The Alaska citizen., 1916-01-17

W NIh.
 Sometimes pupil and teac>er d. not work in harmony and the child .krs lJ interest in any of his claz,.s. Lat gradually drops behind Icre a-ain is where the tactfu1 mother should come in. putting aside any personal feeling that may exist and worzint only for the good Of the child. Invariably sine can smooth over matters if she will, and brine about a better understandina.
 When subject is particularly hard for child only patience and plenty of personal help will kee9 him out of the misfit class in tAis subject
 The present grading system has made many uisfits. The child mrHt pass ia every subject or do aii the work Of tho grade over aga'n In nine cases out of ten the child be comes an idler the second year He half knows the work. for he has been over il before, so he puts forth little effort and drops farther behind Meanwhile the brightest pupils can d3 the work in half the time allowed. but they must stay the year in the class. So they merely mark time which induces lazy habits that stay with them,
 Proposed Remedies.
 From these different causes are produced the child that does net fit in his grade Educators have all recognized his needs and many plans have been tried to meet them Per haps all are succeeding in some dc gree
 The Gary system has been much atFoE rt It was started ir Cary Indiana. by William Wirt some nine years ago. The main idea of this system is that a pupil should take the subjects he or she is interested in. and not be separated from life to be prepared for life. All studies are correlated with activities an
 ae se.-=l i@ correlated with daily life. One ;chooI building m Gary takes the place of two, by having half the pupils do class work while the other half work in shops, kiteh- ens and playgrounds, thus alternat- ing work, play and study The school is open on Saturdays a. well as week days. and twelve months in the year. It is the center of activity not only for the children but also for adults. On Sundays tn" grounds are open to all.
 There are individual teachers else where that are doing good work along similar lines A New York high school principal found num- Der cf young girls unable to keep up with the regular course of study and about to be dropped, To keep them in school he studied their spe- cial needs and worked out course for them in which his teachers were glad to help. These girls were taueht Fnels0 mathematics and his toIy IS these subjects came into their daily life, and instead of fail ing in them as heretofore they made good marks.
 Batavia, New York, first intro duced the misfit teacher. Each +chool under this plan has extra teachers. to give individual help when needed, and in connection with them the bright pupils in each class become helpers It is the duty ot the teacher to give personal lnstruc- i.u r. all backward pupils and also to help the bright pupils forward as fast as they can go,
 All of the larger cities and many small towns gre now deyising some one system of helping the misfit or are adopting the best features from different systems. New York City is having William Wirt estab- fish his plan of work in two schools. The running expenses of this method are very small for the shops, kitch- en. etc. are self-supporting The initial cost has not been stated. In Gary this was borne by the steel corporation which engaged MT. Wlrt Kansas City IS adopting part of the Cary plan Seattle is spending about five times as much on her misfit classes as on the regular classes Here the city has regular buildings, centrally located, where the misflt child reports for special help in a subject or where he has all his work if he is behind in everything.
 Portland has method all it's own. The teacher is promoted with her pupils. and in this way it is hoped to do away with many of the chil- dren that do not fit in their grade. Los employs the best teach CTS that can be found for similar work.
 Misfit Work in Fairbanks.
 For the first time in Fairbanks and perhaps in all Alaska the mis- fit work has been taken up this year. The principal subject that is being handled, thus far, is arith- metic. althoueh the pupils can come