In 2018 UCL started to research UCL’s historical role in the history of eugenics research and the current impact on society today

UCL then created a report and recommendations which includes the ‘Prejudice in Power: Contesting the pseudoscience of superiority’

Part of this work includes:

• Making the collection accessible online
• Working with artists and community groups to explore the collection and to produce creative responses

What do we mean by the word Eugenics?

• The word ‘eugenics’ was coined by Sir Francis Galton.
• It means ‘well-bred’ in Ancient Greek.  
• Eugenics was believed to be a ‘trueful’ science in the early 1900s
• Most of the research was in fact fake and/or changed to support the eugenicists views and opinions. 
• We now know that eugenics is a ‘pseudoscience’ which means fake science. 

What do the words in the title mean? 

1. Prejudice means judging and making assumptions/judgements about people or groups based on stereotypes.
2. Power means being able to influence other people’s thoughts and opinions. 
3. Contesting means challenging or questioning thoughts and opinions.
4. Pseudoscience means fake science that is not supported by real facts. 
5. Superiority means that one person or a group of people’s thoughts and opinions are more important than others.  

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I spent from November 2022-June 2023 researching the collection. I have shared my research below. The research was mostly from books in UCL’s library and collection, as well as the Wellcome Collection, UCL’s background resources to the inquiry and films.

A brief history of eugenics research at UCL

• In 1904 the Eugenics Records Office opened at University of London
• The committee included eugenicists Francis Galton and Pearson 
• In 1906 the Eugenics Record Office closes down
• In 1906 was the opening of the Francis Galton Laboratory for the Study of National Eugenics at University College London (UCL)
• Francis Galton donated his research to UCL and money to pay for a Chair for the Laboratory
• In 1913 both the Department of Applied Statistics with Biometric Laboratory and the Francis Galton Laboratory merged to become one department
• In 1967 the department changed its name to ‘Department of Human Genetics and Biometry, and Galton Laboratory

(UCL, Background Resources to the inquiry)

Francis Galton 1822-1911

Galton was Charles Darwin’s cousin and a mathematician

They coined the term eugenics as well as nature versus nurture

They were a celebrated scientist and invented the:

• Dog whistle
• The first weather map
• Identified synesthesia
• Noticed fingerprints could be used as a system for personal identification
• The first person to attempt to systematically measure intelligence

Galton saw Eugenics as a new type of religion.

“…it must be introduced into the national conscience, like a new religion”

(UCL, Background Resources to the inquiry)

Cyril Burt 1883-1971

• An educational psychologist and was chair at UCL.
• Five years after Burt’s death, in 1976, Oliver Gillie published an article for The Sunday Times: The most sensational charge of scientific fraud this century is being levelled against the late Sir Cyril Burt, father of British educational psychology. Leading scientists are convinced that Burt published false data and invented crucial facts to support his controversial theory that intelligence is largely inherited.
• The scientists where Ann and Alan Clarke at the University of Hull (who stated that Burt’s data was ‘suspiciously perfect’ and Jack Tizard from the Institute of Education.
• Gillie published an advertisement in The Times on the 16 October 1976 looking for Burt’s assistants who ‘collected’ data from 32 additional pairs of MZa twins from 1955-1966 during Burt’s retirement:
  • Miss Howard – J. Cohen from Manchester and D. Macrae from the London School of Economics provided evidence that Miss Howard had been a school teacher and student of Burt’s in London in the 1930s and then married and moved to Dublin
  • Miss Conway – no evidence
• Burt’s research span nearly 50 years.

Gillie also wrote ‘Burt miraculously produced identical answers accurate to three decimal places from different sets of data-this is a statistical impossibility and he could have done it only by working backwards to make the observation fit his answers.’ (Mackintosh, 1995, p56)

Gillie also wrote Leading scientists are convinced that Burt published false data and invented crucial facts to support his controversial theory that intelligence is largely inherited. Did Sir Cyril Burt Fake His Research on Heritability of Intelligence? (Mackintosh, 1995, p47)

Leslie Hearnshaw (was the Professor of psychology at Liverpool University where Cyril Burt’s archive is kept. He wrote the eulogy for Cyril Burt and published Burt’s biography in 1979) believed that Burt had written the papers and published them under his ‘assistants’ names. Burt’s housekeeper and secretary confirmed that Burt had written the papers. (Jensen, 1995, p1)

The first inquiry was a cross-sectional surveys of pupils in London schools. The second inquiry were ’longitudinal studies of backward, gifted and normal pupils followed up into adult life’ (Mascie-Taylor, 1995, p75)

Burt stated that ‘For the children the bulk of the data was obtained from the surveys carried out from time to time in a London borough selected as typical of the whole country’ (Mascie-Taylor, 1995, p75)

For each of the sub-groups we have the following relevant information, obtained (except for vi) mainly when the children were at school: (i) The occupational class of the fathers at the time the children were born; (ii) assessments and descriptions of the home background, and particularly of the attitude, and particularly his industry, ambition, and educational and vocational aims; (iv) his level of intelligence, based on tests duly checked with the teachers and corrected where necessary; (v) his educational record (more especially his admission to a grammar school or its equivalent); (vi) his occupation when last visited. (1961, p. 19) (Mascie-Taylor, 1995, p76)

