All the children of all the people

Front matter

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Contents

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To THE Reader v

CHAPTER

Chapter I "born Short"

Prefatory Remark — Babies not " all alike " — The Myth of the "Wholly Normal" and the "Perfectly Rounded" Child or Adult

— Our Own Instinctive Feeling vs. the Popular Notion in the Premises — Everybody " Born Short " somewhere — Range of the Condition — Brief List of Cases in Point — Color-Blind and Tone- Deaf People — The Phenomena of " Shortage " in Lower Grade Pupils in the Public Schools — Pupil who could read to himself, but not aloud — Pupil who could not learn Multiplication Tables

— Author's Experience regarding Inability to memorize Dates or master Classical Languages — Teacher and Judge who could not "tell Time" — People who cannot tell Right Hand from Left — Eminent Men who cannot spell — Julia Ward Howe on Charles Sumner — Shaler on Agassiz — General Grant — The Meaning of these Data.

In considering the practicability of the attempt to educate all the children of all the people, the whole issue turns on the natures of the children themselves, their inherent powers and capabilities, individually and de novo.

These elemental factors in the make-up of all children I have carefully investigated for many years, and it is specifically on the strength of the data thus collected that I begin these studies of the subject of popular education.

There is a certain type of man who is wont to remark, on occasion : " All babies look aUke to me." Yet the first mother he meets will tell him that what he says is based on the most superficial observation, and that he "doesn't know what he is talking about."

All my own observations have forced me to acknowledge the fact that there is a marked difference in children, even at the time of their birth, a difference so pronounced that it is perfectly safe to say that no two of them are exactly alike. And just as soon as these bits of infantile humanity begin to show their mental efficiencies or inefficiencies, these differences become more and more manifest. As infancy advances into childhood, childhood into youth, and youth into maturity, these primal qualities intensify their distinguishing marks upon each soul, and brand it as itself and not any other in all the world. This is the core of all individuality. That is, it is not uniformity, but diversity, that constitutes the fundamental element which makes a human being what he is.

A moment's thought upon this proposition will result in the conclusion that the " wholly normal " individual, one who taUies exactly and at all points to uniform specifications made and provided, does not exist, and that the " perfectly rounded " child or adult is a myth, and so cannot be figured with definitely.

So far as we are ourselves concerned, we each one instinctively feel and positively know that these things are as I have stated them; but the popular theory regarding them is quite the reverse of the way I have put them, so much so as to obscure, almost entirely, the facts in the case. At least this is true, that their significance, as they stand related to individual possibilities

"BORN SHORT" 3

in the affairs of life, is not recognized as it should be in the theories and practices for human development that prevail to-day.

Stated in another way, — - for I wish to emphasize this point from the beginning, — we are all aware, in our inmost hearts, that we are not equally strong in every part of our make-up, and that we were born that way. That is, as I have phrased it at the heading of this chapter, we all know that we are " born short " somewhere; that in some spheres in the mental plane we do not function as readily as we do in some others. We all know this.

And because we all know this — because I know it, and everybody I have ever known or known about or have heard of knows it — I feel fully warranted in making the inductive conclusion that everybody in all the world is "born short" somewhere. Such shortage may be so slight in some individuals as to escape the notice of all but the expert, or it may be so much in evidence in other cases as to be noticed by everybody at a glance^ It may vary all the way from a minor idiosyncrasy to blank idiocy. But in its manifestations in these two extremes, and all the way between them, the phenomena belong in the same category ; they are but quantitative exploitations of one and the same psychological condition.

These facts, and their complements, which will be considered later, form the very "central heart" of the possibility of educating everybody.

To analyze and make a list of such shortages, as they appear in all the varieties of humanity that the world holds, would be an endless task, and volumes could not contain the record, though it would all be germane to the issue I am considering. All I care to do here, however, is to note enough of the phenomena to form a base for the educational theory I have in mind to stand upon.

Cases in point are as thick as blackberries, whichever way one looks, if only he has eyes to see ; and one such list, which any one might make, would be as good as another for all practical purposes. I claim no special merit for the list I am about to give. But since I must have such data to start with, I submit what follows. Most of the cases cited have come under my own personal observation, and all the others are vouched for by the most reliable witnesses.

