Evening star., 1937-12-07
Examinations
Not ALWAYS
.Infallible
Low l. 0. Not
Mean a Lack of
Intelligence.
BY ANGELO PATRI.


"MY SON is not getting on too well
in school. He passes, but that
Is about all. He has little interest in
school work, but he loves play. His
teacher has told us that his I. @. Is
low, eighty-eight. What do you do
with a child whose I. @. is as bad as
that? He must have an education,
but how is he to get it If he has such
a poor mind?"
am not SO sure that he has q Door
mind. Nobody Is. A. mind is not
really measurable. An I. @. Is some-
thing like a temperature. II the child
has high temperature we think he
may be sick, and we call in the doctor.
II tne temperature Is unusually high
we fear he is very sick indeed. Still.
We nave hopes that we can help him
back to health, and we bend every
enort to do SO, the doctor helping; the
nurse and the family doing their best
IN MS cause. We never give up trying
until the child is we'll or he passes be-
yond our keeping.
l feel much the same way about
l. s. Ihey may be accurate. They
may not be. At their best they reflect
the state of mind of the child at a
certain time, in a certain limited Sec
tlon OF It's activities. 1t is not nos
Slple to measure the whole of the
childs mental being. Something
and that something covers a wide
eXpanse OF experiences-is left out of
the process. One can get a reflection
OF an experience If a child has had
IL and one asks about it, but if the
chlld has not had the experience. or if
IN MS lnexperience and ignora nee he
mas not been able to interpret it, the
response will be lacking and the failure
Is recorded against his power of intelli-
gence. That may be right, but there
Is every possibility that it NAV be
wrong.
What am getting at is this. A
chlio may get low I. G., and yet be
an intelligent child because the test
ola not measure his personal expert
ences. Or because the child was not
IN a condition to take the test. Or
because the examiner did not know
now to administer the test. Or be-
cause the test did not test what it
was supposed to test. All these eIe-
ments, separately or in combination
may have entered into the situation
and made the T. O. the wrong answer
would not take an I. @. as the
sole measurement of childs mental
ability. would consider it as one
factor to be counted, but I would want
70 balance it against the teachers
Judgment OF the child. I have found
that when there was a question about
the accuracy of the I. O., the teachers
judgment was the nearer to the truth
The teacher lives with the pupil dav
by DAY and knows his strength and
weakness. If she does not agree with
the l. O., it is best to wait and follow
her judgment rather than act upon
the test result.
One test does not decide the mat
ter, nor one teachers Judgment Make
the tests over a period of years, take
the judgments of teachers all along
the line and watch the growth of the
child. Never, if you can possibly avoid
doing so, allow a child to think that
ne has been weighed in the balance
and found wanting That is about
the most crushing blow a child can
suffer. Keep encouraging him, but
keep the results to yourself beyond
saying, You did we'll, very well, pretty
we'll" according to the truth.
The child who is actually defective
needs no test to prove it. 1t is the
doubtful children who need tests, and
1t is best to give them the benefit of
the doubt, and the grace of the teach
ers judgment.