Whatever Gould (1981) or Kamin (1981) may say, Burt was certainly not responsible for the institution of the 11+ exam in English schools after the 1944 Education Act, let alone the practice of selection for ‘free places’ in secondary schools in the 1920s and 1930s. Selection was already built into the system: the only question at issue was the basis on which it was to occur. Educational psychologists, such as Godfrey Thomson and Burt, argued that IQ tests were likely to produce a fairer system of selection than parental interview, teachers’ assessments, or even tests of written English-all of which favoured children from middle-class backgrounds (Mackintosh, 1995, p95-96)

Burt’s critics, of course, have long argued that his so-called data not only perverted the course of science, they also had a malign influence on social and educational policy. (Mackintosh, 1995, p131)

The New York Times in November 1978 said Burt was a ‘long-time advocate of the genetic basis of racial differences in intelligence’ (Mackintosh, 1995, p131)

Even in this country it is quite inaccurate to picture him as the originator of the tripartite system of education, and the 11-plus as, say Gould does….Burt was not a member of the Committee that introduced the 11-plus, and as a witness for the committee he argued against the 11-year dividing line, and was overruled…Does it matter? Recently I had to interview teachers, heads, and members of teachers’ training colleges in connection with a long BBC programme on education. None had any knowledge of the nature or purpose of IQ testing, and there was no teaching on the principles underlying it in the Training Colleges. (Eysenck, 1995, p 121)

Burt’s formula for measuring intelligence age: Mental Ratio (or ‘L.Q.’) = Mental age/Chronological age X 100 (Burt, 1930, p10)

In school the backward child does best if grouped with others of his own mental age and educational level, and given work which excites his interest and allows him to feel the pleasures of success. This can be managed if the backward children are transferred to a special class or school, or allowed to work in a little set or section of their own. (Burt, 1930, p15)

…the Butler Education Act of 1944, which set out the policy until the mid-1960s when the Labour party vowed to end the 11 plus. In the flak surrounding the initial revelation of Burt’s fraudulent work, he was often identified as the architect of the 11+ examination. This is not accurate, Burt was not even a member of the various reporting committees, though he did consult frequently with them and he did write extensively for their reports*…The reports embody a particular view of education, clearly identified with the British school of factor analysis, and evidently linked most closely with Cyril Burt’s version. The 11+ examination was an embodiment of Spearman’s hierarchical theory of intelligence, with its innate general factor pervading all cognitive activity….The 11+ owed its general rationale to the British factorists; in addition, several of its details can also be traced to Burt’s school. Why, for example, testing and separation at age eleven? There were practical and historical reasons to be sure; eleven was about the traditional age for transition between primary and secondary schools. But the factorists supplied two important theoretical supports. First, studies on the growth of children showed that g varied widely in early life and first stabilized at about age eleven. Spearman wrote in 1927 (p.367): “if once, then, a child of 11 years or so has had his relative amount of g measured in a really accurate manner, the hope of teachers and parents that he will ever rise to a much higher standing as a late-bloomer would seem to be illusory.” Second, Burt’s “group-factors,”…could only be viewed as disturbers of g, did not strongly affect a child until after age eleven. The 1931 Hadow report proclaimed that “special abilities” rarely reveal themselves in any notable degree before the age of 11.”…Burt himself did not believe that many people of high intelligence lay hidden in the lower classes. (He also believed that their numbers were rapidly decreasing as intelligent people moved up the social ladder leaving the lower classes more and more depleted of intellectual talent…Yet the major effect of 11+, in terms of human lives and hopes, surely lay with its primary numerical result-80 percent branded unfit for higher education by reason of low innate intellectual ability. (Gould, 1981, p294-295)

*Hearnshaw (1979) reports that Burt had greatest influence over the 1938 Spens report, which recommended sorting at 11 plus and explicitly rejected comprehensive schooling under a single roof thereafter. Burt was piqued at the Norwood report because it downgraded psychological evidence; but, as Hearnshaw notes, this annoyance “masked a basic agreement with the recommendations, which in principle did not differ so much from those of Spens committee, which he has earlier approved” (Gould, 1981, p294) (footnote)

For most purposes it is necessary to compare the examiners not only among themselves but in relation to a fixed standard. If this fixed standard represents an ideal towards which the examiners’ work is expected to approximate, but which it is not expected to attain, it is a standard for achievement. It is represents the actual level of a normal class or group, from which there can be divergencies above and below, it is a standard of achievement. The former of these are of more interest to teachers who prefer to watch the progress of their pupils toward an external ideal; the latter are of more interest to psychologists. (C. Burt, quoted in Board of Education, 1924. P 184) (American Psychologist, March 1976, p233)

…is requisite in the interests of the teacher. it, within the ordinary classroom, he tries to adapt his work, not only to the needs of the normal majority, but also to the needs of the backward few, he is really doing double duty. els like asking a single shoemaker not only to manufacture the boots and shoes for the neighbourhood, but at the same time to take charge of all the repairs. Inevitably, the demands; the worry, the strain, and the distraction that he feels, are bound to react adversely on both the normal and the duller pupils. The normal will be kept back, and the backward become more backward still. Segregation, therefore, seems essential. It may take two main forms: the establishment of special or auxiliary schools, and the formation of backward or auxiliary classes within the ordinary schools. The designation for such schools or classes should be chosen with care, to avoid any reluctance on the part of children, parents, or teachers.’ The new class might be called the ‘ practical class,’ the industrial class,’ (Burt, 1961, p576)

