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THE LIBRARY
The Ontario Institute
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Toronto, Canada
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EDUCATIONAL REVIEW;
PUBLISHED MONTHLY
Except July and August
VOLUME XX
JUNE— DECEMBER 1900
RAHWAY, N. J., AND NEW YORK
EDUCATIONAL REVIEW PUBLISHING COMPANY
Paris : F. Alcan Berlin : Mayer & MOller
London : J. M. Dent & Co.
Chicago : A. W. Mumford, 203 Michigan Avenue
1900
EDITOR NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER
2^ C €> S <g
Copyright, iqoo, by Educational Review Publishing Co,
THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, RAHWAY, N. J.
Te
/37 0
INDEX
The nam :s of contributors are printed in small capitals ; subjects treated, »n ordinary type ; titles- of books reviewed, in Italics.
Agricultural education, Newer ideas
in, 377
Alcohol physiology and school super- intendence, I
American education at the Paris ex- position, 424, 499
American history in England and America, 184
Annual upheaval, The, 209
Atwater W. O.— Alcohol physi- ology and school superintendence, I
Bailey, L. H. — Newer ideas in agricultural education, 377
Bergen, Joseph Y. — Abbott's (A. E.) The hygiene of transmissible diseases, 194
Better city school administration, 61
Big red schoolhouse. The, 259
BoYNTON, F. D. — A six-year high- school course, 515
Brown, Elmer, E. — German higher schools, 405
BucHNER, Edward F. — Welton's (J.) The logical bases of education, 191
BuTLER, Nicholas Murray.— The Quincy movement, 80
California State text-book system, The,
44 Canfield, James H. — Wanted — a
teacher, 433 Captivi of Plautiis, The, 421 Chamberlain, A. F. — Recent Ital- ian educational literature, 278 Chandler's (Frank Wadleigh) Ro-
mances of roguery, 309 Charleston meeting, The, 205 Chapin, a. C. — Examinations, 519 Chrisman, Oscar. — Shinn's (Milli- cent Washburn) Notes on the de- velopment of a child, 192 City school administration. Better, 61 Clapp, Roger.— The Cuban teach- ers at Harvard, 2^0
Cleveland case. The, 212
Clews, Elsie W.— Field work in teaching sociology, 159
College entrance examination board for the Middle States and Mary- land, 102, 535
College entrance requirements in English, The report on, 289
College president. Limitations of the power of the, 444
Conference of Catholic colleges, 95
Course, A six-year high-school, 515
Cuban teachers at Harvard, The, 230^ 322
Davidson, Thomas, 511
Davidson, Thomas. — Education as world-building, 325 ; History of education, 522
Declaration of principles, National Educational Association, 206
DeGarmo, Charles. — Tarr's- (Ralph S.) and McMurry's (Frank M.) The Tarr-McMurry Geog- raphies, 313
Degree, A proposed new honorary^ 423, 532
Democracy and education in England^ 271
DeWeese, Truman A.— Better city school administration, 61
Dewey's (John) The school and society, 303
Discussions, 85, 184, 289, 414, 515
Dodge, Richard E. — Ward's (Robert DeC.) Practical exer- cises in elementary meteorology ^
315 Draper, Andrew S.— The ethics of
getting teachers and of getting
positions, 30 Dyke, Charles Bartlett. —
Schroeder's (Dr. Heinrich) Der
hoehere Lehr erst and in Preussen^
seine Arbeit u?id sein Lohn, 90 ;
fustitia regnorum fundameniumt,
90
IV
Index.
Economics in secondary education,
152 Editorial, 95, 205, 319, 423, 532 Education as world-building, 325 Education at the Paris exposition.
International jury of elementary,
499
Education in England, Democracy and, 271
Educatio7i in India, 190
Elementary education at the Paris ex- position, International jury of, 499
Ely, Richard T. — Economics in education, 152
England and America, American history in, 184
Epoch-making school legislation for New York city, 99
Ethics of getting teachers and of get- ting positions, The, 30
Ethnic view of higher education, An, 346
Examinations, 519
Failures in the first year of the high school, 463
Faulkner, Richard D. — The Cali- fornia State text-book system, 44
Field, W. G. — Democracy and edu- cation in England, 271
Field work in teaching sociology, 1 59
France, Training teachers in, 383
German higher schools, 405
Germany, Kindergarten and the state in, 323
Getting positions. The ethics of get- ting teachers and of, 30
Government of women students in colleges and universities, 475
Grammar, Modern teaching of, 294
Green, James M.--The report on normal schools, 72
Greenwood, James M.— School reminiscences, 450
Groat, George G. — American his- tory in America and England, 184
Harris, William T.— Relation of women to the trades and profes- sions, 217
Hastings' (C. S.) and Beach's (F. E.) Text-book of getieral physics, $27
Herbart and Froebel, A synthesis of, 109
Higher education. An ethnic view of, 346
High-school course, A six-year, 575
High school. Failures in the first year
of the, 463 Honorary degree, A proposed new,
423. 532 Howe, Elizabeth M. — The big red
schoolhouse, 259 Howerth, I. W. — An ethnic view of
higher education, 346 HuLiNG, Ray Greene. — Failures in
the first year of the high school, 463 Hull, Lawrence C. — Private
schools for boys, 365 Hygiene of transmissible diseases.
The, 194
In San Francisco, 320, 536 International geography. The, 419 International jury of elementary edu- cation at the Paris exposition, 499 Italian educational literature. Recent, 278
Jackman, Wilbur S.— Professor
Miinsterberg on school reform, 85 Jones, Richard. — Chandler's
(Frank Wadleigh) Romances of
roguery, 309 Jones, Richard.— Underbill's (John
Garrett) Spanish literature in the
England of the Tudor s, 310 Jury of elementary education at the
Paris exposition, The international,
499
Kellogg, George D. — Barber's (Grove Ettinger) The Captivi of Plautus, 421
Kindergarten and the state in Ger- many, 323
Lang, S. E. — Modern teaching of grammar, 294
Lee, Joseph.— Miinsterberg on the new education, 123
Limitations of the power of the col- lege president, 444
Locke, George H. — Chamberlain's (William I.) Educatioji iri India, 190
Logical bases of education. The, 191
London school-board elections, 423
Milwaukee school system. The, 141 Modern teaching of grammar, 294 Modern wandering scholar, A, 571 Monroe. Paul. — Davidson's
(Thomas) History of education, 522;
Monroe's (W.S.) Cometiius and the
Index.
beginnings of educational reform,
525 MowRV, DuANE, — The Milwaukee
school system, 141 Miinsterberg on the new education,
123
New education, Miinsterberg on the,
123 New honorary degree, A proposed,
423. 532
Newer ideas in agricultural educa- tion, 377
New York city. Epoch-making school legislation for, 99
Normal schools. The report on, 72
Notes and news, 106, 212, 324, 427,
537 Notes on the developmejit of a child,
192 Notes on new books, 91, 195, 422,
529
Paris exposition, American education at the, 424 ; International jury of elementary education at the, 499
Power of the college president, Limi- tations of the, 444
President, Limitations of the power of the college, 444
Principals' reports on teachers, 252
Private schools for boys, 365
Private secondary school for girls. The, 357
Professor Miinsterberg on school re- form, 85
Proposed new honorary degree, 423, 532
Pund's (Dr. Otto) Algebra, 318
•Quincy movement. The, 80
Recent Italian educational literature,
278 Redway, Jacques W.— Mill's
(Hugh Robert) The international
geography, 419 Reform of secondary education in
Germany, 170 Reforms at the Scottish universities,
532 Relation of woman to the trades and
professions, 217 Reminiscences, School, 450 Report on college entrance require- ments in English, 289 Report on normal schools. The, 72 Reports on teachers, Principals', 252
Reviews, 90, 190, 303, 419, 522 Rural school children at public ex- pense. Transportation of, 241
Salmon, Lucy M.— Training teach- ers in F' ranee, 383
Saunders, Louise S. B. — Govern- ment of women students in colleges and universities, 475 ; The private secondary school for girls, 357
School board elections, London, 423
School legislation for New York city. Epoch-making, 99
School reform. Professor Miinster- berg on, 85
School reminiscences, 450
School superintendence. Alcohol physiology and, i
Schroeder (Dr. Heinrich) Der hoehere Lehrer stand in Preusse?t, seine Arbeit und sein Lohn, 90 ; Justitia regnorum fu7idamentum, 90
Scott, F. N. — The report on college entrance requirements in English, 289
Scottish universities. Reforms at the, 532
Secondary education. Economics in, 152
Secondary education in Germany, Reform of, 170
Secondary school for girls. The pri- vate, 357
Seelye, L. Clark. — Limitations of the power of the college president,
444
Shaw's (Edward R.), National ques- tion book, 306
Shipman. Carolyn. — Teaching as a profession : a protest, 414
Six-year high-school course. A, 515
Smith, Anna Tolman.— The inter- national jury of elementary educa- tion at the Paris exposition, 499
Smith, David Eugene.— Dr. Pund's (Dr. Otto) Algebra, 318
Sociology, Field work in teaching,
Soldan, F. Louis.— Principals re- ports on teachers, 252
Sutton, W. S.— Dewey's (John) The school and society, 303
Synthesis of Herbart and Froebel, A, 109
Tarr's (Ralph S.) and McMurry's (Frank M.) The Tarr-McMurry Geographies, 313
VI
Index.
Teacher, A, Wanted, 433
Teachers, Principals' reports on, 252
Teaching as a profession : a protest, 414
Text-book system, The California State, 44
Trades and professions, Relation of woman to, 217
Training teachers in France, 383
Transportation of rural school chil- dren at public expense, 241
Underbill's (John Garrett) Spanish literature in the England of the Tudors, 309
Universities, Reforms at the Scottish,
532 Upham, a. a. — Transportation of
rural school children at public ex- pense, 241
Van Liew, Charles C— Shaw's (Edward R.) National question book, 306
ViERECK, LUDWIG. — Reform of sec- ondary education in Germany, 170
Wanted — A teacher, 433 Ward's (Robert DeC.) Practical ex- ercises in eletnentary meteorology,
315 Washington situation, The, 319 Welton, James.— a synthesis of
Herbart and Froebel, 109 Women students in colleges and
universities, Government of, 475
EDUCATIONAL REVIEW
JUNE, igoo ^6 A 3^.
ALCOHOL PHYSIOLOGY AND SUPERINTEND- ENCE ^
In discussing the topic assigned to me on this program, I understand it to be your wish that I consider especiaUy what should be taught in our schools about alcohol in its physiologi- cal relations. Allow me a word at the outset regarding the more general scope of instruction in physiology. In planning a course of study in this, as in any other subject, careful consid- eration must be given to the several parts, in order that the whole may be well considered and well balanced.
One thing I wish to urge is that we should tell our scholars more about the economy of food and nutrition, and since phys- iology already takes all the space there is for it in the curricu- lum, I would suggest that some things now found in a good many of the text-books be omitted, to make room for what might be taught about the demands of our bodies for nourish- ment, and how to supply them to the best advantage of health and purse. This would make a more substantial foundation for the special instruction about alcohol in itself. To make room for this m the already crowded curriculum I would sug- gest that some minor and more technical parts now taught might be omitted.
In illustration of what might be taught about the laws of nutrition, let me call your attention to the leaflets which are
^ An Address delivered before the Department of Sui)erintendence of the National Educational Association at Chicago, 111., February 28, 1900.
2 Educational Review [June
furnished by the United States Department of Agriculture. They will give you a hint of the purpose, plans, and some of the actual results of a series of investigations v^hich are being carried on in different parts of the United States under the authority of Congress, for the purpose of learn- ing more about the economy of food. Let me also call your attention to these specimens, which are duplicates of those in the food collection of the United States National Museum. They illustrate the chemical composition of the human body and of the foods which nourish it. From the leaflets you may infer that already a large amount of information has been ob- tained regarding the chemical composition, digestibility, and nutritive values of our food materials, the ways in which they nourish the body, the dietary habits of people of different classes and regions, the more common errors in our food econ- omy, and the ways in which w^e may select, prepare, and use our foods so as to make our diet less costly, more palatable, and more healthful. The Museum specimens suggest one of the ways in w^hich some of these facts may be explained and thus made most useful. The leaflets and specimens indicate some of the many ways in which our government, in response to a public demand, a demand which comes especially from teach- ers, economists, and philanthropists, is gathering and dissemi- nating knowledge of those things which require the most exact research for their discovery and which, clearly discerned and rightly taught, take hold on life, form the most useful part of education, and can become sources of the truest inspiration.
When we consider that '' half the struggle for life is a struggle for food," " half, or more than half, the earnings of the wage-earner is spent for the nourishment of himself and family," that not only a man's power to work l?ut also his health are largely affected by his food, that some of 'our most skilled hygienists are telling us that a large part of the disease which embitters life and hastens death is due to avoidable errors in diet, that more harm comes to the health of the com- munity from erroneous habits of eating than from the habitual use of alcoholic drink, that economists, philanthropists, and divines are urging more and more earnestly the need of atten-
ipooj Alcohol physiology and superintendence 3
tion to such subjects, are we not justified in asking if a little more room cannot be found for it in the school curriculum ?
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF ALCOHOL
I now come to the main division of my subject, — the phys- iological action of alcohol, and what is and should be taught regarding it.
The laws of nearly all our States, I believe, require that the curriculums of public schools shall include physiology, with special reference to the action of alcoholic beverages. Such legislation would be impossible without a public sentiment back of it. Whether or not this legislation has assumed the most rational form, or whether the people at large understand ex- actly its purpose and to what degree the hopes of its promoters are being fulfilled, it is not my desire to discuss. The facts I desire to urge are two : First, it is the law, and as such, our duty as teachers is to obey it as long as it stays on the statute books; second, there is a wide difference between the teaching of this subject in many schools and in many text-books on the one hand, and the teaching in the colleges, universities, and medical schools, and by the leading physiologists of the world, on the other. It is this most unfortunate disparity which I ask you especially to consider. If the one body of doctrine is right, the other is to a greater or less extent incorrect — as I personally believe it is, — and you, as teachers, as school super- intendents, as the leaders in our education, are interested to know it. Here, as I understand it, is the reason for the title which your secretary has given to my subject, '' Alcohol physiology and superintendence."
If the alcohoi physiology now being taught in our public schools as a branch of science is scientifically correct, then it cannot be educationally or ethically wrong, and there is little reason for my discussing the subject to-day. But if it does not tally with the most reliable conclusions from scientific ob- servation and experiment, if what is taught as truth is half truth or partial untruth, if doubtful theories are set forth as settled facts, if a rule of conduct is based upon an unsound theory, if the attempt is made to improve the morals of the
4 Educational Review [June
men of the future by a wrong teaching of the boys of to-day, that educational policy is educationally and ethically wrong, and ought to be altered.
OPINIONS OF LEADING AUTHORITIES
The physiological action of alcohol is very complex, and the views of physiologists generally regarding the different details are naturally divergent. Let us take, for instance, the much-discussed question as to whether alcohol is food or poison.
First of all, we must have a clear understanding of what we are talking about. A given substance taken into the body may act in a variety of ways. Meat, beefsteak for instance, which is universally called a food, supplies the body with material to build up its tissues, repair its wastes, and furnish it with energy in the form of heat to keep it warm and muscular power for work. It also has an action upon the nervous system, which is not yet fully explained, but may perhaps be called stimulative. Taken in excess, it may be injurious; its action is then patho- logical. Being thus injurious it might under these circum- stances be called poisonous. Arsenic is sometimes taken as a medicine, and as such is believed to be useful, tho we do not know exactly how or why it is so. But arsenic has no value whatever as nutriment, and therefore cannot be called in any sense a food. In more than minute doses it is deleterious or fatal. It is a true poison. There are certain vegetable products which, fed to animals, supply nourishment, but at the same time are injurious, so that they cannot be used for food. Chemists have analyzed some such substances and found ingredients which are nutritious and others which are injurious. That is to say, some substances are clearly foods, some are clearly poisons, some act in both ways. How% then, shall we class al- cohol? What I shall attempt to show you is that the results of the most valuable scientific research and the opinions of the leading physiologists of the world unite in saying that it may be either food or poison, or both, according to circum- stances.
Alcohol is not like the meat or the seed, a complex material
iQoo] Alcohol physiology and super iiitendence 5
made up of different ingredients. It is a simple chemical sub- stance. Nevertheless it has very different actions. A chemist can analyze the seed and separate the parts which are nutritious from those which are poisonous. But he cannot do this with alcohol. When the physiologist experiments upon its action he has to take it as a whole. This complicates the experiment- ing and makes the interpretation of the results difficult.
When we come to consider the dietetic use of alcohol, how- ever, we must take into account not only its direct value for nutriment, but also its indirect action, as for instance, its effect upon digestion. So likewise when we consider its pathological effect, we must take into acount its indirect action upon the nervous system. Indeed, if we are going to study the subject at all thoroly we must recognize many subdivisions. Since we cannot go into the details here, let me briefly summarize what appear to me to be the views of leading physiologists of the world.
What do the authorities say in answer to the question, Is alcohol food? Of course the answer depends first of all upon the definition of food. But people may properly differ as to the definition, and it is not worth while to quibble about what may be left to the dictionaries. Let us then go back of this and ask, What do the specialists say as to its nutritive effect?
If we study the views held by the physiologists and pharma- cologists in this country and in Europe, who are regarded by their fellow specialists as best qualified to speak with authority, we may perhaps divide them into three groups. At one ex- treme would be a^ small group who take ground, more or less strongly, against any dietetic use or value of alcohol, but even this group would generally admit, I think, the absence of proof that alcohol does not supply the body with nutriment. There is a second group who are inclined to favor the moderate dietetic use of alcohol, tending to class it with non-proteid food mate- rials, like sugar, starch and fat, but still maintaining that its classification as a food is not clearly established. And where they are inclined to question its value for directly supplying the body with nourishment, they maintain that it may be valuable as an aid to digestion and otherwise, and find in this another
6 Educational Review [June
reason for using it as a part of the diet. A third group, whether they advocate or oppose its use, regard the evidence as sufficient to pronounce alcohol, in moderate quantities, a food, in the sense that it may serve for nutriment, and many urge that there are circumstances in which its nutritive value is very important. Whether alcohol is or is not a poison, is likewise a question of definition. Here again wise men may disagree; but back of this lies the important question. Is it injurious? That alcohol may be injurious, that in large enough doses it is unquestionably a poison, and that in smaller quantities, taken habitually, it may be extremely harmful, there is no shadow of doubt. On this point there is no disagreement of authorities. But whether, or under what circumstances, it is injurious when taken in moderate quantities is a very different matter, and here opinions disagree.
The opinion of Professor Fick, that alcohol in small amounts should be called poison, has been often quoted, and is, I believe, made the principal basis of the statement in many of our school text-books that alcohol is called a poison by the highest scien- tific authorities. But Professor Fick defines poison in a way whicH, be it right or wrong, gives to the word a meaning quite different from that in which it is popularly used. He is one of the group of physiologists who practically deny any food value to alcohol. So far as I am aware, however, their number is small.
I have looked into many of the standard treatises upon the subject and have conversed with many eminent physiologists, pharmacologists, and chemists about it. In so doing, I have constantly seen and heard alcohol referred to in small quantities as food and in very large quantities as poison. But I have rarely seen or heard alcohol in small quantities called a poison, in the ordinary sense of the word, by any specialist who is gen- erally regarded as an authority. Indeed, as I write this, I do not recall a single instance, but I should not feel warranted in saying that there are no such instances, because they are things which one might forget, and, furthermore, there may be many which I have not happened to see. I have no doubt that if I had been looking especially for evidence on this side of the
1900J Alcohol physiology and superinte7idence 7
question, I might have found a good deal more than what I have just said impHes.
If, then, we leave out of account the question of scientific definitions of the terms food and poison, and take the words in the meanings in which they are commonly used, I think we may properly say that alcohol is both food and poison. Only, if we speak of it as food we must be careful to bear in mind that it is not and cannot be a food in the same sense in which bread and meat are foods. Food performs two great functions. One is to build body tissue and keep it in repair; the other is to yield energy in the form of heat to keep the body warm and muscu- lar, or other form of energy for its work.
To bring this out more clearly, let me remind you that our foods contain different classes of nutritive materials or nutrients. One of these classes includes the nitrogenous sub- stances, protein compounds, or proteids, as chemists call them. The myosin which is the basis of lean meat, the albumen or white of ^^^, the casein which makes the curd of milk, the gluten of wheat, are familiar examples of proteid compounds. They are transformed into blood, muscle, bone, and brain. They are the true tissue-formers of the body, the materials which serve for building the bodily machine and keeping it in repair. They also serve the body for fuel, but their use in this respect is limited. The fats, like fat of meat, the butter fat of milk, and the oil of cotton or of olive, make a second, and the carbohydrates, which- include the starches and the sugars, a third class of nutrients of food. The fats and carbohydrates lack the chemical element nitrogen, which is characteristic of the protein compounds, but they contain large proportions of carbon and are sometimes called the carbonaceous nutrients. By their oxidation, i. e., burning, in the body they yield its prin- cipal supply of energy.
Bread, meat, milk, and the like contain both the nitrogenous and the carbonaceous materials. Meat lacks the carbo- hydrates; to make a well-rounded diet we use bread, potatoes, and other vegetable materials with the meat. Bread and milk may be called complete foods, as they contain all three of these classes and with them the other ingredients necessary for nu-
8 Educational Review [June
trition. Such complete foods not only build the bodily ma- chine and keep it in repair but also supply it with fuel.
While proteids serve for building tissue and have a limited value for fuel, we could not well live on proteids alone. They are not complete foods. Fat, starch, and sugars are not com- plete foods. They cannot build tissue, nevertheless they make the larger part of our food for the reason that our bodies need more material for fuel than they do for building and repair.
Alcohol cannot build tissue, it has no nitrogen. It cannot be stored in the body for future use as is the case with fats, nor can it be transformed into fat and thus stored in the body as is the case with the sugars and starches. But it is oxidized in the body and does yield energy. In this respect it is analo- gous to the fats, sugars, and starches. Just how it compares in fuel value with the fats, sugars, and starches, or just how these latter compare with one another in fuel value, are ques- tions as yet unanswered.
Alcohol is, then, at best a partial food. To call it food, in the popular sense of the word, and without qualification, may produce a wrong impression. Furthermore its action upon the nerves, and otherwise in the body, is such that only very small quantities can be taken without serious derangement. When taken habitually in excess, it is not only injurious to health but ruinous to character. And while its nutritive action may be very important in some cases, especially with aged people or in certain forms of disease, people generally do not take it for the sake of its nutritive value at all.
Taking the word poison in the sense in which it is commonly imderstood, — namely, as applying to substances which are deadly in their effect, — alcohol in small quantities cannot in my judgment properly be called a poison. It may be injurious in one case and not in another. Just where to draw the line be- tween the quantity which may serve only as food and that which acts as poison is impossible. The amount that can be taken without injurious effect differs with different people. And even the there are conditions in which it is not injurious and is even useful, yet there is danger that it may lead to excess, a danger which, as teachers of youth, we must not, we dare not,
ipoo] Alcohol physiology and superintendence 9
forget. This fact, coupled with the demoralization that comes with its habitual and excessive use, constitutes, in my judg- ment, the chief argument against its use.
But I have started to give you the opinions of leading physiologists, and have indiscreetly gone out of the way to give you my own, and that, too, when I am only a physiological chemist. Let us go back to the authorities.
At the meeting of the International Physiological Congress, held in Cambridge, England, in September, 1898, an effort was made to obtain an expression of opinion which might be taken as a consensus of leading physiologists regarding this especial subject. The occasion had brought together some of the best known authorities from the different countries of Europe, America, and even Africa and Asia. The Congress did not include a great many men, but it did include a number of great men. The following statement was drawn up by Professor Michael Foster of the University of Cambridge, who was the President of the Congress, was printed, and offered for signature.
" The physiological effects of alcohol, taken in a diluted form, in small doses, as indicated by the popular phrase ' moderate use of alcohol,' in spite of the continued study of past years, have not as yef been clearly and completely made out. Very much remains to be done, but thus far the results of careful experiments show that alcohol, so taken, is oxidized within the body and so supplies energy like common articles of food, and that it is physiologically incorrect to designate it as a poison, that is, a substance which can only do harm and never good to the body. Briefly, none of the exact results hitherto gained can be appealed to as contradicting, from a purely physiological point of view, the conclusion which some per- sons have drawn from their daily common experience that alcohol so used may be beneficial to their health."
I was present at the meeting and conversed with a number of the gentlemen present regarding the statement. Only a very few, so far as I heard, had any hesitation with regard to
lo Educational Review [June
it. I learned of two or three who were unwilHng to sign it without slight changes in the phraseology. I was told of one who said he believed it, but did not like to sign it because it might be employed by liquor sellers as an encouragement to their trade. There may have been a considerable number who disagreed with the statement in one way or another, but if the number had been at all large I think I should have known it. Certain it is that a very considerable number of the most cele- brated men present expressed their decided approval in personal conversation. I have here a list of sixty-two men who ex- pressed their approval by their signatures. Nearly all are well- known investigators. Among them are professors, teachers, and heads of laboratories of a large number of the most noted universities and medical schools of the world. The list in- cludes many of the most celebrated physiologists of our time. The following, also by Professor Foster, is interesting not only as a concise summary of what is definitely known about the physiological action of alcohol, but also as showing how much space should, in the judgment of one of the most rep- utable of modern physiologists, be devoted to the subject in an elementary text-book. It fills two of the 247 pages of the Elementary physiology of Foster and Shore.
" Alcoholic beverages. — Ordinary alcohol is an organic com- pound of the composition C^H^O. It occurs in the following proportions in the following beverages :
Beer . . . . about 5 per cent.
Light wines (claret, hock) about 10 to 15 per cent. Strong wines (sherry, port) about 20 per cent.
Spirits .... about 30 to 70 per cent.
When alcohol is taken into the body most of it is oxidized and gives rise to energy. The amount of energy thus sup- plied, compared with that of the other parts of the food, is in- significant, and the effect of alcohol depends not on the energy which it supplies, but on the influence it exerts on the changes, going on in the several tissues. The value of the various articles of diet does not depend by any means solely on their
1900] Alcohol physiology and superintendence 11
ability to supply energy; we have seen, for instance, that salts which supply no energy are nevertheless of use in directing the changes going on in the body. In a somewhat similar way alcohol and other substances may influence and direct these changes. Whether that influence is beneficial or not will de- pend upon many circumstances, and certainly upon the quan- tity taken. We have many illustrations that a substance taken into the body in a certain quantity will produce one effect, and in another quantity it may be quite an opposite effect. There is no doubt that a certain quantity of alcohol is injurious and interferes with all the functions, and ultimately brings about various diseases, but it does not follow from this that in a smaller quantity it may not be harmless or even beneficial.
'' Alcohol produces its most marked effects on the vascular and nervous systems. It leads to a dilatation of the small blood-vessels of the skin, and so to a larger flow of blood to the surface of the body; this, while it produces a sensation of warmth, leads to an increased loss of heat by radiation and perspiration. If the amount of alcohol taken is excessive, the loss of heat will lead to a definite fall of temperature. Alcohol is then of no service as a preventative against cold.
'* Alcohol makes the heart beat more quickly and makes it do more work in a given time. In some cases this may be beneficial, but generally it is a wasteful and useless expenditure of energy. Alcohol diminishes the power of doing prolonged muscular work, and large quantities lead to a great diminu- tion in the force of muscular contractions.
'' The effect of alcohol on digestion is very complex. When taken with food it leads to a diminution in the rate and com- pleteness of digestion, if it is present in any but very small quantities. If some proteid (white of ^g^ or fibrin) is put in a flask with some gastric juice, it is found that if a very little alcohol (i part to 500 of the mixture) be added, the digestion will go on a trifle more rapidly, but if the alcohol added much exceeds this amount, a well-marked retardation is produced. It does not follow that such a small amount of alcohol is useful in ordinary digestion, because When it is taken into the stomach we have to consider the influence it has on the secretion of gas-
1 2 Educational Review [June
trie juice, on the movements of the stomach, and on absorp- tion. A small quantity of alcohol appears, however, to en- courage the secretion of gastric juice, but large quantities act injuriously on all the processes of digestion.
" A small amount of alcohol may promote the action of the central nervous system, and often appears to quicken the rapidity of thought and to excite the imagination, but more usually, and always when taken in any but small quantities, it diminishes the power of connected thought and judgment. It also diminishes the power of receiving sensory impressions, and at the same time blunts all the special senses. Since it re- duces the sensibility to cold and fatigue and allays mental pain and worry, it is often resorted to, and then with great danger.
'' The limit up to which any beneficial effects are produced by alcohol is soon reached, and beyond that it only does harm. This limit is not the same for all individuals; a quantity good for one may be injurious for another, and a large number of people find that strictly moderate quantities of alcoholic bever- ages do them no harm, while others find that similar amounts impede them in their daily work.
'' The effect of alcoholic beverages does not depend solely on the ordinary alcohol in them, for other substances which they contain often have powerful actions in the body. The habitual use of such beverages to excess greatly shortens life by inducing diseases of many organs. In some cases of disease alcohol may be of great service, but in health it cannot be con- sidered a necessity, and is far more potent for evil than for good."
From the evidence at hand regarding the use of alcohol, the following, by Dr. E. A. Parkes, the eminent English hygienist, seems to me a fair and judicious statement of the facts, al- though I should be inclined to lay a little more stress upon the principle that, in health at any rate, it is superfluous or worse, and to insist more strongly upon the importance, in this coun- try especially, of general abstinence from its use.
" The facts now stated make it difficult to avoid the conclu-
I goo] Alcohol physiology and superintendence 13
sion that the dietetic value of alcohol has been much overrated. It does not appear to me possible at present to condemn alcohol altogether as an article of diet in health; or to prove that it is invariably hurtful, as some have attempted to do. It produces effects which are often useful in disease and sometimes desira- ble in health; but in health it is certainly not a necessity, and many persons are much better without it. As now used by mankind, it is infinitely more powerful for evil than for good; and though it can hardly be imagined that its dietetic use will cease in our time, yet a clearer view of its effects must surely lead to a lessening of the excessive use which now prevails."
Reference has lately been made in the public prints to some experiments at Wesleyan University which have had for their object the study of the nutritive action of alcohol. One does not like to say a great deal about his own work, and I should rather stop w4th the references to what other investigators have done and said; but in view of the misstatements and misunder- standings which have received currency regarding these in- quiries and the conclusions we have derived from them, it is perhaps fitting that I should refer to them now, as I have been especially requested to do.
The experiments in question have been undertaken in behalf of the Committee of Fifty for the Investigation of the Liquor Problem. They are, however, carried out in connection with researches upon nutrition which are made under the auspices of the United States Department of Agriculture and constitute part of the larger inquiry into the economy of food, of which I have already spoken.
The experiments are made by the use of the respiration calorimeter, by means of which it is possible to measure the in- come and outgo of the body of a man, as expressed in terms of both matter and energy. The apparatus includes a chamber about seven feet long, four feet wide, and six and a half feet high, in which the man stays for a number of days and nights. It is furnished with folding bed, table, and chair. For some of the experiments, those in which muscular work is to be done, there is provided a stationary bicycle, on which the man may
14 Educational Review [June
ride the equivalent of a desired number of miles per day. Ar- rangements are provided for ventilation by a current of care- fully purified air. The temperature is kept constantly at a de- gree which is agreeable to the occupant. In this chamber he reads, writes, eats, drinks, and sleeps. So far from being un- comfortable, each of the four gentlemen who have been sub- jects of the experiments thus far has found himself very little discommoded m any way save for the monotony of confine- ment in so small a space. The period of each experiment gen- erally varies from four to nine days, tho in one case it reached twelve days. Even after this experience not one of the gentlemen has been in the least unwilling to repeat the trial. So far from finding difficulty in securing subjects, we have numerous volunteers and are able to select men of special fit- ness for the purpose as regards both bodily characteristics and, where desired, scientific training.
The general plan of the experiments consists in giving the man a*diet adapted to the purposes of the experiment, and measuring, weighing, and analyzing, not only the food and drink, but also the products, solid, liquid, and gaseous, given off from the body. This involves, with the rest, the measure- ment of the air the man breathes and its analysis both before it enters and after it leaves the chamber, in order to determine the products of respiration. Not only the chemical elements and compounds, but also the energy of the income and outgo, are measured. The body receives energy in the food, in which it is latent, or so-called potential, energy. A small part of the energy leaves the body in the unoxidized excretions, in which it is still latent, but the larger quantity is given off in the heat emitted from the body and in the external muscular work per- formed. Especial arrangements are provided for measuring this energy, and since that given off from the body is mostly in the form of heat, the apparatus is practically a calorimeter. It is because the apparatus enables us to determine both the respi- ration products and the heat that we call it a respiration calo- rimeter.
One of the most interesting results of the experiments of this kind conducted at Wesleyan University is the close agreement
1900] Alcohol physiology and superintendence 15
of the income and outgo of energy. They thus indicate, what in fact has been generally believed, though the belief has lacked definite experimental proof, that the human body, like any other machine, a steam engine or an electrical dynamo for in- stance, obeys the law of the conservation of energy.
By giving men under experiment different kinds and amounts of food and varying their activity from actual rest to light or severe muscular or mental work, it is possible to learn how the body uses its food, what materials are needed for its support, and how different food materials compare in nutri- tive value.
The special object of the experiments with alcohol was to study its nutritive effect as compared with that of the fuel in- gredients, fat, sugar, and starch, carbonaceous compounds, let us call them, of ordinary food. In most of the experiments pure (ethyl) alcohol was used, tho in some the alcohol was given in the form of whisky or brandy. It was administered with water or coffee and taken with an ordinary diet of meat, bread, butter, milk, sugar, and the like. The amount of alcohol per day has been equal to about two and one-half ounces of absolute alcohol — about as much as would be con- tained in three average glasses of whisky, or in a bottle of claret or Rhine wine. This is generally divided in six doses, three with meals and three between meals, the object being to avoid any marked influence of the alcohol upon the nerves and thus to test its action as food under normal bodily conditions. Comparative tests were made by use of rations with and with- out alcohol. The ration without alcohol consisted in each case of ordinary food materials supplying the nutritive in- gredients in amounts more or less nearly sufficient to meet the wants of the body. In the corresponding ration with alcohol, part of the sugar, starch, and fat of the food, the carbonaceous ingredients which supply the body with fuel for warmth and work, was taken' out, enough to be equivalent in potential energy to the two and one-half ounces of alcohol, and the latter was used in their place. In the experiments in which the man did not work this alcohol made about one-fifth of the total fuel material in the diet. In the experiments with hard mus-
1 6 Educational Review [June
cular work, in which more food was used, the alcohol furnished about one-seventh of the fuel supply. Ten experiments in which alcohol was used are now completed and ready for publi- cation. These are compared with a somewhat larger number of experiments similar in the main, except that they were with- out alcohol. The results may be briefly stated as follows :
First, extremely little of the alcohol was given off from the body unconsumed; indeed, it was oxidized, i. e., burned, as completely as bread, meat, or any other food. Second, in the oxidation, all of the potential energy of the alcohol was trans- formed into heat or muscular power. In other words, the body transformed the energy of the alcohol as it did that of sugar, starch, and other ordinary food materials. Third, tak- ing the experiments together, the body held its own just as well with the rations consisting partly of alcohol as it did with the others. This was the case whether the men were at rest or at work, and whether the rations were or were not adequate to the needs of their bodies for nourishment. In other words, so far as the figures for income and outgo of chemical ele- ments and compounds in these experiments show, the alcohol protected the nitrogen and carbon, the proteids and fats of the body, from consumption as effectively as the carbonaceous nutrients which it replaced. There were indeed variations in the figures from day to day and from experiment to experiment, as must be expected in this kind of physiological inquiry. In some cases, judging by the figures as they stand, the alcohol appeared to 'be less, and in others it appeared to be more, effi- cient than the sugar, starch, and fat in protecting either the nitrogen or the carbon of the body from consumption. In certain instances there were large losses, in others there were gains of either nitrogen or carbon or both. But these gains were in general about as large and frequent with the rations without alcohol as with the corresponding rations with alcohol. Taking the experiments altogether we should not, in my judg- ment, be warranted in saying that the results establish any dif- ference between the two kinds of rations in this respect.
I am very far, however, from regarding the results of these experiments as final. Take, for instance the question of the
1900] Alcohol physiology and superintendence 17
relative fuel values of the carbonaceous nutrients, fat, sugar, and starch on the one hand, and alcohol on the other. These experiments, which are more detailed than any others of the sort of which I have been able to find descriptions, imply, as far as they go, that corresponding or, to use a chemical term, isodynamic amounts have equal values as fuel. To put it in another way, one ounce of alcohol, when burned with oxygen in an apparatus for the purpose, such as we use in the chemical laboratory, will yield about the same amount of heat as, say, three-fourths of an ounce of fat or an ounce and three-quarters of either sugar or starch. But whether the body gets the same benefit from the ounce of alcohol as from the three-quarters of an ounce of fat or the ounce and three-quarters of starch or sugar, is another matter. The body uses the sugar, starch, and fat for a variety of purposes. It may be that the isody- namic amounts of these carbonaceous nutrients - have equal values for some of these purposes and unequal values for others, the value depending upon the kind of service. So like- wise it may be that the value of alcohol as fuel depends upon the kind of work it is to do. For aught we know to-day there may be forms of service as fuel which it cannot render or can render only under special conditions. Exact answers to these questions will require a large amount of patient and costly re- search.
As may be seen, these experiments had to do simply with the nutritive action of alcohol. They have very little bearing upon its indirect action, nor do they indicate what are its effects when taken habitually for months or years.
In certain deliberative bodies, in Congress for instance, per- sonal explanations are sometimes in order. I hope it may not seem unfitting if I venture to say here that some of the state- ments which purport to have gone out from Middletown re- garding these experiments are entirely wrong. Thus it has been said that we are studying the effects of alcohol as brain food, and for that purpose have been feeding men upon a diet consisting chiefly of alcohol. These reports are entirely with- out foundation. No such experiments have ever been made or even planned in our laboratory or under my direction. For
1 8 Educational Review [June
that matter, I cannot see how any physiological chemist could think of alcohol as a material especially fitted to supply nourish- ment for brain work. I can see how it might sometimes stimu- late the action of the brain in certain ways. Indeed, workers in that field, I believe, have tried to explain its action in this as in the opposite direction, but that is a subject for the physio- logical psychologist, and not the chemist, to investigate and pronounce upon.
An account of these experiments was given at the Inter- national Physiological Congress in the summer of 1898 re- ferred to, and also at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston the same year. Last June a similar account was given at the meeting of a scientific club in Middletown, Conn., where the experiments were made. Some daysjn advance of the meeting news- papers in different parts of the country contained announce- ments purporting to represent what I was going to say. Neither my associates nor myself authorized them or have any knowledge as to how they originated. They contained state- ments to the effect that the experiments showed that alcohol is a useful food, and that two ounces per day made a desirable part of the diet. Some of these totally unauthorized and un- warranted statements, I regret to say, have been utilized by venders of alcoholic beverages as recommendations of their products.
How far the views of leading physiologists and the results of scientific research, as I have thus tried to epitomize them, dif- fer from the teaching of the so-called '' authorized " text-books used in our schools, you, who are so familiar with the books and schools, are well able to judge. I will, however, later give you some illustrations of the teaching to which I object.
Meanwhile, permit me to state some of the things which, as it seems to me, ought and ought not to be taught in the public schools. In so doing, I do not attempt to cover the whole ground or enter into the physiological details, but simply indi- cate what, in my personal view, should be said or not said about one of the more important phases of the subject.
I poo] Alcohol physiology and superintendence 19
WHAT WE SHOULD NOT TEACH ABOUT ALCOHOL
1. We should not teach that it is a food in the sense in which that word is ordinarily used. If we are going to discuss its physiological action at all, we cannot well ignore its nutri- tive value, but we should at the same time emphasize its lim- itations. When we speak of it as food or nutriment we should explain to what extent and in what ways it can and cannot nourish the body. So, likewise, if we speak of its effect upon digestion, we should not say simply that it is an aid, or that it is a hindrance, but that it may be one or the other, or both, ac- cording to circumstances.
2. We should not teach that it is a poison in the sense in which that word is ordinarily used. We may say, and with truth, that alcohol in large quantities is poisonous, that in large enough doses it is fatal, and that smaller quantities taken day after day will ruin body and mind. But it is wrong to teach our boys that alcohol in small quantities, or in dilute forms, in which it occurs in such beverages as wine and beer, is a poison in the ordinary sense of the word. In all that we say on this point, we must bear in mind that the intelligent boy knows well, and as a man he will know better, that people have always been accustomed to moderate drinking, as it is commonly called, and yet live in excellent health to good old age. If we tell him that alcohol in small quantities is poisonous in the sense in which he understands the word, he will see that we are exag- gerating, that we are teaching for effect, and he will instinc- tively rebel against the teaching.
We may say, and say truthfully, that the moderate use of alcohol is fraught with danger. But the cases where the occasional glass leads to marked excess are the exceptions. If we present them to the thoughtful boy as the rule or the com- mon result, he will detect the fallacy and distrust the whole doctrine.
We may be right in saying that alcohol often does harm to health when people do not realize it, that it prepares the sys- tem for inroads of disease, that there is a gradation of injury from forms scarcely perceptible to the utter ruin of body and
20 Ediccational Review [June
soul. But to present the " horrible examples " as a common result of drinking is illogical in itself, contrary to right tem- perance doctrine, and hence injurious to the children whom we teach. For that matter, I believe that the picturing of the frightful results of vice to young and innocent children is more harmful than useful.
3. We ought not to teach that alcohol in small quantities is harmless. Still more should we avoid saying that it is com- monly beneficial. Some of us as individuals may believe that its use in small quantities is generally desirable, but there is nothing in either the facts of common experience or in the re- sults of scientific inquiry to justify the inference as a general principle.
Doubtless many people, especially those in advanced age, or suffering under certain forms of disease, are benefited by al- coholic beverages in moderate amounts. Here it may have a decided medicinal value, and my own belief coincides with that of a great body of physiologists in ascribing to it under some such circumstances an extremely important food value, altho the exact ways in which it is useful are not yet demonstrated. But I can see no justification for the claim that moderate drink- ing is generally useful, and there is no denying the terrible fact that it is often harmful, not only in itself, but because of the excess to which it so often leads.
4. We ought not to teach that alcohol in small quantities is always or necessarily harmful. Some of us as individuals may believe this. Honestly believing that theory, we may be justi- fied in arguing for it. But we are not justified in teaching it dogmatically, and in my judgment it is positively wrong to make such a dogma a part of the instruction which is presented to our youth as authoritative, be it in the school, the Sunday school, or the pulpit. It is wrong for two reasons : First, be- cause it presents an unproven theory as an attested fact; and second, because it leads the trusting child to believe what the thoughtful, and at times skeptical, boy or girl, and the intelli- gent man or woman, may afterward learn to be wrong.
5. Still worse is it to take the theory that the use of alcohol in small quantities is always or necessarily injurious, and set it
ipoo] Alcohol physiology and superintendence 21
up as demonstrated by scientific observation and experiment. This is positive untruth. If we tell it to children, they will believe it until they learn better. They may possibly remain in ignorance of the error until they are grown, or, indeed, all their lives. But sooner or later many of them will find that they were deceived; it may be in the high school, it may be in the college or medical school; it may be from general reading or conversation; but when the deception is found out, a reaction comes. The good we tried to do is undone. The certain in- jury is far greater than the hoped-for good.
6. To take the theory that alcohol is in no sense a food but always a poison, that it is never useful but always harmful, and allege that this is supported by the great bulk of scientific au- thority, is gross misrepresentation. We may look over the literature of the subject and cull out statements which can be used to support it. We may even find writers of more or less repute who attempt to defend it in the light of scientific experi- ment. In this way we may accumulate statements which the unsuspecting reader may be led to regard as proving that the scientific authority is on this side of the discussion. We may unconsciously go farther and persuade ourselves that there is scientific ground for adopting such theories; so often and so truly is " the wish the father to the thought." In our great anxiety to find every means to work against the evil wrought by alcohol, we may gradually come to feel ourselves justified in presenting all the arguments we can against it and in ignoring all we can on the other side. But this does not turn theory into fact or falsehood into truth.
The following quotations are from so-called '' approved " text-books of physiology commonly used in our schools :
" Nature apparently makes no effort to appropriate it (alco- hol). It courses everywhere thru the circulation, and into the great organs, with all its properties unmodified. Alcohol, then, is not, like bread or beef, taken hold of, broken up by the mysterious process of digestion, and used by the body. ' It can not therefore be regarded as an aliment.' " '
" Alcohol is universally ranked among the poisons by phys-
' Steele's Hygienic physiology, pp. 178-9.
2 2 Educational Review [June
iologists, chemists, physicians, toxicologists, and all who have experimented, studied, and written upon the subject, and who, therefore, best understand it." ^
'' Alcohol is not a food or drink. Medical writers, without exception, class alcohol as a poison." ^
'' It must be remembered that in whatever quantity, or wherever alcohol is found, its nature is the same. It is not only a poison but a narcotic poison." ^
These statements are misrepresentations. They belong to a kind of doctrine which pervades many of the *' approved " text- books and much of the common temperance instruction. They are none the less false or wrong, either scientifically or mor- ally, because the object is to educate our youth away from evil; the misstatements are none the less reprehensible because they occur in school books which have the official indorsement of a great temperance organization, whose membership in- cludes thousands and other thousands of the noblest, the most conscientious, the worthiest of the women of the world. Nor does it help the matter that such statements are repeated and such theories are promulgated with the sanction, and are en- forced by the authority of the church, in the teachings of the Sunday school, and from the sacred desk.
Do not misunderstand me. I am not imputing wrong mo- tives, I bring no railing accusation, I charge no one with in- tended wrong. I only ask that the men and women who do these things — many of them are my acquaintances, some are my warm personal friends, their standing in the community is so high that no arrow of aspersion can reach them, their char- acters are so pure that no stain can tarnish them, their names are in my memory and their faces in my vision, as I write this — I ask, that they consider the facts as I am sure they have not considered them, that they look into the evidence as I am sure they have not looked into it, and that they remember in their attitude towards these questions the principle I have read in their own writings and heard from their own lips — the foundation of morality is the truth.
3 Quoted from Youmans in BlaisdelVs No, 2, p. 232. ''Eclectic, No. 3, p. 37. 5 Authorhed Series, No. 3, p. 58.
1900] Alcohol physiology and superintendence 23
WHAT WE SHOULD TEACH ABOUT ALCOHOL
1. It is, under some circumstances, a valuable nutriment in the sense that it can yield energy to the body, but not in the sense that it can build tissue. It is, under other circumstances, a poison, in the sense that it is injurious to health. When taken in large enough quantities and for long enough time it is de- structive to life. It is sometimes very useful and sometimes very harmful, but the harm that comes from drinking, in many communities, vastly exceeds the good.
While we cannot deny to alcohol a nutritive value, that value is very limited. In yielding energy to the body it resembles sugar, starch, and fat, tho just how and to what extent it resembles them experimental inquiry has not yet told us. It differs from them in that it does not require digestion, and is hence believed to be more easily and immediately available to the body. It is not stored in the body for future use, like the nutrients of ordinary food materials. The quantity that may be advantageously used is small. If large amounts are taken, its influence upon the nerves and brain are such as to counter- act its nutritive effect, and it becomes injurious in various ways. And, finally, there are many people who begin by moderate use and are led to disastrous excess.
Alcohol may be useful to one man and harmful to another. One may take considerable without apparent harm, while an- other may be injured by very little. One may use it habitually without injury, while another may not. In sickness it may be a priceless boon. But it may likewise be the cause of physical, mental, and moral ruin.
2. The boy or the man, as long as he is in good health and does not need alcohol for medicine, is in general better off without it.
3. While some can drink a little without danger of drinking to great excess, others cannot. The safest way is to keep out of danger.
4. There are business considerations also, as well as those of health, that strongly favor temperance. The boy who wants to make his way on a railroad or in a large business establishment
24 Educational Review [June
has a better chance to get employment and to work up into a profitable position if he is an abstainer than if he is a drinker. Already many such establishments refuse to employ men who drink, and there is reason to expect that more will do so.
5. Temperance is always advisable. This we may emphasize most strongly. But whether or not we shall teach the neces- sity, or even the advisability, of abstinence is another matter. About this the best men differ. Two who disagree may be equally honest. Each has the right to express his own convic- tions and may often feel it his duty to do so. But it is neither just nor wise to teach our youth that the doctrine of total ab- stinence rests upon undisputed principles of either physiology or morals. It seems to me that the question whether a ma.n should be a total abstainer depends on two considerations. The first is one of policy. Will drinking injure him? If so, he had better abstain; if not, he may drink. But he must be sure of his ground before he begins, and he had better wait until he reaches maturity and understands himself and the subject well before he takes the risk. The other consideration is an ethical one. Remembering that he does not live for himself alone, what will be the effect of his example and what is his duty? The rule of conduct in this respect is a matter for him to decide. You and I may have the right to advise him, but the decision is between himself and his own conscience.
6. An ambitious and right-minded boy wants to be an in- fluential and useful man. I think he should be taught that it would be better for the community at large if there were less drinking; that the community are influenced by the examples of strong and good men; and that his own personal influence will be better if it is on the side of temperance.
7. Great as is the danger of alcohol to purse and health, the moral injury is incomparably worse. Its most terrible effect is its demoralization of character. However much good men may do in helping others to save their money and promote their health, a still greater service to their fellow-men is that which helps them to a higher plane of moral living. And here is the strongest argument of all in favor of that self-abnegation which leads us to do those things, and those things only, which will
1900] Alcohol physiology and superintendence 25
best enable us to render that service to our day and generation. In that way we do our noblest duty to our fellow-men and to our God. All this we may, and I believe we should, teach in the schools.
ERRORS IN THE CURRENT TEMPERANCE TEACHING. ETHICAL. CONSIDERATIONS
The misstatements in the text-books of the type referred to above are of various kinds. Sometimes the error consists in stating doubtful theories as attested facts; in other cases the principles laid down are partly true and partly false; in still others the statements are squarely opposed to the results of all of the latest and most accurate scientific research. The state- ments are enforced by quotations, of which some are by real authorities, but are too often put in such ways as to misrepre- sent their actual teachings, w^hile others are from men who do not stand for the best research and the highest scholarship,, but are quoted as the most reliable authorities.
I do not mean that the approved text-books are all wrong. A great deal of what they say is entirely true. In the parts, not bearing upon the action of alcohol there is often little to criticise and much to commend. The trouble is this admixture of error.
In one respect they are all alike. The impression which they give the pupil is that science teaches that alcohol, even in mod- erate quantities, is always harmful and never useful. This is- untrue.
The object is to oppose an enormous evil, to teach our youth to resist that evil. The purpose is most worthy; the trouble is. in the method. The evil being clearly defined, a doctrine is formed to meet it, and evidence is sought to sustain the doc- trine. Whatever can be found in its favor is exaggerated. Whatever opposes it is ignored or denied. It gradually ceases to be the propagandism of the few and becomes the creed of the many. It is the old story of human dogma, repeated over and over again in politics, in theology, and in morals. And here, as in many other cases, the worthiness of the cause and the earnestness of the advocates are such as often to " deceive the
2 6 Educational Review [June
very elect." Indeed, the very best people often become the most sincere and devoted advocates of the doctrine. In this case the scientific expert is not deceived. But the statements are put in such persuasive ways and sustained by such seeming force of scientific authority that the unsuspecting pupil, and indeed the teacher who implicitly trusts the text-books, is led to be- lieve that they represent the real teaching of the best physiolog- ical science.
I was once talking about this subject with a teacher, and re- minded her of Lincoln's saying : '' You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can't' fool all the people all the time." She replied: "But can't we fool the boys until their characters are formed?" Now I think that lady was perfectly sincere; I am equally sure that she was wrong. You cannot build character on falsehood.
A well-known philanthropist in New York City tells this story: '' I happened to be in a school down on the East Side when a class of boys from tenement families were reciting in physiology. The teacher asked, ' What is beer ? ' The an- swer came in chorus, ' Beer is poison.' Now those little chaps knew that was a lie. Their fathers and mothers drank beer every day." Such children were not fooled by any such teaching.
But even if they are deceived for a time, it will not last, nor can you get around the difficulty by falling back on definitions. Tell a boy a thing is poison and he will suppose that you mean by poison what he means by it, and what people generally mean by it. He has not access to the particular dictionary or scien- tific treatise which has a definition that may be stretched to fit your meaning. You may persuade him for a time that it is a poison in the popular sense of the word, but when he grows up he will learn that he was mistaught; indeed, he may do so be- fore he is grown up. Scholars in the higher classes share the present tendency to skepticism; when they find that they were deceived they do not mince matters; they reason with them- selves, " That teacher and that text-book lied. If they would lie in one case, they would lie in another, and I am not going to believe anything they told me." Even if he does not go so far
i9oo] Alcohol physiology and supe7'intendence 27
as this; even if his faith is not lost, but is only shaken, the harm is done; the effect is to undo much of the good that the teach- ing is intended to do. Furthermore, and what is still worse, the result must be to impress upon the pupil, and by the most effective agency, that of example, the example of the school, the Sunday school, and even the pulpit, the idea that deception is allowable in a good cause, that the end justifies the means. This is undermining the very foundations of morality.
One of the most honored members of your Association re- marked to me yesterday in speaking of this subject : " Teach the boy of ten that a lie is the truth and at twenty he is in dan- ger of believing the truth is a lie! "
This evil, so intrenched behind the earnest aspirations of our community, and so fortified by legislation, is the one against which I protest and which I urge you, as leaders in education, to unite in your endeavors to oppose.
Perhaps I ought to speak more considerately of things so dear to thousands of the best, the most earnest, the most de- voted people, those to whom temperance means so much, who would shrink with horror from intentional deceit, and in the fiber of whose noblest thought this doctrine is so interwoven.
We meet here a very peculiar difficulty. The object of this teaching is a noble one. When we criticise the method we are in danger of seeming to oppose the purpose, and yet the im- provement in method is necessary for the attainment of that purpose. It seems to me that one of the great obstacles in the way of the true temperance reform is found in this very ex- aggeration which makes so large a part of the means used to promote that reform. It is building on the sand. The place to build is on the rock of attested truth.
You see, then, that I am not trying to set up a dogma in opposition to " scientific temperance instruction." I earnestly approve of the purpose, but object to part of the method. I protest against the dogmatic teaching of scientific theories which still lack demonstrative proof. More than that, I pro- test against the teaching of what science shows to be positively erroneous. And I also ask that the teaching of science in our schools shall keep pace with the progress of research.
28 Educational Review [June
But what are we to do about it? I hesitate to make positive suggestions to those who have much more experience than I, and on whom rests so much of grave responsibiHty for decid- ing what instruction our youth shall receive. I venture, how- ever, these considerations :
The success of such instruction depends very largely upon its spirit. If it is based upon the real desire for truth, if dis- puted principles are referred to as questions rather than demon- strated facts, if no more is claimed than is proven, and if under these restrictions the evils of alcohol are clearly set forth, and especially if the teacher speaks with the power of accurate knowledge and profound conviction, the instruction cannot fail to be incalculably useful.
Still more effective will it be, in my judgment, if less stress is laid upon the material, i. e., the physiological and economic side of the question, and more upon its moral aspects. Our people are keenly alive to ethical ideas. And youth is a time when thought is fresh, the aspiration is for the ideal, and mind and heart are open to the truest ethical impulses.
Let me emphasize most strongly the moral aspect of this question. Temperance reform is moral reform. I cannot see how a thoughtful man, earnestly desirous of rendering his best service to the community, can fail to be interested in that re- form.
The harm which alcohol does to health, the economic injury it brings to the individual and to the community, are terrible enough, but it seems to me that the supreme evil which comes from its misuse is its effect upon character, its powers of de- moralization, the moral ruin which it brings. No exaggera- tion is needed to paint this picture in the most terrible colors.
As one who has been interested in temperance reform from childhood, I have come to believe that we have been depending too much upon the economic and physiological argument. Statistics of the nation's liquor bill do not appeal very strongly to the ordinary man, still less does the average boy care for them. The men who know most about the physiological effects of alcohol are specialists in physiology and hygiene. I know scores of these men. Total abstainers among them are
1900 J A IcoJiol physiology and superintendence 29
exceptions — I was about to say, rare exceptions. If they are not persuaded by the facts they know so well in theory and in practice, what can we expect from teaching the average boy or girl a little of the theory ?
The supreme object of education is the formation of char- acter. Character is shaped by education, but its basis is morality. Again I say, temperance reform is moral reform. The mind and heart of youth are most strongly influenced by moral thoughts, by ethical ideals. There you can keep within the truth and there make the strongest appeals.
One essential for the success of true temperance reform is that what is taught as science shall be placed upon the basis of demonstrated fact. This means a change of base on the part of a great body of our most earnest temperance reformers ; but that change is necessary.
We wish to help the drunkard to reform; but is it necessary to tell him that no man can touch alcohol without danger ? To build up the public sentiment upon which reform of the future must depend, we wish our children to understand about alcohol and its terrible effects; but when we teach them in the name of science, shall we not teach them the simple facts which science attests and which they can hereafter believe, rather than exag- gerated theories, whose errors, when they learn them, will tend to undo the good we strive to do ? In short, is not temperance advisable even in the teaching of temperance doctrine ?
In the great effort to make men better, there is one thing that we must always seek, one thing we need never fear — the truth.
W. O. Atvvater Wesleyan University,
MiDDLETOWN, CONN.
II
THE ETHICS OF GETTING TEACHERS AND OF GETTING POSITIONS
The educational work of America is advancing steadily and strongly. This is true of all grades of educational work, but especially true of the higher work. There is an elementary school at everyone's door, and a secondary school in every con- siderable town. The constituency of these schools is fixed and practically limited to children and youth who cannot be sent away from home. There are colleges and universities but a few hours from home. But the constituencies of the colleges and universities are not so stable. Students must ordinarily go away from home to college, and then new questions are in- volved. The children of more families than formerly, and particularly in the Western vStates where there are strong and free State universities, even the children of the multitude, are thinking of going to college; and their parents are not only ambitious to have them go, but are looking intelligently for the colleges where the atmosphere is the most wholesome and where the best teaching is done. Even the number of students in graduate or purely university work has advanced from two or three hundred to six or seven thousand in twenty-five years ; ideals have advanced no less majestically than numbers, and these earnest men and women are discriminatingly seeking the centers of learning where the greatest scholars are at w^ork.
Recent events seem to show that there is, on the part of the better colleges, a keener realization of the fact that there is more usefulness and more honor in being a good college than in pretending to be an indifferent university : that sound policy lies in honest representations and solid work and that support must depend upon having the best teachers tho the num- ber be small, rather than upon indifferent teachers and many of them. There is not a university in the country with any pre- tense to prominence, which, in addition to this, has not come
30
Getting teachers and getting positions 3 1
to feel that its future is not wholly in the hands of old students and friends, that its field is not limited by geographical and political lines, and which does not see that scholars of the pres- ent day are not much given to fetich worship, but can engage in devotions at any shrine where the high priest can meet the wants of their souls ; which does not understand that its life de- pends upon continually extending and intensifying its search for new truth and re-enforcing its instruction with new teachers who are equal or superior to any others in the country, or in- deed in the world.
But first-class teachers for the advanced schools are scarce. And the power to teach is not the only test. All the work of the colleges and universities is departmentalized and the strength of a department depends upon organizing and admin- istrative power as well as upon teaching power. The teacher who is wanted must be a specialist, but a specialist who is sane, balanced in character, a worker and producer as well as a theorizer, one who can get on with people, who can become an authority upon his subject and who knows where all the other authorities upon his subject may be found, who can plan, and organize, and lead, and in one way or another get the best there is for his department and accomplish its upbuilding. Such men are certainly exceptional, but there are such, and a univer- sity must find them or fall behind the others which do.
Universities never gather force, or they soon become nerve- less, if conducted as mutual admiration societies, as some would have them. On the other hand, institutions cannot be- come or remain universities and be operated as commercial enterprises, as others are apparently in danger of thinking. When a university has a teacher's position vacant, and par- ticularly one at the head of a department, it must search the country for the strongest scholar, the best teacher, the truest man, and the most capable all-round leader who is available. Indeed, it must anticipate vacancies and know where the men and women adapted to positions are before vacancies occur. Sometimes the university must force a vacancy, in order to save a position from discredit or increase its power. But what it does in all this had better be characterized by consideration and
32 Educational Review [June
justice, and done with the knowledge that the highest attri- butes of scholarship, of teachership, and of leadership are not to be bought and sold merely for gold; and that temples of learning are not places where men who are only money- changers may profane traditions, blast reputations, and break hearts for the mere sake of increasing the tuition fees and ad- vancing the rank of the institution.
In some measure the same is true of the lower schools. While the primary and secondary schools are obliged to stand more ill usage than the colleges and universities, because the people are often powerless to remedy wrongs and must send their children to the schools of the vicinage, and while the lower schools can probably withstand more mistreatment than the advanced schools because the taxing power is behind them, yet the people of this country are slowly but surely com- ing to see, and as surely gaining the courage to insist, that schools shall be organized and operated upon educational prin- ciples and taught by men and women who have the spirit and the professional training of the true teacher, in order to justify the theories upon which they are maintained and warrant the expenditure of the amount of money which they cost. People are coming to realize that no school can be good, can do what it ought for their children or for the common good, can pre- pare for the rivalries of life, satisfy civic pride, or connect with the schools to which it is tributary, unless it is constantly on the outlook for the best teachers ; and that the great systems of schools in the cities must measurably fail and be discredited unless the management is honest, intelligent, alert, and per- sistent in purging and re-enforcing and toning up the teaching service. Nothing in our national life is more gratifying or encouraging than the steadily increasing demand for the best teaching. Perhaps the discouragements enlarge and multiply in places, but discriminating judgment upon the work of the schools, with an unqualified insistence upon more scientific methods, is plainly outrunning the difiiculties in the common sentiments of the country.
So the search for the best teachers in all grades of educa- tional work is sharp in all parts of the country.
ipoo] Getting teachers and getting positions 33
On the other hand, teachers are not and should not be indif- ferent to more dignified positions, to larger opportunities, and to higher pay.
The quest for the best teachers and the desire for the best places bring into the matter some third parties who for a con- sideration are willing to give their services to help things along. It also leads to some overreaching on the part of officers of in- stitutions, to some indirection on the part of teachers, and per- haps to not a little healthful annoyance and embarrassment all around.
There is the teachers' agency. Its business may be and fre- quently is perfectly legitimate, high-minded, and helpful to the different interests concerned : it may and frequently does resort to flattery, to influence, and to coercion to secure a place for a client for what there is in it for him and for it. It keeps a list of teachers with a statement of the leading points in the per- sonal and professional career of each, with letters of com- mendation from the previous teachers, pastors, friends, and employers of each, and when a desirable vacancy, or the pos- sibility of one, comes in sight it has, dependent upon its peculiar methods, the material with which to aid an institution, a good cause, and a good teacher, or the ammunition with which to make a strategic assault for the plunder there is in it. Some agencies frequently recommend to institutions before they ask and sometimes recommend teachers who have not become their clients at all. At times the most abhorrent methods are em- ployed and bills are presented which are based upon no real service at all. I make no sweeping allegation against these agencies. There is a legitimate work for them. Educated, keen, conservative, and honorable men are in charge of some of them, but the business is peculiarly beset with temptations, and a man wlio can pursue it a long time, deal justly by the different interests he undertakes to serve, and keep his self- respect, is entitled to free transportation for heaven and to be assured that no annoying questions will be put to him at the gate.
There are many so-called teachers who are everlastingly maneuvering for larger pay. They play a game of petty poli-
34 Educational Review [June
tics and ordinarily lose at it. They have " calls " with very slight foundations for th^m. They are the coquettes of the profession and before long they bring up in the same place rela- tively where the social flirt in time finds herself. I am far from implying that a teacher may not desire better opportuni- ties and larger pay. The true teacher cannot help it, because of what these things may do for him. But it may be safely said that the teacher is to demonstrate his worth by quiet and fruit- ful work and is to permit himself to be sought for rather than to be seeking a better place. A true woman seeking a wealthy husband would be no less anomalous than a true teacher hunt- ing for a better place.
The quantity and quality of recommendations given to can- didates for places by people of some prominence in community life or in educational work are amusing if not appalling. They are given to the candidate to carry in his pocket or file with a teachers' agency. They provide him with a *' character." They are practically alike. The one from the local pastor or school trustee is not very different from the one from a normal principal or a college professor. They certify the common- places which no one doubts, but pass by the real points one of intelligence wants to know. The pastor and trustee do not know the defects and the principals and professors are gener- ous in the way of silence. So the credentials are strong on generalities and weak on particularities. They make much of the passive virtues and say little or nothing about the short- comings or the faults. Perhaps they are generally harmless : possibly, no one pays serious attention to them. Still it should be remembered that they are deceiving unless in experienced hands, and the likelihood of getting into inexperienced hands is considerable. And they discredit the writers. It may be sur- mised also that they really weaken the candidates by giving them false estimates of themselves and leading them to depend upon credentials rather than upon their work. If the rule were generally adopted that letters of recommendation would not be given to the candidates themselves, but that all inquiries from other parties interested would be patiently and completely
i9oo] Getting teachers and getting positions 35
and flatly answered, it would likely be better for all the parties concerned.
There is another interest that is now pushing itself force- fully into the field, and that comes from the desire of the lead- ing universities to place their graduates in schools, not only to aid the graduates, but to extend the university influence and gain wider support. This tendency is legitimate and com- mendable if methods are within bounds; but the temptations are very great and the flesh is sometimes weak. The value of college or university agents in schools that are naturally, or may be made, tributary gives an unwonted unction to the fervor of the letters that are written by officials and professors in behalf of fledgling graduates. Doubtless this thing reaches its most uncomfortable proportions as between the eastern uni- versities and the advanced institutions of the west. The western school men are well informed as to educational condi- tions in the east. Many of them formerly lived in or were educated in the east. They travel eastward frequently, and they read eastern educational literature constantly. But the ignorance of eastern school men touching the conditions in and the demands of the western schools is capable of great things in the way of efforts to aid their intellectual children when in- cited to deeds of daring by the hope that ample rewards will come back to them after some days.
Because the western schools are hunting every corner of the United States and offering good wages for the very best teachers, it seems to be assumed in the east that any sprig with a printed thesis and a degree from an institution upon the Atlantic slope will suffice to fill any western place. Youngsters who go out to try it too often find to their humiliation that someone has overreached or blundered. Instead of making conquests because the conditions are low and movements slow, they find themselves in a glowing atmosphere, among a vigor- ous and unconventional people whose ways and thoughts and aspirations they have difficulty in comprehending. If we could show the letters written to help graduates in one column, and could parallel this with another showing the results, the comparison would be salutary in more ways than one. Surely,
36 Educational Review [June
if all interested could mentally grasp all that is going on in this line, there would be a heap of enlightenment and entertain- ment, if not of inspiration, for a multitude of people.
There is nothing very surprising about all this. As the nations are looking and some of them fighting for commerce, so the universities are looking and some of them fighting for students. There is no doubt that the higher learning will be centralized in great institutions. Modern methods of instruc- tion and the opportunities which the discriminating educa- tional public demands make this inevitable. Some smaller in- stitutions will survive on their merits; it will be because they do not try to do everything, but undertake a few specific lines of work and carry those as efficiently at least as the leading universities can hope to do. The universities which get the lead now will be likely to hold it. Large attendance, as well as multiplicity and excellence of work, will give them the lead. Agents on the ground from which students go are serviceable and perhaps necessary to getting stu- dents. There are no university agents so effective as gradu- ates in other universities and in the colleges and high schools. Universities understand this and their faculties work industriously to place these agents. It is not too much to say that one's standing in a university faculty is helped in considerable measure by his success in placing his graduates as teachers. There is nothing reprehensible about this. On the contrary, it shows the foresight and energy and alertness of the times. But under pressure and for lack of systematic policy, because of presidential or professional rather than institutional action in the premises, and particularly be- cause there has been no inter-institutional discussion of the principles which should control, there have been much confu- sion, many misfits, and innumerable complaints.
Harvard University is entitled to the credit of having initi- ated a genuine effort to systematize her work in this connec- tion. Her great place in American education subjects her to many calls for information concerning teachers wanted by other institutions : she has the advantage of position gained by a broad policy followed for a long time and followed vigor-
I poo] Getting teachers and getting positions 2>7
ously, and no one would ever suspect that the administration of Harvard would not know, or would be slow in doing what she knows, would be to her advantage. In answering these calls and in pushing her children into places it must be said that she has usually spoken with marked and commendable caution. It is much to say, that in speaking of their own edu- cational offspring the officers and teachers of a university are able to come somewhere near the truth. It cannot be said of all universities. Harvard ordinarily does this, and she has recently gone farther and undertaken to doubly guard what shall be said of her graduates by any of her people by putting the whole matter in the hands of a committee of the faculty and thus making the commendations of students official, repre- sentative of the university, and so impersonal and conservative. It would not be surprising, however, if a faculty committee breaking out new roads should get upon some trails from which it might better turn back. It seems to me that this committee, with the best of purposes, has struck at least one such, because it crosses lines where Harvard has no right to go for such purpose except upon the proprietor's invitation. This com- mittee ^' gets places for young men just going out from the university and it also endeavors to serve graduates of some years' standing who, being already in positions which answer their purpose, are nevertheless competent for higher work at higher pay." It is this second function, or the method of discharging it, to which exception is taken. The method has been to write the heads of institutions employing Harvard men, without any special moving cause and without disclosing any specific purpose, asking in a general way how her men are doing, and then use the replies to help the men referred to to higher places at higher pay. This, as it seems to me, is in the nature of the traditional mother-in-law interference with the affairs of a household which is not her own. If one who is contemplating an alliance wishes it, it is very well for a good mother to commend, even with a mother's partiality, a son who is eligible thereto; but after the alliance is made it is not well for the mother to follow the dear child into the new home and suggest periodically that she can find a better or a bigger home
38 Educational Review [June
for him, and assuredly it is neither poHte nor ethical for her to ask the child's partner in bliss to write the old lady a letter telling how good a husband he is making and then use that letter to find for him a handsomer or a richer spouse.
It does not seem to me that it is sufficient justification for this proceeding to say that it is in the interests of education that able men shall advance as rapidly as possible from lower to higher places, and that it is the business of educational in- stitutions, who are obliged to husband their resources, to be generous.
Even if we were to concede both of these propositions, yet it might be pertinently asked with whom is the right of initiative in moving a teacher from a lower position to a higher. Is it not with the people charged with the duty of filling the higher position? They may properly solicit him, and if they do and their position is really one of larger opportunities for him and for education, and it becomes apparent that he is adapted to it, then he might well be disposed to go, and the institution with which he has been associated should take obstacles out of his path and send him higher with hearty congratulations and good will. But is he to be encouraged to flirt with opportunities? Steadiness and contentment are as important to education as moving a teacher from a lower to a higher position. A sense of obligation to surrounding conditions, — a knowledge of and a keen appreciation of the binding effect of legal obligations, a matter-of-course purpose to fulfill moral obligations com- pletely,— is no less essential to educational progress than the advancement of teachers from one position to another. Cer- tainly, educational institutions are to be generous, but with whose effects besides their own ? Educational institutions are to be just to the particular interests for which they stand as well as generous to the general interests of education. And who is to be the judge of the depth of the resources, or the measure and direction of educational generosity, but the people who are to give ?
Educational maternalism is as undesirable as governmental paternalism. The time comes for college students to be put out of the nest and told that unless they can dig their own
1900] Getting teachers and getting positions 39
worms they will be in danger of having to go to bed without their suppers. It may be all right for their school mother to tell them where the worms are and show them how to scratch and even to dig out the first worm for them, but certainly after all that they should be allowed to gain fiber and muscle by doing things all by themselves, or take the consequences. There will be stronger men and women, more contentment and stability, broader work and greater satisfaction in the schools if that is done.
But let us pass to the more difiicult task of laying down some fundamental principles which may well govern institutions and teachers and third parties in their dealings concerning teachers' positions.
An agreement between a board or an institution and a teacher is a legal contract. Both the institution and the teacher are bound to its fulfillment in honor and in law. An institu- tion which would dismiss a teacher in the midst of a term of employment, unless for immorality, pronounced incompetency, or manifest inability to perform his part of the agreement, would act very reprehensibly and unlawfully. And a teacher who would insist upon vacating a position in the midst of a term of employment because of an opportunity to get another position with better advantages or larger pay would act no less reprehensibly or unlawfully.
Whether an agreement once entered into shall be abrogated before fulfilled is to be left to the free discretion of the parties. Practically the only time when this question is raised is when a teacher may go to a larger place. It is strange how many teachers who would think it a great outrage for a board to dis- miss them in the middle of a term also think it a great wrong if a board is unwilling to allow them to break their agreements when they find it advantageous to do so. As a teacher's effi- ciency is so much dependent upon his spirit and contentment, institutions are accustomed to say that " if he has made up his mind he wants to go he might as well be allowed to do so, and we will supply the vacancy as best we can." It is tanta- mount to saying that " the teacher is hardly expected to be governed by the ordinary rules of law and business-dealing
40 Educational Review [June
which apply to other grown persons with capacity to contract, so we will have to overlook the matter and let him go." It may be true that boards of education and heads of institu- tions should be interested in the advancement of all true teachers, but it is not true that this is sufficient to overthrow all agreements; and the true interests of the teaching profession would be seriously injured if it were to be so. Never let us allow teachers to be included with minors, and lunatics, and feeble-minded folk, and other mental non-competents who are excused from the performance of contracts. And let it be re- membered that the recision of an agreement is not a matter of right, that it is hardly a matter which one may ask, that it is a matter which addresses itself to the free discretion and gen- erous impulses of the employing power, and if it is not readily granted let the agreement be fulfilled as cheerfully and as com- pletely as if the occasion for thinking about its abrogation had not arisen at all.
If the employment of a teacher is not by its terms to end at a specific time, if by rule or usage it continues from term to term, or year to year, and if either party desires to terminate it, there is an honorable mutual obligation to advise the other at a considerable time in advance of such termination, or as soon as it is decided upon. It is well to remember that it is something of an accomplishment to get out of an old position creditably, and so that the old place always has a welcome for you, when going to a new one. It is an accomplishment which many do not possess, and it is one which is very suggestive of character.
The first desire of a true teacher must be to advance his work and enhance his usefulness. He cannot be indifferent to enlarged opportunities with improved facilities. Nor can he be indifferent to greater compensation, for that of itself means enlarged opportunities. But the certain way to advance is to prove one's worth in the place where he is. Then he will be known in the region round about and perhaps in the whole land if he is strongly successful. He cannot be strongly suc- cessful unless he is contented, and enthusiastic, and studious, and steady. He must grow, and he must be sure and reliable enough to be counted upon. He must assirnilate with the con-
ipoo] Getting teachers and getting positions 41
ditions in which he works. One who has his ear to the ground all the while, in the hope of hearing a '' call," is a nuisance and no teacher at all. One who makes use of a call, or an inference, or a wink, or something less substantial to increase his present salary, comes little short of being a fraud. Contentment, en- thusiasm, loyalty, efficiency, these are the chief elements of a teacher's capital. They soon insure recognition and they readily and inevitably command an educatignal market. Then a better place — one of greater opportunities and larger pay — will open, and when it does it may well be occupied.
A teacher who has been able to show that he has the quali- ties which command a market has small occasion to call upon others for letters of commendation. Beginners may have those qualities without yet having had the opportunities to make them manifest; and beginners may well be helped to secure their opportunities. But it is safe to say that the cus- tom of writing meaningless letters which reveal but part of the truth, to say nothing of such as propagate untruth, is to be condemned. If people from whom letters are desired would follow the practice of telling candidates that they would cheer- fully answer inquiries from third parties, and would make such answers frank and truthful, they would give substantial aid to officials looking for teachers; and they would really be more serviceable, in the long run, to candidates looking for places.
Officers whose duties require them to secure teachers for prominent or responsible positions are bound to know where such teachers are, and they are entitled to go where they may get them. The very life of a university is dependent upon the constant re-enforcement of the faculty. It is not easy to get rid of unsatisfactory teachers, but when a vacancy occurs the opportunity to give things a lift has arrived and it is an oppor- tunity which must be made the most of. At the University of Illinois we opened, years ago, two filing cabinets in which we place, almost daily, comprehensive statements showing the an- cestral and educational pedigrees of such promising and pos- sibly available teachers as come to our attention. When occa- sion arises we have much desirable information at hand and many good teachers are certain to have consideration. Know-
42 Educational Review [June
ing where one is whom we may want we have the undoubted right to go where he is and get him if we can : and of course this involves the right of others coming into our inclosure to secure teachers if they can.
The doctrine that the interests of education will be promoted by the best teachers getting into places of largest opportunity will hardly be challenged anywhere. And the places of largest opportunity have the right to seek the largest men and women. It is the business of any place to seek the best ma- terial within its reach. There need be no apology for doing it and there is no occasion for sneaking about it. It may well be done with directness and with the knowledge of the head or other officers of the institution whose interests and serenity may be affected thereby. Every facility for obtaining infor- mation must be afforded. Then the invaders must decide whether they really want to lay suit or not, and if they conclude that they do they must determine what they can do to make their suit successful, and then the suitee must weigh the im- portant matter deliberately and after having done so let his wife decide whether he shall go or stay. In either event, the decision will probably be right. The wife is all right any way, but we draw the line on the unasked intervention of the mother-in-law, and the stepmother, and the grandmother, and the schoolmother, and all the other nice old ladies who have had their day in deciding things for their children, and whose splendid function it now is to be gracious and benignant and pass their blessing upon whatever transpires.
There is undoubtedly a perfectly legitimate field of opera- tions for teachers' agencies in aiding officers who are in quest of teachers and in aiding teachers who are in search of places; -but, as already suggested, the business is peculiarly liable to in- vite bad methods and lay itself open to criticism. Perhaps the agencies sometimes get censure that does not belong to them. If an officer allows the belief to grow that his favor can be gained only thru a certain agency, that is his fault more than the fault of the agency. If an institution does not suffi- ciently discount the roseate statements of an agency as to the qualities of a candidate the institution is as much too slow as
1900] GeUi7ig teachers and getting positions 43
the agency is too fast. In the absence of intentional fraud such matters afford Httle real ground for complaint: they are in- cident to all business and in time regulate themselves. But the temptation to deliberate fraud is great. If an agency assumes to represent one of the parties without being author- ized, if it intentionally misstates facts, if it makes a claim for pay without rendering any service, if it pretends to an influence which it does not possess, if it flatters and cajoles and coerces and resorts to circuitous and dishonest methods to accomplish its ends, it is guilty of fraud. Of course such an agency should be shunned. If institutions and teachers would recognize no agencies, and tell the fledglings to have nothing to do with agencies, which are not in the hands of educated men who know the needs of a position and can discern the qualities and particularly the adaptiveness of a candidate, and who have honesty enough to tell the truth, there would not be so many illegitimate concerns to condemn. In a word, when agencies try to serve true teachers and intelligently and genuinely under- take to meet the needs of the schools in the best ways, they are to be encouraged, for they may be of real assistance to both interests. Perhaps if we remembered that the agency is but the agent of the institution, or of the board, or of the teacher, and that the agent has no right to do what the principal in either case would not or should not do, we shall surround the agency with the ethical principles which ought to be observed. But while speaking of all these things it is well to remember that the place in which a teacher has gained a good reputation is more than likely to be the best place for him. Real teachers make positions by the work which they do. Few who make a position and gain reputation improve the one or enhance the other by transfer to a new place. Teaching power, accom- panied by • steadiness and contentment, is certain to bring a teacher most precious remuneration which cannot be measured in gold.
Andrew S. Draper
University of Illinois, Champaign, III.
Ill
THE CALIFORNIA STATE TEXT-BOOK SYSTEM
The twenty-first session of the legislature of California met on December 6, 1875. On the third day of the session a bill entitled " An Act to prevent unnecessary changes in text-books in use in the public schools " was introduced in the senate. Its passage was expedited in both houses. Being promptly signed by the Governor it became a law just one week after its introduction in the senate.
The events that led to the passage of this law with so much expedition were the culmination of a long series of text-book scandals in the State. On June 22, 1874, the four years for which McGuffey's readers were adopted having expired, the State board of education advertised for proposals for new readers and some other text-books. On January 5, 1875, the proposals were opened and the contract for supplying readers for the ensuing four years was awarded to a San Francisco firm. The contract, however, was set aside by the Supreme Court on a defect in the records of the board. On June i the board readvertised for proposals and on the third day of De- cember met to consider those submitted, when they were en- joined from doing so, and before the injunction could be raised the bill introduced in the senate had become a law.
The effect of this law was to continue in use in all the public schools of the State until otherwise provided by statute the text-books then in use, " any provision in the existing law, or any act of the State board of education done, or to be done, to the contrary notwithstanding."
No text-book legislation being enacted by the succeeding legislature, this law was in effect when the second constitu- tional convention convened September 28, 1878. The Con- stitution framed by this convention was ratified by a vote of the people May 7, 1879, and in most respects went into effect
44
The California State text-book system 45
January i, 1880. The section providing for the adoption of text-books was as follows :
" The local boards of education, and the boards of super- visors, and county superintendents of the several counties which may not have county boards of education, shall adopt a series of text-books for the use of the common schools within their respective jurisdiction; the text-books so adopted shall continue in use not less than four years."
As the boards of supervisors were composed exclusively of business men, county boards of education — consisting of the county superintendent and four members, the members being appointed by the boards of supervisors — were organized by authority of the legislature in every county in the State, except the city and county of San Francisco, which was already pro- vided with a local board by its charter. Incorporated cities were also provided with local boards by their charters.
The adoption of text-books by these local boards was at- tended with frequent scandals; while it was found that the great variety of text-books adopted by them imposed large ex- pense upon families removing from one jurisdiction in the State to another.
Such in brief had been the experience of the State with school text-books under a uniform system of adoption by the State board of education and under the system of adoption by the local boards when the Republican State convention met in Sacramento on August 30, 1882. There was no premonition that the convention would adopt any unusual educational plank. There was nothing in the Democratic platform to outbid. Tho the committee on platform and resolutions did not report any resolution in relation to the public schools, the convention on the second day adopted without deliberation and practically without debate the following resolution :
" The Republican party demands that the public schools shall receive a generous support as the pillar of free government; that education from the primary school to the State university shall be free, and within the reach of the children of every citizen ; that in furtherance of this principle, we recommend to the legislature the establishment of some system by which the
46 Educational Review ^ [j
une
State shall print and provide the reading and other text-books used in the public schools, supplying the same to pupils at actual cost."
A great political party thus stood pledged to inaugurate the publication by the State of a series of school text-books. However, the party was defeated and in the usual order of things the resolution would have been forgotten with other ante-election promises, but that the State printer and the poli- ticians saw that the publication of a series of school text-books by the State would increase the patronage of the State printing office; besides the legislature chosen contained some members who thought they saw an opportunity to " cinch " the pub- lishers who had so long '' cinched " the people of the State.
A bill providing for the compilation and publication of a series of school text-books by the State was introduced into the senate very early in the session. An amendment to the Constitution with the same end in view was next introduced with several additional bills. Finally the senate adopted a resolution directing the State printer to report upon the " cost of compiling and publishing free text-books by the State, and to ascertain in connection the cost to pupils of the common schools of readers, histories, arithmetics, and spelling books." The report submitted, in compliance with this resolution, by State printer James T. Ayres, tho fallacious, was far-reaching in its influence.
The State printer said that he had '' instituted as thoro and searching an inquiry as could be made in the short time " that had '' elapsed since the passage of the resolution." That he had confined his inquiry *' to the cost of printing and binding the books named " and that in regard to the cost of printing that he had made " a careful and elaborate investigation. That the principal item of expense in connection with the pub- lication of school books by the State would be the binding. That tho the estimates furnished by bookbinders were based upon a great deal of work to be done by hand, which was done in the East by machinery, still the comparative cost of the books showed that the State could furnish them to pupils at a lower figure than they were being furnished."
ipoo] The California State text-book system 47
The estimates of cost furnished were stated to be based upon Swinton's Word primer; McGuffey's readers, first, third, and fifth; Robinson's Complete arithmetic; Reed and Kel- logg's Grammar and composition; and Barnes' Brief history of the United States. In making these selections he stated that he had been " guided by hints of gentlemen " who had made the subject of text-books a special study for several years, and that they had advised the selection '' of three of the McGuffey readers as models to figure upon, claiming that a good compiler could embrace in the three books " the size of those selected " all the matter that would be necessary for a complete reader course."
The State printer then submitted an estimate of the cost of the composition, electrotyping, binding, paper, and press work required for each of the books, as well as an estimate of the cost of the woodcuts for the readers, and engravings and insert maps for the history.
A resume of the estimates of the State printer, compared with the retail price of the books used by him as models, is here- with presented.
Estimates of State Printer Compared with Retail Price of Models.
|
Name of Book. |
Cost per Copy to the State. |
Retail Price of Models. |
Difference IN Favor OF State. |
|
Speller |
8.126 cents, or $0.08^ 9.286 " " o.09y 17.920 " " 0.18 24.244 " " 0.24^ 28.891 " " 0.28I 20.167 " " 0.20^ 29.658 " " 0.29I |
$0.18 0.20 0.50 0.85 1. 00 1.05 1.25 |
$o.o9| o.iof 0.32 o.6of o.7ii 0.84! o.95i |
|
First Reader Second Reader Third Reader Arithmetic |
|||
|
Grammar |
|||
|
History |
|||
|
138.292 cents, or $1.38^ |
$5.03 |
$3.64f |
The State printer was not directed to report upon the cost of compiling and publishing a geography, and, while he made no estimate for the publication of one, he expressed the opinion that a text-book similar to Monteith's Comprehensive geography, the retail price of which was $1.50, could be pub-
48 Educational Review [June
lished for thirty-five cents, this cost being proportionate with that of the larger books in the above enumeration.
In conclusion he stated that in arriving at the cost to the State of publishing school text-books he had made " no allow- ance for waste of capital in the wear and tear of material and machinery for the printing of the books, nor for the original capital devoted to the purchase of such material and ma- chinery," nor "the cost of distribution"; but that ''all these expenses would be more than covered by adding twenty-five per cent, to the actual cost of the books as given in the table," bringing the cost of the series to $1.72^4? but still leaving a difference of $3.30^4 in favor of the State.
Finally the State printer expressed the opinion, based upon investigation, that the binding by the use of improved ma- chinery could be done ten per cent, cheaper than the estimates included in the cost, and if the State should undertake the work of school-book publication and determine to do the bind- ing itself, that a complete outfit for a '' Mammoth Edition Bindery " could be procured at a cost of about $10,000.
The State printing office was reported as being nearly capa- ble of doing the work of the '' setting up and the printing of the school books." The additional type required being a mere trifle such only as would be necessary to " sort up " the cases '' to meet the exigencies of special matter in the arithmetic," while " the only additional machinery required would be two more stop cylinder presses, or one of the latest improved Hoe perfection presses."
Of course, all of the measures before the legislature at this time in reference to the compilation and publication by the State of a series of school text-books were unconstitutional, with the exception of the proposed amendment to the Consti- tution. This amendment, with some minor changes, was passed shortly after the presentation of the report by the State printer.
It was approved by the Governor and was the next year sub- mitted to the people and ratified by them. It was as follows :
" The Governor, superintendent of public instruction, and
ipoo] The California State text-book system 49
the principals of the State normal schools shall constitute the State board of education and shall compile, or cause to be com- piled, and adopt, a uniform series of text-books for use in the common schools thruout the State. The State board may cause such text-books, when adopted, to be printed and pub- lished by the superintendent of State printing, at the State printing office, and when so printed and published to be dis- tributed and sold at the cost price of printing, publishing, and distributing the same. The text-books so adopted shall con- tinue in use not less than four years, and said State board shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law. The legislature shall provide for a board of education in each county in the State. The county superintendents and the county boards of education shall have control of examination of teachers and the granting of teachers' certificates within their respective jurisdiction."
The first Act passed by the legislature under the amendment was approved February 26, 1885. The provisions of the Act relating to the State board of education and the superintendent of State printing, omitting formal directions, were as follows :
" Section i. The State board of education shall compile, or cause to be compiled, for use in the common schools of the State, a series of school text-books of the following descrip- tion, viz. : Three readers, one speller, one arithmetic, one gram- mar, one history of the United States, and one geography.
" Section 2. The State board of education shall employ well- qualified persons to compile the books mentioned in section one of this Act, and shall fix the remuneration for services thus ren- dered : provided that if competent authors shall compile any one or more of the works of the first order of excellence, and shall offer the same as a free gift to the people of the State, it shall be the duty of the State board of education to accept such gift.
*' Section 3. The printing of all the text-books provided for in section one of this Act, and the mechanical work connected therewith, shall be done by and under the supervision of the superintendent of State printing at the State printing office."
The Act appropriated twenty thousand dollars for the com-
CO Educational Review [June
pilation of the books directed to be compiled, and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to purchase the necessary machinery and materials for the manufacture of the books as well as to pay the salaries or wages of those engaged in the manufacture, and finally directed that the books when published should be sold at cost.
It will be seen that the text-books described in the Act were to be compiled by the State board of education or under their direction, the language being, following that of the amendment to the Constitution, " shall compile or cause to be compiled "; but the legislature evidently did not expect the State board to compile the books, for, in section two of the Act, it is directed to employ " well-qualified persons " to do the work.
The legislature did not attempt to set a standard of merit which should be attained by the books, but it is presumed that the best was desired, for it only gave the board authority to ac- cept as a free gift from competent authors compilations '* of the first order of excellence."
It is fair to presume that it was the expectation of the people of the State when they adopted the amendment to the Consti- tution, and the intention of the legislature that enacted the law under it, that the State should publish a uniform series of text- books of the '' first order of excellence " for use in the common schools of the State and at a price that should be less at all times than the prevailing prices of private publishers.
The educational excellence of the series depended upon the State board of education, for it had the authority to compile the books or employ " well-qualified persons " to do so; while the mechanical excellence and the cost, except the cost of compila- tion, depended upon the superintendent of State printing.
The members of the State board of education at this time were General George Stoneman, Governor; William T. Welcker, State superintendent of public instruction; Charles H. Allen, principal State normal school, San Jose; and Ira More, principal State normal school, Los Angeles. The principals of the State normal schools had held their positions some years and were well known to the teachers and citizens of the State, while the State superintendent had been for years,
1900] The California State text-book system 5 1
tho not immediately preceding his election, a professor in the University of California. The Governor and State superin- tendent were elected by the people, while the principals of the State normal schools were elected by a board of trustees ap- pointed by the Governor, of which he and the State superin- tendent were ex-officio members.
The superintendent of State printing, or State printer, as this official is commonly called, was James T. Ayres, an ap- pointee of the Governor.
It would seem that in the beginning the State board of edu- cation did not contemplate compiling the books themselves, for at their meeting on the 24th of March they resolved to receive, until June i, proposals for furnishing the manu- scripts or printed texts of the books directed to be compiled. In compliance with the law it was further resolved on the fol- lowing day to accept as a " free gift " compilations " of the first order of excellence." At the next meeting of the board Mr. W. H. V. Raymond, who had just edited a new series of readers for a San Francisco firm, was elected editor-in-chief. The editor-in-chief began work on the first day of June and de- voted nearly four months to editing the specimen subdivisions of manuscript submitted to the board by intending authors. On the examination of these texts by the board none of them was in their opinion worthy of acceptance except a series of three readers tendered as a free gift by Mr. H. C. Kinne of San Francisco. The vote accepting them was not unanimous. Principal Allen not only voted against their acceptance, but placed the following statement on the records of the board:
" In my opinion the adoption of the Kinne readers as sub- mitted to us for use in the public schools of this State is a long step to the rear, and I have done what I could by voice and vote to prevent the adoption of a series of readers which I be- lieve are so imperfect and so poorly adapted to the wants of the schools of the State."
" In view of their want of success with authors from the community at large, the State board of education," said State
5 2 Educational Review [June
Superintendent Welcker, ''became convinced that it was necessary to undertake the work themselves." It is not to be understood that t:he board collectively or individually intended compiling any of the proposed text-books. Undertaking " the work themselves " consisted in supervising the compilations of persons whom they employed. Superintendent Welcker was directed by the board to supervise the preparation of the readers and speller, Principal Allen the grammar, and Prin- cipal More the arithmetic.
The series of three readers accepted as a " free gift " cost for editorial supervision, including the cost of illustrations for the first and second, $4468.75. The first and third were published in September, 1886, while the second was completed in De- cember of the same year. The books did not prove to be works " of the first order of excellence," which was the standard set by the legislature for any that should be accepted as a free gift. " Nearly all agree," said State Superintendent Hoitt in 1890, " that the readers are poorly graded, that they should be re- vised, and at least one if not two or more books should be added to the series."
An innovation was made in the plan of the speller. It was designed to displace the ordinary spelling book as well as any book on word analysis. Mr. W. L. Willis was hired at $100 per month to compile it. He w^as engaged in the com- pilation between nine and ten months. It was published in September, 1886. "This, also [the speller], in my opinion," said State Superintendent Anderson in 1892, " needs revision. Indeed, I am of the opinion that both the readers and the speller are so defective in what is needed by the schools as to require entirely new publications instead of revision."
Such was the condition of State publication upon the assembling of the legislature on January 3, 1887. By an Act approved on the 15th of March following, the legislature directed the State board of education to " compile or cause to be compiled " an elementary arithmetic, an elementary gram- mar or language lessons, an elementary geography, and a physiology and hygiene. These books were in addition to those directed to be compiled by the previous legislature. The
1900] The California State text-book system 53
sum of $15,000 was appropriated for the purpose of their compilation, and $165,000 for the pubHcation of the first 50,000 copies of each. The Act created also what is known as the '' State school-book fund," that is, a fund into which all moneys received from the sale of the State series of school text-books is kept and which it was supposed would provide sufficient sums to publish all editions of the State series over and above the first 50,000 copies of each. " The State board of education shall employ well-qualified persons to compile the books " was again the direction of the law.
In compliance with this law the supervision of the compila- tion of the elementary arithmetic and physiology was assigned by the State board of education to Principal More, the elemen- tary grammar to Principal Allen, and the elementary geog- raphy to State Superintendent Ira G. Hoitt. The supervision of the compilation of the United States history, authorized by the legislature of 1885, was also assigned to the State superin- tendent.
No one was employed to supervise the compilation of these books, nor any others previously or subsequently directed to be compiled or revised, who was not a resident of the State. In fact, in so far as is known, no attempt w^as made on the part of the State board of education nor any of its members to employ anyone outside of the State to compile or revise any of the books. While this limitation of authorship was bad, it was made worse by the lack of competition. It would seem that friendship was a greater factor in the employment of compilers than fitness. None of the compilers possessed any experience or training in the preparation of school text-books, except Editor-in-chief Raymond and Mrs. Mary W. George. Some were successful and experienced teachers of sound scholarship; but as a whole they did not possess the training or scholarship that fitted them to produce a series of text-books for use in the public schools of the State that publishers would publish or people buy unless compelled to do so by law. An examination of the publications compiled by them justifies this conclu- sion.
The State series of arithmetics do not form a closely related
54 Educational Review [June
series. '' Few, if any, of the modern ideas of mathematical teaching " are incorporated in them. It is difficult to obtain satisfactory results from their use. In fact, Professor Elwood P. Cubberley of Leland Stanford, Jr., University declared, when city superintendent of San Diego, that there could be " no good arithmetic teaching " if the work in arithmetic was con- fined to the series.
" The grammar," said State Superintendent Anderson in 1892, ''meets with more serious complaint than any other books published by the State, except the readers and the history, and the interests of our schools imperatively demands its revision." If the arithmetics did not form a well-graded and clearly uni- fied series, the English grammar and the elementary grammar, or, as it is termed, Lessons in language, were in this respect even more defective, there being no similarity between the two books.
" Much complaint," said State Superintendent Anderson nearly eight years ago, " is heard relative to the character of the history of the United States. It is not at all suited to the pupils in the classes where it is required to be used. The ar- rangement of the matter is not regarded as good, and the style of treating the various topics is abtruse to such a degree as to render it very difficult to be comprehended by the pupils. In my opinion it should be thoroly revised and brought down to the present time." It has not yet been revised. It is now practically fifteen years behind the times.
The text of the elementary geography was prepared in the main by Editor-in-chief Raymond. It is one of the best books in the State series, but it needs revision, as it is now ten years old. Its maps are poor. In this connection it should be said that whatever defects may exist in the several publications of the State series they cannot be attributed to the editor-in- chief.
The physiology is so thoroly beyond the comprehension of grammar grade pupils that but little use is made of it. *' It is faulty in method, misleading in statement, and poor in literary style." It is incapable of revision.
On the recommendation of Superintendent Hoitt the legis-
1900] The California State text-book system 55
lature of 1889 authorized the compilation of a text-book on civil government. The supervision of the compilation was assigned to Principal C. W. Childs, who had succeeded Charles H. Allen as principal of the San Jose State normal school. Principal Childs employed Professor William Carey Jones, then and now professor of jurisprudence in the University of California, to compile the book. It is one of the best books of the series; but is not well adapted for use in the elementary schools. It should be revised.
When the legislature of 1893 convened, all of the books pre- viously directed to be compiled had been published and were in use in the schools of the State, with the exception of the ad- vanced geography, the compilation of which had not been com- pleted, tho authorized by the original Act of 1885. Tho the first publications of the State series had been in general use, at this time, only five and one-half years, the legislature by an Act approved March 9, 1893, authorized and directed the State board of education to revise the three readers, the English grammar, the history, and the advanced arithmetic, and to compile a primary history of the United States. Twenty-five thousand dollars was appropriated from the " State school- book fund " for the revision and compilation.
In compliance with this law the State board of education employed in addition to the editor-in-chief already employed, two assistant editors, Mrs. Mary W. George and Miss Anna C. Murphy, to revise the books named in the Act.
Before it could be determined whether the editor-in-chief and assistant editors could compile better books than had been compiled under the contract system, the board on April 11, 1894, set aside $4000 for the revision of the history of the United States and the compilation of a primary history, and further requested Mr. C. H. Keyes, at that time principal of the Throop Polytechnic Institute at Pasadena " to prepare and present to the board at its next meeting a scheme " for the proposed revision and compilation, the request being made ** with a view to his employment upon the work," and finally it was resolved to allow him '' the sum of $500 on the acceptance of his scheme, and thereafter such sums at each meeting of the
^6 Educational Review [June
board as may be determined at the time, in accordance with the progress of the work, until the sum of $4000 shall have been paid."
In compliance with the first resolution of the board, Prin- cipal Keyes submitted a '' scheme " for the proposed revision and compilation, and upon its acceptance received in accordance with the terms of the second resolution $500 on account. The manuscript of the primary history was received by the board early in 1896, but it was not accepted until the following year, being returned to the author for revision upon the report of Mr. A. B. Coffee, who was appointed to examine it. When the manuscript of the revised history was submitted in 1898 it was referred to Dr. K. C. Babcock of the University of California, and Mrs. R. V. Winterburn of Stockton. In the opinion of these experts it was not worthy of acceptance. Thereupon it was returned with their criticisms to the author. A new manuscript has recently been submitted by the author. It has not yet been accepted.
Principal Keyes has received $3000 in addition to the $500 paid him on the acceptance of his " scheme " of revision and compilation. The experts have been paid $300. That is, $3800 has been paid for the manuscript of a primary history which, tho accepted, has not been published and for the manu- script of the revised history which, tho submitted, has not been accepted.
Before any revisions made by the board of editors were pub- lished, the advanced geography, which has been assigned for compilation in June, 1892, was issued, being published in Sep- tember, 1893. Its compilation had been supervised by Prin- cipal Childs and State Superintendent Hoitt. It is an abtruse book, contains poor maps, and needs revision.
Only the readers and English grammar were revised by the board of editors, if entirely new books can be said to be revi- sions. The readers were issued in a series of four books. The revised first and second readers were published in August, 1894, while the revised third and fourth readers were published in June of the following year. The revised English grammar was published in June, 1896. All of these books are very
1900] The California state text-book system 57
good and would with slight revision give fair satisfaction for some years to come.
Upon the compilation of the revision of the grammar, the State board of education declared the offices of editor-in-chief and assistant editors vacant, thus bringing the work of revi- sion, tho unfinished, to a close.
The only expenditures for revision or compilation made since the dismissal of the board of editors have been the payments made in accordance with terms of the contract for the revision of the history and the compilation of a primary history, except the sums paid experts to pass upon the manuscripts of these books.
It is seen that the State has provided texts upon eight sub- jects taught in its elementary schools, and published, including revisions, eighteen books. Tho none of them are of '' the first order of excellence," some possessed sufficient merit at the time of their publication to give fair satisfaction, though others were so inferior that their introduction was a step backward. It is now seven years since the legislature directed the revision of the history and advanced arithmetic and the compilation and publication of a primary history of the United States. While the primary history has been compiled it has not been published. The manuscript for the revised history of the United States has not been accepted. No revision of the ad- vanced arithmetic has been made nor can be made without legislative action, as but a trifling balance of the appropriation of 1893 remains unexpended. In a word, the books that were originally inferior are now obsolete and those that gave fair satisfaction in the beginning need revision.
But this is not all. Tho the system has decreased the ex- pense of families changing their residences and been a factor in causing publishers to reduce their prices, its failure to produce cheap books is as marked as its failure to produce a series '' of the first order of excellence." In this the people are disap- pointed, for they were led to believe that the cost of school text- books under the system of State publication would be less than the cost under local or State adoption. Their disappointment in this particular, however, need scarcely be considered, for
58 Educational Review [June
they are able to pay the estabHshed prices ; while the State can duplicate the thousands it has appropriated for compilation, the hundreds of thousands it has invested in the plant, when it shall have worn out, and pour other thousands into the " State school-book fund," where so many thousands have already disappeared; but the continued use by the children of the State of the present series of text-books should be a matter of the profoundest consideration.
The publication of a uniform series of text-books for use in the common schools is the fixed and settled policy of the State. The section of the Constitution which provides for State pub- lication is as supreme as the section which says, " The State of California is an inseparable part of the American union and the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land." The people, however, should know the truth in regard to the State text-books. They should have everything apper- taining to State publication placed before them in an authorita- tive manner by the State board of education.
The board should state distinctly their opinion of the various books of the series. They should indicate those that do not need immediate revision, those that should be revised, but which are not so poor as to be incapable of use pending revi- sion, and finally those so thoroly obsolete that their use should be abridged by the adoption of such courses of study as would, with sound methods of instruction, overcome their narrowing influences until they could be displaced by entirely new books.
If it should appear to the board after an exhaustive inquiry into the cost of compilation and publication and a critical ex- amination of the books of the State series now in use, that State publication has so far failed that it should be discon- tinued, they should not hesitate to say so, and recommend its abolition to the legislature, giving reasons therefor. On the other hand, if they should conclude that it is practicable, they should not only say so, but present a definite and comprehensive plan for its future continuance, indicating in detail the best method of obtaining acceptable manuscripts with an estimate of their cost, the best method of keeping the books revised — in fine, such a report for or against State publication as would be
1900] The California State text-book system 59
followed by the legislature and accepted by the people of the State as final.
It is not too much to expect that the legislature would follow and the people of the United States accept the conclusions of the present State board of education, for it commands not only the respect of the teachers and those interested directly in edu- cational affairs, but the citizens of the State in general. Its members are Henry T. Gage, Governor; Thomas J. Kirk, State superintendent of public instruction; Benjamin Ide Wheeler, president of the University of California; Elmer E. Brown, professor of pedagogy in the University of California and presidents James McNaughton, E. T. Pierce, C. C. Van Liew, Samuel T. Black, and Frederic Burk, of the San Jose, Los Angeles, Chico, San Diego, and San Francisco State normal schools.
The publication by the State of the essential books used in the elementary schools has unquestionably minimized scandals in connection with the adoption of text-books by local boards of education; but the State printing ofliice has become since the inauguration of State publication a great political machine which, thru the " California State School Book League " of Sacramento, undertakes to dominate the politics of the State.
Instead of a small appropriation for the purchase of a " Mammoth Edition Bindery " at a cost of $10,000, " two or more stop cylinder presses or one of the latest improved Hoe perfection presses," and enough type to " sort up " the cases " to meet the exigencies of special matter in the arithmetic," the legislature has appropriated for machinery and printing, including $10,000 for a warehouse and $11,000 for enlarging the State printing office, since the beginning of State publica- tion to the first day of January of the present year, $466,000. The appropriations for compilations have been exclusive of the $25,000 appropriated from the " School book fund," during the same time, $40,000. The receipts from the sale of text- books have been to the same date $1,043,123.83. It will be seen that the total of the appropriations and receipts from sales is $1,549,123.83. Of this vast sum the State printer has ex- pended for machinery, supplies, and labor in the publication of
6o Educational Review
the series during the same period $1,375,251.80. In other words, $173,872.03 in the '' School book fund," or, repre- sented by stock and books on hand, a worn-out printing plant, and a series of text-books either obsolete or needing revision, is all that the State has to show for its investment of over a million and a half dollars, for none of the investment has been returned to the people in the shape of a reduction in prices on the books, as their cost has been at all times substantially the same as similar books published by private enterprise. The people have thus paid for the books twice, once by taxation and once by purchase.
Richard D. Faulkner
Franklin Grammar School, San Francisco, Cal.
IV BETTER CITY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
The controversy between the board of education of Chicago and the superintendent of schools of that city over the ques- tion of authority in the direction of the educational department of the school system has occasioned wide discussion among educators. It has also attracted public attention to the defects and incongruities of modern systems of school administration. While these imperfections have been recognized by educators for many years, the relations of schoolmen to school boards have tended to discourage fearless discussion on their part of the manifest flaws and abuses of the system. A few have vig- orously assailed the methods that have been engrafted upon school administration in the larger cities by the politicians, but not many have had the courage openly to identify themselves with movements for stripping the politicians of all power in controlling the selection of teachers or in shaping courses of instruction.
What is the system of administration most perfectly adapted to centralize authority, to remove friction, and to realize the highest educational ideals ? This is the all-important question of the hour. With educators handicapped by obligations to politicians and harassed by school boards that insist upon using the school system for promoting partisan interests, how are they to attain results that are commensurate with the cost of maintenance? Clearly there is something radically wrong in the systems of school management now in operation in many of the larger cities of this country. The lack of uniformity is not their most glaring defect, altho it is obvious that if all municipalities should adopt a uniform method of selecting school boards and superintendents, and should be governed by the same general rules with reference to a division of authority and responsibility, it would simplify the problem of school man- agement and would greatly increase the general effectiveness of
6i
62 Educational Review [June
the common school system. It would decrease the possibilities of friction, and minimize the influence of the ward politician, which is now the bane of public school management.
The perfect system of school administration has not yet been devised. The public schools belong to the people and the people belong to the politicians; therefore the complete divorce- ment of the schools from politics would seem to be well-nigh impossible in this country. The problem that confronts the schoolman then is, how to get the control of the purely educa- tional department of school management as far away from the politician as possible. Obviously this can be done only by a centralization of authority in the superintendent of schools. He must be vested with full power to control the selection of teachers, text-books, and apparatus, his appointments to be sub- ject to confirmation by a vote of the board. If he cannot be the directing force behind the educational machinery of the schools he certainly cannot be held responsible for results. The presumption is that he has been employed by the board as an educational expert, because of his fitness and experience, to manage and direct the public schools, to pass upon the qualifica- tion of teachers, to arrange courses of study, to devise methods of examination, and to report on new text-books that may from time to time be brought to the attention of the school board. The financial, architectural, and business interests of the schools would seem to be of sufficient importance to engage the entire attention of the board.
But how many directors or trustees should constitute a school board and how should they be chosen ? -. The fact that the methods and membership differ radically in the different cities shows the existence of a wide diversity of opinion on this question. The long struggle of Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews with the twenty-one members of the Chicago board of education for a recognition of his right to control the selection of the teaching corps is well known to most educators over the coun- try. Dr. Andrews was brought from the head of Brown Uni- versity to reorganize the public school system of Chicago, which had suffered such impairment at the hands of the poli- ticians as to render it shamefully ineffective and inadequate.
igoo] Better city school administration 63
Dr. Andrews found the pernicious " committee system " of se- lecting teachers strongly intrenched behind the favor of the politicians who had been able to get in touch with the district committees in a way that made it possible to get favorites on the pay-roll, thus promoting the interests of party and of indi- vidual ambition. A commission appointed by the mayor to de- vise a plan for reorganizing the school system presented a lengthy report to the legislature, recommending, among other things, a reduction of the school board to nine members and the vesting of larger powers in the superintendent. The Re- publican legislature declined to accede to the recommendations of a school commission appointed by a Democratic mayor, and hence the report failed of adoption. Dr. Andrews, however, finally won recognition of his right to control the appointment of teachers, but this was subsequently denied him in a contro- versy over the appointment of principals of night schools, and in the employment of teachers who failed to pass the re- quired examinations. This last act of the board was followed by the resignation of Dr. Andrews to accept the chancellorship of the University of Nebraska. In Chicago the members of the school board are appointed by the mayor, and it is gratifying to note that recent appointments by the present mayor have been made regardless of politics, and have been of such a high character that the people would be strongly disin- clined to change to the elective system. In fact there is little doubt that the personnel of the board represents more efficiency and respectability than could be secured through election of the members by a popular vote, altho it is plainly obvious that the obligation of the board to the appointing power, which cannot be ignored, is full of dangerous possibilities, and might easily become a menace to the welfare of the schools.
One of the best illustrations of the benefits that accrue to the schools thru a small board, with no standing committees, is furnished by the city of Toledo, Ohio. The Toledo board con- sists of five members, chosen by the electors at large, without regard to wards or nationality. The board meets every two weeks, and disposes of all business coming before it with rea- sonable dispatch, without orations or extended debates. They
64 Educational Review [June
discuss and determine school matters sitting around a table. The board has never had any standing committees, and prac- tically no rules for its government have ever been adopted, there being no necessity for establishing rules of procedure. The business manager and the superintendent are always present at the meetings, and their recommendations are acted upon without friction or useless discussion. As no member was elected on a party ticket, each member regards himself as en- tirely free from any special obligation to any ward or party, and acts for the entire body of voters for the best interests of the schools. The superintendent has sole authority to choose or remove teachers, and hence is held responsible for results. In like manner the board holds the business manager responsi- ble for the proper management of all the business affairs per- taining to the maintenance of the schools. With a superin- tendent of experience, good judgment, tact, and executive abil- ity, it is easy to see that the Toledo system assures the greatest measure of harmonious efficiency and progress.
Notwithstanding the impression which obtains in three or four of the largest cities of the Union, that the most capable school boards are obtained thru appointment by the mayor, either direct or indirect, there is a strong body of opinion which favors the election of members of a board by popular vote. While these contests quite often develop bitter factional strife, in which a superintendent or a particular teacher may be the issue, which cannot fail to have a demoralizing effect upon the schools, they at the same time tend to stimulate popular inter- est in the schools, and are generally productive of more satisfac- tory results, and the schools enjoy greater immunity from po- litical interference than under the appointive system, where a mayor of small caliber, elected because he " carried the foreign vote in his pocket," may set the schools back a quarter of a centur3^
That the electorate can be depended upon to provide the most efficient school boards is evidenced by the progress made in school administration in cities which have abandoned the ap- pointive system for the elective. That the people are also in- clined to regard this as the ideal system is shown by the fact
I poo] Better city school administration 65
that out of a list of forty leading American cities, only eight re- tain the appointive system, and in only three of those — St. Paul, Brooklyn, and Jersey City — are the members of the board appointed direct by the mayor. It is a noteworthy fact that while St. Paul clings to the appointive system, Minneapolis, the newer city, keeps her schools in close touch with the people by choosing the seven members of her school board at a general election. In Philadelphia the members of the central school board are appointed by the judges of the courts, which is about the only commendable feature of the Philadelphia system. In Milwaukee the twenty-one members of the board of educa- tion are appointed by a commission of four citizens, who are appointed for that purpose by the mayor. The efforts of Pitts- burg to get her -schools out of the direct control of the politi- cians has resulted in a cumbrous and complicated system. Her educational affairs are in charge of one central board of thirty- nine members, and thirty-six sub-district boards, each having six members. The members of the central board are chosen by the sub-district 'boards, which are elected by the people. The teachers in the high school are selected by the central board, while all teachers in primary and grammar grades are appointed by the sub-boards. In a general way the public schools may be said to be under the full control of the electorate in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Boston, Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleve- land, Toledo, San Francisco, Baltimore, Louisville, Columbus, Kansas City, Omaha, Rochester, Denver, Syracuse, Lowell, Dayton (Ohio), Providence, and Grand Rapids, and in nearly all the smaller cities of the Union. In many of those cities the members of the boards are elected without reference to wards or school districts.
Another gratifying feature of modern educational progress is the drift toward small school boards, with greater centrali- zation of authority and responsibility for educational results in the superintendent of schools, which offers the greatest possi- bilities for harmonious and successful administration. In pro- pounding inquiries upon this subject to superintendents of schools in forty of the larger American cities, I found only one who expressed a preference for large boards — the superin-
66 Educational Review [June
tendent in Brooklyn — who gave as his reason for favoring large boards : '' It is harder to swing them wrong." The city of Brooklyn is burdened with a school board of forty-five mem- bers, appointed by the mayor, the largest, I believe, in the United States. Next on the list comes Philadelphia, with forty members; Pittsburg has thirty-nine in her central board. Prov- idence thirty-three, Cincinnati thirty-one. Grand Rapids twen- ty-five, Boston twenty-four, Chicago and Milwaukee twenty- one each. New York nineteen; Detroit seventeen, St. Louis tw^elve, Baltimore nine, Cleveland eight, St. Paul and Minneap- olis seven each, Indianapolis five, San Francisco four. The city of Buffalo might be cited as proof that a school board is not necessary to a successful administration of a public school sys- tem. In that city the superintendent of schools, who is elected by a vote of the people, has no school board to dictate policies or to challenge his authority in any department of school man- agement. The Buffalo system is a notable instance of one-man power and centralized responsibility, under the direct control of the electorate, but, as experience has shown in the past, it is full of danger.
The city of Boston, whose public schools have a national reputation for progressive methods and high standards of educational excellence, furnishes a noteworthy illustration of what may be accomplished under a large board, chosen by the electorate, with adequate powers lodged in the superintendent. The Boston board has twenty-four members, eight of whom are elected each year by popular vote for a term of three years. To the superintendent is accorded the unchallenged right to pass upon the qualifications of teachers, although his appoint- ments are subject to approval by the board. That the Boston system works smoothly and harmoniously with immunity from political interference, and accomplishes satisfactory results, is indicated by the fact that the present superintendent of schools has been in that position since 1880.
The most marked advance in the direction of a simplification of administration, with greater unity of action and more defi- nite responsibility, is furnished by recent changes in the school systems of New York, Baltimore, Indianapolis, and San Fran-
1900] Better city school administration 67
Cisco. The city of Philadelphia took a long stride in the direc- tion of lifting its public-school system out of politics when it vested the appointment of the members of its central board of public education in the judges of the court of common pleas. But Philadelphia has another board, consisting of twelve school directors for each ward in the city, elected by the people, known as a local board. This dual system of administration inevitably leads to friction and legal contention, which has developed a general feeling of dissatisfaction in respect to it, accompanied by the belief that a better organization would secure better re- sults in the public schools. Unsuccessful efforts have been made at two sessions of the legislature to change the Philadel- phia system. In Cleveland we find the greatest centralization of legislative and administrative authority in school affairs yet attained in this country. All legislative authority is concen- trated in a school council of seven members, elected at large, while executive authority is vested in a school director, elected by a popular vote of the city. The director has general charge of all the business pertaining to the administration of the school affairs of the city, appoint- ing the superintendent of schools, and of buildings, the archi- tects, and janitors, and other employees. The superintendent of instruction is appointed by the school director, subject to the ap- proval and confirmation of the school council, for an unlimited term of years, subject to removal by the director for cause. The superintendent has sole power to appoint and discharge all assistants and teachers authorized by the council to be em- ployed. As an exemplification of the one-man-power idea in the management of schools the Cleveland system leaves noth- ing to be desired. The objection urged against the Cleveland system is that it does not embody the spirit of republican insti- tutions in that it tends to take the schools out of touch with the people.
The New York system is an improvement upon the Phila- delphia and Cleveland systems. It has a central board of edu- cation of 19 members who are elected by borough school boards, members of which are appointed by the mayor. The board appoints the superintendent and his assistants, who have
68 Educational Review [June
the care and oversight of all the educational affairs of the schools, subject to the rules of the board. An excellent feature of the New York system is the plan of visitorial inspection, by which inspectors make quarterly reports to the board of educa- tion on the condition of the schools and the children.
Under the provisions of the new charter of the city of Balti- more, which went into effect March i, 1900, the school board will consist of 9 members, instead of 22 as at present, one of whom is designated by the mayor as president. The mem- bers of the board are to be appointed by the mayor from the city at large, subject to confirmation by a majority vote of all the members of the second branch of the city council. It is to be composed of representatives of both political parties with- out reference to sectarian affiliations. Under the new charter each school is to have a visitor, appointed by the mayor, living within half a mile of the school " in order to secure the con- tinuance of local interest in and the oversight of the public schools." One or more of these visitors are assigned to every school, so that the parents and tax-payers may have easy access to an official of the public schools. They are to visit the schools to which they are assigned and report upon their condi- tion at least once every three months, and oftener if they deem it necessary. In case of an emergency requiring attention they are required to immediately notify the superintendent of pub- lic instruction. Teachers are to be selected by means of com- petitive examinations, the newly appointed ones being required to serve a probation of twelve months before they can be per- manently appointed. They may be dismissed, however, before the expiration of the probationary period, if there is no indi- cation that their work will be satisfactory to the superintendent. In the promotion of teachers the merit system will prevail, and where it is necessary to select a new teacher the name is selected from the eligible list by the superintendent, and proposed by him to the board. The board has no business manager, the duties that would naturally be assigned to such an officer being per- formed by the city comptroller, city register, and inspector of buildings.
In its desire to change from the elective to the appointive
1900] Better city school administration 69
system of electing a school board, the city of San Francisco stands almost alone. In other respects, however, the changes that will be effected by the operation of the new city charter are in the line of educational progress. Under the operations of this charter the board was reduced on January i, 1900, from 12 members to 4, appointed by the mayor from the city at large. The superintendent is given full authority to judge of the qualifications of teachers, who are elected by the board upon his recommendation, first to the " substitute list," afterward to permanent positions.
The most noteworthy advance in the direction of a simpli- fied system of school administration has been made, in my opinion, by the city of Indianapolis, under the new school law enacted by the general assembly of Indiana in 1899. Under this law, which applies only to cities of a hundred thousand inhabitants or more, and hence only to Indianapolis, and which went into effect on the ist of January, 1900, the government of the public schools of that city is vested in a board of school commissioners consisting of 5 members. These commis- sioners are ineligible to any elective or appointive office under the board or under the government of the city while holding membership in the board. The method devised for electing this board promises, in my judgment, a practical solution of the problem of how to keep the schools in close touch with the people who support them without exposing them to the machi- nations of politicians or to the dangers of a careless or indiffer- ent electorate. The members of this board are elected at a regular city election for a term of four years, from the city at large without reference to districts. Each candidate for elec- tion to the board is proposed in writing to a board of can- vassers, consisting of the mayor, the treasurer, and the comp- troller of the city, by not less than two hundred householders of the city. The names proposed must be presented not later than thirty days before election, and the board of canvassers is required to publish them for five days in at least two of the daily papers of the city. These names are printed on special ballots to be voted at a regular city election and deposited in a separate box provided for that purpose. Each elector is
70 Educational Review [June
allowed to vote for five candidates, and the five who receive the highest number of votes are declared elected. The board is authorized to elect a secretary, who receives not to exceed $1500 per year, while the treasurer of the city acts as treasurer of the board without additional compensation. Immediately after its first organization the board is authorized to appoint a business director, who serves for a term of one year, but is removable by a vote of four-fifths of the entire board at any time. If he is re-elected after having served one year his re-election is for a term of four years. He is the executive officer of the board, and it is his duty to execute in the name of the school city, for the board of commissioners, its contracts and obligations. He also has the care and custody of all property of the school city, except moneys, and oversees the construction of buildings and repairs. He is required to give his entire time to this work, for which he receives a salary not exceeding $3000. In April of each year the board elects a superintendent of schools, who serves a term of one year from June 30, but if he is re-elected after the first year each re-election is for a term of four years. The superintendent has the sole power to appoint and dis- charge all assistants, principals, supervisors, and teachers au- thorized by the school board to be employed. He is also em- powered to select all text-books, maps, charts, and apparatus to be used in the schools, except for the high, manual training, and normal schools. For these latter schools the text-books and apparatus are selected by committees consisting in each instance of the superintendent, the principal of the school, and the head of the department concerned.
In this general outline of the Indianapolis system many im- portant details are omitted, but I have given enough to disclose the basic plan of the admirable structure which, it seems to me, embodies in a workable form the best ideas evolved from a century of experimentation in public school administra- tion. The school board is large enough to administer the affairs of the schools efficiently and harmoniously. While the control of the schools is given to the electorate, where it belongs under our theory of government, it is at the same time safeguarded from the dangers of popular indifference and from
1900] Better city school administration 71
the scheming poHtician by the provision which requires that a candidate shall be presented by at least two hundred house- holders. There is also a wise division of educational, execu- tive, and administrative authority, and yet there is such har- monious synthesis of purpose that great unity of action is secured. The centralization of responsibility in the superin- tendent is adequate to secure the best results, while the purely business affairs of the board are committed to expert hands. All possibility of friction, vexatious delays, and acrimonious contention seems to have been provided against.
The pendulum of discussion relative to the organization of school systems has vibrated between an extreme centralization of authority in a single person, as in Cleveland, on the one hand, and a wide distribution of responsibility among the members of a large and unwieldy board of education, as in Philadelphia, on the other hand. When the pendulum stops swinging, if it ever does, I believe it will stop somewhere near the Indianapolis system as the plan of school organization best calculated to secure the fullest measure of educational ade- quacy, the most economical and responsible management of school business and finance, with the greatest conformity to our democratic theory of government that is compatible with the maintenance of high pedagogical standards.
Truman A. DeWeese
" The Times-Herald," Chicago, III.
V
THE REPORT ON NORMAL SCHOOLS '
The National Educational Association, thru its normal school department, has added another unit to its several recent great contributions to the educational literature of the United States.
There is no branch of educational work that in late years has received more attention or met with more hearty support from the people than that which has to do with the training of teachers. This is but natural, as well as logical. After our vast annual contribution for education had gone on for some years, it became apparent that there was an immense waste in its expenditure. When critics began to turn the search-light upon the schools they found that in many instances subjects were being taught that were of little relative practical value; that from subjects that were valuable, oftentimes the matter chosen was the least important ; and that in many instances the manner of teaching the subjects was such as to waste the ener- gies of both the teacher and pupil. It was safe to say that at least half the money expended directly, as well as at least half the time of pupils drawn away from wage earning, was lost.
It was a logical as well as a sound economic conclusion that if this immense waste was to be avoided, teachers must be trained for their work. There must be a proper definition of education; hence, a study of mind. There must be a proper understanding of educational values; hence, a knowledge of environment, and the probable experience to which the youth would go forth. The result of these conclusions was the estab- lishment of the normal school. It is but sixty years since the first normal school in this country was established at Lexing- ton with three pupils, but the value of this class of work ap-
^ Report of the Committee on Normal Schools, July, i8gg. Published by the National Educational Association, 1899. 59 p. 15 cents.
72
The report on normal schools 73
pealed to the people to such an extent that, in the year 1898, according to this Report, there were in thirty-eight States 126 public normal schools, for which the annual appro- priations from public funds were no less than $3,038,956. When it is remembered that in many normal schools the public funds are supplemented by tuition fees, and also that the schools referred to are exclusive of the city training schools, private normal schools, and chairs of education in colleges and universities, the estimate in which the work of training teachers is held will be the better appreciated.
The normal schools may truly be said to have sprung from local conditions. These conditions have varied in range from the thinly settled frontier State, young and crude in all its in- stitutions, to the old and thickly populated Eastern State, with its full-developed system of high schools and colleges, hence, courses of study widely varying in content, intent, and length. But the common intellectual purpose of our country, as well as the common trend of educational thought, made it very de- sirable that there should be an inquiry into the specific condi- tions affecting the different schools, and the establishment, if possible, of an ideal standard. It was this task which the nor- mal department of the National Educational Association un- dertook in 1895.
The personnel of the committee appointed made it certain that the investigation would be careful and painstaking, and that the conclusions would be carefully weighed. The present Report is the outcome.
For purposes of review the Report may be considered under two phases; the one, the committee's own definitions and opin- ions; the other, the result of their investigations.
The first phase includes the definition of the function of the normal school with relation to its purpose, its faculty, its stu- dents, the child, society, the home, and the curriculum; the inner life of the normal school; normal school administration; and training schools. The second phase includes the treatment of the geographical and historical variations that exist in the nor- mal schools; and the control and maintenance of such schools.
The reader will naturally consider these two phases of the
74 Educational Review [June
Report in the order named. The review of the first classifica- tion reveals much that is sound and that will readily be ac- cepted— for instance, the apparent views of the committee on those features of the normal school which are fundamental. But the critic will find it difficult to accept many of the defini- tions, and will note a lack of clearness in arrangement. I can- not undertake to touch upon all of the points in the Report, but will confine myself to a few of the essentials.
" The function of the normal school is to prepare teachers for the elementary schools." Under this caption the Report defines the character of the work of the normal school. It is unfortunate that the meaning of the term elementary schools is not given, as the range of work for which the normal school is to prepare teachers is a most interesting point of inquiry. The term elementary is sometimes used to signify the schools below the grade of colleges, and sometimes, and more accu- rately, in distinction from secondary schools. If the Report uses the word in its former sense, its notion of the mission of the normal school is sound.
There are those who would not have the normal schools prepare teachers for the secondary schools. These persons can scarcely be said to be consistent. If there is sound argu- ment for the normal school, it rests upon the premise that if the State is to expend large sums of money for public education, it must provide for the most intelligent and economical appli- cation of that money. The public funds are used for the sup- port of the secondary, as well as the elementary, schools; hence the necessity of training teachers for those schools. A college education is of advantage to the secondary teacher, but this does not relieve the normal school from giving the professional view and analysis of the secondary school subjects. There is a tendency on the part of some normal schools to extend their courses for high school graduates so far that they prac- tically usurp the field of the chair of education in the univer- sity; but such a policy is questionable, both because of the ex- pense and because of its necessary exclusion of the many by reason of the length of time involved.
There is no more self-evident fact than that the normal
1900] The report on normal schools 75
school has estabHshed its great service to the country by treat- ing from a strictly educational standpoint the public school branches, together with teaching the science of mind and school management to an extent consistent with instructing the schools pursuing these branches.
'' The function of the normal school in its relation to its faculty."
Under this heading the Report correctly holds that the faculty is the soul of the institution, that it should be composed of superior men and women, and that their education should extend beyond that of the grades in which they teach.
The Report then gives certain definitions, the relevancy of which will be questioned, and which, even if relevant, are neither clear nor concise. For instance, '' Character has two fundamental elements, force and power. A strong man in life — a man of strong character — is one who has both force and power. Force is evolved in putting forth his determinations. Power is the soul in his actions; power is mind and heart." Is force evolved or manifested in putting forth determinations? Are actions and determinations synonomous terms? What is meant by soul, mind, and heart in these connections ?
Again, " Teaching may be defined as causing an individual to think and act physically, mentally, and spiritually." What is meant by think physically, think mentally, and think spirit- ually? What is the distinction between mind and spirit? Would not stepping on a chestnut burr with the bare foot cause an individual to think and act? Contrast this definition of teaching for clearness with the following : " Teaching is the in- fluence which one individual exerts on another in order to de- velop him in some conscious and methodical way with a defi- nite result in view."
Again, " Scholarship is the reserve power of every great teacher." For the word power, here, substitute the definitions of power given above, and it will read : Scholarship is the re- serve soul in his actions, or, reserve mind and heart of every great teacher.
" A professional spirit and professional ethics should char- acterize every member of the faculty." What is the distinc-
76 Educational Review [June
tion between professional spirit and professional ethics? Really, what does the committee mean by these terms ? These and other similar expressions are particularly unfortunate in a report on a subject the basis of which is the science of mind.
Those who would enter the normal school should be mature, have good health and soundness of body, natural fitness to teach, high purposes, native ability, and at least a secondary education. The Report is wise in setting these requirements. Many have claimed admission to the normal schools under the formal specifications of the law respecting age and ability to pass academic examinations. The duty of the faculty to dis- criminate on grounds of personal fitness has not been suffi- ciently recognized, nor has the reflected influence of the study of the higher branches in the high school course in strengthen- ing the mind in the more elementary subjects been fully appre- ciated.
The statements of the Report, under the functions of the normal school in its relations to the child, to society and the home, while true, are scarcely relevant, being removed from their natural place under subjects in the curriculum.
The ideal normal course recommended requires two years for the high school graduate. This course is wisely selected and classified. If it admits question on any point, it is that of re- ligion. Ethics will be accepted at once, but after including ethics, many will understand religion to refer to doctrines. If such is to be the understanding, the subject can scarcely be considered wisely included.
The Report places a just estimate on the value of the train- ing school. " It is a place for illustrating, testing, and in part originating theory of education; the work can and must be so conducted that the child shall receive as good or better train- ing than he would otherwise be likely to receive."
There has been a too general notion that the training school was a sort of clinic where it was legitimate to sacrifice the interests of the pupil to the normal practice teacher, and some normal schools have gone so far as to advertise that they placed their students in sole charge of classes in the training school for a number of months. One cannot help wondering what,
I poo] The report on normal schools "jy
under such circumstances, must be the fate of a child in the training school, who, term after term, must be the subject of tyros. The true conception of a normal school is that it is a place where experience can be gotten without sacrificing the child, and the child in the training school is just as valuable an immortal being as the child anywhere else. Every class in a training school should be under a competent, regular teacher, who should be responsible for keeping the class up to standard, and should supplement the work of the practice teacher in all that is necessary to this end.
*' The training school should be under the control of the normal school," that its work may harmonize with the teaching of the normal.
" The size of the training school should be one of the most important factors in limiting the size of a normal school."
" Some observation work should precede actual instruction on the part of every student teacher." It must be recognized that after all a large part of the work in preparing a person to teach consists in establishing a clear ideal of a good school, and observation aids greatly in accomplishing this result.
Plans for teaching must be presented by the student teachers. The Report emphasizes this point. There is no exercise equal to this in making the practice teacher conscious of the essen- tials in a good lesson.
" Actual teaching is capable of ranking as the most valuable course for the student, for it furnishes at the same time both theory and practice."
The whole chapter on training schools is most able and sug- gestive, and will bear the closest study.
The chapter on " The inner life of a normal school " is sug- gestive and wisely emphasizes that particular value which comes from what may be termed institutional life. Herein lies an educational value that is too often underestimated. It is in this institutional life that the normal school has its great advantage over a city training school. Institutions have their individuality just as persons. There is something that is dis- tinctly Harvard, distinctly Yale, Princeton, or Columbia, which one who has lived in one of these institutions for a number of
78 Educational Review [June
years feels that he has received, which he did not get from books, something that he would not have received to the same degree had he been a private student. This something is the institutional spirit. It may be analyzed into elements, and upon the nature of these elements depends its virtue in char- acter building.
Under the head of administration the Report offers much that is suggestive. While some of the suggestions, such as " The faculty meetings should concern themselves with the fundamental problems of normal schools and the best methods of conducting work in hand," rather than in " Transacting the regular business of the school in committee of the whole " are sound, others of the suggestions, as, for instance, " The faculty should be divided into committees " will impress the reader as too specific, tending to destroy faculty individuality. Under the second part of the classification the Report re- views the normal schools of the country geographically, and shows that in each section of the country they bear the impress of local conditions. This fact, instead of being a mere pro- vincialism, is a compliment to the normal school authorities, who are therein shown to have adapted their work to their con- ditions. The review of these conditions and the adaptations that have been made show a common current of opinion and trend of development that may encourage the committee in the hope that its own ideal course of study will soon be the com- mon standard.
The Report shoAvs that in general the normal schools are under the control of boards of trustees appointed by the Gov- ernor and confirmed by the Senate, that where there is more than one normal school in a State, it is usual to have a local board of trustees for each school. There is disclosed in this latter fact a tendency to friction growing out of the crossing of interests. The experience of the country demonstrates clearly that where there are several normal schools in a State they should all be under one general board of trustees. Es- pecially is this wise when the interests of the schools require legislation, as they always do. It is also wise in the establish- ment of the courses of study, and in offering attractions to stu-
igoo] The report on normal schools 79
dents. While State institutions may justly rival each other in their efforts to do good work, they should never compete with each other in efforts to secure patronage.
The financial statistics showing the number of normal schools, the cost of new buildings, improvements, and mainte- nance for a term of years in thirty-eight States, are very inter- esting, and serve forcibly to impress the reader with the hold these institutions have upon the country. Massachusetts and New York appear to be taking the lead in their expenditures. The chapter in the Appendix on the general view of the work of the normal schools, by Dr. Albert G. Boyden, is clear, thoughtful, and practical, and merits a close study.
The Report as a whole is suggestive, not only in the opinions it advances, but in the facts it discloses. The reader will feel grateful for what the committee has done, and will wish it had gone farther in some particulars, as, for instance, in elaborat- ing the office of the normal school in the commercial and indus- trial branches and in the foreign languages. The normal school department of the National Educational Association, however, is living and active, and may be expected to give due consideration to these phases of the problem in the near future.
James M. Green
State Normal School,
Trenton N. J. /
VI THE QUINCY MOVEMENT^
This is sacred educational ground. Around the shores of Massachusetts Bay the people's school has had its prophets and its martyrs. The nation's schoolmasters look back with affec- tion to this rockbound New England coast as the motherland of what they hold most dear. Here the makers of a common- wealth laid the foundations, steady and strong, on which a world has built. Here Horace Mann plead and exhorted that education might be real and that the public support of it might be both intelligent and determined. Here Eliot has finished an imperishable monument more lasting than brass, which neither a countless succession of years nor the flight of ages can destroy. Here Parker first gained fame thru service of childhood.
There is a letter of the younger Pliny to his friend Paulinus in which he insists that men should consider either the immor- tality of fame and work for it, or the shortness of life and en- joy it. The Roman righteously preferred the former alterna- tive. The modern sage finds the two not incompatible. He has banished asceticism as an incentive to virtue and enthroned a generous humanity in its stead. It is this humanity, broad, sympathetic, affectionate, which has given its fine emotional quality to Colonel Parker's work for children. One follows it not with the attention which is intellectual merely, but with the interest which is life. It bursts the bonds of convention and defies the trammels of tradition. It is real and vital. False ideals have often, in the course of history, made education an inhuman process. So it was in many schools of the Middle Ages, so it was under Sturm's dreadful curriculum at Strass- burg, so it was a century ago when Pestalozzi was bending
^ An addressed delivered at the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of the work of Colonel Parker as superintendent of schools, at Quincy, Mass., April 20, 1900.
80
The Quincy movement 8i
every energy of his great soul to reach the hidden springs of child nature. It is a tendency of teaching to harden into routine. The routine in turn becomes mechanical, and intel- lectual and moral anaemia follows of necessity. From this there is but one possible escape, the tonic and stimulating in- fluence of new knowledge. The university teacher seeks this knowledge in his library or his laboratory, the elementary teacher must find it in the child. Colonel Parker's work is human; its constant inspiration is the knowledge which the child reveals.
This human quality, together with a passionate faith in democracy, which is based as much on intuition as on convic- tion, is the surest clew to an interpretation of Colonel Parker's life and influence. He has not only seen but felt that educa- tion cannot be permanently bolstered up by artificial supports. No patent methods or devices will suffice; not even the power- ful force of legislation will make the educational stream run uphill forever. It must spring fresh and pure from the hearts and minds of the people if it is to be unfailing, steady, fertiliz- ing. So Colonel Parker has labored in season and out of sea- son to reach the people themselves, the parents whose most precious possessions are yielded up to the school and the school- master for weal or for woe. He has tried to bring them to a realization of what education means in a democracy, of their responsibility for the character and standards of the schools, of their selfish as well as their public interest in the results. In the same spirit he has appealed to the teacher to open his eyes to the dignity, the influence, and the importance of his work. He has called upon the teacher to leave off being a merchant dealing in information, and to prepare himself to become a builder of human souls. These things he has done in the name not of any theory or school or sect, but of childhood.
Appeals such as these, if insisted upon and responded to, are, in any stage of the world's history, revolutionary in their re- sults. All practical affairs have their ruts, with a strong pre- disposition in favor of continuing to follow them. Are not these ruts the results of experience, and is not experience the great teacher? It depends, as the French say. There is ex-
82 Educational Review [June
perience intelligent and experience unintelligent, experience reflective and experience unreflecting, experience open-eyed and experience blind. The former is a teacher, the latter a slave- driver. An unexamined life is not worth living, as Socrates insisted. So an experience unquestioned and untried in the light of eternal principles is not a human experience at all. It is the experience of the mountain top on which sun burns and storms beat, the experience of the cliff over which Niagara pours, the experience of the tides as they rise and fall in obedi- ence to a law of which they know nothing, not even its exist- ence. Human experience of the genuine sort is quite different from this. It is inquiring, progressive, illumined by a knowl- edge of principles. It faces the present and the future, and it uses the past without adoring it. In this wise Colonel Parker began his work at Dayton. He questioned his experience, but it was dumb. He did not speak its language. He did not know enough. The years of study which followed pointed the way to the answering of his questions. Education began to loom large in his field of consciousness; history hinted at its deeper lessons; philosophy suggested principles of action. The town of Quincy, and thru it the United States, reaped the benefit of the revelation.
It was an object lesson of striking significance to see this veteran soldier, with a German university career behind him, putting forth all his newly roused energies in behalf of the boys and girls of the elementary school. The change in them was startling. '' Going to school ceased to be a homesick tribulation," wrote Mr. Adams. " The children actually went to school without being dragged there. The simple fact was, that they were happier and more amused and better contented at school than at home." What had happened? Only the obvious, it seems, as we look back at it now. Mr. Adams has described it graphically and concisely : " Education was to recur to first principles. Not much was to be attempted; but whatever was attempted was to be thoroly done, and to be tested by its practical results, and not by its theoretical impor- tance. Above all, the simple comprehensible processes of nature were to be observed. Children were to learn to read and
1900] The Qidncy movement 83
write and cipher as they learned to swim, or to skate, or to play ball. The rule by which the thing was done was nothing; the fact that it was done well was everything." How sensible, yet how novel; how wise, yet how revolutionary! From the vantage ground of to-day it is easy to see that Colonel Parker was merely putting in practice here at Quincy a few funda- mental principles of education and of psychology. He was not devising methods or concocting ingenious devices. Methods and devices are small things and change with every individual who uses them. A principle is eternal and the parent of a hundred methods; but a cast-iron method is a principle's worst enemy. The teacher whose method is finished and complete has lost touch with human nature. Colonel Parker's principles have saved him from apotheosizing methods. It would show a truer appreciation of what happened here if we spoke oftener of Quincy principles and less often of Quincy methods.
Among cultivated persons there is a more or less widespread opinion that teaching power is declining. Our national jour- nal of despair recently wrote this sentence in an important article on the decline of teaching : '' No one, we suppose, will question that the number of great teachers is decidedly less than it once was, and that the depleted ranks are not being ade- quately filled up." ^ Without stopping to quibble about what is meant by a great teacher, I not only question the assertion, but deny it absolutely. There are more great teachers to-day than there ever were, and they are more widely distributed and exercising greater influence. It is true that the colleges and universities have not their fair share of them, owing to the passing influence of the lecture system imported from Ger- many, but even in those institutions there is more good teach- ing than there was a generation ago. The laudator temporis acti has in mind some one person whose loss he deeply feels, and generalizes from him alone. But north, east, south, and west teaching is constantly improving. It is based on more thoro scholarship, on stronger professional pride, or better special preparation. Where a quarter of a century ago there was one teacher who thought about teaching as such, and
^ Tkf Nation, March 8, 1900, p. 180.
84 Educational Review
studied teaching, there are two score to-day. The Quincy movement was typical. Similar awakenings have come to hundreds of American communities, and he who runs may read the results. When the history for the spread of the new ediicational spirit comes to be written. Colonel Parker's con- tribution to it will be honorably remembered.
It was a wise saying of Emerson's that '' it is essential to a true theory of nature and of man, that it should contain some- what progressive." Colonel Parker's principles and insights have not stood still. They have ripened with the years and they have grown fuller and richer with use. A vast city has recognized them at work among its teeming thousands; villages and towns in near and distant States have caught them up and applied them with delight. They are not final; that would be their death. They are only an honest, courageous man's badge of service to his fellows and to his fellows' children. May he long be spared to wear it !
Nicholas Murray Butler
Columbia University
VII DISCUSSION
PROFESSOR MUNSTERBERG ON SCHOOL REFORM
The teachers and friends of education in this country have been placed under a debt of gratitude to Professor Miinster- berg, who, in the Atlantic monthly for May, thru an interest- ing autobiographic sketch, has permitted them to view the inner spirit and working of an educational system which, for its purpose, is beyond question more effective than anything of the kind now to be found in America.
It is not often that we have had so fair an opportunity of studying a foreign educational system thru a close examina- tion of one of its direct and concrete products, and if he will but do Professor Miinsterberg the justice to read carefully his article, the more or less confused American teacher will find his mind considerably clarified as to what should be the ideals of education in a democracy.
The first thing to smite the consciousness of the reader of Professor Munsterberg's paper is that the educational system which he decribes has given to the world in general and to America in particular a fine example of complacent self-sufii- ciency. No one who is forced to confess American nativity will urge that he can look back upon his early school days with more profound satisfaction. It is interesting to observe, how- ever, that in recounting the happy experiences of his boyhood, Professor Miinsterberg dwells most affectionately upon those which occurred out of school, upon those inclinations of which " the school never took the smallest account." But that, per- haps, is precisely why they were so enjoyable — actual freedom, even in stolen sips, is always delightful — and it remains to be shown that the later development of independent vigor is not due as much to such experiences as to those of the Gradgrind school. We have been told before that Latin and Greek are all-efficient in the development of great men.
85^
86 Educational Review [June
But it generally turns out, as it has in this instance, that the said great men, owing to ignorance of rigorous scientific method on the part of their teachers, were not carefully caged when young. As in the case of Professor Miinsterberg, usually they were thoughtlessly permitted for from four to six hours per day to run and swim and row and ride horseback, collect objects in nature, and to live with her about as they pleased. To argue that the value of his butterfly chasing in youth must now be measured by his position as an entomolo- gist; or that his early love of plants and enthusiasm for an- cient pottery must be estimated in terms of his present stand- ing as a botanist or archaeologist; or, in general, that the natural influences outside of school which constantly challenged his attention and stimulated his investigations have not ma- terially contributed to his present influential position as a psy- chologist, simply because they were not rammed into him thru a prescribed school course against an " inner resistance," is to adopt a line of reasoning that must unlock in protest even the stone jaws of the professor's psychological sphinx.
It has been demonstrated once. more how exceedingly diffi- cult it is for a product of an educational system derived from the monarchical ideal of society to understand the ideals of education proposed by a democracy. There seems to be no perception of the more than oceanic abyss that separates an educational system in which the teacher leaves questions relat- ing to instruction to the " principal and the government " from a system in which the teacher is an organic part of the govern- ment itself. This is not the place to argue as to the relative merits of the two systems growing out of such different ideals; it is sufficient to emphasize the point that thru the ages the old world has tried the former, and at this time the new world proposes to try the latter. In this country it has been resolved to preserve for each person to the uttermost the privilege of the initiative, on the theory that society not only has the right but also the actual need of the best that each individual brings into the world with him when he is born. The administration of the old world system of education is not without its lessons for us. The plan of prescribing in the schools continually only such studies as meet with " inner resistance '' on the part of
ipoo] Discussion 87
the pupils has been so effectively executed that this selfsame " inner resistance " has now become the chief menace to every crowned head in Europe — nay, to the very idea of government itself. It is true that the new world idea makes our country very tiresome to people who are not accustomed to noise. It frequently fills our teachers' meetings with such indescribable babble that they would be the last resort of any who wish to slumber, except possibly those whose lifelong habit it has been to sleep that their king may think. For gatherings of irre- proachable decorum and quiet commend me to. those assemblages of teachers who, under the old world idea, passive and docile, have come together to receive their orders from the " principal and the government."
Another point that always seems to fall outside the compre- hension of a genuine product of the old world school system is the fundamental proposition of democracy that by granting equal opportunities in and thru education to all the children of all the people, society shall be able to organize itself into a self- controlled, coherent, self-perpetuating body; and also the un- avoidable corollary, that on the basis of the ability and disposi- tion to make righteous use of such opportunities, all places in the democracy shall be open to all the children of all the people. This proposition rests upon the theory that only out of such natural adjustments of people, made under increasing enlight- enment, can mankind ever hope to enjoy a stable and well- balanced, tho not fixed, but sensitive and self -compensating social condition. It is scarcely necessary to remark that this is precisely the reverse of the dominant theory that underlies the monarchical system of education. Under such terms it is con- ceivable that people may actually love their country and live in quiet within its borders. Whatever other virtues the monarchical system of education may possess, it fails to pro- duce that feeling of contentment which keeps a people at home. Appreciating the recognition that Harvard University gave to the genius and education of Professor Miinsterberg, one can readily understand why he should choose to cast his lot with the American people. But every Atlantic liner that leaves his native shores brings with it hundreds of his fellow-countrymen, products of that school system to which he himself belongs,
88 Educational Review [June
tho very few of them are being allured westward by so great a material influence as a professorship awaiting them at Har- vard. In the vast majority of cases, from the professor to the peasant, it is the feeling that on this side there is yet one more chance to get justice; one more opportunity to come into pos- session of rights, for ages denied, that drives them hither.
Considering the difliculties that beset the development of a system of education consistent with democratic ideals, it should be always remembered that no small part of the trouble lies in dealing with those who have received their training under monarchical ideals. These people belong to two classes; one seeking to transplant in this country the essentials of the old regime, and the other fighting this attempt to the death as the embodiment of all the evils from which they have fled. In spite of its inconvenience, not to say danger, one must have a good deal of sympathy with the latter class, who show so much restiveness and irritability at the mere suggestion of any au- thority being exercised over them in the matter. The old monarchies have utterly failed by education or other means to inspire these people with trust in their fellow-men. We Americans, therefore, must simply wait until they have had time to take their bearings from the outlook afforded by the new world ideals. The great majority of these people mean well, but they are possessed with a deadly fear that has been begotten by tyranny and nurtured in ignorance in their native lands. We must be patient.
In the latter part of his paper Professor Miinsterberg makes a point of real value when he says that the teachers in all grades of our schools should know more. Tho the idea is not a new one to the American teacher, and altho it has never been in dis- pute in this country, its restatement and exploitation by every- one as soon as he discovers the fact can do no possible harm. In the present instance the cogency of the reasoning used to establish this self-evident truth reveals a " mastery of method " that makes one feel doubly secure in adopting the conclusions reached. The American public deplores with Professor Miinsterberg that but two per cent, of its teachers possess a " degree." But even he fails to suggest any more rational or rapid means of remedying the situation than those already in
I poo] Discussion 89
operation. Of course, we might close the schools and wait until the ninety-eight per cent, could go to college and get their degrees; but it would be a doubtful expedient. On the other hand, if one will take a look at the proper statistics covering the past twenty years, and compare the qualifications required of teachers in all grades of schools two decades ago with those of the present day, there will be found some reason to hope. Again, if one will take the courses of study as outlined for the best grammar schools, high schools, colleges, and universities ten years ago and compare with the courses outlined in the same institutions to-day, he will be impressed still further with what the real increased efiiciency of the teachers actually means for the schools. Of course, the movement is slow, but it comes in the right way, and from the right source — as an evo- lution and from the people. To assert, however, that our im- provement in education is not forwarded as much by increased efficiency in teaching skill as it is by a more expansive knowl- edge is to ignore the plainest of facts.
The realization of the democratic ideal in and thru educa- tion is no doubt in the distant future. But something worth while has been done toward the accomplishment of an ideal when it has been clearly stated, and the American people have gone at least as far as that. The teachers of this country must be prepared to do more than merely ransack the treasure houses of accumulated knowledge. It is part of their work to or- ganize the school so that it may not be inconsistent with our ideals of what the social conditions of mankind should be. It is not wholly the question of how much knowledge, for that could be prescribed; but it is the question of how it shall be used, that perplexes the teachers at present.
Whatever apparent rest there may be in the social state under the operation of the old regime, it must not be taken to repre- sent the repose of the natural balance that exists among parts that have been arranged in obedience to the law of gravitation. But under the enormous weight of military rule it more nearly resembles the quiet tenseness of a bent spring whose " inner resistance " for the moment is overcome.
Wilbur S. Jackman
Chicago Institute, Chicago, III.
vm
REVIEWS
Der hoehere Lehrerstand in Preussen, seine Arbeit und sein Lohn— Von
Dr. Heinrich ScHROEDER. Lipsius u. Tischer : Kiel u. Leipzig, 1899. 94 P- I M. 60 pf. Justitiaregnorum'fundamentum— Von Dr. Heinrich Schroeder. Lipsius u. Tischer: Kiel u. Leipzig. 1899. 80 p. i M.
In Germany all roads to civil or military preferment radiate from the higher schools. It follows that their teachers must be State officials, trained, employed, and remunerated according to a definite governmental program.
For a German official to point out an injustice on the part of the State is necessarily a delicate task. Notwithstanding Dr. Schroeder's attempt, by means of liberal quotations, to throw around his pamphlet the aegis of Scriptural, ministerial, and imperial sanction, he has been obliged to devote a second pam- phlet to refuting the charge of most grossly and unreasonably attacking the government.
The avowed policy of the German government is to regulate official salaries by the time required for preparation, the honor of the office, the opportunities for additional income and for promotion, and the tax upon the incumbent. It is usually ac- knowledged that, as Bismarck phrased it, Germany owes her political, industrial, and commercial greatness to " the work- ing of those invisible germs implanted in the souls of German youth by the higher schools." But the teachers of those schools, intrusted with the perpetuation of the national life, re- ceive entirely incommensurate salaries. Under the government schedule " a provincial school inspector, charged with the con- duct of the higher education of a whole province, receives from $1425 to $1875 annually, a captain of equerry from $1650 to $2175, besides an elegant home and luxurious appoint- ments. Which calling demands the more intelligence, the greater labor, the higher zeal for the interests of the State: training horses or training those young men who are to take
90
Reviews 9 1
the leading places in society and State, who are to perpetuate the German government? "
Dr. Schroeder considers for the most part only the. regular teachers of the secondary schools — the Oberlehrer. To illus- trate the injustice of the present salary schedules, he institutes a comparison between the judges of the lowest courts of the first instance and the Oberlehrer, whom successive ministries since 1845 have promised a remuneration equal to that of the judges, " as soon as the present financial stringency shall per- mit."
Statistics prove that the training of the Oberlehrer consumes more years than that of the jurist. It must include nine years in the gymnasium, three years in the university, one year of examinations, one year in a seminar for professional training, one year of trial teaching, and one year of military service. The average age of the candidates for appointment in the higher schools of Prussia is actually twenty-nine years, two and one-half months. But further preparation is required of some forty per cent, before their diplomas are granted, so that the average candidate is ready for office only in his thirty-first year. On the other hand, the preparation of the average judge of the lowest courts is completed at the age of twenty-eight years and eleven months.
But enrollment on the official list as eligible rarely means an immediate appointment. The candidate must now undergo the trying Wartezeit, prolonged in Prussia in 1897 to the av- erage age of thirty-seven. During these years of waiting he may exist by teaching private pupils, by keeping a pension, or by acting as assistant teacher, with the " Himgerlohn " of $375. Any employment not sanctioned by the authorities costs him his place on the list. Dr. Fredrich Paulsen is quoted as summing up in these words the effects of the long-continued nervous strain of years of hard study, searching examina- tions, and deferred appointment : " These tasks have already crippled both courage and power. The teachers enter upon their official duties, not with the conquering zeal of youthful enthusiasts, but rather with the resignation of the disillu- sioned."
The opportunities for additional earnings are decidedly in
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Educational Review
[June
favor of the jurists, who often, in a private capacity, add to their official salary from one hundred to one thousand dollars. For the teacher to seek outside employment is undignified and demoralizing, and the recompense for such work as is done does not average twelve dollars annually per individual teacher. As to promotion, statistics show only nine per cent, of the teachers and sixteen per cent, of the jurists occupying the highest po- sitions in their class.
Vital statistics prove that the teacher's work taxes the phys- ical powers to an extraordinary degree. The State allows few teachers, and hence demands excessive labor of its employees. The Oberlehrer must teach from twenty- two to twenty- four hours per week, and in an emergency he may be called upon for extra work. This often results in a steady imposition of twenty-five or thirty hours of teaching per week. To this must be added many hours of home work, such as the written tasks and preparation of lessons. The result, as all physicians tes- tify, is broken health and shortened lives. The following table also bears witness to the tax upon the strength of the teacher:
|
In Prussian |
Judges of |
|
|
State Service |
Lowest |
Oberlehrer |
|
FOR |
Courts |
Per Cent. |
|
MORE THAN |
Per Cent. |
|
|
50 years |
0.084 |
|
|
45 " |
0.84 |
.... |
|
40 " |
1.9 |
0.3 |
|
35 *' |
6.2 |
1.4 |
|
30 " |
13.8 |
4.9 |
|
27 " |
17.9 |
9.1 |
|
24 " |
21. 1 |
15.4 |
Again, on January i, 1897, of 2204 Oberlehrer only 26, or 1. 18 per cent., were more than sixty-five years old, while of 3754 judges of the lowest courts 223, or 5.94 per cent., had exceeded this age. The average Oberlehrer leaves his work at the age of fifty-two years, eight months, the average judge at fifty-nine years, six months. The average Oberlehrer dies four years earlier, and the overburdened teacher of mod- ern languages fourteen years earlier than the average judge. Considering his shorter life and his earlier superannuation, the
i9oo] Reviews 93
conclusion is reached that the average Oberlehrer sacrifices at least eight years to that " financial stringency " which demands excessive work. Altho his work must be, from its nature, more exhausting than that of the jurist, his devotion should be rec- ognized by fewer exactions and a larger salary. The sum total received by the average Oberlehrer for his life work is only $15,600. Appointed earlier and retiring later in life, the draw- ing teacher receives $16,200, the preparatory school teacher $16,488, the police-lieutenants $21,900, and the judge of the lowest courts $22,173.
The Oberlehrer begins his work at the age of thirty-seven, with a salary of $675, which is increased every three years by $75, until his tenth year of service, thereafter by $150 every three years, until he obtains the maximum salary of $1275 in his eighteenth year of service. He is also furnished a dwelling, or house rent, and may receive for special scholarship or skill the additional sum of $225. Dr. Schroeder declares the con- ditions upon which this Ftmktionslage is bestowed deny it to the average teacher.
Compared with American high school salaries these are very poor for the large cities, but very good for the rest of the country. The German schedule debars from any secondary school teacher, however distinguished, the high salaries paid in cities like Boston, New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Baltimore, where high school teachers receive not less than $800, and reach their maximum of $2000 or $3000 after from fifteen to thirty years of service. But, on the other hand, the teachers in the small cities of Germany are paid much better than in America. The great mass of incompetent, untrained, and miserably supported teachers of our smaller high schools, receiving from $300 to $600, are supplanted in Germany by the scholarly Oberlehrer, as carefully trained and as full of profes- sional spirit as his fellow-teachers in Berlin. While the aver- age secondary school teacher in America receives less than in Germany, his chances of promotion are much greater. He be- gins his work at twenty or twenty-five years of age, and is often receiving his maximum salary of $2000 or $3000 when the Oberlehrer at the age of thirty-seven has just received an appointment at the minimum salary of $675 and a dwelling.
94 Educational Review
Under such conditions the lot of the American teacher is to be preferred.
Dr. Schroeder closes his presentation of the case with a sig- nificant quotation, warning the State to beware, " lest thru con- tinued denial of promised salaries the teachers of the secondary- schools shall be driven into the arms of the social democracy." The only hope of improvement, however, is an appeal to Csesar. " The government acts upon tradition, and the Emperor alone discerns the vital relations between the present and the fu- ture."
Charles Bartlett Dyke
Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS
Mention of books in this place does not preclude extended critical notice hereafter
President Benjamin Ide Wheeler's scholarly and workman- like study of Alexander the great now appears in the Heroes of Nations Series (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1900. 520
p. $1.50). The increasing attention now being given to
forestry, and its great importance, will justify more extended reference to Bruncken's North American forests and forestry, an interesting and very readable book (New York: G. P. Put- nam's Sons, 1900. 265 p. $2.00). Lanciani's Destruc- tion of ancient Rome is an authoritative study of the history of the monuments (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1899. 208
p. $2.00). Professor J. Deniker has issued a most
useful little book called The races of man: an outline of anthropology and ethnology, which gives a good survey in brief compass of this difficult and complicated subject, with photographic and other illustrations and a well-selected bibli- ography (New York: Imported by Charles Scribner's Sons,
1900. 611 p. $1.50). Each new issue in the Twentieth
Century Text-Books is a delight. The editions of Ma- caulay's Essays on Milton and on Addison, by Inspector George B. Aiton of Minnesota, and the Sir Roger de Coverley papers, by Professor Baker of Teachers Col- lege, Columbia University, are no exceptions to the rule (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1899. 60 cents each).
IX EDITORIAL
The second annual Conference of the Catholic Ca?hoHc CoUeges Colleges of the United States was held in Chicago on Wednesday and Thursday, April 1 8 and 19. Right Rev. Mgr. Conaty, rector of the Catholic University of America, presided. These Conferences owe their origin to a very general desire for unification among Catholic collegiate institutions, and aim to bring together repre- sentatives of the different systems of collegiate instruction, that in this way educational ideals, programs, and methods may be carefully compared and studied, due consideration given to the demands of the times, and, in general, that such improvement may be suggested as shall tend to more effective work and more permanent results.
In the Catholic college scheme different systems are repre- sented by Jesuit, Benedictine, Franciscan, Augustinian, Holy Cross, Lazarist, and other religious orders, as also by diocesan colleges, all differing in methods and plan, but at one in insist- ing that the classics are essential to broad, liberal education, as well as to sound scholarship. This Conference, at the call of the rector of the university, had its first annual meeting in April of last year at Chicago, and resulted in the establishment of a permanent organization, to be governed by a standing committee, the duty of which was to prepare a schedule of topics for the annual Conference, to be presided over by the chairman of the committee. Great interest has been mani- fested, and the increased attendance at the second Conference clearly shows that the work already done has been appreciated. There were fifty-five delegates present representing seventy- two colleges. Among the delegates were three from Canadian institutions.
The session opened Wednesday morning at ten o'clock in St. James' school hall by a short address from Monsignor Conaty,
95
96 Educational Review [June
who explained briefly the aims and purposes of the Conference, and then called for the reading of the papers which had been prepared.
The paper on the first topic, " Uniformity of entrance con- ditions to the Freshman class," was read by Rev. L. A. De- lurey, O. S. A., president of St. Thomas' College, Villanova, Pa. He insisted that uniformity is among the problems that must be solved in the near future, if permanent results are to be ex- pected from the Conferences, as strength and unity must come from concerted action. The goal or end of all college courses must be a liberal education, which will prepare a man to adopt any of the professions with equal ability. It aims to fit one to enter upon a university course. Uniformity will make the col- lege stronger, and will force the preparatory schools to more care in defining the work for its pupils. It will prevent specialization among those who are too young to decide for themselves. The neglect of important branches in preparatory schools is due to the fact that there is no examination in them demanded for entrance into college. The paper suggested that the committee draw up a syllabus for examination which each college president would pledge himself to follow as en- . trance conditions from all candidates for Freshman class. A lengthy discussion followed this paper, and it was felt that the relations of the Catholic colleges to classical education were such as to demand a special study on their part of a plan which would be fitted to their work, and on the suggestion of the chairman a committee was appointed to report to the next Con- ference a plan of entrance conditions. Rev. L. A. Delurey, O. S. A., of Villanova, Rev. James P. Fagan, S. J., of George- town University, Rev. W. L. O'Hara, of Mount St. Mary's College, Emmittsburg, Md., Rev. James Burns, C. S. C, of Notre Dame University, and a Benedictine father were ap- pointed as a committee.
The second paper of the Conference was one which was looked forward to with great interest, because of the recent criticism of Harvard University by representatives of Boston College. It dealt with " The Relative merits of courses for the baccalaureate in Catholic and non-Catholic colleges," and was intended to discuss the issue raised by Harvard as to the
I poo] Editorial 97
inferiority of the courses in Boston College. Rev. Timothy Brosnahan, S. J., of Woodstock College, formerly president of Boston College, read the paper on this topic. It entered very fully into a comparison of the catalogs presented by the colleges in dispute. It stated that a full solution of the question com- prised four heads : ( i ) a comparison between the contents of the two courses; (2) an estimate of the time employed in their completion, and of their respective standards of attainment; (3) the relative value of the lecture system and the tutorial system for the formation of college students; and (4) the scope, or ideal end, to the approximate realizing of which two courses are directed. Father Brosnahan' s paper confined itself to the first head, and even under that head it was obliged to omit the consideration of two studies which, from an educa- tional view point, are of the highest moment, namely, religion and philosophy. Comparisons were made from the catalogs of the two institutions, and parallels showing the kind of work demanded contributed to the understanding of the demands made by these colleges of their degree candidates. On the basis that the minimum required for graduation by a given col- lege is an index to the value of the baccalaureate degree. Father Brosnahan concluded that President Eliot's assertion that the course in Boston College is of an inferior kind is at variance with fact. At the conclusion of Father Brosnahan's paper many questions were asked by different delegates con- cerning points raised in the paper, and much time was given by Father Brosnahan to answer the issues that were raised.
The next paper, on "" The Elective system of study," was presented by Rev. James A. Burns, C. S. C, of Notre Dame University. This paper was a strong plea for the elective sys- tem, and it was acknowledged on -all sides that Father Burns had made as strong a case as it was possible for election in edu- cation. He entered into a history of the growth of the elec- tive system, and the conditions that have caused it. He showed the advantages and the disadvantages, and gave strong arguments in favor of this system. He took as three leading types the Harvard system, Princeton system, and group or course system followed at Notre Dame. He discussed the merits of each, and then proceeded to show that the election of
98 Educational Review [June
studies in the curriculums of colleges is desirable. He opposed the more extreme views on the subject of elective studies, and advocated a moderate use of them. This paper led to one of the most interesting discussions of the Conference. The views of prominent non-Catholic university educators were presented, showing that there is much criticism of undue extension of this elective principle, and also showing that there appears to be, in some quarters, a tendency to return to a modified form of pre- scribed studies. The result of the discussion was the appoint- ment of a committee which presented a resolution, which, while commending a moderate use of election in education, con- demned as hostile to sound education the placing of absolute choice of study in the hands of the student.
At the evening session Right Rev. Monsignor Conaty gave his presidential address, which was '' A Plea for the teacher." He spoke of the teacher's vocation, and the importance of hav- ing not only knowledge, but also ability to impart knowledge. He pleaded for personality and enthusiasm in the teacher as absolute requisites to success, and advocated the scientific train- ing which made the teacher familiar with the science of study in which he was engaged as a teacher. He gave a short his- tory of the work of the great teachers, who, in university and in school, had educated the world, and appealed to all to study the educational theory which finds its expression in the methods of instruction contained in the annals of the teaching orders of the Catholic Church.
The topic " Religious instruction in college," opened the second day's conference. The paper was read by Very Rev. Patrick S. McHale, C. M., president of Niagara University, and advocated the classification and gradation of religious in- struction in college. It was a strong argument for thoro instruction in religion thru the different grades of collegiate work, and met with the warm approval of all the delegates present. Rev. John P. Carroll, D. D., president of St. Jo- seph's College, Dubuque, Iowa, read the paper on '' The Teach- ing of modern languages in college." He held that the modern languages should not occupy so prominent a place as the ancient languages which, by warrant of tradition, experi- ence, and religion, receive the first place in the very idea of a
i9oo] Editorial 99
college. They should occupy that place to which, as liberal studies tributary to our own and vehicles of scientific thought, they are entitled. He emphasized very strongly the impor- tance of French and German from a literary point of view. The Conference referred to the standing committee the prepa- ration of a plan of studies embodying the modern languages as a part of the prescribed course of studies.
The last paper of the Conference was on " The Development of character in college students," and was read by Rev. M. P. Bowling, S. J., president of Creighton University, Omaha, Neb. The discussion emphasized as prominent' factors in character-development discipline, the dormitory system, honor methods, prizes, athletics, and supervision. It emphasized the fact that the American boy is different from any other, and that his good qualities and defects call for special study and special treatment. Father Bowling's paper was a strong ap- peal for the development of manliness and honor in the build- ing up of true character, and asserted that no small element in character building was to be found in athletics, since character is developed on the campus as well as in the classroom.
In the business meeting, which followed the reading of the papers, articles of association were adopted, and the following ofHcers were constituted the standing committee: Right Rev. Mgr. Conaty, chairman, and president of the Conference; Rev. John A. Conway, S. J., secretary and treasurer; Rev. W. L. O'Hara, A. M.; Rev. James A. French, C. S. C; Rev. Vin- cent Huber, O. S. B. ; and Rev. L. A. Belurey, O. S. A. It was voted to hold the next Conference at Chicago, in Easter week, 1901.
Epoch-making ^^^ session of the New York legislature that school legislation came to an end in the first week of April will ew or CI y ^^ memorable in the history of the New York city public schools. A condition of affairs that necessitated leg- islative interference had arisen. This condition was due in part to the clumsy and defective administrative machinery em- bodied in the city charter, in part to legislative enactment dur- ing the preceding year, and in part to the failure of the Tarn-
lOO Educational Review [June
many board of estimate and apportionment to make sufficient appropriations to carry on the work of the schools. The plan of having a central board of education and a school board in each borough, a general city superintendent, and a superintend- ent with a large corps of assistants for each borough, has re- sulted in endless friction among the various boards and offi- cers, in vexatious delays in the performance of school work, and in rendering it impossible to fix responsibility for what- ever may go wrong. The legislation enacted during the pre- ceding year had fixed minimum salaries for the first year, the tenth year, and the fifteenth year of the teachers' service, besides giving increased compensation to principals. The board of es- timate had granted sufficient money to pay the salaries made mandatory by law, but not to increase the salaries of the teach- ers who were not protected by the law^ ; while in the boroughs of Queens and Richmond it was found necessary to discharge many teachers, and to cut down the salaries of all teachers who were not protected by law, in order to pay the mandatory sal- aries. Indeed, the school officers and teachers, janitors, and other employees in Queens and Richmond did not receive their salaries for October, November, and December, 1899, until February, 1900, and then only through an act of the legislature. Many attempts — happily unsuccessful — were made for selfish political purposes to inject extraneous matter into the bill for the relief of Queens and Richmond, but finally this bill was passed in a simple and efficient shape, and at once received the approval of Governor Roosevelt.
At the same time three other measures, more general in their character, intended to deal with the acknowledged defects of the charter, were presented to the legislature. These measures, from the names of the senators who introduced them, were re- spectively designated the Elsberg bill, the Ford bill, and the Marshall bill. The Elsberg bill was intended to centralize power in the hands of an enlarged board of education and of the city superintendent; to abolish the borough boards, except as committees of the board of education ; and to establish a new salary schedule. The Ford bill dealt only with the financial side of the question. It provided that the money raised by tax each year for purely educational purposes should not be less than
I poo] Editorial loi
four mills on the dollar of the assessed valuation of the city's real and personal estate. The Marshall bill was intended to decentralize the entire system. It abolished the central board of education, made the borough school boards supreme, aimed a vicious blow at the present licensing system, and left the schools absolutely at the mercy of the board of estimate and apportionment, which was given authority to give or to with- hold money for any and every educational purpose. Much to the credit of the legislature, the Marshall bill was never heard of again after its iniquities and absurdities were exposed before the senate committee on cities. It was found impossible, how- ever, to secure the passage of the Ford and Elsberg bills in their original form. Hence a compromise bill, containing some of the features of both bills, was prepared by Senator Davis. The Davis law contains the school tax provisions of Senator Ford's bill and the salary schedule features of Senator Elsberg's bills. This measure was bitterly opposed by the school boards of Manhattan and Brooklyn, by borough superintendents Jasper and Ward, whose views invariably coincide with the opinions, expressed or concealed, of the present school boards, and by Mayor Van Wyck and Comptroller Coler. On the other hand, it was warmly advocated by city superintendent Maxwell and by the ii,ooo teachers of the city schools. After a protracted struggle the bill was passed by both houses and passed again over the veto of Mayor Van Wyck. Governor Roosevelt hes- itated to give the measure executive approval, because of certain legal and constitutional objections, and because of the often reiterated statements made by its opponents that the cost of the new schedule would involve an additional expenditure of from five to seven millions a year. Finally, however, after sat- isfying himself that the legal objections are not well founded, and that the cost will not be excessive, he signed the bill.
The Davis law marks the beginning of a new era in the his- tory of the New York city schools. The most important results that may be expected to flow from this legislation are the fol- lowing :
I. It provides funds, ample at present, and increasing auto- matically with the growth of wealth and population, for the educational work of the schools. The four-mill tax will pro-
I02 Educational Review [June
vide about $14,500,000 this year for the salaries of teachers, principals, and superintendents.
2. It removes from the board of estimate and apportionment — a body always political and generally ill-informed on educa- tional questions — the power to thwart educational effort by cutting down necessary supplies.
3. It will enable the educational authorities to lay out plans of work that may require years to accomplish, because they will know with approximate accuracy the income on which they may depend.
4. It removes the matter of school appropriations for purely educational purposes from the field of politics.
5. It gives to all grades of teachers fair salaries, and thus sets a good example to all other large cities.
6. It strikes a death-blow at the Brooklyn local committee system of promoting teachers, as the fixing of salaries is placed in the hands of the board of education, and the salaries are prac- tically the same for all grades.
The bill has some serious defects, incidental to its compro- mise character, which were not overlooked by Governor Roosevelt, but these defects are unimportant when compared with the enormous benefits which this law carries in its train. Efforts will perhaps be made by the present board of edu- cation to make the law odious, by making its administration unnecessarily involved and expensive. In the end, however, we have little doubt, the wisdom of its enactment will be justified by the results.
One good result already apparent is that the teachers of Brooklyn have broken loose from the control of the local com- mittees. Having once found freedom, it is not likely that the teachers will again return to slavery.
Readers of the Educational Review are Exammaticm"^^ aware that the colleges and secondary schools Board for the Mid- of the Middle States and Maryland have taken Maryland hold in earnest of the problem of college
entrance examinations, and have under- taken to form a joint board of examiners for the colleges
I poo] Editorial 103
of this entire territory/ It is now possible to record the fact that all preliminary steps have been taken, and that at a meeting held at Columbia University, on May 12, a con- stitution and plan of organization for such a board was unanimously adopted, together with an elaborate series of defi- nitions of the subjects in which examinations will be held an- nually, beginning in the fourth week of June, 1901. The col- leges participating in the conferences which finally adopted this plan were Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Colgate, Columbia, Cor- nell, New York University, Pennsylvania University, Prince- ton, Rutgers, Swarthmore, Union, Vassar, and Woman's Col- lege of Baltimore. The five representatives of the secondary schools, already chosen by the Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland, were also present.
The plan of organization agreed upon is as follows :
In response to the request of the Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle States and Maryland, made in resolutions unanimously adopted at a meeting of the Association held at Trenton, N. J., on December 2, 1899, the several colleges and universities in the Middle States and Mary- land, participating in this agreement, do agree, as follows :
1. There is hereby established a College Entrance Exami- nation Board, to consist of the president, or an authorized rep- resentative, of each college or university in the Middle States and Maryland which has a freshman, or entering, class of not fewer than fifty students (courses in arts and in sciences to be reckoned together for this purpose), and of five representatives of secondary schools of the Middle States and Maryland, to be chosen annually by the Association of Colleges and Prepara- tory Schools, or in such manner as that Association shall direct.
2. This board shall organize by the election of a chairman, a vice-chairman, a secretary, and a treasurer. The secretary and the treasurer need not be members of the board.
3. The board shall choose annually an executive committee, to consist of five members, including at least one representa-
* Educational Review (January, 1900), 19 : 68-74, 97-98.
I04 Educational Review [June
tive of the secondary schools, which shall have such powers and duties as the board may, from time to time, determine.
4. This board shall have power from time to time to adopt and publish a statement of the ground which should be covered and of the aims which should be sought by secondary school teaching in each of the following subjects (and in such others as may be desirable), and a plan of examination suitable as a test for admission to college :
Botany, chemistry, English, French, German, Greek, his- tory, Latin, mathematics, physics, zoology.
The first examination shall be based upon the statement of subjects and definitions of requirements adopted May 12, 1900, by the conference of representatives of colleges and secondary schools, called to consider the establishment of college entrance examination boards.
5. Not later than December of each academic year, this board shall designate for each subject named in section 4 a college teacher to act as chief examiner, and one additional college teacher and one secondary school teacher to act as associate examiners, and shall fix their compensation. It shall be the duty of the examiners so appointed to prepare examination questions, or other appropriate tests, in the several subjects, to be used at the annual examinations to be held under the direc- tion of the College Entrance Examination Board. When the several question papers, or other tests, have been agreed on by the respective groups of examiners, they shall be submitted for approval or revision to a committee to consist of the chief ex- aminers and the five representatives of the secondary schools upon the College Entrance Examination Board. The action of this committee of revision shall be final.
6. Not later than May of each academic year the board shall appoint a staff of readers to inspect and give a rating to the answer-books, or other tests, offered at the examinations, and shall fix their compensation. Both college and secondary school teachers shall be eligible for such appointments.
7. The examination papers shall be transmitted, as soon as adopted by the committee of revision, to the secretary of the college entrance examination board, and shall be printed and distributed under the secretary's direction, to such examina-
1900] Editorial 105
tion centers and in accordance with such regulations as the college entrance examination board may from time to time determine.
8. The examinations shall be held at such times, in such places, and under such supervision as the college entrance ex- amination board, or its executive committee, may from year to year determine.
9. Immediately on the completion of an examination the answer-books, or other records, shall be forwarded in sealed packages to the secretary of the college entrance examination board, who shall assign them for inspection and rating to such readers as the board or its executive committee may have chosen. The answer-books and other records, together with the rating accorded them, shall be returned by the reader within one week after their receipt, to the secretary of the college en- trance examination board, who shall issue a certificate as to the name, residence, and age of the candidate; the name of the school last attended; or if privately taught, the name of the last teacher; the subjects in which examinations were taken; the rating accorded in each subject; and the place and date of the examination.
10. Answer-books shall be worked on a scale of 100, books marked from 100 to 90 being rated as Excellent, from 90 to 75 as Good, from 75 to 60 as Fair, from 60 to 50 as Poor, and be- low 50 as Very Poor. No answer-book shall be finally marked below 60 until it has been passed upon by two readers. Both marks and rating shall appear on the certificate. No revision of any answer-book will be made after its rating has been deter- mined. All books marked below 60 shall be kept for two years. At any time within that period they will be sent, at the request of the candidate, to any designated college.
11. Before admission to examination in any year each can- didate shall pay a fee of $5 to the person in charge of the exam- ination, and shall receive a receipt therefor. The amount of such fees, together with a correct list of the candidates — their names, addresses, ages, and schools (or teachers) — shall be transmitted, together with the answer-books and other records, to the secretary of the college entrance examination board, who shall pay over the amount received in fees to the treasurer.
1 06 Educational Review [June
12. Salaries, bills, and other claims against the board shall be paid by the treasurer, on the warrant of the chairman of the executive committee.
13. This board shall have power to amend its plan of organi- zation and constitution by a two-thirds vote of those present at any meeting, provided due notice of the proposed change has been given in the call for the meeting.
It is expected that the new board will meet early in the au- tumn for organization and to arrange the details of the exam- inations in June, 1901. The definitions of the requirements which were adopted follow as closely as possible the recom- mendations of the National Educational Association's com- mittee on college entrance requirements, and are in themselves a distinct contribution to the literature of the subject.
In choosing James H. Van Sickle of Denver Notes and News (N. S.), Colo., to be superintendent of
schools of Baltimore, the board of education of that city have placed at the head of the school system one of the very best and most competent members of his profession. Superintendent Van Sickle combines with scholarship, train- ing, and experience, a sanity and robustness both of mind and of character which will give strength and substance to his educational policy. Baltimore is a conservative community, but that it will respond earnestly and enthusiastically to Super- intendent Van Sickle's leadership can hardly be doubted. It is sincerely to be hoped that the technical point raised, that Mr. Van Sickle is ineligible under the Baltimore charter, may be found to be without weight.
The pre-eminence of the Chicago board of education is seri- ously in danger. Its New York rival is now exploiting with manifest satisfaction the Chicago theory that the superin- tendent of schools is the employee and servant of the board. But as Superintendent Maxwell is a statutory officer, holding for a statutory term, and performing statutory functions, the fact that the board of education confuse themselves with the
1 900] Editorial i o 7
city of New York is a matter of amusement rather than of moment. Meanwhile, the Boston school committee has made a determined bid for recognition. By a vote of 11 to 10 — rather a narrow majority, to be sure, on which to base a claim against Chicago — this body has refused appointment to a skilled and successful teacher of wood-working, who had passed the tests prescribed by Superintendent Seaver, because (as the Boston Herald says) '' of a successful intrigue of labor politicians, working upon weak or politically ambitious mem- bers of the school committee, to execute malignant vengeance upon a capable and useful teacher who had incurred their enmity for reasons entirely disconnected with his character and his qualifications as an instructor, or with the advantage of the schools." The sooner the reformers lay the ax to the roots of the Boston school committee, the better.
As the commencement season approaches we are gratified to observe that the moral and enterprising firm of Colchester, Roberts & Co., of Tifiin, Ohio, are prepared, as of yore, to supply the busy students of the country with all kinds of literary productions. We call particular attention to the sob in the voice of their circular which is enwrapped in an envelope with this personal and complimentary legend :
IF NOT DELIVERED TO PERSON ADDRESSED PLEASE HAND TO SOME STUDENT.
To A Member of the Senior Class, High School,
Bloomfield, N. J.
