Part 9 (1/2)

There is in no sense any intention here to condone the large number of failures simply because it is pointed out that they do not operate chiefly to cause elimination from school The above facts may lead to soiving especial attention to those who had left school, that ”the real force that is sending a majority of these children out into the industrial field is their own desire to go to work, and behind this desire is frequently the dissatisfaction with school” A so,[35] in saying that ”the pupil who yields unwillingly to the narrow round of school taskswill grasp at almost any pretext to quit school” WF Book tabulated the reasons why pupils leave high school,[36] as given by 1,051 pupils He found that discouragement, loss of interest, and disappointment affect more pupils than all the other causes combined Likewise Bronner notes[37] that the 'irrational' sameness of school procedure for all pupils often leads to ”serious loss of interest in school work, discouragement, truancy, and disciplinary problems” Still it may be that the worst consequences ofout WD Lewis observes[38] that the failing pupil ”speedily comes to accept himself as a failure,” and that ”the disaster to reater than to those who are shoved out”

To the sa the school period aversion and evasion are h the forced pursuit of uninteresting subjects” A pupil who acquires the habit of failing and the attitude of accepting it as a necessary evilto win and becoifted, or even to accept life in general as necessarily a matter of repeated failures In a similar connection, James E Russell says,[40] ”the boy who becomes accustomed to second place soon fails to think at his best” Such psychological results in regard to habits and attitude accruing from repeated failures are both certain and insidious And an education which purports to be for all and to offer the highest training to each must abandon the inculcation of attitudes of mind so detrimental to the individual and to the very society which educates him

4 THE PERCENTAGES THAT THE NON-GRADUATE GROUPS FORM OF THE PUPILS WHO HAVE EACH SUCCESSIVELY HIGHER NUMBER OF FAILURES

Bythe columns of totals for Tables VIII and IX, we are able to obtain the full number of pupils who have each number of failures froraduates in each of these groups by referring again to the nu series of percentages are thus obtained

THE PERCENTAGE FORMED BY NON-GRADUATES WITH 0, 1, 2, 3, ETC, FAILURES ON THE TOTAL NUMBER WHO HAVE 0, 1, 2, 3, ETC, FAILURES

No of Failures 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Per Cent 684 657 685 772 690 680 706 673 635

No of Failures 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17+ Per Cent 618 636 690 612 660 653 700 615 694

That these percentages would be higher for the non-graduates than for the graduates (that is, above 50 per cent) would certainly be expected by a glance at their higher nuroup of their distribution But it would hardly be expected by eneral tendency to rise as the failures per pupil increase in number, yet such is the truth as found here The reverse of these facts was found by Aaron I Dotey, with a sh school pupils[41] (1,397), studied in one of the New York City high schools Still he also asserts that failure in studies is not a cause of elienerally supposed to be We eneral tendency of the extended and varied series of percentages above, by co a briefer series, as follows:

(A CONDENSED FORM OF THE PRECEDING STATEMENT)

No of Failures 0 1 to 4 5 to 8 9 to 12 13 to 16 17 to 25 Per Cent 684 676 673 639 657 694

Not only do the percentages of non-graduates not increase relatively as the nueneral decline in these percentages until we reach '17 or more' failures per pupil

Then for '17 to 25' failures per pupil there is an increase of only 1 per cent over that for failures The number of failures does not seeraduate or to continue to in school

5 TIME EXTENSION FOR THE FAILING GRADUATES

We shall now inquire further what extension of tiraduates in co ones

The distribution according to the period for graduation for the 1,936 pupils who graduate was shown by the suraduates are included (but distinct)

No pupil graduates in less than three years and none takes longer than six years; 98 per cent of the number finish in less than 4 years; 197 per cent take more than 4 years The small number that finish earlier than four years raduation in several of the schools Soraduated only one, and the records made it plain that soraduating

Considering, however, that about 42 per cent of the graduates had no failures, they should have been able to speed up h They were doubtless not unable to do that

But some principals hold the conviction that four years will result in a rounding out of the pupil more than commensurate with the extended time More than 35 per cent of those who did finish in less than four years are graduates who had failed from 1 to 11 times In the conventional period of four years 77 per cent of the non-failing and 64 per cent of the failing graduates coraduate (see p 59, for the raduates for each tiiven below

THE PERCENTAGES OF NON-FAILING GRADUATES FOR EACH PERIOD

Ti 804 500 465 193 133

This continuous decline of percentages representing the non-failing graduates shows that they have an evident advantage in regard to the tih for the shorter tier periods But by reference to Table VIII we quickly find that the slight extension of the tiraduates is not at all commensurate with the number of failures which they have The failures are provided for in various ways, as Chapter V will explain No striking differences are observed for the boys and girls in any division of this chapter