Chapter V

THE EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL RETURN OF SCHOOLS AND CLASSES FOR DEFECTIVES

=An Inquiry in the Hospitals.=--Two years ago one of us betook himself to M. X., an important official in one of our ministries, in order to ask him to join a Ministerial Commission which was going to pay a visit to one of our asylum-schools. M. X. shrugged his shoulders, and replied energetically: "No, no, no! I have had enough of such visits. I will go neither to the Salpetriere nor to Bicetre. What would I see there? An idiot who allows his saliva to collect in his open mouth; another who has epileptic fits; a third who can say nothing but 'Ba, ba!' What would that prove? The only way in which one can find out whether a school for bad cases of mental deficiency is good for anything, is to find out the mental condition of those who leave. How many defective subjects are there who, after having been treated at the Salpetriere or at Bicetre, are able to gain their own livelihood? That is what one would like to know, and that is what no one ever tells us!"

The listener to these incisive and sensible remarks replied, after a moment's reflection: "I entirely agree with you. The information which you desire is of the greatest importance for judging the value of a school. I imagine that such information would be difficult to obtain. But one can try. I am willing to make the attempt."

A few days later the two authors of the present work took the field. The long preliminary conversations which they had had together about this subject had convinced them that they would encounter opposition. But they decided to treat the question as one treats a scientific matter--with perseverance, with courage, and without _parti pris_ of any kind.

Let us subdivide the question to make it more plain. We proposed to discover the value of a school. To make such an inquiry really complete, it would be necessary to consider the question from two points of view--the one educational, the other social.

The educational return consists in the degree of instruction which the institution succeeds in giving to its pupils, after so much time, and with so much expense. In the case of an institution for the sick, the return will take the medical form of a cure or improvement of health. In order to estimate such various returns, it would evidently be necessary to be in possession of various data: (1) A knowledge of the state of instruction or the state of health of the subjects on their admission to the school; (2) a knowledge of their state of instruction or of health on leaving, so that one would be able to estimate by comparison what they owe to the school; (3) a knowledge of the cost for each pupil, whether for instruction or for medical expenses.

The social return consists in the place taken by the pupils in society. This depends in part, it is clear, upon the educational return, but only in part. One could imagine a school, and there are some of the kind, which only cares about producing graduates, without thinking of what will become of them in life, even if they go to the dogs. Every class, every school, for defectives ought to aim at rendering its pupils socially useful. It is not a question of enriching their minds, but of giving them the means of working for their living. This is an important question. Upon this depends our complete and final judgment of the utility of special education.

And be it understood this is not a simple question. Nothing is simple in the sphere of sociological phenomena, and one cannot get hold of an atom of truth except by inquiries bristling with difficulties of all kinds--inquiries whose rules, moreover, are not yet known, but which will certainly be known some day. It is quite necessary.

In order to discover the social return of an institution, school, or hospital, there are many data to be brought together. Here are some of them. What is the number of those who are ultimately able to look after themselves? For how long a time are they able to do so? To what extent have they been assisted by what they acquired at school? And, lastly, what becomes of the failures?

But whatever the social or educational return may be, it would be most important to know what would have become of similar cases who had received no such instruction, or, rather, who had been instructed or treated by different methods.

A single example will show the importance of these reservations. Recently an alienist wanted to prove that all the idiots, without exception, who had been treated in his asylum had been improved. He published copious notes upon these children, which had been taken during several years by different people--the physician, resident doctor, attendant, teacher, etc. On reading these observations one learned that one child, who on admission was unable to walk, by-and-by began to do so. He had grown; he had also begun to speak, etc. In all this there was nothing surprising, and we imagine that, in spite of his optimism, the doctor, who is the author of these observations, would not pretend to credit an increase in size to his medico-pedagogical treatment. As to the rest of the development of the faculties we know nothing. It is possible that an idiot who has ceased to be dirty, or who has learned to dress himself, would have done so in any case without object-lessons. It would be necessary to understand the natural development of idiocy in order to estimate exactly the service which had been rendered by the medico-pedagogical treatment. Otherwise sceptics will suspect that three-quarters of what is claimed to be the result of treatment is really due to nature.

After these preliminaries, let us now turn to our inquiry.

=At the Salpetriere.=--Here we were received most kindly. The superintendent of the hospital introduced us to a most excellent woman, Mme. Meusy, who was at that time head-mistress of the school for defectives at the Salpetriere. This is a little school with about 140 girl pupils. It is part of the clinique of Dr. Voisin. The school is divided into four classes, each of which is under a lady teacher. It is a modest school, and, we think, little known. Elementary education is given there, and, be it understood, the teachers make a point of object-lessons and the training of the senses. But this education has no original feature. It simply follows what is done elsewhere. There is a workshop where the patients skilfully manufacture artificial flowers. Dr. Voisin has for a long time been asking for a laundry, for the sake of the patients who require physical exercise, but he has not been able to get it.

Mme. Meusy had prepared us to some extent for the work which she had done in the school by intelligent organisation. It was a pleasure to us to see with our own eyes the notes she had kept regarding each of her pupils. All the schedules were in perfect order, regularly filled up to the day. They contained all the medical information, as to diagnosis and treatment, which Mme. Meusy had been able to procure from the doctor by reiterated requests. They contained also full particulars as to the state of instruction of the child, her character, her aptitudes, and the amount of her school attendance. Such notes were repeated periodically, so that it was easy to find out approximately whether or not the child had progressed during her stay in the school. Finally, her history after discharge was noted. It is only just that we should here express once more to Mme. Meusy how much we admired the care, the order, and the intelligence with which she had kept these individual histories. It is an example to be followed.

