Division 15 Bylaws Change
The Executive Committee (EC) of APA’s Division 15 voted June 29, 2020 to propose a change to the By-Laws, and this email represents notification to all voting members of the proposed changes along with an invitation to vote. Members without an email on file will receive a ballot in the mail. According to our By-Laws, Members and Fellows can vote, and you will have 30 days for voting.
About the Change
We are proposing to rename our career achievement award (currently the E.L. Thorndike Award): The Career Achievement Award for Distinguished Psychological Contributions to Education. In October of 2019 a Division Member asked me why we continued to give the E.L. Thorndike Award given concerns about his beliefs. The EC, Thorndike Committee, and I investigated and reflected on this query and came to the conclusion that the award should be renamed. The reason for this change is that E.L. Thorndike adhered to and promoted eugenics. Below are some representative quotes from Thorndike’s work.
“We may even expect that education will be doubly effective, once society recognizes the advantages given to some and denied to others by heredity. That men have different amounts of capacity does not imply any the less advantage from or need of wise investment. If it be true, for example, that the negro is by nature unintellectual and joyous, this does not imply that he may not be made more intelligent by wiser training … It does mean that we should be stupid to expect the same results from him that we should from an especially intellectual race like the Jews.” (Thorndike, 1913, p. 309 as in Fallace 2016, p. 260)
“By selective breeding supported by a suitable environment we can have a world in which all men will equal the top ten percent of present men. One sure service of the able and good is to beget and rear offspring. One sure service (about the only one) which the inferior and vicious can perform is to prevent their genes from survival.” (Thorndike, (1940) Human Nature and the Social Order (New York, Macmillan) p. 957.)
For a longer discussion and analysis members may want to review Fallace (2016) or Winfield (2012).
Tracked Bylaws Change (Word)
The logistics of this change in the scope of our Bylaws is very simple—just a small wording change from:
“The Edward Lee Thorndike Career Achievement Award for Distinguished Psychological Contributions to Education”
to
“The Career Achievement Award for Distinguished Psychological Contributions to Education.”
Suggested New Bylaws (PDF)
Should the proposed change be approved by membership, our new Division 15 Bylaws would be as seen in this document.
The Ballot Eligible Voting Members Will Receive is as Follows:
- Change of name of Career Achievement Committee.
I approve of the changes to the Bylaws regarding the name of Division 15’s Career Achievement Committee from the “E. L. Thorndike” Committee” to the Career Achievement Award for Distinguished Psychological Contributions to Education” Committee
___Yes
___No
___Abstain