Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/369

Rh 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 constitution of the pupil's mental capacity. The Binet scale has been sufficiently 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 insurance 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: