IC-NRLF 
 
THE HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETINS 
 
 NUMBER I 
 
 A SCHOOL SYSTEM 
 
 AS AN 
 EDUCATIONAL LABORATORY 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM SETCHEL LEARNED, PH.D. 
 
 OF THE CARNEGIE FOUNDATION FOR THE 
 ADVANCEMENT OF TEACHING 
 
 
 CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
 JULY, 1914 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 To this Bulletin its projectors at Harvard and Newton attach 
 special significance. It records the beginnings of an enterprise 
 in which the Harvard Division of Education hopes in part to 
 realize one of its fundamental aims the solution of educational 
 problems through research in the schools. The program of 
 investigation the Bulletin presents is suggestive; and as this 
 program is gradually elaborated and carried out either in 
 Newton or elsewhere, it promises to yield results of objective 
 value. Of equal importance is the cooperative scheme by which 
 it is proposed that these results be reached. The study of school 
 problems is not solely a function of university investigators, but 
 of all teachers; and that teachers share the scientific labor which 
 educational progress now demands is essential both for the sake 
 of the school and for the sake of the teachers themselves. Dr. 
 Learned has himself traced, in a study about to be issued by the 
 Harvard University Press, the growth of teachers in Germany, as 
 a class, toward the genuine professional freedom and mastery 
 which such sharing produces. This Bulletin records what is 
 probably the first attempt in America to make a school system 
 its own educational laboratory. 
 
 A second Bulletin in this series is shortly to follow, setting forth 
 the results of the effort to secure scales for the measurement of 
 eighth grade English Composition. The results of other studies 
 now in progress will be published in subsequent issues. 
 
 These Bulletins are the outgrowth of an agreement, now of six 
 years' standing, between the School Department of the City of 
 
 384686 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 Newton and the Division of Education of Harvard University. 
 But for the breadth of view of the Newton School Committee 
 and the generous interest of Mr. Joseph Lee, this cooperation 
 could not have taken its present productive form. 
 
 EDITORIAL 
 COMMITTEE 
 
 HENRY W. HOLMES, 
 
 Harvard University. 
 
 PAUL H. HANUS, 
 
 Harvard University. 
 
 FRANK E. SPAULDING, 
 
 Newton, Massachusetts. 
 
THE 
 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETINS 
 
 NUMBER I 
 
 A SCHOOL SYSTEM AS AN EDUCATIONAL 
 LABORATORY 
 
 I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 The conception implied bythe title of this paper has its warrant 
 in the belief that education, especially during the past decade, 
 has steadily strengthened its claim to be regarded as a science; 
 which implies the further belief that certain " best " or standard 
 methods for its processes can properly be determined and formu- 
 lated only under experimental conditions. If these beliefs are 
 justified, the question at once arises: How can educational opera- 
 tions be subjected most speedily and accurately to experimental 
 treatment ? The answer to this question has hitherto been 
 attempted in a variety of ways. University teachers of Educa- 
 tion and psychologists who have concerned themselves primarily 
 with the educational aspects of their field have made more or 
 less systematic invasion of certain schools or classes with a degree 
 of " cooperation " on the part of the teacher that has varied from 
 a simple permission to experiment to a more or less willing partici- 
 pation in the tabulation of results under minute instructions. 
 Certain superintendents, principals, or teachers have occasion- 
 ally discerned problems, organized and carried out tests, and 
 formulated results. In at least one instance a school system has 
 established a laboratory, engaged a trained psychologist, and 
 placed the schools at his disposal for the investigation of educa- 
 tional problems. To such varied, unrelated, and haphazard 
 efforts is due the present array of reliable results which have been 
 won by formal experiment at home and abroad. This array is 
 
6 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 by no means insignificant under the circumstances. The ques- 
 tion is: Can the circumstances be improved ? 
 
 Aside from the incidental and heterogeneous character of such 
 experiment as has hitherto been made, there exists a further diffi- 
 culty which at times is most discouraging. Experiments once or 
 many times fruitfully carried out produce little immediate re- 
 action in general practice. Theorists in schools of education 
 note the point, and incorporate it into their lectures. Beyond 
 this progress is slow. It is indeed fortunate for a school system 
 if even the superintendent keeps abreast of the really scientific 
 literature of his profession. Even when this is the case the cam- 
 paign has but just begun. Provided the new idea is not capable 
 of such commercial exploitation as will induce the book or supply 
 companies to undertake the education of the teachers, this edu- 
 cation must be accomplished by the patient but relentless insist- 
 ence of the administrative and supervisory officers. Not in- 
 frequently it proves impossible unless the teachers can be taken 
 young and unprejudiced, and actually be trained to the new 
 point of view. For this the rapid changing of administrative 
 officers in most of our school systems allows but little chance, 
 and the progressive superintendent often faces what must seem 
 to him a well-nigh hopeless task. 
 
 It appears, then, that in the present state of things, professional 
 progress in education depends upon two clearly distinguishable 
 sets of individuals. The first is a group of genuine and usually 
 lifelong students of education who have won their training 
 through arduous experience and concentrated effort. To these 
 are due the novel insights and the major inspirations for educa- 
 tional advance. The second class consists of more or less con- 
 ventional practitioners, well above the average in personal 
 character, but singularly distinct from the first class in their 
 professional attitude. Among this class of teachers the notion 
 of education as a profession is rudimentary. Their work has 
 been taken up without great thought or preparation. It may 
 be relinquished with equal ease and would preferably be relin- 
 quished by very many for almost any other occupation with like 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 7 
 
 hours and salary. As the necessity gradually appears of making 
 it a life work, interest and devotion usually increase, but with a 
 strongly personal center. One teaches English, or Latin, or the 
 seventh grade, or is a principal, not as cooperating in a thoroughly 
 comprehended whole, but because he chances to fill that niche, 
 and he does it well because his self-respect demands that he be 
 master in his own house. When he has properly defended his 
 department, given a round answer to his critics, and commiserated 
 feelingly with parents about the uncertainties of pedagogical pro- 
 cedure, he considers his duty done. With his modest economic 
 basis assured, routine soon hems him in; a breach develops be- 
 tween that routine and his own inner life, and his leisure hours 
 together with his long vacations go primarily to satisfy his tastes. 
 In short, he has no profession. An absorbing and consuming 
 vocational passion such as is the glory of the artist, the physician, 
 and even sometimes of the lawyer of any one, indeed, who 
 through years of hard technical training must vividly picture to 
 himself the ultimate significance of it all this for him does not 
 exist. He has undergone no technical schooling, has made no 
 sacrifices, and is professionally unattached. How can he feel 
 attracted to the fellowship of men from whom, as from himself, 
 nothing has been required ? How can he fail to feel a certain 
 scorn for an occupation in which his crude and unskilled attempts 
 have been blindly commended and supported ? This failure to 
 involve the whole man in his work reacts directly upon his atti- 
 tude toward progressive movements and new ideas. Without 
 training that is genuinely scientific, he is proverbially conserva- 
 tive; scientific criticism is taken personally and worries him; a 
 really radical question has often ceased altogether to trouble him 
 except perfunctorily. In many cases he is wholly inaccessible to 
 change from without, and is apparently powerless to accomplish 
 it from within. There is, usually, however, an abundance of 
 good will together with a genuine desire to serve; it is the drill 
 in certain mental attitudes, the background of training, the habit 
 of objective insight that is lacking. 
 
8 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 Of course these two groups shade from one into the other by 
 imperceptible degrees. Not all teachers are wholly one or wholly 
 the other. Nevertheless the two poles of tendency are clearly 
 discernible and their separation constitutes a fundamental weak- 
 ness in modern American education. What course of develop- 
 ment will best and most quickly abolish this essential dualism of 
 attitude and capacity ? Is it possible to replace the present 
 tandem of enthusiastic expert and inert colleague or assistant 
 by a team with similar training and a strong and intelligent pro- 
 fessional sympathy ? 
 
 There are thus two problems the solution of which seems to 
 be fundamentally important in securing the sound and rapid ad- 
 vance of education: first, how to get educational processes con- 
 clusively tested by competent observation under experimental 
 control; second, how to professionalize the whole number of 
 practitioners engaged in education for the sake of a quick and 
 efficient response to a steadily improving educational system. 
 Before setting forth suggestions for this purpose the writer 
 would like to point out an analogy and a contrast observable in a 
 sister profession which has had precisely the same problems to 
 face and which has gone far toward their solution. 
 
 Society demands that medical or surgical skill be indefinitely 
 duplicated in individual practitioners. Healing is not usually 
 projected from an intelligent center at a distance through a less 
 intelligent agent on the spot. It is of no great moment to a 
 patient that his doctor belongs to a society of good doctors unless 
 he is professionally in their class. Conscious of this the medical 
 profession has laid and does lay the greatest emphasis upon an 
 adequate and, as nearly as possible, uniform training among its 
 members. At least two years of college, four years of medical 
 school, and one or two years of hospital practice constitute to-day 
 the accepted standard of preparation in that profession. 
 
 The effect of this training in the two directions suggested by 
 our discussion is of course obvious and complete: every physi- 
 cian so trained is master both of his material and of a thoroughly 
 scientific method which habitually determines his diagnosis and 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 9 
 
 prescription. He reports his exceptional or striking cases through 
 his medical journals in terms which place the facts reliably before 
 his colleagues. He himself in turn is in a position fully to grasp 
 and act upon the most highly specialized investigations of the 
 medical school or laboratory. The village physician feels him- 
 self the complete intellectual comrade of the metropolitan special- 
 ist; their ways diverge long after a lasting professional sympathy 
 and understanding has been established. 
 
 In these respects the teaching profession is wholly analogous. 
 Though not as completely as the physician, yet essentially and 
 increasingly, the teacher works directly with individuals, and 
 society will eventually demand that adequate knowledge and 
 skill be fully duplicated in every teacher. How is a child en- 
 trusted for the better part of each day to an ignorant, unskilled, 
 and careless teacher in a greatly better case than the patient 
 exposed to a sham doctor ? It is very probable also that a 
 training of equal length and appropriateness would accomplish 
 for the teacher what the physician secures from his. He would 
 become master of his material and of a scientific method in solv- 
 ing his problems; he would report reliable and valuable contri- 
 butions to professional knowledge in a form intelligible to others 
 similarly trained; and he would be in a position, and would be 
 disposed, justly to evaluate and act upon the findings of others 
 when so contributed. 
 