The circular inclosed read as follows :
We are at the present, as in the past, supplying the busy students of the country with all kinds of Literary Productions. We still continue to furnish the highest quality of Literary Work at the very lowest rate. We are no strangers to the educational institutions of the country, and our work is becoming more and more a necessity to the student as he becomes a specialist in education, and to the man who, as the victim of circumstances, is forced to perform literary labors, for which he has neither the time nor the adaptability. Our increasing business will testify to the truth of this statement, as well as to the merits of our work. In the last twenty-one years, during which time we have been conducting this business, it has
1 08 Educational Review
increased from a merely local institution to the limits of the English-speak- ing world.
Of you, who have not patronized us before, we ask nothing but a trial. We do not ask you to speculate upon the question of our honesty : We require no money in advance. Our prices are as follows :
High School Orations and Essays, $3.00 to $8.00. College Essays, Orations, and Debates, $3.00 to $15.00, Political Speeches, $10.00 to $30.00. ►
Lectures, $10.00 and upward. Sermons from 50 cents to $25.00. Our work, with the exception of the low-priced sermons, we guarantee original.
We are, yours confidentially,
COLCHESTER, ROBERTS & CO.,
Tiffin, Ohio.
We are not familiar with the penal code of Ohio, but can it not reach this form of enterprise?
It is a distinct loss to the State of West Virginia that Presi- dent Raymond of the State university has thought it necessary to resign his office and to insist upon the acceptance of his resig- nation. Until his election to the presidency the University of West Virginia had never been heard of by the country at large, but it now takes rank as a more than respectable college. While accpmplishing this President Raymond has naturally and in- evitably run counter to the desires of the political place-hunt- ers and the incompetent who view a State university as a source of livelihood for themselves; and the board of trustees have lacked the courage to support the president in his pro- gressive policy. As a result, he has tendered his resignation. Unless there is a prompt '' right-about-face," the University of West Virginia will pass from the class of educational to that of eleemosynary institutions.
Tulane University has shown the highest wisdom in electing President Alderman of the University of North Carolina as its executive head in succession to the lamented Colonel William Preston Johnson. Dr. Alderman has every qualification to make Tulane the inspiration of higher education in the South and -the instrumentality for the uplifting of the profession of teaching thruout that part of the country.
EDUCATIONAL REVIEW
SEPTEMBER, igoo
A SYNTHESIS OF HERBART AND FROEBEL^
The English teacher is traditionally a practical person. Nor can he justly be blamed on that account, if only his posi- tive admiration of practice does not take the negative form of despising theory. But it is to be feared that this is too often the case. If, by any chance, the idea occurs to him that teach- ing is an art, and, like all other arts, requires skill, and that those who are already skillful may in this, as in other arts, help by their instruction those who are not ; if, in a word, he desires training for his profession, he is too apt to seek that kind of " training " which consists in the imparting of a miscellaneous assortment of the obiter dicta of experience, such as we are accustomed to find in English books on teaching. Often, in- deed, these results of experience appear to be contradictory the one to the other, and by no mental effort can the student see in them expressions of any one principle of method. Nor does this seem an objection to the ordinary " practical " English teacher. He is too apt to look exclusively at the objective re- sults of his teaching, and to forget to consider the influence that teaching may have on the souls of his pupils. Nay, more, he has all too frequently neglected to give any consideration to that most fundamental of all educational questions — the nature of the soul to be educated. Hence, he does not see that opposed systems of teaching are the outcome of antagonistic views of the nature of the soul, and so he neglects to consider whether
' From the ^ondon Journal of Education^ March, 1900.
109 i
no Educational Review [September
either is absolute truth or absolute falsity, or whether each is a partial truth which is only false because it claims to be the whole truth. This last I believe to be nearly always the case; for all opposed principles in education, however contradictory they may be when taken by themselves, are, I believe, contrary to each other only because each is due to an over-emphasis of one side of a complete process. And surely it should be the task of all of us who are really interested in education to try thus to think ourselves back to the very basis of our work. We should neither adopt the attitude of the '' practical " empiri- cist, and say, '' Oh, yes ! those German dreamers ! never mind their theories — keep to what they tell us to do " ; nor should we become uncritical partisans, glorying in our party cries, and refusing to see any good in those whom we regard as our oppo- nents. The former attitude is very common in respect to the subject we propose to consider. Froebel invented the kinder- garten, and gave somewhat minute directions for working a kindergarten. Here your '' practical " teacher finds joy. The kindergarten exercises and games look pretty, and they seem to please the children, and — still more important — to please their mothers. " Let us, then," says the practical teacher, " have kindergarten exercises and games for children under six." On the other hand, Herbart wrote mainly on the edu- cation of children who had passed this first period. He, too, gave directions as to procedure; and, tho the ''practical" teacher probably could not make much out of those directions by reading Herbart himself, yet Herbart's followers have set out the steps of method explicitly enough. And so the " prac- tical " teacher — quite pluming himself on the unaccustomed feeling that his work is scientific — thrusts every lesson into the cast-iron mold of the " method steps," and becomes as deadly mechanical as is the kindergartner who is acquainted with only the " practical part " of the kindergarten, and knows nothing of its aims and spirit. The last state of those teachers is worse than the first; yet that is the inevitable result of mere empirical — falsely called " practical " — training. Surely training which is truly practical must lead those who are trained so to assimilate principles that they remain no longer rules to be
ipoo] A synthesis of Her bar t and Froebel 1 1 1
obeyed, but founts of inspiration to be drawn upon in all kinds of varying circumstances. Teachers who have got thus far are no longer under the law, but under grace. But here the danger of adopting the second position — that of mere partisan- ship— comes in. To say, '' I am a Froebelian," or " I am a Herbartian," gives one that feeling of corporate sympathy which is so great an aid to effort. Moreover, it brings to the front that love of conflict which is fairly strong in most of us. We feel we know where we are, and we are prepared to defend our position against all comers; and we find adversaries in plenty, for all who are not with us are against us. In Eng- land, moreover, there may attend such a confession of faith a feeling — subconscious, it may be — of superiority: we are no longer as those Philistines to whom Froebel and Herbart are mere names. Of course, in reaching our own positions — as Froebelians or Herbartians — we have seen clearly how mis- taken the mere empiricists are in thinking that a teacher can follow both Froebel and Herbart. True, in the actual school work of their followers there are points of external resem- blance; but we have reached the principles underlying those school methods, and we have found them antagonistic to each other.
Here, then, the question is forced upon us, and I will put it as strongly and baldly as I can. We must ask ourselves: '' Is either Froebel or Herbart entirely wrong, or is each wrong mainly in so far as he neglects the position of the other ? " In the former case, no synthesis is possible; we may become thoro- going Froebelians or thoro-going Herbartians, but either way we can have no dealings with the other theory. But in the latter case, it is obviously our duty to attempt such a synthesis, for without it we shall never find that really true philosophy of education of which, when found, both Froe- belianism and Herbartianism will appear as but partial, and therefore imperfect, expressions.
Let us, then, put before ourselves, as briefly as possible, the essential principles of Herbart and Froebel respectively. Each, in a sense, grew out of Pestalozzi. But Pestalozzi felt rather than thought — as he himself tells us. Both Herbart and Free-
112 Educational Review [September
bel, on the other hand, tried to work out their systems logically and constructively. Each saw that the true interest of educa- tion is in its effect on the child; each made morality the aim of the whole process; each recognized the parallelism between the development of the child and that of the race; each insisted on the necessity of unity and connection in the educational process. iThese axiomata media, as we may call them, account for the external similarity to be found in Froebelian and Herbartian practice. But we must go deeper, and ask : " What is the child who is thus the center of education ? " To this Herbart and Froebel gave very different answers; and, as a consequence of those answers, reached very different conceptions of education. Put in a word, to Herbart the child is passive, to Froebel he is active; hence, to Herbart education is essentially active, to Froebel it is passive. Let me establish this more fully.
Herbart's pedagogy [theory of education] is essentially the outcome Ckf the union of his psychology and his ethics — for education is the development of the moral character, and there- fore seeks its end in ethics and its means in psychology — and his psychology is based on his metaphysics. Now, Herbart's metaphysical position is that of atomistic realism. All phe- nomena, he argues, are appearances; and all appearance im- plies a being of which it is the appearance. Metaphysics must investigate the nature of this being. Now, all being must have some positive quality; tho as mere being this quality must exclude all negation. But all change and becoming imply ne- gation, both of that which has been and now is not, and of that which is to be but is not yet: in becoming or change, there- fore, the positive present — the is — negates the past — the was hut is not — and the future — the will he hut is not. Hence, every real being is absolutely simple and unchangeable, tho with a quality of its own. The universe, therefore, is com- posed of an immense multitude of such real beings, absolutely simple and unchangeable but of different quality, which are neither temporal nor spatial in their nature — for both time and space involve negation. The best known to us among them are our own souls. The soul is, therefore, with Herbart, a simple, unchangeable being, and consequently indestructible —
ipoo] A synthesis of Herbart and Froebel 113
for destruction implies change. Nor can such a simple soul be the substratum of various faculties, for each of these must ne- gate the other. What its quality is we cannot know, nor can we know the quality of any other being. All we can know of the soul — /. e., all mental appearances — are but the results of the meeting of this absolutely simple being with other abso- lutely simple beings of different quality. The result of such a meeting is an attempt of each at self-preservation against dis- turbance. This effort at self-preservation is the only activity Herbart allows to the soul. Such an effort is known to us as a presentation or idea, the simplest form of which is a sensa- tion, and more complex forms are precepts, images, and con- cepts. These are not effects of outer things, but are produced by the soul, whenever it meets with other disturbing beings. In other words, the quality or nature of the soul is only indi- cated to us by the various acts of self-defense necessitated by its contact with equally real beings : its method in such defen- sive activity is the turning the assailant into an idea or presen- tation. Hence the essential nature of the soul, as far as we can know it, is to form ideas in its struggle to maintain its exist- ence. In response to whatever it meets, the soul, active in its own self-preservation, gives rise to an idea; and thus, tho the soul is one, its ideas are many.
It will be seen, therefore, that with Herbart, tho the soul has a quality of its own, this quality is only manifested in re- lation to what it meets, and that, therefore, character is entirely conditioned by external circumstances. Whatever assails the soul is annexed in the form of an idea, and thus enriches the content of what we call the mind, or ego. Differences of indi- viduality are, therefore, due to differences in the character and number of the other real beings with which the soul is brought into conflict — i. e., to differences in the number and character of its ideas, and in their relations to each other. For each idea is not only a special expression of the souFs self -preserving activity, but, as all a person's ideas are such expressions of the same soul, these ideas are brought into mutual relations, and act as forces which aid or hinder each other. It is the mutual action and reaction of these forces which empirical psychology
114 Educational Review [September
has to study. The fundamental hypothesis for such an investi- gation is that every arrested presentation remains in the soul, with a tendency to reproduction. This follows from the assumption that the quality of a presentation must remain un- changed. Hence Herbart conceived the possibility of apply- ing the conceptions of the physics of perfectly elastic bodies to the interaction of ideas. An idea was for him a kind of per- fectly elastic billiard ball, always struggling to get into con- sciousness, but, whether successful or no, remaining absolutely unchanged and unchangeable. This mathematical conception of psychology has been found inapplicable, for, upon more acute analysis, ideas are seen to be marked by anything rather than invariableness. But, in working out the conception, Her- bart gave us an analysis of the interaction of ideas — the doc- trine of apperception which, stripped of its mathematical guise and the underlying metaphysical assumptions, is, as a descrip- tion of one aspect of mental life, of the utmost value both for psychology as a science and for its application to educational practice. But with that we are not concerned to-day. The point for us is that for Herbart mental life is merely the product of ideas, acting as forces, aiding or hindering each other. With the free play of these forces the ego cannot interfere; it is itself but the product of that play. The unity of mental life — of the ego or mind — is not found in the synthetic activity of consciousness, but in the metaphysical conception of the essen- tial unity of the soul. And the soul is neither consciousness nor mind, but a something in itself unknown, on which these are built up. This conception of a monad soul Herbart bor- rowed from Leibniz ; but he changed it by depriving the monad of the self-activity with which Leibniz credited it, and by allowing, in direct opposition to Leibniz, a mechanical interac- tion between that and other monads. Herbart, indeed, started from Leibniz, but moved off in a sensationist direction; with Leibniz the mind's growth is from within; with Herbart it is from without. By influences from without Herbart sought to explain everything — feelings, desire, and will, as well as cogni- tion. Feeling results only from the free or hindered play of the idea-forces; desire emerges from their support of each
ipooj A synthesis of Her bar t and Froebel 115
other; and will is generated out of desire by action, and con- sists of desire together with belief in the attainability of the object desired. Here, it would seem plain, Herbart puts on his theory more than it can really bear.
In all this metaphysical conception of the real, and the psy- chology derived from it, wx find no ethics. Herbart, indeed, regarded ethics as quite separate from metaphysics, and speaks of the " absurdity " of Kant in treating of a " metaphysic of morals." Ethics is with Herbart a branch of aesthetics, and, as such, has nothing to do with the reality of the relations con- ceived, which are all such real or imaginary relations as are accompanied by approval or disapproval. Ethics has for its subject-matter those relations of the will which please, as being morally beautiful : to ask why they please is as absurd as to ask why in music the third or the fifth is an agreeable interval. Hence, Herbart's ethics start in empirical facts — relations of the will simply accepted as given — tho the moral end is to find a fuller and more perfect realization of these relations than is actually found in experience. These relations are univer- sally valid, as are the analogous relations in music; they are, therefore, not matters of individual caprice. It would be easy to show how insufficient this is as an ethical theory, for such individual relations of the will are mere empty force, and within one and the same relation we may have a content which is either good or bad. And this Herbart himself finds; for he continually adds to his formal relations such really ethical con- ceptions as good, praiseworthy, tho he does not analyze them. But into this we need not enter. All I want to make plain is that Herbart's ethics are not organically connected with the rest of his philosophy. Indeed, in an important point they are antagonistic to it; for his metaphysical theory is individual- istic and atomistic, but his ethical position assumes a collective social will to which the individual will is subordinate. Her- bart's analysis of the moral ideas is, therefore, interesting in itself, but can be quite separated from his theory of the world. In the world as he paints it morality seems to have no place. As Wundt well says : '* Man, as constructed by Herbart, is a coolly calculating, ideational automaton. When his ideas are
1 1 6 Educational Review [September
in equilibrium, he gives his approval; when they are not, he refuses it. No one not previously aware of the fact would ever guess that upon these relations of idea and will depend all the weal and woe of mankind." ^
It follows that in education, tho the end is morality, yet the process is made by Herbart essentially one of instruction. ** I have no conception of education without instruction," he says. And instruction has to play the all-important part of determining what other real beings shall enter into conflict with the individual soul, and, as a consequence, what ideas that soul will produce in its efforts at self-preservation. Educa- tion, then, is essentially active — "' a vast whole of ceaseless labor " he himself calls it. For with him the soul does not contain in germ all that will appear in mental life, nor is it mov- ing toward an end predetermined by its own nature. Were that the case, education could only retard or accelerate this natural and necessary process, and the analogy of the child with a plant would be a true one. The function of education would then be largely passive. Education with Herbart has a much wider task — that of building up the mind out of presentations; or, in his own words, of '* forming the circle of thought," which is the seat of the good will, and therefore the foundation of morality.
This conception of education as a mainly passive watching of the gradual unfolding of the soul germ, which Herbart re- jected, is the very keynote of Froebel's pedagogy [theory of education]. Like Herbart, Froebel deduced his pedagogy from his philosophy; tho his apprehension of his philosophy was by no means so profound and clear as was Herbart's. Froebel, indeed, must be regarded rather as a philosophic dreamer than as a philosophic thinker. And his philosophic dreams — yague and nebulous as they were — had their origin in the idealism of Schelling and of Fichte. With Herbart all metaphysical knowledge of God was unattainable: his world, indeed, had no place for a God, regarded as the ground of all reality. But this is exactly the starting point of Froebel. The Education of man begins with the words :
' Ethics, 2 : 137.
1900] A synthesis of Her bar t and Froebe I 117
" In everything dwells and rules an eternal law. This law expresses itself, distinctly and clearly, alike in what is external to man — nature; in what is internal to man — the soul; and in what unites these two — life. ... As foundation of this all-ruling law, exists of necessity a conscious, almighty, and eternal Being. . . . This Being is God. Everything came forth from God, and by God alone is governed; so that the sole foundation of all things is God. In everything God rules and lives. Everything rests and subsists in God. Things ex- ist only because God acts in them. The Divine that acts in each thing is the essence of that thing."
From this somewhat crude pantheism Froebel deduces his educational theory. " The destination of all things is by un- folding to set forth their essence, which is the Divine that lives in them. . . . The Divine in man, which is his essence, is to be unfolded and brought to his consciousness by means of education." We could not have a more explicit statement of that very germ-theory of the soul which Herbart was bound to reject as the very antithesis of his own doctrine. It natur- ally follows that Froebel should nearly immediately go on to say : " Therefore education and instruction should from the very first be passive, observant, protective; rather than pre- scribing, determining, interfering"; for education is nothing but helping the Divine to come forth. He proceeds : " All training and instruction which prescribes and fixes, i. c, inter- feres with nature, must tend to limit and injure, if we consider the action of the Divine, and take man as in his primal beauty and original health." And, tho it is true that " Nature rarely shows us that unmarred original state, especially in man," yet " it is for this reason only the more necessary to assume its existence in every human being, until the opposite has been clearly shown; otherwise that unmarred original state, where it might exist contrary to our expectation, might be easily impaired." For, tho Froebel tells us to study chil- dren, he seems to think that, after all, our study is at least as likely to lead us wrong as right; for we can only observe out- ward expressions, and, if we infer from them directly to the child's inner life, we shall make ** innumerable false judgments
1 1 8 Educational Review [September
concerning the motives of the young." He, therefore, gives us the paradoxal rule to draw our inferences inversely — a rule vs^hich would certainly lead us wrong at least as frequently as would that of direct inference. It is true that '' the child that seems good outwardly often is not good inwardly " — ^but surely all children are not hypocrites; surely a rule of '' inverse inference " is as violent a paradox as one could hope to meet with. However, Froebel wants the paradox in order to minim- ize the amount of active interference in education ; for the evil to be avoided above all others is for him '' unnecessary interfer- ence and coercion." The essence of all education is self-ac- tivity. So far does Froebel carry this that he insists that ** all prescription should [not only] be adapted to the pupil's nature and needs [but, in addition, should] secure his co-operation." And this he optimistically says will be attained so long as " the one who makes the demand is himself strictly and un- avoidably subject to an eternally ruling law . . . and . . . therefore, all despotism is banished." But this securing the co-operation of the child in all commands involves the further position that '' the purely categorical, mandatory, and prescrip- tive education of man is not in place before the advent of in- telligent self-consciousness, . . . for then only can truth be deduced and known from insight into the essential being of the whole, and into the nature of the individual." Clearly what Herbart calls government has no true place in Froebers system of early education, in which alone it plays a part ac- cording to Herbart. So subjective and individualistic is Froebel's educational theory that no external manifestation of morality can be taken as a model of life. " It is the greatest mistake to suppose that spiritual, human perfection can serve as a model in its form. This accounts for the common ex- perience that the taking of such external manifestations of perfection as examples, instead of elevating mankind, checks, nay, represses, its development." In a word, the growth of the mind is, with Froebel, a development from within, and the function of the educator is to be a benevolent onlooker.
This, then, is the main antithesis between the educational theories of Herbart and Froebel:
I poo] A synthesis of Her bar t and Froebel 119
With Herbart the mind is formed and built up from with- out : hence instruction is the chief educational instrument.
With Froebel the mind develops from within: hence self- activity is the chief educational instrument.
Are they in deadly opposition, or can they be reconciled in a higher unity which embraces both? Certainly, the meta- physical basis of the one or the other must be rejected. The real world cannot be at once a multitude of separate and self- existing atoms and an expression of one rational and spiritual Being. Or, to put it technically, both atomistic realism and idealism cannot be true as ultimate explanations of the universe. But perhaps we may find it possible, with a clearer conception of the latter of these metaphysical grounds, to erect a system which will find a place both for Herbart's formation from without and for Froebel's development from within. For, in one point, at once we find them in agreement — that we do not see man's true nature already realized in him at birth: Froebel's germ-soul is as empty of real content as is Herbart's monad soul. Now arises the question : How do we get from this empty soul to the fully developed ego of adult life? And here is it not true that we feel Herbart's explanation to be unsatisfying and incomplete? Is not, indeed, the most ultimate fact of consciousness of which we can have direct knowledge that very self-activity with which Herbart dispenses ? Of this activity — sense of effort, will, call it what you like — we are aware in quite a different way from that in which we are aware of presentations; it is not one presentation among many, but in the form of attention is an essential condition of every presentation. While we grant, then, that the soul in its orig- inal state is only a kind of psychical protoplasm, without per- ceptible organization, yet we hold it is capable of all. But this soul can only be actualized thru an individual body. And the self of which we are conscious is at once soul and body, and this is the individual whom education has to develop. And it develops mentally thru attention. But in attention we have an act which may be looked at from two sides : it is at once the going out of self-activity toward an object, and the taking that object into relation with the self. For that which is at-
1 20 Educational Review [September
tended to is brought into relation with the self, so far as that self is yet organized, is assimilated, is retained, and thus is absorbed into the very body of the self. Thus consciousness is not a passive result of interacting forces, but is itself the very activity which gathers and selects the elements with which it constructs its idea of reality. In a word, apperception is not a mere result of the struggle of ideas, over the result of which the mind, or ego, has no control; it is an activity of the ego itself. But still the ideas are there, they do acquire various de- grees of strength from their union with this or that aspect of the imperfectly organized self — especially with that large, sub- conscious self, the result of innumerable unnoticed reactions of the mind to stimuli from without. Thus, Herbart's descrip- tion is true of one aspect of the full process, as Froebel's is of the other. Both are one-sided and imperfect, and the imper- fection of both is largely due to a too-individualistic concep- tion of man. In Froebel we have subjective individualism; the one thing is to secure personal freedom, and promote in- dividuality. In Herbart, on the other hand, we have what we may call an objective individualism : the formation of the in- dividual from without, but still the formation of a mere in- dividual. In the fuller conception of personality we find the " reconciling mean " — as we may say in Froebelian language — of these two views, which, on their own plane, are contradictory. For a person is not merely an individual, but equally a member of a social organism. And into the life of this organism he is born as surely as he is born to his own individual life. In- deed, he is an individual only in so far as he is a member of the social organism. But, if this is the case, then his true in- dividuality is expressed, and his true nature realized, so far, and so far only, as he shares the common organic life. In other words, true freedom is found only when the subjective is reconciled with the objective. Hence these do not hold a negative position towards each other, but each finds its place in a true conception of complete human life. But this means that human freedom is conscious, and, as conscious, rational. For it is only when man's individuality is harmonized with objective law — whether in the physical or in the social world —
1900 J A synthesis of Herbart and Froebel 121
that he finds real freedom. Man, therefore, grows into freedom, but in no true sense can he said to begin as free. Freedom is rational — or, in other words, reason is self-realizing activity. But this self-realization of the rational will is not and cannot be individualistic : it involves the identification of the individ- ual with the objective world by finding rationality in it — i. e., by finding himself at home in it. And this gives us the function of education: to lead the child to find his true place and his true work in the universe. But before he can feel at home in the universe, he must exert effort to understand it; and so long as he does not understand it he is, as it were, a stranger in it. Education, then, begins with leading the child to turn toward and to study that which is strange and unfamiliar. And this is work, not play. For here we have exertion for a definite end. And the end is determined by the educator. For, while the educator can see what the child should aim at being, the child himself cannot — he is much too immature. The educator must assist in producing that which the child would wish to develop for himself had he a clear idea of his own nature, but which he will never reach if left to himself. " Edu- cation is not mere development — it is training; and training implies an end clearly conceived by the trainer, and means carefully organized to attain that end.'' ^ The " freedom " of the little child is mere caprice ; and the development of caprice will never lead him into true freedom. It is just because freedom is the end sought, that it is not — cannot be — the starting point; for the attainment of freedom implies the at- tainment of perfect manhood. Mere spontaneous activity, therefore, on the part of the child is not enough: there is a place for it, but guided activity is at least equally necessary. And such guided activity implies authority on the side of the educator and obedience on that of the pupil. Nor must the pupil yield obedience only when his caprice of the moment agrees with the command; for his true freedom will never be attained if he acts in opposition either to natural law or to the moral law of the community of which he is born a mem- ber. To him the educator personifies the authority of this
^ Welton, Logical bases of education, p. 251.
122 Educational Review
moral community, and to the general will expressed by him the child's individual caprice must give way. True, this obe- dience should be willing in order to be truly moral, and should spring from full confidence in the educator. But morality is an affair of conduct, as well as of motive, and the outer act influences the motives; and so outward conformity to law must be obtained, even tho the spirit at the time may struggle. We conclude, then, that both Froebel and Herbart have much to teach us, but that each sets forth an incomplete theory of education. A true education must combine both their theories : it must train children both in spontaneity and in obedience. Omit the latter, and we produce a mere monster of caprice and do not reach true freedom; omit the former, and we annihilate initiative and freedom. True education must combine work and play, rationality and individuality. From Froebel we learn to respect the child's activity; from Herbart we learn that we must not let it run wild; from Herbart we learn the importance of instruction — ^the importance, that is, of mental food; from Froebel we learn the lesson that all knowledge must be acquired and turned to use by the child's own efforts. In brief, Herbart tells us most about the work of the educator; Froebel most about that of the child in the whole educative process. Each exaggerates the function of the one with whom he is dealing, and each is led to do so by his philosophical po- sition. But it is not in exaggeration on one side or the other that the true educational doctrine is found, but in the perfect and harmonious co-operation of each factor. It is in such a synthesis of the doctrines of Froebel and Herbart, I am con- vinced, that true educational theory lies. The child must be brought into harmony with his surroundings; but, at the same time, we must make the most and the best of him as an indi- vidual. These are not contradictory aims when human life is rightly conceived.
James Welton
Yorkshire College,
Leeds, England
n
MUNSTERBERG ON THE NEW EDUCATION
Some answer, it seems to me, is called for, from those who believe in certain of the newer ideas in education, to an article by Professor Miinsterberg in the May number of the Atlantic Monthly. Professor Miinsterberg, it will be remembered, gives a most charming account of the early teaching which he him- self received in Prussia and of the education which he obtained for himself outside of the schoolroom. The results of his school teaching were that altho he had plenty of leisure time for botanizing, for studies in archaeology and theology, for playing the violin, writing novels and acquiring Arabic, yet he attained at the age of fifteen, altho himself by no means a model scholar, the same degree of learning which boys in this country reach three years later.
Professor Miinsterberg's explanation of the greater forward- ness of himself and his companions as compared with American boys is, first, that his teachers were well-drilled, enthusiastic students of the subjects which they taught; second, that the school was ably seconded by the home, the parents of all the scholars taking a profound interest in their children's school standing, so that any success in studies was received as a family triumph and any failure cast a gloom over the home circle.
Professor Miinsterberg's idea as to how we in America may attain to the first of these advantages (the obtaining of well- drilled and enthusiastic teachers) is that we should cease to run after the false gods which he thinks are distracting our attention from this important subject. These false gods he finds in the kindergarten idea and in the tendency to specializa- tion as exemplified in some of our universities. The kinder- garten idea, he finds, is the embodiment of the " spirit of self- ish enjoyment," and the university specialization he considers to be an outcome of the *' mercenary spirit of our time," and
123
124 Educational Review [September
these two embodiments of " mercenary utilitarianism" and *' selfish materialism," he finds everywhere fighting against the spirit of idealism. Besides the great evil of diverting our attention from what is really needed, he thinks these false gods have led us into positive evils, of which the elective system creeping up into our schools from the kindergarten and down from the college is the chief.
His main practical conclusions are, first, that we ought to have no elective system until after students have reached the point now attained at graduation from our colleges; second, that we should have teachers learned in the subjects wh^sli they teach; third, that our teachers ought to know nothing of educational psychology; and fourth, that we need good homes.
That there is a foundation of truth for Professor Miinster- berg's criticisms no one, I think, can deny. That our teach- ers are not sufficiently prepared for their work is a criticism not entirely new, but nevertheless one which cannot be too often repeated until repetition becomes unnecessary. The elective system, too, as practiced in our schools and colleges, is as yet crude and imperfect, and many just criticisms might be brought against it.
But the source of our errors and shortcomings, which are many, is not to be found in the advent of the new ideas as found in the kindergarten and in the university; first, because these ideas have had as yet very little effect on our public schools — the only application of the kindergarten idea yet to be found being in the Swedish sloyd; secondly, because these ideas are not wrong, but right. The many faults to be found in our schools are due partly to the fact that the new ideas, so far as they have been adopted, are as yet very new and are imper- fectly worked out, but chiefly to the survival of ideas inherited from a time and a condition long past, having no true or vital connection with our American life of to-day, and giving rise to the failure of sympathy, which Professor Miinsterberg has pointed out, between the American school and the American home.
Even in the matter of securing interesting teachers, upon the obvious need of which he speaks so well, I do not think
1900] Munsterberg on the new education 125
the method Professor Munsterberg suggests is an infallible or even a very promising one for us to pursue. If I may- be permitted a brief autobiographical statement in answer to Professor Miinsterberg's, I, too, could have entered Harvard College at the age of fifteen, and I owe this early precocity in book-learning, not as Professor Miinsterberg did, to highly trained specialists, but to an old woman who had never been to college, but who knew how to teach arithmetic, and to a young man who, like Shakspere, knew little Latin and less Greek, and who had picked up a smattering of French during a walking tour — whose acquirements, therefore, cannot have exceeded those of the average German boy of fourteen — ^but who possessed the gift of imparting something more than he knew of these languages to an extent which I have never seen approached by the more profound scholars under whom I have studied since that time.
How far an enthusiasm for the subject to be taught will tend to produce an interesting teacher will, as a matter of fact, en- tirely depend on how nearly the feeling of the teacher toward the subject is of the sort that can be communicated to his pupil; and this, in turn, will depend on the age of the pupil as well as upon the teacher and the subject taught. A knowl- edge of the higher mathematics, however profound, can hardly of itself make the imparting of the knowledge that twice two makes four a thrilling pursuit, nor can it have, that I can see, any tendency in that direction.
Neither am I entirely convinced of the soundness of Pro- fessor Miinsterberg's contention that a teacher had better know nothing of educational theory or psychology. People have not been teaching school all these centuries without learning some- thing about the subject. Successful teachers, from the early Jesuits down to Colonel Parker, have been those who have paid the greatest attention to method, and it is too late in the day to claim that each teacher should start out equipped only with a knowledge of some science or language, and for the rest, as ignorant of his business as if he were the first that had ever engaged in it. In support of his position Professor Munster- berg relies upon the familiar truth that science is one thing and
126 Educational Review [September
art is another, and one sympathizes with his opinion that a lyric poet is not particularly improved by a knowledge of the prin- ciples upon which lyric poetry is written; but the analogy be- tween writing lyric poetry and school-teaching is not, after all, a close one. He tells us that he has tried to show, '' above all, how the analytic tendency of the psychological and pedagogical attitude is diametrically opposite to that practical attitude, full of tact and sympathy, which we must demand of the real teacher; and that the training in the one attitude inhibits free- dom in the other." The same diametrical opposition occurs in every profession in which there is both a science and an art, or in which, to speak more accurately, the art of practicing it is founded upon a science. Nevertheless, we do not find that scientific training in medicine, in law, in engineering, or in other professions in which this is true, does, as a matter of fact, inhibit freedom in practice. The two attitudes are not the same, but they can both be assumed by the same person at dif- ferent times unless that person has, by some very narrow process of training (as for instance by too long a residence at a university), becomes so stiff in the joints that he is confined to one attitude for life. A nearer parallel to school-teaching than lyric poetry is the profession of medicine. It is doubt- less true that the first doctor who, discontented with rule of thumb, sought to know something in a scientific way of the human body and mind and of the causes of their health and sickness, lost at first a little of his instinctive tact in the actual handling of disease, just as the beginner at golf inevitably takes the bloom off of his first brilliant style of play when he begins to study the mysteries of the various orthodox strokes. Nevertheless, the medical profession has not, upon the whole, lost ground by knowing something, not only of the drugs which it administers, but of the human being for whom it prescribes. The fact is that when Professor Miinsterberg says that the first requisite of a teacher is a knowledge of his subject, but that the teacher should not make a study of children, he really makes a play on the word " subject," and states a paradox which he will find it impossible to maintain. The subject of an arithmetic teacher is not arithmetic, but teaching arithmetic.
1900] Milnsterberg on the new education 127
'' Psychology " may or may not be the right name for what the teacher ought to know, but, whatever its name, his mental equipment must include a knowledge of how his pupils' minds work and of how they can be reached. The great doctor is not the man with an enthusiasm for bismuth or bromide, but the man with a knowledge of the human organism and of the way in which drugs may be made to administer to the health of body and mind.
The more important of the two causes which Professor Miinsterberg assigns for the success, in their own line, of the Prussian schools I believe to be, not the knowledge on the part of the teachers of the subject taught, but the co-operation be- tween the school and the home. And most important of all, I think, is the central and original cause of both the other causes, namely, the German character and view of life and the close- ness with which the German school is adapted to that view. The German idea of the aim of life is knowledge. The pro- fessor is to the German what the great business man is to us, the type, namely, of the successful man. From this national devotion to knowledge arise both the high accomplishment in the way of learning on the part of the teachers, the reverence with which such accomplishment is regarded in the German home, and the readiness of the German boy to be impressed with the importance of striving for similar attainment. To the German boy it doubtless seems a natural sequence of cause and effect that his failure in spelling or in Latin grammar, should, as Professor Miinsterberg describes, cast a gloom over the home circle; he takes to learning as the young duckling takes to water, or as the American boy takes to baseball; i'n providing him with the means of learning and with learned instructors the German school is providing him with the means of development which his nature calls for.
But it does not follow that because the German schools have been so successful in taking a real place in German life that American schools could be equally successful by adopting the same means, or that, as Professor Miinsterberg suggests, the American home can be made into *' a good home " by an at- tempt to bring it into the German attitude of adoration to-
128 Educational Review [September
ward the German school system or any system nearly resem- bling it. America is not Germany; we are not Germans, and if we try to imitate the German methods in the hope of produc- ing German results we shall inevitably be disappointed. To us knowledge is not the great end and aim of life, and if we may judge from the history of our race it never will be. It is use- less for us to try to live up to the German standard in this direction, because it is not our standard, and we have not got it in us to attain to it. Our ideal is an ideal, not of learning, but of doing; not of acquirement, but of action. We would rather, and can more easily, make history than write it. To us life — the making and controlling of the good and beautiful things of this world, for ourselves and others — possesses more attraction than the acquisition of any amount of knowledge of how these things may or ought to be or have been done. To us money-making — the principal means which modern life supplies for putti'ng thought into action — does not seem vul- gar and second-rate as it does to the European. We see in it life, — the joy of contest, the opportunity for brave and noble work, the means of establishing and beautifying the home, of building up the school or library of our native town, of im- pressing upon outer objects our inner thoughts and aspirations, of living out our ideal as sons, fathers, brothers, citizens. These are the things we see where the German sees nothing but a low and annoying interruption to his studies. To us life, — life with blood in it, full of action, contest, achievement, crowned with power and capable of beneficence, is the main thing. You cannot make of us a race of students, and you cannot give us " good homes " by trying to make the Ameri- can home like the German home — an adjunct of the school and subordinate to the older school idea of learning as the chief aim of life. The problem here is not to bring the home to the school, but to bring the school to the home, or rather, to make both the school and the home co-operate in ministering to life — to the best that is in us here in America at the present time. This is the teaching of the new education against which Pro- fessor Miinsterberg's article is addressed. It was the teaching of Froebel, and I believe that Froebel's prophecy that America
1900] Milnsterberg 071 the new education 129
would be the place in which his ideas would be most fully carried out is now in process of fulfillment.
Coming now to the question of the alleged sources of the shortcomings of our school system, the idea of specialization as seen at some of our universities, and the kindergarten idea, let us speak first of the former.
The university idea of specialization is not a " mercenary '* idea nor an "' embodiment of selfish materialism." In the first place, so far as it represents an opportunity for training for business or professional life — for money-making — it is not selfish, for the American idea of money-making is, as we have seen, not a selfish idea. It is our good fortune rather than a merit that this is so. We have in this country no aristocracy, either military or sporting, to sneer at the common occupa- tions of mankind, to teach us that such occupations are, in their nature, less noble than those others which the hard work of the common people has rendered possible to the favored few. To us it is more difficult to understand how a life which is not self-supporting can be honest than to see that a life given to doing the world's work may attain to any degree of culture, however high.
But Professor Miinsterberg's mistake is not merely the com- mon European one of supposing that money-making is vulgar and mercenary. He also misapprehends the object of such preparation for money-making as is supplied by the elective system in our universities. The object is not, in the main, to enable the man to make money either more quickly or in greater quantities than he could otherwise do; it is rather to give him such preparation as will enable him to take a pro- fessional view of his work, to see its deeper and its higher pos- sibilities, and to respect it as an occupation in which whatever is best in him may find expression; to make of the university not a beacon shedding its rays equally in all directions, but a search-light turned forward along the path which the student is to follow, illuminating that path, and making the things of his daily life bright with the inspiration of seeing what those things are at their best and what they may become for him if rightly used.
1 30 Educational Review [September
Nor is it the object, at least, of the elective system to narrow the pupil's trai'ning. On the contrary, its object and, when properly carried out, its effect is to broaden it. Breadth of culture is to be measured, not by the unlikeness of the studies that a boy has " done," nor by the completeness with which such studies represent the entire sphere of human knowledge, but by breadth of the sympathies aroused, the depth of the in- sight obtained. Up to a certain age, it is true, an age varying with every individual, such breadth is best secured by the fixed curriculum — ^not, indeed, the traditional one we are used to, which trains only a small part of the mind, fitting our boys for •college or clerical work, our girls for school-teaching and ele- gant accomplishment, and almost unfitting both for the best work and truest citizenship, but by a curriculum in which the creative and artistic, the imaginative and sympathetic, as well as the purely receptive, faculties shall be trained.
But there comes a time when, for the sake of breadth of culture and for every other sake, the fixed curriculum must be abandoned, or if adhered to must choose between its present method — that of suiting a small class of minds — and the only alternative, that of suiting nobody. After that time has come the greatest breadth of culture is obtained, not by ignoring the individual bent, but by studying to give to each mind, not culture in general, but the broadest special culture of which that particular mind is capable.
It is easy to go thru the motions of teaching any boy anything, but the lines within which his real culture can ex- tend— the curve of his possible enlightenment — are settled by a power higher than the school committee. What shall be done with the territory within that curve is the only question which the educator has the power to determine; the territory is there to cultivate or neglect; a field within it left waste is a loss in breadth of culture; a field plowed outside of it is not a broadening, but a scattering and a waste.
And most important of all is that the central light, the spark of genius, the touch of the universal mind which each possesses, should be. blown into the brightest glow of which it is capable; from it, if from any source, the fire will spread and the light be
igoo] Milnsterberg on the new education 131
cast into the remoter corners and recesses of the mind. The proper training of this vital, pecuUar power is not a sacrifice of breadth, but the means of attaining the greatest breadth of which any given mind is capable, the essential condition, in fact, of the receiving of any true culture at all. The boy who could never understand a book nor a lesson is given one thing he can do — clay-modeling, brush-work, care of the store Satur- day afternoons — and the book too begins to speak and the arithmetic lesson acquires a meaning. As with him, so with the rest, and so thru life.
This does not mean that we should hastily assume from a little distaste or difficulty at the outset, that a particular study is not one of those from which true nourishment will in the end be derived. We should, I think, on the contrary, stretch the boy out (to use a drastic metaphor) as wide as we find that he can go; and we never ca'n tell what he can do in any given direction until we try — try hard and for a long time. Nor does it mean necessarily that the choice should be left to the boy himself, to whom, as Professor Miinsterberg truly says,s the studies, before he has tried them, may often be but names, between which any true choice is impossible. But it does mean that after a certain age the time for choosing comes, that gradually, as the true bent unfolds itself, the less appropriate studies should be dropped, and that the ignoring of such bent is but the paying of a formal tribute to the shadow of the wider culture while we neglect its substance.
The specializing required for the true culture of individuals is not, of course, to be confounded with the adaptation of the school to the needs common to all children according to their age. A curious idea of Professor Miinsterberg's is that the new education is prone to look upon the common characteristics of childhood and boyhood as indicating individual bent. He tells how when he passed thru the various stages that all boys pass thru, the naturalist stage, the archaeological stage, and the religious stage, his parents and instructors, not being infected with educational theory, did not conclude first that he was going to be a naturalist, then an archaeologist, and so on: innuendo: that if they had been so infected they would have done so, and
132 Educational Review [September
would have started to train him accordingly. But would they have done so? Is it the teaching of the new education that because the baby kicks he is to be a football player or a corporation lawyer; and that because he plays doll he is going to be a trained nurse? Is it not precisely the idea of the new education that each stage of growth has its appropriate occu- pation and means of development ? It is not the new, but the old system that would begin stuffing in the knowledge that " will come in handy later," that put little children thru Latin grammar by stroke of birch because learning Latin was, in the Middle Ages, equivalent to learning to read, and was the appropriate preparatory training, therefore, for the profession of clerk, monk, or scholar. The new education would indeed make provision for each stage of development as it arrives, — it would not, for instance, leave the satisfying of the botanizing instinct to luck, but would make special preparation for its satisfaction in the case of a city child, — ^but it, unlike the old, is content to nourish the young sprout in the way that is best for it at the time, trusting to nature to bring forth the flower and the fruit in due season and to determine what the fruit is to be.
And one word about choosing, about the deliberate training of the power of choice. Professor Miinsterberg tells us that when, at last, he came to the science of psychology " the light- ning struck." This was very well in the case of a man of genius, but for most of us it is not safe to leave the matter so. The lightning may not think to concern itself in the question of whether we go into the grocery business or into real estate; and mistakes may occur if the first serious choice we are called upon to make is the choice of a profession. From the kinder- garten up this choosing faculty ought to be exercised, first, and for a long time, within the studies prescribed; at some time as to what study shall be taken. As the mind develops, the field of choice will be narrowed, and finally a trained capacity for choice will be equal to its task, even if no lightning should be forthcoming to aid it.
On the subject of the other source from which he believes our educational system is being perverted and undermined,
igoo] Milnster berg on the new education 133
namely, the kindergarten, Professor Miinsterberg's criticisms are extremely severe. His statement of the central idea of the kindergarten is that it aims to follow the whim of the child. It studies, he says, to find and supply " what may best suit the tastes and likings of Peter, the darling " ; it ^' promises ease by the adjustment of the school to the personal inclination " or by " limitation of the work to the personal taste." " Liking," he says, " is the great ruler." From this fundamental error of following the whim of the child he finds that the kinder- garten idea precludes all discipline to the character, and that by following it we are in danger of cultivating the vulgar tastes and pleasures rather than the more refined.
One wonders in reading this arraignment from what source Professor Miinsterberg has derived his idea of what the kin- dergarten is. Where does he find either in the writings of Froebel or in the practice of any trained kindergarten teacher that the central idea of the kindergarten is to follow the indi- vidual whim? Anyone who has read Froebel's writings, or any part of his writings, will testify that if there ever was a man who believed in the " child universal," who thought there was a God in this world, and only one, that he dwells in every child as well as in every flower, and has written in the heart of every child certain things in the glad and full recognition of which alone it can find its true and strongest life, the founder of the kindergarten was that man. It is true, indeed, that the kindergarten system is founded upon the nature of the child, that it " follows the child," that Froebel, in fact, based his whole system upon what he conceived to be the needs and crav- ings of the nature which he sought to develop (and incidentally it may be relevant to ask if our education of children is not to be based upon the 'needs of the children upon whose needs it shall be based) . But the following the child does not mean fol- lowing the whims of the individual. It means following what years of careful study by Froebel and his followers have led them to believe to be the child's essential nature and inmost needs. No man ever believed less in whim than Froebel, and his followers have in this respect accurately caught his spirit. He believes first and always in the universal in every child, and
134 Educational Review [September
in certain main ways in which that universal must develop, if at all — in certain main subjects and methods of education, thru which alone it can find its growth. And it is for the develop- ing of this universal element, thru the means that appeal to every child, that the kindergarten was designed and is carried on.
It may be a surprise to Professor Munsterberg and to other critics, but it is the fact, that there are not and never have been any elective courses in the kindergarten. No child in a kinder- garten is, nor ever has bee^n, since the kindergarten was founded, allowed to choose what sort of work he will do for any moment of time. At what period of education, if at all, Froebel would have introduced elective studies we do not know ; he certainly did not introduce them in the kindergarten.
It is true that opportunity is given in certain of the kinder- garten occupations for individual expression.
After making certain prescribed arrangements of the ma- terial supplied to him the child is given, for a certain number of hours every week, time in which he is obliged to make arrangements of his own inventing. Such choice is no more the following of a whim than the writing of English composition is the following of a whim because the student is inevitably allowed, by the nature of the study, to choose his own words and to form his own sentences. It is the follow- ing of whim only in the same sense that writing Latin verse in the English public schools is a following of the whim of English schoolboys.
The reason this work is included in the kindergarten does not indicate that Froebel believed in '' whim " ; it is there be- cause he believed that an essential part of the child's educa- tion is in the training of his active and constructive faculties, and because no way has yet been devised for training those faculties except thru their exercise. Those who believe that such training for the constructive and originating powers as is found in the kindergarten ought to be left out of educa- tion must find some better argument than is contained in ac- cusations of " whim," " following the darling's inclinations " and the like. They must show one of two things — either that
1900] Munsterberg on the new education 135
the active faculties do not need training or that they can be trained without being exercised.
As I have said, Professor Miinsterberg derives from the assumption that the kindergarten follows the whim of the child this corollary, that the kindergarten idea is taking from our school system all moral discipline. '' He who is allowed al- ways to follow the path of least resistance never develops the power of overcoming the resistance; he remains utterly un- prepared for life." Agai'n, how can one answer? A visit to the'kindergarten would furnish a complete answer, as to the facts; reading a page of Froebel would answer as to the ideal; but to those who will not visit and will not read, what can we say?
In the first place let us discriminate a little. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that the kindergarten does follow, if not the whim, at least the liking of the child — that " liking is [really] the great ruler." Would it result from this that all difficulty, all conflict, would be eliminated, that we should '* follow the line of least resistance " ? Does the child, as a matter of fact, like only those thing? in which there are no diffi- culties, no resistance to be overcome? Are *' easy " and '* attractive " synonymous terms ? It seems to me that such a supposition comes very close to being the precise opposite of the truth. I believe that anyone who has dealt with children will testify that they like things almost in proportion as they are difficult. The overcoming of resistance may not be in itself sufficient to make a given occupation attractive, but it is very nearly essential to any permanent attraction. The ex- perience of the boys' clubs is instructive upon this point. These clubs started simply with the idea of keeping the boys off the street. The people who promoted them had no idea that they were engaged in an educational work. The methods they have evolved have been arrived at without conscious edu- cational purpose or theory; they have been adopted simply as the means found by experience to be most effective in attract- ing the boys, and are therefore pretty good evidence of what is actually attractive. And yet there has been a steady devel- opment from the idea of simply trying to amuse the boys to
136 Educational Review [September
the idea of trying to find something for them to do, and to giv- ing them things to do that are more and more difficult ; and the people conducting the clubs write '' we fi'nd the hard work and the hard play, the sloyd, the industrial training, the wrestling and the football infinitely more attractive than the old amuse- ment features ever were."
Or let anybody study the games in which boys, especially American boys, take an interest. Is football easy? Is base- ball easy? Is the standard exacted in these games an easy one to attain ? Not in my experience, at least. On the contrary, I venture to assert that no school-teacher in any country or time ever ventured to hold up so high a standard of endeavor or of attainment as obtains on the ball field, and that no school study ever commanded so cheerful a submission to drudgery, so strict a temperance, or so firm a self-restraint, as is obtained in athletics.
We get some light upon this supposed conflict between lik- ing and discipline from the experience of business life and of the preparation therefor. Have we any of us ever known a boy who seemed to have nothing in him so long as he was at school; who, if he had the misfortune of going to college, seemed to be going from bad to worse while there; was list- less over his studies, inclined to dissipation; and, what was far worse, not inclined to take hold of anything, and was thus be- coming dissipated in the older and truer sense — scattered, dis- integrated, going to pieces ? And have we seen that boy when he entered the medical school (for that is what he usually does), or began at the bottom of the ladder in some line of busi- ness, suddenly, as it were in a night, seem to change his whole character, become alert, interested, manly, and of a seemingly inexhaustible power for work? I think we have most of us seen many such boys; that, in fact, such a boy is the normal and inevitable product of a school curriculum inherited largely from the Middle Ages, and still in its main features adapted only to boys of a literary rather than of a scientific turn of mind. Here again the following of the boy's " liking " pro- duced morality, discipline, character. How can the result be ac- counted for by those who claim that where " liking is the great
1900] Munsterberg on the new education 137
ruler " all discipline is at an end ? Perhaps it will be said, " Oh, but he did not like all the work at the medical school; he was forced to do much that was hard, distasteful. His de- sire to succeed in his profession made him undergo a great deal of work that he did not like." True and most true. The end he had in view forced him to work in a way he had never worked before. The things he did were some of them not less, but more disagreeable than anything he had ever even been asked to do at school. The difference was that he did it, and the difference behind that was that he wanted to, that he had a motive, that he had what the baseball player has, what the child at play has, what every human being who is doing good work of any sort has, and what the kinder- garten idea would so far as possible put behind every stroke of work and every hour of study — an adequate, real, consciously held desire a'nd motive; that in short he is " following his own liking," and not the decree of the school committee. It is because of this invariable experience of its moral and vital results that the new education follows the "liking" of the boy; because "liking" is in very deed "the great ruler "; because it is here, in the real needs of our nature — in our 'need for struggle, conflict, in our need for ex- pression, for creation, in our need for being of use, for taking a hand in the game, in our love of home, of country; because it is here, and not in the visible pedagog, that we find the real schoolmaster, the stern, the inexorable one, the one who lays upon us the tasks that are really hard, who makes the calls upon our powers which they must hear and obey, and leaves in his track a more living power and more far-reaching and a firmer will.
Not that obedience is omitted from the kindergarten idea of discipline. But the attempt is made to supplant obedience to the teacher by something higher. From the first the teacher is instructed to make the child feel that obedience is due not to the teacher's arbitrary power, but to a third something to which teacher as well as child is subject — " to the end," as our Massa- chusetts Bill of Rights has it " that this may be a government of laws and not a government of men."
138 Educational Review [September
And the third something to which obedience is due is made so far as possible a concrete and vital reality in the child, in the form of the organization, needs, — personality as it were, — of the home, the school, of the game or lesson that is being carried on. The kindergarten is not merely like an army, obedient to the stereotyped word of command, but like a family where each not only in prescribed, but in spontaneous, ways, with thought and desire and not with mere eye-service, tries to contribute to the success of the whole. The idea is not an ascetic one. We do not think with Professor Miinster- berg that we must '' overcome our natural tastes and instinc- tive desires," but rather that we must cultivate these to grow in their normal direction. The idea is Christian rather than Stoic, not the outrooting of evil, but '' that ye resist not evil, but over- come evil with good." The idea is to substitute, so fast as the child can grow into it, love for fear, responsibility for obedi- ence, citizenship for subjection. Ours, it must be remem- bered, is not a military civilization. America is not aiming at the production of soldiers, whose one virtue shall be implicit obedience to the will of a military ruler, but citizens — men and women, that is to say, who are not subjects of the sovereign power, but parts of it — not to be kept i'n order by superior physical force, but true citizens in whom the State, its laws, its ideals, its purposes, dwell and are safe, from whom these in- deed emanate, whose will is that the Commonwealth shall re- ceive no harm, and who do not so much obey as support its laws, so that where two or three Americans are gathered to- gether there shall America spring up and live and her laws and institutions grow and flourish.
Again, in making his charge of '' fostering of the spirit of selfish enjoyment " against the kindergarten, one cantiot help feeling that Professor Miinsterberg forgets that Froebel was the first to insist upon school training for the social side of our nature. It is indeed true that '' we are not only professional wage-earners; we live for our friends and our nation; we face social and political, moral and religious problems ... we shape our town and our time and all that is common to every- one." This is a true word, as true as if Froebel himself had
1900] Miinsterberg on the new education 139
said it, as he has a hundred times, but it is also true that the kindergarten is the only school as yet in existence where any systematic attempt is made to put such an idea into practice. In the kindergarten the child is systematically trained to take his part, and to feel his responsibility, as a member of the family and as a member of the school. As soon as he leaves the kindergarten this training ceases, to be resumed again only when he reaches the university, except in a few cases where the university idea has reached the intermediate schools.
Upon the other danger which he detects in the kindergarten idea, that of vulgarizing our children. Professor Miinsterberg, after conceding that study ought to be interesting, points out the important truth that it does not follow that every interest- ing thing ought to be studied; the fallacy of supposing so ought, he very truly says, to be obvious to anybody; and it is an unfortunate fallacy because, as he further shows, a thing may be interesting and yet not be desirable, it may even be vul- gar. '' Whether instruction is good or bad, is in the spirit of civilization or against it, depends," he tells us, "" upon the ques- tion of what sort of interest is in the play; that which vulgarizes or that which refines ; that which the street boy brings from the slums to the school, or that which the teacher brings from the graduate school to the country schoolroom." One cannot read this suggestion without feeling that there is a good deal in it. It seems, once one sees it plainly stated, so obvious as to be almost a truism. It must make a tremendous difference whether the interest excited is that which vulgarizes or that which refines, and one wonders what all these teachers can have been thinking about, these last few thousand years, not to have found this out before. And the more one considers the facts the more the wonder grows. When one considers that Froe- bel, for instance, spent some fifteen years of his life studying the plays of children in order to determine, not merely in a general way, but in precise detail, exactly which were the en- nobling and elevating and which where tjie less desirable ones; when one further considers that Froebel's followers have con- tinued this study ever since, — not believing with Professor
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Miinsterberg that a knowledge of some science or language gained '* in the graduate school " is a sufficient outfit for teach- ing children; when one considers that a study of the child and of the precise method that may best serve to bring out the divine and leave aside the evil in him, is the whole aim for which the new or kindergarten idea stands; considering these things it does become not a little remarkable that it should be found necessary, at this late day, to point out that something "depends upon what sort of interest is in the play." Mis- takes one would, of course, expect; specifications might be called for of this and that wherein the aim has not been attained and a vulgarizing feature has been introduced, but that the question itself of whether a study is vulgarizing or not has escaped consideration strikes one as little short of miraculous. One might find it necessary, for instance, to point out to this artist " you used too much green in your picture " or to that one " you put in too much blue," but it is a different thing for one who says of himself that he speaks without authority to throw it out, as a useful hint to the whole profession, that " it makes a difference what sort of colors you use."
Upon the whole, taking Professor Miinsterberg as a repre- sentative of the latest phase of the opposition to the new educa- tion, I think there is cause for congratulation. The principles that he lays down, the aims that he commends, show upon the whole a fairly complete acceptance of the ideas of the new edu- cation in the abstract, while the criticisms made give hope that a closer acquaintance with the methods actually in use will lead to an equally complete acceptance of the means by which those ideas are beginning to be carried into practice.
Joseph Lee
Boston, Mass.
Ill
THE MILWAUKEE SCHOOL SYSTEM
The legislature of Wisconsin, during the winter of 1897, passed a bill which is known as the Milwaukee school law, and is found in the statutes of that session of the legislature and designated as chapter 186.
Prior to the enactment of this law there existed in Mil- waukee a widespread and growing feeling of discontent and concern among the friends of public education at the undoubted trend of events in the Milwaukee school sys- tem. It seemed as if the worst elements were in control, both in the composition of the governing body and in the instructional force. The former consisted of forty-two members, two from each of twenty-one wards, w^ho were appointed by the aldermen of the respective wards. Under this system of appointment no particular qualifications were required to become a member of the school board as it was then known. Whoever was suggested by the local aldermen for appointment was confirmed without question by the com- mon council as a gracious act of aldermanic courtesy. It is easy to understand that the appointments were generally given to those who had in some way been helpful to the aldermen. The question of fitness had little to do with the appointments. Even the politics of the appointee did not al- ways exercise a controlling influence in making the appoint- ment. Nevertheless, the method of appointment had developed some evils which seemed to grow with alarming rapidity. It has been confidently asserted that certain aldermen were backed in the candidacy for their positions with the money and influ- ence of school supply men, if when elected they would appoint certain men as members of the school board. The reason for this activity is plain. The principals and teachers became active and aggressive agents of would-be candidates for these
141
142 Educational Review [September
appointments for the purpose of securing the appointment or the removal of some member of his teaching force. Under the old regime this could only be accomplished thru the recommen- dation of the local member of the executive committee. The superintendent had little influence with the school board, and his recommendations, both with reference to the appointments on the teaching force, and the selection and adoption of text- books to be used, were frequently turned down. These were sometimes accompanied with suggestions and remarks which, if not positively low, were certainly unfit to come from mem- bers of a body who were supposed to conserve the educational interests of a great city. Favoritism pure and simple, rank with the odor of jobbery in its most reprehensible sense, per- meated nearly every avenue of school work and management. This condition of things had been growing when the elements of opposition united and were able to pass Milwaukee's present school law.
It is only just to the friends of the present law to say that it is a sincere attempt to transfer to the professional officers purely professional duties, like the appointment of teachers and the selection of text-books; to remove from the baneful influ- ence of practical politics, as they are supposed to exist in our larger cities, all matters pertaining to the management of our public schools; to secure in the personnel of the school direc- tors, as they are now called, members whose personality and interest in educational questions would be a strong guarantee of fitness for their position. Certainly, these are worthy motives. And it is not beyond the purview of this article to say that the attempt, however earnest and sincere it may have been, has not been, in the estimation of the writer, wholly suc- cessful. That the new law embodies some forward educational movements is believed. That it is not free from imperfections is confidently asserted.
The friends of educational reform in Milwaukee's school system believed that a board of forty-two persons was entirely too large. In this view they have the support of a large ma- jority of the citizens of the city. But it was impossible to get away from the idea of local or ward representation, and ac-
1900] The Milwaukee school system 143
cordingly, a board of twenty-one members, one from each ward, was agreed to. It is difficult to see any reason for this recognition of ward boundaries, for no member of the board has any local duties, or any duties whatsoever pertaining to his ward. He is, in contemplation of the present law, a school officer of the entire city. And there are cogent reasons for obliterating ward boundaries in the selection of the members of the board of school directors. Not the least of these is the fact that the most capable persons to serve in the board are residents of ten or twelve of the wards, and, in a number of the wards there are no persons available who are really fit to serve as school officers. It is easy to see at the outset, there- fore, that with geographical limitations placed upon those who are to appoint the working body for the school system of a great city, it is impossible to expect to have an ideal organiza- tion.
The law provides that the mayor shall appoint " four citizens of suitable character and education," not more than two to be of the same political party, who shall appoint the board of school directors. This last named board is to have charge of and supervision over the school affairs of the city. There does not appear to be any reason for calling into existence this school board commission of four. They are probably no better and no worse than the appointive power. They are not, however, accountable to anyone for what they do or omit to do. Altho, in the spirit of the law under which they exist, it is sup- posed to be a non-partisan board, in point of fact it is a board of most pronounced partisan bias and predilections. Indeed, it is difficult to see how it could be otherwise. For human nature is the same the world over wherever we find it. In further con- firmation of the above statement, it has been said that while this commission of four was making up its original board of twenty-one directors, a'nd had the list practically completed, it was suggested that a certain political party had been wholly ignored in the personnel of the appointees. It was agreed that at least one place for this political party should be found, and it was done. '* Of course," said a member of the commission, " in theory, we are supposed to disregard party lines in the ap-
144 Educational Review [September
pointments, but it is practically impossible to do so altogether." Here, then, we have a frank admission of the violation of the spirit of the law at the very outset.
A well-known and respected writer has said truly :^ *' Of all devices for taking parties formally into the machinery of ad- ministration it is first to be said that they involve a logical ab- surdity. Their object is, of course, to secure non-partisanship in the conduct of certain charges; and yet it is the very provi- sion for dividing the places in a board between men of different political views which makes the board partisan. It necessarily does this in form, and often in substance. Each member is appointed, not because he is independent, but because he is a partisan; and each sits in the board as the representatives of a party, the interests of which, if they are in question, he is prac- tically authorized, and very often disposed, to prefer to those of good government. At the same time the seat of responsibility is obscured, and misconduct made difficult to punish."
The same writer offers further and even more cogent objec- tions to schemes of this kind. He says that " party, if taken in its true sense, and the only one permitting it any usefulness, cannot be reduced to exact precision; or it must take a differ- ent sense, a stricter form, and lose all its wholesome and benefi- cent flexibility, in order that a vicious condition may be satis- fied. The tests which the laws may require the appointing power to apply to candidates for office are of two kinds : tests of fact, and tests of opinion. Tests of fact are such as are judiciously ascertainable, as, for instance, a candidate's height, or age, or color, or nationality. Tests of opinion, again, are those which are applied by the judgment, as a candidate's char- acter or fitness. But it is evident that when a law says that of certain places to be filled only half shall go to members of the same political party, it imposes a test or qualification which can be ranged in neither of the two classes that I have given. Can a court determine, except by an extra-judicial process, to what party a certain person belongs, or what constitutes legal membership in a party, or even what a party is in law ? The tests seems, therefore, to be one of opinion and interpretation,
^ Herbert Tuttle, Atlantic monthly, September, 1884.
1900] The Milwaukee school system 145
and worth no more than a clause providing that an appointee must be a person of good moral character, or of ability, or a patriot. Yet this is not the case. The spirit and purpose of such provisions permit no other conclusion than that they are to be regarded as imperative tests of fact, as actual restrictions upon the discretion of the executive, as surrounding his free- dom of choice in certain directions with concrete and tangible barriers. But the logical or metaphysical difficulties called into being by this vicious policy are after all not the gravest evil. These will be dismissed as purely speculative. The real objection is that, as the policy was suggested by a false con- ception of party, it was sure to lead to further measures, re- quired as a natural development of the conceptio'n and the policy. If a person is to be appointed to an office because he is a member of a certain party, exactly as if it were because he is a citizen of a certain State, it is obviously necessary that means be found for giving parties a more clearly defined corporate existence, and their rolls of membership a species of legal authority."
But aside from party recognition as contemplated in the com- positio'n of the school board commission, there are other, and to my mind, stronger reasons, which emphasize the practical worthlessness of this feature of the law. A reputable citizen, in whom the writer has the fullest confidence, so far as his in- tegrity and truthfulness are concerned, assured him that he ab- solutely named four of the members of the board of school di- rectors. Said he : "I made up my mind that these appoint- ments were going to the friends of somebody, and I determined to get in some of mine. To my surprise, all the appointments which I asked for were made." He added : " A law which will permit of such things is liable to be abused in the distribution of these favors, and while I cannot say that the names which I suggested were very bad, nor yet very good, so far as fitness is concerned, I am frank to say that I am opposed to this feature of the law as inimical to best interests of the schools. I trust it will be repealed." It is also known that another individual had much to say, directly or indirectly, in the make-up of the original board of directors. Now, where is the democracy of
1 46 Educational Review [September
such a course? And how are the schools assured the wisest administration by adopting the advice and suggestions of a few individuals whose motives are unknown ? And what of favor- itism? It is a species of partisanship that is far more repre- hensible than politics in its worst form, and is liable to do more lasting injury. The editor of the Educational Review was fully warranted in characterizing this feature of the Milwaukee law as a *' serious departure from sound principles, and one which should nowhere be imitated." ^
President Quarles, in discussing some of the features of this law, in his annual address, took occasion to say that some thought the method by which the board of directors is con- stituted is wrong. He says that " there are certain offices, ad- ministrative in their function, and having no possible connec- tion with partisan questions, which should be kept entirely sep- arate and isolated from political contests and influences." This may be true. But why recognize politics, then, in the very composition of the power which makes this so-called non-par- tisan board ? And where is the virtue in withdrawing from the people one of their dearest institutions — the public school sys- tem? Are they not to be trusted with one of the institutions they most highly prize ? It is not true, as Mr. Quarles asserts, that ^* men who have the good of the government at heart be- lieve that there are now too many objects upon which the right of suffrage may be exercised," provided, that right is honestly and intelligently exercised. The danger from an unrestricted right of franchise does not come so much from its exercise, as such, as from its corrupt and ignorant exercise. And we are not certainly lessening the evils, when, by limiting the right, we are incontestably increasing the class distinctions, and that, too, at the expense of the very genius of our democratic insti- tutions. The suggestion of Mr. Quarles is a dangerous one. Admit its correctness and we have advanced a long step down- ward and away from a representative form of government.
It is, perhaps, wise to keep school matters free from political contests and influences. The pertinent question to ask is : How many are free, and to what extent, and in what manner, from
5 Educational Review (September, 1899), 18:2
1900J The Milwaukee school system 147
such contests and influences? Does anyone believe that party- politics and personal favoritism cut no figure in the personnel of the school directory? Is it not true that just those con- ■ditions are, and ever have been, present in its composition? It is difficult for human nature to be exceptional and distinc- tive on a school board or elsewhere, and the fact is it is not so.
The reduction in the number of the members of the board of school directors from forty-two to twenty-one has, in itself, undoubtedly increased its efficiency. It is also true that, as a whole, the new board is the superior of the old, in purely scho- lastic and literary attainments, in mental grasp and in intel- lectual power. Of course, these estimates are mere opinion which are liable to vary according to the point of view of the individual who makes them. Indeed, it would be difficult for this to be otherwise. Yet the writer feels that in the fore- g-oing opinion he has very nearly voiced the general sentiment. In another respect the new board is not the peer of the old, viz. : It fails to be in as close touch with the people at large; is self- sufficient with reference to its attitude towards some educa- tional problems; and is composed of the ''better classes," so- called, a somewhat flexible and indefinite term, but used here to express wealth and social and political prestige — aristocracy, if you please — as opposed to democratic methods and demo- cratic ideas. A board which goes into power by virtue of ap- pointment by and thru another board could scarcely be otherwise. There are many who believe that the absence of -cosmopolitan qualities in a board which is to administer the affairs of our common schools is not an element of weakness, but one of strength and increased usefulness. The writer is not of that number. The public school system of this country is nearer and dearer to every good citizen, and that means an overwhelming majority, than any other single institution. For this reason the writer believes it is entirely safe to trust to the majority active a'nd intimate connection with matters which they esteem so highly. The erection of class distinctions, how- -evjer slight and obscure, in all matters pertaining to our public schools, is a positive menace to the best interests of the same,
1 48 Educational Review [September
should be viewed with distrust, and efforts to stamp out such invidious conditions ought to be unceasingly invoked.
There is an attempt made to transfer from the laymen to the professionals responsibility for efficient work in the schools. This is a wise provision. It is provided in this law — section 9 — that the '' superintendent shall, in connection with the as- sistant superintendent and the president of the board, and two members of the board, to be appointed by the president, acting as a committee, examine, certificate, employ, classify, transfer, and promote teachers for the several public schools of his city, on a strict basis of eligibility and fitness, subject to confirma- tion by the board; and he shall, together with said assistant superintendent and president, and two members of the board, select and determine courses of study in the schools under his supervision, and the text-books to be used therein, subject to confirmation by the board, and he shall do and perform all such other duties as may be required by the board; provided, that in case of disagreement and failure of decision by a majority vote of said committee consisting of the superintendent, assist- ant superintendent and president, and two members of the board, the board may determine the matter by a majority vote of its qualified members; and he shall, also, in connection with the assistant superintendent and the president, and two mem- bers acting as such committee, by a majority vote thereof, dis- miss teachers and janitors for misconduct, incompetency, in- efficiency, or inattention to duty."
The wisdom of this provision and its efficiency must, of course, very largely depend upon the personality of the expert members of these statutory committees, and, particularly, of the superintendent. It would be futile to hope for valuable results from a superintendent who possessed negative qualities only, or who was strongly intrenched in the. belief of the in- fallibility of his own opinions, or who lacked discriminating tact, or whose sense of justice and fair play is warped and stunted. In principle, however, the transfer of authority re- quiring expert knowledge to the experts must be hailed with delight and commended. Whether or not the provisions of this statute are sufficiently surrounded by checks and counter-
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checks, so as to prevent an arbitrary exercise of power, or whether or not the authority intended to be delegated to the professionals is sufficiently absolute to attain the end aimed at, is still a mooted question in the minds of those who have watched the workings of this provision of the law. It seems to be agreed that there is no reason for retaining the assistant superintendent on these committees. He is the appointee of the superintendent, and in case of the disagreement between other members of the committees and the superintendent, he would naturally, almost certainly, unite his voice and vote with that of his superior in office. Viewing the matter from the point of view of a layman, and assuming that members of school boards are endeavoring to discharge their duties intel- ligently and wisely, it would seem that the checks and right of review of the acts of the professionals should be retained, if not somewhat increased. The exercise of this right of re- view might not be often required. And yet it is known that other than valid reasons have secured the appointment or dis- missal of members of the teaching force, or the adoption or rejection of text-books. Why, when such reasons conclusively appear, should not the higher, or appellate, authority of the board be invoked in review ? The asking of this question seems to be its own sufficient answer. Of course, if the employees of the school board persist in a course which requires constant or frequent investigation, it would seem as if the time was fast approaching when the services of such persons could well be dispensed with. But assuming that human nature is not widely different among those who supervise educational work than elsewhere, and that democratic notions should prevail, the right of review, in the interest of the most efficient service, seems to be imperatively demanded.
During the brief period of the life of the present statute there appears to have been some experience fruitful of the wisdom of having the right of investigation and review. This has been illustrated in the " dropping " of members of the teaching force without giving any apparent reason for the same, and with- out giving the persons dismissed a hearing. Such a glaring abuse of discretion did this appear to be in one or two instances.
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and so manifestly did it partake of the nature of persecution, that several of the most reputable citizens took an active in- terest in these cases, resulting, perhaps, only in a compromise, which, however, is somewhat better than permanent degrada- tion in the profession. It has been further illustrated in some attempts to ignore worthy members of the teaching force in matters of promotion. As has been previously stated, much depends upon the personal qualities, good judgment, sound sense, and fair-mindedness of the superintendent. If nothing is lacking in these requisites, a very large discretion is, usu- ally, wisely exercised, and there is slight reason to review his action.
The provision of law as found in this statute is not adequate in providing the ways and means to secure sufficient accom- modations for children of school age. The school buildings are constantly over-crowded; many of the older buildings are unsanitary and in a bad state of repair; and a large percentage of the instructional force is required to do more work than can be well done. These conditions are conceded by the school directors, and are not denied by the teachers. But the former answer that they are impotent to help it, because they have reached the limit of bonded indebtedness in the city, and have levied the maximum school tax allowed by law. The truth is that the bonded indebtedness is controlled by the common council, and the school board is compelled to accept at its hands such sums as it sees fit to give. It is always too little. Some relief from the present order of things can only be made effect- ive and adequate to the needs of the hour by withdrawing all matters pertaining to the management of the schools, including the levy and collection of the school tax, incurring indebted- ness for school purposes, selection of school sites, control of all school property and the operating expenses, from the com- mon council and city officials, so-called, and passing the same over to the school directors absolutely and unconditionally. By doing this it is possible to meet the pressing demands which the cause of education in a great city are making, demands which are constantly enlarging and increasing, and which are not, and have not been for many years, sufficiently met. In
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this respect it is said that Milwaukee is not the only city which is handicapped.
It may be said, in conclusion, that, while the Milwaukee school system is not an ideally perfect one, neither is it ab- solutely bad, as administered under the present law. There are a few primary defects in the law which will doubtless be cured by early legislation ; and there are other defects of detail which only actual trial could discover. These, too, will be corrected as the necessity for correction impresses itself on the public mind. That a smaller school board and one which shall be selected without reference to ward boundaries, and one which shall be appointed by the mayor direct, without the intervention of a bi-partisan commission, or, better still, as the writer thinks, one which shall be elected by the people, will be a step towards improved educational conditions. The pres- ent method of selecting the school board is unwise, and un- satisfactory. It tends to intensify class distinctions, and class distinctions, always to be deplored in a representa- tive form of government, are doubly reprehensible when they involve interests which vitally concern all the people. The disposition to pass over to committees matters of detail relat- ing to school administration, and to discuss nothing in a thor- oly public way on the floor at the meeting of the entire board, has been frequently referred to and commented on adversely. It is doubtless the outgrowth of the present composition of the board. It seems to indicate that the public has no business to be taken into the confidence of this body.
DUANE MOWRY Milwaukee, Wis.
IV ECONOMICS IN SECONDARY EDUCATION ^
This recent book by Henry W. Thurston suggests the entire question of the place of economics in secondary education. Mr. Thurston occupies at present the position of head of the de- partment of social and economic science in the Chicago Normal School, but until recently he gave instruction in economics in the Hyde Park high school of Chicago, and he dedicates his book to the members of his classes in that school, thru " whose earnest and long suffering cooperation," he tells us, the evolution of his book has been made possible.
When we speak about the place of economics in secondary education, we must in a general way have in mind a secondary school of a particular type, and the one which we shall take is the ordinary high school. Those schools which are designed almost exclusively or chiefly to prepare young people for col- lege must on account of their special aim occupy a position apart, as their work is dictated by the nature of their task.
It has been frequently urged that economics is not a suitable study for secondary schools, and an important committee has even reported against its introduction in such schools. We find, nevertheless, that the study of economics in high schools and other similar schools is quite general, and there seems to be some reason to suppose that on the whole it is increasing. While difficulties standing in the way of the succcessful study of economics in these schools are recognized, the test of ex- perience seems to show that the arguments in its favor are weightier than those against it.
The high school is for the large majority of pupils the final school preparation for life, both private and public. Good citi- zenship is of such importance, and its importance has in recent years been so emphasized, that we need not dwell upon it at
^ Economics and industrial history for secondary schools, by Henry W. Thurston (Chicago : Scott, Foresman & Co., 1899. 300 p. $1.00).
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Economics in secondary education 153
this time and place. Good citizenship implies many things, and among others the intellectual capacity to solve the momen- tous questions which are continually being brought before the citizen, and furthermore it implies the disposition to take an attitude toward public questions dictated by considerations of the general welfare rather than individual or class interest.
The questions confronting our civilization at the present day are varied in character, but they are very largely economic so far as their main content is concerned, while even those which primarily belong to another department of social life have at least an economic side. The daily press affords ample proof. Let the reader take half a dozen typical newspapers, glance thru their contents, and arrange in classes the various prob- lems which they present. He may find mention made of mu- nicipal ownership of public utilities, of trades unions, of wages, and in some periodicals of " wage-slavery," while socialism, anarchy, trusts, monopoly, and the single tax will very likely greet his eye as he glances down the columns. In a letter which the writer recently received from a well known woman who is doing much to direct the thought of women's clubs along economic lines, mention is made of " wage slavery, class struggle, labor saving machinery, economic necessity as a basis for ethics, trades unionism, capitalism, industrial de- velopment,'' and it is asserted that all these expressions mean much to the popular mind. We are not at present concerned with the question whether or not it is desirable that all these expressions should mean much to the popular mind, and that the subjects which they suggest should be widely discussed. We have to deal with the fact that these subjects are under dis- cussion, and, furthermore, that to an ever-increasing extent we are called upon to take some action with respect to them. What knowledge is essential in order that the discussion may be carried on with intelligence ? First of all, and as a minimum requirement, we must answer, a training in economic concepts. We cannot discuss intelligently socialism, monopoly, trusts, unless we know the ideas for which these words stand. We cannot follow the arguments for and against the single tax unless we know what rent is as an economic concept, and also
1 54 Educational Review [September
something about the nature of landed property. How vague and indefinite all these concepts are in the mind of the average citizen can easily enough be ascertained by questions directed to those with whom one comes in daily contact in the ordinary walks of life. There is one branch of learning, and only one, which can give this training in concepts required to enable us to make a beginning in fruitful discussion of the sort under consideration, and that is economics. Nothing else has as yet been devised to take its place.
Our public life is rich and full. Economic and social experi- ments of the most varied sort are continually being tried. Most men, however, are blind to what is passing about them so far as its general economic significance is concerned. It is of prime importance that the powers of observation should be directed along economic and social lines, and that these powers should be trained. Without direction and training the powers of observation are not used, and consequently remain undeveloped. The ordinary man does not know what to look for, and he does not understand what is significant. The high school, which as a matter of fact prepares leaders of thought and action for the great majority of our smaller communities, as well as for many larger ones, should so cultivate the powers of observation in the particulars under discussion that there should be everywhere men and women capable of learning lessons from the constantly unrolling book of life. Much can be learned from observation. It is something to know what these things are, and it is also something to know what cannot be learned by observation. It is something even to know that because one thing follows another the latter is not necessarily the cause of the former.
If the high schools of the country, thru economics, give elementary training in economic concepts and cultivate powers of observation, they may accomplish a very great deal for the country, and do so without taking any partisan position with respect to questions of the day. The result would be an ele- vation of the whole tone and character of discussions in the press, in the pulpit, and everywhere else where public discus- sion is carried on.
1900] Economics in secondary education 155
The ethical moment is one which must be emphasized. Al- tho attention has been frequently directed to this considera- tion, it is not easy to insist upon it too strongly. The func- tion of secondary schools is not to advance knowedge, but to use knowledge which already exists, and to use this knowledge for individually and socially beneficent aims. Questions of right and wrong confront us daily, and they arise quite generally in connection with economic problems. These problems then afford opportunity for ethical training which is simply invaluable. Economic life is at the present time social life. This is a simple', elementary, and indisputable proposition. If the pupil in the secondary school can be taught the ethical significance of this elementary proposition, he has received something which is helpful. This will teach him what interdependence and solidarity signify, and to know in a real, vital way the ethical import of these terms is a great thing. Thrift, frugality, extravagance, waste — all naturally arise in any right kind of a course in elementary economics, and a proper discussion of these terms not only helps to illuminate a path of right individual and social con- duct, but to cultivate ethical feelings with respect to this path. We do not here indulge in any argument in regard to the scientific relation between ethics and economics. As a matter of fact, the two are inextricably interwoven, and in secondary instruction, at any rate, one of the great things needed is a cultivation of the powers to perceive what is right and wrong with respect to economic life and a quickening of the con- science with respect to right and wrong. The writer has known a gifted and well-trained young preacher to say of a course in economics that it had proved more valuable to him in his work than any course which he had taken in the theological seminary. Ethical instruction combined with economics has the advantage of that concreteness which is so essential in the education of the young. What is wanted, however, is no namby-pamby talk about a non-existent harmony of interests, but a presenta- tion of the real facts of life with their conflicts of interests and all their requirements in the way of self-control, obedience, and command, and preference of the general good to purely
156 Educational Review [September
selfish considerations, and also a right feeling for law, order, and progress.
What has been said shows what kind of instruction is needed, and what kind of a text-book is needed. No transcendental economics is in place in the high school. It is essential to cultivate as far as may be the powers of analysis, but it is worse than useless to attempt such super-refinements along this line as in the case of some recent discussions of value, which have at times been a weariness even to the specialist. Hair-splitting of every sort must rigidly be avoided, and atten- tion concentrated on what is vital and essential.
Mr. Thurston's book has in unusual degree many of the qualities required in a text-book for secondary schools, pro- vided the purpose of instruction in economics has been rightly apprehended by the present writer. Richard Jones, the suc- cessor of Malthus in Haileybury College, in his protest against a too rigid adherence to deduction, said if we would understand economic life we must " look and see." Mr. Thurston might well have put " look and see " on his title page as a motto, for it is the spirit of his entire work. It is thruout concrete rather than abstract, and this characteristic is emphasized by the combination of industrial history with economics. The author seeks to let his principles emerge from past and present econo- mic life, and thus also he brings forward the very important idea of social and industrial evolution. The pupiFs attention is by many and skillfully contrived questions directed along various lines to what is passing about him, and thus he is taught to appreciate the significance of familiar facts while his powers of observation are being cultivated. It is a merit in Mr. Thurston that he himself has observed so widely and so carefully, for he evidently sees many things which specialists have too often overlooked. Abundant illustrations could be given, but a few must suffice. On page 26 it is pointed out that " individual men direct human energy in the use of tools and machinery upon the materials and forces which na- ture furnishes," and that they do this " in subordination to the public opinion and statute laws of the community as a whole.** Questions follow this statement which should lead
I poo] Economics in secondary education 157
to illumination concerning public opinion and statute laws as an economic force. What is gleaned by the pupil at the time may not prove so valuable as the direction given to his thoughts.
Lesson xiii deals with ownership and property, and the descriptive matter followed by the questions, if rightly handled by the teacher, will also let in new light upon the nature of in- dustrial society. A broad view is cultivated thruout the book, and as a rule the questions bring out both sides of contro- versies in a spirit of impartiality and candor. The subject of trades unions affords illustration, the pupil being taught to learn what as a matter of fact they are more or less success- fully trying to accomplish, and taught to direct their inquiries to both parties in the case of a controversy.
Another good feature of Mr. 'Thurston's book is the warn- ing which it gives against the common, almost universal ten- dency to generalize too hastily. An illustration is afforded by Lesson xvii.
Still another praiseworthy feature of the book under con- sideration is its ethical suggestiveness. It is ethically impor- tant that grown sons and daughters should, when necessary, provide for the needs of parents, and that they should not look upon those incapacitated by age without reference to previous years. Also it is ethically important that boys should appreciate the economic significance of the activity of their sisters and mothers; and to accomplish these ends questions like the following (on page 30) may be more effective than many a sermon :
" In judging of children and the aged as producers do you think of their whole lives or a few years only? Why?
" Are most of the mothers and housekeepers in our homes who are not reported in the census as engaged in gainful oc- cupations, producers or non-producers? Of what?"
But all this brings to the mind the difficulties which stand in the way of the right sort of instruction in economics, and it is about this right sort of instruction that we are talking. It is these difficulties among other things which have led many
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persons to object to all instruction in economics in secondary schools, and we admit that there is a kind of economic instruc- tion, dogmatic in character, which gives — in so far as it gives anything — ready-made formulas for the solution of practical economic questions, and sends the pupil into the world self- satisfied with his knowledge and blind to the rich life sur- rounding him. This sort of mis-education does more harm than good. If economics in secondary schools is to have good effects there must in the present writer's opinion be the dis- position to teach it in the right spirit. But can we find not only the disposition, but the capacity? This suggests one of the chief weaknesses of this book in the hands of the ordinary teacher, who surely is unable to handle it properly. The high school teacher, and also the pupil, should have a book more interesting to read, and they should also have more information supplied to them than is given in our au- thor's text-book, which consists very largely of questions — entire pages of questions being thrown into the main text and forming, indeed, a large part of the text. If it is per- missible in the present writer to refer to his own text- books, he may say that in their composition his ends have been similar to Mr. Thurston's, but it has seemed to him preferable to give a continuous narrative text with questions merely suggested by the descriptive matter, or with questions separated from the rest of the matter and placed at the end of the chapters. It is believed that both teacher and pupil need a book which shall present a fairly complete picture in itself, while at the same time it suggests indirectly question after question on every page, and cultivates a frank, open, and gener- ous mind. Much work remains to be done before we have our ideal text-book — and perhaps we shall never have it! But whatever text-book a teacher uses and whatever his method — if his method is at all a right one — he will find help in Mr. Thurston's book, and so will his pupils.
Richard T. Ely
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.
FIELD WORK IN TEACHING SOCIOLOGY at Barnard College, Columbia University
Sociology has at present reached the point of transition from an inductive to a deductive science, and because it is in this stage of development it has become, as Professor Patten has so well pointed out, a peculiarly fit academic discipline. It opens out to the student opportunities for close observation and careful classification, for patient testing of formula and hypothesis, and for earnest and devoted search for law.
In the existing maze of social theories it is obvious that the task of verification exacts extreme wariness and open-minded- ness of the student. All his critical faculties are called into play. He will not be able to cope with elusive generalities and false deductions, however, until he has himself become a faith- ful and discriminating observer of social facts; until, in other words, he has become skilled in what may be called the labora- tory methods of sociology. Laboratory work is as necessary in sociology as in chemistry or biology. It is necessary both from the point of view of scientific research and of educational training. But in this article it is only in the latter connection that I purpose to discuss its advantages; for the account in hand is of a collegiate course in sociology, and all collegiate work, as I understand it, is primarily educational. From this point of view the aims of sociological laboratory or field work are the same as those of the physical laboratory. The student is to become trained in quickness and accuracy of perception, in faithfulness of memory, in keenness of discrimination, and in soundness of judgment. The scheme of sociological field work that was carried out in 1899- 1900 at Barnard College seems to have been successfully tested according to this standard, and it may therefore be profitable to give a brief account of the methods that have been in use.
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Each member of the class in descriptive sociology ^ was re- quired to pay weekly visits to three families living in the thir- teenth and fifteenth Assembly districts of New York. Two families were visited in the character of collector of the Hartley House ^ station of the Penny Provident Fund/ and one family in the character of '' friendly visitor " of the Sixth District of the Charity Organization Society.* The information secured during the course of these visits was tabulated on a set of schedules provided for each family study, and these records were shown to the director of the work at the weekly half-hour consultation period which was devoted to each student. I shall now proceed to discuss ( i ) the principles of selection that de- termined the choice of family groups, of the given families and neighborhood, of the ostensible purpose of the visits, etc.; (2) the form and specific objects of the schedules in use, and of the family monographs written by the students at the conclusion of the investigation; (3) the advantages for instruction which attach to the consultation period and to the neighborhood and institutional visiting which may advantageously supplement the study of family groups.
I Altho it is the socius, man in relation to fellow-man, and not the family, the state, or any other social organization, that is the true unit of sociological investigation, it is plainly impos- sible to study the socius in isolation; he must be studied thru his social relations. The primary and usually the most fun- damental of these relations are those embodied in the family
^Sociology, 15 — Principles of sociology. Professor Giddings. Two hours ; open to seniors and graduate students. Field work in charge of Elsie W. Clews, Ph. D., Hartley House Fellow in Sociology.
The class consisted of 14 students — 2 graduates, 10 seniors, i junior, and i special student.
^ A social settlement established in 1896 at 409-13 West 46th Street.
^ The Penny Provident Fund is a banking organization under the control of the Committee on Provident Habits of the Charity Organization Society. It estab- lishes its branches in churches, schools, settlements, etc., and aims at the encour- agement of small savings among children and the lower economic classes thru the stamp system.
^ The office of the Sixth District of the Charity Organization Society is located at 208 West 42d Street. I am glad to take this opportunity to express my thanks to Miss Fisher, agent of the Sixth District, Miss Scott, registrar, and Mr. Devine, general secretary of the Society, for their kind and helpful co-operation thruout the year's work.
I poo] Field work in teaching sociology i6i
organization. The family group, therefore, appears to furnish both a natural and a practical basis for investigation.
There may be as many classifications of family groups as there are different family types and different characteristics of family activity within the same type. Sociability was the characteristic which I had chiefly in mind in selecting the families to be visited. According to this characteristic family groups may be classified as anti-social, pseudo-social, non- social, and social.^ The agents of a relief-giving or a relief- directing society are naturally brought into contact with the pseudo-social, the dependent, and more or less pauperized family group. In acting as visitors, therefore, of the Charity Organization Society, the students were enabled to observe the characteristics of this class of family. I may add, at this point, that thru this slight but definite connection with the Charity Organization Society, there were many opportunities to acquire both general and special information on such sub- jects as poor law and poor law administration, principles of organized charity, co-operation between public and private charities, etc.
Social pathology is not sociology, however, and I did not plan to give any special emphasis to this really subordinate part of the study of society. It has already received undue atten- tion from sociological investigators and instructors. Believ- ing, therefore, that non-social and social family groups (non- social are the persons or groups who hold aloof from social re- lations, whose social philosophy is summed up in " live and let live " ; whereas social persons or groups are quick to affiliate with other social organisms and to establish mutually helpful relations) would repay investigation much more fully than anti- or pseudo-social groups, I selected certain families that
•^ This terminology is borrowed from Professor Giddings {Principles of sociology, pp. 126-28). He applies it, not to family groups, but to the distinct classes into which the social population may be differentiated. In this article, moreover, less ethical and less exclusive attributes attach to the characterization of the social class.
It must not be overlooked that the criterion of sociability from the point of view of this fourfold classification is the relation of the individual or the group to the general community or State. The relations within a pseudo-social or even an anti-social group may be extremely social.
1 62 Educational Review [September
were known to the residents at Hartley House as belonging to the former categories. Members of these families had al- ready belonged to the penny provident bank at Hartley House, and so it was a simple matter to suggest sending a collector to them instead of continuing to receive their deposits at the Hartley House station. Several of these depositors soon re- ferred the student collectors to their acquaintances and rela- tives, and in this way our banking clientele was quickly established.
The banking families resided in 45th, 46th, and 49th Streets, between 9th and nth Avenues. The Charity Organization Society families were necessarily scattered thru the district.^ It was of course desirable both for practical and theoretical reasons to visit within a conce'ntrated area. Families living within the same house were in charge of the same collector. This arrangement seemed more natural to the depositors, it economized the time of the student collector, and it opened out to her opportunities to become acquainted with the relations of neighbors to 'neighbors. The comparison of similar or dis- similar conditions among families resident in the same house or street led to the study of a larger social group than that of the family. The students were encouraged to make these comparisons, and, as a result, many of the characteristic habits and points of view of the community came under their 'notice. The comparisons also served to correct any erroneous generali- zations that might have been based on the necessarily limited observation of the individual student. The aforesaid neigh- borhood was chosen as containing a representative tenement house population. The relation of a small part of this popula- tion to the Hartley House settlement was also a consideration. The students were able to profit from the settlement workers' acquaintance with the neighborhood, and it was an advantage to them to be introduced to the people of the neighborhood as represe'ntatives of the settlement.
