AN ENVIRONMENT FOR MENTAL STARVATION 



No matter how much one may admire the development of modern industrial society, he can 

 hardly believe that it offers a full and rich environment in which a child may "unfold," 

 under such circumstances as are shown above. Even if a child had inherited ability 

 (and many of the children who roam the streets have not) it could hardly be called into 

 full play by the stimulus of a modern city street, which, compared with the country, 

 offers little for a child to do. Much has been said of the evils of child labor, but under 

 modern city conditions it is conceivable that child idleness may sometimes be equally 

 injtirious. Photograph by Milton Fairchild. (Fig. 8.) 



the fact that they are in personal 

 contact with people of a superior status 

 and culture. The low standing of the 

 offspring of tradespeople he attributes 

 to "the constant contact with pettiness 

 and poverty, the free roaming of the 

 street and the uncontrolled participa- 

 tion in its gossip, license and freedom, 

 the neglect of child welfare and of 

 proper supervision and, frequently, the 

 imitation of a bad example." 



To many persons, these explanations 



will not be altogether convincing. It 

 will seem more satisfactory to recognize 

 more fully the differences in inherited 

 intelligence. But Saffiotti's material 

 is not sufficient to settle the problem, 

 nor will any of the other studies here 

 cited settle it. 



2. At a school attended by the chil- 

 dren of the rich in Brussels, Decroly 

 and Degand found that the children 

 were on the average a year and a half 

 superior to the standard of their age, in 



263 