 At another point the medical profession affords an instructive 
 contrast to that of the teacher one which reveals an advan- 
 tage for education of which almost no systematic use has yet 
 been made. The physician works as an individual at an inde- 
 pendent enterprise; hence the possibilities for making the vast 
 mass of accruing experience available for the medical profession 
 as a whole have been limited dependent upon voluntary re- 
 ports or the pickings of compilers. It is obvious that the remark- 
 able strides recently witnessed in medicine and surgery could 
 never have been accomplished on this basis, and the extensive 
 development of hospitals and their intimate relations with bodies 
 of investigators in medical schools testify to the present depend- 
 
io HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 ence of medical science upon organized treatment and experi- 
 ments. Education, on the other hand, enjoys the benefit of an 
 incomparable organization. Lacking the power to provide a 
 skilled tutor for every child, we have gathered as many as pos- 
 sible under the same instruction, and when the number of skilled 
 teachers failed even then to meet the growing demand for educa- 
 tion, we have endeavored, through an elaborate system of super- 
 vision of the unskilled, by the skilled, to make experience and 
 ability tell to the utmost. This complex organization will 
 doubtless be retained, even if the number of skilled teachers 
 should rapidly increase; economy, the modern division of labor 
 in education, and good school psychology all support it. Here 
 then the science of education has, and has long had, ready to 
 hand all the conditions for progress which medicine and surgery 
 have had so laboriously to build up, and from which they have 
 reaped their finest fruits. 
 
 Unhappily almost no conscious and systematic use of these 
 conditions for the purposes of discovery has yet been made in 
 education. It is as if a great hospital should proceed forever 
 administering the same remedies in the same way, refusing or 
 ejecting all genuine problem-cases, and aware of no obligation to 
 make its experience systematic and profitable for the future. 
 Changes in education are at present much more likely to follow 
 the proposals of some plausible but subjective reformer than to 
 be the result of careful and repeated tests under varied conditions; 
 and the critical professional attitude which the intelligent physi- 
 cian habitually assumes toward his problems and procedures has 
 been conspicuously absent. 
 
 II. THE NEWTON EXPERIMENT 
 
 (a) Preliminary 
 
 Under the impulse of such general considerations as these, the 
 writer, in February, 1912, put before the chairman of the Divi- 
 sion of Education at Harvard a proposal intended as a step 
 towards reform, and shortly afterwards the same proposal was 
 laid before the Superintendent of Schools at Newton, Mass., who 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN n 
 
 was at the time an associated lecturer at Cambridge. Both of 
 these gentlemen displayed great interest and confidence in the 
 plan; and with their cooperation and the generous assistance of 
 Mr. Joseph Lee of Boston, who shared the expense, a definite 
 arrangement was made. It was our idea to organize in the 
 Newton School System a Department of Educational Research 
 which should be constantly and intimately in touch with the 
 University Department of Education. The director was to be a 
 regularly appointed official of the Newton Schools, and was at 
 the same time to retain his status as Research Fellow in the 
 University. This joint relationship was deemed an essential 
 part of the plan and proved toj3e of great value. On the one 
 hand it guaranteed that the work which should be undertaken 
 would receive close criticism from a point of view not usually 
 allowed its due weight in the treatment of practical school prob- 
 lems; on the other hand that very point of view would be sub- 
 jected to continual modifications from contact, not with an 
 artificial practice-class or school, but with actual operating con- 
 ditions in a large public school system. The already existing 
 cooperation between the Newton School System and the Harvard 
 Division of Education greatly favored the plan. In accordance 
 with a suggestion made by Dr. Spaulding, Superintendent of 
 Schools in Newton, the students in Professor Hanus's Courses in 
 School Administration had been engaged in the study of school 
 problems in Newton since 1910. Competent graduate students 
 had worked in cooperation with Newton principals and teachers 
 on the problems actually arising in the schools. 
 
 The duties of the director were conceived to be twofold: his 
 first and most important business was to assist the teachers in 
 the school-system in their efforts at independent criticism and 
 investigation of their own work and of the educational procedures 
 going on about them. The purpose was to meet them individu- 
 ally, by grades, by schools, or, in the high schools, by depart- 
 ments, wherever a teacher or group of teachers could be found 
 ready to analyze and attack either self-suggested or recommended 
 problems. The director was to assist by criticism, suggestion, 
 
12 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 reference to literature of the topic, and by communicating the 
 work and results of others; by furnishing a public, as it were, 
 for the many experiments and reforms with which most progres- 
 sive teachers begin the year, but which usually prove abortive 
 from sheer lack of nourishment or from failure to arrange the 
 conditions and to foot up the results in a scientific fashion. The 
 second main activity of the director, distinctly subordinate to 
 the first, was, of course, to conduct independent studies of his 
 own, or such as were of interest mainly to the superintendent 
 and supervisory staff. It was the intention, however, that even 
 these should be discussed with all who could possibly have an 
 interest in them in order to emphasize everywhere the method 
 and attitude with which educational problems should be ap- 
 proached. It willthus be seen that the primary purpose of the 
 undertaking was not the achievement of scientific results directly, 
 but rather the encouragement and stimulation of the teachers 
 themselves to a new view of the possibilities, opportunities, and 
 obligations of their position. 
 
 The writer, as first incumbent of the new position, began his 
 duties in September, 1912, and continued until March, 1913, 
 when circumstances necessitated his withdrawal to undertake an 
 educational investigation of a somewhat different nature else- 
 where. It was not, however, without keen regret at leaving so 
 prosperous and so absorbing an enterprise that his connection 
 with it was severed. 
 
 The undertaking was fortunate from the beginning in having 
 an unusually favorable environment. At Newton a highly 
 selected class of teachers has been rendered progressively more 
 effective by considerate and generous management as well as by 
 the intelligent application of a genuine merit system of promotion 
 which places a well-recognized premium on devoted and efficient 
 service and gradually removes the incompetent teacher. In 
 addition to this the actual purpose in view was by no means new 
 to these teachers. Several of the schools had already under- 
 taken somewhat prolonged studies either in connection with 
 student investigators from the University or independently, and 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 13 
 
 not a few of the principals had made personal studies of value 
 or were then engaged in them. Most of these had been under- 
 taken at the instance of the superintendent, Dr. Spaulding, whose 
 belief in this phase of a teacher's work has been equalled only 
 by his skill in getting concrete and practical results from it. 
 
 (b) General Results 
 
 A somewhat detailed review of the program which was laid 
 out at the beginning of the year, together with a statement of 
 the progress made up to March, 1913, is appended to this re- 
 port. It is only necessary, therefore, at this point to note those 
 general features of our experience which appear to have value 
 for future work of this sort. 
 
 i. Participation to be Voluntary 
 
 It was made especially emphatic from the outset that partici- 
 pation in the work proposed was voluntary and should not 
 interfere with school work. This is not the ideal for an ultimate 
 policy, but at the beginning it was necessary. The whole pro- 
 posal rests on the belief that conscious analysis, comparison, and 
 experiment in procedure should be fundamental to a profession- 
 ally-trained teacher. It may not ever be formally compulsory, 
 but the time must come when these abilities will cease to be in- 
 cidental in the selection and survival of instructors. A seriously 
 intelligent teacher when once given the proper training and the 
 correct point of view must fairly bristle with problems arising 
 out of his daily practice. When given a method he will select 
 and attack these sympathetically and with the energy of the 
 discoverer that he is. Without such a point of view or such 
 training it is obvious enough that a teacher had better continue 
 to imitate himself or others and to maintain his established rou- 
 tine than undertake to experiment merely for experiment's sake. 
 
 The most frequent objection to participation was lack of time. 
 In some few cases this was an unmistakable cover for lack of 
 interest, or for a conservatism unfriendly to novel points of view; 
 in the case of others this objection was sincere but would have 
 
i 4 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 been out-weighed by a clearer appreciation of the purpose of the 
 plan; in still other cases teachers had in their devotion so over- 
 loaded themselves with duties of apparently immediate import- 
 ance that to ask more was out of the question. All this could be 
 changed by (a) a practical program of investigation adjusted 
 variously to the problems of the local groups and individuals, 
 and as far as possible suggested by them; (b) skillful direction 
 and organization; and (c) a gradual shift in perspective as to 
 what is important. If through successful work of this sort it 
 can be shown that a teacher, a department, or a school can 
 speedily analyze and correct its own faults and advance its pro- 
 cedure over that of others working passively, a school system 
 could well afford to recognize the economy of this phase of edu- 
 cational work and provide due time for it. Apart from the 
 tangible results so achieved the mere attitude of mind posi- 
 tive, tentative, progressive that is capable of producing such 
 results would denote a wholesome transformation in the body 
 of teachers as compared with the present situation at large. 
 
 2. Organization should be intimate -with the regular work of the 
 school. 
 
 Upon the plan and spirit of its organization rests very largely 
 the success of the proposal. It is suggested that school officers 
 and teachers learn to treat their problems objectively and criti- 
 cally, and it is expected that the habit of mind thus acquired 
 will originate and clearly set forth many new problems. It is 
 obvious, therefore, that all that is done in this way must be fused 
 with the passing problems of school or teacher, and must be 
 directed by the same hands that guide all other school work. 
 It was impossible to perfect such an organization at once as the 
 proposal was too new, even to principals and supervisory officers. 
 It would be a mistake, however, longer to defer a definite organi- 
 zation of principals for this purpose. To lay all responsibility 
 upon the special assistant in the work is directly to defeat its 
 intent. So conducted, it becomes a thing apart, of interest to a 
 few only. Both principals and teachers are likely to view its 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 15 
 
 demands not as illuminating and ultimately lightening their 
 tasks, but as an unwelcome addition to their burdens. A director 
 capable of success on a broad scale in this way must have powers 
 that are rare indeed. The principal, on the other hand, under- 
 takes such leadership, not as a new and unrelated task, but as 
 expressing in a given case how he expects all work in the school 
 to be approached and conducted. The special director is his 
 assistant and adviser, as already described, to save him time and 
 keep him from mistakes. At regular conferences the principal 
 discusses with his teachers the methods and results of the studies 
 undertaken, and gradually gathers up the conclusions in definite 
 form for publication. In high schools this naturally falls to 
 department heads as well as to principals. Groups of principals 
 have their own problems to treat in a similar fashion among 
 themselves with the superintendent as their leader. The super- 
 intendent, of course, studies and coordinates the returns from all 
 sources, and sees to it that the general effort is properly focused 
 and utilized. Some such arrangement as this seems likely to 
 afford the best foundation for a profitable use of the school 
 organization in the direction suggested. It cannot be too clearly 
 pointed out that what is sought is not an elaborate scheme for 
 cultural improvement which is the aim of reading circles and the 
 more or less abstract lecture courses common among teachers; 
 what is proposed is nothing other than that the school system 
 work in a professional manner at the intelligent solution of its 
 every-day problems and at making its experience available for 
 future use. 
 
