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34
The figures given relate to all cases in the town, and not
expressly to cases in which school children only are involved.
(17) BUND, DEAF, DEFECTIVE AND EPILEPTIC
CHILDREN.
It may be taken that substantially every blind, deaf, defective
or epileptic child is known to the authority. To make absolutely
certain it would be necessary to hold a special census, but even
if this were done the result would be uncertain unless exceptional
measures were taken, so that although, of course, we cannot declare
that our returns under these headings are absolutely accurate,
we know them to be sufficiently accurate to make any alternative
method of ascertainment unnecessary.
You, as the Local Education Authority, have so many agencies
at work interested in child welfare that I can scarcely believe that
any children who should be known to you are not known. Even
the Municipal Hospital plays a part in this ascertainment, because
every child in there is very closely watched, and any necessary
information is filed with the school dossiers.
Six deaf and dumb children have attended at Frederick Road
Centre, Custom House, during the year, and one child has been
maintained in a residential institution.
The number of known epileptics of all grades is 13, and you
have been much exercised in the problem presented by epilepsy
where it is associated with other defects.
Mentally Defective Class, Open-air School.—This class serves a
very useful purpose. It takes out from the ordinary elementary
schools a number of scholars who would unquestionably clog the
machinery of ordinary elementary education. Further, it gives
these children a training from which they can benefit educationally.
To a certain extent, and in certain cases to a considerable extent,
the actual intelligence of the children is increased. This, however,
as I shall show, is a two-edged sword.
There are no clear lines of demarkation between the highest
intelligences and abject idiots and imbeciles, and if you have
only a mentally deficient class, naturally there would gravitate
into that class a certain number of children who are on the border