ABSTRACT
The great majority of children spend approximately twelve formative years in school, presumably under the watchful eyes of trained educators. The school cannot educate these children unless it makes them receptive to education, unless it awakens incentive and aspiration in them, unless it guides them over the distractions, disturbances, and inertias that block the educational process. The overcrowding of the schools and the shortage of teachers demand far more thoroughgoing remedies. New York City a few years ago inaugurated an early identification program for kindergarten and the first three grades, with emphasis on the second grade. This chapter focuses on special problems of the school. The school is the only agency specifically organized to impart the knowledge and the skills required to equip a child for the business of adult living and also for participation in the scientific and cultural heritage of mankind.
