The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-12
Departmental Meetings At National Educational
 Convention
DIR. BAKER TALKS ON
 REORGANIZATION"
Says a School Should Teach Accuracy, Perseverance and Endurance. Dr. Goddard Tells Causes
 of Truancy

San Francisco, July 11.--Considera- ,ion of strictly educational problems which is the main cause of the Nauohal Educational association, began here to- flaw following the formal opening of the association's forty-ninth convention late yesterday Separate meetings held hy nearly all departments of the asso- ciation went over the problems con foorting secondary, higher, manual and art training, and more subjectlveiy child study and the physical welfare of children.
 ! Tonight the whole association as- sembled to hear President James H. Ba- ker of the University of Colorado speak t on the Reorganization of American Education
 zF% President Ella Flagg Young. after x Nh hour on the platform yesterday ana $ many more in reception line last I night found time today to attend q luncheon and go over notes for her Address to the convention today She SStood the strain we'll, her friends said. H President Bakers address sparkled i.Eith cpigrams.
 68 "A child that suffers no hardship is ocn the way to perdtion," he said. "lf 'z ;Dothing else, the school should teacn 'E Accuracy, perseverance and endurance. E< Pleading for selection and el1mlna- Hon in courses he said:
 I'd ..Enrching the curriculum was rreat idea but it has been subjected to .jendless abuse. The time has come to Apply the philosophy of the simple t@1ife' to education." tf Dr Baker outlined course which z&t the end of his twentieth year and s n the en dof his twentieth year and Through university at the age of "A. m pr. Frances M Greene of Cambridge. H|Mass speaking on sex hygiene, sald 8fhe society where today's children VIII $sbe units will have only one standard f Of morality.
 f# The new department of the associa- #tion perhaps to be called the depart ~ ment of economies, will be proposed Thursday, 1t was announced tooaS x The purpose of such a department # would be to consider the amount or # money spent on public schools in the United States, to ascertain the sums spent for various purposes and their proportion to each other and to devise q better ratio for spending each dollar. Those who favor such department say its work would result in better pay for teachers
 Perhaps the largest attendance gath cred at the joint session of the kinder garten, elementary and special educa- tion departments where The School Laggard" was the subject for discus- sion.
 At the meeting of the department of physical education, Physical Educa- tion of Adolescent Girls" was the sub ject discussed by John M. Tyler of Am herst, while Francis M. Green, M. D., of Cambridge, Mass. delivered an ad- dress on Sex Hygiene
 A Cause for Truancy
 The displacement of children in schools. getting them too high or too low for their mentals capacity, is re- sponsible for much of the truancy and incorrigibility, according to Henry H. Goddard of the School of Feeble Mind ed. Vineand, N J., a speaker at one of the section meetings of the National Education association today The speaker said that studies at the Vine land institution have shown that 65 per cent of feeble mindedness is hered- itary. The speaker discussed particu- larly the Binet measuring scale for in- tellgence, which has received official sanction by the New Jersey legislature. MT. Goddard said, in part:
 "The Bnet scale is method of mar vicious accuracy and of great practical value, and can be applied to help us solve some of our problems and make our school system more efficient.
 We are beginning to recognize that n.any of our difficulties in school are tie result of differences in inborn ca
 
 ress. It Is therefore necessary to have some method of measuring that inborn capacity.
 Three Per Cent Feeble-M
 "The research department of the New Jersey Training school for Feeble minded Children has carried out sys- ter.atic testing of an entire school population of 2O0O children, using this method. The results amount to almost q math emat tical proof of the accuracy ot the Binet method. It shows that there are per cent of children who are precocious or better in mentality than the average child; IS per cent are nor nal: Is per cent are backward and 3 per cent are feeble minded. This ratio probably holds almost universally.
 We should have schools or special classes for these precocious children In order that the natural advantage with which they are born should not be lost and that they should not learn bad ways and bad habits from being in classes that go so much slower than they are able to go The 15 per cent that are merely backward should be in special classes too. that they may be coached ana helped along and enabled to get through as much of the school work as is absolutely necessary to n.cke them useful.
 Classes for the Dull . The 8 per cent that are feeble nded should be in colonies or insti- l tntions where they are cared for and enabled to be happy and partially use fri as long as they live, but if this Is impossible they must be cared for in special classes in public schools where they are not asked to learn reading, Writing and arithmetic but are taught t) do those things with their hands which they can do and the doing of which makes them happy. They must never marry because the studies at the Sineland institution have shown that 6t per cent ofs feeble -mndedness is hereditary. Therefore, if these children grow up and marry they simply per patuate the race of Predetermined per sons.
 ''In this study of the entire school pop ulation tested by the Bnet methods 1t is N shown that some children are in classes Athat arc way ahead of the mental ca- fg pacity of the children. These run all the way from the children that are in classes that are one year ahead of them to three years. In other cases children, are be- hinc what they ought t- be from one to three years. Two tendencies are shown
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