classes. They expect to send a certain number of adults each year to the colony, thus making room for an equal number of young children needing school training. A great many children are removed from Waltham by their parents after they have been trained to a certain extent, but it is found that a large proportion of them apply for readmission after their parents have given them a fair trial. Previous to ten years ago the policy was to dismiss educated children at 18 or 19, but this can no longer be said to be the case, since the trustees have through these experiences learned the real wishes of the public. A small number of those dismissed are more or less self-supporting. There are about twenty who keep in touch with the institution, with the understanding that they are to report personally or by letter at stated times; this is of great value, as strengthening their sense of responsibility and helping them in difficulties.

The superintendent is required to "regulate the diet, regimen, exercises, and employments, and the whole course of the education and training of the pupils." There is no principal of the class work other than he; he is intimately conversant with the pedagogic arrangements of the institution and with the character and attainments of the pupils, and assumes the usual responsibilities of a school princip al. The educational scheme will be described under the following heads:

A. Training of low-grade inmates in the care of the person, the use of the limbs, and social order. Industrial and manual training.

B. Classes for training special sense and voluntary motor power.

C. Kindergartens, two grades.

D. Common school classes, in several grades.

A. Elementary training: Attention may properly be called to the development, which has come about within the past dozen years, of a system of training classes especially designed for the younger and the less intelligent inmates. There may be h all about forty of these classes, some of them taking in more intelligent pupils. These are exclusive of classes for trades, manual training, music, and higher gymnastic work.

The practice of the institution is fully described in a paper," from which a few of the following statements are taken. It originated in an attempt to deal radically with a very trying state of things resulting from the sudden unloading of a hundred old, bad, neglected, custodial cases upon the institution, followed by hundreds more. Feeble, often incapable of walking alone, or feeding or dressing themselves, or speaking intelligibly; untidy, destructive, noisy, and intractable; shrieking, and tearing off their clothes-they made a Bedlam of the wards.

Beginning at the basis the writer has urgently insisted on rectifying the ill bodily conditions of this class by great attention to the preparation of their food, by a liberal supply of food, slowly eaten; abundance of water to drink; extremely thorough bathing; care of the teeth; systematic training in regard to the calls of nature, and changes of soiled linen.

Training of the voluntary muscles is carried out in all possible ways by class work, sports, and hard labor. Physical training is given daily to all not absolutely incapacitated for receiving it-the duller equally with the brighter ones. The love of music and rhythm and the tendency to imitation are made useful in inducing them to march in line and more or less in step with the beat of a drum; beginning with which they are gradually led to run, skip, walk on tiptoe, leap, and maneuver, in imitation of their teacher, and afterwards at the word of command. All appeals to their intelligence must be vigorous and sharp, and must be systematically planned and methodically carried out.

Among the training classes there are some in household occupations, as floor pol

a "Some of the methods employed in the care and training of feeble-minded children of the lower grades," by Walter E. Fernald, M. D. Reprinted from Proceedings of the Association of Officers of Institutions for the Feeble-Minded for 1894.

ishing, faucet burnishing, the scouring of knives; some for dressing and undressing, and other care of the person. Some very dull boys are in classes for darning and sewing, and for sorting rags by their color. All the girls, of all capacities, if fit to receive such instruction, are taught in classes for sewing, darning, laundry work, sweeping and dusting, bed making, dish washing, vegetable paring, hair combing, and dancing. A part of these classes are under regular teachers, but most are in the care of attendants directed by matrons.

Physical efficiency is encouraged in every way. Great pains are taken to give all the inmates daily walks and out-door sport, with the help of their attendants, when it is not storming. All who are able belong to gymnastic classes and attend daily; about one hundred are in military drill, and I can speak in high terms of the mental as well as physical alacrity which is brought about in these exercises. Dancing is taught in classes once a week to the younger children. The games played in the gymnasium during the winter give place in summer to the work of two baseball teams. Competitive athletics form a part of the programme on public occasions, and in these matters the assistant physicians and employees take an active part.

