we can never repay. She has it within her power to transform the attitude of the class from one of mere tolerance to one of genuine interest and appreciation.

The foregoing suggestions mention but a few of the supervisory aids that may be of service to our teachers in helping these nonEnglish-speaking children. In my opinion the outstanding need at present is a clearer perception of the problem by all teachers of such children. With this accomplished we may be assured of developing effective means of solving it.

V. Contributions of State Departments of
Public Instruction to the Education of

Mentally Handicapped Children in Rural
Communities

MAUD KEATOR

Director Special Education and Standards, State Department of Education, Connecticut

The lines of inquiry followed in this paper relate to the situation that exists in the country at large, the condition in the States represented in the northeastern supervisory conference group, and the methods proposed to meeet the situation in the State with which the writer is at present most familiar, namely, Connecticut.

Use made of a questionnaire form.-In the preparation of this paper the writer sent the following questionnaire to the chief State educational officers in the 48 States:

1. What are the provisions of the compulsory attendance law of your State as to

(a) The age at which a child may or must enter school?

(b) What grade must a child complete before he leaves school?

(c) What age must a child attain before he leaves school?

2. Has an enumeration of the mentally defective children in the rural communities of your State been made as to

(a) The number attending public school.

How many are there?

(b) The number being cared for in their homes.

How many are there?

(c) The number being cared for in institutions.

How many are there?

(d) What means were used for securing this information?

3. (a) What facilities does your State provide for the individual examination by well-qualified persons of children giving evidence of mental defect? (b) What are the qualifications of the persons making examinations?

4. (a) Has your State any legislative or other provisions for meeting the special educational needs of mentally defective children? (b) If so, what provisions have been made?

Responses were received from 38 States; in some instances replies took the form of letters or copies (incomplete in some cases) of the school laws of the State. Although such replies did not provide all the information requested an effort has been made to organize and summarize the facts included in the replies received. The facts are

accepted at their face value, no effort having been made to verify them.

Provisions of the compulsory attendance law.-The first question was included as providing a necessary background for proper evaluation of replies to the other questions. The minimum mental age necessary for successful first-grade work has been fairly successfully established, as revealed in the following quotation from Terman, The Intelligence of School Children, page 47. A similar discussion will be found in Dickson, Mental Tests and the Classroom Teacher, Chapter IV. The quotation follows:

From such data as the above collected from all his 1,000 cases, Dickson concludes that below a mental age of 6 years the child is not fully ready for the first grade, and that below the mental age of 51⁄2 years the chances that really satisfactory first-grade work will be done are practically negligible. We are beginning to see why a fourth of the pupils in the first grade fail of promotion, for Dickson finds that 38 per cent are below the mental age of 6 years and 27 per cent are below 52.

Hence the importance of the permissive and compulsory age of admission to school which almost always means admission to first grade. In most States both of these ages are recognized, but in every case a child having entered school becomes subject to the provisions of compulsory attendance laws regardless of whether or not he entered at the minimum or maximum age indicated in the law.

In four States in which children must enter school at 7 years of age and in three States in which they must enter at 8, they are permitted to enter school under 6 years of age. These seven States include three in the Northeastern group-Connecticut, Maine, and Vermont. Five States report that children may enter at 5; Vermont reports 52, and Connecticut 5 or 6 as the permissive age of entrance. Probably to this list should be added New Hampshire, where the minimum entrance age is left to local option, the mandatory age being 8. Somewhat similarly in Connecticut local communities may lower the 6-year age indicated by statute to 5 years. Hence it appears that in the country at large, seven and possibly eight States, are permitting children to begin school at an age which insures failure in the first year of school life. The far-reaching damaging results of such lessons in failure can scarcely be overstated. Of these eight States, five are in the group included in this conference.

It should be clearly understood that this is not a protest against enrolling children at the age of 5, 4, 3, or even 2 years, provided suitable activities be provided for them. It is an emphatic plea that the school cease to subject children to situations in which they are sure to fail, a low chronological entrance age being one of the most prolific sources of such failure. In this connection another

much-needed reform is the statutory definition of what is meant by 5 years, 6 years, and the like. In one State 5 years is variously interpreted to mean all the way from "5 by the 1st of December following the September that the child enters school," to "past the sixth birthday."

