New-York tribune., 1922-11-20
BY NJ. .Jay Racusin

ny NJ. Jay Racusin
low many nickels make dollar7
Fourteen"
Johns grandmother is eighty-six
years old. If she lives, in how many
years will she be 100 years old?
In $50 years"
What is the cost of twelve cakes
at six cakes for Ave cents?
,Seventy-two cents"
How many inches in a foot and a
|, half?'
six inches."
Writer is cold in. the North snd
short in the spring"
Calm" and stormy" have the
same meaning. "Sharp" and "dull"
are identical.
alike" and different" arc the
same.
"A wheel is made up Of an engine
and coaches"
These are written answers given in
s recent test of seventh grade pupils
IN one OF the city's elementary schools,
These pupils are not mental detectives
and have been advanced from class to
class. They were instructed in ad-
dition. subtraction, multiplication and
DIVISION in the second, third and
fourth grades, and are supposed to
have learned all about fractions, deci-
mails, percentage and the complexities
or cubic and rectangular measure
ments in the fifth, sixth and seventh
year classes. In another year, it is
presumed, they will be ready to enter
high school,
355,000 on Part Tine
These answers disclose what is hap
penInggs great proportion of the
! ! 81 900 Y rsn who attend the city,s
SSAsals. They are symbols of the
feet upon the child Of the part time
double sessions and other makeshift
schemes grated upon the educational
system in hopeless effort to deal
with the congestion and overcrowdinp
resulting from the grave lack of school
| space.
That there are 355,557 school chill
dren cut of 931,141 on part time and
double sessions probably has meant
little more than figures to the average
parent with youngster Of school age
1t was with view to getting at the
real effect of these conditions upon
the education of the child that I spent
three weeks in the classrooms OF
schools where congestion and over.
cf.o,wdlng are greatest, and where con.
eitions are fairly representative OF
tha other hard-pressed schools of the
city, sat for hours at desks with the
pupils, two and three at desk, heard
their recitations, read their books ey.
amined their test papers and inter.
viewed their teachers.
here are some of the things ]
| learned:
Fifty per cent of the pupils in the
| crowded schools are unfit to continue
1, with the work of their grades and are
! not prepared to go on with the regular
studies of the next class at the end OF
the term. e
Nevertheless, children are promoted
| "lthouc regard to their educational
progress, only those bordering on men.
| tai deficiency being kept back II the
| child shows the slightest glimmer Of
intelligence he is advanced.
| Promotion Not for knowledge
Teachers are virtually instructed te
promote certain proportion of their
classes, regardless of the fitness of the
| child, to make room for incoming chill.
| dren.
! frequently the teacher gives her chill.
dren the examination and test aues.
| tions in advance and drills them in the
answers to insure their passage. She
! is not permitted to keep back more thar
| six pupils, no matter how little the
class has absorbed of the years work
| Under these limitations children
| who have not attended school more
than two or three weeks in year have
been advanced.
In one school fewer than twenty
children out of every hundred are
| n1n king normal propress -
| Because of the accepted custom Of
forced promotion, pupils in the seventh
and eighth grades, who should be pro
ficient in the more complex forms Of