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line between " mental deliciency" and low-grade " dull and
backwardness." It is invidious that these dull and backward children,
however low grade, should be classified as mentally defective, and
no scheme is complete which deals only with mentally defectr
children and leaves the larger class of dull and backward children
uncatered for.
It may be possible for these dull and backward children to get
along somehow in the ordinary elementary schools.
My submission is their education is even more important
than that of ordinary children and that of specially intelligent
children, because, apart from any question of ordinary education,
of which I cannot speak expressly, there is the question of the
further development of these children after they leave school.
In the ordinary way the education of a child goes on long
after the age of fourteen. An impetus has been given, the momentum
of which is felt for several years, and, either consciously, by
attending evening schools or by other means, or unconsciously, the
child still continues to learn and the intelligence still continues to
expand ; but in the case of these dull and backward children there
is, as a rule, no momentum. They are only educable under the
influence of a constant stimulus. Directly they leave school they
not only entirely discontinue their education, but actually go
backwards. These are the children who bring great discredit on
our educational system, and are the evidence on which the critics
of education found their biting sarcasm.
If this were all, it would be bad enough, but worse remains yet
to be told. These are the children who become the " work-shys "
of later life. The women often become harlots and the men petty
thieves, with not enough intelligence to excel even in that art,
with the result that they spend long terms of servitude at the
expense of the State.
It is these dull and backward children who decrease the
productivity of industry; they increase expenditure, not only on
prison services, but also on relief work and many other forms of
public enterprise, including expenditure on hospitals and other