The New Education. Scott Nearing

3. A mental age,

       4. A moral age,

       5. A school age.

      Two children, born on the same day, have the same age in years. One is bound to grow faster than the other in some physical respect. Therefore the two children have different physical ages, or rates of development. In the same way they have differing mental and moral ages. The school age, a resultant of the first three, is a record of progress in school. Even when children are born on the same day, the chances that they will grow physically, mentally, and morally at exactly the same rate, and will make exactly the same progress in school, are remote indeed. School children are, therefore, inevitably different.

      V Age Distribution in One Grade

      A very effective illustration of the differences in chronological age, in school age, and in the rate of progress in school is furnished in the 1911 report of the superintendent of schools for Springfield, Mass. There are in this report a series of figures dealing with the ages, and time in school, of fifth-grade pupils in Springfield. The first table shows the number of years in school and the age of all the fifth-grade pupils.

      Table 1

      Age and Time in School, Fifth Grade, Springfield, December, 1911

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Years in	Ages
School	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Total
1	..	..	..	..	..	..	1	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	1
2	..	..	..	2	1	1	1	2	2	..	..	..	..	..	9
3	..	..	..	6	38	25	9	..	1	1	..	..	..	..	80
4	..	..	..	..	162	200	63	12	10	3	..	..	..	..	450
5	..	..	..	..	17	178	131	47	14	2	..	..	..	..	389
6	..	..	..	..	1	11	120	60	29	3	..	..	..	..	224
7	..	..	..	..	..	1	3	46	29	8	1	..	1	..	88
8	..	..	..	..	..	..	1	4	17	4	1	..	..	..	28
9	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	4	1	..	..	..	5
10	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	..	1	..	..	..