Castle Heights Military Academy - Yearbook (Lebanon, TN)

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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

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SX ii., N, 5 I THE PHYSICS LABORATORY

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