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89
opposite view. In the opinion of the latter, the establishment of
anything like backward classes is deprecated as serving no useful
purpose, on the assumption that children of inferior mental
capacity will probably be unable to acquire any very much better
grasp of the very simplest subjects of education without in the
main its being lost in the years immediately following their
leaving school. The recommendation in the latter case is that
such children irrespective of age should be retained in the ordinary
elementary school class which accords with their mental attainments
and until these attainments are such as would allow them to
"pass up," the object of the special backward class being thereby
obtained. Personally, 1 feel that there is something to be said for
the latter view, although it resolves itself into having smaller
classes and special teachers, an object not at all times practicable
nor possible in every school.