STUDIES FROM THE HELEN S. TROUNSTINE FOUNDATION VOLUME 1 APRIL 1, 1921 NUMBER 7 FEEBLE-MINDED EX-SCHOOL CHILDREN A Study of Children who have been students in Cincinnati Special Schools By Helen T. \yoOLLEY, Ph. D. Director of the Vocatioa Bureau and HORNELL Hart Former Reaearch Fellow of the Foundation CINCINNATI, U. S. A. r M iHE Helen S. Trou?istine Foundation, built as a B monument to the memory of Helen S. Trounstine, M ivas incorporated in the 'State of Ohio, February 9, 1 91 7. The Foundation is supported by private contri- butions, and is administered by a self-perpetuating Board of Trustees. It is devoted to the investigation of social problems, particularly those presented within the City of Cincinnati. In pursuance of the purposes for which it was estab- lished, the Foundation issues publications at various times setting forth the results of investigations carried out under its head. It naturally assumes no responsi- bility for the contents of the papers which it sees fii to print. The publications of the Foundation may be ob- tained by addressing the Foundation at 25 East Ninth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, U. S. A. Price of this paper, 50 cents. WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF The Helen S. Trounstine Foundation 25 East Ninth Street CINCINNATI. OHIO 233 T^EEBLE-MINDED EX-SCHOOL CHILDREN A Study of Children who have been students in Cincinnati Special Schools By Helen T. Woolley Ph. D. Director of the Vocation Bureau and HORNELL Hart Former Research Fellow of the Foundation 233 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 237 Material for Investigation 238 Mental, Educational and Social Status of Special School Children. . . .239 Ages 239 Chronological Ages 239 (Table I) 240 Mental Ages 241 (Table II) 241 Family Records with Social Agencies of the Confidential Exchange 242 Number of Children from such Families and types of Agencies with which they were Registered' 242 (Table III) 242 Types of Maladjustment discovered in Members of the Families . 243 (Table IV) 243 Length of Time Spent in Special Schools 243 (Table V) 244 Correlation Between Length of Stay and Intelligence Quotient. 244 (Table VI) , 244 History after Leaving Special Schools 244 Leisure Interests 244 (Table VII) 245 Relationship between Mentality and Leisure Occupation 246 (Table VIII) 246 Delinquency 246 Social and Economic Status at the Time of Study 246 Status Classified according to Sex — Number and Percentage . . 247 (Table IX) 247 Table of Contents— Continued Status Classified according to Time Spent in Special Schools, Intelligence Quotient and Quality of Hand-work 247 (Table X) 247 Status Classified according to Social Maladjustment — Percent Delinquent and Percent with Family Maladjustments. . . .248 (Table XI) 248 Analyses of Social Groups 248 Individuals Living at Home .248 Individuals Kept in Institutions 249 Individuals Who Married 250 Imbeciles and Morons in Industry 253 Method of Investigation 254 Earnings Classified according to Amount, Sex and Intelli- gence Quotient 254 (Table XII) 254 Earnings Classified according to Amount, Sex and Median Number of Years in Special Schools 255 (Table XIII) 255 Length of Time in Positions 256 Type of Positions Held 256 (Table XIV) 256 Delinquency in this Group 258 Summary and Conclusions. 260 Selection of Pupils for the Special Schools 260 Type of Training 260 Record Keeping 262 Social Case Work 263 FEEBLE-MINDED EX-SCHOOL CHILDREN A Study of Children who have been students in Cincinnati Special Schools By Helen T. Woolley Ph. D. Director of the Vocation Bureau and Hornell Hart Former Research Fellow of the Foundation INTRODUCTION The education of feeble-minded children by the public schools was undertaken with high hope — specifically the hope that if the most skilled teaching and the most favorable school environment could be given these least well endowed children, their deficiencies could be compensated and they could be sent out into society ready to play a normal part. Con- sequently such children were given the advantage of very small classes (about fifteen children to a teacher), of superior teachers who are paid a higher salary, of special equipment for teaching, and of the added stimulus of various kinds of hand work. The case for the establishment of such schools is well stated in the following quotation from a paper by Miss Emma Kohnky*, principal of the School for Defectives in Cincinnati. "In nearly every instance these children either have been necessarily neglected or have submitted to constant reproach in the regular class room. Inability to take part in the class exercises has given them time with no way to use it. Hence has arisen disorder and friction with the teacher. Place these children in the new environment: competition among equals becomes possible; the teacher who has only a small group of children has a chance to get acquainted with the new arrival. She finds that he can do this or the other thing tolerably well; she praises him and emphasizes this power. She attempts to make him realize himself; for the first time this child has the satisfaction that comes with ability to do. Inequality of Development. One of the most striking features among children who test 'subnormal' is their inequality of development. One may do fairly well in one subject of the curriculum and be a failure in another. Since there is no attempt to bring all of the children of a group to a certain standard at a given time, these individual differences can be taken care of. Regrouping within the group makes this possible. Our methods do not differ greatly from those used in other classes except that there is a larger use of the concrete; kindergarten practise persists over a longer period; experiences are more actively brought to the child since his *The School Index, Cincinnati, Ohio. V. 210, (1919.) 238 Helen S. Troiinstine Foundation initiative is very weak. The chief aim so far as the regular branches are con- cerned is to give power in spoken and to a lesser degree in written language. More time than is assigned to regular classes is given to handwork; sewing, embroidery, cooking, weaving, basketry, woodwork, cardboard construction and the like. This is not, as is often believed, because these children excel in handwork, but rather because the product does not need to be perfect to make it usable as is true with a problem in arithmetic or a list of spelling words. The largest benefit from this work is the reaction of his achievement upon the child. A daily period in the gymnasium is provided for all but the youngest children. A disposition to sit undisturbed, a mental as well as physical laziness, often exists. Games and folk dances as well as the ordinary gym- nastic exercises are used to combat this condition." Schools of this type have now been established long enough to make it worth while to begin to measure results. The special school in Cincinnati was established in 1909. It has now developed until its enrollment is 400 children. The cost per capita of these classes (191 8) is $83.00 per year as compared with $35.00 for normal children. At the time this study was undertaken, 203 of these children had reached the legal age for leaving school and had gone out into the community to shift for themselves. It is an important matter for the school to know what has become of them. Are they able to earn a living? What proportion of them are dangerous to the community? What have they gained from their schooling, in personal resources as well as in industrial ef^ficiency? The answer to such questions as these has been the objective of this study. MATERIAL FOR INVESTIGATION The group of children who form the subject-matter of this investigation comprises all of the children ever enrolled in classes for defectives in Cin- cinnati who had, in the summer of 1918, been out of school for as much as a year. There were 203 such children. The material proved to be unex- pectedly disappointing for the purposes of this study because both the laboratory and the school records of the children were found to be meager. When the school was first established, children were selected largely on the basis of the judgment of teachers. If mental tests were made by the principal, who had been trained at Vineland, no records of them were kept. A few years later, the Department of Psychology of the University of Cincinnati was designated as the regular channel through which children were to be assigned to the school. Since the University clinic was in session only one-half day a week, and children to be examined were compelled to go out to the University accompanied by a parent, the number for whom examinations could be arranged was limited. For this reason, some children were admitted without test even after the clinic had been recognized. Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 239 No reports of the results of mental tests beyond a mere statement of mental age were ever sent to the Special School by the University clinic. What records there were, were on file at the University. When this study was undertaken, a list of the children to be investigated was sent to the University and in each case in which a record was on file, a mental age was put down opposite the name on the list. Aside from this, no scientific data with regard to these children were available. A few of them happened to have been tested also in the laboratory of the Vocation Bureau, but too few to be of importance in the present study. In 1916, the laboratory of the Vocation Bureau was recognized by the Superintendent of Schools as the regular channel for assignment to the Special School. Since that time, complete records have been sent to the school and have also been filed at the central ofiice, but most of these children are still in school and do not appear in this investigation The absence of school records at the School for Defectives has made it impossible to use degree of school success as one measure in this study. It seemed at the start unimportant to make accurate records of the very slow progress of these children and as a consequence no academic records were kept. In some instances, the teachers remembered how much progress the children had made and in others not. Except for an estimate of facility with hand work, we have made no attempt to use the factor of educational accomplishment. In addition to the very meagre laboratory and school records available, we secured all the information about the families of these children which was recorded in the Confidential Exchange of the Council of Social Agencies and in the records of the agencies registering there, and visited the home of each child to find out what we could about his social and industrial history. The number of cases is too small to furnish the basis for scientific con- clusions even if the data were complete. However, unsatisfactory as the basis of the study is, it furnishes some tentative conclusions which are at least suggestive of further lines of inquiry and of policy. Although the intention was to send only children who were definitely feeble-minded to the Special School, nevertheless some of those sent without examination were not feeble-minded (later tests established this) and others with special defects were sent e\'en though their general mental level was above feeble-mindedness. For the purposes of this study, intelligence quotient is the only usable measure of mentality. MENTAL EDUCATIONAL AND SOCL'\L STATUS OF SPECL^L SCHOOL CHILDREN The chronological ages of these children at the time of the mental test, is shown in Table I. Since only two of the children were less than ten and most of them were twelve or more at the time of the test, the intelligence 240 Helen S. Trounstine Foundation quotient can be accepted as a fairly homogeneous measure of intelligence. Although Terman a few years ago stated that the intelligence quotient was a constant factor which could be regarded as characteristic of the individual no matter what the chronological age at the time of the test, recent work has not borne out this opinion. Genuinely feeble-minded children are apt to have an intelligence quotient which decreases from year to year as development gradually slows down and ceases. Children who have become retarded through neglect or physical defects sometimes improve in intelli- TABLE I Chronological ages of former students of Cincinnati Special Schools at time of first mental test. Age in Years Number in Each Group Less than 10. 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 1 7 or over . . . Not given . . . 2 4 13 21 20 24 18 4 All Ages No record of mental test . 115 Total Number Studied 203 gence quotient when proper treatment is applied. The younger the child, the greater the chance that the intelligence quotient does not represent a final stage of development. In children above twelve years, however, the quotient is apt to be a significant indication of final capacity. At fifteen years or more, it is reasonable to expect a static quotient. In the present series, therefore, the error involved in accepting these quotients as signif- icant of adult capacity is not large. The fact that the children received in the Special School were so old at the time of entry is worthy of some comment. The explanation is that as yet the initial selection of children for the Special School rests with the teacher and principal, and the teacher hesitates to recommend a very young child as probably defective. Moreover, while they are young, they do comparatively little damage to the class work and to the other children by simply sitting in the room and getting what they can. In Cincinnati during the period covered by this study, children who failed stayed two years in a grade and were then automatically promoted to sit another two years in the next grade. By the time they were about twelve years old, they were very conspicuously over-size for the grade and were often becoming prob- Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 241 lems of behavior. The teachers then began to seek relief by recommending them for special classes. The result is unfortunate for the children and for the Special School. At the period when the Special School could have done most for these children, they were simply sitting in the regular grades in large classes, with teachers who had no time to give them as individuals, and no special interest in their problem. By the time they finally reached the school, many of them were within a year or two of the legal age for leaving school. Very few of these children remain in school longer than the law compels them to stay. The average time in the Special School for this entire group is only a year and a half (see Table V). This is not long enough to be a fair test of what such a school might do. It ought to have the children at least five years. The remedy for this situation seems in sight. The teachers are learning which children should be recommended for examination early. It will soon be routine that any child who has spent two years in a grade without success must be tested. Furthermore, methods of group testing for young children are rapidly being developed which, when supplemented by individual tests, will furnish a method of selecting children for special classes independently of the judgment of the teacher. The range of intelligence of these children, expressed in terms of their intelligence quotients* is shown in Table II. TABLE II Distribution according to mentality of 203 former students of Cincinnati Special Schools. Intelligence Quotient Under 50 50-60 60-70 70-80 80-90 Number with known I. Q Number with I. Q. not known Total number studied Number of Students Percentage 17 27 41 23 7 14.8 23-5 35-6 20.0 6.1 115 1 00.0 J03 About one in seven of the children for whom records of mental tests could be found are imbeciles. Between half and two-thirds are morons. Over one-fourth are borderline or normal children. The record of the families of these children for delinquency and depen- *The intelligence quotient is found by dividing the mental age by the chronological age or by 16 years if the child was beyond that age when tested. 242 Hele?i S. Trounstine Foundation dency is indicated by their contact with the social agencies of the city. Of the 203 children studied, 139 or over two-thirds, came from families for whom there have been clearings in the Confidential Exchange of the Council of Social Agencies. This unquestionably understates the case, for the Confidential Exchange was not established until 191 3 and was not sys- tematically used by all the agencies for the first few years. The agencies have been classified into three groups : those dealing primarily with poverty or economic standards of living, those dealing primarily with health, and those dealing primarily with delinquency. The number of children from families having clearings with these various types of agencies is shown in Table III. TABLE III Number of former students of Special Schools coming from families having clearings with the social agencies of the Confidential Exchange. Agencies and Types of Agency Number of children from families having clearings in the respec- tive agencies Associated Charities 36 16 16 34 26 Salvation Army United Jewish Charities Institutions dealing with dependency Other standard of living agencies Total for agencies dealing with standard of living Free Dental Clinic Anti-Tuberculosis League 128 40 23 12 43 Visiting Nurse Association Other health agencies Total for agencies dealing with health 118 72 38 49 18 Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Ohio Humane Society Attendance Department Other agencies dealing with delinquency Total for agencies dealing with delinquency Total for all agencies Total number of children from families having clearings Number of cases per family Number of children from families having no such clearing 177 423 139 3 64 A certain amount of duplication is involved in the fact that where two or three children from the same family were enrolled in the Special Schools the clearings for that family have counted two or three times. This is a very minor factor, however, and is due to the necessity for considering the child rather than the family as the unit in this study. The pauperism, delinquency and physical deficiency indicated by these figures is sufficiently impressive. Another aspect of the same facts is fur- Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 243 nished by a tabulation of the number of social maladjustments occurring among members of the immediate family. TABLE IV Social maladjustments of father, mother, brothers and sisters of former students of Special Schools. Maladjustments discovered Number of children from families having the mal- adjustments noted Father noted as mentally defective . 