E.—ll

10

have given various lectures to teachers, pointing out the importance of correct posture, and demonstrating the actual occurrence of these various defects in children selected for the purpose. In addition there have been many short refresher courses for teachers during the year conducted by the Physical Instructors (with the co-operation of the Medical Inspectors in the manner already outlined). We believe that further and continuous efforts should be made in these directions if we are to get the real benefit out of the physical system already in vogue in our schools. Mental Defect. One of the difficult problems in education is the classification of children according to their mental capacities. It is becoming recognized that unless much effort is to be misdirected the educational system must be adapted to the requirements of several groups of children, and provision must be made for the special educational treatment of the child who is dull and backward. Children may be divided as follows : — (1.) The child that is mentally normal or above normal. (2.) The dull or backward child. (3.) The feeble-minded child. (4.) The imbecile and idiot child. The child who is backward from accidental circumstances, as ill health in early life, physical defect, bad environment, &c, may be in time brought, up to the normal by attending to his bodily welfare and adapting the school curriculum to his need. He is to be distinguished from the child who has an inherent defect in brain-development, and who, though educable to some extent, remains permanently retarded. Owing to the varying standards of judgment it is difficult to estimate the number of mentally defective children at our primary schools. A census taken in seventeen schools gave an average of 4 per cent, of backward children. Returns for other districts run from 4to 6 per cent. Most of the children included in this result are merely those who are so backward as to be two or three years above the usual class age, and whose limited powers make them a. drag upon the rest of the class. Such children are common in every school. (The estimate of the Medical Officer for the London County Council—lo per cent.) The sole hope that these children have of becoming wage-earners in the future is in their ability to do manual work; yet they of all children at school have the least, facility for training in this direction. Their poor mentality keeps them in the lower standards where technical work is never taught, and where they lack, the necessary stimulus of associating with children of their own age. Older children of defective mentality may constitute a moral danger to the younger members of a class. Institutions are needed for dealing with children who, while far above the imbecile or feebleminded found in the special schools, have so limited a mentality that they cannot progress by the beaten tracks to knowledge. These children require a curriculum with more objective teaching, and motor work at manual exercises. Intellectual training must be preceded by education of special senses and training of voluntary muscles. At any early age much of their training should be directed to handicrafts and simple manual labour which will make the individual self-supporting. This group of dull and backward children might receive education in two ways : — (1.) A special class for backward children might be formed in existing primary schools, the number for each class to be small enough to permit of increased individual attention, and the curriculum offered giving more time to handwork. (2.) A special school for day pupils, with suitably modified curriculum, might be opened in each of the four centres which would receive children too backward for the primary-school education. Children improving under this regime could be returned when fit to the primary school, while children whose low mentality made the discipline and training of a residential school advisable could be drafted on to the special schools for the feeble-minded. It should be stated that a special class of about twenty backward children is being held in the Myers Kindergarten Building in connection with the Normal School at Auckland. The pupils work under open-air conditions and have a hot mid-day meal. Feeble-mindedness dates from birth or an early age, and represents an arrest in the normal development of the brain which deprives its subjects of ordinary powers of control. There are few feeble-minded children at the primary schools, and those are incapable of acquiring education as it is there offered them. The special schools at Richmond and at Otekaike make provision for children of this class. Here instruction is given on definitely practical and manual lines, and effort is made to render the individual self-helpful and self-supporting. Idiots and nearly all imbeciles are incapable of education, but require custodial treatment. After-care of feeble-minded children is a problem which has to be faced. With the exception of the few whose circumstances permit of intelligent supervision at home they are happier and more useful in a special institution. More especially is custodial care advisable for feeble-minded girls, whose low intelligence might cause them to be victimized". As feeble-mindedness is hereditary it is advisable that adults of this type be given no opportunity to transmit their poor mentality. Moreover, as there is an intimate relationship between feeble-mindedness and crime, many of this class have vicious instincts and are potential criminals. Epilepsy. —At some future date it may be possible to make special provision for the education of epileptics. Many epileptics show mental defect. At present some epileptics who are unfit for education at the primary schools are taught at the special schools for feeble-minded, though this must be regarded as a purely temporary arrangement.