Mental defectives : their classification and training / by Martin W. Barr.

  • Barr, Martin W., 1860-1938.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Mental defectives : their classification and training / by Martin W. Barr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    —in whatsoever grade, be it low, middle or high, which determines his limited sphere in life and pre- pares him for it. This is effected by no ironclad rnie; on the contrary, as the comfort of all—both teachers and pupils—depends upon an equality of grading, there is ample opportunity for easy transi- tion as improvement or deterioration may require. A glance at the program of a large institution will show this classification in working detail. The Training Department, in its several divi- sions—School, Industrial and Manual—aims to give mental, moral and physical training as well as per- manent occupation to “children” of all ages, from early youth to maturity. The School, which prepares for and aids in tin- work of the others, provides: First. Separate schools for the low-grade, mid- dle-grade and high-grade; kindergartens for the young; custodial classes for the incorrigible or the incompetent, and evening classes and Sunday- schools for all. Second. Special classes, where all who can be benefited may receive training in certain lines. The training is in no sense abstract. In each school there is always the one definite aim pre- sented—that the child benefited bv training may be enabled by his work to benefit the community into which he is growing, and where there is always work to be found for the ready worker. To low-grades, who, with dulled sight and hear- ing, are incapable of consecutive thinking, to whom letters and figures are meaningless signs; the chief, one might almost say the only, avenue of develop- ment must be through the muscular sense. By means of physical exercises which arouse, and of occupations which interest, the arm, the hand and the fingers may be enticed into movements which, if co-ordinated and persisted in, may in time pro- duce the mental impression. The ordinary house-