Lurton—A Study of Retarded Children. 295 
to be expected because these are rural towns where the matter 
of education is less interferred with by the many distractions in¬ 
cident to city life. 
Minnesota spends nearly $15,000,000 annually on her 
schools. On the basis of 7.4% repeating this would mean a loss 
approximating $1,110,000 yearly. 
The latest report of the National Commissioner of Education 
shows a national expenditure of $371,344,410 for the common 
schools. With a 7.4% loss the amount would be $27,479,485. 
The next item is reduced from the 1907 report of the Minne¬ 
apolis schools. There were, that year, 44,683 children in the 
schools. Of them 8,465 were repeaters. They cost the city 
the sum of $258,647. That was 18.9% of the total expendi¬ 
tures. 
The Social and Economic Loss. 
And to this gigantic money-cost there are two things to be 
added. One is the moral and ethical loss suffered by the indi¬ 
viduals who repeat; that is past human computation. We owe 
it to the children, to ourselves, to society, to prevent, if it be 
possible, such waste. We find, according to the location of the 
schools, from 7.4% to 15.4% of our boys and girls repeating 
the work of one year’s preparation. That is, wasting one year 
of life. Boys furnish 13% more repeaters than do girls, ac¬ 
cording to the following table, taken from Laggards in Our 
Schools. 
Number of repeaters among boys and girls in fourteen cities: 
City, 
Year. 
Boys. 
Girls. 
1 Aurora. 
1907 
156 
155 
2 Baltimore..... 
1907 
9,023 
8,432 
3 Boston..... 
1906 
5,991 
5,030 
4 Camden... 
1907 
2,132 
2,131 
5 Columbus. 
1907 
2,020 
1,513 
6 Decatur... 
1908 
440 
354 
7 Erie...... 
1901 
1,065 
961 
8 Fort Wayne... 
1907 
500 
443 
9 Kansas City, Mo. 
1908 
4,247 
3,814 
10 Kingston,N.Y. 
1908 
407 
303 
11 Los Angeles... 
1904 
3,103 
2,425 
12 New Haven... 
1908 
1,772 
1,600 
13 Trenton... . 
1901 
1,083 
1,005 
14 Williamsport... 
1908 
373 
321 
Total. 
Total membership in elementary schools. 
Per cent of repeaters. 
32,312 
141,240 
22.8 
28,487 
140,839 
20.2 
