A Social and Psychological Study of a Mountain Community

The Psychological Clinic Copyright, 1923, by Lightner Witmer, Editor. Vol. XIV, Nos. 8-9 January, February, 1923

By Rose M. Stewart, Latimer Junior High School, Pittsburgh, Pa. The Southern Highlander has been the target of much literary effort in the fields of romance, history, theology, and, more recently, of psychology. He has been represented as chivalrous, treacherous, devout, heathenish; scrupulously honest, shrewdly over-reaching; kind, cruel; keen-minded or half-witted. In short, he is shown in every conflicting and contrasting phase that some idly curious traveler, hotly partisan defender, or too aggressive sociologist has discovered in the individuals he has been able to approach. The controversy over his mental capacity has waxed so hot since the army tests that the writer, who has known the mountain people fairly well for upward of a dozen years, was moved to do the sonal investigating reported in this study. The method of ctpproach differed from that of the Army examiners in that the examiner met the subjects in their own environment, becoming a familiar figure and winning their confidence and friendship before attempting the tests at all.

The ground of approach was the district school, the examiner spending ten weeks as teacher of the intermediate grades. The subjects, with two exceptions, were members of the fourth grade, ranging in age from eight to fifteen years, and in social status from the best type of mountain aristocracy to the most neglected and abandoned waifs. The most serious difficulty was the exaggerated suspicion of the people toward anything unusual, and especially toward any discussion of themselves. They wish to be taken as they are, not analyzed, accounted for, or even defended. The children, however, are used to the individual recitation, and accepted the tests as part of the school program. The test used as a basis was the Stanford

Revision of the Binet-Simon with the Healy formboard A, the Pictorial Relations Test, Monroe Reading, Ayers Spelling, and Courtis Arithmetic Tests for side lights on the individual study. The study has been undertaken with no desire to combat or disprove the results of the Army tests, but merely to discover why certain types of failure invariably occur. More or less definitely an answer was sought to the questions: 1. To what extent is this apparent mental deficiency really educational deficiency? 2. What proportion, and what type of failure or incorrect response, is traceable to peculiarities of environment? 3. What specific instances can be found in which native shrewdness and thinking power compensate the lack of the experience on which the test is based? It can be readily seen that the answers cannot be found in the tests themselves, very little in merely questioning the children, and not at all in the mass of literature dealing with the mountaineer. Accordingly, the examiner literally walked, talked, worked, ate, and slept with the people until they paid her the highest compliment they know?You’re just as common as we are.” The services of the Public Health Nurse and the head of the Community House were enlisted, and every detail of life and conversation was noted with care. Sometimes it seemed that this piece of work could never be written for publication?as though it would be a betrayal of the friendship of those who shared their bread and salt with the stranger. But the thought that the children of the highlands must be known in order to be given a fighting chance makes it possible to go on. The people of this community received their land in return for services rendered during the Revolutionary War, and some families still hold deeds to parcels of land in the County of Kentucky, State of Virginia. They came inland from North Carolina, taking their grants of land unseen. It was poor enough soil, but with a thousand acres of it, the pioneers could make shift to support a family and even maintain the degree of civilization which they brought with them. By the time, however, that the land was divided among an average family of ten and similarly subdivided by the recipients among their numerous progeny, the third and fourth generations are reduced to a state bordering on abject poverty. Isolated by impassable roads from all competition with the outer world, they lost the incentive to keep up any of the niceties of life. Adherence to the Union cause during the Civil War antagonized their lowland neighbors and stimulated the morbid pride which forbids acceptance of help from outside. Thus we find the mountaineers half a century behind us.

Physically the children are nearly all below standard. Case 7 is the only child in the fourth grade not under weight. This is not surprising when one studies the conditions of life. The food is poor in quantity, quality, and variety. Corn pone, made only of coarsely ground corn, water and salt, is the staple breadstuff, beans of all descriptions, cooked with quantities of fat, are often the only vegetables; pork, locally called hog-meat, usually appears once a day, and buttermilk or black coffee sweetened with sorghum are the usual beverages. Case 3 seldom brought any lunch to school, and was reluctant to accept any offerings, fasting from a five o’clock breakfast until supper, which occurred “along about dark.” Case 12 carried a small tin pail and a spoon which rather puzzled the teacher, until she summoned courage to explore the pail, discovering a small cube of corn pone over which a cupful of sour milk had been poured. Case 15 seldom carried more than a green apple or two; and as he did the cooking for a family of five, it is doubtful if the other meals did much to atone for this noonday insult to his digestive apparatus. In the crowded cabins which serve as homes, going to bed is merely a matter of lying down. Lack of privacy and lack of extra garments foster the habit of sleeping in full dress and arising ready for the day. Sanitary arrangements are absent to a degree inconceivable to outsiders. Only one house in the district has even an outside toilet, so all disease are rampant. The Community House introduced the drilled well, and a few families followed suit; the usual source of drinking water is a dug well or an open spring. Every child in the school probably has hook-worm, but the overburdened nurse asks, “What is the use of subjecting them to the torment of removing these parasites when they will be infected again in a few weeks?”

Quarantine is unknown, so every one flocks to visit the sick, regardless of whether the ailment be a broken arm or smallpox. Epidemics are therefore uncontrolled. Decayed and infected teeth are the rule rather than the exception among adults; and bad tonsils are appallingly prevalent among the children. Pellagra is not uncommon, and some syphilis is found. Perhaps these conditions serve as a sifting process, but they are indisputably a handicap in life’s race.

For four years the Community Nurse has cared for the women in childbirth, giving the babies a better chance than when some ignorant neighbor officiated. She has also organized the children as Health Crusaders, and conducts a dispensary for minor ailments, besides going into the homes to care for those who are seriously ill. For two years skilled surgeons and dentists from the large cities of the state have given their services, holding clinics in the CommunityHouse for all who will submit. Year by year, the number will increase as it is seen that the victims do not die, but attain a greater degree of health and comfort. Perhaps in a generation we shall find a people more physically fit, but just now we must read each child’s intelligence test in the light of his physical condition. Health was an almost negligible factor in the Army tests, since the seriously unfit were sifted out before they reached the camps, but in the school and community it must be reckoned with.

Educationally the mountain child has had even less chance than physically. The rural school term is six months at best, beginning in July and closing at Christmas, when the mud and half-frozen water become impassable. About half of the parents are illiterate and therefore unable to help or stimulate the children outside of school. Many adults say sadly, “I don’t know a letter in the book.” They want their children to have “learning,” but despite good intentions are prone to keep them out of school to work. One reason why group tests were impossible as a foundation for this study was that the group was scarcely the same on two consecutive days. Imagine yourself three or four miles from the school, over roads so steep and rough that the uninitiated have to use hands as well as feet to climb, and with no means of transportation except your own bare feet. Then ask whether zeal for knowledge, or an unenforced attendance law would take you over that distance twice a day. Even these children across the mountain are better off than those on the wrong side of the creek: for these latter must cross the streams once or twice on frail rafts, or wade knee deep in the cold water. A heavy rain effectually interrupts their course. As will be shown in the case descriptions, the ability of the child in tests dependent on schooling is largely determined by the distance from the school house.

Even when they reach the schools, what do they find? The buildings are as rude as seems possible. Usually there is only one room, even when the district affords eighty or a hundred children. If two teachers are provided, movable partitions are sometimes used, or one teacher may conduct classes out of doors. One school in the district has no windows, depending on the open door for light. In one, openings were provided, but no glass, until an enterprising teacher walked fourteen miles to the railroad, carrying back two complete sashes in order that they might arrive intact. One building visited had no door, another no steps; none had enough seats or desks to accommodate much over half the pupils enrolled; and equipment is almost entirely lacking. No building has a foundation, but each stands upon posts high enough to provide convenient shelter for the smaller specimens of live stock which roam the countryside or accompany the children to school. No books or supplies are furnished by the state, though the children are far too poor to buy such things. Hence many of the lessons must be taught by the method of dictation and repetition.

Charity would suggest that we omit the teachers from the discussion; but we are considering conditions as they are. The writer attended a County Institute for four days, gaining thus an opportunity to study the members of the profession. In response to the question, “How many of you have had as much as one year of high school? ” only those connected with the Mission Centers arose. Had the question been, “How many have passed the sixth grade?” it is doubtful if all could have qualified. Some of nature’s noblemen were there, knowing little, but faithfully teaching that little to the children in their schools; but far too many were mere time servers, hearing classes at the rate of ten minutes each, amid din and confusion, knowing little and caring less. One man in an advanced stage of tuberculosis lay all day on a bench, calling the children around him to “say their lessons” within reach of his careless expectoration. The wonder is, not that the people are ignorant, but that they know anything at all. A man who has labored faithfully for the cause of education says, that the summer of 1921 will always be remembered as the time when six schools had real teaching for two months. Even with all the missionary zeal in the world, it is almost impossible for an outsider to teach a school out of riding or walking distance of a Community Center or Mission Station. He would soon perish of hardships, gastronomic or entomological. The hope of the mountain school, therefore, is in the boarding schools conducted by various Church Boards to train leaders.

