Retardation in Salt Lake City
The Psychological Clinic Copyright, 1915, by Lightner Witmer, Editor. Vol. IX, No. 5. October 15, 1915 :Author: J. Harold Williams,
Research Fellow under the Buckel Foundation, Stanford University. This study was undertaken as a part of the recent educational survey of Salt Lake City, under the direction of Dr Ellwood P. Cubberley, of Stanford University. The results here presented were included in a chapter of the survey report entitled “The Progress of the Children through the Schools.” The population of Salt Lake City is approximately 105,000, of whom 18.5 per cent are children of school age. This proportion of children is above the average for American cities, and considerably above that of western cities. Like other cities of the West, the population is increasing rapidly, and hence retardation and problems of a similar nature reach very large proportions. Table I shows the distribution of children for each half year of age and each half grade. The heavy lines running diagonally through the center of the table enclose the number of children who may be said to be making normal progress, as regards age-grade distribution. For example, this includes those in the first grade who are between the ages of 63^ and 8 years; those in the eighth grade who are not younger than 133^ or older than 15 years. This classification is based upon the fact that children usually begin school at 6 years of age and complete the eight grades of the elementary school at 14. Those represented by numbers above the diagonal lines may be considered accelerated, or under the average age for their grades. Those below the diagonal lines are retarded, or over the average age for their present grades. The degree of acceleration or retardation depends upon the distance above or below the lines enclosing the normal group. This does not, of course, take into consideration the reasons for children being accelerated or retarded. It is merely a presentation of the age-grade conditions during the month the survey was being made.
TABLE I. AGE-GRADE DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS. RETARDATION IN SALT LAKE CITY. 127 The percentages of the three groups represented are as follows: Accelerated 16.2 per cent Normal 40.4 per cent Retarded 43.4 per cent TABLE II.?PERCENTAGES OF ACCELERATED, NORMAL, AND RETARDED PUPILS BY GRADES. Grade I-A… I-B.. II-A. I I-B. III-A. III-B. IV-A IV-B. V-A.. V-B.. VI-A. Per Cent Accelerated Per Cent Normal Per Cent Retarded 5.9 55.8 33.3 30.0 49.3 20.7 57.1 30.7 12.2 23.6 49.6 | 26.8 10.7 43.9 | 46.3 21.3 44.0 | 34.7 8.6 38.8 | 52.6 16.2 40.8 j 44.0 8.5 31.7 | 59.8 16.1 37.5 | 44.6 10.7 28.3 j 51.0 VI- B 12.2 35.5 52.3 VII- A 7.7 29.8 62.5 VII- B 15.1 35.3 | 49.6 VIII- A 9.9 36.4 53.7 VIII- B 18.1 34.7 47.2 IX- A 5.7 31.2 63.1 IX- B 18.1 34.4 47.5 X- A 6.3 34.7 59.0 X- B 18.7 35.7 45.6 XI- A 4.8 37.3 57.9 XI- B 26.3 33.9 39.8 XII- A 66.7 33.3 0. XII-B 25.7 45.2 29.1 Entire City 16.2 40.4 43.4
The percentage of retardation found here is above that of the majority of American cities where similar studies have been made, although this ranges from 19 per cent in Quincy, Mass., to 51 per cent in Passaic, N. J.*
Table II shows the retardation for each grade, as well as the per cent of normal and accelerated pupils for each. The average for any entire grade is not far from the city average, including in some cases more than half the children in the grade.
An important factor in connection with a study of retardation is the degree of variability from the normal distribution. Of the 43.4 per cent constituting the retarded group, some are retarded less than one year, some one year, some two years, etc., and not infrequently the degree of over-age is as great as five years. Taking an average grade for illustration, we find that the teachers have to deal with a very wide range of ages. The following table represents the percentage distribution of the children of different ages in the fifth grade:
Ages in Years and Months Per Cent of Pupils Classification 9.0- 9.5.. 9.6- 9.11. 10.0-10.5.. 10.6-10.11. 11.0-11.5.. 11.6-11.11. 12.0-12.5.. 12.6-12.11. 13.0-13.5.. 13.6-13.11. 14.0-14.5.. 14.6-14.11. 15.0-15.5.. 15.6-15.11. 16.0-16.5.. 16.6-16.11. 0.1 0.5 5.0 12.0 19.0 17.5 13.3 15.0 7.0 4.0 2.5 2.0 1.3 0.4 0.2 0.2 Accelerated Normal Retarded
Children in the fifth grade who are more than 12 years of age may be reasonably considered retarded; and yet in this grade 17.6 per cent are more than 13 years of age; 6.6 per cent are older than 14, and 2.1 per cent are older than 15 years. There are more children two years retarded than the total number of accelerates. Not every teacher of a fifth grade class has pupils of all the ages shown in the foregoing table; but there are classes in the city where an amount of variation fully as great may be found.
Fig. 1 shows the distribution of retardation in the elementary grades. The figures for the half-grades have been consolidated for this purpose. There is an over-ageness in the entering grade of 29.5 per cent. This includes, of course, those who have failed of promotion their first year in school. The amount increases greatly until the sixth grade, where the maximum is reached. That there is a general decrease in the amount of retardation beyond the sixth grade has been noted in other studies. A large part of this is due, not to the increased efficiency of the instruction in the grades beyond that point, but to the dropping out of school of the retarded pupils. Probably no single fact argues more strongly for greater attention to industrial training and vocational guidance before the time of discouragement is reached. It is very evident that failure to make progress in the traditional school subjects has caused many pupils to leave school who might have been saved for training in some practical and useful line of work, had the opportunity been afforded at that time.
