WORK AMONGST CHILDREN

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1928, Page 4

WORK AMONGST CHILDREN

CLASSES FOR THE BACKWARD PROBLEM OP AFTER EMPLOYMENT. AID OF BUSINESS MEN SOLICITED. For the past four years the Education Department has been conducting special classes in a number of schools throughout the Dominion for the benefit of backward children. The problem of finding them suitable employment in af-ter-life has yet to be solved. The aid of the business men of New Plymouth was sought yesterday by Miss W. A. Valentine, supervisor of these special classes ip New Zealand, in an address at the Rotary Club luncheon. Also present were Miss T. Fowles, who is in charge of a special class at West End School, and the headmaster, Mr. J. Thomas.

Knowing the work Rotary was doing, said Miss Valentine, she was pleased to have the opportunity of enlisting their aid. Rotarians might wonder why they should be interested in one branch of education. But the work in the special classes was different from that in other branches, as it had a direct social significance It was four years since the work was started, and she was convinced that the department could not finalise it alone, nor would the country be justified in spending the money. They were dealing with backward children, and not imbeciles. In the last special classes she had organised she had had to refuse admission to seven imbeciles. These would have to stay at home. Moreover the problem was so large that the Education Department felt it could not tackle it all.' The lot of children where there was no special class was an unhappy one. Her audience would remember in their school days that the 'backward child was the butt of all the jokes in the playground. They could imagine the feelings of these children when others were promoted and they were left in a class of children years younger. It was little wonder then, that leaving school with a feeling of inferiority, they ended up in the prisons. She did not want them to think that aIF the inmates of prisons were the same, but the proportion of subnormal girls there, she had discovered, was far greater than in the community. The girl went out of school, often quite good-looking, with nothing to show outwardly that there was anything wrong. Then at a dance or somewhere she would be told she was the prettiest girl in the room, and that was the finish. Such girls had no ability to adapt themselves into the community.

These children they would take and first try •to’establish in them self-respect by putting them in a special class, where each one received individual attention. What she did well was praised, but for what she did badly she was not admonished. Some of the teachers had more patience than Job “ever caught sight of.” The classes were given a great deal of handwork in useful things. The department deserved every commendation for providing such an adequate supply of material.

It was their aim to find out what each girl was good at, to make use of that one talent, and so fit the child into life. That was where the business men could help. Their trouble was that they did not know enough of commercial and industrial life to know where to look for work for the children who had been trained. THE UNSKILLED LABOURER. There were dozens of occupations, continued Miss Valentine, where unskilled routine labour was required. She believed it was not right to expect intelligent people to do much that was required in a factory. It would lead to trouble and eventual mental breakdown if they were unsatisfied with their employment. It was just the same with the backward child if she was given work which she did not like. With special training it was considered that she could be developed sufficiently to do work when she left school which the normal child was trained for. Miss Valentine appealed for help in trying backward children out and fitting them in the right places.. If this could be done, they would be assets to the community. If not, they would get into trouble because they were so old when special training was begun that they had developed anti-soeial tendencies. It would be interesting to go through a prison and see how many persons were there through unhappiness. Some they had to deal with were odd in many ways, but they always found there was some unhappiness at the back of it. RESULT OF UNHAPPINESS. That aspect of the work was only just coming to the foreground. They had girls in some classes who would break out into shocking behaviour. It was often due to their finding their selfrespect and seeing themselves in clothes they realised were not suitable. They could not expect a boy to be happy in a home with no books, newspapers or with a small backyard. He would go wrong from sheer boredom. They had had some 'help from the community and Rotary Club in Wellington, where the children were given three weeks in camp, said Miss Valentine. Many of them had their first ride in a mo'tor-car when they were taken to the station in ears provided by the Rotary Club. Miss Valentine stressed the fact that when backward children were sent into employment it was quite inadequate that they had been only educated as well as was possible. They needed friends to guide them through life. They could never without help be foremen later in life, as that “shrinking within Themselves” would remain with them. They wanted friends to supervise not only their work, but their leisure hours.

There was no legislation yet, said Miss Valentine, but she thought they should use their influence in establishing some special education for imbeciles. Help could be given by providing a school of their own, as was done in England, and also some institution for those children whose anti-social ways were so developed that they could not be counteracted. It was a crying shame that the only place in New Zealand for them at present was the mental hospital. They should be in an institution where they would 'be kept happy and employed. They had schemes which would take the efforts of the whole community to carry out. In proposing a vote of thanks to Miss Valentine, Rotarian A. L. Moore said she had touched on a very important social and economic problem; economic, because it would touch their own pockets

as ratepayer® if they had to support them. Backward children could be helped by the boys’ work committee, who were at present looking after normal boys. They could be helped by the big brother or sister movement. The department was liberal with its supply of material, but Rotarians could supply incidentals. He assured Miss Valentine' they would do their best in support of the movement.