There is apparently no constitutional impediment to a still further
extension of the principle of flexibility and to the minimizing of loss
by what has been a costly trial and error method of fitting the pupils
and the subjects to each other. Short unit courses are not unfamiliar
in certain educational fields, and they lend themselves very readily to
definite and specific needs. Their usefulness may be regarded as a
warrant of a wider adoption of them. Although they are as yet employed
mainly for an intensive form of training or instruction to meet
specific needs of a particular group in a limited time,[60] the
principle of their use is no longer novel. A unit course of an
extensive nature is also conceivable, for instance, a semester of any
subject entitled to two credits might allow a division into two
approximately equal portions. If then both teacher and pupil feel, when
one unit is completed, that the pupil is in the wrong subject or that
his work is hopeless in that subject, he might be permitted to
withdraw and be charged with a failure of only one point, that is, just
one-half the failure of a semester's work in the subject--or one-fourth
that for a whole year with no semester divisions. Even if this scheme
would not work equally well in all subjects, it implies no extensive
reorganization to employ it in the ones adapted. It is not incredible
that, as the people more generally understand that physics, chemistry,
and biology have become vital to national self-preservation and social
well-being, their emphasis as subjects required or as subjects sought
by most of the pupils may lead to a high percentage of failures, such
as is found for Latin and mathematics usually, or for science as
reported in St.
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