development of individuality, or of the native self.

A normal self giving a certain degree of independence and even a touch
of originality to all of his thoughts and actions is essential to the
student's proper advance, as to the work of the scientist. Should the
student, therefore, be taught to believe in and trust himself, holding
his own powers and tendencies in high esteem? Should he learn even to
ascribe whatever merit he may possess to the qualities that are peculiar
to him? And should he, accordingly, look upon the ideas and influences
of other persons merely as a means--though most valuable--for the
development of this self that he holds so sacred? Or should he
learn to depreciate himself, to deplore those qualities that
distinguish him from others? And should he, in consequence, regard the
ideas and influences of others as a valuable means of suppressing, or
escaping from, his native self and of making him like other persons?

Here are two very different directions in which one may develop. In
which direction does human nature most tend? In which direction do
educational institutions, in particular, exert their influence? Does
the average student, for example, subordinate his teachers and the
ideas he acquires to himself? Or does he become subordinated to these,
even submerged by them? This is the most important of all the problems
concerning study; indeed, it is the one in which all the others
culminate.

_The ability of children to study_

The above constitute the principal factors in study. But two other
problems are of vital importance for the elementary school.