 3. Certain aids for this new form of effort are almost indispens- 
 able to success. 
 
 (i) Regular conferences and discussions. The chief purpose 
 of the organization is to rid the improvement of educational tech- 
 nique of its incidental and desultory character; to make each 
 step well-won lead to the next at a definite time, thus conserving 
 the accumulating interest and sense of achievement. Skillful 
 management of these meetings on the part of principal, depart- 
 
1 6 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 ment head, or superintendent is essential to save them from 
 drought. Immediate publicity and recognition for good work of 
 this nature done by teachers together with a disposition to put 
 results into operation at once so that the fruit of their labors 
 may appear, cannot fail to stimulate a sound interest and faith 
 in the importance of such conferences. 
 
 (2) Liberal use of the printing press or duplicating machine 
 and of clerical assistance. This should not be at the teacher's 
 expense either in point of time or money. The mere physical 
 labor of providing copies of charts and tests for studies in arith- 
 metic, for example, is sufficiently prohibitive to wreck the pro- 
 ject completely if expected from the teachers. They must be 
 encouraged to shape their brain work to the ends in view, and 
 every reasonable material assistance should be freely provided. 
 The facilities at Newton are complete in this respect and have 
 been very generously used. So likewise in respect to clerical 
 assistance. A few hours of mere routine labor in correcting, 
 checking, or tabulating results, causes the enthusiasm of the 
 busy teacher to ooze rapidly away. Some of this work cannot 
 be safely entrusted to a novice, but much of it, on the other 
 hand, can readily be hired, and wherever possible such assistance 
 should be provided. A teacher whose time and interest are thus 
 economized will respond with great readiness where his personal 
 oversight is indispensable. 
 
 (3) A professional library, work shop, and record room should 
 soon form an important feature of every school's working equip- 
 ment. This should grow as the studies made demand it, and 
 should exist only in so far as it is used. However, any school 
 long pursuing the policy here outlined would soon find that a 
 collection of general professional books and periodicals possessed 
 an increasing importance for its staff. At Newton such a general 
 center for the entire system should be established at once at the 
 Technical High School. It would naturally be the headquarters 
 of the director of this work. It would contain all the material 
 bearing upon the studies undertaken hitherto, and should pro- 
 vide the periodicals and reference literature which may be of 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 17 
 
 use in work now under way. It should, of course, be freely 
 accessible to every teacher in the system. 
 
 In conclusion the writer may be permitted to reiterate his per- 
 sonal confidence in the importance of the undertaking and in its 
 success. The proposition that an institution manned by trained 
 teachers should contain its own corrective and means of progress 
 is little more than to demand that it become thoroughly conscious 
 at all times of what it is doing; that is, that its procedure be 
 clearly analyzed as to aim, method, and result. If this is done, 
 comparison, experiment, and improvement will follow almost of 
 necessity. The lack of such analysis is at present everywhere 
 evident. Teachers work in a*fog both as to their aim and as 
 to their accomplished results, and it takes but little sophistry for 
 the tyro to prove that his practice is as good as that of the 
 expert. The persistent and systematic application of a scientific 
 method to the every-day problems of instruction ought gradu- 
 ally to change this, and to compel a teacher to require of himself 
 definite and accurate thinking. 
 
 It is a question how far this training can be got in the pre- 
 liminary preparation for teaching. The traditional normal school 
 course or college department of education surely offers little that 
 is calculated to develop this point of view. At Harvard this is 
 fortunately no longer the case. An arrangement of some years 
 standing with Newton has given students of education at Har- 
 vard unusual opportunities for dealing with problems directly, 
 and this arrangement will no doubt shortly be extended to in- 
 clude other neighboring school systems. 1 There is every reason 
 why the training in normal schools should likewise shift its em- 
 phasis. It seems clear, however, that no amount of previous 
 preparation can take the place of continual experiment in the 
 actual course of instruction. This is nothing but the exercise of 
 professional attitude which every professional practitioner should 
 continually maintain towards his work. It should be possible 
 in a progressive system for an ambitious teacher to abandon for 
 
 1 This extension is already in part accomplished. EDITOR. 
 
1 8 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 a year, say, half of his usual program and devote his extra time 
 to special investigation in the local schools under the direction of 
 the superintendent. Many teachers who are real students of 
 education would gladly forego a part of their salary in exchange 
 for time for this purpose, and the reaction on the system itself 
 would be most beneficial. A body of teachers trained in this 
 way would soon find themselves in a position to effect satisfac- 
 torily a complete critical survey of the educational conditions in 
 their city. This is where such a task belongs. Expert judges 
 from abroad have their places, but the continuous critical study 
 of the service rendered by the schools to the community is the 
 obvious duty of professionally trained teachers in their organized 
 capacity. And it is probably true that the growth of a pro- 
 fessional spirit among teachers will be measured justly by the 
 extent to which their organized activities abandon exclusive de- 
 votion to economic warfare and self-protection in favor of devo- 
 tion to the professional aspects of their work. 
 
 The conditions of success in developing a school system as an 
 educational laboratory are primarily an intelligent and sym- 
 pathetic superintendent and supervisory staff; beyond these, a 
 school board that can be persuaded to allow teachers time and 
 the needful material assistance. As has been said, the teachers 
 must be led and not driven; such work is a matter of insight, 
 not of conformity. When the way is made reasonably plain 
 and possible, most teachers prefer growing to vegetating. At 
 Newton this was conspicuously true, and it is a pleasure to close 
 this brief review of our mutual enterprise with a hearty tribute 
 of appreciation to the intelligence, devotion, and courtesy of the 
 Newton teachers. 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 19 
 
 PROGRAM OF WORK AT THE NEWTON 
 " EDUCATIONAL LABORATORY " 
 
 The achieved results of the six months' work at Newton would 
 seem inexcusably small if measured by formally completed 
 studies. Many things were undertaken, and but one or two 
 minor projects were carried through. It must be remembered, 
 however, that the chief object was not immediate experimental 
 results, but the development of an organization capable of pro- 
 ducing important results continuously. Obviously the maxi- 
 mum of success would be but a preparation for later work and 
 would go for nothing unless properly followed up. This will 
 account, therefore, for the comprehensive program which was 
 laid out, much of which was untouched. For the same reason 
 the writer feels justified in discussing the program at greater 
 length than might otherwise seem appropriate. It was all con- 
 ceived with reference to this particular undertaking, and may 
 still prove suggestive for this or other similar enterprises. It is 
 a great satisfaction to know that the work at Newton is going 
 forward under most competent direction and in full harmony 
 with the original design. 
 
 The following list includes all the topics undertaken during 
 the year or seriously considered for later investigation. 
 
 1. Differentiation in the treatment of pupils on the basis of the capa- 
 
 city they show for independent work. History; geography; 
 arithmetic. 
 
 2. The most advantageous disposition of a study period. (Sub- 
 
 periods at intervals, especially with intervening night, vs. un- 
 broken periods.) 
 
 3. The most advantageous disposition of reviews in a given material. 
 
 4. Comparative tests of various methods for speed in teaching special 
 
 topics; e. g., Long Division; English Grammar in High School. 
 
 5. How can a school assist in encouraging and refining the avocations 
 
 of its pupils ? 
 
 6. The development of a typical, uniform character-analysis based on 
 
 the relations incident to school life. Hence also: the analysis 
 of all phases of school life with a view to the opportunities they 
 may afford for the display of definite characteristics in the 
 pupil. 
 
20 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 7. The development of a method for the scientific study of individual 
 
 problem-cases, whether of instructional, disciplinary, or other 
 nature. 
 
 8. The closer articulation of High School and Grammar School. 
 
 (a) In General Organization. 
 
 (b) In English. 
 
 (c) In Science. 
 
 (d) In History. 
 
 9. The analysis into fundamental abilities of aggregates now usually 
 
 rated as units; e. g., English, mathematics, etc. 
 
 Also: The invention of tests and scales for the objective 
 measurement of these abilities. Hillegas Scale. Eighth Grade 
 Scale. 
 
 10. The division of labor in teaching: the organization of class- work to 
 
 permit the larger use of conspicuous abilities in the teacher. 
 
 11. Effect of regulation of periods on quantity and quality of work. 
 
 12. A psychological analysis of successful teachers. 
 
 i . Differentiation in the treatment of pupils on the basis of the 
 capacity they show for independent work. History; geography; 
 arithmetic. 
 
 The significance of the topic lies in the very general tendency 
 to mass a group of thirty or forty children and create arbitrary 
 standards suited possibly to the average pupils, but usually to 
 no actual pupil. The result is a procedure which bores and dis- 
 courages the bright minds at the same time that it fails to pro- 
 vide adequately for the dull. 
 
 It was proposed to discover whether all idea of uniform re- 
 quirement could be abandoned; whether on the basis of certain 
 definite evidence pupils could be selected who could be trusted 
 to do independent work in a given subject, reporting as required 
 either on regular topics or special personal assignments and 
 excused from much of the class drill; whether such treatment 
 was a stimulus and benefit to the pupils so chosen, and whether 
 it would make possible a more successful treatment of the re- 
 mainder. In case the treatment was found successful, it was 
 proposed to note those features which appeared most promising 
 as well as the difficulties most likely to interfere with success. 
 
 This topic was discussed at several conferences at the Bigelow 
 School, and two teachers undertook to try out the plan. Condi- 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 21 
 
 tions were particularly favorable as the underlying idea of in- 
 dividual treatment has long received unusual emphasis in Newton 
 practice. One teacher began Roman History with a group of 
 six pupils in grade VI, using an interesting biographical reader. 
 Their preparation was made in their own time, and the lesson 
 was recited to the teacher during a study period; once a week 
 the members of the group rehearsed their knowledge for the 
 benefit of the class. The result was a marked development in 
 the interest and initiative with which they undertook to handle 
 easy historical topics independently. The other teacher organ- 
 ized a special volunteer group of seven for advanced work in 
 arithmetic in grade V. Tteir work has been characterized by 
 persistent energy and enthusiasm. Their gain both in power 
 and in knowledge has been exceptional for that grade, and their 
 reflex influence on the remainder of the class has been stimulating. 
 Both of these experiments were in progress in March when the 
 writer left Newton. An accurate report of the complete results 
 will doubtless be made later. 
 
