Diagnostic Problems in Educational Guidance at the Observation School, Unversity of Pennsylvantia, Summer of 1920
- Author:
Gladys G. Ide, Ph.D.,
Director of Special Education, Public Schools of Philadelphia. Formerly in charge Social Service Department, Psychological Clinic, University of Pennsylvania.
An Observation School is maintained by the Department of Education of the University of Pennsylvania during the six weeks of the summer session. The children who attend it are such as are willing?for one reason or another?to attend a summer session in Philadelphia, with all that that implies in the way of heat and discomfort. There are no restrictions as to color, and no examination, however superficial, was required in 1920 for admission to specified classes. Teachers, skilled in the demonstration of methods of teaching and thoroughly trained as supervisors of the grades, were placed in charge of the different groups of children. Students, regularly enrolled in the School of Education, observed the teaching and then attended the conferences under the direction of members of the school. This report has to do with the Observation School of the Summer Session, 1920.
It was observed that many lessons, however skilfully taught, were not successful. Especially was this true in the primary department, under the supervision of Miss Dannaker. Co-operating with the School of Education, the Psychological Clinic examined many of the children and through the Clinic Teacher, Miss Poole, and her assistants, aided in solving some of the problems presented, and, also, helped the teachers in the organization of their work. The first and second grades were very small and were grouped together under the direction of Miss Johnson, a very capable primary supervisor, who attempted to demonstrate to these classes the work which children of these grades are ordinarily supposed to do. The Psychological Clinic was called in to help discover the trouble when Miss Johnson found it impossible to demonstrate her work with the class. Half of the group were colored children, all of them over-age, and with practically no preparation for the work they were supposed to be doing in the second grade. Some of these children came from the South, where they had had no school advantages, and others had entered school late and stayed out as much as possible. One child of this group was so thin, that at ten years, she had the weight of an eight year old child, although her height was that of the average ten year old. She displayed so little energy that it was utterly impossible for her to do regular work in school. Other colored children proved to be dull?the fact that they were there during the summer session being indicative in itself that they were not the brightest ones in their group. The white children of the grade were a conglomeration of nationality and condition. Two of the little boys, Sol and Esau, aged nine and seven respectively, were Jewish, four months in America from Jerusalem. The older one had the height and weight of a child of seven and showed marked tubercular tendencies; while the younger one had the height and weight of a child of five, but had a good physique which responded readily and quickly to the milk furnished by sympathetic teachers. These boys were bright?they had readily learned in a few weeks common English expressions?and under speech teaching directed by Miss Poole, they had learned to read a few passages in a primer in connection with their language work. The problem of these boys was that of language. They were easily able to do the simple tasks set for them if they could be made to understand what was said to them, but during the summer they had to depend upon imitating the other children. The younger boy was able to follow the progress of a complicated game by watching for cues from his fellows. These two children did not understand the English language enough to profit by first grade work, and will require, if they are to receive the education they ought to receive and for which they are fitted, some little time to acquire proficiency in language. They have had, however, during the summer, a good beginning in English.
Another difficult child in this grade was John, who was so obstinate as to be a bar to the progress of the other children in the class. If his teacher asked him a question in the course of the class exercises, he obstinately refused to reply. His behavior in the class was characteristic, for if he were asked to sit up straight in his seat he immediately slid as far down as he could; and, if requested to remain seated, he immediately began sauntering around the class room looking for something with which to occupy himself. After he had been especially taught for some days, it was discovered that his language acquirements were ample for second grade work, and when given an opportunity to busy himself with material which pleased him he made rapid progress, and was even efficient in reading and writing. He was never given an opportunity to exercise his stubborn streak. The school room atmosphere did not appeal to John, for none of its activities had interested him; and the consequent effort at discipline, which was necessary to keep him from being an annoyance to all other children, had worked out very badly in his case. John was not ready for group instruction.
Bessie also was a child afflicted with pathological obstinacy to such a great degree that she had refused, heretofore, to carry on a conversation with anyone. She was physically anaemic and lacked stamina for the successful maintenance of her attention in the school room. For many weeks she sat in class and took no part whatever in the exercises. At last, she began to wake up and make herself useful to the teacher in passing papers and gathering up pencils. She had not acquired proficiency enough in language to do anything with reading and writing, so was still unsuccessful in first grade work; but she had learned to conform to the conditions in the school room, and will eventually take her place there. Her behavior was normal enough, so that she was accepted by the group at her full value, one small boy, aged seven, proudly announcing that she was “his girl.”
