We must keep records, of
course, but it will be recalled that in the parable of the talents men
were commended or condemned according to the use they made of the talents
they had and were not graded according to a fixed standard. Seeing that
seventy-five per cent will win him promotion, the boy devotes only so much
of himself to the enterprise as will enable him to attain the goal and
directs the remainder of himself to adventures along the line of his
native tendencies. The only way by which we can develop a complete Sam
Brown is so to arrange matters that the whole of Sam Brown is enlisted in
the work. Otherwise we shall have one part of the boy working in one
direction and another part in another direction, and that plan does not
make for completeness. We must enlist the whole boy or we shall fail to
develop a complete boy. If we can find some study to which he will devote
himself unreservedly, then we may well rejoice and can afford to let the
traditional subjects of the course of study wait. We are interested in Sam
Brown just now and he is far more important than some man-made course of
study. We are interested, too, in one hundred per cent of Sam Brown, and
not in three fourths of him. If arithmetic will not enlist all of this boy
and nature will enlist all of him, then arithmetic must be held in
abeyance in the interest of the whole boy.
The seventy-five per cent standard is repudiated by the world of affairs
even though it is emphasized by the school.
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