Lurton—A Study of Retarded Children. 
297 
able amount of experimentation in reaching a rational solution 
of the problem. But a few suggestions, looking toward a solu¬ 
tion, may not be out of place. 
First. There should be fewer children to a teacher, thus per¬ 
mitting mlore attention to the individual child. 
Second. There should be more frequent promotions, mak¬ 
ing the course more flexible, so that there would be less time lost 
and less discouragement, in case of failure. 
Third. There should be more ungraded rooms for children 
who are irregular in their work in the several subjects. It 
would be a benefit to the regular ones to have the irregular re¬ 
moved from the grade thus. 
Fourth. There should be extra teachers, not in charge of 
rooms, to go from room to room to assist pupils with their dif¬ 
ficulties, while the regular teacher is busy with recitations. 
Fifth. There should be adequate medical and dental inspec¬ 
tion, with work by municipal paid physicians and nurses to fol¬ 
low it up. 
Sixth. There should be better playgrounds and gymnasiums, 
with properly supervised activities. 
Seventh. There should be better teachers, more imbued with 
the professional spirit, with keener sympathies and better prep¬ 
aration, who will awaken new life and interest in the pupils. 
Eighth. There should be more men teachers for the boys. 
Hot more hoy teachers, but men with school and life experience; 
preferably mlarried men with boys of their own. Men who 
know boys. 
Hinth. A better truancy law on right principles, excusing 
from school attendance only when the course is completed and 
not when a certain AGE is reached. The enforcement of this 
law should be compulsory, under penalty. 
Tenth. There should be a better adaptation of the course of 
study to the needs and capacities and tastes of the children. 
Work so difficult, so uninteresting, with passing standards so 
high as to promote failure and discouragement are really, at 
bottom, low and vicious standards. Further, such readjust¬ 
ment of the course of study ought to be taking place constantly, 
