Handwork TRAINING THE DEFECTIVE THROUGH HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE The departmental plan makes it possible for all the children in the special school, except the kindergarten, to have training in the kitchen. The day is divided into five periods of forty minutes each. Most of the work of the morning classes consists of a preparation for lunch which is served to about fifty of our children. The work of the afternoon classes consists of clearing away the lunch and cleaning the kitchen. The first period class is a group of little girls who are about ten years of age, but who are only five and six years old mentally. It is not a difficult task to arouse interest for house-work with these little people. They are only too anxious to do things. With few exceptions these girls did nothing to help about the house at home] At first they were much more of a hindrance than a help. These little ones are particularly fond of having their hands in water, and, as milk is served every morning to all the children in the school, eight out of the fifteen are busy washing, drying and putting away cups and milk bottles. There are many lessons connected with dish-washing. First, the soiled cups must be collected, then each washer must get two pans of hot water, one for washing the dishes and one for rinsing. She must also learn the difference between dish-cloths and wash-cloths. The dryers must get trays on which to put the clean dishes. They must learn the difference betweent hand-towels and dish-towels. Those who put the dishes away have a more difficult task-that of carrying a tray of cups across the kitchen. and arranging them in the closet. Of course, until they have done this many, many times we have pans of water spilt, wet aprons, broken dishes and burned hands. Eventually, however, they learn to do these things in a sensible way. Then there is always plenty of laundry work to do. Hand-towels, dish-towels, table-cloths, curtains and aprons must be washed and ironed. Four of this first class are usually busy learning to wash, two at the stationary tubs and two at large pans with small wash-boards. The two brightest from this class are sent to the store to buy what is needed for the luncheon. At first this is taking a list to the store and returning with the supplies, but later they learn to read what is written on the paper and what certain articles cost. Then they can be trusted with the money and will return with the correct change. A lesson on ironing must be very closely supervised. One little girl took hold of a hot iron without a holder, and then called to me, saying, "Oh, Miss B., it cooks!" A mother said to me not long ago, "Christine is so helpful at home since she has been coming to this chool. Why, she would rather stay in and help me in the afternoons than play in the streets with other children. She is so particular, she won't wash dishes in cold nor dirty water." The second period class is one of untrained boys about twelve years old, who have the mentality of six and seven-year-old children. The three brightest boys prepare the vegetables and luncheon is started. The others are busy scrubbing tables, counters, icebox and woodwork. Six small gas stoves are shined. This class also does laundry work and ironing. Much of the work of this class must be done over by the fourth period class boys, who are of the same mental age as these boys, but they are older and trained in the kitchen work, having attended the special school longer. The third period class, "our big girls," about fifteen years old, but only seven and eight mentally, are a problem. The ones who have had the training and have been promoted from the younger class do very good work. They iron table-cloths, window-curtains and aprons. They also set the table for lunch, cut and spread bread, serve soup, make and serve the dessert and cocoa. Within supervision these girls who have had four or five years' training would make valuable helpers in a home. The ones who come to us at fourteen or fifteen years of age and stay only a year or two are apt to want to sit around and gossip, arrange and rearrange their ribbons, jewelry, etc. The fourth period class, or the first afternoon class, cleans the kitchen. after the lunch. These boys are trained and succeed in making our kitchen shine. Dishes are washed, dried and put away, stoves shined, zinc counters shined, irons scoured, sink cleaned, pails scoured and dish-towels washed. In fact, everything is scoured and scrubbed except the floor. The floor is scrubbed by the fifth period boys, "our big boys," who are over fifteen years old but only eight and nine mentally. These fellows don aprons, and, with pails of warm water, scrub-brushes, scrub-cloths and soap, wait for the word "begin." In less than forty minutes they succeed. in scrubbing a kitchen 44 x 51. Pails and brushes are rinsed, cloths washed and all returned to their proper places within that time. That which we strive for in the kitchen is to have a place for everything and everything in that place, also for hospital cleanliness in every particular. This high-grade or rather well-trained class of boys, which is about ready to be graduated from the kitchen into a vocational training-class, shows us what can be done to the little unkempt, untrained, troublesome, defective boy. It is not long after cleaning things in the kitchen that the child begins to be clean himself. Common sense is trained, not by thought, but by experience. He has also learned that he can get a job, if is able to clean well. A number of these boys have work after school hours. One washes dishes at a restaurant, several clean windows, scrub the floors and counters in bake-shops. Ideals of sanitary living have been transferred to the home. Mike, who was such a dirty, apparently good-for-nothing little chap when he came to us four years ago, invited me to come to his home. He said he