486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
little thought, instead of attempting to directly cure the boys of cruelty, 
offered a prize for the best essay on toads, containing an answer to the 
question, “ What do toads eat?” The activity of the boys was turned 
in the direction of observing the actions of toads and for that reason 
they became interested in animals. This interest was increased as they 
discovered the great usefulness of toads in gardens. ‘There was after 
that no need of police help, or “ cruelty-to-animal-lectures,” to prevent 
the stoning of toads in Worcester. 
Although the science of child study has been developing so rapidly 
during the last quarter of a century it has, as yet, only begun to be 
organized into a definite system of knowledge. ‘The demands for defi- 
nite information from secular and religious teachers and from all sorts 
of child welfare societies, can be met only in part. Much that is already 
available, however, is still unknown to these workers and to the public 
generally, though all these agencies are now profiting, to some extent, 
by the results of child study and investigation. 
Although as a science, child study seeks to discover the common 
characteristics of all children at each stage of development, yet the first 
results of child study have been increased emphasis upon the great 
differences between individual children and the need of recognizing 
those differences. 
Psychologists and educators are now seeking to determine just how 
far individual treatment is necessary or most effective. It has been 
shown that from fifteen to thirty per cent. of children in any grade can 
not be seated properly in standard non-adjustable seats and now all 
progressive schools supply every pupil with adjustable seats, although if 
the same care were used in seating the children, this is probably not a 
more effective means .of meeting the situation than would be the use of 
fifteen to thirty per cent. adjustable seats and the rest non-adjustable. 
Recent studies of retardation show that from five to thirty per cent. 
of children in school are “ repeaters,” or in other words, that the stand- 
ard courses of study do not fit that proportion of individuals, who are 
below the average. How many whose needs are not met for the opposite 
reason, that they could just as well go faster, is not known. It is cer- 
tain at any rate that whatever general plan of grading is adopted in 
schools a large number of children can not have their needs properly met. 
On account of this truth it has been held that all children should be 
taught individually and this has been attempted in a few places, notably 
at Pueblo, Colo., by Superintendent Search, who found that the best 
pupils did four times as much work as the poorest, in the same time. 
He claimed that, on the whole, better results were also obtained than by 
class instruction. The first fact has been confirmed by other experi- 
ments, the last is still disputed. Another method is to teach only the 
exceptional children individually, while the others are taught as before 