The taking of willingness to save as the practical principle of selection in determining the larger number of the families that were visited served a twofold purpose. In the first place,
* Bounded by 53d and 34th Streets and 12th and 5th Avenues.
ipooj Field work in teaching sociology 163
saving is a partial criterion of the economically progressive family, and the economically progressive family is also, in most cases, the socially progressive family. I'n the second place, the fact that collecting was the ostensible object of the visits brought the student investigators into systematic and friendly relations with the families that they visited. The depositors considered themselves the customers or clients of the col- lectors. In this sense, the visits were comparable to those of insurance or rent collectors; but, because of their different motive, they 'naturally opened out opportunities for a more friendly and intimate intercourse than is likely to exist between premium payers and insurance agents, or between tenants and the representatives of their landlords. I may state here, parenthetically, that, in many cases very intimate and helpful relations were formed between the visited and the visitors. A home library was established in one family thru the co- operation of the 'New York Free Circulating Library. The adults of this neighborhood rarely belong to circulating libraries, and the expedient of bringing a small library to them seems to be most useful. It encourages habits of reading, and it builds up neighborly intercourse between the ten or more families who can make use of the " home library." In two or three families children of school age were encouraged to at- tend school, and, in one case, the youngest child in the family was taken to a neighboring kindergarten. Employment was found for the head of the family in one instance; in another, one of the older girls was persuaded to join a sewing-class at Hartley House. In several families habits of order, of cleanli- ness, and of thrift were promoted. Books and magazines were frequently loaned; Christmas gifts were exchanged, and, at almost all times, the collectors were welcomed for the sake of the sympathetic and cheerful talk which followed the business part of the visits.^
' For an interesting discussion of penny provident collecting as a philanthropic means see " The Savings society of Newport," Anna F. Hunter, The Charities review, October, 1899.
I have been glad to emphasize the practical good accomplished by the student investigators because of the objection that has once or twice been urged against the so-called unwarrantable intrusion into private life entailed by this method of
1 64 Educational Review
II In constructing the schedules to be used by the students, three objects were borne in mind. The tabular classifications were intended (i) to correspo'nd in general to the classifica- tions adopted in the lecture course which this practical work was understood to supplement; (2) to direct the observation of the students thru helping them to discriminate between essen- tial and non-essential particulars; (3) to exact a defi'nite, an accurate, and a complete statement of the given facts. A fuller discussion of these aims, will be rendered more comprehensible if the reader will first glance over the following specimen schedules.
It will be seen that at the top of each schedule is given the general class term of the facts which are to be recorded i'n the respective schedule. This terminology is that adopted by Pro- fessor Giddings in his lecture course. Under the general heading a space is left for the name of the concrete group of facts, i. e., the name of the family group which is under observation.
In explanation of the second feature which was stated to be desirable i'n the schedules, I may say that they were not repre- sented to the students as outlining a complete or inalterable classification for social facts. It was explained at the outset that the schedules were merely tentative, and that any sugges- tions for revision which the students might offer would be wel- come. The schedule headed " Interesting \i. e., from a socio- logical point of view] facts still u'nclassified " was intended to encourage the students to collect facts the possibility of whose existence might have been overlooked when the schedules were first planned. It will be readily seen how this schedule would also serve as a witness to any failure on the part of the student to understand the classifications of the other schedules, or to properly distinguish between facts of a sociological and a non- sociological character. Toward the end of the year's work, the students were also required to construct schedules them-
social observation. The chief justification, in my opinion, lies in the chance which it gives to the students of becoming more intelhgent and therefore more useful members of society. But this theoretical argument does not always appeal to the above class of critics.
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Field work in teaching sociology 167
selves for such special subjects as facts of accommodation, emblems, and shibboleths, etc. I may say in this connection that original schedule planning by the students has seemed to be very desirable. Good practice in this line may be secured by requesti'ng a student to tabulate all the information which she may have about a family group with which she is already acquainted — preferably her own family or one in quite differ- ent circumstances from those of the families she has been visit- ing. Criticism by the student of forms which have been used by other investigators for different purposes of economic or social observation is also profitable.
It will be noticed [Table 3] that o'n the back of each schedule the sources of authority and the reasons for any dearth of in- formation that may befall, are called for. These points are very important. The first requirement helps to train the judg- ment of the student in the testing of evidence. It also em- phasizes the 'need for accuracy and definiteness of statement. The second requirement is a special aid to the director of the work in estimating the faithfulness and persistency devoted by the student to securing the desired information.
In the footnotes to the preceding tables, attentio'n is directed to the fact that there are separate sets of schedules for each term. The first set calls, for the most part, for economic facts, the second, for the more strictly sociological facts. Altho, in some cases, it is difficult to ascertain the economic fact, it usually lends itself, by reason of its simplicity and definiteness, to tabulation. The sociological fact, o'n the other hand, is more intricate and, consequently, more perplexing to observe and express. Therefore the tabulation of the greater number of these latter facts, facts which are of course the more valuable and interesting to the sociologist, is postponed to the latter part of the course. But the students were instructed i'n the be- ginning to carefully record in the notebooks in which impres- sions of each visit were to be entered as soon as possible after the visit had been paid, all particulars such as the receipt of letters or presents from neighbors or relatives, the paying of social calls, the expression of opinion on economic or religious or public questions, etc., as facts requiring a prolonged period
1 68 Educational Review [September
of observation for their proper understanding and interpre- tation.
As has been said already, the main purpose of the schedules was to guide the observation of the students. They are not at all adapted for a'n effective and conclusive description of a family group. Toward the end of the year, therefore, the students were required to recast all the information which they had obtained into the form of family monographs. Each monograph was to be outlined as follows :
(i) Conditions of the investigatio'n, i. e., number, time, duration, and character of visits, special helps or obstacles in securing information, etc.
(2) Distinction, if any, between family and household.
(3) History of the parents of the family before marriage.
(4) History of the family.
(5) Relations:
(a) withi'n family group, (&) to neighbors, acquaintances, and relatives, {c) to educational, religious, philanthropic, and civic institutions. Ill Any value which may attach to the observational methods which I have outlined greatly depends for its realiza- tion upon the weekly consultatio'ns of the students with their director. On these occasions errors in observation and in reasoning should be corrected, carelessness in record keeping should be checked, tactful and effectual methods of securing information should be suggested, specific knowledge about the economic and institutional conditions of the neighborhood should be imparted, and the sociological bearing and signifi- cance of every observation or classification should be discussed. Acquaintance with the economic and institutional conditions of the neighborhood readily leads to the study of such condi- tions in general. Special references and bibliographies may be prepared for the students in this connection. Visits may be planned to some of the accessible institutions in other neighborhoods. During the year's work at Barnard College small groups of students were conducted to the almshouse, workhouse, penitentiary, a'nd city hospital on Blackwell's
I poo] Field work in teaching sociology 169
Island, to the House of Refuge (State reformatory) and In- fants' Hospital on Randall's Island, to the application and registration bureaus of the Charity Organization Society, to the model tenements of the City and Suburban Homes Com- pany, to the Eighth District Magistrate's Court, and to two of the social settlements in the middle West side. Individual students also visited the public and parochial schools of the neighborhood, Roosevelt Hospital, the Barge Office, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and the Higgins carpet factory, where several of our neighborhood acquaint- ances were employed. The number of special subjects which could be studied in this way, and the number of interesting ex- cursions which could be planned in a city like New York, is, of course, unlimited.
The weekly reports should be strictly prescribed, for if the standard of instruction which was held up in the pre- ceding paragraph be approximated, the regular consultation periods may become valuable adjuncts to the lecture course. They afford excellent opportunities for ascertaining and dealing with the special needs and shortcomings of the in- dividual students. The shirker can be held to task, the listless stimulated, and the over-dependent student encouraged in criti- cal thinking, by many methods which are impractical in the lecture room. I'n the lecture room, moreover, it is difficult to learn how well the new knowledge is assimilating with the pre- vious mental experience of the students. This difficulty is especially apt to beset the present day lecturer on sociology, for he is of necessity making constant demands for radical changes in the life-lo'ng points of view of his students. Therefore the discussion during the consultation period of the endless num- ber of concrete cases which are under the students' observation as district visitors, and to which their newly acquired principles and theories of social organizatio'n may be applied for verifica- tion, will naturally lead them to a clearer understanding and a more rational acceptance of the truths of social science.
Elsie W. Clews
Barnard College,
Columbia University
I
VI
REFORM OF SECONDARY EDUCATION IN GERMANY '
Since the introduction of a new curriculum into the higher schools of Prussia (1892) and of the other states of the Ger- man Empire, there has been a lull in the public discussion of the school question. This, however, does not mean that the the people as a whole are satisfied with the new order — for in- stance, the important question of a uniform system of accredit- ing graduates of the Gymnasium, Realgymnasium, and Ober- realschule is still unsettled — but rather that the results of the continually growing reform movement, inaugurated in 1892, are still felt, and that the Prussian minister of education com- mands complete confidence.^ The fact that the reform move- ment is the outcome of long discussion and of insight into the needs of the time has served to increase among all classes of our people a certain satisfaction with the experiment.
Sympathy with the new methods has in no way diminished, and their importance warrants now and then a detailed account of the status of the reform movement.
The most serious fault to be found with the present system in the higher schools is a universal one: the differences be- tween the various kinds of school are so great that they have almost no connection with each other. A transfer from a Latin school (Gymnasium or Realgymnasium) to a school where Latin has no place in the curriculum (Realschule or Oberreal- schule) is well-nigh impossible. In the Latin schools, the study of Latin is begun in the lowest classes; French in Quarta; the Gymnasium introduces Greek in Untertertia, the Real- Gymnasium, English; the Realschule and Oberrealschule ex- clude ancient languages entirely and begin the study of foreign languages with French. English takes second place and is
^ Translated from the author's manuscript by Alice Nisbet Parker ' This minister, von Bosse, has since resigned. — Editor
170
Reform of secondary education in Germany 1 7 1
begun in Untertertia. Should a father wish to send his son to one of the higher schools he must determine from the begin- ning whether the boy shall enter the Latin school and so pre- pare himself for official life, or for a professional or scientific career, or whether he shall turn to the school which will better prepare him for business life or for a subordinate career. In most cases the parents rightly select the Gymnasium, as by so doing they do not restrict their sons to the choice of any special line of work. This has produced an unnatural and unhealthy overcrowding of the Gymnasium and a regrettable increase in the number preparing for professional careers. It often happens, however, that a pupil shows neither taste nor ability for the ancient languages and so either leaves the school before graduation or else, thru excessive expenditure of strength and money, forces himself thru the stipulated amount of study to entitle him to the privilege of one-year military service. He then takes up a business career for which he has no adequate preparation. The valuable hours spent in the study of ancient languages and the classics are almost, if not entirely, wasted. The same time might have been utilized in acquiring knowledge which would be of untold value to him in his practical calling and which would also materially aid his general mental development. The father, however, who sends his son to a Realschule cuts him off forever, in spite of his possible gift for languages, from a professional career. Only exceptionally brilliant students are able to overcome the diffi- culties attending a rise to a professional career, after a course in the Realschule. This but proves the fact that strength and money were sacrificed that could have been much more profit- ably utilized.
The decision as to the choice of schools must take place be- fore the capacity and bent of the pupil have become pro- nounced. Hence mistakes, bitter disappointments, waste of time and working-power for the good of the individual and the community, are the inevitable results for which the present system in educational institutions of the first rank is account- able.
How to mitigate these marked evils was the question that
1 72 Educational Review [September
in the daily press, in pamphlets, and in public lectures sought for solution. Dr. Reinhart, director of the Goethe Gym- nasium in Frankfort-on-the-Main expressed the following opinion : " The different schools should retain their distinct in- dividuality, but should be so connected and their work so corre- lated that pupils may continue their studies together so far as may be, and all possible uniformity should exist in the curricu- lum. As the Volkschule is the general starting point for all, it follows of necessity that all who seek a higher education should receive a general and uniform grounding, after which each can choose his own path and go his own way." The Gymnasium and Realgymnasium, which now unite with the Realschule in a common foundation course, have taken the name of reform or pioneer schools.
What is then the curriculum of a " pioneer " ? The pioneer school is a Latin school like the Gymnasium and Realgym- nasium, but unlike these does not begin the study of foreign languages with Latin in Sexta, but usually with French, which is the only foreign language taught in the three lower classes. These three classes correspond fully to the three lower classes in the Real- or Ober-realschule which also confine instruction in foreign languages to French. Because, therefore, they do not include Latin, and because they form a common foundation for the higher schools, they are known as the " general foundation without Latin." The pioneer school begins the study of Latin in Untertertia and continues it thru Prima. As French is the only foreign language taught in the three lower classes of the pioneer schools, it is perfectly easy for pupils to enter Unter- tertia and take up English instead of Latin. In this manner it is possible for the Realschule with French and English to cor- relate with the Latin school and produce a school wherein the needs of all manner of students may be met; both those who will enter business life directly from the intermediate classes and those who will swell the ranks of the professional men.
It is claimed that the idea of a common foundation for all the higher schools is hatched in the brains of our many ** idealists " and " projectors of fantastic schemes." This is a
1900] Reform 0/ secondary education in Germany 173
mistake. No less a person than Comenius, the father of our new philosophic education, outlines in his Great Didactic a system which in its principal features agrees with that now in vogue in our pioneer schools. Among other things he says, " each language should be studied alone ; first the mother- tongue, next the language of a neighboring country, as I hold that the language in common use among cultured peoples should come first, then Italian, after that Greek, and so on ; al- ways one after the other and never two at tha same time, else they will become confused in the mind of the pupil. All pupils should have the same studies as far as possible."
The first to declare for the new system of a common founda- tion for all was Ostendorf, director of the Realgymnasium in Lippstadt and also of that in Diisseldorf. Whether the views of Comenius on the same subject were familiar to him is not known. It is interesting, however, to note that while his new ideas were unfolding, the same thoughts were working in Nor- way and in Denmark, but without his knowledge. This would seem to prove that the new system was the necessary outcome of the whole development of our modern culture. Ostendorf died before his theories could be put into operation.
The first practical trial of Ostendorf's method was made by Dr. Schlee, director of the Realgymnasium in Altona. After overcoming many difficulties, the first reform Tertia was opened at Easter, 1878. The instruction in foreign languages began in Sexta with French, English followed in Quarta and Latin in Untertertia. There was no Latin in the three lower classes. These three classes form the foundation for the three upper classes of the Realschule on the one side, and on the other for the six upper classes of the Realgymnasium. Thirty- two hours (6 + 6-1-5 + 5 +5 + 5) altogether are set aside for Latin. The examination of the Vntersekundaner of the Realgymnasiums, conducted by the Provincialschulrat Dr. Sahmeyer, which took place at Easter, 1881, was so successful that the minister of education expressed his conviction that satisfactory results in Latin are not necessarily obtained at the expense of other studies. There was no hesitation in recog- nizing the class as a fully equipped Realgymnasium class.
1 74 Educational Review [September
The first Abiturient examination was held at Easter, 1884. In character it was founded upon the general course of study in use in the different educational institutions. This system is designed for the Realgymnasium and as it was first introduced in Altona is known as the Altonaer-system. It has been intro- designed for the Realgymnasium, and as it was first introduced trow in Mecklenburg (1885), Magdeburg Guerickeschule (1887), Iserlohn (1892), Hildesheim (1893), Altenburg (1893), Ettenheim in Baden (1893), Osnabriick (1894), Harburg (1894), Baden-Baden (1895), and in Hamburg
(1896).
The question now to be decided is whether the necessary re- sults in Latin can be obtained in 32 hours weekly spread over six years, instead of in 43 hours weekly divided among nine years which was the general plan in the Realgymnasium. Di- rector Schlee writes in his report for 1888: '' There have been in the school 8 final examinations of graduates and in none of these were the expectations in regard to Latin disappointed. Six students passed the combined Latin and Greek Gymnasium examination. These facts seem to prove that Latin is not only learned but well-learned, and without special difficulty. The purpose is to give a clear and grammatical comprehension of Latin prose writers — namely, the best known historians — and also the poets whose influence is most felt upon our culture and literature, especially Horace." More recently he has said: " The new curriculum for the Realgymnasium (that is not Latin in the three lower classes) is now far beyond the experi- mental point. In the Altonaer reform gymnasium it has been in practice for 18 years, in Giistrow for 11 years, and in Magdeburg for 9 years. And while many just complaints were made in 1891 as to the unsuccessful results of the in- struction in Latin in the old Realgymnasiums, no cause for complaint has been found under the Altonaer system; in spite of the prejudice against cutting down the number of hours of instruction, the final examination of graduates is not made more difficult thereby." In connection with this opinion ex- pressed by a noted teacher of many years of experience and careful observation, there must be considered the attitude of
1900] Reform of secondary education in Germany 175
the ministry of education toward the Altonaer system. In the new Prussian program of studies it is said : '' For bind- ing together the Realgymnasium and the Realschule without Latin, the curricukim of both can be planned, until further notice, after the Altonaer system." As the system was about to be introduced into the Harburger Realgymnasium (1894), Director Schuralbach, in a critical article, said : " All such far-reaching reforms as are involved in the Altonaer system must naturally be regarded by the ministry with caution." Nevertheless the ministry of education has furthered the in- troduction of the Altonaer system and it is well known that measures proposed in its favor are received with all possible consideration. But above all we cannot be thankful enough that in conforming the principles of the new system to the public needs in education departures from the general hard and fast curriculum were allowed. The greatest possible free- dom in the formation of a curriculum works for the greatest possible good to the public. In this connection it may be re- marked that in a combined Realschule and Realgymnasium in Osnabriick, where knowledge of English is more important than knowledge of French, the ministry of public instruction has recommended the study of foreign languages to begin with English in Sexta, French in Quarta, and Latin in Untertertia. The desired rich and full vocabulary, which otherwise would be reached thru Latin or French in early instruction, is at- tained here thru study of German, to which many hours are given. In an order issued by the minister of education, Feb- ruary 16, 1897, Latin is accorded 30 hours, from Untertertia to Oberprima, while in the Altonaer system there are 32. From these instances one may infer that the Prussian ministry of education is in sympathy with the reform movement.
In spite of the recognized successful results of the instruc- tion in the Altonaer Realgymnasium, the hopes of a general adoption of this system have not been realized. Up to 1892 it had been introduced into but one school in Prussia, the Gue- rickeschule in Magdeburg. It was here that the Verein Deutschen Ingenieur discussed fully at a section meeting the
1 76 Educational Review [September
question of school reform and in a general meeting in 1886 took a survey of the whole movement. They said, in sub- stance : The new program of studies is so arranged as to give the students, up to a certain point, a similar education suited to modern needs, and to force only at the latest possible mo- ment that separation which an adequate preparation for vari- ous vocations makes necessary. For the future a uniform ar- rangement in the system of the higher schools should be sought for, by which the three- or four-years' course in the Volks- or Vorschule could be followed by a six-years' course. During the first three years of this course only one foreign language should be studied, namely, French or English, and during the next three years, the second foreign language should be taken up. Completeness of this course should give the right to a one-year military service. This six-years' course should be fol- lowed by a course of three years divided into two parts, the one should lay a foundation in the ancient languages, the other in modern languages, science, mathematics, and drawing, and so prepare the way for the various studies in the higher schools.
In this manner were indicated the lines upon which school reform should be worked out, especially in a way to meet the needs of the commercial and trading classes.
The interest in the question of the curriculum in the higher schools became livelier than ever. It found emphatic expres- sion in the huge petition addressed to the Prussian minister of education, to which 22,409 signatures were attached, and also in the founding of the Society for School Reform in April, 1889.
By order of the Emperor the so-called December conference was assembled in 1890. A large majority of those called to this conference would hear nothing of new needs or of new ways of meeting them. In this ultra-conservative spirit all questions were taken up and discussed. Nevertheless the new movement continued to make gratifying progress.
It is certain that school reform would not have progressed as far as it has, had it not been for two favorable circumstances. During the term of Count Zedlitz Triitzschler as minister of education in Prussia, the city authorities in Frankfort-on-the-
1900] Reform of secondary education in Germany 177
Main asked permission to open a common foundation course for the Realgymnasium and Gymnasium. The Oberburger- meister Adickes had investigated the Altonaer system in Altona and had become personally aware of the successful re- sults from the new curriculum. He found in Directors Rein- hardt and Kortegarn in Frankfort two educators who would ably support him in his design of testing the desirability of a common foundation without Latin, in Realgymnasium and Gymnasium. The minister approved the new experiment at Easter, 1892.
The address of the minister of education to the House of Representatives in March, 1892, is of fundamental impor- tance. In answer to the question as to whether the experi- ment in Frankfort was seriously meant, he replied that it must be far from his thoughts or intentions to countenance an ex- periment of a more or less ornamental nature; the venture was intended to solve a pressing and practical problem, and if it proved successful he should be converted to the belief that the curriculum in the higher schools must be changed. " Our higher schools at the end of the nineteenth century, and in view of the development of the national life, are no longer to be re- garded as existing entirely to prepare graduates for the uni- versities. It would be in my opinion an offense against the great educated masses of our people, against the numbers who will find their vocations in business life, should such a one-sided construction be adhered to." He added that he would not only encourage such experiments in other cities, but would put no obstacles in the way of like trials in places where state edu- cational institutions were established. The present minister of education. Dr. Bosse, takes the same stand.
This plan, first tried in Frankfort, is known as the Frank- furter system. While the Altonaer system applies only to the Realgymnasium the Frankfurter system may be used in both Realgymnasium and Gymnasium. They are alike in the fact that no Latin enters into the curriculum of the three lower classes, the study of Latin beginning in Untertertia. Their difference is that the Altonaer system introduces English in Quarta; the Frankfurter system but one foreign language,
1 78 Educational Review [September
French, in the three lower classes. After this common foun- dation course, a division takes place in the Frankfurter sys- tem, beginning in Untertertia. The class separates into two divisions, one excluding Latin, and preparing for the Real- schule and Oberrealschule, the other introducing Latin as a preparation for the Gymnasium and Realgymnasium. The general curriculum of 1892 is used in both. In the Latin division the pupils in both Unter- and Ober-tertia are kept together. The decision as to whether the Gymnasium or Real- gymnasium is to be entered, takes place after the transfer to Untersekundaner, in which class the Gymnasium introduces Greek, the Realgymnasium English in addition to the two foreign languages already studied.
In what way, then, is the pioneer school an advance ? In the strong emphasis it places upon German instruction principally and in the fact that only one foreign language, a modern one, is taught in the three lower classes, it shows itself to be founded upon a thoroly modern basis. From a social point of view, by providing the same instruction for all pupils up to the thir- teenth year, it does away with the confining, circumscribing effect of the old system, and postpones the decision as to whether Realgymnasium or Gymnasium is to be entered, until the pupil's fifteenth year. It is obvious that a decision as to future studies can be made much better at the end of a three- years' course in the higher schools than, as formerly, upon en- trance. Upon admission the boy has acquired but the simplest elements of human knowledge and has had no opportunity to test his abilities in more difficult work such as the higher school course affords. Should a mistake occur, — if, for example, a pupil should be transferred from Untertertia to the Latin divi- sion and should find that his tastes do not lie in that direction, — ^the transfer to the Realschule can be made with but little difficulty. At any rate the general introduction of the Frank- furter system lessens very much the difficulties attending the transfer of pupils from one school to another, at least from the intermediate classes up. This is an important consideration in cases where it becomes necessary, thru change of residence, for a parent to procure a transfer for his son. In this connection
i9oo] Reform of secondary education in Germany 179
it is important to note that, under this system, parents are enabled to keep their sons longer at home than formerly, and to give them the benefit of home influences during their terms in the higher grades. In smaller communities the reform school, with its Latinless Realschule, which, from tertia on, provides courses in Latin if desired, meets the needs of the ma- jority of the citizens fully.
The pioneer school seems to meet all educational require- ments : The principle, "" from the simple to complex," is ad- hered to in beginning with the study of French and following with that of Latin. The former is more suitable for early in- struction in grammatical declensions, as it has fewer forms; the rules impress themselves more readily on account of their fre- quent repetition and become more surely a mental possession. On the other hand, the French grammatical forms are so differ- ent from those of the German language that they present suffi- cient difficulty and require close application on the part of the pupil. It must also be taken into consideration that Latin has not in modern times its former position in general culture. To speak and to write Latin were at one time the chief requi- sites of a higher education, therefore it was thought necessary to begin its study as early as possible. To-day the mother- tongue counts for more than ever before, and English and French have come into favor; to write and to speak Latin are no longer considered necessary accomplishments. The study of Latin in the present day has for its object familiarity with and understanding of, the Roman authors. This result is quite possible when Latin is begun in Untertertia, as has been long and satisfactorily proved in Altona. It is only by reducing the number of hours spent upon ancient languages that time or place can be found for a program which shall be in all respects better suited to the needs of the time. The postponement of the study of Latin has done away with one chief embarrass- ment in language teaching; and that is that the pupil began the study of several foreign languages before he had attained any sureness in one, and also that the twelve- or thirteen-year old boy in LTntertertia (in Latin schools) carried on the study of three foreign languages at once. In conformity with the prin-
I
1 80 Educational Review [September
ciple of Comenius the " reform school " substitutes " one after the other '' for '' all together." The pupils in the three lower classes are well prepared, thru the study of French for six hours weekly, to overcome quickly the difficulties of Latin in Untertertia. After two years of Latin comes the introduc- tion in Untersekunda of Greek, in the Gymnasium, and of Eng- lish, in the Realgymnasium. Without further argument it can be seen that this arrangement gives the pupil most impor- tant advantages.
Many objections have been made to the system of beginning the study of Greek so late. The Frankfurter system sets aside 32 hours for Greek, while the general program gives 36. The difference is not important and is counterbalanced by the facts that the 32 hours continue thru the four upper classes and that the Untersekundaner is much better prepared for the compre- hension of Greek than the Untertertianer of the old system. Another mighty argument in favor of the reform system is that only those pupils begin the study of Greek who show special aptitude for it and interest in it. In the old Gym- nasium progress was materially hindered by the number of pupils in the class who were mentally unfitted for classical studies. Altho under the Frankfurter system more energetic work is required, the results are far better and the pleasure of teaching is greatly enhanced by the fact that the students gen- erally are interested in their work.
Experience, however, is more valuable than theory. Dr. Reinhart, director of the Reform-gymnasium in Frankfort, a devotee of the Greek and Roman classics, writes as follows in the report for the school year 1897-98: " The opening of the present year saw the first introduction of Greek into Unterse- kunda. During this year the pupils were carried so far into the construction and comprehension of Greek sentences, that they will be able in Obersekunda to begin an entire work in Greek. The apprehension that in boys of fourteen and fifteen years of age the memory would not be sufficiently keen and receptive for acquiring a new language has been absolutely removed. It has been proved, on the contrary, that the memory at this age is in better condition and more retentive than in the twelve- or
1900] Reform of secondary education in Germany 181
thirteen-year-old Tertianer. The general knowledge of lan- guages possessed by the Sekundaner lightens wonderfully the introduction of a new language; the acquaintance of a large number of foreign words helps materially in acquiring a new vocabulary. The Greek grammatical forms, much more than those of any other language, unfold so logically and legiti- mately that there is quite as much for the mind to grasp as for the memory to retain. On general educational principles, then, we cannot do better than to seize the exact age at which the mind is prepared for the study of this language and is ready to grasp each point from the beginning and to build logically upon it."
The pioneer schools, especially in Frankfort, have been sub- jected to repeated visits and inspection tests by the Provin- cial school board, which has reported to the ministry of edu- cation. Among the many opinions expressed by teachers, the result of visits to the reform school, the majority of which have been favorable — many Sauls have journeyed to Frank- furt, and many Pauls have returned home — I will quote the opinions of Directors Treutlein and Ramdohr, who were present during an entire hour of instruction in seven different Tertia classes. " A six-years' course in Latin, beginning in Untertia, is quite sufficient to attain the required results."
The standard of the pioneer schools in ancient languages is precisely that of the schools modeled upon the old plan. The Prussian minister of education feels, and has so expressed him- self, that it is incumbent upon the reform school in Frank- fort not to fall short of the standard of the old Gymnasium and Realgymnasiums. In the case of the pioneer school in Han- over, an order to this effect was issued to the city magistrate December 24, 1894.
That the minister of education is favorable to the pioneer schools is shown by his readiness to allow the Frankfurter sys- tem to be introduced into other schools and into State Gym- nasiums. The 15,000 M. set aside in the appropriation of the previous year for the purpose of promoting the Frankfurter system is an open expression of belief in the satisfactory results attained thru the reform movement. Von Miquel, the Prus-
1 82 Educational Review [September
sian minister of finance, is also an ardent advocate of the re- form schools, and warmly supported the proposition to intro- duce the Frankfurter system into the Realgymnasium and Gymnasium in Dantzig. It is also generally known that un- doubted interest in the reform movement exists in official circles.
It is then not to be wondered at that a notable number of Gymnasiums and Realgymnasiums have been converted to the Frankfurter system. They are the following: Frankfort a. M., three institutions — (Goethe-Gymnasium, Musterschule, and Woehlerschule, 1892); Hanover — (Leibniz-schule, 1895, Gymnasium and Realgymnasium) ; Lippstadt (Gymnasium and Realschule, 1895); Breslau (Realgymnasium zum HI. Geist, 1895), Barmen (Realgymnasium with Realschule, 1895); Gera (Realgymnasium, 1895); Ohrdruf in Thuringia (Progymnasium with Realschule, 1895); Dresden (Drei- konigschule and Realgymnasium, 1895); Witten (Realgym- nasium with Realschule, 1896); Breslau (Konigl. Friedrichs- gymnasium, 1896); Karlsruhe (Gymnasium and Realgym- nasium, 1896); Kiel (Oberrealschule with Realgymnasium, 1897) ; Charlottenburg (Gymnasium with Realschule, 1897) ; Schoneberg bei Berlin (Gymnasium with Realschule, 1897); Remscheid (Realgymnasium with Realschule, 1898); Gor- litz (Realgymnasium with Realschule, 1898); Dantzig (two schools, Stadt Gymnasium and Realgymnasium, 1899) ; So- lingen (Gymnasium with Realschule, 1890); Magdeburg (Konigl. Dom-gymnasium, 1900). In Aachen, Konigsberg, Stettin, Meiderich, negotiations are in progress for the intro- duction of the Frankfurter system. The Strasburger Post in its issue for November 15, 1898, states that the school com- missioners of the higher educational institutions in Strasburg have unanimously agreed to inform the imperial school board of their desire to introduce the reform school system into Stras- burg, as an addition to the Realschule of St. Johann, for which the three Latinless lower classes shall form a general founda- tion and shall constitute a reform Realgymnasium.
The pioneer schools, especially in Prussia, are municipal in- stitutions, so that the Government has it in its power only to
1900] Reform of secondary education in Germany 183
approve or to disapprove the decisions made. A disapproval, however, has never been known since 1892; on the contrary, it is said that reform schools have been established at once upon the expressed wish of the school administrations. These facts, therefore, cannot be reconciled with the oft-repeated assertions that the Prussian government is not in favor of the reform movement.
At Easter, 1899, there were in existence 11 higher schools following the Altonaer system and 21 following the Frank- furter system. The negotiations already pending show that the number will be substantially increased during the year.
L. ViERECK Brunswick,
Germany
VII DISCUSSION
AMERICAN HISTORY IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA
The article by Mr. Charles Welsh in the January number of the Educational Review on English history in American school text-books calls attention in a very interesting and practical way to the treatment of our relations with England, especially in war, by our text-book writers. In view of the fact that recent events have brought the English and American peoples into relations which must be much closer than ever be- fore, an examination into the records of American history found in English text-books should prove equally interesting and profitable.
Professor Munsterberg has shown very clearly in an article on " The Germans and the Americans " ^ that while the diplo- matic relations between these people may be friendly, the peo- ple themselves quite misunderstand each other. A mutual un- derstanding of the life and motives of any peoples is to be en- couraged. Well may the expression be underscored when speaking of the two branches of the Anglo-Saxons. Govern- ments may understand each other, and yet the peoples be quite estranged. When governments converse, it is in the smooth- tongued speech of diplomacy. Of this the people often under- stand but little. When the people of one nation communicate with another, quite a different form is used. Straightforward- ness, sincerity, even bluntness, are evident without the polish of phrase. In the end the government must reflect in diplo- matic coloring the feelings of its people. The feelings of a people grow out of the knowledge they possess. Therefore, the way in which the American looks at English history, and the point of view taken by the Englishman in noticing Ameri- can history, must necessarily influence the relations of these two peoples toward each other.
^ Atlantic monthly, September, 1899.
184
Discussion 185
It is indeed gratifying to notice the change of attitude taken by the writers of our most acceptable text-books of American history. This is noticeably true, especially with regard to the contest over the Stamp Act, involving the rights of represen- tation, the " Boston Massacre," the character of King George, and other well-known topics. Paragraphs appear now in American texts as " Representation," " Representative Insti- tutions," '' English Theory of Representation." " This wide departure," says one text, " between English and American theories of government can be traced back directly to the middle of the seventeenth century." Concerning the " Mas- sacre," the word is rarely if ever used unqualified. " A serious affray, known as the ' Boston Massacre; ' " " It is difficult to conceive why they (the British soldiers) were sent; " " Finally, a fight occurred, in which the soldiers fired, in self-defense, and killed several of the people. This was called the ' Boston Mas- sacre ' ; " are tempered expressions now found. As to poor George III., on both sides of the water are found plenty of ad- jectives ascribing private virtues to him, but public acts all re- sult from obstinacy, insanity, or firmness, according to conven- ience. The poor old man must have felt very uncomfortable with such a dual nature. Dr. Jekyll in private life and Mr. Hyde in public. Quotations are unnecessary to call to mind these various characterizations. Had the king no '' method in his madness ? " Why was he " attempting to exalt his own power and deprive them (the colonists) of theirs," taxing them " for this purpose? " The political philosophy of the age was that of Bolingbroke. Whigs and Tories had both contributed to show what '' party rule " could do. Bolingbroke said that the king must be supreme, not by any Divine right, but because it satisfies the '' ultimate end of all government," which is " the good of the people." Partisanship must be uprooted. " To espouse no party," according to Bolingbroke, "" but to govern like the common father of his people, is so essential to the char- acter of a patriot king that he who does otherwise forfeits the title. Instead of abetting the divisions of his people, he will endeavor to unite them and to be himself the center of their union. He will put himself at the head of his people in order to govern, or more properly to subdue, all parties." This gives
1 86 Educational Review [September
quite a different content to the words, the king's '' friends," which appear in so many of our texts. The '' friends " were not in theory party leaders. They aided the " patriot king " in ruUng for the good of the people, thru a government polit- ically undivided. It of course does not follow that either his own conduct or that of his ministers is to be justified. It may be explained, however, without such free resort to insanity.
A careful examination of the texts leads to the inevitable conclusion that English text-books have been fairer in present- ing the points of common history than have been the American. The tide has now turned, and of the latest texts this is not true. Nor are the reasons far to seek. Texts whose authors' names appear in the faculties of our representative educational institutions argue favorably for the just and fair presentation of the subject-matter.^ The writing of history text-books can be with us no longer an avocation.
That the spirit of fairness found in the larger English works has been preserved in the texts is evident. The collection made by Mr. Plimsoll, from which the Commissioner of Education has inserted extracts in one of his reports,^ admirably shows this. The spirit in which Pitt could pronounce that '' for gen- uine sagacity, singular moderation, and solid wisdom the Con- vention at Philadelphia shines without a rival," and Gladstone say of our Constitution, '' the greatest work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man," pervades these writings. No American texts denounce more roundly the acts of George III. " The king was more to blame than his min- isters," says one; and another, '' The chief causes (for the war) are to be sought in the high notions of prerogative held by George III., his infatuated and stubborn self-will, and in the equally absurd self-conceit of his English subjects." Cer- tainly no writer of our old line of texts could have found any- thing more suitable than those sentiments for his books. The same good example of appreciating the Americans is found in Bryce and in Green as in others, and it is equally well followed in the texts for the young. Speaking of Washington and
' An article on Text-books of American history explains this more fully. See Educational Review, December, 1898. 8 Report for 1894-95, p. 1757-1787.
1900] Discussion 187
Hamilton, Bryce says : " Washington stands alone and unap- proachable, like a snow-peak rising above its fellows into the clear air of the morning, with a dignity, constancy, and purity which have made him the ideal type of civic virtue in succeed- ing generations. No greater benefit could have befallen the republic than to have such a type set from the first before the eyes and mind of the people."
Of Hamilton : " Equally apt for war and for civil govern- ment, with a profundity and amplitude of view rare in practi- cal soldiers or statesmen, he stands in the front rank of a gen- eration never surpassed in history, a generation which includes Burke and Fox and Pitt and Grattan, Stein and Hardenberg and William von Humboldt, Wellington and Napoleon." Green, after pointing out in connection with the Boston Tea Party that " both Washington and Chatham were prepared to support the Government in its looked- for demand of redress," states that '' no nobler figure ever stood in the forefront of a nation's life." '' Even America hardly realized his greatness while he lived." In the same strain the texts say that the suc- cess of the American cause is attributed to " two things," which " assisted them greatly, one being the extraordinary powers as a general developed by a man among them, George Washing- ton; the other being the assistance that was sent over to them from France." " Ta Washington was mainly due the success of the colonists. This noble patriot might be described as the type of an English gentleman." " His character, great in it- self, seems greater when placed in contrast with the men that surrounded, and the opponents that confronted, him." The words " noble patriot " are striking when we remember that to the English Government of 1776 he was a rebel. Of Bunker Hill, it is said, " The attempt (to hold the hill) failed; but it proved to the colonists that it was possible for undisciplined patriots to meet on equal terms the best troops England could send against them." Valley Forge is described in part as fol- lows : " During the winter the soldiers of Washington were shoeless and starving in Valley Forge, near Philadelphia, but inspired by the noble patience of their leader, they bore their sufferings bravely, and thenceforward America had decidedly the best of the war." The results of the war are particularly
1 88 Educational Review [September
interesting. " England had much fighting to do in America, where she was beaten. She was fighting for a bad cause, and freedom and good government came from her defeat. While America gained very much, England lost little more than the lives and the money spent in the war." " The resistance in America had taught them (the English) the lesson that, pow- erful as the English government was, it could not do as it pleased. From that time there was more consideration for the wishes of the governed in England itself than there had been before." It would not be representing them as English writ- ings perhaps, were the following to be omitted : " For many years after the war there was ill-feeling between the two coun- tries, and quarrels frequently arose, but in our day the feeling is warm and friendly. The British islands are looked to as the central home of the widespread Anglo-Saxon race, and even Americans own our queen as the head of the English-speaking peoples of the world." " The inhabitants (of America) are fond of business and clever at making money ; wealth, perhaps, occupies too high a place in the thoughts of many." *
It is only in reading these various accounts of the Revolu- tion that English pupils get a knowledge of American history. No courses in American history are given. In fact it is largely due to the efforts of Mr. Samuel Plimsoll that reading books in history have been prepared and are now in use in the lower grades, ranging from the second to the seventh standard. They are more correctly called reading books than history text-books, for if we are to consider the account given by Professor Ste- phens on the English method of teaching history,^ to be the method generally followed, it is a lecture method with plenty of reading by the pupils. The compilations made in accordance with Mr. PlimsolFs plan serve as the reading material. The teacher, then, must stimulate the interest and direct the read- ing. That suggests the need of our own schools. It is well known that in too many cases the history is taught by the teacher who has nothing else that period. Our texts are now satisfactory. Our teachers must be those who know how to
* For a view of the English attitude in the civil war, see McCarthy, History of our own times, II : C. 43. ^ Proceedings of the National Educational Association, 1896, p. 623.
1900] Discussion 189
use them. The vaguely-defined desire to " teach patriotism " can no longer be the excuse for emphasizing ill-chosen facts found in poor text-books. In order that the evil may not per- petuate itself, those called upon to teach our classes in history, whether the period of American Revolution, or any other pe- riod, must be not those who were taught it that way themselves, but those who have mastered the spirit of the new texts, the method of historical thinking, and the needs of the rising gen- eration, found in a broad, intelligent patriotism, based not upon sentiment, but upon principle.
George G. Groat
State Normal College, Albany, N. Y.
VIII REVIEWS
Education in India— By William I. Chamberlain, Ph. D., (Columbia Uni- versity Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology, and Education). New York : The Macmillan Co. 1899. 109 p. 75 cents.
India fascinates us and has a perennial interest for the historian, with its diverse nationahties, its ancient learn- ing and religions, and its present social problems. We expect the history of education in such a country to have a special interest, an interest which has been but whetted by reading Mr. Laurie's account in Pre-Christian education. The history of India divides naturally into that before the ad- vent of the British and that since. This division Mr. Cham- berlain has preserved, and in Part I we have an intensely interesting account of the moral conceptions, the civilization, the influences of Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Mohamme- danism, and the early indigenous education prior to the eighteenth century. Here is given the historical educational perspective, which is followed by four chapters dealing with British efforts to reform education during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the fifth chapter there is a comprehen- sive view of the present condition of education in India, its his- torical development, its detailed organization and administra- tion, and some interesting statistics relating to the attendance, expenditure, nominations, and the special schools that are es- tablished to reach certain classes. Having given us this valu- able information about the progress of education in India, the author does not leave us to imagine that there may be problems connected with the administration of this system, but takes us into his confidence and discusses in a delightful manner the more important problems of education in India, as he has seen them in that country. This is a valuable chapter, and makes an effective closing for the book. He says that " a generation is growing up in India of young men who have no deep re- ligious convictions, no finer moral principles, no well-defined
190
Reviews 1 9 1
ideals of conduct," and he foresees much difficulty in the rela- tionship of religion and education, a difficulty which still agi- tates the mother country.
This book is well planned, well balanced, and well written. There is a vitality about it which is too often lacking in our contributions to the history of education.
George H. Locke
Chicago University
The Logical bases of education — By J. Welton, M. A. London and New York : The Macmillan Co. 1899. 288 p. $1.50.
One should always prefer to say nice things about new ven- tures, especially when there is promise of reaching the firmest foundations. But logic is not a venture for this day, and edu- cation is about as old as human history. This book strives to bring logical and educational interests together, particularly for the benefit of the latter and not of the former. Its aim " is to set forth the rational bases of all true educational work " (p. v). The real support of this ambitious end is the author's conviction that a certain '* treatment of logic appeals to [teachers] as both helpful and interesting, especially if its reality is brought home by an analysis of actual specimens of human reasoning" (p. vii), — as tho reasoning and education were identical activities ! One might well question how has it happened that the race has run along so well without these two interests having been unified until the very end of the century ? The limitation of the book consists in a certain technical dis- tinction of terms, which could be overlooked, were it not for the fact that many of the younger students of education will have some difficulty in broadening and freeing their concep- tions, should they happen to depend upon this guide for their introduction to educational theory. Let it be confessed that there is not only assumption, but also presumption in maintain- ing that the logical attitude and the educational attitude are identical — tho it is true that the actual teacher is often the best type of an illogical development. There is everywhere apparent in the work a common fault in educational thinking, viz., a ready yet covert interchange of the subjective and the objective view of educating.
192 Educational Review [September
The book is an entertaining account of the logical theory which has grown up since the shattering of the scholastic shell some fifty years ago. The author has not broken any new ground, but has borrowed from Bosanquet, Bradley, and others, as is indicated by frequent citation and quotation. There is a strong Hegelian flavor from beginning to end. The book comprises seventeen chapters, of which the first four treat of the nature of knowledge in general, while the following twelve are limited to the usual topics in logic. A suspicion early incited is found to be true. The last brief chapter on logic and education is added almost solely for the sake of the title. The teacher, while no doubt wholesomely improved by a reading of the logic discussions, will be compelled to review and to reconstruct the entire volume before he can adjust its claims to his work with growing minds. An analytical table of contents and a good index render the volume very con- venient for use.
Edward F. Buchner
New York University
Notes on the development of a child, Parts III. and IV. — By Milicent Washburn Shinn, Ph. D. Vol. I., Nos. 3 and 4, University of California studies. Berkeley: Published by the University. 1899. Pp. 179-424. 70 cents.
In 1893 Dr. Shinn published Part I of this series, which contains an Introduction by Professor LeConte, in which he states: "What is wanted most of all in this (science of the child), as in every science, is a body of carefully observed facts. ... I am quite convinced that the observations herein re- corded are thoroly reliable." Professor Preyer, upon receiving Parts I and II, wrote me, dated Wiesbaden, January 20, 1895 * " Miss Shinn's Notes on the development of the child ought to be translated for German mothers."
These Notes are studies which Dr. Shinn made of her niece, beginning at birth and continuing thru the third year, and in a few instances to the seventh year. In Part I. (pp. 1-88) and Part II. (pp. 89-178) is noted the development of the senses. Parts III. and IV. (pp. 179-424, bound together) complete
I poo] Reviews I93
the development of the senses and further deal with movement and food-taking.
The general headings in Parts III. and IV. are Sensations of muscular activity, motion, and position (pp. 179-210); Or- ganic sensations (pp. 211-236); General sensation (pp. 237- 298); Spontaneous movement (pp. 299-302); Reflex move- ment (pp. 303-305); Instinctive movements (pp. 306-324); Equilibrium and locomotion (pp. 325-385); Instincts con- nected with food-taking (pp. 386-392); Other instinctive movements (pp. 392-396).
Pages 397 to 419 are ^iven to " Summary and tables re- lating to the non-ideational movements." These Tables are comparisons of the observations of Preyer, Mrs. Moore, Dar- win, Sully, Mrs. Hall, Tracy, Miss Shinn, and manuscript records by Mrs. Wood, Mrs. Sharp, and Mrs. Beatty. Two of the very most important tables — 3 and 7 — are on Dr. Shinn's observations alone. Table 3 gives in chronological order the Development of grasping and Table 7 shows the chronological succession of Movements of equilibrium and locomotion. The work closes (pp. 420-424) with " Other records of the instinctive movements " from manuscript records of Mrs. Beatty, Mrs. Sharp, and Mrs. Wood.
This is, perhaps, the fullest and best study of an individual child that has thus far been made. Miss Shinn, it seems to me, when she began her investigations was most happily fitted for the work. Her training and education were just such as pre- pared her to see the things correctly in the child. Being the aunt of the child caused her to be able to put aside the tempta- tions which come to a parent — to see more than really is in the child — yet being a woman she has the mother-love which pos- sesses female humanity and so could approach the child with the love so needed to understand child-life. Also she kept studying all the time along lines which would keep her in close touch with child nature.
There are several good ways to study children, yet I am pretty well convinced that for practical home purposes nothing can equal the studies on the individual child, as is the case here. Also I believe that no other lines of investigation will do more for the science of the child than such as these Notes. For the
194 Educational Review [September
past three years I have been using Parts I. and 11. of these Notes in my classes in this institution and I have found them most helpful, and Parts III. and IV. are contributing a great deal at this present time.
As paidology grows and becomes better understood, these Notes by Dr. Shinn will increase in value. I know of no other matter which is more helpful to me in my paidological work than such studies as these, interpreted thru the studies which I have made and am continuing to make of my own child.
Oscar Chrisman
State Normal School, Emporia, Kan.
The Hygiene of transmissible diseases — By A. E. Abbott, M. D., Pro- fessor of Hygiene and Bacteriology, University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia : W. B. Saunders. 311 p. $2.00.
This book embodies the substance of a portion of the lectures on general hygiene given by the author at the University of Pennsylvania. It is, therefore, primarily intended for medical students. The mode of treatment is, however, sufficiently simple to make it wholly intelligible to any properly qualified teacher of physiology and hygiene in secondary schools. Be- ginning with a brief treatment of the causation of disease in general, the author proceeds to discuss the causation, modes of dissemination and prevention of special diseases, some of which are known to be caused by bacteria, and others of which the causes are not yet accurately established. Among the most prominent diseases considered are typhoid fever, tuberculosis, pneumonia, diphtheria, influenza, tetanus, smallpox, scarlet fever, whooping-cough, malarial fever, and yellow fever. The author also discusses in a brief but exceedingly clear and satis- factory way a few of the principal diseases due to animal para- sites. The chapters which deal with these subjects are fol- lowed by others giving general and special precautions against the spread of infectious diseases, and those which relate to the management of persons who are suffering from communicable diseases of all kinds. It has been the misfortune of the writer of this notice, as doubtless of many other teachers who wish to give a brief summary of some of the more obvious and prac- tical important points connected with the nature and spread of
I poo] Reviews 195
communicable diseases, to have to search very widely for facts in regard to them. Reports of State boards of health, manuals of hygiene, most of them more or less obsolete, and treatises on bacteriology which usually are not written in English, have to be examined at considerable length to get together even a brief series of talks on the subject of the more obvious and important relations of disease-germs to the health of the public and the individual. Dr. Abbott's book places all desirable data in re- gard to this matter before the unprofessional reader in a thoroly compact and intelligible form, and not only includes results compiled from the most trustworthy sources at home and abroad, but also contains a large number of original ob- servations and studies.
It may seem to many teachers that the introduction of topics of this character into high school classes of physiology and hygiene is unwarranted by the time given to the subject which they are teaching and by the immature character of the pupils with whom they deal. It has, however, been the writer's ex- perience that no portion of his teaching has interested pupils more, or has seemed to give them more practical and valuable facts for the conduct of their own daily life, hygienically con- sidered, than matter of this very sort. To any teacher who feels disposed to introduce some instruction of this kind into his own class work. Dr. Abbott's manual offers by far the best compendium at present available.
Joseph Y. Bergen
English High School, Boston, Mass.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS
Mention of books in this place does not preclude extended critical notice hereafter
The many readers of Montaigne will be helped and de- lighted by Introduction aux essais de Montaigne, by Edme Champion. The author's charming studies in the civilization of the Renaissance period serve as an interpretation of Mon- taigne's own work (Paris: A. Colin, 1900. 313 p. 3 fr.
50 c). C. L. Howard's Primary number is a refreshingly
unconventional and thoughtful text-book for the teacher's use (St. Louis, Mo. : W. S. Bell & Son, 1899. 72 p. 25 cents.).
1 96 Educational Review [September The sketches entitled Twelve English poets, by Blanche
Wilder Bellamy, which originally appeared in the Outlook, have been collected in book form. Their purpose is to show the direct line of descent of English poetry (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1900. 513 p. 85 cents). Opera-goers will find much en- tertaining and instructive reading in A guide to the operas, by Esther Singleton. It contains excellent photographs of the best-known opera singers (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.,
1899. 350 P-)- To those whose library of poets must of
necessity be small or in whom true love for poetry has never been awakened, Henry S. Pancoast^s Standard English poems, Spenser to Tennyson, will prove an inspiring and stimulating possession. The selections are representative and judiciously chosen (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1899. 749 p.
$1.50). Composition and rhetoric for schools, by Robert
Herrick and Lindsay Todd Damon, does a valuable work in including, without more expenditure of time, the usual Fresh- man course of rhetoric in colleges, thus greatly benefiting those who never enter college and saving time for others ( Chicago :
Scott, Foresman & Co., 1899. 466 p. $1). A capital
edition of Silas Marner for school use has been brought out by George Armstrong Wauchope (Boston : D. C. Heath & Co.,
1899. 259 p. 40 cents). Dr. Albert B. Fausfs volume
of selections from Heine's prose, for school and college use, is an unusually judicious and carefully chosen collection (New
York: The Macmillan Co., 1899. 341 p.). An annotated
edition of Charles Deslys' Benjamine has been published by F. Julien, Officier D' Academic (New York: Longmans, Green
& Co., 1899. 115 p.). The listening child is a particularly
valuable and interesting collection of English verse classics by Lucy W. Thacher. Children of all ages should owe her a debt of gratitude (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1899.
387 p. $1.25). Books XIX and XX of Homer's Iliad in
Greek, edited by Edward Bull Clapp, have appeared in the College Series of Greek Authors (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1899.
441 p. $1.90). Second year Latin, edited by Greenough,
D'Ooge, and Daniell, is a departure from the usual Caesar's Commentaries and offers a varied and wide selection. It is a valuable contribution to school literature (Boston: Ginn &
I poo] Reviews 197
Co., 1899. 497+ 188 p. $1.40). The last of the Mo- hicans, edited by W. N. Wickes, has appeared in the Pocket EngHsh Classics Series (New York : The Macmillan Co., 1899.
451 p. 25 cents). The Merchant of Venice has been pub-
Hshed in the same series, edited by Charlotte Whipple Under- wood (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1899. 207 p. 25
cents). The First hook of the graded literature readers y
edited by Harry Pratt Judson and Ida C. Bender, augurs well for the great success of the series. It is capitally planned and arranged and the illustrations add greatly to its value (New
York : Maynard, Merrill & Co., 1899. 128 p. 25 cents) .
Luther's Schriften, edited by W. H. Carruth, makes accessible to the college student a representative collection from the writ- ings of this comparatively little read (in this country) author (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1899. 362 p.). A course in exposi- tory writing, by Gertrude Buck and Elizabeth Woodbridge, is a clever book embodying most helpful and practical sugges- tions. Its ideas would greatly lessen the difficulties of com- position writing (New York : Henry Holt & Co., 1899. 292 p.
$1). Africa, as seen by its explorers, is a compilation of
extracts from the writings of explorers from Herodotus down to the present day. As a time-saving book it serves well its purpose. Edited by T. J. Webb, B. A. (London: Edward
Arnold, 1899. 266 p. 2s.). English history, by E. S.
Symes, reads like a charming story, and will interest girls and boys. It is admirably illustrated (London: Edward Ar- nold, 1899. 292 p. 2s. 6d.). ^James A. Harrison edits a
new collection of the Letters of Madame De Sevigne. They are so selected as to form a history of the reign of Louis XIV. (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1899. 193 p.). A history of Eng- land for high schools and academies, by Katherine Coman and Elizabeth K. Kendall, is designed to meet the requirements recently adopted by several colleges and universities. It is more than a narrative of events and shows what factors have combined to produce modern Britain (New York: The Mac- millan Co., 1899. 507 p. $1.25). Schiller's Thirty
years' war, edited by Arthur H. Palmer, is an abridged edition designed for use as a text-book (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1899. 202 p. 80 cents). An invaluable book for teach-
198 Educational Review [September
ers is Wilbur S. Jackman's Nature study for grammar grades
(New York: The Macmillan Co., 1899. 4^2 p. $1).
The Cable story book for school reading contains several of Mr. Cable's most charming stories, selected for their already proved success with school children. It is edited by Mary S. Burt and Lucy L. Cable (New York : Charles Scribner's Sons,
1899. 176 p. 60 cents). In A catalogue of authors,
Houghton & Mifflin have prepared short biographical sketches of authors whose works they publish, together with a list of the works of each. It is handsomely gotten up (Cam- bridge: The Riverside Press, 1899. 205 p. 25 cents).
Mein Leben von Johann Gottfried Seume has been edited with introduction and notes by J. Henry Senger (Boston: Ginn
& Co., 1899. 136 p.). Dorsey, the young inventor, by
Edward S. Ellis, is an attractive and instructive book for boys (New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1899. 297 p.
$1.25). ^John Leslie Hall has followed up his translation of
Beowulf by a volume of Old English idylls, designed to give a panoramic view of the Teutonic conquest of England (Boston :
Ginn & Co., 1899. 108 p.). Franklin T. Baker has edited
an excellent selection of Browning's shorter poems, suited for boys and girls (New York : The Macmillan Co., 1899. 250 p.
25 cents). Selections from Erckmann-Chatrian's charming
Contes fantastiques have been made and edited by Edward S. Joynes. They are easy reading for students of French (New
York: Henry Holt & Co., 1899. 172 p. 50 cents).
Josepha Schrakamp's Supplementary exercises are meant to accompany Das Deutsche Buch, and are an excellent drill in grammar for beginners (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1899.
109 p. 50 cents). Dryden's Palamon and Arcite has been
edited by Percival Chubb and appears in the Pocket English Classics Series (New York : The Macmillan Co., 1899. 163 p.
25 cents). Patriotic nuggets contains choice sayings of
America's most prominent American statesman, gathered by John R. Howard (New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert,
1899. 204 p. ) . Insects, their structure and life, by George
H. Carpenter, is an outline sketch of the whole subject of entomology, admirably planned and arranged (London: J. M. Dent & Co., 1899. 404 p. $1.75). The young citizen,
1900] Reviews 199
by C. F. Dole, is a most valuable and instructive book for 3^oung people. It cannot fail to interest them (Boston: D. C.
Heath & Co., 1899. 194 p. 45 cents). The Siege of
Troy has been edited, from MS. Harl. 525, by C. H. A. Wager, with an elaborate introduction, notes, and glossaries (New
York: The Ma^millan Co., 1899. 126 p. $1.25). The
Third reading book in the Columbus Series is now out, by W. T. Vlymen (New York: Schwartz, Kirwin & Fauss, 1899.
256 p.). Practical physical exercises, by Louis Pepper and
Wm. H. Wiley, contain simple directions for exercises to be used in the first eight grades, with accompanying illustrations. The music is inexcusable (Terre Haute, Ind. : The Inland
Pub. Co., 1899. 120 p. 80 cents). Cinq histoires, edited
by Meras and Stern, is a charming collection for those who have passed the preliminary stage in the study of French (New
York: Henry Holt & Co., 1899. 152 p. 80 cents). Jung
S fillings Lehensgeschichte, by Sigmon M. Stern, is another valuable contribution to the new Modern Language Series
(New York: Henry Hoh & Co., 1899. 284 p. $1.20).
An excellent edition of Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm has been brought out, with introduction and notes by Starr Willard Cutting (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1899. 224 p. 60 cents). — Cyr's Fifth reader is composed of selection far better than that of the average reader (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1899. 432 p.). A class-hook of practical physiology contains pre- cise directions for experimental and chemical work. It will be very valuable to students (Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 1899. 273 p. $1.75). Ernest Seton Thomp- son has collected, for school reading, four stories from that most fascinating book. Wild animals I have known. It is en- titled Loho, Rag and Vixen (New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1899. 147 p. 60 cents). Webster's Collegiate
dictionary is an abridgment of the International, designed for the special use of college students. It is in compact form, and is in all respects excellent and authoritative (Springfield: G. & C. Merriam & Co. 1062 p). Cairn's Introduc- tion to rhetoric presents the subject in accordance with
modern views (Boston : Ginn & Co., 1899. 270 p. $1).
A new and handsome edition of Silas Marner, capitally illus-
200 Educational Review [September
trated by Reginald Birch, has been brought out by Dodd,
Mead & Co., (New York. 1899. 284 p. $2). Edward
Everett Hale has edited the Song of Hiawatha, with introduc- tion and notes ( New York, Boston, New Orleans : University
Publishing Co., 1899. 167 p.). Representative poems of
Robert Burns, with Carlyle's essay on Burns, has been edited by Charles Lane Hanson (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1899. 84 p.
45 cents). Shakespeare's Tragedy of Macbeth has been
edited by L. A. Sherman, with a view to bringing out the ethical and aesthetic meaning of Macbeth (New York: Henry
Holt & Co., 1899. 199 p. 60 cents). Anatole France's
charming story, Le crime de Sylvestre Bonnarid, has been edited, with introduction, by C. H. C. Wright (New York:
Henry Holt & Co., 1899. ^79 P- ^^ cents). Paul Elmer
More has a new translation of The Promethus bound of JEs- chylus, with introduction and notes (Boston and New York:
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1899. 106 p. 75 cents). To
George Herbert Palmer we are also indebted for a translation of The Antigone of Sophocles, with introduction and notes (Boston and New York : Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1899. 100 p.
75 cents). Goethe's Hermann und Dorothea has been edited
by James Taft Hatfield (New York: The Macmillan Co.,
1899. 187 P- 60 cents). From Chaucer's Canterbury
tales, The prologue, The knight's tale, and The nun's priest's tale. Parts I and II, have been edited by Frank Jewett Mather, in the Riverside Literature Series (Cambridge: Houghton,
Mifflin & Co., 1899. 25 p. each. Single no., 15 cents).
Collection of poetry for school reading, by Marcus White, con- tains the usual old favorites and stand-bys. It is for children of from ten to fifteen years (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1899. 175 P- 50 cents). The Wooster primer is an ex- cellent little book, by Lizzie S. Wooster (Topeka, Kan. : Crane
& Co., 1899. 96 p. Professor Edwin Herbert Servis's
A -first manual of composition is a useful and well-thought-out book designed to connect grammatical with rhetorical study. It is to be followed by a Second manual (New York : The Mac- millan Co., 1899. 236 p. 60 cents). — —A Three-year pre- paratory course in French, by Charles F. Kroeh, is meant for those who have already studied two years, and covers all re-
1900 J Reviews 201
quirements for admission to colleges, etc. It contains excel- lent material (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1899. 388 p.
$1). The trail of the sand-hill stag is one of Mr. Ernest
Seton-Thompson's most poetic and beautiful stories. The book is very artistic in its make-up (New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1899. 93 p. $1.50). Another book
thoroly artistic and poetic in every sense is Bob, the story of our mocking-bird J by Sidney Lanier. Its charm would be felt by old and young. Illustrations by A. R. Dugmore (New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 67 p. $1.50). Nature
pictures by American poets is a classified collection, depicting nature in all her phases, selected and edited by Annie Russell Marble (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1899. 205 p.
$1.25). Connected passages for Latin prose writing, by
Maurice W. Mather and Arthur L. Wheeler, has appeared in Harper's Latin Series. It is for practice in narrative writing
(New York: Harper & Bros., 1899. 206 p.). A revised
edition of Wentworth's Plane geometry has appeared. It is unusually clear and well-printed (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1899.
256 p.). Professor George Saintsbury's Matthew Arnold
is more of a critical work or a discussion than a biography. It is delightfully written and very interesting (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1899. 232 p. $1.25). A most valua- ble and helpful work for beginners is Alfred Earl's Elements of natural philosophy. It will be of special assistance to those who are able to carry on practical work in science (London :
Edward Arnold, 1899. 320 p. 4s. 6d.). Corn plants, by
Fr. L. Sargent, is in every way calculated to arouse and sus- tain the interest of children in the study of grains. Teachers will find it useful supplementary reading (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1899. 106 p. 75 cents).
A primer of French verse, edited by Frederic Spencer,
will greatly aid advanced students in reading correctly and intelligently. The selections are of the best (Cambridge, Eng- land: The University Press, 1899. 258 p. 75 cents).
High-school hymnal, by Irving Emerson, contains selections well-chosen both as to words and music (Boston : D. C. Heath
& Co., 1899. 175 P- 35 cents). Episodes from Les deux
rois of Dumas is one of a series designed to provide con-
202 Educational Review [September
tinuous and interesting reading for school children. Edited, with notes, by F. H. Hewitt (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899. 108 p. IS. 6d.). French reading for begin- ners, edited by Oscar Kuhms, contains well-graded, fresh, and interesting selections (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1899.
310 p. 70 cents). Eugene Labiche's amusing comedy, La
grammaire, has been edited, with introduction and notes, by Herman S. Piatt (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1899. 62 p. 40
cents). Moulds, mildews, and mushrooms, by Lucien
Marcus Underwood, will be found an invaluable and much- needed guide to the study of fungi and their literature (New
York: Henry Holt & Co., 1899. 237 p. $1.50). The
teaching botanist, by Professor William F. Ganong, meets the problem of the elementary presentation of botany as a science in high school or college. It is essentially a laboratory manual (New York : The Macmillan Co., 1899. 270 p. $1 ). First steps in English, by Albert Le Roy Bartlett, is a simple and attractive introduction to the study of grammar (New
York: Silver, Burdett & Co., 1899. 173 p. 38 cents).
Materials for German prose composition contains excellent matter for translation into German for students who have al- ready had some practice in this line. The volume includes Professor Von Jagemann's English-German vocabulary (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1899. 133 + 168 p. 90 cents). Albert Le Roy Bartlett follows up his First steps in Eng- lish by The essentials of language and grammar. It is gotten up in the same attractive style (New York: Silver, Burdett
& Co., 1899. 318 p. 62 cents). Organic education, by
Harriet M. Scott and Gertrude Buck, has many excellent help- ful features, but seems to fail in comprehension of the child of kindergarten age (Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., 1899.
344 p. $1.25). William P. Trent's John Milton is almost
a work of supererogation. It is, however, written with the author's known skill and is full of enthusiasm, and may serve a purpose which longer books have failed to accomplish (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1899. 285 p. 75 cents). Introduction to the prose and poetical works of John Mil- ton, by Hiram Corson, will greatly help students in forming a true idea of the man, not only as a poet, but as an influence
ipoo] Reviews 203
in religion and politics (New York : The Macmillan Co., 1899.
303 p. $1.25). Side-lights on American history, by
Henry W. Elson, is intended to supplement the text-book by enlarging upon and illuminating its important facts. Teach- ers will find it most helpful (New York: The Macmillan Co.,
1889. 397 p. 75 cents). Teachers and superintendents
interested in the problems of geography in the lower grades will receive much encouragement and many valuable sugges- tions from Reynold's The teaching of geography in Switzer- land and North Italy (London, C. J. Clay & Sons, 1899. 112 p. 75 cents). Professor Thilly of the University of Mis- souri is the author of a clear and well-balanced text-book en- titled Introduction to ethics (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1900. 346 p. $1.25). Mr. J. H. Gardiner, in- structor in English at Harvard University, has made an excel- lent supplementary book for students of English composition in his Forms of prose literature (New York: Charles Scrib-
ner's Sons, 1900. 498 p. $1.50). Professor Shaw is
quite justified in the opinion he expresses in his introduction to the English translation of Ostermann's Interest in its relation to pedagogy. It is a suggestive and helpful book (New
York: E. L. Kellogg & Co., 1900. 150 p. $1.00). We
greet with pleasure the new and more compact edition of Parkin's Edward Thwing. Every reader of this book must carry away some of the inspiration which flows from Thwing's life and character (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1900.
518 p. $2.00). Few books could be of more interest to
thoughtful Americans just now than Colonial civil service, by Mr. A. Laurence Lowell. It gives accurate information re^ garding the training of colonial officials in England, Holland, and France (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1900. 346 p.
$1.50). Among ourselves is the title of a series of practical
helpful talks by President Taylor of Emporia, Kan. Every page reflects the writer's sound sense, good humor, and insight into human nature (New York: E. L. Kellogg & Co., 1900.
149 p. 50 cents). Three charming little volumes have
just been issued in the Temple Primer Series — Koch's Roman history, Dutt's Civilisation of India, and Dean Spencer's His- tory of the English Church. They are compact and eminently
204 ' Educational Review
readable (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1900. 40 cents
each). Professor Francis Hovey Stoddard's Evolution of
the English novel is a book of unusual charm and insight. The several essays are marked by quiet humor, knowledge of hu- man nature, and helpful, constructive criticism (New
York: The Macmillan Co., 1900. 235 p. $1.50). The
increased attention given to Ovid in the secondary schools has led to Selections from Ovid, edited by Dr. Anderson of Williamston, S. C. (New York: University Publishing
Co., 1899. 258 p. $1). The Prince's story-hook, edited
by George Lawrence Gomme, is a sumptuously dressed collection of historical stories from English romantic litera- ture. It is an attractive gift-book for boys and girls (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1900. 392 p.
$2.50). The table-talk of the almost forgotten John
Selden has bee'n edited, with a capital introduction, by Robert Waters (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1899. 250 p.
$1). The second part of Professor Gudeman's scholarly
Latin literature of the empire, containing the poetry, has just appeared. It is a fine addition to the resources of the college teachers of Latin, and ought to help some of them climb up out of their time-honored ruts (New York : Harper & Brothers,
1899. 494 p. $2). We cannot help feeling that, with all
its ingenuity. Miss Aiken's Exercises in mind-training are based on a false psychology and that they are essentially me- chanical. In the list of names to be memorized in connection with the study of history there are some amusingly worthless worthies (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1899. 122 p.
$1). Professor Macdonald of Bowdoin College has added
the period from 1606- 1775 to that previously covered by his Select charters and other documents illustrative of American history. Every live teacher of American history will have this book, and its companion previously published, within easy reach (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1899. 400 p. $2).
It is hard to keep track of the rapidly growing text-book
literature on the subject of electricity. Mr. Paley Yorke's Magnetism and electricity sets forth the elementary facts in a well-ordered way (London: Edward Arnold, 1899. 264 p. 3s. 6d.).
IX EDITORIAL
f
The thirty-ninth annual meeting of the '^^^M^etYnl^*'''' National Educational Association, held at
Charleston, S. C, July 7-13, was the smallest in many years. The registered attendance will probably be found not to exceed 2900. The reasons for this are primarily the lack of interest among the rank and file of the teachers of the Southern States and the unwillingness of those in the North and West to expose themselves to the anticipated sum- mer heat of that latitude. As a matter of fact the heat was not so oppressive as at Chicago in 1887 or at Milwaukee in 1897, and those who were so fortunate as to be lodged in pri- vate houses were at 'no time uncomfortable. The Charleston Hotel, however, was anything but satisfactory, and those who had taken rooms there in order to be near headquarters were to be pitied. Educationally and socially, however, the Charles- ton meeting was eminently successful. The program con- tained many features far above the average, and there was general agreement that the response by Dr. Lyte to the ad- dresses of welcome, the address on " The small college " by President Harper, that by Booker T. Washington, the papers by Miss Edmund, Miss Buchanan, and Mrs. Cooley, and the paper by President Beardshear fully sustai'ned the best tradi- tions of the Association. The Council carried on two inter- esting discussions, one on Superintendent Gove's paper on '' Education in our new possessions," and one on the personal report submitted by President Harper of the committee on the national university project. Professor Hinsdale's summary of the educational progress of the year was scholarly and illumi- nating. More than one old member of the Association spoke with enthusiasm of Preside'nt Thwing's capital paper, over- flowing with healthy optimism and good-will, presented before the Department of Higher Education.
205
1
2o6 Educational Review [September
Socially the gathering was one of great charm. The citi- zens of Charleston extended a hospitality as generous and as gracious as it was unusual. The local press were sympathetic, and the treatment of the co'nvention by the News and Courier so complete and so well-balanced that it was continually re- ferred to with hearty praise.
The business of the Association was transacted speedily and harmoniously. The trustees reported that the permanent fund had reached $88,000, $14,000 having been added to it duri'ng the year. Treasurer Pearse, whose administration of his office was praised formally a'nd informally many times, showed receipts for the year of $38,746.63, and expenditures of $20,949.96, an excess of receipts of $17,796.67. Of this amount $14,000 was transferred to the trustees for investment, as indicated above.
The newly chosen president. Principal James M. Green of New Jersey, was elected by acclamation. His long co'nnection with the Association and his distinguished services to educa- tion in his own State, made his choice a peculiarly fitting one. The new treasurer. Superintendent L. C. Greenlee of Denver (W. S.), Colo., is one of the best known and most popular members of his profession. Superintendent Dougherty of Peoria was elected a trustee for the four-year term.
In order to have some effective means of considering and reporting upon plans for carrying on investigatio'ns involving an appropriation of the Association's funds, the Council con- stituted the following standing committee of seve'n to deal with such matters: Messrs. Hinsdale of Michigan (chairman), Alderman of Louisiana, Butler of New York, Dougherty of Illinois, Downing of New York, Fitzpatrick of Massachusetts, and Harvey of Wisconsin. Amo'ng the newly elected mem- bers of the Council are Messrs. Thwing of Ohio, Ramsey of Virginia, Mclver of North Carolina, and Pearse of Nebraska.
The declaration of principles was reported by Prhfdples*^°° °^ ^^ committee on resolutions, and was as fol- lows : In accordance with established custom, a'nd in order better to enforce those beliefs and practices which tend most powerfully
1900] Editorial 207
to advance the cause of popular education and a civilization based on intelligent democracy, the National Educational Asso- ciation, assembled i'n its thirty-ninth annual meeting, makes this
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES
, The common school is the highest hope of the nation. In developing character, in training intelligence, in diffusing in- formation, its i'nfluence is incalculable. In last resort the common school rests not upon statutory support,. but upon the convictions and affections of the American people. It seeks not to cast the youth of the country in a common mold, but rather to afford free play for individuality a'nd for local needs and aims, while keeping steadily in view the common purpose of all education. In this respect it conforms to our political ideals and to our political organization, which bind together self-governing States in a nation wherein each locality must bear the responsibility for those things which most concern its welfare and its comfort. A safe motto for the school, as for the State, is: In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.
A democracy provides for the education of all its children. To regard the common schools as schools for the unfortunate and the less well-to-do, and to treat them as such, is to strike a fatal blow at their efficie'ncy and at democratic institutions; it is to build up class distinctions which have no proper place on American soil. The purpose of the American common school is to attract and to instruct the rich, as well as to pro- vide for and to educate the poor. Within its walls American citizens are made, and no perso'n can safely be excluded from its benefits.
What has served the people of the United States so well should be promptly placed at the service of those who, by the fortunes of war, have become our wards. The extension of the American common school system to Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands is an imperative necessity i'n order that knowledge may be generally diffused therein, and that the foun- dations of social order and effective local self-government may be laid in popular intellige'nce and morality.
2o8 Educational Review [September
The provisions of law for the civil government of Porto Rico indicate that it is the intention of the Congress of the United States to increase the responsibilities of the Bureau of Education. We earnestly urge upo'n the Congress the wisdom and advisability of reorganizing the Bureau of Education upon broader lines; of erecting it into an independent department on a plane with the Department of Labor; of providing a proper compensation for the Commissioner of Education; and of so constituting the Department of Education that while its in- valuable function of collating and diffusing information be in no wise impaired, it may be equipped to exercise effective over- sight of the educatioal systems of Alaska and of the several islands now dependent upon us, as well as to make some provi- sion for the education of the children of the tens of thousands of white people domiciled in the Indian Territory, but who are without any educational opportunities whatever. Such reor- ganization of the Bureau of Education and such extension of its functions we believe to be demanded by the highest interests of the people of the United States, and we respectfully but earnestly ask the Congress to make provision for such reor- ganization and extension at their next session. The action so strongly recommended will in no respect contravene the principle that it is one of the recognized functions of the national government to encourage and to aid, but not to con- trol, the educational instrumentalities of the country.
We note with satisfaction the rapid extension of provision for adequate seco'ndary and higher education, as well as for technical, industrial, and commercial training. National pros- perity and our economic welfare in the years to come will de- pend in no small measure upon the trai'ned skill of our people, as well as upon their inventiveness, their persistence, and their general information.
Every safeguard throw'n about the profession of teaching, and every provision for its proper compensation, has our cor- dial approval. Proper standards — ^both general and profes- sional— for entrance upon the work of instruction, security of te'nure, decent salaries, and an adequate pension system, are indispensable if the schools are to attract and to hold the service of the best men and women of the United States; and the
I poo] Editorial 209
nation can afford to place its children in the care of none but the best.
We welcome the tendency on the part of colleges and scien- tific schools to co-operate in formulating and in administering the requirements for admission to their several courses of in- struction, a'nd we rejoice that this association has consistently thrown its influence in favor of this policy, and has indicated how, in our judgment, it may best be entered upon. We see in this movement a most important step toward lightening the burdens which now rest upon so many secondary, schools, and are confident that only good reuslts will follow its success.
The efficiency of a school system is to be judged by the char- acter and the i'ntellectual power of its pupils, and not by their ability to meet a series of technical tests. The place of the formal examination in education is distinctly subordinate to that of teaching, and its use as the sole test of teaching is un- justifiable, i
We renew our pledge to carry on the work of education in- trusted to us in a spirit which shall be not only non-sectarian and non-political, but which shall accord with the highest ideals of our national life and character. With the co'ntinued and effective support of public opinion and of the press for the work of the schools, higher and lower alike, we shall enter upon the new century with the high hope born of successful experience and of perfect co'nfidence in American policies and institutions.
Nicholas Murray Butler, New York, Chairman.
Edwin A. Alderman, Louisiana. Charles D. Mclver, North Carolina.
W. B. Powell, District of Columbia. Alfred Bayliss, Illinois.
J. A. Foshay, California. James H. Van Sickle, Maryland.
William R. Harper, Illinois. Charles F. Thwing, Ohio.
Committee on Resolutions
The usual summer series of volcanic disturb- heaval """* ^ ances has taken place thruout the public school
system of the country and the annual incur- sion of barbarian tribes into the territory of education has been made. Superintendent Powell of Washington has been dis- placed by the reactionaries, obscurantists, and wire-pullers who infest the capital. Superintendent Jones of Cleveland has been
2IO Educational Review [September
besieged by the amazing person \vhom the citizens of Cleveland deliberately chose to exercise the enormous powers which the law confers upon their school director. Superintendent Seaver of Boston failed of re-election in June, as did Super- visors Martin and Arnold. In Idaho President Blanton of the State University has publicly charged two of the regents with '' usurpation of the powers of the president " and has pointed out their '' irregular, extravagant, if not dishonest methods of conducting the business affairs of the institution." The regents promptly removed Mr. Blanton, and a fine shindy is in progress.
Some of these events have an amusing side, of course, but yet they are desperately serious, for they are indicative of forces at work in the body politic with which education has to deal before it can become either efficient or genuine.
The Washington situation seems to us the most alarming; for we do not recall any previous successful attack upon a con- spicuous superintendent for acts and policies which by common consent of well-informed persons are in line with the best edu- cational thought and practice of the time; especially when that superintendent had brought his school system to a level of effectiveness which his colleagues united in considering as high as any in the whole country. The attack upon Mr. Powell was successful, in our judgment, because it was a carefully planned conspiracy carried on in a community where there was no public opinion to stop it and no intelligent, broad-minded newspaper press to expose it. Washington has no public opinion. The white population is made up chiefly of three elements : the well-to-do winter residents who do next to noth- ing for the intellectual life of the city, the changing official set, and the great body of government clerks who are very obvi- ously under restrictions as to public expression of any kind. Despite the lack of any large element from which effective pub- lic opinion could emanate, the newspapers of Washington might have stopped the blow at the schools had they been inde- pendent or intelligent. But both the Post and the Star were either privy to the conspiracy from the first or else they aided it out of sheer ignorance and incapacity. The arrant and self- contradictory nonsense which they printed, and continue to
1 900] Editorial 2 1 1
print, both editorially and from correspondents, would provoke a wooden Indian to contemptuous anger.
Passing by the newspapers and the less important elements, it seems to be a general opinion among the well-informed that the long-standing and unreasoning hostility of Senator Stewart of Nevada to members of the Powell family, together with the personal vagaries, ambitions, and idiosyncrasies of Mrs. Myers^ who now steps into an assistant superintendency, of Mr. George H. Harries, who was in the old school board and now bobs up serenely on the new one, " resplendent in full uniform," and of Mr. Charles Moore, clerk to the Senate committee on the District of Columbia, are chiefly responsible for this crusade against one of the very best school systems in the United States. It is not necessary to follow here all the steps by which the attack upon Mr. Powell was planned and put into execution, but there were many clever features of it. Not the least of these was the adroit use of that public enemy known as senatorial courtesy, and of the rules governing conference reports, to forestall any open dis- cussion of the scheme, particularly in the House of Representa- tives— which body, it is entirely safe to say, does not know now what happened or how it happened. Leading senators who were appealed to by the most prominent public school men of their respective States gave the most emphatic assurances that no attack upon Mr. Powell was intended. Yet the Congress had hardly adjourned when his successor was chosen and in- ducted into oflice. What Commissioner MacFarland's part in the movement has been we are unable to determine with certainty. He has borne an excellent reputation heretofore; but it is in order for him to offer some explanation as to ( i ) why Commissioner Ross, who has had the oversight of the schools for years, so speedily surrendered that function to his newly appointed colleague just at this juncture; (2) why Mr. Harries, of all the members of the old board, was chosen to serve upon the new one; and (3) why he approved of the dis- placement of Mr. Powell as he did when he publicly commended the action of the board in choosing his successor.
In all this proceeding the most cynical contempt was dis- played for the best opinion of public school men. Local
2 1 2 Educational Review [September
clamor, sedulously stirred up, was used as the basis for the attack, and it proceeded straight to its conclusion just as was planned from the beginning. Meanwhile, the new superin- tendent, Mr. Alexander T. Stuart, is in a very delicate and difficult position. If he assists in undoing Mr. Powell's ex- cellent work, or if he looks on and permits it to be undone, he will find himself without professional reputation or the respect of his fellow-superintendents; if he does not assist in undoing it, the elements now in control of the schools will turn him out of the superintendency. Unless President Bell of the new school board asserts himself in the most vigorous manner and refuses to permit himself to be used as the dupe of the wire- pullers, the Washington children will be made to suffer for the folly and stupidity of a clique.
Superintendent Jones bore himself with great Case* *^**° dignity when the attempt to oust him was
made, and Cleveland being the possessor of an enlightened public opinion, and having a newspaper press intelligent enough to know what good schools are in these modern days, he was able to sustain himself against Director Bell, who retreated in disorder with the loss of his ammunition and his guns. Dr. Poland, who went to Cleveland to accept Mr. Jones' place, under a total misconception of the situation (tho we wish he had not consented to go at all), promptly took steps to set himself right and to protect his professional honor. The local politicians are pressing the school director so hard that the matter may be reopened at any time. Mr. Jones intends to stand upon his legal rights, not as a personal matter, but because he regards it as a professional duty to test whether the law really means that the superintendent shall serve " during good behavior " or not.
If teaching were really a profession, no man of high prin- ciple would accept an election to a superintendency made vacant as at Washington or as attempted at Cleveland.
N t d N ^^ ^^ University of Cambridge the honorary
degree of doctor of laws was conferred on Joseph H. Choate, Ambassador of the United States. Dr. San- dys, the public orator, presented Mr. Choate in these words :
I poo] Editorial 213
Reipublicae maximas transmarinae ad Britanniam legatum vinculo non uno nobiscum consociatum esse constat. Aequore Atlantico interposito separati, stant utrimque duo populi maximi, communis generis, communis linguae, communium litterarum, communium rerum antiquitus gestarum vinculis inter sese coniuncti. Dum bella cum aliis ab alterutro geruntur, etsi populo alteri a parte neutra stare est propositum, tamen populo in utroque summi certe viri tacita quadam benevolentia inter sese coniun- guntur. Inter viros summos qui in populum suum fidem singularem cum benevolentia in Britannos coniungunt, locum insignem obtinet reipublicae illius maximas legatus, vir inter suos in iure civili admodum peritus, in artibus omnibus quae iudicum animos conciliare et commovere possunt sollertissimus, vir denique non inter suos tantum, sed etjam ubicumque lingua nostra communis usurpatur, in omni orationum genere existimatus eloquentissimus. Lastamur Collegii Harvardiani alumnum tam insignem iuris doctorem ab eo petissimum pronuntiatum iri, qui Harvardi ipsius Collegio est praepositus.
A little later Professor John Williams White of Harvard University was presented for the degree of doctor of letters, as follows:
Ex Atlantide exorsus, in Atlantide laudis nostras cursus hodie desinit. Helladis ab insulis etiam ad Hesperiam novam, ultra fortunatorum insulas fabulosas positam, Helladis amor trans maria migravit. Etiam trans aequor Atlanticum ad Cantabrigiam novam transvolavit litterarum Graecarum studium quod Cantabrigia nostra olim ab Oriente accepit. Adest alter ex eis qui in Collegio Harvardiano litteras Graecas prasclare profitentur ; adest scholae archasologicae Americanas Athenis constitutas unus e conditoribus prascipuis, qui etiam ipsis Athenis archasologiam professus est, qui (ne plura commemorem) de scaena Aristophanis, de Atheniensium opisthodomo, de muro denique Pelargico eruditissime disputavit. Antiquitatis studiosis pergratum, quod ne ultimum quidem argumentum illud intactum reliquit, oraculo Delphico deterritus — to UeXapyiKov apybv afieivov.
By a destructive fire the School and home journal, edited by George P. Brown, published at Bloomington, 111., lost a large portion of its records. We are glad to aid Mr. Brown in reaching his friends and subscribers by calling their attention to the fact that it will be of great assistance if they will send their names and addresses, together with the date when their subscriptions expire, to him without delay.
The Male Teachers' Association of New York have agreed that the new Davis law, reviewed editorially in this Review for June last, provides the following minimum salaries for elementary school teachers :
214
Educational Review
[September
|
Female teach- |
Male teachers^ |
||||
|
Female teach- ers of girls'* |
Female teach- ers of girls' classes, last two years |
ers of grad- uating class: |
gradu a ting- class : mate |
||
|
Years |
classes, other than the last |
first assist- ants, or fe- |
Male teachers |
first assist- ants, male |
|
|
two years. |
male vice |
vice princi- |
|||
|
principals |
pals |
||||
|
I |
$600 |
% 600 |
$600 |
$900 |
% 900 |
|
2 |
640 |
640 |
640 |
1005 |
1005 |
|
3 |
680 |
680 |
680 |
mo |
1110 |
|
4 |
720 |
720 |
720 |
1215 |
1215 |
|
5 |
760 |
760 |
760 |
1320 |
1320 |
|
6 |
800 |
800 |
800 |
1425 |
1425 |
|
7 |
840 |
840 |
840 |
1530 |
1530 |
|
8 |
880 |
880 |
880 |
1635 |
163s |
|
9 |
920 |
Q20 |
920 |
1740 |
1740 |
|
lO |
960 |
960 |
960 |
1845 |
1845 |
|
II |
1000 |
1000 |
1440 |
1950 |
2400 |
|
12 |
1040 |
1040 |
1440 |
2055 |
2400 |
|
13 |
1080 |
1080 |
1440 |
2160 |
2400 |
|
14 |
1120 |
II20 |
1440 |
2160 |
2400 |
|
15 |
1160 |
1 160 |
1440 |
2160 |
24CX> |
|
16 |
1200 |
1320 |
1440 |
2160 |
2400 |
|
17 |
1240 |
1320 |
1440 |
2160 |
24CK) |
Add $60 per annum to salaries of female teachers of boys' or mixed classes.
Pennsylvania is in pursuit of educational establishments with improper and misleading titles. An injunction has been granted by the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia, at the instance of the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth, re- straining the proprietor of a business college in that city from calling his institution the University of Philadelphia. He teaches bookkeeping, penmanship, and stenography. His school affords instruction in commercial pursuits exclusively and is in no true sense a university. " A short but compre- hensive definition of the word university," says President Judge Arnold in granting the injunction, '' is an aggregation or union of colleges. It is an institution in which the educa- tion imparted is universal, embracing all branches, such as arts, sciences, and all manner of learning, and possessing powers to confer degrees which indicate proficiency in the branches taught." By a Pennsylvania statute enacted in 1895, a Col- lege and University Council for the State was established, without whose approval no new institution shall be authorized to confer degrees. The court holds that inasmuch as the title of university imparts the power to confer degrees, the defend- ant's school cannot lawfully use the title, since it does not pos- sess the power. It appears that many persons have mistaken
1900] Editorial 215
this self-styled University of Philadelphia for the University of Pennsylvania, and much confusion in correspondence has resulted therefrom.
Of the 50 State and territorial superintendents of public instruction, 38 are active members of the National Educational Association. The States and Territories not represented in the list of active members by their superintendents are Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington.
Of the superintendents of 170 leading cities and towns, 121 are active members of the Association. The cities and towns whose superintendents are not active members are the follow- ing: Manchester, N. H., Brockton, Chelsea, Gloucester, Haver- hill, Lynn, Maiden, Newton, Salem, Somerville, and Taunton, Mass.; Hartford, Conn.; Auburn, Cohoes, Elmira, New York (Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, Borough of Rich- mond), Oswego, Rochester, and Troy, N. Y.; Camden, Ho- boken, and Trenton, N. J.; Allegheny, Allentown, Altoona, Erie, Pittsburg, Wilkesbarre, and Williamsport, Pa. ; Norfolk, Va.; Parkersburg, W. Va. ; Newport, Ky. ; Memphis, Tenn.; Montgomery, Ala.; Galveston, Houston, and Fort Worth, Tex.; Springfield, and Zanesville, O. ; South Bend, Ind. ; Quincy, 111. ; Des Moines and Burlington, la. ; St. Joseph, Mo. ; Lincoln, Neb.; and Sacramento, Calif.
By the death of Henry Barnard, in July last, one of the most effective and self-sacrificing workers in the cause of popu- lar education is lost to the people of the United States. Dr. Barnard's name is highly honored by teachers everywhere, but the man himself was a stranger to this generation. His best work lay back in the second quarter of the century, when foun- dations were being laid, systems organized, and public senti- ment aroused. He then played a leading part, the fortunate effects of which are now a chapter in the history of American education.
2i6 Educational Review
The application of science to matters relating to the home goes on apace. The words domestic art, domestic science, domestic economy, become increasingly familiar. Attention to these subjects is urged, as it should be, not on grounds of utility alone, but because of their educational significance. An annual conference of those specially interested in these lines of work has been instituted at Lake Placid, and there the most pressing problems are taken hold of systematically and in earnest.
