ABSTRACT
Such remarks are not uncommon in any classroom. They are overheard occasionally by slightly startled adults who may have been tempted to forget the infinite variety of youth. Not only do adolescents differ in bodily outline, glandular balance, physical power and home-life but they show no uniformity in attitudes towards schooling and they exhibit little sameness in the response they make to the instruction or the social life of a school. The recognition of individual differences in educability is not new in theory. It may be traced in educational discussion through many centuries. Aristotle, Isocrates, Quintilian, Da Feltre, Rousseau may all be quoted in support of the belief that “each has his own cast of mind” (Rousseau); that “not every one is called to be a lawyer, a physician, a philosopher to live in the public eye; nor has every one outstanding gifts of natural capacity” (Da Feltre); that
“orators can be made only of those who excel by virtue of talent and of training” (Isocrates); that “everyone’s natural Genius should be carry’d as far as it could; but to attempt the putting another upon him, will be but Labour in vain” (Locke).1
