When the pupils report on their supplementary reading is the most interesting time of all. During the week, usually on Friday, we will find a time for "discussions" or "Supplementary Table Talks." Then, if it is story week, we hear reports of the stories read; not stories retold, as that would be a useless waste of time, but each pupil is asked to tell some point in a story which appealed to him. We discuss different stories together, which ones we like best and why, certain characters we liked and why. I find it an excellent help for silent reading. If it is a week for travels, we do the same thing, except that we discuss various countries or parts of our own, or take imaginary journeys.

The supplementary work is often varied at the children's own suggestion. For example, we decide next week we will all bring in all the stories we can find about a certain country, a certain man, by a certain author, on a certain subject, etc. Then for the week we will study them.

These discussions are excellent language drill. They give the ideas to the slower pupils who have not had the chance to read, and, as no one child likes to be left out of the discussion, they are an excellent stimulus for good class work.

Among the stories we often find one which, at the pupil's own suggestion, we can dramatize. Then comes interesting work.

Enriched education from use of spare moments.- Finally, we may notice the general educational results which follow in rooms where the teachers have carefully organized supplementary work for the spare moments of rapid learners. Quite a liberal education may frequently be acquired by such pupils just from the supplementary work which they do. A principal of a building described such results in the case of a sixth-grade teacher who arranged in her room a supply of books on history, geography, and science selected from the school library. The principal wrote as follows concerning the teacher:

Her pupils have the most extensive reading habits of any room in the building, and are the best-informed grade in school on the outside world.

Administrative provisions for the fast and slow. Individual promotions. Adequate practical provision for the slow and the fast pupils calls not only for varied assignments and teaching but also for the promotion of each pupil according to his individual needs. The necessity and value of special promotions for very bright pupils are suggested by the following typical example :

Robert was twelve years old, beginning the second half of the eighth grade. His teachers reported him indifferent, doing only ordinary work and inclined to be the center of schoolroom disorder and organized insurrection. Parents noted that, though previously much interested in school, the boy now disliked to attend; he disliked the teachers and wanted to drop out. Robert insisted that the studies were not interesting, that he knew all he wanted to know about them already. Mental [tests showed that he had attained] a mental age probably greater than that of some of his teachers, who bored him to death by treating him as an ordinary twelve-year-old. He was recommended to high school, entered three weeks late, led his class at the end of six weeks and at every subsequent interval when marks were given. More important, his whole attitude toward school was changed, because the advanced work was a real challenge to his mental ability. (29: 29)

Even the failures may be helped by promotion. - The careful organization and administration of such individual promotions on a large scale in actual practice is well described by Superintendent C. S. Meek in an article in the Elementary School Journal for April, 1915, Vol. XV, pp. 421-431. Principals and superintendents should read this article carefully. One of its most striking features is the description of the individual promotions of dull pupils who have really failed according to ordinary standards. Concerning these cases, Meek says:

The standard for promoting the dull pupil is entirely individual. He is not compelled to do all the work of his present grade before he is permitted to pass to the next. He is even allowed to pass

on without manifesting enough ability to justify the hope that he may be able to do the work of the advanced grade. The question is reduced to the one consideration, Would he do better if advanced than he would as a repeater?

In every grade of twenty which is promoted in Boise, there is an average of two who have not satisfactorily completed the work of the lower grade. These are accepted by the teacher as special cases to which she is expected to give individual attention both in and out of school hours. She is not held responsible for the work of the special pupil, but is given credit for all progress that she can stimulate. She gets the enthusiastic coöperation of the home, for the parents know that their unfortunate offspring has been treated generously and leniently. They thus aid in every possible way to bring their child up to the standard. This policy of dealing with laggards has the indorsement of the great majority of teachers. The consensus of opinion is that those who are permitted thus to advance more nearly approach the standard of the advanced grade than they would of the lower grade had they been compelled to repeat. This is not surprising when one considers how little there is in the curriculum that is so connected and consecutive that one year's work depends upon the completion of the subjects of the previous year. (8: 423)

Encouragement and confidence stimulate promoted laggards to better efforts. The success of the practice of promoting retarded pupils finds further explanation in the greater confidence and interest which it inspires in the promoted laggards. In speaking of the stimulating effect of feelings of confidence and success and the opposite depression resulting from failure, Freeman says:

Confidence in one's ability results in the stimulation of one's mental and physical power and in the release of energy for the task. The consciousness of failure and the expectation of failure, on the other hand, result in the drying up of the sources of one's energy. . . . Confidence [is greatly affected by] previous success. However one may endeavor to work up artificially a feeling of confidence, one is always influenced to some degree by previous

...

failure or success in this particular sort of work, or in work in general. As a consequence of this fact it is necessary that the work of the child be so managed that he shall possess the required degree of confidence in his ability. . . . This paralyzing effect of failure is evident in the case of children who have to repeat a grade. It is a matter of common observation that such children never work so hard as those who are taking the grade for the first time. Children who have failed in part of their work have been found to do better work if they were promoted than if they were made keenly conscious of their failure by being forced to repeat a grade. (27: 305-306)

Supervised study periods for individual teaching. Another administrative provision which is necessary in order to secure appropriate individual teaching and advancement is to include in the daily program regular periods for teaching individuals and supervising their study. There may be a single period or several study periods a day during which such teaching is carried on. The most successful example of such organization on a large scale was instituted some years ago in Batavia, New York, and is described at length in W. C. Bagley's "Classroom Management," chap. xiv. The results of fourteen years' experience with the plan are described by Superintendent Kennedy of Batavia in the Elementary School Teacher, June, 1912, Vol. XII, pp. 449– 459. Both of these references should be read by principals and superintendents who are interested in meeting the needs of individual pupils.

Scientific, objective, precise investigations of individual differences. Rates of reading. Up to this point in our discussion, by means of examples of monotones, varied drill lessons on fundamentals, supplementary assignments for bright pupils, etc., we have presented a general view of the opinions and practices which prevail in varying class instruction and promotions to meet the needs of individual pupils. We shall now take up a more scientific discussion of the

topic as the term scientific is used on page 110 above; that is, we shall present results of investigations that are mathematically precise, objective, verifiable, expert, and impartial. The first question which we shall consider with mathematical precision is the amount of difference in ability between the brightest and the slowest children in the same class. One of the most objective examples of such differences is found in the rate of silent reading; that is, the number of words per minute. How many words per minute would you expect the slowest child and the fastest child in a third-grade class to read if they were carefully tested while reading a simple story according to the following directions ?

Courtis Silent Reading Test.

teacher and pupils together.

Directions to be read aloud by

This test is given to see how well you can read to yourself. When the signal to start is given, open the cover and begin to read the story. Read silently, and only as fast as you can get the meaning; for when you have finished, you will be asked to answer questions about what you have read. You will be marked for both how much you read and how well you understand it, but it is better to get the meaning of the story than to read too fast.

When the examiner says "Mark,” draw a line around the last word read, and keep right on reading. If you should finish before the examiner says "Stop," close your paper and wait quietly until the others finish.

In a well-graded, small class, fastest pupil's rate equals twice the slowest. — The following table shows the number of words per minute actually read silently by the children of a third-grade class (3 B) containing 19 children.