Meeting of Experimental Psychologists
NEWS AND COMMENT.
The Experimental Psychologists will meet this year at Columbia University on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, April 9-11. The scientific sessions will be preceded by a dinner on Wednesday evening, April 8th, in honor of Professor James McKeen Cattell.
Dr George W. Twitmyer Died February 21, 191 Dr Twitmyer was born on a farm in Center County, Pa., June 9, 1849, and received his elementary education in the country schools. He secured his first certificate to teach in 1863, when only fourteen years old, but did not begin teaching until after his graduation from Rebersburg normal school, a private school which is no longer in existence. From the time of his graduation until his death he was continuously in public school work, excepting for a period of two years when he was headmaster of the McEwensville Academy, Pa.
His first principalship of schools was at Watsontown, Pa. He was principal of the Honesdale, Pa., schools for sixteen years, superintendent of schools of Bethlehem, Pa., for four years, and superintendent of schools of Wilmington, Del., for the fourteen years immediately preceding his death. He held the honorary degree of M.A. from Franklin and Marshall College, and M.S. from Mansfield State Normal School. At the latter institution the degree was awarded on the basis of an examination, without residence. In 1903 Lafayette College conferred upon him the degree of Ph.D., his thesis being entitled, “Treatment and Training of Backward Children in the Public Schools.” Three years ago Dr Twitmyer was appointed by the Governor of Delaware as a member of the State Board of Education, and upon the organization of this board he was made chairman for a period of seven years. He was largely instrumental in putting through a revision of the school laws of Delaware, which completely changed the method of administration in the public schools and provided also for the reorganization and expansion of Delaware College. About a year after his appointment to the State Board of Education, he was made a trustee of Delaware College. Two years ago he was appointed by the Governor on a commission to formulate plans for the organization of a woman’s college to be affiliated with Delaware College. At the time of his death the work had reached the stage of erection of buildings, the selection of a faculty, and the draughting of a curriculum. The Woman’s College will be opened formally in the fall of 1914.
Dr Twitmyer was the author of numerous magazine articles, including one in The Psychological Clinic for June, 1907, to which reference will be made later. He was much interested in the pedagogy of Sunday school instruction, and took an active part in the movement for the grading of Sunday school lessons and the better training of Sunday school teachers. As an institute lecturer he was well known for many years throughout the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Ohio. He was a director (by election) of the National Education Association. At the summer school of the University of Pennsylvania in 1907, Dr Twitmyer took part with several other educators in a general course on Educational Psychology, giving one week’s lectures on the special topic, “Diagnosis and Treatment of Backward Children in Public Schools.?The application and personal working out of the clinical method in the solution of the problem by the superintendent of a school system.?Results of the method in the Wilmington schools.”
The distinction of having been a pioneer in this field is only one, although an important one, of the many laurel wreaths which will be placed upon Dr. Twitmyer’s grave by those who hold him in honor and affection. I shall always remember the vigor and vitality with which Superintendent Twitmyer attacked any problem, whether it were one of study or administration. The common schools of Pennsylvania and Delaware may look with pride upon the record of this educator, whose career was rounded in their service. A school man through and through, Dr Twitmyer could scarcely be matched in this country for initiative, intellectual grasp, and a willingness to learn and apply whatever science afforded. As late as last summer he went to New York to study administrative statistics under Dr Ayres, and this fall entered for work along the same line at the University of Pennsylvania under Professor Updegraff, Those who attended the recent Richmond meeting of superintendents must have been struck by the predominance of the scientific note to be heard in the educational discussions. Clearly the profession of education has passed over into the scientific stage. Superintendent Twitmyer was a leader in this progress, for since the year 1895 he was definitely committed to the scientific study of educational problems.
While principal of the Honesdale, Pa., schools, Dr Twitmyer gave me the first encouragement in the work in clinical psychology, just initiated at the University of Pennsylvania, which I received from a public school man in active service. In 1895 I was conducting courses in child psychology and making a few tentative efforts toward the clinical study of individual children. Dr Twitmyer was not only the most active and appreciative student of that year’s summer school, but he seized upon the clinical method and applied it himself subsequently in the schools of Bethlehem and Wilmington. He put together the clinical records of 1487 cases of retardation, and induced his teachers and principals to assist in examination and corrective training. The brief summary entitled “Clinical Studies of Backward Children,” published in The Psychological Clinic for June, 1907, is the first report of a clinical investigation of the pupils of a city school system.
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