Another important consideration is the grade from which, or the age at which, children are permitted to leave school. One State, North Carolina, requires the completion of fourth grade only; Arizona, Kentucky, and New Jersey, the completion of fifth grade; Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, and Pennsylvania, the completion of the sixth grade; Georgia, Ohio, and Texas, the completion of the seventh grade; and all others replying, the completion of the eighth grade.

On the age side, Arkansas, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Texas make no regulation beyond 14 years. Utah and Oklahoma hold children until they are 18, unless the eighth grade is completed sooner, but they must in any event remain until they are 16. The majority of States appear to retain children until they are 16, while a considerable number use the 14 to 16 year range.

At first glance this pushing up of the age and grade of leaving appears to be a highly commendable procedure. But here again the problem of the mentally retarded child obtrudes itself. Probably he is the most seriously penalized, if indeed so disparaging a term may be used in connection with so laudable an intention as the effort to provide all children with an adequate amount of school experience. Possibly the State is more obligated to provide more adequately for a varied population for a relatively limited time than to make mediocre provision for a more extended period.

These preliminary considerations raise three questions: (1) Is your State admitting children to first grade at an unjustifiably young age? (2) Is it retaining at least some of them for an unprofitably long period? (3) What measures are being taken to make sure that each child is spending his entire time in a profitable manner?

Enumeration of mental defectives in rural communities.-Five States-Connecticut, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, and Wyomingreply in whole or in part to question 2. The situation in Connecticut is discussed elsewhere in this paper. Information included in replies from Maine, Idaho, Massachusetts, and Wyoming follows:

In the towns and cities of Maine the State cooperates financially with those which will segregate the subnormal children, and give them differential courses. The best illustrations of this type of work are found in Augusta, Brunswick, and Bath.

Idaho has 347 mentally defective children attending public schools, Massachusetts, 6,285; Wyoming, 618. In Idaho. 179 such children.

are cared for in their homes. In Idaho, 454; in Massachusetts, 3,856; and in Wyoming, 179 mentally defective children are cared for in institutions. The annual school census was used in Idaho and State records in Massachusetts for securing the above information. The incomplete nature of the foregoing returns provides slight basis for a definite statement. It seems safe to assume, however, that the proportion of mentally retarded in rural communities will not vary greatly from the number in the population in general. Hence one may expect about 2 per cent to be feeble-minded, about 3 per cent to fall below 76 I. Q., and about 10 per cent to be below 85 I. Q. All of these and even more will encounter some difficulty in doing the work outlined in the usual curriculum.

Individual mental examinations.-Eleven States make some provision for individual mental examinations through specialists employed by such agencies as State boards of education, State clinics, State welfare departments, and State schools for the feeble-minded. Among these States are Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.

Seven States furnish information concerning the qualifications of persons making mental examinations. The terms generally used are psychologist, psychiatrist, or specialist.

It would appear that some of the States making provision for mental-testing service have not formulated the necessary qualifications of the persons undertaking the task of mental testing. The person who undertakes mental examinations of school children should be thoroughly conversant with elementary school procedure to the end that intelligent, workable recommendations may be made. Too often the examiner is content with a rather superficial acquaintance with the technique of the examination accompanied by little knowledge of children, and none of schools. While there may be a field for examiners of this type, that field most assuredly is not the public school.

Provisions for meeting the special educational needs of mentally defective children.-Replies to the fourth question:1

Connecticut.-Legal creation of division of special education and standards in the State board of education.

Delaware.-Provision of the colony and educational activities. These are dependent upon superintendent and board of trustees.

Maine. We have a school for feeble-minded at West Pownal, but it does not seem to be large enough to take care of all the children who should be sent there.

1 Miss Keator evidently did not intend to include in the list of States making provisions for the education of mentally defective children the name of any State providing only for their institutional care. In two cases the wording of the reply apparently indicates that this limitation was not kept in mind by those responding to the question.