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Training Schools - And CPS

Creator: Stephen L. Angell, Jr. (author)
Date: July 15, 1944
Publication: The Reporter
Source: Available at selected libraries

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No new problem is mental deficiency. Mental deficiency, feeble mindedness has been known in all civilizations; still remains as one of the great causes of pauperism, delinquency, crime. But concern for the care of the feeble minded is relatively new. Real work in the care of these unfortunates begun in the middle of the last century, was accepted as a state problem about the beginning of this.

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First of the CPS units to work in training schools were Mansfield under the Brethren, Vineland under the Mennonites in March, 1943. (Cheltenham, a Friends unit, opened in November 1942, but Cheltenham's boys are delinquents, not necessarily feeble minded.)

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The opening of CPS units in training schools all followed the same general pattern. War industries with higher salaries lured many of the old employees from the tedious, nerve-wracking work in the schools. The draft got a few more. Expansion of buildings stopped and waiting lists grew longer. State training schools were under staffed and over crowded. "There is room for only 400 patients at Washington State Training School in Buckley and there should be 115 employees. Today there are 600 patients and only 99 attendants and that includes the 15 man CPS unit," or "There are 190,000 mental deficients in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Overcrowded Pennhurst School is attempting to care for 2,500 of them; 1,500 more are on the immediate waiting list."

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Trouble was brewing in the institutions. "Riots or near riots had apparently been quite frequent events in the moron delinquency cottages in the District Training School." Helped by a number of war time conditions, delinquency was rising all over the country; and many of the delinquents were feeble minded.

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CPS

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Today there are 244 CPS men working in 14 state training schools, most of them in 15 man units. CPS men are largely attendants, cottage masters. The day attendant in the Delaware State Training School at Stockley comes on duty after breakfast. He puts tooth paste on two dozen toothbrushes and sees that two dozen feeble minded men brush their teeth. He sees that a higher grade 'worker-patient' sweeps the floor, another scrubs the floor, another takes out the ashes. He stands over another as he picks up papers and waters the flowers and at the same times sees that the lower grade patients change their clothes. This goes on all morning. Comes noon, with the aid of the others he gets them washed and to lunch, watches them eat, seeing that they get enough, that they don't steal anyone else's food, don't give their own away."

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"In the afternoon the lowgrades go back to the play yard, the highgrades go back to work. Supper is much the same as lunch. At bed time he sees that everyone is clean, gives more pills to the epileptics, bandages cuts, stops fights and then wears himself out seeing that everyone finally gets to sleep."

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Jobs

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Other assignees teach in the schools in the institutions, do maintenance, farm and clerical work. New Lisbon, N. J., State Colony is perhaps a typical example of CPS jobs in training schools. "Up to 16 (chronological age) the boys attend school and that is where the CPS men come in. Six of the unit have half day teaching assignments -- two in physical education, two in music, one in handicrafts, one on the three R's and woodwork."

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"Most of the older 'boys' (up to 70) work in the farms, in the dining rooms and about the grounds. Eight of the CPS men, too work on the farm. Two other CPS men have jobs conducting psychological tests, other assignees work in the laundry, in the hospital, do recreational and cottage work, and work in the Supervisors office where the duties range from clerical work to hair cutting."

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(It is interesting to notice that almost all of the institutions refer to the patients as "boys" or "children" though in some of the schools such as Rosewood and New Lisbon the chronological age of the patient goes as high as 70. "We speak of the wards as halls or home, too, and the institution as the school," wrote a CPS man from Buckley, "This is just part of the program to make the school seem a home to these unfortunate people.")

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Other jobs CPS men fill: power house attendants, bus and truck drivers, TB ward workers, Bible class teachers, occupational therapists, art teachers, printing teachers, playground builders.

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Wives

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"Being near the industrial centers has its disadvantages, too; many of the former employees have been drained away by better paying war jobs in the vicinity," reported an assignee from the Southern Colony and Training School, Union Grove, Wis. "Because of the acute labor shortage, married CPS men were especially welcome when the Mennonite Central Committee established this unit in November, 1943. Thirteen CPS wives are employed in wards, at the switchboard, in the office and dining rooms." CPS wives are working along with their men in most of the units. In addition to the three CPS wives working at the Exeter School in Lafayette, R. I., two COGs are helping too. (COGs are volunteer Conscientious Objector Girls.)

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