Citation

Beaman FN. Am. J. Sociol. 1931; 37(2): 240-246.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1931, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/215665

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

On the whole, special education has been successfully meeting the academic, vocational, and physical needs of the mentally defective child. The greatest problem, that of training for personality or for effective social participation, has been ignored. An experiment in socializing the defective child was conducted in the public schools of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The essential methods and materials used include: introducing new material containing socializing influences; providing appropriate group activities; using only such academic materials as bear upon the real needs of the children; careful check of academic progress by means of standardized tests. In the adjustment of the personality and of the emotional life of the pupils which resulted, came increased facility in academic skills and increased mental activity. A similar experiment being conducted in the Montefiore Special School in Chicago is in too early a stage to draw conclusions but so far is evidencing much the same results.