Retardation in the Schools of Stockton, Cal. A Study of 300 Pedagogical Life Histories
- Author:
Gossett,
Leland Stanford Junior University.
Stockton, California, is a city of 24,000 inhabitants. It is one of the older cities of the state and unlike many urban communities of similar size in the \ est has undergone little change in recent years. In this respect, therefore, it offers a suitable condition for the study of school retardation. The material for this paper was collected during the year 1910-1911, while the writer held the position of assistant principal of the Stockton grammar school.1
As has been demonstrated by Dr lvoland P. Falkner (The iJsyciiological Clinic, January, 1911) the true status of a city school system relative to retardation can be ascertained with great facility and accuracy by studying the school life histories of all its thirteen-year-old children. At this age the grade school life is nearly over and elimination has not yet begun. The amount of retardation found to exist among children of thirteen years is therefore an index of the efficiency of the schools in this particular. Employing this method, the writer copied from the school census of April, 1910, the names of all the children in Stockton who had passed the thirteenth birthday but had not yet reached the fourteenth. When this list was completed it was found to include the names of 314 children. Data were secured from all of these with the exception of twelve, of whom ten had moved away and two had died. Two others had never entered school because of defectiveness and these also are omitted from our tabulations. The task might have been somewhat simplified by taking the names from the teachers’ registers instead of from the census records, but had this been done it is certain that a few children thirteen years of age would have been omitted. If the reader is not familiar with the statistical and practical advantages of Falkner’s method of ascertaining the retardation index of a school system, reference to his article above mentioned will make the matter clear. Tt would seem that the general adoption of Falkner’s simple method ought to put an end to the disputes of school statisticians on this subject.
As has been stated, the children studied included all who were of the age thirteen when the census was taken early in April, J The study was made nt the sufrcestlon of T>rofessor Lewis M. Terman, of ?Stanford University, nnd was carried out under his direction. 1910. At that time tlic median age was not far from thirteen years, six months. When school opened the following September, the median age was about thirteen years, eleven and one-half months. At the latter date, however, the ages must have ranged from thirteen years, live and one-half months, to fourteen years, five aiid one-half months. Since, in California, children are expected to enter school at the age of six years, those children who were fourteen years or over when school opened in September (or about 46 per cent of our 302 children) should have completed the eighth grade at the close of the school year, June, 1910. Those who were under fourteen when school opened (54 per cent of all) should have entered the eighth grade at the latter date. (Pupils who had reached the age of fourteen between the taking of the census and the opening of school and did not continue, were included in the study.)
Through the generous aid of teachers, principals, and truant officers, liberally supplemented by personal effort, information was collected regarding the 300 cases on the following points: 1. Age when first sent to school. 2. Records of long absences from school without reasons. 3. Amount and kind of work done out of school hours. 4. Nativity of parents. 5. The amount of time spent in each grade. 6. Attitude toward school work as judged by last teacher. 7. Conduct: good, fair, poor, truancy. 8. Bad habits. 9. Financial status: wealth, comfort, poverty. 10. Moral influence of environment: good, fair, bad. 11. Parents well educated, average, illiterate. 12. Comments. Table T shows the grade distribution of these 300 children at the beginning of the school year, September, 1911. Grade Number of pupils Per cent of total First 2 .GG Second 2 .GG Third 2 .66 Fourth 12 4. Fifth 42 14. Sixth 48 16. Seventh 92 30.6G Eighth 74 24.66 Completed eighth 26 8.66 RETARDATION IN STOCKTON. 151 Relation of retardation to years of attendance. Loss of time by late entrance was combined with loss by whole-year periods of absence after entrance and the two were considered together. Except in extreme cases, the influence of mere irregularity o? attendance could not be ascertained for these pupils owing to the California methods of recording attendance. Ihis method is such that a pupil’s absence beyond five consecutive days is not counted as an absence. For example, the child may be present only the first and last days of the month and have yet only five days of absence recorded against him in the monthly report.
