TROISIÈME SECTION

— 404 —The Pupils.The work of such a school as this is déterminée! by theâge and character of its pupils. The girls come from the cityand from the country, from homes of drunken parents, fromhomes of dégradation and squalor and vice, from motherlesshomes or from poor homes where the mother must go out towork, from homes of careless, indiffèrent, neglectful parents,from homes of the foreign born who do not know how to meetthe problems of American life, from homes where there hasbeen simply lack of judgment or where heredity and environmenthave defeated good endeavor, or from no home but thestreet. They are ail unknown material and their historiés, formativeinfluences, mental, moral and physical conditions, tempéraments,natures and capacities must ail be learned in orderthat the school may provide for individual needs.The problem, then, for the offïcers, is to know and understandeach girl, to find out what must be given to her andwhat must be taken from her, to destroy the false notions andideas, the wrong habits and tendencies, by teaching, simply,clearly, strongly, continually, by life, by words, by books, bywork, by play, by every look and act, the principles thatcontrol right living, by inculcating such habits of work andgiving such training that she will be in some measure preparedto be self-supporting and to maintain the standard of livingwhich she will gain in the school.Each year some feeble minded girls are committed, whoare of that class which is not easily recognized by thoseunfamiliar with the mentally déficient. Thèse girls are as irresponsableas those whe are plainly idiots, and should be givenpermanent custodial care. It is a waste of energy and of themoney of the State for us to work upon the theory that thèsegirls can be educated so that they can safely live outside of aninstitution. It is they who form a large proportion of our"failures". But the harm is greater to the poor irresponsiblegirl and to the community than to the institution, which failsonly in being unable to provide the capacity to learn.— 405 —We find a disposition on the part of committing magistratesand others to discrédit the conclusions reached by theofficer of this School concerning the mentality of thèse girls.The law provides for their return to the counties from whichthey were committed, when we are satisfied that they arementally incapable of being materially benefited by the disciplineof the school. In our opinion, the rétention of thèsegirls could be only for the purpose of giving them custodialcare; we understand that our funds are allowed for the purposeof educating, not such girls, but those who are mentallycapable of being benefited. For us to keep the déficient is onlyto dublicate, and at greater cost, the work of the custodialasylums which the State has provided for the care of the feebleminded. The rétention of thèse girls is detrimental to thosewho are proper subjects for training here, because the reasonfor leniency in the discipline of the déficient cannot be explainedto them. Each déficient girl prevents at least one intelligentgirl, possibly two, from receiving éducation at the school, forthe déficient cannot be paroled, while the intelligent might be,thus giving place to another.Methods.Oversight.—The first step toward the proper treatment ofa girl is to get her classified according to her character andconduct, and then according to her health, mental characteristics,tempérament, disposition and inclinations, in order to put likenatures into a groupe, for ease of handling and for securingmore spécial considération of each than would be possible witha group of entirely dissimilar natures.For this classification there is needed constant study onthe part of the superintendent and the officers who come incontact with the girls. It is begun by the marshal who goesfor the girl at the time of commitment and is carried on aslong as we have légal guardianship over the girl.To emphasize to the girls the différence between what isworth while and what is not—in behavior and character—thepupils are divided into three grades. Every one on arrivai goes