The Intelligence Of School Children

THE INTELLIGENCE OF SCHOOL CHILDREN HOW CHILDREN DIFFER IN ABILITY THE USE OF MENTAL TESTS IN SCHOOL GRADING AND THE PROPER EDUCATION OF EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN BY LEWIS M. TERMAN PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION LHLAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY HOUGHTON MIFFLJN COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO G e Ktitaeribe f ce l Cambribge TO MY GRADUATE STDDENTS 1916-1917 AND 1917-1918 EDITORS INTRODUCTION THREE years ago the author of the present volume published, in this series, The Measurement of Intelli gence. This represented a number of years of care ful scientific work, on the part of himself and his stu dents, in testing out and adapting to American needs and conditions the very important foundation work of the French scholar Binet. It was predicted at the time that the volume would prove of fundamental importance in pointing the way to more intelligent school room procedure, and that in time the mental measurement of all children not malnrig satisfactory educational progress would become a matter of rou tine in the administration of a school The reception given to the volume, not only in this country but in Canada and England as well, has ex ceeded expectations. With the entry of the United States into the World War, and the application of intelligence testing to our army recruits as a means of grading capacity and sorting them for the serious busi ness of war, an entirely new impetus has been given to intelligence measurements. As a result of the work done in the army, as much progress has been made during the past three years in the use of intelligence tests as ordinarily might have been expected in a decade. viii EDITORS INTRODUCTION In consequence, the large usefulness of intelligence testing hasbeten thoroughly demonstrated, and as a result the near future is almost certain to see the method applied somewhat generally in schoolroom practice to determine mental capacity and effect proper grade classification. Intelligence testing is also certain to play an important part in educational and vocational guidance. The question now is not. Are intelligence tests of value but, How may teachers and principals be made masters of their use To those responsible for the administration of both public and private education the question has become, What modifications of educational procedure will be neces sary in consequence of the new light on mental devel opment and school work which intelligence measure ments have revealed The questions of promotions, proper grading, types of courses of study, the skipping of grades, over-age children, juvenile delinquency, vocational guidance, special classes, and the proper education of gifted and sub-normal children have all acquired an entirely new meaning in the light of the results which the measurement of intelligence has already produced. In TheMeaswementcflnteMigencetihe author reduced the tests and the procedure for giving them to simple language, so that from a study of the book any careful student could be trained to give them. In the present volume he has done an even more significant thing, viewed either from the point of view of the teacher in EDITORS INTRODUCTION k our schools or from that of the principal or superintend ent responsible for their administration. In this book he has set forth in equally simple language, backed up by the results of a number of concrete studies, and illustrated by curves, tables, and descriptions of manyindividual pupils who have been tested and studied the educational significance of intelligence, the great differences in the intelligence of school children, and what may be expected from and what ought to be done for pupils of different degrees of intellectual capacity. The book has been written primarily for the grade teacher, and as an introduction to the study of The Measurement of Intelligence. Its greatest usefulness probably will be as a book for Teacher Study Clubs and State Reading Circles, and as an introductory textbook for students in normal schools...