Devoted to the Science, Art, Philosophy and Literature
of Education
Instruction of Exceptional Children in the
New York City Public Schools
ANDREW W. EDSON, ASSOCIATE CITY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
IN all probability the most striking phase of modern
education is the effort to educate and train children who are a little out of step with the masses. The problems to be worked out in the administration of the public school system in every large city are especially perplexing in New York City, owing to the rapidity of growth of the city, the
congestion of population in certain quarters, and the many nationalities to be educated.
In considering these problems, certain facts have had to be accepted and certain principles of action adopted. Among them are the following: education is the right of every childthe physically and mentally handicapped, the truant and delinquent, as well as the normal child; the state is under obligations to provide an education for all; special efforts should be directed toward making exceptional children happy, selfrespecting, and self-supporting; the cost of education is a productive expenditure of money rather than a charity; and it is economical as well as humanitarian to protect the helpless from want, the irresponsible from ignorance and vice, the family from an unusual burden, and the state from an increase of the helpless and criminal classes.
The main reason for establishing classes in the public