Jimmie, The Italian Boy
- Author:
Doris Wilcox, M.A.,
Psychologist and Director of Special Classes, Norfolk, Va.
One afternoon a social service worker walked into the clinic with a little Italian boy whom she reported to be seven years old and in the second grade. She said that his teacher found that he wasn’t grasping the work as were the other children in the class. He was a good by but “Just didn’t get along.” The worker asked that he be given a psychological examination to determine what his trouble was.
Jimmie looked well enough. There was no indication that poor health was at the root of his failure to “get along.” He was sturdy and well grown for his age, had no apparent physical stigmata, walked with a normal gait and seemed to have plenty of energy at his disposal. His cheeks were pink and his beautiful brown eyes were bright and very wide awake.
He told me his name and his age and when I remarked that he certainly was a big boy for seven years he seemed to be very much pleased and rewarded me with a winning smile.
He set to work on the form board with swift, sure movements. He made no errors and completed the first trial in 26 seconds. During the second trial he dropped one figure and in doing so, misplaced another and the time went up to 40 seconds. The third time he came down to 30 seconds.
Putting away the cylinders formed a real problem for him, but he solved this problem very well. It is true that he made many errors, but he corrected them as he went along and he gained a little with each trial. His records were respectively 1 minute 45 seconds, 1 minute 40 seconds and 1 minute 30 seconds. Throughout the test he displayed adequate interest, intelligence, persistence and energy. He completed Healy A, owing partly to good luck, in 16 seconds. The second time he interchanged the two large pieces and this threw him entirely off the track. It took him 3 minutes and 10 seconds to rediscover the correct solution; but the third time he retained a correct mental image and achieved success in 23 seconds.
I asked him what he liked to do and he said “Write.” “Is that all?” I asked. “Play,” he answered. “Do you like to go to school? ” “Yes.” “Do you like your teacher?” “Yes.” “Do you like the children?” “No.” “What do you do in school?” “Write.” “What else?” “Fold my hands.” “What else?” “Nuttin.” “What do you play?” “Run.” “Do you know how you came out here? ” No answer. ” Did you come by yourself? ” He just smiled. “Have you any brothers and sisters?” Quick as a flash came a sentence in Italian, which I could not comprehend. Then I asked him, “What do you talk at home, American or Italian?” ” ‘Tan,” he replied.
That conversation gave me a hint that his failure to speak English fluently was perhaps at the bottom of the trouble. I wondered whether he could repeat English sentences any better than he could compose replies, so I tried him on some of the new memory span sentences. “It is raining hard and you will get wet.” He reproduced partly in Italian, using the English words “raining” and “wet.” “The house shook as the wagon passed by” was, according to his version, “House shook.” I tried a few more, but could not get anything which would warrant a diagnosis of memory span for sentences. Then I asked him if he could count and he counted up to 12 very well, except that his pronunciation was quite foreign. He said “tree” for three, and “hate” for eight; but was able to demonstrate in a test that his memory span for digits was 6 without question. When I handed him my fountain pen so that he might write for me he seemed overjoyed. Wrote the word “James” in a neat, clear hand and then the words “cat, rat, fat, mat,” and “sat” upon dictation. He said he did not know how to spell the word “car” and when I found that he had no knowledge of phonetics, I spelled the word for him and told him to write it. He couldn’t remember how to make “C.” I asked him how he spelled “Cat” and he responded quickly “c-a-t.” Then he found the letter “c” that he had previously written and copied it. He had the same trouble with “A” and “R.” When I dictated the letters of the alphabet I found that he knew most of them and could write them after a long period of thought, but he became confused at times. He did not know how to spell “house,” but learned it on three repetitions and learned “hill” on four repetitions. He could read only a few words from the primer, like “in,” “a” and “boy.”
I read him the story of the three little pigs. He paid excellent attention and seemed to comprehend, but when it came to reproduction he could only say ” pig?tree?pig?house?wuf.” Then I asked him if he could remember what he read from his own book. He beamed and began “See the boy. See the boy. The boy is John. He is John. He has a birthday. John has a birthday.”
I wondered what he could do in arithmetic and found that he was proficient up to 10. He knew that if he had a dime he could spend five cents and have a nickel left. And that if pencils cost eight cents apiece he could buy three for six cents. That if four oranges cost eight cents, two would cost four cents. He was competent with numbers up ‘to 25.
While he was working he fingered a box of design blocks that was near him, so I took four of them out and made the red square on a white background. He copied it in 20 seconds and then copied the chevron in 16 seconds. While I was taking down some notes he was making a design with 16 blocks which was very effective both in color and in composition.
The entire examination lasted about 45 minutes and during the whole time the boy was polite, interested, alert, responsive and very friendly. He showed himself to be adequately possessed of the five essential congenital capabilities. But on the other hand he also demonstrated beyond a doubt that he had not even first grade proficiency in school subjects. It is not to be wondered at that he fails to grasp second grade work. He has not mastered even the rudiments of the English language. He hears Italian at home and in the streets. He plays with Italian boys. Although he is apparently a bright little fellow, he hasn’t a marked language gift and consequently has not acquired English in his year and a half of contact during school hours with English speaking people, because no one has taken the trouble to give him instruction in our language. I think he is to be congratulated upon understanding now as well as he does. Moreover, it is obvious that if, under the existing circumstances, Jimmie were keeping pace with the American youngsters in the class, he would rank with the child wonders of the age. But, being merely a normal boy, he goes to school, folds his hands, listens to the teacher day by day, gradually learns to understand her and benefits by a portion of the instruction.
It was formally stated in the diagnosis that Jimmie was of normal mentality, but had not first grade competency, due to his lack of familiarity with the English language: and it was recommended that he be given special training in this subject.
This naturally led to the question, “Where can Jimmie receive such training? ” His family cannot afford private instruction for him. In this particular case the social service worker said the boy could receive instruction at a settlement house in the neighborhood where classes are held.
It might be a matter of interest for educators and statesmen to consider that there are thousands of “Jimmies” in this country. We have permitted immigration almost without restriction, and then we have talked of Americanizing these foreigners. But we neglect to provide means for them to take the very first step. We leave the teaching of our language to chance and a few scattered settlement houses.
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