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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
Chapter 7
Before we learn how strategic decisions are made, it is important to understand the two principal
components of any strategic choice; namely, long-term objectives and the grand strategy. The
purpose of this chapter is to convey that understanding.
Long-term objectives are defined as the result a firm seeks to achieve over a specified period,
typically five years. Seven common long-term objectives are discussed: profitability, productivity,
competitive position, employee development, employee relations, technological leadership, and
public responsibility. These, or any other long-term objectives, should be flexible, measurable
over time, motivating, suitable, and understandable.
Grand strategies are defined as comprehensive approaches guiding the major actions designed to
achieve long-term objectives. Fifteen grand strategy options are discussed: concentrated growth,
market development, product development, innovation, horizontal integration, vertical integration,
concentric diversification, conglomerate diversification, turnaround, divestiture, liquidation,
bankruptcy, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and consortia.
Learning Objectives
Lecture Outline
I. Long-Term Objectives
A. Strategic managers recognize that short-run profit maximization is rarely the best approach
to achieving sustained corporate growth and profitability.
1. An often repeated adage states that if impoverished people are given food, they will
eat it and remain impoverished, whereas if they are given seeds and tools and shown
how to grow crops, they will be able to improve their condition permanently. A
parallel choice confronts strategic decision makers:
a) Should they eat the seeds to improve the near-term profit picture and make
large dividend payments through cost-saving measures such as laying off
workers during periods of slack demand, reducing marketing expenses, or
cutting back on research and development?
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
b) Or should they sow the seeds in the effort to reap long-term rewards by
reinvesting profits in growth opportunities, committing resources to
employee training, or increasing advertising expenditures?
2. For most strategic managers, the solution is clear—distribute a small amount of profit
now but sow most of it to increase the likelihood of a long-term supply. This is the
most frequently used rationale in selecting objectives.
a) Profitability
(1) The ability of any firm to operate in the long run depends on attaining
an acceptable level of profits.
(2) Strategically managed firms characteristically have a profit objective,
usually expressed in EBITDA, etc.
b) Productivity
c) Competitive Position
d) Employee Development
(1) Employees value education and training, in part because they lead to
increased compensation and job security.
(2) Providing such opportunities often increases productivity and decreases
turnover.
(3) Therefore, strategic decision makers frequently include an employee
development objective in their long-range plans.
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
e) Employee Relations
(1) Whether or not they are bound by union contracts, firms actively seek
good employee relations.
(2) In fact, proactive steps in anticipation of employee needs and
expectations are characteristic of strategic managers.
(3) Strategic managers believe that productivity is linked to employee
loyalty and to appreciation of mangers’ interest in employee welfare.
(4) They, therefore, set objectives to improve employee relations.
(5) Among the outgrowths of such objectives are safety programs, worker
representation of management committees, and employee stock option
plans.
f) Technological Leadership
g) Social Responsibility
1. There are five criteria that should be used in preparing long-term objectives: flexible,
measurable over time, motivating, suitable, and understandable.
a) Flexible
b) Measurable
(1) Objectives must clearly and concretely state what will be achieved and
when it will be achieved.
(2) Thus, objectives should be measurable over time.
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
c) Motivating
(1) People are most productive when objectives are set at a motivating
level—one high enough to challenge but not so high as to frustrate or so
low as to be easily attained.
(2) The problem is that individuals and groups differ in their perceptions of
what is high enough.
(3) A broad objective that challenges one group frustrates another and
minimally interests a third.
(4) One valuable recommendation is that objectives be tailored to specific
groups.
(5) Developing such objectives requires time and effort, but objectives of
this kind are more likely to motivate.
(6) Objectives must also be achievable
d) Suitable
(1) Objectives must be suited to the broad aims of the firm, which are
expressed in its mission statement.
(2) Each objective should be a step toward the attainment of overall goals.
(3) In fact, objectives that are inconsistent with the company mission can
subvert the firm’s aims.
e) Understandable
1. The balanced scorecard is a set of measures that are directly linked to the
company’s strategy.
a) Surrounding the vision and strategy are four additional boxes, each box
contains the objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives for one of the four
perspectives:
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
(1) The box at the top of Exhibit 7.1 represents the financial perspective, and
answers the question “To succeed financially, how should we appear to our
shareholders?”
