This school is largely the result of the efforts of
the Soviet Government. Careful records are kept of the children and
simple test material has been devised to develop in the more backward
children elementary reactions regarding size, shape, form, and color.
The greatest difficulty is the impossibility of securing trained
workers either for the shops or for the special pedagogical problems
of the school. However, an energetic corps of young men and young
women are employed, and they are conscious of the size of their
problem and are already thinking of the difficulties of sending their
students back into industrial life. In many of the activities of the
Soviet Government, as well as in these institutions taken over from
the old regime, I was dismayed at the inefficiency and ignorance of
many of the subordinates. After talking to the leaders and getting
some understanding of their ideals, an American expects to see these
carried over into practice. One is liable to forget that the Russian
people have not greatly changed, and that the same easy-going,
inefficient attitude of decades of the previous regime still exists.
No one knows this obstacle better than the members of the present
regime. They realize that the character of the Russian people is their
greatest obstacle, and change in the Russian conception of Government
service is a slow process.
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