Retardation in the Schools of Palo Alto, California. A Study of Pedagogical Life Histories
The Psychological Clinic Copyright, 1911, by Lightner Witmer, Editor. Vol. Y, No. 5. October 15, 1911.
- Author:
Payne,*
Assisted by Superintendent J. C. Templeton and the Teachers of Palo Alto.
The following study of retardation of pupils in the elementary schools of Palo Alto (undertaken at the suggestion of Professor Lewis M. Terman) was made primarily for the purpose of obtaining in concise, tabulated form, information which could be used by the superintendent in dealing with educational and administrative problems of the school system. The superintendent and teachers desired that all information secured should be accurate, and much time and care were taken to investigate the case of each child thoroughly. The age-grade basis of classifying children as retarded, normal or accelerated was taken as the most convenient and serviceable one for the purpose of the study. No accurate comparisons of the conditions in Palo Alto with the conditions in other California cities have been attempted, no other studies of this kind in California having been published.
Palo Alto has exceptionally good schools as measured by prevalent standards. The town is contiguous to the estate of the Leland Stanford Junior University, and is in most respects a typical university town. The people are almost all interested in giving their children the best educational advantages possible. The proportion of foreigners is rather small and, with the exception of a few of these, there are no illiterates among the population. The school system is well organized and administered. The equipment is good, the teachers are well trained and carefully selected, and their work is well supervised. Individual help and ?The writer cnnnot express too cordially his appreciation of the < nnd Invaluable assistance rendered In this little ^ a?imTiPinc snlrlt were way connected with the local schools. If such n. candid and lnqiiil K ? P laccd found in nil school systems, the business of public education would P upon a new nnd better foundntlon.
instruction for backward and subnormal children is provided for by a modified form of the Batavia system. Both in the efficiency of its schools and in the character of the childrpn attending, Palo Alto ranks high among the smaller cities of California.
It may be well to note, however, that the town is growing rapidly, and that the population as is common in western towns, is continually shifting. For this reason a large number of the pupils have received a part of their school training in other places, and have become retarded upon entering the Palo Alto schools. This, with the high standard of work required, may in part account for the large percentage of retardation. The data for the study were obtained from the following questionnaire, or information blank, which was distributed to the teachers in February, 1911, and filled out by them for each pupil at the cost of much patient and conscientious labor:
Name Address Present grade Age at which first sent to school Number of years in school Number of years in Palo Alto schools. Write other school work done outside of school on school days. Kind Time per day Grade or grades taken twice Long periods of absence ? Cause IIow long? In what grade or grades? Present Progress: Excellent Good Fair Poor Attendance: Regular Irregular Interest in school work: Normal Below Normal School Conduct: Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Incorrigibility Mischievousness Truancy Bad habits (if any known what are they?) Home conditions: Educational: Help and encouragement at home Work left entirely to school Moral: Good influence nnd influence Defective hearing… Defective sight Headache Cough Thin or anemic Specially listless, physically inactive, or inattentive Speech defects Decayed teeth Frequent or oecnsional toothache Each teacher of the department secured the desired information for the pupils of her own class. Ample time was allowed for securing a careful and thorough report for each child, the
TABLE I AGE AND GRADE DISTRIBUTION Age 10 11 12 Grade 13 14 15 VIII 6 12 16 9 VII 5 24 19 10 7 VI | ] 4 23 251 013 2 V 3 28 19 10, 2 IV 8 33 16 8 1 3 III 1 28 20 7 2 1 II 1 27 29 4 I 24 7 3 1 Total 25 35 68 61 55 57 67 Percent 5.35 7.49 14.56 13.06 11.77 12.20 14.34 45 9.63 30 6.42 18 3.83 16 1.07 17 Total .21 46 66 67 63 70 59 61 35 467 Accelerated No. 28 Per cent 13.04 7.57 5.97 4.76 11.43 1.69 1.63 6.00 Retarded Normal No. 28 37 40 32 29 30 33 11 240 Per cent No. 60.86; 12 56.06; 24 59.70 50.79 41.43 50.84 54.10 31.42 51.39 23 28 33 28 27 24 199 Per cent 26.08 36.36 34.32 44.44 47.14 47.45 44.26 68.57 42.61 Retarded 2 YEARS No. 9 10 9 10 8 7 4 3 60 Per cent Retarded 3 TEARS OR MORE No. 20 15 13.5 16 11 12 6.5 Per cent 6.6 8 12 6 j 9 2 | 3 5 ; 7 13 28
questionnaires not being collected until late in April. The children of the grammar grades were examined by a physician for physical defects and by a dentist for defective teeth. Most of the children of the primary grades were examined by the teachers with the help and supervision of the superintendent. Unusual and doubtful cases were examined by a physician.
