Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-06
PROBLEM OF BAD BOYS
CLOSELY STUDIED In ID. C..
Unmanageable Youngsters Are Made to
Turn to Better Ways in Experiment
i'm Schools of City.
. Then the process works in

III SOII1S cases III pAONCo hAlROoOlOlC W
"get even" The intended victim is too
secure to be injured. In that case a
process of subconScious transference Is
set up. Consciously the child may for
get his hate for the individual, but
transfer it to other individuals or to
a society as whole.
Surprising the chilc IS unjustly pun
ished by a teacher. He determines to
get even with that teacher. He can't.
He transfers his hate to other teachers.
Teachers represent authority. His hate
broadens to include all in authority
His life becomes a continual striving
the first forgetting he can't tell. as a
rule, what the world has done to him
for which he seeks revenge.
Thrill i'm Getting Even"
Another child may succeed in get
ting even" The success gives him such
an exhilarating sensation of self-satis-
faction-a thrill-that he desires to re-
peat it. He repeats 1t over and over
again, gradually forgetting the original
cause and remembering only the salts
faction that results.
In either case, the outcome may be
the confirmed criminal or the muir
derer.
On the other hand-this is highly
disputable point which was stressed
by DR.. Adler of Vienna, the father OF
this school of psychology. who lectured
in Washington last Winter-under GER
tain circumstances the outcome may
be genius-a Napoleon or Snake
speare. The only reason for mention
ing Adler's debatable theory is that
Flies work seems to have brought out
some remarkable combinations of 1t.
Fife. however. holds no particular
brief for the inferiority complex school
of psychoanalysis. His classroom
varies in some essential aspects from
the school clinics which Adler set up
all over Germany. The facts remain
that most of his cases seem to have
originated in an inferiority complex.
Seeks Something Wholesome.
His actual method of treating these
cases of dual personality is purely a
pragmatic one, combining Adlerism
with behaviorism in way which has
brought results. He seeks, by obser-
walton and by conversation, to discover
something wholesome in which the boy
is interested. Usually this discovery
comes simultaneously with the discovery
of the complex that dominates the
childs personality. Sometimes. how
ever, it results purely from an off-hand
observation and has no direct refer
ence to the underlying causes.
He has found, for instance. that the
great majority of these dual per-
sonality" children are idol worshipers
| that is, they have set up some figure
| in history as an ideal and are intensely
| interested in everything pertaining to
| that figure. 1t might, for example, De
| Napoleon.
Upon this Napoleon complex he tries
! to graft other interests. Take arfth-
metic. Almost every boy sent to the
| Gales Special School hates arithmetic
| and has failed in this subject. A great
| deal of arithmetic can be grouped
around the career of Napoleon. He mao
to know arithmetic to be an artillery
officer. the foundation of his career.
once the interest in arithmetic has
been aroused. Fife tries to give the
child instruction in the fundamentals
of the subject with some hopes OF sue
cess.
Also Disiikes Grammar.
Another subject which almost every
boy in the school hates and has failed
in is English grammar. It always Is
perplexing to devise some way TO arouse
a child's interest in grammar. This
is particularly the case, Fife says. with
children from foreign-speaking homes
where English IS not spoken.
Again the child may be hand
minded" The interest around which
everything can be grouped then IS the
opportunity for making things ana the
use of tools.
Once the interest or the complex has
been uncovered Flies work Is purely
process of conditioning according TO
the behavioristic philosophy.
This problem of genius and completes
Is touchy one.
The District school system has
pragmatic system for testing mtein-
pence and classifying children accord
ing to their mental age. The theory
behind this practice is somewhat OBJ
scure, but the fact remains that 1t
works very we'll in practice with the
great majority of children.
What Is Intelligence?
Nobody is agreed on a definition OF
intelligence It may be one thing or
another. or it may be nothing at all
There does, however, appear TO De
factor in most persons which determines
their ability to cope with new situation
that is. learn-and which remains
fairly constant throughout life. This Is
what is tested. School officials don't
claim infallibility for the method.
Now one school of psychology, into
whose findings Flies results seem to mt.
would say that intelligence" is myth
that there is no such thing. 1t would
do away with the problem Of feeble
mindedness by the statement. with GER
tain reservations for congenital atrophy
of brain cells, that there is no such
thing as feeble -mindedneSS-or rather
that the difference between the moron
and the genius is not intelligence, but
something else.
It holds that ability is matter OF
completes, just as thinking is admittedly
a matter of completes. 1t would hold
that children who do well with intelli-
oence tests do so simply because the
tests happen to fit into their completes
There is a small percentage of chill
dren in the District schools with /. as
of $50 or above. For the most part
they are fairly well behaved children
with healthy bodies. They do extremely
we'll In their classes.
They are classified as geniuses. OBJ
viously the word is used here in spe-
cial sense It merely means high-claSs
all-round ability. 1t hardly can be held
to mean ability in any special sense.
Such children can be expected to do
we'll in the world II the luck isn't all
against them and stand well In business
and the professors.
At the other extreme are the children
with I. Qs below 100-not detectives,
but barely up to the average.
Gets Intelligence Ratings.
When boys come to Fife, he is fur
nished with their intelligence ratings,
but he finds that in many instances
special conditions obtain which throw
grave doubts on the validity OF these
ratings. The children simply have not
fitted into the rating system, YET some
of them appear to be geniuses in the
popularity accepted meaning of the term.
When 15-year-old boy with an ]. q.
which would indicate that he was a
high-grade moron draws pen-and-ink
sketch of Lindbergh which an art critic