(7) _Retarded pupils._ In many states where there are no compulsory school attendance laws, pupils often come into the first grade at eight to ten years of age. This also may happen where the child has been ill. Sometimes thoughtless teachers make retarded pupils feel odd and out of place, even unwelcome. The teacher must remember that the school is a public institution and every child has a full right to all of its benefits. Not much more can be said to the teacher than to add: treat the retarded and overgrown pupils just like the others. If they do well in their work, recognize their skill; if they are mischievous or cause trouble, meet it as in the case of any other pupil. The retarded or overgrown pupil must not be made to feel either that he should be advanced, or on the other hand that he has neglected his work, and for that reason is out of place in the first grade when he should be in the third or fourth. He must not be slighted or treated differently from other pupils because he is larger or older, unless it be to place some little responsibility upon him like caring for the window plants or assisting the teacher to pass materials for school work—duties which may be regarded somewhat in the light of special privileges. (8) _The “smart” pupil._ What constitutes the “smart” pupil is hard to define, but every teacher knows him when he appears. The pupil that is of this type is not hard to control. To notice every little exhibition of smartness tends to make it worse. As a rule, the pupil is not so bad or so mean as to cause any particular disturbance—he is only annoying. To ignore him is the best cure and one that will in a very short time cure the worst case in the first grade. When such a pupil has said something that does not become a good pupil, the teacher should begin to converse about something entirely different and more interesting. (9) _Wrong influence of parents._ In this age of poor parent control, there are more children in the public schools whose misdemeanors are the direct result of home influences than of all other factors combined.