434 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



fered and taught, to the capacities of different groups 

 of pupils possessing varying abilities and achievements. 

 Up to date, ive have made comparatively a very meager 

 beginning in the matter of the presentation of subject 

 matter to that group of pupils who possess exceptional 

 ability in our schools. The wide use of general intelli- 

 gence tests and of educational measurements within 

 school subjects has assisted considerably in helping edu- 

 cators to sense this problem. The task is not more than 

 half completed, however, when pupils have simply been 

 grouped according to capacities or abilities, for the ad- 

 ministration of subject matter so that each pupil in any 

 group may use up all of his potential ability is a prob- 

 lem winch is as yet far from being solved under our 

 line-of -march, lock-step practice. 



A fourth factor has to do with the nature or types of 

 reconstructed subjects and the corresponding subject 

 matter to be offered throughout the whole six years of 

 the so-called junior and senior cycles of secondary edu- 

 cation, including, in time perhaps, also the first two years 

 of college. 



The mere enumeration of these four factors brings into 

 bold relief four challenging problems in secondary edu- 

 cation, — problems suggested in crude form as early as 

 the time of Plato of the Ancient World, and continued 

 in clearer form during the later days of Comenius of the 

 Modern World, but now transferred into the midst of new 

 settings infinitely more complex. To some persons the 

 above factors or problems will appear to be but the plati- 

 tudinal statement of educational aim, organization, 

 method, and subject matter, respectively, of the past his- 

 tory of education. But they represent much more than 

 this. What is the best way out and ahead? Is one edu- 

 cational move better than another? In the matter of 

 formulating objectives, we have made our largest pro- 

 gress at the present time in secondary education. These 

 are not wholly satisfactory measured in terms of finality. 



II. The Redetermination of Educational Objectives. 



Curriculum construction and the determining of edu- 

 cational objectives are inextricably bound together. The 

 matter of scientific curriculum making has not as yet been 