Mme. Meusy readily placed before us one after another all these documents, and allowed us to extract from them the notes which seemed of most value for our work. While one of us was taking the notes, she contributed much valuable information in a lively voice; for she knew her pupils admirably, she followed them after they left school, and often received visits from them. But, although she clearly understood the importance of our inquiry, she could not keep to herself a distressing thought, which was that a large number of these unfortunate girls had obtained no benefit from the instruction received at the school during a long series of years. The majority, on leaving school, had been transferred to asylums for adults. It saddened her to acknowledge such impotence officially. However, neither she nor her devoted staff of teachers was responsible, for if their educational success was restricted, that was due to the fact that the administration had for some time been sending her the epileptic defectives, while reserving for the Fondation Vallee the privilege of having the non-epileptic defectives. Now, everyone knows that when epilepsy, with repeated fits, is present, it produces a mental decadence against which the best teacher is powerless.

The information which we have collected about the work of the school of the Salpetriere bears upon 117 children, who had left the school during the period of four years. Now, this is how these children are distributed, if they are classified according to their condition on leaving:

1. Children who had _improved_. Some of these had returned to their families; they lived at home, and were employed, more or less, and the directress states that they had improved in their mental condition. These numbered eight. Others had become capable of following a calling, either in the asylum as attendants, or outside as seamstresses, ironers, laundresses, domestic servants, etc. These numbered twelve. (None was employed in making artificial flowers, for which there was a workshop in the school.) The total number who had improved, therefore, was twenty.

2. _Doubtful_ cases--children who had returned to their families, but concerning whose mental state and employment precise information was lacking. These numbered twenty.

3. Those who had got _worse_. These are the cases who had been marked "transferred." They are to be found in the lunatic asylums, where they are destined to pass the rest of their existence. Of these there is a formidable number--namely, sixty.

4. Those who had _died_, of whom there were seventeen.

From all these calculations we obtained a figure to remember, and also an opinion.

The figure is that the school for defectives at the Salpetriere returns to active life 12 per cent. of its pupils.

The opinion is what one might have known in advance, that in the majority of these cases the education given was a waste of effort, for none of the pupils who had acquired a calling had been affected by the worst degree of mental deficiency, idiocy, or imbecility. Moreover, none of these was epileptic as well as mentally defective. In other words, the two worst degrees of mental deficiency do not permit any hope that the child will be made capable of following any calling; and even a lesser degree of deficiency--that is to say, feeble-mindedness--is equally cut off from hope when the feeble-mindedness is complicated by epilepsy.

Before drawing from this first inquiry any practical conclusions, we should like to reach a comprehensive view of the question. We shall give our conclusions after we have synthetised all our results.

After the Salpetriere, Bicetre.

=Bicetre.=--The reader would be wrong to imagine that in these visits to the hospitals we are forgetting the school cases of mental deficiency; we are at the heart of the question. Whether we are dealing with hospital cases or school cases, there are details of organisation which are the same for all, and there are similar mistakes which we must try to avoid.

The asylum-school of Bicetre, which owes its origin, in 1892, to the General Council of the Seine, and its organisation to Dr. Bourneville, has a world-wide reputation. Dr. Bourneville has set himself to demonstrate, by every possible means, that idiots can be improved if they are treated methodically and progressively. It is thanks to his initiative that the medico-pedagogical treatment of idiocy, a treatment which has been much vaunted by the doctors, is now known everywhere. His clinique has constantly been cited as a model. This model has been imitated in France and more especially abroad. The asylums of Saint-Yon, of La Roche-sur-Yon, of Clermont, of Sainte-Gemme, and of Auxerre, have been inspired by the example of Bicetre, and have followed its methods. The State supports 440 boys in the asylum-school of Bicetre, and 230 girls at the Fondation Vallee.

We have no intention of describing here at length the organisation of these establishments. All who are interested may join in the Saturday morning visits, when Dr. Bourneville goes round the whole of his clinique. We shall content ourselves by saying that the children in the asylum-school of Bicetre are divided into three groups:

1. The group of _invalids_--children who are idiotic, dirty, epileptic, demented. In this group are those who are regarded as incurable, and some who, although completely idiotic, are capable of some slight improvement. By means of a _swing_ or _see-saw_ their limbs are strengthened, by means of a _go-cart_ they are taught to walk, and by means of the _parallel bars_ they are taught to keep themselves upright.

2. The _healthy_ children of the _little school_, all of whom are able to walk alone. These undergo treatment for uncleanly habits. Special chairs are kept for the dirty, who are placed at stated times upon conveniences in order to regularise their functions. Then come _strengthening exercises_, which are gymnastics of a very simple kind; _toilet lessons_ to teach them to wash themselves; _table lessons_, to teach them to feed themselves, with spoon, fork, and even knife; the _training of the senses_; and, lastly, _training in speech_.

