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.



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