Most psychologists, alike in Britain and abroad, would agree that, in view of their unusual needs and characteristics, Those children whose intelligence quotients fall below 70 undoubtedly need a different type of teaching from that given to the merely dull or backward whose I.Q’s are between 70 and 85.And to be effective this type of teaching must be given in a separate school, where the classes are small and suitably equipped, and where the teachers themselves have been appropriately trained….At the moment the available accommodation is barely one-quarter of what is actually needed; and, although certification has been abolished, the process of transferring a child to a special E.S.N. school is still somewhat cumbersome. Numerous safeguards have been introduced, which involve formal ascertainment, permission to appeal, re-examination, and the like. (Burt, 1961, p577)

….priority should be given to those children whose handicaps are most severe and most likely to be permanent. At present the initiative is left to the head teachers, whose standards and criteria are apt to differ considerably from school to school even within the same area. As a result the pupils most likely to be put forward seem to be those who have proved themselves most troublesome in the ordinary classroom. That may be a sound reason for changing the child’s teacher, clas, or school; but it is not the primary ground for transference to a special school. As Dr. Cleugh has rightly observed, ‘ the strongest claim on places in the E.S.N. school remains with those whose innate handicap is greatest, and who are therefore most likely to stay in the special school during the whole of their school life;… in the last resort the I.Q. is probably the crucial criterion. (Burt, 1961, p578)

The aims of the backward class must be positive as well as negative; it must seek, not merely to free the ordinary teacher and the average pupil from a hindrance and a drag, but also to do more for the backward child himself than can be done in the regular standards. (Burt, 1961, p581-582)

Many of the larger secondary modern schools are already organized on the basis of a treble or quadruple track, with ‘A’ classes for the bright and rapid learner, ‘ C’ or ‘ D’ classes for the slow, and intermediate classes for the learner of average intelligence. In such schools, therefore, it should be practicable to organize a fairly continuous course for the retarded child as he progresses from one class to the next. (Burt, 1961, p583)

The majority of authorities will seldom be able to provide more than a single E.S.N. school; and many educationists have therefore argued that the most pressing need at the moment is to make special provision for the older age-groups. The sharp division now commonly drawn between primary and secondary schools with a sudden break at 11 + is largely responsible for this point of view; and certainly the reorganization of schools on this two-storey basis has brought with it many new problems. At the chronological age of 11 the retarded child, just because he is retarded, will not yet have reached the mental or the educational level of an average child of 11. Hence it seems a little illogical to suppose that the ‘ clean cut at 11 + must apply equally to the normal and to the subnormal. Under the old régime, departments for infants, boys, and girls were commonly housed in the same building, and the latter included pupils of every age from 7 to 14. Thus the older child who was backward in school work could be relegated to a lower standard’; and there was nearly always someone on the premises who could give advice on the teaching of the essential rudiments especially the teaching of the backward readers. (Burt, 1961, p579)

At the time formal tests were adopted (about 1924), there was a substantial problem in admissions to the secondary schools, because there were insufficient places or scholarships. Despite the Labour Party’s policy of secondary education for all, the undersupply of places in school led to selection rather than to immediate expansion is secondary education…professing a desire to be fair to all, the Consultative Committee (Board of Education, 1924) recommended that standard intelligence tests be employed for selection…(American Psychologist, March 1976, p233)

As noted above (p. 88), the phrase ‘ educationally subnormal’ has already led to a certain amount of misunderstanding among the general public and even of opposition from parents whose children have been ‘ascertained.’ Such misinterpretations do not necessarily constitute a reason for altering the official terminology; nevertheless, even when a school may have been formally classified as a ‘ Special E.S.N. School’ for administrative purposes, it might well receive an individual name for everyday use. A similar policy has frequently been found helpful in combating the prejudice against the ‘secondary modern schools’ and it might go far towards preventing the new type of special school from inheriting the popular nickname of its predecessor, and becoming known among resentful parents at the ‘silly school.’ (Burt, 1961, p576) (footnote)

In the Hadow report on psychological tests in schools there are 63 mentions of Cyril Burt including:

Not less does it owe its cordial gratitude to Dr Cyril Burt, who supplied it with evidence, who wrote for it some invaluable memoranda for Appendices IV, V, and VII, and whose work has influenced almost every page of our first chapter. (Hadow Report (1924))

                                                                          

In the Spens report which influenced the 11+ there are 12 mentions of Cyril Burt including:

We desire to thank Professor HA Harris, Professor Winifred Cullis, and Professor Cyril Burt, who furnished us with memoranda on the physical and the mental development of boys and girls between the ages of eleven and sixteen, which form the basis of Chapter III of our Report. We are further indebted to Professor Burt for his memorandum on the history of the faculty psychology, written at the request of the Secretary, which is printed as Appendix IV. (Spens report (1938))

