JACK Madella
Q.?A
CLINIC STUDY
Rigby, Recorder, Psychological Clinic, University of Pennsylvania
March, 1927 that Mrs. Q. first brought her son to the Clinic for examination. Jack was eight then and in the IB Grade at school. He had entered school at the age of six and one-half years, and his record has been one of poor work and good It
was
in
Psychological
conduct.
His teacher
that he is inattentive but she disturbance at all. He likes to go
complains
hastens to add that he
causes no
to school but he
to be immune to education in the classroom.
seems
to it the second year
brought on chorea. In short, Jack's trouble is that he doesn't seem to retain anything he has been taught, and consequently he does very poorly in reviews and is not promoted. He is fast growing too large for First Grade. Something must be done. The question raised by his teacher is whether individual instruction will do more for Jack than the classroom Exposure
method has done. The
study
of Jack's
case
has been
an
interesting
one
among
our
Clinic records.
He has been examined three times with an interval of one year between the first and second, and the second and third appointments. Different examiners did the testing at each of these sessions.
He has been
for
diagnostic teaching under was just after his first examination in 1927, and he is at present being taught two hours a week in our Clinic. This study is a synthesis of the records. Jack's family background and home environment seem to be His father is in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railvery good. road, and, if we can judge from Jack's appearance, the family must be in comfortable circumstances. Mrs. Q. is an intelligent woman, energetic, and eager to follow our recommendations. She earnestly desires to do all she can for this, her youngest son. Jack is one of four siblings. The oldest is a boy of twenty-one who is a draftsman. The next child is a girl of nineteen who is a typist. The third child died at seven months of age of diphtheria, leaving a wide two different student
a
case
teachers,?the
first time
difference between the ages of Jack and his brother and sister. He a child living in a world of grown people and this seems to have had its effect on him in making him very sober and quiet. is
In his
manner
he
seems to
be
quite
a
little man, in behaviour
a
JACK
Q.?A
CLINIC STUDY
113
conformist, a child who is seen and not heard,?even his school teacher has attested this. Jack comes and goes through the Clinic neatly dressed, a clean little fellow wearing his glasses as we recommended. He is well built though not large, his frame is well knit, and he walks with a normal gait. His straight brown hair is brushed back from his freckled face and he has a well shaped mouth and most
chin, but his teeth are somewhat uneven. He has engaging way of closing his lips with an air of finality that
a
is
emphasized in the way he draws in the corners of his mouth about He gives which dimples play and seem to mock his seriousness. that he is one of those with a capacity for but when he speaks his replies are often irrelavant and disappointing?to such a degree as to suggest that he has not been thinking at all but has been in a sort of daze?miles you the
impression
long, deep thoughts,
This day-dreaming is very hard to credit in the face of his away. seriousness and perfect conformity of behaviour. He makes no protest but submits manfully to teacher or examiner though he sometimes looks scared to death and on the verge of tears when he is pressed for an answer. The more he is urged the surer he seems to be of his failure, with the result that he withdraws into his shell and refuses to say anything at all. Sometimes he seems evasive and introduces his own topics instead of attending to the matter of the teaching. He is a charming conversationalist and doubtless feels that he should provide his share of the entertainment. He helps the teacher along by injecting little comments on the weather, or his
watch, or a new pair of shoes he is wearing. A delightful little codger, indeed! But from the educator's point of view he is an enigma. One teacher reports, "Sometimes when I tell something to Jack (he listening very attentively apparently all the while) and I ask him to repeat immediately after me, what I have said, he isn't able to give me one word of what I have just told him. Once I had him repeat a sentence three or four times. He said it perfectly three times, and on the fourth repetition got stuck in the middle and could not finish it."
