The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-03-16
Frankness Chdrdcterizes Speeches At Meeting OF National Educators,
 Says DonoUan In Report To Board
Submits Lengthy Report at Meeting of Commissioners This Afternoon Various Phases of Work Debated at Length By Leaders From All Sections of Country

the listeners to them now---wifl rec ognize in these two quotations cer- tain quality of satire exaggeration and excess of sympathy. As cold
 matter of fact, Dr ButterfeId knew when he was sardonically leading the heroic legions of his thought against the citadel of intelligence tests-i1e' knew very well that we can classify our merchants as we can our chil- dren as well as our teachers. Some of the leading men in the country are deacons in the churches. Wheth- CT Solomon would be puzzled as to the intelligence of the women may be a question. What Is known about Solomon throws both favorable and
 unfavorable light on his relations with the ladies, but think we can be sure of this: that If Mrs Butter
 field goes to a meeting of the wo-
 mems club she can come home and tell her husband the exact distinc-t tions between the mentality of the members of the wOmen's club. And as to cruelty to children essentially covered up by intelligence tests, 1t is simply not so. There was a line of demarcation between the bright and the dull long before intelligence testing, and if we discontinue such testing, 1t will continue The cold truth is that from the Beginning of the world the battle of life in school and out of 1t separated the dull from the bright. We don't lay bare any thing the children do not already know about each other; but by care ful, reasonable scientific testing. we do know more about grouping than we ever did before. From the be- ginning the leading psychologists in the schools--the men who wore out their eyes to place examinations on scientific basis--have recommend ed very wise caution both in re- vealing what intelligence tests prove,
 and In the use to be made of our knowledge in regrouping. We never. in Waterbury, regrouped on the sole evidence of intelligence tests. Right in Minneapolis, as 1t was shown at another meeting in Detroit.
 much was offered in proof of the fact that new era is already begun in some cities and even whole states in pupil placement. not solely on the result of intelligence tests but partly
 because they are given and far re- grouping in such way that voca- tional guidance is beginning to func- ton.
 What is becoming more and more apparent as the civilization of our more decidedly changes from sim
 plicity to complexty is that no sys- tenn of grouping whatever can quite serve the purpose of carrying all along in the system with something like equal pace.
 We have to educate the whole mass and the most expert system of fn mi tlu ,tn -. answer all the purposes of life and education.
 In another group, Professor Charles H. Judd of the University of Chicago made at Detroit the fol lowing statement: There seems to be an assumption that a certain test infallibly determines the intel lectuai stature of a pupil. There is am afraid, generation of formal ists in the making more prejudiciai to true science than the earnest seekers after the best methods of conducting schools, who never studied statistical methods 1 am making plea for the persistence of the inquiring attitude for belief in research at all levels. The cases with which the science of education deals are ali complex and must be looked from many points of view.'
 Now I venture to imagine that no one--even the most conservative and hidebound of reactionaries would venture to dispute the truth of pr Judd's accusation. But it is precise ly because discussion is always ab- solutely free at most educational meetings in this country, particular ly at these national meetings a. which the best thinkers in the whole field of pedagogy open up all aues- tions relating to teaching. that l am sure the Journalists can never be safe again. There is plenty of evi- dence that no practice. not even the most expert kind of intelligence testing will ever be safe from at- tack if it should grow rigid1y formal, top heavy or 1op-sided.
 For what all genuine leaders in education in this country are trying to do all the time-at conventions and in their offices and laboratories Is this: they are trying to find a way of teaching school which will carry forward the group, the class--as individual, be he very dull or very bright. It Is tremendous task: for 1t must keep watching in every direction both to present abuses and to increased efficiency. We are just passing through an absolute change in material civilization. Men still living can remember the simple old of a time which found few or none out of work at any time, and when the world had not