The Conservation of the Child
REVIEWS AND CRITICISM.
- Author:
Arthur Holmes, Ph.D. Philadelphi a and .London: J. J3. Lippiricott Company: 1912. Pp. 345.
In more than half the public school rooms in America can be seen, painted as a frieze upon the wall, or printed and hanging in a frame of raffia, or simply written upon the blackboard in the teacher’s precise handwriting, the axiom, “We learn to do by doing.” If this be a true law for children, it is no less true for those who have to do with children. The way to learn how to run a psychological clinic is to run it.
Under the direction of Dr Lightner Witmer, Dr Holmes has conducted for several years, three of the five afternoons a week, the Psychological Clinic of the University of Pennsylvania. His “Conservation of the Child” tells as much as it is possible to tell of the way the clinic is carried on, its organization, its equipment, and its function in the community. Workers in this very rich field of scientific and social activity can, of course, learn more of the practical methods of the Psychological Clinic by spending a few weeks in daily observation, preferably in summer when the special classes are in session, than they can by reading any book. But even those who liave passed such apprenticeship will find that Dr Holmes has much to offer them. In the chapter on “Classification of Clinic Cases” he gives an excellent version of the Binet tests, as well as the pedagogical tests in use at the clinic at the University of Pennsylvania. lie includes likewise a questionnaire for the general examination of a clinic case, a report blank for the Binet tests, a schedule for the physical examination, and a report blank for a thorough mental examination based upon psychological tests. The “Tests for Mental Analysis,” as the author calls them, have been worked out by Dr Clara Harrison Town. Some of them need no apparatus, and are applicable to the routine examination of children. Others are more complex, and require for their performance a well equipped psychological laboratory with a trained psychologist to adjust the instruments and take the record.
It is for the general public, however, not for a few specialists, that Dr Holmes has written his book. Everyone who cares about children (and where is the sane man or woman who does not care for them?) will read it with interest. Parents who are baffled by the problem of the “child who is different” will get from the book the beginnings of insight. Teachers who have had experience with difficult children will find it an aid to better understanding. Even those who have no children to worry over, provided they possess what is loosely called “the social consciousness,” and take a living interest in the welfare of theif kind, may spend a profitable hour or so with “The Conservation of the Child.”
To the Casual Reader, if any such there be, we would suggest that a good way to get an idea of what a psychological clinic is like, is to read first the chapter on “Sociological Relations,” near the end of the volume. This tells where the children come from, what they look like, and how they behave,?or generally, how they misbehave. Then he,? our Casual Reader,?may look at the many photographs of children of all sorts. After that he may take the chapter 011 the “Operation of the Clinic,” and then finish the book at his pleasure. A. T.
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.