PAPERS ON PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION 44l 



To summarize, it is important that curricula in part 

 be constructed so as to meet the common needs of all 

 groups. But within the scope of secondary education, 

 some attention should be given also, — much more than 

 at present, — to outlining materials for those pupils who 

 possess superior or exceptional ability. And this is no 

 simple task of a few weeks or months. It involves the 

 research and investigation of a decade of time, more or 

 less. The emphasis which has been given more recently 

 to individual instruction versus socialized and group 

 recitations is, no doubt, an honest attempt to face the 

 problem of adaptation of subject matter to individual 

 differences of pupils. Curricula on the whole have been 

 made for the pupils who have about a medium grade 

 of intelligence. As a consequence, we have attempted 

 during a great deal of the time to reduce all pupils to 

 a similar level of achievement, pulling down those hav- 

 ing exceptional ability and intelligence, and pulling up 

 those having unusually low ability and intelligence. 



V. The Determination of Curriculum Content through 

 Experimental Research, and through the Investi- 

 gation of Competent Cnmmittet -. 



Experimentation carried on through a period of four 

 or five years at one time represents one reliable method 

 of procedure in attempting to determine the nature of 

 the content of curricula. In social studies, for example, 

 this can be done as well as in other studies, such as 

 natural science, mathematics, and so forth. In social 

 studies, objectives should be agreed upon as far as is 

 possible in advance of the experimentation carried on. 

 One important general objective or purpose can well be 

 that which has already been suggested by various com- 

 mittees, namely, enabling individuals to live and get 

 along agreeably and successfully with one another. If 

 once this objective be agreed upon, then all subject mat- 

 ter outlined and taught should point to this purpose and 

 other purposes and sub-purposes, equally worthy of 

 realization. Material as traditionally outlined in his- 

 tory and other social studies is not wholly satisfactory 

 in the light of the purpose of the above sort. 



