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It is thus evidently impossible at one examination of a pupil
to gauge accurately his mental ratio.
I do not suggest that the whole of the six hundred children
whose names have been submitted as being very retarded should
be treated at a special school. I do submit, however, that the
matter cannot any longer be disregarded, and that the disabilities
should be individually and properly analysed and, if necessary,
classified into different groups, in order that these unfortunate
children may receive the proper attention to improve their condition
and prospects, and so prevent them hindering their fellow
pupils or becoming a perpetual menace to the law and order of
domestic life and to the State, if not eventually a charge upon the
public in institutions, or otherwise.
In my judgment no fewer than two hundred vacancies in the
first instance should be allotted to cases of this character specially
selected by Head Teachers and Doctors as suitable for training
apart from the ordinary elementary school.
The objection to children with a subnormal mind being
educated within the same curtilage as other tvpes of physically
subnormal children is not a serious one, and should be faced in
the interest of the children themselves, the parents being made
thoroughly to realise that this only means the same site being used
and not actual contact of the different types with each other.
The dearth of available sites, in this area at least, renders a
multiplicity of special schools impracticable, even if it were
necessary.
Generally, it is nearly thirty years since the School Medical
Service was inaugurated, over which period an enormous amount
of statistical and clinical evidence has been accumulated. The
time appears ripe to discard much of what has been proved to be
of little, or no, comparative value, and to concentrate more upon
those aspects of the Service which enhance the general well-being
of the school population, and render the school child of to-day a
healthy, useful and contented citizen of to-morrow.
The foregoing report purports to indicate the need of this.
Further, the treatment of thousands of cases of trivial minor ailments
at school clinics aids very little in the broader scheme ; these
clinics might function more as consultative centres.
Finally, arrangements should be made for the examination
of more children otherwise than by routine age groups, and an
extension of the dental scheme to include all ages is necessary.
F. GARLAND COLLINS,
School Medical Officer.
Municipal Health Offices,
Romford Road,
West Ham, E.15.
May, 1936.
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