A Score of Difficult Boys
By Ralph L. Johnson, M.A. Girard College, Philadelphia, Pa.
During the liulf year ending January 31, 1911, there have been two groups of boys in a special class in Girard College, one group known as the “Retarded Class,” the other as the “Delinquent Class.” There were twenty-four boys in the Retarded Class and twenty-eight in the Delinquent Class. Retarded boys are those who have remained unduly long in a grade without promotion, the repeating having become quite noticeable. Delinquent boys are those who have been troublesome in class; their repeating may have accumulated through many grades.
To show that delinquent boys are incapacitated for work to the same degree as retarded boys, and to show that similar treatment will bring equally good results in both cases, I have made a study of ten typical cases from each group. The ten delinquent boys have repeated sixty-five half years while the retarded boys have repeated fifty-four half years. The latter offended only in lack of knowledge, while the former showed lack of self-control,?they were “wicked as well as weak.”
The pupils were measured and ranked according to the system originated by Professor Frank W. Smedley,1 of Chicago, and explained by him as follows:? “Percentiles are obtained in the following manner: The individual cards on which the measurements were recorded when the child was tested were arranged according to the size of the pupils in each measurement, grouped separately for each age in years. The minimum measurement in each group gave the zero percentile for that group. To determine the ten percentile for that group, ten per cent of the number of cards were removed, beginning at the minimal end, and the highest measurement on the cards so removed was recorded as the desired percentile. Similarly the other percentiles were determined, the maximum measurement being recorded as the one hundred percentile.”
A comparison of the percentile groups to which the pupi belongs in the different measurements will give his balances in growth and development. To illustrate let us refer to chart o. ‘Hoport of the [U. S.] Commissioner of Education for the year 190-. ol. I, p. 1110. (121)
ERCENTILE CURVE PERCENTILE CURVE Ybo.z.. AaLdLc i*An? iXr^ PERCENTILE CURVE ^HaA. iiAiiu. ?2LJ>wv-2 7PERCENTILE CURVE TLo> b I?SL_ UvaJL^rtdk?S2^?C/mTy>ki^j g| Spl PERCENTILE CURVE PERCENTILE CURVE TruLty ?jh ‘is. UtObJL lv_ 11. S M | | A i i i ERCENTILE CURVE PERCENTILE CURVE PERCENTILE CURVE PERCEN YaE CURVE PERCENTILE CURVE nJ2zfc^A4-_ SLi.C** 1t^i ~~? t PERCENTILE CURVE ?vuo.t LMLva_ C^LAxi>-_ 53.^ Ow lYxixf _a ui?q?L 2 A IE sP r^=v-LJ,i^4_ lanJ ru>jJ_Loj. H3T 1A_ ^SLUtjnna. M?_/0*JLu l?w?AvaiaLLc -v-PERCENTILE CURVE PtRCINTILE CURVI iWAoLjdL_$ ixXnpu_ r-utLoAj q^wv^i/Lw asI PIRCINTILt CURVI . bJls(_Sjua SL ? Uo*^d?XtM_fi!4!nrvt XvJjUL^.?* PERCENTILE CURVE * PERCENTILE CURVI fcoJii-L ^ioUtLt ~Y SEkse PERCENTILE CURVE a” rf AJ:” i y. rllft =E lUUlJWAoi n4kl PERCENTILE CURVE Si i PTTT xmt LI CURVE Ivvki^uH?U at &
2. The retarded boy represented by this chart would stand about ninth from the minimal end of one hundred boys of age fifteen. His development is symmetrical. Boy No. 17 shows lack of balance. He is very tall when standing, but his trunk or soma is rather short. He is heavy but very weak in right hand prehension, his lung capacity is small. He writes with his right hand but uses a knife in his left
The straighter the line, crossing from left to right, the more shapely will our student be. No. 2 is a small boy but the most uniform; while No. 11 is very weak in lung capacity. No. 17 and No. 11 have less lung capacity than the soma would suggest. “Lung capacity is the best criterion of the health and vigor of the child.”2 Eleven other boys have greater weight than one would expect; ten have shorter bodies than their height would properly need for symmetry. Eight delinquent boys and nine retarded boys have somata shorter than the average for their respective ages. The small yet symmetrical boys do well as far as they go, but do not do much; they excel in technique but have little aptitude in applying acquired facts. The asymmetrical boys do memory work well but have no aptitude in applying acquired facts, they have skill in copying but have almost no skill in logical correlation. This conclusion is in general agreement with that of Dr. Sargent3 who says, “A small man compactly built, with symmetrical proportions and a well balanced organism, can accomplish more than a larger man less solidly made with all parts wanting in symmetry and shapeliness. This law of adaptation and harmonious adjustment of parts prevails throughout the greater portion of the animal kingdom.” According to Dr Sargent’s theory, Nos. 5, G, 7, and 8, should bo better students than Nos. 9, 10, 11, and 12, and this is borne out by the facts. Dr Wey4 of Elmira Reformatory says, “The greatest physical delinquency nnd least resistance power is found in the respiratory apparatus.” It is easily seen that nine delinquent boys have less than average lung capacity, and that seven retarded bo>s have less than that amount. If one cannot consume oxygen, one should not 1)0 expected to produce power. Of the delinquent oys five (50 per cent) had greater prehension in the left han , an o the retarded boys six (GO per cent) had greater prehension in left hand.