3. The third group includes children in the _big school_. These are less defective than the preceding. They are fit and healthy. But, on the other hand, there are found here a great many abnormal children (perverse and ill-balanced) who are not wanting in intelligence. The big school includes four classes, each under the charge of a professor. The education, especially in the last class, is carried pretty far, and many of the pupils possess their certificate of study.

For reasons upon which we will not insist, we were not so delighted with the hospital of Bicetre as we had been with the Salpetriere. We might have dispensed with this visit. The medical superintendent of the school for defectives at Bicetre has taken the trouble for a long time to publish regularly every year a volume of several hundred pages, which contains the most diverse statistical information about everything that goes on. We have studied the volumes bearing upon four years only--the years 1899, 1901, 1902, and 1903. Moreover, we profess that we have some knowledge of the school at Bicetre, having not only joined several times in the Saturday visits, but having on several occasions carried on there researches in cephalometry; and, in the last place, we have had the pleasure of following in their inspection two members of the ministerial commission, who had had the idea of finding out how the teachers in the big school were fulfilling their functions.

It will be remembered that we made a distinction between the educational and the social return. This distinction is not recognised by everyone, and many good people take into account only the social return. There are those who would judge the school of Bicetre by one thing only--the number of patients who are made useful to society. This is a question of great interest, but it is wrong to think that it is the only one to be considered. It would be unjust to confine oneself to it. The injustice can be understood by supposing that one is considering an institution which receives idiots only. Would one judge such an institution by asking how many of its patients become capable of winning their livelihood? Certainly not. It is possible to be of real service to the patients without raising them to such a level. The cure of dirty habits, for example, is not a thing to be disdained. Not only does it result in an economy of linen and washing, but it makes the patient less disgusting, less difficult to take care of. Here we have material and moral improvement which, even for those who consider expense only, cannot be considered negligible, for in the end the result is pecuniary economy. But, having stated this principle, it would be necessary to find out what is the value, what is the duration, what is the frequency of such improvements. It would be necessary to know what is their cost, and to compare the cost with the results in order to find out where one was. This kind of stock-taking, both financial and medical, has no place in the publications of the Bicetre, and cannot be replaced by isolated observations on the treatment and improvement of idiot children. There is here, therefore, a first lacuna. We note also with regret the absence of any inspection of the teachers in the schools, who are left to themselves without any supervision but that of the doctor. Now, the doctor is not usually an educationist, and it is to be regretted that he does not himself recognise his incompetency in pedagogy, but that, on the contrary, his nature, often prone to take offence, will not submit to any collaboration in his work. Having said this, we are going to confine ourselves to the social return of the school of Bicetre, since it is affirmed that such a return exists.

We would like to know exactly how many boys and girls have been able, after their discharge, to work at a trade and to maintain themselves. Upon this point of capital importance the publications of Bicetre tell us nothing--absolutely nothing. It is, therefore, impossible to find out the real value of this institution, so richly endowed, where the visitor perambulates palatial buildings, is saluted by a fanfare, and admires museums of natural history which would be the envy of many a public educational establishment. The publications give a number of particulars as to the number of dancing lessons, the walks to the Jardin d'Acclimatation, and the cost of laundry, etc.; but we are left in entire ignorance as to what all this is good for, and what is the practical tangible benefit which society receives from it.

Everyone knows, however, that the director of the school for defectives at Bicetre is an enlightened philanthropist, who has devoted himself with remarkable zeal and activity to procuring for his old pupils situations which they are capable of filling. He has understood, and was one of the first to do so, that the question of the education of defectives will never be settled until one has settled that of the social usefulness of these children.

We have even learned indirectly that he has made many endeavours to induce employers to engage his defectives as workmen; but it is likely that these suggestions have not met with the success they deserved, for the employers, threatened by the new law regarding accidents at work, hesitate to saddle themselves with workers who, being liable to attacks of epilepsy, or affected by motor inability, would lay upon them a very heavy responsibility. On the other hand, the school education has had a good deal of success since it has happened, as we have already remarked, that several of the pupils obtained their certificates of study.[14] But the only publications which we have consulted say no more about these certificates of study than about the trades followed by the defectives after leaving school. This silence is very significant. In spite of oneself, one puts a bad interpretation upon it. One has an irresistible tendency to believe, not that all the effort at Bicetre has been in vain, but that it has been disproportionate in relation to the result achieved.

We have no difficulty in admitting that idiots have been improved, but to what an extent this amelioration loses in importance if the majority of these idiots are destined to pass the rest of their life in an asylum, where they will be nourished in absolute idleness, and where, consequently, the heedless administration will gain nothing for what has been taught them at the price of such great efforts!

Let us try, however, to interpret the silence of the text. In four years 240 boys have left the school at Bicetre. In studying the school of the Salpetriere we distinguished three classes of children--the _improved_, the _stationary_ or _doubtful_, and those who have got _worse_. We have consulted the statistical tables of Bicetre, and we have not found a single one marked _worse_, although one-third of the entire contingent are epileptic. Now, this is very surprising, since we know that epilepsy with repeated fits inexorably results in mental decadence. It is an enigma, which we explain in the following manner: Those who are really decadent have been marked _stationary_ by medical or pedagogical optimism. If our interpretation is correct, it recoils forcibly upon the expression _improved_, which is applied frequently to those discharged. To the interpretation of this word _improved_ we are, therefore, obliged to turn our attention.