4 15 36 25 6 Mother noted as mentally defective Brothers or sisters mentally defective Father alcoholic Mother alcoholic Brother alcoholic I Father delinquent Mother delinquent Brother or sister delinquent Father dead Mother dead 18 II 20 25 16 10 51 Both parents dead Other maladjustments, including tuberculosis, syphilis, etc. Total 238 128 75 Number of children from families with one or more of the above maladjustments Children from families not known to have such malad- iustments In appraising the significance of the above table it must be remembered that the items included were discovered more or less by accident. No systematic mental tests, for instance, were applied to the parents and brothers and sifters of these children. Alcoholism, delinquency and disease are noted only where some social agency chanced to report such conditions in its record or when they were discovered in interviewing the family. In spite of this fact nearly two-thirds of these children are recorded as having such maladjustments in their families. Two of the former students have brothers of unusually bright mentality. The time spent in the Special School by such children is an important factor to consider in attempting to estimate the results of its educational program. Half of the children covered in this study stayed in the Special Schools less than a year and a half. The numbers are shown in Table V. About two-fifths of the children were in these schools longer than two full school years. Absence of records in one-fifth of the cases makes it impossible to -tell how long the children stayed. The length of stay of the children appears to have varied directly with their intelligence. While the imbeciles and the low grade morons were 244 Helen S. Trounstine Foundation TABLE V Length of time spent in Special Schools by former students covered in this study. Approximate number of school years Number of children in Special Schools specified period Percent One or less 59 40 31 20 7 3 36.8 25.0 19.4 12.5 4.4 1-9 Two Three Four Five Six or more . . . ■ Number with known length of stay . . . Not given Total 160 43 lOO.O 203 kept only about a year each, on the average, the borderUne children stayed about two and a half years. Table VI gives the details of this point. TABLE VI Length of stay in Special Schools correlated with intelligence quotients. Intelligence Quotients Under 50 50-60 60-70 70-80 80-90 Not given Entire Group Median length of stay in Special Schools Number of length Given cases with of stay Not Given i.o I.I 17 2.5 2.3 1.2 14 22 31 19 8 66 6 3 12 3 o 19 1-5 160 43 As in all the tables in this report, the number of items is too small for conclusive results. The steady rise in the median length of stay with the rise in intelligence appears, however, to indicate a real correlation. What the cause of the relationship is cannot be stated on the basis of these figures. Possibly the children of lower mentality were felt to be hopeless and were not encouraged to stay, while the higher grades of mentality seemed to offer possibilities worth working with. LIFE OF FORMER STUDENTS AFTER LEAVING SPECIAL SCHOOL The use of leisure time by these ex-students is one of the significant indications of the effect of their education upon them. Table VII shows the answers to the questions on this subject from the groups with which it was possible to get interviews. Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 245 TABLE VII Leisure interests of former students of Special Schools who were living at home or were gainfully occupied at the time of the study. Kind of Interest Number answering Percentage of all in these groups answering affirmatively Read newspapers — Yes 43 50 10 67 II 61 47 56 19 13 17 7 II 4 II 10 13 9 43-4 lO.I II. I 56.6 131 71 4.0 lO.I 91 No or seldom Read magazines — • Yes No or seldom Read books — Yes No or seldom Do little or no reading of any sort Attend movies — Yes No or very rarely Attend dances — Yes No or seldom Attend vaudeville — Yes No Attend burlesque — Yes No Attend church — Yes No Rarely go out alone Number in these groups giving any an- swer on these points Number giving no data on leisure Total in these groups 99 32 1 00.0 131 The percentage of those answering any of the above questions who stated definitely that they do Uttle or no reading was 47.5. Including those who failed to answer the reading question, it is probable that half of these ex-students of the Special Schools do practically no reading whatever. Only ten percent read books and ten percent magazines. A very considerable proportion state explicitly that they have never learned to read. Going to the movies is by far the most popular occupation. Fifty-six percent state that they go more or less frequently, while only nineteen percent state that they go not at all or go rarely. The question about church was answered by only one-fourth of those who answered any of these questions, and less than half of those who replied on this point do go to church. Dances, vaudeville and burlesque appear to interest very few of these young people. Although the question was not specifically asked, nine of the children were said to go out very rarely, or only with some other member of the family. In one case 246 Helen S. Troiinstine Foundation it was stated that the boy was sensitive because of the fun made of him. Another considerable group is said to go out a great deal. The relationship between mentality and leisure occupation appears strikingly. Table VIII shows the median intelligence quotients of the groups with various leisure interests. . TABLE VIII Effect of mentality upon the use of leisure time Type of Interest Median intelligence quotient of those having each interest Entire group answering these questions 65.0 75-0 70.0 60.0 65.0 65.0 Those reading magazines and books Those reading newspapers Those doing little or no readire Those attending movies Those not attending movies The delinquency of these former students is another indication of the success or failure of the methods now used in dealing with them. It has not been possible to go over the entire police records since these children left school with a view to getting their records. The files of the Juvenile Court were searched, and such evidence of delinquency as came up in other social records were noted. On this incomplete basis and in spite of the fact that many of the former students have been lost track of, definite notations of delinquency were found for 67 out of the 203 children, or for thirty-three percent. In two cases delinquency developed before the child reached the Special School; in forty-five cases delinquency was in evidence during the child's attendance at the school, or just at the time of leaving; in twenty- seven instances delinquency developed after the child left school (some of those in this group having been delinquent during their schooling also) ; in TABLE IX Former students of Special Schools classified according to social and economic status at the time of the study and by sex. Status Males Females Both Number Sexes Percent Total number studied Gainfully occupied 125 60 7 5 17 14 4 18 78 23 13 7 7 16 12 203 83 20 12 24 14 16 4 30 lOO.O 40.9 9-9 5-9 11.8 6.9 7-9 2.0 147 Helping at home Home, not working; . . In institutions In the army or navy Married women Dead Lost track of Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 247 two cases the time of the delinquency CDuld not be determined. Sex offenses, stealing and truancy are the types of delinquency most frequently reported. A more detailed discussion of this topic will be found in connec- tion with the gainfully employed students. The status of the former students at the time the study was made is perhaps the best index of the outcome of the type of treatment which they receive. Table IX gives the results on this point. Of the boys, eliminating those dead and lost track of, 74 out of 103, or about seven-tenths were gainfully employed or in the army or navy. Of the girls, on a similar basis, 39 out of 66 were gainfully occupied or married or about six-tenths. The question naturally arises whether the schooling of the children affected the question of what became of them. Such data as bear on this point in our study are given in Table X. TABLE X Length of special schooling, intelligence and quality of hand work done by former students, classified according to social and economic status. Status Median number of school years spent in Special Schools Median LQ. Number w work was Good hose hand reported Poor All groups Gainfully occupied Army or Navy 1-5 1-5 ?.i 2.5 1-7 •7 I.I 1-5 63 65 62 67 55 .45 56 65 36 20 4 2 I 2 7 48 19 2 2 5 7 8 5 Married women In institutions Home, not working Helping at home Lost track of or dead In studying this table it must be remembered that the least intelligent children were the ones who were kept the shortest time in the Special Schools. The gainfully occupied former students stayed approximately the same average length of time as the entire group; those married and those in the navy and those in institutions had more than average length of stay, while those remaining at home, who were in general the most hopeless mentally, had the shortest average stay. Although poor hand work was more common for the entire group than good, those who became gainfully occupied, and those in the army had more good hand workers than poor, while those in institutions and at home had four times as many poor hand workers as good. As far as one may judge from these data, the natural aptitude of the former students deter- mined their ability to succeed in life rather than the length of time they spent in the Special School. In view of the short average stay in the school, this constitutes, perhaps, the natural expectation. 