A PROBLEM IN EDUCATIONAL EUGENICS 3 6 5 



be made by special teachers under a district superintendent, and all 

 such records will become the permanent property of the state board 

 of health. 



A School Census. — Here we have the first important step toward 

 the establishment of a definite school census. It is admittedly only a 

 first step; but when it shall be recognized that it is quite as important 

 that the same critical attention be given to defects of mind as to those 

 of teeth or eyes we shall have taken the step which more than any other 

 can redound to educational betterment, and at the same time prove a 

 more effective measure for prevention of cruelty to the human animal 

 than that at present in vogue. With such a school census at command 

 the work of the teacher becomes at once intelligent and at the same 

 time free from the apprehension which must ever haunt one whose 

 problem is rendered obscure by ignorance as to actualities in constitu- 

 tion of the pupil's mental capacity. The Binet scale has been suffi- 

 ciently tested to render it a fairly trustworthy method of judging 

 potential, as well as actual mentality, and no valid objection has been 

 made against its use. Such a method correlated with such careful 

 family pedigree as might readily be made an obligatory part of our 

 official vital statistics would form a school census of the very first 

 importance in relation to educational betterment and progress. 



Difficulties. — The problem is not simple. There are difficulties, 

 and some of them serious. But they are not insuperable. There is 

 that associated with the ideas of family privacy, those skeleton closets 

 where disagreeable things of body or mind are scrupulously hidden 

 from the public view. While we may not lightly moot these objections, 

 at the same time the state and society have rights involved which are 

 no whit less sacred than are those of the family. As a social unit the 

 family must not be permitted to foster conditions which may menace 

 the larger complex of society. These rights are invaded by the board 

 of health, by the life insurance company, by marriage permits (not as 

 yet widely effective) ; why have not the guardians of mental health and 

 efficiency an equal right to such knowledge ? But let it be made clear 

 that such a census need not be a public bureau. The school principal 

 or superintendent is surely as trustworthy as is the city clerk or in- 

 surance agent and may be made amenable to any honorable discretion 

 in such matters. Other difficulties may be raised, but none so far can 

 be foreseen of serious concern; surely none more grave than the above. 

 It is not probable that impediments, of whatever character, can long 

 obstruct a searching inquiry into a method having even a reasonable 

 probability of value from receiving a fair test in an impartial effort to 

 advance educational methods by rendering them more scientific and 

 efficient. 



A Provisional Scheme. — As an outline of a method of educational 

 eugenics the following seems both rational and workable: 