 2. The most advantageous disposition of a study period. Sub- 
 periods at intervals, especially with intervening night, vs. unbroken 
 periods. 
 
 This study was intended to demonstrate the practical applica- 
 tion of a well-known psychological principle that of the sub- 
 conscious ripening of impressions, if repeated at intervals, into a 
 clearer whole than when gained with a single prolonged effort of 
 attention. 
 
 It was proposed to divide a class in history into two groups of 
 pupils, one of which should agree to an unbroken study period 
 of one hour on the day preceding the recitation; the other should 
 agree to divide an hour equally between the day of the recitation 
 and the day before, but to cover the entire lesson on each occa- 
 sion. The groups were to be made up as nearly equal in ability 
 as possible on the basis of past ratings. Note was then to be 
 taken, both in written and oral work, of the comparative effect 
 of the two methods of study. After a two months' trial the 
 groups were to be reversed and the results noted. 
 
22 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 The experiment was not tried at Newton. It is a promising 
 problem both for its absolute interest and especially as an object 
 lesson to young students who receive all too little specific practi- 
 cal instruction as to the nature of their mental processes. 
 
 3. The most advantageous disposition of reviews in a given ma- 
 terial. 
 
 This topic likewise received no treatment at Newton. It is, 
 however, an exceedingly important problem. Moreover it is 
 one of those numerous studies which involves almost no extra 
 labor on the part of the teacher, but only careful arrangement 
 and systematic control. It would be a simple matter to alter- 
 nate the disposition of reviews in a class that is dealing with a 
 fairly homogeneous material by giving now monthly, now weekly, 
 and now brief daily quizzes on the foregoing matter. By keep- 
 ing conditions clearly distinct, and by repeating the process with 
 the same group, the most favorable plan would appear, at least 
 for that teacher. At present nearly every experienced teacher 
 follows a practice asserted to be the " result of experience." As 
 a matter of fact, however, it is almost invariably the product of 
 subjective opinion instead of objective experiment ; and personal 
 preference, or convenience, or exaggeration plays a large part 
 in it. 
 
 4. Comparative tests of various methods in teaching special 
 topics; e. g., Long Division; English Grammar in High Schools, 
 etc. 
 
 This study embraces an almost endless series of problems in 
 the technique of instruction. Its significance rests in the fact 
 that in most schoolrooms to-day the actual conditions under 
 which any given procedure takes place are slightly analyzed, 
 and the results secured are measured only in the grossest fashion. 
 An actual questionary from several experienced teachers in one 
 school as to how long it took to teach long division resulted in 
 answers varying from one week to six months! 
 
 The purpose in each case is to discover at the outset exactly 
 what conditions exist, then after following a fixed and carefully 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 23 
 
 planned procedure for a limited time, to determine with as great 
 exactness as possible the result. 
 
 Preparations were made for tests on two topics; long division 
 in the elementary school and English grammar in the high school. 
 In the first problem it was proposed to test each class in a New- 
 ton elementary school with preliminary tests for the earlier pro- 
 cesses as soon as the class was declared to be ready to begin long 
 division. For this purpose the Courtis standard tests in addi- 
 tion, subtraction, multiplication, and short division were to be 
 used as prescribed for those tests but not ignoring the errors. 
 As soon as the status of the class had been determined in this 
 fashion, the teacher was to commence her instruction following 
 any plan that she wished, with the sole precaution that she have 
 it thoroughly analyzed in advance and in writing; she was also 
 to keep an accurate record of the amount of time given to the 
 subject, the outside work required of the pupils or done by 
 them, and the absences occurring in the class during the trial 
 period. As a measure of the progress of the class it was planned 
 to use tests devised for the purpose and so constructed as to pre- 
 sent the steps in the development of the subject progressively; 
 a class half way through the subject should be able to go at least 
 half way through the test. It was thought that several equiva- 
 lent tests using different figures, but constructed in the same 
 way would, if used in similar sequence, furnish a measure of 
 progress which could be accurately expressed. 
 
 The first task was to construct and try out this test in a large 
 number of classes. This was still in progress when the writer 
 left Newton. The draft below shows the test at its latest stage. 
 It still needs thorough proof and revision before it can be said 
 to be reliable. 
 
 W (2) (3) 
 
 23)46(2 31)57(1 22)264(12 
 
 46 31 22 
 
 26 44 
 
 44 
 
24 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 (4) (5) (6) 
 
 21)2772(132 31)65509(2113 312)65832(211 
 
 21 62 624 
 
 6 7 35 ~343 
 
 63 3i 312 
 
 42 40 312 
 
 4_2 31 312 
 
 99 
 
 93 
 
 6 
 
 (7) (8) (9} 
 
 304)127680(420 33)6726(203 2213)713558(322 
 1216 66 6639 
 
 608 126 4965 
 
 608 99 4426 
 
 o 27 5398 
 
 4426 
 
 972 
 
 (10) (n) 
 
 798 ) 780444 ( 978 9706 ) 5824787 ( 600 
 
 7182 58236 
 
 6224 1187 
 
 5586 
 
 6384 
 6384 
 
 The series of problems presents in order a simple division 
 without remainder, another with remainder, a two, three, and 
 four-figure quotient in order, a three-figure divisor, a quotient 
 with final zero, and a four-figure dividend, a quotient with medial 
 zero, a four-figure divisor, a problem in large digits, and a quo- 
 tient with double zero. Problem (9) stood formerly before (7) 
 and (8), but proved to be harder than either of those. To avoid 
 confusing the operation by hard multiplications and carrying, 
 both divisors and quotients in the first nine problems were made 
 of digits i to 3, except in problem (7) where 4 was needed to 
 secure a four-figure divisor. Tests nearly equivalent can be 
 constructed by rearranging the figures. Each should, however, 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 25 
 
 be carefully tried out in comparison with the first before being 
 adopted. 
 
 It was expressly intended not to apply the completed test as 
 a speed test, although a record was to be made of the time taken. 
 The pupils were instructed to work deliberately and accurately. 
 This principle seems fundamental in the first tests of all newly- 
 learned processes. 
 
 The long division study should have immediate and important 
 results. It should lead at once to the requisition of a standard 
 test-achievement in prior processes before a class is allowed to 
 take up a given topic. It affords a fine opportunity for charac- 
 terizing certain methods as well as for disclosing the inefficiency 
 of certain teachers a kind of inefficiency heretofore very diffi- 
 cult of proof. At Newton the systematic conduct of the study 
 is hampered considerably by the fact that individual instruction 
 has well-nigh obliterated class lines; it is rarely that a class as 
 a class is ready to begin a new topic. Still there are usually 
 considerable groups that move together. With careful coopera- 
 tion of the principals the tests might be extended to individuals 
 - the ideal arrangement. In this case they would afford a 
 reliable basis for comparing the progress of pupils when taught 
 as individuals under present conditions, and when taught in 
 groups. 
 
 The other topic of this nature for which plans were laid had 
 to do with the teaching of English grammar and rhetoric in high 
 school; especially in so far as this was involved in the correction 
 of written exercises. The significance of the topic lies in the 
 prevalent heavy drain on the teachers of English for corrections 
 in written work which, to a considerable degree, are felt to fail 
 of their purpose. This failure may be due, among other causes, 
 to (i) wasteful correction, unattended to by the pupil, and there- 
 fore producing no reaction; (2) too much correction the 
 " proof-reading " type that shows up all errors and leaves merely 
 an impression of general and usually large deficiency; (3) un- 
 systematic correction that, although not correcting too much, 
 fails to concentrate on the easily discovered habitual errors of 
 
26 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 the pupil; (4) a lack of clear, specific explanation and illustration 
 in preparing for correction; (5) a failure to institute definite 
 habit-exercises focused on a short, well-selected program of 
 faults. 
 
 In view of this the following experiment was proposed. Two 
 divisions of first-year English, classified as nearly as possible to 
 an equal grade of ability, were to be tested once or twice with the 
 same set of exercises. The papers returned were to be analyzed 
 minutely for the kind and number of grammatical errors con- 
 tained in them, and from this array a program was to be drawn 
 up of certain specific faults to be eliminated or specific excel- 
 lencies to be developed, during the trial period say, four 
 months. Thereupon Division I was to proceed by the usual 
 method with periodical themes fully corrected by the teacher 
 and revised or rewritten by the pupil. Division II was to 
 proceed as follows: The teacher was to make no corrections 
 whatever except in class in the presence of the pupil, thus 
 securing a heightened interest and attention under the most 
 favorable conditions. The " proof-reading " idea was to be 
 wholly abandoned and the work was to be concentrated on 
 the program referred to above. All points in the " program " 
 were to have thorough and repeated treatment and illus- 
 tration before the pupil was held responsible, and he was to 
 be troubled with no others. For practice and correction all 
 pupils were to bring in daily or write in class, a very brief para- 
 graph in illustration of the points previously discussed. The 
 correction was to take various forms: the rapid reading and dis- 
 cussion by the teacher of a few random papers; the same of 
 papers by the worst or best minds in the class ; the careful pair- 
 ing of individuals and the exchange of papers either in class or 
 over night, followed by discussion of the program-errors dis- 
 covered or of appeals from the writers; the rapid projection of 
 several papers on the screen with reflectoscope and criticism of 
 program-faults; the occasional turning over of all the papers 
 to the best fifth or fourth in the class and the discussion on the 
 following day of a selected set chosen by them. A further 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 27 
 
 device of doubtful though possible service would require each 
 pupil to manufacture corruptions to contrast with his own 
 correct usage. 
 
 The idea of the whole procedure is to assume nothing, to pre- 
 pare for everything, to get rid of all unnecessary words, to isolate 
 clearly each desired point until at least 75 per cent of the class 
 know it, to make corrections short, sharp, and incisive at the 
 moment of the greatest interest, to utilize the pride and emula- 
 tion of the pupils themselves in criticism which is clearly under- 
 stood and within their power, to get the correct usage started as 
 a habit, and by means of all thisjto reduce technique to it lowest 
 terms and allow a pupil in his longer efforts to concentrate almost 
 wholly on the content. 
 
 At the end of the trial period it was proposed again to test the 
 two groups once or twice with the same exercises and to compare 
 them in respect to, (i) their performance on the " program " 
 and, (2) all other items. On the basis of these results in turn a 
 new program was to be made and, reversing the divisions, 
 another four months' trial undertaken. 
 
