advances rapidly. If he is weak in
English, the teacher gives him special attention. Learning each pupil's
capabilities in her particular branch, the teacher is able to give the
individual child, over a series of years, the help which his special
case requires.

In Gary the departmental idea is carried through the entire school
system. In the Emerson School, for instance, children may take eighth
grade work in English and high school work in nature study or history.
The departmental work is strengthened in Gary, in Indianapolis, and in a
number of other cities, by afternoon work, Saturday classes and vacation
schools. Here, a child interested in any phase of the school work or
desiring to make up work in which he is deficient, may spend his spare
time to his heart's content.

An even greater individuation of children exists in Fitchburg and
Newton, Mass., and in Providence, R. I. Children from the country and
foreign children who have difficulty with their English, together with
any other children who do not fit into any grade, are placed in an
ungraded class. A typical ungraded class of fifty pupils contained
Germans, Russians, Greeks, French, Italians and Polish children, who
were unable to speak English on entering the school. The ages of these
children varied from eight to fifteen. As soon as the ungraded children
appear to be fitted for any special grade, they are transferred.

This ungraded work is supplemented by "floating teachers," who are
located in each school for the purpose of dealing with special cases.
The case of any child who, for this reason or that, cannot keep up with
the work in a particular subject, is handed over to these teachers. Thus
individual attention is secured in individual cases.

XVI All Hands Around for An Elementary School

These progressive educational steps are not isolated instances of
success in new lines, nor are they incompatible with good work. They may
be welded into a unified system, aglow with the real interests of real
life. It is possible to correlate the old standard courses and the new
fields in such a way that the child will gain in interest and in life
experience.

Nowhere is this possibility better illustrated than in the elementary
schools of Indianapolis. Take as an example School No. 52, which is
located in an average district. The children, neither very rich nor very
poor, possess the advantages and disadvantages of that great mass known
as "common people.