View report page

63
During the course of the year a report was published by the
Board of Education concerning the question of the treatment of
children suffering from defective eyesight. The Committee will
be aware that it is the practice to send children whose sight is so
bad that they cannot be taught with normal children, to a special
school known as a myope school, or a school for blind children.
Both these names are bad. In the first case many of the children
attending the myope schools are not suffering from myopia or short
sight, whilst none of the children are actually blind. A better name
would be " school for partially sighted children." Careful consideration
has to be given as to what children should be sent to
this type of school. In the first case there is the child whose sight
is so bad that it cannot gain education by being taught with sighted
children; for these children special educational methods are
obviously necessary. There is a second type, however, consisting
chiefly of children suffering from myopia where, although the child
can see quite well either with or without glasses, the strain of normal
school life is derogatory to the child's eyes and likely to cause further
injury. With these children it is essential to determine whether
the condition is stationary or progressive. If the condition is
stationary and the sight good, there is no reason why the child
should not be left in an ordinary school. Where, however, the
condition is progressive, it is essential that the child's sight should
be safeguarded by special methods of education, even if the sight
be good. These facts are well borne in mind when consideration is
given as to the question whether in any specific case a child should
be sent to a special school or allowed to remain in an ordinary school.
I would stress here that not only in the case of eye defects,
but that in all cases it is preferable for abnormal children or children
suffering from physical defects to be retained in elementary schools
if they can be taught there without harm to themselves or the other
children. The abnormal child or the child with a physical defect
will have to live and earn its living with normal children when it
leaves school, and it is wrong to segregate such children during school
life if it can be avoided. The ideal is for these children to remain
in elementary schools participating in that part of the school programme
from which their physical defect does not bar them, but
receiving care and education in special classes in those subjects for
which special methods of education are necessitated by their defect.
The acreage of Enfield and its small population as compared with
its extent makes it difficult to have special classes in our elementary
schools for children suffering from defects of vision and hearing,
but I consider this is an aim which the Education Committee should
have in mind when the population has increased to such an extent
that its achievement becomes possible.