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22
cannot see well will not develop along exactly the same lines as
one with full acuity. He cannot see his friends across the street
and does not develop the wish to recognise them. As time goes
on he becomes what the Americans call a "bad mixer," introspective
and, perhaps, 'even more selfish than the majority of his
fellows. Visual defects and the absence of binocular vision
associated with squint do not tend to proficiency in ball games,
and here again fall social intercourse is hindered. On the other
hand, the myope, enjoying a contracted sphere of clear vision,
is more likely to cultivate his brain than his muscles, and, unless
his education has been stunted in a myope school, may become one
of the world's thinkers."
These conflicting views are quoted so that members of the
Authority may appreciate the difficulty of deciding whether a child
should attend an ordinary elementary school or a special school.
Deaf.—No difficulty arises in determining whether a child is
totally deaf or deaf and dumb, and no one doubts the advisability
of sending such children to special schools for the deaf.
The question is not so easy in regard to the partially deaf.
It must always be a matter of difficulty to settle the degree of
deafness which should determine the admission of a child into a
special school or class for partially deaf children.
Loss of hearing has been the subject of an extensive investigation
in Hornsey elementary school children during 1930 by Dr.
Crowden, Lecturer in Physiology at the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Mentally Defective.—The accurate ascertainment and
correct classification of all the mentally defective children in the
area is not an easy matter, but this subject has been actively
pursued in Hornsey for many years, and I believe the figures
presented in Table III. under this heading are correct, in spite of
the fact that they do not correspond with the average incidence of
mentally defective children in the country as a whole.
The number of uneducable mentally defective children notified
to the Middlesex County Council during the year 1930 is four, and
the total number of defectives so notified in the last 10 years and
still alive is 25.