ring
stick and prove the correctness or incorrectness of my assertion. But if
I say simply that the man is "rather tall," or "very tall," the error
must be very extreme before we can expose it, particularly since the
estimate can itself be checked up only by observation and not by
controlled experiment.

The teachers' answers seem to justify three conclusions:--

1. Teachers do not have a very definite idea of what constitutes
intelligence. They tend to confuse it variously with capacity for
memorizing, facility in reading, ability to master arithmetic, etc. On
the whole, their standard is too academic. They fail to appreciate the
one-sidedness of the school's demands upon intelligence.

In a quaintly humorous passage discussing this tendency, Binet
characterizes the child in a class as _denature_, a French word which we
may translate (though rather too literally) as "denatured." Too often
this "denatured" child of the classroom is the only child the teacher
knows.

2. In judging intelligence teachers are too easily deceived by a
sprightly attitude, a sympathetic expression, a glance of the eye, or a
chance "bump" on the head.

3. Although a few teachers seem to realize the many possibilities of
error, the majority show rather undue confidence in the accuracy of
their judgment.

BINET'S EXPERIMENT ON HOW TEACHERS TEST INTELLIGENCE.[9] Finally, Binet
had three teachers come to his laboratory to judge the intelligence of
children whom they had never seen before. Each spent an afternoon in the
laboratory and examined five pupils. In each case the teacher was left
free to arrive at a conclusion in her own way. Binet, who remained in
the room and took notes, recounts with playful humor how the teachers
were unavoidably compelled to resort to the much-abused test method,
although their attempts at using it were sometimes, from the
psychologist's point of view, amusingly clumsy.

[9] See p. 182 _ff._ of reference 2 at end of this book.

One teacher, for example, questioned the children about some canals and
sluices which were in the vicinity, asking what their purpose was and
how they worked. Another showed the children some pretty pictures,
which she had brought with her for the purpose, and asked questions
about them. Showing the picture of a garret, she asked how a garret
differs from an ordinary room. One teacher asked whether in building a
factory it was best to have the walls thick or thin. As King Edward had