View report page

5.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Walthamstow Committee for Education.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The reception accorded to my Report last year has
encouraged me to repeat the same format, presenting again
reviews and comments upon items of current interest in the
School Health Service separately from the tabular and statistical
section I shall try, so far as possible, to deal in
this way each year with some particular aspect of Child
Health.
This year has been noticable for the growth which has
been taking place in the upper branches of the tree of
knowledge the proposed University of Essex looks as though
it will soon progress from a concrete proposal to a red brick
foundation. Extensive plans are afoot for the establishment
of colleges of advanced technology and for the expansion of
existing technical colleges; grammar schools are carrying
large numbers in their Vlth forms and secondary modern schools
are running extended courses. Education generally seems to
be striding forward with seven-league boots and inevitably
some will be left behind. These are the handicapped children
who, because of poor physical or mental endowment or as a
result of injury or disease are unable to keep pace with
their fellows.
The more efficient an educational system becomes the
higher are the aims and the swifter the pace. Also the more
difficult it becomes for the very dull and the disabled to
keep up. These latter have always been of special interest,
and responsibility, to my department and for this report I
have asked those of my colleagues chiefly concerned for
contributions dealing with handicapped children. These
follow and I would like to express my thanks to their authors
for their clear and comprehensive expositions of the problems
involved.
Dr. Poole and Mr. Williams have analysed the changes
that have occurred over the years in the type of child now
requiring special schooling and the reasons for this.
Acquired disablements resulting from diseases have become
rarer due to the advances made in preventive work. Children
with congenital defects occupy most of the places nowadays
thus presenting the teachers with far more formidable
challenges than the special schools of old. The children
often have dual defects. The defects are more resistant to
treatment and the child is admitted at a much earlier age.