248 Helen S. Troimstine Foundation It is also of interest to compare the social maladjustments of these various groups. Table XI gives information on this point. TABLE XI Status Clearings with so Percent from families with clearings cial agencies Number of clear- ings per family Percent delin- quent Percent with family mal- adjustments All groups Gainfully occupied. . . In Army or Navy .... Married women In institutions Home, not working . . Helping at home 68 70 71 81 92 58 55 30 3-2 4.0 4.1 30 2.0 1.6 33 34 43 50 46 17 15 63 66 71 44 75 67 45 The significance of this table will be discussed in connection with the detailed comment on the respective groups. The children staying at home are least successful socially, though by no means the most dangerous. One-fifth of the girls are in the home groups, as compared with only one-tenth of the boys. The mentality of these groups is the lowest of any; one-third of these children have intelligence quotients below fifty and two-thirds below sixty. Their time in the Special School was the briefest; half of them had only one school year or less there. Their hand work in school was poorest of all ; only three of them are reported as doing good work as compared with fifteen reported as being poor in this training. On the other hand, the proportion of these children coming from families with clearings in the Confidential Exchange is lower than any of the other groups and the number of clearings per family is also lowest. The percentage of delinquency reported is less than half the proportion for the other children. The percentage with maladjustment or defect noted in the immediate family is a little lower than the general average. These children constitute the very feeble-minded members of families which are above the average of the group. They have had reasonably good home surroundings and parents who are ready to try any program which promises assistance. They are frequently well-behaved, though hopelessly stupid and incapable of mastering even the elements of school subjects. Frequently they appear more promising than they really are because they come from parents who have made the most of the children's exceedingly limited capacities. They are tried for a time in the Special School until the hope- lessness of the situation is apparent and are then kept at home again. Fairly typical of this group are the following cases: Case I is a girl who has a good home. Her father is a wire drawer. Two of her five sisters work at a skilled occupation. There are also two brothers. There has been one clearing from the truancy department. The girl is an idiot, according to her teachers. She has never worked, "can't do any- Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 249 thing right," and is always under her mother's care. She was recommended to the Columbus Institution and was an inmate there for six weeks in 191 6. She now stays at home, plays with her dolls and sews, but cannot read. She is 18 years old. Case 2, a girl, is rather an exception to the group. She has a bad home. Her mother is a prostitute and is not married to her "step-father." One of her four sisters is irregular sexually and has had a forced marriage. This girl has an intelligence quotient of 63 and would be able to work, but her step-father is fond of her and keeps her at home. She has had an illegitimate child of which her step-father is the father. She was in the Special School for over a year and was good in hand work and good in behavior. The Salvation Army and the Attendance Department were interested in the family. Case 3, is a girl whose father is superintendent of a factory. She attended the Special School for only four months at the age of 18. This girl has an intelligence quotient of 56. She could read and write, but was very poor in household arts and could not learn to sew or to do much of anything else. She tried working in a shoe factory but stayed only two weeks. She didn't understand enough to do any kind of work. She helps her mother a little at home but has to be continually looked after. Her mother says that she does not read but goes to the gymnasium and loves automobile rides. Case 4 is a girl who has an intelligence quotient of 56. She was in the Special School for two years and did fairly well. Her hand training was good, her behavior was very good and she learned to read somewhat. Her father is an insurance agent. Her mother is paralyzed and the girl takes care of her. It is reported that she reads books and papers. Case 5 is a boy who comes from an excellent home. His sister is reported as being slow in school. His father is a baker and his mother helps in the store. He has an intelligence quotient of 35. He carries bread for his father. His teachers report that he was almost useless because of his very low mentality, and that he could not hold a job anywhere else than with his father. He does not read and never goes to the movies. He does go walking with his mother. Case 6 is a boy who works for his father who is a wholesale merchant. His older sister is a professional woman. He does no reading but goes to church and quite often to the movies. He helps his father in the store. His father buys his clothes and gives him spending money but does not pay him a salary. He goes to work when he feels like it and leaves when he feels like it, working only a few hours each day. He is friendly and harmless. The children kept in institutions, while better in mentality than those kept at home, are decidedly inferior to those gainfully occupied and those married. Their median intelligence quotient is 55 as compared with 63 250 Helen S. Trounstine Foundation for the entire group of former students. They stayed in school sHghtly longer than the average but their work was generally inferior. Naturally a very large proportion of them come from families with Confidential Exchange clearings, though the average number of clearings per family known to the Exchange is less than in the army and navy or married women groups. The percentage delinquent is 46 as compared with 33 for the entire group, and the percentage with family defects and maladjustments is the highest of any of the groups — 75 as compared with 63 for the group as a whole. One striking fact is that while only 16 percent of all the former students known to social agencies are in institutions, 44 percent of those known to the United Jewish Charities have been institutionalized. This is of course because the United Jewish Charities has followed a consistent policy of placing in institutions all of its feeble-minded wards that can be induced to go. The institutions to which these former students have been sent are the following: Eight are at the Columbus Institution for Feeble-minded; six are at Longview; five are scattered among the Vineland, New Jersey Insti- tution; the Woodbine, New Jersey Agricultural School, the Jewish Foster Home and the Gallipolis Institution for the Epileptic; and the other five are in various institutions for the delinquent. The individuals who married provide probably the most striking illus- tration of the character of the material with which the Special Schools attempt to work, of the broad social significance of the problems involved, and of the unsatisfactory results achieved. Of the girls, 16 are known to have married and two others are known to have had illegitimate children, out of the 71 girls of working age not in institutions. The median age of the married girls at the time of the investigation was 18 years — approxi- mately the same as that of the rest of the girls. Of the boys, 4 are known to be married, and one is known to be the father of an illegitimate child. The outstanding characteristics of the various cases are as follows, beginning with the best: Case 7, a girl, is the mother of an apparently healthy baby. There were no clearings by social agencies. She spent three years in the Special School. Her intelligence quotient is not stated. Case 8, a girl, was married at the age of 20 and has a baby coming. There are no clearings. She spent one year in the Special School. Her intelligence quotient is 74. Case 9, a girl, was married at the age of 16 to a husband 19 years old and has a baby. On her parents' family there is a clearing from the Dental Clinic. Her intelligence quotient is 71. She spent four years in the Special School. Case 10, a girl, earned $6.00 a week at the factory, had an illegitimate child and at the age of 17, and married a man other than the child's father. Her Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 