apprehensive. The presence of anyone besides his is very upsetting to him. Signs of the chorea It are still noticeable in the twitch of his eyebrows and forehead. is quite amazing that in spite of the timidity excited by the teaching periods, Jack can look as fresh after the lessons or after the long siege of an examination as he did before. He does not show fatigue. He is very
teacher in the
room
114
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC
is very slow, his responses are often long in to be due to stage-fright, for it is more apcoming at the parent beginning of the testing than at the end. The results of the three examinations in the Clinic in the last
His rate of
discharge
but this
seems
On three years are remarkable principally for their uniformity. the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon test, Jack, at the Chronological Age of 8-0 had an Intelligence Quotient of 85, a Basal Age of
Age of 6-10 with the Upper Limit 10. One year later, with a Chronological Age of 9-1, he had an Intelligence Quotient of 83. At that time his Basal Age was 6, his Mental Age, 7-6, with The next year, with a Chronological Age of the Upper Limit 10. 5,
a
Mental
10-0 Jack had
an
Intelligence Quotient of 73, with
a
Basal Age of
Age of 7-4 and the Upper Limit 10. On the Memory Span test for digits, Jack's score in 1927 was Visual 5, Auditory 5, Reverse 2. In 1928 his score was, Visual 6, Auditory 6, Reverse 4, 6,
a
Mental
occasionally only 3, but he was credited with 4. In 1929 he gave a Visual Span of 6, and Auditory Span of 6 and a Reverse of 3 occasionally. In a like manner his trial time on performance tests shows little variation.
(1) 48", (2)
scores were
In 1927 45".
on
It
the Witmer Formboard his noted that he showed good
was
descrimination but had difficulty with the two triangles. His concentration was good. In 1928 his scores were (1) 32", (2) 54". It was remarked that his method was trial and error, his motor discharge was slow, he used but one hand, he showed good
analytic
In 1929 his scores were (1) 37", (2) concentration of attention. 39". He used but one hand and seemed to confuse the forms, esOn the Witmer Cylinder test he showed In 1927 (1) Failure in in the three years. greater improvement In 1928 five minutes (2) 106". (1) 235", (2) Failure in five 1929 In minutes. (1) 277", (2) 74". His method in all these ex-
pecially
the
aminations
triangles.
was
trial and
error.
The nature of his
errors
in 1927
He was therefore sent to visual defect. The condition was hyperthe Graduate Hospital for examination. opia, glasses were prescribed and he has been wearing them ever
strongly suggested
some
His third examination again showed errors that suggested so he was sent again to the Hospital to have his glasses readjusted. This has been done and Jack's progress with lessons
since.
eye defect
since he has been wearing his new glasses seems to have improved. The uniformity of the results in the course of three years seems to point to the fact that Jack has reached his limit of development in
JACK
Q.?A
CLINIC STUDY
115
many respects. The validity of the test results as a measure of school competency is further borne out in the success or, to be exact, the lack of it, which we have experienced in teaching this case in our Clinic. When Jack first reported for diagnostic teaching after one and one-half years in the public school it was discovered that he had been subjected to the word method of teaching reading. This had not been very helpful to him. He did not know the alphabet. T, he He Y Yes. did was know and called The. he called B, By, M, 0, J, A, and H; and he was able to write digits from 1 to 10 on the board. The first session of Clinic Teaching that Jack enjoyed in 1927 was spent in trying to write and recognize the letters of the alphabet. He came only four times when he developed chorea and was taken from school altogether. In the one lesson that he had his newly acquired glasses, he showed definite improvement. with the letters in the course of four lessons was uncertain. He came again for Clinic Teaching in the spring of 1929.
wearing
Jack's
success
At this second term he seemed to have found himself in spelling. He had more confidence in his ability to spell than in his ability to do arithmetic. With gratitude Mrs. Q. writes to us, "He was talkto me about his work in school a few days ago and looked up at and said, 'Well Mother, it was the University that started me'." This confidence, aside from the question of whether or not there is
ing me
occasion for it in his present success, is a great step forward for After long drill he has learned to read now from the Third Grade Reader. He is still very slow but he is at last able to recognize words that he can spell and words that he learned in the 1st and Jack.
2nd Grades. He cannot, however, read to himself for meaning. When this is tried the result is nil even though he is able to read In the the passage aloud and tell its meaning in his own words. course of the teaching Jack has come to recognize this fact and to himself. His memory seems to be greatly of He does all his leskinaesthetic imagery. by sons whether spelling or arithmetic, in a stage whisper before he writes the answer. The exceedingly slow discharge, both motor and mental, is an
make
use
of it in
aided also
the
helping use
characteristic of the case. Jack's work on performance tests and Binet in the examinations shows a low degree of train-
outstanding
ability, which is borne out in the very slow learning process. In spite of the infinite repetition of stimuli in the kinaesthetic, auditory,
116
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC
fields, the certain progress has been very slow and very His defective vision has been corrected by glasses, his vacations have been spent in improving his physical condition so that and visual
small.
very little trace of chorea is left.
