The other, a bright, quick, erratic fellow, suspended for the better part of one semester as a matter of discipline, completed the equivalent of the year's work with something to spare.

The race for good standing was not always to the quick, nor yet to the slow; it was sometimes to one, sometimes to the other, and sometimes to neither, but it was usually to either a quick man or a slow one, rarely to the man of average speed who generally secured an average grade. In drawing, only two men received the highest grade given; one did the work in less than two-thirds the regularly allotted time, the other used more than the regular time; there was but one man quicker than the first, and no one who did faithful work who was slower than the second. The only man to receive an "A," the highest grade, in theoretical chemistry, was the third in point of time required, while the only man to be similarly graded in laboratory chemistry was the slowest, requiring about seven fourths the allotted time of the regular classes. In algebra there were four men graded "A," and the times occupied varied from six weeks to ten weeks.

It is believed that there were two students in the section who failed to complete the year's work who might have completed it under the usual class method, but it is also believed that they would have done their work much less thoroughly.

It is believed-indeed, it may be said that it is known-that there were several students in the section who would have been entirely lost at an early stage of ordinary class work in several subjects that

were completed in most creditable fashion at a slow rate.

The university has a system of honor scholarships whereby each accredited secondary school of the state may send each year free of tuition one student selected by the home school from the upper fifth of the graduating class. There were five of these scholars in this section, three proving most satisfactory students, though only two completed the year's work. One of the others is one of those already mentioned as likely to have completed the year by the ordinary methods, while the fifth did not justify his appointment as an honor scholar.

It would seem to be wise to separate students doing even such closely related subjects as the various branches of mathematics. A single instructor should have charge of a limited number of students in a single subject, and no other subject should be under way in his room at the same time. Such arrangement may not always be possible, but is best. If it is complained that an instructor will find it monotonous to always teach algebra, for instance, the instructors may be changed from year to year, and experience seems to show the writer that a single subject, properly taught in this way, will not become tiresome in a single year.

The method is as much a test of the instructor as of the student, and many a teacher who could go on indefinitely under the ordinary class method of recitation or lecture, would soon find his Waterloo under the individual method. He must have the whole of the particular subject he is teaching at his fingers'

ends; he must be warmly sympathetic, yet able to distinguish between the need of sympathy and the need of a prod; he must know how to teach by leading the student to think logically for himself rather than by full and complete explanation, which is always easier; he must be able to dominate the atmosphere of the room, keeping it warm and cordial, yet snappy and business like; and he must be faithful to his hours, and not a time server.

The writer of this paper, both because of lack of other available instructors, and because he wished the experience, carried the section through two subjects. While the work required long hours it was not so fatiguing as either lecture or sharp quiz work, and it was by far the most interesting teaching the writer has ever done.

Four results that may be of interest are these:

1. There were only four men-20 per cent. of the section-who covered satisfactorily all the work required, and all of these could have done, and three did do more than the required work in the required time, thus setting themselves distinctly in a class by themselves, though differing greatly with each other in their methods and capacities. Only four men-20 per cent.-of the regular class in civil engineering, passed the year's work with a clean record, making this result alike in both sections. A little larger percentage-about 25 per cent of the entire freshman class made a clean record.

2. The record shows about the same total proportion of a year's work accomplished by the individual section as a whole and the remainder of the class. The proportion was about 75 per cent.

3. The ratio of work accomplished by the most advanced and least advanced students of the individual section is as 177 to 100, and if the most advanced student had remained to the end of the year at the same rate the ratio would have been 188 to 100. In this connection it should be remembered that this most advanced student was wholly or in part selfsupporting, played in the university band, which required more time than the usual military service, and was also in the regular class during the first semester, his gain being almost wholly made in the last half of the year.

4. The most advanced student would complete the regular curriculum in approximately three and one quarter ordinary school years, and would probably do it in three years. The least advanced would complete the work in six years, or possibly less. But if the school year might be, say, forty-six weeks long, the time required would be two and one half calendar years and five and one quarter calendar years respectively.

The first and second of the foregoing results seem to indicate that several classes of men taught by different methods will reach approximately the same level of accomplishment, but this interpretation is not quite correct, because the individual work was not conducted with the same relative efficiency as the regular class-work, and the true indication, therefore, is that a measurable excess of accomplishment is possible under the individual plan. The four results, considered together, indicate the extent to which the man of quick intelligence is held back to the average in ordinary class-work, and the liability of the slow

man to fail, be he never so faithful, because he cannot reach the average.

The third and fourth items seem to indicate that the quick student may get permanently into his profession from three fourths of a year to one and one half years earlier, if taught by the individual method, or he may secure a much broader education in the usual four years. It is not forgotten that summer vacation work when it is secured is valuable training, and that the proper length of the school year is an open question distinct from the question of individual instruction. The results indicated may, however, be considered contributions to the discussion of both questions.

A student expression may be of interest. At the end of the first semester there were vacancies in the section, and two men from the regular class applied for admission. One of these was perhaps the ablest man in the entire freshman class-certainly as able as any other. His opinion is worthy of considerable weight. He had the regular class training in the first semester and the individual teaching in the second. He really needed very little teaching, little more, in fact, than the assignment of work, though he did occasionally make mistakes as well as the rest. He was very positive in his preference for the individual work for three reasons: First, because he got a better working knowledge of the subject in the same time; second, because he found it agreeable to work on a single subject till a particular point was accomplished, or until tired, when he could take up another, it was a relief not to have small portions of several subjects to do each evening; third, because he could pro