Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill TWO CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION Two of the important problems that the contemporary interest in education has brought prominently before the public are (i) What shall we do about the elective system of studies which is daily extending its sway over schools and colleges throughout the country? and (2) How shall we bridge the gap between the high school and the lower grades; it. how shall we minimize the waste in the pupil's school education and make his entire school career serve continuously and progressively — as it should — his gradually expanding interests, needs, powers, and duties? It is well known that even those secondary schools and colleges which do not recognizeelectives, as such, and cling to "courses of study," permit not merely a choice between different " courses," but they usually also permit substitutions of studies in one " course" for studies in another; so that, really, if not nominally, a considerable range of choice, or election of studies, is permitted in most secondary schools and colleges nearly everywhere throughout the country. Both experience and observation seem to justify this widespread adoption of the elective system, in some form, in secondary schools and colleges.1 During the years of secondary school and college education, the pupil passes through the important stage of adolescence and youth. He emerges from childhood to manhood. During these years, he may be, and should be, led to self-revelation, and he should be aided to organize his mental life in accordance with his dominant interests and capacities, both for vocational and extra-vocational activities. After an individual's interests have emerged distinctly, all voluntary effort is reserved for his preferences; and that achievement is most productive when it is based on...