Evening star., 1932-01-10
/%TO get out Of square hole q
80 round peg has got to put its
best foot foremost. From a
bows essay on "Self-Help."


- round peg has got to put its
best foot foremost. From a
l. boys essay on "Self-Help."
Children are no longer
often asked to write on such abstract
topics as "Self-Help" But more and
more of them are having an opportu-
nifty to do what this boy so aptly de-
scribed-mixed metaphor and all. In
a variety of ways schools of today are
working to give each child the oppor-
tunity to develop his potential capaci-
ties to the full. Perhaps no methods
devised for this purpose are more help
full than the mental tests" which are
being more and more skilfully used.
Fathers and mothers should know
something about them not only be-
cause they may be of vital Importance
in relation to the child's school work,
but also because they are tremendously
helpful in guiding his life as a whole.
But those of us who think of tests
in terms Of our own school days are
likely to feel out of our depth when
confronted by this increasingly mys-
terious array OF psychological tests
tests of intelligence" Of behavior" !"
musical ability" motor control" per
sonality traits, " character" all the
rest.
And, like most humans when con-
fronted with radically new idea, we
react in one of two ways-either we
shy violently away from it as new
tangled fad, or we embrace 1t with
open arms as the latest cure-all
Tests Not Fads.
Psychological tests are neither fads
nor cure-alls. They are exceedingly use
full educational measuring sticks AS
such, they have as much to offer to
parents as to teachers and specialists
DR.. Lewis M Terman, himself a
pioneer In the field, has recently said,
The educational historian of the fu-
ture will probably point to the rise and
spread of mental testing In the early
/ twentieth century as one Of the most
important developments in the entire
history of education"
In view of it's Importance, the inquir-
ing parent wants to know two things
about this measuring of children's
capacities:
What are these tests and what do
they test?
What can I as a parent do to make
the most of their findings?
The purpose of testing, as 1t is used
today, Is not to see how high grade"
each individual can make, but to de-
termine what can be expected OF an
individual under certain circumstances
for instance, at a certain age or after
a specified amount of training. It is
designed both to establish standards
and, what Is still more important, to
guide the individual in relation to them.
Purposes Explained.
The point OF view and the purpose
is much like that with which we test
many other things on which we depend
for our own and our children's we'll
being Ours is a world in which every
thing from milk to motor parts must
be measured according to "speeihCs-
tions." So also 1t Is much easier to
evaluate the response OF given child
to given situation II you know how
thousand other children have re-
sponded to It,
With the familiar Latin or spelling on
history test of our school days II was
never possible to do this. Experiments
have shown that when the identical
examination in English for instance, is
corrected by a number OF teachers the
grade may vary more than 40 per cent
Still more important is the fact that
poor teaching, emotional upset or any
one OF many other causes may make II
impossible for a child TO do himself
Justice. The familiar story OF Sir Walter
SCOTS career as the school Ounce has
been repeated many times.
Not long ago a girl OF l3 entered
school for the first time. She had been
brought UP by her grandmother, q
wealthy and -excefdiuglY c0pserYattYe