251 parents' family had three clearings in the Confidential Exchange. Her intelligence quotient is 74 and she spent four years in the Special School. Case II, a girl, was married at the age of 16. She had a baby who died. At the age of 19 she has already been divorced and remarried. Her intelligence quotient is 64. The time in Special School is not given. Case 12 is a girl who has one child and has been divorced. Her intelli- gence quotient and time in Special School are not stated. Case 13, a girl, comes from a family with three clearings. Her father was a drunkard. She worked for $5.00 a week before her marriage. She now has a child. Her intelligence quotient is 65 and she spent one year in the Special School. Case 14 is a girl who, according to her school principal, was dishonest and untruthful. Her family, however, had no clearings, and she is reported as reading magazines and books as well as newspapers She worked for $6 to $7 a week previous to her marriage. Her intelligence quotient is 84 and she spent four years in the Special School. Case 15, a girl, was twice committed to the House of the Good Shepherd and is partially crippled with muscular trouble. On her family there are clearings with the Juvenile Court and the Free Dental Clinic. Her intelli- gence quotient is 72 and the time spent in the Special School is not stated. Case 16 is a girl who is the mother of an illegitimate child She is noted as being very defective mentally and as having a squalid home. Her intelligence quotient is 64 and she spent two years in the Special School. Case 17 is a girl whose father was a drunkard, whose mother neglected her children and who was an habitual truant and had an illegitimate child at the age of sixteen. She is reported as always having a filthy head. Her intelligence quotient is 70 and the time spent in the Special School is not stated. Case 18 is a girl who had a drunken and neglectful father. She, her mother, and four of her brothers and sisters had cataracts. The family has eleven clearings in the Confidential Exchange. She married at the age of seventeen. Her intelligence quotient is not given but she spent four years in the Special School. Case 19 is a girl who had a drunken father. She worked for about $5.00 per week, had an illegitimate child and ran away from home. She is reported to be nervous and nearly blind. Her intelligence quotient is 73 and she spent four years in Special School No. 3. Case 20, a girl, was married at the age of seventeen. Her father was a drunkard and her mother reported as tubercular. The girl was found in a filthy home, too feeble-minded to answer questions intelligently. Her occupation has been that of a rag picker. Her intelligence quotient is 62 but the length of time she spent in the Special School is not recorded. 252 Helen S. Trounstine Foundation Case 21, a girl, had a syphilitic mother and a deserting father. The family has had twelve clearings in the Confidential Exchange. Perhaps as a result of hereditary syphilis, she has eye trouble. Her marriage has already resulted in "several children." She spent two years in the Special School; her intelligence quotient is not stated. Case 22 is a girl who also had a syphilitic mother and a deserting father. Her parents' family had seven clearings with the Exchange. She herself is periodically insane. She has had an illegitimate child and was married at the age of twenty. Her intelligence quotient is 64 and she spent two years in the Special School. Case 23 is a girl who was married at the age of twenty. She has a good home. Her father runs a restaurant. Her intelligence quotient is only 52. Case 24 is a girl who has had an illegitimate child by her step-father. Her intelligence quotient is 63. She had one year in the Special School. Her mother and sister have been guilty of sex irregularities. Case 25, a girl, has an intelligence quotient of 48. Her father drinks neglects the family and is sexually irregular. Her mother who drank, died of tuberculosis in 191 1. She has a brother who is a deserter, another who is an imbecile and another who is syphilitic and feeble-minded. She married at the age of seventeen. She had a syphilitic baby which was found wrapped in newspaper and which later died. She was taken into Court but efforts to commit her to an institution failed. At the last report she had reunited with her husband after a separation. For the boys who have been married, the information is meagre: Case 26, a boy, has been lost track of, but is reported to be married. His intelligence quotient is 50. Case 27 is a boy who has a feeble-minded brother and sister. His own intelligence quotient is 67. He spent three years in the Special School. His earnings have been $22.75 during the war. He married in 1918 and has one child. Case 28, a boy, now has a wife who is pregnant with the second child. He is reported to have earned $13 to $19 a week. His mentality and stay in the Special School are not recorded Case 29, a boy, is dead. His mother is in the Home for Aged Poor and his brother is reported as being immoral and drunken. Case 30 is a boy who is the father of an illegitimate child. On his parents' family nine clearings are recorded. He has been in the House of Refuge. He is now in the Army and his military record includes desertion and sleeping on the post. His intelligence quotient is 77 and he spent one year in the Special School. Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 253 Of all the twenty-three young people listed above, only four came from families who have no record in the social agencies of Cincinnati. Although all but four of them are still under twenty, they have produced at least sixteen children, of whom six are illegitimate. It must be remembered, of course, that these are the earliest and presumably the most disastrous of the marriages which will occur in this group of ex-students of Special Schools. They constitute, however, only a somewhat intensified sample of the group as a whole. Indeed, it is only fair to note that the married girls had a median intelligence a little higher than the group as a whole, and that they averaged a year longer in the Special Schools than the other students. They had the highest number of clearings in the Confidential Exchange of any group except those in institutions, and the highest delinquent percentage of any group. The number with family defects noted was the smallest of any group. (IMBECILES AND MORONS IN INDUSTRY) The scientific material available in print with regard to the industrial efficiency of morons is very limited. The Rome Custodial Asylum* established a home in New York City for a group of its moron girls from which they were sent to work by the day in factories. The experiment was successful in the sense that most of the girls could meet the requirements of the more routine types of factory work and only a small percentage of them (about 5 percent) became delinquent. During the war. Dr. George Ordahlf sent some of the higher grade defectives from the Sonoma State home to work in neighboring canneries. The experiment was of very brief duration — only five or six days' w^ork on the average. The morons of the stable type proved able to earn about 75 percent as much on a piece rate basis as normal women who were also beginners. The morons of the unstable type did no better than the imbeciles. Both of these records have to do with the feeble-minded who have been institutionalized. Out in the community there is a large number of morons, no better off in mental level, who have not been institutionalized. They are presumably those of better social habits, who have given little or no trouble and whose families were able to care for them. In the group of working children studied by the Vocation Bureau of Cincinnati is a series of such boys, with mental ages of about ten years. As a class they have done well in industry. While the type of work performed has been unskilled, their earning capacity during the first four years in industry was about average for the entire group of working children. The children represented in this study are in social status between these two groups. They are not institutionalized but they have been selected as defective and segregated within the schools. *22nd Annual Report, Rome Custodial Society, State of New York. tOrdahl, George; Industrial Efficiency of the Moron', The Training School Bulletin, February, 1919. 