Mr. Dawes of the Chicago Board of Education has made the following admirable proposals, which will certainly send a shiver down the spines of the spoilsmen :
Whereas, Merit alone should determine the selection, and appointment of teachers in our public schools, and
Whereas, No teacher should be appointed without the recommendation of the superintendent, who in every instance should be required to recom- mend the best teacher available ; and
Whereas, The personal solicitation and influence of members of the board and others tends to embarrass the superintendent in this regard, and to the selection and appointment of teachers on grounds other than those of merit ;
Therefore, be it resolved. That at each regular meeting the superintend- ent shall report to the full board the names of all persons, other than dis- trict superintendents, teachers, and members of the board, who have since the last meeting recommended, either orally or in writing, the appointment, promotion, or transfer of any principal, teacher, or cadet in the public schools.
Resolved (and this resolution shall be a rule of the board), That mem- bers of this board shall not recommend principals, teachers, or cadets to the superintendent, or any district superintendent, or endorse their applica- tions for appointment, promotion, or transfer, unless requested by the superintendent in writing so to do, and the superintendent shall report all violations of this rule to the full board at its next regular meeting there- after.
Resolved, That all existing rules, inconsistent herewith, are hereby repealed, and that in no instance shall the superintendent be required «to obtain the concurrence of any district committee before making any appointment, assignment, or transfer of principals, teachers, or cadets.
These resolutions went to the committee on rules, and their action will be awaited with interest.
EDUCATIONAL REVIEW
OCTOBER, igoo
THE RELATION OF WOMAN TO THE TRADES AND PROFESSIONS
In the second half of the nineteenth century we have wit- nessed many social changes. What were supposed to be fixed orders of society in the first half of the century have under- gone revolutions, in some cases quite radical. To point out a fundamental cause of such changes and to prophesy its con- tinued influence during the coming century are easy, and have been done so often as to become trite; so to speak, a worn-out subject. Natural science gives to human society a knowledge of nature and the ability to invent labor-saving machines that convert to man's use the powers of nature. This result in- creases the productive power of man, emancipates from drudgery large classes of people, and increases the wages of the proletariat. Moreover, increase in productive power brings with it new demands on the part of the lower and middle classes of society of a political kind as well as of an industrial kind. The people find themselves able to earn more of a bet- ter quality of food, clothing, and shelter. They next make demands for more consideration on the part of the govern- ment ; in fact, they ask for a share in the governing power, and the right of suffrage. This last point is hastened by the great increase in facilities for intercommunication, not only rapid transportation of goods and quick transit for persons, but also the morning newspaper and instant intercommunication with all parts of the earth by means of telegraph and telephone.
217
2 1 8 Educational Review [October
The net result of improvements in intercommunication tends to give each person in society a knowledge of the important events going on in the world from day to day. This brings with it a constant education such as comes from beholding world events instead of local events, the deeds of nations in- stead of the petty occurrences in one's village — all of which tends to accelerate the demand on the part of the people for a share in the government thru the ballot box. This, too, makes present to the mind of each individual the drift of public opinion in his township or commune, in his commonwealth or department, and in his nation. Each citizen becomes cognizant of the public opinion of foreign nations, and learns to weigh the motives on which such foreign public opinion is based.
When the question of a change in the industrial, political, or intellectual status of woman is brought under consideration, these reflections upon the great movements of the nineteenth century, one or all of them, have been adduced to explain or justify.
On the other hand against these general and sweeping argu- ments attention has been called to the relation which employ- ments and vocations have to what has been fixed by nature, in the physical structure and temperament of the individual. This opens at once the broad field of inquiry into the bounda- ries between fate and freedom : the influence of race, whether or no it may be surmounted and to what extent; the border line between maturity and immaturity in age; the disqualifying in- fluences of sex; not to mention the modifications of these things which arise thru climate and food — the general trend of conclusions based on these elements of fate is hostile to those based on the spectacle of the conquest of nature which the nine- teenth century shows us.
It is my object in this brief presentation of the subject to bring together these two opposing views as they relate to sex, criticise them, and discover if possible what remains valid after all abatements have been made.
At the beginning of this century Goethe, the wisest observer of his time, called attention to the differences in vocation on the part of the sexes founded on physical peculiarities and the
1900] Woman and trades and professions 219
needs of society. In his time division of labor and specializa- tion of employment had reached a high degree of perfection. It was then the era of the first invention of labor-saving ma- chinery. It had become evident that production increased in proportion to the division and subdivision of work, and that the maximum of skill could be reached only by a concentration of each laborer upon some minute task. The cotton spinners of Manchester, the knife grinders of Sheffield, the watch- makers of Switzerland, the weavers of Flanders, the skill and artistic taste shown by manufacturers in the cities of France, all such phenomena as these pointed out to Goethe the general necessity for training men to become experts in their several specialties and accustoming them to work in large companies. Over against this the woman as center of the family should have precisely the opposite training for her life work, for she should be so educated as to be versatile, quick to turn from one occupation to another. To isolate the several items of the work of the family and reduce them all to trades seemed then, as now, hopeless. Diversity and versatility are the character- istics respectively of the labor and the laborer in the family: engaged this hour in preparing the breakfast and washing the dishes; the next in making the beds and sweeping the rooms; the next in cleansing and mending the clothing; the next in knitting or weaving; the next and at intervals during the whole day attending to the myriad wants of childhood: the labor within the family does not admit of division of labor, altho it is diversified and in need of such division. The woman pre- pared for the life of the family, therefore, needs an education which gives her versatility, while the man needs a training fit- ting him for concentration upon one thing.
Hence Goethe says : '' The male should wear a uniform from childhood upward. For men have to accustom themselves to work together; to lose themselves among their equals; to obey in masses and to work on a large scale. Every kind of uni- form generates a military habit of thought and a smart, straightforward carriage. All boys are born soldiers what- ever you do with them. . . But woman should go about in every variety of dress; each following her own style and her
2 20 Educational Review [October
own likings, that each may learn to feel what sits well upon her and becomes her; and for a more weighty reason as well — be- cause it is appointed for her to stand alone all her life, and to work alone. . . Even the most empty-headed woman is in the same case. Each one of them excludes all others. It is her nature to do so. Because of each one of them is required everything which the entire sex has to do."
In this last sentence he states in the most explicit manner the insight which I have attributed to him above. He goes on and states the distinction between man's work and woman's work, showing how completely he comprehended the spirit of the civilization in which he lived — a civilization which within fifty years after his death began to show signs of transition into a new one. If I should paraphrase Goethe's speech I might say : When the task of labor may be specialized so that many people may work together in the manufacture of a simple product, the individual may limit himself to a uniform par- ticular activity, to a trade or even to a minute branch of a trade. But if on the other hand the field of labor is a diversified one, containing a collection of contingent or accidental particulars, then machinery cannot be used, the labor must be governed by the arbitrary will of the individual, and each person must be competent to perform anything and everything. This is the case in the sphere of the family, and each person in it must be ready to do any one of the several hundred particular opera- tions. Goethe concludes : " In how few words the whole busi- ness of education might be summed up if people had ears to hear. Educate the boys to be servants and the girls to be mothers, and everything is as it should be." To interpret this expression of Goethe one must call to mind the statement made in his WUhelm Meister: " To serve is necessary in all depart- ments of life, and to limit one's self to a special occupation is desirable. For whatever the uncultured person does is a trade (or menial occupation) ;but to the person of some culture, what- ever he does is a fine art; and the person of highest culture, in whatever he does, sees the likeness of everything that is done rightly." For it is the function of the highest culture to give one an insight into the relation of every kind of human en-
ipoo] Woman and trades and prof essions 221
deavor to the total result of civilization. '' To be servants " means to subordinate and limit themselves to specially pre- scribed occupations; '' to be mothers " would mean to cultivate that provident foresight and wealth of resources which are constantly required in the endless routine of duties in the family.
' If we look for a moment upon the historical setting of the epoch, which Goethe has studied so carefully, we do not find it to be the constant type of humanity. I remember well my surprise when I came first to notice that what had at first seemed to me a statement of conditions valid for all time, proved well-nigh inapplicable to a state of society that had pre- ceded the era of productive industry. I refer to the condition of the trades and occupations in tribal society, — for strange to say they are in important respects diametrically opposite to those in an industrial civilization. In the savage state the tribal form of government prevails, and the center of a state or tribal jurisdiction is at most a day's march from a hostile fron- tier. The men of the tribe are obliged to give their whole at- tention to the defense of their people, and have no strength left for productive industry. The tribe faces a hostile power whose movements are uncertain and indefinite, and its men must be constantly on the alert. Under such conditions there cannot be that absorption in a specialty which is necessary for a great skill in the industries. The men continually on the watch for the enemy consume their nervous energy and become utterly unfitted for dealing with definite or routine tasks and prescribed duties. These they are obliged to turn over to the women; therefore the women of the tribe have not only the functions of the family, but also that of providing food, clothing, and shelter —the sphere of productive industry.
There are three spheres of activity within society, namely, the function of nurture within the family, that of the indus- trial combination whereby the food, clothing, and shelter are produced by the arts and trades; and thirdly, the governmental function, the political activity whereby the state is defended against its enemies and peace and order secured within. In the first stage of productive industry which Goethe has studied,
2 22 Educational Review [October
woman limits her sphere to the charge of the family, and man takes both the other spheres — those of productive industry and the political state.
In the savage state man takes only the political and military function, and woman is obliged to take on her the burden of two spheres of activity — the family and productive industry. There are of course exceptions of more or less importance which should be mentioned and kept in mind while dealing with these general definitions; for instance, the occupation of the tribal man, namely, hunting and fishing, is in a certain sense a training for war, as the act of taking the whale, the walrus, the seal, in water, or the taking of wild beasts danger- ous to life or useful for food on land, — these are of the nature of intermittent struggles and depend upon caprice and arbi- trariness,— they involve risk of life and do not belong to the rank of a regular industrial vocation under the best of condi- tions. They are more of the nature of military exercises and maneuvers, and assist the preparation of the men for war.
In all this it is evident that man needs and cultivates alert- ness and versatility rather than persistency, while the woman in a savage state of society has the part of providing for what is routine and requires persistence. Man develops his versa- tility in the form of cunning and sudden intermittent effort. In primeval society women assisted by children and superan- nuated men perform, as I have said, the labor of the family and civil society.
It has been noticed by all observers in the field of anthro- pology that the tribal man does not take readily to productive industry, detesting above all things persistence in his labor. He is capable of making superhuman efforts for a brief period, but he requires long periods of rest to intervene between these violent efforts. Had Goethe made his studies solely upon tribal life, therefore, his conclusions might have been very different from those which he has written out in his Elective x4Mnities and his Wilhelm Meister. It is the chief con- cern for the men of the tribe to collect their strength during long periods of comparative inactivity, and to expend all of this accumulated strength in some emergency, either of the
ipoo] Woman and trades and professions 223
chase or of foreign war. On the other hand, the woman's occupations in savage Hfe cover a larger sphere than those of woman in an industrial civilization, but they are not really more numerous, inasmuch as the duties within the family are simplified by omission, and the arts of obtaining food and pre- paring it are reduced to their lowest terms.
In all this we do not discover anything which is not entirely compatible with the physical constitution of the man or the woman, notwithstanding the reversal of our supposed prin- ciple of distribution of labor on the basis of sex. With this re- sult before us for the earlier epoch of man's social develop- ment, let us turn now to the later epoch that belongs to the second and third periods of civilization founded upon pro- ductive industry.
While persistence and versatility seem to be characteristics which properly belong to the departments of work of the men and the women respectively in an industrial civilization whose most important feature is the division of labor, yet it will ap- pear that the natural working out of the principle involved will effect a gradual change in the structure of industrial society. There will follow a process of gradual elimination of these dis- tinctions as far as they apply to the work of the different sexes. This will appear from the following considerations :
Division of labor continues to progress until there is such specialization of industry that each laborer becomes as nearly as possible a mere hand performing a mechanical operation needing only a minimum of directive intelligence in its per- formance. This simplicity of the process of labor at once sug- gests the employment of natural forces of wind and water and the application of the simplest and crudest machines to save human force. When one's work requires only a single move- ment of the hand a machine may take its place. By this there is great increase of productive capacity, the one brain as di- rective power accomplishing far more by means of its crude machinery than many unaided human hands had been able to accomplish before. We note, too, the remarkable fact that directive power requires alertness and versatility far more than mere persistence, and if these be qualities specially belonging to
2 24 Edticational Review [October
woman's mind, she ought to be more successful than man in the field of machinery. This is more and more to be expected when machinery becomes more complex and requires less physical power to direct it.
So long as machinery requires great physical strength to adjust its applications to materials, man would have decidedly the advantage. But there is a second stage in the develop- ment of machinery, namely the application of the machine to govern the machine. This second stage involves, therefore^ the combination of the simple machines devised to perform the crude processes into one machine which performs a complex result. Think for a moment of the machine which cuts up a coil of wire into pieces and converts these into pins with per- fect heads and points, and finally prepares the whole for market by placing them in regular rows on a long sheet of paper, and folding the same into proper shape. Each step in this complex process was once the entire work of a single machine. In proportion to the complexity of the machine there is additional, demand for alertness and versatility. The slow mind endowed only with persistency as its chief characteristic is not adequate to the direction of the complex machine. With the first in- vented machines drudgery had been so far conquered as to per-, form the hardest of the physical labor. A great deal of hand labor still remained in the process of applying the machine to its work and in securing its results. The further progress of invention added more machinery to eliminate the hand labor which still remained. The result of this process is the con- stant emancipation of the individual from mere manual labor and a continual change of vocations — from those requiring great manual skill and a long apprenticeship of the hand to- ward those occupations which require intellectual versatility and a small amount of apprenticeship.
In our day the development of productive industry by labor- saving machinery has proceeded so far that we all recognize the advantage which a little school education gives the working-, man over his illiterate companion. For he shows himself able in precisely the needed qualities of alertness and versatility, and the illiterate hand laborer who has obtained his skill of hand
1900] Woman and trades and prof esstons 225
thru several years of apprenticeship and many years of journey- manship, is not his equal. A newly invented machine performs the labor that once was done by hand, at so small a cost to society that the human machine in competition with the ma- chine made of wood and iron cannot earn its food and clothing. It happens that the pupils educated in our elementary schools find it easy to readjust their vocations whenever a new inven- tion renders it necessary. Moreover, the girls in this struggle find for themselves manifold new occupations with remunera- tive wages, their alertness and versatility being required in directing machines.
This change of the nature of labor, which invites woman to enter the fields of productive industry side by side with man, is connected with another change in the demands made upon woman for work within the family. For one after another all the occupations of the household which are capable of generali- zation— that is to say, capable of being reduced to a few simple processes and performed by machinery — are separated from the household and placed in the manufactory. The spinning and weaving are no longer done in the home, and even the manufacture of fabrics into finished clothing is done in the shop; so, too, the work of preparing most of the articles of food, especially the preliminary processes of his preparation, are performed by machinery and in wholesale establishments. This process goes on continually wherever urban life has super- seded the isolated farmhouse and the hamlet. There is re- corded a shortening of the working hours as a continuous effect of the increase of the powers of production, aided by machinery.
The total annual production in the United States in the year 1800 is estimated at less than ten cents (fifty centimes) a day for each man, woman, and child. By the introduction of steam during the next fifty years the production increased to about thirty cents (one franc, fifty centimes) a day per inhabitant, and with the manifold applications of all kinds of motive power the increase in the second fifty years of the nineteenth century has been to raise the production to very nearly fifty-five cents (two francs, seventy-five centimes) a day. This increase
226 Educational Review [October
means creature comforts and even luxuries for the upper half of the population, and a fair supply of food, clothing, and shel- ter for the lower half. The change which is going on in pro- ductive power means a pressing invitation addressed to each man, woman, and child in the community to ascend to a higher use of directive power, and to come into participation in the material productions of the whole world.
With the increase of directive power and the necessity of preparation in elementary and superior education for the trade or profession, all classes and conditions of society are brought into the school. The women as well as the men feel the need of this preparation, and gladly avail themselves of the oppor- tunities opening for them. The work of the day for each in- dividual comes to include a higher intellectual effort. Each individual comes more and more to contemplate the events of the world, with their collisions and solutions, while he is en- gaged in his individual struggle with the problems and tasks of his own environment. He is interested now thru the news- paper in national movements in China and South Africa as well as in his own trades. These wide combinations demand wider and more thoro education. It is well known that collisions which come upon the illiterate are sufficient to bereave him of his life thru mental worry and desperation, while they have little or no effect upon the person who has received superior educa- tion. The higher education solves in an abstract form the combinations and collisions of the forces of nature and, alike, of the spiritual forces, and thus prepare in advance the indi- vidual to meet difficulties, without defeat and without ner- vous exhaustion.
The increase of individualism on the part of all classes of society, and on the part of the female sex as well as the male sex, involves an increased demand for recognition in all di- rective spheres, and not merely in the industrial sphere or in the household, but also in the political state itself. What this signifies can be indicated very briefly in the conclusion of this paper. The world of productive industry, whose principle is competition, furnishes a healthful stimulant to the persons of the community who are capable of receiving elementary and
ipoo] Woman and trades and prof essions 227
higher education. To that class of intellects which cannot be reached by education, competition is dangerous and hurtful, and the community must care for them as well as for the other weaklings in society — not only the weaklings in thrift, but the weaklings in intellect and the weaklings in morals. All of these classes need to be taken in hand at the beginning with the principle of nurture, that is to say, with the method which the mother uses with her infant rather than the method used by the political state {i. e., the principle of justice). Man has a tendency to use the principle of justice not only in dealing with his fellow-men in their full maturity, but with children and the weaklings of society who have not the full normal en- dowment of responsibility. The characteristic of sex in this particular may be regarded as something perennial and not subject to diminution by reason of the causes discussed in this paper. Woman has the characteristic of graciousness and kindness, perhaps I should say tenderness, brought about by the constant occupation with helpless infancy. Were the infant to be held responsible for his deeds, and the principle of mere jus- tice applied, he would perish. But the principle of nurture, which makes up to the child his lack of power to care for him- self, is not a principle which is fitted for man in the maturity of his strength. There justice is best for him and will stimulate him to his best endeavors. Justice and grace, or graciousness, are thus the two characteristics appertaining to sex; but, ele- vated into their transfigured and eternal form, and the admis- sion of woman into all spheres of social influence, will bring the principle of nurture into those provinces where the prin- ciple of justice has been found not sufficient for the best devel- opment of certain classes of society. Not only does the child need nurture, but the adult criminal class and the adult pauper class need the principle of nurture quite as much as they need the principle of justice. Justice looks out for the return of the deed upon the doer, but nurture ignores the deed of the in- dividual and considers his ideal possibility of perfection, and seeks by mild means of correction to form the character and to support it, by creating an artificial environment and adapting it to the need of the immature individual. The state govern-
2 28 Educational Review [October
ment as formed by a free masculine ideal of society approaches toward a perfect realization of justice, but is very defective on the side of nurture. When it undertakes to distribute charity it often weakens the people whom it would help, and makes them less able to care for themselves.
Those who have had most experience in dealing with the weaklings of society have reached the conviction that nurture should temper justice in the administration of the laws wher- ever the weaklings of society are concerned, not only in case of the weaklings in morals who become criminals, nor the weak- lings in mind who become insane or feeble-minded, but also in case of the weaklings in thrift, who are so improvident in the management of their property as to involve their children in physical suffering, loss of self-respect, and in bad habits of liv- ing. While mere justice looks only to the overt act of the criminal, nurture studies the genesis of the criminal classes and devises means for their removal. It has become evident to students of social science that it is a waste of labor and a wrong done to humanity to permit the existence of conditions which will breed crime, and on the other hand providing merely for the punishment of the criminal. Mere abstract jus- tice is a Sisyphus who rolls his burden to the summit only to see it again at the bottom of the hill. But just as the tender- ness of the mother nurtures the child into a responsible will power and into a love of right for right's sake, so this femi- nine element added to the state will make it able to provide for that very large population which fills the slums of our cities and constantly menaces life and property.
The greatest obstacle to the progressive adoption of local self-government is the danger which comes from enfranchis- ing the weaklings of society. They do not need the ballot or the right to vote, but they need nurture in schools and pro- gressive training in industry and in the management of property. It is the participation of woman as an active in- fluence in political affairs that promises to hasten the realiza- tion of a government which adopts the principle of nurture in the place of abstract justice in dealing with the weaklings. The preventive function is needed quite as much as the punish-
1900] Woman and trades and professions 229
ing function of the municipal government. Woman's advice and aid in the administration of this function has long been desired. The present movement toward the superior educa- tion of woman will do much to hasten this good result.
The necessities of local self-government force upon our at- tention the importance of providing for the lowest stratum of society. A government of the average is unpleasant for the higher strata of society. This can be remedied only by elevating the lower strata. In a republican form of govern- ment each citizen is his brother's keeper. The republican prin- ciple demands nurture as a principle co-ordinate with justice, and this is the fundamental reason why we should look for- ward to the more extensive participation of woman, not only in the sphere of industry, but in the sphere of political government.
Doubtless many mistakes will be made on the way to dis- covering the best ways and means for this social change. To expect that woman shall bring the influence of her principle of graciousness to bear on society, by adopting men's methods, is a grave error. Woman in literature, not only as writer, but more especially as reader, has effected a radical reform. Obscenity and harshness have been mostly eliminated from literature and art; so it will happen that woman in sharing the government will avail to eliminate the rigors of the law, and much of the corruption in politics that now prevail. But hasty and crude experiments in this direction will be likely to increase political corruption and to make the weaklings of society less able to care for themselves.
The progress of science and the conquest of nature by means of invention, the increased perfection of machinery, which eliminates the necessity for the factor of human physical strength, and above all the successful prosecution by woman of studies, in superior education, makes the achievement of her ideal on the part of woman only a matter of time.
William T. Harris
Bureau of Education,
Washington, D. C.
II
CUBAN TEACHERS AT HARVARD
On May i6, 1900, the Governor General of Cuba ordered that the Department of Education should distribute thruout the island a pamphlet which began :
'' Harvard University, situated in the beautiful city of Cambridge, has sent to the teachers of Cuba an invitation to attend the university free of expense during the coming sum- mer. This invitation is without parallel in the history of the world. It is not a gift from nation to nation, but from teacher to teacher; it bespeaks a professional spirit that knows no limit of country or people. No such opportunity was ever given to a great body of teachers to go to another country for study and travel without expense. . ."
This somewhat flowery announcement was hailed with de- light by those to whom it was addressed, and in six weeks Harvard University was welcoming, with open arms, 1300 teachers of an alien race, speaking a foreign tongue, and vaguely conscious that they were experiencing great things.
The undertaking was quixotic, perhaps, but at least it was on a scale large enough to startle people out of a comfortable apathy and set them to criticising, hindering, or helping, accord- ing to their several dispositions. At all events it had possi- bilities for lasting good of a singular character; but the diffi- culties which were to be surmounted were also unique as well as innumerable. The promoters of the undertaking had an unfortunate tendency to fix their eyes on the magnitude of the opportunity, and quite to overlook the seriousness of the ob- stacles which lay in the way of even a moderately successful outcome. There was also, of course, a chorus of prophets of evil who, seeing little in the undertaking but a new form of Quixotism, foretold a complete failure of hopes and plans.
230
Cuban teachers at Harvard 231
Now that the venture is completed we can, perhaps, form some just estimate of what was actually accomplished, and in judging of this we must bear in mind the conditions which led to the conception of a scheme so unique.
When Mr. Alexis E. Frye was appointed by President McKinley to be superintendent of schools in Cuba, the Depart- ment of Education was in a very precarious situation. What little system had been in vogue under the Spanish regime vanished in the confusion of the war and the subsequent change of rulers; of course the result was a chaotic state which seemed well-nigh hopeless. Mr. Frye, however, "took up the work with courage and enthusiasm, and by steady, persistent effort, unmindful of the storm of abuse which was let loose upon him, overcame opposition and created a well-ordered and tolerably efficient system of free education for the whole island of Cuba. At the close of six months' work he published a re- port, stating that 3379 schools were in working order, with 3500 teachers and 80,000 scholars in attendance. This excel- lent showing turned the opposition of the Cubans into a cor- dial appreciation of the superintendent's efforts. Above all, he won the enthusiastic loyalty of the teachers themselves.
Mr. Frye, however, fully appreciated that these teachers, who had been so hastily gathered together, and upon whom the real success of the new order of things so largely depended, were but poorly trained for their task, and that beside provid- ing instructors for the youth of Cuba he must provide in some way for the instruction of these same instructors. To facili- tate this he prepared to found three normal schools, but in the meantime, long before a new race of teachers could be trained, the present force must be stimulated and helped.
As a means of accomplishing this he inserted in the admir- able code of school laws which he wrote, and the Governor General promulgated, the following clause :
Paragraph XXIII of Decree 226 of December 6, 1899.
" Teachers will be paid monthly, and the salary will con- tinue during vacation as well as actual school periods, but in order to be entitled to draw the salary during vacations teachers must employ such periods in attending normal
232 Educational Review [October
schools, teachers' meetings for instruction, or in following other courses of instruction approved by the superintendent of schools." . . .
The salaries paid the Cuban teachers are very large, rang- ing from $35 to $80 a month, so that the vacation salary for three months is a considerable item to the instructors.
Still, the facilities for summer study in Cuba are very inade- quate, and Mr. Frye conceived the idea of taking twenty teachers to the North for the vacation. He found, however, that the plan failed to arouse interest, and the requisite funds were not forthcoming.
Then it occurred to the superintendent that, tho he could awaken but little interest in the travels of twenty Cuban teachers, yet, if the expedition could be undertaken on a scale sufficiently large to appeal to the imagination of the people of the United States, and attract attention by its very audacity, the scheme could be carried thru. He immediately cabled to President Eliot to ask whether Harvard University would provide instruction for 1500 Cuban teachers, and the answer came back " Yes." Then Mr. Frye started North to find the necessary sum of money. Fortunately President Eliot took up the cause with enthusiasm, and the corporation of Harvard guaranteed the sum of $75,000 to carry the work thru. A popular subscription was started, and the friends and alumni of the college raised a sum larger than the amount at which the expenses of the undertaking were estimated.
Back to Cuba went Mr. Frye, and began to marshal his forces for the trip to Cambridge. Fourteen hundred and fifty, or two-fifths of the entire teaching force of the island, were to go, and the choice of the favored two-fifths was wisely left to the teachers themselves. In each municipality the alcalde called the teachers together, placed upon the list of those who should go the names of those whom the teachers had chosen for their principals but a short time before, and the number which was still lacking to complete two-fifths of the whole teaching force in the municipality was chosen by ballot of the assembled instructors; two-fifths of the entire number so chosen were men and three-fifths women.
igoo] Cuban teachers at Harvard 233
The work of transporting the rural teachers to the seaports was quickly accomplished, and after the entire force had passed a rigid examination by the health officers, the fleet of trans- ports which the War Department had loaned for the trips steamed away, and on June 30 the first of the teachers were landed at the Navy Yard in Charlestown. Here they were met by their hosts and conducted to Cambridge.
The task of settling this enormous body of strangers in their new homes was accomplished with a facility and speed which were surprising. Not a piece of baggage was lost, and Mr. Clarence C. Mann, Harvard '99, upon whose shoulders rested the entire management of the business side of the expedition, fully deserved the cordial recognition of his services which the president of the university expressed in his letter of July 9. Mr. Mann was assisted by sixty or more young men, most of them undergraduates, who worked thruout the summer with a zeal and intelligence which went far to assure the success of the undertaking for which Harvard stood sponsor.
The Cuban men were lodged in the college dormitories within the yard, and the women were placed in boarding houses thruout Cambridge, within convenient walking distance of the college. The two great dining halls. Memorial and Randall, were thrown open to the teachers, and the former was devoted to the women. Each group of twenty women was provided with a chaperon, who spoke Spanish, and Whose duty was to exercise a discreet control over her charges lest their first taste of American freedom should lead them to stray in untoward paths. Five Cuban doctors accompanied the expedition, and devoted almost their entire time to looking after the physical welfare of the strangers. Fortunately, owing to wise precau- tions, there was but little illness.
So, from the point of view of the business manager the ex- pedition was uncommonly successful. It ran like a well- ordered machine, and if the mere accomplishment of the task of bringing 1500 Cubans to Cambridge and keeping them there in comfort for six weeks had been the sole purpose of the enterprise, it would have been a triumphant success.
The course of study as originally planned for the Cubans by
2 34 Educational Review [October
President Eliot included six weeks' instruction in history, geography, and English; to these were subsequently added a voluntary course of four weeks in kindergarten for the women and one in manual training under the sloyd system for the men.
Of these five classes the least successful was the one devoted to history. The course consisted of eighteen lectures upon American history, given by Mr. I. D. M. Ford and Assistant Professor P. B. Marcou, both of the French Department of Harvard, and in addition ten lectures by M. W. Gaspard de Coligny upon the history and development of the Spanish colonies. From the first the visiting teachers took but little interest in the course, criticised the matter as well as the method of the lectures, and found fault with the speakers' pro- nunciation of their native tongue. Indeed, the problem of how to deal with people speaking a strange tongue was one of the most puzzling which the promoters of the expedition were called upon to face, and it was never satisfactorily settled.
There were three possible methods by which President Eliot could deal with the problem in arranging his curriculum : First, to choose for instructors only such persons as could speak Spanish; the obvious objection to this was that such persons, possessed of any great degree of skill in teaching and able to speak such Spanish as the Cubans from all parts of the island could readily understand, were hard to find. Second, to have lectures written in English by well-known professors, and these same lectures translated into Spanish and read by some inter- preter. Third, to have some English-speaking instructor de- liver the lecture to the class, an interpreter translating it into Spanish sentence by sentence as the speaker proceeded. With these three methods before him President Eliot decided not to depend on any one of them alone, but to use all three. None of them proved wholly satisfactory, as was to be expected.
Great things were expected of the course in geography in the way of arousing and stimulating the interest of the teachers, and to effect this purpose the course was divided into two parts, the first to consist of lectures by Air. Mark S. Jefferson, assist-
ipoo] Cuban teachers at Harvard 235
ant principal of the Brockton high school, and the second of excursions and tours afield. The work of the course was really that of an elementary geological class, resembling closely the course known as Geology 4, which Professor Shaler gives at Harvard. It consisted chiefly of a rapid study of common land formations, and in order that the work might be carried out successfully, great stress was placed upon the field excur- sions. It was these field excursions, however, which proved one of the great stumbling-blocks in the path of the teachers.
The Cubans, especially the women, are but little used to long car rides and protracted tramps afoot, and to be dragged forth from Cambridge three times a week, carried out into the coun- try, and there, after a tiresome walk, to be lectured upon " sand plains " and relics of the glacial period was almost more than they could endure. Many of them were prostrated with fatigue, and even as the season advanced and they became more accustomed to the expeditions and felt the strain of a life under new conditions somewhat less, they seemed to take but little interest in the real purpose of the trips. The remarks of the lecturer on the peculiarities of the phenomena which they had been brought out to observe received but little attention from the majority of them, and a stray baby by the wayside was enough to completely demoralize a whole party, while an oddity in the way of fence construction has been known to absorb attention entirely to the exclusion of the lecturer. This lack of interest and total inability to concentrate the attention which the Cubans exhibited was more in evidence on these trips than anywhere else, but in reality it was everywhere thruout the school; it pervaded the atmosphere, and it soon be- came easy to see that in spite of certain more or less unavoidable defects in the school, what the Cuban teachers lacked was not the appliances to work with, but the inclination to work. The trip was regarded by them as a gigantic picnic, with a little study thrown in, but only a little. Much strenuousness of pur- pose was scarcely to be expected from these visitors, but the managers of the school soon began to understand that the people with whom they were dealing were nothing but grown- up children. This childishness was the most noticeable feature
236 Educational Review [October
of the visitors' character, showing itself daily in a total failure to grasp the significance of what they were seeing, a momen- tary gratitude for slight favors followed by petulance when things went wrong, a heaping up of flowery phrases of thanks, and a complete inability to appreciate what was done for them in a hundred directions by countless persons. A trivial, but very striking manifestation of this spirit was to be seen in the English classes where the recitation method was pursued. Here the spectacle of gray-haired men and women cheating at every opportunity when called upon to recite, for all the world like a parcel of un whipped boys, was far from edifying. Even the utmost vigilance on the part of their instructors failed to prevent whispered promptings and secret peeps into books, and a written exercise if done outside of the class was rarely the work of the Cuban whose name was signed to it. The puerility was both amusing and pathetic.
The six-weeks' course in English was conducted on the recitation method. The Cuban teachers were divided into forty sections, each in charge of a Spanish-speaking instructor of the same sex as the thirty scholars composing it. Mr. E. C. Hills, dean of Rollins college. Winter Park, Fla., had the gen- eral oversight of the work, and to assist him there were forty assistants. Harvard and Radcliffe undergraduates for the most part.
The sections were graded according to proficiency, but the number who could speak any English on their arrival was very small, only about one in twenty. The question of pro- viding suitable text-books proved a serious one; for the most part two were used, Ybarra's Spanish-English conversation book, and a little primer of two grades by Sarah Louise Arnold and Charles B. Gilbert, called Stepping stones to learning, which was prepared especially for the purpose. The first of these books, which aims, by the help of Spanish on one side of the page and English on the other, at the acquisition of a large vocabulary, proved too difficult, and on the other hand the primer seemed so obviously adapted for the most immature children that the instructors disliked to place it in the hands of grown-up teachers, so it was but little used. Each instructor
I poo] Cuban teachers at Harvard 237
followed his own method, using the text-book as little or as much as he chose.
Each section recited for seventy-five minutes a day, divided into two periods, one of thirty and the other of forty-five minutes, as it was thought to be impossible to retain the attention of the Cubans for a longer period at a time. The instructors often appeared ridiculously young, and the sight of a Harvard sophomore teaching a class of elderly men, many of whom were old enough to be his grand- father, often struck the observer as amusing. Yet these young people did excellent work, better than their older associates, and, tho of course painfully ignorant of the art of teaching, often managed to impart something of their own zeal to their scholars, and in this the Radcliffe students excelled the Harvard men. Yet here again the lack of application prevented rapid advancement, and tho most of the Cuban teachers were desirous to learn English, and very early in the summer discovered the value of private tutoring and availed themselves of it, yet save in a very few the neces- sary tenacity of purpose was lacking. It was difficult to judge just how much they learned; there seemed to be little gain in their ability to use the language in the affairs of everyday life, but our tongue is a difficult one to learn at best, and six weeks is but a short time.
In order to form some little estimate of their progress I re- quested two instructors to ask their scholars to write them short letters at the end of the fifth week of study, and from these I have selected four which are neither the best nor the worst, and show the character of the mistakes into which the Cubans are apt to fall. The first two are by women and were written in the class; the last two are by men, and were written outside the schoolroom, and consequently bear traces of aid supplied by the dictionary, tho this was strictly against the rule. None of the writers had ever written English before, tho all could read it with some fluency. When they began their lessons none of them had a vocabulary of over fifty words.
238 , Educational Review [October
Appreciate TEACHER :
I am very glad to write you this letter for you to see my improveds.
We are very much obliged of the kindness we have received here.
I find very interesting our Geography lessons. I can assure you that I have learned many things about the estructure of the earth.
I will never forget your English lessons and when I will be in Cuba I always remember you.
Many thanks for your kindness about me and receive the love of your most affectionate pupil.
My dear teacher :
I am very glad for have had occasion to show my grateful for your lessons which had advanced me very much. They had been very agreable to me and I will carry to Cuba a very lovely remember of you and your lessons.
I want to tell you also the pleasure that I have been in my stay in this land. I like very much the American people they are very attentive with us and I have a very good remember of all the cities I have visited.
Your lovely pupil,
Sir teacher :
The last Saturday I went to a excursion to Nantasket. We leave here at one o'clock and went to the wharf there we took a boat that bring us to Nantasket Island. There we took some electric cars that they bring us to the place of the conference. The island is very beautiful. I like to live there very much. We leave at five o'clock and come back here at 7.30 in the evening.
Your affectionate pupil,
Respectable sir :
The excursion to Nantasket on last Saturday, was the most charming of all to me, in as much as it reminds me something of mi beloved country, the shoares of Varadero, one of the prettiest places in Cuba.
Also I was very much pleased to see the groups of beautiful American girls who kindly asked us, as a souvenir, to write our names on their memoranda, which for my part I did with pleasure.
The course in kindergarten for women was the most satisfactory of all. The kindergarten is practically unknown in Cuba, and the two hundred teachers who attended the class seemed to be genuinely interested, and made a real effort to understand the spirit in which such work must be carried on.
Miss Laura Fisher, superintendent of kindergartens in the Boston public schools, had charge of the course; she
igoo] Cuban teachers at Harvard 239
speaks Spanish, but had the good fortune to secure Pro- fessor de Moreira, head of the Department of Romance lan- guages in Boston College, to act as interpreter. With the aid of ten assistants, all kindergarten teachers of experience, the Cuban women were taught the method of training very young children, and this instruction should work a happy change in some of the native schools. The most hopeful sign about the work was the fact that the women begged that the course might be continued thru a fifth week, and offered to defray the expenses themselves. The sloyd classes were not as noticeably successful, but many of the men seemed interested in the work.
Professor Royce prepared two valuable lectures on " Imita- tion and allied processes in the young," which Professor de Moreira read to some of the more advanced. The librarian of Harvard College, Mr. W. C. Lane, read two lectures on '' Pub- lic libraries," and Mr. L. E. C. Moore gave three talks on ^' American public schools."
To supplement the teaching there were countless excursions to industrial establishments such as a publishing house, and historical spots like Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill; and that the social side of our life might not be lacking, two dances a week v/ere given the Cubans in the Hemenway gymnasium, and a host of kind friends showered invitations upon them.
The Cuban teacher's day was a full one. An English class at half-past eight, a history class at half-past nine, geography or kindergarten at half-past ten, and English again at half- past eleven, an excursion or a shopping trip in the afternoon and possibly a dance or reception in the evening. All this left but little time for home study, and even under the most favor- able conditions the untrained can acquire but little in forty days, unless possessed of a very determined spirit.
Unquestionably the actual teaching in class accomplished but little. The distractions of a new life under strange conditions and an attempt to do too many things during the short period in which the Cuban teachers were at Harvard were by no means conducive to study, and the upon their return each
240 Educational Review
teacher will be required to place his or her services at the dis- posal of the various municipalities for the purpose of repeating to their comrades who remained at home the substance of what they were taught in Cambridge, still it hardly seems probable that their smattering of English and vague concep- tions of divers lectures will remain with them long when they are once more back among their old surroundings.
So whatever results have been achieved by this costly expe- dition must come from the increase in perception, and the change of the point of view and widening of the intellectual horizon which a stay among new people tends to bring about. Of course it is very difficult to estimate how much the trip has accomplished in this way. Something has been achieved, but the attitude of the Cubans themselves toward the trip and their apparent failure to appreciate their opportunities make me doubt whether the good accomplished even in this round- about way is not very trifling.
Several of the visitors were negroes, and the color problem gave the managers of the expedition continual trouble. Such occurrences as the refusal of a class of women to allow one of their number, who was of African descent, to have her picture taken with a group of her classmates, led to constant friction of a trifling sort.
The conduct of the visitors on the whole gave the manage- ment but little trouble. The women of the party were far su- perior to the men in every way, physically, morally, and intel- lectually. Indeed, whatever good is to be accomplished in the schools of Cuba will have to be the work of the women; not much can be expected at present of the men. As Mr. Frye, an unbounded optimist, has himself said, " The hope of Cuba is not in her men, but in her women."
Roger Clapp
. Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass.
Ill
TRANSPORTATION OF RURAL SCHOOL CHIL- DREN AT PUBLIC EXPENSE
The decline of the rural school and the consequent need of consolidation have been the subject of much investigation. It is well known that all over the country the migration of popu- lation has been toward the cities, so that while at the beginning of the century 96 per cent, of the population lived in the coun- try, at the end less than 70 per cent, were left there.
In the last thirty-five years the rural population of New York has decreased one-third. Of the 11,000 school districts nearly three thousand, or more than one-fourth, have 6 pupils or less, and two-thirds have less than 21. Vermont has 153 schools with less than 7 pupils each. Maine has 1000 with less than 13 pupils. Wisconsin has 183 with less than 6; 858 others with less than 11; with a total of 3222 with less than 21.
The new conditions demand new adjustments. The adjust- ment suggested is transportation of rural school pupils at pub- lic expense. It is the purpose of this paper to show what the different States are doing, and the results of their experiments. To this end I have solicited information from the State super- intendents of all the States and Territories, from many of the county superintendents and township trustees, from patrons whose children were transported, from the drivers of the teams, from the principals of the central schools, and from the transported children.
From the reports received it appears that 18 States have a law allowing the transportation of pupils at public expense, and 13 are availing themselves of the privilege. The following is the list :
Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massa- chusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York,
241
242 Educational Review [October
North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Wisconsin.
These States have nearly half the population of the United States.
In Maine the committee may transport or pay the board of pupils at a suitable place near any established school. Maine has 1000 schools averaging less than 13 pupils each. " The fact that school districts have been abolished or that the school committee has suspended schools does not necessarily entitle public school children to conveyance."
New Hampshire and Vermont have laws which allow the use of not more than 25 per cent, of the school money for trans- portation purposes, and in Vermont this may be done on a written application from ten resident taxpayers to transport scholars who reside more than one and one-half mile from the schoolhouse. The popularity of the movement in Vermont may be judged from the State superintendent's report that " within the past ten years the amount expended for transpor- tation has increased over 400 per cent."
The condition of the rural schools and the matter of trans- portation in Massachusetts is the subject of a special report by G. T. Fletcher, agent of the Massachusetts Board of Educa- tion. From this we learn that Massachusetts enacted a law in 1869 providing for the conveyance of pupils to and from public schools. The first town to take advantage of this was Quincy — closing two schools in 1874.
In 1889 Agent G. A. Walton found that the cost of educating pupils in some small schools was $50 each, while in schools of 25 pupils the cost was $10 each.
The growth of conveyance in Massachusetts is shown by the increased expenditure, $22,000 in 1889-90; $30,000 in 1890- 91; $50,000 in 1892-93; $91,000 in 1895-96; $123,000 in 1897-98, and $124,409 in 1898-99.
To ascertain the state of feeling in Massachusetts Agent Fletcher in preparing his report sent circulars of inquiry to each city and town in the State. About 200 replies were re- ceived, representing all the different conditions. From this report I select a few points. More than 50 per cent, of the
i9oo] Transportation of rural school children 243
towns report changes in population affecting school condi- tions.
One town reports cost of schooling in small school $46.82 per year, $16.30 in central building. One district formerly had 60 to 80 pupils, now 13. Many towns have gained in the villages as much as they have lost in the country. " Within ten years 229 towns have practically abandoned the old-fash- ioned district school and in its place have established central graded schools."
One superintendent reports favorable results after 18 years of trial. Less sickness among transported children, and a saving of $600 annually. Sixty per cent, of the towns raise money by specific appropriation, separate from the regular school fund; 40 per cent, make the regular school tax cover the cost of conveyance. " Fifty per cent, convey the whole dis- tance ; in the other towns the children walk to some designated point, except in some cases the carriage goes to each home in stormy weather. In some cases conveyance is furnished only in winter or stormy weather. Sometimes the children are con- veyed to school but not from it except in stormy weather."
As to what is to be construed as a reasonable distance there is much difference of opinion. Age, strength, sex, nature of the road, amount of money, and disposition of the committee seem to be determining factors.
The weight of opinion in the Massachusetts report is decid- edly in favor of consolidation and transportation. Frank A. Hill, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, in a letter dated November 15, says : " The increase from $22,000 ten years ago to $127,000 at the present time measures, I think, in a trustworthy way the growth of the policy of consolidating public schools in our rural towns and transporting children to stronger central schools."
Rhode Island has a law, and is transporting. Emphasis is here laid upon the increased attendance; two schools having together graduated 10 pupils in two years, and after consolida- tion, 16 pupils in one year, an increase of over 300 per cent, in the number of those who remained thru the upper grades.
In Connecticut the law authorizes the school visitors to close small schools and unite them with the schools of adjoining dis-
244 Educational Review [October
tricts. The Connecticut report for 1899 gives the number of schools closed as 84. Number of children transported 849. Approximate cost $12,000. The children are mostly conveyed the whole distance. Sometimes they gather at the old school- house, or at some convenient point from which the team starts. In some cases all who live more than a mile away, or some other fixed distance, are carried without regard to distance. Some- times the town owns the vehicle and hires the driver. In one town a sum per day, depending upon attendance, was paid to parents. In one town $20 per term, for each family or group of children, was allowed, and deduction made for absence. It was noticed that the attendance was good in such cases. The expense is less than the cost of maintaining schools. One town expending $292 effects a saving of $300 yearly. The vehicles are covered and made comfortable by blankets and rugs. In all cases emphasis is laid upon the fact that the driver should be selected with much care.
In Connecticut the amount expended runs from $10 per year in the town of Bozrah to $1380 in Windham. Ashford pays a family or group of children living two or more miles from school $20 per full term. They pay the same whether the chil- dren are carried or not. Under those conditions the children become quite robust and able to walk.
In only one case in Connecticut was the cost increased. The report says : *' Transportation is a success."
New York has a law, and last year annulled 82 districts. Two hundred contracts have been filed during the present year, and State superintendent Skinner thinks 300 will be before the year is over. Pupils conveyed are not enumerated separately, so there are no statistics showing number of pupils conveyed. Contracts were first made in 1896. Twenty-seven in all. The increase to over 200 this year shows the system to be very popular wherever tried. Transportation is also practiced in Greater New York.
New Jersey has a law, and a few districts have availed them- selves of the privilege of transporting, but the sentiment in favor of it is spreading, and it is probable that next year more districts will fall in line.
1900] Transportation of rural school children 245
Pennsylvania has a law providing that transportation may be done at a cost not exceeding the cost before closing the school.
Here, as in several other States, statistics on the subject do not seem to be available, the school boards not being required to specify the amount of money expended for conveyance. And from no State was it possible to obtain the number of pupils transported.
The Southern States are beginning to stir in this matter. The State superintendent of South Carolina believes in con- solidation, and is looking up the system.
State superintendent J. V. Calhoun of Louisiana says: " We are advanced only so far as talking about consolidation of rural schools and transportation of pupils. We are doing something, but we need to convince, and then find funds."
Florida reports two counties instituting the plan of trans- porting children. From one of these. Citrus, I learn that they are transporting three small schools four to six miles, 20 pupils, at $1.50 per pupil per month. The plan is growing in popular favor and they expect to do more next year. A copy of the notice to bidders specifies a vehicle of suflficient capacity, neces- sary umbrellas, wraps, etc., to keep the children comfortable, a good and reliable horse, and driver who is trustworthy and who shall have control of all the children — said driver to be acceptable to the Board of Public Instruction; to deliver the pupils between 8 and 8.40, and return them, leaving at 4.05, and to give a $100 bond for the faithful performance of his work. The teacher of the central school is required to make out a monthly report registering the arrival and departure for each day, dates and causes of failure, and if there is any complaint, report it promptly by letter.
Duval County, Fla., is transporting 176 pupils at $303 per month, having closed 14 schools. They began with two schools two years ago, and the plan has been very popular. Extra teachers hired cost $448, for what had before cost $490 per month, thus saving $42 per month. Schools of three teachers and eight-year grades were formed. They are plan- ning now to reduce 45 schools to 15. The superintendent says,
246 Ediuatiofial Review [October
" We furnish wagonettes carrying 8, 12, and 16 passengers, so there is no difficulty in getting farmers to furnish teams and harness; this is an improvement over other ways."
One of the most noted examples is found in Kingsville, O., a report of which was published in the Arena for July, 1889. The Kingsville experiment was made possible by a special act of the legislature passed for the benefit of this one town. This bill enacted that any township which by the census of 1890 had a population of not less than 17 10, nor more than 1 71 5, might appropriate funds for the conveyance of pupils in subdistricts. The law was based specifically upon the rate of population of Kingsville, and was so worded to gain the sup- port of legislators from other sections of the State, who were attached to the old plan, but who would not object to the object lesson. The residents of Kingsville have realized their fondest hopes. The average attendance has much increased, and better schools have been provided. Fifty pupils have been conveyed, and the annual cost of tuition has been reduced from $22.75 to $12.25 P^^ pupil. The plan enabled the Kingsville school to open a new room and supply another teacher to the central school, thus reducing the number of grades in a room. The daily attendance has increased from 50 to 90 per cent., thus increasing the return from the school fund invested. Over a thousand dollars was saved in Kingsville in three years.
The law has since been made general in Ohio, and is every- where proving satisfactory. Other townships in Ohio have followed the lead of Kingsville. One county, Madison, re- ports a decrease of tuition from $16 per year to $10.48 on basis of total enrollment, and from $26.06 to $16.07 on the basis of average attendance. But the item of cost is not the most im- portant. The larger attendance, more regular attendance, better schoolhouses, better teachers, and the greater interest and enthusiasm that numbers bring are most important.
In another Ohio place circles are drawn around the school- house one mile and two miles distant. Pupils inside the first circle receive no public aid. Pupils between the two circles receive $1 per month, and pupils outside the two-mile circle receive $3 per month, and furnish their own transportation.
1900 J Transportation of 7'ural school children 247
From the State superintendent of Indiana I received the names of six township trustees who are transporting children. The work is not yet general enough to have statistical infor- mation gathered. From these trustees I received the follow- ing information and opinions :
One trustee from Richmond reports 100 children trans- ported from two to four miles at a cost of $527.25, or $5.25 per pupil. This man reports that there was at first opposition to the plan, but that now there is very little.
From Henry County, Ind., the '' trustee " of New Lisbon reports : " We insist on the very best hack service that can be had, good wagons with springs, weather-proof top, door at rear and window to admit light, cushioned seats and back; carpet on the floor, and four heavy lap robes. Heaters could be used, but we have never had occasion to use them. Good teams are essential. All our roads are graveled, and the hacks run on schedule time as closely as a railway train. I make it a point to employ the very best men I can find to drive and care for the children." This man transports about 40 children from two to four miles with two hack lines at $3 a day for both. He reports that there was some opposition at first, but almost none now. By this plan two schools costing together $6 per day are dispensed with, so the saving is $3 a day. Four-fifths of a cent a mile is the average cost of transporta- tion.
To the patrons of this school I sent the following questions :
1. Is your property injured by the closing of the school and transporting of the children ? Most of the answers are in the negative, but two say the property is injured, tho one of these says, '' The system of central schools is all O. K., if properly conducted. This is the eighth year for central schools, and it has been a success."
2. Do the children suffer in health? The answers are in- variably, '' No."
3. Is the close association of children in the carriages worse than when they were scattered along the road ? The answers are again, mostly, " No." One, a woman, answers that she does not think the close association so bad as along the road, if
248 Educational Review [October
a proper person is chosen as a driver. One patron says, " The control of the children has caused us more trouble than anything else," and he suggests that the driver should make the children behave, and that the first one in should pass to the farther end of the carriage, and thus avoid stepping on toes. Perhaps, by the time the plan has been running as long as street cars, this will be done. Reports say some drivers get along very well, others do not. The same may be said of teachers. One thinks they are much better off with someone to look after them.
4. Does the eating of cold dinners affect the question much ? Answer : " No; they ate cold dinners before the schools were consolidated."
5. Is the all-day absence from home objectionable? An- swer : " This is just the same as before."
6. What else have you to say for or against the plan ? An- swers to this will be given in the summary.
Other places in Indiana report as follows: Crawfordsville, transporting 10 pupils, saves $184 annually. In another place 2 of 7 schools have been closed. In another place 20 children are transported for $1.45 per day. Another reports the cost of transporting 10 children two miles, $96 for a term of six months, one-half cent a mile for the distance actually conveyed. One driver reports that he makes a 15-mile trip daily, and finds no difficulty in managing the children.
In Illinois there is no law on the subject, but some county superintendents are agitating the subject. O. J. Kern of Win- nebago County has published in pamphlet form one of the best articles on the subject.
Wisconsin has a law that permits the use of school money to transport pupils living more than a mile and a half from school, by the nearest traveled road. But so far as can be learned there is no organized transportation of pupils, tho three coun- ties are contemplating it, viz., Kewaunee, Dane, and Rock.
The school law of Iowa authorizes the contracting with other townships or independent districts for the instruction of chil- dren who are at an unreasonable distance from their own school; and where there will be a saving of expense, or in-
1900] Transportation of rural school children 249
creased advantage to the children, the board may arrange for transportation of any child to and from school.
In Win'nebago County the plan is conducted on the largest scale of any Iowa place.
Number of children conveyed, 49. Distance two and one- half miles.
Number of teams used, 4. Cost of team and driver, $25 per month.
Number of schools closed, 4; 6 next year.
Plan has been in operation three years.
Estimated saving, $486 per year. Two-thirds cent a mile.
Forest City transports 15 pupils at $1.50 each per month, an average distance of 4 miles ; cost three-tenths cent per mile.
Baldwin, .la., transports 12 pupils one and one-half mile at an estimated saving of $1 1 per month. " Pupils meet at the old schoolhouse, and are left at the old schoolhouse at night. If pupil is not on time he is left. Only one has been left, and he has not missed twice. Result is, pupils are never tardy and attendance is very regular. There is plenty of room for pupils in town, so there is no extra expense except transportation." As far as the State superintendent knows, citizens, teachers, and pupils are pleased.
There is in Iowa 233 districts or subdistricts maintaining schools with an average attendance of less than 6, and 2500 with less than 11. Fifty-three per cent, of the independent and 78 per cent, of the subdistricts have 20 or less. Three-fifths of the pupils are in ungraded schools.
North Dakota has a law, first in operation in July, 1899, that pupils two and one-half miles away may be transported.
South Dakota has a law, and many are about convinced that where pupils live three or four miles away they could have better schools at less cost by conveying to central schools. I was informed that transportation has been begun, but have been unable to learn particulars or localities.
The last legislature of Kansas passed a law providing that where pupils reside three or more miles from the schoolhouse district boards shall pay to the parent or guardian of such chil- dren a sum not to exceed 15 cents per day, for a period of not
250 Educational Review [October
more than 100 days, for conveying such pupils to and from school. A fresh inquiry failed to elicit information that ad- vantage is being taken of this law.
Nebraska has a law, and is working under it in several places, notably Fremont and Lincoln. One district reports a saving of $70 a month.
In addition to the law providing transportation, Nebraska provides that a district may contract with a neighboring dis- trict for instruction of pupils, and may transport its pupils to such district without forfeiting its right to share in the State apportionment of school fund. The State superintendent says : *' Best of all is, the pupils are better taught."
But not alone in this country is this consolidation of schools and conveyance being inaugurated. In Victoria, Australia, 241 schools were last year closed, making a saving of £14,170 per annum. The attendance is so regular and the system so popular that applications are constantly made for its extension. A reasonable excuse in Victoria for non-attendance upon public school is that the distance is :
Two miles for a nine-year old child; two and one-half miles for nine- to twelve-year-old child, and three miles for a child over twelve years of age.
Victoria is a little larger than Wisconsin, with about half its population, one-half of which is rural.
SUMMARY
From the reports, both printed and written, I gather the fol- lowing summary of advantages accruing from the plan of transportation of rural schoolchildren at public expense :
1. The health of the children is better, the children being less exposed to stormy weather, and avoiding sitting in damp clothing.
2. Attendance is from 50 to 150 per cent, greater, more regular, and of longer continuance, and there is neither tardi- ness nor truancy.
3. Fewer teachers are required, so better teachers may be secured and better wages paid.
1900] Transportation of rural school children 251
4. Pupils work in graded schools, and both teachers and pupils are under systematic and closer supervision.
5. Pupils are in better schoolhouses, where there is better heating, lighting, and ventilating, and more appliances of all kinds.
6. Better opportunity is afforded for special work in music, drawing, etc.
7. Cost in nearly all cases is reduced. Under this is in- cluded cost and maintenance of school buildings, apparatus, furniture, and tuition.
8. School year is often much longer.
9. Pupils are benefited by widened circle of acquaintance and the culture resulting therefrom.
10. The whole community is drawn together.
11. Public barges used for children in the daytime may be used to transport their parents to public gatherings in the even- ings, to lecture courses, etc.
12. Transportation makes possible the distribution of mail thruout the whole township daily.
13. Finally, by transportation the farm again as of old be- comes the ideal place in which to bring up children, enabling them to secure the advantages of centers of population and spend their evenings and holiday time in the country in con- tact with nature and plenty of work, instead of idly loafing about town.
We are in the midst of an industrial revolution. The prin- ciple of concentration has touched our farming, our manu- facturing, our mining, and our commerce. The changes in industrial and social conditions make necessary similar changes in educational affairs. Not only for the saving of expense, but for the better quality of the work, must we bring our pupils together. No manufacturing business could endure a year run on a plan so extravagant as the district system of little schools.
A. A. Upham State Normal School,
Whitewater, Wis.
IV PRINCIPALS' REPORTS ON TEACHERS^
It should never happen that a teacher be reported for faulty or inefficient work except the teacher had been com- municated with, by the principal, at the time when the mistake or defect was noticed, and had had ample oppor- tunity of setting it right. A report on inefficiency is a statement of the trouble existing, but not a cure for it; the remedy lies in the principal's power to educate his teachers and to bring them up to a standard of efficiency. No teacher is ever placed on the list without having finished a high- and normal-school course, and a year's apprentice teaching in a school. No one receives a diploma, unless the principal with whom she has taught for a year certifies that she is capable. Moreover, no teacher is ever appointed in our city without the principal's written recommendation and after a long trial in his school. With these precautions it ought to be possible to continue the corps of teachers of a school in a state of efficiency. On the other hand, it is the absolute duty of a principal to place the children's interest above all other considerations. This means that when any case of inefficiency exists in a school, notwithstanding all efforts at improvement, there must be the unhesitating moral courage to report such fact until it is remedied. This may be a disagreeable duty, but it is of the highest importance to the whole system of public schools that it should be performed fearlessly. A heavy responsibility would be incurred by the principal failing to do his duty in this connection. No con- sideration of personal friendship or esteem, no fear of dis- pleasing, can be an excuse for allowing the time of the chil- dren to be wasted by poor instruction and guidance. Every
^ From the Annual Report for 1898, of Superintendent Soldan, of St. Louis, Mo.
252
Principals reports on teachers 253
principal must, in this respect as in others, be ready to assume the responsibility which belongs to his position. It cannot be shifted.
It is self-evident that such reports of inefficiency, when tendered as the principal's final verdict at the end of the year, should have been preceded by frequent and frank conversa- tions with such teacher, in which her shortcomings in instruc- tion and discipline or management are frankly and courte- ously pointed out, and every help extended, to correct the defect.
Cases of absolute inefficiency cannot be tolerated where the interest of the child is the highest law. In this class must be included all those cases of inefficiency where the possible cure is so slow and uncertain that the children would suffer by the attempt.
Natural talent in teaching is important, yet it is not all that is necessary for success. Efficient teachers are the result of natural talent, aided by training and experience. Natural talent enhances the effect of professional training, but it can never be a substitute for it nor take the place of experience. While talent and aptitude for teaching are likely to show themselves sometimes at the very beginning of a teacher's career, they do not do so always. They may appear later, and then be of all the more force. A teacher's inefficiency may not at all be an indication of lack of natural gifts, but be solely the result of inexperience, and where this is the case, a short time and patient, sympathetic environment will rem- edy it.
Inefficiency may be absolute or relative. Absolute ineffi- ciency is that which cannot be cured, and whose presence in a school, after sufficient trial, it would be wrong to endure. Relative inefficiency is that which the teacher's own efforts toward self-improvement, a short time of practical experi- ence, and the wise guidance of a principal may remedy. On the other hand, there are physical as well as ethical defects which no training, no patience on the part of the principal, no help extended, no frankness of criticism can change, or even mitigate. To mention a not infrequent class of cases: defects
254 Educational Review [October
of eye-sight or hearing, slight at the beginning, may possibly become so great as to unfit the teacher for adequate service. In accordance with our highest professional principle, namely, that the child's interest is the supreme law, when- ever such ailment has progressed so far as to interfere seri- ously with instruction or discipline, it constitutes absolute in- efficiency and makes it impossible for the conscientious teacher who is so afflicted to continue in her position. Her principal may feel the greatest sorrow, but in the interest of the children he cannot shirk the responsibility of reporting such inefficiency.
Teachers should be judged by their competency, not their age. Old age in itself is no proof of inefficiency. Some of our oldest teachers are at the same time our best. Age seems to have ripened their best power, and their work is without reproach. They still stand in the first ranks of excellence, and show no abatement of their rare skill and vigor.
Where old age is accompanied by a decline of power that prevents the competent performance of essential duties it may necessitate the resignation of a teacher whose long and valued service in the public schools makes everybody regret that she finds such a course necessary, but, on the other hand, the children's interest must be guarded, and there seems to be no other recourse. Such cases are especially hard to deal with. The meager salary of the position may have made the pru- dential saving of a competency for old age impossible, or sick- ness and reverses may have swept it away. Generations of old pupils that have passed thru her room and now oc- cupy honored places in the world, look back upon their old teacher's influence on their lives with grateful reverence and almost filial affection. When such a teacher, who occupies a place as dear almost as the parent's in the memory and heart of a large part of the community, becomes superannuated, and her resignation, tendered in the interest of the children, leaves her destitute and dependent on charity during the last days of a long and useful life of public service, such case will be looked upon by the citizen with pathetic interest. In this respect the practical establishment of a teachers' annuity or
i9oo] Principals reports on teachers 255
pension scheme would offer a humane solution of which the community would probably approve.
A kind of absolute inefficiency which does not have the claim on sympathy that is due to old age or physical ailment, is the habitual, morose disposition which leads to unkind and unsympathetic treatment of the children. Objectionable habits of life, or qualities of character and disposition that set a bad example to childhood must also be enumerated among the conditions that constitute absolute ineffi- ciency. A lack of natural talent to impart knowledge or the inability to control children, which time, ex- perience, and assistance do not seem speedily to im- prove, must also be considered as elements of abso- lute inefficiency. The school can tolerate relative, ineffi- ciency in such cases only where there is the probability of speedy and permanent improvement. Inefficiency may re- sult from absence of ordinary business capacity, such as the ability to be prompt and regular in attendance, and in school work and records; but these business qualities are largely mat- ters of education, and may be acquired whenever there is a modicum of talent and earnestness of purpose. There are also the absolute demands which the interest of the public schools as an organization impose; willing co-operation with others, and ready subordination to constituted authority. ,
If the preceding discussion of the teacher's duties has served any purpose, it must have shown that the teacher's duties are exceedingly numerous, and that there is no one who can possibly attain absolute perfection in all directions of professional work. There is no teacher Hving who does not fall short of perfection in some way, and who is not, in certain directions, less efficient than in others. There never has been a system of schools, and there never will be one, that is not taught by teachers differing in talent and in degrees of effi- ciency in various directions. The varieties and limitations of natural talent found in a numerous body of men and wo- men, and their various stages of growing experience, consti- tute in itself degrees of relative efficiency and inefficiency which are unavoidable conditions in every system of schools,
256 Educational Review [October
that cannot be eliminated. With a growing teacher, the work which she did at the beginning of her career, promising as it may have been, appears inefficient when compared with the skill and power displayed in her teaching in later years. Even with the best teacher, one day^s work is not always as efficient and satisfactory as another's; in years of efficiency there are always days of relative inefficiency when, in the deal- ing with pupils or in the presentation of topics of instruction, the teacher herself is severely dissatisfied with her work. This consideration suggests that it would be unwise to judge a teacher's work adversely on the sole basis of a single or an occasional visit to her room. The average professional life of the American teacher is short; it lasts, in our city, perhaps eight years, and every large system of schools is compelled by necessity to educate its own teachers. There should be no impatience or unreasonable complaint about the relative in- efficiency of the young talent in its earnest struggle to attain efficiency; in every case the road to perfection in its early stage starts from imperfection.
A young teacher's professional immaturity may make her work seem inefficient compared with the work of one who is more experienced; even when an older teacher, thru a transfer to another school, changes the grade of children whom she has to teach, her instruction may be less efficient at the beginning, on account of the newness of the work, than later, when she has gained the needful special experience. A casual visitor's justifiable, but incorrect, verdict in this and similar cases may be that such teacher is inefficient, but it should be remembered that this kind of inefficiency is rela- tive, and will, as a rule, change in a very short time and pro- duce work that satisfies all reasonable demands.
Even after the most careful preparation, thru high- and normal-school work, it requires three or four years of ex- perience in the schoolroom to develop in a young teacher the highest degree of efficiency which is possible for her to attain.
In a system of schools there is always some young teacher less skilled, less experienced and efficient than others. As
1900J Principals reports on^teac hers 257
long as she is manifestly growing and profiting by her daily experience in the schoolroom, makes use of suggestions for improvement, and is doing fairly efficient work, which is bet- ter to-day than it was yesterday, there is no remedy but the influence of time and training. It would be useless for school authorities to attempt to eliminate relative inefficiency by re- moval from office unless the position can be filled by some- one better qualified.
There is another kind of disqualification for the school- room different from immaturity or the inability to instruct or control children. A large city school requires the harmo- nious co-operation of many teachers. The board invests the principal with authority, and expects the assistants to be will- ing and able to enter upon his plans and loyally support his administration. Without subordination and compliance with legitimate direction, without good will to the authority in the school, on the part of each teacher, manifested both by her work and by her conversations in the school, the best work cannot be done. IncompatibiHty of temper and inability to work with others harmoniously, and without causing trouble and discontent, are just as much indications of inefficiency as lack of success in teaching and managing children.
The question as to efficiency of teachers is always an im- portant one in large systems of city schools. " What shall be done with inefficient teachers; how can we discover their presence? " is the question which every school board will ask. An answer has been attempted in the preceding discussion. Absolute inefficiency can be neither cured nor endured by a school system. It must be eliminated by filling the position with a better qualified teacher. Relative inefficiency, that is to say, temporarily unsatisfactory work, may be changed by training and experience to efficiency. Not a few of our prin- cipals, year after year, when it happens that a teacher ranking somewhat below the average in ability is assigned to their schools, succeed, after a comparatively short time, in making such teachers efficient, thru the influence of their person- ality, and the help and guidance which they give. Princi- pals render one of the most important services if they success-
258 Educational Review
fully educate their corps and help the weaker teacher to attain efficiency thru their influence and supervision.
It is an imperative duty, but by no means an easy one, for boards of education, principals, and superintendents, to eliminate cases of absolute inefficiency. The person chiefly concerned is hardly in a condition to realize that she is in- efficient. She honestly does not believe that her work is bad, and cannot understand why others should think so. If she could realize her inefficiency, it would probably not have ex- isted for so long a time. In not a few cases inefficiency goes with a fixed conviction of personal excellence; the conscious- ness of having made the best efifort that she is capable of blinds the one reported for inefficiency to the fact that even the best eiTort may be inadequate where nature has withheld the talent requisite for the instruction or control of children. To the person chiefly concerned, the trouble is somebody else's fault rather than her own; it is due to some petty mis- understanding in the past, to social or religious bias, to jeal- ousy, if it is not dictated by fancied petty animosity, or is the result of an old grudge. As a rule, in such cases, the plea is that of injustice on the part of the reporting officer, of preju- dice, or hasty judgment, or insufficient information; it is alleged that the room has not been visited often enough by the principal or supervisors, or that their visits did not occur at the right time, and that the teacher has not had enough help, and has not been informed with sufficient frequency of the defects of her teaching. In cases of radical inefficiency the reporting principal finds himself, as a rule, in the most un- pleasant position of being charged with injustice to one who depends on her work for a living. Every unfortunately in- competent teacher has a circle of friends who know her esti- mable social qualities, but not her professional shortcomings, and who do not realize the great injury which her presence in the school causes, since they naturally accept her valuation of herself as correct.
F. Louis Soldan
Superintendent of Schools, St. Louis, Mo.
V
THE BIG RED SCHOOLHOUSE
Three years ago there was instituted at Boston an investiga- tion into the sanitary condition of the schoolhouses of that city. Following this lead, like investigations were made elsewhere, and in four cities — Boston, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and Wash- ington— the work was done with such thoroness and complete- ness as to lead to a printed report, given to the public either over the signatures of individual citizens, or that of an associa- tion whose membership was well known. Buffalo has pub- lished two of these reports, the last one dated June, 1899. We have thus authoritative statements on the sanitary conditions of our public schools covering several years, and coming from representative cities of very distinct types. In addition, frag- mentary and informal reports have been made from as many more cities, the whole forming a body of testimony of very great value.
The method of these investigations differed chiefly in de- tail, the basis being a personal room-to-room investigation of the schools, on a plan drawn up by sanitary experts, and cover- ing the details of sites, buildings, sanitaries, ventilation, light, heating, overcrowding, cleaning, and health, and resulting in a mass of data which left little to be desired in the way of amplitude and exactness. These investigations were carried on in every case by citizens' committees, with but little official co-operation, and were conducted in the spirit set forth in the Buffalo report. " Your committee wishes it clearly under- stood," it says, " that its aim in this report is neither criticism for its own sake nor arraignment, but to lay before the citizens of Buffalo a candid and impartial statement of a particular phase of the school problem in our city."
It is impossible here to do more than touch upon a few of the salient points presented by these reports. One of the first
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26o Educational Review [October
facts brought out was that of overcrowding. The testimony from Philadelphia on that point was succinct and graphic. The report of the Woman's Health Protective Association quotes from an earlier report made by a committer of the city council itself to this effect : " Besides those of five entire wards, some thirty buildings are mentioned by name as seri- ously overcrowded, some to ' suffocation ' ; in some cases the children sitting on the floor and using soap-boxes or chairs for desks, or getting but half school time in order to give other equal crowds their half chance at such schooling, or jammed one hundred into a room intended for half that number." The citizens' investigation, made after these facts had been thus re- ported to the authorities by a committee of their own number, showed no substantial change.
The Buffalo report was more analytic, and presents four different classes of testimony on this point. More than half of the school buildings in that city, it was shown, had pressed into service rooms not intended for class use. Four were using attic rooms; twelve, portions of the halls; five, basements; four, cloakrooms; at two, the principal's office; at one the storeroom and teacher's lunch room, and at one a room formerly used as a lavatory. There was also a lack of seats. Two children in a single seat, or three in a double one were everywhere to be seen, while the further surplusage of babies lined the edge of the teacher's platform. It became evident early in this inves- tigation that the term overcrowding needed definition. When was a room overcrowded? When there were more children than desks? When place for no more desks could be found, or when little more than standing room remained ? Evidently all these theories were held, while by the one sound test — that of cubic air space — the number of overcrowded schoolrooms rose enormously. By that standard, 24 out of the 56 grammar schools were found to have every room overcrowded, while in the remaining schools 324 rooms were found with deficient air space. In some rooms the air space was as low as 66 cubic feet per child, instead of the standard 250, and in rooms with especially defective ventilation at that. At Washington 40 out of the 83 buildings fell below the standard and — significant
1900] The big red schoolhouse 261
fact! — of the two buildings erected in 1898, one was entirely below the standard, and the second was so in every room but one. But to return to Buffalo; besides the evidence of over- crowding furnished by rooms, desks, and air space, was the fact that the city was occupying in addition to the regular school buildings twenty-live " annexes," a variety of schoolhouse which deserves special description.
So much for the question of school accommodation on the quantitative side. The testimony as to quality was everywhere no less direct. It might fairly be expected that rooms not originally intended for school use would be ill-adapted to such a purpose, and so it proved. At one school the basement rooms, in which 250 children of the tenderest age were housed, were entirely without ventilation, except by windows; they were dark, so that in one room kerosene lamps swung over the chil- dren's heads; they were unkempt, one room having only a cement floor, and some rough benches for furniture, while the whole dim region was subject to periodical floodings during the inclement months. On one visit in January the examiner found streams of water, w^hich had leaked in thru the walls, flowing merrily thru the rooms in which the swarms of chil- dren were at work. In a Philadelphia school "" the kinder- garten was located between all the water closets used by 900 pupils, so that the only outside air comes from these places; no ventilation of any kind." It may be said, in passing, that the basement seems to be considered, in general, a suitable place for very young children, with their corresponding suscepti- bility to disease. The promotion of the superfluous babies is often to the attic, where again fresh air is meted out to them with the utmost frugality. Attic rooms are almost invariably without means of ventilation, except the windows, and one such room was found which even had windows that could not be opened. A few auger holes in the sash were relied upon for fresh air — a provision which must be considered well-meant rather than adequate. Attic rooms, too, are generally fire- traps, being reached usually by one steep and narrow staircase, thus holding in readiness all the conditions necessary for a panic.
262 Educational Review [October
But it was generally found that teachers who had been assigned to the basement or attic, or to one end of a stuffy hall, were grateful at having escaped a worse fate — the annex. The annex may be defined as any variety of building unfit for school purposes and pertinaciously devoted to school use.
Here are three types :
From Washington :
" The Pierce, built in 1894, has been using for two years as an annex a small room in a church, accommodating two schools daily, heated by stoves, with no ventilation except by windows, with small closet in yard in poor condition.
" The yard is reported as smelling foul, and a receptacle for ash dumps."
From Buffalo :
'' A one-story frame building of the lightest possible con- struction, with four rooms opening into a central hall. The building rests directly on the ground, and after a heavy rain the flooring is often wet by absorption from the earth beneath. Owing to the thinness of the walls it is very hard to heat, and and in winter the temperature is often not more than 51 de- grees. This is in spite of a system of hot water heating which has recently replaced the stoves. Ventilation is by windows, and by a round opening in the ceiling of each room, so imper- fectly capped that the rain sometimes drips in on the pupils be- low. The air space per child in these rooms averages but 126 cubic feet, instead of the minimum requirement of 250. In every room there are more children than desks, and in one room some children must occupy desks so much too large for them that they cannot touch their feet to the floor. The walls of this building are covered with a torn and shabby paper. The light in two of the rooms is insufficient on cloudy days, but there is no provision for artificial lighting. The four class- rooms, with their 190 children, open into the central hall. This hall, which is partially lighted and not at all ventilated by one small window, contains a sink and the children's wraps. With the outer door closed, as of course it must be during most of the school year, the hall is so dark that the wraps hanging on the walls are an indistinguishable mass. This annex is 16
1900] The big red schoolhouse 263
feet from the two-story brick annex which overshadows it, and the same distance from the outhouse — often in bad condition — which is used by the 350 or more children in these two build- ings. This poisonous hovel was built for a schoolhouse by the city, against the protests of the principal of the school, and has been occupied by women and little children for ten years."
From Boston :
*' The Hancock annex is a tenement building, two rooms in the lower floor of which have been taken for school purposes. The surroundings of this temporary tenement schoolhouse are very filthy. On the building are fire escapes for the use of the tenants, who live above the schoolrooms. The fire escapes are littered with portable washtubs, old bottles, rubbish, and swill. The balconies of the fire escape are used for the purpose of air- ing bedding, etc. When the second floor balcony is so occu- pied, the light for the schoolrooms is almost entirely shut off. In the interior of this tenement schoolhouse are two light-wells which do not go down to the ground, but are shut off at the sill height of the schoolrooms by a roof. This roof is also a depository for swill, old clothes, -and other refuse matter.
'' These rooms are occupied by 43 children, in ages ranging from five to nine years. The rooms are heated by stoves, and there are no means of ventilation except windows." Three cases of diphtheria from these rooms were reported.
With such a condition prevailing in regard to these most ob- vious features of school accommodation, it is not to be won- dered at that less simple sanitary requirements were also found abundantly neglected. Dark rooms are as unfit for school use as if they were infected with disease, yet not only did no city fail to report a large number of rooms " insufficiently " or '' dimly " lighted, or dependent upon artificial light for a por- tion of the school hours (and sometimes lacking any means for artificial lighting), but also there was no one of them but reported rooms where children were improperly seated with reference to the light supply. Two characteristic examples will suffice. In one room children had been seated facing the light because the seats " looked better so," and at another school repeated appeals to the authorities, extending over two
264 Educatiofial Review [October
years, had failed to secure a simple change in the arrangement of desks necessary to prevent the pupils facing a glare of light. This offensive stupidity is carried into other details as well. It was found, for instance, that adjustable desks were furnished sparingly, when at all, yet the need for them is often great. The children of foreign parentage now fufnish a large propor- tion of the pupils in our public schools, and ignorance of the English language often puts them far below their proper school grade. Consequently these children are often forced to occupy seats much too small for them, a penance which results some- times in permanent bodily distortion. This, tho, is a con- sideration to which the average school official pays little heed.
The problem of what to do with the children's wraps is again one which, in many cases, he has not yet even recognized clearly as a problem. Its elements are stated in the Buffalo ' report : '' To put the child's wrap where it will take up the least room, where it will be secure, where it can be dried when necessary, and where odors, dampness, and the danger of infection from it will be reduced to the minimum." The ventilated closet which will fulfill these requirements is still a rara avis, while hap- hazard methods are present in every degree. Certainly the most objectionable of these is the fashion of hanging the chil- dren's outdoor garments in the schoolrooms. Yet this is fre- quently done, the children sitting almost in contact with the masses of damp and odorous clothing. At one school where four classrooms were hung with wraps, the principal asked permission to have them removed to the hall — an arrangement which would certainly have been less objectionable^ — but it was refused. Window seats and fire escapes are pressed into serv- ice for cloak rooms, as are floors and dark closets, with what- ever other unfit receptacles the resources of a school provide. In fact, there seems to be a general obliviousness of the bearing of this question on school hygiene. Yet it is intimately con- nected with one of the most vital elements in school life. '' An insuperable objection," says the Boston report, '' to the intro- duction of good ventilation in many of the older buildings is the absence of coat-rooms, and the use of the corridors as substi- tutes for them, where masses of clothing have to be stored dur-
1900] The big red schoolhouse 265
ing school hours. This is a condition which must be abol- ished." The cloak rooms in some new school buildings are generous and w^U-intentioned, but in spite of these merits they are not only still very defective, but they emphasize one of the fundamental causes of the general state of affairs which we have been describing. A certain school, for instance, built within the last five years, has seventeen cloak rooms, with an average floor space of 22 x 6 feet. They are clean, flooded with sun- shine, but with no provision for drying wet garments, and no attempt to prevent odors or infection from them escaping into the building; each cloak room opens into the hall by a slatted half-door. Every schoolroom in this building is deficient in air space, the average being 183 cubic feet per pupil instead of the minimum requirement of 250, and three dim rooms in the cellar are filled with children. It would seem that that sunny air space above stairs might have been put to better use. Yet not only was the architect himself perfectly satisfied with what he had done, but it had apparently not occurred to anyone con- nected with the school itself that its arrangements were at all defective.
Much of the plumbing in schoolhouses is antiquated and therefore unsatisfactory, by modern standards, and that which is new is often badly cared for. In spite of plumbing ordi- nances, comparatively new fixtures are to be found without ventilating shafts, in some cases the schoolrooms above draw- ing their air supply from such lavatories. As high a propor- tion as 3 1 out of 83 closets are reported from one city as " ob- jectionable " — that is, " rusty, ill-smelling, and flushed only by the janitor." The gradations from such crude and offensive conditions as these are many, up to excelle'nt cement floors, put in at considerable expense, for supplementary drainage, and carefully sloped the wrong way.
Let these examples of typical conditions affecting the hygiene of our schools suffice. The detail could be multiplied indefinitely, from botched plumbing to roller towels used by hundreds of children and changed " when soiled," and from ill- kept rooms to wretched ventilation. (The ventilation of schools is not taken up here, as its importance calls for sepa-
266 Educational Review [October
rate treatment.) The unanimity of the reports from these four cities, on all these points, is one of their most striking features. They are unanimous on another point as well: a comparison between new and old school buildings fails to show an improvement commensurate with the advance in knowledge bearing on the housing of school children. The old school- houses are badly ventilated by windows, and the new buildings are badly ventilated by expensive apparatus. Plumbing is botched; the lessons of overcrowding go unheeded; the warn- ing conveyed by the repeated investigations in many cities of the eyesight of school children, with the invariable increase shown in defective vision from the lower grades upward, is still often ignored, while school housekeeping seems to be al- most a virgin field.
Boston — of all places! — made a report on this last point which is so curious, to put it mildly, that it is worth quoting. " Classrooms are dusted less often than once a week by 8 janitors; twice a week by 80 janitors; daily by either janitor, teachers, or pupils (!) in 52 schools; daily by janitors in only 43 schools; 3 not stated. . . There are no instructions in jani- tors' rules for washing floors or for their care, beyond sweeping twice weekly. Until the summer of 1895, jy had never been washed since built, in a period of years varying, say, from fifty down to nine years. During that summer an appropria- tion of five thousand dollars was made to have the floors washed and the woodwork wiped with a disinfectant, and yet, apparently, there were fifty buildings where floors were not washed even then." The Boston Board of Health had pre- scribed a method for cleaning and disinfecting schoolhouse floors, but it was not put into effect. In short, at this, as at every point, our schools fail to profit by the best that is known of school hygiene.
At the time that these investigations were being made data were collected from a number of our largest cities, in regard to their system of inspecting the sanitary condition of their schools. Out of a total of 35, 8 replied that no inspection whatever was made.
Fifteen had it '' on complaint," " when necessary," " in a
I poo] The big red schoolhouse 267
general way," '' at no stated time," or '' sporadic examina- tions by Board of Health," or '' for contagious diseases only," while some of the most excellent systems among the remain- ing 12 are ineffective because the responsibility for un- sanitary conditions is not fixed, or because the inspectors have no power to remedy the evils which they report. It is a safe inference that the state of affairs set forth in the four reports from which we have been quoting is not exceptional.
From what causes do these deplorable conditions spring? First, certainly from poor administrative methods. These may be merely weak and antiquated, or the inefficiency may be the result of politics. In one city, for instance, whose only school board is a committee of ward aldermen, practically the entire control of the physical conditions of school life rests with one man, a member of a partisan board. He selects the plans for the new buildings — when he does not make them himself — and superintends their construction. He determines the sys- tems of ventilation and plumbing, chooses the school furniture, has charge of all repairs, and even of all minor changes, so that the moving of a desk is by his authority. These questions, in- volving the health and comfort of thousands of people, and the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars, were but recently rescued from the hands of a man who had such knowl- edge of sanitary science and school hygiene as he had acquired as a workman in a refrigerator factory.
The touch of the politician may be confidently counted upon to secure a very low level of efficiency in dealing with all matters requiring expert knowledge. Unfortunately, tho, his comparative absence does not, in itself, insure a better result. A high degree of incompetency can be secured without his assistance. The difficulty with our schools is not the lack of money, as is often alleged, for the people are usually ready to vote money generously for their needs; it is indifference, igno- rance, and ill-defined responsibility. A study of municipal school bills often yields very suggestive results. The plea of poverty, for instance, hardly avails when we find plumbing still neglected in a building which has been surrounded by, an orna-
268 Educational Review [October
mental iron fence, or hundreds of dollars spent in changing ventilating apparatus which still fails to do its work.
The second cause of unsanitary schoolhouses is the compara- tive newness of sanitary science as a claimant to popular at- tention. The earnestness with which the intellectual needs of our schools have been studied within the past few years, and the resulting concentration of attention upon those needs, have helped to divert attention from other points. But it must be said that, with the average school official — janitor, teacher, principal, or superintendent — a slight diversion suffices. Very great ignorance of hygiene and sanitary science abounds in our schools, and very great indifference to them. When to this is added an administrative system against which the conscien- tious school principal simply frets himself away in attempting to secure improvements in his school building, the conditions for deterioration are about complete.
We have reached the point where we realize the need of guarding against the most obvious dangers — which are also the comparatively infrequent ones — such as contagious dis- eases; but that sense of the intimate relation between a child's physical well-being and its mental growth which will safeguard every schoolroom in our cities, thru every school day, is yet to be gained. How are we to gain it? First, as matters now stand, thru citizens' committees. Nothing so helps to keep the official vision clear as the existence of a group of men and women interested in the schools, who have spoken the truth about them, and may at any time do it again. The usual progress of the man who has been caught napping is thru anger and blustering defiance to an apologetic tone, ending, a year or so later, in the more or less complacent presentation, as his own, of the measures which have been forced upon him. Sometimes, tho, a worthier spirit is shown. For instance, the janitors of the Buffalo schools, under the impulse of the inves- tigations there, of their own accord asked for lectures bearing on their duties. Gratifying as such results are, tho, with our present rate of progress citizens' committees will probably be needed for the next thousand years or so.
Second, school hygiene should have a more important place
i9oo] The big red schoolhouse 269
in principals' examinations than is now usually given it. There is every reason why the man who applies for the charge of a school should be required to prove his competency to make it a wholesome place to live in. And the test should not con- sist of a few questions which can be answered by some rule of thumb, but be searching enough to require a knowledge of the principles of plumbing, ventilation, heating, and cleaning, methods of lighting, and the general care of the physical child during school hours. The principal should then have full con- trol over the school building, as is now not always the case, and be held to a strict accountability. Third, there -should be sys- tematic and thoro inspection of the schools, combined with power to do such work as is shown to be necessary. The city of Albany has a system which apparently works well. A school official called the Superintendent of buildings, elected by the school committee and removable at their pleasure, visits each house at least once a month, and inspects it and its sur- roundings minutely. He has power to make minor repairs or changes; others are reported to the committee on buildings of the school board, who can at onpe have the work done. Here is very simple machinery, establishing an effective control of sanitary conditions. It means, perhaps, the salary of an extra official, but he saves that amount to the municipality many times over. A city pays heavily, in hard cash, in the end, for its neglect of its schoolhouses, or even for minor stupidities in their management. That, however, is one of the lesser con- siderations, for the question involved in the housing of our school children is not one of expediency, but of morality. With our compulsory school law comes the obligation to pro- vide schools which shall be hygienic. This obligation cannot be evaded ; it cannot long be ignored.
It is a rather pathetic sight, at best, which our great city schools now offer. The little tots in patched and faded cloth- ing, struggli'ng, but too often, with the English language as an unknown tongue, who have come from hard and unlovely surroundings, must soon take their place among the toilers. For them, above all others, the scanty hours of school life should mean all that is possible, not only in high example and
2 70 Educational Review
quickening influence, but in wholesome and beautiful surround- ings as well. How far we fall short of this the merest glance will show. The community which allows so vital a matter to rest in ignorant or indifferent hands fails to meet its responsi- bilities; the official who, having to do with the schools, neg- lects to use his utmost effort to remove these evils has, by so much, written himself down as unfit for his office.
Elizabeth M. Howe
Buffalo, N. Y.
VI DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION IN ENGLAND
A few months ago the United States Ambassador, address- ing an EngHsh audience, argued that democracy in America was founded on the education of the people, and that the com- mon school was at the root of all that is admirable in the Ameri- can constitution. The reason, it may be conjectured, is that America, casting off the feudal yoke, was able to build up her institutions on a basis of her own choosing, and found the fittest for her purpose in the child. In England, on the other hand, the traces of medievalism are apparent everywhere, in our students' gowns no less than in our House of Lords. With us education has been transmitted without a break from its ecclesiastical sources in the Dark Ages; it is even now largely controlled by churchmen; and it still bears signs of its origin mysterious to those who do not know the secrets of its course. But there has never been a time of absolute stagnation. As the stream has flowed onward, it has grown at once wider and deeper. Education in England now reaches an ever-increasing mass of the people, and by improving its methods and extend- ing the range of its subjects exerts a profounder influence on the national life than at any previous stage of its history. The result of this progress is seen in our political and social rela- tions; we are becoming more democratic as we are better edu- cated. If democracy, triumphant in America, rests on the edu- cation of the citizens, in England, still militant, it looks to the same quarter for its sharpest and most effective weapons.
Without troubling the reader with a vast array of statistics, accessible enough elsewhere, let me notice, from an English standpoint, a few features of our present educational condition, and then consider some tokens of the change ensuing from its gradual improvement. And first let me deal with what is going on now, that is to say, with the cause of the change.
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272 Educational Review [October
If we divide English schools into three groups, the large public schools, the middle schools, and the elementary schools, we obtain a classification not indeed scientific, but at least con- venient and intelligible. Of the first group perhaps the most striking characteristic is obedience to tradition. Now, tradi- tion is of two kinds. One perpetuates, and wisely, local and distinctive usages, harmless, pleasing, or wholly commendable. Tradition of this kind infuses in each new generation the good spirit of the past, and gives to great institutions that variety of type which is as surely valuable in the world of schools as in the sphere of nature. But the other binds and hampers; it checks progress, or is even deadly to the whole organism which it pervades. Sober judges assert that it is to this injurious form of tradition that most of the weaknesses of our public schools are due. The newly appointed headmaster of Harrow, on his first Speech Day, observed that he never knew what conservatism was until he went to Harrow. Without attempt- ing to fix his meaning, and without referring to Harrow in par- ticular, we may say that our great schools have received their defects by inheritance. If they lay too much stress on the teaching of the dead languages by old-fashioned, purely gram- matical methods; if they are just tolerant of mathematics, in- different to science, and absolutely contemptuous of French and German; if their teachers are untrained and their studies not co-ordinated — well, all these faults have a respectable ancestry. The permanence of the bad tradition is easily explained. It is due to a long succession of clerical headmasters, most of whom have had a strictly classical, and no professional, training, and to the custom of preferring as assistant masters of a school those who were once its pupils. In his Memories and impres- sions, just published, the warden of Merton College, Oxford, tells us that at Eton in his day every single master was an old Eton boy. It is not surprising to learn further that the Eton system had changed little since the reign of James I.
