A Survey of Mentally Defective Children in the Schools of San Luis Obispo, California
- Author:
Lewis M. Terman, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of Education, Stanford University, Cal.
San Luis Obispo is a town of about five thousand inhabitants in the south central part of California. Its people differ little from those of other well-to-do cities of similar size in this state. With the exception of a small Spanish element they (or their parents) have migrated here from various eastern states. The population includes progressive farmers, trades-people, a sprinkling of professional men, and the families of several hundred skilled laborers on the slopes of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The children enrolled in the grades below the high school number somewhat more than six hundred.
The newly-elected superintendent of schools, Mr. Charles R. Small, had noted with much concern the large number of over-age pupils in the grades. He had already formed two ungraded rooms in which special instruction was being provided for about thirty children. Some of them were making satisfactory progress, but by no means all. There were also several other puzzling cases in the schools for whom special classes had not been provided, children who had repeated grades over and over until they had become either apathetic or incorrigible. It was the anxious desire of the superintendent to secure all available light on these school failures which prompted him to call in the assistance of the writer in the conduct of the Binet and other mental tests.1 Twenty-four pupils were examined and reported on. These were by no means all of the difficult cases in the school, but only this number could be tested in the week available. It is hoped the following summary of the results of the survey, together with a brief description of some of the cases examined, may serve to direct the attention of other superintendents to that large class of children in the public schools who range somewhat above 1 Superintendent Small, who Is a Harvard graduate and a wide-awake school man, entered the profession only a year ago from the ministry. It is interesting to note that immediately after beginning his work his attention began to gravitate toward some of the fundamental problems of school administration until lately so utterly neglected by the average “routine” superintendent. It is an interesting illustration of how the weak spots of a system can best be apprehended by one who has not become its slave.
the border line of true feeblemindedness but decidedly below the level of normality. Our interest in this class of children has greatly increased in the last few years, for we find evidence that from it are recruited probably one-fourth of our habitual criminals and a still larger proportion of our paupers and “white slaves”. The children of subnormal mental endowment undoubtedly constitute one of our gravest social problems, one Avliich closely concerns the schools but to which they have thus far paid very little attention. The following table shows the real age and the “mental age” of the twenty-two retarded cases who were examined. Children h a y, o w.< 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 G
CHRONOLOGICAL AGE IN YEARS 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 I 1 of normal mentality would be tabulated in the black-faced squares, while the distance a child falls “below the black-faced squares represents in years the amount of his retardation in intelligence. The table for example shows one 17-year-old pupil with a mentality of 9 years; six 15-year-old pupils, of whom three have a mentality of 9 years; one 11-year-old wlio has a mentality of 6 years; etc. Of the twenty-two cases, fifteen have an intelligence 3 years or more below the level for their age; twelve are 4 years or more below normal; and eight 5 years or more.
By the use of a rather elaborate “characterization blank” of the German type, descriptions and miscellaneous data wTere secured regarding each child. Though the information available was far from being as extensive as desired, it was possible to give with a fair degree of confidence certain conclusions and recommendations in most of the cases. A few of these descriptions and recommendations are here presented. They contain no especially notable features, but as concrete descriptions may serve to call attention to similar cases in other schools.
(1) D. C. Teacher’s description. Boy, age nearly 17, fifth grade. Can not do work of this grade satisfactorily. Portuguese family, well to do, English spoken at home. Ten children, most of whom are stupid.
Weight 180 lbs., slightly stooped, rather good looking, no serious physical defects, no time lost by illness. Quiet, sleepy. Has no self-confidence. Polite, generous, well-behaved. Intellectual ability even; mental processes slow; easily distracted; soon wearied; memory very poor; cannot commit verses to memory. Tattles; ideas vague; thoughts absurd; imagination weak. Does not appreciate stories. Voice loud and monotonous.
