Phrenology is an old, discredited art, and like many old, discredited arts, not completely without merit.
Phrenologists would read skulls and determine personalities, akin to astrologers reading stars today.
While I no longer practice medicine, obvious pathology still jumps out at me. The heart of pediatrics is child development, and after years of looking for specific signs associated with delay, most pediatricians automatically scan the facial gestalt of just about everyone--we can't help ourselves.
***
There are obvious socioeconomic factors working on the distribution of our students in the high school. While any kid from any social class can end up in any honors class (and often do), the ratio of well-to-do to ne-er-do-well families is higher in the honors classes than the lower levels.
No news there (no matter how much we pretend otherwise). The blessed children of Essex Fells, the wealthiest town in our county, are going to outperform (on average) those in the poorest, the blessed children of Newark, under the current testing conditions. (Hunger, lead, wheezing, family stress, frequent moving, diesel fumes, neighborhood noise, access to books/internet, violence, etc....a long, long list.)
But that's not why I am writing.
***
A child lounging by his locker a few minutes after the late bell lashes out at me--I notice the thin upper lip, the erased philtrum, the impulsive behavior, all suggestive of prenatal alcohol exposure.
Later I watch a tough group of "low performing" children stream out of class--a few have noticeably small heads. Microcephaly. If the brain does not grow properly, neither does the skull around it.
Some of these children will never pass the test.
All of these children can learn.
Those are not incompatible statements.
***
Remember Beaky the Buzzard?
Remember Beaky the Buzzard?
I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee
Won't my mama be so proud of me....
Take a look at him--slouching p
osture, droopy eyelids. He has hypotonia, reduced muscle tone. He's a nice kid, but slow. Really slow.
Look at any slow cartoon character--cartoonists see what others don't. Hypotonia. Bad posture. Eyes too close together. Dyskinetic movement. Teeth in the wrong place.
Bad brains.
Yep, you heard me--some kids have bad brains. And most of the bad brain crowd can be seen in the less challenging classes, what we call the "Level 1 College Preparatory" stratum here, but I'm sure other districts have similarly euphemistic names.
While more than a few bright children hide in the lower levels (often placed there for the wrong reasons), you won't find Beaky in the honors class.
I can pump Beaky full of Adderrall, inflate his self-esteem, and pay his way through a dozen Kaplan Kourses and he's not going to pass the test.
But I can still teach him a whole lot of things he needs to know, and his time in my class will not be wasted.
Even if Mr. Duncan denies him a diploma.
Won't my mama be so proud of me....
Take a look at him--slouching p
osture, droopy eyelids. He has hypotonia, reduced muscle tone. He's a nice kid, but slow. Really slow.Look at any slow cartoon character--cartoonists see what others don't. Hypotonia. Bad posture. Eyes too close together. Dyskinetic movement. Teeth in the wrong place.
Bad brains.
Yep, you heard me--some kids have bad brains. And most of the bad brain crowd can be seen in the less challenging classes, what we call the "Level 1 College Preparatory" stratum here, but I'm sure other districts have similarly euphemistic names.
While more than a few bright children hide in the lower levels (often placed there for the wrong reasons), you won't find Beaky in the honors class.
I can pump Beaky full of Adderrall, inflate his self-esteem, and pay his way through a dozen Kaplan Kourses and he's not going to pass the test.
But I can still teach him a whole lot of things he needs to know, and his time in my class will not be wasted.
Even if Mr. Duncan denies him a diploma.
Wells phrenology chart was found at John Leinhard's "The Engines of Our Ingenuity" website.
The Beaker Buzzard cell was found on Wikipedia.
