What conclusions did Goddard reach when he administered the Binet–Simon scale to schoolchildren in the United States?
Henry Herbert Goddard investigated the psychological factors, which were involved in ‘faith healing’ under the psychologist G. Stanley Hall. Goddard was the first person to translate the Binet-Simon’s scale of intelligence from French to English. He found the Binet-Simon scale and its methods quite effective in distinguishing children, who were mentally retarded, that is, in finding out their degree of retardation.
Though using Binet’s methods of calculating intelligence, Goddard supported the Galton-Cattell-Spearman’s views that intelligence is rather an inherited virtue. His belief was based on his own observation that some ‘feeble-minded’ or ‘slightly retarded’ children of a school, where he was a teacher often had siblings, who were of lower intelligence or intellect.
In the year 1906, Goddard became the director of research in Vineland at the New Jersey Training School. The school was established for looking after and caring for students, who were mentally retarded or ‘feeble minded’ according to Goddard.
Goddard applied the Binet-Simon scale to the students of New Jersey Training School at Vineland (a school for retarded children) and public school students in New Jersey. Goddard was shocked to find out that many children of the Public schools in New Jersey performed badly. They failed to pass in the tests, which were suited to their age group.
Thus, he concluded that many of the public school students were below their level of intelligence and were performing poorly after he administered the translated Binet-Simon scale to those school students in the United States.