Attention is called to the step from the last year in the middle school to the first year in the gymnasium. In several instances there is considerably less than a year of difference in age. This is but another illustration of the tendencies of the sifting that goes on in the natural process of selecting the fittest. Those of keenest intellect are the ones who reach a specific requirement in least time and then proceed in the pursuit of advance education. The ones sifted out are more generally those whose advance has been more difficult, or those who have lagged behind others of their own age. The absence of these tends to lower the average age in the succeeding grade. Similar conditions in emphasized form are in evidence when we study the ages of those who enter the university from year to year. While the ages of those just entering the third and final year of the gymnasium are on the average more than eighteen, the ones who enter the university the following year in September average nineteen years of age or a little less. In addition to the tables showing the ages of pupils throughout the several grades of preparatory and secondary education, the following one is inserted to show the average age of those in attendance at four of the teachers' seminaries. The advance in age with advance of grade is not as regular here as in the other schools. TABLE V Table Showing Age of Pupils in the Teachers' Seminaries at the Beginning of the Year, 1906-7. Average age[A] in grades. I. II. III. Holmestrand 19-7 21-3 22-1 Levanger 20 19-8 21-4 Hamar 19-2 20-2 21-7 Stord 19-6 19-11 21 [Note A: Age in years and months.] There is not as close correspondence between age or grade and scholarship in the seminaries as we find in the other schools. The greater variation is due to several causes, among them are the following: (1) The law requires that a teacher must be at least twenty years of age.[9] (2) The previous education of those in attendance varies greatly. Many are desirous of getting as thorough and complete preparation as their circumstances admit, while others are seemingly anxious to enter on the lowest standard admissible. (3) Teachers who are eager to improve their qualifications frequently return to the seminary after a few years of teaching experience in order to complete the course and prepare for the better class of positions.