Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

assistance in construction work. The foregoing remarks equally apply to the defective delinquent girl. Formerly, we refused to admit this class of girls, as we had no place to properly care for them. We could not place these graduates of the slums with our innocent feeble-minded girls, who came from their own homes or from the Children's Homes, because the immoral girls corrupted the minds of the innocent girls by the sordid stories they would relate.

We exerted our efforts for years to get a custodial department at our Women's Reformatory for the defective delinquent girl, but we were not successful. The good sisters who were instrumental in getting a Reformatory for Women were, I believe, fearful that we were trying to steal their reformatory for an Institution for Feeble-Minded. Not being successful in our attempts to secure a custodial department at the reformatory, we decided that the next building we constructed would be for the care and protection of the defective delinquent girl. Consequently, about a year and a half ago, we were able to open a building for this type of girl, where we now have 100 inmates. They, like the boys, have proven to be more of an asset than a liability, and are as happy a lot of girls, as one would wish to see. These girls have all been grossly immoral, having tasted of the very dregs of depravity. Only one of them had been taught to work. She fortunately, at one time had been an inmate of our Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home. We installed 28 sewing machines in this building and now all the flat work, which includes pillow cases, table linen, towels, in addition to the underwear, rompers and overalls for the entire institution are being made in this department. Besides, they are making many of their own dresses. They also do the mending for the boys' departments. The laundry for this building is also done by hand in the basement. None is sent to our main laundry, and, incidentally, it looks better and it wears longer. Last winter, these girls painted their entire building on the inside; manipulating their own ladders and scaffolds, and their work was superior to that of our regular painter boys, and they took great pride in the work. Our gymnastic teacher goes to this building and instructs the girls in different games, and they are encouraged in getting up entertainments. I believe these girls were never so happy in their lives. When I feel that some of the more promising ones really enjoy living good, clean lives and realize that, after all, the only way to be real happy is to be good, I will be in favor of giving them another trial.

I have told you about our experiences with the defective delinquent girl somewhat in detail, as I realize that they are the ones most dreaded by all, but neither the defective delinquent boy or girl are such difficult problems, if we are prepared to care for them and can keep them busy. We must confess, that it was with fear and trembling that we took them into the institution, and it was only because there was no other place for them that we consented to receive them. However, I will say that now that we have them, and find that they are such a help to the institution, we would be loath to relinquish them.

We would advise that every institution for feeble-minded have a separate department for defective delinquents, as an institution for feebleminded is, undoubtedly, a more appropriate place for them, unless we could have an entirely separate institution, which, I believe would not be particularly advantageous.

I am not in favor of permanently segregating all who would test feebleminded by our scientific tests; only those who have been tried and found socially unfit. There are many who from our scientific tests would be called feeble-minded, who, by actual experience, are self-sustaining, and getting along very well in the world. The facts are, we need different degrees of mental level in order to successfully carry on the business of the world. A man who has not the mental capacity for a bricklayer may make a very good hod-carrier and be perfectly happy and contented with his work, and it is just as essential to have hod-carriers, as it is to have bricklayers, and the latter would probably not have been contented to have done the work of the former.

Before closing, I wish to call your attention to a fact, which is of vital importance. That is, 22 per cent of the inmates in the Institution for Feeble-Minded in Ohio are of foreign born parentage, which emphasises the necessity of more carefully guarding our portals of entrance. After this stupendous war is over, the danger from this source will, undoubtedly, be greater than ever before.

TO TALK ON THE UNADJUSTED CHILD

Dr. William Healy, Director of the Judge Baker Foundation of Boston, formerly of the Chicago Juvenile Court, will lecture on "The Unadjusted Child" on four successive Wednesdays, beginning at 3:45 P. M. on Oct. 10 at the Meeting House of the Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West Sixtyfourth Street, under the auspices of the Federation for Child Study and the Jewish Big Sisters. Judge Franklin Chase Hoyt of the Children's Court in this city will speak at a conference of the two organizations at the same place on Nov. 15.

CHILD STUDY LABORATORY AND OBSERVATION

CLASS

NELLIE A. GOODHUE

DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL CLASSES, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

Beginning with a class of ten subnormal children in April, 1910, there has evolved the following plan for the study and development of retarded pupils in the Seattle public schools. Each year presents new problems to be solved and shows better methods in dealing with the old.

