all possible combinations of these. It is generally considered that mental qualities are largely predetermined by physical qualities. Sex, age, and race are factors in temperament.1 Outstanding attributes of feeling, will, or imagination control conduct and explain motives in relatively pure types. The physical characteristics have neutralized outstanding qualities in what is called the balanced temperament.

3. Mentality is the familiar phenomenon that determines responses to stimuli and results in reactions that we call behavior. Every teacher is familiar with the wide differences in the mental alertness of children. If we assume a uniformity between mental activity and the exercise of brain-function, the same differences exist. The amount of disposable energy in the brain at any time is far from being a constant quantity. The extremes are represented by the idiot on the one hand and the genius on the other, with endless gradations in mental responses between these extreme types. The teacher has no power to increase mentality, but, assuming a maximum mentality for each individual, it is the teacher's problem to invent devices and to use methods that will transform all the latent mental energy of the child into conscious potential energy. The stereotyped curriculum is the teacher's greatest handicap in dealing with this problem. There is little opportunity, under the prevailing system of instruction, to meet the requirements of mental deficiencies and to contribute to the mental needs of each member of a class group.

4. Vital force is the physiological factor that reacts upon all the mental qualities. Vitality is as valuable a quantity as mentality. Their interdependence is well understood. The degrees of vital energy range from

1 See Dester and Garlick, Psychology in the School Room, pp. 432-345.

the listless anaemic on the one hand to the red-blooded, energized child on the other. Proper food, air, sunshine, and exercise may increase vitality to the limit of nature's allowance. But heredity plays an important part here, and, after all is done, marked differences will still exist that baffle educational effort.

5. Aptitudes. We may have those natural tendencies that give response to effort in one direction with greater ease than that manifested in another direction. Their recognition is the supreme task of the conscientious teacher. That special aptitudes exist is no longer a theoretical question. That they are capable of direction is equally a matter of common knowledge. The whole field of our statistical measurements in educational psychology has grown out of the recognition of this supreme educational factor.1

THE VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE OF YOUTH

The study of special aptitudes is a logical step in the program for vocational education. Interest in vocational education has greatly enlarged the scope of educational endeavor. This movement has compelled our school forces to appraise the social significance of vocational life and to consider the adaptability of children to particular careers. We must recognize the efforts at vocational guidance as the effects of the movement for vocational education.

The position of vocational counselor is a new vocation that is destined to increase in importance. Bloomfield declares that "until society faces the question of the life careers of its youths, the present vocational anarchy will continue to beset the young work seekers. This

1 See Bronner, The Psychology of Special Abilities and Disabilities (1917); Wells. Mental Adjustments (1917); and Hollingsworth, Vocational Psychology (1916). 2 The Vocational Guidance of Youth.

declaration must be obvious to every thoughtful student of educational problems. But before substantial progress can be made, the entire school system must give recognition to the importance of the task and the validity of the undertaking. This will mean that the curricula must be formulated on a new basis. The old question of what knowledge is of most worth must have a new meaning and it must be answered in the light of new conditions. This is a radical departure in educational practice, and its adoption would greatly modify the established curricula in present-day schools.

We would not undertake to close this discussion without a more emphatic intimation of the contribution that the schools are now making to the recognition of aptitudes and their conscious direction. Here and there a school system has begun in a concrete way to formulate means and to adopt devices that will reveal to teachers and school officials the mental qualities of children. An interesting example of such a school system is that of Pomona, California. Superintendent G. Vernon Bennett has worked out a rather promising plan of determining aptitudes and abilities. This experiment began in 1914 by the appointment of a member of the high-school faculty as vocational adviser, the first position of the kind in a high school, perhaps, in this country. Mr. L. W. Bartlett, who was appointed to this position, outlines the aims of his work as follows:

I. To stimulate the vocation-motive as a directive force throughout the entire school life of the pupil.

2. To give the pupil a grasp of the field of vocations, and the social and economic aspect of each.

3. To encourage the pupil to discover his powers and possibilities with a view to investing them.

4. To help him in the selection of a vocation, and in his choice of subjects in preparation for that vocation.

5. To assist him in making the start in life.

The complete plan is outlined in a pamphlet entitled Vocational Guidance in Pomona City Schools. The plan comprehends a study of children from the kindergarten through the high school. The kindergarten supervisor explains:

In the kindergartens, vocational guidance begins with the discovery of a child's attitude toward any activity or occupation. Free conversations reveal his interests, how far he understands what he sees and hears, and enable the kindergartner to explain or correct impressions . Interest in and appreciation of trade life show in conversation, imitations of trade activities, and real but simple work with the tools and materials of that trade. The group visits the carpenter, inspects his shop, describes his work and materials, imitates his movements, and then builds a shop, a house, models tools, and plays carpenter.

The same idea with varying details is carried through the primary, intermediate, and high-school grades. The mental reactions of children to such activities as school gardens, manual training, geography, and history are observed in the primary grades, and in the intermediate school recognition is given to the marked mental and physical changes that the pupil undergoes and his restless and sensitive reactions resulting from these changes. A wider choice of manual activity is provided, including sewing and cooking, art, music, bookkeeping, woodwork, printing, general science, and mechanical drawing.

In the transition from the intermediate to the high school a very important element is added in the Pomona schools. A class in vocational information and guidance is organized. The aim of this class is to furnish the pupil information about the requirements and possibilities of the various vocations, including their social and civic relations and the relative advantages and disadvantages of each. The suggested readings of the high school emphasize particular subjects that qualify

for a vocation and are largely based upon many of the activities that begin in the elementary school.

Through later school years the children are studied from the standpoint of their home environment and the interests that they reveal outside of school work. They visit various industries under the direction of the teacher, and the interest manifested by each pupil is carefully noted. Teachers are urged to cultivate a knowledge of their pupils through conversation and playground activities.

The card system is used for record purposes. Several different kinds of record cards are used. One card relates to the child's home environment, including the use of his spare time, his outside reading, and the special interests and aptitudes revealed in the informal relations of the home. Another card contains a record of qualities observed, such as attentive or inattentive, courteous or discourteous, initiative or passive, kind or cruel, persevering or weak-willed, etc. Another card is headed "types" and calls for records with reference to elements of leadership, originality, and other type activities.

While the experiment referred to is the most advanced and definite one that has been made in this direction, it should not be overlooked that in a less formal way the movement is recognized by many other schools. The elaborate system of grading by which the child is promoted or demoted, advanced or retarded, dropped or passed, is a means of testing the abilities or disabilities, interest or indifference, mental alertness or dullness. This process of selection, identification, and elimination goes on ceaselessly from the kindergarten to the university, but there are three obvious defects in the present plan that seem to require discussion: (1) In the first place, the system has been devised for another purpose,