Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/492

486 little thought, instead of attempting to directly cure the boys of cruelty, offered a prize for the best essay on toads, containing an answer to the question, "What do toads eat?" The activity of the boys was turned in the direction of observing the actions of toads and for that reason they became interested in animals. This interest was increased as they discovered the great usefulness of toads in gardens. There was after that no need of police help, or "cruelty-to-animal-lectures," to prevent the stoning of toads in Worcester.

Although the science of child study has been developing so rapidly during the last quarter of a century it has, as yet, only begun to be organized into a definite system of knowledge. The demands for definite information from secular and religious teachers and from all sorts of child welfare societies, can be met only in part. Much that is already available, however, is still unknown to these workers and to the public generally, though all these agencies are now profiting, to some extent, by the results of child study and investigation.

Although as a science, child study seeks to discover the common characteristics of all children at each stage of development, yet the first results of child study have been increased emphasis upon the great differences between individual children and the need of recognizing those differences.

Psychologists and educators are now seeking to determine just how far individual treatment is necessary or most effective. It has been shown that from fifteen to thirty per cent, of children in any grade can not be seated properly in standard non-adjustable seats and now all progressive schools supply every pupil with adjustable seats, although if the same care were used in seating the children, this is probably not a more effective means of meeting the situation than would be the use of fifteen to thirty per cent, adjustable seats and the rest non-adjustable.

Recent studies of retardation show that from five to thirty per cent, of children in school are "repeaters," or in other words, that the standard courses of study do not fit that proportion of individuals, who are below the average. How many whose needs are not met for the opposite reason, that they could just as well go faster, is not known. It is certain at any rate that whatever general plan of grading is adopted in schools a large number of children can not have their needs properly met.

On account of this truth it has been held that all children should be taught individually and this has been attempted in a few places, notably at Pueblo, Colo., by Superintendent Search, who found that the best pupils did four times as much work as the poorest, in the same time. He claimed that, on the whole, better results were also obtained than by class instruction. The first fact has been confirmed by other experiments, the last is still disputed. Another method is to teach only the exceptional children individually, while the others are taught as before