Promotions are made twice each year, and there are A and B divisions for each grade. To simplify the making and use of tables, all ages were reduced to ages at entering present grade. The age of those now repeating was taken at the time of last entrance to the grade.
A normal pupil, as here classified, is one who entered school at six years of age, and has been regularly promoted each year; or a pupil whose age and grade now correspond to this standard. The age of accelerated pupils is less, and of the retarded pupils greater, than the standard age for the given grade. The underlined numbers show the number of normal pupils in each grade. The reading of the table is as follows: There are six pupils who entered the eighth grade between the ages twelve and thirteen, twelve between the ages of thirteen and fourteen, sixteen between the ages of fourteen and fifteen, etc. Of these, six are accelerated one year, twelve are normal, sixteen are retarded one year, nine two years, and three three years. There can be no acceleration in the first grade, as children are not admitted to the schools before the age of six. Elimination in the lower grades is not a very great factor, as the compulsory education law, which in California requires children to attend school until fourteen years of age, is well enforced. But there are enough who are badly retarded and drop out at the age of fourteen to reduce considerably the per cent of retardation in the upper grades. Even so, it will be observed that approximately 13 per cent of those enrolled are retarded two years, while G per cent are retarded three years or more.
In table II the actual number of years’ attendance of each pupil is taken in the age and grade distribution as a standard of measuring retardation. The attendance is shown in half year periods, but the total length of attendance is counted only up to the entrance to the grade shown, as was done in table I. A normal pupil is here one who has been regularly promoted every half year since entering school. The underlined figures show the number of normal pupils in each grade. The figures to the left show the number accelerated, and to the right the number
TABLE II YEARS IN SCHOOL AND GRADE DISTRIBUTION Y^naJ j j lt Grade I 2i 3 ! 3i VIII VII VI j I 2 V IV 2 2 III 5 4 II 5 31 10 I 33 1 1 2 2 9 9 291 7 13 2 4* 3 2 C 2 17 7 7 20 9 20 8 12 3 I 71 1 1 1 1 Total VIII VII ‘ 3.03 VI 3.03 4.55 ‘ V I 1.58 3.17 3.17 10.14 IV 2.90 2.90| 13.04 13.041 28.98 III II I 8.19 50.81 10.39 21.3l| 1.04 I I 8.57 2.85 2.85 Total 1.5! 3.03 9.09 3.03 11.11: 31.74 14.27 11.59 17.39 1.69 1.69 1.64 4.34 51 6J 7 ! 7i 8i 6 4 13 6 4| 4 241 6 15 3 5’ 2 95 ‘ 10 i 10J ! Tot. Acc. ! Nor. Ret. 6.52 9.09 25.75 11.11 5.79 8.47 6 19 2 3 2.17J 13.04 3.03 36.30 9.09: 28.78 3.17 4.76 14 11 1 8.69 28.26 9.09 22.72 1.51 6.06 3.17 1.58 1 40i 14 13 19 66 ll| 24 31 66 15 17 34 63 19’ 20 24 69 22 20 27 59 9 29 21 61 5 31 25 i! 35 ! 30 5 13.04 8.69 j 8.69 4.34 4.51 7.571 3.03 1.511 1.51 3.03 465 ‘ 2.171 2.17| 2.17 95 184 186 30.43 28.26! 41.30 16.68 36.36 46.96 22.72 25.75 51.51 30.15 31.74; 38.09 ! i 28.98 39.13 49.15’ 35.59 50.81 40.98 85.71 14.28 39.57 40.00 31.S8 15.25 8.19 20.43
retarded. As the time of attendance is counted to the entrance of a grade, the table reads: e. g., there are thirty-one pupils who entered the second grade after attending school one year, twenty-nine who entered the third grade after attending school two years, etc. The lower division of the table shows the same results as the upper, but figured in per cents of the total number of pupils. A much larger percentage of accelerated, and smaller percentages of normal and retarded pupils are shown than in table I. This discrepancy is in large part explained by the fact that many children are taught at home several years after the age of six, and enter school in grades above the first. These pupils may be actually retarded when measured by the age-grade standard, and still figure in this table as accelerated pupils. As an absolute standard of measuring retardation, table I is more satisfactory. Modifying factors are not accounted for, but the fact that the pupil is or is not in the grade warranted by his age is accurately shown, and a basis for investigation of modifying factors is furnished.