William was still sitting in the second grade, but should have been doing first grade work. Mentally, he was a normal child with a defect of memory span so great as to be a permanent handicap in the acquirement of reading and arithmetic. He took part in the exercises of the day in a fashion definitely superior, but had the ability to acquire second grade competency in reading and writing. The fact of his slow mental progress made his physical and social competency a definite menace to the younger children with whom he was associated in the second grade.
James was so much the superior of the other children in mental aptitude that he was a constant source of irritation to the teacher because of bad behavior. He was not really a bad boy at all, but he was a restless, dissatisfied and discontented boy; and, because school work did not appeal particularly to him?he was trying to do second grade work and did not read more than half a dozen words or so?he had to occupy his mind by whatever he could find to do. Unfortunately, what he could find to do usually interfered seriously with the teacher’s idea of proper discipline.
With these children were seated others, more or less problems in themselves, but none so peculiarly constituted as to mark them abnormal in development. Miss Johnson had been expected to show methods of teaching second grade reading and writing and arithmetic, and she found herself unable to teach definite methods of second grade reading to a group of children not able to read at all, or to teach number combinations to a class whose number combinations were fairly well developed when it came to counting money, but who did not know abstract combinations and who were not yet ready for the kind of work which she was prepared to teach, and which she was supposed to teach for the benefit of the inexperienced teachers who wished to learn methods of handling second grade material in the fall.
Miss Plimpton in the third grade had the same sort of problem as Miss Johnson of the first and second grades. On examination, it was discovered that not more than ten per cent of the third grade children were able to read even with second grade proficiency. A large portion of this class was also colored, the colored children presenting the same problems as those in the first grade, that of overageness and lack of preparation due to failure to acquire school material, or to absence from school. None of them could read with even first grade proficiency, and their ability at numbers was limited to a little counting and a few combinations. Many of the white children were not able to read the first grade primer with the proficiency of a first year child. One boy in particular, a fine looking Italian youngster of ten years, had managed to reach the third grade because of the two-year promotion system, with no knowledge of reading and arithmetic whatsoever. This boy was found to be very clever, and on four weeks’ teaching was able to do more than half of second year reading. It was difficult, however, to hold him to school work, because he had acquired, among other proficiencies, those which come from three or four years’ idling in school. He was lazy, and, more than that, was disgusted with school. At the end of four weeks of clinic teaching, he deserted the ship and the school heard no more from him, except the letters which is widowed mother sent to the teacher asking whether he was still attending school or not. It is very evident that this fine looking, intelligent Italian child, who, at ten should have been entering fourth grade well equipped to do fourth grade work, had been a failure largely through the fault of the school, and now, at nearly eleven years, is quite unlikely ever to learn to read efficiently enough to read a newspaper for his own amusement. Tired of school, he had acquired habits of idleness and contempt of the law, which are going to be very hard to overcome, and which cannot now be overcome by ordinary means.
A little colored child, Anna, nine years old, was judged normal in her capacity for school work; but excluded from school because there was no opportunity to bring her up to grade through teaching, and her presence in the third grade proved a menace to the others in the class. She, like many other children under the same conditions, found entertainment in ways not satisfactory to the teacher. One boy in this room had acquired a parrot-like foundation of third grade reading, but was unable to reproduce or show he had satisfactory ability really to do third grade work. While he remains in the lower school, he will have no difficulty in getting along; but, as soon as he is asked to read for reproduction, as is done in histoiy or geography, he will not be able to keep up his present progress.
Albert was no larger than the rest of the boys, but announced proudly that he was twelve years old. His height and weight were average for nine j^ears and lie did fairly well in the third grade. A social visit at his home elicited the information that this boy was a paralysis case, and that his digestion was very bad. He was referred to a competent physician and on his recommendation removed from the school to a sanatorium for treatment.
This class was a second grade class. The teacher had spent the entire summer making an effort to teach second grade children third grade material because that is what she was supposed to do. The fourth grade class proved to be a fairly homogeneous group, as were also the fifth and sixth grades. With the exception of a few over-aged children, who were excluded because of their physical condition or lack of preparation, the rest were capable of carrying their work with some efficiency. The children in these classes were able to do the work which would have been in general expected of them if they were in a class one grade lower than that stated, that is, the fourth grade children were prepared to do third grade work, and the third grade children second grade work, while those in the fifth and sixth grade groups were able to perform on the par of a good fourth and fifth grade group.
