We read further that some of our doctors
believe that "in our social scale, there is a place for the good
feeble-minded."
In such a reckless and thoughtless differentiation between the "bad"
and the "good" feeble-minded, we find new evidence of the conventional
middle-class bias that also finds expression among some of the
eugenists. We do not object to feeble-mindedness simply because it
leads to immorality and criminality; nor can we approve of it when it
expresses itself in docility, submissiveness and obedience. We object
because both are burdens and dangers to the intelligence of the
community. As a matter of fact, there is sufficient evidence to lead us
to believe that the so-called "borderline cases" are a greater menace
than the out-and-out "defective delinquents" who can be supervised,
controlled and prevented from procreating their kind. The advent of the
Binet-Simon and similar psychological tests indicates that the mental
defective who is glib and plausible, bright looking and attractive, but
with a mental vision of seven, eight or nine years, may not merely lower
the whole level of intelligence in a school or in a society, but may
be encouraged by church and state to increase and multiply until he
dominates and gives the prevailing "color"--culturally speaking--to an
entire community.
The presence in the public schools of the mentally defective children
of men and women who should never have been parents is a problem that
is becoming more and more difficult, and is one of the chief reasons for
lower educational standards.
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