Page:Labour and childhood.djvu/76

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LABOUR AND CHILDHOOD

normal if they liked, and that all teachers could force them into the ranks of the majority.

To begin with, let us take the children who certainly might become normal, and are not—those who cannot keep up with the others for causes that might be got rid of. They form a large group. From 15 to 20 per cent of all perhaps, are dull simply through illness or bad conditions of life. A great many of these have a stupid look, and pay no attention to any lesson. A great many suffer from adenoids, and some are dull and backward because they are ill, or in a chronic state of discomfort, strain, or depression because of bad feeding, bad air, want of sleep, and the burden of a life passed under difficult conditions.

In some German cities, such as Mannheim, this section of all the child population is provided for. Intermediate schools are opened for them—schools which are really health centres. There baths are provided, and excellent ventilation. The class rooms are sunny, the classes small. The education of the senses and the motor cortex is carried on vigorously, and deliberate efforts are made to awaken the higher centres of the brain. And this experiment is very successful. Spurious defects soon yield to it. The causes being removed, the effect ceases. In a