All the physical training is under the direction of a very efficient specialist, a woman. The general attitude of the institution is strongly in favor of the games and amusements common to all children, compared to which special gymnastic exercises, great as is their value for mental and physical development and discipline, are believed to hold a secondary position. At every gymnastic hour at least one-half of the time is devoted to active competitive sports.

It is further held as a leading principle, applicable to all, that the tasks which involve the use of the larger groups of muscles are more valuable than those which teach the manipulation of the fingers. The prevailing status of the feeble-minded is a lack of robustness and resisting power, as is evinced, among other things, by their great liability to consumption; and it is felt that out-door labor goes more directly to the root of their evils than quiet sedentary training in skilled hand labor. The smaller boys, as fast as they are able, are taken out into the field in classes, and learn to pick up stones from the hillside, to dig ditches, and to handle the pick, shovel, and hoe, and do other things in the way of chores and simple manual labor. On the other hand, while manual training is not neglected, a less important place is assigned to embroidery, design, and drawing than is the case in some other institutions, while basket work and carving are not practiced. There is no tailor shop.

There has been continued improvement in the physical condition of the inmates within the last three or four years, and at present (July, 1903) there are but two cases of tubercular phthisis among them.

In industrial and trade training a marked improvement has been made within a few years. The inmates assist in all departments of household labor, and work on the land and for the stock. Weeding gives plenty of employment. The girls make all their own clothing except knit goods, and that of the small boys, and take care of the little children. The boys do the baking, all the repairing of shoes, the painting, the printing for the establishment, and odd jobs at carpentering. All for whom a task can be found which involves useful manual labor are set to work, primarily for their own benefit, and often with an economic result.

The practical effect of the kindergarten and manual-training drill has been very plainly seen in the farming and garden work. Previous to 1893 they never had a boy who could be trusted to plant potatoes, corn, or other seed, but that year a squad of rather small boys whose eyes and fingers had been very thoroughly disciplined in the kindergarten and manual training were detailed to do the planting, and succeeded as well as the most careful man could have done. They did equally well with the hoeing and harvesting.

Other trades than those named are not developed. The energies of nearly 150 men are employed at Templeton in the task of subduing the soil; this represents

considerable labor withdrawn from possible trade shops. As regards the economic value of the inmates' labor, it varies greatly, and is always considered secondary to their personal welfare. "The amount of work the boys at Templeton have done this summer probably exceeds the average amount of work done in the same length of time by any equal number of laborers employed upon a public work." (Report for 1900.) But among the less capable the value of work done must often be less than the wages of the person who superintends their operations.

B. "Training classes" par excellence for training the control of motor power and developing the special senses are of two sorts; there are five or six groups of children under 15 in the care of three women teachers, about 70 in all; and three classes of low-grade boys from 12 to 20 years of age under a man teacher, numbering nearly as many. The principles and methods followed are alike in all these. I shall describe only those for the younger children.

"Awakening classes" would be a good descriptive name. They occupy only an hour or an hour and a half of a child's time each day. Much of the material and methods is borrowed from the kindergarten; in fact, nearly all the material is kindergarten material enlarged and made more graphic and effective. The physical training, so far as it can be assigned to any system, is of the Swedish type, and is arranged and prescribed by the director before mentioned. A class for play follows this class, and in addition they have their daily walks, and are usually in some of the occupation classes above named.

