"(3.) Provision for continuous oversight and supervision over
the feeble-minded."

It is clear that if we wish to reduce the number of mentally defective
and socially inadequate individuals we must not only consider measures
for preventing as far as possible the transmission of hereditary defect,
but must also provide for the youth of the country an environment and
training calculated to encourage the development of its best powers.
There is no doubt that unfavourable home conditions and unsuitable
educational methods conspire to keep many children from realizing their
full capabilities. This is especially true of the backward and
feeble-minded. It is, moreover, wasteful and ineffective to force on
children of poor mental receptivity and potentialities an educational
curriculum devised for those of normal mentality, since the subnormal
impede the general progress in an ordinary class, and in it they soon
form a discouraged minority which learns to accept failure
unquestioningly. Untrained to perform the simple work which is within
their power and in the achievement of which they might earn self-respect
and happiness, they feel themselves to be aliens, and may cease to
regard the laws of society in which they have no sense of membership. In
such cases the community which might have benefited from their work had
their potentialities been properly developed is burdened by their
maintenance, and, further, if they are not law-abiding, has also the
expense of segregating them in reformatories and gaols. Hence it is
clearly the duty of the State to adapt the educational curriculum to the
requirements of various groups of children.

The child who has been handicapped by illness and lack of opportunity,
the child who is inherently dull and backward, must be distinguished
from the child with nervous instability or definite mental defect.
Wherever possible, the training suitable for various improvable types of
children should be arranged in connection with the ordinary public
schools. But the curriculum must be modified to suit the need of the
individual and should be directed with the object of making him a useful
member of society. By this means these pupils are not deprived of that
association with their normal fellows which is of such value as a
preparation for their after-life in the community.

For children whose homes are unsuitable or too remote from centres, who
require more continuous supervision, or who te