292 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
thousand, are just now going over a term’s work for the second 
time” The grade enrollment was, at that time, in round num¬ 
bers, 23,000. Therefore, 8.4% were repeating. This year the 
number of repeaters in St. Paul is 1,726 in the grades. 
Having studied the laggards in our Minnesota schools from 
two standpoints, it is interesting to note how strikingly the re¬ 
sults agree. We found the percentage of retardation to he 59.3 
and that of the repeaters to be 7.4. How, bearing in mind that 
the number of repeaters in merely one year’s quota of the re¬ 
tarded ones, and multiplying the 7.4 by eight, the number of 
years in the grade course, we have 59.2 as the calculated num¬ 
ber of laggards. The ascertained number is only .1 of one per 
cent, more than this. 
Causes. 
The essential thing in a study of an unsatisfactory educa¬ 
tional condition is to find out its causes in order to proceed ra¬ 
tionally to discover and apply a remedy. There are two sources 
from which we might expect to derive information as to the 
causes of retardation. One is the teachers. The other is the 
children themselves. The form'er is the one most generally 
used and is the one we are to use. But the vital source is the 
retarded children themselves. In the last analysis, the true 
solution of the whole vast problem will come, if it ever does 
come, as the result of a wide-spread study of the cause from the 
viewpoint of the affected individuals. That will be a long, 
delicate and arduous task but the fruits will be rich. We must 
see the faults of the school system as the child whom it has 
failed to serve effectively sees it, and through his eyes. Then, 
seeing why he fails and getting his point of view we will be 
ready to adjust schools to his requirements. But at present we 
are not in a position to reach the solution of the question from 
that angle. So we resort to the easier though less effective one 
of finding out what the teachers believe to be the true causes of 
retardation. 
The causes as given by the superintendents of these schools] 
do not pretend to be based upon any special or scientific sifting 