Here then is my list — the data on which the first part of my argument is based : —

My attention was first called to the fact that there is such a condition as lack of abiUty to function in some mental plane — that all human beings are not alike in what they can do with their minds — when I was little more than a child, through my association with two of my youthful mates, one of whom was color-blind and the other tone-deaf. The first was a neighbor boy who could not distinguish red from green. He could perceive no difference between the color of a red rose and the green foliage of the bush on which it grew. The second was a little girl who could not "rise and fall her eight notes " at singing school. She sat near me in the class, and I suffered the tortures of the lost (for I have a very keen musical ear) from being compelled to hear her monotone droning through the songs the rest of us could sing as they were written. These two cases made a great impression upon me, and I have never forgotten them.

"BORN SHORT" 5

Later in life, as a teacher in the public schools, I found " shortages" or " lacks " cropping out, to a greater or less degree, in all the pupils who came under my tuition. The phenomena began to show in the first year's work, and there were signs of the same qualities, more or less pronounced, in each several pupil, till he or she dropped out of school or graduated.

Thus, I found pupils who required several terms to learn to read the simplest lessons. These children were not idiots, in the ordinary use of that word, though it would not be at variance with what I consider to be the truth to say that they were idiotic in spots — on the reading spot, as it were. I have known of pupils who never could learn to read, though they were normally able on some other lines. The late Supt. E. A. Gastman, of Decatur, 111., once reported to me the case of a boy of twelve in one of his ward schools, who, though he was neither deaf nor dumb, yet never could learn to read aloud ; though his teacher discovered one day, much to her surprise, that the lad could read quite well to himself, and that he was specially fond of reading history, in which he was much more than usually proficient for one of his years. As this boy appeared among his mates, there was nothing in looks or actions to indicate this particular shortage ; that is, he could talk well enough, and would pass for what is called a normal child to the casual observer. And yet this is his record.

Granted that this case is exceptional. Indeed it is one of the most peculiar I have ever had knowledge of. But that does not remove it from a legitimate place in the list I am making up. Nor do I think that this case is really as remarkable as it at first seemed to me, and may seem to the reader to be. Doubtless there are a great many primary teachers in this country who could cite cases from their own experiences with pupils under their care that would equal or surpass this one in strangeness.

I once had a pupil who could not learn the multiplication tables, though he was remarkably able in some other studies. When he grew to manhood he became an inventor and business promoter, in which capacity he amassed a fortune. But he never learned the multiplication tables. I met him when he was a man of wealth, at the head of a large manufacturing establishment, and asked him if he hud learned the multiplication tables yet, and he replied : " No ! Why should I learn the multiplication tables .'' I can hire girls at six dollars a week who can do that work for me ! Life is too short for me to waste it in trying to master what I have no head for ! " His remark is worth serious consideration.

This case is also rare, but there are multitudes of teachers in the grades who could duplicate it out of their own record books. There is a story, which those who surely ought to know declare to be well founded, that no less a personage than Dean Stanley had this particular shortage, and that, in the prime of his life, he once said, in the presence of a gentleman with whom he was doing business : " seven times three are twentythree," and that he knew no better till his friend corrected him !

But I must not continue the list in just this line. Time and space would fail me to tell of the pupils I have had who were ''short" in spelling! (Please don't all exclaim at once !) In lack of ability to memorize dates I have had many cases. I myself could never learn

"BORN SHORT" 7

to draw a map, or anything else but my salary. And yet I strove hard, with all my might and main indeed, to do such work. I was equally a failure in my attempts to master Latin and Greek, though I virtually sweat blood in trying to obtain a knowledge of these languages. I used to sit up till late at night to dig out my translations, and was up and at work again in the very early morning. But it was a rare thing for me to make a recitation on which I could get a record of 7 on a scale of marking in which 10 meant correct. The men and women are yet living who could testify to the truth of these statements. I record them now at this time of my life, not with shame or any feeling of disgrace, though in school I was more than once put to a mental torture that was akin to crucifixion because of my "shortage" on these counts! And I think these terrible experiences of my schoolboy days are not nearly as exceptional among the pupils of to-day as they ought to be.

