The Importance of a Study-Program for High-School Pupils

Abstract

It has been clearly shown that the methods of study among pupils in the elementary schools of our country are very poor.1 Although no similar task has been undertaken with reference to conditions in the high schools, a visit to any high school or college would convince anyone that many students who are doing work in these institutions have no conception of a correct and profitable method of study. This condition presents one of the greatest drawbacks to efficient work in our modern high schools. Every term a great number of pupils are passed from the grammar schools into the high schools, and many of them are absolutely ignorant as to what it means to grapple with an intellectual problem. They have become so accustomed to kindergarten pabulum that they are bewildered when confronted with a task that requires power of concentration and perseverance. Unless some high-school teacher is wise and sympathetic enough to help them find out how to study, they flounder around helplessly for a few months. or at most a year or two, finally to drop out, disgusted with school, books, teacher, and education, because they never really learned how to work.