CHAPTER XII

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

ADAPTATION OF CURRICULUM TO INDIVIDUAL PUPILS

A number of times in the last few chapters the discussion has been brought to the point of recognizing the importance of individual differences. The teacher cannot determine merely from a knowledge of history what history is suitable for a given type of pupils. In the elective system of the high school and of the college there is a liberal recognition of the principle that instruction must be adapted to individuals, both in content and method. The present chapter will be given over to a treatment of some of the individual differences among pupils which are of dominant significance in formulating the curriculum.

LOW GRADES OF INTELLIGENCE

The most striking example of individual deviation from the average grade of intelligence is to be found in the cases of those unfortunates who continue throughout life to be deficient because they have underdeveloped nervous systems. As a result of heredity or pathological conditions in early childhood a certain number of persons, conservatively estimated as two in every thousand, are permanently subnormal. These cases vary in degree. The lowest grade defectives, known as idiots, are defined in the Report of the British Royal Commission on the Feeble-minded as persons “so deeply defective in mind from birth or from early age that they are unable to guard themselves against common physical dangers.” The less defective are classed as imbeciles, feeble-minded, and morons, each class representing a further approach toward normality.

The lower grades of defectives are so dependent on the care of others that they do not reach the school at all, but the higher grades either escape detection until they try to learn reading and arithmetic or through the persistence of parents are brought to school in the hope that their defectiveness may be temporary. Some of the highest grades succeed in learning enough so that they pass out of the first grade. They do not master reading, but they learn to repeat the words sufficiently to deceive the teacher with the appearance of having recognized the printed symbols.

DIFFERENTIATED COURSES

As soon as a defective child is discovered, it is advantageous for him and for the other pupils in the school that he be given some form of special training. In most cases it is more than useless to try to give him the ordinary school courses. He cannot learn to read well enough to enable him to get information from books. He can, on the other hand, acquire some of the simple arts of self-support. It would be better for all concerned to give up the effort to teach such a child reading.

The major objection to a program of this type is that it is sometimes extremely difficult and, in the early years, often quite impossible to decide whether the child is really defective or is merely slow in development. Some children come to their normal powers slowly, but ultimately reach a level of intellectual and physical efficiency so high that they are not to be classed with the defectives. One hesitates, therefore, to give up the teaching of reading in the case of a particular child until all possibility of his development is past. It is better to err on the side of too great training than to despair at too early a date.

TESTS OF GENERAL INTELLIGENCE

In the effort to discover defectives various systems of tests have been devised. The general assumption back of all these systems is that a defective child is one whose mental development has prematurely ceased. For example, a twelve-year-old child may be behind in his development to such an extent that he has a mind like a four-year-old. If, now, it can be determined what mental powers are possessed by an ordinary four-year-old and if the defective can be shown to possess the same powers, and no more, it is possible to adapt instruction to his real intellectual needs. Technical students of the problem have accordingly drawn the distinction between physiological age and mental age. In the example cited above the physiological age is twelve; the mental age, four.

A system of tests of this kind has another use. If a child is put through the tests at intervals of a year, it can be ascertained whether he is improving or standing still. In this way some of the uncertainties as to the permanence or temporary character of his deficiencies can be removed.

Tests of the type under discussion are called tests of general intelligence. An example taken from one of the most widely used systems, namely, the Binet-Simon series, will serve to show what the tests are and how they are used. The special form of the test here quoted is that worked out by Professor Terman. His exposition of one of the fifth-year tests is as follows:

_Materials._ It is necessary to have two weights, identical in shape, size, and appearance, weighing respectively 3 and 15 grams. If manufactured weights are not at hand, it is easy to make satisfactory substitutes by taking stiff cardboard pill-boxes, about 1¼ inches in diameter, and filling them with cotton and shot to the desired weight. The shot must be embedded in the center of the cotton so as to prevent rattling. After the box has been loaded to the exact weight, the lid should be glued on firmly. If one does not have access to laboratory scales, it is always possible to secure the help of a druggist in the rather delicate task of weighing the boxes accurately. A set of pill-box weights will last through hundreds of tests, if handled carefully, but they will not stand rough usage. The manufactured blocks are more durable, and so more satisfactory in the long run. If the weights are not at hand, the alternative test may be substituted.

_Procedure._ Place the 3-and 15-gram weights on the table before the child some two or three inches apart. Say: “_You see these blocks. They look just alike, but one of them is heavy and one is light. Try them and tell me which one is heavier._” If the child does not respond, repeat the instructions, saying this time, “_Tell me which one is the heaviest._” (Many American children have heard only the superlative form of the adjective used in the comparison of two objects.)