I will venture to try to describe one of the special training classes as I saw it. This one consisted of 16 boys, whose ages ran from 6 to 12 and over, seated in chairs against the wall, leaving quite a free space for the teacher, in front of whom stood a table with colored models of animals. She kept up a volley of questions in a vigorous, rousing voice. "What's this?" "A cow." "Find another." (Boy points to a picture; the other boys shout, "No; that's a calf!" He then points to one on a block.) "What does the cow say? Did you ever see a cow? What do cows do?" "They eat grass." "How do they get the grass?" "They get it with their mouths." (Here the boys get on all fours and with great enthusiasm imitate the act of grazing.) "Why don't they take it with their hands?" (General laughter.) "How many feet have you? How many has a cow? How many hands?” "None." "Show how they chew grass." (They make the motion of chewing.) The teacher then elicits the idea of hay, of milking; that hay makes milk, butter, cheese, beef; that cows have horns, etc. The pig, horse, and cat are gone through similarly, showing their parts, uses, etc.; they sing the finger song "Piggy-wig,” and imitate his grunting, and get down on the very clean waxed floor to show how he puts his nose in the mud. "Would you do that?" "No." They all make the noise of a cat for as long as they choose-say half a minute. One boy wants to pet the cat model.

Next came the story of the "Three Bears," which had already been told repeatedly, with display of pictures and questions. One boy with a good memory then told the story while the teacher showed the pictures and drew out the points by questions.

Next followed a gymnastic drill, not Swedish, consisting in taking the attitudes of sitting, standing, kneeling, tiptoe, and placing the hands on various parts.

Then a wooden chopping block was brought in, and the boys, in relays of four, pounded it with wooden mallets as hard as they could for half a minute to each set. This appeared very gratifying. The room is not in the school building, and no one is annoyed by the noise.

A less advanced class now replaces these boys. There are thirteen, of whom three or four can talk more or less. One at a time inserts a hand in a bag and tells

by feeling what object he has grasped.

Models in thin board of squares, diamonds,

stars, and other forms are placed on the table, and the boys match them with other models which they pick from a box. Three cloths of different colors are spread; the boys place on them blocks of corresponding colors. A hundred sticks of various colors are thrown on the floor with a clatter, and the boys scramble for them.

The first class now returns and plays kindergarten games with singing: The Farmer; The Snail; Fly Away, Birds; Squirrel; Pigeon Song; finger games, etc.

They match forms and colors. They recognize a boy, blindfolded, by the sound of the voice. They guess ten musical instruments, blindfolded, by their sound. A blinded boy pursues the teacher, who sounds a bell. The sense of smell is stimulated by causing each to sniff a bottle of some strong odor (chloroform, pennyroyal). Each receives a taste of vinegar in a spoon; each receives a pinch of salt; they seem to like it. Then three prism-shaped blocks of different colors were laid in the form of a cross or a letter H, and boys imitated it correctly; this seemed the hardest task. So far from objection being made to noise, the teachers seemed to like to get the pupils to making noises; everything that went on was stirring. Great vigor and decision was shown in conducting the gymnastic work. The attitudes of the children in their chairs were not interfered with, however quaint; discipline was maintained unflinchingly, but only one boy had to be punished by leaving the room.

In the above we have examples of some of the ways in which sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell are stimulated and knowledge of common things gained. An important piece of furniture is the Swedish stall bars on which they learn to place their feet in climbing.

A class for play was then formed of twenty-five or thirty of these children, under their regular teachers, in the large day room of a dormitory-a very sunny, airy room. They had a "military drill," consisting in marching in single file to the beat of a drum, in lock step, and holding flags; afterwards they removed their hands from the shoulders in front, clapped hands, did a few Swedish movements, hopped, skipped, marching to music all the time. They next joined in a ring game which teaches them the right and the left foot, then a hiding game to "magic music," and then a vigorous game between sides, with running back and forth to place balls and blocks in position.

In connection with these objects they begin to use numbers; one of the brightest boys could make out that 3+3 = 6. There is a very great difference in the appearance and capacity of these pupils, many being low and repulsive in type, while a few are remarkably attractive in their way. There is no one who does not know what obedience means, and that the teacher is "boss," and the whole fabric of education is thus planted on a right basis at the outset, so that not only the senses and the muscles, but also the attention and the will, are trained by ceaseless appeals.

