e cannot say that even hopeless failing in any
particular subject is a safe criterion of general inability, or that
failure in abstract sort of mental work would be a sure prophecy of
failure in more concrete hand work. It is altogether probable that some
of the individuals in the above number were not endowed to profit by an
academic high school course, and that others were the restless ones at
a restless age, who just would not fit in, whatever their abilities.
But even of these pupils a considerable number display sufficient
resourcefulness to satisfy many of their failures and to persist in
school two, three, or four years. 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. So far as ability is required to
meet the conditions of graduation they are manifestly provided with
it. Following this comparison still further, the failing pupils who do
not graduate have an average number of failures that is only .6 higher
than for