Part 13 (1/2)

It is indeed striking how failures of the pupils are grouped under particular subjects of difficulty, and how the pupils fail again and again in the saeneral subject No educational expert would seeoodly nu and to detect a productive source of the whole trouble if only the following distribution were presented to him

DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF TIMES THEY HAVE FAILED IN THE SAME SUBJECT

No of Times 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14

Boys 2852 1416 425 196 73 25 2 4 1 1 1 0 1 Girls 2812 1722 501 250 98 31 7 8 3 1 0 3 0

By 'salish, Latin, mathematics We may be led to note first that a s to those who fail but once in the sareater nu to those who fail two or more times in the same subject To state that fact more specifically, 685 per cent of the total 17,960 failures involved in this study are made by two or more failures in the sa to a more promiscuous and varied collection of failures, of not more than one in any subject It will be noted here that soreater continuity than one year or even one seram Such subjects provide the least possibility of successive failures in the same field A further analysis shows that the failures incurred by three orin the same subject form 336 per cent of the entire number; and that 18 per cent of the total is comprised of four or more instances of failure in the same subject There is small probability that such a multiplication of failures by subjects will characterize the subjects which are least productive of failures in general, and such is not the case in fact Latin and ain the chief contributors, and this would seem to be a fact also for those schools quoted from outside of this study, for purposes of comparison in Chapter II

The above distribution speaks with graphic eloquence of how the school tends to focus emphasis on the subject prescribed and then to demand that the pupil be fitted or beco up of failures will more likely mark those subjects which see his needs and appealing to his interests

In two of the schools studied, an X, Y, and Z division was for pupils, by which they take three seed by results, is obviously insufficient for such pupils and tends to prove further that the kind of work isthan is the amount Frequently a pupil who fails in the A semester (first) will also fail in the X division of that subject as he repeats it, while at the same time his work is perhaps not inferior in the other subjects The data for these special divisions were not kept distinct in transcribing the records, so that it is not possible to offer the tabulated facts here There are nunized illustrations of how some pupils find soe distinctively difficult for them

4 AN INDICTMENT AGAINST THE SUBJECT-MATTER AND THE TEACHING ENDS, AS FACTORS IN PRODUCING FAILURES

The evidence already disclosed to the effect that the high school entrants are highly selected, that few of the failing pupils lack sufficient ability for the work, that they have y in diverse ways, and that particular subjects are unduly emphasized and by the uniforely contributing to the harvest of failures, seeainst both the subject- so prominently in the production of failures There is clearly an administrative and curriculum problem involved here in the sense that not a few of the failures seem to represent the cost at which the e to any subject to defend its place in the high school curriculue the policy of the indiscri only that English of soreat majority of the pupils It is simply demanded that Latin and mathematics shall stand on their own merits, and that the same shall apply to history and science or other subjects of the curriculuht as earnestly and as efficiently as possible; but it should not be asked that any teacher take the responsibility for the unwilling and unfitted members of a class who are forced into the subject by an arbitrary ruling which regards neither the motive, the interest or the fitness of the individual

This indict method or purpose which focalizes the teachers' attention and energy chiefly on the subject Certain basic assumptions, now prettyof the subject for its own sake, and often without ard to any definite social utility served by it This charge seelish so that 165 per cent of all the failures are contributed by it, without giving even the graduate a enerally testified Strangely enough, except in the light of such teaching ends, the pupils who stay through the upper years and to graduate have raduates who enerally escape the advanced classes of these subjects The traditional standards of the high school simply do not meet the dominant needs of the pupils either in the subject-content or in the methods employed Some of these traditionaldisappointust rather than of furnishi+ng a valuable kind of discipline The school le treatment for all cases In each subject there must be many kinds of treatrowth of the individuals included This does not in any sense necessitate the displace, but on the contrary greater thoroughness may be expected to result, as helpful adaptations of ful and purposeful hness itself demands

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER VI

The pupil is but one of several factors involved in the failure, yet the consequences are most momentous for him

The pupils who lack native ability sufficient for the work are not a large nuraduates represent about a 1 in 9 selection of the eleh a percentage of the failing pupils as of the non-failing ones

The success of the failing pupils in the Regents' exa with extra schedules, bears witness to their possession of ability and industry

In the se and that irades are passing, 20 per cent are A's or B's Many of them ”can if they will”

The early elimination of pupils, the number that fail, and the notable cases of non-success in school are evidence of so with the kind of education

The characteristic culmination of failures for Latin and mathematics can hardly be considered a part of the pupils' responsibility

Of all the failures 685 per cent are incurred by instances of two or more failures in the sanments is almost inevitable by a prescribed uniformity of the same content and the same treatment for all

The traditional methods and eust than for valuable discipline

REFERENCES:

47 Maxwell, WH _A Quarter Century of Public School Develop, JK _The Elimination of Pupils from Public Secondary Schools_, p 183