y pupils places before the
teacher a constant temptation, which at times reaches the proportions of
an overmastering necessity, to treat the group of children as if each
child were like all the rest. A teacher who can individualize forty
children, understand the peculiarities of each child, and teach in a way
that will enable each of the children to benefit fully by her
instruction, is indeed a master, perhaps it would be fairer to say a
super-master in pedagogy. A class of forty is almost inevitably taught
as a group.

There is another feature about the large school system which is even
more disastrous to the welfare of the individual child. Rousseau studied
the individual to be educated, and then prescribed the course of study.
The city teacher, no matter how intimately she may be acquainted with
the needs of her children, has little or no say in deciding upon the
subjects which she is to teach her class. Such matters are for the most
part determined by a group of officials--principals, superintendents,
and boards of education,--all of whom are engaged primarily in
administrative work, and some of whom have never taught at all, nor
entered a psychological laboratory, nor engaged in any other occupation
that would give first-hand, practical, or theoretical knowledge of the
problems encountered in determining a course of study.

A course of study must be devised, however, even though some of the
responsible parties have no first-hand knowledge of the points at issue.
The method by which it is devised is of peculiar importance to this
discussion. The administrative officials, having in mind an average
child, prepare a course of study which will meet that average child's
needs. Theoretically, the plan is admirable. It suffers from one
practical defect,--there is no such thing as an average child.

III The Fallacious "Average"

Averages are peculiarly tempting to Americans. They supply the same
deeply-felt want in statistics that headlines do in newspapers. They
tell the story at a glance. In this peculiar case the story is
necessarily false.

An average may be taken only of like things. It is possible to average
the figures 3, 4, and 8 by adding them together and dividing by 3. The
average is 5. Such a process is mathematically correct, because all of
the units comprising the 3, 4, and 8 are exactly alike. One of the
premises of mathematics is that all units are alike, hence they may be
averaged.

Unlike mathema