Marcelle is obliging and polite.
Jeanne blushes on the slightest occasion.
Severity paralyses Ernestine and makes her lose what little wits she possesses.
Camilla smiles whenever anyone speaks to her, and immediately does what she is told.
Louis is very biddable.
Angela does not answer back when her companions tease her, and takes the blame herself.
Eugenie is affectionate and is loved by her companions who make her join in their games. Although she herself is fifteen, it was a child of eight who taught her to read and write.
From all these remarks it appears that the defective is a likeable creature. He is so even in proportion to the degree of his defect. With this thought in mind, we have examined the various descriptions, and have reached this very curious conclusion: The more likeable the child is represented to be, the greater the amount of retardation one may safely attribute to him. Few, indeed, are the exceptions to this rule.
The defective child is praised for his sweetness of disposition. If he does not understand the work which is being done in class, at any rate he does not show his want of comprehension in any noisy manner. Sitting quietly in his place, he allows himself to be forgotten. The lesson can go on just as if he were not present, and usually that is just what happens. It would not be just on this account to accuse of negligence a teacher who has charge of forty to sixty pupils. The sluggishness, both mental and physical, of these children is a negative quality which an overtaxed master is sometimes weak enough to value. When the defective child becomes subject to discipline, we are told, he does not rebel; for he is obedient, respectful, and probably suggestible. Sometimes the teacher may even recognise in him the presence of qualities of a more positive nature. Some defectives are pleased, and even eager, to do little services. They are kind to their companions, affectionate, and grateful for attentions paid to them. As they are usually older than the other children in their class, the teacher often trusts them with little commissions. So far as one can judge of the morality of natures whose intellectual level is so low, the source of the altruistic sentiments appears to be well represented in the defective, but it remains to be considered whether his docility and complaisance may not mislead us as to the true value of his sentiments; for one characteristic of the defective is his tendency to repeat the polite formulæ or moral maxims which have been taught him. He has a surface morality, possibly purely verbal. As a last trait, it may be noted that the defective is influenced by rewards and punishments, but, owing to his defective intelligence, the effect is very fleeting.
Psychological Description of the Ill-Balanced.—This description contrasts curiously with the preceding. In this there is nothing to be surprised at. In school the ill-balanced child is a perpetual nuisance. The teacher has no weakness for this naughty child, who is always disturbing the class and defying his authority.