278 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
The advocates of this method have not won a large following 
for several reasons. One difficulty with this method is that 
it is nearly impossible to operate it. By it the study of large 
groups of children, such as it is most desirable to study, is diffi¬ 
cult because each one must he traced by some system of records, 
not by age as now, but by the date of his entrance into the sys¬ 
tem. Pew if any systems show this fact; because it has no 
value except for this one purpose which is not the major one in 
keeping school records, and would even for this purpose have no 
value except in the few, comparatively, cases of those who en¬ 
tered later than the statutory age. In case children transfer 
from one system to another as they do by thousands annually, 
it is still more difficult to trace the age at entrance for the ex¬ 
ceptional ones. The “progress” theory neglects, too, the 
broader social relations of the schools. The schools are es¬ 
tablished by the state for a purpose. The stern purpose of 
making each and every one of its citizens who is mentally and 
physically capable, prepare in the highest degree possible, for 
his duties as a member of the state, both socially and economi¬ 
cally. This purpose is as stern as a measure of internal pro¬ 
tection, as war is for external protection against aggressions. 
If therefore, a child who is otherwise able, remains out of 
school beyond the time fixed by common experience and ex¬ 
pressed in the statutes of the state, while he may make normal 
progress through the grades, after entrance, he nevertheless is 
retarded in the sense that he gets out of school and into active 
life, behind schedule time and actually behind those who en¬ 
tered on time. So, he has that much less of productive life. 
He is forever retarded. Again we repeat, that the progress 
theory wholly overlooks the manifest duty of parents and 
schools, cooperating, to prepare the child as soon as possible, 
consistent with reasonable efficiency, for performing its proper 
economic functions as a member of a progressing society. 
The age-in-grade method. 
The other and most widely accepted method of determining 
retardation is the age-in-grade method. By this, it is assumed 
