An introduction to special school work / by Marion F. Bridie.

  • Bridie, Marion F.
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to special school work / by Marion F. Bridie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    \ dullness or backwardness on the part of a man or woman was frequently excused by his friends on account of his former non-attendance at school. Finally, or we might almost say, firstly, after the passing of the Education Acts and the enforcement of compulsory attendance, it soon became apparent that those mentally incapable of reaching the normal standard were a continual drag on a class. Then it appeared that some who would have appeared normal in such things as field work, kitchen work, or even the making of pottery, failed to compete with the modern requirements of every- day life for which our elementary schools prepare. I have no doubt that, within a few years, two other erades, which will need special consideration, will dis- tinguish themselves from the others, viz.: the dull or backward and the super-normal. Now there is no reason to doubt that in each of these generations the people of that time were perfectly normal and intelligent and had the potential capacity for im- provement which is inherited by succeeding generations, although their duties only exacted of them the specified work. The feeble-minded have not that capacity for improvement to so high a degree, consequently their offspring could not develop at the same rate, and have become further and further behind the normal, while the number of defective persons becomes larger and more striking. Moreover, the numbers have increased with startling rapidity during the last century. The preservation of life by higher medical skill has resulted in the survival of many unfit. Generations of neglect and sin have left their mark in the defective child of to-day, so frequently the offspring of defective parents. Intermarriages in country districts and the vacation of the villages by