 This study was not formally taken up at Newton. It was 
 found desirable to test out the various devices suggested before 
 attacking the general problem and this preliminary work was in 
 progress in March when the writer left. 
 
 5. How can a school assist in encouraging and refining the avoca- 
 tions of its pupils ? 
 
 The teachers in a Chicago high school were recently surprised 
 at finding an unassuming junior the winner at an amateur con- 
 test in aeroplane construction, and a sudden newspaper hero. 
 The school had been wholly unaware of the lad's real life, and 
 with proper, but unconscious irony the newspaper accounts of 
 his life failed to mention that he had attended a certain high 
 school for three years. The situation is wholly characteristic. 
 An attempt should be made systematically to discover and 
 utilize a pupil's avocations, to recognize and dignify them when 
 of educational value, to find ways of promoting them in the 
 
28 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 school that the pupil may feel that his pet plans will there receive 
 their due. Clever teachers everywhere have, of course, done 
 this at times already; it needs, however, to be made a systematic 
 school function. No plan was worked out for treating the topic 
 experimentally. Effects might show in improved marks, re- 
 duced absences, better discipline, and various other ways. The 
 topic was not undertaken at Newton. 
 
 6. The development of a typical, uniform character analysis 
 based upon the relations incident to school life. Hence also: The 
 analysis of all phases of school life with a view to the opportunities 
 they may afford for the observation and development or suppression 
 of definite characteristics in the pupil. 
 
 The most striking and hopeful feature of recent educational 
 progress has been the tendency to hold both school and teacher 
 responsible for the problems of the individual pupil. A quick 
 and accurate recognition of individual traits, resourcefulness in 
 planning their successful treatment, and skill and consistency in 
 conducting this treatment these constitute one phase, prob- 
 ably the most important phase, of the new demands made upon 
 the school to-day. To meet them successfully implies a vastly 
 different technique and equipment from that characterizing the 
 system which treated all pupils more or less alike. The attempt 
 to inculcate in the pupil an arbitrary kind and amount of knowl- 
 edge has given place to a recognition of the many factors that 
 combine to influence a pupil's growth, and the school is called 
 upon to discern and dominate these factors. 
 
 To do this intelligently and on a large scale the information 
 necessary to the proper handling of a given pupil must be avail- 
 able in greater fullness and precision than heretofore. We must 
 have accessible in systematic form all the important facts that 
 might properly modify the school's action toward a given child. 
 These should constitute the private, professional information by 
 which the school and teachers are guided, and, if well worked 
 out, would furnish the first reliable basis of record for many 
 phases of educational investigation. To be of the greatest ser- 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 29 
 
 vice such information should be comprehensive. It should give 
 the essential facts of the pnpiPs entire life, certainly of his entire 
 school life; it should preserve the mature judgments of all re- 
 sponsible persons who have had to do with his education; it 
 should record in clearly understood terms his growing abilities, 
 difficulties and tendencies, as well as his conspicuous achieve- 
 ments or deficiencies in all important directions; it should, finally, 
 give due weight to the pupil's environment and to those influences 
 of home and society, whether good or ill, which the school has 
 hitherto almost wholly ignored. To accomplish this such a 
 record requires an unusual organization in order to secure a 
 maximum of results with a minimum of bookkeeping. 
 
 The completed study of the topic might, therefore, result in a 
 stout booklet intended to accompany the child from the begin- 
 ning of the elementary school through his high-school course, 
 and to be in the possession of the school wherever the child 
 might be. It would usually be accessible only to the teachers 
 and officers of the schools, and its contents would be treated as 
 confidential. The content of the record would be planned some- 
 what on the following lines : 
 
 OUTLINE OF CHARACTER-ANALYSIS 
 
 1. Temperament. 
 
 2. Mental Traits. Motives. Attitude. 
 
 3. Moral Traits (a) personal, (b) social. 
 
 4. Physical Traits. Physical history. 
 
 5. Home life and environment : 
 
 A. Birth, race, education, occupation, financial condition, social 
 status, and religion of the father and mother; character of 
 the family life and surroundings; brothers and sisters. 
 
 B. Nutrition, sleep, home-work, outside work, amusements, 
 friends, and companions of the child. 
 
 6. Mental achievement: 
 
 A. Formal education, with relative excellence. 
 
 B. Extra-school performances: reading, literary productions, 
 collections, mental games; linguistic, musical, and artistic 
 acquisitions. 
 
30 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 7. Social achievement: 
 
 Membership or leadership in churches, societies, clubs, 
 teams, and class organizations; popularity with friends and 
 school-mates. 
 
 8. Physical achievement : 
 
 Sports, games, and contests engaged in; strength and devel- 
 opment records. 
 
 9. Congenial occupations: 
 
 Preferred pursuits in leisure. 
 
 10. Clearly-marked abilities and tendencies. 
 
 The foundations of an adequate prognosis. 
 
 The information called for in the above outline is of two kinds: 
 a small portion of it relates to facts that are more or less stable 
 and require but occasional revision; for the balance there should 
 be provision for annual entries even though these are not always 
 made. 
 
 The proposed nature of the entries constitutes an important 
 feature of the device and is what has made the systematic study 
 of the topic a fruitful one in this series. To leave definition and 
 descriptive judgments of this kind to the individual teacher is 
 to court the same confusion, variety, and vagueness that have 
 characterized all such attempts in the past; it furthermore en- 
 sures neglect because of the difficulty of originating adequate 
 terms. The nomenclature must be completely worked out in 
 advance and incorporated in the proposed record. It then be- 
 comes comparatively simple to provide spaces where, in succes- 
 sive years, the appropriate terms can be checked off by the 
 observer. 
 
 The invention of an adequate terminology becomes, therefore, 
 the chief task. Dealing as it does with a child's life under cer- 
 tain conditions, and used by observers familiar with those condi- 
 tions, it seems obviously appropriate that this series of terms 
 should be based chiefly upon the specific concrete reactions of 
 the child under these conditions. Every term used should, of 
 course, be as suggestive as possible, but to be thoroughly reliable 
 it should be based upon an abundance of illustrations which 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 31 
 
 leave no doubt as to its meaning. In order to provide for the 
 various important phases of a child's behavior it may often be 
 necessary to invent purely technical expressions. Thus a child 
 may be said to exhibit " formal attention " when he presents all 
 the outward marks of attention, but reveals to the questioner no 
 knowledge of that to which he was supposed to attend. 
 
 The careful analysis of pupil behavior in a well-chosen and 
 significant terminology may lead to a further interesting en- 
 quiry, Where are these traits best revealed ? What department 
 or phase of work shall be held responsible for revealing them ? 
 How can work be modified or &ew work undertaken with a view 
 to developing such and such traits ? To some teachers, espe- 
 cially to high-school teachers trained to the purely intellectual 
 point of view, a serious, systematic answer to these questions is 
 likely to prove illuminating. 
 
 One form of studying this topic consisted in giving all instruc- 
 tors in a high-school department a provisional trait-list by which 
 they were to mark separately several pupils known to the entire 
 group. Conferences over such character-cards led not only to a 
 fresh illustration and closer definition of terms, but frequently 
 also to surprising disclosures from teachers as to how certain 
 items of behavior were interpreted, and as to what they thought 
 their own procedure should or should not reveal. Careful analy- 
 sis of this sort is rare, yet nothing could come nearer the heart 
 of the whole teaching process. 
 
 When completed the terminology would appear in the char- 
 acter-book in classified form with positive and negative traits 
 together. A brief definition should be given with each term, 
 but a manual of terms with full definitions and illustrations from 
 observed behavior should also be available for reference. The 
 following specimens will serve to show the nature of the system 
 and its use. 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 Years or Grades Qualities 
 
 8 o 101112 Attentive: receptive to instruction; ideas 
 are clearly taken in. 
 
 Concentrative : capable of prolonged volun- 
 tary and critical mental application; 
 strains attention to rework and improve 
 what is received. 
 
 Quick: naturally swift in reaching correct 
 conclusions; " sees the point " intui- 
 tively. 
 
 Fluid attention: attends readily, but is un- 
 able to fix attention continuously; is 
 baffled by any difficulty; mental " quit- 
 ter." 
 
 Suggestible: borrows ideas and opinions 
 from others; offers no criticism or op- 
 posing ideas. 
 
 Cooperative: works well with others for a 
 common end; has " team-sense." 
 
 Sociable: disposed to be friendly and agree- 
 able in company; frank, companion- 
 able, and acceptable to others; is a 
 good " mixer." 
 
 Corrigible: reacts well to correction; is rea- 
 sonable in attitude and profits by the 
 experience. 
 
 It will readily be seen that the labor involved in keeping up 
 such character-books is negligible. Possessing a clear and com- 
 prehensive terminology any thoughtful teacher should find the 
 making of these character-records of her pupils an interesting 
 and simple task. Only such traits as are unmistakable are re- 
 corded and on the basis of a year's acquaintance these ought to 
 be verified repeatedly. Facts dealing with the pupil's out-of- 
 school life will, of course, have to be sought. Every observant 
 teacher knows many of these already, but the knowledge dies 
 when her connection with the pupil ceases. The purpose of the 
 character-book is to accumulate and hold such knowledge for 
 future use. What could be more enlightening, for example, than 
 a fairly careful record under section nine of the above outline, 
 noting the spontaneous activities of a child during vacations, or 
 on Saturdays, or after school in the afternoon, through a period 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 33 
 
 of ten years ? If done in a significant way, as we can soon learn 
 to do it, such a record would be invaluable to a vocational ad- 
 viser. In the high school where one teacher deals as it were with 
 fragments only of one or two hundred pupils changing each sem- 
 ester, the case is difficult. Here the character-book would be 
 the mental treasury of the grade adviser. Ideally his group 
 should not be larger than fifteen or twenty pupils. These could 
 be studied, visited, and mapped without difficulty. Till this ideal 
 is reached such information as can be had should be kept. Es- 
 pecially should this be done in all problem-cases, say the poorest 
 fifth of the enrollment. Or the^ system might first of all be 
 devoted to the best fifth of the school. 
 
