THE METHOD OP AGE GRADATION 63 



teachers, being human, make mistakes and not a few 

 of the measures they adopt may be based upon mis- 

 taken judgment of the mental maturity of the pupil, 

 but it is inconceivable that half of all children should 

 be victims of such mistakes. 



It seems to me, rather, that the results we have 

 just been discussing themselves show that both of 

 the opinions just cited are wrong. Complete agree- 

 ment between school ability and intellectual ability 

 is not to be expected at all nor even to be desired, 

 because performance in the school depends not only 

 upon intelligence, but also upon certain other and 

 quite different factors. Thus, strength of memory, 

 which, as is well known, is correlated only to a mod- 

 erate degree with intelligence, certainly plays a 

 large perhaps a too large role in the carrying on 

 of school activities and in the estimate of their 

 worth; the various special talents, too, cut across 

 and modify the action of general intelligence. But 

 beside this there are concerned factors that have 

 nothing at all to do with intellect, but belong to 

 the domain of will, in the widest sense of that term: 

 I mean the degree and duration of attention, in- 

 dustry and conscientiousness, sense of duty and 

 capacity to fit into the social group. 



These are the essential elements that must be 

 added to intelligence in order to transform mere 

 potential to actual accomplishment, and these same 

 elements are enough, even when conjoined with in- 

 tellectual ability of lesser degrees, to produce ef- 

 ficiency of a worthy degree. This is true in life, 

 and it is true also even in the school ; and it is good 

 that for once these relations should be brought out 



