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148
Annual Report of the London County Council, 1911.
Manual work was noted in progress, and appeared to show results superior to any of the other
school occupations. The teachers' estimate was taken of each case, but this may be expected to vary
in standard in different schools and classes.
The numbers in each category are fairly evenly distributed as between the senior and junior
classes, but the standard naturally rises with age.
In connection with the domestic economy studies it was stated that a considerable number of
the children had to be given the same elementary instructions day after day, and that many of them
seemed totally unable to adapt themselves to meet the slightest variations of routine or surroundings.
This statement, indeed, sums up the whole position of the mentally defective child.
The lack of all idea of correct movement, of grace or of sense of rhythm in comparison with the
normal school child was constantly noted in connection with the physical exercises, and the children
seemed listless and uninterested even in dancing movements to lively tunes. A similar slowness may
be seen even in the process of getting the children away from school, they take longer to dress and do
so in a more clumsy manner. Generally, however, the effect of a few years at school is shown in
improved neatness, though the deficit from the ordinary school is always marked. Capacity for adaptation
and consequent suitability for after school work does not run parallel with other school attainments.
Several can carry out mechanical processes, such as simple reading, and yet, as they need to be told
the same things every day, prove themselves entirely unfitted for domestic service or any but the
roughest occupations.
Whenever there appeared any medical indication, this was followed up, and the child was
medically examined along the lines indicated, while throughout a watch was kept for any causes of
so-called spurious deficiency, such as might arise from the presence of adenoids or minor defects of
vision or hearing. In ten cases measures were suggested, though many showed the signs of past defects
which had been remedied—some, unfortunately, late in life. A few children with defective vision had
an unlucky habit of breaking their glasses. There was no evidence that any defects which would have
prejudicially affected education had been overlooked, though some had taken a long time to secure
treatment; most, if not all these, antedated the present facilities for obtaining such treatment.
In the junior special schools the children seemed to divide almost automatically into two groups
of higher and lower grade, the better results being obtained from the middle class or classes.
The child who does not respond to special instruction often remains in the lower classes until of
such age and size that promotion to the top class is essential, partly for purposes of discipline, but
also because he loses by constant association with much younger children, and has shown so much
improvement in handiwork as to necessitate more advanced occupations and instruction. This child
is a great contrast to the former, and often it would seem that two or three years in the special
school has only advanced his academic status by some six months. The general intellectual progress
is very slow, and the child falls more and more behind his normal age grade. The child who, after
admission to the special school, responds at once to the smaller classes, simpler curriculum, and more
individual attention is rapidly promoted from the lowest class, and definitely advances up to a certain
point, though much more slowly than his fellow in the ordinary school. Some of this group in the
middle classes show a recovery both intellectual and educational; from these are recruited those who
return to the ordinary school; others, while still perhaps falling behind the normal for their age, show a
relatively greater advance in intellectual than in educational status, and appear to supply the bulk of
the promotion to the schools for elder boys or girls. In the latter schools, under a more stimulating
and practical form of manual training, the intellectual side develops more rapidly, and in many a certain
degree of recovery of lost ground in this respect undoubtedly takes place. When these elder boys or
girls are tested only by their manual work or by "questions on general topics, they show much less evidence
of defect or retardation than is evident when they are compared with the normal child of the same
age, or even much younger, in ordinary school subjects.
The volitional spontaneity of the child has to be taken into account since some of the lack of
progress and development is due to an absence of desire to learn which may amount to more than
passive resistance. The elder boys' schools, through the medium of their manual training re-act
favourably on the volition. A boy sees that the work he does is really constructive, and so takes more
interest. He learns to cobble boots or do something that some other boys of his acquaintance cannot,
and his self-respect rises accordingly. He finds his new attainments open the way to a definite trade
and to some extent realises their advantages. As he needs some knowledge of reading and arithmetic
to apply to this more attractive occupation, an incentive to effort previously non-existent is brought
into action which in some cases leads to rapid progress in the hitherto backward subject. Such children
are likely to have been at all stages further behind academically than intellectually, but their lack of
interest is a real defect of brain functioning, though the cure is a pedagogical rather than a medical
problem. The brightening of the general intellect, resulting from the change to more congenial work,
is sufficiently obvious to blind even some teachers to the more specialised educational deficiency, and
in any case is a source of great difficulty when the question arises of giving evidence to enforce the
attendance of a child over 14. If the child is fairly bright in appearance, and responsive to simple
questions, and still more if he has obtained a situation and is said to be giving satisfaction, it is perhaps
little wonder if the legal authority fails to be impressed by the evidence that in other respects his school
status is only that of a child of 9 or 10. Yet were this child just under 14, few would argue that
he should return to the elementary schools to be placed in Standard II. in the company of much
younger children, where he would be a nuisance to the teacher and deteriorate afresh from the loss of
the very practical work which had stirred up his dormant faculties. On the other hand, placed with
bigger boys in Standard IV. or V. he would be unable to follow the readers or the arithmetic, would