From a moral and social point of view, the environment is little better than from an educational and physical. When a mountain community worker returns home, he is often asked, “What large town were you near? ” As a matter of fact, the place of this study is a long day’s journey from any town of any sort, and except in good weather is completely cut off from the railroad. The mail comes through as often as it can, sometimes in a springless wagon, sometimes in sacks on a mule or two. When the creeks are swollen everybody, including the mail carrier, remains where he is until the flood subsides, as bridges are a curiosity and fords beset with perilous quicksands. Often the road lies along the bed of the stream for miles, as this is the only level spot. In winter the high water and seas of sticky mud maroon the people for weeks at a time. A sort of innate refinement and a strange but definite code of ethics have withstood the strain of conditions for over a century, and returning soldiers have brought new ideals; so the Southern Rip Van Winkle is fast overtaking the world.

The cardinal sins of the mountaineer are three in number; disregard for liquor laws, for human life, and laxity in sex relations. Let us consider each in the light of his living conditions. Corn is the staple crop of the mountains, growing on almost perpendicular hillsides and cultivated entirely by hand. Every one raises it, so it cannot be sold to the neighbors or at the country store. The trip to the railroad consumes an entire day, with the risk of upsetting and losing the whole load. After reaching the train, a journey of many hours is necessary before coming to a market, and by that time the profit has vanished. Convert this same corn into whiskey and you increase its value more than ten times, while its bulk is diminished to one-fourth, and the product finds a ready market. The economic problem is exactly the same as that of Western Pennsylvania in the whiskey insurrection.

As to the second sin, we who are accustomed to call the law to our assistance can scarcely grasp the situation until we have experienced it. One night last summer a man considerably illuminated with the product of his own still, attempted to discipline his wife with lead. As he was using two revolvers, no one was eager to attempt the task of disarming him; so the Community workers sent for the sheriff. He returned word that he was in bed, and anyway saw no cause to mix in a family disagreement. The same timidity on the part of officers of the law is nearly always exhibited; so it is no wonder that vengeance becomes a private matter. The feudist considers himself an administrator of justice and not at all an outlaw. When the people of Kentucky entered the mountains they brought with them a Calvinistic faith, but as isolation rendered an educated ministry impossible, they have drifted off to various irregular sects which recognize the only type of preaching available. Often no preacher visits the remote hamlets for two or three years at a time. The journey to the county seat is formidable beyond belief. Hence, very often, marriage consists simply of going to house-keeping, with the often forgotten intention of “getting married” when the itinerant preacher next appears. The tie thus easily assumed is easily broken, and separation and remarriage of one or both parties occur without recourse to church or court. On the whole, these irregularly assumed relations are about as faithfully kept as are the marriage vows of many who are more favorably located. Something over half of the people in the county where these tests were taken are of illegitimate birth, but this number includes children of couples entirely faithful to their irregularly assumed relations. Moreover, more than half of these illegitimates are adults, showing that the evil decreases as travel becomes easier.

In this particular district, one prominent man has lived with three women besides his legal wife, and has contributed the only serious cases of mental and moral delinquency observed during this study. Five of his illegitimate children are called by his name, and one of them was reared by his wife along with her own children, becoming a leader in every movement for good. Two are called by the name of their mother. One of these, a son, is an average citizen, but the daughter, until lately has been a woman of evil life, mother of three illegitimate children, one by her own half brother. Two of the old man’s legitimate daughters have borne illegitimate children, but both seem to be reformed and are satisfactorily married. Case 15 of this study is the old man’s son, while cases 3 and 13 are his grandsons.

This, however, is not the usual thing. Moonshine and much unchaperoned roaming are responsible; and by no means the smallest contribution of the Community House to the cause of righteousness has been in providing a safe and wholesome good time for the adolescent boys and girls. The kindness of the mountain folk, the passionate love of children, however come by, and the fact that the child is frequently called by the father’s name and freely acknowledged by him, lighten the burden of the sinner. Here in the North, the rural school is often the hotbed of obscene speech and licentious writing and drawing. In the mountains not one trace of this was found, though the children were perfectly frank about the facts of life, even about the irregular relationships mentioned above.

A separate study could be made of linguistic peculiarities. This phase of the subject has been very fully treated by Dr Horace Kephart, so only a few examples will be given here, to illustrate: 1. The unusual extent and nature of children’s vocabularies. 2. The tendency to coin new words or adapt them to new uses. 3. The condensed figures of speech in common use. 4. The reflection of past and present experiences. In spite of retarded school progress and illiterate homes, less than half of the subjects showed a vocabulary score below their chronological age, none were seriously deficient, and almost onethird were markedly superior. Several words near the top of the columns were missed because the content is not in the child’s experience: as, lecture, majesty, treasury, brunette, Mars. On the other hand, several children knew the correct meaning of swaddle, and almost all knew drabble. Unusual or obsolete meanings occur in tap, a kind of screw; plumbing, measuring a wall with lead on a string, or measuring the depth of water; stave, a wagon stave, or to go yelling along the road; fen, a snare for fish; puddle, to stir; shrewd, the wind is shrewd; and the old-time simile, dark as a dungeon. All these are recognized by the unabridged dictionary. Archaic expressions outside of the Stanford vocabulary list are: a pied calf, starve in the sense of need, as “I’m starved for water,” and the prevalent use of the dative case, as “I got me a stick” or “Here’s you some blossoms.”

A noticeable tendency is to coin words or use them in unfamiliar and irregular ways; as, “The lawyer came to law the man who shot him;” the king “heirs” it from his father; they “footed” over the mountains; they “mellowed” the clay; that is a good “woman nag” (horse for a woman’s use); “I’ll insure it is true” (give assurance). Asked about his health, our mountain friend is spry, peart, stirrin’, survigrous, puny, pindling, tolable, has a misery or a hurtin’, is hearty, ailin’, or not much stout, as the case may be.

Much imaginative power is shown in geographical nomenclature, both common and proper. Thus a small stream is a branch, tributaries of the creek forks or prongs, according to size. Blue Grass, Pennyroyal, Brush, and Sticks designate sections of the State by their characteristic vegetation. Proper names are no less picturesque. Thousand Sticks Mountain, Troublesome, Kingdom Come, Hell for Sartin, Cutshin, and Squable Creek are not products of John Fox’s imagination, but are the condensed experience of the pioneers. Saw Mill and Meetin’ House Branches are named for their first buildings. Flockey, a corruption of flaxy, is named for a leading product. Often a stream received the name of the first animal encountered upon its banks; as, Buffalo, Coon, Bear and Wolf.

Expressions of extent in either time or space are vague, owing to absence of means of measurement. One old woman says her grandfather was given “all the land from W? Creek to Coon Creek, along Cutshin, and as far back as a man could ride around in a day.” Case 18 says that Case 8 lives “a sight” from her house, meaning as far as one can see. Often distance is expressed as “a holler” from here, or as far the voice will carry. A mile (pronounced mild) is as far as a child walks in about half an hour, and varies considerably with the topography. In the absence of clocks, time is designated as before day, about sun-up, the edge of dark, an hour in the night (an hour after dark), high twelve (noon), low twelve (midnight). The school children ask “How long till books?” (till study begins) and dismissal is always referred to as “when school turns out.” Seasons are indicated by some characteristic; as, blossom time, when snow flies, sugaring off, corn planting, foddering. The remote experience of ancestors is reflected in the word tide for a flood in the creek, though the people who use the word are four generations removed from the sea-coast. The expression to pack a baby, pail of water, or other load harks back to the journeys over the portages. Any secular song is a ballit or song-ballit, because English ballads were and still are the most popular form of music. A social gathering is still called a working quilting, raising, or other laborious title, though the work accomplished be negligible or absent; because the residue of Calvinistic conscience will not admit mere pleasure.