(2) The box to the right represents the internal business process perspective
and addresses the question “To satisfy our shareholders and customers,
what business processes must we excel at?”
(3) The learning and growth box at the bottom of the exhibit answer the
question “To achieve our vision, how will we sustain our ability to
change and improve?”
(4) The box at the left reflects the customer perspective, and responds to the
question, “To achieve our vision, how should we appear to our
customers?”
b) All of the boxes are connected by arrows to illustrate that the objectives and
measures of the four perspectives are linked by cause-and-effect relationships
that lead to the successful implementation of the strategy.
4. The balanced scorecard is a management system that can be used at the central
organizing framework for key managerial processes.
D. Generic Strategies
1. Many planning experts believe that the general philosophy of doing business
declared by the firm in the mission statement must be translated into a holistic
statement of the firm’s strategic orientation before it can be further defined in
terms of a specific long-term strategy.
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2. Low-Cost Leadership
b) A low-cost leader is able to use its cost advantage to charge lower prices or
to enjoy higher profit margins.
(1) By doing so, the firm effectively can defend itself in price wars, attack
competitors on price to gain market share, or, if already dominant in the
industry, simply benefit from exceptional returns.
3. Differentiation
(1) By stressing the attribute above other product qualities, the firm
attempts to build customer loyalty.
(2) Often such loyalty translates into a firm’s ability to charge a premium
price for its product.
b) The product attribute also can be the marketing channels through which it is
delivered, its image for excellence, the features it includes, and the service
network that supports it.
4. Focus
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
(1) Likely segments are those that are ignored by marketing appeals to
easily accessible markets, to the “typical” customer, or to customers
with common applications for the product.
(2) A firm pursuing a focus strategy is willing to service isolated
geographic areas; to satisfy the needs of customers with special
financing, inventory, or servicing problems; or to tailor the product to
the somewhat unique demands of the small- to medium-sized customer.
(3) The focusing firms profit from their willingness to serve otherwise
ignored or underappreciated customer segments.
(4) The classic example is cable television. An entire industry was born
because of a willingness of cable firms to serve isolated rural locations
that were ignored by traditional television services.
a) This lead is derived from the firm’s focus on one discipline, aligning all
aspects of operations with it.
b) Having decided on the value that must be conveyed to customers, firms
understand more clearly what must be done to attain the desired results.
c) After transforming their organizations to focus on one discipline, companies
can concentrate on smaller adjustments to produce incremental value.
d) To match this advantage, less focused companies require larger changes than
the tweaking that discipline leaders need.
B. Operational Excellence
a) A company that follows this strategy attempts to lead its industry in price and
convenience by pursuing a focus on lean and efficient operations.
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
2. Customer Intimacy
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
3. Product Leadership
b) Like other product leaders, Johnson & Johnson creates and maintains an
environment that encourages employees to share ideas.
(1) Additionally, product leaders continually scan the environment for new-
product or service possibilities and rush to capitalize them.
(2) Product leaders also avoid bureaucracy because it slows down
commercialization of their ideas.
(3) In a product leadership company, a wrong decision is often less
damaging than one made late.
(4) As a result, managers make decisions quickly, their companies
encouraging them to decide today and implement tomorrow.
(5) Product leaders continually look for new methods to shorten their cycle
times.
(1) These firms continually make the products and services they have
created obsolete.
(2) Product leaders believe that if they do not develop a successor, a
competitor will.
A. A grand strategy is a master long-term plan that provides basic direction for major
actions directed toward achieving long-term business objectives. .
a) They are the basis of coordinated and sustained efforts directed toward
achieving long-term business objectives.
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
2. The purpose of this section is twofold: (1) to list, describe, and discuss 15 grand
strategies that strategic managers should consider and (2) to present approaches to
the selection of an optimal grand strategy from the available alternatives.
3. Grand strategies indicate the time period over which long-rang objectives are to be
achieved.
a) Any one of these strategies could serve as the basis for achieving the major
long-term objectives of a single firm.
b) But a firm involved with multiple industries, businesses, product lines, or
customer groups—as many firms are—usually combines several grand
strategies.
c) For clarity, each of the principal grand strategies is described independently
in this section, with examples to indicate some of its relative strengths and
weaknesses.
