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Secondary education tends to accentuate the difficulties arising from the classification of children solely according to mental status. In elementary schools of higher grade, a boy entering Standard I. in the upper school is unacceptable unless he can work well; after a certain age, the dull boy cannot conveniently be kept in the infant school; he is too big. He must then either be kept among the infants, for whom he is not good company, or go among classmates with whom he cannot profitably work. To meet such cases it often happens that there is a class of Primers, but without any special arrangements for individual culture. In such schools the brighter children are well educated; at fourteen they get the prizes of the school and enter social life at an advantage; the dull children have not only been left comparatively uncultured, but by raising a class distinctly superior to themselves, they find the struggle for existence becoming intensified.

In all public expenditure, sums of money spent in secondary education should be accompanied by a proportional expenditure for the benefit of the dull and weak children. This is equivalent to the enactment which requires that schemes for the sanitary improvement of a neighbourhood, while providing good new dwellings, should also make provision for the poorer population displaced thereby. The child of good inheritance in brain power receives free education, and in consequence makes the dull child's life more difficult. The public interest requires that each child shall be trained to get a living.

Recommendations:

That a scientific statement of all observable conditions of child-lifeincluding elementary anthropometric examination-should be prepared by observation of at least 100,000 children.

That School Boards, in taking their triennial census of children in their district, should register any mentally defective children, or children otherwise afflicted.

That teachers should be specially trained to undertake the educational care of weak and mentally feeble children.

That lectures should be provided on the observation, study, and classification of children as to conditions bearing on mental life and education. This might consist of an elementary course and of University teaching.

That the Act to make better Provision for the Elementary Education of Blind and Deaf Children in England and Wales [56 and 57 Vict.], chap. 42, should be extended to include children with mental and bodily defects incapacitating them from ordinary school instruction.

That in the appropriation of funds for secondary education a proportional sum should be devoted to the special training of the dull and feeble.

That the Government be recommended to consult a scientific expert to assist the Education Department, the Local Government Board, and the Home Office in carrying out the above recommendations, and to report upon the whole subject generally as to the care of children whose education is supervised by the Government.

A form suggested for certification of a feeble-brained or defective child as requiring exceptional training is appended. Another certificate by a school teacher might be required if the child is attending school.

The Committee desire to be reappointed as before, and ask a further grant in aid of the work.

APPENDIX I.

Certificate as to a Child requiring Special Educational Training. To be filled in by a Medical Officer.

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Total number of children reported by teachers as dull at
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Total number of children reported as pale, thin, or delicate
Total number of children with nerve-signs

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Children with low constitutional power, delicate, and dull Children crippled, maimed, paralysed; those of defective mental development, and pupils with history of fits during school life

Boys Girls

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Children using glasses and with eye

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Children with defect in development of body with nerve-

Children with defect in development of body and low nutrition only

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signs and low nutrition only

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With defect in development, nerve-signs, and dull only.
With defect in development, low nutrition, and dull only
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Total number of children with some defect in development in body

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Children with abnormal nerve-signs and low nutrition only
Children with abnormal nerve-signs and dull only.

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Total number of cases reported in this inquiry with a defect 5,112 3,829

APPENDIX III.

For 50,000 Children as seen in Sixty-three Schools. Distribution of the Cases seen as to Standards. Distribution of Cases noted as presenting some Defect according to Standards and Ages.

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Anthropometric Work in Schools.-Report of a Committee, consisting of Professor JOHN CLELAND (Chairman), Mr. G. W. BLOXAM, Mr. E. W. BRABROOK, Dr. J. G. GARSON, Professor A. MACALISTER, and Professor B. WINDLE (Secretary). (Drawn up by the Secretary.)

APPENDIX I.-Circular sent to Schools

APPENDIX II.-Suggestions for Anthropometric Observations in Schools

440

441

In order to ascertain in what schools anthropometric work was being carried on, and in what manner, also what prospect there was of further development in this direction, a circular was prepared, a copy of which is subjoined to this report (Appendix I.).

This circular, together with a letter asking that it might be filled up and returned, and a stamped and directed envelope, was sent to 624 schools -495 for boys and 129 for girls. The former included all those given in 'Whitaker's Almanack.' The latter were the schools whose mistresses belong to the Association of Head Mistresses of Endowed and Proprietary Schools. A large number of these institutions did not reply, but 398 returns were obtained-viz. 309 boys' and 89 girls' schools. The results obtained from these returns are as follows:

1. Measurements are taken in 58 schools, of which 11 are for girls and 47 for boys.

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6. Reports are sent to parents either regularly, occasionally, or at leaving from 15 schools.

7. Calculations are published in two instances.

Eighty-six schools responded in the affirmative to the eighth question, and a few others provisionally upon the expense not being too heavy.

In response to the requests made by the masters and mistresses of these schools, and by others who did not express any intention of carrying out the work, but were desirous of ascertaining what might be done in this direction, a circular of suggestions for carrying out anthropometric observations was prepared, and has been sent to 162 schools (this circular forms Appendix II.). In preparing this circular the Committee had the valuable assistance of Mr. Priestley Smith in the portion relating to vision, and Mr. Frank Marsh in that respecting hearing; and they desire to record their indebtedness to these gentlemen.

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