The following table (table II) shows the average number of years spent in the school by the pupils of each grade and also the average time lost for the pupils of each grade through failure to be promoted. The latter item was obtained by subtracting the number of years of work accomplished from the average number of years of attendance per pupil:
Pupils now Average years of Average years lost Total years Grade in each school attendance par pupil from non- lost from grade per pupil promotion non-promotion First 2 3:5 3.5 7 Second .2 0. 5. 10 Third 2 4.5 2.5 5 Fourth 12 6.5 3.5 42 Fifth 42 6 + 2. 84 Sixth 48 G.G5 1.G5 79rfSeventh 02 7.2 1.2 100 ?fEightli 74 7.41 .41 30 + Eighth grade graduates … . 2G 8. 0 0
Total 367 Reckoning from Stockton’s annual cost of education per pupil, based on teachers’ salaries and current expenses ($28.09), we have here a total money loss through failure of promotion of 367 times $28.09, or $10,309.03. At this rate the annual loss for the entire state of California would amount to more than $1,000,^ 000. Through the same channel the city and state will have lost approximately the same amount upon the pupils who arrive at the age of fourteen next year.
The loss just calculated is that due to non-promotion alone. It was found that, through late entrance and absences over periods as long as one year the 300 pupils bad lost 143 years additional. The total years of retardation, therefore, among the 300 pupils was 3G7 -f- 143, or 510 years. The total loss to the state, material and spiritual, through this wasted opportunity cannot be calculated. Of the 143 years above mentioned, 92 were lost by late starting, 41 by sickness, G by travel and 4 by work. Stating the causes of retardation (table III) in terms of per cent:?
72 per cent of the entire loss was due to non-promotion. 18 ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” late entrance. 8.4 ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” sickness. 1.18 ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ” travel. rjg u u a cc u a u u u ^yQp]^ Total of last four items, 28 per cent.
Since 138 pupils should have completed eight grades and 162 seven grades, the total work accomplished by the 300 pupils should have been 2238 years, or the sum of 13S X 8 and 1G2 X 7. In reality, however, it was 1728 years. We may say, therefore, that when children of Stockton arrive at the threshold of that age when they are permitted to leave school, the efforts expended upon their education have netted only 77.2 per cent of the expected results (1728 is 77.2 per cent of 2238).
If the retarded pupils of a given grade ranked higher in scholarship than the non-retarded pupils of that grade, then the fact of retardation would not fall wholly on the debit side of the account. That such, however, is not the case in Stockton at least for the pupils of the eighth grade,.I was easily able to demonstrate. When this study was made, there were about 250 pupils enrolled in the eighth grade of Stockton. All of these are in one building and are carefully divided, according to scholarship standings, into three groups, called by the teachers “excellent,” “fair” and “poor.” The group contained respectively, 10, 215, and 10 pupils. A comparison of the average ages of the pupils in these three groups disclosed the fact that the pupils of the “poor” group averaged nearly two years older than those of the “excellent” group, while the average age of pupils in the “fair” group lay about halfway between. W e conclude, therefore, that the more a child is retarded the poorer his scholarship standing is likely to be.
It is impossible to say exactly to what extent the poorer scholarship of the older retarded pupil is due to native sub-normal mentality, and to what extent it can be charged to a progressively increasing discouragement due to a series of failures originating in slight pedagogical accidents and growing in seriousness by geometrical ratio. Both causes are probably operative. The latter would seem, theoretically at least, inevitable. The presence of the former also was demonstrated by the results of mental tests applied to the three groups by Dr Lewis M. Terman, of Stanford University.2 v
Physical defectiveness.
Wherever possible, the study of pedagogical life histories should include a thorough examination for physical defectiveness and the careful recording of health histories. Desirable as this is, it was impossible in this case to secure complete data on the matter for the reason that Stockton has no system of medical inspection of schools. The author did succeed, however, in securing medical examination of the 18 children who had not progressed beyond the fourth grade and of nearly half of those above the fourth grade. The physician was instructed to divide the children examined into two classes: Class A, children whose school records would probably not have been materially improved by medical attention; and Class B, those whose records would probably have been so improved. A disproportionately large number of Class B pupils in the lower grades would thus indicate that curable defectiveness had been a factor in causing the retardation. The data on this point are presented in the following table (table IV): Grade Per cent in Class B.
