The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness
by Henry Herbert
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Discussion questions for The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness
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- 1
Goddard presents his study as scientific and objective. What specific elements of his methodology, evidence, or language struck you as particularly biased or unscientific from a modern perspective?
- 2
Goddard's central thesis emphasizes heredity as the primary driver of "feeble-mindedness." What evidence, if any, did you find within the text itself that might suggest environmental or socioeconomic factors played a significant, perhaps unacknowledged, role in the lives of the Kallikak descendants?
- 3
The book relies heavily on the historical term "feeble-mindedness." How does this label compare to contemporary understandings and classifications of intellectual disabilities, developmental differences, or neurodiversity? Does reading this book change how you think about diagnostic labels today?
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