Charles Spearman 1863-1945

• Was a psychologist and researched statistics
• He was the Chair of the Psychology Department at UCL (before Cyril Burt)
• He was interested in human intelligence
• Invented factor analysis (which Cyril Burt used in his I.Q. tests) where scores reflect a single General intelligence factor (g factor)

(UCL, Background Resources to the inquiry)

The way in which Burt later on turned against Spearman, and attempted to belittle his achievements, was among the more discreditable episodes in Burt’s career, and will be examined later. But even in the 1930s Burt was already beginning to question Spearman’s position as the originator of factor analysis. Stephenson states that Burt several times let hints drop in lectures that ‘he, Burt, was the initiator of factor methods’,7 and in an exchange of letters between Burt and Spearman in 1937-39 questions of priority were beginning to rankle. The correspondence in which Spearman’s blunt brevity was confronted by Burt’s evasive prolixity is revealing of both men. 8 While Spearman was alive Burt did not dare to do more than ‘drop hints’. After Spearman’s death the campaign of belittlement became increasingly unrestrained, obsessive and extravagant. In 1932, however, this was still far in the future, and Burt took over under favourable auspices. His old friend, Jack Flugel, who had worked in the department since 1909, and had risen from being a Demonstrator to Associate Professor, was no doubt disappointed in not getting the chair, but he was much too balanced and good humoured an individual to bear a grudge, and his friendship and loyalty to Burt remained undiminished. As Flugel himself put it, ‘There can be no doubt that in Burt the College found a successor worthy of the great tradition which Spearman had established, and that in particular Burt developed and carried further the lines of research which Spearman had so well begun.’ (Hearnshaw, 1979, p130)

The Mental Deficiency Act 1913

Used the terms:

• Idiots
• Imbeciles
• Feebleminded
• Moral imbeciles

(mental defectives)

The act stated the rules local councils have to follow in their institutions for ‘mental defectives’ this would have also included education.

(The mental deficiency act, 1913 : Together with the regulations and rules made under the provisions of that Act, the departmental circulars, the elementary (defectice and epileptic children) acts, 1899 and 1914, and, introduction and annotations / by R.A. Leach.)

Eugenicists thought that if you segregated ‘mental defectives’ from their community there would be less poverty, crime and pregnancies from unmarried mothers.

Alfred Binet 1857-1911

• A psychologist and a theoretician who invented the IQ test along with Theodore Simon
• In 1904 The French Ministry of Education asked him to design a method that would test which students where not learning by regular classroom lessons
• The test is still used today and is called the Stanford-Binet test
• He wrote the book Experimental Studies of Intelligence
• America used Binet’s intelligence test to enforce the First Sterilisation Laws in Pennsylvania 1905 and Indiana 1907

I began with the idea impressed upon me by the studies of so many other scientists, that intellectual superiority is tied to superiority of cerebral volume. (1900,p. 427) (Gould, 1981, p146-147)

I feared that in making measurements on heads with the intention of finding a difference in volume between an intelligent and a less intelligent head, I would be led to increase, unconsciously and in good faith, the cephalic volume of intelligent heads and to decrease that of unintelligent heads. (Gould, 1981, p147)

I was to state very explicitly what I have observed about myself. The details that follow are those that the majority of authors do not publish; one does not want to let them be known.  (Gould, 1981, p147-148)

I was persuaded that I had attacked an intractable problem. The measures had required travelling, and tiring procedures of all sorts; and they ended with the discouraging conclusion that there was often not a millimeter of difference between the cephalic measures of intelligent and less intelligent students. The idea of measuring intelligence by measuring heads seemed ridiculous…I was on the point of abandoning this work and I didn’t want to publish a single line of it. (1900, p. 403) (Gould, 1981, p148)

In 1899, he joined with teachers and others in forming a Free Society for the Psychological Study for Children. Binet’s group studied educational problems arising from the compulsory school attendance law of 1881, which kept all children in schools. (American Psychologist, March 1976, p230)

Their character and their aptitudes, and on the necessity for adapting ourselves to their needs and their capacities. (1909, p. 15) (Gould, 1981, p154)

What they should learn first is not the subjects ordinarily taught, however important they may be; they should be given lessons of will, or attention, of discipline; before exercises in grammar, they need to be exercised in mental orthopedics; in a word they must learn how to learn. (1908, p.257) (Gould, 1981, p154)

Binet’s interesting program of mental orthopedics included a set of physical exercises designed to improve, by transfer to mental functioning… (including statues) (Gould, 1981, p154)

If we do nothing, if we don’t intervene actively and usefully, he will continue to lose time…and will finally become discouraged. The situation is very serious for him, and since his is not an exceptional case (since children with defective comprehension are legion), we might say that it is a serious question for all of us and for all of society. The child who loses the taste for work in class strongly risks being unable to acquire it after he leaves school. (1909, p. 100) (Gould, 1981, p153)

As I know from experience…they seem to admit implicitly that in a class where we find the best, we must also find the worst, and that is a natural and inevitable phenomenon, with which a teacher must not become preoccupied, and that it is like the existence of rich and poor within a society. What a profound error. (Gould, 1981, p153)

Teachers who “are not interested in students who lack intelligence. They have neither sympathy nor respect for them, and their intemperate language leads them to say such things in their presence as ‘This is a child who will never amount to anything…he is poorly endowed…he is not intelligent at all.’ How often have I heard these imprudent words”  (1909, p. 100) (Gould, 1981, p153)