First 100 Second 100 Third 100 Fourth 50 Fifth 46 Sixth 22 Seventh 9 Eighth 0 Eighth grade graduates 0
A few facts regarding the most retarded cases will doubtless interest the reader. The two children in the first grade include a foreign-born French boy and an American-born Chinese girl. Both have become Americanized sufficiently to use the English 2 The tests Involved tlie Interpretation of fables and the eompletion of mutilated text and were the same as those used by Terman ami Childs in their study published in the December number of the Journal of Educational Psychology.^ The median score of the “excellent” (younger) group exceeded that of the “poor’ (older) group by 50 per cent in the fable test and by 35 per cent In the completion test. language readily. The boy Las a chronic ear discharge, due probably to adenoids. The girl has defective vision, and very badly decayed teeth, accompanied by an offensive breath. The former has attended school two years, the latter five.”
In the second grade we find two American boys, Leonard and Casey. Leonard has been in school four years, two years in each of the first two grades. Adenoids fully explain his retardation. Casey has attended school eight years. He is a nervous dyspeptic, and has recently developed epilepsy. That the latter condition is fast bringing its usual chain of degenerative results is indicated by the teacher’s summary description of the case. She said, “I used to call him lazy, later I called him mentally defective; but now I call him an idiot.”
In the third grade are two Italian girls. One has attended school four years, and appears to be so deficient in native mental ability that she should be speedily removed to a special class. The other has attended school five years. Iler retardation seems to be explained largely by her seriously defective vision and hearing. She is afflicted with pediculi capitis, a condition of torment to herself and danger to other pupils, which the absence of school medical inspection allows to continue.
Four of the above six pupils come from homes of poverty. The nutrition of all was very poor. The parents had neither the enlightenment which would enable them to appreciate the seriousness, or probably even the presence, of the physical defectiveness, nor did they have the financial resources to remedy it. The three girls were alike in one respect; all had been before the juvenile court.
The distribution of failures. The 367 failures of promotion in the school life histories of these 300 pupils were distributed as follows (table V) : Grade Number of failures Percentage of failures
First 100 27 Second 50 16 Third 41 11 Fourth 70 19 Fifth 59 16 Sixth 23 7-fSeventh 12 3? Eighth 4 1?
Fifty-five per cent occurred in the first three grades and 89 per cent in the first five. It was also found that 41 per cent of the children had never failed of promotion, 31 per cent had failed once and 28 per cent had failed twice or oftener, 47 per cent of those failing of promotion once failed again, while G8 per cent of those failing below the fourth grade failed once or more thereafter. Failure, therefore, tends to become a habit. Influence of sex and of transfers.
The children of all foreign-born parents except the Germans were found to be more retarded than the children of native born Americans. The Italians, Orientals and Spanish were retarded most;, then came the Irish, English, Scotch, Russian, French and Norwegian. Of those in the first six grades GO per cent had one or both parents of foreign birth; those in the eighth grade only 25 per cent; and those who had finished the eighth grade only 21 per cent.
Ilome conditions.
Under this heading are considered the education of the parents, and the financial and moral conditions of the home. The first named of these factors was found to be by far the most important; 84 per cent of the parents of those in the first three grades were classed by the teachers as “illiterate” as compared with 11 per cent for the three highest grades taken together. Children having parents either very poor or very rich showed more retardation than those of the intermediate class. The moral influence of the home appeared altogether unimportant when considered apart from the educational and financial conditions. Social milieu.
The influences of nationality and of the educational, financial and moral status of the home cannot, of course, be completely separated. It is of interest and value, however, to consider the total influence of the social milieu as this differs from ward to ward of the city.
