Note the adjustable chairs which can be suited to the particular
difficulty of the child occupying it. Much manual work is done in
these classes.
]
Last year the social worker who was supplied to the department of
ungraded classes of the New York public schools by the Public Education
Association proved abundantly the need for such work in connection with
all the special classes for children who are backward from any cause
whatever. Children who appeared to be hopelessly defective were taken by
this worker to hospitals or clinics and found to be far more nearly
normal than had been at first supposed. Children who seemed to be in
immediate danger of getting into evil ways because of their mental
defect and whose parents were unequal to the task of keeping them from
harming themselves or others, were placed in institutions where they
could be taught and cared for. Out of a hundred cases investigated the
visitor succeeded in placing nineteen in institutions. Unwillingness on
the part of parents or lack of room in the institutions prevented
putting the others there also. On the other hand, the child who could
not remain in the regular grades because of mental weakness was visited
at home, his difficulties explained to the parents, who were ignorantly
and often cruelly blaming him for a fault not his own, and he was
finally placed, with the parents’ full understanding and consent, in an
ungraded class. Adjustments have been made which will affect many a
child’s whole career for good, advice has been given at home which has
in some cases changed the status of an entire family.
[Illustration: