Ybor City Tape

Wilson interview

 20

M: So what you're saying is you have had perfectly intelligent

 kids who appear to be retarded because ...

W: Because they don't have any background. They9 i't have any

 schooling And we had some who were

 actually mentally retarded. I put in a sixth grade class

 out there, I had a teacher who was exceptionally good

 kids who were educationally retarded and I guess mentally

 retarded, too, I guess. I gave her eighteen kids that were

 as much in the sixth grade as 3.7 educationally.

 And everyone of them, everyone of them including what we

 called "Crazy Charlie" at least progressed a whole year. And

 some of them made as much as three years' progress.in that

 one year that she had them all day.

M: Now go over this again. In other words you more or less set

 up a special classroom for these kids.

W: Um, huh.

M: During the ...

W: See, this was after we'd done the platoon; we'd done ary with the

 platoon and put in the regular academic school year like every-

 body else. We run the school like everybody else.

M: Did they do away with the platoon system while you were there?

W: Yeah.

M: When would that have been?

W: I don't know. It was around '49 or '50. 'Round '49 or '50.