said, "When you can't remove an obstacle, plow around it." But teachers
are prone to remove the obstacles from the pathway of their pupils when
they should be training them to surmount these obstacles or, failing that
for the time being, to plow around them. It is far easier, however, for
the teacher to solve the problem for the boy than to stimulate him to
solve it independently. If we would train the boy to leap over hurdles, we
must supply the hurdles and not remove them from his path. Still further,
we must elevate the hurdles, by easy gradations, if we would increase the
boy's powers and prowess.

Professor Edgar James Swift says, "Man expends just energy enough to
satisfy the demands of the situation in which he is placed." This
statement is big with meaning for all who have a true conception of
pedagogy and of life. In this sentence we see the finger-board that points
toward high achievements in teaching. If the hurdles are too low, the boy
becomes flaccid, flabby, sluggish, and lethargic. The hurdles should be
just high enough to engage his full strength, physical, mental, and moral.
They should ever be a challenge to his best efforts. But they should never
be so high that they will invite discouragement, disaster, and failure.
The teacher should guard against elevating hurdles as an exhibition of her
own reach. The gymnasium is not a stage for exhibitions. On the contrary,
it is a place for graduated, cumulative training.

Our inclination is to make life easy and agreeable to our pupils rather
than real. To this end we help them over the difficulties, answer
questions which they do not ask, and supply them with crutches when we
should be training them to walk without artificial aids. The passing mark
rather than real training seems to be made the goal of our endeavors even
if we enfeeble the child by so doing. We seem to measure our success by
the number of promotions and not by the quality of the training we give.