TABLE 39.-Showing number and percentage of children under age, those making normal progress, those one year over age, and the total making slow progress.

TABLE 40.-Showing by grades number and percentages of school children who are under age, normal, or retarded for their respective grades.

TABLE 41.-Showing percentage of children under age, those making normal progress, one year over age, and total making slow progress.

TABLE 41.-Showing percentage of children under age, etc.—Continued.

The seriousness of retardation in school is concerned with the results to the child himself and the financial loss to the State which comes from the added expense of repeating grades. Of these the first is more important. It is a serious thing for a child to fail to do a year's work in a year and to be forced thereby to go over the same ground the second time. Each failure in rural schools extends the course one year. If the pupil leaves school at a certain age, at the end of the compulsory period, for example, he misses the work of as many of the upper grades as he has had failures during his course. A large number of children making slow progress are in the first four grades. The actual cost of repetition increases the cost of education to the extent of the actual per capita cost multiplied by the number of children repeating. The actual per capita cost in Colorado varies from $35 to $118; if 10 children repeat a grade the loss varies from $350 to $1,180. Of the school children from whom reports were received, 54 per cent are one or more years over age. While not all of these have repeated a year or more during their school life, the majority have.

Table 41 shows that the seriousness of the retardation problem varies in the different counties; in some it is relatively unimportant but in others the percentage of slow pupils is very high. In some cases special schools or classes may be necessary. A course of study which includes vocational subjects, better qualified teachers, and better organized school work will largely overcome the difficulty in the majority of counties.

Colorado is not a State in which there is a large percentage of foreign born, and the slow progress can not be ascribed to any great extent to the presence of non-English-speaking children. Among the probable causes may be enumerated (1) lack of supervision, (2) unqualified teachers, (3) too many grades or too many pupils for one teacher and no time for individual work with slow pupils, (4) short terms and irregular attendance, (5) a course of study which does not provide for children who are more interested in things than in books. The remedy is to raise the standard of schools all along the line. Fewer pupils and fewer grades in charge of well-trained teachers with careful supervision would remedy much of the retardation evil. A course of study including vocational work would be of more interest and more practical value to so-called backward children.

If the school system were more highly centralized and placed on a professional basis, in charge of a superintendent assisted by a group of well-trained teachers, the retardation which is not eliminated under such a system could be made a subject of special study and satisfactory methods of dealing with it could then be worked

out.

(4) TEXTBOOKS.

The Colorado law provides that the purchase of free textbooks in any school district shall be at the discretion of the qualified electors. The board of directors is required to furnish books free to all children when instructed by the voters to do so, and is not permitted to change an adopted text oftener than once in four years nor to provide more than one kind of text of the same grade or branch of study in the same department of a school. Fortunately the latter part of this provision is not generally observed in the larger districts, although reports from the teachers indicate that, whether from this or some other reason, very few of the rural schools are provided with supplementary material in reading, geography, and the other branches.

Approximately three-fourths of the children of the State are furnished with textbooks at the expense of the districts in which they live. All cities with special superintendents supply books. In two counties-San Juan and Sedgwick-all districts furnish books and

in 14 additional counties the free-textbook plan is adopted by so many districts that it is practically county wide. In 34 counties from one-fourth to one-half furnish free textbooks; 11 counties report that none are furnished. Of the 1,846 districts in the State, 845, or approximately 45 per cent, are reported as among those furnishing books at public expense. However, these enroll approximately 75 per cent of the children.

Kind of books. In the many letters received from teachers throughout the State there is almost universal complaint in regard to the failure of school directors in rural districts to supply books promptly and of a proper kind. On the other hand, school directors complain that every teacher wants a different kind of book. An examination of the county superintendent's reports confirms both of these statements. Many of the books being used are entirely out of date and unsuited to the school work of the locality in which they are used. From the list of books enumerated in the county superintendents' reports it appears that at least 10 counties have practical uniformity for the county. In the remaining 52 counties there is a wide variety among the counties themselves and among the districts within the various counties. In a list of the books used in the State as a whole nearly every textbook published is included. While too much uniformity may not be desirable, some method of selecting and delivering textbooks which would insure more appropriate selection and more prompt delivery and such uniformity as is consistent with the varied community and industrial conditions, at least within the county, should be adopted. The number of different texts used in the State, as reported by the county superintendents (omitting Denver) is as follows:

The free textbook law should be made mandatory instead of optional, in order that all children in the State may be furnished with proper books. Legislation should be passed requiring all publishers who wish to do business in the State to submit to the State board samples of books with the net price list; to sign a contract agreeing to supply books to school authorities at the prices quoted, which shall be as low as in other States under similar conditions;

and to file a bond of from $2,000 to $20,000, to be forfeited in case the contract is violated. The State board of education should publish a list of books the publishers of which have complied with the law, with net prices for the convenience of school authorities in making their selections. The State board should omit from the published lists any undesirable books, even if the publishers have complied with the State law relative to filing samples, price list, and bond.

(5) ELEMENTARY COURSE OF STUDY.

The course of study now in use was issued in September, 1914, and is, according to the introduction, a revised edition of the course used during the three years preceding the present issue, and a "composite of the viewpoints of the school people of Colorado."

From the point of view of administration the most important considerations of a State course are that it should help to make for better teaching; that it should be adapted to the purpose for which it is intended; and that it should be a unified whole. While the order of topics and the special methods of teaching can be left largely to the teacher, the selection of topics which are most important and best adapted to the purpose for which the course is intended and the organization of the subject matter around them are matters for the educational expert and not for the teacher. Again, the makers of a course of study and those who are to teach it must be in harmony as to the purposes of teaching particular subjects before deciding upon the topics to teach, the books and equipment to adopt, and the method and amount of time to use. Therefore in the published course the aims and purposes should be clearly set forth and teaching methods suggested. Otherwise a teacher may as well "follow the textbook" as the course of study.

Adaptation. It is assumed that a State course of study in a State like Colorado is preeminently for use in the rural districts and oneteacher schools, since the school districts of the towns and cities of over 1.000 school population are independent of State or county administration. It should therefore be based primarily on the experiences of the children who attend one-teacher schools, and it should be adapted to the organization, grading, and length of term of one-teacher schools. Except for the introduction of a few subjects, such as road making and agriculture, there are no indications that the Colorado course is intended for rural schools. There is no discrimination made between the needs of rural and city districts. No effort is made to base the subject matter taught in the school on the every-day life of the children in and out of school. This is apparent in nearly every subject. For example, language,