To nearly every child, a “muzzle” was put on a horse or mule when working corn, or on a calf being weaned. Only one had ever associated it with dogs. Roar elicited: “the creek roars,” “the wind roars,” “thunder roars.” One child had heard enough fairy tales to associate roaring with lions. After an aeroplane flew over the mountain, airships were admitted to the category of things that roar. Charity always produced a quotation from I Corinthians 13. Bonfire meant burning papers for the teacher. Members of the Christian Endeavor Society knew charter, treasury, and conscientious (which occurs in the pledge). Ramble was applied to straying cows or to children’s journeys in search of the beasts. The people go to “preaching” on Sundays, if any is available, church as either a building or an organization being unfamiliar. Case 3 knew balloon and tiger, having run off to a circus fourteen miles away. Certain tests were entirely outside of the experience to which the children had been exposed, and were therefore a dead loss in score. The test of 60 words in 3 minutes was abandoned in favor of the Puzzle Board, form A, because of the extremely deliberate speech of the children. They would scarcely utter more than that number of words in the time even in conversation. The formboard took the emphasis from vocabulary, in which none were seriously deficient, and explored the realm of motor co-ordination, visual and kinesthetic memory, and learning by experience. The clock problems were given to only a few who did not have a clock at home. The problems of fact, XIV, 4, required a good deal of imagination. Policemen are unknown, and even the substitution of the nearest equivalent, sheriff, conveyed little, for, as noted above, the sheriff is a poor refuge in trouble. Part b is little better. There is one doctor in the county, so his presence suggested illness or accident. Lawyers are seldom found away from the county seat, except during election campaigns. The preacher is the real poser, for the genus pastor is unknown, even funerals being conducted months or years after the death of the person concerned, according to the visits of the traveling evangelist. As for part c, no one was found who had ever seen even a picture of a bicycle. The arithmetical problems, XIV, 5, involve division which is still in the future for the children of any age whose schooling does not exceed fifteen to twenty months at the veiy best. Hence, nearly all the children lost eight months’ credit in year XIV. The absurdities presented no serious difficulty, except part d: in which the conclusion always was that forty-eight people couldn’t be killed at once. Nor could they by any method known to these children. A bit of native shrewdness appeared in dealing with b of the absurdities test, when several subjects asked, whether the train was going up hill or down, a question which had not occurred to the examiner. In XII, 7, the slight exposure to history or geography rendered the picture interpretation difficult, especially as little visual material is used. Keen observation and reasoning as to what was going on compensated the lack of data, however; and every one came out strong on the post office, having seen the paper read aloud to illiterate neighbors, and eggs brought in for sale almost daily. Evolution and Revolution, in XVI, b, cut that test to three points, all of which must be made. Possibly some of the children know evolution now in the light of recent legislative controversy in the State. As very few of the subjects had done any drawing, except the aimless scribbling of small children, all the drawing tests ought to be scored in the light of obvious intention, rather than of execution. Some even failed in the ball and field test, and the designs in year X, who could go up into the adult tests in other lines. As previously stated, all the subjects, except Cases 1 and 9, were in the fourth grade. Case 1 had been a puzzle to his teachers, because, as the test indicated, he was of a different ideational type. It therefore seemed desirable to test him before sending him away to an agricultural school. He himself was much interested in the test and really grasped the fact, that he could learn by visualizing. He writes that this knowledge has enabled him to lead his class of thirty, in a strange school several miles from home. Case 9 was playing outside the open door while her sister was tested, and asked if she might not do the puzzles too.

“Fourth Grade” needs some explaining. The law provides for only six months of school each year in rural districts. Frequently no teacher can be found to stay the full term; so this is often cut to four or even less. The boys over ten are absent most of the month of September to pull fodder, pick the ubiquitous beans, and otherwise prepare for winter, while the older girls lose much time owing to the advent of the almost annual small brother or sister. If the last month of school is missed, the pupil fails of promotion, and starts back over the old work the next July, unless some teacher is daring enough to ignore promotions and try out ability. For six or seven weeks each summer, the school at the mouth of the creek, as it is called, usually has the benefit of a volunteer worker seeking novel experience, material for a thesis, or a chance to do good; so the intermediate grades have fairly adequate teaching. But after the first of September, two teachers struggle with eight grades, so the less advanced pupils seldom have over thirty or forty minutes of actual instruction in a day, spending the rest of the six hours wrestling alone with tasks, trying to absorb something from the recitations of older groups, or entertaining themselves in ways not likely to draw fire from the teacher. By consulting old record books, a reasonable estimate was made of the actual time each pupil had been in school. Let us now consider the individual cases:

Case 1 is a boy of 18 years, 5 feet 7 inches tall, and weighing 140 pounds, which is 5 pounds above standard. He is a blonde of pleasing appearance, clean cut and without defects. He walked at the age of one year, but the mother cannot remember when he first talked. He has had no serious illness, but had tonsils and adenoids removed in 1920. He is rather silent, but anxious to please and eager for popularity. His feelings are easily hurt, and a rebuke throws him into an emotional state expressed by violent weeping, if he can get to a hiding place, or by gloomy silence if he cannot. A word of commendation usually restores his customary good spirits. He is decidedly lacking in executive ability. When sent away to school, he studied well under direction, but forgot half his personal effects when packing to return home. He is fond of athletic sports and succeeds well in both basket ball and baseball.

From the standpoint of heredity, he has little to depend upon. His mother is illiterate and of low mentality. She has been twice married, but this boy is illegitimate, born during the interval of her widowhood. His supposed father is of somewhat higher mental and social status. As is often the case, the boy is called by the father’s name. The mother’s children by the first husband are not conspicuous in any way, a son by the second husband is in the second grade at the age of fourteen, and shows a marked speech defect. A step-sister, daughter of the mother’s second husband, has contributed three illegitimate children to the oddly assorted family, crowded into a two-room cabin. This boy has been handy boy at the Community House for four years, and is therefore much ahead of the rest of the family. The difference is apparently due to more healthful living conditions, better food, more regular schooling, and association with people of wider experience. He has been in school seven years, or about thirty-eight months altogether.

The tests show that the teacher’s estimate of “dull” is due to his being a conspicuously eye minded child in an ear minded group. He eagerly seized the suggestion that he visualize all material to be learned, either in words or in pictures, and has used the method successfully as noted above. His chronological age was 18 on the day of the test, his Binet mental age 17-1; which, counting his age-base as 16, gives an I. Q. of 107. His school progress is only that of thirteen years under proper conditions, but his thinking power is commensurate with his age.

Memoiy tests were all handled by visual methods, the digits set into window panes and the code held as an after image. Linguistic ability was good, everything being fully, expressed aloud as the arithmetical and clock problems. Vocabulary score was fifty-two words, good considering that some of the comparatively easy words were outside the boy’s range of experience. This is the only subject who gave our meaning for plumbing, having seen lead pipes at the boarding school. Unusual meanings given were tap, a screw socket, and fen, a snare to catch fish. On the ingenuity test, XVIII, 6, he failed to comprehend the problem, but after the first was explained, did the others very quickly. He objected to the wasted effort of dipping up water and pouring it out again, appreciating the difficulty more than one who is accustomed to draw it from a hydrant. His reasoning is good. For example, in the pictorial relations test, he said aloud. “Now this fellow is scared, I must find what scared him,” and “the cat would go for the milk, so this with its back turned isn’t the right one.”

His mental age is highest of the group, and his I. Q. fourth. The outstanding discoveries were: 1. Memory strongly visual. 2. Language adequate and well chosen. 3. Reasoning clear, though slow. 4. Ability to learn by experience. 5. Test range confined to years XIV to XVIII. Case 2 is a boy of 12 years, 4 feet 11 inches tall, weighing 803^2 pounds, which is 83^ pounds below normal. He appears anemic, very pale with bluish circles around the eyes and a slightly pinched expression about the mouth and nostrils. He walked at the age of 15 months, and talked at 18 months. Though he has had no serious illness, he is characterized by his grandmother as “never much stout” and often has violent nasal hemorrhages after unusual exertion. He is very fond of playing ball and other sports, but has to be restrained from violent exercise. Several relatives have “bone tuberculosis,” but no evidence of this is manifest in the boy. His family and former teachers considered him a poor student and of an “ill” disposition; but during the summer of 1921 his school progress was remarkable and he was only once known to fight. On that occasion he administered a well deserved trouncing to the school bully, much older and larger than he, for calling him “woods colt,” a reflection upon his family history. He is afraid of a storm, but of nothing else so far as discovered.

He is of a family once distinguished, but now badly run down. He stated quite frankly, that he was an “outsider” and that no one was sure of his father’s name. His mother is now married, but the boy remains with her parents and is called by their name. His home conditions are about average for the community, perhaps a little cleaner than most. Being the only child in a household of grown-ups, he is a little better cared for than the children of larger families. As his home is over three miles from the school house, his progress has been retarded by absence. Starting at the age of eight, he has attended parts of four years, repeating only the first grade. Although his actual schooling was only eighteen months, he was put into the fifth grade with satisfactory results.