What, then, must be understood by _improved_ when this word is found in the publications of Bicetre? First of all we must subtract a certain number of subjects who have been marked _transferred_. We know what is meant by this little word _transferred_ when it is applied to the children. It is lugubrious. It amounts to a sentence for life. A subject _transferred_ is one who, his time at school come to an end, is removed to an asylum for the insane, where, in all probability, he will stay to the end of his useless existence. If we eliminate the transferred, and if we keep amongst the improved only those who, having been so designated, have returned to their families, we get a proportion of 58 in 290--that is, 20 per cent. of boys.

This proportion seems to us too large, on account of the optimism which these documents exhibit. It is to be noticed, however, that children are sometimes marked _very much improved_, or _notably improved_. If, for the sake of prudence, we consider as improved only those who are designated in this way, we have only eighteen, or 7 per cent.

This new proportion, if small in absolute value, still seems to us an exaggeration, because it is reached only by including a certain number of children affected with epilepsy. It must, therefore, be believed that their epilepsy has improved. But the amelioration or cure of epilepsy is not a matter of education; it cannot be considered as a success to be credited to active medico-pedagogical treatment. Let us therefore put the cured epileptics aside. There will then remain only seven who have undergone a notable amelioration and have returned to their families. What percentage is this? The total contingent upon which we have been making our calculations numbered 290, but it is right to exclude all the epileptics, for the reasons we have mentioned. This brings the number down to 216, and the number of children really improved, calculated upon 216, amounts, for the boys, to from 3 to 4 per cent.

By similar calculations, into the details of which we will not enter, we have shown that the improved amongst the girls are more numerous--namely, 20 per cent. But Vallee contains relatively far fewer epileptics than Bicetre. We do not know, also, how many of them have become capable of working at a trade.

We therefore conclude with the following propositions:

1. _At the school of the Salpetriere, 20 per cent. of defective girls improved, and 12 per cent. are able to work at a trade._

2. _At the Fondation Vallee, also, 20 per cent. of defective girls have improved. No return has been furnished as to their future employment._

3. _In the case of Bicetre, the number of defective boys improved is from 3 to 4 per cent. It is not known how many of these defectives are employed after leaving school._

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=Some Conclusions.=--It seldom happens that one finishes an inquiry without experiencing some disappointment. One starts with great ambitions, intending to make everything plain, but on the way one is forced to lower one's flag. The truth escapes one. Sometimes it is the facts which conceal it from us, sometimes it is man who has an interest in concealing it. But the disappointment which has attended our inquiry would surpass the foresight of the most sceptical. On the other hand, if the school for defectives at the Salpetriere has enabled us to collect valuable information, we owe this good fortune entirely to the intelligent initiative of a woman. It was the directress of the school who, apart from all intervention, medical or other, had had the idea of instituting these very complete schedules, which enabled us to discover the economic return of her school. The management deserved none of the credit. As to the school of Bicetre, we have studied it only through its annual publications, and we have managed with great difficulty to obtain only an infinitesimal amount of information of very doubtful value.

What lessons are we to draw from these examples as to the future organisation of our schools for defectives? We had hoped that the study of these institutions would have provided us with ready-made experience as to the measures to be taken for founding schools for defectives under good conditions. The contrary has happened. The example of these institutions has taught us one thing--the faults which we ought not to repeat.

Every impartial mind ought to be with us when we express the view that henceforth the activities of the schools and hospices should be made plain by precise information. For this it would be necessary to take the following measures:

1. That the definition of the grades of mental deficiency should not vary from one doctor to another, but that one should know what is meant by the word _idiot_, the word _imbecile_, and the word _feeble-minded_. A purely conventional but precise definition would be infinitely better than the present want of any; and we refer to the convention which we have suggested above.

2. That upon entrance and leaving, the mental condition and the state of instruction of the pupils should be precisely noted, so that by comparison of such notes, rather than by arbitrary estimates, one should be able to determine in what way the pupils have changed during their stay in school.

3. That on leaving the institution, the children, whether they return to ordinary life or are transferred to asylums for the insane, should be followed up, and that particulars regarding their condition should be transmitted to, and centralised in, the office of the school, so that the masters may be able to judge the ulterior destiny of these children whom they have surrounded with so much solicitude during a period which often amounts to twelve or even fifteen years.

By such organisation one would at last know exactly, or at any rate approximately, what are the services rendered by such an institution. One would compare these services with the expenses, and one would see whether the receipts were sufficient to justify the expenditure, or whether, on the contrary, the money had been foolishly squandered, as we have reason to fear may be the case. We would also see upon what children educational effort should be directed, in order to obtain the maximum return. It would be possible to find out, for example, whether it is worth while continuing for five years, eight years, or more, to give lessons in reading to a child who, after two years, is still unable to spell. We will also consider very seriously whether a child who is unfortunately subject to repeated attacks of epilepsy, which no medical treatment has improved, and who is destined to descend progressively and inevitably through all stages of mental decadence, should be kept in his place in a class; and whether the teachers would not be doing better to leave the child at peace than to teach him laboriously the rules of arithmetic and grammar, which will certainly be forgotten soon afterwards in the cloud which will obscure the intelligence.

