224 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



Intelligence tests in connection with school organisation are found to 

 be of great value as an additional factor in promoting children from class 

 to class. The following is a good illustration : In a London school in a 

 particularly poor neighbourhood the children for many years had not 

 been successful in obtaining any scholarships in the annual examination 

 for the transference of boys and girls from the elementary to secondary 

 schools. The departments were under excellent management, and the 

 failure to obtain scholarships was ascribed to the poverty of the material 

 entering for the examinations. On the promotion of the head mistress 

 of the girls' department a teacher was appointed to the headship who, 

 apart from her success as a teacher, was keenly interested in intelligence 

 tests. She decided that, in placing the children coming up from the 

 infants' department, she would be guided not only by the reports received 

 of their educational achievement, but also by their native ability as shown 

 by intelligence tests. 



The value of this changed method of school organisation was clearly 

 shown when the period was reached at which the children promoted in 

 this way were old enough to enter for the scholarship examination. They 

 gained, for the first time in the history of the school, a fair number of 

 scholarships, and this success was repeated from year to year. That this 

 remarkable achievement was due in large measure to the improved method 

 of classification may be inferred, without hesitation, as the staff of teachers 

 was practically the same as in previous years, and no extra strain was 

 put upon the children. 



It is evident that, as there is such a wide range of native ability in 

 boys and girls of the same age, anything in the nature of a rigid chrono- 

 logical basis in school classification must be profoundly unsatisfactory. 

 Not only that ; imperfect classification may, and frequently does, inflict 

 very serious injury on the misplaced child. The super-normal boy or girl 

 placed in classes with children of the same age, but of markedly inferior 

 ability, runs a great risk of becoming an exceptionally lazy person, though 

 he or she may without the slightest difficulty be at the top of the form or 

 class, and be the recipient of wholly unmerited praise. 



In the Begabten Schiden in Germany, where, in the final selection for 

 admission, the results are almost entirely based on the intelligence quotients 

 of the candidates, one cannot fail to be greatly impressed by the ease with 

 which these children, without any undue pressure, can successfully cover 

 as much ground in one year as normal children would require at least two 

 years to accomplish. In the days to come we shall give far more attention 

 to the super-normal child than we do at present. One of the many virtues 

 of the Dalton Plan, which is having a profound effect on English and 

 American education, is that it makes ample provision for the super-normal 

 child. 



In the award of scholarships the intelligence test should play an 

 important part. It is not sufficient to judge the candidate entirely by 

 his educational achievement, which may simply have been the result of 

 very careful preparation. It is necessary also to be assured that his 

 native ability is such that he will be able to make good use of the facilities 

 available at the place of higher education for the admission to which he 

 is a candidate. 



