5io TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Newkirk, director of the juvenile-court clinic in Minneapolis, and it 

 merits careful consideration by those formulating our laws. 



In rare cases, on the other hand, we find that the mentality is in 

 advance of the child's school attainment. I have in mind one boy 

 whom we examined in our clinic who was brought to us by one of the 

 probation officers from the juvenile court. He had attended one school 

 after another, jumping about from parochial to public school and back 

 again with no assistance at his home and general neglect on the part of 

 his incapable parents. We found him to be nine years old intellectu- 

 ally and yet he was not succeeding in first grade work. He was thus 

 retarded at least two years in school attainment. In thirty hours of 

 expert training, after he had been properly fitted with glasses, he was 

 taught to read in the Second Eeader, although he could not read in 

 the First Eeader when the training began. A decided deficiency in 

 mathematics or reading has thus been overcome occasionally by special 

 training. 



In one system of schools in the east, examined by Dr. H. H. God- 

 dard, about one out of five pupils who were retarded in school attain- 

 ment were shown by mental examinations to be at least a grade behind 

 the grades most frequently reached by pupils of their mental develop- 

 ment. Some of these were undoubtedly kept back because they had 

 started school after they were seven years of age or had been long 

 absent. We should hardly expect a fifth of the scholastic retardation 

 to be corrected by brief expert training, and yet how much might thus 

 be alleviated we do not know. It is one of the most important ques- 

 tions that has been raised by these tests for ability. 



The measurement of the intellect, such as is accomplished by the 

 Binet scale, should not be overemphasized. It is only one of the ways 

 in which the study of individuals has of late been undertaken. The 

 Vocational Bureau at Boston and vocational tests in Cincinnati have 

 opened a large field. The child welfare work makes another demand. 

 In mentioning the recent impulses to child study, which seem to be 

 thrilling the social body, we should not slight what promises to give the 

 greatest inspiration to this movement, I mean the work of Maria 

 Montessori. Dr. Montessori has rediscovered the golden rule of scien- 

 tific education, observe how the child develops. Instead of inviting a 

 healthy young fledgling to ride in his teacher's air-ship, she would let 

 him try his own wings under guidance of a mother bird. 



The moral development of the child has been most recently brought 

 under scientific observation in connection with the clinics established 

 at several of the juvenile courts. Dr. William Healy organized the 

 first of these about four years ago in Chicago. Several such clinics are 

 now accumulating most interesting data. We have found in Minne- 

 apolis, through a survey of about 300 boys and 100 girls consecutively 



