The Physical and Mental Examination of Public School Pupils in Chicago
TIIE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. :Author: Dr D. P. MacMillan, Director of the Department of Child Study and Pedagogic Investigation of the Chicago School Board. Charities and The Commons, Vol. XYII, No. 12, Decem? her 22, 190G.
The department of child study and pedagogic investigation of the Chicago hoard of education was established September 6, 1S99, as a result of the efforts of Dr Wallace Scott Christopher. The objects and functions of the department as set down at that time were: (1) Research work comprising (a) collecting anthropometric and psychophysical data for the purpose of establishing norms and for determining such relationships as may be of service in pedagogy, and (6) applying accurate scientific methods to specific pedagogical problems, practical methods of teaching, and the determination of the pedagogical value of various studies; (2) The examination of individual pupils with a view to advising as to their pedagogical management; (3) Instruction to teachers in child study and psychology.
These two lines of work, the scientific and the practical, have been developed side by side. The first undertaking was an attempt to secure norms of physical growth. Records of height, standing and sitting, weight, endurance, strength, lung capacity, voluntary motor control, visual and auditory acuity, were taken of large numbers of children of each age between six and eighteen years, and the rate of annual and semi-annual increase noted. The next task attempted was a correlation of these results with mental efficiency. The difficulties encountered showed that it would first be necessary to secure satisfactory mental norms. The school standing by grades was found to be an inaccurate index of mentality, as was also the teacher’s estimate of the child’s mental efficiency. The department finally attempted to obtain by original investigation more accurate determination of the mental status at different stages of development. It secured data “on a few reliable and representative mental functions, such as perception, memory, association, attention, imagination, and judgment, on relatively small groups of children. These have proven perfectly reliable for its practical purposes and problems, and are being gradually extended and verified… . With a scientifically determined and properly adjusted code of physical and mental norms secured from thousands of children, experience has shown that the examiner can safely measure by comparative position any child who is under observation, and outline the probabilities of his attaining the growth and power which the strands of his inheritance make possible.”
The attempt has never before been made to establish such mental norms. Their publication, together with a statement of tho methods employed in securing them, would be of great interest to all engaged in active work with children and would constitute an important contribution to genetic psychology. Among the practical problems which Dr MacMillan has made the subject of investigation are, the size of desks adapted for use in tho various grades; the determination of the periods in the school day, when the pupils are best able to do exhausting work; the amount of visual constructive imagination possessed by pupils of the higher grades; the spelling ability of school children, and the best methods of developing it; the comparative value of oral and silent reading in children in the early grades as a means of gaining information; and the general problem of writing.
The department also examines great numbers of children who are ranked as backward and subnormal, or who have special sensory defects, recommending medical or pedagogical treatment to the parents or teachers. Every truant and incorrigible child at the parental school is given a psycho-physical examination shortly after entrance, and another before he is parolled. The work has also been extended to include many of the children of the juvenile court, numbers of whom are sent to t.bo. department for a statement of their mental nud physical status.
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