254 Helen S. Troiinstine Foundation Interest in this study naturally centers on the children who are gainfully occupied. There were 83 of them, including 60 boys and 23 girls. In mentality they were somewhat better than the group as a whole. They were markedly superior to the other children in their hand work at school. In social maladjustments and delinquency they were about average. Information as to their industrial history was secured in a few cases from the Placement Office of the Vocation Bureau but chiefly from state- ments of the children themselves or of their parents. Even a normal person cannot always give an accurate history of his various past positions and earnings, especially if he has shifted frequently. This difficulty was, of course, considerably increased by the limited intelligence of the persons dealt with. In a considerable proportion of the cases the information was verified by visiting or telephoning past employers and the correctness of the statements made was unexpectedly high. Very little discrepancy in wages was noted between statements by employes and by employers. The earnings of former students gainfully occupied is a matter of special interest. In the summary of this pomt there have been added to those who were earning at the time of the study a few of the married women, soldiers and others for whom recent industrial histories were available. Of the whole group 69 were males and 27 were females. The relationship between mentality and earnings is indicated, as far as these data cast light upon the subject, in Table XII. TABLE XII Intelligence Quotients Number in Group Median Weekly Earnings Boys — o-so 5 7 • 14 8 4 28 3 $ 9-00 9.00 11-75 11.00 11.00 13.70 SO-60 60-70 . 70-80 80-QO Intelligence quotient not known, . . Earnings not known All boys 69 I11.85 Girls — 0-50 2 4 7 I I II I $ 7.00 8.00 9.00 50-60 60-70 70-80 80-90 Intelligence quotient not known. . . Earnings not known . . . All girls 27 $ 8.80 In interpreting these figures, it should be noted that the boys range from 16 to 24, the median age being 19.2 years, while the girls range from 17 to 26, Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 255 with a median age of 19.7 years. It is just at these ages that wages change rapidly from those of boys and girls to those of men and women. It also happens that the year 191 8 to which most of the wage rates ascertained in this study apply, was in the period of the war during which wages were increasing with unusual speed and the demand for workers was great. It is therefore difficult to judge accurately the significance of Table XII. It does appear, however, that the correlation between intelligence and earnings is strikingly less than might be expected and that the earnings of the feeble- minded young people are decidedly larger than might have been supposed. However, the average young man of nineteen years in the year igi8 was earning far more than $12.00 a week. The group of children designated as "intelligence quotients not known" are those admitted to the school without mental tests. Since out of any group of children recommended for tests, some prove too high-grade for a special school and are excluded on that ground, there is a strong presumption that the mental level of the children admitted without tests is higher than that of the children selected by tests. It is therefore suggestive that the boys and girls who were not tested have a higher earning capacity than those who were tested. The relationship between earnings and length of time in the special schools seems to be fairly pronounced. TABLE XIII Weekly Earnings Number in Group Median number of years in Special School Boys— -$ 9.99 15 22 II 2 3 II 1.2 1.4 2.0 I.O $10- 14.99 IS- IQ.QQ 20- Earnings not given Length of stay not given All boys. 64 1.6 Girls— -$ 9.99 II 6 2 1-7 •7 $10- 14. qq Data not complete All girls 19 1.0 It may be that the indication of this table is correct and that the girls who stayed in the special schools longest earned least after leaving while the boys who stayed longest earned most. The probability seems to be, how- ever, that the results are more or less accidental in view of the small number of items involved. 256 Helen S. Troiinstine Foundation Among specific occupations mentioned once or twice each are, in clothing factories — shirt buttoner, pad-tester, shirt-maker, finisher and sewing machine operator; in machine shops — lathe hand, drill press operator, punch press operator, tool boy, assembler, polisher, helper and laborer; in other places — plumber's apprentice, rag picker, packer, bottle polisher, bottle cleaner, soda clerk, candy dipper, dancing teacher, stenographer, cigar roller, insoler, welter, painter, filing clerk, cutting flowers, washing carriages, peddler, running excavator, cleaning windows, elevator operator, usher. As to the length of time which positions were held, the small number of instances is also a serious handicap on conclusions. The median length of time in one position for 52 boys for whom such an estimate was possible was eleven months; for the 18 girls having sufficient histories for such an estimate the median was six months per job. Although no final deductions can be made, the figures seem to indicate that, in the group studied, the children with intelligence quotients under 70 tended to stay a little longer in the same position than those with intelligence quotients over 70. The conclusions are the reverse of the findings for a much larger group of normal children.* In that instance, the low grade children mentally and those who had not succeeded in school were much less steady workers than the superior children. They held their jobs a shorter time and had longer periods of unemployment. The sex difference was also the reverse of the one suggested in this summary. Girls proved to be steadier than boys. TABLE XIV Positions held by gainfully occupied former students of Special Schools. Factory and shop operatives 156 Machine shop employments 29 "Machinists" 8 Other occupations 21 Other metal trades 7 Clothing factories 18 Wooden and paper box factories 15 Shoe factories 11 Miscellaneous 47 Messengers, wagon boys and errand bo^'s 23 Wrappers 7 Drivers 5 Motor Truck Drivers 2 Salespersons 7 Farm hands 3 Miscellaneous 38 House-work (not at home) 4 Selling papers 6 All positions noted 251 *A special study, not yet published, made by the Vocation Bureau. Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 257 Seven of the girls who are known to have been working at piece rates averaged $10.10 a week in earnings. These girls were typical of the group in mentality. In occupation, 60 percent of the girls and 69 percent of the boys were factory operatives, over a third of the latter being employed in machine shops. Work in factories, especially in machine shops, was much more common among the boys with intelligence quotients above 70 than among those having lower mentalities. A few typical cases may serve to illuminate the above figures: Case 31 is a girl 18 years old, with an intelligence quotient of 65, who has been employed as a nurse maid at five to six dollars a week and board. She stayed five months at one place but her employer reported that she was not at all reliable. Case 32, a girl, is 21 years old and has an intelligence quotient of 57. She has worked at various clothing factories since she left school, averaging about six months at a place. Her rate of pay is supposed to be $9.00 a week but she averages only three to five dollars because of sickness and lay-offs. Case 33 is a girl, 18 years old, who has an intelligence quotient of 54. She reports having held eight different positions in two years, holding her places about two months each. She earned three to four and a half dollars a week wrapping and clerking in stores. Case 34 is a girl, 19 years of age, with an intelligence quotient of 47 who sews in an uncle's restaurant with "irregular" earnings. Her teacher at the special school said that she is an idiot, useless industrially. Case 35 is a boy who, at the age of 21 passes circulars and does odd jobs. His intelligence quotient is 40. Case 36, a boy, has worked for four years at a machine tool works. He is twenty, has an intelligence quotient of 65 and earns $11.00 a week. Case 37, a boy, formerly earned $15.60 a week at a candle factory. Although he is only fifteen he has been put on the night shift and earns $20.00 a week. His employer speaks well of him. His intelligence quotient is 65. Case 38, a boy, is aged 21, with an intelligence quotient of 70. He worked in a machine shop eighteen months at $6.00, in a lamp factory two months at $6.00, and in a tannery two months at $12.00 per week. He was in the army seven months, but has returned to the tannery at $15.00 a week. Case 39 is a boy who worked two years at a desk factory at $15.00 a week. He left there to get a better position and since 1915 has been with a machine company. During the war he made $22.75 a week. His intelligence quotient is 67. He is married and has a baby. 258 Helen S. Trounstine Foundation The delinquency of gainfully occupied former students of special schools is worthy of special study. Of the 96 ex-students for whom some sort of industrial history was secured, no delinquency records whatever were found in 40 cases; delinquency records of other members of the family were located in 25 cases, and delinquency records of the individuals themselves in 31 cases. These figures are based on a systematic study of only the Juvenile Court, school, and social agencies records; municipal court and other records were considered only when the facts happened to come to hand during the study. In the 65 cases with negative personal records, statements as to the honesty of the employe were secured from employers in eleven instances. Nine stated that the employe was honest, one said that he had no basis for judging, and the other said that the employe was not honest, but gave no specifications. The school records of behavior, as given verbally by the principal of Special School No. 3 are significant. Out of the forty children with no record of delinquency, eighteen