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LABOUR AND CHILDHOOD

the most recent discoveries in the methods of teaching, and this deprives the work of its highest value as well as of its greatest interest.

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We have seen that some people, who are notably defective, are yet very far from being inferior to the average in mental or moral qualities. They are like people, who being rich, have not access to some shops. But of course all "defective" persons do not belong to this class. There is a class of children who are not defective, but are very dull. And there are some who are dull and also defective. In short, every degree of dullness, and every variety of defect, may be found in schools.

To-day the classifying of children is carried out in a rough and ready fashion, but the advent of the school doctor has already had its effect.

Dr. Kerr has drawn a diagram to indicate roughly the variations of mental power in school children to-day.

In the middle are the normal children, probably from 60 to 70 per cent of the whole. To the right are the very bright children, 10 per cent, and a small fraction for the genius. To the left are the dull and backward, and beyond these a much smaller class—