The measurement of intelligence : an explanation of and a complete guide for the use of the Stanford revision and extension of the Binet-Simon intelligence scale / by Lewis M. Terman.

  • Lewis Terman
Date:
[1916]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The measurement of intelligence : an explanation of and a complete guide for the use of the Stanford revision and extension of the Binet-Simon intelligence scale / by Lewis M. Terman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    equally, or almost equally, capable of making satisfactory school progress. Psychological studies of school children by means of standardized intelligence tests have shown that this supposition is not in accord with the facts. It has been found that children do not fall into two well-defined groups, ' the “ feeble-minded ” and the “ normal.’ Instead, there are many grades of intelligence, ranging from idiocy on the one hand to genius on the other. Among those classed as normal, vast individual differences have been found to exist in original mental endowment, differences which affect profoundly the capacity to profit from school in- struction. We are beginning to realize that the school must take into account, more seriously than it has yet done, the existence and significance of these differences in endowment. In- stead of wasting energy in the vain attempt to hold men- tally slow and defective children up to a level of progress which is normal to the average child, it will be wiser to take account of the inequalities of children in original endowment and to differentiate the course of study in such a way that each child will be allowed to progress at the rate which is normal to him, whether that rate be rapid or slow. While we cannot hold all children to the same standard of school progress, we can at least prevent the kind of re- | tardation which involves failure and the repetition of a_ school grade. It is well enough recognized that children do not enter with very much zest upon school work in which they have once failed. Failure crushes self-confidence and destroys the spirit of work. It is a sad fact that a large proportion of children in the schools are acquiring the habit of failure. The remedy, of course, is to measure out the work for each child in proportion to his mental ability. Before an engineer constructs a railroad bridge or trestle,
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