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In December 1901, there had been a meeting in Newark, N. J. Its purpose was child study. Among those who attended were Prof. Earl Barnes of Philadelphia, H. H. Goddard of the Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State Normal School, Westchester, and E. R. Johnstone, Superintendent of The Training School. These three returned together by train to Philadelphia. As Goddard said later, "On that train was born another of Johnstone's big ideas, the Feeble-minded Club." The following March that idea germinated. The nucleus of 'The Feeble-minded Club' was formed with six charter members. They spent the day seeing the children and just talking.

It was called 'The Gang' when it started. Later, it was renamed 'The Feeble-minded Club.' Somebody always laughed when that name was mentioned but the members were 'good sports' and joined in. Then, when it was about five years old, it was christened again and finally. This time they called it a staff, presumably because a staff is good to lean on and helps the blind feel their way. They prefixed staff with paidological and a lot of folks hunted up a dictionary. They were surprised to learn that the word had nothing to do with money.

The idea, born of that chance meeting on the train, was for a few selected souls to get together twice a year to discuss, quite informally, the training and education of children. Earl Barnes has been its inspiring head from the first. The reason for all of its meetings being held at The Village of Happiness is found in the closing words of an address by Prof. Barnes on Annual Day in 1903: "To me Vineland is a human laboratory and a garden where unfortunate children are to be cared for, protected and loved while they unconsciously whisper to us syllable by syllable the secrets of the soul's growth. It may very well be that the most ignorant shall teach us most."

The Training School had two of the three necessary elements of a real laboratory, -- materials, and experience in the assortment and handling of them. It was this experience, built up out of daily contact with this material and its human reactions, which was to prepare the way for the Research Laboratory of the future. 'The Gang' of 1902 was the first step.

As one looks back on the developments of The Training School from the five or six children gathered in the private home of S. Olin Garrison in 1887 to the present Village of Happiness one can but wonder if things just happened. Association with those events has brought to more than one mind the conviction that there has been a Divine interest in having them happen right.

If there was a laboratory in the Village in 1902 it was visible to few outside 'The Gang.' There was no laboratory building; no scientific equipment of specialized apparatus and brains. The material, two hundred or so boys and girls, was being cared for in a dozen or more buildings, including a schoolhouse in which it was gathered daily for instruction and training. The methods were those developed by its own experience and that of others in the handling of similar material. The embryo of the research laboratory existed only in the vision of the Superintendent, E. R. Johnstone. Its development began with the organization of 'The Gang.'

Prof. Johnstone was an educator. He had taught school. He attended meetings of the state and national educational associations. If there was anything new to be learned at such meetings that might be of benefit to the children of The Training School he wanted to know it. So he went to get but gave more than he received.

The public schools were becoming conscious of their own incapacity to deal with subnormal and misunderstood children. Some of them were beginning to set these children apart in special classes only to realize that the essential need, specially trained teachers, had not been met. The Training School had such teachers, selected and trained by the School to meet its own needs. Vineland experience reached these educational gatherings through its Superintendent. So it was that he gave more than he realized.

The first Summer School for Teachers was held in 1904. This initial experiment demonstrated its value, met an hitherto unrecognized need. Immediately the expedition of The Training School began to augment its material for an "Educational Staff."

Then, in 1906, the expedition found Goddard wandering about in the wilderness, not lost but rather prospecting. He liked its looks and joined it. He was destined to furnish the core of the "Research Staff."

The missionary spirit had always been strong at The Training School. Early in 1910 it found expression. Material was at hand and out of it an "Extension Staff" was created.

None of these aids has been discarded. Each has contributed a large part to the success of that expedition organized in 1887 to explore the field of feeble-mindedness, to discover its origin, develop its possibilities, utilize its products, create a sense of responsibility on the part of those more fortunate, and establish a place where these "Children of God" should find understanding and happiness.