754 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



with some practical work of house, garden, or farm, which forms part 

 of the daily routine, are all that school life can do for him. 



From this preparation he passes to the industrial department, 

 where he receives training in that occupation which the school has 

 indicated for him, becoming in his limited way a useful and con- 

 tented member of a community which should be his life home. As 

 both of these types develop either extreme docility or perversity — the 

 one quiet, gentle, obedient, following any suggestion even of a com- 

 rade's stronger will; the other obstinate, indolent, often brutal and 

 cruel — the necessity for constant guardianship is therefore self- 

 evident. 



When we consider that the training of a high-grade imbecile takes 

 four times the period commonly allotted to a normal child, some idea 

 of the vital energy expended on the training of the lower grades may 

 be found in the following example: 



I find in our museum of educational work a little ball which I 

 am inclined to regard the most valuable thing in the whole collection. 

 The boy who made it was a low-grade imbecile. His hand against every 

 man, he fancied every man's against him. Always under strict cus- 

 todial care, that he might harm neither himself nor others, he would 

 vent his spleen in tearing his clothing. His teacher, a woman of 

 rare patience and devotedness, sat beside him one day, tearing strips 

 of old linen and laying them in order. " See, Willie, let us make 

 some pretty strips and lay them so." His wonder grew apace at see- 

 ing her doing what he had been reproved for doing; at once he re- 

 sponded, and a new bond of sympathy was established between them. 

 She was playing his game — the only one, poor little lad, that he was 

 capable of — and he joined in. 



" Now, we will draw out the pretty threads and lay them in rows." 

 For weeks the boy found quiet pastime in this occupation, and the 

 violent nature grew quieter in proportion. One day the teacher said, 

 " Let us tie these threads together and make a long string." It took 

 him months and months to learn to tie those knots, but meanwhile 

 his attendants were having breathing space. " Now we will wind 

 this into a pretty ball, and I will cover all you make for the boys to 

 play with "; and a new occupation was added to his meager list. 



The next link in this chain of development was a lesson in knit- 

 ting. Again, through months of patient teaching, it was at last ac- 

 complished, and the boy to the day of his death found his life happi- 

 ness in knitting caps for the children, in place of tearing both them 

 and their clothing. You see the teacher was wise enough to utilize the 

 natural activities of the child and divert evil propensities into health- 

 ful channels. Had she brought knitting and bright yarn or anything 

 foreign to him first, it would in truth have been fitting new cloth to 



