(^206) THE MIS MEASURE OF MAN
the tests measure some abstract property of reasoning, or familiar-
ity with conventional behavior? Terman added the following item
to Binet's list:
An Indian who had come to town for the first time in his life saw a
white man riding along the street. As the white man rode by, the Indian
said—'The white man is lazy; he walks sitting down.' What was the white
man riding on that caused the Indian to say, 'He walks sitting down.'
Terman accepted "bicycle" as the only correct response—not cars
or other vehicles because legs don't go up and down in them; not
horses (the most common "incorrect" answer) because any self-
respecting Indian would have known what he was looking at. (I
myself answered "horse," because I saw the Indian as a clever iron-
ist, criticizing an effete city relative.) Such original responses as "a
cripple in a wheel chair," and "a person riding on someone's back"
were also marked wrong.
Terman also included this item from Binet's original: "My
neighbor has been having queer visitors. First a doctor came to his
house, then a lawyer, then a minister. What do you think happened
there?" Terman permitted little latitude beyond "a death," though
he did allow "a marriage" from a boy he described as "an enlight-
ened young eugenist" who replied that the doctor came to see if
the partners were fit, the lawyer to arrange, and the minister to tie
the knot. He did not accept the combination "divorce and remar-
riage," though he reports that a colleague in Reno, Nevada, had
found the response "very, very common." He also did not permit
plausible but uncomplicated solutions (a dinner, or an entertain-
ment), or such original responses as: "someone is dying and is get-
ting married and making his will before he dies."
But Terman's major influence did not reside in his sharpening
or extension of the Binet scale. Binet's tasks had to be administered
by a trained tester working with one child at a time. They could
not be used as instruments for general ranking. But Terman
wished to test everybody, for he hoped to establish a gradation of
innate ability that could sort all children into their proper stations
in life:
What pupils shall be tested? The answer is, all. If only selected children
are tested, many of the cases most in need of adjustment will be over-
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