If the reader is a teacher, please pause and think a moment just here !

Any teacher of experience can extend this list of " short " pupils ad infinitmn. I turn, then, from this part of the record of children to that of grown-ups.

Perhaps I ought to explain that these adult cases are given for the sake of showing the persistence of " born so " lacks or excesses. It is this fact that makes them germane to my chief contention, of vital interest in the issue in hand.

I once knew a school teacher, a good one, too, she was, who could not tell the time of day on a watch or clock. I mentioned this fact once, at a pubHc educational meeting, and at its close a judge of the court in that district, who happened to be present and so heard my remarks, came to me and said : " Mr. Smith, I did not suppose that any other human being in all this world ever was afflicted as I have always been. But the case of the teacher who could not tell time is exactly like my own. I have never been able to tell the time of day on a watch or clock. I carry a watch because that is counted the proper thing for a judge to do ; but if I want to know, for certain, what time it is, I ask some one who knows! " I afterwards inquired of lawyers who practiced before this judge's court, and was told that he always asked some one what time it was before he adjourned court. They said he would squint at the clock, as if he could not see its face clearly, and would then inquire what time it was and wait till some one told him ! None of the lawyers knew positively that the judge could not "tell time," he concealed his defect so cleverly, but one of them said to me : " It always seemed curious to us that he could see our faces, anyhow well enough to tell us apart, and could not see the face of the clock."

I know a primary teacher, of national reputation, who cannot tell her right hand from her left except by a special mental effort and the use of a particular method she has for determining which hand is which. I also know a leading college president, who is at the head of one of the best institutions of its class in this country, who is " short " in the same way.

I know a State Commissioner of Education, who is among the foremost of educational leaders in the United States, who never writes a letter with his own hand. He cannot spell — has never been able to learn to do so.

A leading bishop of one of the strongest denominations in this country once said to me : '* It would be a

"BORN SHORT" g

notable day when I would not spell w/iuk in at least three different ways in writing a single page."

In her autobiography Julia Ward Howe states that Charles Sumner had so little mathematical ability that Professor Pierce, of Harvard College, once said to him : " Charles, I never expect to get the simplest mathematical proposition whittled down to so fine a point that even the tip of it could enter your mind."

The late N. S. Shaler, in his autobiography, said, in speaking of the examination that Professor Agassiz gave him, when he became the pupil of that noted scientist : " He did not probe me in my weakest place, mathematics, for the good reason that, badly off as I was on that subject, he was in a worse phght."

I know an actress of such wonderful tragic ability that she can thrill an audience to the point of frenzy (the real thing), and yet she could not "make change for a dollar " to save her life.

Every reader of General Grant's Memoirs will recall the story he tells of his financial '* shortage " as shown in buying a colt when he was a boy ; and the story of the Grant- Ward failure shows how his youthful trait remained with him to the close of his life.

Similar cases, showing the general distribution of "shortage" among men and women whose names are honored throughout the world could easily be given, but these are enough to establish all I am contending for here. All these and multitudes besides have demonstrated that they had a lack of ability to function in certain spheres of the mental plane — that they were " short " on some counts. It is equally true that these " shortages " manifested themselves in the early life of the individuals concerned, that they were " born short "

lO ALL THE CHILDREN OF ALL THE PEOPLE

in each and every case, and that such ** shortage " cut a considerable figure in their lives and acts, both in their youth and in their adult life. This point is so clear that I can rest the further presentation of the testimony that upholds it right here. The facts I have stated are undeniable, and they all mean something. I shall refer to them again and again when I come to argue the case in full.

Chapter II "born Long"

Partial List of "Longs" — Mathematical Boy of Six — Primary Pupils who could " always " read or draw — Case of Robert Gardenhire — " Absolute Pitch " possessed by Boy of Ten — Idiot Girl a Crochet Genius — Juvenile Prodigies — The "Pronounced " vs. the " Exceptional " — General Distribution of the Phenomena of " Longage " in Some Form — Found among All Classes of People — Author's Ability to memorize Prose and Poetry — Similar Cases noted — Examples from Other Walks of Life — The Little Engine — The Gardener — The Cook — The Significance of these Facts.

