WASTE IN EDUCATION 53 



different point of view and for the sake of developing more advanced 

 work. But elementary college courses in which pupils who have al- 

 ready covered the same ground in high school are taught together with 

 those who have had no previous training in the subject force the conclu- 

 sion that the time spent in either the high school or the college is 

 wasted. 



If our colleges are to continue to offer in their various departments 

 elementary work which may be as well done in the high school, economy 

 of time might be secured by allowing high-grade students credit for a 

 certain amount of this work, even though they had already been allowed 

 admission credit for the same work. Given a certain minimum of 

 required work involving continuity, say ten units in four subjects with 

 not less than two in any one, the likelihood of success in college depends 

 more upon a student's ability and habits of work than upon his pres- 

 entation of any fixed number of additional units. A study of the 

 records made in the Harvard Medical and Law Schools by graduates of 

 Harvard College, published by President Lowell in the Educational 

 Review (1912), showed that the quality of work in these professional 

 schools corresponded very closely with the work done by the same stu- 

 dent in college and was influenced very little by the type of courses 

 pursued during his college course. 



There is no doubt that a student entering college with thirteen units 

 secured with a high grade is better fitted for a successful college course 

 than one entering with fifteen units secured with a low grade. A very 

 serious obstacle to efficiency in high-school work is found in the lack of 

 incentive offered to able pupils to do their best. Most of the adminis- 

 trative machinery of our schools and much of the teaching energy are 

 spent in an effort to lift the indifferent and incompetent over the barrier 

 of a passing grade, while the able or exceptional pupil is allowed to 

 acquire the habit of being satisfied with attainment far below his 

 capacities. In most schools it is not regarded as good form to secure 

 high grades. The "gentleman's grade" has come to be recognized as 

 well below the median. Distinctions resulting from good scholastic 

 records are usually petty and unsubstantial and make small appeal to 

 students in general. The position of valedictorian is not held in suffi- 

 cient esteem to induce many boys and girls to pay the price of four 

 years of. hard study. A few schools have adopted the plan of giving 

 extra credit for high grades. In the university high school we give 1.2 

 units for a year's work with a grade of A, 1.1 units for a grade of B, 1 

 unit for a grade of C, and .9 unit for a grade of D. A substantial 

 reward is thus secured for excellent work and a corresponding loss for 

 work of low grade. We have observed a steady improvement in the 

 quality of our work since the adoption of this system of awarding credit. 

 Several students will be graduated in June who would not otherwise 

 be able to do so, exceptional students having secured in two years since 



