December 8, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



785 



ments now in progress in other vocational 

 schools. We have fallen into the error, it 

 is to be feared, of regarding the student 

 mind as a storage tank for useful facts 

 rather than as an instrument to be fash- 

 ioned into soundness and efficiency. "We 

 must never forget that the farmer is com- 

 prehended in the man. And when we 

 realize that many of the graduates of these 

 institutions will exert a dominating influ- 

 ence upon the mental and moral develop- 

 ment of young men and women, we see a 

 most important reason why their education 

 should not be confined to the narrow line of 

 technical training. And above all, as has 

 been urged, these graduates are to be mem- 

 bers of society. 



After all, what are the supreme objects 

 of education? It has been reported, 

 though I do not credit the statement, that 

 a member of an agricultural college fac- 

 ulty once declared that the business of his 

 institution was to bring about the produc- 

 tion of more hogs at greater profit. If this 

 remark was made, what a spectacle it pic- 

 tures ! It places the hog at the pinnacle of 

 educational aspiration with man as a lesser 

 figure. In sharp contrast to this gross con- 

 ception of educational ideals stand the 

 sentiments of great minds who have seen 

 broadly and clearly the larger issues of life. 



Hill says of education that it should 

 "quicken a man's mental perceptions, form 

 in him the habit of prompt and accurate 

 judgment; lead to delicacy and depth in 

 every right feeling and make him inflexible 

 in his conscientious and steadfast devotion 

 to all his duties. ' ' Milton wrote that ' ' the 

 main skill and groundwork of education 

 will be to temper the pupils with such lec- 

 tures and explanations as will draw them 

 into willing obedience, influenced with the 

 study of learning and the admiration of 

 virtue, stirred up with high hopes of living 

 to be brave men and worthy patriots." 



Listen to Mill: 



The moral or religious influence which a univer- 

 sity can exercise consists less in any express teach- 

 ing than in the pervading tone of the place. 

 Whatever it teaches it should teach as penetrated 

 by a sense of duty ; it should present all knowledge 

 as chiefly a means of worthiness in life, given for 

 the double purpose of making each of us practic- 

 ally useful to our fellow creatures and of elevating 

 the character of the species itself. 



W. H. Jordan 



Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 Geneva, N. Y. 



A STUDY OF BETABDATION IN THE 

 SCHOOLS OF MINNESOTA^ 



The Materials. — The statistics brought to- 

 gether in this paper were gathered, for the 

 most part, in two separate investigations. 

 One, relating principally to retardation, in aU 

 its aspects, was conducted under the auspices 

 of the Minnesota Psychological Conference. 

 The otlier, concerning itself mainly with the 

 first year of retardation, or with repeaters, was 

 made at the request of the Associated School 

 Boards of Minnesota. 



Part of the data collected was laid before 

 these bodies at their respective 1910 meetings. 

 Both reports have been combined, condensed, 

 rewritten, and several sets of other interesting 

 statistics introduced for comparative purposes. 



The Schools Studied. — The schools con- 

 tributing the data on retardation proper are 

 fifty-five of the smaller systems of the state. 

 They each maintain high schools, known in 

 Minnesota as " state high schools," owing to 

 the fact that they are carefully inspected and 

 listed with the State High School Board for a 

 large yearly special grant direct from the state 

 treasury. They are, therefore, schools which 

 are kept at a high state of eiEciency. 



Only Grade Pupils Considered. — Only the 

 pupils in the grades below the high school are 

 considered, for several reasons. First, the 

 high school students are invariably promoted 

 by subjects, hence- accurate statistics as to 



^ Presented before Section L, American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, at the Min- 

 neapolis meeting. 