It would seem that this little fellow at the age of ten has about reached his maximum capacity and the conclusions must be that the boy is of poor material. The attractive appearance of the child and his conformity of behaviour make it possible for him to come and go before your eyes daily without
raising
at
once
suspicion of the elemental incapacity. His immunity from fatigue are just so because during the teaching process. His alleged
a
apparent freshness and he undergoes no strain
concentration is but detachment from the world about him and his discharge augurs he will never catch up to the mad pace of The chorea is another proof of his weakness. this living. His rate of
that is interpreted by adults in terms of thoughtfulness is inertia. merely Every conceivable aid to the learning process has been used in teaching Jack, and repetition has been the keynote. Nothing, how-
sobriety
seems
ever,
to be able to surmount the obstacle of the
slow, very slow of comprehension. In arithmetic Three and Four Tables in sequence, but iso-
motor response and the low
degree
Jack knows his
Two,
lated
from these tables
problems
are
subject
to error.
In paper
work he is very slow to start and rarely completes a problem without some word of encouragement from the teacher. He knoivs the process of addition, but his incomplete mastery of the fundamentals
keeps
him from
involved
arriving at a successful solution of the relatively problems. Jack's progress seems to be anything but uni-
form. To find the
of this condition is
our next concern. A shows that he had a normal birth. He walked at sixteen months, talked before he was two years and was trained in habits of cleanness at the age of two. From
summary of the
cause
early history
of the
case
these records we judge that he was not a precocious baby, but neither was he seriously retarded. Following his medical history in sketchy detail we find that he had measles when he was one year old. When " he was three he fell from a kiddy-kar" and was unconscious for At five years of age he had whooping cough and a fever. of scarlet Pneumonia?a severe case?attacked light him when he was six. He had chicken pox the next year and an He has been circumcised and his tonsils and acute case of chorea. half
an
hour.
case
JACK
Q.?A
CLINIC STUDY
117
adenoids were removed when he was six. The array of diseases is formidable to be sure. It must be confessed that the pneumonia is the
of which we are most suspicious. The attendant fever of a of measles alone has been known to lead to sequeilae similar to those of encephalitis. Jack, however, doesn't show the physical nor the dispositional symptoms of this disease. The only suggestion of the encephalitis that we find in this case, besides the dulled menone
case
tality, is the owlish way in which his eyes stare out from behind his glasses, slightly suggesting the facies of Parkinsonism. For lack of more positive evidence then, we can only bear these facts in mind and accept Jack meanwhile as a healthy boy. The next problem is that of disposal of the case. He has been promoted now to the Third Grade in school with the help of the teaching he has received in the Clinic. The teacher's question of the best procedure for Jack,?individual instruction or classroom method?has been answered by combining the two. The Clinic has undertaken the individual coaching that is necessary to keep him abreast of his class. The most that can be done for him in the long run is to try to teach him to read, and to write, and to figure. He must be kept up to his grade in school for a few years. It seems fairly well established that Jack will have to earn his living with his hands, and that at unskilled labor, for his trainability and rate of motor discharge are both too low to raise him to the level of a skilled workman. He is apparently not so good as any of the rest of his
family. It is the
unhappy truth that Jack,
in
being kept up
to the formal
education of the school system is just another victim of the mistaken truth upon which our democracy is founded. Since the apprentice system of education has been discarded and the democratic form of government has had its vogue the field of education has not become adjusted to the changing times. Kevo-
lutions of social
enacted, but education has been old standards. Ever since the beginremarkably tenacious to its of our own ning nation, years and generations have been spent in to fit The trying everyone with the academic type of education. idea is all wrong. Citizens obsessed with the desire to take adcustom have been
vantage of the opportunity offered in
our public schools, are belearn to their sorrow that academic training is not like a salve to be applied externally with wondrous results. It is only recently that educators have begun the gigantic enterprise of fitting
ginning to
118
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC
To date with the sort of education he can best profit by. much: this have have achieved They they begun to in the formal the fact that academic classitraining (i.e., appreciate
each it
one
that
seems
When a child cal studies) is wasted on certain types of minds. fails to learn by the methods arranged for large scale teaching, he is
individually. Those cases specific defect?like the deaf, the blind, the lame or the incorrigible?have been provided for with considerable competency by the public school systems throughout the country. Even the undernourished and the physical weaklings are brought
to
a
psychologist
and examined
where the retardation is due to
But the great mass of children of middle-class families normal (in the sense of being able to maintain themselves without supervision in society) and yet who do not possess the mentality to become academicians, who have no fondness for attended to.
