Vineland Training School
Encyclopedia
The Vineland Training School is a non-profit organization in Vineland
, New Jersey
with the mission of educating the developmentally disabled so they can live independently. It has been a leader in research and testing.
The Training School changed its name several times. According to the website of the Vineland Training School, the original official name was "The New Jersey Home for the Education and Care of Feebleminded Children” (1888). This was changed to “The New Jersey Training School” in 1893. In 1911, the name was changed again to “The Training School at Vineland”. In 1965 its name was changed to American Institute for Mental Studies- The Training School Unit, or the "AIMS". Finally in 1988 the name “The Training School at Vineland” was restored. However, the literature also makes reference to the "Vineland Training School for Backward and Feeble-minded Children" and "Vineland Training School for Feeble-Minded Girls and Boys" and other variations.
Author Pearl S. Buck
placed her daughter Carol in the Vineland Training School.
The Psychological Research Laboratory at the Training School was founded in 1906, and was the first research facility devoted to studying mental deficiencies in the US.
Senator Stephen Ayres Garrison unsuccessfully attempted to secure funding for a school for retarded children in New Jersey in 1845. Instead, a facility in Elwyn, Pennsylvania
was funded by the New Jersey State legislature.
Reverend S. Olin Garrison was offered the Scarborough Mansion and 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) to establish a facility for the mentally challenged in Vineland, New Jersey
by philanthropist
B. D. Maxham. On March 1, 1888 the training school officially opened with 55 children. In 1892 Garrison instituted the "cottage plan" in which the residents lived in small bungalows on the grounds.
Some claim that the Vineland Training School became the 3rd facility of its kind in the US. The first was the Walter E. Fernald State School
, established in 1848. The second was the Elwyn Training School, established in 1852. However, there were also several related institutions established in the mid-19th century, such as the Syracuse State School
in 1853 in New York State, the Private Institute for Imbeciles in Harlem, New York in 1856 and the Newark State School in New York in 1878.
In 1900 Garrison died, and he was succeeded by Professor Edward R. Johnstone. Johnstone founded the Psychological Research Laboratory at the Training School in 1906 under Henry H. Goddard
. Binet
's intelligence test was translated from French at the Training School, and standardized by testing 2000 Vineland public school children in the early 20th century under Goddard's direction.
In 1912, Goddard published The Kallikak Family
, A Study in the Hereditary of Feeble-mindedness, a very early study linking mental incapacity and genetics. However, this study has since been widely discredited. At the request of the US government, Goddard studied immigrants arriving at Ellis Island
. Dr. Goddard claimed that 80% of arriving immigrants were feeble-minded. Dr. Goddard also is renowned for having coined the term "moron
".
The Army Intelligence Tests used in World War I
were developed at the Training School.
Goddard resigned in 1918 and was replaced by Stanley Porteus
. Porteus focused on cephalometry
, linking head size to intelligence, and X-ray
studies. Porteus also developed his own nonverbal intelligence test, the Porteus Maze Test
after his experiences administering the Binet tests about 1912 while working as a head teacher at a school for feeble-minded children in Melbourne
, Australia
. When Porteus left for the University of Hawaii
in 1925, he was succeeded by Edgar A. Doll.
Doll directed research in birth injuries, EEG
techniques, and adaptive behavior. Doll published the Vineland Social Maturity Scale in 1935. This was adapted for use by the US Army in World War II
. By the time Doll left in 1945, the Training school had an established international reputation.
Pearl S. Buck
wrote about the Vineland Training School and her daughter's experience in 1950 for the Reader's Digest
and Ladies Home Journal in an article entitled “The Child Who Never Grew". This article drew a lot of attention to the Training School.
The Division of Emotional Disturbance was established at the Training School in 1970.
The Elwyn Institutes of Media, Pennsylvania
took the school over in 1981 to avoid it being closed.
In 1995, the School began to move its residents into community group homes. This transition was completed in 1996, and the School now operates 47 group homes and numerous day and work programs in southern New Jersey for adults with developmental disabilities. In recent years, The Training School has been renamed Elwyn New Jersey, in accordance to the role Elwyn Institutes in Media, PA has with the campus. The current executive director is Jane Detweiler.