Heads fourth reader; drops syllables; no memory for things read; no home reading. Writing fair on the mechanical side; spelling and punctuation poor. Poor in arithmetic. Neat in drawing. Plays little and shows little social spirit in his play. Tests and recommendations. Mental retardation 8 years (tests barely 9 years). Mentality weak in every direction. Note failure on “absurdities”. Case of true feeblemindedness (high grade). Mentality will probably never reach above 11 years. Seems thoroughly stable and dependable, and considering his excellent physical equipment and good appearance should be able to get along in some simple vocation. Advise that effort be abandoned to bring him up through all the usual work of the grades and that emphasis be placed on the things strictly necessary for getting along in the world. The important thing is to make such cases self-supporting and to instil a liking for some ‘ hind of employment.
(2) J. F. Teacher’s description. Boy, age almost 13 years. High second grade, started to school at 7; can do no work of grade he is in.
Good family, well to do. Three other children, none retarded in school. Eyes poor; throat bad; stooping posture.
Quiet, shy, fearful; lacks physical energy; without selfrespect or self-confidence. Polite, obliging, modest, conscientious and generous. Mental processes slow; tries to attend; memory poor in all school work; ideas vague and slowly formed. Sensitive ; appreciative of stories. Speech whispering and nasal; poor singing voice. Poor in colloquial expressions. Plays few games. Reads the first reader, the second with difficulty; learns words slowly; makes mistakes on small words; reads none at home. Writes fairly well. Arithmetic fair. Accurate and neat in drawing ; good taste in color. Tests and recommendations. Mentally retarded nearly 5 years (tests a little above 8 years). In conversation appears less dull than he really is. Mental condition probably aggravated by eyes and throat. Mind may brighten a little if he is fixed up physically but will always be weak. Being apparently of the stable and reliable variety he may be made self-supporting and able to look after his own affairs if they do not become too involved. The regular class is the last place where he ought to be. J. will reach adolescence in a couple of years. If he is ever to make any progress it is important that it begin before that time. Diligent search might reveal some lines of activity in which he could meet fair success.
Teacher’s description. Boy of 14% years. German parentage, rather poor, English spoken at home. Five children, mother dead, father an old man. R. is cook and housekeeper. Drinks much strong coffee. Teeth defective. Began school at G, and is now in the fourth grade. Repeated grades one and three; cannot do present work satisfactorily. No time lost by illness. Learned to walk at two years and to talk at three years. Polite, obliging, modest and conscientious.
Ability even. Very slow in school work, but reads newspapers and talks much of current events. Just now interested in the present Mexican trouble. Memory poor for all school work; mental processes slow; is appreciative of stories. Voice clear; speech connected. Comprehends commands slowly.
DEFECTIVE CHILDREN IN SAN LUIS OBISPO. 135 Reads fourth reader with hesitation and lack of expression. Writing fair. Can do almost nothing in arithmetic. Draws fairly well. Enjoys the music period. Talks as long as anyone will listen to him about the mechanism of air ships. Plays little on the school ground, but at home is often building play houses or making doll furniture for the little girls.
Tests and recommendations. Mentality O1/^ years; 4 or 5 years retarded. Lateness in walking and talking a bad indication. Least retarded in vocabulary and practical judgment. Weak in handling of abstractions, e.g., gives blue as opposite of black; long as opposite of thick; black as opposite of dark, etc. Note failure on “stamp test” and making change for 4 cents out of 25. Strongly advise that he be placed under a good special teacher and taught the elemental things he will have to know; don’t try to cover the whole curriculum. Judging from the supplementary blank R. appears to have some constructive ability that ought to be given a chance. It might be possible to use construction problems as a vehicle for getting some number concepts into his head.
(4) M. M. Teacher’s data. Girl, age 15. Present grade 5b; does work of this grade poorly. Swiss-Italian parentage; English spoken in the home. Parents well to do, but give little attention to matters of diet, sleep, etc.; mother “peculiar”. Brothers and sisters not retarded. No time lost by illness. Eyes and ears good; teeth fair; stooping posture; muscles twitch.