who
are
undoubtedly
must by the laws of our fair democracy stay in school to time, harrass the college-bred teacher, and grow in habits of idleness, wherein they are unhappy and disorderly themselves, a
learning, waste
burden to their families and
a reproach to the state. Only too few passive and conformed as young Jack. Too many of them with youthful vigor, chafe at the restraint that keeps them in school. They grow daily in hatred of authority and disrespect of learning. The great problem of training these children to care for themselves physically, and guiding them gently to a better use of their leisure time has on the whole been fairly well done so far by The task of fitting them consciously for some occupathe schools. tion for which they possess the mental requirements and the physique has scarcely even been started. Too much thought and energy have been expended on the inferior and the superior memhers of society in proportion to that given to the overwhelmingly large group of normal, lower-middle class people. The uncomplaining middle class struggle under school training in academic subjects, wasting much of its youth from six to sixteen, when all its members
of them
are as
need to read?now that we have the talkies?is the newspaper and the scandal sheet, and all the figuring required is the week's wages and the butcher's bill. For a long time now it has been well nigh impossible for him to receive adequate medical attention. The best physicians and surgeons attend the poor in free clinics, have the It seems that in the as patients in their private hospitals. schools too he is being cheated. For after he spends ten years in school he must then begin (by learning a trade) to fit himself for
rich
economic
competition.
Q.?A
CLINIC STUDY
Rigby, Recorder, Psychological Clinic, University of Pennsylvania
March, 1927 that Mrs. Q. first brought her son to the Clinic for examination. Jack was eight then and in the IB Grade at school. He had entered school at the age of six and one-half years, and his record has been one of poor work and good It
was
in
Psychological
conduct.
His teacher
that he is inattentive but she disturbance at all. He likes to go
complains
hastens to add that he
causes no
to school but he
to be immune to education in the classroom.
seems
to it the second year
brought on chorea. In short, Jack's trouble is that he doesn't seem to retain anything he has been taught, and consequently he does very poorly in reviews and is not promoted. He is fast growing too large for First Grade. Something must be done. The question raised by his teacher is whether individual instruction will do more for Jack than the classroom Exposure
method has done. The
study
of Jack's
case
has been
an
interesting
one
among
our
Clinic records.
He has been examined three times with an interval of one year between the first and second, and the second and third appointments. Different examiners did the testing at each of these sessions.