Altho no general reformation has taken place, there are signs of improvement visible. The exclusive cultivation or predomi- nance of classics will soon, it would seem, have kad its day. In the last list of successful candidates for the entrance scholar-
ipoo] Democracy and education in England 273
ships at a very famous school two boys appear as rewarded for their attainments in mathematics, two for classics, and, marvel- ous to relate, two for history. At least two great schools have gained a reputation for the excellence of their science teaching; and several prepare directly for the army examinations. In perhaps half a dozen the teaching of French is something more than a farce. At the last Headmasters' Conference, of thirty- seven present eight were laymen, and some of these men who have done good service in the cause of education. In very few schools does even half the staff consist of '' old boys." On the other hand, in respect to the co-ordination of subjects and the training of teachers there is little advance to report.
To turn next to what we have called middle schools, the great heterogeneous group lying between the public schools and the elementary schools, the defects under which they have hitherto labored have been owing to the lack of any adequate control or inspection. A frequent consequence has been a de- gree of inefficiency which has been the amazement of foreigners and the shame of Englishmen. I say a frequent consequence. There is no desire on my part to speak slightingly of the many grammar schools, high schools, and private schools in which the work of education has been faithfully performed. But the law of England allows a most injudicious freedom in this vital matter of education. Any person, however illiterate, may open a school in any building, however unsuitable, and teach what he pleases as he pleases. Under such circumstances the parent, too often an incapable critic in educational matters, is left at the mercy of men who may be competent teachers or arrant im- postors. The only safeguard for the poor boys or girls risked in their hands is that, as a rule, it is more profitable to teach something than nothing. The effect of the laxity of the law is that children of the middle class may get their education in a well-conducted establishment, or take away a varnished igno- rance from the dominie of a cellar.
The diversity between schools of this intermediate kind is so great as to make any general statement of progress difficult. But there are three things that tend to their improvement. First of all, the Education Act of last year has made provision
2 74 Educational Review [October
for inspection; and altho the inspection clauses are not com- pulsory, there is reason to hope that the force of example, the fear of seeming to shirk censure, and other causes will lead a large majority of schools to place themselves under the Act. Then again for commercial or industrial life a better education is now required than has hitherto been the case; the boy who has learned nothing is outstripped by the more highly trained; the English clerk is ousted by the German unless he can show equal qualifications. The father, becoming conscious that ignorance is a disadvantage in the practical business of money- making, looks for the schools which can point to the best re- sults; so that the fittest survive. Lastly, the elementary schools, higher elementary schools, science schools, and the like give an education so much far superior to that which they formerly supplied that they raise the level in the schools above them. The mere force of competition is driving the inefficient schools to mend their ways, or be extinguished.
As to the elementary schools themselves, they show a dis- tinctly progressive tendency. In the important matter of edu- cational appliances they are, in general, better equipped than the middle schools. Sounder methods of instruction are b^ing introduced. The payment of the teachers in many places has been fixed on a satisfactory scale; at Glasgow, for example, for seventy headmasters employed under the school board the aver- age annual salary amounts to £360, being in some cases as much as £500. Better men are being attracted to the work of elementary teachers; and there are thousands who find only a stimulus in the terrible difficulties with which they have to con- tend. Of these difficulties, notably in the east end of London, the gravest and saddest is the necessity of offering intellectual food to large numbers of children whose stomachs are empty; nor does any remedy for the evil seem within reach. Attend- ance is being more eff'ectually enforced. From the last Educa- tion Report it appears that of the estimated number of children usually found in elementary schools nearly 98 per cent, of those between seven and eleven years of age are on the registers of in- spected schools; and that 71 per cent, of the " infants " attend, and 88 per cent, of " older scholars." The figures are encour-
1900] D 67710 cracy and edu cation in England 275
aging to those who hope that the EngHsh may be regarded in the course of a few more years as being really a'n educated people. Moreover, Robson's Act, dealing with exemptions, has now come into force. Drawmg a distinction between urban and agricultural children, it lays down that of urban children no'ne shall be exempted from school attendance before the age of twelve; in agricultural districts children may be partially exempted after the age of eleven to enable them to take part in harvesting operations. On the whole, the proportion of chil- dren who from the carelessness or criminality of their parents are deprived of the benefits of education is being from day to day reduced.
But perhaps the most remarkable movement of the time is that to promote the education of adults. We have many illiter- ate persons in England whose youth fell in the period before compulsory education became law. In the early seventies, soon after the passing of Mr. Forster's great Act, a multitude of chil- dren escaped the net; now grown to maturity and having — quite learned — children of their own, not a few of these feel shame at their own ignorance. Those again who left an ele- mentary school at an early age have not unfrequently brought with them from it a vague longing for wider knowledge, or even definite intellectual interests. To meet the wants of these various classes a number of educational agencies have started into life. For the more ambitious and better prepared there are university extension lectures, workingmen's colleges, polytech- nics, and similar institutions. Better still there are, in London especially, many voluntary associations, which offer to all comers not only formal teaching, but the influence of refined surroundings, music, good libraries, and personal intercourse with highly educated men and women. The philanthropy of the members of these associations assumes the most varied forms. They will teach you to read and write, lecture you on civic duty, or show you on a lantern screen the wonders of the deep sea. They organize guilds of play, state clubs, and mothers' meetings. They train you either to play chess or to nurse the sick. They take the lame to the woods, or brighten weary laborers with a hoHday tour. And, in the true educa-
276 Educatio7ial Review [October
tional spirit, thru all their work. The instrument on which they rely is sympathy. To name only a few of the societies, Toynbee Hall, Mansfield House, the Passmore Edwards Settle- ment, the Settlement of Women Workers at Canning Town, and the Bermondsey Settlement are all renderi-ng incalculable service to the community, reaching the poorest part of it, and showing an unaffected kindness to all who will accept it. Such places are indeed the homes
Of toil unsevered from tranquillity, Of labor, that in lasting fruit outgrows Far noisier schemes, accomplished in repose. Too great for haste, too high for rivalry.
Let me now pass to the effects of the quickened educational activity of which I have pointed out a few signs. No force can be lost; and the particular force which we are considering manifests itself freely in the domain of social and political life.
First of all, education being, as someone has said, the culture of a growth, not the manufacture of an article, its effect should be continuous. A table of wood once made remains a table; a living seed that has been planted goes on expressing its vitality in higher and higher forms, and demanding fresh nourishment, until the limit imposed on it is attained. In like manner the mental growth which education fosters is continuous, and ex- presses itself in ever widening intellectual demands. That is just what is observable in England now as a result of educa- tional progress. The Libraries Act has called into existence many excellent storehouses of books, and these are gladly used by readers of humble rank. Picture galleries have multiplied; in London the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Gallery are comparatively recent erections; and many provincial towns now own respectable art collections. Music has been more cultivated in the last decade of years than at any previous time. And generally, in all classes there has been a more eager seek- ing for the cheap and beneficent sources of spiritual delight.
Secondly, it being one of the functions of education to de- velop the power of discriminating moral values, it is natural that there should have come among us with improved educa-
1900] Democracy and education in England 277
tion a diminished respect for mere wealth and titular distinc- tions. The schoolmaster in molding the character of his pupils necessarily molds the character of the citizens and determines the public opinion by which the state is governed. He must have done his work ill if virtue is not deemed an essential con- dition of honor.
Thirdly, inasmuch as education concerns itself with civic obligations, its progress in England has produced a livelier sense of personal responsibility for national policy. The elec- tor begins to think for himself. He is armed against the rhetoric of the platform. He may now be expected to cast his vote according to the dictates of reason and justice.
Fourthly, since education enhances the value of its possessor, the educated workman has obtained, or is obtaining, an esteem (real or affected) which to his predecessors was unknown. He is a factor to be reckoned with. The ruling faction can only rule by consulting his wishes. He is courted where once he was ignored or contemned.
None of the effects which I have set forth is to be conceived as a fully realized end, any more than the educational develop- ment which I have outlined represents a state of perfection. I have sought to indicate the lines on which we are advancing, not to boast of the goal that we have reached. Regard for space has caused me to condense my remarks. Perhaps too I have been wrong in looking for the results of educational prog- ress in the social and political life of our people. A few years ago the Morning Post, the chief organ of what is called '' society " in London, observed : " We have now had a quarter of a century's experience of the Education Act; yet servants are no better and employees are not more trustworthy." It would seem then that I ought to have looked into the kitchen. But I do not think that I shall be blamed for my choice in America.
W. G. Field
London, England
VII RECENT ITALIAN EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE
Some of the most suggestive and sanest literature of the day concerning the problems of modern education comes to us from Italy, where the younger generation of teachers and men of science are endeavoring to build up a truly evolutional system of education for both sexes, upon a basis that shall be lasting because natural and true. In the brief notes here presented an attempt has been made to give the gist of some of the more recent Italian contributions to educational science. In some respects Italy bids fair to rival Germany as the inspirer of the new century about to begin, and the thoughts of her best educators are well worthy the attention of American educators, who, in general, are so little acquainted with what is going on in the land of the old Romans.
Text Books. The Official Bulletin of the Minister of Public Instruction for October 12, 1899,^ contains an interesting list of some 830 text-books approved for use in elementary schools. The list includes: 156 primers; 113 post-primer reading-books; 86 reading-books for the second class, 71 for the third class, 41 for the fourth class, 35 for the fifth class; 18 grammars for the higher elementary classes; 31 history-manuals for the higher classes; 32 arithmetics for the higher classes; 31 geog- raphies approved for the year 1899- 1900; and 216 books recommended for home-reading, school libraries, and prizes.
Of the 156 primers some 25 appear to be written by women, and one each prepared by a committee of city teachers (Turin), and a committee of the teachers in the elementary schools (Verona). Among the books for home-reading, school-
^ Elenco generale dei libri di testo approvati per le scuole elementarl. Boll. Uff. del Ministero dell' Istruz. Pubbl., Anno XXVI., Vol. II., Num. 41, pp. 1745- 1812.
278
Recent Italian educational literature 279
libraries, and prizes, Louisa Alcott, E. S. Brooks, Frances Hodgson Burnett, James Otis, Robert Louis Stevenson, C. V. Jamison, William Stoddard, J. T. Trowbridge, and a few other English and American writers are represented in translation. A reading-list that includes Little Lord Faimtleroy, Don Quixote J Cuore, Treasure I stand j Gulliver's Travels, etc., is not bad. It is putting us to shame, in whose lists Cuore, e. g., so rarely figures.
Minister Baccelli.^ In his brief address before the Peda- gogical Congress at Tivoli, October 28, 1899, the Minister of Public Instruction gave renewed expression to his ideas con- cerning elementary education. One of his projects of reform is crystallized in the watchword torniamo ai campi, '' let us re- turn to the fields ! " This movement has met with great suc- cess, for to-day there are in Italy 4000 plots of ground fur- nished to schools either by the public authorities or by private citizens. Much good work has been achieved in this way, and many of these little fields, like that at Ciciliano, near Tivoli, under the charge of Oreste Leo, are places the farmers have been forced to admire, and sometimes to imitate. Minister Baccelli also favors the extension of instruction in the various forms of manual labor. His policy includes state control of kindergartens and elementary schools — the schools which, for the great majority of citizens, represent the only preparation for life which they receive in an educational way. These, he thinks, ought to be " under the direct and continual control of the power that represents great national and social interests " — the state.
In higher education Minister Baccelli favors " the autonomy and liberty that stimulate the fertile rivalries of science and the fruitful emulations in experiment generative of new truths." His policy, therefore, is to leave classical and technical educa- tion to the care of the provinces and communes, under the watchful eye of the state, but without direct control or inter- ference. " Science," he says, " is aristocratic, and who wants it, let him pay ! " And, in order to prevent a learned pro- letariat, he would increase the fees at the universities.
'Boll. Uff., Anno XXVI., Num. 48, Nov. 30, 1899, pp. 2043-2046.
28o Educational Review [October
Political Education. The inaugural address of Dr. C. F. Ferrari,^ Professor of xA^dministrative Law and the Science of Government in the University of Padua, delivered November 13, 1898, was devoted to a discussion of the various aspects of political education. According to Professor Ferrari, it is the duty of the universities and of those whose minds and genius they have schooled, to contribute of their best to the political institutions of the country, which are '' the conscious work of man," and undergo " those mutations and improvements ren- dered necessary and opportune by civilization and social con- ditions."
There is no room for the theory of a perpetual governing class and a perpetual serving caste. The way to liberty and prosperity lies neither in imitating the French Revolution nor in imitating the English Parliamentary system. Parlia- mentism, like monarchism, can become pathological, if not so often, at least as startlingly so sometimes. Local self-govern- ment is perhaps a better way of solving certain problems of Italian politics than some French methods that have got into bad odor of late. Compulsory education, without compulsory voting, is only half of a good thing for political education. Political societies, associations, and clubs have always been in Italy a fertile source of education (or of mal-education) in political matters, and some legal restraint or encouragement, as the case may be, of these institutions is necessary. The whole nation, not merely a few of its members, ought to study, or have some knowledge of, its racial constitution and history, its economic, intellectual and social nature, so that with prog- ress there may go proportion, with metamorphosis equilib- rium, with co-operation individuality, with unity life-giving diversity. A trained civil service must be paralleled by a trained mass of voters, a wise parliament by a wise people, before the task of real political life is begun. In the further- ance of the efforts necessary to this end, the universities must bear the brunt of the struggles, and the study of methods of government and administration is a branch of academic re-
' Ordinamenti politic! ed educazione politica. Ann. della R. Univ. degli studt di Padova per I'anno academico 1898-1899, pp. 17-71.
1900] Recent Italia7i educational literature 281
search and instruction as legitimate as any other in the curricu- lum of the higher institutions of learning.
Illiteracy. Dr. V. Giuffrida-Ruggeri * of Reggio-Emilia, anthropologist, psychologist, and psychiatrist, in his interesting article on " Analphabetism as related to education," points out the exaggerated importance, which, in Italy especially, has been attached to illiteracy. A great mistake — a mistake sometimes committed by earnest devotees of child-study in America — has been made in basi'ng theories upon averages obtained from data belonging to all parts of a large region, without analyzing well the figures of which such averages are the result. There is a cult of the average no less than a cult of the curve. The un- satisfactory nature of these averages led Professor Giuffrida- Ruggeri to investigate the details of the statistics of illiteracy in Italy, and from separate study of the figures of mountain and valley, plain, seashore, city (with its divisions), and country (with its diversities) he reaches the conclusion that '' illiteracy is no index of culture." Otherwise the province of Sondrio (according to the levy of those born in 1868), with the lowest percentage of illiterate conscripts, ought to be the rhost cul- tured ! Moreover, Leghorn has less than half the proportion of illiterates of Florence and Pisa; the proportion in Naples is lower than in Florence, Padua, Rome, Modena, Parma, and Pisa, cities considered to be the most cultured in all the Italian peninsula. There are also to be noted oscillations in illiteracy from year to year, and during the period represented by the levies of 1846 and 1876, some regions which began with a per- centage of illiteracy lower than that of certain others have ended by having a percentage higher than that of these, and vice versa. A study of the public monies expended for edu- cation in the various provinces of Italy fails to show that illiter- acy decreases in proportion to the increase of such expendi- ture. The two provinces of Cagliari and Sassari spend about the same per capita, but there is a great difference in their illiteracy; Apulia spends more than Calabria, both per capita
* II movimento dell' analfabetismo nelle diverse region! d'ltalia come indice della tendenza all' istruzione. Arch, per I'Antropologia e la etnologia (Firenze), Vol. XXIX. (1899), PP- 33-40.
282 Educational Review [October
and in relation to all other expenditures, but the former region has considerably more illiteracy than the latter. Nor do charity and private schools account for these differences. Dr. Giuf- frida-Ruggeri believes that these '' movements " of the illiterate population in Italy are, to a large extent, to be explained on the basis of '' a greater or less tendency tovv^ard instruction " in the various regions of the country. Marked sexual differences as to illiteracy occur also, as revealed by the statistics as to the signatures of marriage contracts. In 1881, out of every 100 such documents 20.10 were signed by the husband alone in Piedmont and 20.28 in Calabria, while those signed by the wife alone were 6.07 and 0.37 respectively. The greatest sexual differences as to primary education seem to be found in central and southern Italy, the least m Lombardy, Piedmont, and Liguria. The Venetian region, again, is sui generis, but there anthropological, economic, and religious factors come espe- cially into play. This essay ought to be read by all those who are so prone to '' lump things together," and create out of the mass " scientific facts." In connection with Dr. Giuffrida- Ruggeri's paper, it is well to read Dr. F. L. Pulle's ^ Sketch of the anthropology of Italy, a real multum in parvo, where the fact is clearly revealed that northern, central, and southern Italy still go on expressing the bent and the genius of the ethnic elements which compose them and color all their acts. Accord- ing to Dr. Pulle, " illiteracy, superstition, and prostitution, like crime in general, gradually increase in parallel fashion from north to south in Italy."
Medico-Pedagogy. Two valuable contributions to the literature of the education of feeble-minded and mentally defi- cient children are Professor A. Tamburini's ^ Modern move- ment in Italy for the treatment and education of feeble-minded and mentally deficient children, and Dr. Sante de Sanctis' ^ Treatment of feeble-minded and mentally deficient children
^Profilo antropologico dell' Italia. Arch, per I'Antrop., Vol. XXVIII., pp. 19-168.
* L'odierno movimento in Italia per la cura e I'educazione dei frenastenici. Riv, Sperim. di Fren., Vol. XXV. (1899), pp. 472-481.
' Intorno alia cura dei fanciuUi frenastenici. Ann. di Nevrol. (Napoli), Anno XVII. (1899), pp. 235-244.
\
1900] Recent Italian educational literature 283
— the first an interesting historical sketch, with bibHographical notes, the last an outline sketch of an ideal educational institu- tion for children of the kind in question.
As early as 1848 a Royal Commission for the Study of Cretinism established, in imitation of the medico-pedagogical institute at Adenberg (founded by Guggenhiil in 1840 for Swiss cretins), an institution at Aosta, which, however, after a few years as an educational establishment, ceased to be any- thing more than an asylum. The real beginning of the modern movement was in 1889, when Professor Gonnelli-Cioni founded at Chiavari — it has since been removed to Vercurago — the first Italian institution for feeble-minded and mentally defective children. The Paedagogium (an institution for children of this sort belonging to the well-to-do classes), founded under the auspices of Morselli, at Nervi, in 1891, lasted only a few years. The various lunatic hospitals at Rome, Siena, and Reggio, have for a long time had special sections for idiots, where some sort of instruction is offered.
The principal Italian schools and medico-pedagogical institutions for feeble-minded and mentally deficient children are:
I. The Gonnelli-Cioni Institution, at Vercurago, in the Province of Bergamo (founded in 1889). The superintendent is Professor Gonnelli-Cioni (aided by his wife and daughter), the director Professor Lucchini, and the consulting physician Dr. Marzocchi, of the neighboring asylum at Bergamo. This institution has elementary instruction (drawing, music, gym- nastics), baths, dining rooms, dormoritories in common, and special attention (family and individual treatment) is given to physical education, sense-training, intellectual and moral development. There is also technical manual instruction. The number of pupils (epileptics are also received) is about forty, all males belonging to the poorer classes in part (such pupils are paid for by the commune and by charitable societies) and in part to the well-to-do classes. Professor Gonnelli-Cioni also maintains some pupils at his own expense. Dr. Tam- burini praises the discipline, modesty, and education of the per- ceptive and mnemonic faculties obtaining at Vercurago.
284 Educational Review [October
2. The Emilian Medico-Pedagogical Institute, at S. Gio- vanni in Persiceto (founded July 2, 1899). This institution, at the head of which is Professor Tamburini himself, with Professors Roncati and Brugia, is under the patronage of the Emilian committee for the promotion of the welfare of defect- ive children. It is hygienically situated in the country, and takes children from five to fifteen years of age not educable in the common schools, etc. — also some pupils of higher ages.
3. The " Casa di Cura ed Educazionef' at Rome; (founded in April, 1898), for defectives belonging to the well-to-do classes. This institution is under the direction of Dr. Sante de Sanctis, and accommodates only some twelve to fifteen pupils, but day-pupils are given instruction and treatment. Aphasic, stuttering, and neuropathic children are also received, and there is a special instructor in language, Dr. V. Bianchi. The methods in use are the same as those employed in Dr. de Sanctis' Educatorium.
4. Tuscan Institute for the Education and Treatment of Backward Children (opened August i, 1899), ^^ Settignano, in the open country, not far from Florence. This institution, whose foundation is due to the Tuscan Committee for the Pro- tection of Defectives (children), receives only children sus- ceptible of beneficial treatment and improvement in education, and for the present boys alone between the ages of four and twelve are received as internes, but children of both sexes be- tween the ages of six and sixteen may be received as day-pupils. The board of direction includes Dr. Modigliano (specialist in hygiene and children's diseases). Professor Gonnelli-Cioni (education). Professor Tanzi (psychiatry), and Professor Colzi (surger}^). The funds for the maintenance of this in- stitution are furnished by gifts from benefactors, fees of the ordinary members of the committee, and monies paid by the families and Provinces interested.
5. The Segatelli School for Idiots (founded in 1894, by Si- gnora Cristina Segatelli, who has been its director since) in Milan. This modest establishment accommodates some six- teen pupils, such as cannot be taken care of in the public and private schools. For about a year past Signora Segatelli has
1900] Recent Italian educational literature 285
had the advice and assistance of a philanthropic committee, at the head of which is Dr. A. De Vincenti.
6. The '' Asilo-Scuola" for Poor Children (defectives), in Rome, opened in 'January, 1898, by Dr. Sante de Sanctis. This Ediicatorinm for poor children who are defectives has been organized upon a carefully considered psychological plan with the assistance of a committee of benefactors and the co-operation of eminent physicians and educators. The psychiatrical expert is Professor Sciamanna, and the educational Professor Sergi. Anthropometric data, clinical investigations, psychological classifications, and educational examinations, hygienic records, and all the most modern developments of science are to be employed in the rational education of the pupils admitted — imbeciles, defectives, and backward children. In his article titled above Dr. de Sanctis, after a brief discussion of the various treat- ments from time to time proposed for defectives and back- ward children, — craniectomy and surgical operations of a like sort (less importance is of late attached to these), thyroid treatment (advantageous only in a restricted number of cases), hypnotism (certainly limited in its operation in this field), — proceeds to describe his '' medico-pedagogical treatment." This he defines as '' the education of the child united with those treatments which, in each individual case, the neurologist be- lieves should be adopted to help the teacher." He does not, however, deem his method a universal panacea. For the in- educable, dangerous defectives, the capita morttta of society, there is nothing but the hospital or the asylum, and for the non- dangerous ineducables, care in the family, perhaps. For dan- gerous and epileptic, yet educable, defectives (including a great part of the epileptics and morally insane, properly so-called), there ought to be special places in the asylums, in private sani- tariums, or, better, in medico-pedagogical institutes espe- cially suited to them.
For the non-dangerous, educable defectives (quiet or hyper- active), the inmate system is not necessary unless in the case of orphans, or illegitimate or abandoned children. This system is condemned both by modern education and morality for normal
2 86 Educational Review [October
children as more convenient for the parents than advantageous to the children. Dr. de Sanctis defines his ideal Educatorium as : "A place, hygienic, provided with field or garden, where defectives of both sexes (educable and non-dangerous), come from morning till evening every day, to receive the necessary nutriment, medical treatment, physical and moral education, instruction — everything adapted to the needs of every indi- vidual pupil." At present the Educatorium, which takes in pupils between the ages of four and ten years, must limit itself to the " rejects " of the kindergarten, elementary schools, etc., i. e., those children leaving kindergarten or school on account of mental obtuseness or some kindred defect. In the Educa- torium the trained neurologist should blaze the path for the teacher, and education should precede instruction — for even moral education, as Seguin said, is essentially physiological; education in conduct is a consequence of education in senses and movements. The environment of the Educatorium should be, as far as is possible, like that of the family, with the sexual differences incident thereto. Besides endeavoring to give a '' family education " to the pupils, the Educatorium should educate their parents, by keeping them in salutary contact with the educators of their children, thereby giving them norms of healthy education and right conduct. Instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, should be given, but ought to be after the essentially individualistic fashion, and not in the scholastic manner, with fixed hours, annual program, etc. The object of the Educatorium ought to be prepare the " rejects " (four to six years old) of the kindergartens for the elementary schools, and the '' rejects " (seven to ten years old) of the elementary schools for free professional work, the selection of the profes- sion or trade to be made by the teachers and family, with due regard to the child himself.
Child-study. Professor R. Benzoni,® who, in connection with his work in the department of philosophy, delivers a course of lectures on the psychology of the child at the University of Genoa, has published a brief resume of the recent literature of child-study, in which due credit is given to Ameri-
^ Studj recenti di psicologia del Bambino. Geneva, 1898. pp. 37. 8vo.
1900] Recent Italian educational literature 287
can educators for their work, the stimulating effects of which are now being felt all over Italy. Naturally enough, Professor Benzoni is most impressed by the moral aspects of child psy- chology, and sees in the study of the child, in the investigation and comprehension of its developing morality, the unfolding of its rational activities, a means of understanding and often of solving the great questions of public morality. He promises us in the near future a work on the moral phenomenology of childhood. Recognizing the fact that art is subjective, science objective, the author, with other psychologists of the day, warns against allowing the idqlum of affection for the child to endanger the value of scientific work, and appeals to the students of childhood to repeat again and again their experi- ments, so that the real truth may appear.
At Arona there was installed, October 20, 1897, the first an- thropometic laboratory in any Italian elementary school. This took place under the auspices of the municipal authorities and with the good wishes of eminent anthropologists, and psychol- ogists (Lombroso, Mantegazza, Morselli, Sergi, Riccardi, and others). The originator (under Sergi) and the director of this laboratory is Costantino Melzi,^ a teacher in the elementary schools of Arona, and one of the leaders in child study in Italy. The history of the movement, the record of his own anthropological educational studies, and the statement of his opinions upon the various problems of modern education form the subjects of the volume now under discussion, to which Professor Sergi has furnished an appreciative preface. Melzi is in favor of an education essentially scientific at bottom — this is even more necessary for women than for men, — an edu- cation evolutionally justifiable. A little less teaching and a little more observing would be well to begin with — to suit edu- cation to growth is better than to overwhelm with knowledge.
In the sections on " How to use an anthropometrical labora- tory " (pp. 51-117), and on " Instruments and observations " (pp. 1 19-188), the author gives much valuable information as to methods and technique, with copies of the blanks and schedules employed, which are quite detailed. The chapter on
*Antropologia pedagogica. Arona, 1899. vii-f-246 pp. 8vo.
288 Educational Review
" The education of the sexes " (pp. 189-219) is very interest- ing, the author's general conclusion being that women must, in order to make the most of their natural faculties and abilities, be given a scientific rather than a literary education, as has been the rule in the past. The character of woman has yet to be formed and established, and the only way to this end is thru an essentially scientific education. A section on fatigue and wear and tear of the brain (pp. 221-246) follows, in which the author protests against gymnastic and acrobatic scholasticism, the closed gymnasium, exercises in the schoolroom, as Mosso has so ably done before him, and against the *' homi- cidal " overburdening of children's minds for mere intellectual purposes, regardless alike of physical, mental, and moral health. This little book ought to be read by all who wish to get a good idea of the educational thoughts that are stirring Italy at the present time.
Alex. F. Chamberlain Clark University, Worcester, Mass.
VIII DISCUSSIONS
THE REPORT ON COLLEGE ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS
IN ENGLISH 1
There are two respects in which the report on entrance re- quirements in English seems worthy of praise. There are sev- eral respects in which it seems open to criticism. - I will. begin with its virtues.
The members of the committee are to be commended for en- deavoring to simplify the English course in secondary schools. They recommend, if I understand them rightly, that there shall be in the high school virtually but two branches of English study, — English literature and English composition. Other subjects, as grammar, rhetoric, study of derivations, study of the theory of literature and the like, are to be pursued in inti- mate connection with one of these two main branches, or with both. This is a great step in advance. If the suggestion were put in general practice, as eventually I trust it will be, it would lead to important changes in the English courses of a large number of schools. It would lead for one thing to the aboli- tion of a separate course in formal rhetoric in the lower years of the high school, in my opinion a highly desirable change. It would lead to the transformation of the so-called '' gram- mar review," the bugbear of the ninth grade. There would be no more courses in prefixes and suffixes and roots. That unlovely hortus siccus would have to go.
In order to hasten the change I would suggest dropping from high school programs the term English language, and substi- tuting for it the term English composition, it being understood that whatever is neither English composition nor English lit- erature nor an ancillary to one of them, is no indispensable part of the English curriculum.
' Remarks at a meeting of the Michigan Schoolmasters' Club, the general subject of discussion being the Report of the Committee on College Entrance Requirements.
289
290 Educational Review [October
Another praiseworthy feature of the report is the recom- mendation that the study of English Hterature and of composi- tion be pursued side by side thruout the entire secondary school course for four periods a week. The committee might con- sistently have gone a little farther than this. It might have gone so far as to recommend five periods a week in- stead of four, for it is manifestly absurd that secondary pupils should spend more time on Latin, for example, than on Eng- lish. But doubtless four is an advance upon the present prac- tice. Be that as it may, the principles here implied are of great importance for the future of secondary English. And for the following reason: One of the evils of the average English curriculum is its lack of continuity. It is made up of bits of courses put in wherever there is a little room. When, for any reason, the curriculum becomes crowded at some point, one of these bits is quietly removed. This is an intolerable condition of things. There ought to be in every high school just two courses in English, a course in English composition and a course in English literature. These should run like two solid steel pillars from the foundation clear to the roof. There ought never to be a question of breaking their continuity any- where. I believe the time is coming when this ideal will prevail.
One reason why it does not prevail now is that preparation in English is difficult to test. Literary taste and fineness of lit- erary workmanship are not ponderable things. You cannot ex- press them in quantitative terms, as you can preparation in mathematics and physics. So if a student omits a semester's work in English, it does not seem to his principal, if the pupil is naturally bright and is getting fairly good marks, that he has omitted any essential part of the requirement. Nobody will know the difference a year hence. What's the harm ? But surely this is not the right view to take of it. Just because it is difficult to test the English preparation of the student, just be- cause the university instructor cannot at the start tell whether a given student has had all the English work he is entitled to, or less than all, the obligation lies heavy on the shoulders of the principal and the secondary teacher to see that no part of the requirement is remitted.
1900] Discussions 291
These are the features of the report which I find myself dis- posed to approve. Now for the reverse of the medal.
In the first place, the report taken as a whole is not of the character which English teachers had a right to expect. Eng- lish is a big subject, an important subject, in the school curricu- lum,— none more so. It has bulked large, both in the public and in the professional view during the past decade. In that time about three hundred different articles and addresses upon it have been published or have been read at meetings of teach- ers. The acrid reports of the Harvard Committee on Composi- tion and Rhetoric have been put in print. Many universities have issued in pamphlet form suggestions to teachers of Eng- lish in preparatory schools. Two important bodies have been organized for the particular purpose of dealing with the Eng- lish question, — an Association of Teachers of English of the North Central States and the Joint Committee on Entrance Requirements in English. The latter especially has influenced in a very profound way the English curriculum of thousands of high schools in all parts of the country.
It is hardly necessary for me to add that dozens of text- books have been published, and that these books, representing various shades of wisdom and unwisdom, have greatly modified previous methods of teaching.
Taking into account all this agitation of the subject of Eng- lish, the report appears to me much too slight. It appears to evade the just difficulties of the task. Teachers had a right to expect that it would be full and discriminating and compre- hensive. They had a right to expect that, among other things, it would summarize the history of the teaching of English for the past generation; that it would classify and critically review the various methods that now compete for popular favor; that it would give the results of experiments in the teaching of lit- erature and composition ; that it would discuss the special train- ing of teachers ; that it would discriminate between elementary and advanced work in methods, in choice of subjects, and in the character of the recitation ; that it would summarize and review the best of the literature on English teaching that has ap- peared of late; that it would treat of the methods and devices by which the labor of teaching and especially of essay-correct-
292 Educational Review [October
ing may be lightened ; and finally, that it would make plain in what respect this report is conceived to be an advance upon its predecessor, the report of the Committee of Ten. Of these and many other things, — for, as I have said, English is a large subject, — the report might have been expected to treat. When I say that it touches upon no one of them, even by way of apol- ogy, it will be conceded that it is far from meeting the de- mands which may legitimately be made upon it. It is indeed not a report at all in the sense in which the parts on classics, on foreign languages, and on history are reports. It is a hasty catching-up and patching together of a few general principles, a specimen program, and a list of books for reading. There is nothing about it which could not have been put together on a rainy afternoon by any first-rate teacher of English working independently.^
Having said this it will perhaps be considered a waste of am- munition for me to assault the report from another side. I cannot refrain, however, from using it as a kind of target for one or two remaining shots in the locker. I will be brief.
Let me call attention to one characteristic present in the re- port which seems to be unfortunate, and to one aspect of the subject which is fatally lacking.
The characteristic of the report actually present to which I object is its dogmatism. It treats the various matters with which it has to deal as if they were settled out of hand. Per- haps they were settled in the view of the members of this com- mittee; but they are not in my view, nor are they, I believe, in the view of other investigators in this field. On the contrary, I think I speak for the majority of such investigators when I say that the most characteristic thing about English teaching at the present time is its unsettledness. It is fuller of unsolved problems than any other subject that can be mentioned. It is a kind of pedagogical porcupine. But the report ignores this. It reads as if we were all cock-sure about everything. I will give one example. The committee recommends that the two departments, literature and composition, be pursued side by side
' This sounds like a reflection on the sub-committee which drew up the report ; but it is not so intended. The committee did the best it could in the limited time with the materials at its command. I do not blame the committee ; I blame the situation.
I goo] Discussions 293
thruout the entire secondary course, and that they "be so re- lated thfuout that one shall, in so far as possible, supplement and strengthen the other." " So related " — there is great vir- tue in that so. As if the hard problem were not how to relate them! I submit that the committee would have done better service to teachers of English by wording the sentence as fol- lows : '' The committee recommends a careful investigation of the difficult and baffling question how to relate literature and composition in such a way that one shall, in so far as pos- sible, supplement and strengthen the other." If the committee was unable to investigate the problem itself, it might at least have aroused a spirit of investigation in the teacher. The ef- fect of the present form of the recommendation is to make him satisfied with his unregenerate condition.
The third and the last criticism I have to make is some- what more serious. It is that the report plays too much upon the surface. I do not mean that it is positively superficial, but simply that when all has been said, the heart of the problem remains untouched. For the teaching of English is not a mat- ter merely of so many hours a week, or of so many books to be read, or of such and such subjects to be taught for so many months. These are indeed important and must not be con- temned ; but they are seen in a wrong perspective unless they are related to something profounder than themselves.
The deeper problem is the relation of English teaching to the ultimate ends of education. I have been reading recently in the Revue imiversitaire a series of suggestive articles by M. Jules Payot, on French composition. It seems that the French teachers of French have their troubles as well as the English teachers of English, and in one of these articles M. Payot re- marks that the methods of teaching composition which prevail in many of the French schools are not in harmony with the social demands which ought to guide and fashion a republican system of instruction. That seems to me to be getting down to bed-rock. That is the question of prime importance. But I do not find anything in this report which indicates that its framers pondered for a moment, consciously, M. Payot's suggestion; much less, anything which indicates that their recommenda- tions were shaped in the light of such an inquiry as his. Are
294 Educational Review [October
our methods of instruction in English in harmony with the so- cial demands of our great industrial community ? I suspect that they are not. More than that I suspect that the hard knot of the English question lies right here — that our present ideals and methods of instruction are in large part remnants of an adaptation to a state of things which long since passed away. Here is the point of departure of an investigation into the English question which would supplement the defects of the present report. I trust that in some future report this impor- tant subject may receive the consideration it deserves.
Fred Newton Scott
University of Michigan, , Ann Arbor, Mich.
MODERN TEACHING OF GRAMMAR.
In a recent number of the Atlantic Monthly, Professor Lid- dell undertook to outline a course of study in English historical grammar, a course intended among other things to furnish '' a basis for a sane and practical didactic grammar, which will represent to the student the real nature of his language." I propose in this paper to indicate the relation in which descrip- tive grammar properly stands to the historical side of the sub- ject, and to offer some suggestions as to the rational method of dealing with the former branch in elementary schools.
There are the best of reasons for keeping these two fields separate and distinct. By descriptive or logical grammar I understa'nd a systematic account of the structure of the lan- guage as it exists to-day. It should exhibit the nature of the sentence or proposition, its elements, and their relation to each other. Historical grammar, on the other hand, is interested in the changes which the language has undergone, in structure, vocabulary, and pronunciation, and seeks to set forth the nature, causes, and tendencies of these phenomena. The writer of the article spoken of has clearly shown the absurdities of what he calls the mediaeval study of grammar. He proposes to change all that, not by merely amending it, but by setting it aside, and putting in its place a course of historical grammar, as the only means by which a stude'nt can reach a proper understanding of the real nature of English speech.
igoo] Discussions 295
There can be no dispute as to the right of historical gram- mar to a place in a properly arranged course of study. The only question that can arise is in regard to the exact place it should occupy. If it can be shown that the student may be led to a clear understanding of the nature of English speech with- out a preliminary historical introduction, and if it can be shown further that some acquaintance with the present structure of the language is necessary to a right conception of the changes which have been going on for many centuries, we shall find it necessary to reconsider the decision to do away with our school grammars. Instead of throwing them to one side we should set ourselves to the task of improving them.
It is quite within the power of a student ignorant of Magna Charta, or the Petition of Right, to form a good working idea of the various bra'nches of government, and the functions of each. It will, of course, be very interesting and useful for him by and by to trace the various steps by which these insti- tutions came to be what they are. The student of physiology is concerned with the organic structure of living beings. He may profitably pursue this branch without any scientific knowl- edge of the different orders of animal existence. Not only so; but it must be borne in mind as well that in these branches we shall be successful in comprehending the historical phenomena just to the extent that we have previously become acquainted with the corresponding institution or orga'nism in its present state. The history of the past is quite unintelligible to one who is wholly unacquainted with the present structure of society. The quarrel about ship-money, or the tea duties, can have no meaning to me unless I know something of the principles of taxation as understood and applied to-day. Further, the bet- ter acquainted I am with the structure of society about me, the more intelligent will be my readmg of the history of the past. The student of historical grammar who has a good understand- ing of the structure of the English sente'nce, the elements of which it is composed, and the relation they bear to each other, is likely to make good progress in that field. He is in a posi- tion to proceed analytically, and to trace back step by step the various changes wrought by time and circumstance in the speech of his fathers. The study of historical phenomena can-
296 Educational Review [October
not be carried on without a continued series of comparisons. If historical phenomena in the field of language are intelligible at all, they are so by reason of our having something to com- pare them with, and this something is a form or idiom of present-day speech. The better acquainted we are with the forms of speech in use to-day the better equipped we shall be for investigation in the historical field.
When we have done making merry over the absurdities of scholastic grammar we shall be better employed in amending the science than in denouncing it as useless. Let it be fully and freely admitted that the early grammarians, coming to the study of English fresh from the study of Latin grammar, wrongly attempted to force the framework of Latin upon Eng- lish. They attempted to build up a system of English gram- mar on the narrow basis of inflections, in the face of the fact that the tendency of English has been, and is, to get rid of its inflections just as rapidly as possible. Growing out of this was the mistake of regarding the word, rather than the sen- tence, as the unit of the system. And, as a matter of course, the modern scientific attitude was wanting. The tendency of scientists was to set up theories as to the manner in which phe- nomena ought to behave, and to look with a severe and mis- trustful eye upon anything which seemed to run counter to these preconceived and preordained rules. Here are mistakes enough, surely, for one science — the wrong basis, the wrong unit, the wrong method of study. Grammarians have failed to recognize that English is an analytic tongue, that the sentence, and not the word, is the unit of thought and speech, and that grammar is one of the inductive sciences. The results are felt in our schools down to the present day. The method of pres- entation usually adopted in primary schools has formed a strik- ing exception to the general practice of teaching a subject in accordance with its " inherent, immortal rationality."
Profiting, then, by the mistakes of the past, recognizing the futility of attempting to rear a superstructure of English gram- mar upon the basis of inflections, and abandoning all precon- ceived theories as to the constitution of the phenomena to be examined, the student will proceed to the study of his material in accordance with the principles governing procedure in the
I
1900] Discussions 297
sciences of classification generally. The phenomena must be observed, compared, and classified. He must examine lan- guage, but we cannot too strongly emphasize the fact that it is only in so far as he is able to look beydhd the language to the thought of which it is the expression that he is really success- ful in reaching the subject-matter of the science.
He will find presently that thought forms fall naturally into two classes, those with predicates, usually called sentences or propositions, and those without, usually called terms or phrases. The fact that this division rests upon a psychological basis will be his justification for making it. The term is simply a word, or g-roup of words, which serves as a connecting link between a number of psychical elements, as '' the rose," " a railway bridge," '*' Socrates." K proposition is the expression of a process in which some particular element in a mental com- plex is given prominence over the others, as " the rose is red," " Socrates was an Athenian."
The attention of the student of grammar must from the first be riveted upon the judgment, because that is the essential feature in every type of thought process. Very little reflec- tion enables us to see that the notion, so called, is built up of a series of judgments, each element in the total idea having been incorporated by an exercise of this activity. The notion, as a matter of fact, has no existence except in so far as it is built up of judgments. This, again, is the justification of our choice of the sentence as the ''unit" in grammar. The judging activity reaches its full and determinate expression in the sen- tence or proposition.
Having separated out the sentence as the adequate expres- sion of a judgment from the mere phrase or term, we can now go on to the classification of sentences; and bearing in mind that our study of the sentence is a study of thought rather than of form alone, we shall find that there are four kinds, differing from each other in regard to the mental attitude of the speaker. The emotional attitude gives us the exclamatory, doubt gives us the interrogative, belief, the declarative, and will, the im- perative. We have thus defined the se'ntence, first, by distin- guishing it from the term, and second, by dividing sentences into kinds on a logical basis.
298 EdMcational Review [October
The simplest analysis will show that the sentence naturally falls into two parts, subject and predicate, or if the copula is present, into three parts, subject, copula, and predicate. This division into parts is not a mechanical separation of the words composing the sentence. The distinction of subject and predi- cate is based on an examination of the mental process of judg- ment. It is of the very first importance that the student shall clearly realize what takes place in the mind when a proposition is uttered. We are not to think that there is first an idea cor- responding to the term used as subject, and then another idea corresponding to the term used as predicate, and that presently we discern a relation between these ideas, and set forth that relation in the form of a sentence. The act of judgment is one and indivisible. What really occurs is this : we have first before our minds a complex idea, and it is in the emergence into prominence of some feature or aspect of this complex idea, that the act of judgment takes place. We are in possession of a term which stands for the first named complex idea, and one which stands for the element upon which attention has been fixed. The proposition, being made up of words, may be divided into parts. The judgment is a single act, and cannot be divided. The process described is, as in fact all mental processes are, analytic. A whole or complex is seen to be made up of parts, and these parts are distinguished and related. The analysis of the sentence, then, is not a mechanical tearing apart of forms ; it is an examination of the mental process ex- pressed by the sentence.
The progress of thought, here as elsewhere, is from the vague to the definite, and the vague idea of predication which, let us hope, has been forming in the student's mind, must now be cleared up. In other words, he must address himself to the task of understanding the relation which the parts of the sen- tence bear to each other. He must examine the process of judging as it goes on in his own mind, before he can really understand what predication is, and implies. He must make his own thought the object of attention, a'nd observe the process by which '' notions " are built up. He can best do this by reafifirming the judgments which originally went to the making of the idea. That is to say, if he can recall, step by step, the
I goo] Discussions . 299
successive* acts of judgment by which the various elements in any given idea were incorporated, if he can mentally go over the ground originally traversed in forming the idea in ques- tion, thus in reality setting himself to work at the exercise of judging, he will be in a position by introspection to observe and describe the phenomenon which leads to predication. The conclusion which we should expect him to reach, as a result of this examination of familiar ideas and the elements of which they are composed, would be that when we judge we have a complex idea before our minds, and .pick out some particular feature of it which takes our attention. When we have given expression to this movement of thought in a form in which the chosen element is made prominent, we have performed the whole process of judging and predicating. Of course, it is extremely unlikely that the young student will express him- self in these terms. We need not give ourselves much anxiety about the clothing of his ideas in scientific language. The important matter is to see to it that he shall really make him- self acquainted with the mental process, and apprehend the relation between the process of thought and the form in which it is expressed.
We must not shut our eyes to the fact that all this involves a new attitude of mind for the student. It is true that in the exercise just described he has been called upon merely to re- affirm judgments already made, and it is equally true that his whole mental life, when written out in full, consists of an enor- mous number of just such acts of judgment as he is now en- gaged in recalling. But it is also true, and this is the impor- tant thing for the teacher to remember, that the student is now, for the first time in his experience, making a systematic effort to examine and describe his own thought processes. It is his first serious essay in introspection.
If the student is able to understand, from this and similar exercises, the meaning of predication, he will be in a position to observe the modifying effect of the predicate upon the sub- ject, and he will find, Jater on, that this is but one example of the essential principle of all grammatical relation. To under- stand more fully the modifying effect of the predicate, he may be invited to examine a number of propositions in which the
300 Educational Review [October
different predicates are connected with the same term used as subject.
Let us suppose that the learner has reached a fairly clear idea of what is involved in predication. The next step would natu- rally lead him to an acquaintance with the different kinds of predication, verbal and real. We may observe once more that in order to classify such propositions as " gold is yellow," '' pain is unpleasant," " circles are round," as examples of ver- bal predication; and such propositions as "gold is found in Yukon," '^ the pain was severe in the evening," " the circle was four inches in diameter," as cases of real predication, it is necessary that the student's attention be directed to the thought underlying the form. He will presently see that no analysis, however searching, of the bare idea of gold can ever bring forth the predicate "found in Yukon"; whereas one of its most salient characteristics is the predicate " yellow."
It may be remarked that all thru the course the teacher will again and again find himself face to face with a serious tempta- tion. It is so much easier to proceed by way of exposition than by the slower, tho surer, way of compelling the student to investigate for himself. It is also easy to go thru the form of employing the inductive method, while in reality suggesting the solution of the problem to the learner. What is required is the maximum of investigation by the student and the mini- mum of explanation by the teacher.
We have now got so far as to understand the nature of the sentence as a whole; it has been analyzed into parts; and the relation of these parts has been made plain. Up to the present we have discovered three '' parts of speech," a substantive, a connective, and an attributive. Taking as a type form the proposition " Socrates is wise " we have a substantive *' Socrates," an attributive " wise," and a connective " is." Taking another type '' Socrates speaks," we have a substantive and an attributive.
We have now to examine propositions to see what a further analysis of the parts will yield. Obviously the first distinction to make is between primary and secondary attributives, those which directly affect the principal notion, and those which affect it indirectly, that is, thru the predicate. The former may re-
1900] Discussions 301
ceive the name adjective, the latter, adverb. In the proposi- tion " large birds fly swiftly," we have '' large," a primary, and *' swiftly," a secondary attributive.
The articulation of the various members of this complex structure which we have been studying must now be examined. We found at the outset two parts joined by a copula. The copula is the first connective. Others are employed to connect subordinate portions of the structure, and these are to be classi- fied. There are two of the principal characteristics of judg- ment which have a direct bearing- upon the subject of connec- tives, and afford a basis upon which to classify them. It is usual to speak of the universality of a judgment, meaning by that term that our judgments claim to be true for everyone. They are intended to express objective truth, as well as sub- jective thought. As we have seen, judgment underlies and issues in the predication of an element or elements which are thus set forth as related in a certain way; or, more briefly, judg- ment is relation, and the sentence expresses that relation. When we say that universality is a characteristic of judgment we mean that the relations indicated by certai'n connecting words within the sentence are to be taken as objectively valid.
The term '' necessity of judgment " is used to indicate, the relation between one judgment and another. We are not free to reach this or that conclusion at will. Necessity, then, is a quality which does not belong to the judgment in itself, but arises thru its dependence upon other judgments. The univer- sal or objective quality of the judgment applies to the relation of the various members of the sentence to each other; whereas its individual or subjective quality belongs to its relation, as a whole, with some other thought form. Connectives are of two kinds, and the difference between the conjunction and the proposition is found in the terms subjective and objective. It will, of course, be sufficient for the student at this stage to understand that one class connects the various portions of the sentence, while the other connects sentences.
The foregoing analysis has revealed the existence of three principal parts of speech. Attributives and connectives, how- ever, being capable of division into kinds on the basis of sen- tence function, we have in all five classes of words. Any fur-
302 Educational Review
ther sub-division of these classes must necessarily be carried out on some other basis than the function they perform in the sen- tence, and hence this completes one important stage or chapter of descriptive grammar. We have now covered the ground relating to the sentence as a whole, and the relation of its ele- ments. The methodical classification of substantives, for example, has nothing whatever to do with the relation in which the substantive stands to the other members of the sentence.
Our survey of the sentence being complete, there only re- mains the further subdivision of the '' parts of speech," before being introduced to the study of inflections and substitutes for inflection, a department which presently merges into historical grammar. The w^ork already outlined cannot properly be overtaken in less than two years, but the time is well spent. It is to be observed that the mind of the learner has not been clogged with mediaeval presuppositions. His attention has been directed to the functions of words in the sentence, the actual work they do. The word '' is," for example, is assigned its true place in the sentence, that of copula or connective merely, indicating the relation between the two principal parts of the sentence. In a scientific account of the nature and ele- ments of sentence structure there is no necessity to introduce the ancient idea of " case " in substantives. The so-called ob- ject of the verb is seen to be an example of adverbial relation; it is an secondary attributive. The so-called possessive is rightly treated as an example of adjective relation.
The foregoing course of study is valuable not only or merely as a necessary preparation for English historical grammar, but also, and perhaps chiefly, as an introduction to logic. But it should clearly exhibit the relation between the judgment and the proposition ; it should make the student acquainted with the nature and kinds of predication, and the use and application of the various kinds of terms; and, above all, it should give him some familiarity with those important operations i'n the discovery and verification of knowledge, definition and classi- fication, and furnish him with adequate knowledge of the canons for the intelligent criticism of definitions.
S. E. Lang
Department of Education, ViRDEN, Manitoba
IX REVIEWS
The school and society — By John- Dewey, Professor of Pedagogy in the Uni- versity of Chicago. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 1900. 129 pp. 75 cents.
It is an encouraging sign of the times that men of superior scholarship and rare insight are investigating problems of edu- cation. One does not need a prophet's ken to predict that the American school will, sooner or later, be entirely freed from the errors of mediaeval traditions and from the follies of modern charlatanism; for, on the part of those charged with leader- ship, there is widespread the disposition to examine critically and scientifically the whole field of education. Within the last year or two a dozen or more very thoughtful and helpful books have been given to the world by American educators, among whom are such men as Presidents Eliot, Jordan, Oilman, and Walker, Commissioner Harris, Nicholas Murray Butler, B. A. Hinsdale, William James, and others. Truly such an output furnishes grounds for belief that the emotional, or evangelistic, era in our educational literature is rapidly passing away.
Among the men by whose labors education is assuming the definiteness, the logical consistency, and the dignity of a science, is John Dewey, professor of pedagogy in the University of Chicago. In his latest contribution, The school and society, which consists of four lectures delivered before parents a'nd others interested in the Elementary School, a model school conducted under his guidance, he fully sustains his reputation for grasping essential truths and setting them before his listener or reader without indulging in feeble platitudes or efTusive ex- hortation.
The underlying thought thruout the series of lectures is that the school should be an intensely practical institution, having a real and a definite function in promoting the development of the individual and of society, not in words, but in deeds; not
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304 Educational Review [October
in learning, but in power; not in external forms of life, but in that inner spirit which is the very essence of life, individual and social. These sentences, which could be so multiplied as to include the contents of the whole book, set forth the modern ideal of education : *' The mere absorption of facts and truths is so individual an affair that it tends very naturally to pass into selfishness. There is no obvious motive for the acquirement of mere learning, there is no clear social gain in success thereat." '' But the great thing is . . . that each [man] shall have had that education which enables him to see in his daily work all there is in it of large and human significance." '' Learn- ing ? — certainly, but living primarily, and learning thru, and in relation to, this living." '' We want here to work out the problem of the unity, the organization of the school system in itself, and to do this by relating it so intimately to life as to demonstrate the possibility and necessity of such organization for all education."
In his first lecture, which treats of the school and social prog- ress, he calls attention to the great industrial revolution which has occurred during this century, and points out the fact that the work of the school must be so modified as to meet the de- mands of the new social order. As typical of the changes taking place in the modern school, he selects manual training. Attention is called to the great advantages in the way of prac- tical instruction, of discipline and character building, which were in former years afforded by the household and neighbor- hood system of industrial life, a system which brought every child into contact with things, which developed in him ideas of personal independence and responsibility, and which, in a natural and effective way, revealed to him his obligation to be a producer in the world. The advantages of such efficient in- struction are, under the present radically changed conditions of concentrated industry and division of labor, very largely lost, and the problem, as conceived by Professor Dewey, is : How can the modern school be so organized as to supply this defi- ciency? After sweeping away the insufficient reasons usually given for manual training, he presents its real claims plainly and thoroly, especially emphasizing the fact that it is the social significance of industrial education that is most important.
1900] Reviews 305
He makes plain the truth that, by the introduction of occupa- tions, the school becomes a genuine form of active community life, and not merely a place for learning and saying lessons.
In the second lecture, in which the relations of the school to the life of the child are considered, it is contended that in modern education the center of gravity is to be found inside the child, and that every factor of school work should be in harmony with his nature, his needs, and his life. School exer- cises are not to be artificial, but are to be planned to develop these four interests : The interest in conversation and com- munication; in inquiry, or in finding out things; in making things, or construction; and in artistic expression.
In his third lecture, which is founded upon the two preced- ing, it is shown that waste in education will be eliminated when education becomes rationalized in conformity with the laws of individual and social development. Children will no longer simply mark time in the schoolroom or be trained in antisocial habits, if their needs be known and satisfied, and if growth in social capacity and service be recognized as the unifying aim of all the work of the school.
The fourth lecture, in which is given a very interesting ac- count of the Elementary School, should be carefully read by all teachers and parents who have any desire to improve educa- tional conditions. If anyone desires to obtain an adequate notion of the ideal school, in this lecture he will find his desire gratified. The Elementary School was begun, we are told, with certain questions or problems in mind, and not, as schools are usually founded, with all principles and practices definitely fixed. These were the problems for which it was hoped solu- tions would be found :
1. Can the school come into closer relation with home and neighborhood life ?
2. Can subject-matter in history, science, and art, having real significance in the child's own life, be introduced into the school ?
3. Can instruction in formal branches, such as writing, reading, and arithmetic, be closely correlated with everyday experience, with occupations and with other subjects whose content has inherent value ?
3o6 Educational Review [October
4. Can the work of the school be so organized as to insure proper attention to the indivickial pupil ?
These questions have been studied assiduously by Professor Dewey and the teachers of the Elementary School, and it is believed that at the end of three years of patient and scientific investigation, they are prepared to answer all the questions in the affirmative, and to submit as evidence of the correctness of their conclusions the work as it is actually carried on in their model school. Their experiment has served to make clear some fundamental principles of teaching, and it will, no doubt, be the- means of inspiring similar experiments in different parts of the country.
Concerning some doctrines advocated in the lectures, there is much controversy. With respect to a very few propositions, I myself cannot agree with Professor Dewey; but, as they are of minor importance, it is not deemed proper to refer to them in this review. Of the general spirit of the lectures and of the application of the truths set forth, every believer in educational progress will be ready to speak in terms of cordial commenda- tion.
W. S. Sutton
The University of Texas
National question book — By Edward R. Shaw, Dean of the School of Peda- gogy, New York University, New York : E. L. Kellogg & Co., 1899. xvi-j- 382 p. $1.00.
All sorts of books are being produced in the effort to meet the rapidly increasing demand of teachers for technically pro- fessional w^orks. The history of the production and develop- ment of educational works in the last ten years shows an un- questioned and radical change in the character of material being produced, which must certainly point to a change in the tastes and demands of readers of educational literature. There is little doubt in the mind of anyone that the most recent educa- tional works, many of which have had greater or less popu- larity with teachers thruout the country, bespeak in their readers a better equipment of culture, a more general demand for a technically professional preparation for their work, and a taste for those larger principles and ideas underlying the aims and practices of teaching, which tend to give breadth and inspi-
1900] Reviews 307
ration to the practitioner rather than to engulf him in routine and the petty details of the pedant.
In his preface the author of this book calls attention to the need of helping the teacher '' to possess that equipment of knowledge . . . which precedes mastery in methods. . . If he have some system or plan of study by which he can both test and measure his progress, advancement becomes at once easy and encouraging. A standard so arranged as to make it widely acceptable, and by which teachers can help themselves in mak- ing professional preparation for teaching, has long been lacking." The object of the book in general, then, as stated, is that of affording such a standard and such "aid. It gives questions upon a graded course of study, based upon the aver- age requirements of normal schools thruout the country. The questions and answers are classed as first grade, second grade, and third grade, a classification in general use. A fourth classification as " professional " is based upon questions se- lected from the New York examination for State certificates. The author claims that his book possesses a threefold advan- tage. First, it furnishes substantially a syllabus to guide in the thoro presentation of a study and to lead to the dis- covery of omissions in teaching; second: The book is a source from which to select examination questions as well as to sug- gest new forms of these; third: The book affords help to the teacher when he himself occupies the position of student; for example, in making preparation for the passing of examina- tions for teachers' certificates. The work does not include any- thing touching the theory and practice of teaching, since in these matters there is still great diversity of opinion and prac- tice. Questions have not been included for writing and draw- ing, since doing rather than an analysis counts in instruction in these facilities.
In commendation of this book it may be said that it has been prepared with care and painstaking. . In the light of its own purposes it is well arranged and can be referred to readily. The questions are almost universally simple, direct, and well stated, and the answers to the same are exact. For a work of its kind the book is remarkably free from typographical errors and in every way gives the impression of having been prepared
3o8 Educational Review [October
at the expenditure of a great deal of time and labor as well as care. But, on the other hand, it is to be doubted as to whether the question-and-answer method is the right way in which to guide the teacher to that larger command of culture and skill which should go with his professional character. It is even a grave question whether it has ever been demonstrated that the use of works of this kind has ever proven a benefit to the teacher at times of examination. If there has been any one defect in the culture of teachers in the past it has appeared in the fact that such culture lacked depth and breadth in its foun- dation and dwelt altogether too much upon the surface of things over which skimmed the questions and answers of the old-time text-books. For this reason I think it right to raise the ques- tion as to why works should be created which tend to perpetu- ate the merely superficial reference to set questions and answers as a means of preparation either for one's professional work or for examinations. It is true that the questions and answers of this work are arranged so as to be somewhat more than a mere compilation; they have some logical connection and in the majority of cases set forth the essentials. But, on the other hand, there are subjects which such a work as this would find it absolutely impossible to compass along with other subjects, in any fundamental or adequate way. Mathematics, history, literature, and geography are instances of this kind. The biological and physical sciences are additional instances. They all require in any teacher the acquisition of their ideas first thru the avenues of experience and experimentation; and when experience and experimentation have been had, the in- dividual has the power of gaining help from any technical compendium of the subject far more readily than he could do it by reference to a national question book. It would seem to be time to cease the preparation of professional works for teachers which level their aims to the so-called average teacher. It is possibly true that examinations are still carried on which require the practice of superficial cramming on the part of a profession which should be radically opposed to it. But this is no reason why works fitted only to meet this require- ment should be produced.
In my opinion this book cannot take rank among works of
1900] Reviews 309
an essentially professional order for the reason that it does not furnish foundations for those who need them and has nothing to offer those who are professionally or academically well schooled. Nor does it meet its own aims, stated at the opening of this review, in any liberal or professional sense.
Charles C. Van Liew State Normal School, Chico, Calif.
Romances of roguery — An episode in the development of the modern novel ; Part I. The Picaresque Novel in Spain — By Frank Wadleigh Chandler. New York ; Columbia University Press, 1899. 483 p.
Spanish Literature in the England of the Tudors — A study of the growth of the Peninsular influence north of the channel — By John Garrett Underhill. New York : Columbia University Press, 1899. 43^ P-
These volumes, issued under the authorization of the depart- ment of literature of Columbia University, may be considered from two points of view — as contributions to the history of literature or as dissertations offered for the degree of doctor of philosophy. From either point of view unquestioned excel- lences may be noted in both volumes. In both there is given a general introduction to the matter under discussion, and an account more in detail of the relationships and influences under investigation.
The scope of the treatment in the Romances of roguery, for example, is indicated by the titles in the following table of con- tents : the romance of roguery — its origins and early environ- ment, the Spanish rogue, society thru the rogue's eye, crude forms of the picaresque novel, the emergence of personality, imperfect and allied forms, the decadence of the picaresque novel, bibliography.
The method of treatment, which is an application of the principle of development to the interpretation of literature, is quite in harmony with modern university ideals, for Kuno Fischer's comment concerning the study of the Faust, '^ To understand this poem, we must first of all understand its origin," characterizes an accepted method for the study of liter- ary types in general. Dr. Chandler's aim, therefore, was to give a comprehensive view of the growth of the picaresque (or rogue) novel — its origin, rise, and decay — and to indicate its
3IO Educational Review [October
historical place in the development of modern fiction. It is, says Dr. Chandler, because the picaresque novel, which devel- oped in Spain, bridges over the gulf between the old story for the story's sake and the new story of the ethical life, that is, the novel of character, that it occupies so important a place in the history of the development of fiction. Wherever the pica- resque novel appeared — and, originating in Spain, it did appear in all literatures from Spain to England — it marked a sure progression toward the modern novel.
The process of development, by which out of a string of anecdotes and tricks — the narrator being at first nothing more than the sum total of the tricks — interest in the personality of the narrator emerges, that is, the process by which interest in the thing done comes finally to center upon the personality and the character of the doer — this processes clearly shown. And the importance of the novel as the chief literary form of the closing years of the nineteenth century makes this discussion timely and valuable.
The aim of Dr. Underbill in Spanish literature in the Eng- land of the Tudors is to determine the influence exercised by the literature of Spain and Portugal upon English literature prior to the death of Elizabeth. This influence, according to Dr. Underbill, has generally been overestimated.
We are given first an account of the close political relations existing between Spain and England during a period of nearly four hundred years. Henry II., near the close of the twelfth century, gave his daughter Eleanor in marriage to Alphonso VII. of Castile, and thereby inaugurated an alliance between England and Spain — a policy almost universally followed by his successors, until the refusal of the Virgin Queen, nearly four centuries later, to enter upon the customary Spanish matrimonial alliance brought to the coasts of England the great Armada, and brought about a final reversal of the traditional relationships between the two countries.
But tho Spain and England were thus associated in diplo- matic relations, there was in England little interest in Spanish literature. The dissemination of Spanish books, says Dr. Underbill, was absolutely dependent upon the course of poli- tics and commerce. Cultivated Englishmen when they trav-
1900] Reviews 311
eled went to Italy, the birthplace of the Renaissance, passing often thru France, and thus becoming familiar with the litera- tures of Italy and of France, but not with that'of Spain.
In 1 50 1, however, Catherine of Aragon was married to the eldest son of Henry VIL, Arthur, Prince of Wales, and in 1509 to his brother, the merry monarch who has attained celebrity as the greatest widower who ever sat upon the English throne. The nobles who came in her train, and others maintained at the English court for diplomatic reasons by the Spanish monarch, awakened in the English court some interest in the literature of Spain. In 1530 no Spanish book, we are told, had been trans- lated into English. At the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth (1558) scarcely a score of books of Spanish origin had been printed in England, but in the second decade of the reign of Elizabeth the tide of translation set in. By the close of her reign one hundred and seventy volumes had appeared in Eng- land, and these were fairly representative of the life and letters of Spain. Every species of the literature of Spain, if the drama be excepted, became, says Dr. Underbill, an object of attention. The mass of printed matter having reference to Spain and its dependencies undoubtedly exceeded, we are told, that which bore upon any other nation.
And yet as these books were concerned mainly with the art of war, navigation, discoveries, travels, diplomatic relations, etc., and were thus ephemeral in their interest and influence, the conclusion is drawn that the chief office of Spanish culture abroad was to deepen the impression made by Spanish enter- prise and arms, and that the greatest and only enduring Span- ish literary influence was exercised by the picaresque story, out of which developed the modern realistic novel. The origin, rise, and decay of this influence have been traced by Dr. Chand- ler in the companion volume noted above.
As doctorate dissertations these two volumes are certainly creditable to the Department of Literature of the institution from which they emanate.
At a meeting of representatives of the graduate clubs of some of the more prominent American universities held at Columbia University in December there was a discussion re- specting the nature of the work that should properly lead to the
312 Educational Review [October
degree of doctor of philosophy. An exceedingly interesting comparison might be made between the work that leads to honors and degrees and emoluments in English, German, French, and American universities — a discussion of the ideals of Oxford, for example, where, notwithstanding the new re- search degree, the way to academic distinction (an excellent way of its kind) is the way of the examination on old, estab- lished truths; where the clerk of Oxenford will still, as in the days of Chaucer,
" Lever have at his beddes heed
Twenty bokes, clad in blak or reed,
Of Aristotle and his philosophye."
if he would win a first in '' Greats," and an open door to academic preferment; the ideals of German universities, where the doctorate dissertation in its best estate is limited to an extremely narrow field, but which in that restricted field brings to light new facts, of little worth in themselves, perhaps, but the discovery of which teaches the young investigator a method of procedure that enables him possibly in maturer years to plant new standards and found new habitable colonies in Carlyle's '' immeasurable circumambient realm of Nothingness and Night"; the thesis for the new French degree, the ideal of which is to be, perhaps, a resume of previous treatments of the theme, the result of immense labor, possibly a convenient and therefore valuable summary of previous researches covering the whole field rather than a discovery of new facts in a re- stricted portion of the field; and the work required and to be required in American universities — which is sometimes of one type, sometimes of another.
But while there may be thus discussion and comparison of various ideals for determining fitness for academic honors, there can be no discussion respecting the honor reflected by these two dissertations upon the quality of work done in Co- lumbia University, and especially upon the • stimulating influ- ence of the professor of literature under whose advice and direction these studies were undertaken and carried to com- pletion. ^ -.
Richard Jones
Vanderbilt University,
Nashville, Tenn.
1900] Reviews 313
The Tarr-McMurry Geographies — First Book; Home Geography — By Ralph S. Tarr, Cornell University, and Frank M. McMurry, Teachers College, Columbia University. New York : The Macmillan Company, 1900. 279 p. 60 cents.
This is the first of a three-book series, all in the octavo form. The scope of the first book is the so-called Home geography, together with an elementary treatment of all the countries of the globe. The second book is devoted to North America, while the third will cover the remaining portions of the earth.
The first curiosity aroused in the reader's mind when he finds a marked innovation upon traditional forms is to inquire what effect the change has had upon the well-known features that generations of text-books have impressed. In the case of a series of octavo geographies, one would naturally inquire, What will become of the maps? Opening the first book, one is met with a pleasing surprise, for instead of the pinched and obscure maps naturally expected, one finds that the map-makers have achieved a triumph, for such a combination of artistic elegance and legibility is rarely to be found in schoolbooks. Where the region is small a single page suffices. Where it is large double-page maps are used. But the charm of the maps, so unexpected, is somewhat counterbalanced by disappoint- ment in the illustrations. Most of them are half-tone repro- ductions of large photographs, containing a mass of details, which, when reduced to the small space that can be allotted on an octavo page, become very indistinct. If, however, the pictures themselves are inadequate, the authors have gone far to overcome the disadvantage, for they have surpassed all others in their use of them. Each illustration is numbered, has a descriptive title, and is frequently referred to in the text.
A second important innovation is the presentation of a three- book series. The most important consideration here is the cost. Book publishers and public are interested at this point. The first book sells at sixty cents, the second at seventy-five, while the third can hardly be less than the second. This will make a total of over two dollars for the series. Since, perhaps, more than half of all the text-books in use are purchased direct by the school board, any considerable increase in public outlay for books is likely to be reflected in a corresponding decrease
314 Educational Review [October
in other expenses equally or more important for the welfare of the schools.
This result is undesirable for many important reasons. The publishers and authors are the only parties concerned in the competitive aspects of the problem arising from the advanced cost of the series.
When we come to examine the quality of the work itself we are quickly convinced that we have before us a product of high teaching, skill, and accurate scientific knowledge. The theory of the treatment is that physiography is the basis of all correct geographical knowledge, but that physiography is useless unless it focuses upon human interests. The authors have gathered under the title Home geography the elements of physical geography commonly treated in modern elementary geo- graphical text-books. The topics are as follows : the soil, hills, mountains, valleys, rivers, ponds and lakes, the ocean, the air, industry and commerce, government and maps. This is not the Heimafshmde of the Germans. Its only warrant for the name " home " lies in the most admirable '' suggestions " that conclude each section, when the pupil is stimulated to make observations in his own environment. These " Suggestions," by the way, constitute one of the most valuable features of the whole series. They will be a rich mine for every teacher, and will go far toward making future school-book writers on this subject go to school to these authors.
Another teaching device, not perhaps so strikingly helpful, is the " Review questions " that follow each section. They are worked out in much detail, and each question is numbered. It may be questioned whether any but the lower order of teachers will take kindly to this device, since, if followed, it spoils all spontaneity in questioning. Many will hold that the topic idea is better, for the topic is suggestive to the child in review study, while it gives the teacher free scope in ques- tioning.
How shall we reconcile the modern theory that human interests form the focus at which all geographical detail must center, with the common practice, followed by our present au- thors also, of presenting to the eye of the pupil what is really only a primitive map, or perhaps better, a map of primitive con-
1900] Reviews 315
ditions. Except for a very few dots, the beautiful maps of this book (and the next as weh) might serve for the period when the poet could refer to the place
" Where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound save its own dashing."
Does this not mark a hiatus between the theory and its application? Why should a child for years pore over maps that omit the most momentous part of modern geography — the means of communication. Geographers hasten to fill their books with complicated relief maps, often no more intelligible to the child than "the wrinkled visage of a European diplomat," yet neglect this factor, seemingly vastly more iniportant and easier to understand. What is the average inland river? A ditch for the land to carry off surplus water, a sewer for the city. What is the modern railroad? The artery through which flows the life-blood of the people. Both are indeed needful, but why should the natural and primitive be empha- sized and the human be forgotten ?
As a whole, the First Book appeals to one as simple, as scientifically accurate, and as eminently teachable. It bears the marks of painstaking labor on every page. That it will be welcomed everywhere by teachers is a foregone conclusion.
Charles De Garmo
■^ Cornell University
Practical exercises in elementary meteorology — Robert De C. Ward.
^'J Ginn & Co. 1899, T xiii-j-igg p. 1.50.
Mr. Ward's Practical exercises in elementary meteorology, which has recently appeared, ought soon to become the one guide and companion, next to the weather itself, that any teacher of weather phenomena would consider essential. The Ijook is eminently practical in every way, and can be used in everyday work by teachers of nature study or geography in the elementary schools, of physical geography or meteorology in the secondary schools, and of the principles of geography in' normal schools and training schools for teachers. The author, as a meteorologist and teacher of meteorology in college and teachers' classes, has had a l^ody of experience that enables him to speak with authority on all the points touched in his book.
3i6 Educational Review [October
Others may want to change his order of treatment of subjects to suit their personal desires, but everyone will receive help and enlightenment from Mr. Ward's concise, clear, and sug- gestive statements concerning the applications of meteorology to life, and from his sensible exercises for classroom use.
The author planned his book to help teachers of all grades; but he does not make this clear in his introduction. Hence the reader is a little at a loss for a time as to the audience ad- dressed, and is somewhat puzzled until he finds that the exer- cises progress in difficulty and comprehensiveness as the audi- ence appealed to changes from teachers of children to those of youths. In other words this book, accompanied by such a volume as Davis' Meteorology as a text, would be the best pos- sible guide for an adult who desired to take up the observa- tional study of the weather without a teacher.
The aim of the book is therefore to help others put into prac- tice the teaching of weather phenomena thru observations, in- creasing in difficulty as the ability of the student advances. The scope of the book is therefore broad, but the plan followed is consistent and logical.
The author divides his book into five parts, devoted consecu- tively to non-instrumental observations (to be carried on by primary classes) ; instrumental observations (for grammar grades); exercises in the construction of weather maps (for upper elementary and secondary pupils) ; the correlation of the weather elements and weather forecasting (for the same grade of pupils) ; and problems in observational meteorology (suggestions for extra advanced work for the better and more interested pupils).
There are also about thirty pages devoted to the tables that must be used by any student of meteorology every day, and two appendices. The first appendix offers some suggestions to teachers as to the use of the several parts of the book, and the second considers in detail the equipment of a meteorological laboratory, under the headings: instruments, text-books, in- structions in the use of instruments, journals, charts, meteoro- logical tables, illustrations, and general.
The well-trained teacher with this book, the current weather maps, the Monthly zveather review, and a set of instruments.
igoo] Reviews 317
will be well equipped for successful work, if he can find the time in the school curriculum to carry out his plans.
The book is very attractive in typography and general ap- pearance, and is well illustrated by cuts and diagrams that are graphic and very helpful. There are no illustrations inserted for the sake of presenting pretty pictures; every cut and diagram is for a purpose, and is effective.
A particularly strong feature of the book is the body of suggestions as to graphic and tabular methods of noting obser- vations, from which the principles of weather phenomena are to be developed. Another valuable plan is that whereby all the exercises in weather-map making are based on the same series of phenomena, given for six days. At the conclusion of the exercises a series of composite weather maps is completed, which furnish the best possible examples for correlation of weather phenomena in later work. Indeed the book cannot be too highly commended for the careful arrangement of material that secures advancement in the subject, and in mental training, with the least waste of energy on the part of teacher and pupils.
We fear, however, that the book will be but little used among elementary teachers, as the time is hardly ripe for efficient work in weather study with young children, except at the hands of specially trained progressive teachers. The volume should, however, be much used by high-school teachers, and ought to be of service in many college classes.
Mr. Ward's successful book, largely devoted to the weather at home, demands as a running mate a book devoted to climate, for the use of teachers in grammar grades. This is a topic concerning which such teachers can secure but little well- ordered inf ormatiorfv of a practical and 'helpful nature, and for which the demand is constantly increasing, owing in part to the incoming of commercial courses in high schools. We hope that the author may soon give us the benefit of his help and inspiration in this broader field, for which he is peculiarly well fitted.
Richard E. Dodge
Teachers College,
Columbia University
I
3 1 8 Edticational Review
Algebra, mit Einschluss der elementaren Zahlentheorie — von Dr. Otto Pund, Leipzig: Goschen, 1899. Bd. VI. of the Sammlung Schubert. 343 p. 4 marks.
This is a book that seems to supply a real need, and it is one to be welcomed by progressive American teachers. Those having charge of algebra in our best high schools and normal schools like to keep abreast of the developments of the rapidly changing science. This is often a struggle, for the Regents' and other centralized examination systems tend to keep the class-work down to the traditional topics and methods, and the teacher has little opportunity to use the new, even when it is unquestionably valuable.
In algebra we have had a few very inspiring works in Eng- lish within the past few years. Chrystal, Fischer and Schwatt, Oliver, Wait and Jones, and two or three other writers have risen so much above the mediocre as to make their works of great value to teachers. But none of these recent works has made any serious effort to set forth the current of thought of the Continental writers.
Few teachers have either the time or the taste to attempt to read such algebras as Weber's (Lehrbtich der Algebra, 1895- 96), Netto's (Vorlesungen liber Algebra, 1896-99), or Bier- mann's (Elemente der hoheren Mathematik, 1895), works which set forth the development of the theory from Serret's time to the present. Many, however, might find time for a handbook epitomizing, as Dr. Fund's does, the elementary part of these more elaborate treatises.
Some idea of the scope of the manual may be gathered from the mention of a few of the topics of especial interest : the theory of integers, including the study of primes and of con- gruences; permutation groups, an elementary introduction to the group theory, and the application of groups in the theory of equations; determinants, extended somewhat beyond the simple notation-work with which most teachers are familiar; higher congruences and the quadratic residue; resultants and dis- criminants.
David Eugene Smith
State Normal School, Brockport, N. Y.
X
EDITORIAL
The severe criticisms upon the motives and SkuaUo^n^'"^^"'' methods which led to the displacement of Mr.
Powell as superintendent of schools in Wash- ington, that have abounded in the educational journals of the country, are not very kindly received by the Washington news- papers. To say that they miss the point of the criticisms is to understate an obvious fact. It is not a logical or an effective reply to a serious arraignment either to abuse the critics or to assert coarsely that there is in the United States " a labor union of organized superintendents," bent upon controlling the management of all our city school systems. For the bene- fit of those citizens of Washington who care to know what the exact situation is, we shall restate it as we understand it.
The public schools of Washington, under Mr. Powell's direction, have ranked in efficiency and progressiveness with the best schools in the land. This opinion is held among professional students and administrators of education with substantial unanimity. Dr. Harris, United States Commis- sioner of Education, within a few years made an exhaustive examination of the Washington schools by direction of the United States Senate, and wrote a most eulogistic report upon them, stating that the only serious faults which he discovered were in process of remedy. Within a few months so experi- enced an observer as Mrs. L. W. Betts of the Outlook has written in strong commendation of the work of the Washing- ton schools. A jury composed of such highly-trained special- ists as Superintendents Maxwell of New York, Brooks of Philadelphia, Soldan of St. Louis, Seaver of Boston, Van Sickle of Baltimore, Jones of Cleveland, Jordan of Minne- apolis, Greenwood of Kansas City, Gove of Denver, Pearse of Omaha, Dougherty of Peoria, and Gorton of Yonkers, would promptly render a verdict of " successful administration," on
319
320 Educational Review [October
hearing the evidence in Mr. Powell's case and on inspecting the schools themselves.
The ground of the present severe criticism is that all of these facts, which are easily verifiable, counted for nothing, and that for reasons best known to themselves a small but pertinacious group of men and women were permitted to overturn the school administration of Washington and to displace Mr. Powell, with the connivance of various high officers of the government and with the assistance of the most influential \¥ashington newspapers. The vicious plan of paying a salary to the members of the school board has been introduced, and one man's influence, reactionary at that, has been permitted to dominate the organization of the new board and to bring about the election of one friend as assistant superintendent, that of another friend as secretary, that of a former secretary as clerk, and that of the first friend's landlady's son as messenger.
This is the situation as it presents itself to the public school- men of the country, and to all those who are jealous of the reputation and good name of the Nation's capital. They re- sent Mr. Powell's dismissal, just as they resented the attack on Mr. Jones at Cleveland and that on Mr. Seaver, Mr. Martin, and Miss Arnold in Boston, and for the same reasons.
When the new charter for San Francisco was Cisco ' adopted it was pointed out in the Educa-
tional Review that its provisions for a paid school commission and for a division of educational responsi- bility between the commission and the superintendent were clearly mischievous and would soon prove themselves so. At the time we were advised that they were the result of scheming and log-rolling, and that the '* places " were already prom- ised.
It is not surprising, therefore, to find that the viciousness of the new plan has been already displayed, and that good citi- zens are up in arms against the existing regime. Here are some illuminating extracts from the San Francisco news- papers :
igoo] Editorial 321
Many plain signs are abroad that the public schools of San Francisco are lapsing into a deplorable condition.
The introduction of the worst evils of patronage into the school board has caused widespread alarm among the teachers. Sinster devices are used for subjecting the department to the coarsest favoritism. Tyros in teaching are elevated over expert and experienced teachers, and by injurious consolidation of classes and abolition of schools, room is made for the pets of the board. The interests of the schools are not considered. The wishes of parents are insultingly ignored. The requests of organizations of citizens are unheeded, and teachers go to their daily tasks with that uncer- tainty of tenure which is incompatible with good work.
It is peculiarly necessary to the most efficient teaching that the teacher shall be free from the care and anxiety which arise in this state of uncer- tainty. The board has fostered a system of envy, revenge, and self-seeking, of tattling and backbiting, which is highly demoralizing. Indeed, if this strange board has taken a contract to discredit the public school system, to make it deserve all that its enemies say against it and to finally break it down, its course would be explicable. We have had boards before, and *' tough old boards," too, but all of their corruption, ignorance, and venality put together has not injured the schools to the extent to which they are being damaged now.
The law settles the tenure of a teacher, and the courts have many times sustained it, to the great advantage of the department. Training the young is a task of great delicacy and difficulty. It is of vast importance. It concerns the future of the individual and of the country. The law, therefore, has gone far in the direction of giving a vested right to teachers in their employment, of -which they cannot be deprived without cause. This is to secure the mental and nervous equipoise needful to the best work in the schoolroom. The board has nullified all this by its cunningly devised schemes of oppression, by which the very best teachers are easily victims of the very worst and most unscrupulous. If the board were acting under the advice and guidance of the most inveterate enemy of the public school system, it could not do more injury to that system than it is doing. — San Francisco Call, September 2, 1900.
Gentlemen of the board of education, do you know what you are doing ? If not, kindly read the following brief review of the performances you have furnished the taxpayers of this city with during your short regime of eight months :
You have strangled the just system of promotion among teachers by seniority of service ; destroyed the possibility of effective training by bad classification, crowding some schools, emptying others, and increasing the enrollment from forty-four to fifty-five in each class ; cast adrift by stupid consolidations many of the most faithful teachers in the department ; illegally suspended others, and without even permitting them to be heard in their own defense ; closed three commodious rooms in the Grant primary school and transferred the pupils to the already crowded Pacific Heights grammar school, compelling little children to trudge up a height of eight blocks, in the face of indignant protests from both teachers and
32 2 Educational Review [October
parents ; called in the professors of universities to assist you in compiling a course of study, thus confessing your own inability to perform the work ; and lastly, for some reason you undertook the repairs of school buildings during vacation, and continued letting contracts until informed by The Bulletin that the charter provided that the work should be done by the board of works only.
These are but a few of your choicest performances, all of which have a distinctive uniqueness in the school history of San Francisco. But the gravest of all charges against you is that you have arrogated to yourselves the power to suspend teachers without trial. You have deliberately and with malice aforethought permitted the contemptible prejudices of puppet principals to ride unchallenged over the appeals of the wronged under teacher for redress. This is a grave charge, and yet you have confessed your guilt. You ought to know, if you do not, that the charter clearly stipulates that only " the superintendent, with his deputies, constituting the city board of examination, has power to make suspensions, and then only for the following causes : For immoral or unprofessional conduct, profanity, intemperance, or evident unfitness for teaching, to recommend to the board of education the revocation of any certificates previously granted by the board."
If it were legal to suspend at the caprice of a principal, the life-tenure system, instead of serving as an anchor of hope to the hard-worked, faith- ful teacher, would become a mere delusion and snare. Had it not been made law a few years ago, scores of teachers now in the profession would surely have drifted into other avocations. But feeling that the new pro- vision of permanency guaranteed them a living so long as they performed their duties faithfully and well, they preferred remaining with their classes. And yet the board of education with a single blow would strike the life- tenure system to its death.
You are fast making a record, it is true, but it is one which can neither bless the present nor the generations to come. — San Francisco Bulletin, August 26, 1900.
The Cuban ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^ grave disappointment to many
Teachers at Har- persons to read in this issue of the Review Mr. Clapp's opinion that the educational re- sults of the visit of the Cuban teachers to Harvard University were very meager. But even if this be so, it seems to us in- disputable that in a larger sense the expedition was a great success. The idea itself was a noble one, and its reception and execution by Harvard University were very fine. The wide- spread interest aroused in the problems of Cuban education, and the new bonds of sympathy and understanding which were undeniably knit between the American people and their new wards, would repay much toil and expense.
1900] Edit or ia I 323
A very innocent proposal, emanating from the and^State^L^Ger- Federation of Women's Associations in Ger- "lany many, has roused a storm of protest from
some of the fine old conservative schoolmen of that country. The proposal was nothing less than that all of the German governments should undertake the systematic development of kindergartens and should found training schools for kinder- garten teachers. Herein, however, was discovered an appall- ing list of evil possibilities, social, political, and educational. Herr Beetz of Gotha, whose political affiliations (were he an American) are obvious, denounced the plan in a memorandum which we reproduce, in part because of its lack of knowledge and in part because of its lack of humor. "
A. — I. {a) The history of civilization proves the family to be the basis of all moral development. The family is the first, most natural, and most indispensable place of education — not only of the children, but also of the parents.
I {b) The kindergarten encroaches, without justification or understand- ing, on these inalienable rights and duties, and thus injures the moral training of individual children, and also hinders the progressive moral development of the parents.
II. {a) Sociology shows the family to be the foundation of the state. It is the first and most important source of national strength, physical, intel- lectual, and moral, in all struggles — internal or external.
II. {b) The kindergarten, by relieving the family of its most important rights and duties, contributes to its decline, and undermines the founda- tions of the state and the welfare of the community.
III. {a) As state officials and citizens it is our duty (i) to ruthlessly oppose the kindergarten ; (2) to work with all our power to secure and ennoble family life.
III. {b) In all cases in which family life is destroyed by death of the parents or thru their social or moral ruin, the children must be entrusted by the order of the state to the care of trustworthy families, or, if this be impossible, committed to asylums and reformatories. An unnatural and useless means of improving the standard of education in the family is to give pedagogical instruction to girls at school.
B. — I. The school is the natural and necessary fellow-worker of the family in the task of instruction and education, but only (i) at the right time, when the children are mentally and physically ripe for school ; (2) in proper measure, within the limits that are naturally set by the intelligence and disposition of a child of fourteen years; (3) in the right manner, based on psychological and ethical principles.
II. As teachers we reject the kindergarten — nay, we strenuously oppose it— because its scientifical justification rests on a misunderstanding of child nature; (i) it subjects the children to instruction of refined
324 Educational Review
artificiality at an age when the mental and physical conditions for bene- ficial instruction are not fulfilled ; (2) it employs faulty methods to accom- plish its aims.
Herr Beetz's theses remind us not a little of the articles on various phases of education with which American literary magazines seem to delight to worry their readers.
The only instances of the conferring of Ph. D. Notes and News as an honorary degree at the Commencement season of 1900 which have been brought to our attention are as follows :
AuGUSTANA College, Rock Island, 111. : O. N. Nelson; Inez Rundstrom; S. E. Plummer; E. F. Bartholomew; Philip Dowell; C. W. Foss; J. A. Udden; O. W. Oesthead. Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kan. : S. G. Youngert.
During the past winter persons well informed in educational methods and means, after a study of the system and course in use here, expressed their disapproval of the same. Their views soon spread over the commu- nity, andjthe result was a complete investigation of the District school sys- tem by a committee of the United States Senate. — Washington Star, Sep- tember 17, 1900.
The important questions which the public-school teachers of this country and the most intelligent and public-spirited citizens of Washington wish to have answered are :
(i) Who are the "persons well informed in educational methods ? "
(2) What are their credentials? Why should they be deemed competent to judge of the effectiveness of any course of study or methods of teaching?
On September 14 Mr. Thomas Davidson died in Montreal, Canada. Mr. Davidson's vast erudition, his literary and philosophical insight, and his absorbing interest in educational ideals and methods made his contributions to the literature of education unusually influential and significant. A profound and constructive study of the philosophy of education, which was perhaps his last completed literary work, will appear in the Educational Review for November.
EDUCATIONAL REVIEW
NOVEMBER, igoo
I EDUCATION AS WORLD-BUILDING^
The fundamental difference between the lower animals and nan lies in this, that, whereas the former live in a world of ^^^ensations, the latter lives in a world of things; or, to put it efhei-wise, whereas the former merely group, and respond to, tl.c?^ rensations, the latter goes further and refers the groups to unexperienced beings, or things, which he strives to hold by means of symbols, visible or audible.^ The visible symbols are the material of religion and art; the audible, of logic and science. Intelligence — of which religion and science are the two chief manifestations — as distinguished from sense, consists just in placing something behind, or under, our sensations. This act is called hypothesis, hypostasis, or supposition; that which results from the act, essence, substance, subject, idea, reality, cause, thing-in-itself. The function of intelligence, therefore, is the placing of essences or causes behind groups of sensations, and defining them by means of these. Strictly speaking, these essences or causes are not known, in the sense in which sensations are known. They are objective, whereas sensations are subjective. When, for example, I refer a cer- tain very complicated group of sensations to an essence or cause, and name it John Smith, I know very well that I never reach him as a subject, never feel his toothaches or his love- pangs. Only from certain experiences of mine do I suppose
' An address prepared for delivery at the New School of Methods, Hinghftm, Mass., and published by the courtesy of the American Book Company. ^
' Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book I., chap. I.
326 Educational Review [November
that he has these. The only being I can ever know as a sub- ject is myself. All other beings, as subjects, are to me hypo- thetical essences or causes; and to this extent agnosticism is^ and must always be, a fact. It is, however, a very encourag- ing one, being the guarantee of my eternal individuality. If one subject could penetrate another, then all individuality would be lost.
In the early stages of its career, intelligence, influenced by hopes and fears,^ placed behind its groups of sensations fan- tastic essences or causes — first demons or gods, then ideas — which it then proceeded to endow with attributes by no means necessary to account for these groups. The result was, first, mythology, then metaphysics of the Greek sort. Intelligence reached the scientific stage when it endowed its hypothetical essences with only those attributes which the groups of phe- nomena united by them demanded for their explanation. Then the group of phenomena called a tree was no longer referred to a dryad, nor the group called a planet to a spheral intelligence, influencing human destinies. It was only, as in the case of man, when the group of phenomena could not be explained without the supposition of an intelligence, that such was assumed. William of Occam was on his way to true science when he laid down the rule : '' Beings are not to be multiplied unnecessarily," Entia non sunt muUiplicanda prccter necessi- tatem; but he would have done well to add, " nor are they to be furnished with unnecessary attributes." In truth, science con- sists in referring phenomena to their true causes and carefully defining and distinguishing these causes.
