Our Schools in War Time—and After

by Arthur D. Dean

There are two distinct uses for the ratings which are given the men as a result of the psychological examinations. One of these uses is military and consists in furnishing a commanding officer with the rating of each man in his command, by which he may, if he chooses, be guided in selecting men for promotion, or for special duties requiring more than average intelligence and mental quickness. The other use is medical and is the thing specifically sought—to find men who are so markedly below the average in intelligence as to demand consideration for discharge or for assignment to simple manual work under careful supervision.

The general method of the test is as follows: The men of each company are divided into 4 groups of 75 to 80 each. Each group is first given a simple literacy test which takes about five minutes and shows only which of the men can read and write. The illiterates are withdrawn at this point to be given examinations for manual skill. All those who can read are then given the "group-intelligence examination."

Those who do not get good ratings are now re-examined in a group to discover whether they are merely slow or are of low-grade intelligence. If any fail to make a satisfactory showing, they are grouped with the illiterates who were separated from the rest of the group after the preliminary examination.

All these—illiterates, and literates who have not done well in the group examination—are given tests for manual skill and ingenuity. These tests are such as putting together dissembled mechanisms, etc. After further individual examination those who receive the poorest rating are likely to be considered for discharge or as suited only for manual work under supervision.

Those who display special mental or manual ability are brought to the notice of their company commanders as men who may be given assignments for superior intelligence or skill.

The aims of the entire psychological examination are to measure native intelligence and ability, not schooling; to disclose what a man can do with his head and hands, not what he has learned from books; and to help the medical officers quickly to discover and sift out the extremely incompetent, and thus prevent the inefficiency and injustice resulting from putting men in places which they are not qualified to fill.

Of course there is a tremendous opportunity for the college to help people understand the causes of war. This has already been referred to in the chapter on "War and Community Uses of our Schools."

Colleges having teacher-training departments will have the opportunity of giving short courses to men and women who will take the places of those who have gone to war. There is also a field for great service in discovering ways and means of improving our public-school systems through lessons drawn from the war.

Every college and university has a large library, and this should be examined with a view to discovering its possible contribution to national defense in war time. Aside from their functions of supplying fresh news and judgments of current events, libraries surely have a vital part in that work of organized research which is behind Germany's scientific and industrial efficiency. Successful research rests as much upon adequate and well-organized book resources as upon laboratories and trained men. The plain and immediate duty of a college situated near a cantonment, or having a portion of its student body enlisted in a camp, would seem to be to build up a military library adequate as a center of military information for those who are studying new methods and instruments of attack and defense. Such a library would be a technical library assisting the large number of specialized schools and fields of training for officers and men in every branch of the service and even in different duties in the same branch. Medical libraries of colleges should be available, with new and important material on military hygiene, medicine, sanitation, and surgery, and this material should be given the widest publicity with reference to its usefulness for the military, medical, and hospital corps.

The college library might well lend to a cantonment a member of its library staff for the development of not only a technical library but also a general reading library for those soldiers who desire only general reading.