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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1962-02-01, Page 2Those IQ Tests Are They Any Gond? There is A growing suspicion Meng American educators and parents that we have gone to en extreme in our faith in ere ganized testinge' r 0 in early eehool years to college entrance, bur children and young people ere made to face batteries of tests that are supposed to measure their intelligence, their abilities, their achievements, and their possible success. Of urgent inter- est, theretore, is the vigorous arti- ele by John Kord Lagemann in the December PTA Magazine, "Let's Abolish IQ Tests." The subject is frankly eontro- Versial. The PTA Magazine in- vites "Opinions by Post." The De- cember Reader's Digest is carry- ing a condensation under the title, '`Lets Look Again at Those IQ Tests." There is bound to be a wide reaction, Outside the United States, we are told, only Great pritain makes extensive use of standard- ized tests to grade and classify talent, "Many countries, includ- ing the Soviet Union." Mr, Lege - mann says, "have considered them and rejected them cam- pletely." It is common knowledge among educators that children who test with an average or low IQ get different educational treatment throughout their school years from those who test high. "A low IQ may exclude him from the opportunity to discover and develop his talents," the arti- cle says. "He may score low be- cause he can't read well, and then be hampered in his chances to learn to read well because he has a low IQ. Sores that are designed 'average' may give him an image of himself as an un- promising person, and he may act accordingly," The article lists and discusses some of the "fundamental de- fects": Szores vary er- ratically; within a six-month pe- riod a child has scored as gifted and merely average. Inaccuracy: A whole classroom takes them at once. They are short, about half an hour, and contain only a nurnber of short ques- tions. Therefore, the answers to BOOK BONANZA—Forgetful Chicago and North Western Roilway commuters "donated" mare than 1 000 paperback books to Chicago area hospi- tals. Don Runge stocks the books which hne been collect- ing dust- in the railway's Lost and Found department. a feW of these, according to the article) rnaka a big difference in the score; yet much depends on a child's motivation when taking the test, Statistics have indicated that IQ tests favor children of well educated parents. For example, in prosperous suburbia, where a child's home environment ese- poses him to books, magazines, conversation, and cultural inter- ests, one out of four children scores above 125, while in poor neighborhoods only one out of 16 does so. Thousands of bright yonngsters whose home environ- ment is culturally negative are deprived. by low IQ ratings of a chance at college and college scholarships, w ri t e s Millicent Taylor in the Christian Science Monitor, Cited as the worst wrong this mass testing does to children — and serious for the future of the nation — is that "tests favor the conformist over the 'creative mind." Mr. Lagemann gives this ex -ample: "When asked to define language a high IQ student wrote, 'It is a form or manner of expression.' A high - creativity student wrote, 'Language is the window through which we see experience' an answer that would never get by in a standardized test." "What an aptitude test (and this includes IQ tests) does mea- sure is the quality of a pupil's performance in a number of mental tasks," says Dr. Henry S. Dyer of the Educational Testing Service. The score "tells how well he can cope with tasks like those on the test at the time he takes the test, and it tells noth- ing more." A group of top scientists were asked to evaluate a list of 28 specific mental abilities and rank them according to their impor- tance in scientific research Their number one was "the ability to abondon conventional problem - solving methods that have be- come unworkable and to think of an original solution," (An ex- ample of this was to put the eye in the point of a needle and make possible the invention of the sew- ing machine.) This ability is not measured by IQ tests. Another was the ability to recognize prob- lems — once defined by Einstein as "inability to accept the ob- vious." Similar to IQ tests are the ap- titude tests, most of which are cf the "multiple choice" type — that is; the ehild must choose one of several proffered "solutions." If he does not get a certain MEM- ber of "right" answers it is as - sullied that he will not do well in college. There is much more in the article than I have space to share here. A visit to your pub- lic library or school to read it in full in the PTA Magazine can be rewarding. The Reader's Digest's able condensation is also worth your perusal. A final quo:e on the defects Mr. Lazemann sees in standard- ized IQ tests: . . they favor one lientzed kind of intelligence — the kind that is fast and sharp and knows the correct ansv.