GREAT QUOTES ABOUT CHILDREN

"No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure."
                                                                                                   Emma Goldman

Testing for Intelligence

Measuring and/or assessing a child’s intelligence are some things that do not sit too well with me. In my opinion putting children through rigorous standardized tests such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), to measure their strength and weaknesses in certain areas seems unnecessary. Once the testing is complete what does it prove? How does the child feel when he or she does not score as high on these tests? These are a few concerns that I have when children are tested for intelligence. In developing the whole child, we must embrace their individuality, creativity, and their intellectual by not administering tests like children are lab rats or something of the sort. The results can be devastating and mentally harmful to the child who does not score high on the scale. And for the child who scores off the charts, what does he or she become? The child is now known as a genius based solely on a test. My question is how this affects them mentally and socially. Does their status change with their peers? These are issues that children should not have to worry about.

In Greece, the state has vaguely supported the idea of psychological testing of children even though the need for it has been documented. The majority of instruments are adaptations of foreign tests and range from a mere translation of the instrument to limited standardization effort with children residing in the capital of Greece, Athens. The present study investigated the performance of 731 children of various ages from five cities on the Matrix Analogies Test-Short Form as measure of nonverbal intelligence. Data analyses revealed that the performance of the Greek sample was very similar to the USA standardization sample with significant differences obtained for two (8 and 9 years old) out of 12 age groups. Mean scores for the Greek sample were somewhat lower, an average of 21.7 raw score points. These differences might be due to sampling error, and/or to the structure of the Greek educational system. The studies findings suggest that the MAT-SF can be used as a screening measure of nonverbal intelligence with Greek children using the US norms until Greek norms become available. (Bardos, Petrogiannis, & Randou, 2000)

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