THK TECHXICAL RE-EDUCATIOX OF MEN MUTIT.ATED IN THi: WAR 



The Departmental School of Bourges has re-educated nineteen mutilated 

 or wounded men and is now re-educating twelve such. 



The " Maison du Soldat " (Soldier's House) in the 13th arrondissement in 

 Paris has re-educated sixty-four mutilated men and is now re-educating 

 sixteen such. 



§ 4. Teaching methods in the schools op agricultural re-education. 



Most of the mutilated men who come to the schools of agricultural re- 

 education have received onh' elementary primary instruction. To reach the 

 best results as practically as possible the master gives intmtive teaching 

 by means of object lessons. He always makes an appeal to the pupil's 

 judgment and spontaneity ; he proceeds from the known to the unknown, 

 from the concrete to the abstract, frcm the easy to the difficult ; he pro- 

 \'okes thought in the pupil ; he helps him with a series of easily answered 

 questions ; he places him on the right path, leaving him the pleasure and 

 profit of individual initiative. A lesson is almost alwa3's a dialogue between 

 the pupils and the teacher who interrupts his remarks as often as circumstan- 

 ces seem to him to make questions necessary. A lesson is merely an explana- 

 tion of practice. All the teaching is practical ; but no agricultural opera- 

 tion is accomplished unless the pupil have understood the why and the how 

 thereof. 



§ 5. Measures necessary to the success of agricultural re-education. 



One point cannot be over-emphasized. The true way to succeed is 

 to recruit, as soon as their condition permits, only mutilated and wounded 

 men who will be discharged, and to conduct together the re-education in 

 physical functions and in technique For this it is necessy to connect the 

 schools of agriculture with the medical centres. Investigations have shown 

 that it is unwise to re-educate in one establishment discharged invalids 

 and mutilated or wounded men w'ho will be discharged but are still subject 

 to military discipline. 



A knowledge of the advantages of re-education should be dissemin- 

 ated, for the men concerned are always too suspicious of it until they have 

 experienced its benefits. It is intended to do propaganda work by means of 

 an organization which will be represented in all the hospitals and will be 

 called the League jor the Return to the Land. Lectures and cinematographic 

 films will be very useful in teaching through hearing and sight how much 

 is already being accomplished and how well the efforts for re-education have 

 been founded. A special pamphlet has been prepared for the wounded in the 



