Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1921-04-22
INTELLIGENCE OF
PULLMAN CHILDREN
ABOUT AVERAGE
(By Helen Schwartze)

How many idiots. imbecles, or
morons do you think there are in the
Pullman schools? How many chill
dren of exceptionally high mental
ability?
Not many, surely, but the Pullman
schools as whole conform quite
closely TO the average for the coun-
try in this respect The detectives
in any school average between two
and three per cent of all the chill
dren enrolled; the exceptionally
bright ones slightly less
The Binet-Simon Intelligence
Scale was used in examining the
Pullman pupils and because it takes
from 30 minutes to an hour and
half to examine each case, depend
ing on the difficulties presented. all
pupils could not be tested The
teachers in different grades were
asked to select such children they
deemed especially backward. or es-
pecially bright. and they were test
ed by Prof. w. II. Burton of the
State College, In addition a num-
/ Der OF other cases were tested at
the request Of parents or for other
purposes. The results of all tests
made last year and this year have
/ been incorporated into the present
survey OF the schools being made I'M
| der the direction of Dr. c. w. Stone
! Though the children tested were
taken largely from grades below the
! sixth the number was sufficient to
/ give an index of the general status
oil all pupils in the system
Since the tests are difficult to ad-
minister and interpret, each pupil
was examined by Professor Burton
rather than by student assistants
and the results are therefor as relia-
Bile as it is possible to make them
| There are, of course, number of
| qualifications and conditions to the
Interpretation of any intelligence
/ test.
/ This study should be carried
/ further and a large number of chill
dren tested" said Professor Burton
so that we could determine wheth-
/ er it would be beneficial to have
/ special ungraded room for backward
children. I have already found sew
eral children who cannot do a grade
year, even with special help
! There are in addition one or two
cases that should be eliminated from
! the schools as they are in no way
capable of progressing and in addi-
/ ton are possible sources of danger
to other children. No cases actually
/ dangerous at present were found.
"On the other hand there are a
/ half dozen children who are quite
capable of skipping a half grade. and
one or two should skip a whole
/ grade. There should be some pro-
vision for such irregular promotion
for bright pupils, since / am sure
most of the teachers would gladly
cooperate to make it successful"
The extremes reported by Profess
sor Burton are one boy under six
who is capable of doing second
grade work if he had some special
help with fundamentals; and one lit
tie girl of A with a mind on a level
with a four-year-old child. This
latter case can never learn any of
the simplest fundamentals, and
should be placed in special school.
In between these two were found all
the usual degrees of normal intelli-
gence, brightness and Effectiveness.
While it may be startling to think
that there is one idiot at least in
the public schools, and a number of
morons, this condition is not differ
ent from that of other towns of this
size. The Edison school has a much
smaller than average number of de-
fectives, and a larger than average
number of bright pupils. The Main
building, on the other hand, quite
reverses this finding.