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Primary Education (1959) (page numbers in brackets) Notes on the text
Part 1 Historical
Part 2 The Primary Schools
Part 3 The Fields of Learning
Part 4 The Special Problems of Wales
Index (331-334) |
Primary Education (1959)
Suggestions for the consideration of teachers and others concerned with the work of primary schools London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1959
[page 106] In the preceding chapters the variety which exists among the children at every stage in their development has been emphasised repeatedly, and it has been assumed that in the nursery, infant and junior schools the staff take it for granted that they have to provide for the educational needs of children whose previous experiences have been different, and not all equally beneficial to them. Besides the able, there are also the slow; besides those who have had the inestimable advantages of health, there are the weakly whose attendance has often been affected by illness; and in addition to the children whose homes contribute at least as much as the school to their progress there are those where home and school seem to be in conflict. All these have a place in the ordinary daily work of teacher and class, and are accepted, and - so far as may be - provided for appropriately in the ordinary schools. There are however certain children - fortunately few in number - who for physical reasons present such additional educational problems that they cannot properly be left to the unaided efforts of teachers without special skill, working in the conditions of ordinary classes and with responsibility for the interests of large groups of other children. Children who are deaf, for instance, and have not learned to speak because they have not heard, must have the attention of teachers specially trained to develop their speech and language and make use, if it be possible, of any residual hearing they may possess. The blind should attend schools for the blind, where special methods of teaching reading are in use, and where they will learn to live in an environment where they are not exceptional. Special arrangements must be made for educating children who are seriously crippled or who are not mobile, children in hospitals, or confined to their homes, or in need of recuperation in specially healthy surroundings. [page 107] There are also those children whose talents are so few or whose mental make-up is so disturbed that they do not behave in the ordinary classes in the ways usually expected of others of their age - who do not show the active and enquiring minds one expects of young children, who seem solitary and disheartened, lacking in creative urge, often backward in speaking and immature in outlook. There are also children who require special help because they have been severely deprived in their upbringing. If these do not respond to even a generous share of the teacher's attention it is clear that something more must be done for them. The unrestrained usually yield in time to the social influence of school, but there are some whose behaviour makes it either difficult to retain them among others, or imperative that they have skilled treatment in their own interests. For these and other children suffering from some kind of disability interfering with their education and upbringing, diverse arrangements are made in most parts of the country. All these arrangements are grouped under the name of Special Educational Treatment. This somewhat cumbrous title indicates that more is at stake than an alternative type of education apparently different in some ways from the practice of the schools described in earlier pages: diagnosis of the trouble is always needed, treatment of a physical condition by medical means may be involved, psychological investigation or attendance at a clinic may be desirable. Hence the word 'treatment' is appropriate - but the treatment is in the interests of the child's education, and contributes to his educational development. Investigation and treatment cannot, of course, be ordered on his own authority by the teacher in the primary school, but it is often as a result of his observation of his children such a need is revealed. It is for the Head of the primary school to call on the resources of his local education authority on behalf of any child for whom he wants help. Usually, the next step will be taken by the school medical officer, who not only arranges for the appropriate examinations to be carried out in order that advice may be given, but also knows the resources of other schools to which a child might be admitted if necessary. The great majority of children who suffer from handicaps can and do remain in their own schools as a result of discussions with the school medical officer, and have treatment and educa- [page 108] tion of an appropriate kind while they do so.* The intention is to help the school to improve its methods of educating the child, not to take away any of its responsibility. Occasionally teachers seem to think that a request for help will be interpreted as a desire to have a child moved from their school, and consequently they do not put children forward for examination or advice. This is due to a misconception: special education may take place while the child remains in their hands, and in no case will the advice be given to remove a child if he can receive a sound education in the school where he is. There are however a very few children, about one per cent in all, for whom education in some kind of specialised school is best: a day special school near their homes; a boarding school if there is no nearby day school or if it is recommended because the child will gain by being a boarder; or an institution such as a hospital where the child has teaching while receiving medical treatment. These special schools are provided for children who are blind, partially sighted, deaf, partially deaf, epileptic, physically handicapped or delicate, or who are educationally subnormal or psychologically maladjusted, or who have speech defects; but it must not be imagined that all children who can be described by these terms must necessarily go to a special school. An educational decision on what is best in the child's interest must be made in every case. These decisions are not always easy to make, and the ideal solution to the problems raised is not always possible. Often indeed the only thing to do is to choose the best of several courses open, no one of which is ideal. What should always be possible is to arrange that all the different courses are known to those who have to decide, and that they take into account the views of those who know the child well. The reasons for whatever course of action is decided upon should be explained to the child's teachers. Decisions are not made once and for all; circumstances may change and bring back to his former primary school a child who required a period only at a special school. This is tending to happen more than formerly, and imposes on the teachers in primary schools the task, sometimes a difficult one, of easing the transition from a school which has been specially organised for the child's particular needs to one which is a larger and more heterogeneous community in which he may seem one of the less able. *See Chapter V, p70 - Handicapped children. [page 109] In special schools the needs of children with a particular handicap are paramount in the thoughts of the staff. The children are no longer the odd exceptions in a class with the usual range of ability and temperament, and all the arrangements can be based on their special requirements. For severely handicapped children this is so important that it outweighs the inconvenience of sending them to schools further removed from their homes. It is a mistake - though a natural one - to think that the different methods of teaching are the distinguishing feature of the special schools, e.g. Braille for the blind, or lip reading for the deaf, or special types of furniture or apparatus for the physically handicapped. These are of course obvious; but in some of the schools there is little in the ways of teaching that seems different, and the basic educational principles are shared by all. The essential characteristic of a special school is that it is an educational community in which it is normal to be handicapped; in which children can grow and develop freely without feeling that they are different from the others in the class, and where the teachers can feel it is part of their professional competence to know all there is to be known of the general needs of these children both for learning during school days and for preparation for the normal adult life afterwards. In recent times there has been a tendency to explore the possibility and potential advantages of forming classes within certain ordinary primary schools for some of the children whose disability is not of the severest and for whom the need for specialised teaching may not preclude their mixing in a normal school community. In well chosen instances this may give some of the advantages of the special school without removing the child from continuing contact with others who are not handicapped. The great majority of these classes are for dull, backward and retarded children, but others have been formed for maladjusted, partially sighted and partially deaf children. The teachers are often specially chosen, and more and more frequently have had some kind of additional training. Such classes may be full-time or part-time, the children may be drawn from one school or from the whole of a district, and their period of attendance may be long or short. The problems of ensuring that the children in these classes really take part in the life of the school which they attend warrant the most sympathetic and informed consideration of the whole staff of the school as well as [page 110] of the specialist teachers. The prime difficulties are those of securing continuity and a balance between the claims of his special handicap and the child's general educational needs. Special educational treatment, whether provided in an ordinary or a special school, or elsewhere, is intended to help handicapped children to receive a full, stimulating and well-balanced education. It would not achieve this purpose if it dealt only with the particular disabilities that are affecting them. The difficulties of achieving this end are many, but there can be no doubt that only from an education which calls all their powers of body and mind into play can these children derive the greatest and most lasting benefit. They need, perhaps, even more than their more fortunate fellows, the benefits of as liberal an education as they can take. 
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