The normal curriculum of primary education, as one can imagine, is therefore not suitable to the mental condition of the majority of defectives. Even by reducing it to its first elements, one would make only a bad fit, for if one were to diminish the abstract portion which is not intended for defectives, one would equally diminish the concrete portion, which, far from being reduced, when defectives are in question, ought to be amplified. It is necessary, therefore, to change the proportions of the different parts of the curriculum, and give the whole a special direction. We shall conclude our observations by remarking that, if we take the workshop in opposition to the class, as the symbol of concrete work opposed to the symbol of verbal work, the workshop ought in the education of defectives to become a more important place of instruction than the class. A slight reservation, however, must be made as to the value of this conclusion. In spite of the existence for a number of years of institutions for the abnormal, we have yet scarcely begun our researches. Everywhere we are up against the same ignorance, and shall be so for a long time to come. Our knowledge of these children is very imperfect. We do not pretend that anything we are about to say is in any way complete. Thus, having set forth a quite general principle relating to concrete, intuitive, sensory education, let us hasten to add that in practice this principle must be applied to children of widely differing temperaments, and that nothing is more complicated than the pedagogy of defectives, if one desires it to be adapted to the numerous ends which it is necessary for it to attain. One will certainly bear in mind that a greater place must be given to intuition than to abstraction; one will bear this in mind in the detail of the education of defectives, as well as in its general direction, but without forgetting the numerous interests which it is necessary to satisfy. There is no question but that there will be admitted into the special schools and classes many children only slightly defective, who are destined to return as soon as possible to the ordinary school; and one would put an obstacle in the way of this return, or even make it impossible, if, from the day the child entered the special class, a totally different direction should be given to his education from that of the ordinary school. This would be both serious and troublesome. The amount of abstract material in the lessons should be diminished simply in proportion to the mental deficiency. There is no reason why the slight cases should not be taught in the special class in accordance with a programme little different from that of the elementary school, except that it gives them the benefit of greater individual attention. Such individual attention is still more necessary in the case of the ill-balanced, of whom we have scarcely spoken in this chapter. It is not their insubordinate spirit which