254 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 346. 



were to be considered as good were those 

 which were considered as conducive to 

 study and regular attendance at school, 

 while bad home conditions were those that 

 made this improbable. The latter might 

 be due either to the general attitude of the 

 parents toward school work in general, or 

 the economic condition which left little time 

 for study or caused frequent absences. 

 The curves upon Fig. 7 are about what 

 might with reason be expected, showing but 

 a small chance for good scholarship under 

 the latter condition. The study of the two 

 sexes separately showed that the home in- 

 fluences had a wonderfully more tenacious 

 grip upon the girls than upon the boys ; less 

 than 1 per cent, of the former whose 

 home conditions were designated as poor, 

 could force themselves into the 1st quar- 

 ter of the class, while 20 per cent, of the 

 boys managed to pull themselves out of the 

 mire to that standing. Washing dishes 



1st 



2d 



Sd 



4th 



40% 



30% 



20% 



10% 



Fig. 7. Home Condition. 



and doing other home duties may have had 

 something to do with the difficulties of the 

 girls — duties from which the boys fre- 

 quently escape — but I am inclined to think 

 that the difference is largely due to the 



more dominating influence upon the girl of 

 the attitude of the home toward educational 

 matters. She can hardly escape from it. 

 She carries it to school with her, and if it 

 be poor it drags her down. With the boy 

 it is different. A game of ball or of marbles 

 before school puts him into another world, 

 and he does not reenter the depressing one 

 of home until he is forced to, and even then 

 he makes an early escape. 



DEPORTMENT. 



I do not consider the curves upon Fig. 8 

 of much value. They show a very marked 

 relation between good deportment and good 



50% ■ 



40% 



30% 



20% 



10% 



Fig. 8. Deportment. 



class standing, but it takes a very hard- 

 hearted teacher to give the best pupil in the 

 grade, or those who are pushing him closely 

 for honors, a mark for bad deportment, and 

 I know the good teachers of Colorado too 

 well to believe that they could easily do it. 

 His marks, by a kind of mental osmosis in- 

 termingle, and with all respect for the good 

 intentions of the teacher, I put this in more 

 as a study of them and an apostrophe to 



