Grouping by Abilities
Margaret C. Brooke, B.S.
Psychological Clinic, University of Pennsylvania The statistical average individual does not exist. The wider the range of distribution, the greater the number of departures from our mathematical mean. A survey of our anthropometric standards indicates the necessity, in the educational system, for the establishment of finer discriminations and the need for smaller groupings. The fact that ninety-five per cent of our school enrollment do not reach the university, ninety per cent do not finish the high school and sixty-five per cent do not complete the elementary grades constitutes conclusive evidence that our existing scheme of presentation is satisfying only an exceedingly small group.
Economic consideration of the individual and the training necessary to enable him “to be worth his keep,” demand that we ascertain very early in the life of the individual his potential abilities, the most efficacious method of approach toward learning and his ultimate assignment in the scheme of life. This consideration and assignment to specific occupational and educational regimen is the problem of the psychologist.
Just as study of disease prevention has developed from a study of pathology, so has the necessity for properly caring for the “bright” child resulted from the sad realization of the hopelessness and waste of attempting intellectual achievement with the deficient or mentally limited.
The failure to classify children according to “mental levels” means a heterogeneous mass of human material, all subjected to the same unsatisfactory method of approach.
Children should be classified in school according to a practical plan, considering the inherited and environmental factors. All pupils do better work when considered individually than when herded into a large group, obliged to conform to one stereotyped course of study. This applies to both brilliant and dull children, except that the former will conform better academically in a large group, for they can assimilate the prescribed course, while the dull cannot. In each case, however, disciplinary troubles will arise, for the bright child can so easily achieve satisfactory records that idleness and bad conduct are bound to result. The dull child, on the other hand, unable to grasp what is being taught, spends his time making mischief, with no academic progress. The present-day tendency in education is to adapt the curricula to a low level, allowing the dull child to function at his maximum ability, at the expense of superior and normal children, although the degree of adaptation is inversely proportional to the brightness of the individual.
Two years ago, in a school suburban to Philadelphia, one teacher took a group of accelerated fifth grade pupils, in the afternoon only, giving them the essentials of sixth grade work. Last year, these twenty-four children were put through the regular seventh grade curriculum, but it was submitted to them with as simple technique as possible, in view of their under-ageness. This year, they are being subjected to eighth grade work, with no deviation from the regular method of presenting material in this grade. Their school application, which is determined by averaging the scholarship grades from all teachers, for the first two months of the present school year is 80.5 for the accelerated group?two years younger than the regular legitimate eighth grade enrollment, while for the latter, the average is 80.3. In arithmetic and response to general school activities, such as the recent “Welfare Drive, the accelerated group is twenty points ahead of the others. Last year they carried the school banner for the district.
In one term in the elementary schools of Oakland, there were 1,776 failures, attributed to (1) irregular attendance, (2) ill health, (3) mental condition, (4) disciplinary causes, (5) environmental causes, (6) administrative causes. Since irregular attendance, poor health and probably a larger part of the disciplinary disturbances may be attributed to mental inferiority, the determination of the mental status is the only solution. In fact, mental tests in these schools have proven this to the entire satisfaction of the teaching personnel. School surveys of recent years show that school grades contain pupils so widely divergent in age and mental ability that the present scheme of promotions and graduations must be revised. This necessitates additional expenditures for instruction and equipment ?a simple problem abstractly, but hard to bring about concretely, since the laymen, who are the taxpayers, must be converted. This ideal situation cannot be brought about in one year, or in several years, but it is bound to come through pressure brought to bear from conditions in the working world outside school walls. Grouping on the basis of mental abilities would cause wholesale upheavals in school systems. All drastic measures for advancement in any field are always more keenly felt by the people who are directly influenced and forced to undergo the radical changes. Prohibition is an example of this?and the same results would be experienced educationally, which is largely responsible for the reluctance of schoolmen in taking this step toward an educational earthquake. Nevertheless, it is inevitable, and a school system classified for several years on the basis of individual tests is the only solution in the elaboration of the curriculum to the point of maximum efficiency, thereby practically eliminating unnecessary rapid promotions. Any number of small systems throughout the country have been re-organized on a psychological basis, but, in the larger municipalities, for obvious reasons, the changes are not forthcoming so systematically.
As a result of regular promotions in the elementary school, a great many children of inferior mental ability enter all grades, including the Junior High School. This necessitates one of two things: (1) a plan of special classification to dispose of children who, by virtue of chronological age and physical maturation alone, should rightfully be affiliated with junior high school work, or (2) a fixed entrance requirement, based solely on academic ability. The former plan would necessitate sub-division of the Avork in the .junior high school. The latter would solve, to a great extent, the disciplinary problems in all grades, since it is the overgrown pupil, marking time in nearly every schoolroom, who tends to upset the morale.
