394 EVOLUTION OP MENTAL CHAEACTEES 



That the inferiority of the coloured children is exhibited at all 

 ages is shown by the following table : ^ 



Below Age. At Age. Above Age. 



White. Coloured. While. Coloured. White. Coloured. 



34-5 51-4 41-2 33-9 24-3 14-7 



With regard to these results Miss Strong writes as follows : 

 ' This seems to lead to the conclusion that the coloured children 

 are mentally younger than the white. There is a difference of 

 nearly 15 per cent, in the satisfactory group, nearly three times 

 as many are more than a year backward, and less than 1 per cent, 

 are more than a year advanced. A course of study in the coloured 

 school is practically the same as that in the white schools. To 

 what extent the difference is due to racial inferiority, to what 

 extent differences in the home environment, cannot be said. 

 It is certainly not due to difference in school training.' ^ 



There are certain criticisms of weight to be made regarding 

 the importance to be attached to estimates of intelligence due 

 to this method. These need not detain us beyond noting that, 

 although in general, inasmuch as the children use the same 

 language, the mental equipment is similar, nevertheless there 

 may be considerable differences in acquired habit as between 

 white and coloured children which affect their responses to the 

 test. There is a further criticism of some importance to be made 

 regarding this particular investigation. It was entirely carried 

 out by white examiners, and it may very well be that the coloured 

 children did not respond as readily and acquit themselves as 

 favourably as if they had been examined by members of their 

 own race. There is reason to suspect therefore that the coloured 

 children may not show up in as favourable a light as the white 

 children quite apart from any colour bias that may possibly affect 

 the results in the same way. In any case it seems certain that 

 the results are not unduly favourable to the coloured children. 



* Strong, loc. cit., p. 503. ^ Ibid., p. 501. With regard to the disabilities 



under which the Negro labours in America see Booker T. Washington, Story oj the 

 Negro, vol. ii, pp. 114 ff. 



