48 



Indiana University Studies 



ing the extra trips home, and of assurmg each child of at 

 least one nourishing meal during the day. As a part of the 

 school equipment, ground floors only are used or elevators pro- 

 vided, and adjustable desks and seats are arranged so that 

 everj^ possible comfort can be secured for the variously de- 

 formed children. Shorter hours to meet the subnormal physi- 

 cal strength of the children are prescribed ; and individual at- 

 tention is given in order to give each different child an evi- 

 dence of personal interest in his development and progress. 

 Every city and town should offer the facilities of a special 

 school or at least special ground floor rooms with the necessary 

 equipment for crippled children. It has been estimated ap- 

 proximately that such schools incur an expense of $50 annually 

 per child. For rural cases, institutions such as the Massachu- 

 setts Hospital School where both physical and mental care can 

 be provided are recommended. Of the 37 institutions men- 

 tioned in the Russell Sage Foundation Survey, 29 maintained 

 a school department ; and of these 29, only 7 departments were 

 supplied with teachers by the local public school board. For 

 city cases, wherever a child can be given the necessary atten- 

 tion at home and receive adequate medical care at a dis- 

 pensary, the special day school system is preferable to the in- 

 stitutional. 



The importance of vocational training is a part of educa- 

 tion, tho it is also closely associated with the employment 

 question which will be discussed in the next chapter. Early 

 vocational training can be given in the schools as part of the 

 curriculum. For girls, sewing, weaving, pottery, etc., are the 

 commonest occupations taught in the schools ; whereas the 

 boys are taught various kinds of manual training, bookkeep- 

 ing, etc., according to their respective capacities. Since crip- 

 pled children have to struggle against a disadvantage all the 

 way thru life, they are never too young to begin to learn 

 some specialized work in which practice wifl enable them to 

 become experts. Tho it is not right or fair that the academic 

 education of these handicapped children should be abbreviated 

 or neglected, yet part-time vocational training can be given 

 them and after a public school education has been completed 

 an intensive course in industrial training should be required 

 before graduation, in order that each child may start out ade- 

 quately equipped to be self-supporting. 