School curricula must be arranged from the standpoint of the child for three reasons: 1. Present economic conditions necessitating help, at an early age, from children in many homes. 2. The passing of apprenticeships. 3. Keen competition among all types of skilled labor, demanding maximum training and technique for success and survival. Wlio is to blame for the boy who spent three years in one room, with seventy-nine others, and failed miserably because of lack of individual attention, which, when forthcoming caused almost miraculous improvement?or the girl with artistic ability who was compelled to labor tediously through a four-year classical course in a high school, who now is a successful art teacher in a large school system, without the help of Latin gerundives or infinitives? or a musical genius, forced to take a prescribed high school course, including mathematics, when he delighted and excelled in the cultural subjects most needed in his career? These and many others have reached the Psychological Clinic and their histories may be found among its records.
The “helping teacher,” with psychological training and experience, relieves the situation in many elementary and junior high schools. Not only is her coaching in the school subjects valuable, but her psychological ratings, linked with good parental contacts, approach the solution of the problem. Until trade schools for boys and girls are established, many of her recommendations are handicapped. In many cases, boys and girls simply occupy valuable space in already overcrowded school rooms until the law is satisfied, when numbers of them are released to function in the world without adequate economic preparation.
If mental ratings were taken in the elementary schools, with a conscientious effort on the part of each teacher to experiment with a diagnostic attitude, on the limitations of each of her pupils, on the basis of tests given, there would be less use for vocational guidance in the Junior and regular High Schools. A prolonged period of observation, psychologically taking into consideration heredity, environment, social status, disease?together with the correlation of school ability and general intelligence?would furnish a coefficient of correlation invaluable for school authorities, employers and social workers. This could rightfully be termed “educational guidance,” which is clearly a most important basis for vocational guidance. A school psychologist is the only solution, for even if all teachers could be trained for this work it would not be possible, because of insufficient apparatus and overcrowded schools, to add to their already arduous duties.
According to tests given at the fifteen year level in the Psychological Clinic, children may be divided vocationally into four groups: 1. The superior children, whom the world can expect to succeed at almost any undertaking. 2. Children inferior both intellectually and mechanically, who must of necessity be carefully studied in order to give them helpful vocational guidance. GROUPING BY ABILITIES 123 3. Children of good intellect who have little mechanical ability. (If this mechanical deficiency means a lack of intelligence, advice for the future will differ from that given if the deficiency is one of mechanical ability alone.) 4. Children who have mechanical ability but are not intellectual. These, according to this study, should be fitted for work in the world with a minimum of training.
An index of social proficiency to the world at large is the ability to earn a living. If a child, at the age of fifteen years, has not shown himself capable of becoming a constructive part of society, he should be removed from school and given training in a particular line. If he has the intellect to profit by further academic work, he will have demonstrated it at this age. Mentally and socially a fifteen year old is considered an adult. He need not go into a factory, office or shop in lieu of unsuccessful school progress, but, in many instances, may be enrolled in a Trade School, or, should he possess a talent, may be developed along special lines. Older forms of vocational guidance were based on apprenticeships. As far back as the Middle Ages we find carefully organized vocational education, limited in some higher callings (such as the clergy) by birth, eligibility or strict legislation. Older methods of vocational guidance were carried out largely by immediate contacts, so that a weaver became a weaver by daily associations with his father or employer. Industry is now so divided and subdivided, each with a definite department, that apprenticeship is no longer the best way in which to acquire a working knowledge of any profession. The continuation and trade schools are being developed in place of these apprenticeships. Educational guidance is the only alternative in working out this problem?by linking up school room results with concrete advice and subsequent training at a trade for which the individual is thought to be best fitted. Re-education for ex-service men has done much toward converting educators to favor vocational guidance. Widespread reports concerning men who took advantage of the government did not overrule the satisfaction and success evident among vast numbers of men, studied by experts, and guided into vocations denied them prior to service. Through government foresight, men handicapped by physical disabilities and age were prepared to become socially and economically independent. Why wait for a World War to give boys and girls this expert help 1 In the mental clinic, connected with the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, a vocational guidance clinic has functioned for several years, mainly because of requests from parents, school principals and social workers. The latter are especially interested since they deal with unsuccessful and dependent family groups. Hence it is vitally important that advice should be given concerning the future program of a child in such a group ?usually a child who has complied with the age requirement of the law. The question for this clinic is?Is his mental equipment such that additional academic training would make him more valuable to society? Should he be trained mechanically, or, without additional aid, be turned loose among the vast army of unskilled labor ? If vocational guidance, in its present embryonic condition, can, with assurance, give a social worker definite information on one of these issues, it is going a great way toward actually solving a personal, home and state problem. Numerous instances could be cited from the records of this clinic to prove that the diagnosis and recommendation have been of great service to the children tested. Why should a boy or girl of fifteen continue to be a financial burden for some charitable organization by insistence on a high school education? In all probability he can never complete the course because of inferior mental equipment, while a younger brother or sister, of more fertile mind, may use that high school education as a key to success. The former may be well equipped for some skilled mechanical trade; the latter, for some profession. Granted that there exists an organization with ample funds to offset such mistakes, is it fair to the child to force upon him?even in the name of charity?a program to which he is antagonistic during his adolescent years, the very time when he should be advised, consulted and approached with greatest care? It is hardly probable that children with a limited memory span and low intelligence quotient will ever function at a very high level. Cases are on record where children with even superior intelligence were employed at a two or three-operation job, because of home conditions, ill health, an inferiority complex, or any number of other reasons, during invaluable years?a distinct loss to the working world. Since there is a mental equipment adapted to every job, it would seem almost a criminal offense to make such mistakes a frequent occurrence. Why should children become a part of some penal institution before being given a chance to learn a trade ? For years, trade programs have been in operation in state schools and reformatories with splendid results. It would be inGROUPING BY ABILITIES 125 teresting to know how many of those enrolled in these institutions would have been spared the humiliation and disgrace of such an incarceration if a similar program had been arranged for them, as a part of, or supplementary to, their school work.
