Our schools cannot be considered as satisfactorily organized until we make provision for every boy or girl to work up to the maximum of his capacity.  The one thing that a teacher cannot do is to make all of his pupils equal in achievement.  Whatever adjustment may have been made in terms of special classes or segregation in terms of ability, the teacher must always face the problem of varying the assignment to meet the capacities of individual children, and she ought, wherever it is possible, especially to encourage the abler children to do work commensurate with their ability, and to provide, as far as is possible, for the rapid advancement of these children through the various stages of the school system.

QUESTIONS

1.  What are the principal causes of differences in abilities or in achievement among school children?

2.  What, if any, of the differences noticed among children may be attributed to sex?

3.  Are any of the sex differences noticeable in the achievements of the school children with whom you are acquainted?

4.  To what extent is maturity a cause of individual differences?

5.  What evidence is available to show the fallacy of the common idea that children of the same age are equal in ability?

6.  How important is heredity in determining the achievement of men and women?

7.  To what extent, if any, would you be interested in the immediate heredity of the children in your class?  Why?

8.  To what extent is the environment in which children live responsible for their achievements in school studies?

9.  What may be expected in the way of achievement from two children of widely different heredity but of equal training?

10.  For what factor in education is the environment most responsible?  Why?

11.  If you grant that original nature is the primary cause of individual differences in intellectual achievements, how would you define the work of the school?

12.  Why are you not justified in grouping children as bright, ordinary, and stupid?

13.  Will a boy who has unusual ability in music certainly be superior in all other subjects?

14.  Why are children who skip a grade apt to be able to skip again at the end of two or three years?

15.  Are you able to distinguish differences in type of mind (or general mental make-up) among the children in your classes?  Give illustrations.

16.  What changes in school organization would you advocate for the sake of adjusting the teaching done to the varying capacities of children?

17.  How should a teacher adjust his work to the individual differences in capacity or in achievement represented by the usual class group?

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XI.  THE DEVELOPMENT OF MORAL SOCIAL CONDUCT