Turning now to the other side of the shield, I give herewith a limited list of people I have known who were " long," or here or there, who had an excess of ability to function in certain spheres of the mental plane. Here, also, my observations began when I was quite young ; and while I did not philosophize upon the data at that time of my life, yet they made a marked impression upon me as peculiar mental phenomena, which has continued even to this day.

I remember a boy of six who was always '' making up problems " which he delighted to spring upon his elders. One, I remember, was as follows : If a quarter of a dollar is fifteen sixteenths of an inch in diameter, and it is 25,000 miles around the earth, how many quarters laid side by side would it take to reach around the world.** He would make up and solve "mentally" the most intricate problems in interest, and when asked how he got the results, he would reply, "At first I thought it was so much ; but when I thought about it I knew it was so much." This was all he could tell of how he obtained his results, which were always correct.

Surely a six-year-old boy who could make up and mentally solve problems like this might be counted as having an excess of ability to function in the mathematical plane. He had never been to school when he did this work, and had had no instruction in arithmetic to amount to anything.

As a teacher, I had pupils who could not remember when they learned to read, they acquired the art so early in life. All primary teachers are familiar with similar cases. I have had pupils in the lower grades who, unaided, could draw pictures in correct perspective, and who " had always done so." I have also known grade pupils who were walking cyclopedias of dates and events, but who did not have to make any special effort to acquire such proficiency.

But I need not multiply instances of this sort in these strata of human life. All teachers of experience are familiar with them, and most parents know something of them. So, leaving these, I turn to similar phenomena in older people.

One of the most remarkable cases of this sort that I have ever had personal knowledge of is that of Robert Gardenhire, a full-blooded negro, of Augusta, Ga. I became acquainted with this case through a classmate of mine, a former teacher, and so one well able to judge in the premises, and with his assistance I was enabled to make a thorough examination of the young man and to verify the remarkable phenomena his mental functioning exhibited.

At the time of our examination, this man was about twenty years old. He had been to school less than a year, all told. He could read and write a little, but was "wholly uneducated," in the ordinary meaning of those words. He was working in an oil mill, shoveling cotton seed at seventy-five cents a day, and that appeared to be as much as he could earn at such work — seemed about his limit of value in that direction. In a word, he was a very ordinary negro, so far as his general ability was concerned.

When he was about seventeen years old people discovered that he was "bright in figures," and began to ask him questions. The result was that he soon acquired local fame, and almost every one he met would test his ability, till in a short time he became wonderfully expert in solving certain kinds of mathematical problems. He was especially strong in multipHcation. Give him two factors to be taken together, and he would promptly give you the correct result. If the factors were only "two-placed" numbers, each, he would announce the product instantly. If they were "threeplaced " numbers, he would hesitate just a Httle before replying. The work was all done " mentally," that is, he never wrote the figures down. He could work a little with written numbers, but in such work he was very slow. This way of working was very distasteful to him. He hated it.

To this unlettered negro my friend dictated thirty-three problems in multiplication. The gentleman himself wrote the factors upon a sheet of paper, as he announced them, and then immediately set down, after each set, seriatim, the answers, as the young man gave them to him. In no case was there a delay of more than a second or two in giving these answers. The list of problems thus given and solved is as follows : —

349 = 17101

337 = 38553"

15= 255

19109

19= 361

57076

78= 7488

37= 1554

91 = 3367

77= 5159

791 = 45087

851 = 60421

546 = 37674

96806

999 = 97801-

7836+

1870 = 7480

110= 1870

72 X lOI =

12 = 180

110= 7920

I have verified these problems, and find there are three mistakes in the answers. ( You would smile should I tell how many mistakes I made in my calculations, in doing this proof work! Suppose you try it yourself, and see how you come out ! )

And this case, wonderful as it is, is only one of many. The similar case of Zerah Colburn has been well known to psychologists and professors of pedagogy for many years, and "lightning calculators" are as thick as side shows, the country over.

Nor are such cases confined to mathematics alone. They crop out in nearly every other line of life that is known to humanity.

