There are perhaps at least a few
others who, without failing, drop out early, prompted by the conviction
of their own unfitness to succeed in the high school. Yet collectively
this group is by no means a large one. This conclusion is in harmony
with the judgment of former Superintendent Maxwell, of New York
City,[47] who stated that "the number of children leaving school
because they have not the native ability to cope with high school
studies, is, in my judgment, small." Likewise Van Denburg[48] reached
the conclusion that "at least 75 per cent of the pupils who enter (high
school) have the brains, the native ability to graduate, if they chose
to apply themselves." With many who fail not even is the application
lacking, as the facts of section 2 will seem to prove.
2. MOST OF THE FAILING PUPILS LACK NEITHER ABILITY OR EARNESTNESS
When we take into account that by the processes of selection and
elimination only thirty to forty per cent of the pupils who enter the
elementary school ever reach high school,[49] it is readily admitted
that the high school population is a selected group, of approximately 1
in 3. Then of this number we again select less than 1 in 3 to graduate.
This gives a 1 in 9 selection, let us say, of the elementary school
entrants. For relatively few general purposes in life may we expect to
find so high a degree of selection. Yet in this 1 in 9 group (who
graduate) the percentage of the failing pupils is as high as that of
the non-failing ones, and the percentage of graduates does not drop
even as the number of failures rise.
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