B. F. Skinner Quotes
A fourth-grade reader may be a sixth-grade mathematician. The grade is an administrative device which does violence to the nature of the developmental process.
Skinner, B. F. The Technology of Teaching. Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1968, p. 240.
Lehner had led the passage of a law that prohibited promotion beyond the 3rd grade unless the student is reading at grade level. However, the Ohio legislature did not vote the funds to even provide preschool for more than one-fourth of Ohio children where the foundation for reading is laid. Data from studies had shown that not promoting children for any reason greatly increases the likelihood of later dropout. However, Senator Lehner thought that the existence of the law would force the schools and the local districts to devote more resources and effort to teaching reading and the overall effect would be to save more students than will be lost.
This quotation split the liberal thought and the feminists of the day. On the one hand he compared women to savages in their intellectual development. However, he clearly attributed that fact to the lack of opportunity for both.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.
