News and Comments
The Elimination of Pupils from Schools.
To the Editor of The Psychological Clinic:
Dear Sir: Two recent articles in this journal discussing the elimination of pupils from school (Some Factors Affecting Grade Distribution, by L. P. Ayres, and Elimination of Pupils from School, by Dr R. P. Falkner, in Nos. 5 and 9 respectively of Vol. II) should perhaps receive a word of comment from me. They call attention to certain factors which have to be considered in any estimate of the amount of elimination that is made from school age-populations and school grade-populations. All these factors, with the exception of the influence of the method of computing enrolment upon the amount of elimination, were considered by me in my own estimation of elimination, reported in Bulletin No. 4, for 1907, of the U. S. Bureau of Education. And it is my opinion that if Dr Falkner or Mr. Ayres will estimate the elimination in cities of over 25,000 for the year 1900, they will find themselves assigning very closely the same amounts of influence to all these factors that I assigned and getting an estimate not more than 8 per cent lower than mine, perhaps no lower, perhaps G or 8 per cent higher. I published the original data so that anyone could make such an independent estimate and sincerely hope Dr Falkner or Mr. Ayres will do so. Until this is done, it is probably unwise to argue pro and con, as to whether I allowed too little for the greater length of the earlier grades or as to whether they are likely to allow too much therefor. There is however one matter where careless use of language on my part has led to misapprehension which it is my duty to correct. Having corrected the school grade-population data for elimination by death, and for the growth of population of school age, and for the country-city migration as best I could without imposing on any school officers, I had to make the correction for the inequality of the grades in length. I corrected for this by using the figures which in my opinion bore the same ratio to the number of children entering school in one year that the enrolment in the grades from the fourth on bore to the number entering these grades in one year. Such a figure, I find, I carelessly called (on p.4G) “the number of pupils beginning school annually.” I was not aware of this carelessness on my part until I sought for an explanation of Dr Falkner’s apparent injustice to me on pages 2G5-2G9 of his article. I confess that in spite of my careless phrase, it seems to me that what I did was entirely clear. For if I really had thought that, for instance, the number of pupils beginning school in Baltimore in a year was over 11,000, I should, of course, have made a second correction in the opposite direction for the fact that pupils stay on the average more than a year in the later grades. That what I did was substantially correct will be seen by applying the check test which I devised and used for my general estimate, to the case of Baltimore. This test is that the estimates of elimination, ‘retardation,’ growth, etc., must be such as will fit the observed age-distribution to the observed grade-distribution with the least improbability.
By anyone who does this in any reasonoble way, it will be at once seen that if there is a retardation in the grades from the fourth to the eighth of even one-quarter as much per grade as exists in the first grade, my estimates for elimination are in no wise contradicted by the data of school age-populations. So also in Denver. So much for the possible constant error of underestimation of the relatively greater retardation of early as compared with later grades. Another matter concerns the variable errors, that is the lack of precision in the approximations from single cities for which my estimates for the cities in general were made. I am grateful for the correction in the case of Cambridge, Mass. The correction in the case of Maiden is obviously unfair, unless the condition of the schools of that city has not changed from 1900 to 1908. To use data from 1908 to estimate elimination in 1900 is hardly scientific. I must confess to the conviction that my report itself gave better measures of these variations in approximation than Dr Falkner gives. Such variations, as is well known, do not prejudice the general result in any way not fully and clearly stated in the original report. The result from twice as fine approximations but from only six cities would not be sounder, and the result from twice as coarse approximations but from four times as many cities would be equally sound.
Lastly I may refer to the criticism that I ascribed some special ‘ I + II + III* value to the figure . O The fact is that there must he some base or other to correct from, Ltn+m+IV or I+II+III Dr i+n or J or II or m or IV_ 4 3 2 ?r the number of entering pupils, or the maximum age-registration, or something. Whatever it is, either it or the figures divided by it, or both, will he subject to various corrections. Any one base is right if it is rightly corrected. I took the particular base I did rather than one including the fourth grade enrollment because in certain cities the fourth grade enrollment is influenced by the factor of elimination itself. I took it J + n rather than because it utilized the information at hand more fairly. 2 I did not take the maximum age-registration as a base for various reasons, chiefly for the obvious reason that the age-registrations were not published for most of the cities in question. The number of pupils beginning school also was rarely reported in usable form. Edward L. Thorndike.
Teachers College, Columbia University. *In this and the rest of the paragraph I equals the enrolment of the first grade, II the enrolment of the second grade, and III the enrolment of the third grade.
The First Professorship of Psychology. A Correction.
In The Psychological Clinic, Vol. II, page 215, it is stated that “the first chair restrietedly designated as a professorship of psychology was established at the University of Pennsylvania in the year 1888.” This should have been given as 1889. The error was discovered and corrected in the reprint of the editorial on “Mental Healing and the Emmanuel Movement,” in which the statement had been made. The appointment of Dr J. McKeen Cattell as professor of psychology was of date January 1, 1889. His connection with the University of Pennsylvania antedated this, as he had been appointed lecturer on psycho-physics as early as November 2, 1886. f
This question may seem somewhat technical and academic. The first recognition of modern experimental psychology was given by Johns Hopkins University, through the appointment of Dr G. Stanley Hall as lecturer in psychology in 1882, and his appointment as professor of psychology and pedagogics in 1884. In 1884-85 Professor Ladd, as professor of mental and moral philosophy, announced at Yale a course entitled physiological psychology. Moreover, in the catalogue of the University of Wisconsin for 1888-89, Dr Joseph Jastrow appears as professor of experimental and comparative psychology.
The School Nurse as a Social Worker.
Miss Anna L. Stanley, head school nurse in Philadelphia, reports among results obtained through home visits for the year 1908: 748 children with defective vision were fitted with glasses; 87 operations upon the nose and throat were performed; 32 poorly nourished children were sent to seashore and country; 81 cases of decayed teeth were treated; 14 destitute families were reported to relief societies; and one case of tuberculosis of the lungs was sent to the sanitarium at White Haven. The schools in which nurses are stationed at present are in the congested sections of the city, and the field is one calling for this reaching out of the schools to induce the home to cooperate with the school in putting the children in fit condition to do effective work. Even in the better sections of the city the nurse is needed to follow up the recommendations of the school physician. Without this follow-up or social work, school nursing will be relatively ineffective. It is the nurse or other social worker who must make the parents realize the necessity of caring for the physical welfare of their children. This means an endless amount of tact, perseverance and patience. The same home must be visited again and again on the same errand, until persuasion has become successful in accomplishing the nurse’s aim.
If trained nurses were in every school, it would not only be a guarantee of more efficient educational and medical treatment, but would bring much useful knowledge concerning mental and physical hygiene into the homes. The schools must be the centers for the diffusion of this knowledge throughout the country.
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.