440 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



the second place, pupils in a limited number of school sys- 

 tems have been allowed to progress on the basis of the 

 mastery of certain units of subject matter. In this in- 

 stance, the chief unit of measure is achievement, not 

 mere time. Promotion is based on merit, not the number 

 of weeks in school. What has happened in most instances 

 however, after pupils have been homogeneously grouped, 

 is either the length of time has been shortened during 

 which the work could be done, or the quantity of subject 

 matter to be covered has been increased. That is, we 

 have merely penalized the student for his brightness by 

 asking him to do more work on exactly the same mental 

 level as that on which the previous work has been done. 

 Relatively speaking, little has been done in the way of 

 real progress to change, not only the method of presen- 

 tation for the supeiior group of pupils, but little has been 

 done to change the actual quality of the content of sub- 

 ject matter offered. 



The problem of the exceptional pupil is only partially 

 solved when we have allowed him merely to finish in a 

 shorter length of time because of his native brilliancy. 

 He ought not only to be allowed, but to be given the op- 

 portunity through the formulation of appropriate subject 

 matter, to use up as nearly as possible all of his mental 

 capacity just as is the more mediocre or slow pupil driven 

 to do in the mastery of the ordinarily outlined material. 

 Superior pupils have as much right to have an oppor- 

 tunity to use up on suitable materials all of the ability 

 they possess as have the pupils nearer the other end of 

 the distribution curve of native ability, who are com- 

 pelled to work up to the limit of their capacity in order 

 "to pass". 



The outline of materials in terms of quality has as 

 yet been done very meagerly, and should be kept in mind 

 as a part of the project in the scientific construction of 

 the program of studies as a whole. It is, of course, 

 likely that even with this material of a higher qualitative 

 type to be mastered than that found in the usual program 

 of studies, the especially capable student will still be 

 able to do the work in less time than the mediocre stu- 

 dent can do the work outlined for him. 



