Henry H. Goddard, an American psychologist and proud eugenicist, became one of the most influential men in education by helping create the basis for todays standardized tests. Mainly known for his work in 1912, The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness, which he later acknowledged as flawed, He was the first psychologist to translate the binet test into English. Goddard also published a study “The Journey of Delinquency, Volume II” called Mental Tests and the Immigrant in 1917 about using a variety of tests to evaluate the mental capacity of immigrants entering the United States at Ellis Island. This study and its results would then be used as evidence against the use of intelligence tests and his argument in The Mismeasure …show more content…
Gould argues that Goddard wanted to use these tests to not “allow native morons to breed and to keep foreign ones out”. After the apparent findings of the study and how Goddard reacted to them, this piece is someone valid in proving this point. Gould used the reducing of data by Goddard to show that these tests are not very accurate, however is can be noted Goddard eliminated non-valid questions, which could entail many opinions and responses. Gould then noted that Goddard rejected that environmental factors affected or skewed his results, showing the inaccuracy these tests might accumulate. This piece of information used was correct in furthering his argument and accurate use of the text because test items included “drawing from memory”, which using a pencil would be a new experience for some of the immigrants, as schooling was not considered what it was today and Gould recognized this fact. Keeping this in mind, the argument of language for the Jewish Immigrants cannot be taken into consideration as an environmental factor and was by far the most accurate group in Goddard’s opinion. Gould also used the study to show Goddard’s intention that morons do have their place, especially in drudgery places, and that he himself even rejoiced when the government was going to implement the use mental tests to turn away feeble minded immigrants. This is all accurate and true, as he states at the end of the study that “All of this means that if the American public wishes feeble-minded aliens excluded, it must demand that Congress provide the necessary facilities at the ports of entry.” And “Probably no one would question but that these should be deported.” Gould’s interpretation of Goddard’s study could have been much more critical of his arguments, as Goddard contradicted his beliefs with the summarization of his own study