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Thursday, May 19, 2022

Serving the Feeble-Minded in Elizabeth City Schools, May 19, 1922

Many School Children Feeble Minded Here. . . So Says Dr. Harry Crane of the University of North Carolina

That there are 65 to 70 feeble minded children in the Elizabeth City public schools is the opinion of Dr. Harry Crane, an assistant of the State Board of Charities and Public Welfare, who made an address here last Saturday in the High School auditorium, to about 20 members of the local Parent-Teacher league. This same Dr. Crane is a psycho-pathologist of the University of North Carolina. He made an investigation of this city’s school children last December to determine the extent of feeble mindedness and the remedies for it. These children are unable to keep up with their fellow class mates; they are irritated at their failures to make satisfactory progress in their studies; they have less control over their passions, and as a result they disturb their teachers and distract other pupils from their studies.

Dr. Crane declared that it is as much our duty to give these children every opportunity to become useful citizens, as it is to educate their more fortunate fellows, since they have no choice in their condition and are in no wise responsible for it. They should have teachers especially trained for this type of work. In his opinion it would be best to have two class rooms. The first room to be devoted to the feebleminded pupils, as they require different instruction from normal children, for they usually cannot master the formal courses in English, history and mathematics beyond the elementary grades. They require more manual training.

The second room should be devoted to children that are behind in their studies for one reason or another. Usually these are normal pupils that have failed to keep pace with their classmates by reason of absence from school on account of sickness, work, or other factors. With special instruction for a reasonably short time, they can regain the ground lost and graduate with other children of similar age.

Dr. Crane stated that the milk distribution plan in Elizabeth City had created a definite improvement among the undernourished. He urged that it be continued on a broader scale next year.

All children of feeble minded parents are feeble minded, Dr. Crane stated, and if one parent is feeble minded and the other normal the offspring is invariably on the border line. Sterilization of feeble minded parents would be a partial solution, he told the meeting, but it would only be a half way measure for it would not safeguard society against the sexual delinquencies of these people.

From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, May 19, 1922

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