Since “right handedness must be a normal part of psycliologiJ.Tolin Mnnon Tylor. flrowtli and Kducatton. p. 01- _ 10 ?n. A. Rnrpo-nt. ficribvcr’* Mafjazittr, Vol. XXII, 1SS7, p. i”. ?rinvelock Kills, The Criminal, p. 8S.
cal development, not a phenomenon explicable by training,”5 the above fact indicates a great misfortune. The handicap is about equal among both groups of five to six. Inasmuch as only 5 per cent of all persons have greater prehension in the left hand, while 50 per cent of delinquent or reform school inmates are more powerful in the grip of the left hand, the fact of lefthandedness becomes significant, and equally so as far as these two groups are concerned. “At any given age of school life bright or advanced pupils tend toward accentuated unidexterity and dull or backward pupils toward ambidexterity. Training in ambidexterty is training contrary to a law of child life.”0
!N”o. 8, and ISTo. 26 are ambidextrous. Their prehension is equal with right and left hands. This may, however, indicate merely that they have not passed puberty.
The average circumference of the heads, and the average for ages, corresponds quite well for the two groups. The delinquent boys have an average age of 14.6 years and the retarded boys have an average of 14.3 years. The average girth of heads of the former is 52.9 cm. and that of the latter 52.8. The average head of nine years has a girth of 54 cm. which means that the development of the head is as much behind the normal as the intelligence is below the standard; the average repetition of the delinquent amounts to 3.25 years and that of the retarded group 2.7 years.
“Experimental and clinical observation have very clearly shown that disturbances of the encephalon are capable of causing disturbances of intelligence.”7 “It appears that those cells which fail to Teact during the proper growing period of an animal have lost their opportunity for ever.”8 “The greater part of the growth of the brain takes place before any of the formal educational processes have begun, for the mild schooling that occurs before the age of seven or eight years can hardly have much influence.”0 “In these instances (microcephalics) the brain is not only of the small size indicated by the enclosing skull, but at the same time the skull is apt to be unusually thick, and either the brain does not fill it so completely as normally, or the enlargement of the cerebral ventricles by fluid causes the actual weight of the nerve substance to be smaller… . Furthermore the brain often contains a large proportion of undeveloped or degenerate tissue, and the encephalon may thus be of even less functional value than its small ?Helen Thompson Woole.v, Psuchnlnnical Review. Vol. XVII., p. 37. eFrorl W. SmertW. Report of fl*. S. 1 Commissioner of Education for the venr 1002. Vol. I., p. 1115. TH. II. Donaldson, The Growth of the Rraln, p. 85. *IUd, p. 37. *IMd, p. 107. size would suggest. It thus appears that the essential anatomical feature in microcephalism is not so much the small size of the brain as its deficient construction, of which this small size can usually be taken as an index.10
Only two of each group have heads equal to normal nineyear heads. The average retardation for the score of boys in head development is more than five years and the retardation in dcholastic attainments is less than 3.25 years. Have they not done well ? Have they not made bricks without straw ?
The usual factors of adenoids and tonsils and teeth and attendance are negligible as far as it is possible to make them in an institution where every need of the pupil is cared for at once. The physician, the oculist, the dentist and the surgeon, keep the pupils at a high degree of efficiency. The hygienic routine of the school is admirable. Regular hours of sleep, of study and of recreation together with carefully made and thoroughly cleaned clothing, regular baths and scientifically prepared “good but plain” food?what child’s health and instruction could be better provided for than a Girard College boy’s?
Inasmuch as the incorrigible boys seemed so much like the dull boys, and their accumulated repetitions were more than equal to those of the other group, it was deemed proper to treat both grades in the same manner as regards discipline and instruction, in material as well as method.
In the annual report of the Juvenile Court of Kansas City, for 1908, it is stated that “fewer instances of delinquency are recorded for children who live with their father only, than those who live with their mother.” The fathers of all these boys are dead. Again the “manifold evils of aggregation” always present in a large institution contribute another factor to the problem of disciplining this group of recalcitrants. It at once became evident that unless discipline were to be the dominant feature, new ideals must be exhibited and new tasks must be organized. Believing that Nature puts the defective child in a class by himself and believing that education should take Nature’s hint, many “special” devices were tried.
