Properly selected student advisers, appointed early, may transform the school for the pupil, save the pupil for the school, and his work from failures.
A relatively high degree of flexibility and specialization of the curriculum will help the pupil find what he is best fitted for, and thereby minimize waste. This will include a virtual parity between the classical and scientific subjects.
The reduction of some subjects to smaller units will tend to facilitate flexibility and a reduction of failures.
The provision of directed study will help the pupils to help themselves. Good teaching demands it. The harness is often heavier than the load. Failures are inevitable.
The plan of study direction must be varied according to the varying needs of pupils, subjects, and schools. The poorer pupils are aided most. They are made even more reliant on themselves. The reduction of failures tends to balance any added expense.
Records adequate and complete should be a part of the business and educational equipment of every school. The exposition and use of these facts as recorded will then give direction to school progress, and dethrone the authority of assumption and opinion.
REFERENCES:
[54.] Thorndike, E.L. Individuality, pp. 38, 51.
[55a,] [55b.] Neuman, H. Moral Values in Secondary Education, United States Bureau of Education Bulletin, No. 51, 1917, pp. 18, 17.
[56.] Maxwell, W.H. A Quarter Century of Public School Development, p. 89.