One day, when we were walking through a residential school, we were struck by the spectacle of a poor epileptic. This was a little girl of about fifteen years of age. She was wearing her school apron, and upon her head was the little osier cap which epileptics are made to wear, to avoid the danger of falls upon the head. It was lesson-time. Pale and thin, the little patient was sitting quietly in her place, listening to the lesson of her mistress, who was explaining the rule of the agreement of the participle. Did she understand? We hope so, since she belonged to one of the higher classes--the second, if we remember rightly. In any case, she was making a great effort to follow the grammatical explanation, and her forehead was thrown into wrinkles. All at once she gave a slight sigh, slipped down in her seat, and fell. The attendant took her in her arms and carried her into a corner of the room. The lesson continued with general indifference. The children pay little attention to such accidents, because they are so used to them. Now one, now another, has her attack of epilepsy. After a few minutes our little scholar came to herself. She appeared quite dazed. The attendant spoke to her with kind indifference. "Come, now, that is better. It is nothing. It is all over." The child did not reply, but docilely allowed herself to be led to her seat. She took up her former position, appearing to listen vaguely; and on her pinched face, with its drawn features, the lesson in grammar continued to fall. The people, visitors and professors, who were present at that scene, and thought it quite natural, surely did not understand the heart-break of it. Some time afterwards we made inquiries about this pupil, being curious to know how she was, and what she was doing. We were told: "She is a poor little thing, who has forgotten a great deal. Formerly she was a bright child. Now she is going back every day. By-and-by she will no longer be able to read. This is nearly always the way with our epileptics!"

This sad story, which we have just recalled, we give as a striking illustration of our statistical calculations regarding the ultimate fate of these institution cases. Be it remembered, we had reached this very important conclusion: that epileptics, whether feeble-minded, or imbecile, or idiotic, never become capable of working at a trade. This somewhat vague conclusion it would be of great interest to examine more closely. Our little epileptic, who is gradually falling back, is an example. She has already reached the height of her development; she is fifteen years of age, and she is beginning to decline. We foresee the time when she will no longer know how to read. Is there, then, any use in wearying the poor thing by teaching her an abstract grammar rule?

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Let us turn now to our school cases. Our conclusions may be divined. We expressly demand that the utility of the schools shall be rigorously established, and that the teachers and inspectors shall be bound to take exact notes of the mental condition and the state of instruction of the pupils on entrance and on leaving. In this way one will act like any good shopkeeper, who considers it one of his chief duties to keep accounts of what he is doing. His system of book-keeping shows his position in a way which is indispensable if he is not to lose his money. He knows at what price he buys, at what price and under what conditions he sells, and whether, in consequence, his profits are sufficient to encourage him to continue to deal in such and such articles.

In the same way, in a well-managed school for defectives, it is necessary to know the exact details concerning the condition of the pupils on entrance and on leaving, in order that one may be able to judge the services rendered by the school; in order that one may be able to find out whether the educational methods employed are good, bad, or indifferent; whether they are better than those of another school, where different methods are followed, and so on. Such control is equally necessary in order to find out whether a particular category of children gives greater degrees of success than another; whether certain degrees of mental deficiency are capable of improvement only to an infinitesimal extent. Such things cannot be known in advance, and should not be decided lightly in credence of an _a priori_ opinion, but should be determined by accurate scientific methods, in the interest of the schools, in the interest of the pupils, and also in the interest of the tax-payers, who bear the cost. It will not do to content oneself with admiring _in abstracto_ the goodness of the methods and the progress of the pupils, but it must ever be remembered that the aim of the schools should be to fit the defectives to take a useful place in society. The school should not aim at turning out brilliant pupils, stars in competition, but individuals capable of looking after themselves and gaining their own livelihood. This should be the constant pre-occupation of the teachers. They should not shut themselves up within the four walls of their school, saying, "The life outside is no concern of ours." It is their imperative duty to consider the school life as a preparation for life outside. They ought, therefore, to pay attention to the needs of the immediate school environment, in order to know what are the industries which require workers, to take account of which of them are accessible to defectives, and to direct their education accordingly. Domestic service in the country, for example, which requires but little initiative, would seem to be an excellent refuge for feeble-minded girls with good instincts. Agricultural labour supplies an excellent outlet for the boys, for in the country life is less complicated, and adaptation is more easy, than in the towns. There is a certain, practical, even easy way of finding out whether the teacher has been trying to keep in contact with real life, and whether his school for defectives is well managed. It is to find out what becomes of the defectives on leaving school, and what percentage he has been able to place in situations with a suitable salary.

Such measures of control are so logical that they only require to be formulated to obtain the immediate assent of all sensible minds. Yet one may ask whether, as a matter of fact, in the schools managed by the State, the inspectors occupy themselves sufficiently with this practical side of education, and do not even make the mistake of judging the education by itself, according to a conventional, literary, or scientific ideal. We are not speaking of public schools, colleges, and lycees. These establishments are attended by normal children, and it may be admitted that it is not, strictly speaking, the business of the State to prepare these for social life. As a matter of fact, that is not our own opinion, but that does not matter. What is certain is that the duty of the State becomes more precise and more pressing when it is a question of assuring the lot of the defectives. Has it always been kept in mind that their education should put them in the way of an occupation, and that one should teach them nothing useless, so as not to make them lose their time? We do not think so. We hope that the schools for the blind take care to know whether the Braille which they teach their pupils is a method of reading and writing which will be useful to them in life; whether the manual arts, such as caning chairs, the making of brushes and mattresses, are the best means which they can teach to the non-musicians whereby to gain their bread. We equally hope that in the schools for the deaf and dumb, which are teaching their pupils by the oral method--with what effort, what expense, and what devotion one may imagine--they have inquired what percentage of their pupils attained the ability to communicate verbally with people other than their teachers, and also what is the percentage of pupils who, ten years after leaving school, still use that method and find it advantageous. All these questions should be asked, and conscientious minds should try to find an answer to them by impartial inquiry, in order to find out whether the methods are useful, and whether the school is directing its energies well. What is being done about this with respect to the schools for defectives?