TABLE III. GRADES REPEATED AND NUMBER REPEATING IN EACH. Grade Whole or Half No. Per cent. I I I II III 16 * Mi . . IV i , i i : j VI VII i j i 16 25 14 i 0 20 6.85 i 9.02 7.84 12 : 19 10 26 6 23 , 2 22 VIII i Grado 141 11 Grade j 80 ?? 3 9.93 14.87 . 16.20 j 21.42 i Grado 63.80 1 Grado 36.20
Table III shows the number of repetitions of each grade, either one-half or the whole, made by all pupils now in school and in or above the respective grades. The percentage of repetitions of each grade is also figured from the number of pupils in or above the grade, and the table reads: there are 0.85 per cent of all pupils in and above the first grade who have repeated either one-half or the whole of the first grade, 0.02 per cent in and above the second grade who have repeated one-half or the whole of the second grade, etc. The 221 repetitions shown in this tablo were made by 1G8 pupils, or 3G per cent of the pupils enrolled. Of these 168 pupils, 30 have repeated twice, 1 three times, and 4 four or more times. It will be noted that Palo Alto docs not show any undue number of repetitions of first grade work, as so many cities do, but that the percentage of repetitions grows steadily larger up the grades until in the eighth grade it reaches -1.42. lhere are 214 girls and 253 boys enrolled in the schools. -N inety-seven girls, 45.32 per cent of all the girls enrolled, and 143 boys, 50.52 per cent of all the boys enrolled, are retarded one-half year or more.
lable IV shows the relation of retardation to physical defects. Children are classed as normal or retarded on age-grade basis, as in table I. As was explained before, the above tabulation represents home and physical conditions of children somewhat above the average ior California towns, but the results show in a general way what such conditions are in the town and city school departments.
Only 110 out of the 407 enrolled were reported as having no physical defects, apparent or to be detected in such a physical examination as could be given by the teacher and a school physician at the school. A considerably larger percentage of these are among those not retarded. Work, other than school work, done outside of school was counted only where it amounted to one-half hour or more per day. Very few cases were reported where such work exceeded more than one hour daily. The work as a rule consisted of music practice or household chores. A few of the boys deliver papers and milk as a means of partial self-support. Three or more consecutive weeks of absence was considered as a long period of absence. Over half the pupils in the schools have been absent this length of time once or more than once. The principal causes for long absences are epidemics of diseases such as measles, chickenpox, mumps, and scarlet fever. Such absences seem to have very little effect as a retarding influence. There are comparatively few cases of irregular attendance, as the compulsory attendance law is well enforced. In Palo Alto, therefore, and probably in other small cities of California, irregular attendance cannot be blamed for a very large proportion of the retardation. This, of course, is quite different from the findings of Ayres for certain large eastern cities.
Marked lack of discipline and of proper training at home are classed as “bad home influence,” and most of the cases here reported are of this character. Children were reported as having headaches only in cases where the headaches were more or less chronic. Almost two-thirds of these children were also reported as having defective sight. The natural conclusion is that defect146 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC.
TABLE IV. II III IV V VI VII VIII No. Per cent Total “3 “S oQ 55 Normal i Retarded! Normal i Retarded Normal I 13^ 4 12 Retarded 41 4! 17 II 4 4| 2 14 1 Normal 16 Retarded 1 Normal 3 1 Retarded 5 2> 15 Normal J 5 12| 2 Retarded 5 j 10 1 Normal | 8 2: 21 Retarded 4j 4 18 1 Normal j lOj 3 13| Retarded’ 11 6 13 2 8| 14 8 23 151 17 3 14l 20! 6 Normal 1 66 33 j 108 Retarded1 44 38’ 127 Normal Retarded 14.13 7.06 23.10 9.42 8.13 27.19 2.14 3.21 c3 -S ? o SZ 3.21 7.70 C3 O go O O *-s 4 2! 3 2 3 4 11 .62 3.42 a g Sn rt ? 3.85 10.27 Q 2.331 2.99 10.06! 4.71 6.83 10.49 2 1 3 5 10 7 5 4 4 6 7 8 15 7.06 11.13 2.14 1.71 a I 5 3 Sn 11.34 13.06 “53 > .i?t s >> ,2 a 7.90 9.42 3.61 8.13 17 15 3.61 16.4S 3.21 19.25 Number Per cent 110 71 235 23.55 15.20 50.31 25 5.35 51 10.92 19 4.07 661 5S 36 81 14.13 12.41: 7.70 17.34 85 18.20 18 3.85 114 24.41 81 17.34 55 11.77 321 167 6.85 35.76 ive vision accounts for a large part of the headaches among the school children.
