It is very desirable that no child escape inspection, because of the
importance of discovering every individual of exceptional ability or
inability. Since the public educational system has not yet risen to the
need of this systematic mental diagnosis, private philanthropy should
for the present be alert to get appropriate treatment for the unusually
promising individual. In Pittsburgh, a committee of the Civic Club is
seeking youths of this type, who might be obliged to leave school
prematurely for economic reasons, and is aiding them to appropriate
opportunities. Such discriminating selection will probably become much
more widespread and we may hope a recognized function of the schools,
owing to the great public demonstration of psychometry now being
conducted at the cantonments for the mental classification of recruits.
Compulsory education is necessary for this selection.
We conclude that compulsory education, as such, is not only of service
to eugenics through the selection it makes possible, but may serve in a
more unsuspected way by cutting down the birth-rate of inferior
families.
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AND TRAINING
In arguments for vocational guidance and education of youth, one does
not often hear eugenics mentioned; yet these measures, if effectively
carried out, seem likely to be of real eugenic value.
The need for as perfect a correlation as possible between income and
eugenic worth, has been already emphasized. It is evident that if a man
gets into the wrong job, a job for which he is not well fitted, he may
make a very poor showing in life, while if properly trained in something
suited to him, his income would have been considerably greater. It will
be a distinct advantage to have superior young people get established
earlier, and this can be done if they are directly taught efficiency in
what they can do best, the boys being fitted for gainful occupations,
and the girls for wifehood and motherhood in addition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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