He has been
for
diagnostic teaching under was just after his first examination in 1927, and he is at present being taught two hours a week in our Clinic. This study is a synthesis of the records. Jack's family background and home environment seem to be His father is in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railvery good. road, and, if we can judge from Jack's appearance, the family must be in comfortable circumstances. Mrs. Q. is an intelligent woman, energetic, and eager to follow our recommendations. She earnestly desires to do all she can for this, her youngest son. Jack is one of four siblings. The oldest is a boy of twenty-one who is a draftsman. The next child is a girl of nineteen who is a typist. The third child died at seven months of age of diphtheria, leaving a wide two different student
a
case
teachers,?the
first time
difference between the ages of Jack and his brother and sister. He a child living in a world of grown people and this seems to have had its effect on him in making him very sober and quiet. is
In his
manner
he
seems to
be
quite
a
little man, in behaviour
a
JACK
Q.?A
CLINIC STUDY
113
conformist, a child who is seen and not heard,?even his school teacher has attested this. Jack comes and goes through the Clinic neatly dressed, a clean little fellow wearing his glasses as we recommended. He is well built though not large, his frame is well knit, and he walks with a normal gait. His straight brown hair is brushed back from his freckled face and he has a well shaped mouth and most
chin, but his teeth are somewhat uneven. He has engaging way of closing his lips with an air of finality that
a
is
emphasized in the way he draws in the corners of his mouth about He gives which dimples play and seem to mock his seriousness. that he is one of those with a capacity for but when he speaks his replies are often irrelavant and disappointing?to such a degree as to suggest that he has not been thinking at all but has been in a sort of daze?miles you the
impression
long, deep thoughts,
This day-dreaming is very hard to credit in the face of his away. seriousness and perfect conformity of behaviour. He makes no protest but submits manfully to teacher or examiner though he sometimes looks scared to death and on the verge of tears when he is pressed for an answer. The more he is urged the surer he seems to be of his failure, with the result that he withdraws into his shell and refuses to say anything at all. Sometimes he seems evasive and introduces his own topics instead of attending to the matter of the teaching. He is a charming conversationalist and doubtless feels that he should provide his share of the entertainment. He helps the teacher along by injecting little comments on the weather, or his
watch, or a new pair of shoes he is wearing. A delightful little codger, indeed! But from the educator's point of view he is an enigma. One teacher reports, "Sometimes when I tell something to Jack (he listening very attentively apparently all the while) and I ask him to repeat immediately after me, what I have said, he isn't able to give me one word of what I have just told him. Once I had him repeat a sentence three or four times. He said it perfectly three times, and on the fourth repetition got stuck in the middle and could not finish it."
apprehensive. The presence of anyone besides his is very upsetting to him. Signs of the chorea It are still noticeable in the twitch of his eyebrows and forehead. is quite amazing that in spite of the timidity excited by the teaching periods, Jack can look as fresh after the lessons or after the long siege of an examination as he did before. He does not show fatigue. He is very
teacher in the
room
114
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC
is very slow, his responses are often long in to be due to stage-fright, for it is more apcoming at the parent beginning of the testing than at the end. The results of the three examinations in the Clinic in the last
His rate of
discharge
but this
seems
On three years are remarkable principally for their uniformity. the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon test, Jack, at the Chronological Age of 8-0 had an Intelligence Quotient of 85, a Basal Age of
Age of 6-10 with the Upper Limit 10. One year later, with a Chronological Age of 9-1, he had an Intelligence Quotient of 83. At that time his Basal Age was 6, his Mental Age, 7-6, with The next year, with a Chronological Age of the Upper Limit 10. 5,
a
Mental
10-0 Jack had
an
Intelligence Quotient of 73, with
a
Basal Age of
Age of 7-4 and the Upper Limit 10. On the Memory Span test for digits, Jack's score in 1927 was Visual 5, Auditory 5, Reverse 2. In 1928 his score was, Visual 6, Auditory 6, Reverse 4, 6,
a
Mental
occasionally only 3, but he was credited with 4. In 1929 he gave a Visual Span of 6, and Auditory Span of 6 and a Reverse of 3 occasionally. In a like manner his trial time on performance tests shows little variation.
(1) 48", (2)
scores were
In 1927 45".
on
It
the Witmer Formboard his noted that he showed good
was
descrimination but had difficulty with the two triangles. His concentration was good. In 1928 his scores were (1) 32", (2) 54". It was remarked that his method was trial and error, his motor discharge was slow, he used but one hand, he showed good
analytic
In 1929 his scores were (1) 37", (2) concentration of attention. 39". He used but one hand and seemed to confuse the forms, esOn the Witmer Cylinder test he showed In 1927 (1) Failure in in the three years. greater improvement In 1928 five minutes (2) 106". (1) 235", (2) Failure in five 1929 In minutes. (1) 277", (2) 74". His method in all these ex-
pecially
the
aminations
triangles.
was
trial and
error.