were remembered as having been good, and six questionable, while no records were available of the other sixteen. Be- sides the terms "good" and "very good," the following expressions Vere used for the first group of children: "Liked school very much;" "well- behaved and reliable;" "very nice;" "excellent;" "very satisfactory, very regular." For the doubtful group, the following remarks were used: "Likes men; needs watching;" "not bad;" "fair;" "poor;" "loveable, lazy;" "erratic." Among the 25 children not known to have deUnquency records, but with delinquent members of the family, 9 are remembered as having been good, 6 as questionable, and 10 not given. One is said to have conquered a violent temper. The questionable ones were: "Indifferent, doesn't like to study;" "fair;" "negative;" "stubborn;" "irregular;" "fair." Certain children who were recorded as dangerously rough or as having thrown scissors at another child, or as untruthful, were included among the minor delinquents; one reported as having stolen in school was included among the more serious offenders. In 25 cases definite delinquency was noted for other members of the family but not for the ex-student himself. The father was reported as being drunken, or deserting or failing to support his family in 14 cases. Three of the mothers were noted as abusive or drunken. Ten brothers and sisters of the children in the group were recorded as delinquent or truant. In one case an ex-student divorced her husband for cruelty. The cases where the individual himself was delinquent are, of course, the center of interest. In ten of these cases the father also was drunken or neglectful of his duty, in two cases the mother was delinquent and in five, brothers or sisters were noted as delinquent. Of the ex-students themselves, Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 259 nine have records which indicate scarcely more than mischief. For instance, one boy, a high-grade imbecile, recently employed at $12.00 a week in a machine shop, was taken into Juvenile Court while still in school for being one of a group of boys who had damaged an empty building. The following cases illustrate the minor delinquencies: Case 40 is a girl, a borderline case mentally, who has averaged about one month per position in the numerous places where she has worked since leaving school and who has earned about $5.00 per week. She was in Juvenile Court for truancy in 1910. Case 41 is a boy who for two months earned $20.00 per week in a machine shop, but who has since taken a job in a pool room at $7.00 a week. He was taken into Juvenile Court as a school boy for having run away to another city. Case 42, a boy with an intelligence quotient of 53, who has a drunken abusive father and a feeble-minded epileptic mother, has been earning over $17.00 a week in a machine shop. He was taken into court as a truant in 1914. The other 18 cases which are more serious are illustrated in the following instances: Case 43 is a boy who is earning $14.00 a week on a dining car, who was at one time in Juvenile Court for selling papers without a license, and for bad conduct, and who was recently arrested for boot legging; Case 44 is a young man with an intelligence quotient of 64 who some years ago was up in Juvenile Court for stealing an automobile. This boy served as a home guard during the war. Of a more serious nature is case 45, that of a feeble- minded rag picker who deserted her baby. Case 46 is a girl with an intelli- gence quotient of 73 who has been earning $7.00 to $9.00 a week at piece work in a factory. She has an illegitimate child and when her father objec- ted to her late hours, she ran away to "somewhere around Liberty Street." Case 47 is a colored imbecile who was sent to Lancaster for attacking a white girl. Recently he has been employed scraping pans in a bakery at $9.00 per week, but was discharged because his work was unsatisfactory. Case 48, a boy, with an intelligence quotient of 71 and a record at Lancaster for stealing candy, has been working since his release on a punch press for $9.25 a week and is still there after eight months. Case 49 is another boy who has been to Lancaster for stealing. He has an intelligence quotient of 81. He has earned over $20.00 per week driving a truck, and has recently joined the Marines. Case 50 is a boy who has an intelligence quotient of only 44. He has served a term in Lancaster. His last employment was in a cigar bo.x factory, where he earned $11.00 per week. He was recently sent to the workhouse for annoying girls. Case 51 is a girl who has been diagnosed as having dementia praecox and whose intelligence quotient is 51. She has been employed in a tailor shop at $6.00 a week. She has served two terms 26o Helen S. Trounstine Foundation at the Convent of the Good Shepherd and was sent recently to the Girls Industrial School at Delaware. Case 52, a boy with an intelligence quotient of 77, has earned $14.00 a week with a packing company. In school he was remembered as bad and high tempered. He was adjudged delinquent in the Juvenile Court and was committed to the House of Refuge, leaving behind an illegitimate child. He is reported to have served ten days in the guard house for sleeping on duty and five months for desertion. Case 53, a boy, is now earning |i2.oo a week in a machine shop. He was discharged for dishonesty at his previous place of employment. Case 54, a boy, was an habitual truant. He averages one month per position, and has been found stealing by two of his employers. Case 55 is a boy who was sent to the House of Refuge for stealing, has completed his term and has been placed with a farmer at $10.00 a month and board. These are types rather than a complete list. Of the eighteen individuals known to have committed serious offenses, nine are reported to have stolen, and four to have committed serious sex offenses. Eight have been in the reformatory. Two are known to have had cases in Municipal Court, but if a systematic search could be made in those records this number would unquestionably be greatly increased. From the data available, it is clear that over one-third of the employed ex-students have definite records of delinquency, while at least one-fifth have committed more or less serious offenses. The amount of delinquency among those gainfully occupied is not, however, markedly greater than among the other former students of special schools. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Imperfect as the data of this study are, they suggest certain conclusions and some elements of a working program. A . Selection of pupils for the special school and type of traini?ig. The importance of selecting children for special classes as early as possible in their school careers has been vividly demonstrated in this study. The only hope for them is to train them up to good habits and normal social reactions by beginning as early as possible. If the special school does not get them until adolescence as was the case with most of the present group, its possibilities of accomplishment are very much limited. Feeble-minded children are peculiarly creatures of habit. If good habits can be ingrained in early childhood, they may become law-abiding citizens. If bad habits are ingrained, it is almost impossible to change them. The hopeful feature of the situation is that it is almost as hard to change the good as the bad habits in adult years. Dr. Walter Fernald tells a story of a boy entered in his institution at the age of ten who was forty years old at the time of the war. Because of the labor shortage, an employer in his district appealed to him for an inmate Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 261 who would be capable of serving as a teamster and this man was sent. After two months of employment, the employer called Dr. Fernald and reported that the man was the best teamster he had ever had. "Indeed," he said, "he has but one fault. He will go to bed at half past seven, no matter what happens." However, not all defective children are suflficiently educable to form reliable or usable habits of any sort. If they are a totally unpromising risk from the point of view of education, they should be excluded from school. Only children who are to some degree educable should be given the advantage of the small classes, superior teachers, and expensive equipment of the special school. Many of the children in this first group were too low grade mentally to profit by academic instruction. They are children who are sure to be throughout life dependent upon others for support and for personal protection. If they belong, as many of them do, in families which are unable to give proper care and protection, they should be placed in institutions where they can be given what little training in simple occupa- tions they are able to take, and where they can be protected and kept happy for the rest of their lives. What they need is not skilled teachers but kindly sympathetic care-takers and supervisors. Either these institutions should be placed under the educational authorities, or educational authorities should be given the right to take the initiative in arranging for the transfer of such children directly to State institutions. Since this ideal is not likely to be achieved in the near