Part 9 (2/2)

Started again at 8 and is now doing poor work in the second grade. Weakly and nervous. Painfully aware of his inability to learn. During the test keeps saying, ”I tried anyway,” ”It's all I can do if I try my best, ain't it?” etc. Regarded defective by other children. Will probably never be able to do work beyond the fourth or fifth grade and is not likely to develop above the 11-year level, if as high.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 8. DRAWING DESIGNS FROM MEMORY. H. S., AGE 11; MENTAL AGE 8-3]

_I. S. Boy, age 9-6; mental age 7; I Q 75._ German parentage.

Started to school at 6. Now in low second grade and unable to do the work. Health good. Inattentive, mentally slow and inert, easily distracted, speech is monotone. Equally poor in reading, writing, and numbers. I. S. is described as quiet, sullen, indifferent, lazy, and stubborn. Plays little.

Three years later had advanced from low second to low fourth grade, but was as poor as ever in his school work. ”Miscalls the simplest words.” Moral traits unsatisfactory. May reach sixth or seventh grade if he remains in school long enough.

I. S. learned to walk at 2 years and to talk at 3.

The above are cases of such marked deficiency that there could be no disagreement among competent judges in cla.s.sifying them in the group of ”feeble-minded.” All are definitely inst.i.tutional cases. It is a matter of record, however, that one of the cases, H. S., was diagnosed by a physician (without test) as ”backward but not a defective.” and with the added encouragement that ”the backwardness will be outgrown.” Of course the reverse is the case; the deficiency is becoming more and more apparent as the boy approaches the age where more is expected of him.

In at least three of the above cases (S. M., I. S., and I. M.) the teachers had not identified the backwardness as feeble-mindedness. Not far from 2 children out of 100, or 2 out of 1000, in the average public school are as defective as some of those just described. Teachers get so accustomed to seeing a few of them in every group of 200 or 300 pupils that they are likely to regard them as merely dull,--”dreadfully dull,”

of course,--but not defective.

Children like these, for their own good and that of other pupils, should be kept out of the regular cla.s.ses. They will rarely be equal to the work of the fifth grade, however long they attend school. They will make a little progress in a well-managed special cla.s.s, but with the approach of adolescence, at latest, the State should take them into custodial care for its own protection.

BORDER-LINE CASES (USUALLY BETWEEN 70 AND 80 I Q). The border-line cases are those which fall near the boundary generally recognized as such and the higher group usually cla.s.sed as normal but dull. They are the doubtful cases, the ones we are always trying (rarely with success) to restore to normality.

It must be emphasized, however, that this doubtful group is not marked off by definite I Q limits. Some children with I Q as high as 75 or even 80 will have to be cla.s.sified as feeble-minded; some as low as 70 I Q may be so well endowed in other mental traits that they may manage as adults to get along fairly well in a simple environment. The ability to compete with one's fellows in the social and industrial world does not depend upon intelligence alone. Such factors as moral traits, industry, environment to be encountered, personal appearance, and influential relatives are also involved. Two children cla.s.sified above as feeble-minded had an I Q as high as 75. In these cases the emotional, moral, or physical qualities were so defective as to render a normal social life out of the question. This is occasionally true even with an I Q as high as 80. Some of the border-line cases, with even less intelligence, may be so well endowed in other mental traits that they are capable of becoming dependable unskilled laborers, and of supporting a family after a fas.h.i.+on.

_Examples of border-line deficiency_

_S. F. Girl, age 17; mental age 11-6; I Q approximately 72 (disregarding age above 16 years)._ Father intelligent; mother probably high-grade defective. Lives in a good home with aunt, who is a woman of good sense and skillful in her management of the girl. S. F. has attended excellent schools for eleven years and has recently been promoted to the seventh grade. The teacher admits, however, that she cannot do the work of that grade, but says, ”I haven't the heart to let her fail in the sixth grade for the third time.” She studies very hard and says she wants to become a teacher! At the time the test was made she was actually studying her books from two to three hours daily at home. The aunt, who is very intelligent, had never thought of this girl as feeble-minded, and had suffered much concern and humiliation because of her inability to teach her to conduct herself properly toward men and not to appropriate other people's property.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 9. BALL AND FIELD TEST S. F., AGE 17; MENTAL AGE 11-6]

S. F. is ordinarily docile, but is subject to fits of anger and obstinacy. She finally determined to leave her home, threatening to take up with a man unless allowed to work elsewhere. Since then she has been tried out in several families, but after a little while in a place she flies into a rage and leaves. She is a fairly capable houseworker when she tries.

This young woman is feeble-minded and should be cla.s.sed as such.

She is listed here with the border-line cases simply for the reason that she belongs to a group whose mental deficiency is almost never recognized without the aid of a psychological test.

Probably no physician could be found who would diagnose the case, on the basis of a medical examination alone, as one of feeble-mindedness.

_F. H. Boy, age 16-6; mental age 11-5; I Q approximately 72 (disregarding age above 16 years)._ Tested for three successive years without change of more than four points in I Q. Father a laborer, dull, subject to fits of rage, and beats the boy.

Mother not far from border-line. F. H. has always had the best of school advantages and has been promoted to the seventh grade.

Is really about equal to fifth-grade work. Fairly rapid and accurate in number combinations, but cannot solve arithmetical problems which require any reasoning. Reads with reasonable fluency, but with little understanding. Appears exceedingly good-natured, but was once suspended from school for hurling bricks at a fellow pupil. Played a ”joke” on another pupil by fastening a dangerous, sharp-pointed, steel paper-file in the pupil's seat for him to sit down on. He is cruel, stubborn, and plays truant, but is fairly industrious when he gets a job as errand or delivery boy. Discharged once for taking money.

F. H. is generally called ”queer,” but is not ordinarily thought of as feeble-minded. His deficiency is real, however, and it is altogether doubtful whether he will be able to make a living and to keep out of trouble, though he is now (at age 20) employed as messenger boy for the Western Union at $30 per month. This is considerably less than pick-and-shovel men get in the community where he lives. Delinquents and criminals often belong to this level of intelligence.

_W. C. Boy, age 16-8; mental age 12; I Q 75 (disregarding age above 16 years)._ Father a college professor. All the other children in the family of unusually superior intelligence. When tested (four years ago) was trying to do seventh-grade work, but with little success. Wanted to leave school and learn farming, but father insisted on his getting the usual grammar-school and high-school education. Made $25 one summer by raising vegetables on a vacant lot. In the four years since the test was made he has managed to get into high school. Teachers say that in spite of his best efforts he learns next to nothing, and they regard him as hopelessly dull. Is docile, lacks all aggressiveness, looks stupid, and has head circ.u.mference an inch below normal.

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