The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-07-18
(McClure's Magazine.)

AS GIcdt IeHSI pSSSiioiOSlSls ".
net. devised the so-called Binet-Si-
mon scale for measuring inherent ma
tive intelligence, irrespective of the
results of training. He prepared a
series of convenient and accurate tests
thoroughly standardized by trial or
thousands of children in various coun-
tries. of such a nature hat they en-
able a trained observer to get down
underneath everything that the person
has been taught and measure the fun
damental quality of his mind. A
school examination is supposed to
show what a child knows. The Binet
tests reveals what, he is. and to a sur
prising extent p%rophesies what, in aft
er life. he is to become.
Here, for example. is a young fell
low 90 Years old-strong. we'll set up.
o%pen-faced, altogether a distinctly
pleasing personality. He has been
working hard all day breaking up new
land. and has come in at night, ON
fortably weary, sloriously hungry, and
ready for bath and supper. Question
him about his occupations, interests.
companions. and he answers promptly
and i~ntellieently.
Inquiry shows that he leads the
school orchestra, takes part in theat-
~ricals. doe beautiful work at two
handicrafts, and in addition is a crack
athlete. quite able to hold his on
track or diamond against most college
boys. He looks in short, like a dis
tinctly promising youth, Of whom al
most any parent might be proud.
But take him into the laboratory
and put him through the Binet tests,
and he breaks down, at IS. He vas a
likely baby. His mind developed nor
mally in early boyhood. At 8 or 9 it
began to slow down. At IL it stop
ped. No matter how long that man
lives, he will never be more than IL
years old.
Meanwhile he will do everything
that a child Of 10 can do; and do it
oomplish almost any sort Of routine
care for stock, lay bricks, work at
tailoring, perform my mechanical OPP
Grafton as we'll as anybody-provided
somebody else plans his work. But he
cannot plan for himself, and he can
not take responsibility-naturally not.
since he is only IL.
He mas had ten years of the most
painstaking. as we'll as the most thor
oughly scientific. education to be had
anywhere in America-and it hasn't
knows more han a child Of IL. be-
cause he has had twice as many years
to learn it in; but his learning is all
on the twelve yea old level. All the
range and grasp and interests of the
thirteen-year-old mind are forever to
him E. closed book.
So long as this man is kept in
charge of kindly persons who treat
him as the twelve-year-old he really
is. not the man he appears to he. and
so long as he is given no task beyond
| tl-r, -.L;al ,o~of t1e%c r. /. ~ h. n -
do with ease and pleasure, he is hap
Ply. docile, affectionate. But let him
out into the grown-up world and al
once he is in six different kinds OF
trouble.
He cannot make a living at a mans
work because he is only a little boy:
while, on the other hand. nobody will
look out for him like a little boy be-
cause everybody takes him for a man
The outside world is not adapted to
such as he. and therefore. according
to his natural or acquired energy. he
drifts into pauperism or crime. With
the forethought of his ~ years. he be.
comes responsible for a family which
he cannot possibly support. In a pan.
ic of childish jealousy or fear. he is
az dangerous as q frightened horse
He has all the impulses OLA grown
man, with a child's power to regulate
them.
Yet this man is very close to
normal person. According to DR.
Osler the minds of the ablest profes.
sional men stop growing at 40. After
that these especially original persons
work and learn. but no longer develop
1t is notorious that the general run OF
educated persons cannot really Learn
a new language or master a musical
instrument much after twenty. Theil
minds Oslerize at about half the age
of those Of the next grade. Appar.
emily the great mass Of mankind Os.
lerizes between IA and 21-a fac
which seems always. in some sort. tc
have been recognized in law and Gus.
tom.
A mind that sticks at 10 is just able
to make a living at the lowest grade.
of labor, and barely to take care of it.
self in the world.
Below 10. not above 8, m thu
newly recognized moron" who Il
but on the line between the two. TIL.
imbeciles eve become older than Z
The mind Of an idiot las Oslerized be,
fore 3.
This plastic time of the mind is per
haps the most important of all differ
ences among various persons and rae
es of men. 1t appears also, now tina
we have an infallible means OF dis
covering the moron, that this hereto
fore unrecognized type Of human be-
ing is as common as argon and rad
ium.