246 DIFFICULTY OF CLASSIFICATION Mental defects and deficiencies are of all degrees, from the boy or girl who is merely more or less backward in development to the profound idiot who manifests scarcely any traits of human intelligence. Satisfactory classification is consequently extremely difficult. The classification adopted in the Michigan school is thus described: We have, “first, the imbeciles of high, middle, and low grades, all of whom are teachable to a greater or less extent. Second, idiots, excitable or apathetic, who lack intelligence to attend to their simplest wants and are not improvable to any marked extent. Between these two groups we find children who have advanced a little mentally, but have soon reached their limits and remain stationary, who are termed idio-imbeciles. The imbecile classes are not only teachable, but may often be made exceedingly useful in occupations which are carefully selected as best adapted to their most fully developed faculties." CHAPTER XIX. SOME GENERAL STATISTICS AND REFERENCES. Some statistics relating to special subjects have been given in previous chapters. A few are added here of a general character to indicate the rate and progress of development. It will be kept in mind that the statistics of the early years are only approximately correct. Reports from school officials during that period were very imperfect, and in many cases no reports were made. The Superintendent was left to rely upon guesses and estimates, and those sometimes varied from year to year. The statistics of recent years are as trustworthy as similar statistics ever are, and, in many cases, much care has evidently been taken to secure correctness. *The apparent decrease in the length of the graded schools, as shown by the report of 1900, has resulted, in part, from the increase in the number of small graded schools. 33,975 52,239 Amount of Educational Trust Funds, June 30, 1901, as given in the Auditor General's report: Primary School 7% Fund... Primary School 5% Fund.. .$4,122,832.63 2. Proceedings of the Territorial Legislative Council. 3. Reports of the Superintendents of Public Instruction. The reports of the first Superintendents were not published in separate volumes, but printed with the proceedings of the Legislature, and consequently are obtained with difficulty. The volume published by Superintendent Shearman in 1852, entitled "System of Public Instruction and Primary School Law of Michigan," contains brief synopses of the early reports, extracts from the messages of the Governors and from the reports of the Regents of the University and from other documents relating to education. It contains, also, much other historical matter relating to education in the Territory and State of Michigan. Among the reports, the first and second of Superintendent Pierce, are of especial historical interest, and also the report 250 REFERENCES AND AUTHORITIES of Superintendent Shearman just referred to. The report for 1880 has a considerable amount of historical, biographical, and statistical matter in addition to the usual annual compilations. 4. The successive editions of School laws. 5. Reports of the various public educational institutions. 6. Proceedings of the State Teachers' Association and other educational organizations. 7. The various documents published, from time to time, by the State educational department. 8. Journal of the Constitutional Convention of 1850. 9. History of Detroit by Silas Farmer. IO. II. 12. Pioneer Collections. The Michigan Journal of Education, 1854-1861. 13. The Michigan School Moderator, 1880, and other educational papers and periodicals. 14. Higher Education in Michigan by Andrew C. McLaughlin. 15. Historical Sketches of Education in Michigan, from State report for 1880. 16. Chart and Key of the Educational System of Michigan, compiled in 1876, by D. C. Jacokes. 17. Michigan and its Resources, 1893. 18. Michigan Semi-Centennial, 1886. 19. History of the Michigan State Normal School, by D. Putnam. 20. bell. Political History of Michigan, by Justice J. V. Camp 21. Michigan, A History of Governments, by Justice T. M. Cooley. 22. The Michigan Legislative Manuals. 23. Reports of United States Commissioner of Education. |