work the example correctly on account of making so many errors in the subordinate processes of multiplication and subtraction. (12: 196) Similar diagnostic tests in the cases of pupils who were having difficulty with reading are described in references (14) and (15) in the bibliography at the end of this chapter. Special difficulties due (1) to inborn incapacity or (2) to absence, inattention, poor teaching. A pupil's special difficulties which appear in such diagnostic tests in arithmetic and reading may be due (1) to an inborn lack of capacity for arithmetical computation or reading, or (2) they may be due to absence, or inattention, or poor teaching of the processes with which the child has difficulty. In the second case skilled individual assistance may enable the child to forge ahead rapidly after the special difficulty has been cleared up. In the first case, where the difficulty is due to inborn incapacity, prolonged patient individual assistance by the teacher may be necessary to make automatic each fundamental elementary process. However, as indicated above, the social importance of such special skills as arithmetical computation is so great that the time spent in improving weak pupils in them is not wasted. Weak pupils may retain specific skills if thoroughly automatized. -There is reason to believe that if the simpler fundamental processes in reading, writing, arithmetic, and spelling are made thoroughly automatic in the case even of slow pupils, by years of short, interesting, effective periods of drill in school, these special skills may persist after the pupils leave school. This does not mean that these skills will not deteriorate if unpracticed after the children leave school, but if the skills have been thoroughly automatized in school, they can be quickly relearned, polished up again, with little practice in later life. Few songs remembered by monotone is an example of retained skill.-An ordinary example of such persistence of a specific skill even when there is general native incapacity is found in the case of the monotones described earlier in the chapter, where the father, although he has not learned any new songs, can still sing a few songs learned in adolescence. The persistence of these, to be sure, is due not only to the original automatizing of them but also to their occasional recall at later periods in life. The similar persistence of skill in swimming, skating, and baseball through years, often with prolonged lack of practice, furnishes further examples. Typewriting skill deteriorated during disuse, but quickly relearned. More scientific evidence of the persistence of specific skills, although not coupled with original native incapacity in this case, is found in elaborate experiments on typewriting conducted by Swift, who found that although his typewriting skill deteriorated greatly during two years of disuse, in a very few hours of practice he was able to bring it back to its original level. Students interested in examining the scientific evidence on the persistence of special skills should read pages 243-258 in Thorndike's "Educational Psychology, Briefer Course." Summary concerning individual teaching of weak pupils. — Up to this point in our discussion, by means of simple examples of monotones and of pupils who need individual drill in the fundamental processes of arithmetic, we illustrated a number of general points concerning individual differences in capacity and individual instruction. These have all pertained to weak pupils or pupils who are having special difficulties. These points may now be summarized as follows: 1. A specialized inability shown by any pupil may be due either (1) to inborn incapacity or (2) to misunderstanding and lack of practice arising from absence, inattention, or defective teaching. 2. Where the inability is due to inborn incapacity, treatment of it will depend on its social importance. BRIGHT PUPILS EXCUSED FROM CLASS TO SPEND THEIR SPARE TIME PROFITABLY IN See story on opposite page a. If very essential for social service or increased happiness, great care will be taken to bring the weak pupil up to satisfactory standards. b. If the inability relates to a subordinate and relatively nonessential feature of the pupil's later life, he may not be given much special attention. 3. Where the inability is not due to native incapacity, careful diagnosis and a few minutes of skilled individual teaching will often suffice to enable the pupil to overcome his difficulties and forge ahead. Proficient pupils. Varied assignments. Excused from drill. The discussion of the individual needs of pupils who are having special difficulties presents, however, only a part of the problem of adapting teaching to individual differences in capacity. Equally important are the cases of pupils who have mastered the processes with which most of the class is concerned and can spend their time and energy to better advantage on other assignments. Here, again, we find a simple example of what can be done for such pupils in the use of the standardized printed drill materials in arithmetic. As described on page 254, with such materials each pupil practices, during the ten-minute drill periods, upon such problem sheets as the tests have indicated for him. If the tests have shown that he is sufficiently skilled for his grade in all the fundamental processes, then he is excused from the drill and spends his time upon Story of the picture on opposite page. In the school library stacks shown in this picture are hundreds of volumes of fascinating literature for children of all ages. These volumes vary from "Tom Sawyer" and "How to make Airplanes to H. E. Marshall's The fast pupils who Scotland's Story" and Stevenson's poems. have completed their required work are often excused to go to the library for supplementary study or free reading. Thus the picture illustrates provision for individual differences. other assignments. The importance of excusing the proficient pupils from further drill is emphasized in one of the standard drill systems in the following words: Children who complete all the tests successfully do not need the slightest drill work in the four operations as they already have more than average adult ability in these skills. The author and the publishers hereby give emphatic warning that the drill lessons are designed only for children who need them, and that they should not be held responsible for the bad effects and loss of efficiency sure to follow the use of the drills with children who have already attained the desired goal. Failure to determine the needs of children and to adjust individual work accordingly is one of the greatest factors operating to decrease the effectiveness of almost all the drill work found in common practice. (26: 12) Organization of supplementary assignments. After the teacher decides to excuse capable pupils from drill activities in which they are proficient, the problem arises of devising supplementary assignments for them. The organization of such supplementary assignments is desirable, moreover, not only for pupils who are excused from drill activities but also for the more proficient pupils in every subject. Such pupils often accomplish in a short time the regular assignment of work intended for most of the class, and, unless additional opportunities are opened for them, they may waste much of their time and possibly misuse some of it in devising mischief. An illustration of what may be done in the way of organizing varied assignments for the bright and the mediocre and the slow pupils is contained in the following quotations : An experiment with minimum and maximum assignments.· The grade teachers of the Elkhart public schools tried out an experiment during the past year with what may be called a system of minimum and maximum assignments of lessons. The purpose of the system was to provide a course to meet the different abilities of different children and thus to increase the promotion |