The fact that the children sit in small, comfortable chairs, without any hindrance to quick rising in the way of desks or kindergarten tables, seems to me worthy of serious attention, for it makes an infinite difference in the freedom of the programme. A class of children, supposed to be a kindergarten class, but seated behind ordinary school desks, may be receiving skillful treatment, but it will be a totally different treatment from what I have described; they will remain a sedentary class. And for these children there are reasons, which need not be enlarged upon, which make protracted sedentary occupations very undesirable. I refer to the sexual stimulation which prolonged sitting favors.

The classes for sense and motor training, as described, receive most of the young persons admitted to the institution, with this exception, that a few, not over 2 or 3 per cent, are too idiotic for these classes. There is a further exception in the fact that a good many are found suited for an immediate trial in the kindergarten classes, and a few can be introduced at once to the book study of higher grades. With these exceptions, the "training classes" may be considered the trial classes for all who

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enter. But few are promoted from them to the kindergarten; the classes of large boys are not so promoted. There is no fixed period; a little one may remain in the class I described for a week or for two years.

There is hardly one in fifty of those admitted who would not be benefited by the stimulus thus applied; and the same stimulant methods, modified to suit conditions, are used in the kindergarten classes.

C and D, kindergarten, primary, and grammar grades, compose what is usually called the school proper, and number about 125 pupils. They are held by 4 teachers in four rooms. The forenoon session is from 9 to 12, with a recess of twenty minutes, during which the children go out of doors in charge of attendants. The afternoon session is from 1 to 3.45, without recess. The half-time system is in use, so that eight classes are held, two of which, under a kindergartner, constitute the two kindergarten grades. The kindergarten classes work at desks as in ordinary schools, but they also use the chairs and tables of that system. The free half of the day for each child is given to sloyd and gymnastics daily, with music, trade classes, etc. The kindergarten classes are for boys and girls together; the higher grades comprise two classes of girls and four of boys.

The children are carefully graded at the beginning of each school year; the general plan of the year's work is then laid out for each class, to be modified later as required. No radical change is made without the superintendent's approval. The work is supervised by him, and teachers are encouraged to use their own discretion in the daily execution of the plan.

The quality of the material composing classes varies greatly from outside causes, and it sometimes happens that a grade can not be made up.

The school work is carried as far and done as thoroughly as is usual in such institutions; but there is a clear perception of the danger of overdoing the academic work. The training of a special talent in school is not looked upon as an aim in itself, the main question being, what education will best fit one for one's real future? Sooner or later a child's book work is replaced by manual, trade, or industrial pursuits. Children may be taken from any grade and placed in manual occupations, and a considerable number are so removed from time to time from the kindergarten.

On entering the lower kindergarten grade or class children know how to count a little, but seldom know words or letters. On leaving the upper class in kindergarten they have been instructed in telling time by the clock, the points of the compass, the seasons, and the calendar. They have learned addition up to 10 or thereabouts, and they are using Cyr's Interstate Primer and First Reader, with sentences like "Mamma gave me a water pot," and spelling words of three letters. They read in general with a natural and pleasing delivery and enunciation. The child spends two, three, possibly even four years in making this progress.

The training of the fingers is made important. Large pegs are fitted into a board full of holes. Models are used to teach how to lace shoes, to form stitches, to weave and darn. Toy weaving frames are used. Kindergarten mats in simple patterns are woven with strips of colored wood or manila paper. Scissor work, pasting, folding, chain making, are done to some extent, but clay modeling and pea work are little ugel.

Number, color, and form are taught by attaching numerous concrete associations to the conception. Lively games of number and color are played with cards marked with colored dots; there are games of going to fetch a required number of blocks; games of ninepins with counting; pegs are used to count; large wooden colored beads are strung in given order; colored balls and cloths are much used. The other kindergarten "gifts" are too small and their lessons are too abstract; they are not much used-chiefly to teach number. Colored papers are matched; colored cloths, blocks, and sticks are compared with each other and with the pictures on the wall. Colored pictures are matched. The solid objects employed are made of large size. Kindergarten games are used, but the want of an assistant somewhat limits them;