had cleaned it just like the school kitchen-scrubbed the walls, floor, windows, table and chairs—and that his big brother had made enough money at election time to buy a "white rag" to put on the table at the Thanksgiving dinner. And so our children receive from their work in the kitchen not only training in common sense, but vocational opportunities as well. CLARA BURROW, Newark. We have been concerned with the more fundamental changes in education, with the awakening of the schools to a realization of the fact that their work ought to prepare children for the life they are to lead in the world. To the educator for whom the problems of democracy are at all real, the vital necessity appears to be that of making the connection between the child and his environment as complete and intelligent as possible, both for the welfare of the child and for the sake of the community. With the spread of the ideas of democracy, and the accompanying awakening to social problems, people are beginning to realize that every one, regardless of the class to which he happens to belong, has a right to demand an education which shall meet his own needs and that for its own sake the state must supply the demand. If schools are to recognize the needs of all classes of pupils, and give pupils a training that will insure their becoming successful and valuable citizens, they must give work that will not only make the pupils strong physically and morally, and give them the right attitude toward the State and their neighbors, but that will as well give them enough control over their material environment to enable them to be economically independent. -From "Schools of To-morrow," John Dewey. EDITORIAL An experiment is being tried in Seattle, Washington. All mentally defective children are being excluded from the special classes. "This policy has been adopted," writes Mr. Stephenson Smith, "partly as a means to bring about the admission of such children to the State Institution, and partly because the school authorities feel that the education of such children is not a part of their legitimate work." Here again might be asked, "Who is feeble-minded?" By what standards will such children be measured? What will happen to the border-line cases? These are the children who interest us most. States have made some provision for the low-grade feeble-minded; their very abnormality and helplessness serve to protect them and to protect society from them. Our great problem is the child who is "too good for the institution but not good enough for general circulation." The school has attempted. a solution. Special classes have been organized and experts secured. But we have made little progress. This is because the problem is primarily a social one. After our experts are finished with him, he still needs protection and guidance, often for the rest of his life. We quite agree with Dr. Wallin that many successful business men may not measure up according to the Binet scale and that successful living is the only reliable test. We are not interested in classification and labeling. When among our children every day records new hopeless failures, what need is there for further tests? Sooner or later there comes to these children or to their parents a realization of their limitations and needs. What can we do for them? The same objections are always offered to any program on aftercare: "Legislation must first be secured" or "the cost to the State will be too great.' The latter argument is ridiculous in the face of such statements as those made by Dr. Little and Dr. Goddard. The former argument is not so easily disposed of. Sentiment is strong against "institutions." They are generally overcrowded with lowgrade children. They do not meet the needs of the "misfits." Institution has long meant punishment. Our direst threat is to "put him away.' Does it not seem reasonable to work for better institutions before we ask for more legislation. Why speak of "life-long incarceration in a custodial institution"? Let us provide care and protection rather than commitment with stigmatization. The results of the Hunter Island Farm School experiment have led to the firm conviction that parents and children will welcome any provision which recognizes the rights of the individual as well as those of society. Notes and Reviews AMERICAN EDUCATION: Journalism as an Aid in History Teaching. Address of Ex-President THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JOURNAL: The Relation of Spelling Ability to General Intelligence and to Meaning Vocabulary. The Improvement in Hand-writing of FeebleMinded Children. EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE: School Credit for Home Work. Industrial Department: What to POET-LORE, AUTUMN, 1915: Venice Preserved: A Tragedy in Five Acts, by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Neo-Romanticist, by Elizabeth Walter. Poems, by Florence Kiper Frank, Detler von Libencron, R. E. Saleski and Richard Dehmel. THE TRAINING-SCHOOL BULLETIN: Annual Report of Educational Department. Backward Children. "THE BACKWARD CHILD' BARBARA SPOFFARD MORGAN The children who find their way into Ungraded classes are of two general types the clearly recognized feeble-minded child and the backward child. The latter is by far the more important problem and to him the effort of the teacher might well be directed. "The backward child stands on the border-line between the normal and the feeble-minded, and the way in which his shortcomings are treated may determine whether he joins ultimately the one class or the other." "The business of education is concerned with getting enough knowledge and dexterity to meet the world on its own footing; and many who must meet it so are handicapped by some hitch which, like a black thread, runs through all their mental operations. So it is that side by side with awakening the child's imagination and quickening all his responses must |