The nature of his
errors
in 1927
He was therefore sent to visual defect. The condition was hyperthe Graduate Hospital for examination. opia, glasses were prescribed and he has been wearing them ever
strongly suggested
some
His third examination again showed errors that suggested so he was sent again to the Hospital to have his glasses readjusted. This has been done and Jack's progress with lessons
since.
eye defect
since he has been wearing his new glasses seems to have improved. The uniformity of the results in the course of three years seems to point to the fact that Jack has reached his limit of development in
JACK
Q.?A
CLINIC STUDY
115
many respects. The validity of the test results as a measure of school competency is further borne out in the success or, to be exact, the lack of it, which we have experienced in teaching this case in our Clinic. When Jack first reported for diagnostic teaching after one and one-half years in the public school it was discovered that he had been subjected to the word method of teaching reading. This had not been very helpful to him. He did not know the alphabet. T, he He Y Yes. did was know and called The. he called B, By, M, 0, J, A, and H; and he was able to write digits from 1 to 10 on the board. The first session of Clinic Teaching that Jack enjoyed in 1927 was spent in trying to write and recognize the letters of the alphabet. He came only four times when he developed chorea and was taken from school altogether. In the one lesson that he had his newly acquired glasses, he showed definite improvement. with the letters in the course of four lessons was uncertain. He came again for Clinic Teaching in the spring of 1929.
wearing
Jack's
success
At this second term he seemed to have found himself in spelling. He had more confidence in his ability to spell than in his ability to do arithmetic. With gratitude Mrs. Q. writes to us, "He was talkto me about his work in school a few days ago and looked up at and said, 'Well Mother, it was the University that started me'." This confidence, aside from the question of whether or not there is
ing me
occasion for it in his present success, is a great step forward for After long drill he has learned to read now from the Third Grade Reader. He is still very slow but he is at last able to recognize words that he can spell and words that he learned in the 1st and Jack.
2nd Grades. He cannot, however, read to himself for meaning. When this is tried the result is nil even though he is able to read In the the passage aloud and tell its meaning in his own words. course of the teaching Jack has come to recognize this fact and to himself. His memory seems to be greatly of He does all his leskinaesthetic imagery. by sons whether spelling or arithmetic, in a stage whisper before he writes the answer. The exceedingly slow discharge, both motor and mental, is an
make
use
of it in
aided also
the
helping use
characteristic of the case. Jack's work on performance tests and Binet in the examinations shows a low degree of train-
outstanding
ability, which is borne out in the very slow learning process. In spite of the infinite repetition of stimuli in the kinaesthetic, auditory,
116
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC
fields, the certain progress has been very slow and very His defective vision has been corrected by glasses, his vacations have been spent in improving his physical condition so that and visual
small.
very little trace of chorea is left.
It would seem that this little fellow at the age of ten has about reached his maximum capacity and the conclusions must be that the boy is of poor material. The attractive appearance of the child and his conformity of behaviour make it possible for him to come and go before your eyes daily without
raising
at
once
suspicion of the elemental incapacity. His immunity from fatigue are just so because during the teaching process. His alleged
a
apparent freshness and he undergoes no strain
concentration is but detachment from the world about him and his discharge augurs he will never catch up to the mad pace of The chorea is another proof of his weakness. this living. His rate of
that is interpreted by adults in terms of thoughtfulness is inertia. merely Every conceivable aid to the learning process has been used in teaching Jack, and repetition has been the keynote. Nothing, how-
sobriety
seems
ever,
to be able to surmount the obstacle of the
slow, very slow of comprehension. In arithmetic Three and Four Tables in sequence, but iso-
motor response and the low
degree
Jack knows his
Two,
lated
from these tables
problems
are
subject
to error.
In paper
work he is very slow to start and rarely completes a problem without some word of encouragement from the teacher. He knoivs the process of addition, but his incomplete mastery of the fundamentals
keeps
him from
involved
arriving at a successful solution of the relatively problems. Jack's progress seems to be anything but uni-
form. To find the
of this condition is
our next concern. A shows that he had a normal birth. He walked at sixteen months, talked before he was two years and was trained in habits of cleanness at the age of two. From
summary of the
cause
early history
of the
case
these records we judge that he was not a precocious baby, but neither was he seriously retarded. Following his medical history in sketchy detail we find that he had measles when he was one year old. When " he was three he fell from a kiddy-kar" and was unconscious for At five years of age he had whooping cough and a fever. of scarlet Pneumonia?a severe case?attacked light him when he was six. He had chicken pox the next year and an He has been circumcised and his tonsils and acute case of chorea. half
an
hour.
