The mental and physical development of rural children

Abstract

A. Problem: Are there any fundamental differences between rural and urban children in mental and physical growth and development? If there are differences, are they due to the inborn nature of the children, or to environment? B. Method: The problem of this investigation grew out of the writer's interest in, and a study of, the appliecationof scientifc measurements to the children of the rural schools. The chief activities in this new field, which has had a phenomenal growth in the last ten years, have been in devising tests, establishing norms, and in using these in the study of individual differences of children in the large city school systems. Such activities are no doubt the foundation stones of scientific education. The next great steop in this movement will be to bring this scientific technique and data into the classroom of every American school. That is, if this wave of enthusiasm for scientific methods in education is to be of lasting value, it must work itself into the methods of teaching in our schools.