“Next to moral education, industrial training is by general consent the greatest and most urgent problem confronting the American people.” “Whether our present school system is re-organized to meet this need, or whether, as in Europe, this phase of education is taken over by industries of all kinds, the solution of this problem is urgent.
Aside from the sentiment of unhappy lives and economic waste is the futility of mal-advice or lack of guidance. The trouble rests in the very scheme of things, because sooner or later the individual, by dint of circumstances and economic pressure, is forced into some work to earn a living.
The majority of children who are forced to leave school and go to work take the first job available for a few weeks or months, then pass on to something else for a short time and, in this way, keep drifting from place to place until they accidentally come into contact with work which really interests them, or until they acquire the habit of the proverbial “rolling stone.”
There is little time in the elementary and high schools to give each individual concrete experience and knowledge on which to base his choice of vocations. Manual training courses are unsatisfactory and inadequate. Some schools are now putting into operation the “try-out” courses, in which each class is given an opportunity to visit a number of plants and industries in which representative occupations, such as painting, plastering and many kinds of mechanical work are being actively carried on. Because of the many types of jobs and the limited school hours, this excellent idea can be carried out only in a very cursory manner.
The newest and most practical solution to this problem is a course in vocational information, when a representative of all the important types of jobs meets with junior high school pupils for at least one period a week and, with the aid of his practical experience, motion pictures, samples of work, together with selected reference books placed at the disposal of the entire class, a splendid idea is given of the industries in which the immediate neighborhood is engaged, and the ones most likely to be of interest to that particular group. The value and success of such a course is largely depend126 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC ent upon the cooperation of school authorities and heads of industries. Following a talk on a given industry, it is planned to have a representative on hand at stated hours in the school, when any one whose interest has been aroused in favor of a certain occupation, may consult in an informal way with one of experience in that particular trade. In the few schools where this program has been in effect, there are numerous cases on record where boys and girls have willingly stayed in school in order to get the academic training that they have been told is invaluable in connection with a job which has aroused their interest.
This course in vocational information is equally essential for high school pupils and, on the whole, far easier to organize because the maturity and additional education of this group makes the range of possible jobs greater. It is possible, with this group, to arrange vacation jobs to satisfy the boy or girl as to his fitness and chances in some particular line of work. In spite of psychological tests, vocational and industrial guidance, it is impossible for any boy or girl of any age to make a lasting choice of life work without a practical knowledge of the job he wishes to undertake. The expensive present-day labor turn-over is bound to make systematic prevocational training a necessity upon which the community responsibility is as great as that of the school. The direct benefits of such courses are obvious.
The substantial value of all these methods then rests on a keener discrimination, finer grouping, more accurate human measurement. Indeed, “We should be sadly lacking faith, optimism and the spirit of prophecy, if we refuse to maintain the probability that more and more aspects of man will become measurable and more and more modes of response predictable, and more and more social values appraisable.’’ (Yerkes).
Bibliography
I. Intelligence Tests and School He-organisation?Terman, Dickson, Sutherland, Franzen, Tupper, Fernald. II. Testing the Human Mind?Robert M. Yerkes, Atlantic Monthly. Vol. 131, No. 3. III. Tests at the Fifteen-Year-Old Level?R. E. Leaming. The Psychological Clinic. Vol. XIY, No. 7. IV. Variation in the Achievement of Pupils?Elliot. Teachers’ College Series. GROUPING BY ABILITIES 127 V. Classification of Junior nigh School Pupils by the Otis Scale. J. of Ed. Psychology. Vol. XI, No. 3. VI. The Psychological Clinic?Tests and Norms for Vocational Guidance at the Fifteen-Year-Old Level?Rebecca E. Leaming. (Vol. XIV, No. 7). VII. The Problem of Vocational Education?David Snedden, Ph.D. VIII. Journal of Educational Psychology. Volume II. The Bearing of Heredity upon Educational Problems.?Henry H. Goddard, Ph.D. IX. A Handbook of Vocational Education?Taylor. X. Clinic Case Records?Psychological Clinic of U. of P. Psychology Dept. XI. Success Through Vocational Guidance?McKinley and Simons. XII. Education and Industry?Link.
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