from disaster.

But, in the school, the teachers rejoice and congratulate one another when
their pupils achieve a grade of seventy-five. It matters nothing,
apparently, that this grade of seventy-five is a fictitious thing with no
basis in logic or reason, in short a mere habit that has no justification
save in tradition, and that, in very truth, it is a concession to
inaccuracy and ignorance. When we promote the boy for solving three out of
four problems we virtually say to him that the fourth problem is
negligible and he may as well forget all about it. Sometimes a teacher
grieves over a grade of seventy-three, never realizing that another
teacher might have given to that same paper a grade of eighty-three. We
proclaim education to be a spiritual process, and then, in some instances,
employ mechanics to administer this process. By what process of reasoning
the superintendent or the teacher arrives at the judgment that
seventy-five is good enough is yet to be explained. Our zeal for grades
and credits indicates a greater interest in the label than in the contents
of the package.

Teaching is a noble work if only it is directed toward worthy goals.
Nothing in the way of human endeavor can be more inspiring than the work
of striving to integrate boys and girls. The mere droning over geography,
and history, and grammar is petty by comparison. And yet all these studies
and many others may be found essential factors in the work and they will
be learned with greater thoroughness as means to a great end than as ends
in themselves. The supply stations take on a new meaning to the boy who is
yearning to reach the flag at the top. But it needs to be said here that
the traditional superintendent and teacher will greet this entire plan
with a supercilious smile. They will call it visionary, unpractical, and
idealistic--then return to their seventy-five per cent regime with the