It is a matter of common observation that the presence of greatly over age pupils in a regular class is a hindrance to the progress of the normal pupils, an injustice to the teacher, and often of little value to the retarded pupils themselves. This is especially true in growing cities, where the greatly increasing number of children to be cared for has caused many classes to have more pupils than the generally accepted standard. The following is a fair sample of the results brought about by placing children of greatly varying ages in the same class.
Miss L., teacher of grades 2-B and 3-A, has a class of 39 pupils. They range in age from 7 to nearly 13 years, being distributed thus: Ages 7.0- 7.5.. 7.6- 7.11. 8.0- 8.5.. 8.6- 8.11. 9.0- 9.5.. 9.6- 9.11. 10.0-10.5.. 10.6-10.11. 11.0-11.5.. 11.6-11.11. 12.0-12.5.. 12.6-12.11. 2-B 3-A 1 1 I 4 3
Those represented by the numbers between the heavy lines are normally distributed. Probably all of those below the dotted line are sufficiently over age to warrant their removal to special classes. We should ordinarily consider 39 pupils too large a number for one class, even if all were normal, or approximately so. The time which would necessarily be given to instruct properly such a class as the one given here is surely greater than the length of the school day. There are 1670 school children in Salt Lake City who are repeating the work of their grades. This is approximately 9 per cent of the school enrolment. The great majority of these children are taking the work for the second time. Others have gone over the work of the same grade as many as five times. The distribution is as follows:
Taking work second time 1555 Taking work third time 101 Taking work fourth or more times 14 Many more would be taking the work for the third and fourth times were it not for the dropping out of school due to repeated failures.
The great difference between the number of second time and third time repeaters suggests that there may be an over-generosity on the part of teachers in promoting pupils who have “made up” their work after having gone over the work of the grade for a second time. Fig. 2 shows the distribution by grades, of failures and promotions during the past year. The number of failures in grade 1-A is approximately 16 per cent of the number enrolled. The proportion decreases after the first few years, and in the last year of the elementary school it becomes relatively very small. This is the result of the weeding out of the pupils who make slow progress. The teachers were asked to state, in each case of repetition, the probable cause for failure. In ten schools, selected at random, in which there were 509 pupils repeating the work of the grade, the reasons given by the teachers were as follows: I I PROMOTED FAILED ? Cases. Illness or physical defects 115 Dullness 107 Retarded mental development 103 Poor home conditions 38 Inattention or lack of application 35 Poor attendance or truancy 34 Immature 22 Language difficulty 16 Change of schools 14 Entered too young 10 Slowness 8 Laziness 5 Entered too late 1 Delinquency 1
These are representative of the causes to which teachers commonly ascribe retardation. Many others have been given in individual cases. It is significant that in a large number of cases the teacher has recognized that mental deficiency in some degree has been the chief contributing cause. Probably many of the children for whom other reasons have been given would be found, upon examination, to be of less than average intelligence. Teachers often fail to appreciate the importance of this factor except in cases where the defect is obvious, and there is no other possible explanation. There are probably many feebleminded children among those marked “poor home conditions,” “inattention,” “language difficulty,” “slow,” and “lazy.” Apart from mental deficiency, it seems that ill health and physical ailments are the most important contributing factors in retardation, although not uncommonly children of low intelligence are physically defective. Remedial measures in the city have taken on three forms: (1) a special school for backward and feebleminded children; (2) ungraded rooms; and (3) the grading of backward children by school subjects.
The special school accommodates approximately 100 pupils. Five teachers and a principal are provided. Pupils are sent to this school from all parts of the city, and are transported at the expense of the school. The principal is a psychologist, and devotes his time, apart from his administrative duties, to the examination and classification of pupils. The survey has recommended that this school be enlarged to accommodate not less than 250 pupils, and that a well equipped psychological laboratory be provided in connection. The ungraded rooms in this city are in reality rooms set apart for teaching on the Batavia plan. There are ten of these rooms, in six of which the teachers devote full time to the work. In the remaining cases teachers of domestic science give such time as they can to the special class. Pupils in these classes are given special instruction in the school subjects in which they are most deficient. The school day is divided into periods of thirty minutes each, and a new class is formed each period. In one school the special teacher could instruct 70 pupils per day in this manner. These rooms, while rendering valuable service to the school, cannot take the place of special rooms for backward and feebleminded children. Too often a child’s all-round mental retardation is overlooked in attempting to build him up in his most difficult subject.
The third plan, that of grading pupils by school subjects, has been adopted by certain schools where no “ungraded” rooms have been provided, or where in some cases this room has been abolished for purposes of cutting down school expenses. Backward pupils are assumed to belong to different grades in different subjects. For example, a boy may be classified as belonging in the second grade in arithmetic, although in reading and geography he may be doing average fourth grade work. He is therefore placed in the second grade during the arithmetic period, and allowed to continue his other studies in the fourth grade. This plan is fully as inadequate as the one previously described, and does not solve the problem of the backward child. Teachers using these methods have often gained the impression that intelligence may be developed by giving a child a special opportunity to “catch up” in his school subjects. It was recommended that the city make more adequate provision for special rooms, for the continuous training of backward and feebleminded children, based upon the level of intelligence of each; and that special instruction by subject grading be confined to children who are of normal or nearly normal mentality. It was also urged that as soon as is practicable special instruction in classes be provided for children who show tendencies which may lead to delinquency, and for children of superior intelligence.
Let it be emphasized that Salt Lake City is not an exception among American cities either in the amount of retardation in the public schools, or in the fact that insufficient attention has been given to the problem. It is probably above the average city in respect to the latter. Educational surveys in different cities during the past few years have often dwelt at length upon the relation which school retardation bears to school efficiency, and its importance is in need of still greater emphasis.
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