Part 2 (1/2)

That the industrially inefficient are often of subnorence has already been deations Of 150 ”hoboes” tested under the direction of the writer by Mr Knollin, at least 15 per cent belonged to the rade of mental deficiency, and ale proportion were found perfectly normal, and a few even decidedly superior in mental ability, but the ratio of h as that holding for the general population Several had as low as 9- or 10-year intelligence, and one had a mental level of 7 years The industrial history of such subjects, as given by themselves, was always about what the mental level would lead us to expect--unskilled work, lack of interest in accoes have been fully paralleled by Mr Glenn Johnson and Professor Eleanor Rowland, of Reed College, who tested 108 uneon Both of these investigators made use of the Stanford revision of the Binet scale, which is especially serviceable in distinguishi+ng the upper-grade defectives from normals

It hardly needs to be eanizations help the feeble- in the social and industrial world, and to produce and rear children after their kind, a doubtful service is rendered A little psychological research would aid the united charities of any city to direct their expenditures into more profitable channels than would otherwise be possible

OTHER USES OF INTELLIGENCE TESTS Another ience tests is in the study of the factors which influence mental developuard the child against influences which affectas these influences have not been sifted, weighed, andbut conjecture on which to base our efforts in this direction

When we search the literature of child hygiene for reliable evidence as to the injurious effects upon mental ability of , reduced sleep, bad ventilation, insufficient exercise, etc, we are met by endless assertion painfully unsupported by dee regarding the mental effects of any of the factors just mentioned When standardized eneral use, such influences will be easy to detect wherever they are really present

Again, thethe inheritance of intelligence; but this is a problem which cannot be attacked at all without so which is the object of study Without the use of scales for ive no better answer as to the essential difference between a genius and a fool than is to be found in legend and fiction

Applying this to school children, it means that without such tests we cannot knohat extent a child's mental performances are determined by environment and to what extent by heredity Is the place of the so-called lower classes in the social and industrial scale the result of their inferior native endowment, or is their apparent inferiority ? Is geniuschildren of the educated classes than anorant and poor? Are the inferior races really inferior, or are they merely unfortunate in their lack of opportunity to learn?

Only intelligence tests can answer these questions and grade the raw material hich education works Without theuish the results of our educational efforts with a given child froinal endowment Such tests would have told us, for example, whether the much-discussed ”wonder children,”

such as the Sidis and Wiener boys and the Stoner girl, owe their precocious intellectual prowess to superior training (as their parents believe) or to superior native ability The supposed effects upon , which are exploited so confidently fro, the Montessorifor the feeble-minded), will have to be checked up by the same kind of scientific ence tests are certain to play an ever-increasing role With the exception of nificant for a child's future as his grade of intelligence Even health itself is likely to have less influence in deterth and swiftness have always had great survival value a since lost their suprele for existence

For us the rule of brawn has been broken, and intelligence has become the decisive factor in success Schools, railroads, factories, and the largest coed by persons who are physically weak or even sickly One who has intelligence constantly th or weakness and adjusts hi those leads which promise most toward the realization of his individual possibilities

All classes of intellects, the weakest as well as the strongest, will profit by the application of their talents to tasks which are consonant with their ability When we have learned the lessons which intelligence tests have to teach, we shall no longer blame mentally defective workmen for their industrial inefficiency, punish weak-minded children because of their inability to learn, or i ence to appreciate the ordinary codes of social conduct

CHAPTER II

SOURCES OF ERROR IN JUDGING INTELLIGENCE

ARE INTELLIGENCE TESTS SUPERFLUOUS? Binet tells us that he often encountered the criticis to soan open door Those who made this criticism believed that the observant teacher or parent is able to ence which is accurate enough ”It is a stupid teacher,”

said one, ”who needs a psychologist to tell her which pupils are not intelligent” Every one who uses intelligence tests meets this attitude fro or discouraging It is only natural that those who are unfay should occasionally question their validity or worth, just as there are ainst typhoid and small pox, operations for appendicitis, etc

There is an additional reason why the applications of psychology have to overcoood deal of conservatism and skepticisically trained or not, acquires in the ordinary experiences of life a certain degree of expertness in the observation and interpretation of mental traits The possession of this little fund of practical working knowledge reater expertness When the astronomer tells us the distance to Jupiter, we accept his statenize that our ordinary experience affords no basis for judgment about such matters But every one acquiresthe coarser differences ae naturally generates a certain amount of resistance to the more refined method of tests

It should be evident, however, that we need enius fro uish an athlete fro of consunosis, one which will differentiate ence Just as in the case of physical illness, we need to know not merely that the patient is sick, but also why he is sick, what organs are involved, what course the illness will run, and what physical work the patient can safely undertake, so in the case of a retarded child, we need to know the exact degree of intellectual deficiency, what mental functions are chiefly concerned in the defect, whether the deficiency is due to innate endowment, to physical illness, or to faults of education, and what lines of mental activity the child will be able to pursue with reasonable hope of success In the diagnosis of a case of eneral symptoms, but instead makes a blood test to determine the exact number of red corpuscles per cubic lobin He has learned that external appearances are often ist who is experienced in the mental examination of school children knows that his own or the teacher's estirave and frequent error

THE NECESSITY OF STANDARDS In the first place, in order to judge an individual's intelligence it is necessary to have in ence This the ordinary parent or teacher does not have In the case of school children, for exae intelligence of the class But the teacher has no e for her class is above, equal to, or below that for children in general Her standard mentary

The same, of course, holds in the case of parents or any one else atteence on the basis of common observation

THE INTELLIGENCE OF retardED CHILDREN USUALLY OVERESTIMATED One of the most comence of the over-age pupil This is because she fails to take account of age differences and estience on the basis of the child's school perforrade where he happens to be located She tends to overlook the fact that quality of school work is no index of intelligence unless age is taken into account The question should be, not, ”Is this child doing his school ell?” but rather, ”In what school grade should a child of this age be able to do satisfactory work?” A high-grade irade rade, provided only they are sufficiently over-age for the grade in question

Our experience in testing children for segregation in special classes has tiht this fallacy of teachers to our attention We have often found one or more feeble-minded children in a class after the teacher had confidently asserted that there was not a single exceptionally dull child present In every case where there has been opportunity to follow the later school progress of such a child the validity of the intelligence test has been fully confirlect of teachers to take the age factor into account when estie child:--