B. Concentrated Growth
1. Many of the firms that fell victim to merger mania were once mistakenly
convinced that the best way to achieve their objectives was to pursue unrelated
diversification in the search for financial opportunity and synergy.
a) Concentrated growth is the strategy of the firm that directs its resources to
the profitable growth of a dominant product, in a dominant market, with a
dominant technology.
b) The main rationale for this approach, sometimes called a market penetration
strategy, is that by thoroughly developing and exploiting its expertise in a
narrowly defined competitive arena, the company achieves superiority over
competitors that try to master a greater number of product and market
combinations.
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
(3) The high success rates of new products also are tied to avoiding
situations that require undeveloped skills, such as serving new
customers and markets, acquiring new technology, building new
channels, developing new promotional abilities, and facing new
competition.
(1) This is certainly not true for a firm that correctly utilizes the strategy.
(2) A firm employing concentrated growth grows by building on its
competences, and it achieves a competitive edge by concentrating in the
product-market segment it knows best.
(3) A firm employing this strategy is aiming for the growth and results from
improved productivity, better coverage of its product-market segment,
better defined marketing, and more efficient use of its technology.
(1) The first is a condition in which the firm’s industry is resistant to major
technological advancements.
(2) This is usually the case in the late growth and maturity stages of the
product life cycle and in product markets where product demand is
stable and industry barriers, such as capitalization, are high.
(1) Markets with competitive gaps leave the firm with alternatives for
growth, other than taking market share away from competitors.
c) A third condition that favors concentrated growth exists when the firm’s
product markets are sufficiently distinctive to dissuade competitors in
adjacent product markets from trying to invade the firm’s segment.
d) A fourth favorable condition exists when the firm’s in puts are stable in price
and quantity and are available in the amounts and at the times needed.
e) The pursuit of concentrated growth is also favored by a stable market—a
market without the seasonal or cyclical swings that would encourage a firm
to diversify.
f) A firm also can grow while concentrating, if it enjoys competitive advantages
based on efficient production or distribution channels.
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
a) Under stable conditions, concentrated growth poses lower risk than any other
grand strategy; but, in a changing environment, a firm committed to
concentrated growth faces high risks.
(1) The greatest risk is that concentrating in a single product market makes
a firm particularly vulnerable to changes in that segment.
(2) Slowed growth in this segment would jeopardize the firm because its
investment, competitive edge, and technology are deeply entrenched in
a specific offering.
(3) It is difficult for the firm to attempt sudden changes if its product is
threatened by near-term obsolescence, a faltering market, new
substitutes, or changes in technology or customer needs.
(1) However, any failure of such a firm to properly forecast major changes
in its industry can result in extraordinary losses.
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
b) The firm that chooses a concentrated growth strategy directs its resources to
the profitable growth of a narrowly defined product and market, focusing on
a dominant technology.
(1) Firms that remain within their chosen product market are able to extract
the most from their technology and market knowledge and, thus, are
able to minimize the risk associated with unrelated diversification.
(2) The success of a concentration strategy is founded on the firm’s use of
superior insights into its technology, product, and customer to obtain a
sustainable competitive advantage.
(3) Superior performance on these aspects of corporate strategy has been
shown to have a substantial positive effect on market success.
(1) Broadly speaking, the firm can attempt to capture a larger market share
by increasing the usage rates of present customers, by attracting
competitors’ customers, or by selling to nonusers.
(2) In turn, each of these options suggests more specific options, some of
which are listed in the top section of Exhibit 7.4, Specific Options
under the Grand Strategies of Concentration, Market Development,
and Product Development.
d) When strategic managers forecast that their current products and their
markets will not provide the basis for achieving the company mission, they
have two options that involve moderate costs and risk: market development
and product development.
C. Market Development
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
D. Product Development
a) The product development strategy often is adopted either to prolong the life
cycle of current products or to take advantage of a favorite reputation or
brand name.
b) The idea is to attract satisfied customers to new products as a result of their
positive experience with the firm’s initial offering.
c) The bottom section in Exhibit 7.4 lists some of the options available to firms
undertaking product development.
E. Innovation
2. While most growth-oriented firms appreciate the need to be innovative, few firms
use it as their fundamental way of relating to their markets.
3. Few innovative ideas prove profitable because the research, development, and pre -
marketing costs of converting a promising idea into a profitable product are
extremely high.
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
F. Horizontal Acquisition
2. Such acquisitions eliminate competitors and provide the acquiring firm with
access to new markets.