We must do this justice to the legislation at present projected with regard to defectives, that it is not indifferent with regard to this question of control. The Ministerial Commission, in which one of us took part, heard many demands for guarantees of this kind. Its mistrust was awakened, and it made a number of suggestions which have been included in the Bill.

Thus, an elementary school inspector is trusted with the duty of taking account of the educational progress of each child. A little book must be kept recording full particulars of each individual case. The principle of supervision by a Care Committee after leaving school has been adopted. All this is excellent. The law cannot enter into minute details. Administrative rules must be drawn up to provide against the two causes of error, prejudice and negligence.

Let us consider this question from our own point of view, and distinguish clearly between the educational and the social return.

=The Educational Return of the Special Schools and Classes.=--In the first place, in order to gauge the advantages of special education, it is necessary to find out what becomes of defectives when they are left in the ordinary schools. It is quite clear that special education should be condemned and suppressed if it does not do more than the ordinary schools. We have seen that, in the latter, the defective is a dead weight, and the ill-balanced is a nuisance. Nevertheless, one must not jump to the conclusion that these children are in no wise modified by the school influences, and do not profit in any degree by the instruction. We have already pointed out some very touching facts: a little defective girl has learned to read, thanks to the persevering help of one of her normal companions. This proves, at least, that association with normal children may be good for something, but let us leave such anecdotes and attempt to reach a comprehensive view of the situation.

We have been able to collect in the primary schools of Paris, thanks to the kind assistance of M. Belot, particulars which are very valuable, though restricted in amount. These particulars we have examined in every possible way, and we always reach the same conclusion: _the defective makes very slow progress in the ordinary schools_.

Let us consider, for example, _en bloc_, forty-five defectives of whom we possess records, and see to what extent they are behind at different ages. We get the following table:

Age. Retardation.
7 2 years }
8 2 " } about 2 years.
9 1-1/2 " }

10 3 " }
11 3-1/2 " } about 3 years.
12 3 " }
13 3-1/2 " }

14 6 " }
15 5 " } about 5 years.

Thus, the amount of retardation increases with the years. It is at first two years, then three, then five. But this augmentation in the amount of retardation, which is the first fact to strike the attention, ought not to conceal from us that there is real progress in the mental condition and in the studies; in fact, we may remark that if a defective child, in passing from the age of eight to eleven, has an augmentation of retardation of one year with respect to his companions, this proves that in the same time he has progressed two years with respect to himself. It is like an omnibus which goes more and more slowly, yet advances all the same. To be more precise, let us say that, since the defectives reach, as an upper limit, the intermediate course, and that in the proportion of two-thirds, one may conclude that they make nearly half the progress of the normal children. Be it understood, this is only roughly true, and many reservations must be made with regard to details. But the indication which these documents afford is, nevertheless, very instructive, for it shows us that the majority, two-thirds at least, of the defectives appear regularly to duplicate each class, or to take two years to pass a stage which the normal child passes in one. It is important to remember this, for the teachers do not always give the facts their true value. They have a tendency to compare the slow progress of the defective with the more rapid progress of the normal, and to conclude from this comparison that the defective remains stationary. This is a pure illusion, which may be compared to what one experiences when looking out of the window of a train in motion. One sees another train going in the same direction but more slowly, and imagines that the second train is not moving. Let us retain, therefore, provisionally, the following important idea: _Only half the defectives in an ordinary school reach with difficulty the intermediate course, first year, passing through the different stages in double the normal time._ No doubt one would find many examples of slower progress still, three or four times the normal. On the other hand, the teacher sometimes points out a defective who has improved very rapidly, as if his intellect awoke from a long sleep. Such cases exist, but they are very rare, and they are open to the suspicion that an error in diagnosis has been made, and that the child who has improved so greatly was wrongly considered defective.

With regard to the ill-balanced, the success of the ordinary school is much greater. A recent inquiry taught us that in the course of two years half the children noted as ill-balanced were regarded by the teachers as improved. This figure speaks for itself.

From this we may conclude in a general way that it is essential that the special schools and classes should bring more than half of their defective pupils to the level of the intermediate course, and improve more than half of the ill-balanced, if they are to render public services superior to those of the ordinary schools.

This must be the aim. How are we to know whether it is attained or not? By supervision exercised in the most serious manner, by well-kept individual records, in which are noted only facts which can be controlled.