Sometimes the child merely points to one of the boxes or picks up one at random and hands it to the examiner, thinking he is asked to _guess_ which is heaviest. We then say: “_No, that is not the way. You must take the boxes in your hands and try them, like this_” (illustrating by lifting with one hand, first one box and then the other, a few inches from the table). Most children of 5 years are then able to make the comparison correctly. Very young subjects, however, or older ones who are retarded, sometimes adopt the rather questionable method of lifting both weights in the same hand at once. This is always an unfavorable sign, especially if one of the blocks is placed in the hand on top of the other block.

After the first trial the weights are shuffled and again presented for comparison as before, _this time with the positions reversed_. The third trial follows with the blocks in the same position as in the first trial. Some children have a tendency to stereotyped behavior, which in this test shows itself by choosing always the block on a certain side. Hence the necessity of alternating the positions. Reserve commendation until all three trials have been given.

_Scoring._ The test is passed if _two of the three_ comparisons are correct. If there is reason to suspect that the successful responses were due to lucky guesses, the test should be entirely repeated.

_Remarks._ This test is decidedly more difficult than that of comparing lines. It is doubtful, however, if we can regard the difference as one due primarily to the relative difficulty of visual discrimination and muscular discrimination. In fact, the test with weights hardly taxes sensory discrimination at all when used with children of 5-year intelligence. Success depends, in the first place, on the ability to understand the instructions; and in the second place, on the power to hold the instructions in mind long enough to guide the process of making the comparison. The test presupposes, in elementary form, a power which is operative in all the higher independent processes of thought, the power to neglect the manifold distractions of irrelevant sensations and ideas and to drive direct toward a goal. Here the goal is furnished by the instruction, “Try them and see which is heavier.” This must be held firmly enough in mind to control the steps necessary for making the comparison. Ideas of piling the blocks on top of one another, throwing them, etc., must be inhibited. Sometimes the low-grade imbecile starts off in a very promising way, then apparently forgets the instructions (loses sight of the goal), and begins to play with the boxes in a random way. His mental processes are not consecutive, stable, or controlled. He is blown about at the mercy of every gust of momentary interest.

There is very general agreement in the assignment of this test to year V.[57]

EXCEPTIONALLY BRIGHT PUPILS

Thus far the discussion has been of inferior individuals. There are likewise individuals who are superior to the average. Schools have ordinarily taken little account of these. They do not constitute urgent problems in the same sense as defectives. The supernormal child can get his lessons, if he will, so that the teacher will never have to bother with him. A moment’s thought on the matter, however, will convince anyone that society has more to gain from a proper system of training supernormal children than from special provisions for the subnormal. Since defense is of the most vital importance, we may say that society had at the outset to defend itself against the harm that might be done by subnormals. But defense having been provided in adequate degree, attention should turn to the possibilities of great benefit which may be expected from special training of the unusually bright.

Various devices have been suggested for the treatment of the supernormal. In general, the principles underlying these suggestions are the same as the principles for the treatment of subnormals. Separate the unusually bright and give them a type of training which will best develop their personal powers.

In a school system which has only a few special cases of the one type or the other it is extremely difficult to follow the suggestion of special training for special levels of ability. The matter must be left in such cases to the ingenuity of the teacher. The bright pupil should be given extra work and, so far as possible, special attention. The dull child should be allowed to do some useful handwork. Where the system is larger, special rapid classes—express classes, as they have sometimes been called—should be organized for the bright pupils, while slowly moving classes are provided for the backward pupils.

SEX DIFFERENCES

Leaving the degrees of intelligence, we turn to a distinction which is of an entirely different type—the difference between boys and girls.

It is difficult to disentangle this problem from a mass of social considerations which attach to it. Women and girls have grown up under a social system that has assumed on their part fundamentally different tastes and interests from those of men and boys. The social system has sometimes expressed itself in terms which imply inferiority of women as compared with men. It is natural, therefore, that at a period when women and girls are taking a new place in the social scheme, there should be at first a good deal of attention given to the demonstration that women are not inferior to men. The simplest demonstration can, of course, be given by putting girls into the same classes with boys and requiring of them the same intellectual tasks. For some years past the experiment has been under way. Girls have shown themselves not only quite as competent intellectually as boys but in some respects superior.

During the period of experimentation, however, there has persisted a difference in tastes and interests; and the demand for a special training for girls was never louder than to-day when the proof that girls are quite as competent as boys seems to be incontrovertible.

The reasons for this demand are connected in part with the later practical uses to which girls expect to put their training and in part with the fact that girls give attention to certain groups of facts which boys neglect, while boys, on the other hand, have their special spheres of interest.

