The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-05-19

,ha. Il their auickness in mental re-
action, is measured by the stop watch
Children are expected 10 vary III
their responsiveness 10 the reactions
in these tests. according to their ages;
q difference OF three months IN asr
being sufficient 10 reveal different re
actions.
Thirty-T~o Tests to Each Child
Each child Is handled by thirteen
assistants. and is subjected to thirty
two tests. Similar tests are SO ols-
trihuted that there is a successive va
rety. Wherever the time element en-
tiers. as when the child Is required 10
subtract nine from one hundreu un,i'
one is reached; or to name oppoSites
10 a list of familiar words; or 10 III
variously shaped blocks INTO tneir
| proper holes in a board. the time IS
noted by stop watch to the fractional
part Of a second. Where the test IS
Of the child effectiveness, or reten-
t%iyenesS, or accuracy or observation.
an account is made for the number
OF trials and mistakes. Many or the
| older children regard an invitation TO
play blocks as a joke, but some of
the seniors are later chagrined 10 find
that they have not been able TO per-
form as creditably as some OF the
freshmen have with the little games
| which form h tests.
The broad basis OF classification in
! the pAdDli1atlOIS. dS L nave IL dLCO;
is the age of the children. Each day
this winter they have been testing
rientally four groups. those whose
| birthday il is; and those whose birth
day is three months, six months. or
nine months ahead. Thus they will
have examined in three months time
all the children in the schools.
Every one of the five thousand "hu-
man guinea pigs will eventually re
ceive an average Of five hours atten-
ton. It will take two years to make
all the tests planned. h year they
are working in the city and country
schools for whites. Next year the
schools for negroes will have their
turn.
Reduce Statistics to Tables.
Finally, all these statistics, mental
and physical, will be worked together
into tables which will show an aver
age abstract figure for a large num-
Der of children grouped by age. There
will be a group figure for the chill
dren ten years old, another for chill
dren OF ten and d quarter. still Sn-
other for children of ten and one
half. and a fourth for children ten
years n nine months old. All the
children from six to eighteen years
old will be thus standardized.
Aside from the bearing the stats
ties may have on the main inquiry,
the possibilities for combinations
among them and for more or less in
cidenta1 comparison will be almost in
finite. By the simple device of listing
children with a proper plumbing
system in their homes in inks of diff
ferent color, we shall have a direct
comparison Of the health and mental
condition of the two classes; city and
country children may be balanced
against each other, in the same way;
and whites n negroes may be con
! trasted.
One of the b~y-products of the in
! v~estigation will be the STANDARDIZED
ton Of the tests used for immigrants
If an average school child Of ten car
perform an experiment in the same
time that it takes an illiterate iRmi-
grant child Of twelve years, it will be
!. shown that the school child of twelve
is mentally W years ahead of thu
immigrant child of the same age
= age. And these are but a few of thu
! interesting deductions we may anti
cipate.
: From these experiments all presen
indications are that the conclusion.
> Will be: First, some Of the South:
!. children will be shown TO equal an,
!, Northern children found; second
backwardness in many cases will b,
4 shown to be from the same cause.
that retard the physical and tn.
mental development OF Northern chill
dren; third, the hackwardness O
some Of the Soutn's other children
will be definitely proved as due t,
causes quite distinct from those CD
Grating in the North, but to cause
that, it is hoped, are easily remedia
bic, in particular, the hook worm
Five years after the present inyes
tigatton is finished. the work will b
exactly repeated in Wilmington. TIL
Investigators will compare the aver
age child OF that period with the ay
n erage child of the present. 1t the
will be seen what has been aecom
- plislted for those children whose par
ents have taken an interest in tn
prevention and cure of ground ito
and nook worm. And we sha loo
with u interest to see what Of
Al feet improved sanitation has ha
upon the general average of heaIt
- and mentality.
The results obtained here Wi
ar ~douotless nave 3 bearing on futur
p6llc2fI0na1 lrncocCno - - -A,