Teachers, principals, and supervisors need to determine the kinds of learners being taught in the school/class setting. Are pupils good by nature, bad, or neutral? Concepts held pertaining to each pupil assist in determining objectives, learning activities, and evaluation techniques. The Puritans believed that individuals were born evil or sinful. A leading objective for Puritan pupils to achieve was knowledge of God or eternal life, and corporal punishment was regularly used. Joseph Lancaster introduced the Lancastrian Monitorial System of Instruction into the United States in 1805. The system was also based on the belief that individuals were born evil, but employed the method of publicly embarrassing pupils for misbehavior as more humane than physical punishment. Johann Herbart (1776-1841) believed that individuals were born with a mind like a blank sheet, and neutral in their initial orientation, so that it was entirely up to the teacher to furnish right ideas to pupils. Friedrich Froebel (1782-1857) believed that individuals were born as good, wholesome persons, and the teacher's task was to encourage this innate goodness to come forth. Teachers, principals, and supervisors must thoroughly evaluate and ultimately select quality objectives for pupils to achieve. General objectives can be divided into the categories of understandings, skills, and attitudes. How specific objectives should be stated is an issue. Cognitive, affective, and psychomotor objectives need adequate emphasis in the curriculum. There must be a rational balance among understandings, skills, and attitudinal objectives. Teachers, principals, supervisors, parents, and children should be actively involved in determining these ends. (Twelve footnotes are included.) (RS)