For example, boys are always brought up to interest themselves in mechanical appliances. When a boy comes to study natural science, therefore, it is easily possible to introduce the subject by examples of a mechanical type. Parents do not give girls mechanical toys, society assumes that girls will not engage in occupations which call for a knowledge of machinery, consequently they do not readily take up courses in physics which begin with mechanics.

The present situation, then, is something like this: girls are proved to be equal to boys in school ability, but continue with the full sanction of society to have tastes and interests different from those of boys.

DIFFERENCES IN INDUSTRIAL OPPORTUNITY FOR THE SEXES AND CORRESPONDING DEMANDS FOR TRAINING

The contrast in industrial demands which the school must meet in dealing with boys and girls who are preparing for clerical positions is shown in the following summary of conclusions reached by the Cleveland survey:

Training for boys and girls should be different in content and in emphasis.

The usual course of study in commercial schools is suitable for girls and unsuitable for boys.

A girl needs, chiefly, specific training in some one line of work. She has a choice among stenography, bookkeeping and machine operating.

A boy needs, chiefly, general education, putting emphasis on writing, figuring, and spelling; general information; and the development of certain qualities and standards.

* * * * *

Boys’ training looks forward to both clerical work and business administration; but as clerical work is a preparation for business and is likely to occupy the first few years of wage-earning, training should aim especially to meet the needs of clerical positions.

Clerical positions for boys cover a variety of work which cannot be definitely anticipated and cannot therefore be specifically trained for. But certain fundamental needs are common to all.

Most of the specialized training for boys should be given in night continuation classes.

Girl stenographers need a full high school course for its educational value and for maturity. Girls going into other clerical positions can qualify with a year or two less of education; but immaturity in any case puts them at a disadvantage.

Boys’ training, for those who cannot remain in school, should be compressed into fewer than four years. Immaturity in the case of boys is not a great disadvantage.[58]

To many readers not prepared by a full consideration of the facts the above conclusions may seem untenable. A brief section of the argument will therefore be important in carrying conviction. This argument is presented in the following quotation:

If we wish to generalize broadly about the work of boys and girls we can say with truth that the majority of boys begin as messengers or office boys and subsequently become clerks or do bookkeeping work. As men they remain in these latter positions or, in at least an equal number of cases, pass on into the productive or administrative end of business. The majority of girls, first and last, are stenographers or to a less extent, assistants in bookkeeping or clerical work. There are of course boy stenographers and girl clerks, and there are women in general administrative work; but that these are a minority this report has several ways of showing.

Boys’ work may be expected to take on the characteristics of the business that employs them; girls’ work remains in essentials unchanged even in totally changed surroundings. For example, a boy who is clerk in a wholesale house will have work very unlike that of the boy who is clerk in a bank; but girl stenographers in both businesses will have an experience that is practically the same.

Boys’ work, within limits, is progressive; girls’ work in its general type—with individual exceptions—is static. Boys as a rule cannot stay at the same kind of work and advance; girls as a rule stay at the same kind of work whether or not they advance. Boys in any position are expected to be qualifying themselves for the “job ahead,” but for girls that is not the case. Boys may expect to make a readjustment with every step in advancement. Each new position brings them to a new situation and into a new relation to the business. Girls receive salary advancement for increasingly responsible work, but any change in work is likely to be so gradual as to be almost imperceptible if they remain in the same place of employment. If they change to another place those who are stenographers have a slight readjustment to make in getting accustomed to new terms and to the peculiarities of the new persons who dictate to them. Bookkeeping assistants may encounter different systems, but their part of the work will be so directed and planned that it cannot be said to necessitate difficult adaptation on their part. The work of clerical assistants is so simple and so nearly mechanical that the question of adjustment does not enter. These girl workers do not find that change of position or firm brings them necessarily into a new relation to the business.

Even moderate success is denied to a boy if he has not adaptability and the capacity to grasp business ideas and methods; but a comparatively high degree of success could be attained by a girl who possessed neither of these qualifications. A boy, however, who has no specific training which he can apply directly and definitely in work would be far more likely to obtain a good opening and promotion than a girl without it would be.

The range of a boy’s possible future in commercial occupations is as wide as the field of business. He cannot at first be trained specifically as a girl can be because he does not know what business will do with him or what he wants to do with business. The girl’s choice is limited by custom. She can prepare herself definitely for stenography, bookkeeping, or machine operating and be sure that she is preparing for just the opportunity—and the whole opportunity—that business offers to her. Her very limitation of opportunity makes preliminary choice and training definitely possible things.[59]

HOUSEHOLD ARTS AS EXTRAS

There is another respect in which the present-day training of girls differs from that of boys. Girls are being trained in the science of home-making. Where a girl intends to take up some vocation in the business world, her desire for courses in the household arts complicates the situation very seriously. The boy who is going into business wants a general education plus some business training. The girl wants all that the boy has plus household arts.