The seventh grade class was also a very good class for demonstration purposes because it consisted largely of younger children, children who were sent to summer school to make up a grade or half a grade in order that they might graduate from the eighth grade a term or so sooner. Notwithstanding the good condition of this class, they did not prove to be fully up to grade, and there were a few children who were distinctly difficult to teach. Two fifteen and sixteen year old negro girls were unable to do the work of the seventh grade or of the sixth grade. They were glib readers, and one of them was able to reproduce something of what she read. The other did not reproduce at all. They were the dull, slow type of girls, normal in their social group and destined for some unskilled labor; but not suitable material for seventh grade history and geography. They had not the ability to understand the problems presented to them and had no capacity for acquiring information and putting it to some purpose or use. Their time was being wasted in the kind of training they were given, and the time of the teacher was being wasted in endeavoring to educate them along lines for which they were unfitted. These girls need training which will directly benefit them in their future positions in life, where history and geography are quite unlikely to find much place.
One boy of this grade, George, was physically in such wretched shape that it was a wonder he responded at all to the school work. That he was doing well did not render the condition less of a menace. His nasal passages were entirely closed and he was utterly unable to take a breath through his nose. Probably due to the same cause, his hearing was defective and the formation of the jaw so changed that his teeth were coming in in double rows, and the palate had been raised so high that he found difficulty in speaking intelligibly. This boy was very seriously in need of medical attention, and he was referred to a Hospital dispensary. A good pupil was being ruined by physical defects, some of which at least were remediable. Two other members of the seventh grade were possessed of mental defects so great as to render them unfit for continued presence in that grade. Narrow memory spans and poor distribution of attention are serious handicaps in this grade. They were quite unable to understand and remember the commands of the teacher or the complex directions required of them in arithmetic and geography. Neither of these boys was fit to go on with school work unless they were specially taught by methods which would enable their limited memory spans to function. The seventh grade was no place for such teaching, so these boys were receiving nothing from the instruction offered, and were merely proving themselves a drag on class and teacher alike.
The eighth grade class was almost as much of a problem as was the first grade. With an exceptional teacher, Miss Weeks, at its head, an earnest effort was being made to really do eighth grade work with eighth grade methods. Less than fifty per cent of the class showed themselves able to keep the pace. A few of these were overage. All were hoping by their attendance at the summer session to place themselves in High School half a year earlier. Not fifty per cent of this class could read an ordinary article in a newspaper and reproduce the material which was read. On the day the examination was conducted, the children were asked to read the story of a fire, an article simply written and which contained no words beyond their comprehension. Very few of the group reproduced more than a small number of the facts presented. About fifty per cent of the children failed to remember enough of the article to get even a general idea of what the story was about. This reading was not intended to grade the children on their ability to read; its purpose was to discover whether the children had language capacity great enough for eighth grade. In many cases it was easily shown that part of the reason for the failure was the fact that the children could not read. Since a very large number of the eighth grade children do not go farther in school, it is not too much to expect them to be able to read a newspaper or a simple book, as their eight years or more of schooling is at least supposed to function in reading and writing. That half of this class was not able to read intelligently is an evidence that the training which they had received was totally inadequate to the amount of time spent upon it. Considering that it is possible to teach an imbecile to read at least parrot fashion, these normal eighth graders should have acquired much greater proficiency.
Two of the girls in the eighth grade had such defective eye-sight as to render any ordinary school work practically useless. One had been told several times that she had an eye defect, but under no compulsion at home, had refused to wear glasses because of vanity. While she could read with effort, she had not been able to do much work for herself and was forced to depend largely on what she overheard from others. The other girl was suffering from nystagmus and it was impossible for her to read at all. This girl was getting along poorly, but acquiring some information by listening to other members of the class. She is the type of child who should be educated in a semi-blind class where work is presented through the ears and the hands. No amount of effort on her part in a regular class will make it possible for her really to do eighth grade work. Because of the great deficiency of vision, this girl had also developed an inferiority complex so great as to render her non-social. She had never told her teacher that she could not see, and submitted quietly to the comments of others on her poor work. Another girl in this class was said by her teacher to be a very bright girl who apparently did not learn at all in the eighth grade. This girl bore out her teacher’s words that she was bright, but her auditory memory span for digits was four, while her visual memory span was six. She showed little or no ability to acquire information through the ear, and her auditory images were so indefinite as to be almost useless. This girl had good visual images, but was getting no opportunity to use them as the work she was offered had to come through the hearing, for, as her teacher remarked, “She had no time in the limited session to present her work for the benefit of one or two individuals.”
