The Detroit tribune., 1954-03-27
"Are We Failing Our ChiIdrenl"
Saturday Evening Post
(Continued from our Last Issue)

tom 30 per cent which includes many children VIII.
basicay quite intelligent but somewhat slow in hi,
their intellectual stride. On the other end the .e,
he says the top 80 per also damaged someti
seriously but less obviously because they usually do h
is expected of them. But Doctor Belts contends th
these students LOSE OUT BY BEING FORCED To
DAWDLE ALONG with a curriculum that 10 BELOW
THEIR capabilities, and 10 therefore DULLINc
PROCESS for them.
Excluding the per cent of the population which
10 born doomed be incurably studid Doctor B.,,
estimates that about 900 YOUNGSTERS are tod.
GETTING AN UNFORTUNATE DEAL in school! Tb,
does not of course that all of them will b.
critically handicapped but he has nearly 10000 case his
tories to show that in extreme such treat
ment turn normal q superior child into 4.
nervous wreck and msht for life. But in most cases il
will merely that they will be carefully train
ed a. they should be.
e.. hi. finding seemed, he puts it now. so ride
ulously obvious.
AT Shaker Heights he promptly into another
mystery About rs per of the problem children re-
ferrsd TO him school Psychologist had serious difficulty
with reading. Upon testing them he found that few
had physical defects, and that borderne moron
rest though their teachers reported they seemed
stupid letharsie to learn normal superior
cept that they couldn't read properly.
" -. why did many normal children tumble read.
ins7
%. Sometimes that meant, for instance, TAKING
AN EICHTH-CRADER AS FAR BACK AS FIRST
GRADE BOOK! Even the WEAK-WITTED DE.
VELOPED enough reading ability 10 enable him in later
life to be adequate clerk. Within months some
of the youngsters who had seemed UTTERLY HOPELESS
not only caught up with the reading level of their classes
but were AMONG THE LEADERS in other subjects.
". physicians had noticed a peculiar pattern il
Of children brought to them for
unusual lehsrgy other worrisome qurks of juvenile
behavior. Among other things, the incidence of such
cases seemed TO rise in certain stages of primary educ
ton Having heard of Doctor Belts work, they wondered
some of the clues proper diagnosis might lie his
findings"
THE PHENOMENAL CASE OF JOHNNY s.
a.. How this happen 10 shown in detail in the
story Of Johnny g. who accused of being stupd and
thereby almost ruined for life. Though il 10 rather
rems and slightly composite illustration, all its facet.
reflected and again in the nearly 10000
histories in Doctor Belts files.
Physically. Johnny s. a rsd-hsired twelve-ye~
old who had droopy, hansdos air and sometimes
cant, sometimes bewdered stare He refused to pay
sention in school, alternating between daydreamnx and
extreme hdgetng He bit his finger nails often
stupidity in his speech He would cry over the lit
test things If he mistakenly scolded punished he
didnt seem to have enough to defend himself He
books He sloppy and sIovenly far beyond the normal
csreessness Of twelve-year old In Short Johnny S.
was q mess
He in the sixth grade but had got that far only
because his school followed the practice of social promo.
tions-that is promoting children by age The reports
o his teachers showed they convinced that he wss
too backward too lazy for such system even John
ny's shove ethem-alons school about to funk him.
As proof that this verdict wasn't merely prejudice
there the results of made by the school
One test revealed that Johnnys reading ability didn't
meet even early secondsrsds requirements The other
gave his O. Ne a. which would mean that he was rs
points below exact average and NEXT DOOR TO THE
MORON classification
The hrst surprise the got when they brought
Johnny to the Reading Clinic that DOCTOR BELTS
DIDN'T SEEM AT ALL IMPRESSED by this evidence.
For one thing, he does not rut what known az stand
srdiEed reading test particularly If administered and
interpreted BY school people without special training
Furthermore the test and finding were .ound Dr.
betts wouldn't consider that conclusive evidence against
Johnny So for he least IS per cent of the popu
ton school children and adults alike seriously rets
ed IN reading ability. In other words Johnnys failure
read at his age and grade level did not mean
he was mentally deficient.
| 'As for the results of the SCHOOL I n test Doc.