, again for the Department of Agriculture.
Vineland, New Jersey
Vineland is a city in Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 60,724...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
with the mission of educating the developmentally disabled so they can live independently. It has been a leader in research and testing.
The Training School changed its name several times. According to the website of the Vineland Training School, the original official name was "The New Jersey Home for the Education and Care of Feebleminded Children” (1888). This was changed to “The New Jersey Training School” in 1893. In 1911, the name was changed again to “The Training School at Vineland”. In 1965 its name was changed to American Institute for Mental Studies- The Training School Unit, or the "AIMS". Finally in 1988 the name “The Training School at Vineland” was restored. However, the literature also makes reference to the "Vineland Training School for Backward and Feeble-minded Children" and "Vineland Training School for Feeble-Minded Girls and Boys" and other variations.
Author Pearl S. Buck
Pearl S. Buck
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu , was an American writer who spent most of her time until 1934 in China. Her novel The Good Earth was the best-selling fiction book in the U.S. in 1931 and 1932, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932...
placed her daughter Carol in the Vineland Training School.
The Psychological Research Laboratory at the Training School was founded in 1906, and was the first research facility devoted to studying mental deficiencies in the US.
History
Cumberland CountyCumberland County, New Jersey
Cumberland County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 Census, the population is 156,898. Its county seat is Bridgeton. Cumberland County is named for Prince William, Duke of Cumberland....
Senator Stephen Ayres Garrison unsuccessfully attempted to secure funding for a school for retarded children in New Jersey in 1845. Instead, a facility in Elwyn, Pennsylvania
Elwyn, Pennsylvania
Elwyn is a town in the Philadelphia-Camden metropolitan area. Elwyn is in Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, USA. Middletown Township had a population of 16,000 in the 2000 census...
was funded by the New Jersey State legislature.
Reverend S. Olin Garrison was offered the Scarborough Mansion and 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) to establish a facility for the mentally challenged in Vineland, New Jersey
Vineland, New Jersey
Vineland is a city in Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 60,724...
by philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
B. D. Maxham. On March 1, 1888 the training school officially opened with 55 children. In 1892 Garrison instituted the "cottage plan" in which the residents lived in small bungalows on the grounds.
Some claim that the Vineland Training School became the 3rd facility of its kind in the US. The first was the Walter E. Fernald State School
Walter E. Fernald State School
The Walter E. Fernald State School, now the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center, located in Waltham, Massachusetts, is the Western hemisphere's oldest publicly funded institution serving people with developmental disabilities. Originally a Victorian sanatorium, it became a "poster child" for...
, established in 1848. The second was the Elwyn Training School, established in 1852. However, there were also several related institutions established in the mid-19th century, such as the Syracuse State School
Syracuse State School
The Syracuse State School was a residential facility in Syracuse, New York for mentally disabled children and adults. Founded in 1851 in Albany, New York as the New York State Asylum for Idiots, acting upon a recommendation contained in the 1846 annual report of the New York State Asylum for...
in 1853 in New York State, the Private Institute for Imbeciles in Harlem, New York in 1856 and the Newark State School in New York in 1878.
In 1900 Garrison died, and he was succeeded by Professor Edward R. Johnstone. Johnstone founded the Psychological Research Laboratory at the Training School in 1906 under Henry H. Goddard
Henry H. Goddard
Henry Herbert Goddard was a prominent American psychologist and eugenicist in the early 20th century...
. Binet
Alfred Binet
Alfred Binet was a French psychologist who was the inventor of the first usable intelligence test, known at that time as the Binet test and today referred to as the IQ test. His principal goal was to identify students who needed special help in coping with the school curriculum...
's intelligence test was translated from French at the Training School, and standardized by testing 2000 Vineland public school children in the early 20th century under Goddard's direction.
In 1912, Goddard published The Kallikak Family
The Kallikak Family
The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness was a 1912 book by the American psychologist and eugenicist Henry H. Goddard. The work was an extended case study of Goddard's for the inheritance of "feeble-mindedness," a general category referring to a variety of mental...
