t toward graduation) was not that they
bore the extra credit, but that the descriptive terms "excellent" and
"good" secure extra appreciation from the home when term standings are
reported. This might not be true of any large percentage of university
students, certainly would not be of the upper classes. Added years have
made them shrewder. Under the influence of our system they have become
keener to appreciate a "bargain." But it certainly would be true of a
very large percentage of secondary students.

Considerable experience in the secondary schools leads me to doubt very
much that the typical high school student reasons as Mr. Secor suggests
in his first paragraph. Some do, of course, and so do some university
students, but not the great body of either. Barring a small percentage,
students as they run, in both high school and college, are an earnest
lot of young people. They are in these institutions for a purpose. They
are seeking, so far as their vision extends, well-developed manhood and
womanhood. Their chief desire is not to slide thru. The two immediate
ends normally in view are consciousness of progressive growth and
appreciation from parent and teacher. How eager the majority are for
this appreciation is well known to all. All the stimulus needed, in
addition to what the subjects and the student's own desire furnish, the
resourceful teacher has at hand wrapt up in his own personality. If any
other stimulus is needed it can be given by a grading of diplomas as is
now being done in many high schools and colleges. I hold that to add to
the marks now in common use what may be called a monetary fringe is
both unnecessary and really subversive of the true ends of the school
work. As teachers we should seek to elevate ideals, not to lower them;
to furnish right motives, not wrong ones; to place before the developing
youth high incentives, not low ones.

Mr. Secor says, "the proposed plan is superior to the present system in
that it gives a natural and not an artificial incentive to high
scholarship." By what process of reasoning he reaches the conclusion
that mere "marks and honors" are more "unnatural" and "artificial" than
the same marks and honors with a commercial tag appended, I fail to see.
The truth of the matter is, both are artificial. As incentives, both are
low, but it stands to reason that the latter is much lower than the
former. The best friends of the system here, in the University of North
Dakota,