A boy in this class was found to have the same defect. These two children were bright enough to keep up with their work, as they had learned to read well, but they had no retentiveness for auditory stimuli. A summer session is too short for a child handicapped with a defect of any sort. These two children received nothing from the class instruction. It is no wonder that the teacher said they were not able to do eighth grade work.
Several negro girls and boys were like those of the seventh grade, impossible candidates for eighth grade work. Neither in congenital ability or in school proficiency were they ready for the eighth grade. Over-age, dull and stupid, they offered no suggestions or inspiration for the class and received none from the other members. All they could do was to sit in their seats and make such effort as they were required to make, without in any way detracting from the pleasure which they found in the company of those who were of their own age and condition. One negro girl proved to be among the best in the class, indicating that the members of this race were not handicapped by conditions other than those supplied by themselves. This girl was fully up to grade andsheoughtto do very well in high school in the fall. Two of the eighth grade boys, both nearly sixteen and ready for working papers, had already chosen vocations. One of these boys, whose father is a butcher, had already passed more than half of his apprenticeship, and expects before long to make good wages as a cutter. The other is, at present, an apprentice to a moving picture operator. He is nearly sixteen, and at eighteen expects to receive his license as a full-fledged operator. Both boys, in a couple of years, can expect a better financial return than the teacher who was endeavoring to teach them eighth grade mensuration. The school work which they were receiving did not seem to answer their particular needs and requirements, but they were forced to accept what was offered until age gives them opportunity to step out into business, where the training received outside of school will give them a definite financial and social return.
Two girls of this class were what may be known as the common, or garden variety?normal in behavior, good, but dull, they were not likely to get out of the eighth grade by any real ability of their own. They were really girls who were at the fifth grade level of proficiency. They had been passed on until they had reached the eighth grade, without, however, having really acquired proficiency or information usable beyond the fifth grade level. These two girls were making every effort to pass the examination for the eighth grade; but their lack of imageability rendered history and geography meaningless, and their only chance of passing the examination would be the memorizing of enough facts to enable them to pass an examination requiring memory preparation. They would fail utterly on any other test. Another girl was so nervous that she was rendered unfit for the work she was attempting. What she needed was medical care, a rest and an opportunity for a physical building-up before she attempted to do eighth grade work.
The problems the Observation School presents are more complex than may be expected in the average school, for in the Observation School the children who are “left down”, the over-aged, the dullandthe physically defective all try to reach the goal of the grade just ahead during one short summer session of six weeks. The process is one of forcing on their part, and the majority of the children who attempt the forcing process are unable to profit by the opportunity they are given. Nevertheless, the same problems, from a slightly different angle, are present in practically every school. Some children are more able than others to profit by the regular eighth grade instruction, which the State has given as a model for schools to follow. Many children do not make regular progress from year to year, and many children are found by the Psychologist to be suffering from defects which might have been removed had they been taken earlier; but the academic progress of a child who is between eleven and sixteen years of age is not hopeful if he has not made good in his school work up to that time. It is difficult, indeed, to teach a child to read?as a means of gaining information for himself?after he is eleven years old. This means that the children who are likely to be problems of this sort ought to be known in the seventh, eighth and ninth years in the lower grades, instead of waiting until they are definitely problems in the higher grades. The child with a particular mental defect, likely to prove a handicap in school work, may often be taught to overcome this handicap through substitutions of methods. This is especially true in the case of those children having a pronounced imageability in one field and a corresponding lack in another. A child who is not going to read and write, but who responds normally to social conditions, can be taught often wisely and well material not dependent upon reading and writing.
Often an ability is shown in music, drawing, in manual training, in household arts, in sewing, in art?there is no reason why a child should not be trained in fields in which he has ability, if he fails to show the required capacity for stereotyped education. Many dull, normal children may find their school life of peculiar value to them through the adaptation of a curriculum to their needs. True democracy consists in giving these children that training which they are able to receive with profit to themselves and society. Children differ in capacity, and the school curriculum must offer opportunities for the development of the capacities which are present, instead of attempting to arrange the education of all children according to the same plan. Anyone will recognize the fact that features and coloring vary for every person, and just so is variation found in the mental capacities and competencies of different individuals.
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