Soon after the organization of the first class for subnormal children, the necessity for a child study laboratory became apparent. The laboratory was established and is located under the same roof with the medical clinic. This has proven to be advantageous. After the laboratory was established, it was found that correct diagnosis and recommendations based upon examination of a half-hour or so by a stranger in a strange environment, can not be depended upon. Furthermore, the public school laboratory should be interested primarily in the child and not in the test. An accurate diagnosis can be made only after a thorough physical examination, plus a knowledge of inheritance, personal history (including history of infancy and early childhood), environment, school history (obtained from both parents and teacher), mental examinations and observation extending over an indefinite period. In fact, every child except the obviously feebleminded should not be diagnosed until an exhaustive study is made of all available facts and even then he should be given the benefit of every doubt. To meet this need, and avoid hasty diagnosis, the observation class was found to be indispensable. This class is also in the same building with the child study laboratory and medical clinic.

The functions of the laboratory and observation class are:

1. To study the retardation of each child, its causes and their possible removal.

2. To determine the best means for the development of each.

Due to the difficulty of getting children to the laboratory, often a preliminary examination is made at the building by someone from the child study laboratory. For this purpose, the Goddard "Revision of the Binet Test" is used chiefly. If the retardation is only slight, it is often possible to discover the cause of the difficulty and suggest means for remedying it.

The following are eligible for examination at the child study laboratory: a child who has repeatedly failed to be promoted; or who is doing poor or erratic school work; or who is over age for his grade; or any child who in the judgment of the parent, teacher, or principal needs to be better understood.

Each child reporting to the child study laboratory, must be accompanied by a parent from whom the necessary data are obtained. These data are checked up by a report from the teacher and principal. The school report covers twenty three items. The child is then enrolled in the observation

class which is quite unlike an ordinary school room. Here the usual order is reversed and the child becomes the teacher and the teacher the pupil. Various games, toys, books, industrial work are at hand, so that the child may exercise both ingenuity and initiative and display inherent interest at will. As far as time will permit, various methods of instruction are tried in order to discover the best means for developing each child.

The physical condition must first be known. The child is sent to the medical clinic where an examination is made by eye, ear, nose and throat specialists. A general examination is given and in some cases a neurologist is consulted. When possible, handicaps are removed or remedied by treatment, or the child may be placed under medical observation.

The mental tests are given in the child study laboratory. No one scale for testing mental intelligence is relied upon. The following tests are used: Goddard's "Revision of the Binet and Simon Scale," Yerkes and Bridge's Point Scale, The Terman Scale, Portius Tests, Form Board, Substitution Tests, Healey Construction Tests, Puzzle Tests. To determine the pedagogical status of the child, the following tests are given: Starch's tests for reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic; Trabue completion tests; Kelley's spelling tests; Woody's arithmetic tests and Thorndike's reading tests. The physiological development is determined by the anthropometric

measurements.

The number enrolled in the observation class and the period of observation for each child varies. This year the average attendance in the class has been nine and one-tenth and the period of observation has been six and seven-tenths days. After a child has been examined and observed, a conference is held and the reports of the medical clinic, observation class and laboratory are compared. A graph for each child is made showing the chronological age, physiological, mental and pedagogical development. A diagnosis and prognosis are made. Suggestions as to the best methods for developing each child are incorporated in the report. This report is sent to the teacher to whom the child is transferred. A child may be returned to the grade or to auxiliary teacher in the building from which he came; transferred to the restoration class, to one of the Special Classes, to the boy's or girl's parental school; or debarred from school (temporarily or permanently).

METHODS

NATURE STUDY

LILLIAN M. WATTS

LAFAYETTE SCHOOL, SPECIAL CLASS, BOSTON, MASS.

A. Field Lessons and Walks.

"All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.

1. Aims: To give the children some knowledge of the natural life around them; to arouse an interest in nature, and to give children a day out-doors away from city streets.

2. Methods: Nature study should not be conducted according to any set plan, but should be carried on informally by the teacher, with all the original ideas she can summon to her aid.

[blocks in formation]

Carfares, provided by children, school-fund or sale of articles

made in school, etc.

Well-filled lunch basket,-for ALL-DAY trip.

Suitable picnic clothing,—not "Sunday best.”

Advance notice to parents, saves worry.

Impressive talk concerning behavior on cars, streets, playgrounds. Assigning of small, weak children to special care of older and steadier pupils.

Balls and baseball bats brought by boys; jump-ropes, jack-stones by girls (if they wish to do so).

5. Activities at park (or place) visited:-The children never need any directions to look at the various animals, birds, flowers, trees, etc. A spry squirrel can work wonders in holding fast for long periods the wandering attention of even the lowest-grade child, while a green, grassy slope is worth its weight in gold as a rolling and tumbling ground.

Call attention to: (1) lengthening of days; (2) house-cleaning by

« PoprzedniaDalej »