Castle Heights Military Academy - Yearbook (Lebanon, TN)

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SX ii., N, 5 I THE PHYSICS LABORATORY

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the performance of dutyj pay a nominal fee to the faculty officer con- ducting the special examination. Private coaching or tutoring is not encouraged, and should not be necessary. In the exceptional cases where it is advisable, cadets, with the consent of the Headmaster, may make arrangements for this work at reasonable rates. THE MCLAUGHLIN SCHOLARSHIP ln memory of lVlrs. Rena McLaughlin, two thousand dollars has been given Castle Heights as a perpetual fund, the income from which, one hundred and twenty dollars, is devoted to part payment of the tuition of deserving and promising students. Disposition of this fund has been made for l922. THE BOY AND His MIND , The growing boy has always been one of the greatest of problems, in the home, in the church, in the school and out of it. To each of these influences that seeks to mould him he still presents himself in certain aspects as a riddle. For hundreds of years the school has been trying to offer him work precisely suited to his mind, and still. today, it has for guides in doing this only a few passing grades ob- tained in one institution or another, the fact that he has reached a certain age in years, and such knowledge as may be gleaned by ob- serving him in the classroom. Only rarely does any school try to measure the minds of its pupils, although several of the great Ameri- can universities are beginning to inquire closely into this very con- dition., and are experimenting with methods of examination, of testing, that may in time even bring about a sort of revolution in education. Interested, as every modern secondary school must be, in these investigations, Castle Heights has also been making careful inquiry into this new realm Of psychology as applied to education. It was soon ascertained that in some quarters the new theory was little more than a fad-a novelty rather than an actual help. Cn the other hand, certain of these lines of inquiry, especially when followed by highly capable investigators, apparently have already proved to be of real value- The mental age of a boy, for instance, can be easily and rather accurately determined, and from this analysis it may be ascertained that the reason, for example, one studious boy fails, say in Plane Ge- ometry, while another passes, is perhaps the underlying fact that the 51

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Hrst boy is too undeveloped mentally to exercise the intellectual proc- esses necessary to a grasp of the subject. It is unfair to such a boy to expect him to master Plane Geometry, much less to demand it of him. He cannot help himself. It is not his fault. ln this particu- lar case, the results would mean that the boy was in need of such train- ing as would stimulate and develop his mind to the point where it would be capable of the reasoning demanded by Plane Geometry. If mentality tests did no more than this, they would demonstrate their usefulness. As it happens, however, these psychological examinations appear to have demonstrated their ability to go farther than this. Often they indicate with surprising accuracy the particular profession or pursuit for which the boy is best fitted: they can place his weaknesses before him as well as his strength: they can warn him in what respects he needs to be safeguarded, they can point out to him, often, the stumbling-blocks over which he has been tripping for years, but of which he has perhaps been unaware: they can even now and then, by a certain psycho-analysis, remove, to an extent if not altogether, the actual cause of failure. Much of this has already been demonstrated here at Castle Heights. At the invitation of the Academy, a gentleman expert in these methods of examination spent a week on the Hilltop in March, talking with the cadets and applying some of the simpler tests. The results were so remarkable and benehcial that he was retained to give the Academy part of his time next fall, when it is proposed to examine, to a greater or lesser degree, every cadet in the Corps. The reason for this is, of course, apparent. Too many men fail in life. Human experience is filled with the wreckage of those who were trying to do what they were not fit to do, perhaps through lack of training, perhaps because the round peg will not fit into the square hole. If anything can be done while the boy is still a boy to put him OU the fight track, to save him disappointment, to help him under- Stand himself. to aSCCI'tain the precise sort of mental training de- manded in his particular case, to stimulate his intellectual processes, to assist him in becoming master of his own fate, captain of his own soul, and thus as the successful boy to develop naturally into the successful man-this is very greatly worth while. 53