I cannot linger upon this point, because the question deserves a special investigation; but it must suffice to point out that in order to render biographic charts a necessary adjunct to the management of schools, so as to offer a real aid to the teacher and not to have them mean to her (as happens to-day only too frequently!), "just so much more work," the immediate utility of which is doubtful, it is essential that the pedagogic methods of instruction should be changed.
So long as a child is required to perform certain definite acts, he will reveal nothing of himself beyond responding, in so far as he is capable, to the requirements of his environment; and any attempt to make psychological deductions from such response would contain profound errors.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL FORM
Used in the "Children's Houses," in Rome and Milan
| No. | Date of Enrollment | ||||||||
| Name and Surname | Age | ||||||||
| Name of Parents | Age: M | F | |||||||
| Vocation | |||||||||
| Hereditary Antecedents | |||||||||
| Personal Antecedents | |||||||||
| Anthropological Notes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total stature | Weight | Thoracic circumf. | Essential stature | Index of stature | Ponderal index | Cranium Cir | |||
| Circumf. | a.-p. diam. | Transv. diam. | Cephalic index | ||||||
| Physical constitution | |||||||||
| Muscular development | |||||||||
| Color of complexion | |||||||||
| Color of hair | |||||||||
| Notes | |||||||||
Nevertheless, the earlier forms of biographic charts, and even the modern ones in general use in Italy (!) frequently contain minute requirements for psychic examination in relation to such points as memory, attention, perception and intelligence.
And even less satisfactory are the requirements in the charts regarding the examination for sensibility—namely, ability to distinguish colours, sense of touch, smell, etc.; because the pedagogic methods in vogue in school (and this applies to-day to all our schools) make no provision for a rational exercise of the senses, nor for instruction in the nomenclature relating to them. An examination of the senses for the purposes of the biographic chart should at most be limited to a test of their acuteness, forming an inquiry analogous to that of sensibility to pain. For an inquiry into the power to discriminate between various sensations ceases to be a simple examination of the senses, and becomes a combined test of psychic powers and of the degree of culture attained (the degree to which the senses have been trained). Furthermore, it is well known that a psychical examination demands preparation on the part of the person to be examined, complete repose from all emotion, isolation of the senses, etc., the preparation depending upon the special research which it is desired to make; all of which is absolutely opposed to the aggressiveness of the tumultuous examination conducted by an investigator whose chief aim is to fill in the blanks upon the biographic charts. The psychic examination of a pupil is a task to be accomplished slowly, by watching the child's behaviour, in the course of its daily life under the eye of an intelligent and trained observer.
Nevertheless, it is sometimes necessary, especially in schools for defective children, to form at once a comprehensive first impression of the psychic condition of a given child; it furnishes the observer with a needed point of departure, and abridges the long and difficult task of a psychological study of the pupil, to be made in the course of the ensuing year. In such a case, the biographical form should not contain such general topics as the following:
- Memory,
- Sense of place and time,
- Judgment,
- Moral sense, etc.,