As would naturally he expected, most of the mouth-breathers were also reported as having adenoid growths, and few other than these were troubled with adenoids. The results, as tabulated above, indicate that adenoids are not as potent a cause of retardation as they are commonly supposed to be.
Listless, physically inactive pupils are in no case reported as good students; and over two-thirds of them are retarded one or more years.
Of the thirty-two children having special defects, only seven or 1*^2 Per cent of all pupils in the schools are stammerers or stutterers. Ihis is about the number which Conradi’s investigations would lead us to expect. Three lisp, and the rest either suffer from poor enunciation or “thick” speech?in many cases reported as caused by adenoids. In some cases the speech impediment persists after the adenoids have been removed.
In general the teeth of the children, especially in the upper grades, are well cared for, and many more cases of “filled teeth” and “teeth attended to” than cases of “decayed teeth” are reported. Only cases of children now having decayed teeth are noted in the table. It is probable also that many incipient dental defects have not been recorded, because these are not usually discovered by a casual examination.
Cases of interest below normal, unsatisfactory school conduct, lack of help at home (work left entirely to school), bad home influence, listlessness, and physical inactivity show the greatest percentages of retardation. Although the percentage of retarded, as compared to normal children, among those reported with physical defects, and bad home influence or other apparently adverse conditions is not as great as might be expected, the totals show that such defects and influences are quite considerable factors in retardation. In order to unravel, as far as possible, this tangled skein of influences, it would seem highly profitable to undertake a thorough intensive study of the wrorst retarded cases, say the 28 who are retarded three years or more. These constitute about G per cent of the total enrolment, a fraction large enough to warrant a large expenditure of labor and money in their behalf. It is the kind of work that should be undertaken in every city and town in the United States. No one can doubt that in the long run society would effect great saving by studying and ministering to the needs of this badly understood margin.
Among the 38 children retarded two or more years there are only three who have no reported physical defects. Five have poor general health and four are confirmed cigarette smokers?cigarette “fiends.” The remaining twenty-six have one or more serious physical defects, and several have very poor home conditions.
One or more years’ retardation of over 50 per cent of the pupils in a school system seems an excessively large amount; yet the system reported above is an exceptionally efficient one, measured by the high standard prevailing in California, and many cities of the state would undoubtedly, if thoroughly studied, reveal problems still more challenging. It may be that the work required is measured to the child of exceptional rather than average ability, or that, where all children are sent to school, there will always be a large percentage of them unfit either mentally or physically to do average work in our present elementary schools. But whatever the cause of the large number of retarded pupils in the schools, careful study of the children and their relation to the school system, and constant effort toward betterment of both home and physical, as well as school conditions will do much toward righting matters. The problems of retardation, repetition and elimination are omnipresent and are always serious. Every school superintendent in the United States is confronted by them, and if they are to be solved at all, widespread and intensive investigations will be necessary. It is a hopeful sign that we are no longer content, as formerly, to work in the dark. The pupils are our raw material. If we could know the degree of efficiency of our work it behooves us to examine into the nature of this raw material, to study it with the same care and scientific accuracy which characterizes a progressive manufacturing concern. Our product must even be followed out into the world, and wherever possible its after-efficiency scientifically determined. It is a sad fact that there are still to be found those charged with the oversight of public education who resent as an indignity the proposal of qualified persons to carry on researches of this or any other nature within the schools. Considering that even in our best school systems half the pupils are eliminated before completing the eighth grade, 50 to 60 per cent of all retarded, from 10 to 20 per cent sentenced each year to a monotonous repetition of work already stale, and considering that usually far more children are graduated annually from the local juvenile court than from the high school, the boastful or else supercilious and pious content so often found among school officers is hard to understand. In contrast with this attitude, the appreciation and assistance which supported this investigation deserve special mention.
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