Touchy, whimsical, restless, talkative. Laughs hysterically, unsteady in movements. Lacks self-respect and self-confidence. Vain, flighty, suspicious; tattles; plays underhand tricks. Intellect uneven and flighty. Attention poor, easily distracted ; absent-minded; memory uniformly poor. Ideas vague and confused; thoughts absurd and foolish; imagination weak and easily excited. Likes stories and poems. Speech sharp. Poor in comprehension of commands and conversations.
Reads in the fourth reader inaccurately; no memory for things read; no reading at home. Writing fair. Drawing very poor. Special likinc; for music. Plays little and knows few games; shows no social spirit in plav.
Tests and recommendations. Tests at 9% years; mental retardation of nearly 6 years. Has a fluency and readiness of language which with fairly normal “phvsical maturity make her seem less dull than she really is. Notable failures, arranging weights, ball and field test, questions of comprehension in year IX, making change, absurdities, etc. Touchiness, whimsicality, tendency to tattle, play underhand tricks, etc., taken together, indicate a persistence of infantile traits. Should remain under special instructor. As she likes to cook it would be a splendid thing if she could devote half of each day to training in housekeeping. Her life success depends wholly on the latter, not on instruction in grammar, advanced arithmetic, geography, history, etc. She will never leam much in these. Iier entire disposition might be improved by such a change in her schooling. M. is fairly attractive in appearance but weak and of less than average sense of responsibility. It is not necessary to dwell on the moral dangers involved in this combination of traits.
The remaining cases were not less interesting. Almost, every schoolrom has one or two problems of this general type. The city of five hundred school children usually has about two dozen of them. A city of the size of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, or Indianapolis, may be expected to have about a thousand. They clog the educational machinery. They consume a disproportionately large part of the regular teacher’s energy. They pull down the standard of achievement for other children. Finding themselves chronic failures they either become disheartened and dejected, or else they grow case-hardened and apathetic. They drag along to the third, fourth or fifth grade, sometimes the sixth or seventh; but the regular work of the last grades they never do satisfactorily. Grammar, arithmetic and the more abstract features of other subjects they cannot master. Usually they have not thoroughly learned the multiplication table when they leave school at the age of fourteen or fifteen.
Most of them would be capable of learning a trade if they had the opportunity, and in no other way can the school help them so much as by affording them the kind of education which will make them self-supporting. Children who cannot compete on equal terms with their fellows in the schools will not ordinarily be able to compete on equal terms with others in the business world. Hence they become industrial drags after thev leave school. Vocational unfitness is the open door to crime, vice and pauperism. In the absence of educational facilities for vocational instruction, what can the average city do for such children ? The writer’s answer to this question is contained in the following recommendation to Superintendent Small, relative to the retards of San Luis Obispo. ! 1
“You will understand, of course, that as the result of an hour’s examination it is impossible for one to outline fully the form of training which will best suit the individual child. The exact needs of each child can be ascertained best by a capable special teacher, who has the pupil in his charge every day and is able to make all kinds of side explorations into his personality and intellectual abilities. The Binet tests, however, do give an extremely accurate estimate of the innate intellectual ability in general. “I have advised the special class for the large majority of the pupils tested. It seems to me there can be no doubt about the advisability of this in most cases provided you can secure the right kind of special teachers. The very fact that these children have been failing every year is itself an indication that something radically out of the ordinary will have to be done for them if they are to be kept from utter discouragement by repeated failure. The important point is to make their work consecutive instead of repetitive so that they will be forging ahead constantly instead of going over and over what they have already tried. In the special room as little as possible should be said about the grade. The pupil might even be kept entirely in ignorance of the grade he is in. It will sometimes give the pupil greater confidence not to know how far behind the others of his age he may be.