3. The attractions of a horizontal acquisition strategy are many and varied. However,
every benefit provides the parent firm with critical resources that it needs to
improve overall profitability.
G. Vertical Acquisition
1. When a firm’s grand strategy is to acquire firms that supply it with inputs (such as
raw materials) or are customers for its outputs (such as warehouses for finished
products), vertical acquisition is involved.
3. The reasons for choosing a vertical acquisition grand strategy are more varied and
sometimes less obvious.
a) The main reason for backward integration is the desire to increase the
dependability of the supply or quality of the raw materials used as production
inputs.
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
b) That desire is particularly grate when the number of suppliers is small and
the number of competitors is large.
c) In this situation, the vertically integrating firm can better control its costs
and, thereby, improve the profit margin of the expanded production-
marketing system.
d) Forward integration is a preferred grand strategy if great advantages accrue
stable production.
e) A firm can increase the predictability of demand for its output though
forward integration, that is, through ownership of the next stage of its
production-marketing chain.
f) Exhibit 7.10, Global Strategy in Action, gives an example of a vertical
merger.
a) For horizontally integrated firms, the risks stem from increased commitment
to one type of business.
b) For vertically integrated firms, the risks result from the firm’s expansion into
areas requiring strategic managers to broaden the base of their competences
and to assume additional responsibilities.
H. Concentric Diversification
a) With this grand strategy, the selected new businesses possess a high degree
of compatibility with the firm’s current businesses.
b) The ideal concentric diversification occurs when the combined company
profits increase the strengths and opportunities and decrease the weaknesses
and exposure to risk.
c) Thus, the acquiring firm searches for new businesses whose products,
markets, distribution channels, technologies, and resource requirements are
similar to but not identical with its own, whose acquisition results in
synergies but not complete interdependence.
d) Exhibit 7.11, Global Strategy in Action, profiles Under Armour’s strategy
of concentric diversification.
I. Conglomerate Diversification
(1) The principal concern, and often the sole concern, of the acquiring firm
is the profit pattern of the venture.
(2) Unlike concentric diversification, conglomerate diversification gives
little concern to creating product-market synergy with existing
businesses.
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
b) Regardless of the approach taken, the motivations of the acquiring firms are
the same:
(1) Increase the firm’s stock value. In the past, mergers often have led to
increases in the stock price or the price-earnings ratio.
(2) Increase the growth rate of the firm.
(3) Make an investment that represents better use of funds than plowing
them into internal growth.
(4) Improve the stability of earnings and sales by acquiring firms whose
earnings and sales complement the firm’s peaks and valleys.
(5) Balance or fill out the product line.
(6) Diversify the product line when the life cycle of current products has
peaked.
(7) Acquire needed resource quickly.
(8) Achieve tax savings by purchasing a firm whose tax losses will offset
current or future earnings.
(9) Increase efficiency and profitability, especially if there is synergy
between the acquiring firm and the acquired firm.
J. Turnaround
1. For any one of a large number of reasons, a firm can find itself with declining
profits.
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
a) In a study of 58 large firms, researches Shendel, Patton, and Riggs found that
turnaround almost always was associated with changes in top management.
b) Bringing in new managers was believed to introduce needed new
perspectives on the firm’s situation, to raise employee morale, and to
facilitate drastic actions, such as deep budget cuts in established programs.
3. Strategic management research provides evidence that the firms that have used a
turnaround strategy have successfully confronted decline.
a) The research findings have been assimilated and used as the building blocks
for a model of the turnaround process shown in Exhibit 7.13, Strategy in
Action, A Model of the Turnaround Process.
4. The model begins with a depiction of external and internal factors as causes of a
firm’s performance downturn.
a) When these factors continue to detrimentally impact the firm, its financial
health is threatened.
b) Unchecked decline places the firm in a turnaround situation.
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
a) Severity is the governing factor in estimating the speed with which the
retrenchment response will be formulated and activated.
b) When severity is low, a firm has some financial cushion.
c) Stability may be achieved through cost retrenchment alone.
d) When turnaround situation severity is high, a firm must immediately stabilize
the decline or bankruptcy is imminent.
e) Cost reductions must be supplemented with more drastic asset reduction
measures.
f) Assets targeted for divestiture are those determined to be underproductive.
g) In contrast, more productive resources are protected from cuts and represent
critical elements of the future core business plan of the company.