A statement made by the venerable sage, Dr S. Weir ^ it^ ohell, that “the working hand makes strong the working rain, led to chair caning being done during school hours. The caning of chairs was well liked. It was interesting, each boy e t an ownership in his work and considered it an affront to n ano e hoy working at “his chair.” It was looked upon as a trade, an i”76<d, p. 125. many wished to know where the materials might be procured, declaring that mother’s chairs should be renewed during vacation. “The attempt to acquire skill is captivating and is a wholesome activity because it trains not only the hand and eye, but the moral nature as well.”11 The monotony not merely of school time but of after life, may be thus overcome. Jane Addams12 says, “Dexterity of hand becomes all the more necessary, if the workman is to save his life at all.” To test these opinions further and to give the pupil a closer relation with his surroundings it is intended to make brooms, and later perhaps rugs.
Furthermore since it is the child and not the curriculum that must be taught, much time and patience were given to find wherein lay the interest of the various students. A question asked in the Pedagogical Seminary for December, 1909, (page 435)? “Is it not time to throw the burdens we place upon young minds more upon the tactile and kinaesthetic perceptions and mental images which are older and more firmly established ?”?found an affirmative answer. The statement of Kirkpatrick,13 was true for these adolescent boys,?”It is now found that the old analytic logical methods are not only not the best for young children, but they are the worst possible, far worse than haphazard teaching, which leaves the child’s mind free to work and develop in its own natural way.”
For the application of these principles the subject matter was taken from Nature study, because it calls the child’s mental powers into activity. It is also of much more value as a corrective, a recreational and an educational force than books alone. “By nature study is not meant teaching science, but scientific teaching.” That study might be made “attractive by artifice,” live animals were used. At first a field tortoise was kept in the class room, then a hare, and aftenvard a bantam rooster. To complete the lesson about the live tortoise, an articulated tortoise of similar variety, having movable horny plates, was studied at the same time. The head was especially interesting, having the upper toothplate, the lower tooth-plate and the scalp-plate each segmented. The habits and habitat of the reptile were inquired into. Not a single technical name was spoken by any one. Each pupil had the privilege of handling and examining both specimens, the living and the articulated.
Some of the simpler experiments of physics and chemistry were demonstrated, all with good effect. A sand pendulum, used “Oeorne Manjrold.?Child Problems, p. 288. “Democracy and Social Ethics, p. 21.”?. liJ’opular Scicncc Monthly, Vol. 77, p. 485. A SCORE OF DIFFICULT BOYS. 127 to describe Lissajou’s figures, excited admiration for form and symmetry. Its marvelous habit of repeating the complex curves was not explained, and its relation to music only hinted at. A live rabbit was kept in the room for several weeks. The boys showed the greatest delight in feeding it. “First they loved it and then they fed it,” as Reeder said about the children of Hastings and the chickens. The expected disorder was averted by their fear of the removal of the bunnie.
A final experiment was made with a bantam rooster, “Jerry.” On the day of his arrival, a cage was constructed as if by magic, one boy knew where wire was to be found below a closed window grating, another had hinges and nails in his pocket, and in a few minutes our chicken had fine quarters.
His plumage was brilliant and his spirits proud, and so he became a favorite. He was loaned to eight other classes, but was always carried home, cage and all, to roost. Although he crowed from six to ten times a day, everybody seemed to be glad that he was there. He strengthened the school’s esprit du corps and everybody felt responsible for his safety, as well as for his possible removal.
Story work, often took the place of formal language work. Norse legends were of greatest usefulness. The beneficial effect came out also in the whittling work. Since every boy while orderly might whittle, most of them made weapons, swords, pistols, and cannons; these were generally made with left hands. How eagerly, I had almost said how well, the work was done! “There would be far more happiness and real success in mental hygiene, if more people would realize that at every step every person can do something well and take satisfaction in doing it, and that this satisfaction in something done is to be valued as ten times greater than the satisfaction taken in mere thought or imagination, however lofty.”14 What a godsend to thousands of broken and misfit lives such a message would have been if heard in time!
The results obtained by treating tho delinquent boys in the same manner as the retarded boys warranted the assumption that they were nearly alike, moreover they supported the teaching o Seguin, who said, “The physiological education of the senses is tho royal road to the education of tho intellect; experience, t e mother of ideas/’ “Education of the senses must precede the education of the mind.” Finally, a very practical advantage of tins method is that it makes discipline easier.
“Adolf Mover. Whnt (lo Histories of Cnses of “?hj>”y c h?o logical Preventive Mental Hyjjlene during the Years of School L.uef Clinic, Vol. 11., No. 4. June 15, 1908.
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