In dealing with the question of education, the three impor- tant questions are : ( i ) What is the being to be educated ? (2 ) Wherein does education consist? (3) What is the result aimed at in education? We may deal with these in their order.
I. What is the being to be educated? or what is the human subject or soul? Various answers have been given to this question by mythology and metaphysics. We have been told
'"Faith is the hypostasis [the placing behind the sensible world] of things- hoped for." — Hebrews xi. i. No better definition of faith could be given.
1900] Education as world-building Z'^7
that it is a divine breath, a fallen angel, an idea, a pure form, an entelechy, and so on. But if we leave these obsolete sciences aside, and ask what we know the soul to be, resolved to be con-' tent with that, we come to a very different result. And here each of us has the advantage of being, for once, behind the scenes. Each has only to ask himself. What do I know myself to be? And if he answer honestly he will, I think, say : '' I am a feeling, or sensibility, modified, in innumerable ways, by in- fluences which I do not originate. These modifications, when grouped, are what I call the world, or my world, for I know no other. I am the sentient unity of a sensible world." When first stated, this answer is apt to call forth this question : " Are you not rather something which feels, subject of feeling, a feel- ing substance? " There is here a fatal trap, laid for us by our habit of referring actions to things, in the material world. We may reply in this way : ^' Does this something, subject, or sub- stance enter into feeling? If it does, then it is feeling; if it does not, then I know nothing about it, and the assumption of it necessarily leads to absolute agnosticism. Hence all I know of myself is, that I am a feeling.''
2. Wherein does education consist ? We have seen that the permanent feeling, which I am, is modified in manifold ways, and that these modifications, when grouped and articulated, are what I call my world. We usually set ourselves over against our world, as if we were one thing and it another; but the truth is, the two are one; our world is wholly our feeling, wholly subjective, except in so far as we place hypothetical essences behind different groups of our feelings, thereby trans- forming them into things. It is interesting to reflect that the only non-felt, the only objective, element in our world is that which we, by our own act, posit, as independent of, and exter- nal to, our feeling. But the question is, Why and how do we group our sensations, and then transform them into a world of things? This brings out the fact that there is, in the feeling which I am, an element not yet described, an element which reacts upon sensation and is, therefore, active. This we may call desire. It is an effort after satisfaction, that is, the largest possible amount and variety of feeling. But such amount and
3^8 Educational Review [November
variety are possible only when feelings are grouped, so as to be easily surveyable and graspable. Ease in grasping we call pleas- ure, difficulty in grasping, pain. In grouping our feelings, therefore, we are merely seeking pleasure and shunning pain. Moreover, in placing permanent hypothetical essences behind groups of sensation, we are merely determining for future use sources of satisfaction.* Our world in so far as it consists of things, is purely teleological, and, no doubt, if our satisfactions were different from what they are, our world would be differ- ent. We may, indeed, say, in a word, that the world is purely a means of satisfaction. What else could it be? That is why we create it. We can show the creative process in a very dis- tinct case. Number is in itself a mere succession of units. But to grasp many units, as such, is difficult and painful. We. therefore group our units into tens, our tens into hundreds, our hundreds into thousands and so on, and thus for practical pur- poses, and for these only, conveniently and easily grasp them. These tens, hundreds, thousands are, in the abstract world of number, just what things are in the concrete or sensible world. Indeed, Pythagoras and many others have regarded numbers as things capable of exerting influences, that is, of acting; and even at the present day superstitious people talk about lucky and unlucky numbers. Next comes the question, How do we create the world? The answer. By association or grouping.^ Sensations that are similar we put together and name with an adjective; different sensations that re- peatedly come together we unite by means of an essence, and name with a noun. In this way we obtain an adjective world and a noun world, or, as we sometimes say, an abstract world and a concrete world; and conscious ex- perience consists of judgment, in which elements of the former are identified with aspects of the latter, e. g., The
* " And what hovers in unsteady appearance Do ye steady with endowing thoughts."
(The Lord to the Archangels). Faust, Prologue in Heaven. * We are continually changing the world, in order to make it more satisfactory to us. What satisfies the savage does not satisfy the cultured man ; what satisfies the Turk does not satisfy the American.
The verb is of the nature of the adjective. Categories are universal adjectives.
1900] Education as world-building 329
horse is white. When we think that the abstract is derived from the concrete, we think the exact opposite of the truth; the concrete is built up out of abstract by grouping and hyposta- sizing. Sensations that occur separately we group by means of time; sensations that occur together by means of space. The two combined give us the group, behind which we may place an essence, substance, or cause. Thus the world is built up by means of time, space, and cause, out of sensations grouped by desire for the sake of satisfaction. With so much promised, we can easily see that education consists in enabling a human being to construct a certain kind of world. Just what the nature of this world is will be made clear in answering the question
3. What is the result aimed at in education? That the hu- man being will, under any circumstances, build up some kind of a world is clear. To a large extent he does so unconsciously, and without any effort. But there are worlds and worlds. The world of the street waif who picks pockets and goes to the reformatory or jail is very different from the w^orld of the great scientist, philosopher, artist, or statesman. The former can be built up without any education, the latter cannot. The former affords few, small, and brief satisfactions; the latter many, great, and permanent ones. Since the human being is a sentient desire, which from its very nature demands the highest and most varied satisfaction, the aim of education must be to enable him to construct a world capable of yielding such satisfaction. At first sight this may seem a very selfish, almost sordid view of the world, and of life as conditioned by it, but when properly understood it is not so, as even the authors of the old Westminster Catechism knew, when they declared that ** Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." Enjoyment, or satisfaction, of some sort must be the end of every desire, such as the sentient soul is. And this brings me to my first thesis :
A. The aim of all education, as of all life, is the evolution of the social individual in knozvledge, sympathy, and zvill.
If this and what has been said above be both true, it follows that man finds his highest satisfaction in knowledge, sympathy,
330 Educational Review [November
and will, and that he does so as a social individual. This must now be shown by a further analysis of human nature.
The human soul, as we have seen, is originally a sentient de- sire, or a desiderant feeling, which thru experience gradu- ally differentiates and articulates itself into a world. In the course of this process the sentient aspect of the soul gradually organizes itself into intelligence, while the desiderant, or cona- tive, aspect, co-ordinated with intelligence, becomes will. This process is never complete, so that there always remains in the soul a certain residuum of unintelligent, unvolitional (in- stinctive) desire, which we nowadays distinguish into passions, appetites, and emotions, but which may properly be called sym- pathy, or love. In one aspect the whole ethical problem has to do with the conflict between that part of the soul which is dif- ferentiated into intelligence and will and that part which is not, or, as the Greeks said, between the rational and the irra- tional part. The moralist tries to discover and teach how the former may be enabled to regulate the latter without injuring or enfeebling it. Sympathy, or love, must be made rational, without ceasing to be instinctive. In this developed condition the human soul is a tri-unity of intelligence, sympathy, and will, standing in a threefold relation to its world. As intelligence, it knows and learns, that is, widens its world; as sympathy, it clings to certain known objects and tries to in- crease their number; as will, it makes such changes in its world as shall render it more satisfactory, that is, more know- able and more lovable. Let us here observe that every change in the soul means a change in its world. Increase of knowl- edge is increase of world; increase of sympathy is increase of loveable objects, or of aspects in objects already loved; increase of will is increase of changes in the world.
If, now, the soul from its very nature demands the highest satisfaction, this must mean, for the developed soul, satisfac- tion of intelligence, of sympathy, and of will; and education must mean instruction and practice in the method of reaching such threefold satisfaction. Moreover, since the most impor- tant part of the world of each individual soul is a society of souls assumed to be like itself, and since its satisfaction is en-
1900] Education as world- building 331
tirely dependent upon its world, it follows that it is only as a social being that any soul can find the highest satisfaction, or requires education.^ It is needless to add that, since all educa- tion is education for life, life and education have the same end.
My second thesis, following directly from my first, is that :
B. The evolution of the individual is the evolution of an ordered zvorld in his consciousness.
If this is true, the aim of education must be the evolution of such a world: education is world-building.
As we have already said, every individual spontaneously and almost unconsciously builds some sort of world up out of his experience. It may be more or less poor and chaotic; still, it is a world — his world. World-building is not confined to hu- man beings, but is a function of everything that lives. The oyster, the clam, and the microbe have each its world. That man is a better world-builder than these is due to the organiza- tion with which he sets out. The body, is a world-building machine, itself due to the world-builder.'^ The newborn child is already, thru a long process of evolution, handsomely equipped for world-building, and his labor is greatly lightened by society.
Now, the extent and richness of the world which any living thing constructs depends upon two conditions, its capacity for manifold experience, and its power of arranging or classifying that experience. The former of these, again, depends upon the number and acuteness of the senses; the latter, upon the force of the primitive desire for satisfaction. If the products of the senses are few and similar, the world will consist of few elements; if the organizing desire is feeble, the products will remain unclassified and, again, give a meager world, because no soul can grasp many elements without classifying them. We may say, then, that the evolution stage of any being is de- termined by the extent and complexity of its world, which, again, depend upon its power of organizing a large experience. It follows directly that education is instructive in world-build-
• Rousseau's ^mi7f maintained the opposite. Hence its perversity. ' " For soul is form and doth the body make." — Spenser,
332 Educational Review [November
ing, that is, in acquiring a manifold experience and in organ- izing the same.
It is evident that world may differ from world either in con- tents, in mode of organization, or in both. As to contents,, the world of a savage, an unlettered peasant, an Italian boot- black, or a coral diver, differs very widely from the world of an Emerson, a Lincoln, a Queen Victoria, or a Pope Leo XIII. The coral diver would be as much at sea in the Vatican as Pope Leo in the water df deeps. But even when worlds have prac- tically the same contents, these may be so variously arranged as to form widely different worlds. This is shown in the case of twins who have had almost exactly the same experience. One will organize a poetic world, the other a dull prosaic world. One may have a world that makes him a saint, the other a world that makes him a criminal. The saint has a saintly world; the criminal, a criminal world. There is as much dif- ference between worlds as between a wigwam and a palace,. as between a Greek temple and a Gothic cathedral. A wigwam world is the world of a savage; a palace world, the world of a prince; a temple world, the world of the rounded man of culture; a cathedral world, the world of the saint. Each of these worlds is organized upon a different principle. The wigwam world is based upon immediate physical need; the palace world upon ambition to command; the temple world, upon love of beauty and harmony; the cathedral world, upon a mystic longing for union with the Supreme Being, involving freedom from all the trammels of earth. It is an interesting question for a man to ask himself : What sort of a world have I, and upon what principle is it organized ? The answer, if honest, is often a surprise.
It will be observed that the principle upon which every world is organized is some form of desire, need, or longing; and the same is true of the principle upon which the component ma- terials are selected. Every world is a means of satisfying de- sire, and derives all the significance it possesses from such desire. When we say that the world or life has become mean- ingless to a man, what we mean is that the world into which he has organized himself no longer affords him satisfaction.
1900] Education as world-building 333
Poor Hamlet, finding his world such that it offers him no field of action, calls it '' a rank unweeded garden," and Macbeth,, having by crime disorganized his world, cries out that he is " aweary of the sun," and gives his despairing view of life in the speech beginning, " To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to- morrow." What we call pessimism is nothing but the outcry of men who have not succeeded in organizing a world satis- factory to their desires. The pessimist proclaims himself a failure in world-building; that is all.
When in the theses which I am treating I use the word " individual," I mean, of course " social individual," there being no other. It follows that the world which education seeks to evolve in the consciousness of the individual is a social world; that is, that it is not determined by him alone, but partly by his social environment. Were there but one substantial feeling or soul in the universe, and it could by itself deter- mine itself into a world, such determination and such world would be absolutely capricious. The sole world-builder would be hampered by no conditions. But such is not the state of the individual human soul. It has to deal with experiences which it does not originate: the materials of its world are largely given to it with a character of. their own. It turns out, in fact,, that they are aspects of materials belonging to other worlds^ and largely determined by other world-builders, whom we come to suppose. To illustrate : I experience, and fit into my world as best I can, a blow which I have not originated, but which, if my world is sufficiently organized, and the agencies in it attributed to hypothetical beings, I may ascribe to you; that is, I may hold that what is a passive element in my world is an active element in yours, and largely deter- mined in its nature by you and your world. Now, so far as I can see, the entire material of my world is of the nature of this blow, on the one side or the other; it is made of actions which I originate or which I undergo. It is needless to say that indirectly, thru my body, Imay undergo my own actions. The important point to note is, that each individual in building his world has to reckon with other worlds and other world-builders, and these too of all grades.
334 Educational Review [November
We have all to reckon, not only with the worlds of our fellow- men, but also with those of mosquitoes, microbes, and plants. It is this necessity of reckoning that makes us social and moral individuals, that supplies us with a norm of action, and prevents Its from being capricious. If we try to form in our minds a picture of the universe, as a whole, we must conceive it as an infinitely multitudinous complex of desiderant feelings, mutu- ally causing experience in each other, and each, out of this •experience, building up its own world in such a way that it is in large measure dependent upon all the rest. It is obvious that that soul which can relate itself in the most varied and har- monious ways to the largest number of other souls and their worlds, will have the richest world of its own, that is, will have the most complete satisfaction or blessedness. Wordsworth lias expressed this in his own way :
" He who feels contempt For any living thing, hath faculties Which he has never used."*
Faculties unused mean a defective world and defective satis- faction. Aristotle implied the same doctrine, when he defined Iiuman good as " an actualization of the soul in accordance with worth " ® (or earnestness).
My third and last thesis is, that
C. Ethical life depends upon the completeness and harmony ■of the zvorld evolved in the individual consciousness.
Most educators are agreed that the aim of education is -ethical life; but there is considerable disagreement as to what such life means. In spite of this they all agree in this funda- mental position, that ethical life is a life in harmony either with environment or with that which controls environment. It lias been defined above as a life dependent upon the existence of a certain sort of world on the individual consciousness. This view does not contradict the rest: it merely involves a different view of the nature of the world. The existence of a •certain sort of world in the individual consciousness involves a certain harmony between it and its environment. Harmony
* Lines Left on a Yew-tree Seat.
^ Nicomachean Ethics, Book I., § 7 (fi'X^s iv^pyeia Kar aper-qv).
I poo] Education as world-building 335
within and harmony without are two aspects of the same fact. The microcosm is an aspect of the macrocosm. The one is .what it is because the other is what it is. When Plato found that the state was the individual writ large, he was on his way to a truth — which Aristotle later expressed somewhat para- doxically— when he said : '' The state is prior to the indi- vidual." ^^ What they meant was that, unless the individual had the state organized within himself, he never could be a worthy member of it, never be a social individual. ^^ And noth- ing is truer than this, unless it be that, until the individual soul has the entire universe organized within himself, he cannot be a true or worthy denizen of it.
Moral life, then, consists in harmony with environment, and this demands the organization of an inner world to make it possible. In a narrower sense it means harmony with our fellow-beings, which again implies the existence of an inner world in which these beings are duly respected and cherished. This is expressed in the old Hebrew command, " Love thy neighbor as thyself," as well as in the Kantian maxim, "" Act .so that humanity in thine own person, as well as in every other, is always treated by thee as end, never as mere means." The question now is : On what principle shall this inner world be organized ?
It is entirely possible to conceive, as organized in conscious- ness, a world of distinct objects no one of which attracted more interest than another. Indeed, this would necessarily be the -case with a purely intellectual being, if such were possible. Of •course, such a world, furnishing no material for choice, could not form the basis of moral life, which at every step implies choice. Nor is this the human world. The human being as we have seen is fundamentally a sentient desire, and all his choices and consequent activities are directed to the satisfac- tion of desire, that is, to the determination and enrichment of himself. A moral world must be one in which there is room for choice, 'that is, in which objects have different values for the satisfaction of desire. A perfectly moral world would be one in which all objects were stamped with their values for this
"^^ Republic. ^^ Politics, I., 2 ; 1253a 19, 25.
336 Educational Review [November
end, and loved and made motives for the will, in accordance with this stamping, ^schylus had a fine insight into this fact, when he called the spring of all wrong-doing false coinage ^^ {napanoTtd), and so had Dante, when he wrote: " Neither creator nor creature . . . ever was without love,, either natural or spiritual. . . The natural is always without error, but the other may err thru evil object, or thru too- little, or too much, vigor." ^^ In other words, the funda- mental or natural desire which each one is cannot err, since it must seek its own satisfaction, whereas the special desires may distribute themselves otherwise than in accordance with the true worth of things, and thus cause sin. Sin arises from the false distribution of affection, and the Greeks were right when they said that education consisted in teaching to love and hate correctly.
We can now see that the inner organized world upon which man's life depends is a world in which intelligence has set upon everything a value expressing its utility for the satisfaction of desire, in which affection adheres to things in proportion to their value, and in which will employs as motives things as so valued and loved. If we attributed to everything in our world the value which really belongs to it, and acted accordingly, we could not well do wrong; our life would be entirely moral. For the highest moral life one more condition is necessary : the world must be as large as possible. It is possible to be moral on a small scale with a small world; but it is impossible to be moral on a large scale without a large world. Perfect morality would have to take account of the entire universe. To create in the child's mind a world of ordered values, and to make that world as large and varied as possible, is the aim of the moral teacher.
Since the motives and ideals of every soul are furnished by the contents of its world, it is plain that, as the world is, so will the life be. If the world is narrow, the life will be narrow; if it contains but small motives and beggarly ideals, the life will be meager and low. If the values are disordered, the life will be disordered and criminal. If, on the contrary, the world
"^^ Agamemnon, 223 ; Eumenides, 329. ^^ Purgatory, XVII., 91--96, J
cpoo] Education as world-building 337
be large, and the values duly ordered, the life will be rich, full, and lofty. There are as many worlds as there are men. Some are small but well-ordered; some small and ill- ordered; some large and well-ordered; some large and ill-ordered. Some again are rigidly bounded; others are continually expanding. The small well-ordered world gives us the ordinary respectable citizen, who conforms to the current morality, offends no one, attends to his family, and his business, leaves a good name behind him, and has a gravestone in the cemetery. Such men form the stable ele- ment in every society, and it is well that there. are many of them.^* The small, ill-ordered world gives us the burdens of society, the parasites and ordinary criminals, the men and women who are in destitution, or else are trying to save them- selves from it by some form of beggary, theft, or violence. Such a world is poor, fragmentary, and confused; the values and emphases are all misplaced. It usually contains elements altogether irrational and incapable of co-ordination into any world — prejudices, superstitions, supernaturalisms,^^ and the like. The large well-ordered world gives us the saints, heroes, and benefactors of humanity, the thinkers, statesmen, and re- formers, the introducers of ideals, the founders of institutions. The large ill-ordered world gives us the great reprobates and criminals, the Macbeths, the Neros, the Napoleons. The rigidly bounded world gives us the narrow conservative, the " old- fogy," or, sometimes, the fanatic of one idea; the con- tinually expanding world gives us the liberal, the reformer,
'* Rousseau, imagining what his life would have been if he had finished his apprenticeship, says : '' In the bosom of my religion, my country, my family, and my friends, I should have spent a quiet, gentle life such as befits my character, satisfied with the uniformity of work suitable to my taste, and of a society appeal- ing to my heart. I should have been a good Christian, a good citizen, a good husband and father, a good friend, a good workman, a good man in all respects. I should have loved my profession — honored it perhaps, and, after having lived a life obscure and simple, but even and gentle, I should have died quietly in the bosom of my family. Soon forgotten, no doubt, I should, at least, have been re- gretted as long as I was remembered." — Confession, Pt. I., Book I., ad Jin.
"* It is interesting to note that in the Shaksperean plays the supernatural, when- ever introduced, disorganizes life, rendering morality impossible. So, e.g., the witches in Macbeth, and the ghost in Hamlet.
338 Educational Review [November
who, instead of fixing his eyes on the past, is continually look- ing into the future, and making plans for rendering it better than the present.
From what has been said it follows that moral life is condi- tioned by the nature of the world organized in the soul. Immoral life is due to a fragmentary or inharmonious world; moral life to a complete and harmonious one. To this conclu- sion it may be objected that it leaves no room for the exercise- of free will, the very condition of morality. If outer action is determined by inner world, how can it be free ? Assuredly, if a man's inner world were given to him ready made, and with all its values determined for him, we should have to answer : It cannot be free. But this is not the case. Every man's inner world is built up and determined by himself, and, indeed, in the strictest sense, is himself. The difficulty here raised de- rives its cogency from a failure to recognize this fact. Free- dom does not mean that, with any world organized in himself, a man at any moment can make any choice : if this were true, there would be no such thing as moral character. It means that he, as organized into a world, can decide between A and B, as related to that world. If he has a certain kind of world A will readily find a place in it; if he has a certain other kind of world, B will do so. The decision rests with the world in view of the new facts. If a man were one thing, and his world an- other, imposing motives from without, then we might speak of determinism; but this is not the case. A man and his world are one thing, and all his motives originate with himself. Whatever weight a motive has comes from him, so that in being determined by it he is determined by himself. We can express this otherwise by saying that while a man freely organizes his world as a whole, every later addition to it is more or less conditioned by all earlier ones, and at the same time more or less conditions these. It follows that the hier- archy of values in his world is always, to some degree, under- going change. In any case, the fact that his actions corre- spond to his world in no degree compromises his moral freedom.
I have thus to the best of my ability demonstrated my three
I poo] Education as world-building 339
theses, and I might, fairly enough, stop here; but I should miss a rare opportunity if I did not go further and try to show how an inner world conditioning a moral life may be built up. I shall therefore attempt briefly to do this.
We have already seen that the material of the conscious world is supplied by the sensuous or feeling side of the soul, while the form or organization is due to the desiderant side. Feeling stores material; desire organizes it. It is obvious, therefore, that if a moral world is to be built up, both feeling and desire must receive attention. We must, moreover, bear in mind that when the child comes into the world it has already a small world of vague feelings and instinctive desires, and, what is of more importance, it has already a set of organs or instruments of construction, which to a large degree neces- sarily determines its future world, which must consist of ele- ments visible, audible, tangible. The being to be educated is not a mere imdetermined desiderant feeling, which may be de- termined in any way, but a feeling already determined to some extent, and disposed for further determinations. Such deter- mination and disposition, due to its past history, we call its heredity, and this must be reckoned with in all attempts to educate. Thanks to this, no two souls will select the same materials, or make exactly the same use of them in constructing a world. And yet the soul's world is very far from being pre- determined by its heredity or temperament. Education can contribute much, tho not all. The fact is, there is this cor- rective or counterpoise to heredity. Before a determined de- sire or tendency can develop it must have been awakened by the presentation of a suitable object. There is no actual de- sire for light until light has, at least in some slight degree, been experienced or felt. Thus, desire is dependent on feeling, and the actual desires of a child can be largely determined by the objects presented to it. Thus, certain inborn tendencies can be atrophied and others fully developed, and it is just the task of education to do this. A desire or tendency which was origi- nally very strong, and might easily have been portentously developed, can, from want of its proper object, remain entirely dormant; while one which was originally comparatively feeble
340 Educational Review [November
may, from frequent satisfaction, become powerful. Most -children have naturally no taste for tobacco, beer, or coffee; but we all know how easy it is to develop a passion for them. On the other hand, most children have a natural desire for sweets; yet it is easy to atrophy this desire, by withholding sweet things from them, till other and wholesomer tastes have been evoked. By such withholding and giving it is possible to a large ex- tent to neutralize heredity, and, taking advantage of the native powers of the child, to develop such a system of desires as to render possible the construction of a harmonious world. De- sires are developed by repeated exercise or habit, which may thus be regarded as the chief agent in all evolution. All the faculties, even the senses and their bodily organs, are due to liabit. Thru habit an action becomes pleasanter and easier, and so in course of time gives rise to a facility or faculty; and this when established becomes more or less automatic, releas- ing a certain amount of spiritual power, which can then be put to other uses. Reading, writing, and even walking, which at first are slow and painful, come in time to be almost automatic, requiring very little mental power or attention.
Since native desires are regulated and harmonized by habit, and since the world is built up by desires, it follows that if we would build up a harmonious world we can do so only by the •establishment of habits. With a view to this, the teacher must clearly understand three things : ( i ) just what sort of world he wishes to create in the child's mind; (2) in what order its ob- jects must be presented in order to be appropriated and fitted into the world; (3) what is to be the hierarchy of values in that world. Let us consider these points separately.
I. Tho worlds are built up by desire, yet if they are to l>e harmonious and moral, the elements of them must be under- stood. We cannot assign a value to an3rthing without know- ing its nature and essential relations. This means that we must endeavor to attain an intellectual comprehension of the world, or, in other words, of the entire process of evolution, from the lowest form of existence up to the highest moral iDeings and their institutions. Such a world view is a prime essential in all education. Without it, no one can feel at home
4 poo] Education as world-building 341
in his world, or know what part he is called on to play in it. It will, perhaps, be objected that it would take a lifetime to im- part such a view, and this is true, if we mean that it should be imparted with all its details, but it is by no means difficult, nor does it take much time, to make pupils of ordinary ability grasp the outlines of such a view, the details being left to be filled in as occasion requires. Unfortunately, owing to the present agnostic attitude of science, the evolution theory is rather a description of facts than a rational, illuminating expla- nation of them. It neither tells us what evolves, nor what is the agent in evolution. But these are defects that can easily be remedied, and indeed the remedy has been alluded to in the •early part of this paper. The theological view of the world which prevailed in the Middle Age was by no means a simple one, as the readers of Thomas Aquinas' Summa theologica are well aware, and yet an outline of it sufficient for life-pur- poses was found easy enough to impart even to young people, with very slender preparation. In the same way the evolu- tion theory of the world, if once made self-consistent and ex- planatory, could easily be rendered intelligible, and a birds'- eye view of all the successive stages of progress — astronomical, mineral, vegetable, animal, human, institutional — ^presented to the mind of the child. In the future the philosophy of exist- 'Cnce will be simply the history of evolution, and not, as in the past, and partly in the present, a more or less fanciful theory, floating above existence and ignoring the greater part .of it. And the rudiments of this philosophy will be among the first subjects of school education. It is the world, as revealed in evolution, that must form the basis of the moral world of every soul.
2. If we could obtain the substantial feeling, or soul, which each one of us is, in its earliest undetermined state, there would be an easy and obvious way of organizing it into a rational world. We should begin with the simplest experiences, and make it go thru the whole course of evolution, from first to last.^^ But, as we have seen, we receive the human soul only
" " In the broad sea must thou begin ! There one starts at first on a small scale, and rejoices in swallowing minutest things. Thus one grows up step by
342 Educational Review [November
after it has determined itself into a world of considerable com- plexity and of definite dispositions. The question, thus be- comes pertinent : In what order shall we most advantageously present to it experiences for the construction of its world ?
Here there are three guiding principles: (a) We shall present to it only such things as we wish to occupy a funda- mental position in its world; (&) of these, only such as evoke its interest or desire, and are therefore easily appropriated; (c) of these, again, those which most naturally suggest each other, and enter most readily into organic connection. The first will correct heredity, and afford unconscious discipline; the second will arouse activity; the third will make that activity continuous and constructive. When we reflect that the earliest experiences of the child form the apperceptive basis condition- ing all subsequent experience, we can readily understand how extremely important they are. It may be truly said that the whole of a human world receives its tone from the human being's first experience, since every succeeding one is affected by that, and attaches itself to that. Since desire is that which both appropriates and constructs, it is obvious that as far as is safe the desires of the child should be gratified in the presenta- tion of experience. If the child loves to move, it should be allowed to move freely, care being taken that it incurs no dan- gerous risks. If it loves colors or sounds it ought to be sup- plied with these in abundance. If on the other hand it shows unreasonable dislikes or fears for beneficial things, these ought to be removed as soon as possible by frequent presentation of the objects disliked or dreaded. But the most important point is that experiences should be presented in the order most suita- ble for the combining of them into a consistent whole. For example, sensations of touch should be roused along with the sensations of sight, and the soul enabled to combine them into things, e. g., into rattles or dolls. Again, we should not seek to create a noun world before an adjective one. Tho it is true that we must present to the child concrete and individual things, it is also true that the child at first seizes only the ab-
step, and builds himself up for higher attainment." — Proteus, in Faust, Pt. II., lines 3648-52.
I
1900] Education as world-building 343
stract or universal aspects of them, and names these, omitting differentiae. Only in process of time does it concrete its ad- jectives into nouns. A niece of mine at a very early age ap- plied the name " bunn " (burn) not only to fire, heat, burning, and light, but also to candles, lamps, pokers, tongs, shovels, grates, and fenders, learning their differences only in course of time. I knew another child who at first called everything it saw or touched '' abugadee," and another who persistently called a man with a broken and, therefore, undeveloped nose, " babee." Many children call all men " pa," and all women " ma." There is not space here to discuss in detail the order in which experiences ought to be presented in order to insure the building up of a stable and consistent world; but that the utmost care is necessary for the securing of a proper order ought to be recognized by every teacher.
3. When the child has attained a more or less orderly world of things, it has not yet arrived at a moral world. Mere intel- lectual development may be a curse rather than a blessing. A' clever scoundrel is more dangerous than a stupid one. A moral world is a world of estimates, of values for soul-satisfaction, and it is the supreme function of education to establish these values. From its earliest days the child ought to be taught, not merely to recognize and distinguish things, but to set its true value upon each of them. A -thing or experience is valuable in proportion as it tends to make a larger and ever enlarging world for knowledge, affection, and will, to keep the soul in pro- gressive harmony. Things are hurtful in proportion as they tend to narrow, disharmonize, or block the spiritual world, the satisfaction of the soul. In its first stages, the child values things in proportion to the momentary satisfaction they afford him, without reference to other persons or to his own future. He is a being of impulse and caprice, and it is but slowly that, under the influence of experience or education (which is a sort of vicarious experience) he becomes otherwise. Slowly he learns to take the future into account, and to realize that un- less he has regard to the satisfactions of other people, his own will be but slight. In proportion as he does so, he becomes an ethical being.
344 Educational Review [November
But all this requires discipline, not merely instruction; and discipline is the greatest desideratum in education at the present day. It is, of course, foolish to expect that a child should set any value about the chief objects in the large world of the grown man; but within his own little world of thought, affec- tion, and will, every thing and every act should have its dis- tinct value, and the whole should form a hierarchy of values easily surveyed and compared. Since in all cases practice should precede theory or rules of practice, the child should be accustomed from the first to devote time and attention to differ- ent things in proportion to their value at that stage of its career. The form of play that develops most faculties and does so most harmoniously must receive more attention than that which develops few or fails to create harmony. Those activities which pave the way for larger activities and larger satisfactions must be held in more esteem than those which merely give immediate satisfaction. Actions which evince consideration for others must be set higher than actions which have a purely selfish aim, and so on.^^ When the child has for a time been induced to act toward each thing with due regard to its spiritual value, he will come to discover the principle of his behavior, and will then do consciously and voluntarily what he has previously done in obedience to authority, and from example, or habituation. Then and thus it attains inde- pendent morality, and becomes a truly rational and free agent. Then only it can create a truly moral world for itself.
I have used the word '' discipline," and I wish in conclusion to make a plea for what it expresses. It must be carefully dis- tinguished from instruction. Instruction deals with the intel- lect, discipline with the will thru the affections. The one
" The practice recommended by Herbert Spencer and others, of making the child estimate the value of actions by their proximate effects upon himself, is in my opinion completely immoral, because productive of calculating selfishness. Such effects by no means express the meaning of his actions, and it is the mean- ing of action that constitutes their ethical character, or rather the meaning of them so far as one is able to discover it and acts upon it. If a child for being late for supper has to go to bed hungry, it does not thereby discover the true heinousness of unpunctuality. Even if it is punctual ever afterward, it is not so from the right, the moral motive.
1900] Education as world-building 345
relates to knowledge, the other to practice. Now, while in our schools a vast amount of attention is given to instruction, very little is devoted to discipline. For this reason much of our instruction fails to excite interest, and is of little value for life. Instruction is interesting to a child only when he is able to see its value. It may not be pleasing to him even then (we must carefully distinguish between pleasure and interest) ; but if he has been well trained he will accept it willingly, and even make a virtue of overcoming his dislike to it. In other words, he will subject himself to discipline; and his acceptance of instruction will become a moral action. Now, the chief de- fect in our American education is just this want of discipline. We not only fail to make our young people set the true values upon all the things and actions in their world, and in practice conform to these values, but for want of this discipline we fail to impart a true instruction. We allow children to reject these kinds of instruction which they do not find pleasant, in- stead of making them interesting by showing their true value; or else we insist upon their irrationally submitting to instruc- tion in which they see no good, and which thus becomes to them a kind of penance. In either case we fail in instruction for want of discipline, and in discipline for want of instruction. The truth is, if we are to build up a moral world in the child's soul, instruction and discipline must go hand in hand. With our present feeble, sentimental tendencies, which make us seek a child's immediate enjoyment rather than its eternal well- being, we have a prejudice against discipline, against every- thing that makes a child sacrifice present pleasure to future good. Let us hope that this conditioning things will soon pass away, and that discipline, so necessary to the construction of a moral world, may be restored to its rightful position in educa- tion. For
" Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way ; But to work that each to-morrow
Finds us farther than to-day."
Thomas Davidson
Glenmore,
Keene, N. Y.
II
AN ETHNIC VIEW OF HIGHER EDUCATION'
The conviction from which the remarks of this paper pro- ceed is that the value, the means, and the methods of higher education, as of all education, can be rightly determined only by constant reference to its effect upon both the individual and the race, and that in all questions pertaining to this subject the present tendency is to give undue consideration to the indi- vidual. Suggested improvements of the course of study, dis- cussion of the expediency and limits of the elective system, and attempts to solve the problem of articulating higher and secondary education reveal the fact that the needs and interests of those who are to be benefited immediately by college and university training are the primary objects of concern. The same narrow range of vision is betrayed in much of the current discussion of such questions as " Does a college education pay ? " On the one hand it is asserted, for instance, that the individual profits by it, and on the other that it unfits him for business, as if these were con- clusive arguments. But such problems of higher education are not primarily economic, and they cannot be settled by comparison of income and outlay. Socially or ethnically considered a college education may be a profitable investment even if it does not pay in dollars and cents, and if it unfits one for business it may be so much the worse for business. No educational question is strictly or chiefly individualistic. None can be finally settled without careful consideration of its bear- ing upon the interests of the race. Neglect of this considera- tion is sure to produce error and confusion in educational thought. " Most of the controversies relative to this great question of education," says Fouillee, '' seem to me to be due to the fact that we fail to reach a sufficiently general point of view,
' An address delivered before the Department of Higher Education of the National Educational Association at Charleston, S. C, July 13, 1900.
346
An ethnic view of higher education 347
i. €., the national, international, or even ethnical." We need therefore, both for practical and theoretical purposes, a new educational orientation. It is with the hope of contributing in some small degree to this orientation that I invite attention to an ethnic view of higher education.
Before considering higher education specially, we must glance briefly at education in general. What aspect does the nature and function of education as a whole present when con- sidered from the standpoint of the race ?
As soon as we contemplate education from the racial or ■ethnic point of view it reveals itself as fundamentally a process of social transformation. It represents the latest and, poten- tially if not actually, the most effective factor of social evolu- tion. While it deals with individuals, its primary object is the progress of the race thru the improvement of its individual members. The goal of education is, therefore, not a single one, as is sometimes represented; it is double. It lies in the individual and in the race. In the education of the individual the goal is the maximum development of social efficiency. This involves the application of physiological and psychological principles to the development of mind and body. Hence the educational importance of physiology and experimental or psycho-physical psychology. In the education of the race the goal is the successive realization of higher and higher stages of humanity. '' Given the hereditary merits and faults of a race," the problem of education becomes, as Guyau rightly stated it, '' to what extent can we by education modify the existing heritage to the advantage of a new heritage? " This implies a knowledge of the means and methods of social evolution, the laws and causes of the social process. Hence the importance to the educator of social history and the science of sociology. Educational psychology should be racial as well as individual. The essential fact, however, is that education — elementary, secondary, and higher — is primarily a social or ethnic expedient for accelerating progress. All its problems are therefore social problems.
Another fact which, from this point of view, leaps to the eye, as the French say, is that, contrary to the hypothesis upon which
348 Educational Review [November
Rousseau and his followers have attempted to found a science of education, education is not a slavish imitation of nature, but an interference with so-called natural laws. Its sole raisom d'etre is the inadequacy of nature's methods. It is the nega- tion of laissez faire in individual and social evolution. The assistance it has rendered nature in the development of the in- dividual is perfectly obvious, but its possibility as a social fac- tor has only begun to be appreciated. Down to the present time it has acted almost wholly as a socially unconscious or genetic force in the evolution of the race. To be sure it has long been recognized as a means of social improvement, but there has been almost no attempt to use it scientifically in the development of a people as it is now used in the development of a person. Plato and the Spartans had the idea, but not the ideals and the science. Altho books on education are thick, and with regard to many of them I might add as light, as autumnal leaves, I know of but few worth mentioning which have urged its ordered application as a national, social, or ethnic lever. Its purposive use has not been consciously directed toward a social end; that is to say, educational teleology has been limited to the individual. The time has come, however, when it may be extended to the race. " Thru education," says Professor Dewey, " society can formulate its own purposes, can organize its own means and resources, and thus shape itself with deiiniteness and economy in the direction in which it wishes to move."
With this comprehensive view of education as a whole from the ethnic standpoint, we may now turn to the consideration of higher education. The first question that confronts us is. How are we to separate higher education from the work of the com- mon schools, and what is the relation between them ?
In the first place, higher education is, of course, a continua- tion of secondary education, as the latter is a continuation of elementary. They are all a part of the same process. And yet there is a difference, due to the necessary division of labor, be- tween the function of higher education and the function of the common schools which, altho it may hot justify an entirely- separate classification, is yet sufficient to enable us to draw a
1900] An ethnic view of higher education 349.
pretty firm line between them. When we consider the work of the common schools we find that however clearly it perceives, the educational ends, and however ambitious it may be to realize them, it is chiefly limited to the task of transmitting^ from one generation to another the mental, moral, and physical acquirements of the race. It preserves the racial inheritance. We have reached, for instance, a stage of civilization at which the average man is expected to be able to read, write, and cipher, to possess common morality and a certain amount of knowledge in regard to nature and man. Elementary and secondary edu- cation are devoted to the development of the efficiency repre- sented by these acquirements and the assimilation of this knowl- edge. It has little time or opportunity for doing more than to maintain the average social level. On the other hand, higher education begins at this point and should be expected to raise it. It selects a comparatively small number of individuals, and professes to elevate their intelligence and efficiency to a higher power. Moreover, it has the opportunity to add new incre- ments to the general stock of knowledge. The function of higher education is, therefore, especially that of providing the scientific and personal elements which are to urge the race onward to a new and higher stage of civilization. Elementary and secondary education are chiefly devoted, on account of their limitations, to the preservation of the sooAdX status quo. To higher education is given a superior opportunity of raising the social level. The one preserves order, the other secures prog- ress. Elementary and secondary education, so far as social progress is concerned, are primarily static; higher education,, dynamic. We thus see that there is a certain degree of simi- larity between the relation of higher education and the common schools and tke relation of imitation and eccentricity or genius in the social world, heredity and variation in the biological world, and the centripetal and centrifugal forces in the physical world. It is not pretended, of course, that the parallelism is exact, but it may serve to throw into stronger relief the essen- tially djTiamic function of higher education.
If the function of higher education, ethnically considered, is above all to contribute the socially progressive elements, then
350 Educational Review [November
we may judge its present efficiency by the character and the amount of this contribution. The criterion cannot be success- fully applied, however, unless we know beforehand what kind of social elements are progressive. This knowledge requires some conception of a goal toward which society should be directed, as well as an acquaintance with the methods of social evolution. It is therefore necessary to take these matters into consideration, and it may be helpful to begin by glancing for a moment at the nature of the evolutionary process in general.
Evolution, like education, is a continuous process, but it may be divided into natural and artificial evolution. As a wholly natural or subrational process it takes place independently of human volition, and is wholly determined by the adaptive force of the organism and the character of the environment. Given an organism, biological or social, that is, something capable of adapting itself, its natural evolution consists in its continuous adjustment to its environment, or in Spencerian phraseology, the adjustment of its internal relations to its external relations. The goal of natural evolution, that is, evolution not consciously directed, is perfect adaptation to environment, the equilibrium of the forces of nature and the forces of the organism. This goal has been reached in the biological world in the develop- ment of the higher animal forms, and in the social world in certain peoples who have apparently reached a stationary state. Its method is the preservation, perpetuation, and improvement of such variations in the organism as tend to perfect its adapta- tion; that is, natural selection. Now in such evolution pro- gressive elements can only be, first, such increments of force as may be added to the adaptive power of the organism, the vis a tergo which pushes it on and produces its variations, and, second, those special variations in the existing type which by bringing the organism one degree nearer perfection, i, e., per- fect adaptation, are, so to speak, seized upon, preserved and perpetuated by natural selection. The variations, we say, are spontaneous. They merely happen to take place. They are also innumerable, and the vast majority of them, being non- advantageous, are utterly useless to progress, and represent pure waste of vital force. It is only by chance that some of
ipoo] An ethnic view of higher education 351
them serve the purpose of nature. Hence it is that natural evolution, biological and social, is a most extravagant and un- necessarily slow process, and furnishes no model for intelligent action in physical, moral, or mental training, or in any other sphere of action. Observe now the difference between natural -evolution and artificial evolution, in which higher education plays a part.
In artificial evolution the goal is no longer fixed by natural circumstances. It is predetermined by man; it is ideal. If the environment is not suitable to the development of the ideal type, the environment is changed. This is all that cultivation in agriculture and horticulture amounts to. Again, the pro- gressive variations of type are not left to chance, but are ideally conceived, and effort is made to produce them. This is illus- trated in the breeding of stock. The result is that more is ac- complished in artificial than in natural evolution by the same expenditure of energy. Waste is diminished, the ultimate ob- ject being its complete elimination. Evolution having become a conscious process it is ruled by the intellect. The laws of nature are not disregarded ; they are counteracted or overruled, just as the law of gravitation is overruled in the construction of an Eiffel's Tower. The difference between artificial evolution and natural evolution is the difference between science and empiricism, between intelligently purposive action and fortuity. It may be described in a single word — economy.
As was said before, social evolution down to the present time has been almost entirely a natural process. Christian phi- losophy, poets, and social dreamers have projected indistinct, or too distinct, goals of social development, but none of them has been made the basis of scientific attempts at social im- provement. Social environment has been changed, but not with the conscious purpose of molding the race into any defi- nite and scientifically preconceived form. Special energy has been expended upon the development of innumerable varia- tions of type, but little attention has been given to the kind of type that would serve the purpose of natural or artificial selec- tion. Many are called, but few are chosen. Under the in- fluence of education the whole process may become artificial.
352 Educational Review [November
When this is the case the number of progressive elements is increased. They will then be as follows : First, socially pur- posive modifications of the social environment; second, new increments of social adaptive power, or racial virility; thirds new increments of knowledge, and fourth, select individual types embodying virility and knowledge and which, being lifted up by higher education, will draw all men unto them, that is, will raise the social level.
We are now ready to apply the ethnic test to higher educa- tion. What is it doing toward contributing these various ele- ments ? This, of course, cannot be described within the limits of this paper. All that can be done is to offer a few criticisms in regard to its contribution to each element.
In the first place, then, higher education, instead of encour- aging purposive changes in social environment, is a partisan and an apologist of the present order. It is not its function, of course, to introduce these changes directly. It can only pro- vide the knowledge and the spirit, and leave the initiative to scientific legislation. But academic atmosphere is not always healthful to the growth of' this knowledge and spirit. Much has been said about liberty of thought in our colleges and uni- versities. It is contended by the authorities that there is com- plete liberty, and the claim is logical, for they make a careful distinction between liberty and license. Thought is free so long as it is sound, and the authorities have their own convic- tions in regard to what constitutes sound thinking. While freedom of thought is doubtless increasing in all our higher institutions of learning, and will continue to increase as they become more conscious of their social function, yet it is prob- ably true to-day that there is not a college or university in the country that would long tolerate an active and formidable ad- vocate of serious changes in the present social order. He would be required to go, and the occasion of his removal would not be avowed as opposition to intellectual liberty, but to his own incapacity, as evidenced by his vagarious opinions. This to the educational martyr is the unkindest cut of all. It is his sorrow's crown of sorrow.
Owing partly to the feeling in college and university circles
1900] An ethnic view of higher education 353
that one is lucky to have been born a conservative, there has been developed a sort of typical academic attitude in regard to almost all questions of serious social importance. In political parlance this attitude is called a straddle, but the euphemistic phrase is scientific impartiality. There is a certain type of university professor, for instance, who never expresses his own opinion, claims indeed that he has none. In considering a given question he devotes himself to the accumulation of evi- dence, pro and con, and being unable to determine which pile is the larger, he stands as immovable as the traditional donkey between two stacks of hay. He speaks condescendingly of the ot noWoi. His contempt for enthusiasm is profound. He insincerely professes to envy the man who can arrive at a conclusion, but as for himself he sees so deeply and finds so much argument on both sides of every question that he is al- ways in doubt. Like Lowell's candidate in the Biglow Papers, his
" Mind's tu fair to lose its balance
And say which party has most sense, There may be folks of greater talence
That can't set stiddier on the fence."
This type of university man has done much to give to higher education the reputation of futility. His attitude helps to ex- plain why it is that in the popular mind it is suf^cent to con- demn a theory or an argument to describe it as " merely aca- demic." It is expected that academic discussion is likely to ■come out at the selfsame door wherein it went. We recognize, of course, that higher education must encourage impartiality in investigation and conservatism in social proposals, but there is a golden mean. The true scientific spirit, which is so badly needed in every department of thought, does not imply absence of enthusiasm, but only the restraint of sentiment while investi- gation is in progress. In matters of social advancement, higher education should be the source of a conservative radicalism.
In regard to the second progressive element mentioned, namely, increase in race virility, higher education may claim to contribute something on account of the prominence it gives
354 Educational Review [November
athletics. But just how much good the selection and probable overtraining of a few individuals who need physical culture least is going to do the race it is somewhat difficult to estimate. The respect engendered for physical prowess is worth some- thing, and the shouting of the otherwise passive spectators at the games may have its value in raising the average of physical vigor. It is a fair criticism, however, to say that the method would not commend itself to a thoroly self-conscious race as the best means of promoting its progress. Few colleges and universities, with all their interest in the subject, are really conscious of the social value of athletics. The end and aim is- not racial culture, but the winning of the championship. As to other methods of strengthening the human stock, they are not so much as heard of. It is too early to talk of a scientific stirpi- culture, but higher education might do much toward the crea- tion of a sentiment that will finally bring into operation the law of social selection, or the birth of the fittest. But this is not in its consciousness. So far then as contributing to the virility of the race is concerned, higher education falls far short of its opportunity.
When we come to consider the increments of knowledge provided by higher education, they are so numerous and im- portant that it may seem in this respect to be completely fulfill- ing its function. It would be easy to name a long list of academic discoveries which laave proved to be invaluable. There are two criticisms, however, which are at once suggested by an ethnic view of the subject. In the first place, knowledge is accumulated without regard to its possible social utilization. Much of it is, therefore, not appreciably dynamic. All knowl- edge is valuable, but all is not equally valuable. Higher educa- tion seems to proceed on the assumption that one discovery is as good as another. An illustration of what I mean may be found in the doctors' theses of our various universities. Many of them are on such subjects as the final '' e " in Chaucer, or the dative case in Sallust, which, however important from a linguistic standpoint, are not of present and pressing impor- tance to the race. Some of them represent toilsome pursuit of insignificant bits of knowledge which, when found, are about
1900] An ethnic view of higher education 355
as valuable to society as the individual acquirement of the power to balance a straw on one's nose. In the second place^ higher education over-emphasizes the importance of original investigation in comparison with intellectual organization and distribution. Its rewards are for the investigator. It is al- most as much as a scholar's reputation is worth to undertake to popularize his knowledge. And yet the successful distributor of knowledge performs a vastly more important social service than the average original investigator. Many college and uni- versity professors hold their positions, not because they are teachers, but because they have hunted down some more or less important bit of knowledge. This is why some of the worst possible teaching may be found in our universities. Some of us know by painful experience that this is true. These two de- fects in higher education an ethnic view will tend to remedy.
The last in the list of progressive elements which were men- tioned as rightfully to be expected from higher education were cultured personalities specially adapted to the task of elevating the race to a higher plane of civilization. Here again much might be said in regard to what has been done. The roll of names of college men who have helped the world forward is a long one. But after all, this contribution has been largely un- conscious and incidental. These personalities have been de- veloped primarily for themselves, and not for the race. Their social utility was accidental. They were, so to speak, spon- taneous variations. The spirit of higher education is still indi- vidualistic. The one hundred and fifty thousand young men and young women now in our higher institutions of learning are being trained not primarily for social service, but for suc- cess, and if statistics show that the majority of them succeed, higher education is content. But success is sometimes the very opposite of social service. The fact, therefore, that so many college men succeed may be a severe reflection on our colleges. It may indicate that their students are trained merely to exploit their fellow-men. The race is not interested primarily in any- one's success, but in the manner of his success. Does he pro- duce healthful commodities? Does he increase wealth or illth? Does he promote life or death? Does he make the
3 5 6 Educational Review
world a better place in which to live ? These are the questions in which the race is interested. It sanctions the exploitation -of nature, but it condemns the exploitation of man.
The whole criticism of higher education from the ethnic point of view may be summed up in a very few words. It is loosely organized from the standpoint of social economy. It is too conservative in everything but religion. It grinds out Icnowledge with almost contemptuous indifference to its social timeliness and use. More time is given, for instance, to the study of entomology than to the study of anthropology, to the study of insects than to the study of men. Domestic science and sociology receive less consideration than Latin and Greek. It turns out men and women with highly trained powers, but often without the spirit to use these powers in conscious service of the race. It is significant that the church is expected to provide this spirit by conversion. The truly educated man requires no conversion. In evolutionary terminology the vari- ations emphasized and produced by higher education are socially advantageous only when they happen to be so. There is, therefore, too much waste. In a word, higher education acts unconsciously as an ethnic force. It is still under the sway of natural evolution. It illustrates the economy of nature and not the economy of mind.
I. W. HOWERTH University of Chicago
Ill I ^
PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS FOR GIRLS ^
We hear much to-day of the " passing " of the private school. It is foredoomed to failure (such is the argument) in an at- tempt to keep pace with the best public schools, advancing as these are every year in standards, in methods, in achievement, and supported by constantly increasing appropriations of pub- lic money, and public sympathy and approval constantly grow- ing warmer. As the whole system of public education, from the kindergarten to the university, is becoming knit together, and as this co-ordination is tightening and perfecting itself every year, there is less and less room for such a unit, such a separate entity, as the private school. For these and many other reasons it has seen its day, and may as well, with the ferule and the slate, be relegated to that upper shelf where the dust accumulates on the relics of a past educational babyhood.
Against these charges — and we, as heads of private schools, are bound to show cause against them — may be urged the very ready-made and obvious fact that the private school as yet finds no difficulty in self-support; that a very large number of parents still prefer to keep their daughters' environment nar- rowed to a small group from some special social class; that a considerable number prefer to pay, and to pay high, for the education they offer their children; and that a small number still turn to us in the hope of finding the old "finishing" methods and ideals.
But claims like these, however satisfactory they may prove in fact to the head of a private school in their financial results to her and their numerical results to her classes, cannot well content either her mind or the mind of any other serious thinker on education. If we are really to justify our existence as heads of private schools, if we are to defend our choice of a
^ Printed by permission of the editor of the New York Evening Post,
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life-work against our collegiate friends, who charge us with preferring to serious and academic work the base profession of money-making, it must be by arguments more likely to appeal than these to others and to ourselves.
And my very first plea for the existence of the private school for girls to-day shall be that it is now different from what it used to be. I find myself in entire sympathy with those who refuse to consider seriously such materialistic arguments as these that I have given. Speaking from the educational stand- point, the time for the finishing school has gone by, and whether or not it can support itself thru uneducated sentiment may be left a matter of indifference.
But the private school is no longer the finishing school. It is now forced by stress of popular need among its other tasks, to fit girls to enter colleges, either the same or with as high standards as the colleges for men. This single need has pro- duced in it a complete change. Instead of a thing apart, deter- mining its own methods and carrying on an absolutely inde- pendent and usually isolated existence, it has been forced into line with the college and become organically connected with it. Its success, indeed, now depends on the completeness of this connection. The same life runs thru both, and the school is supplied with academic ideals and standards in its curriculum of studies and in its corps of teachers. The new ideals will never dislodge or replace the old personal ideals. As long as the power of personality continues the prime source of in- fluence over men, so long will these remain the deepest and the highest. But they do support and supplement them in num- berless ways, transforming the eight weeks' '' course " in men- tal philosophy, the five or six different '' ologies," the half- acquired " accomplishments," into work that, however element- ary, must be honest, and hurnble, and scholarly. A few sub- jects are studied now, and these thoroly, with a sense of them always as foundations which must be fair and solid for the superstructure which is to be built upon them. And the teachers are women equipped with all the resources of cultiva- tion and inspiration that the university can offer, to lead the students in their work and help them in their life.
1900] Private secondary schools for girls 359
Thru these means a girl comes to a consciousness of actual power she has gained, and a sense of a life of her own she is living, whether she actually goes later to college or no. Indeed, I should be inclined to claim that the changes in the private school of which I have spoken are of even more ad- vantage to the girl who does not go to college than to the sub- freshman herself. The latter, when she gets into the college life, will gain much that will make up to her for the possible deficiencies and weaknesses of her school; the former, if her school fails to give her certain things, must go all her life with- out them. These particular things which it can and should give her I shall take up in a moment more in detail.
One of the strongest arguments that can be presented on be- half of the private school is that it, almost alone, can do pioneer work. Before a reform or even an improvement can be in- troduced into the public-school system — that is to say, before public money can be voted for it — it must necessarily have been proved by actual experience, it must generally, indeed, have stood the test of years. This fact is in itself by no means to be deplored; it is, on the whole, a great safeguard of the wise expenditure of school money; but it does throw the bur- den or the privilege (whichever one may choose to call it) upon the private school. The head of such a school, if an addi- tion to the school's resources or an improvement in its methods seems desirable, may instantly make such an addition or im- provement. The school needs it, the school shall have it, is the unelaborate system of reasoning— a system which is not without its advantages, as anyone who has awaited appropria- tions from boards of education will testify, and one which should, if followed wisely and not abused, keep the private school in general equipment and methods a trifle in advance of the public school. The latter will follow if the experiment justifies itself.
One more claim may be urged. The private school consists, as a rule, of students who do not look forward to self-support; who have, therefore, and always will have, more or less time and leisure at their disposal. They are free to study a greater variety of subjects than would be profitable to the average
360 Educational Review [November
public-school student; subjects, too, that need not be of a value immediately practical. More time can be given, and should be given, to the studies making purely for culture, for general breadth of view, for the development of aesthetic tastes and powers. Music, drawing, painting and composition, and the study of the history of these, all may well claim a share of the student's time. And the girl who shows a marked talent for any one of them will, of course, be free to develop it, as she could not in the more practical average school course.
The classes in the private school, too, are much smaller, vary- ing perhaps from a dozen to ten or even less under one teacher, as compared with the thirty to sixty under one teacher, which is even an underestimate in numbers for some of the public schools. The teacher can thus watch and know the separate girls under her to a degree impossible in the larger class; she can help to strengthen some faculty that is weak, or make just allowance for a delicate physical constitution, or aid in the cul- tivation of a special talent. All this, of course, helps to the full development of the individual girl, the '' final cause," the ulti- mate end of the school. If the private school accomplishes such development, it has no need of further pleading for its right to exist. In one girl for whom it has done this service it presents to the world an unanswerable argument.
How, then, is the school to accomplish this development of a girl? What — to go back to our subject of a moment past — what are the particular things which it ought to do for her? In the first place, it should teach its students how to study. This in its broadest sense includes all the intellectual service it can do. A girl should learn, and she may learn quite uncon- sciously, how to observe, how to concentrate her attention, and bring all her powers to bear on the one thing in hand; she should realize something of the value of regularity; she should acquire the habit of work. This habit, so ineradicable as to be almost a misery when it cannot be conformed to, will deliver a woman for ever afterward from the tyranny of boredom, the greatest curse that threatens the well-to-do woman to-day, and drives her back so often on the pitiful wish that she had been born to any lot other than her own.
1900] Private secondary schools for girls 361
The school should widen a girl's powers of appreciation, and quicken her sympathies; it should, if it cannot give her a capacity for interest in things, at least give what capacity she may have full satisfaction and a chance for development. So it will add to her resources for happiness in every way for all her days; thru the love of books, of thought, of music or painting, of nature and the life that moves about us out of doors. Each school study should give her at least a sense of new power gained; if it is Latin, it should enable her to enjoy the literature; if English, to read, either to herself or aloud, with intelligence and appreciation; if history, to.look up infor- mation on a subject for herself.
All this she can gain without doing much of so-called ^' original work," which may best, to my thinking, be left for the maturer years of the college ; in school she should learn to command the results of work done by others. She should learn as well to command the expression of her own thoughts and ideas. This consciousness of command, of power, is the keenest of intellectual pleasures even to very young students; they are right in scorning, as they invariably do scorn, any teaching or any teacher that fails to give it to them in payment for work done.
So far what the private school can do for a girl does hot differentiate itself from what the public school can do for her. The best schools of either sort accomplish for their pupils the things that I have mentioned. Academically, they may be said to be equal. Indeed, the public schools accomplish certain things that the private schools do not; they offer an experience of mingling with a different social class from one's own, a training in vigor and self-reliance and breadth of sympathy which for some children is a good that cannot be overestimated. If the private school is to prove its right to exist it must be by giving something in place of these things — something that for certain children is even more desirable.
This good that the private school, and in especial the private boarding school, can offer, which no public school can give to such a degree, consists in a complete life to live.
In the first place, thru the intimacy and duration of its asso-
362 Educational Review [November
ciations, such a school should give its pupils friends of the very best kind — friends among the other pupils, making itself re- sponsible for a certain standard of conduct and manners in every one of its students; and also friends among the teachers. And this gives me the opportunity to call attention to a state of things scarcely sufficiently realized by the heads of schools to-day. When we come to compete with the heads of colleges, we as heads of schools find great difficulty in securing the very best teachers. The salary offered by the college is often lower, yet nine out of ten of the highly educated and cultivated women whom we desire will take the college in preference to the school position. This is not due merely to the fact that in the college they teach older and maturer students, or that the title of pro- fessor in an obscure and weak college appeals to them more than that of instructor in a good school. It is due, and due primarily, to the life that the college offers as compared with the school ; to the fixed hours for teaching, and free time apart from these; to the social and intellectual prestige among their students which their position gives; to the recognition by the college authorities of independent intellectual work as a not inconsiderable part of their contribution to the work of the col- lege. The school — I speak in particular of the boarding school — too often demands from the teacher of mathematics that she shall chaperone at the theater and '' hold study hour "; or from the head of the department of music that she shall furnish ac- companiments to the calisthenic work in the gymnasium. Nothing could be more galling to the professional spirit that is the strength of our best trained teacher in any department nowadays. The work demanded is not of itself menial, or work that she would not occasionally or of her own initiative be glad to do. But in the students' eyes, as indeed in the teacher's own, it confuses itself with the work that is her espe- cial pride; renders that work no longer a service to a single fixed standard, but a heterogeneous melee of little duties; in a word, it makes both her work and her life intolerable. This feeling is strong in almost all our college graduates and profes- sional women of to-day. It is one of the chief claims to dis- tinction of Mr. Oilman of Cambridge to have been among the
1900] Private secondary schools for girls 363
first to realize it, and to provide for securing the best teachers by appointing, quite independent of them, the '' heads of resi- dence " and '' mistresses." Until the heads of schools all realize it, they will continue to lose to any small college their best teachers. Until they realize it, therefore, they cannot offer to their students, thru their teachers, the highest kind of teaching or of intellectual friendship. When they do realize it, and act in deference to it, by giving their teachers not only an independent salary, but an independent life, they will find no difficulty in drawing even from the colleges women who are •qualified by the highest endowments and training to make the school all that it should be.
Secondly^ in offering its students a life to live, the school should see to it that this life is full of active interests, spon- taneous, independent. The very weakest point in the old finishing school was that it failed to take account in its students (as well as in its teachers) of the necessity for independent life. The daily physical exercise allowed was walking in line, two by two; the system of government was one of repression, of close espionage; the relation betvv^een teacher and pupil at best that of armed neutrality. Now the school, thru basketball and tennis and golf, thru out-of-door excursions for collecting and the like, keeps the students playing and working in the open air; it encourages every kind of activity among them, their athletic society, their glee club, their dramatic organization; it provides for the independence of life possible even for a child — neces- sary, indeed, to her full and normal development; guards her, to be sure, by watching her health, maintaining reasonable regularity of hours, and so forth ; but believes that from the beginning a girl's power of judgment may be developed instead of stunted; that so she comes most naturally into the uncon- scious self-control that is her best safeguard all her days; and that by living her own life as a part of the greater life of the whole school, a part by which she becomes herself responsible for the good of all, she can learn the very greatest of the lessons that her school life can teach her, the lesson how to live in rela- tion to the world of men and women about her. A healthy college life teaches it in a pre-eminent degree; the union be-
364 Educational Review
tween the college and the private school of which I have spoken has brought about no more important result than this, that it has set a similar standard of life for the two. Public and private schools can now teach the lesson alike ; even better than they the private boarding school can teach it — and certainly from those who have in such a school learned the lesson we shall hear no talk of the school's '' passing."
Louise Sheffield Brownell Saunders
The Balliol School, Utica, N. Y.
IV PRIVATE SCHOOLS FOR BOYS '
At the beginning of this paper let me file a caveat against severe or captious criticism. This is not a history of the evolu- tion of the boys' school in America, nor an attempt to analyze and compare the merits of different schools in this country. The brevity of the paper precludes the first; and a decent re- gard for professional equity would prevent any honorable teacher from being guilty of the latter offense. The noble his- tory of many a private school in this country justifies an elaborate historical monograph; but I cannot even mention a single school without doing violence to the merits of a hundred others that are doing equally good work. There are first-rate schools, schools that are tolerably good, schools of nondescript quality, and schools that are frightfully bad; but all that can be done in a brief paper is to classify in a most general way.
There has always been an interest in education wherever there have been intelligent parents; and in no country has this interest been saner or more widespread than in the United States. In the more democratic sections of our country schools and colleges have rested quite largely upon the support of the commonwealth ; but in the regions where the leaders of the community have deemed themselves a self -perpetuating aris- tocracy it has been quite natural, indeed inevitable, that there should be no connecting link between the grammar school and the college excepting the private school. Even in New Eng~ land, where Puritan influences were dominant, and where pro- vision for the establishment of schools and colleges was made as soon as the first settlers believed that they had found perma- nent homes, the schools and the colleges were for the training of the clergy or lawyers; and in spite of the really democratic character of these schools and colleges, their curriculum was
1 Reprinted by permission of the editor of the New York Evening Post.
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366 Educational Review [November
pretty narrow. Theorizing upon the rights of man had not yet shown that a course of training should be devised that should make leaders of public sentiment who might not be preachers or lawyers. At all events, the academy was still re- garded simply as a feeder for the college, and the school cur- riculum was quite as conservative as that of the college.
But great changes have come within the last fifty years, especially within the last twenty-five years. Various causes have contributed to this result : notably the beneficent revolu- tion in the field of physical science, the quickened sense of patriotism that has come since the civil war, and the tremen- dous influence of German thought and educational methods. Educational influences have almost always worked from the tmiversity down to the school. It is therefore quite in the order of historical development that the colleges should first feel the new influences and show the fruits of the new spirit. The new ideals in university and college education found broader expression in the third quarter of this century; the great dis- cussion over questions connected with the work of secondary schools has come within the last twenty-five — rather within the last fifteen — years. It is safe to say that the most important movement in the history of American education is that which has led to the establishment of public high schools so largely within the last twenty-five years. The road is thus opened from the primary school to the university, so that Jefferson's •dream of a complete system of public education is fully realized, and no ambitious boy or girl need lack the opportunity for com- plete and systematic training. Such a conservation of possible •energy for the service of the State is incalculably valuable.
In view of this extraordinary and beneficent development of the high school, the question must be asked: Is there any longer a place for the private secondary school ? The answer is not difficult. If the American city were governed by its best citi- zens; if school boards were composed wholly of the wisest, most <iiscreet, most honorable and unselfish men and women; if every •school-teacher were a voter, so that even with selfish politicians in control of the public funds it might be profitable to build schools rapidly enough to keep pace with a city's growth in
•1900] Private schools for boys 367
population; if parents were all so democratic and so devoted to the development of public institutions that they would con- tribute their children as well as their influence and wealth for the growth of the public high school; if, in short, our cities were quite Utopian, there would still be a place and a function for the private school, whether for boys or for girls, whether planted in the city or in the country. There are some small cities in this country where the public high schools are so ad- mirable that a private school must gain its boys from but two classes : those whom the high school will not keep, and those who cannot keep up with their classmates in the high school. Such a private school must become either a reformatory or a •school for the feeble-minded. There is ample need for schools for both these classes; but in each instance their raison d'etre and their methods should be frankly published.
But in most American cities we are approaching the social condition of older English cities; and we should profit by the experience and the wisdom of English schoolmen. The great, historic schools of England, strangely miscalled '' public schools," have saved the sons of wealthy Englishmen from the demoralizing influences of their home life; and in this country we face conditions that make it necessary for many a boy to leave his home if he is to grow up into sturdy, clean, effective manhood. There is ample need of increasing the limited number of really first-rate schools for boys, endowed or pro- prietary, that are now accessible to parents who would find a safe home for their sons between the ages of twelve and eighteen. If a boy is naturally bright, but is not interested in the work of. the schoolroom, while the conditions of the home make it impossible to supervise wisely the out-of-school hours of his life; if the habits of a spendthrift are forming and dan- gerous associations threaten; if the taxing strain of city life is draining a boy's vital or nervous energy in the years when he •should be laying up a store of physical strength; if careless, slovenly habits are becoming ingrained, and parents are help- less and hopeless in their efforts to effect a permanent cure, then parents should discover a safe school home for the son, where he may find wise professional guidance, wholesome sur-
368 Educational Review [November
roundings, and a stimulating school atmosphere. The choice of such a school is the most critical event in that boy's life.
But private schools are necessary also in all our larger Ameri- can cities. Machine politicians too often regard the public- school system as part of their assets. Honest but ignorant trustees have often thought the public high school a fit place in which to exploit some pet schemes and have thus upset a wise, strong system. Parents who have guided the mental and moral growth of their sons with jealous care, who have tried ta shield them from dangerous or uncertain associations, may well hesitate before they expose them to all the possible contamina- tions that may be found in a large school that is free to all. Even the man who is most democratic and public-spirited, who- would risk his own life for the public welfare, will hesitate be- fore he offers his son as a possible sacrifice. Not all public high schools are dangerous; some high schools are as clean, and as inspiriting, and as wisely administered as the best pri- vate school. But it is true that there is not a large American city to-day in which there is not abundant reason for the existence of one or more private schools for boys. The boy who can safely live at home during the years of his school life and can find a first-rate training-school in his home city, should never be sent to a boarding school.
The private school that can group and guide a body of choice,, gently bred, ambitious boys thru the years in which they are preparing for college, or for business life, has an opportunity for influencing history that comes to no other institution on earth. If such a school is well administered, the larger it is,, the better for the boy. Proper method of administration will guard against all danger of ignoring the boy's individuality. Small classes, special supervision of groups of boys by trained teachers, frequent reports and conferences, and active co- operation with the home will easily guard against any losing of the boy in the mass ; and the large school offers inspiration and growth in manhood that cannot be found in the small school, unless it is managed by one of those geniuses that are found once in a century. Merely intellectual training for some special end can be given in a small school quite as well as in a
ipoo] Private schools for boys 369
large one; the professional coach has been vastly more success- ful in preparing candidates for the British civil service exami- nations than the great public schools have been. But the quiet revolution in the life of American secondary schools within the last half-century has included many other elements in a boy's development besides the sharpening of his wits or his preparation for a college examination. Let me mention briefly .some of the changes that have come in secondary school life within the last twenty-five years.
The work of " keeping " a private school for boys has be- come more of a profession, less of a business. There are still altogether too many schools maintained solely for the profit of the proprietors; but most of the purely proprietary schools are now administered with a genuine desire to serve other besides merely mercenary ends, and the number of richly endowed schools has increased notably. The work of the teacher in such a school now calls for men who have professional qualifications, and who intend to teach thruout their lives. Schools of high grade can no longer afford to stock their corps with fresh college graduates, who wish to teach for two or three years before they continue their studies for some other profession; and, furthermore, no reputable school can afford to place boys in the hands of men and women who have not carried their own studies beyond a secondary school.
Most of the really strong schools demand in the heads of their departments men whose studies and experience have al- ready made them professional experts. No change in the organization of the school is more noteworthy or more fruitful of good than this departmental organization, which has given trained directive energy to the work of the different parts of the school machine. The school must still reflect the character of its head; must still be in brain and heart largely what he is; but a well-organized department guarantees effective adminis- tration, affords the head of the department an opportunity to reveal his executive capacity, and safeguards the pupil from in- jury at the hands of incompetent instructors.
Comparatively few private schools restrict their work to pre- paring boys for college. The wisest students of educational
^"JO Edtccationa I Review [NovembeF
science agree that the same course of study that prepares most effectively for college will give the largest educational results, to the young man whose academic training ends with the close of his school work. But the varying demands of American colleges and scientific schools compel the outlining of different courses of study. Yet it is clearly seen that even in schools that profess to do nothing but fit for college the curriculum is broader than college requirements would make it. The school- boy is now thought of as an embryonic citizen of the republic, as a member of the school community, whose school life should fit him for the larger life of the civic community. This is the explanation of much of the educational ferment of these later years; of the wholesome interest in the study of history, espe- cially of American history; of the struggle to find a place for economics, more modern languages, and physical science in the curriculum ; of the heroic and fruitful attempt to teach English in such a way that the graduate of a good school may love our classic literature and may write and speak clearly and effect- ively; of the deliberate and systematic employment of outdoor athletic sports as a means to evoke and train such elements of manhood as cannot be touched by the quiet work of the class- room.
Yet this extraordinary interest in the boy's larger growth has not come at a sacrifice of an interest in pure scholarship. There never has been a time before when the philosophy and the practice of teaching have been so widely and so carefully discussed. A whole library of pedagogic literature dealing with secondary-school problems has been written within the last fifteen years. Educational associations, schoolmasters^ clubs, teachers' magazines, special committees for discussing educational doctrine and outlining courses of study, frequent conferences between college professors and school-teachers, in- creasing comity between school and college, and a clearer recog- nition of the fact that the two institutions are engaged in the same work — these are only a few of the evidences that in the effort to help make a civic leader the school is not forgetting that its first function after all is to train a boy's mind.
From this public service for the country's schools it is unfor-
1900] Private schools for boys 371
tunately true that many heads of private schools have held aloof; or they have taken part in public discussion only when selfish ends might be served by the prominence thus gained. But most of those who teach in private schools to-day are less exclusive in sentiment and practice than those of the same class were twenty years ago. There is a growing sense of profes- sional union between private and public schoolmen, which is both the evidence and the result of the professional nature of the work that each is doing.
In methods and equipment the work of a city private school need not differ materially from that of a public school. It is generally true, however, that in the private school there is a closer relation with the home. Too often the income of the school is so largely dependent upon wealthy and influential patronage that the quality of the classroom work suffers and the moral welfare of the school is imperiled by the continued presence of unworthy boys. But such mismanagement almost inevitably leads to a loss of patronage and prestige. It can be safely said that no private school in any city where good high schools exist can hope for continued life unless it offers as many advantages as can be found in the high school, and resolutely stands for honesty, morality, and sound scholarship.
The so-called " business college " has had a most unique his- tory and has undoubtedly done a good work. It will probably continue to furnish a cheap, brief training for boys who wish to enter business life with the equipment needed by a clerk or bookkeeper. Such schools are almost always coeducational; and their purpose and methods of work ally them more closely to the history of American mercantile life than to the his- tory of American education. The development of commercial high schools points quite clearly to the need of a private school for boys that shall prepare for such a scheme of study as that of the Wharton School in the University of Penn- sylvania.
Perhaps the chief distinguishing feature of any private school is that its history and its spirit are more completely the reflection of the head of the school than ever can be true in a ])ublic school. We shall not be likely to see in this country
2i^2 Educational Review [November
among schools resting upon endowments such an autocracy as an English public school. American trustees are not likely to ^rant such unlimited powers to an American principal or head- master. But the successful head of a private school is likely to be more of a teacher and less of a politician than the head of a public school, and the chief effort of his life will be given to his professional work and not spent in placating politicians. The head of a school who wastes his energy in trying to manage trustees soon ceases to be an effective schoolmaster.
Great changes in the management of boys' boarding schools have been made within the last fifteen years. These changes have been largely the outgrowth of a modified adoption of the methods of the English public schools, and have been made pos- sible either by splendid endowments or by the wisdom of school proprietors who have systematically invested the earnings of their schools in elaborate extensions of their plants. The un- speakable barbarities of the old dormitory, a very nursery of immorality, have been removed by the adoption of the house system. Most good schools now place a limited number of boys in a house where they are under the immediate supervi- sion of a house-master, who is sometimes aided by a younger assistant master. Boys thus housed are often more happily placed than they ever could be in their own homes. With their life supervised by a man of good judgment, boys who are rea- sonably responsive may live an almost ideal school life; but the master who is in charge of such a house and does his full duty to his boys will find life growing almost intolerable after a few years, unless the trustees of the school recognize the sacrifice that he makes and reward it properly. No teacher on earth needs the relief and the relaxation of a sabbatical year more than such a house-master.
Boys who are placed in separate houses recite in a common school building and share the common athletic life on the school campus. A wholesome rivalry between different houses may easily be utilized for good ends. The complex life of such a school, with associations that bind the boy to house, class, athletic team, literary society, and the school in its largest sense, affords an extraordinary opportunity for the develop-
1900] Private schools for boys 373
ment of the best civic virtues as well as for the happiest of school lives.
It is a debatable question whether the older boys in such a school should remain in their separate houses till the close of their school course, as is done in English schools, enjoying monitorial advantages over the younger boys, and thus being trained for larger leadership in college by lending their sym- pathetic aid to the house-master in his delicate work, or whether they should be placed in a separate house where as seniors they may enjoy complete or modified self-government. There are advantages and disadvantages in each system. It is certain that no boy who enters such a school simply for his senior year ^can really sympathize with its aims or gain its best training. Seniors thus segregated and granted special privileges will al- most inevitably think more of their privileges than of their re- sponsibilities. The greatest wisdom must be shown in the architectural arrangements of the senior house, else the whole house will be at the mercy of the unscholarly and lawless bully or the careless, good-natured youth who loves to spend his study hours in aimless visiting. In the last analysis the suc- cessful management of such an establishment rests with the head of the school. If he is a man who is in sympathy with American ideals of good citizenship, if he sees that democratic institutions call for leaders who are more anxious to give than to receive, he may inoculate the senior class with a passion for assuming responsibility and aiding in good government. If he is sincere, honest, unselfish, and impartial, he will help the of^cers of the senior class to reveal the same qualities in their class government. If he believes that the chief functions of the school are to foster scholarship and develop sound character, he must expel the immoral boy both from the class and from the school, and he must make it clear that scholarly habits are a condition for retaining senior privileges. The entrance to such an establishment must be jealously guarded, and unceas- ing vigilance must be maintained to keep its membership clean. No man should assume the management of such a house unless he can see that boys in a preparatory school are not ready for full self-government, and unless he is able and anxious to de-
3 74 Educational Review [November
vote a large amount of time, strength, and tested leadership to the delicate work of training his senior class so that they may become leaders of the school, may be prepared for college life in both scholarship and character, and may be in sympathy with American institutions. Otherwise such an establishment may easily become a nursery of unscholarly and immoral aristocrats.
The subject of the moral life of a boys' school furnishes material for a volume rather than a paragraph. Every founder of a boys' school, every trustee of such an institution, every headmaster and teacher, must recognize that the supreme end of a school is training in sound character. Keen, genuine scholarship must be fostered, but mental training is valua- ble chiefly as a means of gaining a clear vision of the truth and of seeing that dishonesty, immorality, and selfishness are essentially unmanly and foolish. The best boys' schools to-day are training-schools for honest manhood. Methods differ; but no more earnest men and women can be found than in the schools where principals and teachers are planning for the best interests of the boys intrusted to their care.
In the boys' boarding school the wife of the headmaster or of the house-master often exercises a refining influence that is greatly needed to temper the monastic surroundings; indeed, the growth of some schools would have been impossible with- out the active help of women.
But, if methods differ, an infallible sign of a good school is that it quietly but systematically essays to teach the lessons of reverence for sacred things, obedience to human and divine law, clean living, and unselfish patriotism. In some schools re- ligious training of a sectarian nature is deemed necessary as a basis for sound morality; but most schoolmasters prefer to teach the common doctrines of sound morality on which all good men can unite. No good school can ignore these; and no* good school ever has ignored them.
Much more is made to-day of school loyalty than ever before. The American boy has often forgotten his old school in his fealty to college; thus differing markedly from the English- man, whose effervescent loyalty goes out rather to his prepara- tory school than to his college. A new sense of affectionate
ipoo] Private schools for boys 375
devotion to school has grown up within the last few years. This is not confined, however, to the private school; many a good high school is cherished by loyal graduates as a real alma mater. Probably the most potent cause of this is the more friendly feeling that has grown up between teacher and pupil. The boy no longer looks upon his teacher as a scheming enemy or an unsympathetic taskmaster whom it is his chief duty to outwit if he is wise. Such a hideous society as that presented in '' Stalkey and Company " it would be utterly impossible to reproduce in any reputable American school. The boy is placed largely upon his honor, is made to feel that the good n^me and the best welfare of the school are as much matters of concern to him as the interests of his own family; and most boys respond quickly to such treatment. Interscholastic con- tests in athletics and literary work beget and intensify this same esprit de corps. It is doubtful whether the college-bred Ameri- can's intensest loyalty can ever be transferred from college to school. No school can hope to retain it that does not rest upon a substantial foundation, which will guarantee a long life thru several generations. The interesting movement that promises to make many of our smaller colleges become training-schools for well-endowed universities may influence the growth of this school loyalty.
The growth of the American military school offers a theme for an interesting volume of educational history. The splendid fruitage of our national academy has seemed to justify the con- clusion that rigorous training in military tactics and severe bodily discipline may develop ingrained habits of order, preci- sion, and instant. obedience to law, which are all essential parts of a good education. But it has been forgotten too often that the education of our national academy is a privilege that is sought eagerly because of the rewards that follow graduation, that the unworthy or incompetent are somewhat ruthlessly dropped from the academic roster, and that the severities of the life are willingly borne because of the prizes that are offered. The ordinary military academy has had to accept a body of un- willing boys. Too often these boys have been sent by parents who have grown desperate of their character, scholarship, and
3 7^ Educational Review
conduct. Thus the military school has too often become a mere reformatory of bad boys, a last resort of desperate parents. Out of these shiftless, indifferent, unscholarly, lawless, or im- moral fellows the military school has sometimes made ambitious and sturdy men. But is easy to see that the reformation of an unworthy youth is too often gained by the sacrifice of many good boys who may have been sent to the same school. A military school that rests upon so solid a foundation that it can cull its membership, that is governed so wisely and carefully that no positively bad boy will be retained upon its roll, that does not belittle scholarship by making the purely military training too prominent, can produce splendid educational re- sults. But on account of their membership many military schools are veritable pest-houses.
The new development of the secondary school has created a demand for better trained teachers ; and larger salaries are now paid for teachers of experience, training, tact, and inspiring power than are paid to professors in most small colleges. Tlie equipment of a good school calls for a great and constantly in- creasing outlay of money. No private school without a good endowment or a large patronage can hope to compete success- fully in the quality of its work with the well-equipped high schools. But it is a hopeful sign for the education of American boys that wealthy men and women are beginning to see that the establishment of an amply endowed school for boys is a most worthy object of wise philanthropy. Phillips, Peabody, Wil- liamson, John C. Green, Hotchkiss, Lewis, and Bradley are only a few of the names that have become historic by association with schools for educating boys. No better way can be found for serving the State and for gaining immortality than by establishing a great school upon an abiding foundation.
Lawrence Cameron Hull
The Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y.
NEWER IDEAS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION
The establishment of the agricultural and mechanical col- leges was a revolt from the older education. That education set its face toward the past and occupied itself with books; it was the desire of the newer education to set tlie pupil into relation with his environment and to teach hirn things as well as concepts. Since the agricultural and mechanical colleges were the first fruit of this century-long agitation, these insti- tutions often feel that they are the only representatives of an education which appeals to the daily life; but the fact is that all institutions now set the pupil into harmony with living problems. It is even a question whether the agricultural and mechanical colleges may not place too great and exclusive stress on present-day problems and thereby fail to give the student perspective. The daily living is the fruition of all that has gone before: we learn by men's experience rather than by their prophecy.
The early agricultural colleges were separate institutions, not connected with universities. It was thought that the so- called classical institution and the agricultural college were in- compatible. They were inconsistent in aim. But the underly- ing motive of this separation, even if not recognized by the early contestants, was the feeling of protest against a system. To have joined the agricultural college with the university would have yielded the very point of the controversy. But the immediately practical problem was the fear that agricultural students would be " looked down upon " if they were compelled to associate with other students. This fear was not without foundation, particularly in the early days. But the cause of this discrimination is not the subject which the student pursues, but the fact that the agricultural student is often not on the same academic plane as the other. When students of high-school
377
3 7^ Educational Review [November
grade associate with those of collegiate or university grade, the former are likely to be subjected to ridicule whether they study agriculture, law, medicine, or theology. Equivalent entrance requirements, thoro instruction, broadly equipped teachers bring the agricultural student into parity with his associates. This has been shown, beyond all peradventure, in the recent history of agricultural teaching.
The practical result of this disparity has been to cause the agricultural colleges constantly to advance their entrance re- quirements. They have thereby tended to grow away from the '' plain people," and they have in some measure made them- selves incapable of serving the very ends for which they were established. In the early days of the agricultural colleges the field for work of a distinctly collegiate or university grade was not foreseen. It was expected that the agricultural college should stand in intimate relation with the plain farmer. For the most part the agricultural college has left what was de- signed to be its constituency. This is the fundamental reason for their relatively small attendance.
There is room for a very few agricultural institutions of the very highest or university grade. These institutions are al- ready in existence. They train investigators and teachers as well as farmers. They give a liberal education thru using largely agricultural subjects. Their purpose is less to make farmers than to educate men. Such an institution always profits by being connected with a genuine university.
There is no country which has such a noble body of agri- cultural colleges as America. Beyond all calculation their work has been beneficent in raising the tone of farming. Every farmer is within reach of help and advice. There is probably no country in which farmers are uniformly so intelligent, un- restrained, and have so much initiative as in North America. As a class they are prosperous. The prevailing idea that farmers are impecunious and downtrodden, more than other men, is an error. It originates mostly with men who are not farmers. Much of it is the work of the agitator. Much of it is also the result of mistaking clothes for men. So far as the average American farmer is concerned, no picture can be more
1900] Newer ideas in agricultural education 379
inapplicable than Markham's Man with the hoe. The agri- cultural colleges are contributory to this increasing pros- perity. Immensely have they widened the horizon and raised the standard of living of even the man who inveighs against them.
But if we are well equipped in agricultural colleges, we are deficient in schools of intermediate grade. The special farm training school which aspires to no academic or collegiate honors and grants no degrees is badly needed. In this effort we are far surpassed by European countries. A great work of this opening century must be the establishing of these humble and practical schools. Here is an attractive field for private beneficence. The recent establishment of short winter courses in the agricultural colleges is an attempt to satisfy this demand. We have been training leaders : we need also to train followers.
We have grown so accustomed to measuring educational in- fluences by means of institutional standards that we can scarcely think of them without thinking of definite cur- ricula and degrees. But degrees necessarily must be the hope of the few. Are all others to be left without help be- cause they cannot or will not go to college? More and more we are coming to feel that the college and the university exist for the people : everyone is entitled to some share of their light. We would take the university spirit to the people; this is what we now call university extension, and it is the highest expres- sion yet attained of the mission of education. We are begin- ning to wonder if all, or even the greater part, of the education of the future is to be accomplished by the segregation of students into a few centers. Perhaps the institution of learn- ing has two co-ordinate functions as an organ of civilization, — studiously to educate the few, enthusiastically to awaken the many. May not some great university of the near future be publicly known and complimented as much for those whom it has touched as for those whom it has graduated?
There are many reasons why farmers' sons and daughters do not go to college more freely to study farming. The fault — if fault there is — is not always to be laid to the farmer. But
380 Educational Review [November
the farmer must be educated. His very numbers in the com- monwealth makes this imperative for the pubhc welfare. There can be no dispute as to the value of education unless we dispute the value of civilization itself. The efifort to reach the farmer can never cease, unless the race decay. The colleges and experiment stations have made an agricultural science. They have built a vast literature. More than anyone knows they make and color public opinion. Their influence must be taken to every man who lives in the country, even if, in the tak- ing, all our pedagogical notions are upset.
The great question is the practical one of how to accomplish this result. It cannot be done by the spread of mere knowl- edge. Too often the colleges and experiment stations have made the mistake of supposing that information is the panacea for agricultural ills. The person's interest must first be awak- ened. He must be touched with an inspiration. The trouble with agriculture is not so much that it is pecuniarily unprofitable as that the farmer does not know how to live. The farmer must be put in sympathy with his environment. He must be given a new point of view, for the point of view is. the greatest thing in life.
To put one in touch with his surroundings, to open his eyes that he may live the daily life with joy, means that we must begin with the child. Happiness and contentment are sub- jective; and subjective qualities are slow of growth. They are no veneer of what we sometimes call culture. They are of the fiber: they are central to the man. Thru parents, teachers, playmates, reading, the children must be taught to see and to appreciate the things with which they live. They must be led to nature; and this leading has been called nature-study. The term is not a happy one in all respects, and there is no con- sensus of opinion what it shall represent in practice. Oftenest it stands for mere elementary or easy science; in other hands it is sentimental glamour of things afield. The other day a botanist said to me that tracts should be issued, telling chil- dren how to identify plants, devoting one tract in turn to each important group of plants. " Then," he said, " we shall have a crop of young botanists coming on." I could only reply that
1900] Newer ideas in agricultural education 381
we do not want a crop of young botanists. We want children seeing what there is to see, and Hking it because they Hke it. The supply of botanists will take care of itself.
Fortunately, this movement nature-ward has been tested sufficiently to show that it is no chimera. One university al- ready has an enrollment of nearly thirty thousand children, who are banded together to know and to enjoy the things in the world. It has nearly twenty-five thousand teachers who are vitally interested in the movement. Here are about fifty thousand people who are systematically supplied with litera- ture and help. All this is prosecuted for the one purpose of making country life more attractive. As fast as more intelli- gent people settle in the country, agricultural ills will vanish.
Something immediate must be done for the grown-up farmer. He may be struggling. The first essential to helping him is. to be in sympathy with him. Help cannot be given at arm's length. If the farmer is in search of knowledge, he will prob- ably be able to save himself. If he is not in search of it, he is likely to go to the wall. Literally, he is likely to go to the city. The country may be the better without him, but the city is the worse. The city thereby becomes interested in farming. It wants to keep people in the country. It is not strange, there- fore, that movements designed to promote the extension of agricultural knowledge often find their most ardent friends in the cities. Whether we will or no, the farmer must be reached, especially the farmer who does not want to be reached. For those who are difficult to reach, a simple, at- tractive and skillfully planned reading course is the beginning of salvation. These are the people who do not read books; if they did they would be less in need of help. All ideas of mere academic dignity must be laid aside, and effort must not rest until every man is touched. One simple leaflet, well digested, may mean more to some remote farmer than a whole library means to a student.
Fortunately, the farmers' reading course also has been tried. Ten or a dozen States have taken it up in one form or another. So far, it has proceeded from the agricultural colleges in the various States, and this is well and auspicious. One of these
382 Educational Review
institutions now has a reading course compromising about six- teen thousand actual readers.
Thus is the farmer being reached — by any means which promises efficient results, whether it conforms to accustomed educational standards or not. Agricultural education is the most difficult of educational fields. Old ideas of teaching must be enlarged and outgrown. Great results are already attained. A body of men which would grace any walk in life is giving its very life to the cause, knowing that, as the problem is peculiar, this body must stand largely alone in the educational world. The work of widest influence must be that of an ex- tension character, including nature-study movements, reading courses, itinerant schools, short winter courses, and the like; only the few will go farther and higher.
L. H. Bailey
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.
