THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIAL TYPES OF CLASSES FOR MENTALLY, MORALLY AND EDUCATIONALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN IN THE ST. LOUIS SCHOOLS1

By J. E. WALLACE WALLIN, Director Bureau of Special Education (Subnormal and Delinquent Children), Established by the Ohio Legislature Under the Administration of Miami University

At the June meeting of the Board of Education in 1906 (Proceedings of the Board of Education, XIV, pp. 593-596), Superintendent F. Louis Soldan brought to the "notice of the Board" the desirability of establishing "Special Schools for Individual Training" in segregated buildings for children who are "defective," "neglected by nature and constitutionally incapacitated for the ordinary studies," but who are neither "imbecile" or "mentally unbalanced" nor merely "dull, backward or slow," and "Special Schools for Truant and Unruly Boys," or "Public Day Schools for Individual Training," to be located apart from the buildings containing regular or "defective" classes, for "the habitual truant" and for "unruly, ungovernable, or habitually troublesome boys."

At the following July meeting (Proceedings, p. 682) the general plan proposed for the establishment of schools for "children of defective mentality" and day schools for "truant and unruly boys" was adopted as the "policy" of the Board, but further action was deferred until the early part of the next scholastic year, pending the determination of the number of rooms which would be needed. But not until the November meeting of the Board in 1907 was the question of special schools again broached. At this meeting the superintendent made a further statement regarding the special schools (Proceedings, Vol. XV, pp. 199-202), in which he again emphasized the necessity of establishing these schools and discussed their appointments, location, supervision, the character of the instruction needed, the qualifications needed by the teachers, the procedure to be followed in the examination and admission of the children, compulsory attendance, the transportation of the pupils and the costs of the schools. He announced that 181 mentally defective 1 Excerpts from the writer's report to the Board of Education, June, 1920.

children had been reported from the different elementary schools, and recommended the opening of six class rooms in three "special school centers . in six-room dwellings in various parts of the city," with two teachers and an attendant in each center. The type of child eligible for assignment was now more sharply defined than in the earlier report: "care must be taken to limit admission to those children who are mentally defective and not merely slow. On the other hand imbecile or demented children who cannot profit by school instruction at all should not be admitted. . . . The admission of children to the special schools should be in the hands of the principal and teacher who makes the recommendation, of the medical inspector and the supervisor of defective schools, whose endorsement should be subject to the approval of the Superintendent of Instruction." It was emphasized that the special schools should "provide the best conditions for the education of these unfortunates," with appointments "adequate to their needs." They should have "the most pleasant environment and the most homelike conditions." "They should not be mere makeshifts, but models." "The tone of the school should be bright, cheerful and encouraging." Instruction should be largely individual. There should be no "fixed course of study in reading, writing and arithmetic" and the "great purpose" should be to make the children "useful for life." The health of the pupils should be regularly supervised by a visiting medical officer. Only teachers who are specially qualified and who have "a strong interest in and affection for each afflicted child should be selected."

As a result of these recommendations a supervisor of the special schools was appointed on November 12, 1907, and three special schools, employing six teachers, were opened in the early part of 1908, one on January 15, one on January 27, and one on February 24, while three more centers were opened the following September. Seven of the twelve teachers appointed in 1908 are still in the service of the special schools.

There has been a special supervisor of the physical training in the special schools since 1910. At the present time the supervisor also has charge of the supervision of the physical training in the full-time ungraded classes.

TABLE 1.-ANNUAL STATISTICAL DATA ON THE SPECIAL SCHOOLS FOR INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION

1 ́ ́Average school membership" was used up to 1916-17.

In Table 1 we have summarized the important annual statistical data in connection with the growth of the special schools. In the twelve years of their existence the number of teachers has increased from six to twenty-five, and the total annual registration from 100 to 501.

