The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1910-01-20
lhGGARD PUPILS N
OUR SCHOOLS
Children Thoroughly
Trained in Failure


erican Association for the advance OF
science. meeting In Boston. Leon.
ard p. Ayres. associate director OF the
Department of Child Hygiene of the
Russell Sage Foundation. New York
city. and former general superinten-
dent of schools for Porto Rico. gave
some startling figures regarding the
elementary schools of New England
The investigation of the laggard pu-
pills In the elementary schools of New
England, MIR. Ayres said. has shown
that " per cent of the pupils who
enter school in Maine continue
through the eighth grade; in Massa-
cEusetts 20 per cent are graduated
from the elementary schools; while
Vermont comes next with 81 per cent;
New Hampshire, IS; Rhode Island
81; and Connecticut an ignominious
sixth with over half of the pupils
who enter the elementary schools
leaving before they reach the eighth
grade. In Connecticut only 40 per
cent of the entering pupils In the
elementary schools are graduated fiji
to enter the high schools.
BY common agreement" contin-
ued Mr.. Ayres, educators, law-mak-
ers and publicists have very gener-
ally come to hold either tacitly ex-
pressedly that the amount of educa-
ton furnished by our common school
course is the minimum which may be
safely allowed to the future citizens
of this democracy. If, then it be
shown, as those figures do show, that
our schools are generally and in q
large measure, falling short of sup
plying this minimus; If it be shown
that a large part of the pupils fall
out before completing the elementary
course; this constitutes a serious in.
6ictment of our public school sys-
tenn.
| Let us consider what the problem
really means. To the state this
means that the men and women who
must soon take up the burden of citi-
zenship are woefully ill-prepared
Think for a moment of the studies
which the pupil who drops out in the
fifth grade fails to get. He has bu
a slight knowledge of geography; hi
has had no formal grammar of hi'
own language; he has had no stud,
of ci yics; his knowledge of the his
tory of his own country Is limited
to stories about some of its grea
men. The subjects which he fails t.
get are precisely these subjects which
are designed to fit him for citizen
ship.
From the viewpoint of the tax
payer the problem resolves itself In
to the question-what does he get fol
his money? The answer Is that HI
pays for eight grades and gets five
To be sure it costs him just as mucf
to teach a child for eight years dur
ing which he only completes fiv'
grades as 1t does to teach him TO
eight years and have him complies
the entire course, but from the view
point of the man who pays the mon
ey the present situation verges dan
gerously close upon fraud.
During the past two years severa
laborious and costly investigations
have been conducted to find out jus
what relation there Is between ply
steal effectiveness and school pro
gress. The result is in brief, that |
has been demonstrated that physica
defects do constitute real and seri
GUS handicap which aids in holdinf
the child back But it has been ever
more clearly demonstrated that the!
are not the real cause of retardation
that they are but a small factor, ant
that tho school itself is much NOR,
responsible than are physical defects
for existing conditions.
Medical inspection through Its de
lection and exclusion of contagious
diseases has performed a great worl
in saving many lives. The schoo
physician through his detection
and cure of physical defects Il
making brighter, happier and NOR,
useful the lives of many thousands o
children. But when this has beer
said the limits of the field have II
some measure been indicated 1t ha,
not been demonstrated that the long
yearned-for royal road to learning II
always to be found through the sur
geon's knife. 1t has not been shown
that If you cut out child's tonsils
fit him to pair of eyeglasses. rit
him of adenoids, the school term will
be cut In two, the general level o
education will surge up and the cit.
will save millions of dollars.
Assuming that boys and girls enteI
the primary grade at the age or eight
and in congested cities the average Il
much lower why should they not b.
out of the 4th grade at the time they
are ~. and out of the sixth grade a
the time they are IA? We can never
again accept as an answer, Because
they do not know enough
THE average child Is the mos
important problem of the school room
The average child Is the cause o.
most of the other serious problems
Some of the cases can be met by
pushing the child ahead. In some
system where there are many such
children the problem could and should
be met by making special classes fol
them. 1t is not always high-grade
classes that such boy needs, it is
rather a class made up of boys and
girls of his own intellectual powers
Such classes taught by picked teach
ers to teach the essential part oil
abridged and amended courses Of
study are the means whereby the
backward children problem Is being
solved.
I'VE have seen that a large part OF