-ers-- while they discriminate against such central aspects of intelli- gence as enagine.tion, creativity, Modern Etiquette By Anne Ashley Q. I have been invited to a wedding and recepon, and the bride says I can rising my boy friend with me. Should he send a gilt, or would it be proper for him to share the cost of mine? A. Hts rtc4 expected :o do either e961 — 1 dassi GOES AFTER CAMERAMAN FOLLOWING TRIAL— Dr. Albert L. Weiner, 44 -year old osteopathic physician con- vlcted on 12 counts of manslaughter in the hepatitis deaths of a dozen patients, lunges at photographers in Cornden, N. J At upper left is Weiner's wife. Helen. TINY CHAPEL—This sidewalk in Falmouth, Cornwall, Eng- land, squeezes through a narrow passage under the famous Chapel of Gyllyngdune, which was built in the 19th century. As you know, every year on the Saturday before Christmas, the National Hockey League. puts on what is known as "Young Canada Night." To us it points up the changes that have taken place over a period of years. When we first started listening to hockey broadcasts it was from a second-hand battery radio, with Foster Hewitt calling the game. Then came the year when, as a special attraction far Young Canada NiegeelletW,eter had his young son co lefet- he mi- crophone and take—ipaein the broadcast. Bill Dela about eight years old elestionely Bill took a genuine interest in hock- ey, so the time carne when he also became an announcer for the hockey garnes, not replacing his father but supplementing his ac - TV Turtle Hassock Protect. the furniture and de- light youngsters with this gay cushion that's perfect tor TV! Ilse thrifty scraps — the brighter, the better — for this plumply padded TV tter• tle. Pat- tern 504: pieces; direc- tions leer cushion. Send THIRTY-FIVE CENTS (stamps cannot be accepted, use po;tai note for safety) for this pattern to Laura Wheeler. Box 1, 123 Eighteenth St ..New Toronto, Ont. Print plainly PATTERN NUMBER, your NAME and AD- DRESS. FOR THE FIRST TIME: Over 200 designs in our new, 1962 Needlecraft Catalog — biggest ever! Pages, pages, pages of fash- ions, home accessorize to knit, crochet, sew, weave, embroider, quilt. See jumbo-ktift hits, cloths, spreads, toys, linens, afghans plus free patterns. Send 25e. Ontario residents must include le Sales Tax for each CATA- LOG ordered. There is no sales fax on the patterns. tivities. ‚That is to say Foster broadcasts by radio and. Bill on television. This last Young Can- ada Night marked another mile- stone in the Hewitt family. Bill's young son also took part in the broadcast just as we remember his father did many years ago. No doubt it was a proud night for Grandpa Hewitt, and most certainly a family record in con- tinupus broadcasting. That brings back to mind the early days of radio. I remember, back on the farm, when we had our first radio. It was a big cumbersome affair, and of course, it was battery operated. It had a number of knobs that had to be adjusted every time we turn- ed it on and then often it would squeal and whine until some- times we coulti'n't hear any pro- gram at all. Worse still were the times when the battery, without any warning, would give up the ghost. That necessitated a trip to town to get the battery re- charged — and in winter a trip to town often meant going in by horse and cutter, or team and sleighs. A few years later we got a smaller, more compact radio. We did get better recep- tion but we still had to depend on baneries as it was long before the time that we had hydro in- stalled at the farm. What a difference electric pow- er makes in a home! Almost at once we got an electric radio— no batteries to worry about, just occasionally a tube would burn out and had to be replaced. Now radio and television sets have been improved to such an extent that only occasionally do they give any mechanical trouble Which is marvellous when you" think of the use — and abuse — they receive, with children turn- ing the controls on and off, this way and that, with both radio and television. What would hap- pen if youngsters today were faced with the same conditions that were prevalent in the 'thir- ties -- no television and radios, in only a few homes? Who is to say which period encourages the better Personalities. Certainly children a generation alp were more creative — less dependent upon eonunerele1 toys and en- tertainment, • What would mothers of pre- schoolers do today without TV? in dozens of homes you hear the same story — 'Come on, now — eat up your breakfast then You • can watch Topeye'," Television - to young mothers is as good as • a part-time baby-sitter. Well now, for you people