It is impossible to determine with absolute accuracy the total number of pupils who have been enrolled in the special schools since they were organized, because the records for some of the schools are not now available. With the aid of the teachers, however, we have attempted to compile a list of the pupils registered in all the special schools up to June, 1920. The list contains the names of 1,969 pupils, of whom 1,350 were boys and 619 girls, and of whom 205 were colored (136 boys and 69 girls).

The development of the special schools has largely followed the plan proposed to the Board in 1906 and 1907, and has resulted in the establishment in St. Louis of a unique, highly organized, and efficient system of public day schools for mental defectives. The St. Louis type of organization can only be duplicated in the countries of Europe which "led off" in the

development of public day schools for mental defectives. The vast majority of cities in this country have organized special classes for mental defectives in the regular grade buildings, usually a single class, but occasionally two or three classes, in a building. A few cities have, in addition, established a central school in the congested section. In St. Louis, on the other hand, only one special class is at present located in a regular grade building-located there temporarily because of the unavailability of a portable. Three classes are located in a building which also accommodates two boys' classes and a manual training center, while two classes are located in portables on the grounds of elementary schools. All the other schools are in segregated centers, including 16 classes in home-like cottages or residences (three owned by the Board), and three classes in a building specially erected for the purpose (Special School No. 1), which is said to be the first public school building erected in this country specifically for the training of mental defectives. This is a two-story brick structure, erected in 1913 at a cost of $22,141, and contains two academic class rooms, a shop room, a large gymnasium, a kitchenette, a dining room, a bed room, a room containing shower baths, a cloak room and toilets. It is located in a yard 140 x 150 feet, which affords ample space for a playground, an economic garden and landscape gardening.

There are two or three teachers in all of the special schools in St. Louis except three in districts which require only one class. We cannot here enter upon a discussion of the relative advantages of special schools and special classes as we have been privileged to study the problem in St. Louis and elsewhere during the past twelve years. Suffice it to say that there can be no question of the enormous superiority of establishing two or more classes in special centers from the standpoint of the efficiency of instructional organization, the educational and mental classification of the pupils, the departmentalization of the teaching, the adequacy of the equipment furnished, the spirit of the school and morale of the group, and freedom from mutual interference and friction between the special classes and regular elementary school when both are located in the same building. These advantages outweigh various disadvantages which attach to the organization of segregated special school centers, grave as these disadvantages sometimes are.

The most significant step taken after the organization of the special schools was the establishment of the psycho-educational clinic in September, 1914. The authority to establish the clinic was voted by the Board at the preceding March meeting. This action was the outgrowth of a growing conviction that mistakes in the assignment of pupils to the special schools could not be avoided unless there were available a central clearing house where all the obtainable facts bearing upon a pupil proposed for transfer to a special school could be carefully studied, sifted and evaluated by a specialist on educationally handicapped children before the assignment was made. This suspicion was wellfounded. We estimated that from one-third to one-half of the pupils in the special schools in September, 1914, had been incorrectly assigned.

The following functions were originally assigned to the director of the department: the direction of the work of the psychoeducational clinic; the examination of, report upon, and recommendation concerning, or placement of, abnormal pupils; the investigation of the needs of, and the making of suggestions concerning the course of study for abnormal pupils; and the general supervision of the Special Schools for Individual Instruction, together with the instruction of teachers in them and classes at the Harris Teachers College. Two years subsequently the director's functions were extended to include the nomination of teachers for the special schools, the making of recommendations for new supplies for the schools, and the reviewing of the marks assigned the teachers. The clinic has been located on the third floor of a building occupied by the special school adjoining the grounds of Harris Teachers College.

Since the clinic was established no child has been assigned to a special school for mental defectives except upon the recommendation of the director of the clinic after a personal examination of each candidate. The complete examinations have included a physical examination, a psychological examination including the determination of the intelligence and psycho-motor levels, intellectual motor, volitional and emotional peculiarities, specific mental and educational disabilities, speech impediments, delinquent diatheses, the developmental and family history, the school record, and in many cases anthropometric measurements. The physical examinations have been made by the medical staff of the Hygiene Division of the schools. The histories have been