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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    for those of this generation to make their tentative trials and experiments and to know that the best of their work may form the foundation of the ever-perfecting work of succeeding generations. We are beginners ; it would be an insignificant work if we could bring it to perfection in a few years. Therefore, our whole attitude is that of learners, and gratefully should we learn from those “ less fortunate in mind.” What is Mental Defect ?—o answer this ques- tion adequately would require the combined knowledge, experience and erudition of psychologist, biologist, patho- logist, and pedagogue, and even then we ae feel that the definition was incomplete. Here, however, the subject cannot be approached in any but the simplest and most elementary manner, and it is hoped that the points put forward will rouse the interest and direct the attention of young teachers who have opportunity for making an intimate study of mentally-defective individuals. Perhaps a wide general explanation of mental defect can be given to the beginner by means of a rough simile. We might liken the development of the brain to the development of a photographic plate. Im the exposed plate there are certain hidden potentialities which reveal themselves gradually under certain treatment. At first, as the developer flows over the plate, the gross structure of the image appears; later, with careful judicious appli- cation of the chemical, each part of the plate is evenly developed, and eventually every detail of the negative picture stands out clearly. The plate is then fixed and the development arrested just at perfection. +4 But the plate may be a poor one, due perhaps to external conditions such as lack of sunlight, or to internal