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168
parents was available and the parents were able to see something of the school and the
children attending it.
The training of the certifying officer for approval by the Board of Education was
left to the various local authorities and in London courses of lectures, demonstrations and
observation classes were held at regular intervals by the senior medical officer in charge
of mental deficiency work throughout the County. Other authorities arranged for
some of their medical staff to attend these courses and many such doctors attended the
training and refresher courses and demonstrations given yearly by the Council's
specialist medical staff
A simple notification to the parent was sufficient notice to bring the child for
examination under penalty of a fine if he failed to do so without good reason. There
was no obligation to allow the parent to be present, although certifying officers were
reluctant to exclude parents, and a standard form of record was only compulsory when
cases had to be referred to the Board of Education. This form provided for a comprehensive
medical picture but was designed to indicate the presence or absence of signs
or characteristics of mental deficiency ; only under a heading ' temperamental
condition 'was any information required which today would indicate emotional
maladjustment or juvenile psychosis.
The I.Q.
in diagnosis
The main diagnostic point was the estimate of intelligence as shown by the
intelligence quotient estimated by the Binet Simon system and, later, the Stamford and
London revisions. Unless strong complicating or alternative conditions appeared, an
I.Q. above 70 indicated retention in an ordinary elementary school, below 70 but
above 50 education in a special M.D. school, below 50 reference to the local mental
deficiency authority as ineducable. Because the minimum age for attending at a special
school was seven years, children put forward for examination between five and seven
years and unsuitable for retention at an ordinary elementary school were invalided until
their seventh birthday and then re-examined. Psychometric testing at this time is shown
opposite page 174.
A difficulty arose because a child, mentally defective for the purpose of the Education
Act, 1921, on the grounds of low I.Q. and inability to absorb education, might also be
regarded as ' feeble-minded ' within the meaning of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913.
The first Act aimed at the provision of special education, the second at the provision of
care and control because of social inefficiency. Certifying officers were loth to certify
as ineducable and feeble-minded for the purpose of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913,
any child who appeared to show more intelligence than the apparent I.Q. warranted or
whose temperamental make-up gave rise to a suspicion that the child did not give a
true showing of its ability under test. As a result, many children remained in school
although they made little or no educational progress.
Enforcement
of
attendance
Once it had been determined that a child was mentally defective but educable in a
special school, it became the duty of the local education authority to consult with the
parent as to the form of education the child was to receive and, if the parent was not
providing suitable schooling or making adequate arrangements for education, he could
be required to send the child to a ' certified special school'. If he failed so to do without
reasonable excuse the authority could apply to a petty sessional court for an order to
enforce attendance.
The most common excuse advanced by the parents was that they were not convinced
that their child was mentally defective and they could contest the findings of the
certifying medical officer in a petty sessional court. Section 55(6) provided that where
doubt existed as to whether the child was or was not mentally defective, the decision
rested with the Board of Education. However, the making of an attendance order and
deciding whether there was an excuse for non-attendance remained with the court, as
did the imposition of a fine for non-compliance with any order made and making an
order for attendance at a residential school. No order could be made to send a child to a
school not within reach of his residence, or to a boarding-school, without the consent