8. The primary causes of the turnaround situation have been associated with the
second phase of the turnaround process, the recovery response.
K. Divestiture
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Chapter 07 - Long-Term Objectives and Strategies
a) They often arise because of partial mismatches between the acquired firm
and the parent corporation.
b) Some of the mismatched parts cannot be integrated into the corporation’s
mainstream activities and, thus, must be spun off.
c) A second reason is corporate financial needs.
d) Sometimes the cash flow of financial stability of the corporation as a whole
can be greatly improved if businesses with high market value can be
sacrificed.
e) The result can be a balancing of equity with long-term risks or of long-term
debt payments to optimize the cost of capital.
f) A third, less frequent reason for divestiture is government antitrust action
when a firm is believed to monopolize or unfairly dominate a particular
market.
g) Exhibit 7.15, Global Strategy in Action, provides an example of a successful
divestiture.
L. Liquidation
1. When liquidation is the grand strategy, the firm typically is sold in parts, only
occasionally as a whole—but for its tangible asset value and not as a going
concern.
M. Bankruptcy
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us. When a child is compelled to do a piece of school work without
realizing the significance of that which he does, there is substituted
for this realization of need or problem an artificial need; namely, to
avoid an unpleasant consequence.
There is another important argument which must not be
overlooked. When a child works under compulsion, he usually gives
just as little attention to his work as may be necessary to escape
painful results. It is not uncommon for children to divide their
attention most skillfully between distasteful school tasks and the out-
of-school activities in which they are vitally interested. This lack of
undivided attention to the work in hand results in a habit of work
which cannot fail to be disastrous to the highest intellectual
attainment. It is true also that children who have been subjected to
such treatment come to look upon books and lessons as something
of a nightmare, and are only too glad when the opportunity presents
itself to leave school and go to work. The child’s attitude, growing out
of his school experience, is quite as important as any result which
we may achieve in knowledge.
Professor Dewey’s summary of the relation of interest and effort
defines most adequately interest in its true significance, and
indicates the place of effort in educative process. He says:—
“Genuine interest in education is the accompaniment of the
identification, through action, of the self with some object or idea,
because of the necessity of that object or idea for the maintenance
of self-expression. Effort, in the sense in which it may be opposed to
interest, implies a separation between the self and the fact to be
mastered or the task to be performed, and sets up an habitual
division of activities. Externally, we have mechanical habits with no
psychical end or value. Internally, we have random energy or mind-
wandering, a sequence of ideas with no end at all because not
brought to a focus in action. Interest, in the sense in which it is
opposed to effort, means simply an excitation of the sense organ to
give pleasure, resulting in strain on one side and listlessness on the
other.
“But when we recognize there are certain powers within the child
urgent for development, needing to be acted upon, in order to secure
their own due efficiency and discipline, we have a firm basis upon
which to build. Effort arises normally in the attempt to give full
operation, and thus growth and completion, to these powers.
Adequately to act upon these impulses involves seriousness,
absorption, definiteness of purpose, and results in formation of
steadiness and persistent habit in the service of worthy ends. But
this effort never degenerates into drudgery, nor mere strain of dead
lift, because interest abides—the self is concerned throughout.”[3]
Interest, as Professor Dewey defines it, is intrinsic. The pupil does
his work not because he hopes to escape some punishment or get a
high mark, but because the work of itself commands his attention.
The teacher must constantly choose whether she will work for
interest of this type, which depends upon the recognition of the worth
of the task to be performed, or resort to an interest which has no
relation to the work to be done. Shall she appeal to the child through
his instinctive delight in finding out, in constructive work, or other
form of expression, or shall she appeal to his instinct of fear of a
whipping or dislike of ridicule or nagging?
It is true that, after the teacher has done her best to appeal on the
basis of the child’s needs for growth and development, not all
children will respond equally, and so, as in the larger society outside
of school, the child will need to be kept from interfering with others,
and required to do that which those who are wiser have decided that
it is advantageous for him to do. But this resort to authority, an
acknowledgment of lack of ability on our part or the result of
unfavorable conditions, must come last; it should never be the point
of departure.
There is one other distinction which it is well to keep in mind when
we think of interest. Our discussion thus far has considered interest
as a means for securing certain desirable ends. We may not forget
that to secure interest which will persist in many of the types of
activity found in the school should be considered as an end worthy in
itself.[4] We may hope to have a boy interested in his history lesson
in order that he may gain the knowledge contained in this subject.