, A Study in the Hereditary of Feeble-mindedness, a very early study linking mental incapacity and genetics. However, this study has since been widely discredited. At the request of the US government, Goddard studied immigrants arriving at Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
. Dr. Goddard claimed that 80% of arriving immigrants were feeble-minded. Dr. Goddard also is renowned for having coined the term "moron
Moron (psychology)
Moron is a term once used in psychology to denote mild mental retardation. The term was closely tied with the American eugenics movement. Once the term became popularized, it fell out of use by the psychological community, as it was used more commonly as an insult than as a psychological...
".
The Army Intelligence Tests used in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
were developed at the Training School.
Goddard resigned in 1918 and was replaced by Stanley Porteus
Stanley Porteus
Prof. Stanley David Porteus was a psychologist, academic and author.Stanley Porteus was born in 1883 at Box Hill, Victoria, Australia, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, where he went to school...
. Porteus focused on cephalometry
Cephalometry
Cephalometry is the measurement of the human head by imaging, traditionally from x-ray films.-Dentistry:Cephalometric analysis is used in dentistry, and especially in orthodontics, to gauge the size and spacial relationships of the teeth, jaws, and cranium...
, linking head size to intelligence, and X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
studies. Porteus also developed his own nonverbal intelligence test, the Porteus Maze Test
Porteus Maze Test
The Porteus Maze Test is a nonverbal test of intelligence developed by University of Hawaii psychology Professor Stanley Porteus . The Maze test consists of a set of paper forms on which the subject is required to trace a path through a drawn maze of varying complexity. There is no time limit for...
after his experiences administering the Binet tests about 1912 while working as a head teacher at a school for feeble-minded children in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. When Porteus left for the University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
in 1925, he was succeeded by Edgar A. Doll.
Doll directed research in birth injuries, EEG
EEG
EEG commonly refers to electroencephalography, a measurement of the electrical activity of the brain.EEG may also refer to:* Emperor Entertainment Group, a Hong Kong-based entertainment company...
techniques, and adaptive behavior. Doll published the Vineland Social Maturity Scale in 1935. This was adapted for use by the US Army in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. By the time Doll left in 1945, the Training school had an established international reputation.
Pearl S. Buck
Pearl S. Buck
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck also known by her Chinese name Sai Zhenzhu , was an American writer who spent most of her time until 1934 in China. Her novel The Good Earth was the best-selling fiction book in the U.S. in 1931 and 1932, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932...
wrote about the Vineland Training School and her daughter's experience in 1950 for the Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
and Ladies Home Journal in an article entitled “The Child Who Never Grew". This article drew a lot of attention to the Training School.
The Division of Emotional Disturbance was established at the Training School in 1970.
The Elwyn Institutes of Media, Pennsylvania
Media, Pennsylvania
The borough of Media is the county seat of Delaware County, Pennsylvania and is located west of Philadelphia. Media was incorporated in 1850 at the same time that it was named the county seat. The population was 5,533 at the 2000 census. Its school district is the Rose Tree Media School District...
took the school over in 1981 to avoid it being closed.
In 1995, the School began to move its residents into community group homes. This transition was completed in 1996, and the School now operates 47 group homes and numerous day and work programs in southern New Jersey for adults with developmental disabilities. In recent years, The Training School has been renamed Elwyn New Jersey, in accordance to the role Elwyn Institutes in Media, PA has with the campus. The current executive director is Jane Detweiler.
Agricultural experiments
The Training School owned a farm, operated by the students. The Training School was often involved with agricultural research in its early years. It researched growing peaches with the New Jersey State Experimental Station in 1905, and growing grapes for the US Department of Agriculture. It created the Vineland International Egg Laying and Breeding Contest in 1916. In 1917 it devoted 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) to the study of 80 different varieties of grapes for the Department of Agriculture. In 1926, the Training School was involved in a study of irrigationIrrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
, again for the Department of Agriculture.
External links
- Vineland Training School Digital History
- http://www.elwyn.org/