Variations of normal children

People working in the field of research in education have neglected the child of normal intelligence. Theoretically one half of the children of the country are in this neglected group. Deductively, then, there is a broad field and an apparent need for further study of children of normal intelligence. Since we know little about the normal child, and since too little effort has been made to secure information about him, the writer has undertaken the present investigation. Realizing that the field is large and the resources at hand limited, we have chosen to limit the study to a rather small section of the entire field. In order to avoid the difficulties and inaccuracies of dealing with younger and older pupils, we have taken a section near the middle chronological age of elementary pupils. In order to secure pupils as nearly normal as possible, we have taken all pupils available within the geographical limits of our area. From this list of all available ten-year-old children we have selected those whom the tests showed to be of normal intelligence. The task we have set for ourselves is to determine, as nearly as we can, how these ten-year-old children, of normal intelligence, differ among themselves in certain other traits; namely, (1) Physical health; (2) Social and economic status; (3) Mechanical ability; (4) Musical ability; (5) Elementary school achievement; (6) Behavior tendencies. (Abstract shortened by UMI.