Hansford: Mental Defectives in County H., Indiana 139 
of the district. For example, in one end of section A, which 
is for the most part one of the best parts of town, is to be 
found a slum section which is as bad as, or worse than, any 
part of C. The children of this baby slum tend to pull down 
the average of the school to the level of the other ward build- 
ings. 
The problem of the feeble-minded and the retarded child 
is more nearly met in the city than in the country. This is 
true in all parts of the state. In Stonetown, as yet, there has 
been no special training provided for the feeble-minded chil- 
dren. But wherever it is possible, the classes have been sub- 
divided into the bright and dull sections so that the capable 
children may not be held back by the retards, and the latter 
may as a group receive special help which is not needed by 
the average child. 
In the rural schools there can obviously be no such group- 
ing. In some of the schools there is no need for it, for in the 
country school, if it is a good district, the children are more 
likely to be a homogeneous group than are the city children. 
Where the district is not a good one, there is need for a 
teacher specially trained for the teaching of mental defectives 
and backward children. 
The things which stand out prominently in the study of 
the rural schools are: first, the variation in the quality of 
pupil material according to the physical environment; and, 
secondly, a lack of teachers who understand the situation 
and try to meet it. 
It was in the isolated rural schools tucked in among the 
hills and valleys that the largest per cent of feeble-minded 
and retarded children were found. In a rural township it 
was found that 27 per cent of the school children were feeble- 
minded. This is probably a conservative figure, since the test- 
ing was done at a time when many of the children were not in 
school, and it is a well-known fact that the dull children are 
always the first to drop out of school. This fact fits in with 
that of finding the largest number of defectives, including the 
insane and epileptic persons, in the rough, hilly portion of the 
county. It will be remembered that Township 12 had 3.98 
per cent defectives (see Table V), and it is very interesting 
to note that in the schools of this township we find a large 
number of feeble-minded and backward school children. 
