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Page 42
The success of the failing pupils in passing the Regents' examinations
does not give endorsement to the suggestion that they are in any true
sense weaklings. That they succeed here almost concurrently with the
failure in the school testifies that 'they can if they will,' or
conversely, as regards the school subject, that 'they can but they
won't.' Of course it is possible that differences in the type of
examinations or in the standards of judgment as employed by the school
and the Regents may be a factor in the difference of results secured.
The great difficulty then seems to resolve itself into a technical
problem of more successfully enlisting the energy and ability which
they so irrefutably do possess in order to secure better school
results, but perhaps in work that is better adapted to them. Again, the
success with which these pupils carry a schedule of five or six
subjects, besides other work not recognized in the treatment of this
study, and retrieve themselves in the unattractive subjects of failure
pleads for a recognition of their ability and enterprise. Their
difficulty is without doubt frequently more physiological than
psychological, except as they are the victims of a false psychology,
that either disregards or misapplies the principles which Thorndike
terms the law of readiness[50] to respond and the law of effect, and
consequently depend largely on the one law of exercise of the function
to secure the desired results.
Some additional evidence that the failing pupils can and do succeed in
most of their subjects is provided by their earlier and later records,
as disclosed by the total grades received for the semester first
preceding and the one next following that in which the failure occurs.
There were of course no preceding grades for the failures that occur in
the first semester, and none succeeding those that occur in the last
semester spent in school. It is quite apparent from the following
distribution of grades that these pupils are far from helpless in
regard to the ability required to do school work in general.
GRADES OF THE FAILING PUPILS IN THE SEMESTER NEXT PRECEDING
THE FAILURES
Total A B C D
13,857 Boys 315 2883 6668 3991
17,264 Girls 245 2868 9509 4642
Per Cent of Total 1.8 18.5 52.0 27.7
GRADES OF THE FAILING PUPILS IN THE SEMESTER NEXT SUCCEEDING
THE FAILURES
Total A B C D
14,724 Boys 319 2772 7406 4227
16,942 Girls 281 2788 9114 4759
Per Cent of Total 1.9 17.7 52.1 28.3
More than 20 per cent of the grades in the former and nearly 20 per
cent of the grades in the latter distribution are A's or B's, 52 per
cent more in each case are given a lower passing grade, while
approximately 28 per cent in each distribution have failing grades.
Though some tendency toward a continuity of failures is apparent, there
is also evident a pronounced tendency in the main for pupils to
succeed. That these same pupils could do better is not open to doubt.
Teachers in two of the larger schools asserted that with many pupils a
kind of complacency existed to feel satisfied with a C, and to consider
greater effort for the sake of higher passing marks as a waste of time.
Such pupils openly advocate a greater number of subjects with at least
a minimum passing mark in each, in preference to fewer subjects and the
higher grades, which they claim count no more in essential credit than
a lower passing grade. That attitude may account for some of the low
marks as well as for some of the failures shown above, even though the
pupils may possess an abundance of mental ability.
Still another element, apart from the real ability of the pupils,
which is contributory to school failures is found in punitive marking
or in the giving of a failing grade for disciplinary effect. It is
probably a relatively small element, but it is difficult to establish
any certain estimate of its amount. Numerous teachers are ready to
assert its reality in practice. Two cases came directly to the author's
personal attention by mere chance--one, by the frank statement of a
teacher who had used this weapon; another, by the ready advice of an
older to a younger teacher, in the midst of recording marks, to fail a
boy "because he was too fresh." The advice was followed. Such a
practice, however prevalent, is intolerable and indefensible. If the
school failure is to be administered as a retaliation or convenience by
the teacher, how is the moral or educational welfare of the pupil to be
served thereby? It is certain to be more efficacious for vengeance than
for purposes of reforming the individual if employed in this way. The
Regents' rules take recognition of this inclination toward a perversion
of the function of examination by forbidding any exclusion from
Regents' examinations as a means of discipline. Many teachers cultivate
a finesse for discerning weaknesses and faults, without perceiving the
immeasurable advantage of being able to see the pupils' excellences. In
one school there was employed a plan by which a percentage discount was
charged for absence, and in some instances it reduced a passing mark to
a failing mark. This comes close to the assignment of marks of failure
for penalizing purposes, which is unjustified and vicious.
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