We remember, a dozen years ago, having turned over the records of young defectives in an asylum-school which had the reputation of perfect organisation, a reputation otherwise deserved, for everything that was shown to the public on visiting days was perfect. But a distinction must be drawn between what one sees and what one does not see. The records were kept with surprising negligence. They were dirty in appearance, torn, disordered, falling to bits. On reading them one only met with vague estimations, loosely expressed, about children who, as was repeated to satiety, "would make progress if they would work better." The less we say the better about contradictory diagnosis, such as one we noticed on a certificate of discharge: "Complete idiocy--very much improved"; or the too optimistic prognosis, really very naive, if the writer has not had the bad taste to be ironical: "Vicious child--would make an excellent housemaid." If documents could be kept in this way, it is quite clear that those who so kept them felt pretty sure that nobody would ever read them.

We demand that the notes which show the educational progress of the pupils should be written under the constant fear of control, in order that they may be guaranteed against negligence and interested optimism. The manner of control is very simple, and may be summed up in three paragraphs.

1. The estimation of the progress of the children should be made by the professors themselves, since they know each child well. The professor will always keep in mind that his notes will be checked by the inspector. With regard to instruction, notes will be kept with regard to reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, according to the methods which we have indicated, and such remarks as "good," "very good," "passable," each signifying absolutely nothing, will be avoided. With regard to the manual work, it goes without saying that the record would have to be made in a somewhat different way.

2. The inspector will examine a certain number of cases chosen haphazard. He must carry out this control with an open mind and without prejudice.

3. He will make use of methods of control of a strictly impersonal nature.

=Social Return.=--We are surprised to find that abroad there have been published very few particulars concerning the social return of the schools, although they have been in existence for a long time, some of them for forty years. Statistics are rare, without commentaries, and some of them are apparently prejudiced. In order to find out what they are worth, we think it would be necessary to live in the country, and to observe carefully for oneself the work of the schools. The official documents do not teach very much, and one may suspect that every public service which is not supervised in the most intelligent manner, and incited by competition, will slip into routine and empiricism. We demand an inquiry on the two following points: How many defectives are provided with a trade when they leave the special schools? How many defectives are provided with a trade when they do not leave the special schools?

Such an inquiry, we may be certain, has never been seriously undertaken. Here are some statistics. Mme. Fuster, after a stay in Germany, where she visited some _Hilfschule_ and _Hilfsclasse_ (literally, "help-schools" and "help-classes") made a communication to the Societe de l'Enfant, from which it appears that in the case of 90 classes for defectives in Berlin, 70 to 75 per cent. of the defective pupils who were there became able to carry on a trade; 25 to 30 per cent. died in the course of study, or returned to their homes, or were sent to medical institutions for idiots.

According to a more recent inquiry, made under the auspices of M. de Gizycki at Berlin, and published in a book by Paul Dubois, 22 per cent. of the children were sent home or to asylums; 11 per cent. were apprenticed; 62 per cent. worked at occupations which required no knowledge and yielded little pay (labourers, crossing-sweepers, ragmen). If we add together these two last groups, we reach a proportion of 73 per cent. of defectives who have been made, or who have become, more or less useful.

We shall quote a last document, to which we attach more importance than to the preceding, for we have full confidence in the author. Dr. Decroly has kindly arranged at our request a few figures relating to the occupational classification of the girls discharged from a special class in Brussels. He states that the class was opened only in 1903, that education in Belgium is not compulsory, that many of the pupils leave the class too soon--all circumstances which explain the smallness of the success. He firmly believes in the educational value of special instruction, provided one does not expect miracles. He has a good critical mind. We cannot publish here the whole table. We shall summarise it thus:

Of three idiots, practically nothing is known; of eight imbeciles, one is employed at home, one unemployed (?), and one is messenger to a shoemaker. One can scarcely expect any real return in the case of imbeciles and idiots, and the merit of Dr. Decroly's statistics lies in the fact of distinguishing between such children and the feeble-minded. Let us speak more fully of the latter. They are thirty in number. Concerning nine there are no particulars. Two have entered a Catholic school, and nothing more is known about them. If we subtract these eleven, there remain nineteen. Some of these are "kept at home," or "occupied at home"; of these there are five. We do not know exactly what they are doing. There are others who "work," but it is not stated whether this is outside, or whether the work deserves to be taken into account. Four belong to this category. There remain the apprentices (tailors, cigarette-makers, sewers, etc.), of whom there are nine. Perhaps the last figure is the only one which deserves to be taken into account. Finally, then, out of nineteen feeble-minded subjects, regarding whom particulars have been supplied, one half, or 50 per cent., have been apprenticed; or more than half, 75 per cent., if we count the defectives who "work." We are not, therefore, very far from the figures collected by Mme. Fuster for the special classes of Berlin, nor from those published by Gizycki.

We do not think enough of the ordinary school, and of the service it renders to the defectives; or, rather, we are too ready to assert that it does nothing for them. Yet, all the defectives who leave it do not turn out badly. There are journalists who try to attract the attention of public bodies by declaring that defectives, left to themselves, inevitably fall into mendicancy and crime. What do they know about it? Absolutely nothing, since no serious inquiry has ever been carried out. Even we, for several years, allowed ourselves to be influenced by such suggestions, until the day when one of these journalists went rather too far. We refer to an alienist who published in a morning paper a series of articles on the defectives. After having estimated their total number at 40,000, he called them "the madmen of to-morrow," truly an excellent title for a sensational article. But, little as one might think it, of all that was written nothing was really proved. Those who think that the defectives are destined to become lunatics are just as much in a dream as those who declare they will become criminals. The fact is that we are in complete ignorance, because one has always recoiled from an inquiry which promised to be as long as it would be troublesome. And it is a disgrace, let us say frankly, that no State has ever undertaken it.

