Castle Heights Military Academy - Yearbook (Lebanon, TN)

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S Z ue. GYMNASIUM x, X-

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week, length of recitation period, texts, ground covered, number of weeks pursued, and grade for the year. Higher institutions demand this information for every year of preparatory school work, and to postpone the obtaining of it is not infrequently to invite subsequent annoyance and delay. A cadet taking his four years at the Academy is never subjected to this embarrassment. Following this statement of the Academy's scholastic courses and methods will be found several pages devoted to a re-statement of these courses in tabular form, to which reference is invited. The curriculum is not rigid-that is, it is not required that a cadet take all freshman classes, all sophomore, and so on. A boy is placed where he belongs, as best the Academy can determine, so that he may, if his preparation seems to make it advisable, take Freshman Algebra along with Sophomore English, or may make any other ad- justment of classes that seems wise and that the class schedule will admit. This schedule, however, is prepared with a View to taking care of the boy who is progressing normally, and cannot, of course, be re-arranged for the sake of the cadet whose course is exceptional. REPORTS The careful system at Castle Heights by which a cadet is continu- ously checked up as regards his academic as well as his demerit standing makes it possible for parents to be furnished with detailed monthly reports as to the exact standing of their sons. Inasmuch as these reports constitute an unfailing indication of the boy's attitude and progress, parents are urged to give them the most careful consideration, and to help their sons by commendation, reproof, or appeal, as may seem best. ExAM1NAT1oNs AND TUTORING Examinations are held twice each year, prior to the close of the Fall and S15-'flng terms. and no cadet is advanced to a higher class un- less he. has attained a grade of 70 per cent on the year's work. This grade 15 Calculated On a basis of two-thirds for daily grade and one- third for examination grade. Re-examinations are rarely given, and then only after a cadet has done a prescribed amount of additional study under direction. Cadets failing to take examination with their class Cunless absent in 49

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the performance of dutyj pay a nominal fee to the faculty officer con- ducting the special examination. Private coaching or tutoring is not encouraged, and should not be necessary. In the exceptional cases where it is advisable, cadets, with the consent of the Headmaster, may make arrangements for this work at reasonable rates. THE MCLAUGHLIN SCHOLARSHIP ln memory of lVlrs. Rena McLaughlin, two thousand dollars has been given Castle Heights as a perpetual fund, the income from which, one hundred and twenty dollars, is devoted to part payment of the tuition of deserving and promising students. Disposition of this fund has been made for l922. THE BOY AND His MIND , The growing boy has always been one of the greatest of problems, in the home, in the church, in the school and out of it. To each of these influences that seeks to mould him he still presents himself in certain aspects as a riddle. For hundreds of years the school has been trying to offer him work precisely suited to his mind, and still. today, it has for guides in doing this only a few passing grades ob- tained in one institution or another, the fact that he has reached a certain age in years, and such knowledge as may be gleaned by ob- serving him in the classroom. Only rarely does any school try to measure the minds of its pupils, although several of the great Ameri- can universities are beginning to inquire closely into this very con- dition., and are experimenting with methods of examination, of testing, that may in time even bring about a sort of revolution in education. Interested, as every modern secondary school must be, in these investigations, Castle Heights has also been making careful inquiry into this new realm Of psychology as applied to education. It was soon ascertained that in some quarters the new theory was little more than a fad-a novelty rather than an actual help. Cn the other hand, certain of these lines of inquiry, especially when followed by highly capable investigators, apparently have already proved to be of real value- The mental age of a boy, for instance, can be easily and rather accurately determined, and from this analysis it may be ascertained that the reason, for example, one studious boy fails, say in Plane Ge- ometry, while another passes, is perhaps the underlying fact that the 51