Woodward — Public Schools: Withdraioal Age of Pupils. 191 



in regard to the average length of time that the children 

 attend school ; and I am convinced that a great deal of con- 

 fusion exists on this point in the minds of both teachers and 

 school superintendents. 



For the purpose of clearing up this matter, I desire to state, 

 first; the average age at which pupils withdraw from the 

 public schools is a very difierent thing from the average age 

 of pupils in the public schools. For example: I have shown 

 by the results in Table XIII that the average age at which 

 pupils withdraw from the St. Louis schools is approximately 

 13.3 years. Now the average age of the pupils in the St. 

 Louis schools at the time of their enrollment in the year 

 1894-5 was 10.2 years, which is evidently a very different 

 thing. In the same way the average age at which pupils 

 withdraw from the Chicago schools I have found to be ap- 

 proximately 15.5 years. The average age of pupils in the 

 Chicago schools at the time of their enrollment in the year 

 1894-5 was 10.1 years. So in the Boston schools the average 

 age of withdrawal is approximately 15.9 years ; while the 

 average of those in the Boston schools at the time of their 

 registration in 1894-5 was 10.52 years. However, this result 

 must not be compared with the averages in St. Louis and 

 Chicago for the reason that in the Boston schools pupils are 

 admitted under 4 years of age, while in St. Louis no pupils 

 are admitted until they are six years old. In Chicago all 

 those under 7 years old are grouped together without specify- 

 ing how old they are, whether 4, 5, or 6 ; consequently no com- 

 parison can be made except for those who are 7 years old and 

 over. 



Using the figures given on Tables I, II, and III for the year 

 1894-5 for the three cities, I find the average acre of all those 

 children who were above 7 years of age at the date of regis- 

 tration in the public schools in 1894-5, to be as follows: St. 

 Louis, 10.83; Chicago, 10.87; Boston, 11.56. 



I wish now to show how entirely reasonable it is that the 

 average age of those in school should be very different from the 

 average age at the time of withdrawal. Let us suppose that 

 in an ideal city 1,000 pupils enter the schools every year at 

 exactly the age of six years. Let us also suppose that this 



