Care of Epileptic Children: Scheme of City Education Committee: Monyhull Colony: At a meeting of the Birmingham Education Committee yesterday the Special Schools Sub-committee reported that they had had under consideration for some considerable time the question of the education of epileptic children. Inquiries had been made with a view to ascertain the total number of children in the city … … Discussion of adding children to Monyhull Colony … … Scheme Explained: Mrs. Pinsent, in moving the adoption of the report explained the scheme at some length. During the last seven years, she said the committee had attempted time after time to find accommodation for the epileptic cases from Birmingham, at present scattered through the country, feeling that it was rather a hardship upon the parents that their children should be taken long distances away from their homes … … (continues with long discussion including discussion of three classes of epileptic inmates to be housed at Monyhull (“At Monyhull Birmingham had one of the most admirable and best-equipped schools for epileptics; but there was one side which had not been developed there – the children’s department. The Guardians, however, were preparing to establish such a department in the immediate future”) ending with) … … Mrs. Pinsent observed that the committee must not entertain the idea that the plan had been rushed; they had given the subject the most earnest consideration for the last ten years. There was one great reason why their own institutions could not serve the purpose. Purely residential educational institutions were unsatisfactory because the children left at sixteen years of age. Instead of recovery taking place, degeneration set in, and there was permanent care and control after the age of sixteen to be considered. At Monyhull, however, the children could be passed on to the seniors’ colony and the danger of multiplying the trouble would be averted. The Education Committee was dealing with the same class of children as the Boards of Guardians. The “pauper idea” was only a sentimental one, and she spoke of the number of applications that had been received from people in good position who wished to get their children entered at Monyhull. If the committee refused to adopt the scheme, they would be jeopardising one of the finest schemes for defectives that had been brought before the English public.
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