Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 65.djvu/451

Rh were women, competent above the average, but they were not interested in that side of life, and they simply could not, except in rare instances, make a success in it. A flood of protest poured in from them to the county superintendent, and the subject was shortly discontinued. In view of the situation, we should not be surprised that almost everywhere in our public schools the esthetic has the preference over the practical—that poetry and literature receive more attention than arithmetic; painting and art than mechanical drawing; and music and the languages than physics, chemistry and industrial training.

Mr. Calvin M. Woodward, president of the St. Louis Board of Education, has made a study of the causes which impel pupils, and

 The gap between these lines widens with increasing number of women teachers. Boys outnumber girls in primary grades but are outnumbered in upper grades.

especially boys, to drop out of school between the ages of 12 and 15. Circumstances are seldom such as to render it necessary for them to go to work for wages. Mr. Woodward says:

My deliberate conclusion, after a careful study of the matter, is that the prime causes for the abnormal withdrawals are: First, a lack of interest on the part of the pupils; and secondly, a lack on the part of parents of a just appreciation of the education now offered, and a dissatisfaction that we do not offer instruction and training of a more practical character.

The pupils become tired of the work they have on hand, and they see in the grades above them no sufficiently attractive features to invite them. They become discontented and neglectful; failure follows, they get behind, and then they stop.

As for the boys from 12 to 15 years old, their discontent is not unnatural. They are conscious of growing powers, passions and tastes which the school does not recognize. They find the restraints of the school room and grounds irksome. Their controlling interests are not in committing to memory the printed page; not even the arithmetic serves to reconcile them to school hours and school studies. They long to grasp things with their hands; they burn to test the strength of materials and the magnitude of forces; to match their cunning with the cunning of practical men and of nature.

The dissatisfaction of parents springs from several sources. The discontent of the boy or girl contributes to the feeling that the cost of books and the loss of a child's labor are too great price to pay for what the child is getting. As for going to the high school, it seems to the parent to be out of the question. The school is too far off, too costly in books, in dress and car fare, and not sufficiently practical in its course of study.