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As to the first question of how we may discover the feeble-minded 

 girl in the elementary schools, and indeed in the homes, I have this to 

 offer. It is my belief' that the public schools will have to provide them- 

 selves with psycho-educational clinics for the determination early in the 

 life of the child of any sort of mental deficiency. There should be avail- 

 able to every school in the State such a clinic, for no school of a hun- 

 dred or more children is so fortunate as to lie without those whose mental 

 deficiency may be low enough to be designated as feeble-minded. Recent 

 statistics from the New York City schools. Chicago. New Orleans. Omaha 

 and elsewhere, show that about two per cent, of all the children in the 

 public schools are feeble-minded. It is possible that this is too high a per- 

 centage, but even if only one child in a hundred is feeble-minded it is ex- 

 tremely important that that fact be determined very early in its life. The 

 phycho-educational clinic will perform the important function in a com- 

 munity of determining, not only all stages of mental deficiency, but also 

 all the stages of mental acceleration; and it is extremely important that 

 those individuals whose rank in intelligence is considerably above the 

 average should also be known and the educational needs adapted to them 

 in a suitable manner. Without such scientific aid in the diagnosis of the 

 child early in her life much energy is wasted in trying to train and educate 

 the child who may lie uneducable. Psycho-educational clinics would also 

 serve as a means for determining all grades of mental development in all 

 children and would thus serve as a corrective agency in the proper de- 

 velopment of all children. Teachers are generally unskilled in the matter 

 of mental diagnosis of their pupils. They teach upon the assumption that 

 all children have mental capacity about equal. Upon this assumption many 

 a feeble-minded child has suffered punishment and humiliation for lazi- 

 ness, indifference, lack of zeal, inattention, etc.. when as a matter of fact 

 the child did not possess more than a third or a half of the mental capac- 

 ity to do the task assigned. It is my belief that the State should support 

 enough psycho-educational clinics in different parts of the commonwealth 

 as to be available for the use of all teachers and parents. By this agency 

 the feeble-minded girl would be detected early in her life and would be 

 under close observation for a number of years md could finally be dis- 

 posed of to the best advantage of the public schools, the parents, and the 

 social interests of the State. 



My second point is. "What are the symptoms of f eeble-mindedness ?" 