The population of the first ward consists mostly of illiterate Italians, Orientals, Spanish, and Russians, a large proportion of whom are transients. Within this ward the cheap lodging houses and the “red light” district of the city are located. By politicians it is called “The Bloody First.” The second ward is composed almost entirely of well-educated American or Americanized people. Most of them are comfortably rich, with profitable business down town. The third and fourth wards are extremely uneven in social conditions, but on the whole rank in educational and financial matters intermediate between the first and the second.
Table VI shows the percentage distribution of our pupils among the different school grades in each of the four wards. First Ward Second Ward Third Ward Fourth Ward First grade 1.4 0 0 0 Second grade 0 0 0 1.4 Third grade 2.8 0 0 0 Fourth grade 5.8 0 4.5 4.2 Fifth grade 24 0 12.8 18.4 Sixth grade 20 12 17.7 14 Seventh grade 28 31 33. 2G. Eighth grade 11 40 23. 30 Eighth grade graduates. 7 17 9. G.
Of the pupils studied who live in the first ward, 34 per cent are found below the sixth grade; in the second ward, none. If these two wards were in different cities having different types of schools, the disparity in retardation might be attributed to a difference in the schools themselves. In Stockton, however, special effort is made to attain a uniform efficiency of the schools in the various wards. We must seek our explanation therefore in terms of heredity and of acquired physical, mental and moral traits which the school, as now organized, has not been able to reach. It is too late to change the heredity of these children ; accordingly, every effort should be made to make their environment more favorable. As far as the organization of school instruction is concerned Stockton has done very much that would tend to reduce the amount of retardation. The maximum size of classes has been reduced to 35 pupils, special classes for super-normal and snb-normal pupils have been established, semi-annual and flexible promotions have lately been introduced, the course of study has been repeatedly simplified, industrial courses have been added and regular attendance is insisted upon. But if a child suffers from malnutrition while surrounded by an abundance of well cooked and well served food, the wise physician does not concern himself with further elaboration of the child’s menu. Instead, he endeavors to ascertain the underlying cause and to remove it. Applying the argument to the situation at hand, it is the duty of society to explore the fundamental causes of retardation. At least three such causes have been plainly operative in the schools of Stockton ; attendance, health and nationality. (The last term is used to include the accompanying social conditions.) rlhe data presented in this paper indicate that the following agencies would be of service in reducing retardation: (a) Measures to improve attendance. The truant officers should be increased in number and should be given more powers and duties for the investigation of the causes of absence. The school census should be taken annually, and preferably just before the beginning of the school year. If it is taken in the early spring, the summer changes of residence make the work of the truant officers much less effective.
(b) Medicat inspection. Ill health is not only a cause of irregular attendance, but it also interferes with the school progress of many children whose attendance in point of time is satisfactory. There are many children whose health, if it received no expert attention in the school, will receive none at all. When the work of school health departments becomes better known it will be opposed only by Christian Scientists, the League for Medical Freedom, and people who do not believe in truant officers or sewers. In the “Bloody First Ward” of Stockton, physical degeneracy is evident on every hand. In such an environment the health of children is hardly thought of, and even in far better districts it is likely to be neglected.
(c) Americanization of foreign children. This should be undertaken systematically while the children are young. The task can be accomplished in part by the introduction of numerous playgrounds where the children of all races may meet in early childhood and assimilate the ideals of Young America. The writer is glad to report that such a centre is soon to be established in Stockton, and very appropriately in the first ward. Here during the story hour of the kindergarten department the foreign children, who later might suffer retardation because of language difficulties, will receive their first lessons in the English language and in American ideals.
(d) It should also be added that the schools of Stockton, as of all other cities, stand in need of better criteria of fitness for promotion. Pupils who are seriously retarded should be investigated by the latest methods of clinical child psychology so that the causes of such retardation may be definitely ascertained. No child should be permitted to work below his highest level of possible attainment. Standard tests of intelligence and of performance in school subjects should be applied to all children who are retarded or are about to become retarded.
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