Again, I know a blind boy who has the gift of " absolute pitch " in music. Strike any key on the piano and he will name the tone produced. Strike as many as you will, even if that means every key on the board, and all at once, and he will name for you every key you have hit. Professor Frank Hall, of Aurora, 111., brought this case to my notice.

I once met a girl of twelve who had such a poor sense of number that she could not count at all, and yet she was so skillful with a crochet hook that she could duplicate any pattern of crochet work that might be given her. She would even take a printed pattern of a piece of lace, as it appears in a needlework book or magazine, and produce the work perfectly with her hook and thread, though wholly unable to count a stitch, or to read a word of the printed directions. She also made original patterns which were of rare beauty.

I have a record of a boy who was ready to enter college at nine years of age. He read Latin well at five, and a little later mastered French and German. He took delight in differential calculus at eight, and was very fond of chemistry. The remarkable record made by William James Sidis is a similar case that all the world has recently been made familiar with.

I have a young lady friend who was born blind. When she was about three years old, a skillful doctor removed the cause of her blindness, and she could see. As soon as she could use her eyes she began to read. She never had to be taught how to read, but read almost everything fluently from the first. Before she was five, I put a copy of " Sartor Resartus " into her hands one evening, just to see what she could do, and she read page after page without a halt.

But I need not multiply cases of this class. Time and space would fail me to tell of Mozart, and Millais, and Blind Tom, and Lope de Vega, and Tasso, and

Webster, and hundreds of others, whose names and records are well known, and all of whom were notably "long" in some lines — were "born so," and were so as long as they lived.

All these people and their similars are " long " in their ability to function in certain spheres of the mental plane.

But, some one says, these cases are nearly all exceptional; they are taken from the unusual walks of life; and hence their experience and records are not a fair measure to use on the rank and file. To which I reply these cases are phenomenal rather than exceptional. And I am impressed with the fact that there is no need of making even such a concession. For, when I note my own ability to function on some mental planes, I find myself as pronounced and exceptional as the rest, and the same is doubtless true in your own case, whoever you are. And when I look about amongst my neighbors, right here at home, I find that every one of them, even the humblest, is about as pronounced and exceptional as you, or I, or any one.

Thus, not to draw aside the veil of my own personality too far, and surely not to boast, I have always been " long " in the matter of remembering certain pieces of literature so that I could quote them. This memorizing at pleasure has never cost me any effort, nor does it do so to this day, provided the selection takes my fancy — strikes me right. If it does that, I can master it without trying to do so at all. I can repeat, as I would my alphabet, the nursery rhymes learned in my infancy ; and it is only a few days since I memorized a poem of sixty-four lines by hearing a public reader recite it a single time before an audience. Pieces memorized in that way I retain well, without any particular effort. It all depends on " how they strike me." If they "hit me hard," they stay with me. More than twenty-five years ago I heard Henry Ward Beecher deliver a lecture that greatly pleased me, and I could write several columns of it to-day, though I have never tried to memorize a word of it. This is a power that I have always had, from my earliest recollection, this ability to memorize certain things without effort. I was "born so," and that is the way I am to this day.

And again some one says " exceptional."

Well, two doors south of where I am writing, I had, for years, a neighbor who could discount me in this sort of "exception." He is a dry 'goods merchant, and a successful one too. I remember his coming over to my study one evening and quoting the whole of the " New Locksley Hall," when that poem first came out, after a single reading, and I am sure he could quote it to-day, with equal ease and accuracy.

Two doors north of where I am writing lives a woman who can quote seven of Shakespeare's plays, verbathn et literatim, and she never spent an hour in trying to memorize them. She will also repeat Browning by the thousands of lines, and is equally able to recite Walt Whitman, page after page. She is the wife of a bookkeeper and was for years a commercial stenographer.

And again some one says " exceptional," and adds : " Take some instances from the commoner walks of life." Well, dry goods merchants and commercial stenographers are not regularly counted as among the intellectual " Four Hundred," but my experience is that this trait of excess of ability to function in some mental c plane extends through all the social strata and covers all sorts of mental ground. Thus, a street car conductor on the line that runs in front of my door has just completed a steam engine that is so small that it can be entirely covered with a lady's thimble. He has built it at odd times, and "just for fun." He is not a professional mechanic.