Official administrative recognition of individual differences among public school pupils began with the extremely stupid, whom we call feeble-minded. This was natural, because the feeble-minded are incapable of even approximately normal progress, and this, added to their tendency to become disciplinary problems, renders them an intolerable burden to teachers in the regular grades.
As long ago as 1872 we find that attention was called to the “pedagogical misfits,” in proceedings at professional teachers’ meetings in the United States. By 1890 the city of Cleveland had established two special classes for children presenting particular difficulties of discipline. Special classes for extremely dull children (the feeble-minded) have passed the stage of experiment. They are now an accepted part of the school system of many cities in this country, and a few state departments of education have undertaken to establish such special classes for districts not so favorably situated as cities are. The relative money cost of thus educating the most stupid children produced in our population is great, and the returns upon the investment are uncertain. We need careful studies of the cost of educating the dull, as compared with the cost of educating the superior, in the light of the returns from education, both to the public and to the individuals taught. The complexity of such study calls for much patience and ingenuity.
Special classes for children of very superior general intelligence, who are as far above the average as the feeble-minded are below, are at present much discussed by American educators. Such classes have actually been established in a few school systems. These are still considered to be experimental, but it surely will not be very long before official administrative recognition will be widely given to the needs of pupils whose natural rate of progress is over twice as rapid as that of the average child. Abroad, Germany has already undertaken education for gifted children as a special project of the public schools, in recognition, no doubt, of the extent to which national rehabilitation will be dependent on the training of the able. Contrary to pre-war policy, German educators are now seeking, by the method of mental tests, for superior mental endowment regardless of social-economic status, and even to some extent regardless of sex.
In general it is true that the provisions in the United States are for deviates so extreme in all capacities that their maladjustment to typical procedure creates a troublesome school problem on the one hand, and on the other a burden to the conscience of those who administer education. Classroom teachers demand that special attention be given to those who are chronically unpromotable and out of order, while educational psychologists insist upon the waste of ability that ensues from allowing gifted children to idle through the curriculum. For deviates of less degree there is not much provision. A few cities, of which Oakland, California, may be mentioned as an outstanding example, have adopted a three-rates-of-progress system, in which the children of typical ability (the great majority) proceed at a median rate, the lowest quartile (exclusive of the very lowest percentile) proceeding more slowly, and the highest quartile more rapidly. The system provides a flexibility far in advance of the ordinary one-rate-of-progress system, allowing for individual differences in general intelligence.
Little attention has been given as yet to the matter of individualizing public education for children who show special talents or defects. Some years ago the superintendent of schools in Munich requested the teachers of certain grades throughout the city, to ask each child to draw two sketches: one from a model, and the other a free sketch. These were sorted for the purpose of finding exceptional talent in drawing. A certain per cent of the children showing this special gift were sought out and encouraged. Particular attention was given to the development of their talents.
Similar instances of official attempts to gauge and foster special talents are extremely rare. The experiment at Winnetka, Illinois, is of this order. In Winnetka there is a flexible promotion system, wherein pupils “pass” in a subject whenever they have completed the work therein. A pupil may be in different grades in different subjects. His whole school career need not be jeopardized by a single weakness, and if he has a special strength he is permitted to develop it as original nature would dictate.
At first thought it might seem that a public school system would be thrown into confusion by such a scheme. In Winnetka there are thirty to thirty-five pupils in a classroom. How can programs be arranged to suit the needs of deviating children, without much extra equipment?
Here it is necessary to recall that the majority of these children are typical. The middle 50 per cent of all children born deviate but slightly from the type of the race, in all their mental functions. They do not call for special adjustments. On either side of these, deviating more widely toward less and greater, run the remainder of the children, in very rapidly decreasing frequencies. Those who need a very wide latitude in school organization constitute possibly 20 per cent of all, the highest 10 per cent, and the lowest 10 per cent, in general or special capacity. The problem does not seem so vast, when we recall the shape of the curve of distribution; and the comparative infrequency of extremely unusual children.
VI. THE COST OF FOSTERING INDIVIDUALITY
The cost of individualizing education acts as a deterrent, even when the desirability is fully recognized. Compulsory education for all the children of all the people is expensive. A nation must be wealthy in order to carry it through. To maintain every child born into the social order for fourteen to sixteen years without earnings, and to pay from public taxation for his education for eight to ten or more of those years, is an enterprise upon which few societies of any time have ventured. Nevertheless, if democracy is to survive, and especially if it is to improve, as a form of government, universal education on a large scale is basic. Self-government, in the highly complicated environment which has been evolved, depends on literacy and other knowledge, requiring long instruction, even for youth of average ability.