Here is an excellent opportunity for getting rid of all the children who trouble us, and without the true critical spirit, they designate all who are unruly, or even disinterested in school. (1905, 9. 169) (Gould, 1981, p151)

The scale, properly speaking, does not permit the measure of the intelligence, because intellectual qualities are not superposable, and therefore cannot be measured as liner surfaces are measured. (1905, P. 40) (Gould, 1981, p151)

“It is intelligence alone that we seek to measure, by disregarding in so far as possible, the degree of instruction which the child possesses…We give him nothing to read, nothing to write, and submit him to no test in which he might succeed by means of rote learning” (1905, p. 48) “It is a specially interesting feature of these tests that they permit us, when necessary, to free a beautiful native intelligence from the trammels of the school” (1908, p. 259) (Gould, 1981, p150-151)

Lionel Sharples Penrose 1898-1972

• A psychiatrist who wrote many books including The Influence of Heredity on Disease, The Biology of Mental Defect, The Objective Study of Crowd Behaviour, and Outline of Human Genetics.
• Researched schizophrenia, phenylketonuria, designed non-verbal tests of intelligence (pattern perception test), finger-prints and Downs Syndrome.
• In 1944 Penrose becomes editor of Annals of Human Genetics
• In 1957 Penrose becomes Galton Professor for the Head of Eugenics, Biometry and Genetics

(UCL, Background Resources to the inquiry)

George E Shuttleworth 1842-1928

• Psychologist George E Shuttleworth was an Assistant medical officer at the Earlswood Idiot Asylum in Surrey and later Superintendent at the Royal Albert Asylum at Lancaster.
• In 1895 he published his highly regarded book called ’Mentally Deficient Children: Their treatment and training’

One of our former pupils an example of the class now designated “mentally-feeble” as distinguished from imbecile, though for a period an inmate of the Royal Albert Asylum, became, under instruction an expert joiner, and (what was even more remarkable) from being a very imp of mischief grew up into a well conducted self reliant youth and ultimately emigrated to one of our colonies. When we last heard of him he was practising his trade in a leading city, and in a letter home reported himself as doing well, business being brisk in consequence of a conflagration which had recently occurred! In another instance, we encountered in the streets of a northern town a young woman of “considerable personal attractions,” whom we did not at first recognise as an old patient – (her’s had been a case of mild traumatic imbecility) – but who informed us that she was happily married to a respectable artisan; and certainly she had quite the appearance of a tidy housewife, for which she would be well qualified by her institution training. It is remarkable that of near a thousand discharged patients who had passed under observation, the two just mentioned are the only instances in which we have known marriages occur. It has indeed been urged as an objection to educating mentally-deficient children and fitting them for work in the world, that they would be thereby encouraged to marry, and in consequence there would be a risk of multiplying mental defect in the progeny. (Shuttleworth, 1916, p137-138)

The effect of judicious training seems to be to impress upon the improved imbecile that he is not quite like other men, and must not undertake the responsibilities of married life. Certainly the net result of training is to diminish the risk of transmitting the evil to another generation inasmuch as moral principles are instilled which have a restraining influence on conduct. Moreover the very fact of healthy occupation tends to keep in check the animal passions, which are apt to run riot when the adolescent imbecile is unemployed. (Shuttleworth, 1916, p138-139)

I certify that A. B., not being imbecile, is, the reason of (I) physical, or (2) mental defect, incapable of receiving proper benefit from the instruction in ordinary schools, but capable of receiving instruction from special classes. (Shuttleworth, 1916, p25)

“should have at their disposal the services of a medical advisors.” It is also recommended that, besides other school records, medical records should also be kept of the cases for special instruction, and that a regular medical examination should be held of every class, every twelve months, by the medical officer. (Shuttleworth, 1916, p26)

It must never be forgotten that mental feebleness is as a rule hereditary, and consequently transmissible to another generation. (Shuttleworth, 1916, p149)

Of course there are some failures, but the general result is satisfactory, as shewing that these children repay the money expended upon them during their School life, for without it they would have been unable to help themselves on leaving school. (Shuttleworth, 1916, p144)

All such lessons train the faculties of observation and so greatly assist the dull child in its struggle for a living…It has been recently stated that the cost of instruction in the London Special Classes is on the average about £9 for each child per annum. (Shuttleworth, 1916, p145)

…the high grade of child who is “incapable, by reason of mental weakness, of benefiting by the ordinary school curriculum.”…the author read before the School Conference of the International Health Exhibition of 1884, when he advocated the “establishment in every large centre of a school for the backward children, who were not able to bear the strain of the ordinary schooling.” (Shuttleworth, 1916, p141)

Henry Herbert Goddard 1866-1957

• A psychologist who introduced Alfred Binet’s intelligence tests to America
• Director of the Training School for Feebleminded Boys and Girls in New Jersey
• They wrote ’The Kallikak Family: A study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness’ in which aimed to prove the inheritability of feeblemindedness

But consider the nebulous and more threating realm of “high-grade defectives”-the people who could be trained to function in society…He devised a name for “high-grade” defectives, a word that became entrenched in our language…He christened these people “morons,” from a Greek word meaning foolish.  (Gould, 1981, p158-159)