Interest is the means we employ to secure the desired result. On the
other hand, we may hope that the boy we teach will continue to be
interested in history throughout his life. In this latter case the interest
which we hope to secure in history becomes an end for which we
work. As a result of any system of education, we are justified in
expecting, not only an increase in the command of facts and in a
knowledge of the best method of procedure in working in subjects
taught, but also in hoping for the development of lasting interests
which will make for a continuance of the period of education and for
greater joy in life.
Heredity in Education: An inquiry into opposing theories of heredity
is not relevant to our main purpose; but we are concerned with
certain facts, commonly accepted, which condition our work. No one
will dispute the fact that the children assembled in any schoolroom
differ in native capacity, as well as in experience. Whether genius or
its lack are apt to be reproduced in the children of gifted or dull
parents is not the question the teacher has to solve. For her the
demand is too often that she turn out a uniform product from a group
of individuals who range from the genius to the dullard or mental
defective. It is well for teachers to realize that in any non-selected
group the majority of individuals may be expected to be of ordinary
ability, and that a few will range above this standard, and a few will
fall below. The important thing to remember is that a group of normal
children cannot be ranged in ability in two or three distinct groups
with clearly defined boundaries, but that if any adequate test be
given, we will find that they distribute themselves over a wide range,
with small rather than large differences between individuals. For
example: if a searching test in fundamental operations of arithmetic
is given, we know that some child will probably get nearly all of the
work done correctly, and, even with our care in grading, some child
in the group will probably fail in more than half of the work; and that
between these two extremes we will have almost every grade of
ability represented, with a tendency for a considerable number to
group themselves at about that point which we consider ordinary or
average ability.[5] Not only is it true that individuals differ in ability of
any particular sort, but it is also true that the child who has little
ability in one direction may be up to the average or have more than
usual ability in some other direction. In our teaching we should have
a minimum standard of efficiency for all who are not mentally
defective, and we should strive earnestly to have all reach this goal.
If wisely selected, this minimum will include that which is absolutely
necessary for further advancement along the line of work pursued.
The majority of the class should achieve results beyond this
minimum, and for the exceptionally bright child the maximum should
be fixed only by the child’s ability and the requirements of good
health. It is useless to attempt to make all alike; it is wrong to limit
the accomplishment of the gifted by the capacity of the majority;
these are the lessons which the consideration of the capacities of
any group of children should teach. We cannot furnish ability, but we
may create an attitude of listlessness and mental laziness, if we do
not give the bright child enough to do. Education demands a
recognition of peculiar abilities and their nurture. We can never
create genius from mediocre ability, and we may not assume that
genius is irrepressible.
Exercises.
1. What institutions contribute to the education of children?
2. Why has the responsibility of the school increased during the past century?
3. How would you justify compulsory education? Medical examination?
Compulsory dental treatment?
4. Why do changed social conditions demand changed methods of instruction as
well as a different curriculum?
5. Why does the teacher need to know the home life of the children in her class?
6. What is the significance of parents’ and mothers’ clubs, or any other
organization of the teachers and the patrons of the school?
7. Why should teachers participate in the campaign against tuberculosis?
8. Give instances from your own experience of the educative value of play.
9. Why can a boy write a better composition about making a kite than on
“Honesty is the best policy”?
10. What is the objection to providing children with model compositions and
asking them to write on closely related themes?
11. Give examples of a proper appeal to the instinct of emulation.
12. How do you account for the fact that in some classes children seldom ask
questions?
13. What value is there in a collection of birds’ nests, flowers, minerals, woods,
and the like, which one finds in some schoolrooms?
14. How would you hope to develop the social instinct in the pupils you teach?
15. Give the children in your class ten problems in addition, score one for each
column added correctly, and compare the results. Can a teacher create ability?
16. In a city school system forty per cent of the children have been retarded one
or more years during their school life. Do you think that differences in ability justify
the repeating of work one or more years by so large a percentage of the children?
17. Should we try to have children develop equal ability in all of their studies, or
rather encourage them to do especially well in one or two subjects?
18. Should a pupil who receives only forty per cent in his arithmetic examination
be compelled to repeat the grade?
19. State the argument of those who believe that disagreeable, uninteresting
work is most valuable in educating children.
