he subject dropped. Only a few
shift their credits to another curriculum. In some instances the
subject is itself an extra one, and needs no substitute. For the
graduating pupils only about 5 per cent of the failures are disposed of
by discontinuing and by substitution of subjects. This fact may be due
to the greater economy in examinations, or to the relatively inflexible
school requirements for completing the prescribed work by repetition
whether for graduation or for college entrance. In only one school was
there a tendency to discontinue the subject failed in. So far as
failures represent a definite maladjustment between the pupil and the
school subject, the substitution of other work would seem to be the
most rational solution of the difficulty.

A consideration of the success following a substitution of vocational
or shop subjects, to replace the academic subjects of failure, offers
an especially promising theme for study. No opportunity was offered in
the scope of this study to include that sort of inquiry, but its
possibilities are recognized and acknowledged herein as worthy of
earnest attention. In only two of the eight schools was any shop-work
offered, and only one of these could probably claim vocational rank.
Apart from the difficulty in reference to comparability of standards,
there were not more than a negligible number of cases of such
substitution, due partly to the relative recency in the offering of any
vocational work. In this reference a report comes from W.D. Lewis of an
actual experiment[45] in which "fifty boys of the school loafer type
... selected because of their prolific record in failure--as they had
proved absolute failures in the traditional course--were placed in
charge of a good red-blooded man in a thoroughly equipped wood work
shop." "The shop failed to reach just one." At the same time the
academic work improved. One cannot be sure of how much to credit the
type of work and how much the red-blooded man for such results. But we
may feel sure of further contributions of this sort in due time.

3. EMPLOYMENT OF SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS

The school examinations employed to dispose of the failures are of two
types. The 'final' semester examination, employed by certain schools
and required of pupils who have failed, operates to remove the previous
failure for that semester of the subject. The success of this plan is
not high, because of the insufficient time available to make any
adequate