Mental and Physical Examination of School Children in Rural Districts
- Author:
William H. Pyle, Ph.D.
.V. Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri.
Much has been, written in recent years about the examination of school children. In many places, especially in the larger cities, mental and physical examinations are common. These examinations are excellent as far as they go, but they seldom go farther than the compiling of statistics showing the percentages of different kinds of defects, the number of retarded and delinquent children, and similar data. In some cities, the examinations lead to a certain amount of segregation; defective and abnormal children are often put into special classes and given instruction suited to their individual needs. This is all, of course, worth doing, but it is only the beginning of what can come from the mental and physical examination of school children. The writer wishes to suggest a much more extended use of such tests. In the first place, they should be universal,?should be given in every school in the country as well as in the city. Sufficient machinery is already provided in many cities for the tests, and could easily be provided in the rest. In the country the case is different. It will doubtless be necessary to pass special laws and set aside state appropriations to make the examinations possible there. Some such plan as the following might be practicable: every county should have, in addition to a county superintendent of schools, a psychological expert and a medical expert to supervise the mental and physical examinations respectively. There could doubtless now be found a sufficient number of physicians available to look after the physical examinations. There is not, on the other hand, a sufficient number of trained men to look after the mental examinations, but there are plenty of universities prepared to train them. There is, perhaps, 110 reason why the examining functions might not be combined in one man? a medical graduate with some psychological training. Such an official would render a county more valuable service than is now being rendered by any county officer. It is not our purpose to work out the scheme in detail liere. Only practice could determine wliat all the details should be. It might, for example, prove feasible for much of the examination to be done by local physicians, and perhaps a part by the teachers.
Not only should the examinations be universal but they should be made at definite intervals, and the results should be kept in permanent records, open to the public under certain conditions much as other public records are. These records should show the mental and physical conditions and growth of every child from the time of entering school till the course is finished. The child should not, perhaps, at least while young, know certain facts of the record, owing to the suggestive influence it might have on him. Older children might profit by some of the knowledge contained in the record. The records should also contain the results of the ordinary examinations given by the teacher. The fact that such data are to be placed on permanent record along with other matter obtained by careful tests would doubtless lead to more care and precision on the part of the teacher.
In the light of the results obtained from these tests and examinations the teacher could proceed with definite knowledge of the mental and physical conditions of the children who are being taught. At present, teachers are largely ignorant of the physical condition and mental ability of the children in their classes. What knowledge they have is too often the result of superficial observation combined with guess-work. A room-full of children is treated en masse, as being alike. If any differences are noted, the only thought is to send the child showing variations to a higher or lower grade. The possibilities of an improved procedure based upon fuller information have hardly been dreamed of. It has been frequently and justly remarked that the scientific breeder and stock-raiser has a much more accurate knowledge of his animals than the average teacher has of the children under his charge. The breeder finds it profitable to know something of the heredity of his animals. Some day perhaps even education will become scientific. May we not hope for a time when teachers will have an equally accurate knowledge of the children taught, and when the methods of teaching will be based on scientific facts, instead of on belief, opinion and mere tradition ?
As to the nature of the tests that should be given, it is not necessary to go into details here. They should, on the physical side, reveal the condition of eyes, ears, nose, throat, teeth, and in fact as far as possible of every part and organ of the body. Weights and measurements should bo taken, and the successive examinations should show clearly the growth and development of the body. On the mental side, the tests should include such processes as memory, imagination, attention, discrimination and association. And, as throwing light on the condition of both the mind and body, tests showing the speed and accuracy of movement should be made. Not only should the examinations be made at definite intervals, but as already suggested certain facts should be ascertained and recorded by the teacher from the daily work and conduct of the children. This brief article is submitted in the hope that it may at least invoke discussion of the plan proposed.
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