PRESENT PROBLEMS OF THE SCHOOL 111 



ance to the boy himself, because his future happiness and success in 

 life depend in no small measure on the prudence with which he makes 

 his selection. It is of the first importance to society, because there 

 is no economic waste comparable in its proportions to that occasioned 

 by setting people to work for which they have no natural aptitude. 

 How, then, is the problem to be solved? I fear we must lay the 

 burden in the first instance on the elementary school --a burden 

 which that institution has hitherto made but little effort to assume. 

 That the elementary school has not done more to guide the future 

 academic work of its pupils is generally attributed to one or other 

 of two causes, neither of which I believe to be tenable. In the first 

 place it is claimed that the elementary school presents the same 

 subject-matter and the same activities to all pupils and therefore 

 turns out a machine-made - - 1 believe that is the term generally 

 employed --a machine-made product that is alike in all its parts. 

 The answer is that the elementary school must of necessity present 

 the same subjects and the same activities to all its pupils, because 

 these subjects and these activities constitute the necessary food and 

 the necessary training of the child mind; that the use of the same 

 studies and the same exercises does not result in producing the same 

 type of mind and disposition, because different minds, according to 

 inherent capacities, react in different ways upon the same stimuli; 

 and, finally, that the intellectual capacities, dispositions, and tend- 

 encies of the graduates of the elementary schools are actually not 

 alike, but as various as there are individuals. The second criticism 

 is that the bright pupil is made to keep step with the dull pupil. 

 " Marking time " is the phrase used in the educational cant of the 

 day. To properly administered schools this criticism does not 

 apply. Even if it did, however, the pity lavished on the particularly 

 bright pupil is largely wasted. He can generally take care of him- 

 self. Our sympathy is needed, not for the bright, precocious pupil, 

 but for his duller, though not on that account less able, associate. 

 The problem really is, not how to drive the bright pupil through the 

 grades at railroad speed, but how to give the slower pupil the assist- 

 ance - - but little will be needed in the majority of cases - - that will 

 help him over obstacles and enable him to keep up with his more 

 brilliant companions. Any school which lavishes the time and 

 energy of its ablest teachers on the more brilliant, to the neglect of 

 the duller pupils, falls far short of its duty. 



The fault, then, lies neither in the sameness of the curriculum nor 

 in the retardation of bright pupils, but in the failure of elementary- 

 school principals and teachers to realize their responsibility for the 

 future welfare of their pupils. Where, on the other hand, all pupils 

 have equal opportunity and equal advantages, there the teachers, if 

 they take an interest, may note the different reactions produced by 