DEMAND FOR NEW COURSES FOR GIRLS

The demand for the complete education of girls gives rise to many unsolved problems. For example, shall physics as at present taught be required as an introduction to cooking, or shall the cooking course be made to carry all the physics that the girl needs? The course in physics, be it remembered, contains many an example that is drawn from the boy’s sphere of interests in mechanics and does not appeal at all to the girl’s interests.

Or one may ask a similar question about economics. Shall the girl be given a special course in marketing in which examples are drawn from the daily activities of home life, or shall she wait until she can take the conventional course in political economy where the problems are often those of international trade and banking?

It would be impossible to secure anything like unanimity for any answer to these questions. The uncertainty in regard to the correct answer calls attention to the opportunity which is offered to the intelligent women of the teaching profession to solve a problem which is new and complicated, but all the more important because there are no guideposts to mark the way.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES WHICH APPEAR DURING TRAINING

The individual differences discussed up to this point may be described as native differences. In addition, there are differences which appear in the course of training. These, in turn, divide into two classes. There are differences which seem to result from varying degrees of mastery of the subjects taken in school, and there are differences in taste and outlook which arise as the pupils mature to the point where they begin to exhibit personal ambitions.

Recent studies of attainments of pupils in school subjects show how striking are the differences among individuals. For example, it is shown in the Cleveland survey that in the fifth grade of one and the same school there are pupils who read orally only 7, 8, or 9 lines in a minute, while others read orally 19 or 20 lines. In silent reading the variations are even greater, covering rates from as low as 4 lines a minute to as high as 40 lines.[60] What is true of reading is true in equal degree of all the other subjects. The facts are graphically shown in Fig. 13.

The type of individual difference which develops when pupils begin to look forward to their places in the practical world is of great significance in organizing school work. School experience in this matter is clearly reflected in the following resolution adopted in 1915 by the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association:

Resolved, That we note with approval the increasing tendency to establish, beginning with the seventh grade, differentiated courses of study aimed more effectively to prepare the child for his probable future activities. We believe that as a result of these modifications a more satisfactory type of instruction will be developed and that a genuine economy of time will result.[61]

The differentiation of the curriculum here demanded is required in order to keep in school those pupils who have reached the point where any simple uniform curriculum would fail to furnish the variety which they require to meet their developing tastes and their demands for special training.

DEMOCRATIC RECOGNITION OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

The differentiation of the courses for individual pupils was at one time thought to be contrary to the democratic principle that all pupils must be treated alike. We are coming to see that a democracy has need of many kinds of people and that the truest expression of the principle of equal treatment is through liberal provision for individual differences.

EXERCISES AND READINGS

Evidently low grades of intelligence are most likely to be found in the lower grades. Is the elimination of low-grade children from the regular classes advantageous to them? It is sometimes argued that they gain from association with the bright children.

With regard to the bright children, it is pointed out that they may be pushed along too rapidly. How can this danger be avoided?

Are the elections of courses made by students in high school indicative of sex differences? What tendencies in economic life can be noted as bringing men and women to the same levels of occupation? Are these tendencies likely to change the conclusions reached in this chapter?

What types of school work are adjusted, even in the present school program, to the individual characteristics of pupils? How is the discussion to be related to the chapter dealing with the grouping of pupils? Is the argument of this chapter in favor of individual tutoring? How far should it be insisted that all the members of a class be kept together for a year in their attainments in arithmetic? in Latin? in English literature? in typewriting? in laboratory physics?

How far down in the elementary school can individual election of courses be organized with profit to the pupils? Could a medical school or an engineering course be organized on the elective plan?

GALTON, FRANCIS. Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development. E. P. Dutton and Company. One of the earliest studies of individual differences in mental characteristics, with special emphasis on differences in mental imagery.

THORNDIKE, E. L. Educational Psychology (especially Vol. III). Teachers College.

THORNDIKE, E. L. Measurements of Twins. Science Press. A study of the degree to which individuals are alike.

FOOTNOTES:

[57] Lewis M. Terman, The Measurement of Intelligence, pp. 161-163. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1916.

[58] Bertha M. Stevens, Boys and Girls in Commercial Work, pp. 179-180. Cleveland Education Survey. Published by the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, 1916.

[59] Bertha M. Stevens, Boys and Girls in Commercial Work, pp. 14-16. Cleveland Education Survey. Published by the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, 1916.

[60] Measuring the Work of the Public Schools, pp. 131-133. Cleveland Education Survey. Published by the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, 1916.

[61] Proceedings of the National Education Association for 1915, p. 256. Published by the Secretary of the Association, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1915.