who read this column, Christmas Is now a thing of the past, We, on the other hand, have another two days to go before the big day arrives. For you it is a time for catching your breath again. You can now collect all those lovely Christmas cards, put them into a box until the beginning of next December. Then you will bring them out once radl'e and go through the same ritual all over again. That is all part of Christ- mas. I was talking to Daughter this morning and the said they got their greatest kick out of taking the boys to do their own shop- ping. They each took money from their penny boxes to buy presents for Grandpa and Grand- ma and for their cousins, Roos and Cedric. Dee took them to Woolworths and they were al- lowed to choose the presents themselves. Dave had two dol- lars to spend but what'he picked out came to just over four dol- lars so he went after his Dad to make up the difference! His father allowed him an extra dol- lar but also insisted that some of the things must be put back on the shelves. Naturally that was to make him understand the value of money. We generally think that chil- dren have too many presents and take too much for granted. But apparently, given the opportun- ity, they get just as much pleas- ure out of giving as receiving. ,And that is something that should be encouraged. Well, Happy New Year every- body. See you again next week. Little Plane That Flew By Itself: Eddie Remington, a large, mild man who operates restaurants in .three towns scattered up and down the Sacramento Valley, was annoyed one day last month when he got to the municipal airport in Chico, Calif., and found the battery dead in his four -passenger Tripacer. Rem- ington had to get to Marysville, 50 miles to the south, and check on his restaurant operation there, "I turned on the switches, set the throttle, primed it, climbed out and chocked the wheels, and then started to crank it," he said. The engine started with a full- throated roar and the light plane leaped out of the wheel chocks. "It came right for me," Reming- ton said. He jumped aside and clutched desperately at the pilot- less machine, first at a wing strut and then at the tail. ''When I realized I was becoming air- borne," he went on, "I became a little panicky. I just let go.' Aloft before it had gone 500 feet, the plane climbed graceful- ly in two big lazy circles and vanished into a cloud layer at 1,000 feet. Remington, scratched and bruised from his fall on the SALL Y'S SALLIES othit of the sack, six Slug bed, Thle is Menday, 'not Sunday!" runway, marveled: "it flew just its though someone was in it." And then the official flap set 111, Remington notified the Fed- eral Aviation Agency, the Air Feral. the Butte County sheriff's office. Vrantie authorities eal- ciliated that the craft, fully fuel- ed, would fly three to four hours before exhausting one tank of gasoline incl then, hopefu Ily, would be unable to switch over to the other, Meanwhile, Pacific Air Line, hold Up e southbound • flight Out of Medford, Ore. The Air Verve kept a 13-52 bomber waiting high over Beale Air Police 'Base for an hour for fear it might meet up with the pilot- less plane on the way down. They might have saved them- selves the trouble; the plane had simply vanished. Radar units to the south at Beale and to the north at Red Bluff picked up not one blip of it. No commercial plane spotted it Nobody report- ed a crash. Presumably it will turn up one day in the northern California mountains. But it will be a long time be- fore Retnington shakes off that feeling of frustration when he saw • it fly away—the raging frustration that all men feel when they have been outwitted by a machine. "All I could think of was 'crash and burn, y .0 s.o.b,'," he said. DRIVE WITH CARE I Soft and Slimming PRIM. t.:1) PA'1"1:1..KN $ A touch of the unusual — tiny gathers soften a face• framing collar. This style is so flattering to short fuller figures, you'll, love it for day or night. Printed Pattern 4970: Half Sizes 141e, 161/2, 18ie, 2014,.. 221/2, 243/2, Size 181/2 requires 4v4 yards 39 -inch fabric. Send FIFTY CENTS (stamps cannot be accepted, use postal note for safety) for this pattern. Please print ee 1 a i n 1 y SIZE, NAME, A DDRES S. STYLE NUMBER, Send order to ANNE ADAMS, Box 1. 123 Eighteenth St New Toronto, Ont. - FALL'S 100 BEST FASHIONS — separates, dresses. suits, en- sembles, all sizes, all in our new Pattern Catalog in color. Sew for yourself, family. 35e, Ontario residents must include le Sales Tax for each CATA- LOG ordered. There is no sales tax on the patterns. IKE IN DISNEYLAND—Former President Eisenhower, accompanied by Mrs, Eisenhower (left), a carload of grandchildren and other members of his family, tips his fire hat to the crowd of he drives a fire truck during a visit to Disneyland at Anaheim, Calif.