 The value of such a record as an educational document scarcely 
 needs to be pointed out. Detailed records of a few hundred pu- 
 pils in the light of their college work, and later careers would 
 certainly prove of great assistance in settling some important 
 questions. It is, however, the immediate usefulness of the char- 
 acter-book that is most appealing. Manifold problems that 
 block the way of teachers and principals in the handling of chil- 
 dren as they make their way through the grades, would disappear 
 at once in the light of the recorded observations and experience of 
 earlier teachers. Furthermore, the continued necessity for re- 
 cording experience would define methods and emphasize aims 
 hitherto but vaguely conceived. To that peculiar type of indi- 
 vidual who holds that teachers in general are not to be trusted 
 with such information because it prejudices their treatment of the 
 child, the writer has nothing to say. Untrustworthy teachers 
 doubtless exist as do untrustworthy representatives of all pro- 
 fessions. This attitude, however, would strip a teacher of all 
 his professional material, deny the sincerity of his purpose, and 
 make any but chance success on his part impossible. 
 
 At Newton the character analysis was undertaken by seven 
 groups of elementary teachers and one group at the Technical 
 High School. The teachers at the Peirce School under Mr. Reed 
 went at the subject most seriously, proceeding slowly and seek- 
 ing to verify each step. Elsewhere the director conferred with 
 
34 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 the groups and took a less exhaustive method in the hope that 
 at least a provisional terminology might be devised and put into 
 use before the end of the year. Of course any set of terms what- 
 ever can only be provisional, as their refinement and improvement 
 is an almost infinite task. The writer's change of plans, however, 
 prevented the formulation of the tentative results at once. It 
 is hoped that they may soon be issued in a trial form that will 
 invite further criticism and elaboration. 
 
 7. The development of a method for the scientific study of individ- 
 ual problem-cases, whether of instructional, disciplinary or other 
 nature. 
 
 The aim of this study is to work out for education a " case- 
 system " of study and instruction comparable to that which has 
 given the study of the law and of medicine its modern effective- 
 ness. Subjective and sentimental pedagogy abounds, but its 
 usefulness is past. We need the facts to direct us further; the 
 facts presented systematically and truthfully, and stripped of all 
 unnecessary verbiage. It should be possible for a young princi- 
 pal at his wit's end in dealing with a recalcitrant pupil to assemble 
 quickly a whole literature of similar cases stating briefly but 
 accurately the conditions, the treatment, and the results, all in 
 concrete detail, from the actual experience of successful school 
 men. A teacher puzzled over an otherwise normal child that 
 can't spell should know where to turn with hopes of finding the 
 suggestion that will aid him. It should be possible to saturate 
 a student of education with material of this sort, setting forth in 
 a standardized terminology trustworthy evidence on all phases 
 of education. It should be possible in a given school system, 
 when conducted by a properly trained staff, to compile almost 
 automatically records of the treatment of all cases having educa- 
 tional significance, and to turn these to account both at the 
 source and elsewhere. At present there is much citing of cases 
 in pedagogical literature, but chiefly of favorable cases selected 
 to prove a thesis, while an enormous current of true, unpartisan 
 experience is daily drifting by unchronicled. All that is neces- 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 35 
 
 sary is careful analysis and the organization of economical forms 
 in which to cast such experience ; practice and the printing-press 
 will do the rest. 
 
 A study of this kind demands precisely such a laboratory 
 treatment as is here proposed. It could probably be worked 
 out successfully only under such conditions, for its success lies 
 wholly in the adequacy and directness with which it formulates 
 and attacks the practical problems of the school. A dozen 
 principals, each asked to state his problem-cases on a provisional 
 printed blank and then to discuss it in conference, would speedily 
 develop the forms in which th^se comparative experiences would 
 prove most helpful, and in so doing would simply organize and 
 clarify the procedure from which, even at present, they derive 
 their major inspiration in mutual contact. The same treatment 
 could, of course, be applied to class-room problems by groups of 
 teachers. In both cases the timeliness of the topics and the 
 prospect of putting the results of the discussion to an immediate 
 test or use would ensure vigorous interest. 
 
 In such larger matters as school organization or the social re- 
 lations of education it would be necessary to extend the scope of 
 the study. It is highly desirable that the mature experience of 
 successful school men on a large number of important subjects 
 be assembled in comparable and useful form without making it 
 necessary for each contributor to write a book in order to record 
 it. For this purpose also there is need of carefully devised forms 
 which would reduce the information to common terms. By 
 means of such forms and with the cooperation of a selected group 
 of experienced and successful observers of education, truths inno- 
 cent of personal coloring and little influenced by conscious selec- 
 tion would gradually emerge. 
 
 This subject was discussed somewhat at Newton but never 
 seriously undertaken. The following specimen is intended to 
 suggest a possible mode of treatment. 
 
36 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 PRELIMINARY BLANK FOR DATA IN CASES OF DISCIPLINE 
 
 Observer, John Doe Subject, Discipline Class, Lying 
 
 1. fender: status in school and community; background and en- 
 
 vironment. 
 
 2. Statement of facts in the case, uninterpreted. 
 
 3. Case for the defense: point of view of the offender in full; every 
 
 known or suspected element of provocation should be included, 
 and the utmost effort made, on the part of the observer, to as- 
 sume the motives, outlook, training, and limitations of the cul- 
 prit, bearing in mind that, in the given combination of these 
 factors, it was most natural for the boy to do as he did. 
 
 4. Case for the School: who is the injured party the school, the 
 
 teacher, the pupils, or the boy himself ? Formulate the nature 
 of the injury to the party involved. Is it a vital injury or a 
 mere formal error ? Can it be made good by punishment ? 
 
 5. Immediate purpose of any treatment: contrition, true view of 
 
 offense, better motives, fear, compensation, deterrent example ? 
 
 6. Immediate treatment proposed: how likely to accomplish the desired 
 
 result; chances of failure; effect temporary or permanent; will 
 the total result tend to kindle better feelings ? 
 
 7. Ultimate purpose: does the case require a course of systematic 
 
 training to effect a permanent change ? 
 
 8. Training proposed. 
 
 9. Results. 
 
 8. Closer articulation between the high school and the grammar 
 school. 
 
 This perennially attractive study proved, as it developed, to 
 contain more promise of immediate results than any other that 
 was undertaken. Four phases were considered: first, that of 
 general organization; second, that of English; third, that of 
 Science; and fourth that of History. The initiative in each case 
 was taken by a group of teachers in the high school, but hearty 
 support was secured from the elementary schoools also. 
 
 It should be said in reference to all of these efforts that the 
 relations between the high schools and the grammar schools at 
 Newton make a study of this sort unusually fruitful. The high 
 schools enjoy the enviable distinction of having provided for the 
 great majority of the school population of secondary age in New- 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 37 
 
 ton, and of actually holding them. The percentage of grammar 
 school pupils who go to high schools varies from 80 per cent in 
 some grammar schools to 100 per cent in others. The high 
 schools enroll over a quarter of the entire school attendance. 
 This fact makes the problem of articulation more generally felt 
 and also more susceptible of solution here than where these condi- 
 tions do not prevail. Moreover with this steadily increasing 
 flow from the lower to the higher institution the mutual relations 
 of the teachers and officers in both have become more intimate, 
 until one feels that he may rely definitely upon an intelligent 
 and whole-hearted cooperation. 
 
 In respect to general features of organization criticism was 
 based on the alleged fact that the work of pupils in the first year 
 of high school showed marked deterioration as compared with 
 the work of the same pupils in the last year in the grammar 
 school. As a possible cause for this certain obvious contrasts 
 in the two institutions were cited: the physical environment in 
 the high school is strange and bewildering to a new pupil, many 
 recitation rooms take the place of one ; the new social influences 
 are distracting, strange comrades and teachers intimidate; the 
 supervision is greatly relaxed, and the new liberty leads to license; 
 methods of work are different, the many teachers fail to reach 
 the pupil as the one did before ; responsibility is unsettled ; class- 
 room practice has now changed, much now depends on written 
 work and examination both comparatively unfamiliar; meth- 
 ods and standards of the college-trained teachers are unlike those 
 of the normal graduate; subjects of study are new and their 
 schedule is confusing. Such are some of the unfavorable condi- 
 tions with which a pupil entering high school is confronted, and 
 which may be responsible for his delayed adjustment and his 
 inferior work. The grammar school, on the other hand, was 
 criticized for the rigidity of its organization, the slight responsi- 
 bility that it imposes on the pupil, its preference for formal 
 correctness over a freer but more genuinely educative content. 
 Two problems seemed to be involved: first, to what extent is 
 this apparent maladjustment actually reflected in lowered per- 
 
3 8 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 formance on the part of the individual pupils ? and for how long ? 
 Second, is it possible to make such modifications in the eighth 
 grade and in the first year of high school as shall make the transi- 
 tion from grammar school to high school natural and successful ? 
 The projected treatment of these questions was as follows : In 
 the first problem: 
 
 (a) Comparison of average individual ratings of first-year 
 pupils for the first quarter with their ratings for the first and last 
 quarters of the eighth grade; also comparison of ratings before 
 and after the eighth-grade-high-school summer vacation with 
 ratings of the same pupil before and after the seventh-eighth 
 grade vacation. 
 
 (b) Analysis of the daily or weekly ratings of first-year pupils 
 for the first quarter to discover the direction and speed of varia- 
 tion during the quarter. 
 
 (c) Special investigation of marked cases of deterioration to 
 determine in how far the conditions are typical or exceptional. 
 
 These special studies were begun, but have not yet been com- 
 pleted. Such evidence as has thus far been received appears to 
 indicate that the alleged deterioration is not typical and has been 
 exaggerated. 
 
 The second point dealing with possible modifications in the 
 two institutions awaits the consideration of a special group of 
 teachers and principals chosen to make a thorough study of 
 conditions and to devise such modifications. One step already 
 taken seems to have fully justified itself. This was the appoint- 
 ment in each of the two Newton high schools of a teacher fresh 
 from the work of the eighth grade to act in a sense as sponsor 
 for the first-year pupils, to represent them in the meetings of 
 the teaching staff, and, in general, to study high school conditions 
 with a view to modifications in their interests. These teachers 
 have filled a difficult position with intelligence and tact, and have 
 been of much assistance in bringing about an understanding. It 
 is intended, of course, that they return to their grammar grades 
 after the one year in the high school, and that other eighth-grade 
 teachers take their places. This process dovetails the two 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 39 
 
 schools together in a sense, and reacts as favorably upon the 
 various eighth grades as upon the high schools. It would be 
 of great value, were it physically practicable, for high school 
 teachers in certain branches, particularly in English, to under- 
 take instruction in the seventh and eighth grades. High school 
 teachers in general are much in need of a broader perspective 
 in judging the growth and requirements of a child's mind. 
 
