THE BACKWARD. CHILD.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20647, 9 September 1932, Page 13

THE BACKWARD. CHILD.

PBOSPECTS FOR THE ™ FUTURE. StfOOl* AN^XAMINATIONS. tt meant by results,' Are * ,l iJr measured by examination izes > orarctheyt ° b , C ** Jbr incalculable thing*, such <<*S tuition, character power to others!" asks &"%«*» Educational Supplement." of St. Catharine '3 ColJ'*' niibC,i thls ISSUC that distinguished men '»»***„„ tw to \a speech-day assem••ftSetaM. It is true that such S* rf^r a re very often made by *?*?:& distinguished speakers to **fi boys or girls to whom the &££ that rules class lists and ex&KL has not apparently been <Tf»nu of .exaggeration which •*** tke depressed souls ot parents **2LS« al* ke - But in many cases it true, as records —to take an **«to!-of the present House of Com•'Bottom of the Class." ' at* ii unnecessary arid invidious to JrZ. names; but there are men m <f*P~S», re of public life who were jgTjSvears ago almost always 'at W%U of their class.' On the **T|2|a there are men who showed Slicked like potential supreme 2E*3a the work of life, who swept ; SShisjr' before them up to the age *2mot twenty-live, who are living 2?5m1 unproductive lives and are Stkaclly wondering why John Smith '?Sftyear. who took a fourth in •j-.'haa'got on.' TS«r F. M. Bushmore had a simple JEL for 'the bottom of the class' JSSjb. Something was wrong with |u«fe«»ls or with the examinations. He •*L. BO t to have taken into, account Ju&et that the same school and the 2* examination 9 produced the boy who •Mat everything before him and with Mtegotred intellect was content to rest oaru a collegiate bachelor for J! *ftj years, while John Smith !§lse4 the ladder of fame and died in *■ *MBO year with a peerage to his $0 and mourned by his extensive tpgytnd troops of loyal friends. , . Late Development. J'JflPy reasons for a phenomenon ij&b andoobtcdly exists may be adjßtd) Install reasons must include the MpMA in John Smith's personality of kfe&rdopinent, of ambition, and of a jjUftet which was capable of absorb,j£ ||f spirit of the school tradition gjMgk Incapable at that stage of sucJISSf» scholarship. Tho fact of late 'jgjlhjßMnt is not even to-day suffiwteogniscd. and is sometimes mtgtoi with mental deficiency. brain power in some cases fettEopl Tery slowly. Clerk-Maxwell, if {noons mathematician, when he was 4 tie Edinburgh Academy at the age of AttMOraowaa a case in point; and fto* m many other instances of late tedonaest among the front rank of tfg&cm. On the other hand, there are tap woo develop very early great inWB*et»li power but are not blessed •81 eilaer ambition or the school tra*CbaOMter is the thing that all are tenable of acquiring at school. That ifll tXttf ttem through life, and, if they possess a late-developing tads «f gnat power, they will make u (pel*! eejttrih&tiou to the good of the svrtd ttaflgb' they were always at the fttttflr*«i tkefe class."