His chronological age of 12 years the week of the test, compared with his Binet mental age of 12-8, gave an I. Q. of 105. He could probably have done all the digit tests had they been given, but lost the division problems and the clock question, XIV, 5 and 6, as they were outside his experience. The memory span included six digits reversed, and appeared to be auditory, as he repeated the digits in direct order and with the precise intonation of the examiner, and then reversed them. The vocabulary score is 41 words, or normal for his age. Some ordinary words, as lecture, skill, and majesty, were unknown, while drabble and swaddle were correctly defined, and plumbing was given the correct, but unusual meaning of measuring a wall with a weight on a string. Shrewd was confused with rude. In other linguistic tests he expressed himself well. He showed the effects of teaching in defining abstract words and giving the differences between president and king; while experience figured in his explanation of the canoe picture as “some folks moving across the river,” his mother’s household goods having gone over the creek in a boat. None of the fables had been heard before, but 1, 2, and 5, were correctly generalized, while the others were given the right meaning in concrete terms.

In the relations test, he reasoned somewhat as did Case 1, but less exactly. His cat faced the wrong way and his window was whole, but no absurd blunders were made.

His scores in Ayers Spelling, Monroe Reading, and Courtis Arithmetic tests were normal for fourth grade, or high for his actual schooling. In Arithmetic, he was highest of the fourth grade group. His I. Q. is seventh of the group, and his mental age fifth, one other being the same. Outstanding facts are: 1. Deficiency in tests dependent on schooling. 2. Good vocabulary and linguistic ability. 3. Reasoning commensurate with his age, and above his school status. 4. Reflection of experience in responses. 5. No test required below chronological age. Case 3 is a boy who more nearly represents pure native ability than any other of the group. Even his age is a matter of conjecture. His mother remembers that he was born in cold weather, while the mother of Case 13 says he was born the same year as her son, so we guessed his age as 10-6. His sister, aged about 17, remembers that he had whooping cough and chicken-pox, and that he walked before Christmas, but did not talk until “blossom time” (spring). He has never been seriously ill, though he goes barefoot in the snow and is often without food for a day or more at a time.

He is 4 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 61 pounds, and looks like a small brownie, being tanned dark mahogany, with a shock of nondescript hair, bright hazel eyes, and an elfish grin, displaying strong little teeth set wide apart.

By nature he is a rover, seldom playing truant from school, but often from home, sleeping in fodder shocks, and eating what he can find, though he has not been known to steal.

His mother is the illegitimate daughter of the patriarch referred to in the general discussion and he is one of three illegitimate children. The mother’s half-brother is the father of the older sister, and may be of this boy also, but no one seems to be sure. The mother washes for the Community House and boards two children besides her own in her one-roomed windowless cabin. The older sister who has been four years at a Mission Boarding School, has made valiant, but rather futile efforts to clean up the home, and has done a good deal toward keeping this boy in school.

The boy has attended school spasmodically since the age of four, when he began going with his older relatives. He seems to have been allowed by the teachers merely to sleep and play for about three years, for he is enrolled in the Primer Class for that length of time, but has won promotion every year since. He learns easily and enjoys the process for a few hours, after which no punishment which the teacher has either the heart or the muscle to inflict can keep him from escaping to the swimming hole at afternoon recess. The object, therefore, is to reward his diligence by letting him go when his work is finished. Because he is small, quick, and responsive, he has been rated very bright by his teachers. His Binet mental age is 10-10, and his I. Q. 103.

The memory type is auditory, any repetition of digits being instantaneous and almost phonographic. The Memories, in X, 4, were given verbatim. The vocabulary score of 30 words is normal for his age, and other language tests were satisfactorily performed up to his chronological age. The absurdities called forth interesting responses. In b, of this test the boy asked whether the train was going up or down hill. In c he scarcely waited for the last word before exclaiming, “No, sir, she never done it herself,” and in e, he said with withering scorn, “Now you koow he was already dead.” In the matter of information the things he did not know were quite as surprising as what he did. He could not recall having heard the names of any months outside the school term, and could not repeat in order the names of the six he had seen written.

The drawing was a failure, partly because, like all the children, he was unaccustomed to such exercise, and partly because it was done on an unsteady pile of lumber in a flea infested shed where we took refuge from the rain. The comprehension tests were well done, as were the similarities. The weights were tested with one hand only, but correctly arranged the first two trials. The formboard A was fitted together in 2^, 1 and Yi minutes; first by trial and error, second by conscious memory, and the third apparently from habit. The pictorial relations were rather beyond him, but he did some strange reasoning, such as putting a blank block in the window space, being used to a wooden drop shutter.

He ranks eighth in I. Q. and fifteenth in mental age, but seventeenth in chronological age. Notable factors are:

1. It was necessary to go back to VIII for a basal age, because of failure of designs in year X and the date in year IX. 2. Tests involving information depended entirely on the chance of his having heard or not heard the facts. 3. The range of tests passed was from VIII to XII. Case 4 is a boy 12 years 4 months old, weighing 73 pounds, or 16 pounds under weight. He is a wiry, active child, with bright red hair, clear brown eyes and numerous freckles. He is not known to have had any serious illness, walked at the age of about one year, but did not talk until almost two years. He is cheerful, a willing worker, and religiously inclined. His extreme conscientiousness and desire to please sometimes lead him into strange blunders and obscure his common sense, as he tries to make the response he thinks will be most acceptable. He is fond of athletic sports and does good team work.

He is a full cousin of Cases 10 and 11, and more distantly related to Case 7. In common with his full cousins, he has a strain of Indian blood, but is a descendant of one of the foremost pioneer families. His grandfather and several uncles are moonshiners “of sorts.” His paternity was not revealed, and he is called by his mother’s maiden name. She is since married to another moonshiner, and has by him two children of much the same characteristics as this boy. One aunt is tubercular, and the grandmother died comparatively young, probably of the same disease. The other relatives seem healthy, though all of lank build, and apparently undernourished. The home is slightly worse than average in comfort and cleanliness, but the children are kept clean. His schooling extends over five years, about twenty-eight months, with grades 2 and 3 repeated. Owing to his age, hard work, and remarkable auditory memory, the teachers have considered him brighter than is shown by the test. His mental age is 11-3, and his I. Q. only 91; but he will probably make his way successfully. Language is not a strong point. The vocabulary score of 31 words is below normal, only two of the abstract words, XII, 2, were defined with any approach to correctness, the dissected sentences were a complete failure, and there was some difficulty in expressing his ideas on the pictures, XII, 7. Memory was good for syllables and on digits forward, but not backward. The same good auditory memory is shown in school work, with ready learning of the forty-five combinations, multiplication table, and whole chapters of the Bible. Good reasoning and observation were apparent in the similarities, and in the canoe picture, when he said, “The boat is going down stream by the way water is going.” The formboard A was easily handled, but the pictorial relations aroused little reasoning. Another day, however, he asked for the picture puzzle and corrected most of his errors, having apparently thought it out at leisure. The tests did not scatter much, all successes being in years X and XII, the next year being quite beyond him. His rank was fair in the silent reading test and up to sixth grade standard in the Ayers spelling, but very low in arithmetic, because of very slow reaction. He was third from the last of the group in I. Q., and over half-way down in mental age. Facts noted are:

1. Small span of tests achieved, and none above the chronological age.

2. Direct auditory memory very strong.

3. Slight linguistic deficiency.

4. Earnest effort and desire to please. Case 5 is a girl, whose age is 9 years 8 months, height 4 feet 2 inches, and weight 55 pounds, only 3 pounds under weight. She is a clean, attractive child, usually of a pleasant disposition, but occasionally a bit sulky. She was eager to take the test, and stuck to business despite some interruptions in the shape of an obstreperous mule and several inquisitive pigs. She walked and talked both, about the age of one year, and has had no serious illness, though subject to severe headaches, possibly due to eye strain. Teeth and tonsils are good. She has been nervous and inclined to cry easily, especially when awakened from sleep, ever since a night fire which destroyed the home in 1920.

The family all have good health and the home is much better than most in the neighborhood, both physically and intellectually. None of the family are illiterate. One sister has been five years in a Mission School, and is now in her third year of high school. One brother has been general helper about the Community House for some time, and has completed a vocational course at Berea College. Case 17, a brother two years older, is in the same grade at school. This child is a remarkable reader, standing highest in the group in the silent reading and very well in spelling. In arithmetic her ability is less, but she arrives if given abundant time. Her schooling covers about sixteen months over a period of three years.

