Intelligence Tests As A Basis For Grading
Not only in the case of retarded or exceptionally bright children, but with
many others also, intelligence tests can aid in correctly placing the child in school.
The pupil who enters one school system from another is a case in point.
Such a pupil nearly always suffers a loss of time. The indefensible
custom is to grade the newcomer down a little, because, forsooth, the
textbooks he has studied may have differed some
hat from those he is
about to take up, or because the school system from which he comes may
be looked upon as inferior. Teachers are too often suspicious of all
other educational methods besides their own. The present treatment
accorded such children, which so often does them injustice and injury,
should be replaced by an intelligence test. The hour of time required
for the test is a small matter in comparison with the loss of a school
term by the pupils.
Indeed, it would be desirable to make all promotions on the basis
chiefly of intellectual ability. Hitherto the school has had to rely on
tests of information because reliable tests of intelligence have not
until recently been available. As trained Binet examiners become more
plentiful, the information standard will have to give way to the
criterion which asks merely that the child shall be able to do the work
of the next higher grade. The brief intelligence test is not only more
enlightening than the examination; it is also more hygienic. The school
examination is often for the child a source of worry and anxiety; the
mental test is an interesting and pleasant experience.