542 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 939 



there were any national body, similar to 

 our school council, clothed with power to 

 consider the individual ease and settle it on 

 its merits, this young man would probably 

 have been saved one year of valuable time. 



It is of course easy to answer that the 

 man knew the rule and should have gov- 

 erned his attendance accordingly. But 

 from my point of view the rule is a device 

 for securing proficiency. As a general 

 thing it promotes proficiency and is there- 

 fore a good rule. But in this case it was 

 not necessary, as the documents show. 

 Justice to the individual, therefore, made 

 it desirable that the rule be not enforced. 

 You say this would create a bad precedent. 

 I answer it would create a good precedent 

 that, for good reasons, exception may be 

 taken even to a good rule. 



Dr. Means has asked me to comment also 

 on the action of the instructors who gave 

 the young man statements of having passed 

 their courses subject to the time require- 

 ment above mentioned. As I do not know 

 the conditions at the Los Angeles school, I 

 think it would be unfair to express a spe- 

 cific opinion. In general it may, perhaps, 

 be claimed as the just prerogative of an in- 

 structor to give to any student a statement 

 of the work he has done and the proficiency 

 attained while studying under that in- 

 structor. For administrative reasons, in 

 schools hemmed in by legal restrictions 

 like our medical schools, it is well that this 

 prerogative be exercised with caution. In 

 our school it is a matter of custom that no 

 grades be given out by the instructors. If 

 any chose to do so, I should not complain. 

 But it is clear that a grade so given does 

 not constitute school credit, for that de- 

 pends on other factors, such as registra- 

 tion, payment of fees and legal attendance. 



SUMMARY 



Migrating students have been divided into 

 three classes. The good students who come 



from good schools should be accepted on 

 the general principle of equivalence of 

 discipline rather than exact parallelism of 

 courses of study. Migration of this kind 

 of students should be encouraged. Poor 

 students from good schools, what Dr. 

 Means calls "lame ducks," need very 

 careful consideration and supervision. 

 Their standing should be provisional and 

 contingent on good work. Each ease 

 should be considered on its merits, and the 

 student given a fair opportunity to redeem 

 his record. But he must be held rigidly 

 enough to test his ability and knowledge. 

 It is not wise to take such students into 

 the senior year. 



The third class consists of students from 

 inferior schools. It can not be ascertained 

 in advance whether they are capable or 

 not, as the grades from many of these 

 schools are of no value. These students 

 likewise should not be taken into the senior 

 year, but by two years of selected work, 

 supplemented in many eases by summer 

 school, many of them can be graduated on 

 a par with the regular members of a class. 

 These students are usually men who made 

 a mistake in their original choice of a 

 school and who are earnestly desirous of 

 bettering their condition. Each student 

 must be considered individually, and his 

 credits and studies adjusted to meet his 

 personal needs. Hard and fast rules can 

 not be followed, but certain principles find 

 more or less general application. These 

 are considered in the body of this paper. 



For the adequate consideration of the 

 individual student, whether in the matter 

 of migration or any other phase of school 

 life, a body of trained educators must be 

 constituted with ample powers. It is 

 recommended that this body be composed 

 primarily of the paid, full-time instructors. 

 In most medical schools this would not be 

 too large a number to be effective. This 