…Goddard raised some funds for a more thorough study and, in the Spring of 1913, sent two women to Ellis Island for two and a half months. They were instructed to pick out the feeble-minded by sight, a task that Goddard preferred to assign to women, to whom he granted innately superior intuition: After a person has had considerable experience in this work, he almost gets a sense of what a feeble-minded person is so that he can tell one afar off. The people who are best at this work, and who I believe should do this work, are women. Women seem to have closer observation than men. It was quite impossible for others to see how these two young women could pick out the feeble-minded without the aid of the Binet test at all. (1913, p.106) (Gould, 1981, p165)

Goddard’s women tested thirty-five Jews, twenty-two Hungarians, fifty Italians, and forty-five Russians. (Gould, 1981, p165)

Goddard used to edit photographs to make people look more ‘feeble-minded’.

Mary Dendy 1855-1933

• An educationalist who connected eugenics with mental deficiency
• Advocated the segregation of feebleminded children
• Secretary of the Lancashire and Cheshire Society for the Permanent Care of the feebleminded
• Helped establish the Sandlebridge Colony in 1908 which is considered to be the first permanent residential care for disabled children in Britain
• She argued that the only way to remove “this evil” was by preventing it. By 1910 she was arguing that the greatest danger was not the worst, but the mild cases of feeble-mindedness.

Dendy quote: Permanence in the care of the feeble-minded would be ultimately a great saving to the community. As things are now, the boys for the most part become criminals and are convicted over and over again. Sometimes in goal and sometimes out, they grow up through a wretched and degraded manhood, and die leaving behind them offspring to carry on the miserable tradition. The story of the girls is better known than that of the boys, but it is not really more terrible expect so far as physical suffering is concerned, and physical suffering is the least part of the evil. (Shuttleworth, 1916, p150)

The examination, entailing as it did a questioning of the parents, only served to emphasise the point that, valuable as special day schools may be, the work done in them must be largely wasted and nullified if the children are discharged at the age of sixteen, the most critical period of their lives, to become in many instances parents of children similar to themselves…There is no doubt that the colony school system with lifelong care is by far the most satisfactory, and wherever possible it should be adopted for all grades of cases. (Paget Lapage, 1911, p8)

(a)    Idiots – that is to say, persons so deeply defective in mind from birth or from an early age as to be unable to guard themselves against common physical dangers.

(b)    Imbeciles – that is to say, persons in whose case there exists from birth or from an early age mental defectiveness not amounting idiocy, yet so pronounced that they are incapable of managing themselves or their affairs, or, in the case of children, of being taught to do so

(c)     Feebleminded persons – that is to say, persons whose case there exists from birth or from an early age mental defectiveness not amounting to imbecility, yet so pronounced that they require care, supervision, and control for their own protection or for the protection of others, or, in the case of children, that they by reason of such defectiveness appear to be permanently incapable of receiving proper benefit from the instruction in ordinary schools. Dr Goddard has suggested the name “Moron” for this type of mental defective person.

(d)    Moral imbecile* – that is to say, persons who from an early age display some permanent mental defect coupled with strong vicious or criminal propensities on which punishment has had little or no deterrent effect. (Paget Lapage, 1911, p11)

*imbecile is not a good word. Lifelong is a better word. (Paget Lapage, 1911, p11) (footnote)

The interest in defective children created by these various reports was great, and led up to the appointment of a Departmental Committee on Defective and Epileptic Children in 1896. The Committee consisted of the Rev. F. W. Sharpe, C.B., then Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools ; Messrs. Pooley and Newton of the Education Department; Mrs. Burgwin and Miss Douglas Townsend; and of Professor Wm. Smith and Dr. Shuttleworth ; Mr. H. W. Orange acting as Secretary. Their report was issued in 1898, and one of the main conclusions they formed was ” that children exist who, on the one hand, are too feebleminded to be properly taught in ordinary elementary schools by ordinary methods, and, on the other hand, are not so feeble-minded as to be imbecile or idiotic. These feebleminded children exist as distinct class from imbeciles, they are not certified as imbeciles, not provided for as imbeciles, they differ both from ordinary children and from imbeciles in the treatment they require during their school-life.” The Committee also found that approximately one per cent, of the children in the public elementary school classes appeared to be feebleminded, and they recommended that such children should attend school when possible rather than remain idle at home. (Paget Lapage, 1911, p8-9)

These suggestions were embodied in the Elementary Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act of 1899, defective children being there defined as ” children who, not being imbecile and not merely dull and backward, are by reason of mental and physical defect incapable of receiving proper benefit from the instruction in the ordinary public elementary schools, but are not incapable, by reason of such defect, of receiving benefit from instruction in such special classes or schools as are in this Act mentioned,” and the period of compulsory education for these children was extended to 16 years instead of 14, as for ordinary children. By this Act the authorities were empowered but not compelled (1) to establish special classes for defective children in some of their schools; (2) to board them out in houses near to special classes or schools; (3) to establish either special day or boarding schools for them. (Paget Lapage, 1911, p9)

Karl Pearson 1857-1936

• A biometrician who was the first Galton Chair of Eugenics at UCL
• He taught applied mathematics and mechanics
• He wrote The Grammar of Science
• “superior and inferior races cannot coexist; if the former are to make effective use of global resources; the latter must be extirpated”
• Developed the Mental test of immigrants of children to stop Jewish people entering England through the Alien Act
• In 1933 Pearson retires from the Department of Statistics and Eugenics Split

(UCL, Background Resources to the inquiry)

If you are interested in researching further the history of eugenics, disability and education these names may help you further with your research:

Winston Churchill 1874-1965

• Was interested in introducing compulsory labour camps for “mental defectives”
• During May 1912 the “Feeble-Minded Control Bill” was discussed in the House of Commons. The Bill rejected sterilisation but had stated for registration and segregation. The bill was withdrawn.

