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Letchworth Village: The Newest State Institution For The Feeble-minded And Epileptic

Creator: Charles S. Little (author)
Date: March 2, 1912
Publication: The Survey
Source: Available at selected libraries

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The second purpose of the institution is to be a school where suitable training will be given to all of school age. By suitable training is meant training that will eventually be of the most benefit in aiding the graduates to self-help, and that will at the same time provide them with mental and manual discipline calculated to increase their enjoyment in their enforced mode of life. It has been abundantly shown in older institutions that the wise teaching of the feeble-minded has been a profitable investment for the state from an economic point of view.

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The training of the lower grades of both feeble-minded and epileptics should consist in a variety of active gymnastic exercises, planned to stimulate their mental processes as well as their physical development. In training defectives there should be a routine of work and play so arranged as to occupy all the hours not needed for sleep. Just what is done is not so important as the life and enthusiasm with which it is done. It must be borne in mind that many will be the rough workers of the institution after they pass the training period.

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The higher grades receive education along the same lines, except that they are trained to be the finished workers for the state. It is essential for this group that, school-room work be prescribed combining a minimum of mental with a maximum of hand work. Live gymnasium classes, military drills, and industrial work in shops devoted to a variety of hand training are also necessary. What is produced is a by-product and is not to be considered the primary object.

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An institution for the feeble-minded should be looked upon as a great school where everyone is teacher and where the personality of the highest as well as the lowest employe should be made most of. The cook, the laundress, and the laborer who come into most intimate relations with these unfortunates have more influence on their lives than those farther removed.

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The third purpose of the institution is coming to be recognized in every well organized plant of this kind. It is the laboratory purpose. When we realize that our institutions are filled with groups of from four to six children from single families which extend back beyond the reach of obtainable histories, we see that scientific study becomes imperative. Just how these studies shall be conducted is beyond the scope of a superintendent to direct. It is to be expected that much experimenting will be done before we find the right way, but only thus can advance be made. It is our purpose, however, to aid and stimulate in every way the workers in this field.

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The fourth purpose can best be understood when we stop to think that this vast amount of energy must be kept by the state and utilized in such a way that its charges shall be happy and society protected. The institution should be a work-shop. The best work-shop for excess energy of this kind is the land. There is no reason why men and women not needed in the routine of an institution should not be busy out-of-doors, raising everything, if possible, that is consumed by this segregated community.

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