 Certain other modifications in the high school regime seem 
 well worth a trial. First, the concentration of at least two and 
 preferably three of a pupil's subjects in one hand and in one 
 room during the first half-yeaj seems feasible and likely to lessen 
 the present confusion in the mind of a beginner. Second, the 
 collection and scrutiny at least weekly, and at first possibly 
 daily, of each beginning pupil's class records from all teachers 
 should take the place of the present plan which defers a general 
 round-up until five weeks after entrance. Such accounting in- 
 variably takes place daily in the grammar school, and the con- 
 trast may well prove demoralizing to the pupil not trained to 
 the new policy. Third, teachers in the first year would profit 
 by a little systematic training in making their lesson assignments 
 reasonable, clear, and minutely detailed, in avoiding too free a 
 use of the loose " college " method in the class-room, and in 
 adopting more of the " follow-up " tactics of the grade teachers 
 until the lesson of personal responsibility is fully inculcated. 
 Fourth, the partial restriction, for first-year pupils, of their 
 liberties in the building would 'appear a desirable transitional 
 expedient until they have had time to realize the traditions and 
 ideals of their new environment. 
 
 Similarly for the grammar school the introduction of certain 
 characteristic high school methods would appear to be advis- 
 able. First, the partial introduction of departmental instruc- 
 tion, requiring the pupils to pass from room to room. Second, 
 the provision for large freedom of movement about the building 
 for eighth-grade pupils, the development in them of greater per- 
 sonal responsibility for the preparation of lessons, and the pro- 
 vision of opportunity for greater personal initiative and inde- 
 
40 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 pendence in school affairs.* Third, the conscious anticipation 
 in the grammar school of class-room methods and devices used 
 in the high school; these to be agreed upon in conferences be- 
 tween teachers from both schools. To bring about the fullest 
 understanding there should be, in addition to the above measures, 
 frequent mutual visiting and conference between the teachers 
 in these grades. 
 
 Such are the main conclusions thus far reached in the con- 
 sideration of this phase of the topic. It is important that they 
 be elaborated and revised, with a view to immediate experimental 
 introduction. 
 
 Mention should be made, in this connection, of a plan sug- 
 gested by one of the grammar masters, and at once put into prac- 
 tice by several of them. As soon as the earliest reports as to the 
 work of their respective pupils in the high schools were received 
 by these masters an interview was sought by them with all those 
 who seemed not to have fulfilled reasonable expectation. Know- 
 ing the pupils thoroughly these gentlemen were usually able to 
 determine speedily where the difficulty lay, and in their reports 
 to the high-school principals they often made it possible to 
 remedy the trouble at once. 
 
 The second phase of the articulation problem was undertaken 
 by the two high-school departments of English. Starting from 
 the claim, already quoted, that the work of first-year high-school 
 pupils was inferior to their work in the grammar school, the fol- 
 lowing specific criticisms were formulated : first-year high-school 
 pupils suffer from (a) ignorance of formal grammar, (b) inability 
 to write and speak correctly, (c) inability to grasp the central 
 thoughts of a reading selection, and (d) from the effects of an 
 uncorrelated course of study in literature. Four specific prob- 
 lems were developed from a consideration of these conditions: 
 first, does ability in oral and written English, shown in the gram- 
 mar school, fail to persist in the first year in the high school ? 
 second, are the standards of achievement in composition in the 
 grammar school and high school properly graded and mutually 
 understood ? third, what can be expected of the successive grades 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 41 
 
 in the development of power to grasp the central thoughts of 
 reading selections ? fourth, how can the choice of reading matter 
 in the grammar school and high school be systematized ? 
 
 As a basis for the study of the first and second of these questions 
 a set of themes, written without previous preparation by all the 
 first-year high-school pupils was sent to the grammar schools to be 
 rated by the teachers who had taught these pupils in the eighth 
 grade; these themes having first been privately rated by the 
 high-school teachers. Similarly a complete set of themes from 
 the eighth-grade teachers, was sent to receive the ratings of the 
 high-school teachers. The last readers, the grade teachers in 
 the first case and high-school teachers in the second, were 
 asked to indicate their corrections in full on the papers. 
 
 It was soon realized that as a true indication of progress or 
 deterioration on the part of pupils these single bits of off-hand 
 writings were of little value. As a comparative revelation of the 
 standards prevailing among the two groups of teachers, however, 
 the results were of more interest, and the comments and correc- 
 tions furnished material for a program that should lead to a 
 better mutual understanding. The following table shows the 
 results of the ratings: 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF THEME-RATINGS 
 I. First-year High School Themes 
 
 (Figures indicate the percentage of the total given to each " mark ") 
 By Teachers in A B C D E F Totaling 
 
 (a) High Schools .... 8.5 27. 39.1 17.5 6.3 1.6 100% 
 
 (b) Grammar Schools 2.1 18.7 44.6 24.3 7.8 2.5 100% 
 
 IT. Eighth-Grade Themes 
 
 By Teachers in A B C D E F Totaling 
 
 (a) High Schools .... 5.1 21. 30. 22.9 15. 6. 100% 
 
 (6) Grammar Schools 4.9 13.8 35.6 23.6 14. 8.1 100% 
 
 The themes so rated were returned to their respective schools 
 and carefully studied, and at a subsequent conference of all the 
 teachers concerned the chief points of variation were brought up 
 and discussed. At this conference the suggestive proposal was 
 made that a permanent committee, with representatives both 
 
42 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 from elementary and high schools, be appointed to correlate in 
 detail the work in English of the two systems. As appeared 
 from the discussion, the work of this committee was conceived 
 not as a single task, but as a permanent function. A part of its 
 duty was to serve as a clearing-house for the whole department. 
 The detailed needs of each of the twelve grades were to be 
 analyzed, and then, through this central committee, any special 
 piece of investigation or preparation done by any teacher for his 
 own classes was to be made available in print for the whole depart- 
 ment, especially for those doing similar work. A plan of this 
 kind obviously contains important possibilities if well worked 
 out. The combination of great freedom and flexibility with a 
 wealth of illustrative and supplementary material continually 
 coming in, might be organized in the interests of an effective 
 economy. The notion of systematically pooling the results se- 
 cured by many workers in doing the same task has nowhere 
 received due recognition in education. 
 
 A further proposal with reference to closer articulation in Eng- 
 lish was to the effect that for each pupil in the city a composition 
 portfolio be provided that should contain uncorrected samples 
 of his composition taken twice each year and preserved for 
 reference, comparison, and experimental purposes. Certainly 
 such an array throughout the twelve years of a pupil's develop- 
 ment would be very instructive. 
 
 Other conferences on the problems undertaken by this group 
 were in prospect as the writer left Newton, and will be reported 
 in subsequent bulletins. 
 
 Study of the articulation in science between the grammar 
 schools and high schools was begun by the two high-school science 
 departments; their chief problems were formulated as follows: 
 first, is the lack of reasoning ability in elementary science due to 
 the failure of the grammar schools to develop the requisite ability, 
 or may it be that power to reason in technical terms (ohms, am- 
 peres, density, etc.), cannot fairly be expected of beginning pu- 
 pils whatever their ability in reasoning with simple terms ? 
 second, is correlation between the grammar school and the high 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 43 
 
 school in respect to topics in elementary science practicable and 
 desirable ? If so, third, what topics may be most profitably 
 undertaken by the grammar school ? 
 
 In regard to the first of these questions it seemed possible to 
 devise a test that would be of some assistance. Such a test 
 would consist of a series of problems involving all the important 
 types of reasoning process used in high-school courses in science. 
 The problems would appear in two forms: first, expressed in the 
 purely technical terminology of science, and second, in terms 
 familiar to any child who has had arithmetic. It was designed 
 to submit the test so preparedto all high-school pupils who had 
 had or who were taking physics; also to submit the problems of 
 the simple series alone to all first-year high-school pupils and all 
 pupils of the eighth grade. From the double test for physics 
 pupils it was thought that the effect of unfamiliarity with the 
 terms might appear in proportion to the brevity of their work in 
 the subject, and by the single test it was desired to compare the 
 reasoning ability in the eighth grade with that in the first year 
 of the high school. 
 
 The study proceeded as far as the construction of a test, a 
 part of which is given below. 
 
 SPECIMEN PROBLEMS FROM THE REASONING TEST 
 
 I. i. Price varies directly as quantity, quality remaining the same. If 
 12 bushels of potatoes cost $9.60, what will 16 bushels cost ? 
 
 2. Volume varies directly as absolute temperature, pressure remain- 
 ing constant. If 50 cc. of gas have a temperature of 273 A, 
 what will be the volume at 283 A ? 
 II. i. How much will 15 quarts of berries cost at 12 cents per quart ? 
 
 2. Current strength (ampere) equals electric pressure (volt) divided 
 by the resistance (ohm). If one volt will send 2 amperes through 
 a certain resistance, how much current can be sent through a wire 
 of the same resistance by no volts pressure ? 
 
 III. i. Time varies inversely as the number of men employed. Six men 
 can do a piece of work in 4 days; how long would it take 10 men 
 to do the same work ? 
 
 2. Volume varies inversely as the pressure. How many cubic feet 
 of gas at 15 Ibs. per square inch pressure can be obtained from a 
 gas tank of 10 cu. ft. capacity in which the gas is under a pressure 
 of 165 Ibs. per sq. in. ? 
 
44 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 In history the need of better articulation was suggested by the 
 fact that pupils come up for American history in the high school 
 with an attitude of mind that indicates that the point of view 
 from which history is approached in the high school the only 
 point of view from which it can profitably be approached there 
 has been largely anticipated in the grammar school, with result- 
 ing loss of interest and profit in the high-school course. The 
 problem appears to be to plan a course for the school system as 
 a whole, in which, at each repetition, the peculiar function of 
 history at the given age and state of development of the child 
 shall be clearly emphasized. Thus a predominantly biographical 
 and inspirational treatment in the eighth grade would seem to 
 contrast properly with the analytical and pragmatic treatment 
 in the high school. The problem is a good one though some- 
 what difficult. It was discussed at Newton, but has not as yet 
 been followed up. 
 
 9. The analysis into fundamental abilities of aggregates now 
 usually rated as units; e. g., English, mathematics, etc. Also: The 
 invention of tests and scales for the objective measurement of these 
 abilities. 
 
