This selection will be good, without being final. It will be good, for it is based upon a wide experience extending over several years. Just think what it means in the way of inattention and want of comprehension if a child is three years behind. For our own part, we consider this evidence from experience of the greatest value. It is the obvious point of departure. We can and should try to interpret it and to complete it, but we are not justified in taking no account of it. Let us even say boldly that if, by some unhappy chance, other finer methods should conflict with this, and indicate as defective a child who has shown himself well adapted to school life, it is school life which should be considered the more important test. How, indeed, could one call a child defective who succeeds in his studies and profits by the instruction in the normal way? Thus we sum up by remarking that we possess a very simple method which enables us to recognise all the children whom we have any right to suspect of mental deficiency. This method consists in taking account of the retardation of the children in their studies.
For the recognition of the ill-balanced children the rule is the same. The head-master must pick out those children whose undisciplined character has kept them from submitting to the ordinary school régime, and has made them a continual source of disturbance. Whilst the simply defective fail to adapt themselves to school life by reason of their mental deficiency, the ill-balanced fail owing to their inco-ordination of character. In the second case, as in the first, there is a similar defect of adaptation, and the best proof that this defect is present in a particular child is the continued evidence of several years, the testimony of different masters, who declare that, with the best will in the world, they cannot break in the recalcitrant child to rule. But it must be recognised that the appreciation of want of balance is more delicate, more subjective, than that of retardation. The latter is indicated by a definite incontrovertible fact—the insufficiency of instruction. On the other hand, lack of balance has only a slight effect on a child's intelligence and his success in his studies. It is indicated to outsiders especially by the complaints of the masters. And the latter, to tell the truth, may be led to exaggerate a little, especially if they see a means thereby of ridding themselves of children with whom they have not much sympathy. We shall see in a little, when we speak of the rôle of the inspector, how the latter must check the statements of the head-masters.
Distribution of the Pupils in a School.—To put into practice the principle which we have just formulated, a circular is distributed to the schools asking the head-masters to arrange the children in each class according to age upon a blank table furnished to them. The work is easy, and the return should be required in a maximum period of eight days. Within this period twenty elementary schools in Paris supplied us with the information which we asked for through their inspectors. We give one of these returns, which we shall examine briefly, insisting only on the essential points.
We ask, then, that on the table, of which a blank copy is supplied, the head-master shall give the number of children who on October 1—that is to say, the first day of the session—were of such and such an age—e.g., six or seven years. The normal ages for the different courses or standards are as follows:
| Preparatory or infant | 6 to 7 years of age. |
| Elementary, first year | 7 to 8 years of age. |
| Elementary, second year | 8 to 9 years of age. |
| Intermediate, first year | 9 to 10 years of age. |
| Intermediate, second year | 10 to 11 years of age. |
| Senior, first year | 11 to 12 years of age. |
| Senior, second year | 12 to 13 years of age. |
Thus a child is "regular" in instruction when he is found in the class named at the age indicated.
The normal age for the infant class is from six to seven years. The children of that age are entered in the table in the appropriate column. Now consider the extreme ages between six and seven which obey this condition. On the one hand would be a child exactly six years of age on admission. Such a child is exactly normal as regards age. He is behind by 0 years, 0 months, 0 days. At the other extreme would be a child exactly seven—or, rather, one day less than seven—on admission. Such a child would be behind by exactly one year. Consequently, the column headed six to seven years for the infant class contains children behind by 0 day as a minimum, and one year as a maximum. The average will therefore be behind by six months (compared to the ideal). Analogous reasoning would show that the children of the infant class entered in the column headed five to six years would, on the average, be six months in advance of their age. Similarly, those shown in the column headed seven to eight years would be on the average one and a half years behind.
Interpretation of the Tables.—The next point is to sort out the defectives from these tables. Nothing is easier if we follow the rules already given. Turning to our tables, we would consider as suspects the children entered in the fourth and following columns for the infant class; in column five and following for the elementary course, first year; in column six and following for the elementary course, second year; in column eight and following for the intermediate course, first year; in column nine and following for the intermediate course, second year. If the reader will calculate the retardation implied in the columns which we designate, he will see that this retardation is equal to at least two years under the age of nine, and equal to at least three years above the age of nine.