I am sorry that I can not be of help to you in this matter, in which I think you will find yourself a voice crying in the wilderness with very few to heed. All the same, I hope you will set up as big a cry as you can, and even if I am not able to join you in that, I shall be glad to applaud your efforts.
Another says:
My theory in outline is that there should be compulsory examination for every student in college. This examination should have reference not only to heart and lungs, to see if the man will make an athlete, but should comprehend a look into history and heredity, and determine without question the presence of any sort of infectious disease. Such an examination would, of course, exclude some students from entering college, but that would be well. . . . I am in hearty sympathy with your plan, and should urge you by all means to organize it as an integral part of your department.
In a later letter the same writer said:
I am interested in your eugenic program. No doubt there is much wasted energy in every educational direction. Perhaps there is more of it wasted in mediocre human material than in any other direction. The results, of course, are bound to be mediocre. Still it is a question with me whether any other method can be adopted. . . . However, I believe thoroughly that there should be some selective process applied to the student material that applies for admission to the freshman class.
Another response will be briefly cited. Dr. Goddard, chief of research in the Training School for Backward and Feeble-minded Children, New Jersey, writes:
I should say emphatically that such a plan as you hint at ought certainly to be developed some time. It is probably rather early to do very much at it, since the whole subject is so very new. However, some things are already visible. It is, for example, entirely practicable to eliminate all the mental defectives by means of the Binet scale and furthermore to mark those who are merely backward, those who are average and those who are precocious. We need some method of measuring intelligence beyond the period previous to adolescence, the Binet Measuring Scale reaching only to 12 years of age. You are entirely right when you say there are large numbers who should never enter college. I do not know why the inquiry into the family pedigree would not be a valuable thing in considering the admission of a child to college. While it would undoubtedly not be safe to base everything on that, yet it would contribute very materially to an understanding of the case. At present I do not believe we have enough data to enable us to interpret the results we should find.
A later word from Dr. Davenport afforded special encouragement. He says:
I hope your plan of getting pedigrees of students as a part of the medical examination would be carried out. As a teacher I always felt that I knew too little about the incipient qualities of my pupils. Why should a teacher begin in the dark when he might begin with a knowledge of the student's probable potentialities. The more I contemplate your plan it seems to me if it can be carried out that it will mark an epoch.
Enough has now been suggested to warrant the reflection that our entire educational program, its ideals, aims and methods is faulty at many points, and in not a few absolutely untrue to any consistent application of biological principles. When we reflect upon the course through which our educational philosophy has come it is not surprising that there