 This study also includes an almost indefinite number of sub- 
 problems the importance of which is apparent to any teacher or 
 school officer who seeks to free himself from the error of per- 
 sonal variation in his judgments of the educational progress of a 
 pupil. The subject was begun with a test to determine the 
 practical efficiency of the Scale for the Measurement of Excel- 
 lence in English Composition devised by Professor M. B. Hille- 
 gas of Columbia University, and reported in the Teachers College 
 Record for September, 1912. Accurately stated the object of 
 the test was to determine the extent to which the use of a stand- 
 ard scale of comparison will produce uniformity in the ratings 
 assigned to a given set of exercises in English Composition. 1 
 
 1 A report of this study and of the enterprise to which it led is contained in 
 Leaflet No. 115, Feb., 1914, of the New England Association of Teachers of 
 English. 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 45 
 
 Fifty one-page exercises were secured in about equal numbers 
 from the fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth grades in the grammar 
 schools, from the sophomore and senior years in the high schools 
 and from a class of mature " transfer " pupils promoted to 
 special work in the high school without having completed all the 
 work of the elementary school. These papers were sent in suc- 
 cession to fifteen teachers, five from the fourth and fifth grades, 
 five from the seventh and eighth grades, and five from the high 
 schools, with the following instructions: " Rate each paper on 
 the scale of 100 using as a basis your own standard of good Eng- 
 lish prose composition." After being rated in this way by all 
 of the teachers, the papers were sent around again accompanied 
 by a typewritten copy of the " scale," and the same teachers 
 were now asked to mark each paper according to their estimate 
 of its position in the scale. 
 
 The results of the ratings may be summarized as follows: 
 Marking without the scale, the judges assigned to the papers 
 values which varied among themselves from 30% in one case to 
 85 % in another; the average extreme variation of all fifty papers 
 was 58 %. When assigned with the scale the ratings varied from 
 18% in one case to 73% in another. 
 
 As a practical means for the measurement of excellence in 
 English prose composition the test showed that the Hillegas 
 scale, though promising, was clearly preliminary and inconclu- 
 sive, as the first attempt of this sort could hardly fail to be. It 
 is a " blanket " scale covering everything that may be included 
 in the term " merit," and expressed, in its lower and middle 
 terms at least, in samples that are but slightly comparable with 
 the usual school product. Its chief virtue is the thoroughly 
 scientific character of its construction; its chief fault is that 
 under the most favorable conditions it still admits a legitimate 
 variation of 25% a minimum which swells to 50% in rating 
 specimens to which its samples are unsuited, or when the scale 
 is hastily or carelessly applied. That it will considerably reduce 
 the limits of variation which appear in a purely subjective rating 
 has been conclusively shown in the Newton tests. 
 
46 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 The results of the test left the decided impression of consider- 
 able latent worth in the idea of a scale in spite of the difficulties 
 attendant upon its elaboration. It was determined, therefore, 
 to proceed at once with the construction of a scale which should 
 remedy the apparent defects of the Hillegas Scale and be suited 
 to practical use in the Newton schools. As the greater part of 
 the work connected with this " Newton " scale has been done 
 under the supervision of the writer's successor, it seems proper 
 to defer all discussion of it to a later bulletin. 1 
 
 10. The division of labor in teaching: the organization of class- 
 work to permit the larger use of conspicuous abilities in the teacher. 
 
 The intent of this topic reaches somewhat further than what is 
 known as departmental teaching, although that is one form of 
 such division of labor. The question is whether, both in the 
 grades and in high school, gifted teachers with unusual abilities, 
 say, in oral class-room instruction, teachers who by force of 
 strong imagination and powers of compelling thought can greatly 
 stimulate pupils, whether such teachers should not be en- 
 couraged to conserve their powers and energy for that purpose. 
 Many such teachers can without difficulty hold the attention of 
 sixty or seventy pupils and secure a strong reaction, but if held 
 responsible for all the work of that number they would find the 
 task impossible. The experiment would seek to determine 
 whether, by associating with such a teacher a young and possibly 
 inexperienced assistant who would work under her immediate 
 direction and relieve her of routine duties, bookkeeping, correc- 
 tion of papers, etc., a larger number of pupils might not, for 
 their essential instruction, be brought into contact with her 
 strong and impressive personality. Such an arrangement would 
 be especially suited to the grades, and might prove an admirable 
 method of training teachers fresh from the normal schools. 
 
 1 This bulletin, by Mr. F. W. Ballou, will contain four scales for the measure- 
 ment of eighth-grade compositions, one in narration, one in description, one in 
 exposition, and one in argument. Each sample in the scale will be accompanied 
 by a paragraph of analysis. The bulletin will be issued by the Harvard University 
 Press during September, 1914. 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 47 
 
 In the high school, provision for such specialization would 
 make it possible for each of three or four teachers of Latin to 
 develop that phase of instruction in which he was naturally most 
 adept. At present a pupil must submit to the same instructor 
 both where he is strong and where he may be wholly weak and 
 uninspiring. It might prove possible, on the other hand, eventu- 
 ally to secure expert service from each of several such teachers 
 by further specialization. 
 
 ii. The effect of the regulation of pupils' program-periods on 
 the quality and quantity of their work. 
 
 Previous to September, 1911, pupils in the two Newton high 
 schools had been permitted to register for from seventeen to 
 twenty periods of work weekly, according to individual ambition 
 or circumstances. After a careful study of conditions there had 
 seemed good ground for the belief that many pupils were attempt- 
 ing too much work, and that a regulation of periods would both 
 improve the quality and increase the amount of successful per- 
 formance. For this purpose the courses were laid out as if for 
 five years instead of four, requiring thus an average of about 
 fourteen periods per week which was termed " normal work." 
 To this program all pupils were restricted except such as failed 
 in no subject and the average of whose ratings was at least 10% 
 above the passing mark of 70%; such pupils were allowed to 
 take an additional subject as long as they maintained those con- 
 ditions. Revision of the work of all pupils was to come at ten- 
 week intervals. 
 
 To determine the actual effect of this ruling Superintendent 
 Spaulding suggested certain comparisons as follows: first, com- 
 parison of the work of 189 sophomores in 1910-11, before the 
 change, with the work of 167 sophomores in 1911-12, after the 
 change; second, comparison of the work of 162 pupils as sopho- 
 mores in 1910-11, before the change, with the work of those same 
 pupils as juniors in 1911-12, after the change. All exceptional 
 or uncertain cases were thrown out of account. For each pupil 
 there was ascertained under the contrasting conditions: 
 
48 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 (1) the number of points he attempted to earn by enrollment; 
 
 (2) the number of points he did actually earn; 
 
 (3) the number of points for which he originally enrolled and 
 in which he failed; this was termed " gross waste "; 
 
 (4) the number of points in which he failed, less such points 
 of failure as occurred in subjects that, according to the new rul- 
 ing, he was compelled to drop during the year; this was termed 
 the "net waste"; 
 
 (5) the percentage that the " net waste " constituted of the 
 points earned; 
 
 (6) the average quality of all his work for the year. 
 
 In addition to these items the percentage of the class who won 
 over 70% on eighteen periods of work or more, was secured in 
 each case, and, finally, there was taken the percentage of each 
 group securing over 70% regardless of the number of hours. 
 Presented in tabular form the results were as follows: 
 
HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 COMPARISON OF PUPIL-PERFORMANCE BEFORE AND AFTER THE LIMITATION 
 
 OF PERIODS 
 
 Comp. 189 Soph's 
 I 167 " 
 
 1910-1911 Comp. 162 Pupils as (i) Soph's 'lO-'il 
 1911-1912 II (2) Junior's '11-12 
 
 20.57 
 18.58 
 
 Average Number of Points 1 
 Attempted 
 
 20.82 
 18.89 
 
 
 18.36 
 16.64 
 
 Earned 
 
 19.06 
 16.90 
 
 
 1-95 
 1.70 
 
 Gross waste 
 
 1.67 
 1.77 
 
 
 1-59 
 
 1.20 
 
 Net waste 
 
 1.41 
 1-33 
 
 
 8.66% 
 7-21% 
 
 Net waste is of points earned 
 
 7-40% 
 7.87% 
 
 
 73-77 
 73-70 
 
 Average quality 
 
 75-13% 
 72.98% 
 
 
 61 
 45 
 
 Percentage of superior performance 
 (Over 70% on more than 18 hours) 
 
 63 
 4i 
 
 
 72 
 70 
 
 Percentage over 70 % regardless of 
 number of hours 
 
 74 
 7i 
 
 
 Loss 1.99 
 Loss 1.72 (9.4%) 
 Gain 1.45 (Dec.) 
 Loss .07 % 
 
 Balance of Gain or Loss 
 
 Points attempted 
 Points earned 
 Average waste per point earned 
 Average quality 
 
 1.93 Loss 
 (11.3%) 2.16 " 
 (Inc.) .47%" 
 2.15% " 
 
 It will be seen that, when tested on these three groups of pu- 
 pils, the plan of limiting periods failed at every point except the 
 one in the first comparison that showed a gain (decrease) of 1.45 
 points in the average waste per point earned. Especially strik- 
 ing is the drop in quality in relation to the number of periods, 
 termed above " superior performance." No one can assert, of 
 course, that the showing made here finally condemns the new 
 
 1 A " point " is one hour of recitation per week through the year. 
 
50 HARVARD-NEWTON BULLETIN 
 
 plan; it should be verified repeatedly with other groups before 
 acceptance. The study does, however, disclose the precarious 
 foundation upon which apparently sound educational judgments 
 may sometimes rest. 
 
 12. A psychological analysis of successful teachers. 
 
 This topic is so wholly unexplored that to record it here seems 
 scarcely warranted. It was, however, seriously considered, and, 
 had time allowed, would have been undertaken. The idea is, of 
 course, merely a new application of the form of investigation now 
 familiar at the psychological laboratory of Harvard University. 
 The personal characteristics of successful teachers are, on the 
 whole, fairly uniform as judged by common experience. That 
 they should be susceptible of definite formulation in terms of 
 psychological reaction would not be at all surprising. Were it 
 possible to arrive even at negative results, and to determine 
 characteristics that are not compatible with success, the useful- 
 ness of such knowledge would not be slight. The study, however, 
 is one that depends chiefly on university experimenters and can 
 hardly be considered appropriate for the investigation of teachers 
 themselves. 
 
IP 
 
 DATE 
 
 DAY AND 1 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 
 
 SEP 29 
 
384686 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY