At Gary the schools are so organized that certain teachers in certain rooms teach a particular subject; the general freedom of organization secured in this way is utilized to shift pupils from room to room, thus breaking up the grading system. The possibilities of this arrangement are described in the following quotation:
If a boy is weak in some particular subject, it is possible to give him double work in that subject. Let us say a 4A boy is weak in arithmetic. It is possible for a time for him to omit some of his special activities and take arithmetic with the 4B class also, thus permitting double time in arithmetic. If he is weak in all of his regular studies it is easy to drop him out of his special activities for a time and permit him to do double work in the regular studies. The special activities are of such a sort that he can return to his classes there without difficulty.[35]
The Ungraded Class in Graded Schools
Another type of experiment is seen in the so-called ungraded class. In many large schools a room is set apart under an especially skillful teacher where pupils who are for any reason out of joint with the curriculum may receive personal attention. Many of these ungraded rooms are so conducted that bright pupils, through a little personal help, are prepared to skip a grade and thus advance more rapidly than the ordinary pupil. Backward children, especially those who are backward in only a single subject, are helped enough to restore them to their classes. Where it is found that pupils are subnormal and permanently unable to keep in line with others of like age, the ungraded class may become a special class. The teacher is then given authority to take all liberty with the subject-matter of instruction and fit it to the needs of the pupils. Sometimes in such special classes reading is practically abandoned and time is devoted to various forms of handwork.
Cases where Failures show the Urgency of the Grading Problem
The foregoing paragraphs have, it is to be hoped, made clear the fact that the grouping of pupils and the organization of the curriculum are closely interrelated problems. The same lesson can be taught by a study of the actual operations of certain school systems which are organized under the graded system.
Fig. 11 shows certain records of failures in the elementary schools of Cleveland for one half of the year 1914. A failure on the part of a child in any school can have no other meaning than this: the child was, at the time of his failure, in the wrong group for his intellectual advantage. There is no effort in such a remark to place the blame for the child’s failure. Perhaps the child who fails is indolent. Perhaps the work is too difficult for him. Whatever the reason, failure means that the pupil and the system of grading are out of joint with each other. Hence, when we find pupils failing, we know that the grading system is not working perfectly.
In the figure the diagram at the left shows the percentage of nonpromotions in each grade. About 17 per cent failed in the first grade, about 12 per cent in the second, and so on. It may be well to comment briefly on the high percentage in the first grade. This is due to the fact that some pupils enter school when they are immature. Many pupils lose a great many days of schooling in the first years through contagious diseases, which, as shown by school statistics, are contracted more commonly during the first years than later. The family does not take care of attendance as carefully in the first year as later. The first year supplies the test which in many cases brings evidence of mental deficiency. These and other reasons explain the high percentage of nonpromotions in the first year. The reduced percentage in the second year is explained by the fact that a part of the task of adjusting pupils to the graded system and to the curriculum has been accomplished in the first grade.
Fig. 11. Record of nonpromotions and failures in Cleveland, 1914