The Fetish of Statistics

Author(s): Harry J. Baker

Source: The Clearing House, Vol. 15, No. 9 (May, 1941), p. 551
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30190168 .
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HONOR

SOCIETIES:

MCKINLEY

HIGH'S

PLAN

551

membership in the society. The person have tended neither to pick decided extrowhom the pupil considers most worthy of verts nor classmates who are just good-lookelection is rated 1, the person next deserving ing and "classy" dressers. These are the
is rated 2, etc. In making their decisions practices which Mr. Lynch rightly conpupils are asked to give particular consid- demns. In general pupil ratings have coreration to character, leadership, and service. related very well with the scholarship ratThese pupil ratings are also averaged for ings for the candidates. The committee in
each candidate.
charge has frequently commented that puIf the pupils select 15 candidates from pils recognize real ability instead of picking
the 12A class, each candidate is ranked 1 "flashy" individuals.
Honor societies should not be condemned
through 15 in scholarship, 1 through 15 in
because
some mistakes are made in the elecleadership. Similar ratings are made for
service and character. The pupil rankings tion of members. Members should definitely
are used in the same manner.
not be chosen according to the practices
The totals are determined as follows: Roy listed by Mr. Lynch. There can be no posJones ranks 3 in scholarship, 4 in character, sible excuse for not electing pupils in the
2 in leadership, 5 in service, and 2 is his
upper 5 or to per cent of the class scholaspupil ranking. His total rating is therefore tically, who have contributed as much to
listed as the sum of his rankings, or 16. If 5 their school as his examples would indicate.
people can be selected for membership, the The persons selecting the members must
5 pupils receiving the smallest totals are surely realize that there are forms of leaderthe ones chosen.
ship and service to the school which are not
Although the system has not worked per- necessarily of the noisy kind. If some schools
fectly, in general it has overcome the bad follow practices such as Mr. Lynch notes,
practices noted in Mr. Lynch's article. new methods of election should be inauguWhile teachers are not immune to mistakes rated. In addition to scholarship, the only
in grading, and while they are seriously in- other traits considered should be character,
fluenced in their judgments by personality leadership, and service. Some objective systraits, the average of the estimates of all tem of rating should be used to make sure
teachers who know a pupil tends to mini- that "flashy" individuals do not obtain too
mize errors.
much recognition. Then, and only then,
The ratings of the members of the gradu- can the practices noted by Mr. Lynch be
ating class have been interesting. Pupils avoided.

The Fetish of Statistics

Education is greatly indebted to the careful and
thorough research and contributions of a few reliable statisticians. Something of a less complimentary
nature may be said of hundreds of their lesser
literal disciples who make a veritable fetish of statistics.
Many articles submitted for publication in educational and psychological journals contain nothing more than a few tables of so-called measurable
data with emphasis upon the statistics and very little
on useful interpretation of findings. In many instances articles seem to have been inspired through
some college or university course in which the chief

emphasis was obviously on the statistical approach

with very little discussion of the practical outcomes of
the project.
It is interesting to speculate what would be
produced by way of articles, master's theses, doctor's
dissertations and in oral examinations for these
higher degrees if a five-year moratorium were declared on all but a small fraction of the so-called
statistical studies. One would hope at least for
a renewed interest in other important values if a
temporary censorship were spread over Pearson,
r's, sigma's, and a few others.-HARRY J. BAKER in
Journal of Educational Research.

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