Literacy, The Negro and World War II

Modern educational and social psychologists, interested in the question of the comparative intelligence of peoples varying in class status, cultural pattern, and ethnic origins, or combinations of these differences, have long dreamed of a particular type of experiment. This dream experiment was one which would involve scores of thousands of subjects of all groups, classes, and backgrounds. These subjects would be carefully tested and sorted, and would all be about equally deficient in a common skill or aptitude. They would then be put through a learning process-not a mere testand that process would be conducted by carefully selected teachers who would be provided with all the equipment that they needed and desired. The motivation of the subjects would be nurtured, and the rapport between teachers and learners would be good. The learning process would be continual for the period of the experiment, and it would not be broken by subjecting the examinees to other and extraneous environments while it was being conducted. And the living conditions of the subjects would be excellent and as uniform as could be established. Finally, having achieved these ideal conditions and situations, the experiment would be climaxed by an objective test to discover whether or not the common deficiency had indeed been eliminated. Exigencies of the Second World War made possible, as we shall show, the realization, in very large part, of this dream. But to appreciate the full significance of this, it is necessary that one understand the reality that called it forth. The fact is that educational and social psychology has been and still is plagued by what is termed the naturenurture controversy as concerns the comparative intelligence of peoples. As the result of social needs there were developed in America and in Europe, starting some fifty years ago, so-called intelligence tests whose purpose was to provide a measuring rod of the learning capabilities (as deduced from past accomplishment) of individuals -for obvious uses in educational, vocational, and industrial fields. Very soon after the formulation of these tests their function was distorted and vicious conclusions based upon this distortion were announced. The view was expounded that these tests did not demonstrate merely the level of learning capabilities attained under given conditions and as ascertained by specific questions; but rather that they were instruments measuring an innate, unchangeable quality of hunian beings-labelled intelligence-and that, therefore, where particular groups did poorly on these tests those results scientifically proved the innate inferiority of those groups. Using these tests uncritically, and applying them as indicated, one was able to assert that science had demonstrated the innate inferiority of the rural folk as compared to the urban, of the poor as compared to the rich, and of the Negro (predominantly rural and poor, anyway) as compared to the white

Literacy · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Political science · Sociology · World War II · Education Methods and Practices · Emotional Intelligence and Performance · Law · Psychology

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