Delinquent Girls Tested by the Binet Scale, excerpt
Date: 1911
Caption: Intelligence test advocate Henry H. Goddard argued for intelligence testing for girls he labeled as “delinquent.”
Henry Goddard was a psychologist living and working in New Jersey. He was the head of the Vineland Institute, but also researched and wrote about Disabled people and people labeled as disabled in locations around the country. In this report, he comments on the use of the Binet intelligence test to determine whether “delinquent girls” had the mental capacity to be responsible for their actions, or whether they did not.
Goddard and colleagues tested 56 of the girls at one reform school - where girls were sent by the courts - and concluded that 52 of them were “feeble minded,” or intellectually disabled.
Goddard and his colleague Helen Hill wrote:
Perhaps nowhere among our social problems can one be found which is so discouraging as that of the wayward girl. As one looks over the inmates of our reformatories and sees the group of healthy, physically well-developed young women, who in many instances are quite attractive, and are potentially capable of much that is good, but who do not conform to the conventions of society, who have committed perhaps the worst offense that a young girl can, one is compelled to say, almost with a groan, “Cannot something be done to save such girls?” With the advent of the Binet tests, and the increased confidence which their growing use has inculcated, we were led to ask the question, “Is it possible that we can determine by these tests whether these wayward girls are responsible, or are they of a high grade defective class who do as they do because they have not mind enough to do differently?"
The text includes short profiles of “delinquent girls” as perceived by Goddard and Hill and the institution where they were living:
No. 8 is 19 years old, tests mental age of 9. Father intemperate, abusive. Never supported family. Mother intemperate, never kept house for family. One brother in City Orphanage. Two brothers intemperate and worthless. One sister married to worthless colored man. Girl’s history: Immoral, often staying out all night. Smoking cigarettes, swearing, etc. Stubborn, willful and thoughtless. Likes little children and is fond of playing with dolls. School work sometimes learned rather quickly, other times work was very poor and seemed to go backward, rather than forward. Careless about clothing. Was put in good family. Was very careless, untidy and dishonest.
No. 5 is 18 years old and tests 12. Father is a drinking man; mother, a low-grade woman, absolutely no sense or power to control her children, probably immoral. One brother out of Reformatory on probation; another, just out of truant school on probation. Girl’s history: Hard to manage; was a fairly good scholar, a great mischief-maker and terrible storyteller. Would call up strange people on telephone. Took a much-prized hand-woven towel belonging to the lady for whom she worked and cut it up to make a [piece of clothing]. Will do work well one day and the next not seem able to do anything. Will steal little things. So untruthful and such a trouble maker; tells stories about the people for whom she works, and is so crazy about the men (has been immoral) that she cannot keep a position.
No. 6 is 20 years old and tests 9. (Indian blood.) Mother immoral — living with man not her husband-keeping house of ill-fame, using her children for gain. Own father alcoholic-lives with a > woman not his wife- [abused his children]. Two sisters immoral - one (been in prison) now living a vicious life. A younger sister insane. A younger brother, an unruly boy. Girl’s history: Committed at 15 as beyond control, immoral and a runaway. Responded to little training. Never worked without supervision. Fond of attracting attention. Would faint on street or in store to create scene…. Paid $10 for doll. Did not care to play with it, Had child; father unknown. Wholly incompetent to care for it. Some days wants to give baby away and next day would not part with it for the world. Very nervous and moody. She cannot make change out of a quarter. Having read a short selection, she cannot remember a half dozen things about it. … [Regarding specific Binet intelligence test tasks, she] cannot put the three words into a sentence, cannot remember seven figures, nor repeat a sentence of twenty-six syllables, nor define goodness. She says justice is “Doing right to people.”
….
It begins to look as though we have been attempting to solve the problem of the wayward girl by beginning at the wrong end. We have assumed that she was competent and responsible that she was able to do differently, if she would, and we have tried by various forms of punishment to reform her. Apparently we have been grossly in error, and it is a fundamental mistake we have made. We should have begun by finding out in early age whether this child had normal mental capacity or not and, if not, we should have taken the case in hand and provided for her such environment as would have fitted her mental condition.
… Instead of enlarging our reformatories we will establish colonies and schools, where these girls can be taken, as early as we can detect them, cared for and trained to do the things they can be trained to do; where they will be made happy and allowed to live a happy and measurably useful life under the care, guidance and direction of intelligent and humane people, who will make their lives happy and partially useful, but who will insist upon the one important thing, and that is that this race should end with them; they shall never become the mothers of children who are like themselves."
Categories: New York State
Tags: disability labels, policing and the criminal legal system, institutionalization of Disabled people and people labeled disabled, intellectual disabilities, emotional disabilities, racist segregation, exclusion from schooling
This item is part of "Behavior and Control: Disability and Incarceration" in "Seeking Equity for Disabled Students"
Item Details
Date: 1911
Creator: Henry H. Goddard and Helen F. Hill
Source: “The Training School,” June 1911.
Copyright: Public domain
How to cite: “Delinquent Girls Tested by the Binet Scale, excerpt,” Henry H. Goddard and Helen F. Hill, in New York City Civil Rights History Project, Accessed: [Month Day, Year], https://nyccivilrightshistory.org/gallery/delinquent-girls.
Questions to Consider
- Why did Goddard and Hill propose giving these “delinquent girls” an intelligence test?
- What factors seemed to be involved in deciding a girl was “delinquent” and “feeble minded”? What were the ideas of “normal” that these girls were being compared to?
- Who did the authors think deserved to live with their communities, to go to school with peers, and to have families?
- Who do you think the authors were seeking to help?
- What do you think Goddard and Hill meant by “this race,” in their last sentence?
- What connections to the present - to ideas of intelligence, ability, gender, sexuality, criminality, or more - do you see in these sources?
References
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