What shall we say of the teacher or of the physician who has not even had this amount of instruction? The writer's experience forces him to agree with Binet and with Dr. Goddard, that any one with intelligence enough to be a teacher, and who is willing to devote conscientious study to the mastery of the technique, can use the scale accurately enough to get a better idea of a child's mental endowment than he could possibly get in any other way. It is necessary, however, for the untrained person to recognize his own lack of experience, and in no case would it be justifiable to base important action or scientific conclusions upon the results of the inexpert examiner. As Binet himself repeatedly insisted, the method is not absolutely mechanical, and cannot be made so by elaboration of instructions. It is sometimes held that the examination and classification of backward children for special instruction should be carried out by the school physicians. The fact is, however, that there is nothing in the physician's training to give him any advantage over the ordinary teacher in the use of the Binet tests. Because of her more intimate knowledge of children and because of her superior tact and adaptability, the average teacher is perhaps better equipped than the average physician to give intelligence tests. Finally, it should be emphasized that whatever the previous training or experience of the examiner may have been, his ability to adjust to the child's personality and his willingness to follow conscientiously the directions for giving the tests are important factors in his equipment. INFLUENCE OF THE SUBJECT'S ATTITUDE. One continually meets such queries as, "How do you know the subject did his best?" "Possibly the child was nervous or frightened," or, "Perhaps incorrect answers were purposely given." All such objections may be disposed of by saying that the competent examiner can easily control the experiment in such a way that embarrassment is soon replaced by self-confidence, and in such a way that effort is kept at its maximum. As for mischievous deception, it would be a poor clinicist who could not recognize and deal with the little that is likely to arise. Cautions regarding embarrassment, fatigue, fright, illness, etc. are given in Chapter IX. Most of the errors which have been reported along this line are such as can nearly always be avoided by ordinary prudence, coupled with a little power of observation.[38] We must not charge the mistakes of untrained and indiscreet examiners against the validity of the method itself. [38] See, for example, the rather ludicrous "errors" of the Binet method reported in _The Psychological Clinic_ for 1915, pp. 140 _ff._ and 167 _ff._