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Show ELECTIVE WORK BELOW HIGH SCHOOL TO BE FEATURE OF THIS YEAR'S WORK Elective work below the high school will bo one of the strong features of the school year of 1910-1911 in the cit3,,s public schools. With tho absorption ab-sorption chiefly by tho Longfellow of the grades from tho first to sixth inclusive in-clusive from tho Bryant a department of instruction that overlaps the high school on tho ono side and tho grammar department on the other is being established estab-lished at tho Bryant and so far as practicable prac-ticable a similar department is being installed at tho new Jefferson building. These departments arc organized in all essential respects on the same basis as is high school work and subjects given in them will bo taught by special spe-cial teachers. Hero arc somo of tho advantages which it is alleged aro to bc gained from the plan: It will add materially to the general efficiency of the grammer grades included in-cluded and to tho quality of the first year's high school work "by permitting a course of instruction based upon individual in-dividual needs and tondoncies, eliminating elimin-ating arbitrary organization. It will add ono year to the educational education-al equipment of a groat many children. It will prove financially advautago-ous. advautago-ous. It will simplify administrative work. Tho gratifying of individual needs perhaps is the strongest point of tho innovation. It ds comparatively easy to hold tho interest of tho child in tho lower grades but his marked personal tctidoncios and aptitudes begiu to assert as-sert themselves as he passes through tho fifth aud sixth grades, representing in many respects a transition period of his life, and when ho enters tho sov-enth sov-enth grade his natural bent is likoly to bo easily discerned. In discussing this subject Tuesday, Superintendent Chris-tensen Chris-tensen said: In somo cases perhaps tho quality of his previous teaching may ho a factor in predetermining ihls Inclination, but most likoly it Is an expression or his own Individuality doveloped under proper environment en-vironment Uio homo and tho school, and It may bo that heredity has played its part. At any rate this condition arises, and who will say that the disinclination to attend school manifested by so many fifth and sixth prude boys, which all educators recognize and which has had voluminous discussions .from many leaders lead-ers in educational thought. Is not due In part, at least, to tho fact that tho prescribed work in seventh and eighth grades, which under prescnL conditions has so little regard for the individual aptitudes and Inclinations, Is too ro-stlctlvo ro-stlctlvo in its scopo and fails to appeal to thom? Tho opportunity for somo degree de-gree of cholco should bc glvon at the beginning be-ginning of tho seventh year. Every year It Is necessary in tho Interests of Justice Jus-tice and fairness to promote to tho high school somo punils with a "mlnlmunV' mark In somo subjects and a 'condltlon" In others. Tho minimum subjects aro supposed to bo thoso for which the child has a minimum capacity and in which he cannot even with faithful and persistent per-sistent effort reach ,tho degree of attainment at-tainment required for promotion. They aro always, however, tho ones for which he has a dislike and the ones in which little Interest Is aroused. The rcquirc- mcnt that makes It compulsory for him to pui-suo these studies frequently results re-sults in a permanent aversion to them, whereas a temporary discontinuance of thom during a period of development of ono or two years would likely bring the child to tho place where ho not only finds pleasure In pursuing them. but. where he can do no at a much smaller expenditure, expendi-ture, of energy and with decidedly better returns than would formorly have been possible. 1 would not, of course, Include In this class reading and langunge and other branches the necessity of which as fundamentals all recognize. It Is, however, how-ever, In no way rare to find a bright and promising young girl forced to tho point of failure and subjected to constant con-stant humiliation In her arithmetic, when her reading and language work gh'o unmistakable un-mistakable evidence of an unusual Intellect. In-tellect. The constant dread and the humiliation hu-miliation caused by her low standard of work In arithmetic not only rob her of tho charm and delight of her school days, to which Bho is Justly entitled, but her efficiency In the subjects in which her aptitudos are pronounced Is percoptl-bly percoptl-bly lessened. Health also may be impaired. im-paired. Unfortunately, Mr. Christonson thinks, tho teaching of languages heretofore here-tofore has been considcrou tho exclusive exclu-sive function of the high schools, when in fact tho nature of mind development makes an earlier period in life tho inoro economical and effective timo for their acquisition and mastery. Some of the arithmetic work outlined in tho seventh and eighth grado3 could bo done moro effectively and iu a shorter timo later iu school life, he argues. Somo parts of history, of civil government and of grammar now included in the eighth m grado might well bo moved to tho uinth, and tho English offered in tho first year of high school could bc taught as effectively effective-ly at least in tho seventh and eighth grades, in his opinion. These things, it is thought,. will onhanco tho pleasures of school life, and also prolong pro-long such life. By tho innovation a sort of a three-3'car three-3'car course, adding a ninth grado to tho seventh and oighth grades, is created. Tho ninth grado corresponds closely to tho first year of high school work, and tho system will develop a sort of a preparatory high school. It is highly noticeable that many pupils loso interest at the end of tho eighth year, "ud tho system is to abridge the dividing line, amounting often almost to a gap, between the. eighth grado and tho high school, holding the pupil's interest, at that point, and, figuratively speaking, draggiug him over into tho high school. In tho departments bcinnr established at the Brynnt and Jefferson one modern language will bc optional as early as tho seventh grade, and ono or two in the eighth grade. Theso modern languages will bo taught under Dr. Edward Ed-ward Du Poncot, a linguist of note. From 65 to 80 per cent of tho eighth grade pupils now go on to the high school, and it is thought that tho S3s-torn S3s-torn will increase this percentage materially, |