Samuel Wormald

• Was the Executive Officer at Meanwood Park Hospital in Leeds
• People who lived at Meanwood Park Hospital shared their stories about the colony and about Wormald for ‘Stolen Lives’ a channel 4 documentary

Sybil Gotto 1855-1955

• Social hygienist and founder of the Eugenics Education Society and served as its secretary.
• Francis Galton became its honorary president. The Society sought to promote ‘the study of agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally’, and to ‘intervene whenever a proposed administrative act appears likely to impair the racial qualities of the nation’. Pearson declined to join because it was not a scientific organisation.
• With a focus on alcoholism, habitual criminality, reliance on welfare, prostitution, diseases such as syphilis and tuberculosis; neurological disorders such as epilepsy; mental conditions such as insanity, hysteria and melancholia; and ‘feeble-mindedness’
• There records show how the society was concerned about feeble-minded people from reproducing

Sidney 1859-1947 and Beatrice Webb 1858-1943

• Were well-known social reformers, socialists, early members of the Fabian Society and co-founders of the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1895.
• They advocated state intervention to control the reproduction of the lowest classes on account of their alleged social and biological degeneration. 

Leonard Darwin 1850-1943

• Charles Darwin’s son
• Chairman of the British Eugenics Society
• Who wrote Eugenics and National Economy: An Appeal

Edgar Schuster 1897-1969

• First fellow in National Eugenics at University College London
• Position created in 1904 with an endowment from Francis Galton

Caleb Saleeby 1878-1940

• A physician he was instrumental in the creation of the Ministry of Health
• He popularized ‘positive eugenics’ and ’negative eugenics’ to encourage parenthood of the worth and to discourage of the unworthy
• He wrote ‘Parenthood and Race Culture: An outline of Eugenics’

John Russell

• Wrote a book called ‘Eugenics and Education’ and ‘Can the School Prepare for Parenthood’
• Headmaster of the King Alfred School in London
• Member of the Eugenics Education Society’s council and the Chairman of its Education sub-committee

Margaret J. Tuke 1862-1947

• Principle of Bedford College, University of London
• Involved in the organization of the Education Eugenics Conference in March 1913
• Gave a paper on ‘The Eugenic Ideal as a Factor in the Formation of Character’

Bernard Hollander 1864-1934

• A psychiatrist who worked at the British Hospital for Mental Disorders and Brain Diseases in London
• They wrote ‘Abnormal children’ and ‘Feebleminded boy’
• The publication of his books prompted the introduction of the Mental Deficiency Act and the Elementary Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act of 1914

Herbert Russell Hamley 1883-?

• An educational psychologist who wrote The testing of intelligence, The educational guidance of the school child, The problem of the junior school in England and Wales and The education of backward children and juvenile delinquency in England and Wales

Sir Percy Nunn 1870-1944

• An educationalist and Professor of Education at the Institute of Education
• Wrote ‘Education, Its Data and First Principles’

A.F Tredgold 1870-1952

• A psychiatrist and medical expert to the Royal Commission on the feeble-minded
• His research apparently helped the Mental Deficiency Act
• He wrote many books on eugenics including Eugenics and the future progress of man

Edgar A. Doll 1889-1968

• A psychologist who designed the Vineland Social maturing scale which was used to assess social competence
• The assessment is still used today
• Wrote many books including Clinical studies in feeblemindedness, The growth of intelligence, A study of the maladjusted college student, And the Measurement of social competence: a manual for the Vineland social maturity scale

Jack Tizard 1919–1979

• A psychologist who was appointed Professor of Child Development at the Institute of Education who researched ‘The Social Problem of Mental Deficiency’ and how learning disabled adults could gain employment and researched ‘community care’

Ann 1928–2015 and Alan Clarke 1922–2011

• Ann was a developmental psychologist whose research focused on learning disabled children. She was appointed to be personal chair for the Department of Education.
• Alan was a psychologist again whose research focused on learning disabilities. He establish the Department of Psychology at the University of Hull.

Bernard Coard 1944-present

• In 1971 Coard wrote the book How the West Indian child is made educationally sub-normal in the British school system.
• He is from Grenada and studied political economy at the University of Sussex.
• He worked as a teacher and within youth services in London.
• Coard noticed that black children were more likely to be in educationally subnormal schools as they were more likely to not pass IQ tests due to their dialects and culture.

(Bhimani “We are not alone”: Legacies of eugenics in education and society)

References

American Psychologist, March 1976. Print.

“We Are Not Alone’: Legacies of Eugenics in Education and Society.” UCL Special Collections We Are Not Alone Legacies of Eugenics in Education and Society Comments.

