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Show Why We Behave Like human Beings By GEORGE DORSEY, Ph. D.. U D. "America Is a Nation of Morons" THE great by-product of our participation par-ticipation In the World war was the startling discovery that "America in a nation of morons!" Moron means dull or stupid, and Is technically applied ap-plied to children with permanently arrested ar-rested mental development. Defective mentality due to congenital deficiency Is "amentia"; If due to deteoriation, "dementia." Congenital Imbecility Is generally accompanied by a thin and poorly organized brain cortex. Nearly two million American adults were tested by the army as to their Intelligence. The average was that of a normal school child of twelve. A3 the test sampled the nation, the cry went up, "Nation of morons I" And much bunk was and Is talked and written. writ-ten. What is Intelligence? "Ability to learn or to profit by past experience?" All right. The hog Is an intelligent animal; rattlesnake also; likewise hookworm and clam. "Civilization's" intelligence, measured by the amount it hns profited by past experience makes a poor showing; It goes right on putting its troubles upon the Lord Instead of upon Itself. Voters make the poorest showing of all : they put their troubles upon the "government." The army had to find out whether a man could react to orders and learn to use a musket; If not, he was not intelligent enough to shoot or fit to be shot at If, on the other hand, he knew the chemistry of explosives, he was too Intelligent to be shot at and was put to work In an ammunition laboratory. The army had to make tests. It used certain lists of questions. I give you a list of questions. You may flunk completely. Have I tested your Intelligence? Only to the extent of that particular list. Even then. I have tested nothing of your capacity to learn or to profit by past experience. I have a bottle of liquid before me. I ask that bottle certain questions: Are you Indican, creatine, glucose, or acetic acid; have you any phosphates, calcium, or Iron, in you? To each the bottle replies "No." Very well, then, 1 cannot use you ; your mother did not bring you up to be a soldier. But do I know from that test what that liquid is, or what It will do if I drop a hair or a lighted mach In it? Or what it will do to me if I drink it? That bottle bot-tle might be aqua vitue itself, for anything any-thing I know to the contrary. I did not test it for aqua vitae, only for acetic acid. There are idiots, imbeciles, morons, all degrees of feeble-minded. Grade A feeble mind passes iuto the low grade of a mind that is not feeble; and so on up through the grades of genius. But there may be two reasons why I cannot talk Chinese: never tried to learn it; could uot learn It. We start with suppositions In judging judg-ing character, intelligence, personality. We must, of course. But as long as we are at the mercy of our convictions we fail to realize that the boy of twelve does not make the grade, not because he cannot, but usually because be-cause that grade does not appeal to him. We have our own grades. The school, on the other hand has its own. Instead of attempting to find out what grade 1 can make, it throws me out for not coming up to its standard. The average man meekly accepts the verdict ver-dict Incompetent, and Is counted with the morons. Many a teacher's time and patience spejit trying to make the boy or girl learn could be better spent trying to find out what the boy or girl has a will to learn. Will being a human engine en-gine that goes best with certain fuel and In certain directions. "Music lessons" les-sons" have spoiled many a cook and "modern languages" many a farmer. If America is a nation of morons, then that is the answer to the attractiveness attrac-tiveness of the intellectual feast our educational system spreads; it is not a test of the American's ability to learn. We are cars of many makes, types, styles, gears and motor capacity. Some are racers and some are trucks ; some are no good on dirt roads and some are tractors and can climb mountains; some are one-seaters and some are buses; some can pull only themselves, others the whole family; some use a pint a mile and some a barrel. And as any car can be wrecked as It leaves the factory, so also by careful care-ful and scientific handling every car is good for its capacity. But we are more than machines; we make ourselves as we go. What we make ourselves Into depends de-pends on many factors. But one consideration con-sideration should not be overlooked : there Is no absolute In the measure of Intelligence, only standards yours, mine, this community's, that society's, etc. These standards vary and keep varying with time and place. Christopher Chris-topher Columbus could nut qualify for a water tender's rating in the navy of Alfonso XIII. Of the world's hundred geniuses perhaps five could pass any of the contraptions now In vogue to measure Intelligence. Of this same hundred few. If any, were rated "Intelligence "In-telligence A-l" by their contemporaries. In fact, some of them were killed by their eraiteniporaries for lack of intelligence. in-telligence. Was that a measure of the intelligence of their contemporaries? i by Ooorge A. Dorsey.) |