured
the services of a psychologist, specially trained in child-study to
spend some time at the college in the interest of exceptional chil-
dren. Winthrop College is the State College for Women with an en-
rollment of about 1,025 students. In connection with the College
is a Practice School with an enrollment of about 400 children, a
somewhat selected group.
The results of observations and tests correlated so closely with
the experiences of the teachers that it was decided to organize a
small class for precocious, neurotic and backward children. Accord-
ingly in December, 1915, a class of seven children was started with
one of the senior students as teacher, under the direction of the
Primary Supervisor. These children were given very little academic
work and that which was given was presented by means of games,
conversation, etc. Much time was devoted to manual training,
gardening and outdoor games and exercises. Everybody concerned
was happier. At the end of four months there was a decided im-
provement in the children. The senior student-teacher was then
transferred to assist the third grade teacher with a similar group.
In the meantime the Superintendent had decided to add a
regular special class teacher to his faculty for the following year.
The student–teacher, who had been in charge of the class, attended
the Summer Session of 1916, at The Training School, at Vineland,
New Jersey, and returned to Winthrop College in September.
The Special Class that year was made up of twelve children,
five of whom were from the little group of children from the third
grade the year before, three from the second grade, and four from
the fifth grade. One of the boys in the last named group was six-
teen years old, and had been in the fifth grade for three years.
6
Morally, mentally and physically he was, and is, unfit for life, but he
has made marked improvement in the Special Class.
In February, 1917, a fourteen-year-old boy came to the class
from the city schools. He had attended school since he was six years
of age, yet, in February, 1917, was unable to do the work that the first
grade was then doing. This boy, first seen at the request of the City
Superintendent about one year previous to his admission to the
Special Class, was at that time attending school very irregularly, and
because of his size was “sitting” with the third grade children. He
realized that he was “different” and unable to do the work that the
other children did, so took revenge by being troublesome and brutal,
especially with the little children. When first seen by the psycholo-
gist, he came to her with that sullen indifference as to what was
going to happen to him, so often seen among that group of children
who have been obliged to try to fight their way among normal chil-
dren and have become used to being misunderstood. He is deaf in
one ear. At first he gave the appearance of being hard and morose,
but almost immediately brightened up when he found that the ex-
aminer was interested in the little things that he could do, and not, as
he had supposed that she would be, in the things that he could not do.
He tested 72 and showed ability for industrial training. It was
generally understood that on the four or five days out of each month
when he attended school that his teacher went home sick at night.
His family seemed to have little influence or interest in him and were
said to be very harsh with him and ashamed of his backwardness.
On his second day in the Special Class he began a rabbit box. From
that day he was a different boy. In order to get an opportunity to
work on it he would put forth honest effort on his spelling, numbers
and reading. He was no longer a truant or a hard boy to manage,
but always eager to help in the care of the room and in mending
furniture for the home folks, etc. (Always under the direction of
the teacher, of course.) Before the end of the term he was begging
to be allowed to remain after school in order to work on some piece
of work in the manual training class. The child was happier,
healthier and more useful than ever before. The experience with the
family has been the most interesting part of the experiment, Willie
is no longer such a problem at home, and his teacher is a part of the
family and their love and loyalty to her are pathetic—they say, “You
have made our Willie over—we didn't want to beat him so, but we
didn't know what else to do.” .
This is an example of what the first Special Class in South
Carolina did for twelve boys who did not fit in anywhere before, and
7
who gave endless trouble to their teachers, besides being a constant
menace and drawback to the regular classes.
The spirit of the class has been most happy and gratifying—at
the end of the year every parent asked to have their children returned
to the class and others asked that their children should be admitted.
The only hard feeling in connection with the class has been that the
little fellows from the other grades have been a little jealous of the
nice things they do in the “Ungraded.”
Winthrop College sets the standard for all educational progress
in the State and we feel that “Special Education” will soon become
a very important feature of the public school systems through the
State. Already one of the largest cities has organized a special class.
HELEN F. H.ILL.
The following Bulletins have been issued by the Committee:
- Bulletin No. 1–"The Binet-Simon Measuring Scale for Intel-
ligence; What It Is, etc.; with a Brief Biography of Its Authors,
Alfred Binet and Dr. Thomas Simon.” By Elizabeth S. Kite.
Bulletin No. 2—"Stimulating Public Interest in the Feeble-
Minded: How It Was Done in New Jersey.”
Bulletin No. 3—“Colony Care for the Feeble-Minded.”
Leaflet—“The Feeble-Minded.”
In addition to the above, the Committee is prepared to supply
literature covering various phases of the problem of the feeble-
minded.
8
º
:
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Photomount
Pamphlet
Binder
Gaylord Bros. Inc.
Makers
Syracuse, N.Y.
PAI. JAN 21, 1908
|||||||||||
3 9015 O2
403 0705

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