Mentally Defective Children: Continuing, Mr. Bird referred in eulogistic terms to the report drawn up by Ald. Betteridge on the Conference of National Special Schools’ Union, copies of which were before that Committee. He thought Ald. Betteridge was entitled to a very hearty vote of thanks for the able report he had drawn up. It was proposed to send the report to the Council, and in his (the speaker’s) opinion it would be wiser for the Council to forward its resolutions to the Board of Education rather than themselves. In the report, Ald. Betteridge says that the most important paper from an administrative point of view was that read by Mrs. Hume C. Pinsent, a member of the Birmingham Education Committee, who has given for many years great care and attention to the problem of the mentally defective child. Mrs. Pinsent was a member of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded. The following, the Alderman adds, is a digest of the views set forth by this lady on the “Result of Special School Education as shown by Evidence and Report of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded”: — “Mrs. Pinsent said the promoters of the Act of 1899 apparently believed that mental defect arose from retarded or arrested development, and that if suitable education and training were provided the minds of the children would gradually develop to a normal or slightly sub-normal level. The curriculum was arranged on that assumption. The regulations involved great additional expense, and a larger grant was given by the Government. But in spite of this amount, it was necessary to obtain from the rates a very much larger slim, often reaching three times what was necessary for a normal child.
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive.
Referenced
GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949