This silent 1933 film takes a look at the Chicago school system and the application of educating children with special needs or, as the common term was at that time, handicapped students. The time period during which these improvements were made are worth noting as the Great Depression had hit in 1929 and the Polio epidemic had begun in the early 1900’s extending until 1955, both of which put a massive strain on the public education system. During the 1930s, strikes were erupting in Chicago as funding for the public education system was cut. Despite all of this, the Chicago school system and teachers made rapid and moving innovations in the education of students with special requirements. The film takes a brief look at some of the new classes and innovations from this time period. It opens with the title screen (:08) and takes viewers to one of the oldest schools in Chicago (:27), the William Brown School, located at 1758 Warren Blvd., which had been constructed in 1857 (:31). Within the Brown School, students who were considered partially sighted were taught in 32 sight saving classes (:37). Students are viewed within one of these classrooms as a young girl goes over book work while a boy works with an art piece (:45). One of the female students pushes her desk up against the map in the front of the class in order to see more clearly (1:04). A young African American student is seen directly to her lower left and this is worth noting as desegregation of the public-school system would not begin on a country wide scale until 1952. Large text type books were utilized and these are compared to traditional type text books (1:15). Work for students was prepared so that it would cause them no added eye strain as a teacher writes large and bold lettering across the blackboard (1:33). A teacher shows an African American student how to utilize a type writer (1:50). Blind students are educated on how to read and write Braille as well. Students are seen moving their hands over Braille patterns and working with a Braille Writing typewriter (2:11). They are also taught to use a Braille number slate (2:35). A title card informs viewers that while deaf and hard of hearing children had traditionally been taught through sign language only, here they instilled lip reading and speech classes (2:52). Teachers are seen working with hard of hearing children immediately after (3:08). A nursery school and kindergarten for deaf children follows (3:19). A language and reading class for first grade students includes young students playing with baby chicks in class (4:00). Dr. Frank B Bruner, the progressive Director of Special Schools supervises an audiometer test (4:54). Students within the class use a record player for lessons (4:59). Visual education became vital for the education of the hard of hearing as a teacher sets up a 16mm film projector in the classroom and the students pull the blinds in the classroom down (5:47). One teacher provides a small group of students with close attention to correct any speech defects while using images of subjects such as a baby as the student plucks out the appropriate letters to spell the title of the subject (6:43). Another teacher works with two young boys with a card on the desk reading ‘Correction Exercise Drooling’ (7:26). Anemic children were taught in 78 open window class rooms (7:34) in warm jackets with hoods attached (7:49). The teacher sets thermometers in each of the students’ mouths (8:20). Mid-way through the day, children are seen in the cafeteria enjoying a warm meal (8:32). Daily rest was incorporated into the students’ daily lessons (9:14). The film begins to wrap up with a title card mentioning the special needs students were educated by 834 teachers provided by the Chicago Board of Education (9:28). A baseball game (9:43) is shown just prior to the final credit screen informing viewers it had been created through the courtesy of Bell and Howell Co., the Chicago-based film camera and motion picture projector manufacturing company (10:03).

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