Her mental age is 11-3, and I. Q. 116. Her immaturity is shown in the fables, two of which she did not interpret at all and one in concrete terms. For the same reason, she failed to define the abstract words. Familiarity with pictures and stories made her successful in picture interpretation, reading ability was apparent in the reading and report test, X, 4, and in the dissected sentences. Repetition of syllables was entirely correct, but five digits reversed was beyond her. Three of the similarities were passed, but the likenesses were such as a child would express, as the rose, potato, and tree “all have green leaves.” The Healy formboard was done in 35, 10, and 5 seconds respectively, much the fastest rate achieved by any of the group. The relations test showed fair reasoning, the right object appearing in every blank, though not always in the proper position. The drawing in the ball and field is extremely poor, though evidently with the right intent; but the lines in the designs show great firmness. Her mental age is eleventh; but as her chronological age is seventeenth, her I. Q. ranks second. Facts learned from the test are:

1. Evidence of superior opportunities.

2. Lack of scattering, all achievements being in years X and XII. 3. High reading ability.

Case 6 is a boy 11 years 6 months old, of especially pleasing appearance, with finely cut features, and firm, erect carriage.- His weight of 58 pounds, is 14 pounds below normal for his height of 4 feet 6 inches, but being of light frame, he does not look gaunt. Early development was normal, as he walked at the age of 1 year and talked soon after. Up to the time of the test he had never been seriously ill. Immediately after that he had quite a serious time with convulsions, following excessive indulgence in green apples. He is a silent, self-contained child, very observant and never satisfied until he knows the reason for everything, including the Binet test. He was the only subject who associated it with the Army tests of which he had heard from his brothers. He is popular with his companions and leader in play.

The mother is a woman of superior intelligence, and keeps the home far above the average. She continues the household industries of spinning and weaving, is spotlessly neat, and sets an excellent table. The mother’s husband was killed in a drunken carouse, and the older brothers are of alcoholic habits. When sober they are fine men, but when drunk usually have sense enough to keep out of sight. An older sister is working her way through a good secondary school, and none of the family are illiterate. The home is about one mile from the school and on the same side of the largest creek, so the entire family have been able to attend school regularly. For the first two years this boy apparently did nothing in school, but after that has made his grade each year. He possesses remarkable power of concentration and sustained effort, never giving up a problem until it is correctly solved nor making the heedless blunders of more scatter-brained children. He is original in methods and has great intellectual pride, refusing help both at home and at school. Teachers regard him as superior.

Though called by his mother’s married name, he is illegitimate, his birth occurring in the second year of the mother’s widowhood. Neighborhood gossip fixes his paternity upon the county judge, though whether this has real foundation or is based merely upon a startling resemblance to the judge’s youngest son is uncertain. As the mother is by no means a woman of loose life, this is a real tragedy. His mental age of 147 months ranks seventh in the group, and his I. Q. of 107 shares fourth rank with Case 1. In linguistic tests his achievement fell below the examiner’s expectation, the vocabulary score of 3(5 words carrying him back to year X, and the dissected sentences failing to awaken thought. Comprehension tests, fables, and similarities were slightly above average. The picture interpretation showed imagination, the president and king were correctly differentiated, two ‘of the problems of fact were correct, and the rule for the induction test came with the fifth trial. The arithmetic was a failure, as was the clock question, though there is a clock in the home. The Healy formboard A was done in 30, 10, and 5 seconds, without error. He stood second in both reading and arithmetic tests, Case 5 excelling in the former and Case 2 in the latter. The relations test was fairly well done, but slowly and with less zest than was shown by the others.

Outstanding facts are:

1. Performance was uneven, spreading over years X to XIV.

2. Ability in ingenuity, reason, and information excels that in language and memory.

3. Home and school opportunities were better than most. Case 7 is a little girl, the youngest of the group, being only 8 years and 2 months old. Her height is even 4 feet and weight 5634 pounds. She is the only child in the fourth grade who is not under weight. She is pretty, sweet-mannered, and well kept, a pronounced blonde. Her tonsils are bad and she is subject to violent headaches, but has had no serious illness. An older sister and younger brother are infected with syphilis, and the mother has had two miscarriages in three years which may be related to the same cause, The Wasserman test is negative for this child. The disease probably comes from the father, who has been employed at various times at the mining towns where venereal diseases are not uncommon. The little girl walked at twelve months, and said words at ten months.

Before her marriage, at the age of fifteen, the mother worked out at domestic service among superior people. Hence she has insisted upon a fairly comfortable house and some slight degree of sanitation. The children are not only comfortably but daintily clothed and fed. The maternal grandmother, one of the few women of her generation who can read, was the source of much local history used in this study. Cases 4, 10, and 11 are second cousins on the mother’s side, though this family does not share their Indian ancestry. Living near the school and within call of the Community House, this child has had very superior advantages, which enable her to reach the fourth grade at the age of eight. As a matter of fact, her schooling of twenty months exceeds that of many older classmates. Last year she attended school at the county seat after the local school closed.

Her school performances are immature and uneven, but memory, reading, ability, and the use of past experience enable her to make up for undeveloped reasoning. Her school ability is greater than that of her ten-year-old sister.

Her Binet mental age of 132 months is thirteenth in rank, but as her chronological age is two years less than any other, her I. Q. of 135 is much the highest. Auditory memory is good in school work, but she failed to reverse digits. The vocabulary score of 34 words is superior, and the definitions were well given and related to experience, but the dissected sentences were beyond so young a child. The similarities were thoughtful, picture interpretation was good, and the reading and report exceptional. Four of the absurdities were quickly detected, and the Puzzle Board was put together in 90, 60, and 15 seconds. She ranked high in the reading and spelling tests, but could do nothing with Courtis arithmetic tests, because of the time element.

Personal experience was reflected in her interpretation of the Dutch picture: “The little girl tried to stand on a chair to see out the window, and got whipped for it,” and in “Ramble means to run around and get into things.” In the Colonial home “pictures of the old folks on the wall,” her home being the only one blessed with enlarged photographs. Character and training show in the definitions: “Civil is nice and kind”; polite, “not nice and kind”; regard, “have regard for old folks”; charity, “be good to people for love”; misuse, “not be kind.”

Significant facts: 1. Basal age is nearly two years above the chronological. 2. Experience and character are plainly shown. 3. Superior ability very evidently due to environment. Case 8 is a girl who bears an ecxellent old English name. She is 14 years 5 months old and physiologically mature. Her height, 5 feet 6 inches, is that of a grown woman, but her weight is 29 pounds deficient, or 93 pounds. This deficiency is partly due to her sudden growth of over half a foot in a j’ear at the beginning of the pubertal period. Bad tonsils and overwork are also to blame. Development has been normal, with walking at one year, talking soon after, menstruation at 13, and no serious illness. She is a fine, reliable worker.

The parents are of ordinarily good health, and four other children are in good physical condition. One sister, Case 9, is delicate. The home surroundings are above average. The house has three rooms and is weather-boarded, and the family possessions include a cook-stove, a lamp, a grandfather clock, brought from North Carolina, a wagon, two mules, a raft for crossing the creek, and some other articles of comfort and rude luxury. The school is three miles distant, and this girl is obliged to help at home a great deal, on account of numerous smaller children. Hence her reported six years of school are really only about twenty-two months, and fourth grade is not bad progress. She is a slow, but faithful student, accurate and painstaking. An effort has been made to send her to a boarding school, but so far her people have not been able to spare her from home.

Her Binet age is 163 months and her I. Q. 94, but this does not seem to represent her real ability. In the test of five digits reversed, the first and third trials were correct, the second contained one transposition. From the reading and report, she retained fourteen memories verbatim. The Healy formboard was done first by trial and error, then by careful observation and visual memory, the time being 60, 30, and 15 seconds respectively. The vocabulary score of 45 words was below the chronological age, but about normal for her mental age and superior to her school status. The dissected sentences were beyond her in the time given, but the fables, abstract words, and picture interpretation showed thought and were well expressed; as, “Charity is Christian feeling for a person,” and the story of the donkey teaches us “just to do what seems right, and not listen to others.”

The absurdities and problems of fact were passed, though the serious accident and the bicycle were beyond her experience. In the Comprehension test c, she said, “If he doesn’t act right, his words aren’t true.” Having a clock at home, she was able to reverse the hands, but failed in the arithmetic.