“The Mental Deficiency Act, 1913 : Together with the Regulations and Rules Made under the Provisions of That Act, the Departmental Circulars, the Elementary (Defectice and Epileptic Children) Acts, 1899 and 1914, and, Introduction and Annotations / by R.A.Leach.” Wellcome Collection. n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2022. 

BBC “Third Programme” Talk. N.p., 1948. Print.

Bhimani, Nazlin. “ Some Historical Sources on Intelligence Testing, Eugenics and Children with Special Education Needs.” web log. UCL. 24 Aug. 2020. Web. 29 Nov. 2022. 

Burt, Cyril Lodowic. Report on Provision for Backward Children. London: London County Council, 1923. Print.

Burt, Cyril Lodowic. The Backward Child. 5th ed. London: University of London Press, 1961. Print.

Burt, Cyril. Handbook of Tests : for Use in Schools / by Cyril Burt. 2d ed. London ;: Staples Press, 1948. Print.

Burt, Cyril. Mental and Scholastic Tests / Cyril Burt. London: London County Council, 1921. Print.

Burt, Cyril. The Mind of a Child : Six Broadcast Talks / by Cyril Burt ; Professor of Education in the University of London. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1930. Print.

Cyril Burt: Fraud or Framed? Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. Web.

Eugenics: Science’s Greatest Scandal (2021). BBC. 14 July. Available at: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x82sgn4 (Accessed: 3 April 2023).

Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man / by Stephen Jay Gould. 1st ed. New York: Norton, 1981. Print.

Hadow Report (1924). n.d. Web. 05 May 2023.

Hearnshaw, L. S. (Leslie Spencer). Cyril Burt, Psychologist / L.S. Hearnshaw. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1979. Print.

Horizon, The Intelligence Man, BBC. 1983. Film. 

Lapage, C. Paget., and Mary. Dendy. Feeble-Mindedness in Children of School-Age / with an Appendix on Treatment and Training by Mary Dendy. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1911. Print.

Race and Intelligence: Science’s Last Taboo (2019). Channel 4. 25 November. Available at: https://youtu.be/d_tA8Skfh3w (Accessed: 3 April 2023). 

Shuttleworth, George Edward., and William Alexander Potts. Mentally Deficient Children : Their Treatment and Training / by G.E. Shuttleworth, and W.A. Potts. 4th ed. London: H.K. Lewis & Co., 1916. Print.

Spens report (1938). n.d. Web. 05 May 2023. 

The Burt Reading Test. N.p., 1974. Print.

This is one of the biggest scandals in British education history (2021). 30 May. Available at: https://youtu.be/k4N-8J6wm_o (Accessed: 3 April 2023). 

UCL, Background resources to the inquiry. Available at: www.ucl.ac.uk/provost/inquiry-history-eugenics-ucl/background-resources-inquiry (Accessed: 7 October 2022)

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Objects I have found within UCL’s collection

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Object references and links

The Backward Child 
Cyril Burt 
https://ucl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UCL_INST/hd4h9s/alma990006055390204761

Handbook of Tests – For Use in Schools
Cyril Burt
https://ucl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UCL_INST/hd4h9s/alma990004137320204761

Report on provision for backward children.
Burt, Cyril Lodowic, Sir, 1883-1971 London County Council.
London : London County Council, 1923
https://ucl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UCL_INST/155jbua/alma990025430770204761

Mental and scholastic tests / Cyril Burt.
Burt, Cyril, 1883-1971, author.; London County Council
https://ucl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UCL_INST/hd4h9s/alma990030544570204761

Mentally deficient children : their treatment and training / by G.E. Shuttleworth, and W.A. Potts.
https://ucl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UCL_INST/hd4h9s/alma990025427450204761

KOS/A/4/2/2 – The Burt Reading Test https://ucl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UCL_INST/155jbua/alma9931236046604761

BBC “Third Programme” Talk 
Typescript of Penrose’s talk and discussion with Sir Cyril Burt on the BBC’s Third Programme”, entitled “Three problems: 3. Intelligence” on Saturday 11 Sep 1948. https://ucl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma9931466412304761&context=L&vid=44UCL_INST:UCL_VU2&lang=en&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&query=any,contains,Cyril%20burt

Feeblemindedness in children of school-age / by C. Paget Lapage ; with an appendix on treatment and training by Mary Dendy. https://ucl.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44UCL_INST/155jbua/alma990025396680204761

The Intelligence Man BBC2 Horizons film https://wellcomecollection.org/works/d8axgcdm

Some historical sources on intelligence testing, eugenics and children with special education needs. By Nazlin Bhimani, on 24 August 2020 https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-collections/tag/ioe-special-collections/

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Modern newspaper headlines

References

BBC, editor. “Thousands of New Special School Places Announced.” BBC News 20 July 2020. Web. 03 May 2023. 

Cooper, Phil. “Calls for Changes to Special Educational Needs Funding System.” BBC News 2 Dec. 2022. Web. 03 May 2023. 

Okolosie, Lola. “The Tories Keep Bottling Their Push for More Grammar Schools. Is It Because They Know They Don’t Work?” The Guardian 16 Mar. 2023. Web. 03 May 2023. 

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