Tag: GRO0245

Waste of Child Life: Mr. A. D. Steel-Maitland on Guiding the Young: the Birmingham Scheme: An earnest appeal for support on behalf of the local scheme for the aftercare of school children was made by Mr. A. D. Steel-Maitland, M.P., at the annual meeting of the Birmingham Diocesan Members’ Union held at the Queen’s College, Birmingham, yesterday afternoon. Mrs. Howard Lloyd presided. … … Mrs. Hume Pinsent, in the course of an address on “The aftercare of feeble-minded children,” described the good work, which had been done by the After-Care Committee in Birmingham during its ten years’ existence. She mentioned incidentally that a report concerning the crippled children of Birmingham was on the eve of publication and added that the investigation would be found to point most strongly to the establishment of workshops on the same lines as the Blind Institutions … (continues) … Mrs. Pinsent expressed the opinion that the schemes for the after-care of defectives and school children would eventually merge into one organisation having one definite object – the care of the whole of the children of the city …

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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.

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GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949

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.

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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.

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GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949

IMPORTANT SCHEME FOR BIRMINGHAM: Mrs. Hume Pinsent, the chairman of the Special Schools Committee of the Birmingham Education Committee, foreshadowed an important scheme for Birmingham district for the treatment of epileptic children. The Monyhull Hall Colony at King’s Heath was, she said, a modern colony for the treatment of the feeble-minded and sane epileptics. The joint committee of the three unions of Birmingham, King’s Norton, and Aston, who were responsible for the conception and management of that colony, were proposing now to establish schools for epileptic children in the immediate future. The Education Committee proposed to ask the Guardians, when they were building these schools. Land which was already in their possession was sufficient accommodation not only for the epileptics for whom they were responsible, but those for whom the Education Committee were responsible. A complete scheme would be submitted later to the Education Committee. Preliminary negotiations had been carried on. The Special School Committee felt that the Guardians would display the same care and wisdom it had been shown in the building and management of the adult colony. The small homes they were intending to build would afford full facilities for careful classification. They would be erected a safe distance from the parent colony. The schools would be certified by, and under the inspection of, the Board Education. The Sub-committee asked for approval for the general idea, which is a step towards the unification and complete organisation of the work done for mentally defective children in Birmingham. In the city elementary schools 129 children had been classified as actually suffering from epilepsy. In addition, 15 children were being maintained by the committee in residential schools for epileptics in different parts of the country. The new scheme had relation to those needing institutional care and treatment; Alderman Sayer, as chairman of the Joint Committee which has the management of the Monyhull Hall Colony, seconded a resolution approving the general principles testified the marked improvement affected the mental condition of the children. Miss Burrows said she did not like the idea of handing over children for educational purposes to boards of guardians. It was a new principle associating them with the workhouse regime, and she moved that the clause relating to the provision of residential quarters be deleted from the resolution. She thought consideration should be postponed. Mr. Coley seconded. The Mayor said the Monyhull Colony was not a workhouse in any sense. The Chairman pointed out that the Education Committee was already paying for maintenance of a number of epileptics in several institutions. The committee was not committing itself to any filial scheme. Councillor Lord thought it would be preferable for the Education Committee to build a school of its own and then receive, if need be, children from the workhouses. He did not like placing their children under a workhouse system. Mrs. Pinsent, in reply, said purely residential educational institutions were unsatisfactory because the children left at 16 years of age. At MonyhuJl, however, they would be drafted into the seniors’ colony. Thus 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 objection. 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. The scheme was approved.

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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.

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GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949

Town Hall: March 3 – Annual Meeting of the C.O.S. at the Town Hall, at 3. Mrs. Hume Pinsent, a member of the royal Commission on the Poor Law, will speak upon “the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded.”

[see also other dates]

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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.

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GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949

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.

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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.

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Referenced

GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949