Summarizing:

1. The mental age is below the Chronological, but above school advancement. 2. Memory and language are good. 3. Her range of tests spread over years XII to XVI. Case 9 is the younger sister of Case 8. Her height is 4 feet 10 inches, and weight 763^ pounds, or 10 pounds below normal. She is 12 years 3 months old. Her tonsils are extremely bad, but the father has not yet consented to have them removed. Her only long illness was typhoid fever at the age of ten; but she often complains of a pain in her side which suggests appendicitis. Development has been normal to date, though she is immature.

In school work she is flighty and inattentive, but can do well when she tries. She reads with great expression but not very accurately, substituting pussy for cat and similar errors, showing that her mind runs ahead of her eyes. She loves to dramatize, memorizes remarkably well, though her attention span is short. Like her sister, she missed one test in year XII, but not the same one. She got the dissected sentences, partly from her habit of gathering an idea and putting words to it, where her sister’s painful accuracy was a hindrance. She failed, however, on the abstract words. Her similarities were original; as, a knife blade, penny, and piece of wire are “all shiny when new.” She also did well on the pictures; as, “It is market day and they are bargaining for the old man’s eggs.” In the fables she was less mature than Case 8, and she missed the clock problems, as well as the difference between president and king. Otherwise, their performance was almost alike, though her vocabulary score was only 40 words to her sister’s 45. Her mental age is 142 months, and her I. Q. 963^. In mental age eight of the group excel her, and in I. Q. ten are higher. Her schooling is about twenty months, or nearly as much as that of Case 8. Notable facts of the case are:

1. Exceeds the teacher’s expectation, because the tests were brief enough to hold attention.

2. I. Q. is better than her sister’s, because of greater opportunities compared with her age. Case 10 is the oldest of the fourth grade subjects, and has had the greatest amount of actual schooling. His height is 4 feet 9 inches, weight 71 pounds, or 15 pounds deficient for his height and age of 15 years, 2 months. He is active and more lithe of movement than most of his companions, possibly due to his strain of Indian blood. This race is also suggested by his keen dark eyes and straight black hair, narrow hips, and method of walking with toes straight forward. He is silent, repressed, at times almost sullen, but cooperates well when appealed to. Occasionally, he plays truant from school or Sunday School, but is severely punished if his father discovers the delinquency. No serious illness was reported, and he walked at the age of one year, but like case 4 did not talk until almost two years old. He suffers from an almost chronic cold in the head, and was quite feverish on the day of the test.

On the father’s side, this subject is a full cousin of Cases 4 and 11. His mother died in her early twenties, of no acute illness so far as could be learned. After her death, he lived with the father’s people for some time, and still takes refuge with them when he fails to “get on” with his step-mother. A half sister five years younger has a weak heart. The father is a moonshiner and rather wild character, but wants the children to do right and have a chance. They are better provided for than the majority, but have a hard trip to school. He repeated grade 2 and was taking grade 4 for the second time, hence seemed better to the teacher than is warranted by his I. Q. Reading comprehension is his weakest point, and arithmetic his strongest. All sorts of expression are very hard for him. His time in school was about 28 months, but he has frequently dropped out before the end of the term.

His Binet mental age is 143 months, and his I. Q. 80; seven of the group excelled his mental age, and only one had a lower I. Q. His vocabulary score was only 32 words, as it was exceedingly difficult to get responses. On the other hand, the abstract terms and similarities called forth some unusual expressions, as, “Revenge is to take your hardships out on anybody,” and wool, cotton, and leather “all have little fuzzes when torn.” The picture descriptions were brief, but all had some one superior feature, as, “George Washington and the little dog are going off.” One fable was correctly generalized and two others explained concretely. Memory included five digits reversed, and ten memories from reading and report. All the dissected sentences were correct, though he is a wretched reader. The only test passed in year XIV was the president and king, which he had heard explained at election time. The formboard was better done the first time than the second, but the third trial was without error, and all three consumed only Zx/i minutes. In the Courtis test this boy was slow but accurate, in the Ayres he was letter perfect to the sixth grade standard, but in reading his achievement was scarcely that of third grade.

Significant facts are: 1. Maturity shows in tests where experience counts. 2. Memory is good for both related and unrelated material. 3. Repression and habits of silence affected linguistic tests. Case 11, on the father’s side, is a full cousin of Cases 4 and 10, and more distantly related to Case 7, although closely associated with her by proximity. She is 10 years 5 months old, weighs 55 pounds, which, for her height of 4 feet 2 inches, is 9 pounds deficient. Whooping-cough and tonsilitis are the only diseases recorded for her. Tonsils were removed in 1920, improving her health, but failing to remove a speech defect, apparently due to a malformed palate. She reversed the usual order by talking at eleven months, and not walking until two months later. She is an affectionate child, of considerable poise and pleasing manners. Although silent, like her cousin, Case 10, she shows no trace of ill humor. She is a real student, very conscientious and religiously inclined, and seems too sedate to play much.

The mother having died at the child’s birth, she has been brought up by an aunt. No child in the school has been more tenderly loved and cared for, often being indulged beyond her own best interests. The home was poor enough?a mere s ack?but nearness to school and Community House compensated for the immediate surroundings. Lately the father has failed to provide for her support, and the aunt has been obliged to go out to domestic service. The child was placed in a boarding school; but in mountain vernacular, “Couldn’t get satisfied,” so she is sojourning alternately with her grandparents, whose home is described in connection with Case 4 and in the family of Case 7. Her actual schooling has scarcely exceeded sixteen months, but she reads excellently, writes and spells as well as fourth grade children elsewhere. Number work is harder for her, but if given time she gets results.

Her mental age is 132 months, sharing thirteenth rank with Case 7, and her I. Q. is 106, with five subjects above her. Memory for unrelated material showed poorly, but from the reading and report she retained 13 memories, and evidently carried a visual memory of the drawings in year X, though her execution was poor. In school work she memorizes remarkably. The vocabulary score of 35 words is good for her age and advancement; three abstract terms in year XII were correctly defined; and three of the similarities were also correct. One fable was generalized and two explained correctly. Absurdities and pictures presented no difficulty. Summarizing!

1. No tests were needed below the child’s actual age.

2. Good care and superior influences were apparent.

3. The successful performances were all included in the years X and XII. 4. She shows remarkable similarity to Case 7, probably owing to the same influences.

Case 12 is a most winning little boy, aged 12 years, 1 month. His height is 4 feet 5 inches, and weight 60 pounds, which is 10 pounds below the standard. Like Case 11, he talked before walking, but both began about the age of one year. He has had no illness except bad colds all winter every year. This, with exceedingly poor food and exposure to all sorts of weather, depletes his vitality, although no actual disease is apparent. He is a genuine boy, fond of vigorous sports, a good team worker, and popular with other children. On the other hand, he is unfailingly courteous, kind to his little sister, and a most painstaking student.

The father is a lay-preacher or exhorter, with the instincts of a gentleman and ambitious desires for his children. He writes a fair letter, legible and well expressed, though his schooling includes just twenty-one days. According to the mountain custom, he accepts no money for his ministerial services, but makes his living by weaving baskets and farming a little. He describes his health as “never much stout,” hence the children do most of the farm work, and are consequently irregular in school attendance. The mother, a fagged little woman, illiterate and indifferent, has “just quit trying to be anybody,” as she says. The house is not even weather-proof, all the farm work is done by hand, and the children are obliged to wade the creek to reach school. The food is meagre and badly prepared, and none of the children have sufficient clothing for decency. This boy, J., has had about sixteen months in school, but does well, as do an older brother and sister, and a little sister in the second grade. No opinion was formed of the intelligence of the adult brothers. The whole family are rather fanatical in their religious beliefs and practices, touchy and hard to guide into better ways.

In the Binet test his I. Q. is 111, and mental age 161 months. In both his rank is third. Unrelated memory included six digits reversed and seven direct, and in related matter ten memories were reproduced from the reading and report. Visual memory seemed poor, the formboard requiring experiment each time, and the second design being a mere scrawl. The vocabulary score of 40 words was normal for his age, and much superior to his school status. Sentences in IX, 5, were well done, rhymes correct, abstract words defined and distinguished, pictures well described, and three fables correctly generalized. An odd mistake in the Dutch picture was, “I guess she is Japanese by her queer shoes.” This boy grasped the absurdity in the railroad accident, and knew all three differences between president and king. Unusual expressions or unexpected information appeared in “Africa is a Southern country;” forfeit is “to lose to another;” crunch, “to eat out loud.” Evidence of home training appears in “Before undertaking anything important, be sure whether it is right to do it;” impolite is “not to take off your hat to a lady;” and “the preacher came to pray and make him feel satisfied.” The induction test was comprehended at the fifth cutting.