case
JACK
Q.?A
CLINIC STUDY
117
adenoids were removed when he was six. The array of diseases is formidable to be sure. It must be confessed that the pneumonia is the
of which we are most suspicious. The attendant fever of a of measles alone has been known to lead to sequeilae similar to those of encephalitis. Jack, however, doesn't show the physical nor the dispositional symptoms of this disease. The only suggestion of the encephalitis that we find in this case, besides the dulled menone
case
tality, is the owlish way in which his eyes stare out from behind his glasses, slightly suggesting the facies of Parkinsonism. For lack of more positive evidence then, we can only bear these facts in mind and accept Jack meanwhile as a healthy boy. The next problem is that of disposal of the case. He has been promoted now to the Third Grade in school with the help of the teaching he has received in the Clinic. The teacher's question of the best procedure for Jack,?individual instruction or classroom method?has been answered by combining the two. The Clinic has undertaken the individual coaching that is necessary to keep him abreast of his class. The most that can be done for him in the long run is to try to teach him to read, and to write, and to figure. He must be kept up to his grade in school for a few years. It seems fairly well established that Jack will have to earn his living with his hands, and that at unskilled labor, for his trainability and rate of motor discharge are both too low to raise him to the level of a skilled workman. He is apparently not so good as any of the rest of his
family. It is the
unhappy truth that Jack,
in
being kept up
to the formal
education of the school system is just another victim of the mistaken truth upon which our democracy is founded. Since the apprentice system of education has been discarded and the democratic form of government has had its vogue the field of education has not become adjusted to the changing times. Kevo-
lutions of social
enacted, but education has been old standards. Ever since the beginremarkably tenacious to its of our own ning nation, years and generations have been spent in to fit The trying everyone with the academic type of education. idea is all wrong. Citizens obsessed with the desire to take adcustom have been
vantage of the opportunity offered in
our public schools, are belearn to their sorrow that academic training is not like a salve to be applied externally with wondrous results. It is only recently that educators have begun the gigantic enterprise of fitting
ginning to
118
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC
To date with the sort of education he can best profit by. much: this have have achieved They they begun to in the formal the fact that academic classitraining (i.e., appreciate
each it
one
that
seems
When a child cal studies) is wasted on certain types of minds. fails to learn by the methods arranged for large scale teaching, he is
individually. Those cases specific defect?like the deaf, the blind, the lame or the incorrigible?have been provided for with considerable competency by the public school systems throughout the country. Even the undernourished and the physical weaklings are brought
to
a
psychologist
and examined
where the retardation is due to
But the great mass of children of middle-class families normal (in the sense of being able to maintain themselves without supervision in society) and yet who do not possess the mentality to become academicians, who have no fondness for attended to.
who
are
undoubtedly
must by the laws of our fair democracy stay in school to time, harrass the college-bred teacher, and grow in habits of idleness, wherein they are unhappy and disorderly themselves, a
learning, waste
burden to their families and
a reproach to the state. Only too few passive and conformed as young Jack. Too many of them with youthful vigor, chafe at the restraint that keeps them in school. They grow daily in hatred of authority and disrespect of learning. The great problem of training these children to care for themselves physically, and guiding them gently to a better use of their leisure time has on the whole been fairly well done so far by The task of fitting them consciously for some occupathe schools. tion for which they possess the mental requirements and the physique has scarcely even been started. Too much thought and energy have been expended on the inferior and the superior memhers of society in proportion to that given to the overwhelmingly large group of normal, lower-middle class people. The uncomplaining middle class struggle under school training in academic subjects, wasting much of its youth from six to sixteen, when all its members
of them
are as
need to read?now that we have the talkies?is the newspaper and the scandal sheet, and all the figuring required is the week's wages and the butcher's bill. For a long time now it has been well nigh impossible for him to receive adequate medical attention. The best physicians and surgeons attend the poor in free clinics, have the It seems that in the as patients in their private hospitals. schools too he is being cheated. For after he spends ten years in school he must then begin (by learning a trade) to fit himself for
rich
economic
competition.