future, some plan with regard to these very inferior children must be arranged meanwhile. On the basis of this study and of several years' experience with other feeble- minded children, we make the following suggestion. Children under twelve years with intelligence quotients of less than fifty, provided supplementary estimates agree with the intelligence quotient, should be excluded from day school entirely. Their families should be assisted to place them in institu- tions if they so desire. They are hopeless from the point of view of education. Children under twelve with intelligence quotients between 50 and 60 (provided again that the supplementary findings confirm this estimate), should be accepted in school, but organized in classes of about 25 and should not be given the superior teachers. Very simple occupational training, training in cleanliness and personal behavior, recreation and team work should constitute the main part of their curriculum. They should be given some instruction in reading, writing and simple arithmetic. Most of them will never acquire a usable knowledge of even simple English and arithmetic, but a few may by the time they are grown. Short periods each day are as much time as these children can profitably spend in academic work. They tire easily. Keeping them employed continuously with attempts to learn academic subjects is likely to result in fatigue and a distaste for this type of instruction which will mean slower progress. Parents of feeble-minded children are apt to make the mistake of thinking that if their children were 262 Helen S. Trounstine Foundation compelled to spend all their school time on academic subjects, they would be able to learn. It is hard to make them understand that in this case, less time means better progress. Some of these children, provided they are trained to good habits of behavior, will be able to make a living when they leave school at very low grade occupations. Children of the next higher grade — those with intelligence quotients from 60 to 75, including the so-called high-grade morons and borderline cases, are fairly hopeful from the point of view of occupation. These children will probably by the time they are grown be able to master academic work represented by standards varying from the third to the sixth grade, and be able to make their way in low skilled industries provided they have been trained to good habits of behavior. For them the smaller class ( 1 5 to 20) , the skilled teachers and special equipment are worth while since there is a chance of giving them a usable know^Iedge of simple English and arith- metic, and manual skill enough to earn a living. They should be given elementary training in as many simple occupations as possible. The girls should learn sewing, both by hand and by machine, cooking, laundry work and methods of house-cleaning. The more promising ones can be trained in simple power machine work. Their chances of earn- ing a living are limited to domestic work, very simple sewing, or routine factory work. The prospects of the boys for earning a living are day labor, the more routine types of factory work, including the tending of simple machines, and assistance at various kinds of farm work. Their training should com- prise, in addition to what academic learning they can acquire, simple shop work in wood and metal, tailoring, and gardening and farm work if possible. Children ought to be assigned to the special school as early as a definite decision can be reached with regard to their mental handicap. In some cases they can be selected from kindergarten or first grade'. All of these children should be assigned by the time they are ten or at the very most, twelve years old. They will then have at least three years and in most instances five or more years in the special school before they reach the legal age for leaving school. B. Record keeping in the Special School. Up to the present time, no records worthy of the name have been kept in the special school. This study has shown the need for having records as complete as possible, kept by the school. The necessity for more careful records both for normal and for defective children is daily becoming more evident. They furnish the kind of information about children which is essential for the school to have, first in giving educational advice, second, in giving vocational advice, and third, in discovering what correlations exist between school success and failure, and occupational success and failure. Since the entire question of the education of defectives and very inferior Feeble-minded Ex-school Children 263 children is still in the experimental stage, the importance of preserving an adequate school record, with which subsequent occupational successes and failures can be compared, is doubly important. The school should have a record of the date of entrance, the chronological and mental ages at entrance, the degree of school proficiency at entrance and of progress from year to year in each academic and vocational subject. Educational tests in reading, spelling, arithmetic and writing, applied to the whole school once a year would assist in making the data accurate. These children are frequently very uneven in development. The kind of record needed is that of the school grade requirement in each academic subject, which can be met by each child. A child may be doing third grade reading, but only first grade arithmetic or vice versa. Since progress is so slow with these children, an accurate rating by teachers' judgments and tests once a year would be sufficient. A system of transferring records from school to school, such that a child once assigned to the special school would not be allowed to wander back into the regular classes when he moves to another part of the city, should be installed. This study revealed many instances of children who had been in the special school, and who when they moved to another part of the city, were entered in a regular class, there to repeat the process of being found to be defective, and once more recommended to a special class. The new cumulative record system which has now been installed for all Cincinnati Schools, will doubtless help to correct this defect. Some principals and teachers are evidently still not aware that children once diagnosed as defective and assigned to special classes, can be compelled to attend such classes. Decisions of the Judge of the Juvenile Court have established the legal right of the school authorities to compel these transfers. When all of the teachers and principals understand this, children will not so easily escape from special classes by moving. C. Social case work for special school students. This study has shown that the majority of the children in the special school belong in families which are problems to the social agencies. What we know of the feeble-minded leads us to believe that the reason so many of them are delinquent is because they live in surroundings which tend to induce delinquency. They learn bad habits because they are in a bad environment, not because they independently devise evil. As a class they are too stupid and lacking in initiati\'e to devise anything, good or bad. Lack of control of instincts, and bad influences are responsible for their evil deeds, rather than any inherent tendency to evil. Brought up to good habits they might be useful laborers, and do no harm to society, except in so far as a very low level of intelligence on the part of its members is always a disadvantage and a handicap to rapid social advance. From this point of view it becomes doubly important to get in contact with the feeble-minded early, and to treat each one as a case work problem. 264 Helen S. Trounstine Foundation The school should cooperate closely with the available social agencies in studying each family with a view to determining whether the family conditions can be made such as to offer a hopeful prospect for the develop- ment of good social habits in the child. If the family conditions are hopeless from this point of view, the child should be removed from the family and provided for either in a good institution or in a family home if one can be found willing to assume the responsibility for a deficient child. The children who are left with their own families should be under constant social supervision from a responsible social worker, cooperating with the school. When the child finally leaves school, he should be even more carefully supervised while he gets his start at wage earning. His employer should be informed what his limitations are, and the work should be carefully selected with a view to possible success. It is possible that voluntary after-care Committees, like those of the English system, could be organized for this purpose. Friendly supervision of the child and consultation with the employer may do much to contribute to success. A feeble-minded child of any degree of deficiency who becomes seriously delinquent ought to be segregated. It is much more difficult to break up bad habits, than it is to form good ones in the first place. The prospect of reforming a delinquent feeble-minded child is too hopeless to be undertaken as a general policy, outside of institutions. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 020 730 347 P