Outstanding facts are! 1. Unusual power of expression. 2. Several unusual items of information. 3. Experience and home training traceable in responses. 4. Wide spread of tests over years IX to XIV. Case 13 is the least mature of the group in school work. His only serious illness was influenza in 1918; but his weight, 65^ pounds, is 5 pounds below normal for his height of 4 feet 6 inches, and age, 10 years 9 months, although he is better fed than most of the subjects. Tonsils and teeth are good. He walked at eleven months, talked at thirteen months, and seems in every way normal, though childish. He is flighty and erratic in school work, lazy and rather spoiled. After trying every way to escape a task and finding his will opposed by a stronger one, he howls dismally until exhausted, sulks a while, and finally submits to the inevitable. Most of the time he is cheerful and pleasant.

He is a cousin of Case 3 and nephew of Case 15, a grandson of old A, the much married patriarch referred to above. The mother, one of the old man’s legitimate children, is of unusual intelligence, a good housekeeper and thoughtful reader. The grandmother makes her home with the family, and in some ways is a helpful influence, though reactionary toward improvements. Many of the old industries are kept up in the home, such as weaving, spinning, and the making of cane molasses. The father is alcoholic, and is employed away from home most of the time. Two older brothers were in the Army and seem to be decent citizens. One older sister has heart trouble since having influenza, but three others seem normal, as also a younger brother. The house is rather well built, clean, better furnished than most, with some attempt at adornment. Because of his disinclination to work, this boy has been considered dull in school, an opinion not supported by his I. Q. of 95, nor his attainment of fourth grade at the age of 10. He lives only a mile from the school, and has access to a boat for crossing the creek, so he attends school regularly.

His Binet age is 123 months, the lowest of the group, but only eleven excel his I. Q. of 95, one other being the same. His range of tests was from VIII to XIV. Most light can be gained by taking his failures and successes year by year, since one is fully as surprising as the other.

In year VIII, all tests were passed with nothing remarkable, except the use of the genus “thing” in definitions. In IX, everything was correct, except the weights, which were correctly arranged the first time, dumped down at random the second and more carefully compared in the third, though with one transposition. In year X, only the vocabulary score and comprehension were correct. The first two absurdities were grasped but the others brought the irrelevant replies (c) “She was silly;” (d) “They couldn’t;” and (e) “It’s too bad.” The drawings showed no conceivable resemblance to the designs, the reading left only seven memories, though the time was a full minute. The formboard was put together correctly the first time in three minutes, the second in two, and the third time he gave up after innumerable errors. The unusual vocabulary score of 36 words was probably due to the mother’s habit of talking and reading aloud to the children.

In year XII, he succeeded in defining pity, charity, and justice, gave four similarities satisfactorily, and produced a superior plan for the ball and field. Failures in this year were: dissected sentences, no response; digits reversed, no resemblance to series given; pictures, mere enumeration; fables, no real explanation, as, “Carry pail,” “wheels sank,” and “be kind to donkey.” In year XIV, the first two problems of fact were correctly explained, partly because he had heard about legal division of property. Summarizing:

1. Good linguistic achievement due to home teaching.

2. No reasoning, judgment, nor learning displayed.

3. Good starts, poorly sustained.

Case 14 is a boy the same age as Case 13, and closely associated with him. He is slightly smaller and lighter, being 4 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 623^ pounds. His deficiency in weight is 5^ pounds, the same as Case 13. No one could tell with certainty just when he walked and talked, but both were given as about one year. He has had no illness, teeth and tonsils are good, and no defects are apparent. He seems to have about the same native ability as Case 13, but is a more willing and patient worker. In contrast to the other boy, he accepts no help, and never gives up what he undertakes. His school work is considered poor. He has many relatives in the community, but none included in this study. His people are average citizens according to local standards and the brothers and sisters make good school progress. One sister, after spending a year in a Mission School, made serious efforts to clean up the home, but finally succumbed to inertia in the form of marriage to a rather dubious character. All are regular in school attendance, though living across the creek. The mother is rather a nonentity; the father operates a small grist mill, and helps with a still across the mountain. He is commonly sober, but violent when drunk. This boy, W., has been twenty months in school, repeating the first grade, but making promotion each year since. His Binet age was 125 months, with fifteen of the group above him. As this is also his position in chronological age, he is not badly misplaced; and his I. Q. of 98 is exceeded by only half of the subjects. The vocabulary score of 30 words just met the requirement of his age, but his performance showed some absurd blunders; as, Mosaic, “to mosey along;” noticeable, “runs on wheels.” He failed in year X on designs, and on reading, in which he consumed two minutes and made four errors, but retained nine memories. Year IX was his base, with nothing noteworthy except a peculiar transposition of digits,4-9-3-7 being reversed as 9-4-7-3. “The boy lost his ball in the river” is a more mature sentence than is usually given. Native caution appeared in the Comprehension X, 5, “I don’t know any bad about him, nor any good either.” In year XII, all linguistic tests were failed?namely, vocabulary, abstract words, and similarities. The two similarities given were! cow, sparrow, snake? “Can’t talk”; and rose, potato, and tree, “all have flowers.” The last he justified by describing the rather obscure blossoms of forest trees. In the colonial house, like one other subject, he described the family portraits as, “folks looking in the windows.” Observations on the test are:

1. Linguistic deficiency, due to home conditions.

2. Greater skill in the handling of objects than of pencil.

3. Exceeds Case 13 chiefly in “will-to-do.”

Case 15 is almost as interesting a subject as Case 3. He is the son of old A, and the uncle of Case 3 and 13. His age is 13 years 6 months, height 4 feet 10 inches, and weighs 70 pounds. The deficiency of 17 pounds, may be due to the fact, that he is the family cook. He seems a sturdy little fellow, and reports no disease; but frequently suffers from a “misery in the stomach”?not to be wondered at. He is an obliging, friendly child, with a ready sense of humor and original methods of thinking, but much inclined to underestimate his own ability. He has good sense in practical situations, and takes responsibility for the younger children.

The father’s family were among the pioneers, and the man himself is said to have been a fine youth. He is able to read and write, and can help the children a good deal when so inclined. He married a daughter of another good pioneer family, but had illicit relations with two other women at the same time. When past sixty years of age, he left his legitimate family, providing for them liberally as property goes in the mountains, and set up a new establishment with a young prostitute from the mining camps. By her he had four children, of whom this boy is the eldest. Three of them are of reasonably good mentality, but the youngest is an idiot, unable to talk or observe decent habits. Back on the mountain, he runs about completely naked, behaving like a little animal. The mother departed soon after the idiot’s birth, but the older children are very kind to him. The house in which they live is better than the average of the neighborhood and the children are adequately clothed; but this boy’s cooking leaves much to be desired.

Teachers have considered this boy a bright student when he gets to school, which is not much of the time. He gives his schooling as five years, but the records show a scant sixteen months, and that very irregular. His Binet mental age is 152 months, with four subjects superior and one other the same. His I. Q. is 94 with thirteen higher. The tests failed were chiefly those dependent on information or school training, while those involving good sense or judgment were passed. The tests given covered years X to XVI. The vocabulary score was only 30 words, the failures being due to lack of familiarity with the content. Failures were as follows: dissected sentences, induction test, president and king, arithmetic, clock, enclosed boxes, and six digits reversed. The code was not given. The drawing was better co-ordinated than most. Notable successes were: before undertaking something important, “study about it”; justice, “give a body justice in the Court”; reputation, “what’s said about you”; character, “what is.” An ingenious explanation of the second problem of fact was: “There was a fight. The lawyer come to law the man that shot, and he played off sick, and sent for the doctor and preacher, like he was about to die.”

Summarizing:

1. Failures were due to lack of information and training.

2. Common sense and some ingenuity were shown.

Case 16. This boy is the only border-line case. He is 5 feet 2 inches tall, 13 years 10 months old, and weighs 80 pounds, over 20 pounds deficient. His early development was slow, as he did not talk until almost two years, nor walk until considerably over one year. At the age of six, he had spinal meningitis, which left his head and neck drawn to one side, and the right shoulder badly hunched. He is always silent and shy. At school he is mischievous and rather sullen, but is kind to smaller children.

The house in which he lives is fairly good and not badly kept. The mother is a kindly old woman, fond of her children and proud of keeping the home neat. The father was quite old and as his older children had left home, was often obliged to keep the three young boys out of school to work. Since the time of the test, he has died from the effects of a major operation for which he refused to leave home. This will probably mean that the boy will receive no more schooling; for, despite his physical defect he has done almost a man’s work on the farm.

Although living comparatively near the school, his attendance has been only about twenty-four months during a period of six years. He took the first grade in normal time, probably before his illness, but repeated the second and spent three years in the third. All teachers have rated him dull and troublesome. Arithmetic is his only strong point, and reading his weakest. His Binet age of 124 months is next to the lowest, and his I. Q. is five below that of Case 10, and sixteen below any other. Two younger brothers, in third grade, are remarkably good students.

His vocabulary score of 33 words showed some absurdities: as, juggler, “to put cider in”; dungeon, “a fairy story”; skill, “don’t kill him.” Colloquialisms were: impolite, “not speak him fair”; and “he follers pickin’ the guitar.” As the test was started with vocabulary, this score carried us back to year X, while failure in reading and designs placed the base at year IX. The reading took two minutes, with six errors, but nine memories remained. The second design was unrelated to the original. In year XII, the only tests passed were the ball and field, and the abstract words, which evidently suggested concrete situations to him, as, “which judge will give best justice?” (heard in election campaign). The dissected sentences were beyond his reading ability, the fables were given meanings not wholly irrelevant, but incorrect, as, “Don’t try to sing,” “Don’t carry donkey.” The pictures were merely described, and only two similarities were correct. In year XIY nothing aroused thought except the first two problems of fact. Nothing was given in year XVI, except the differences, which produced only the responses “You’re lazy” and “He’s got a misery.” Conspicuous findings are:

1. Reading and language ability extremely deficient.

2. Impaired mentality probably due to meningitis. Case 17 is a boy whose chronological age is 11 years 6 months. His height is 4 feet 6 inches, and weight 65 pounds, a deficiency of 7 pounds. He has had no illness except whooping-cough, shows no physical defects or peculiarities, and is very muscular for his age and size. He is a silent child, who would remain unnoticed in a busy school-room, but is patiently plodding along all the time. He seldom asks for help, and almost never gives up a task. In contrast to his sister, Case 5, he excels in number work, but is a poor reader. His family history and home conditions have been noted in connection with Case 5, so need not be repeated. Like his sister, he is fond of school, and never willingly stays away, though his father not infrequently keeps him out to work in the saw-mill. He makes no vivid impression on teachers, but does good average work.

His mental age is 142 months, with eight of the group above him, and his I. Q., 103, with seven higher. In the Ayers and Courtis tests, he was accurate though slow, but his oral reading is veiy poor, and silent reading little better. Giving the vocabulary first, and finding his score to be 40 words, we started at year XII; but failure in dissected sentences and digits reversed carried us back to year X, in which no unusual responses were given. In year XII, the effects of Sunday School were plainly apparent in “Leave God take your revenge” (having learned the verse “Vengeance is mine! I will repay, saith the Lord”) and “Charity is the name of a chapter in the Bible.” As the examiner was his teacher in Sunday School he probably considered these responses the most appropriate. Two of the problems of fact were correctly given, but nothing else beyond year XII.

Summary:

1. Has more ability than he usually displays.

2. Test helped school progress; (?) By bringing his latent ability to the teacher’s notice. (?) By increasing his self-confidence and giving him a standard to live up to. Case 18 is a girl 14 years 2 months old, 4 feet 11 inches tall, and 85 pounds in weight, or 9 pounds deficient. Her complexion is rather unhealthily pallid, though she is well built, strong, and quick of movement. She walked at the age of twelve months, but did not talk until eighteen months, reached physiological maturity just before the age of 14, and is troubled with bad tonsils and decaying teeth.

The father died before the age of thirty, but no cause was ascertained. “He just died,” is all the information available. The mother is an ineffective person, chronically tired and ailing. She is now married to the brother of Case 16, by whom she has four normal children. The home is the only downright filthy one visited. The step-father works away from home much of the time; so this girl and a younger full-brother of remarkable ability are kept at home for weeks at a time to do the farm work. For two or more years the family lived at the mines, where the children were not allowed to go to school for fear they might “catch something from the dirty foreigners,” their mother said. One could scarcely see how their condi256 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. tion could be made any worse, but the effect upon their education was as bad as though the reason had been valid. This girl’s entire schooling covers less than fifteen months, but she was a superior pupil in fourth grade.

Her Binet age was 161 months, or third in the group, with Case 12 the same, and her I. Q. twelfth, with Case 13 the same. The vocabulary score of forty-one words suggested year XII as a base, so the test began at that point, which proved to be the correct base age. The pictures and fables were especially well interpreted, the latter scoring in year XVI. In year XIV, the rule for the induction test dawned on her at the fifth cutting; but the paper cutting test in year XVIII was a failure. Other successes in year XIV were the problems of fact, and the clock problems. Failures were vocabulary, above twelve-year standard, arithmetic, and the differences between president and king. All these involved more information than she had encountered. No success was scored above year XIV, except the superior interpretation of fables.

Conclusions based on the test are:

1. Memory language, imagination, and reasoning are adequate.

2. Failures were due to lack of information.

3. Ability was good in the face of remarkably poor opportunity. Some general deductions from the tests seem obvious. With the exception of Case 1, all the children examined are strongly auditory minded. Ground for this assumption lies in several facts. 1. They reproduced the exact tone and manner of the teacher or examiner in repeating anything taught, even trying to twist Dixie vocal organs around Pittsburghese.

2. Only a few visualized the digits to be reversed, seeming rather to repeat them forward in pairs and then reverse the pairs, holding the tone memory throughout the process. 3. The vocabulary test conveyed no meaning until read aloud by the examiner. Of course this is the proper method of procedure, but for the sake of testing the hypothesis of auditoiy ideation, several children were asked to define the first half-dozen words at sight and failed to do so, though the words were well within their reading ability.

4. Much more frequently than is common in children at their age a word was confused with one which resembled it in sound. Thus lecture (quite outside their experience) became ‘lection day to most, and ‘lectric light to a few whose relatives had been out of the mountains. Hysterics had something to do with history; ochre was a vegetable (okra); skill, a place to dry apples (kiln), or where you get weighed (scale). Shrewd meant hollering along the road (rude); treasury, is having a good time (pleasure); repose, to think it is somebody else (suppose). Drabble is to care for a beast that is sick (drench); swaddle, the way a fat pig walks (waddle); juggler, a vein; quake, a bird we eat (quail) or a religion. Mellow is a mush mellow (musk melon); coinage, being brave (courage); bewail, never sick (be well); priceless, a list of prices. Southern is right this minute (sudden); tolerate, I’m tolable well.

Almost without exception the subjects excelled in repetition of digits, syllables and sentences as far as given. In fact, it is not improbable that most of them could have gone through all the auditory memory tests up to superior adult.

The mental ages of the sixteen subjects belonging to the fourth grade ranged from 123 months to 163 months, or a variation of 40 months. Their chronological ages varied from 98 months to 182 months, or a range of 84 months. In other words, the range of mental age was less than half that of the chronological age. This seems rather clearly related to three circumstances:

1. All the children have had about the same exposure to formal schooling. 2. The distance from school and Community House strongly affects the mental age of the child. 3. All seem to have made about equal advance since the entrance of the Community Workers, but some had a handicap before that time.

Of the subjects having mental ages of 161 months, one has an I. Q. of 95, the other of 111, according to the rate of progress during their different chronological ages. The lowest I. Q. was 75, made by a meningitis victim; the highest, 135, made by an eight-year-old child who has enjoyed exceptional advantages. These respective I. Q.’s represent mental ages of 124 months and 132 months, a difference of less than a year in present ability. In general the older children tend to have a lower I. Q., because, for lack of schooling, the mental age has not kept pace with the chronological. Case 8, for example, is a much more reliable student than her sister, Case 9; and, so far as actual accomplishment goes, is more intelligent. The younger child, however, shows a better I. Q., her mental age being 142 to 147 chronological, as compared with her sister’s 163 to 173, because both have had about the same schooling.

It is probable that if group tests had been used, the results would have been less creditable to the subjects, because: 1. Group tests in general require more reading ability. 258 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. 2. Individual tests give the subject the advantage of the examiner’s entire attention. 3. Group tests give little scope for auditory memory, which is the strongest point of these children. 4. Success in group tests involves a good deal of speed, which enters into but few of the Binet tests. The advantage of these subjects over their kinsmen taking the army tests, seems to lie in: 1. The better adaptation of the Binet test to their ability. 2. The fact that they were on friendly terms with the examiner before taking the test. Even considering these disadvantages, the group showed up quite as well as similar groups elsewhere. Though the number of cases is too small to afford ground for accurate generalizations, it is safe to say that with proper teaching and attention to physical wellbeing, the children of the mountains will reach or surpass the level of the “average adult,” not only in the Binet tests, but in the work of the world.

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