254 What Schooling Should the Country Boy Have 



imbeciles, and the exceedingly rare natural-born 

 criminals altogether, perhaps one in every two 

 hundred or more of the population. 



Now, what we are trying to get at here is a fair 

 estimate of what the parent may reasonably look 

 for by way of a stock of native ability in his child. 

 The natural-born genius will be known by one special 

 mark ; namely, he will be so strongly inclined toward 

 one special line of work or calling as to need no out- 

 side stimulus or incentive to make him take it up. 

 Indeed, in the usual case of a pronounced genius it is a 

 very difficult matter to prevent the individual from 

 following out his one over-mastering predisposition. 



The marks of feeble-mindedness or idiocy are too 

 well known to need description. Such cases are also 

 so rare and so special in their manner of treatment as 

 to call for no extended discussion. 



THE GREAT TALENTED CLASS 



The great masses of humanity are constituted of 

 what we mean here by the talented. That is, as 

 described above, at birth they possess a large and 

 abundant stock of potentialities of learning and 

 achievement much more than can ever become 

 actualized because of the comparatively limited time 

 and means for education and training. Of course, we 

 recognize that among the talented classes there is an 

 endless variety of combinations of abilities. So are 

 there many degrees of ability. 