Through the intervention of an inspector, M. Belot, we have inquired of twenty heads of schools what has become of the defectives whom they notified to us two years ago. We have made these inquiries with regard to sixty-six children only. Poor figures, indeed, and we would not give them, but that a little is better than nothing. These sixty-six children may be classified thus: Thirty-five are defective, twenty-six ill-balanced, and three both defective and ill-balanced. Retardation is quite plain in the unstable, amounting to from one to two years; it is very marked in the case of the defectives (one alone has a retardation of two years, the others have a retardation of three, four, six, and even seven years). We give these figures only that it may not be imagined that we are dealing with cases of slight feeble-mindedness with a retardation of one or two years. It is necessary to understand these details in order to form a correct idea of the value of the figures.

The particulars regarding the ultimate destiny of these sixty-six children are as follows:

1. _No Return in the Case of Fourteen Children._--Some left the district without giving an address. Some even left school with insults from the parents directed against the teachers.

2. _Children still at School._--These number twenty-two. We have already spoken about this little group, and have remarked that some of them have improved.

3. _Children sent Home or placed in Asylums._--There are three who have been sent to asylums. We know one of them, an imbecile, but he had bad instincts, and who knows but that he might have been made useful? With regard to the others, who have been sent home, we have only very vague particulars, and the interpretation of their condition is quite arbitrary. Some of them seem to be useful. Some girls help at home. Some boys assist their fathers at their work, but are said to be wanting in balance or to require constant supervision. We have thought it well to include them in this third category, which stands for the social waste. They number ten. We repeat that the limits of this group are extremely ill-defined. With a little optimism one might have passed three-quarters into the following group; with a little more strictness, on the other hand, the present group would have been larger. We emphasise the difficulty of limiting the frontier impartially. It would be a good thing to make use of a criterion, good or bad, but exact. One will, no doubt, be found, but in the meantime we have none.

4. _Children who have become Useful._--These are they who have become capable of following some calling. It is evident that one should take account of the nature of the calling followed; many are misery in disguise. A little time should also be allowed, for a child may not find definite occupation immediately on leaving school. In fact, the only particular we have regarding this last group of children is, that they have entered on an apprenticeship. Girls are apprenticed to dressmakers or laundresses. Boys are apprenticed as hairdressers, tinsmiths, gilders, printers, carpenters, etc. These children number seventeen. These results have impressed us rather favourably. We did not expect that the majority of defectives from the ordinary school would enter an apprenticeship; but, in fact, the majority did so. If we abstract the two first groups, those about whom the particulars are wanting, and those who have not yet left school, there remain twenty-seven children, of whom seventeen have been apprenticed, or 76 per cent.

From these statements the following conclusion is reached--namely, that, contrary to an opinion which attempts are being made to spread abroad, the ordinary school does render real service to the defective child. We have already seen, _a propos_ of the educational return, that the ordinary school carries a proportion of the defectives as far as the intermediate course. All these facts are mutually confirmatory.

Is it possible to go farther? We have just seen that the ordinary school permits the occupational classing of 76 per cent. of the defectives. Now, this proportion is, by an unexpected agreement, identical with that obtained in the classes of Berlin and Brussels, whence an opponent of special instruction would hasten to argue that such instruction is useless, or that, at least, it could not prove its usefulness except on the condition of insuring occupational classing superior to 76 per cent. We do not think, after mature reflection, that this proposition would be justified. All our figures show is that the majority of defectives who pass through the ordinary school had not entirely lost their time, since they reached the stage of entering upon an apprenticeship. But it will not do to take account only of the proportion of children classed as workers; it would be necessary also to take account of the duration of such classing, and especially of its quality. A defective enters upon an apprenticeship. That is good, but how long does he retain it? Will he be discharged as incapable at the end of a few months? If he is kept, will he remain in the lowest employments--for example, unskilled labour? In connection with all trades, there are minor occupations in which defectives stagnate. Our figures do not take account of these differences, which are of considerable interest, nor do they give any fuller ideas with regard to the utilisation of the defectives. And it would be necessary for the statistical method to be carried out with greater perfection to enable us to measure the services rendered by special instruction. It is probable that the special school would render greater services than the ordinary school, because it has greater advantages: teachers experienced in the training of defectives, a curriculum better fitted to the aptitudes of the latter, and, most important of all, the possibility of individual instruction.

Let us stop here. In the meantime this is all that we can say with regard to the organisation and control of special education. If we were to attempt to go farther we could do so only on _a priori_ grounds. The time has come for experiment. The new classes which are being formed in Bordeaux, Paris, and elsewhere, must be carefully watched. We shall grope, we shall make attempts, certainly we shall commit mistakes, which will not matter very much if only we have the mind to recognise them and the courage to put them right. The essential thing is for all the world to understand that empiricism has had its day, and that methods of scientific precision must be introduced into all educational work, to carry everywhere good sense and light.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] In trying to explain this success, one must, no doubt, take into account the comparatively advanced age of the children, the probable leniency of the examiners, and, above all, the fact that the ill-balanced subject is a moral rather than a mental defective.