“It strikes me that you could use some of the results of this survey as a good argument for the introduction of manual training, domestic science, etc., into your schools. These subjects are of course, good for all the children, but for many of these special cases they are indispensable. At least fifteen or eighteen of the cases examined are strictly on the border line between normal intelligence and what is usually recognized as true feeblemindedness; that is, they are mentally weak. Mental weakness frequently, if not usually, includes moral weakness ; sometimes, also, physical disability. It is thus highly important that such children be taught a vocation of some kind so that they can be self-supporting and will not be tempted into lives of crime or left dependent upon their families. For such children there can be no question of following the regular schedule of studies. There is extremely little geography that they can learn, very little American history that they can appreciate and their ability for grammar and advanced arithmetic is in many cases nil. They will need to be placed in small ungraded classes under teachers who have had special training in the conduct of work with backward children. Each child will need to be made a special problem. The per capita expense for such instruction is greatly in excess of the average, but in the end it will be cheaper than the present policy of neglect.” In conclusion, a few additional points deserve emphasis. The first concerns the value of the improved Binet scale as a means of getting a definite idea of the intellectual status of a child. Teachers sometimes assert that there is no need of psychological tests to differentiate the dull child from the bright. It is true, of course, that common observation does tell us in a general way whether the child is dull, but it does not give us definite or usable standards by which we may judge the exact degree of dulness.
Moreover, observation unaided by tests leads often to entirely erroneous judgments in regard to dulness. Not infrequently it fails to distinguish between real, native dulness and mental retardation which has been artificially induced by lack of educational opportunities or by unfavorable home environment. For example, one of the boys tested in this survey, whose intelligence was strongly suspected by his teachers, was found by the tests to have almost normal mentality. His apparent dulness was largely accounted for by the fact that his parents were uneducated deafmutes. Perhaps still more frequently the teacher overestimates the intelligence of the retarded child. She tends to use the same standard for all the children in her class regardless of age differences. The writer has found several instances of almost ludicrous mistakes due to this fallacy. For example, eleven-year old A. P. was in the low second grade. She was able to do the work of the grade, not well, but almost passably. Her teacher concluded therefore that A. P. was only a little less bright than the other children of her class. What the teacher overlooked was that A. P. was being measured by a seventh-year standard of intelligence, and that instead of merely being able to do second grade work indifferently she should have been equal to the work of the fifth or sixth grade. In reality, A. P. is a feebleminded child, with a mentality of barely six years. She could not carry out the three commands or repeat sentences of twelve to fourteen syllables, in the fifth year group of tests. She did not know the month of her birth, the right hand from the left, could not name the days of the week or months of the year, or state what month it then was. She failed on the simple “question of comprehension” in the sixth year group, was unable to name four common coins, arrange the weights or give the value of the stamps.
Again the case of D. C., who was nearly seventeen years old and in the fifth grade, illustrates the same fallacy. His teacher knew he was dull but had never thought of him as belonging to the class of feebleminded children. She had judged this young man by the eleven-year standard of children’s intelligence. She may have been further deceived by his rather intelligent looks and exceptionally satisfactory behavior. But D. C., although nearly seventeen years of age, has barely nine-year-old intelligence. His vocabulary is that of the average child of eight years. In the tests he failed to repeat sentences of fourteen to sixteen syllables or remember five digits, or name fifty words in two minutes. There is little chance that he will ever exceed the normal ten-year-old child in understanding and prudence.
It will be an interesting and important task to follow the later histories of children whose intelligence has been found two, three, four or five years retarded at a given age. We want to know, for example, what may be safely predicted regarding the later development of a child who has been tested say at nine years and found three years retarded. When a sufficiently large number of such cases have been followed up we will be in a position to predict with a good deal of assurance (taking all pertinent circumstances into account) whether the child above mentioned is likely to have at fourteen years a mentality of eleven years, or only ten, nine or even less.
Finally the writer would suggest the desirability of coining a special name to designate the border-line cases. The term “feebleminded” has a connotation which makes it objectionable for this purpose. In educational matters, at least, the old saying that “there is nothing in a name” is not true. It is practically certain that as long as we include these children in the class called normals nothing will be done for them educationally. Just the right name coined to designate them may direct sufficient interest and attention to the class to revolutionize within a few years our educational efforts in their behalf.
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