20. What reasons can you give for the demand that teachers secure the interest
of their pupils in school work?
21. Why is it bad intellectually for a child to divide his interest between his school
work and some other activity while doing school work?
22. There is always some motive present when work is accomplished in the
school. If the pupil is not interested in his work, what motives will you be apt to find
in operation?
23. Does the demand that children take an interest in their work mean that we
will require them to do only the sort of work which is easy for them?
24. Name three situations in school work in which you would seek to use interest
as a means. Three cases in which you would consider interests as ends.
25. In which situation will a boy write the better letter: when asked to write a
letter as a class exercise, or when he writes to his uncle about their plans for his
summer vacation?
26. The ends which we desire to attain may be relatively near or remote.
Classify the following aims presented to children according to (1) the remoteness
of the end to be achieved, (2) the interest which you would expect children to take
in the work for which these aims are supposed to furnish some motive. Suppose
the class to be a seventh-grade group of boys.
1. Learn how to build a boat.
2. Become a writer of good English.
3. Gain in skill in the process of dovetailing.
4. Write for a catalog of sets of tools for boys.
5. Find out why England maintains the largest navy in the world.
6. Prepare a description of the building of the Panama Canal.
7. Decide why so many Russians come to the United States.
8. Make the drawings for a sled to be built for his own use.
9. Make a rabbit trap from plans furnished by the teacher.
10. Study algebra to get ready to go to college.
11. Write a story of an interclass basket-ball game for the school paper.
12. Enjoy one of Kipling’s stories.
CHAPTER III
Exercises.
1. When a teacher raps her pencil against a desk and the children look toward
her, what is the type of adjustment made? When will they cease to pay attention to
the rap of the pencil? What suggestion would you offer concerning the danger
which may be found in rapping the pencil against the desk, ringing a bell, clapping
the hands, shouting “be quiet”?
2. Name some exercises in arithmetic in which you may depend somewhat upon
instinctive adjustments to insure progress.
3. Where do you think you will find the most instinctive adjustments,—in
geography, arithmetic, drawing, English composition, or physical training?
4. A boy who had done poor work in algebra improved greatly when changed
from a class taught by a man to one taught by a woman. How would you account
for the change, taking it for granted that the teachers were equally competent?
What type of adjustment did the boy make?
5. Why is it that any new subject will prove attractive for a short time, and
children will later show a lack of interest in the work?
6. Is there any difference between making a class period interesting and finding
a motive which appeals to children which will lead them to desire to cover the
material which you have assigned?
7. Which is the better, to have a girl study her geography lesson to please the
teacher or to have her at work trying to solve a problem in which she is interested?
8. What sort of results do teachers secure who compel children to learn their
lessons through fear of being ridiculed or otherwise punished? If these children
know as much as other children whose teacher has them at work satisfying their
idea of pleasure,—which will result in being able to read well to the class, prepare
their part of the class drama, or investigate in fields in which they are much
interested,—would you, then, consider the first sort of teaching as satisfactory as
the second?
9. To what degree can you depend upon the awakening of intellectual interests
to provide a motive for good work on the part of pupils?
10. Do you think the following list of questions would prove intellectually
stimulating to a group of sixth-grade pupils:—
“Where is Philadelphia? What is the capital of New York? What are the principal
rivers of the Middle Atlantic states? Where is Pittsburgh? For what is Pittsburgh
noted? What river forms the eastern boundary of Pennsylvania? Bound Virginia.
Locate the capitals of the states in this group. Name two valuable products raised
near the coast. Describe the surface of this group of states.”
11. How many children in your class find satisfaction in their school work
sufficient to keep them at it if no marks were given and no one compelled them to
attend school? Are there some subjects or parts of subjects where you secure this
sort of enthusiasm for school work? Why do you succeed better in these phases of
school work than in others?
12. What is wrong with the boy who is quiet during the recitation, apparently
absorbed in the work, but who gets nothing out of it?
13. Why does the teacher who speaks in a loud tone of voice in order to compel
attention have to speak louder and louder as the day advances?
14. What is wrong with a class which does good work in long division at the
beginning of the arithmetic period, and very poor work at the end of thirty minutes?
15. Give examples of passive attention, active attention, and secondary passive
attention, from your own classroom work.
16. Describe the situations in which you believe your children did the best
intellectual work. How do you account for the excellence of this work?
CHAPTER IV