VI . '
TRAINING TEACHERS IN FRANCE^
Many persons who have made a study of the conditions of education in America beUeve that the weakest part of our sys- tem is in the training of our teachers, or rather, in the lack of it. It is well understood that the great majority of the teachers in our high schools and colleges have received no pro- fessional training whatever, largely because we hold the amiable theory that teachers, like poets, are born, not made, and that therefore all technical instruction or criticism of their work is superfluous. It seems to be a belief that by some mysterious process of mental alchemy college students will be transmuted into successful teachers by sitting behind a teacher's desk. A young man with a talent for the profession of medicine is the one who receives the most careful training in a professional school, and this technical training is supplemented by at least a year of hospital practice. The same principle holds true in the legal profession. A young man does not become a practicing physician after taking a college course in physiology, or a law- yer after passing a college examination in constitutional law — the state in both cases protects alike the young man from him- self and the community from his ignorance and inexperience. Unhappily the protection extended by the state to our bodies and to our property does not as yet extend to our minds, and
^ This paper is based on personal visits to the classes in five of the six normal schools in Paris and its suburbs (the £co/g normale supirieure at Paris for young men, the ^cole normale secondaire at Sevres for young women, the &coU normale p-imaire superieure at Saint-Cloud for young men, the £,cole normale primaire sHph-ieure at Fontenay-aux-Roses for young women, and the ^cole normale pri- maire iox yoxxwg men, including the model school at Auteuil) ; also, on conver- sations with different professors and students of these schools and various provincial schools ; on the series of educational programs published by MM. Delalain ; on the histories and reports of these schools, so far as they are published ; on the statistical year-books relating to education ; on the EnquSte sur V Enseignement secondaire (1899); and on such information as could be gathered from current edu- cational literature.
383
384 Educational Review [November
college and high school students are everywhere the sufferers from the well-meant but crude efforts of college graduates to gain experience — an experience that must as yet be secured at the expense of their pupils. Young teachers enter our high schools and colleges with ambition to succeed, and rejoicing in the opportunities presented for success, yet there is a constant procession of those who, as lamentable failures, abandon the profession of teaching simply because they have never been taught a single principle of the theory, practice, and history of education.
If we err on the negative side in giving no training whatso- ever to the great majority of those who are to become the teachers in our high schools and colleges, our faults on the positive side are equally noticeable. The training that it is at present possible to secure is received in five different classes of institutions — in normal schools maintained by the State, where the training is concentrated in a single institution, as in In- diana; in normal schools in those States that distribute their funds among several institutions, as in New York, which sup- ports twelve;^ in the training schools maintained in nearly all of our large cities at the expense of the city; thru the courses in the history and the science of education now offered in many of our great universities; in special colleges, of which Teachers College in connection with Columbia University is the single example. The city training schools are entirely local in char- acter and influence, the work offered in the universities is theoretical and has often been too slight in character to have an appreciable influence on the teaching profession. Teachers College stands by itself; the great majority of our teachers who have received any so-called professional training have re- ceived it in the State normal schools. That these schools have as yet failed to provide an ideal preparation for teachers is largely due to their disregard of all those principles of profes- sional training so ably set forth by Commissioner Harris in his recent article on *' The Future of the Normal School." ^ These
'^ This may seem a distinction without a difiference, but those familiar with both systems will readily recognize that essential differences which cannot be discussed here are found in the two plans.
* Educational Review, January, 1899.
.1900] Training teachers in France 385
•defects have often been discussed, but for the purpose of com- parison it seems necessary once more to call attention to some of them.
Among the most obvious of these defects is the failure to ■differentiate the work of our normal schools. The result of this failure is that all students, irrespective of the part they are to take imthe teaching profession, are trained side by side; the same three years' course is supposed to train students to become country superintendents of schools, city superin- tendents, principals and teachers in high schools, in grammar schools, in elementary schools and kindergartens, in normal schools, or in so-called colleges. The qualifications and the training needed for becoming an efficient superintendent of city schools and a successful teacher in a grammar school certainly seem to be different, yet in the American normal school all •classes of students receive in the same school an identical preparation.
Another serious defect is the frequent lack of a suitable en- trance requirement. In some normal schools there is abso- lutely no standard of admission, since the theory is held that the school is under obligation to admit every applicant on his simple statement that he wishes to become a teacher. This, ■coupled with the lack of a proper minimurn and maximum age regulation, results in a student body that is sometimes nothing more or less than a miscellaneous collection of men, women, and children.
It is in keeping with the absence of suitable age limitations and a uniform entrance requirement that this unclassified body of students often follows a course of study correspondingly indefinite in character. All students receive precisely the same training, irrespective of previous preparation, age, mental ability, or future career. The normal school stands primarily for the inculcation of the principles of psychology and their adaptation to education, yet every one of these principles is violated when college graduates, high-school graduates, stu- •dents from the ungraded country schools, and other students almost absolutely illiterate are found following precisely the same course of study, as it is equally violated when no regard
386 Educational Review [November
is paid to the future educational career of the students in at- tendance.
It is not therefore strange to find in some of these schools students who cannot use the English language with even a fair degree of correctness, speaking a metaphysical patois in the be- lief that they have discovered a new language ; nor is it strange that others who cannot read a genealogical table, and consider it unessential to know whether the Norman Conquest came in the eleventh or in the nineteenth century, should advocate teaching the philosophy of history in the grammar grades; that others who are entirely ignorant of European history should grapple with Hegel's Philosophy of history, and that still others who do not understand the organization of education, even in their own State, should consider it the chief function of a nor- mal school to discuss whether children should stand or sit when reciting, or whether they should use pen or pencil in writing.
One explanation of many of these incongruities in our sys- tem is in the failure of so many of the normal schools to set a high standard of ability, qualification, and attainment for their own instructors. Many of these instructors have received only a normal school training, and there is sometimes a feeling of greater or less ill-will toward their colleagues who have received a college education. In the great majority of cases they are not themselves producers; the number of persons on normal school faculties who have made any distinct contribution to educa- tional theory, or who have investigated educational conditions at first hand, or who have made a direct contribution to pure scholarship, is as yet extremely limited. Not only are they not themselves producers, but they are often out of sympathy with production, and sometimes even affect a superiority to it. Sq pretentious have often been the claims made by some normal schools, and so at variance with these claims have been the actual results, that in many circles the very word '' normal "" has fallen into ill-repute, and education has suffered at the hands of its would-be friends.
It is of interest to put side by side with our slipshod methods of training, the orderly, systematic provisions made by France.
There are three classes of normal schools in France, and a
1900] Training teachers in France 387
prospective teacher enters one or the other according to his in- tention of becoming a teacher in an elementary school, a teacher of teachers, or a teacher in the secondary schools. To under- stand clearly the difference, it must be borne in mind that French schools are classed as elementary and secondary, not because the elementary precedes the secondary, as with us, but rather with reference to the leaving age of the pupils. Those children who must in all probability leave school at thirteen or fourteen attend the elementary schools; those who are able to remain until eighteen or nineteen attend the secondary schools ; a pupil does not pass from the elementary to the secondary school, since each class of schools has a different object, and each has a program of studies complete in itself. The first of the three classes of normal schools trains those who are to be the teachers in the elementary schools, that is, those who are to be the teachers of boys and girls fourteen years of age and under. One such normal school for young men and one for young women is by law established in each of the eighty-seven departments of France, altho it is possible for two sparsely settled departments to secure an authorization from the Presi- dent of the Republic to maintain a normal school in common, and the present tendency is toward the consolidation of the work in such departments.
. The organization of all of these schools is simple and uni- form. Admission to them is determined by competitive ex- amination, and candidates who have failed twice are not per- mitted to try a third time without the special permission of the highest academic authority. The minimum age of admission is sixteen, the maximum eighteen, and the candidate must be free from any physical infirmity that would interfere with his success as a teacher. The candidate must already have passed the examination entitling him to a license to teach in the ele- mentary school (brevet element air e) .
The examination consists of two parts, written and oral. The written part precedes the oral, and no candidate is ad- mitted to the second part unless he has passed the first. The written examination consists of five parts : ( i ) an exercise in dictation; (2) a special exercise in penmanship; (3) an essay
388 Educational Review [November
on some designated subject, either a simple narration or letter, or the explanation of some moral or educational precept, or of a proverb, or of a maxim, or of some question of ethical or civic instruction; (4) a composition on some subject in arith- metic, including the solution of problems, with the explanation of the rules; (5) a simple exercise in drawing at sight. The first three parts of the examination are taken in the morning, the last two in the afternoon, the total time occupied being about six hours and a half. Those who successfully pass the written examination are admitted to the second part, which comprises four divisions : first, an oral examination on the French language, on arithmetic and the metric system, on the history of France, on the geography of France and notions of general geography, and on an elementary knowledge of the physical and the natural sciences. At least half an hour is given to the oral examination in each of these five subjects. This is followed by the second division of the second part of the examination, which is the preparation of an abstract of two lessons, one of a literary, the other of a scientific character, given by the professors of the school where the examination is held. The third division of the second part of the examination is an examination in music, and this is followed by the fourth part, which consists of an examination in gymnastics, and, for the young men, in military exercises, for the young women, in sewing.
Those who stand highest on the list of successful candidates are admitted to the normal school of the department where they have taken the examination, but those who have successfully passed the examination may be admitted to the normal school of another department if vacancies exist and if their standing warrants it.
The number of pupils to be admitted to each school each year is fixed in advance by the minister of public instruction acting on the advice of the departmental council, and the suc- cessful candidates pledge themselves to teach ten years in the public schools of France, but in reality only seven, since the three years passed in the school are included in the ten.
Once admitted to the school the regime also is simple and
ipoo]
Training teachers in France
389
regular. The students live in the residence hall connected with the school, all expenses of board and lodging as well as of tuition being borne by the state. The duration of the course is three years, and the time is practically divided equally be- tween literary and scientific subjects. The following table shows the distribution of hours among the different subjects.
Subjects
Literary Subjects
Psychology, ethics, education
French language and literature
History and civics
Geography
Penmanship
Modern languages (German or English)
Total number of hours, literary subjects
Scientific Subjects
"Mathematics
Physics and chemistry
Natural science and hygiene
Drawing and modeling
Theory of agriculture
Total number of hours, scientific subjects
Manual and agricultural work
•Gymnastic and military exercises
Music
|
Hoi |
JRS PER Week |
|
|
First |
Second |
Third |
|
Year |
Year |
Year |
|
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
5 |
4 |
4 |
|
3 |
3 |
3 |
|
I |
I |
I |
|
2 |
I |
|
|
2 |
2 |
2(a) |
|
^5 |
13 |
12 |
|
3 |
4 |
4 |
|
2 |
2 |
3 |
|
I |
I |
1(b) |
|
4 |
4 |
4 |
|
I |
I |
|
|
10 |
12 |
13 |
|
5 |
5 |
5 |
|
3 |
3 |
3 |
|
2 |
2 |
2 |
(a) Provision is made for an additional hour of conversation in the modern lan- ;guage studies.
(b) Twenty lessons in hygiene are given during the year.
This program of studies, like the conditions of admission, is uniform thruout France. The subjects prescribed for the nor- mal schools for young women are in the main the same as those for young men, but the instruction in civics is very meager, considerably less time is given to the sciences, and sewing, housework, and gardening are substituted for manual work and agriculture.
390 Educational Review [November
Some of the characteristic features of the methods of in- struction will be discussed later in connection with the work of the other classes of normal schools.
Every examination in France is practically an entrance ex- amination rather than a leaving examination. The examina- tion therefore taken by the students of the elementary normal schools on the completion of their work is one given, not by the school itself, but by the state, and those who successfully pass this examination are accepted as teachers fully qualified to teach in the elementary schools of France. To all those who succeed the state guarantees a position in the public schools.
Eighty-nine such normal schools for young men and eighty- six for young women have been established in France and in the French colonies. For training the teachers of these schools two special schools have been established, one for young men at Saint-Cloud and one for young women at Fontenay-aux- Roses, where the subjects taught in the elementary schools can be studied thoroly and with special reference to giving instruc- tion in them in the elementary normal schools.
The conditions that determine the admission to these two higher normal schools are the same in principle as those that govern the admission of pupils to the elementary normal schools. Admission is by competitive examination, the num- ber to be admitted each year is fixed by the minister of public instruction, the minimum age being nineteen and the maximum twenty-five. All candidates for the examination must have obtained a teacher's certificate of the first class (brevet supe- rieur), or have. the baccalaureate degree, or, in the case of young women, a diploma stating that they have finished the course of instruction in the secondary schools for young women. They must agree, if they have not previously done so, to engage ten years in public instruction, or to forfeit to the state the equivalent of board and lodging received if admitted to the school — ^$120 per year.
The candidates are divided mto two classes, the literary section and the scientific section. Those in the literary section write four essays: (i) on French literature or grammar; (2) on education or ethics; (3) on history and geography; (4) in
igoo] Training teachers in France 391
a modern language, either German, English, Italian, Spanish, or Arabic. The scientific section write five essays : ( i ) on mathematics; (2) on chemistry, physics, and natural science; (3) on geometrical drawing and decoration; (4) in a modern language; (5) on education or ethics. The two sections are examined together in education and the modern language. Three hours are given for the examination in the modem lan- guage, and the use of a dictionary is authorized; four hours are given to each of the other compositions. This written exami- nation, like that for entrance to the elementary normal schools, is most thoro, the special emphasis being laid on the French lan- guage. Every paper is termed a '' composition " ; for example, the paper on chemistry and physics is called " a composition comprising a question of physics, a question of chemistry, and a question of natural science." This paper must be not merely correct as to statement and language, but also '* well written." The written examination takes place in the capital of each de- partment, but the papers are sent to Paris for correction and grading.
The candidates who have successfully passed the written ex- amination are subsequently summoned to Paris for the oral and the practical examination. This consists, for the literary section, in : ( i ) the exposition of some question in grammar, literature, history, or geography; (2) the reading and explana- tion, with commentary, of some passage taken from a list of French authors previously specified; (3) the explanation of a modern language text. For the scientific section it consists of : ( I ) the exposition of a question in mathematics, including all of plane geometry; (2) the exposition of a question in physics, or in chemistry, or in natural science; (3) a modern language. In addition to this the young men of the scientific section are examined in modeling or in work in iron or in wood, and the young women in needlework.
The successful candidates who have passed the highest are admitted to the school, where they also live in residence and remain for three years.*
^ The course at Saint-Cloud is at present two years, but it is hoped to add a third year soon.
392 Educational Review [November
The course of study, unlike that of the elementary normal schools, is fixed, not by the prescription of a definite program, but by the examinations taken for positions in the elementary normal schools. Teachers who have not taken the normal training at Saint-Cloud or at Fontenay-aux-Roses are also eligible to these examinations, but it is obvious that the stu- dents trained in these two schools have the advantage over others, in addition to the very real one that the Government guarantees them positions.
This examination is therefore also an entrance rather than a leaving examination, and its character is determined by the future plans of the candidates. Those who wish to become the directors of elementary normal schools must pass a written and an oral examination. The former comprises an essay on a sub- ject in pedagogy and one on school administration, five hours being given for each. This is followed by an oral explanation of a passage, drawn by lot, taken from one of the authors in- cluded in a list published a year in advance, and this by the oral exposition of a question in theoretic or practical peda- gogics.^ The latter question is also drawn by lot, and two hours " behind closed doors '' are given for preparation. The oral examination is followed by a practical test, which consists of the inspection of a normal school, of a higher elementary school, or of an elementary, or of a maternal school, followed by the presentation of a verbal report. Those students who wish to be teachers rather than school directors take a different examination. The written proof for the section of letters com- prises an essay on a subject in : ( i ) literature or grammar; (2) history and geography; (3) ethics or educational psychology; (4) a modern language. The scientific section presents papers on: (i) mathematics; (2) a subject including a question of physics, of chemistry, and of natural science; (3) geometrical and ornamental drawing; (4) ethics or education. The oral and practical examination comprises for the section of letters :
\Lack of space prevents a detailed account of all the extremely interesting sub- jects included under the head of education, legislation, and administration. A single one of the score of groups suggested includes public libraries, school libraries, classes for adults and for apprentices, school museums, school savings banks, workshops for manual work, school military companies, and military drill.
I poo] Training teachers in France 393
(i) the preparation of a lesson on some subject drawn by lot, three hours being given, " behind closed doors," for the prepa- ration of the lesson, which is not to exceed a half hour in length; (2) the reading and explanation of a passage taken from a French classic; (3) the correction of an exercise of a normal school pupil; (4) the explanation of a modern language text, with questions on grammar. The candidates in science, (i) give a lesson on a subject in mathematics, the physical or the natural sciences; (2) are questioned on each of three parts of the program in sciences; (3) perform an experiment in physics or in chemistry, and give a practical demonstration of some subject in natural history.
The higher normal school for young women at Fontenay- aux-Roses was established in July, 1880. So successful was it that the following February measures were taken looking toward the establishment of a similar one for young men, and soon after the school was opened temporarily at Sevres. In March, 1882, the school was regularly opened at Saint- Cloud. Finally a law of January, 1887, brought together pre- vious legislation in regard to the two schools, set a high stand- ard for entrance, and put them on a substantial footing.
How successful the work at Saint-Cloud has been a glance at the roll of the students trained there will show. They are found in every department in France as directors or as teachers in the elementary normal schools, or as inspectors of schools. Many of its former students are engaged in similar educational work in the French colonies, while its foreign students are similarly engaged in education in Japan, in Egypt, in Luxem- bourg, in Germany, and elsewhere. A considerable number of its students have spent a year in England or in Germany in order to perfect themselves as teachers of the modern lan- guages.
This success has been due not only. to the rigor of the com- petitive examinations for admission, to the thoroness and the symmetry of the course of study pursued, and to the rigor of the examinations taken for entrance into the higher parts of the teaching profession, but it has also been due in no small part to the daily contact of the students with some of the most emi-
394 Edtccational Review [November
nent professors of Paris. The proximity of Saint-Cloud to the capital makes it possible to secure as professors in the normal school men who are equally distinguished as scholars and as teachers — all of them are attached either to the Sorbonne or to some one of the great lycees of Paris. The small number of students in the school — forty — makes it possible for each one to receive the most careful, thoro, and individual training. No other than successful results could be expected from such an ideal preparation.
Equally successful has been the result of the work for young women at Fontenay-aux-Roses. The highest and most sin- cere tribute to it has been given by Madame Marie du Sacre- Coeur in her praiseworthy efforts to secure a better, more thoro, and more modern education for young women of the Roman Catholic faith;® only by the establishment of a simi- lar school, she urges, can the education carried on by the Roman Catholic Church successfully compete with that of the secular schools.
But the crowning glory of the French system of training teachers is its Ecole normale snperieiire at Paris, the oldest as well as the most famous of its normal schools, for, curiously enough from the American point of view, the training of teachers in France began with the preparation of teachers for the highest grade of schools. No more pertinent illustration can be found of the truth of the statement that " educational forces pull from the top, they do not push from the bottom," than is seen in the establishment of this school years before any effort was made to train teachers for the elementary schools. A fact equally interesting in its history is that it was a part of the constructive work of the National Convention, — the decree creating it being passed October 30, 1794, during a period too often considered purely destructive in character.
The commemorative volume published at the time of the celebration of its centenary "^ gives a history that is most inter- esting and profitable to students of education, but attention can be called only to one or two points in that history. Not the
^ Les Riligieuses Enseignantes et les Ndcessites de VApostolat, Paris, 1898.
'^ Le Centenaire deV^cole Normale, 1795-1895, Hachette et Cie., Paris, 1895. '<
igoo] Training teachers in France 395
least interesting is the knowledge that when the normal school opened its doors it did so to receive a mass of students of all ages, varying ability, and degrees of preparation, all eager to share in the new training. The picture that is given of the instruction at first provided for these fourteen hundred stu- dents suggests many of the incongruities found to-day in our own normal training. It is not strange that the school was .soon temporarily closed because there had been a confused idea as to what its purpose was. It had not been clearly under- stood whether this aim was to prepare teachers for the primary schools or for the higher schools, or to prepare the students to establish normal schools in their own departments. It was inevitable that without this definite understanding much of the work should be crude and formless. " It was thought possible to make scholars in four months," says a critic of the time, — an observation that has more than a local application. When the school was re-opened in 1808 it was to profit by many of the early mistakes. The number of students was limited to three hundred, competitive entrance examinations were established, and a more definite plan of work was laid out.
The school met with varying fortunes until 1831, when M. Cousin became the director and inaugurated a regime of ex- treme rigor. The rules of 1836 prescribed absolute silence in the study halls; students could not study together without authorization; during meal time a student read aloud; dan- gerous and useless books, as well as newspapers, were for- bidden; the hour for rising was five o'clock, winter and sum- mer, and students could leave the school only on Sundays after nine in the morning, and were obliged to return before eight in the evening. If these provisions seem unduly harsh, it must be remembered that even to-day a monastic severity prevails everywhere in France in the internal management of every school, and that the rigor of the administration at this time was perhaps an inevitable reaction from the laxness of the -earlier period.
It is impossible to follow the history of the school, interest- ing and profitable as it is. The school has attained its present perfection as a result of more than a hundred years of experi-
39^ Educational Review [November
ment and of observation of experiments elsewhere, and it is not too much to say that it has to-day no rival in any country.
The students, one hundred in number approximately, are chosen by competitive examination, which is open only to those who hold the bachelor's degree. Since it is obligatory that the examination for the master's degree shall be taken at the end of the first year passed in the school, it is customary for the students to take the examinations for this degree at the same time that the competitive examinations for entrance are taken. The candidates are examined in the two sections of letters and of sciences, and as elsewhere, only those who successfully pass the written examination are admitted to the oral. For the section of letters the first part of the examination comprises an essay in French, a dissertation on philosophy,' an essay on an historical subject,^ an essay in Latin, a Latin translation, and a Greek theme. Six hours are given for each of the first four exercises, four hours for each of the last two, and all papers are signed with a fictitious name or a symbol. The oral examina- tion is on grammar, literature, and history. The written ex- amination for the scientific section compri"ses an essay on mathematics, one on physics, and a dissertation in French, each six hours in length. The oral examination includes mathe- matics, physics, and chemistry, and a translation of two of three texts — Latin, German, or English.
Is it surprising that the one hundred young men in the 'Ecole normale superieure who have been selected by such rigorous tests from candidates coming from every part of France repre- sent to-day, as they have for many years, all that is best in French training and culture?
With such a preparation, some may ask, What remains by way of preparing these students to become professors, in the higher schools of France? The question must be answered in
"It is noted in the Administrative Bulletin of February 6, 1892, that the oral examination in history shall comprise such knowledge of ancient, mediaeval, and modern history as is considered essential " to every truly cultivated man," while the written examination shall be on certain specified parts of history, which, however, presuppose a thoro acquaintance with the history of Europe in general and of France in particular.
1900]
Training teachers in France
397
detail in order to appreciate the full significance of the training given.
The course of study is one of three years, and the students are divided into the two sections of letters and of science. Each of these sections is again subdivided : that of letters into five branches — ^philosophy, literature, history and geography, grammar, and modern languages; that of science into three — mathematics, physics and chemistry, and natural science. The course in letters illustrates the principle of both courses.
During the first year the five branches of the section have all their work in common ; during the second year, about one-half ; during the third year, each branch confines itself to its own special line of work. This will be clearer by noting the ac- companying diagram :
ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE Section of Letters
|
First Year |
Second Year |
Third Year , |
|||
|
a b c |
d e |
J a b |
I c d e |
J |
\ \ \ \ c d e |
|
a Philosophy b Literature c History and geography d Grammar e Modern language |
e. Students in the modern languages course spend the last year either in England or in Germany |
The object of the work is to make the students masters of their subjects, and in becoming such to acquire experience and facility in presenting various parts of it to others in a clear^ forcible, and artistic manner. Thus every course comprises a
39^ Educational Review [November
<:ertain number of lectures given by the professor in charge, and others given by the students attending it. The lectures ^iven by the latter increase in number from the first to the third year, and are criticised by the professor in charge in great de- tail and from every possible point of view. Assuredly no training can be better for those who are to become later pro- fessors in the higher schools and investigators in literary and scientific lines.
It is of interest to notice who have been called on to become the teachers of the prospective teachers in this great school. They have been and are the men most distinguished in their own lines to be found in France. Many have themselves been students of the school, and have later become professors in the College de France, in the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, and other great schools of Paris, but the best are always chosen whether they have been trained in the school or not. Its •directors have been men like M. Cousin, M. Perrot, and M. Fustel de Coulanges; its professors have been, or are to-day, Villemain, Jouffroy, Sainte-Beuve, Michelet, Duruy, Nisard, Lavisse, Brunetiere, Monod, Beljame, Petit de JuUeville, and a long list of others equally distinguished. Can one overesti- mate the value of the inspiration that must come to a student in the laboratories where Pasteur began his work, where the properties of aluminum and of platinum were first discovered, and other scarcely less important discoveries have been made, and where every facility is afforded for research in every scien- tific line, and granted freely, not only to members of the school, but to other investigators ? Is there not some enthusiasm for pure scholarship that comes from the library shelves and tables where Fustel de Coulanges, Perrot, Levasseur, Breal, Monod, Aulard, and Salomon Reinach have worked as students under the direction of the most distinguished scholars of Paris ?
One explanation of the position held by the Ecole normale is that it has not measured its success by numbers. But the very fact that it has taken the picked few and lavished on them all its resources accounts for the long roll of eminent names among its former students — ^Janet, Deschanel, Pasteur, About, Sarcey, Taine, Perrot, Rambaud, Monod, Lavisse, Vidal de la
igoo] Training teachers in France 399
Blache, Luchaire, Seignobos, Salomon Reinach, Doumic, these are but a few of scores of well-known names of men who have been trained in the Ecole normale. Its graduates have become not only professors in the higher schools of France and in the great schools of Paris, like the Sorbonne, but also archaeolo- gists, curators of museums, archivists, critics, and men eminent in the State, in the Church, and in every walk of life. The school at Athens and the school at Rome have numbered among their students more than a hundred " normaliens." Nearly seventy of its former students have become members of the In- stitute of France, that goal of French ambition.
So successful have proved the methods of instruction used in the school, that the Sorbonne, in its later development, has adopted a system of conferences that supplement the public lectures, as the lectures prepared by students at the Normal School supplement those given by the professors.
It is therefore optional with a young man who looks for- ward to taking the highest academic degrees, thru which alone he secures the highest academic positions, whether he makes Iiis preparation for the examinations leading to these degrees at the Ecole normale, assuming that he is able to enter it, or at the Sorbonne.
What are the strong points in the French system of training teachers ? Certain features are common to the three different grades of normal schools, and some at least of these features are -worthy of consideration in other countries.
The most obvious of these is the careful classification of stu- ■dents according to the particular educational work each one intends to pursue, and the consequent adaptation of the train- ing to this intended work. It is true that a student trained to teach in an elementary school may later discover that his talent was rather as a teacher of older pupils, or the converse. These mistakes, however, which are rather accidents of social position than errors of judgment, are apparently few, and must assur- edly be fewer.
The next most obvious advantage of the French system is that a fixed, definite, and high standard of admission is set, and that not only must students conform to this requirement, but
400 Educational Review [November
that the admission to the normal schools of France is accorded only to those who approach this standard most closely. It is true that no scheme of competitive examination has yet been devised that will determine in respect to a candidate every fact that it is desirable to know, but the competitive examination* reduces the number of unknown quantities to a minimum. Its advantages are not only the negative one that it weeds out hope- lessly bad material, much of which encumbers like dead wood our own normal schools, but thai on the positive side it secures the best material. The result on the normal schools themselves is they secure students who have had a uniform preparation, and thus no time is wasted in bringing the members of a class to the same standard. The work of the three years from start to finish is based on the assumption that the members of a class do not differ widely in mental caliber, and that they bring to their work practically the same preparation. The work of the school thus progresses easily and by rapid stages, and far more is accomplished in three years in a French normal school than in the same length of time by our own careless methods. This systematic work is made possible, not only by the sifting processes of a competitive examination, but also by the mini- mum and maximum age limitation. Thus the incongruities so often found with us, of classes containing students of all ages from sixteen to fifty, are never encountered.
A third advantage is that the teachers in the normal schools are not only admirable teachers, but also that so many of them- have been and are eminent scholars. One has only to look at the long roll of distinguished names that are found on the records of the great normal school of Paris, to realize what an inspiration it must be to young men to work under a Fustel de Coulanges, a Pasteur, a Duruy. The roll of the professors at Saint-Cloud and at Fontenay-aux-Roses, altho these schools are as yet young, is scarcely less distinguished. This of itself is sufficient to attract able students to the schools.
Another advantage in the matter of organization is the small number of students in each school. The largest elementary" normal schools in France are those at Douai, where the one for young men numbers 146 and that for young women 142. The
tpoo] Training teachers in France 401
•average size of the normal schools for young men is 45, but iifty-four of these schools, out of a total of eighty-five, have fewer than the average number; the average size of the schools for young women is 46, while forty-eight out of a total eighty- three number fewer than the average.^ The result of this is that the classes are everywhere small. In one class visited four persons were in the room, the professor in charge, one of the most distinguished historians of France, the student who was giving the lecture of the day, a second student, and the visitor. The smallness of the classes thus enables the most painstaking individual training to be given each student. Perhaps some- thing of the carefulness of the Jesuit methods has been intro- duced into the work; certainly no detail is too small to receive the most careful attention of the teachers of the normal schools, and the good results . are seen in a body of thoroly trained, competent teachers, who not only know how to teach, but who know their subjects.
In the matter of the work of the school certain praiseworthy features should be noted. The most important of these is the insistence at every step of the way on the correct use of the French language. It matters not whether the professor in charge of a class is teaching mathematics, science, history, or literature, it is his first duty to see not only that no incorrect, slovenly, or inappropriate word or phrase is used, but that the most fitting form of expression is employed. " That is not well expressed," " Choose a better word," " That word does not convey the right shade of meaning," " That is a little vague," " Alsace-Lorraine is a geographical name of the present century; use the proper designation for the seventeenth century," — these and similar corrections one hears whenever the necessity for them exists, altho with the admirable prepara- tion the students have had the necessity for such corrections arises far less frequently than with us. Such insistence on the correct use of French is all the more noteworthy since the ten- dency in France is to put subjects, professors, and students into
• These statistics, the latest available, are taken from the R/sum^ de la Situation de V Enseignement primaire pour Vann^e scolaire, i8g4-i8gS- Tiie number of normal schools given on page 390 is for the year 1898- 1899. _ j
402 Educational Review [November
water-tight compartments and to resent anything which seems like interfering with the special work of another person. But all share alike in what is deemed the almost sacred inheritance of the French language, and every Frenchman is passionately devoted to the preservation of this language in all its purity. It can be affirmed without fear of contradiction that one would not hear in all France a normal-school student use a phrase corresponding to our "' I have went," '' he come," or "' I think like you do," or a normal-school director who uses the French for '' It don't," or " Rev. Smith," errors not unknown with us. The question of the special training for the work of teaching is one of the primary importance, and here it will be found that the French method differs in one important respect from our own. In the last year of the course special lessons are given in the model primary schools by the students who are to become teachers in the elementary schools, and the students in the i.cole normale sitperieure give lessons in the high schools of Paris, but this is only a small part of the constant training given in methods of presentation and exposition. During the first year in the Ecole normale superieure every student prepares a considerable number of special topics that are presented to the class; during the second year the number is increased; during the third year these topics become still more frequent; much the same principle is carried on in the lower normal schools. These topics are prepared by the student with the greatest care, and when they are presented to the class the student takes the chair of the professor or sits at a table in front of the class at one side. The time taken by the student varies from fifteen minutes to three-quarters of an hour. At the close sometimes the members of the class give criticisms of the topics as pre- sented, but always the chief criticism is given by the professor. This criticism is always most thoro and searching. The topic is criticised from every point of view as regards its content, its literary form, and the manner of presenting it — nothing escapes the notebook of the professor in charge. If this criti- cism sometimes seems to a visitor to err on the side of undue severity, it must be acknowledged that the result is wholesome. Both teacher and student recognize the responsibility to the
ipoo] Training teachers in France 403
state that maintains the school, and that the state expects, and has the right to receive, only the very best. On its pedagogical side this constant drill has much to commend it. It may at least be questioned whether the future teacher does not derive more profit from this constant effort to prepare and present suc- cessfully special subjects to those of his own mental ability and attainments than from the effort to adapt himself at once to those younger than himself. The French normal school gives, both kinds of training, but the emphasis apparently is on train- ing that comes from mastering a topic previously unknown and presenting it clearly, forcibly, and attractively. . It is some- times said of our own normal school graduates that " they know how to teach everything without knowing anything to teach." Certainly this criticism cannot be made in regard to the French normal schools. The first essential is to know the subject one is to teach, but this involves the ability to make clear this knowledge to others; when this has been mastered, the means of making a subject clear to younger pupils becomes a simple matter. In other words, if a normal-school pupil be- gins his teaching experience with lessons in a model school, he is taking the most difficult step in his teaching career at the outset. If on the other hand he acquires ease and facility in presenting subjects to those of his own age and ability, it be- comes a comparatively easy matter to take the next step and to adapt one's teaching to those less mature.
Another interesting feature of the French system of training is that every graduate of a normal school is compelled to be- gin his apprenticeship in one of the provinces. Paris still dominates France, and everyone whose student life has been in Paris feels that he cannot hve away from the attractions of the city, while those who have been educated in the provinces feel that a residence in Paris at some time during his life is the birthright inheritance of every Frenchman — those who have been born in Paris cannot live elsewhere, while those born in the provinces must live in Paris. Without regulation Paris would be surfeited with teachers and the provincial schools re- ceive only the remnant. But at this point the law intervenes, and it is inexorable. The Government guarantees a position
404 Educational Review
to every graduate of a normal school, but it compels the first position to be taken in a provincial school. This does not, of course, prevent a teacher from receiving later an appointment in a Paris school, but while Paris may be the goal of a normal- school student, it cannot be his starting point.
If many details have been given in this paper, it has been with the thought of showing something of that " infinite capacity for taking pains " which the Frenchman shares with the German. Order, symmetry, and perfection of organiza- tion are his ideal, and nowhere is this perfection of organization seen to better advantage than in the provisions made for train- ing teachers. That the French method has its weak features, and that it is at some points distinctly inferior to the German, must be frankly acknowledged — no scheme of education is faultless, and the French system is still at some points in a state of evolution. But it has been the purpose of this paper to call attention only to those characteristics which have seemed to the writer not only good in themselves, but also capable of adapta- tion in our own system of normal schools. It is specious patriotism that leads to the assumption that every Ameri- can institution is above criticism; it is unworthy imitation that leads to the servile adoption of every foreign institu- tion simply because it is foreign. But it assuredly is possible to acknowledge our own shortcomings, to recognize that our mistakes have also been made by others, to learn how these mis- takes have been corrected elsewhere, to absorb into our own system of education whatever is best in that of other countries, while giving freely on our own part, and to approximate more nearly than we do in practice to those high ideals of education we have always cherished.
Lucy M. Salmon
Vassar College,
poughkeepsie, n. y.
VII GERMAN HIGHER SCHOOLS^
In the thirties of this present century — it is still the nine- teenth— Germany began to be rediscovered. Various influ- ences, literary, political, and other, tended to this result. The notion that France was the only culture-nation on the continent of Europe which cultivated Anglo-Saxons needed to take ac- count of gradually faded out, and there was a new turning of men's attention to the lands beyond the Rhine. The educational revival had already begun in this country. It was found that Germany could teach us more about schools and teaching than could either France or England. A few wandering Americans visited the Fatherland and brought back glowing accounts of what they had seen. Charles Brooks, Alexander D. Bache, and Calvin E. Stow were of this number. Their reports re- inforced the revival mightily. Yet one of the best views of German schools that Englishmen and Americans got in those days they got thru French eyes, in Victor Cousin's Rapport sur I'etat de Vinstruction dans quelques pays, et particulierement en Prusse, published in 1833, and appearing in an English translation the following year.
In the sixties Matthew Arnold visited Germany and gave a characteristic report of what he saw. In the meantime the way had been traveled by a goodly number of English-speak- ing and English-writing people. The story Arnold brought back had accordingly less of novelty to his readers than the earlier accounts had enjoyed; but it was vividly told, and served to illustrate a very notable thesis.
In the succeeding generation down to this year, 1900, the spiritual ties binding the Anglo-Saxon and the German peoples
' German higher schools — The history, organization, and methods of secondary education in Germany. By James E. Russell, Ph. D., Dean of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. New York : Longmans, Green & Co. 1899. viii-f455 p. $2.25.
405
4o6 Educational Review [November
to each other have been multiplied; their spiritual intercourse has increased tremendously. English and American educators, in great numbers have familiarized themselves with the educa- tional thought and practice of Germany. Yet after all has been said and written there has been one important place unfilled; and Professor Russell's book fills that place, and fills it well.
This is a volume of 450 pages. The publishers have done their part in a manner beyond reproach. Four chapters are devoted to the history of German schools, chapter v gives a bird's-eye view of the present school system of Prussia, the ^N^ chapters next following give an account of the organiza- tion, maintenance, and general conduct and life of the second- ary schools of the German Empire, with especial but by no means exclusive reference to Prussia. Then follow about 140 pages, divided into seven chapters, treating of the actual present-day instruction in the several branches of study. Two chapters treat of the teaching force; current movements affect- ing the schools receive a chapter; and a final chapter is devoted to appreciative criticism of the German system. There are seven appendices, presenting statistical information and ex- tracts from various laws and ordinances, which could not well be handled in the body of the work. To complete this sum- mary of contents a very modest preface should be men- tioned, and a good index — items that are by no means unim- portant.
A century of Hegel and Darwin has taught us that what- ever is must hang together with whatever has been; and we have been learning of late, or relearning, it may be, that what- ever is must hang together with the rest that is. We find ac- cordingly a growing interest in historical and social aspects of education, which makes large demands on one who would give an account of any system of schools. An abiding sense of the hang-togetherness of things is an essential part of his equip- ment.
But subjective interpretations of such connections will not satisfy. We ask for evidence that assumed relations are actual relations. We expect, in a word, that the subject in hand shall be treated objectively. German professors in German uni-
ipoo] German higher schools 407
versities have done much to establish this standard by their reiteration of the word objective; and American students have brought home with them from Germany the idea which that word represents.
It would be too much to say that Professor Russell has satis- fied such requirements perfectly. Yet it is not too much to say that on the whole he has been eminently successful. The book is full of definite information, based on wide reading, on personal interviews with men who know, and on close observa- tion of a goodly number of schools. It accordingly stands in sharp contrast with some other accounts of foreign systems, which disappoint us thru their meagerness of facts. This fullness of information makes it possible for the author to re- lieve the abstractness of general statements by the citation of instances and by varied illustrations, as in the chapter on stu- dent life in the higher schools, where some introductory para- graphs of a general character are followed by brief but specific notes on the schools of Meissen and Rossleben, and Schul- pforta, a somewhat longer notice of the Stoy School at Jena, and a very interesting, detailed narrative of a day spent in the last-named institution. So chapter xix, on appointment, pro- motion, and emoluments of teachers, is alive with pertinent and varied information, such as a good observer and talker might have to tell on his return from abroad, supplemented with well-arranged statistical matter and extracts from the laws in appendices D, E, and F.
As to the relations of German secondary schools to German social conditions, present and past, the book does not disappoint us. While the author has restrained himself from mixing much of personal interpretation with his presentation, it is clear from begmning to end that he sees the schools both as influenc- ing and as influenced by the civilization to which they belong. How many schools prepare for life in the political, ecclesi- astical, industrial Germany of to-day, and yet prepare for par- ticipation in the world-wide aspiration after universal excel- lence which in course of time must transform the institutions of Germany into something other — and better — than they are? It is the problem of education in every land and age. How
4o8 Educational Review [November
may we educate for citizenship without provinciality; how edu- cate for humanity without becoming abstract? The question is insistent. It is particularly difficult of answer when we have to do with education of secondary grade. German educators are meeting it in a variety of forms and giving it a variety of answers. It may sometimes seem to us that they are purchas- ing apparent present advantage at the expense of ultimate good. At least, they are facing the problem courageously and intelligently, and the way they come at their answer is impor- tant for us whether we find more or less of value in the answer itself. Their differences among themselves are especially in- structive, and these have been set forth by Professor Russell with a fair degree of fullness. Especially valuable in this par- ticular is chapter xx, on the tendencies of school reform, and chapter xxi, on merits and defects of German secondary educa- tion. " The idea of national unity," says the author, " has as its correlative in the educational world the idea of an Ein- heitsschule." This seems sufficiently obvious to an outsider, but the idea does not commend itself to the powers that are in control of Prussian schools. Perhaps the opposition of the king and his ministers to this idea may rest upon a conviction that the Einheitsschule would have for its corollary the Social Demokratie. Professor Russell holds (p. 405) that the Gymnasium, with its supporters, is " largely at fault for the growth of social democracy; but not, as the emperor thought, because it is doing so much, but because of what it is not doing. It will not grant that freedom of choice, variety in education, and equal opportunity for all which modern life demands." The efforts of the government to make of the higher schools a means of combating the social democracy are referred to in the last chapter of the book. To a republican at a distance from the scene these efforts seem beside the rnark. Whatever political doctrines may be consciously expounded in the higher schools, their real influence can hardly fail to set steadily in the direction of democracy of some sort or other. The awak- ened minds of the young men who have enjoyed the training of German higher schools will continue to turn toward questions of national policy; and no amount of prescription can guarantee
igoo] German higher schools 409
their immunity from those ideas and aspirations which are stir- ring the German people of their day. A just and luminous ac- count of the famous December Conference appears in chapter XX. That Conference brought out in clear light the bearing of the school problem upon the larger social problem of modern Prussia, and of modern Germany.
We might wish that Professor Russell had treated somewhat more fully the relation of German secondary schools to the in- dustrial and economic organization of the Empire : the problem of the '' educated proletariat," the connection between the Realschulen and the higher technical schools, and the bearing of both upon the industrial development of Germany, and related questions. But it may readily be believed that the informa- tion is not accessible to answer all the questions one would like to ask in this domain.
The historical setting of the German schools is as clearly presented as their present relation to the social whole. '' The clew to the systematic development of the German school sys- tem," says the author (p. i), ''at least until the present cen- tury, must be sought in the religious ideals of the successive periods as tempered by the prevailing social, economic, and political influences." The early labors of Columban and Boni- face and th-e significance of the monastic schools are noted. Then follows a brief sketch of the progress of education under Charles the Great, the development of cathedral schools, the influence of feudalism and scholasticism, and the rise of city schools and universities. With reference to the Benedictines,, it should be said that '' the duty of instructing the young " seems not to have been inculcated in the earlier '' Rule " of that order, tho it undoubtedly occupied a prominent place in the activity of the Benedictine monasteries of Gerrhany. It is doubtful, moreover, whether the rise of the Palace School should be assigned to the time of Charles the Great, as seems to be implied on page 5. Specht makes it appear, on rather uncertain authority, to be sure, that the school goes back into the time of the Merovingian kings. The distinction between the interior school and the exterior school in the monasteries, referred to on page 8, seems either to have been successfully
4 1 o Educational Review [November
combated by Charles, or, possibly, to have been first introduced into the Prankish monasteries and cathedrals under Louis the Pious. It is doubtless a typographical error, on page lo, that assigns Rabanus Maurus to the tenth century instead of the ninth; and Bangulf, on page 5, should have been changed to Baugulf. The paragraph on university ideals (p. 14) has too much the appearance of assuming that the early universities came into existence in accordance with some definite plan. Our best authorities on the early history of these institutions, several of whom are cited in Professor Russell's footnote, make it appear that the university movement at the outset represented no well-defined plan or purpose; or rather that it represented the heterogeneous purposes and endeavors of many leaders, and that these settled down only by slow degrees into a well- articulated university system. Undoubtedly there was present the fixed purpose of the Roman Catholic Church to turn this and every other intellectual movement into her channels. But in the beginnings of the movement itself there was perhaps no element more common than the awakened desire after knowl- edge. This unorganized aspiration soon enough gave way to plan and system under ecclesiastical control. In the mean- time, as Professor Russell has pointed out, there was growing up a small class, if class it could be called, of learned men who were not ecclesiastics.
The chapter on the rise of Protestant schools is compact and instructive. The Renaissance and the Reformation combined to carry the administration of schools over from •ecclesiastical to civil control. The process, however, was a slow one, and the agency of Melancthon in the move- ment may easily be overestimated, as it seems to be in the paragraph at the bottom of page 36. Professor Russell liimself shows (pages 88 and 89) how gradually the change was brought about. In the sixteenth century perhaps the most powerful influences working toward this change were the secular spirit of humanism, the rapid increase of knowledge and the love of knowledge, the continued growth of great monarchies, and the concentration of both civil and ecclesi- astical authority in the hands of the same person — the terri-
igoo] German higher schools 411
lorial prince. To these must be added in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the rapid differentiation of reUgious be- Hef and ecclesiastical allegiance which Protestantism pro- moted in spite of herself. The influence of French thought in the eighteenth century finally crystallized and popularized the ideal of secular education. The sketch of this movement, and of the parallel development of German schools and educational .systems, in chapters iii and iv, is full of interest. Of the Ritterakademie and the Real school, the author remarks (p. 66), ''They represent the reaction in the pedagogical sphere against the empty, sterile dogmatism of the preceding age. . . Their triumph would doubtless have been complete had not another force gained the ascendency at the very hour of vic- tory. . . In other words, the growth of the democratic spirit came in to check the development of institutions calculated to perpetuate the existing, social order and to intensify prevailing -class distinctions."
The prevalence of a real democratic spirit in the German universities, while the schools for the people are regarded as means of training for obedience and devotion to the monarchy, is one of the anomalies of German life at this day. The repre- isentative of the Center was right when he said in the Reich- stag (p. 414), "It is sheer nonsense to permit in the upper strata what is forbidden in the lower."
The tables presented in chapter vi are convenient and in- structive. Here we find the time allotment to the different subjects in the several years of the Prussian gymnasial course {Lehrplan), together with a comparative table showing the broad differences between the courses in Prussia and those in Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemberg, Hamburg, and Weimar. The courses of the Realgymnasien are treated in like manner. The Lehrplan of the Prussian Oberrealschulen is presented, and those of the Prussian hohere Mddchenschulen and of the Frankfort Gymnasium and Real gymnasium. The number of schools of the several types in each of the chief states of the Empire is given, with notes that stimulate comparison; there is a brief discussion of the education of girls and the relation of private schools to the public school system; and two or three
412 Educational Review [November
paragraphs relating to the plan now on trial at Frankfort-on- the-Main.
Turning to the pages devoted to the actual instruction in the several branches of study in the schools of to-day, the Ameri- can reader will probably find himself drawn to one chapter or another according to his special interest or occupation. All are well written, at sufficient length to give some living informa- tion, but without prolixity. If anything, they are too short rather than too long. The account of instruction in the modern languages and in the natural sciences seems to me espe- cially valuable. Historical notes, personal observations, and the setting forth of differences of theory and procedure to be found among the Germans themselves are all employed to vary the theme. Such treatment makes the account concrete and comprehensible.
Thruout the book bibliographical references are appended to the several chapters — excepting the last. The author ex- cuses himself, in his preface, from presenting anything like a complete bibliography. A list of the leading educational jour- nals of Germany appears in appendix G. I cannot resist the conviction that a somewhat extended bibliography, with criti- cal notes, would have added to the value of the work. Brief notes would have been useful, too, in the list of educational journals. In the body of the work references and explana- tions are somewhat sparingly, but I think adequately, pre- sented in footnotes.
Taking the work as a whole, we may say that the new mat- ter which it presents is what the author got from personal ob- servation of the schools. The historical matter which is here summarized was already accessible to scholars in extended German treatises, notably in those of Specht, Raumer, and Paulsen. The recent progress and the present external aspect of the schools is also presented with great fullness in the well known works of Wiese and Kiibler and the Prussian Centrcd- hlatt. Yet Professor Russell's work has independent merit in its admirable putting together and summarizing of the matter presented by these and numerous other German authorities. The second-hand material receives reinforcement and illumi-
I
1900] German higher schools 413,
nation at every turn from the first-hand information gained from visits to the schools and association with the masters. The book must accordingly be given a higher designation than that of a mere clever and popular compilation and translation. It is a distinct addition to our knowledge of contemporary education.
The literary character of the work calls for high commenda- tion. The style is admirably suited to the purposes of effective exposition. It is notably clear and direct, free from decorative flourishes and free, too, from the involved forms of expression which a German topic of discourse might suggest. There are, to be sure, occasional lapses; but these are not serious enough to compromise the superior excellence of the work as a whole.
In taking up the book for a first reading, I proposed to myself various questions which I should like to see answered in such a work. These were hit upon at haphazard, with no thought of covering the whole field or any considerable part of it. But as I read I had the satisfaction of finding these several ques- tions, without exception, answered in due time. In other re- spects the volume proved so satisfactory and so interesting that when the end was reached the reader found himself in no con- dition to pass an impartial judgment upon it. After laying it aside for some months I have come back to a second reading — and a third and a fourth reading of some portions — only to find my first impressions in the main confirmed. It is, I think, safe to say that the book has added greatly to Professor Russell's reputation ; that it makes a contribution of lasting value to our educational literature; and that it sets a high standard for such treatises on foreign school systems as are now increasingly in demand.
Elmer E. Brown
University of California, Berkeley, Calif.
VIII • ; 'I
DISCUSSION
TEACHING AS A PROFESSION— A PROTEST
Graduates of women's colleges are of two kinds : those who need not earn their living, and those who must. Of the first class, the majority go home after graduation, fit well enough into the places which they had left four years before, and finally marry. And their latter end is better than their former. As a rule they make a wise choice, and happily fulfill their destiny as wife and mother, as the average woman should.
But the second class of graduates is not so easily disposed of. These women for some reason or another must earn their own living. With them on the laboring side of the world is a small percentage of women of the first class, who need not earn their own living, but who choose to work in the lines which happen to be remunerative, or who work because their parents wish them to prove the commercial value of what four college years have given them, in order that in possible time of need they may be able to support themselves.
There are then, as breadwinners, the woman who must work, and the woman who does.
As early as the winter term of the last year in college, the thought of the future forcibly presents itself to the mind of the senior who must work. The usual refuge lies in the idea of teaching school. I suppose that ninety per cent, of money- learning graduates engage in teaching, at least for the first two or three years after graduation. The teaching profession — if profession it be — is therefore crowded with aspirants for — liigh salaries. The reason for this oversupply lies in the fact that a woman can literally step from college halls into a school- room, with only the bridge of a vacation for rest and dressmak- ing. From the graduate's point of view there is comparatively little risk. The salary is certain, however small it may be, the
414
Discussion 415
mode of life is not radically new, and no extra preparation involving expense is necessary.
But there is another side to the question.
It seems never to enter the head of the average woman that she should not teach school unless by temperament she is fitted to teach, and likes to teach, or, at least, likes the idea of teach- ing. I will wager that more than half of the women now teaching, if they gave to the world their honest feeling — more than half the women teachers would say that they do not like teaching. Many would say, '' I hate it ! " Almost all of them would say, " It is the only way I have of earning money, and it involves less risk than most other occupations." But they do not dare tell the truth. Their bread and butter depends on teaching.
I grant that there are very many teachers who are, in the true sense of the word, educators — men and women of broad culture and tactful sympathies, who are '^ born teachers," and who love their work. All glory and honor to them ! They are helping to elevate one of the most degraded of professions, so degraded, in fact, that some critics of education have gone as far as to say that it is not a profession. But born teachers are in the lonely minority. They by no means represent the average teacher.
It would seem that if ever teaching is to be an established profession, it should be undertaken, not as a means to an end, but as an end in itself. A theological student — if he is an honest man — studies for the ministry because he feels called to the ministry. A medical student has a predilection for medi- cine. A law student feels an inclination toward law. In every profession honest men feel some aptitude or taste, however slight, which impels them. There are, of course, exceptional cases ; but such men rarely make a lasting success of what they undertake. Their ignorance or disinclination will find them out. In this respect a profession differs from what is known as a business.
Now, if these facts are true in the ministry, in medicine, and in law, why should they not hold good in teaching? Only those members of a profession who regard that profession as a science help to build it up. The others tear it down or retard
41 6 Educational Review [November
its growth. And if women enter the field of teaching as a makeshift, and not because they are fitted to teach, they hinder the advancement of the science of teaching. What moral right have they to do this ? Such is the scientific point of view.
But there is a third way to look at the matter, and this way is the most important of all. It is from the humanitarian side. The children have a right to be considered. No woman with a sociological conscience can consistently enter the mental and moral life of children unless she feels able to influence them for the better, mentally and morally. It is a truism to say that children's minds are extremely plastic, yet it needs to be said over and over again. Influence is the most subtle force in the world, and children are unconsciously irritated to their detri- ment by a nervous teacher, or by a teacher to whom her work is not congenial. If she is not interested, she cannot teach the children interest.
A woman may never have proved by actual experience that she can teach, but if the power is in her she will know it. There is a peculiar, incommunicable feeling of potentiality which is as infallible — to ascend to a comparison — as the recog- nition of love. If she has to grope around in her inner con- sciousness and wonder if she could teach, the essential lies not in her. And if she does not possess this essential, then she is no more called to the profession of teaching than a man is called to the ministry who hates his brother men.
The rights of children in this matter of teaching are much too little regarded. '' Anyone can teach Jack to read and do arithmetic," the mother says. '' We'll wait until he is older to send him to a better school." But when he goes to that better school he takes with him a set of bad habits of study which the best teacher in the world may have to use almost superhuman and well-nigh ineffectual effort to overcome. The best is none too good for the youngest child. He should have from the first a teacher who is a guide, a friend, an instructor, and, above all, an inspiration and a noble influence.
How many graduates feel the necessity of working conscien- tiously toward these requirements?
Suppose now that a woman has marked ability to teach, without the taste for teaching. Suppose her influence to be
1900] Discussion 417
morally, as well as mentally good. Many such women there are, for lack of inclination to teach by no means indicates lack •of ability. What is the woman to do? In this case, the matter lies practically in her own hands. By teaching she is not retarding the advancement of the profession, for she is interested to do her best in whatever position in life she may fill. If the work were not too irksome to her, there is no moral reason why she should not continue in it. There is a certain .amount of drudgery in all work, no matter how congenial it is. But if there is another line of work which she could more profit- ably and pleasurably follow, she owes it to herself to do it. She has a right to consider herself. Viewed from the other side, the side of the school system, the question should follow the law of the survival of the fittest. The teacher should yield place to some woman who has ability plus inclination. If this other woman does not need the money which teaching brings, nevertheless she should not give place to a woman less quali- fied and more needy. The best woman should have the posi- tion, for the profession of a teacher is hardly less sacred and important than that of a clergyman. The work in both cases is the instruction and care of souls.
I am aware that this reasoning reduces the matter to very radical terms, but I see ho logical alternative. Moreover, it is the only means by which teaching can ever become the dignified profession which it should be.
Suppose another case. A woman feels herself not entirely fitted by inclination to teach. She is poor, she has borrowed money for her coveted, dearly prized education, and she must begin at once to repay that money. She is offered a good teach- ing position. Shall she accept it? I should say yes. Even tho her ability to teach be only fair, yet the spirit which made her borrow money will make her repay it with interest: If she develop into a reasonably good teacher, zmth an uplifting in- fluence, let her continue the work until she is free to choose. A woman who has " grit " enough to go thru college on bor- rowed money is going to be worth something. And she is in honor bound to repay her debt before she tries to find her true place in the world. When she finds that place, she should at once make the effort to give up teaching.
4 1 8 Educational Review
If, then, the majority of women who think of teaching ought not to teach, what can they do to earn their Hving ? The risk is the great drawback to most enterprises, and few women are wilhng to take risks. They are too cautious. Suppose, how- ever, that a woman is wilhng to take her chances. If she is not obHged to plunge into the stream at once, let her take a year off at home, rest from her four years' work, and look around her. Some suitable field of operation may present itself.
The president of one of our Western colleges for women be- lieves, from his experience with young men and women, that, to use his own words, " college women have more executive ability than college men. The girls pay their bills and keep their college finances in much better shape than the boys. I would have girls stay out of teaching, and go into work that requires executive ability."
On the same subject the registrar of one of our best Eastern colleges for women once said to me, " Why are so many girls teaching ? The supply is greater now than the demand. And eighty per cent, of the teaching alumnae of our college insist on staying here in New England, where there is a surfeit of teachers. After midyears I put pamphlets against teaching around on the tables of the reading-room for the seniors to read -and meditate upon."
" What would you have them do? " I inquired.
" Oh, let them go on studying and write college mono- graphs, if they can't do anything better."
A negative suggestion, certainly, a suggestion for girls who- can afford to study indefinitely; nevertheless it shows the trend of educated, experienced thought in regard to teaching.
It is not the object of this paper to suggest substitutes for teaching. Its object is merely to call attention to the fact that the teachers' side is only one of three points of view. What of the profession ? What of the child ?
Carolyn Shipman
New York, N. Y.
IX REVIEWS
The international geography— By seventy authors ; edited by Hugh Robert Mill, F. R. G. S., D. Sc, Librarian of the Royal Geographical Society. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1900. 1088 p. $3.50.
As a rule, books of multi-authorship are disappointing, from the fact that they consist merely of a collection of monographs^ the various topics of which have no apparent niutual relation. Dr. Mill's volume must be classed among the exceptions. The book itself is a unit rather than a collection of units; it is de- veloped on a thoroly sensible plan ; it is highly comprehensive, and at the same time condensed; and it has a most satisfactory index — all of which go to show that Dr. Mill is a capable editor. Among the names familiar to American readers there may be noted that of the editor-in-chief, Mr. J. Scott Keltic, Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society; Sir Clements R. Markham, its president; Professor Fridtjof Nansen, of the University of Christiana, and also of Arctic exploration fame; Sir John Murray, of the Challenger expedition; Professor E. G. Raven- stein, the geographer; Mrs. Bishop, traveler and explorer; Dr. J. W. Gregory, Natural History Museum, London; Mr. G. G. Chisholm, geographer; Professor W. M. Davis, Harvard Uni- versity; and Mr. R. T. Hill, U. S. Geological Survey. The list of authors in general represents the best available authorities,, but one cannot help wishing to find the work of Chamberlain, Powell, Dutton, Gilbert, and Gannett also.
Part I contains the general principles of geography, in ten chapters, the work being arranged so as to make a most inter- esting treatise of physiographic geography. Chapter ii, Mathematical geography (Dr. A. M. W. Downing), is not only easy, but delightful reading; and the same can be said of chap- ter iv, The plan of the earth (Dr. Gregory), and chapter v, The nature and origin of land forms (Dr. Mill) ; indeed, every chap- ter of this part of the book is original in treatment and fresh in subject-matter. It cannot help being a stimulus to every
419
420 Educational Review [November
teacher of geography who may be fortunate enough to possess the book.
The remaining part of the book consists of a descrip^^ion of the various countries of the earth — topographic features, cHmate, national development, people, industries, and statistics. The text is profusely illustrated with diagrams and black-and- white sketch maps, which are highly instructive, but simply abominable in mechanical execution. Collateral reading and reference is suggested in various chapters thruout the book, and for the greater part the literature noted is valuable; in one or two instances the substitution of other texts for those named would be advisable.
Extreme care in the selection and preparation of the subject- matter seems to be a characteristic of the work, and the personal familiarity of each author with his subject is a guarantee of ac- curacy. A perusal of Professor Davis' physical divisions and regions of the United States makes one wish that there might be more uniformity among geographers on this subject. A reader, turning from Davis to Powell's Physiographic regions of the United States, is perplexed; when he consults the divisions employed by the Weather Bureau perplexity gives place to wearisomeness ; and if then he takes up a school text- book a mild profanity is pardonable, so unlike one another are these divisions; indeed, in this matter every writer is an au- thority unto himself.
That the book is rapidly taking the place it deserves is ap- parent from the number of letters received by the reviewer. One of these, from Miss Stella S. Wilson, Instructor of Physical geography, Columbus Central High School, indicates a sentiment that is growing. She writes : '' A book of this kind, containing about half the number of pages, will some day contest for the place in high schools against geological and meteorological geography." A consensus of opinions ex- pressed by various writers seems to indicate a desire to make geography a basal study for the science courses of the second- ary schools, and certainly the International geography and Dr. Mill's Realm of nature are fostering this idea.
Jacques W. Redway
Mount Vernon, N. Y.
1900] Reviews 421
The Captivi of Plautus : Edited with notes and stage directions by Grove Ettinger Barber, A. M., Professor of Latin in the University of Nebraska. Boston : Benj. H. Sanborn & Co. igoo. 78 p. 30 cents.
This edition, intended for rapid reading with college classes, in so far as it raises several questions of method in the making of text-books, deserves comment. The structure of the plot of the Captivi renders it better suited for rapid reading; certainly if spun out for a dozen lessons, the intricacies become too dull and monotonous for Ergasilus himself to relieve. One would think that editors would at length learn to relegate to a note on the epilogue the superlative appreciations of Camerarius and Lessing rather than, by raising his expectations at the outset, doom the student to almost inevitable disappointment. Sight reading is of course a thing distinct from rapid reading, and a word or two, like Flagg's admirable preface to Nepos, could well have been added. Educationally considered, it is a poor plan to begin Plautus by reading fast ; that belongs logically to the closing weeks of the course. Yet a method profitably em- ployed by a recent American editor of the Captivi, Professor E. P. Morris, was to have the students underline about a hundred idioms in some play, which is not often read, like the Rudens, and then himself translate in two sittings. Such a plan will not commend itself to instructors who shirk their responsibilities. A briefly annotated copy like Professor Barber's is well adapted for this method of rapid reading. But if the student is to pre- pare himself for rapid reading in the classroom, the best anno- tations are none too full; while if the work is to be sight-trans- lation, with only a moment for a glance at the text and notes, then Professor Barber's notes are, many of them, wide of the mark, and inferior to those of Platner's Pliny, which generally explains the necessary phrase with great succinctness. They are too elementary for a student who has already had a little Plautus. Too many self-evident facts of language are dwelt upon: e, g., pleonasm (5, 44, etc., 411, 767, 1000); use of st for est (29, 61, 94, 129, etc.); u for ue (6, 14, no, etc., 460), etc. Cross-references are often unsatisfactory; the fact could have been stated in fewer letters than the reference (106 and 948, no and 179, 5 and 919) ; while such a note as 898 see 222, and on 222 to find ** see 196," where the same in-
42 2 Educational Review
formation is found as at 898, reminds one forcibly of the dic- tionary definition of, to sniffle == to snuffle; to snuffle = to sniffle! The treatment of the subjunctive in independent sen- tences shows lack of familiarity with Morris' discussion in the American journal of philology during 1897-8. Moreover, such notes as 208, 217, 270, 320, 360, 500, 656 can under the best of circumstances only mystify. In " rapid reading " time saved is ground covered.
In closing, one point should be clearly emphasized: these handy paper-covered classical texts are a very useful aid to sight-reading and translation; the demand for them is an en- couraging sign.
George D. Kellogg
Yale University
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS
Mention of books in this place does not preclude extended critical notice hereafter
A welcome book on a period concerning which popular ignorance is profound, is the History of New Testament times in Palestine, by Professor Shailer Mathews (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1899. 218 p. 75 cents). We most heartily commend to the general reader and to the teacher and student who is not a specialist, but who wishes to know the results of modern inquiry in this field. Dr. Marvin R. Vin- cent's concise and scholarly History of the textual criticism of the New Testament (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1899.
185 P- 75 cents). Now that Ribot's invaluable Evolution
of general ideas has been translated into English, it should be carefully studied by teachers of psychology in normal schools and training classes for its educational applications as well as for its psychological value (Chicago: Open Court Publishing
Co., 1899. 231 p. $1). The newly established Journal
of theological studies, directed by a committee composed chiefly of theological professors at Oxford and Cambridge, publishes in its first issue an acute discussion of Anselm's ontological argument by the Master of Balliol (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1899. Vol. i. No. i. 160 p. $1).
X
EDITORIAL
President Thwing of Western Reserve Uni- A New Degree versity, in an article in the Outlook, has sug- gested a new honorary degree. He has in mind men of a non-academic type who deserve academic recog- nition because of their service to the community in various ways. For such men the bachelor's degree is inappropriate, and besides it ought to be won by years of college study. The degree of LL. D., the highest honor which a university can be- stow, does not belong to such men as this. So it has come about that the honorary degree of Master of Arts is usually conferred in these cases. But this usage is objected to, in turn, "by those institutions which are aiming to make the degree of M. A. mean at least one year of resident graduate study. These facts lead President Thwing to suggest the institution of the degree of Doctor of Arts, to be conferred as an honorary designation upon such persons as are described above. Presi- dent Thwing says : '' The arts part of the degree is sufficiently academic; and historically, when one traces the word back to its origin, it has a content and significance which comport well vv^ith the material relations of life or work."
President Thwing has made an interesting suggestion. What shall be done about it ?
During the present month the voters of Loh- Board EkcUons^ ^^^ ^^^^ choosc a school board to serve for
three years. After twelve years of power the so-called moderate party were obliged to give way in 1897 to the progressives, led by no less devoted and high-minded a leader than the Hon. E. Lyulph Stanley. Therefore the forth- coming elections will turn largely upon the policy of the pro- gressive majority during the three years just past. It is evi- dent that the moderate party propose to appeal" to the electorate to turn out the progressives because of their large expenditures.
423
424 Educational Review [November
This is a familiar electoral device in this country, and despite its shallowness it is often successful. Any constructive or progressive party which succeeds to power after years of oppo- sition finds it necessary to spend large sums of money to make good what it can only regard as deficiencies due to neglect. The taxpayer, in turn, is apt to think more of the increase in his rates than of the public benefits gained, and so he often votes for the party which will ask him for less, no matter how completely it may neglect the very essentials of education. In London it appears that the outgoing school board has spent on an average 113,000 pounds sterling a year more than their predecessors, and modest as we in America should deem this increase it is already a ground of complaint and of criticism. The New York board of education has asked for nearly $20,000,000 for 1 90 1, and seems in a fair way to get it; but the press and the public take this vast expenditure for schools as a matter of course. No political party would dare make it a cause of criticism. Another complaint made in London — tho what the school board have to do with the matter is not quite clear — is that the annual increase in the number of children attending school has lately fallen from 10,000 to 6000. It is therefore held that Mr. Stanley and his friends are wasteful. Among other things they have increased by over 20,000 pounds a year the expenditures upon evening schools. Any progressive party naturally would. If the other grounds of attack upon the school board are no weightier than this, they are poor indeed. The board consists of fifty-five members and canvassing is now actually in progress.
American Educa- There is a widespread opinion that American tion at the Paris schools and Schoolmasters of every grade are xposi ion under deep obligations to How^ard J. Rogers,
deputy superintendent of public instruction in the State of New York, for the collection, installation, and administration of the American educational exhibit at the Paris exposition. De- spite an insufficient appropriation, lack of time, and inadequate space, Mr. Rogers, as director of the department of education and social economy, prepared and arranged a collection of edu- cational material which has attracted widespread attention.
1900] Editorial 425
The awards by the juries to American exhibitors in education were very numerous, and attest the impression made on the minds of their members by the American display.
Two high European authorities who are well known in the United States have written criticisms of the American educa- tional exhibit. M. Gabriel Compayre, rector of the University of Lyons, in a long and careful article in the Revue Peda- gogique says :
'' In such space as was granted them, the organizers of the American exhibit have known how to do the best possible. They have ingeniously compressed much into small space. Around each room run cases : below, open shelves, where under our hand lie most interesting documents, exercise books of scholars, reports of boards of education, of superintendents of schools, and of different administrative authorities; above, on folding shelves, are photograph albums, exhibits of scholars' work, collections of drawings, of programs, and pamphlets, and finally above these shelves on the walls are hung large pho- tographs, tables of statistics giving the number of school teachers and scholars, maps — in one of which it was astonish- ing to find the two continents of Europe and Asia united under the name of Eurasia — in short, every part of the scholars' work was shown that could be exhibited to the eye. One clever scheme of increasing the exhibition space tenfold has been adopted by the Americans. They have made use of what they ■call ' wing frames,' a novel method to us Frenchmen.
" To organize an exposition of such importance 3000 or 4000 miles from the mother country must necessarily have been costly. But the United States take little heed of money — they have their own reasons for this attitude. The total cost must have been over four hundred thousand francs. And it is interesting to find that this large sum was collected from several sources. The State of New York gave fifty thousand francs; the city of New York gave the same. The cities of Boston and Chicago each gave twenty-five thousand francs, and many others, like Denver, Albany, and St. Louis, also con- tributed to the cost of the exhibit.
" An exhibit, — above all a foreign exhibit, — if it is large and inclusive, really needs persons who can explain its many fea-
426 Educational Review [November
tures. Here the Americans were not at fault. In entering their exhibits there were always obliging cicerones, many of whom spoke French as easily as they did English — men and women who graciously bade you welcome. At their head was a distinguished organizer, who fills a high office in the ad- ministration of education in the United States, Mr. Howard J. Rogers, deputy superintendent of public instruction in the State of New York, upon whom devolved the direction, at the Paris exposition, of the American section of education and of social economy.
" Mr. Rogers, who has lived in Paris during the continuance of the exposition, was not content, after organizing the ex- hibit of the United States, to spend his time there in merely welcoming the French and European educationists. With the spirit of initiative so often shown by Americans, even when in France, he with the aid of his compatriot, Mr. Alfred T. Schauffler, assistant superintendent of schools in the city of New York, instituted at the Palais des Congres lectures on the actual conduct of school work in the United States. The originality of these lectures lay in the fact that they were illus- trated by means of a cinemetagraph and a phonograph.
" But Mr. Rogers' work did not end here. The most com- plete and striking exhibit of the material side of school life give but an insufficient idea of the work accomplished. We cannot be too grateful to the representatives of American education who have carefully prepared for the Paris exposition detailed and minute studies of each aspect of their educational system. The State of New York bore off the honors in this respect, with a most important publication in two volumes of 500 pages each. It can easily be imagined that they are an imitation of the Monographies pedagogiques that M. Ferdinand Buisson had prepared for the expositions of 1889, but with this impor- tant difference — the American monographs do not deal with primary education alone. They deal with instruction of every sort. Some of them are written by the best known writers in American education, such as Dr. Harris and Presi- dent Draper. Nicholas Murray Butler, professor of phi-^ losophy and education at Columbia University, and editor of the Educational Review^ has, in an introduction, given a
ipoo] Editorial 427
resume in a large way of the state of education in the entire United States. These monographs are nineteen in num- ber. . . It is much to be desired that this valuable collec- tion be translated into French. For how can we be better instructed concerning American education than by the Ameri- cans themselves ? "
Professor Rein of Jena also writes at length of his impres- sions of the educational exhibits at Paris in the Jena Tdgliche Rundschau. He says that, besides France, the United States, England, and Japan were the only nations adequately repre- sented in education, and in passing judgment on. what he saw he makes great fun of some of the French school text-books on morals and civics. Professor Rein speaks of " the very complete and imposing educational exhibit made by the United States, under the expert direction of Mr. Rogers," and refers to the monographs entitled Education in the United States con- tributed by the State of New York, as " a most remarkable bird's-eye view of education in America, which will be valued and remembered long after the exposition itself has crumbled into dust."
The curious superstition that our ancestors Notes and News could spell better than the children of to-day,
for which there is absolutely no evidence that we are aware of, is commented on by Superintendent Kratz of Sioux City, la., in his last biennial report. Mr. Kratz says:
There is a disposition manifest in some quarters to criticise severely the results attained in the public schools of the country along the lines of read- ing, writing, and spelling, particularly the spelling, and to make the broad claim that the pupils of to-day are not as well trained in these subjects as they were twenty-five years ago. It is easy to make such claims, and to secure what seems to be substantial evidence of the truth of such claims. In a matter of such broad comparisons, the one, holding the view that our children are poorer spellers than those of the generation which preceded them, is looking in the direction of the poor spellers, and, of course, will always find them, for the poor speller, like the poor in general, we have always with us. Then, too, " distance lends enchantment " to the good old times, when we of the preceding generation were boys and girls together in school. There were poor spellers then, as now, who could perform the wonderful feat of spelling a simple word in two different ways
428
Educatio7ial Review
[November
in the same paragraph, and when criticised for it would defend themselves on the ground of possessing greater originality than " the common herd."
Not holding the opinion that our children are poorer spellers than those a generation ago, it occurred to me that a wholesale test might be made in our schools of all pupils in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. It was recognized that to give the same list to the fourth grade pupils, whose average age is about ten, as to the eighth grade, whose aver- age age is about fourteen, would be a rather severe test for the fourth grade pupils, but the desire to have the same test thruout the grades outweighed that objection.
The following one hundred words were selected for such test, and given them without any preliminary preparation or warning :
|
food |
river |
nerve |
|
beef |
stream |
wrist |
|
soup |
pebble |
blood |
|
fish |
pond |
breathing |
|
chicken |
shore |
healthy |
|
turkey |
valley |
exercise |
|
goose |
mountain |
clothing |
|
sheep |
water |
coat |
|
horse |
ocean |
bonnet |
|
house |
boat |
shoes |
|
school |
steamer |
vigorous |
|
scholar |
passenger |
arithmetic |
|
studies |
voyage |
number |
|
useful |
travel |
column |
|
spade |
journey |
remainder |
|
shovel |
noun |
minuend |
|
rake |
pronoun |
multiplication |
|
garden |
verb |
addition |
|
lawn |
preposition |
subtraction |
|
grass |
adjective |
product |
|
robin |
interjection |
divisor |
|
sparrow |
exclamation |
measure |
|
blackbird |
language |
minute |
|
hawk |
word |
second |
|
flower |
speech |
month |
|
violet |
voice |
August |
|
rose |
head |
February |
|
dandelion |
throat |
century |
|
golden-rod |
muscle |
cocoon |
|
pink |
finger |
happiness |
|
lilac |
lungs |
helpfulness |
|
lily |
joint |
humane |
|
lake |
eyes |
successful |
|
island |
It will be seen that the words are those in common use, and such as constitute a fair average test.
I poo] Editorial 429
The number and per cent, tested in each grade are as follows: Fourth, 600, 72.3 per cent. ; fifth, 438, 82.5 per cent. ; sixth, 473, 90 per cent. ; seventh, 286, 93.8 per cent. ; eighth, 233, 95.6 per cent. ; total, 2030, 84.4 per cent.
Eliminating the fourth grade pupils, the remaining 1430 pupils made an average of 90 per cent. While this does not indicate a high degree of accuracy in spelling in our schools, yet I suspect that if the same words were written by an average 2000 admirers of the good old times, residing in our Western cities, the per cent, of misspelled words would be over fifteen.
A few months ago we mentioned the fact that Messrs. Col- chester, Roberts & Co. of Tififin, Ohio, were an enterprising firm of workers in Hterature who had in stock a fine assortment of orations, essays, and addresses especially adapted to do service as the original productions of high-school pupils on commencement day. We observe that this lofty example has been imitated, and that the Educational Bureau of Frackville, Pa., is addressing circulars to " A high-school pupil who would do canvass work," using the same mimeograph process, the same colored ink, and the same style of envelope that the Tififin men of letters used, which circulars invite attention to said Edu- cational Bureau's " Legitimate helps in the classics." Of these scholar's companions it is modestly said that '' it is be- lieved that any student who will carefully study the first ten pages of our notes will find no more difficulty with the text." The Frackville classicists appear to have resolved in this fashion the difficulties not only of Caesar and Cicero, Xenophon and Homer, but those of Livy, Sallust, Ovid, Horace, Virgil, Tacitus, Plato, Demosthenes, and Herodotus as well. Are there no more worlds to conquer in Frackville — for a con- sideration ?
On October i Dr. Edwin A. Alderman, the new president of Tulane University, was presented to the students and entered upon his duties, delivering a charasteristically eloquent and effective address to a large and enthusiastic audience.
A commission has been appointed by the general assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church for the double pur-
43 o Educaltonal Review [November
pose of raising an endowment fund for the church colleges and of conducting the work of all schools and colleges under the church's supervision. Dr. J. I. D. Hinds, chairman of the commission, has prepared an outline course of study for schools and colleges, on modern principles, and it is likely to be put into operation.
President Harper has recently taken occasion to point out the special problems which have arisen in connection with the summer quarter of Chicago University. He fK)ints out that the experience of seven years, in which summer work has been conducted, has furnished sufficient evidence of the value of the work and the feasibility of the plan to warrant the statement on behalf of the faculties of the university and its trustees that the summer quarter may be definitely regarded as an established feature of the university organization. Having reached this conclusion, it is now necessary for the authorities to take up for serious consideration some of the problems connected with- this part of the university's work.
One of these problems is the date of opening and closing the quarter. It is by no means certain that the best arrangement of time has yet been discovered. Many students who attend the university in the summer are compelled by the present ar- rangement to leave their work either at the end of the first six weeks or after further residence of two, three, or possibly four weeks. Two-thirds of those students who have occupations outside of the university during the autumn are compelled to begin their work on or about September i. The work of the second term suffers a certain demoralization, in view of the fact that students are irregularly, tho necessarily, leaving the classes from time to time.
A second problem arises from the fact that the students are in attendance during the summer quarter from nearly every State in the Union. It is, however, a serious undertaking for a student to travel a thousand miles or more for a residence of only six weeks. Many students have reported during the present summer that unless they are able to secure twelve weeks of instruction they cannot make the financial sacrifice involved
i9oo] Editorial 431
in traveling so great a distance. A third problem lies in the fact that in some departments work of a sufficiently advanced character is not offered, and students who desire to do advanced work in the graduate schools are not accommodated.
These and other problems must be studied and a solution of the difficulties involved must, if possible, be found. It has not seemed wise before this time to consider the question of a change of date. It is, of course, a question whether any really satisfactory arrangement can be proposed. But, in view of the large interests connected with the work, and of the strong representation from the faculties of other colleges and univer- sities, it would seem to be a question that deserves attention.
Several weeks ago an order in council was issued constitut- ing the first consultative committee under the new board of education act in England. The duties of the consultative com- mittee are first, to frame, with the approval of the board of education, regulations for a register of teachers which is to be formed and kept in a manner to be provided by order in coun- cil, and, secondly, to advise the board of education on any matter referred to the committee by the board.
According to the board of education act, two-thirds of the committee was to be made up of persons qualified to represent the views of universities and other bodies interested in educa- tion, and this instruction has been interpreted very liberally, for, with the exception of the two former vice-presidents of the council, all the persons in the list come under this head. The committee is representative so far as institutions and profes- sional bodies are concerned, but complaint is made that it is sin- gularly deficient in persons who are familiar with the educa- tional methods and systems of various countries, and are there- fore able to take a broad view of English educational responsi- bilities. As at present constituted the committee does not in- clude a single person who has devoted close attention to educa- tion as a whole.
The following persons are named as the first members of the committee: Rt. Hon. Arthur Herbert Dyke Acland; Sir William Reynell Anson, Bart., M. P.; Professor
43 2 Educational Review
Henry Armstrong; Mrs. Sophie Bryant; Rt. Hon. Sir William Hart Dyke, Bart., M. P.; Sir Michael Foster, K. C. B., M. P.; Mr. James Gow, Litt. D.; Mr. Ernest Gray, M. P.; Mr. Henry Hobhouse, M. P.; Mr. Arthur Charles Humphreys-Owen, M. P.; Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb, M. P.; Hon. and Rev. Edward Lyttelton; Very Rev. Ed- ward Craig Maclure, D. D., Dean of Manchester; Miss Lydia Manley; the Venerable Ernest Grey Sandford, Archdeacon of Exeter; Mrs. Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick; Professor Bertram Coghill Alan Windle, M. D.; Rev. David James Waller, D. D.
We reproduce from the School World, of London, the fol- lowing " genealogical table " which shows at a glance the organization of the new English board of education, so far as its permanent officials are concerned :
Permanent Principal Secretary:
Sir George Kekewich.
I
I I
PrinciparAssistant Principal Assistant
Secretary for Ele- Secretary for Se-
mentary Education ; condary Education :
Mr. John White. Sir William Abney.
!
I I
Assistant Secretary, Assistant Secretary
*' Literary " side : for Technology :
The Hon. W. N. Bruce. Mr. G. R. Redgrave.
These names and their work will doubtless become familiar to American educationists very rapidly.
Another noteworthy step in England is the apparent success of the first steps toward federating in one representative coun- cil, all the existing educational interests and organic Latins. A meeting to consider such a plan was held in response to a call signed by nearly a score of influential educationists, among them H. Courthope Bowen, Mrs. Sophie Bryant, Francis Stow, and Foster Watson. After discussing and passing several resolutions, the details of the project were referred to a com- mittee of twenty-five.
EDUCATIONAL REVIEW
DECEMBER, igoo
WANTED— A TEACHER
There is a general complaint that there has been a distinct loss in the teaching power of our colleges and universities; that too much emphasis is given to mere erudition on the part of an occupant of a college chair; that not enough care is taken to secure men who have the ability to impart their information and to stir their students into newness of life; that the re- sources of institutions are expended for experts, or authori- ties, or specialists, with little inquiry as to whether or no these men are also teachers; that men of extended infor- mation, accurate and recondite, but without magnetism and without personal power — men who find class work a burden and who avoid it whenever possible — are taking the places of men of large and strong and brave and earnest life, whose strength and virtue go out daily thru close contact and intimate relations with their pupils. There is some truth — enough ! — in this charge : but the entire question will bear dis- cussion.
Given a lad of eighteen, just out of the public high school or private preparatory school, and intending to continue his edu- cation: what are the influences most desirable? Evidently they are those which will tend to give him power and dignity ; to put him in the line of mastery, but first the mastery of him- self, since without this fundamental victory he can do nothing worthily; to secure in him the tendency, at least, toward a life of large and generous service. Any " success " which is not determined by the possession of these characteristics, which
434 Educational Review [December
does not make the possession and development of these char- acteristics absolutely necessary, is not worthy of the name. If his education is not to make him right-minded, honorable, and beneficent, it will be a dead failure. What is far worse, he will be a dead failure; as far as he is concerned, life will be a dead failure.
The strongest influence which can be brought to bear upon this lad, at this age and under these conditions, to insure him a favorable start along these lines, is that which comes from con- stant and unselfish and loving contact with some high types of manhood. His teachers must have ample preparation for the work intrusted to each ; there must be fullness and accuracy of information, general scholarship and special equipment must go hand in hand ; but back of these and beneath these and per- meating these, ought to be the largest possible manhood, in the largest and best sense of that word. True, there should be exactness of statement, but there should be also an ever-present sense of opportunity and duty and responsibility. Unceasing industry should stand side by side with unwearied patience. Most unswerving good faith and perfect candor, the strictest integrity, impartial justice; these must be quite as manifest as erudition. The men who are given to mere erudition, who assert that they love scholarship for its own sake, who make this an end and not a means; who hug themselves with joy be- cause they are not as other men, and especially not as this " practical fellow " who always wishes to know what may be done with what he is to receive — these men only too often prove by their lives that mere erudition may easily become a slough of despond of their own creation, in which they wander aimlessly and uselessly, and into which they lead all who fol- low them. It is far better for an instructor to say frankly on occasion " I do hot know " than to be lacking in that spirit which makes him ready and willing, and even glad, to be worn out in generous and gratuitous service, or in that reverence which gives man his true place in the economy of God. And all this strength and beauty and enthusiasm of character should be combined with such qualities as promptness and order, and tempered with friendship, sympathy, and an affectionate re-
I poo] Wanted — a teacher 435
gard for all under instruction. These characteristics, thus daily manifested, will bring the lad who is so fortunate as to be under their influence, not into a condition of slavish dis- cipline, but rather into a voluntary and very happy conformity with all that is right and just and sane and wholesome.
To exert such an influence, the teacher must have a mind that is public and large, and a heart that is warm and brave and true. Time-serving, indifference, aloofness, idleness, jealousy, suspicion, unfaithfulness, selfishness, unlawful ambition (nearly always gratified, if at all, by unlawful means), dis- loyalty, coldness, partiality, dishonesty — surely these charac- teristics are not to be tolerated because of extraordinary expert knowledge, or because a man is '' smart," or is a frequent con- tributor to leading magazines, or is a book-maker, or is a recognized authority in any given direction. Yet it goes with- out denial that those who occupy some very important chairs in some very important educational institutions are not with- out some of these flaws and faults : which is only another way of saying that some even well-known educators are disappoint- ingly and even disagreeably human. The demand is, how- ever, that frank admission be made of the danger which fol- lows admitting such characteristics and influences within the charmed circle of a college faculty; of the care which should be taken (when selecting men) to determine the existence and predominance of contrary qualities; and of the prompt and effi- cient and heroic treatment which should be given such mis- named educators when their true character becomes known.
It must be admitted that institutions and their executives have no easy task nowadays in the selection of instructors. Men who combine advanced scholarship with high character, successful experience, administrative ability, and personal power, are rare in this world. Such a union of desirable qualities makes a first-class man, and really first-class men are rather lonesome. There are not many of them to the genera- tion— to the century, even : perhaps because in the economy of nature a few of them go a long way! Like any other com- modity of which there is scanty supply and for which there is large demand, they come high : not because they take advantage
436 Educational Review [December
of the situation and mark up their own price, but because con- ditions make it high; the competition of institutions advances salaries. Such men, therefore, have comparatively free choice of place; and they naturally and properly and inevitably go where they can find the best libraries, or the best laboratories, or the best other equipment for their work. For those whose specialties lie in the line of applied science, or in the profes- sional world, there is an added and an increasingly strong and effective demand. The largest and most attractive rewards, in money and in recognition and in honor and in power, are now to be found in the world outside of the college or univer- sity. A new sense of possible power, personal supremacy, ad- ministrative skill, economic wisdom, has been aroused in our young men : and every opportunity and inducement is present for the gratification of such ambition. Education offers more, far more, in this direction than it once offered; but education is by no means at the fore in this respect. And so it happens that in respect to his faculty many a college president has fallen to the point of discouragement once very philosophically ex- pressed by a bright Western clergyman in the rather tart re- mark, " If the Lord wants a Baptist church in He will
have to put up with such material as there is there! "
In addition, the establishment of hew chairs, especially chairs in the applied sciences, and the growth of the scientific spirit, imperatively call for the employment of a class of men who are investigators rather than teachers. It is not intended to intimate that there is a necessary choice of the one to the abso- lute exclusion of the other, or that the spirit of the one entirely precludes the spirit of the other. There is no such sharp and complete division as that. A successful teacher must give himself to investigation and research, or dry-rot sets in and he is soon relegated to the educational scrap-heap — or ought to be! And one pre-eminently an investigator finds the lecture room and its students helpful indeed, unless he is dominated by the spirit which prompted the remark, " I am always willing to try my theories on the dog." Yet say what we may about notable exceptions, and there are a few , the temper which turns a man to investigation and research, and the temper which
1900] Wanted — a teacher 437
makes a successful and inspiring teacher, are not quite the same — even if not wholly different. The one is constantly getting, the other constantly giving; the one is all intellect, the other has sympathetic emotion; the one shuts himself within a narrow field and deprecates and fears intrusion and interrup- tion, the other throws down every barrier between himself and the world; the one counts and classifies and measures and weighs, the other deals with masses with a certain brave indif- ference to details ; the one pays strictest and final regard to the formation of correct judgments, the other trusts somewhat to his instincts and impulses; the one works most carefully with most delicate engraving tools, the other paints with a large brush in broad lines and strokes and with heavy colors; one is always counting the cost, the other is divinely prodigal; one is the martinet and camp disciplinarian, the other is a born winner of men; the one cares only for light as analyzed by the spectroscope, the other consciously rejoices in the free-flooding sunshine of God. It is not intended to contrast these to the disparagement of either; but simply to establish the fact that it is rare indeed that these are or can be successfully blended.
Now, if an electrical plant is to be installed, a skilled elec- trical engineer must be secured; and one need not inquire too closely into anything but his peculiar fitness for the work imme- diately in hand. Something of this becomes true if a depart- ment or school of electrical engineering is to be established; and much of this is true of much other similar work now under- taken by educational institutions. That institution will cer- tainly suffer which does not place in any given chair a man who can easily and surely hold the confidence of those citizens who are most directly interested in the work of that chair. But the temper and character of such a man are rarely the temper and character of a teacher; and besides, the demands of administra- tion in such a department naturally and effectually prevent suc- cessful teaching. Therefore the institution must have suffi- cient resources to secure (practically) two faculties, one of teaching and the other of investigation and research ; or it must accept such a combination of these qualities as is possible in each man. It is entirely fair and proper to say that under the
438 Educational Review [December
latter conditions the results are rarely satisfactory on either side.
That portion of the public which includes the patrons of higher education and special training is not often either intelli- gent or tolerant about all this. A clamor is made for changed conditions without any apparent willingness to furnish the means by which alone such changed conditions are possible. There is insistence to the point of imperative demand that A or B or C be secured for this chair or that, because he happens to be in the eye of that segment of the public especially interested in his work; when those charged with the responsibility of ad- ministration know perfectly well that he is not the man for the place, all conditions considered. The conditions elsewhere prove more favorable, not only for securing him, but for his success; and he goes to some other institution. Students fol- low him, and the first institution is counted as slow and its managers are called incompetent. The strife between institu- tions, and between institutions and the public, along such lines, is constant and hot; tho possibly not always open and in sight.
In his relations to the general public the man given to in- vestigation always has a certain definite advantage, in that the results of his work are tangible and visible and generally at- tractive. He who fills a museumi with collections, or equips an effective laboratory, or installs fine machinery and up-to-date apparatus, can secure ready recognition. Quaint forms from the remote past, embedded in the rock ; rare and brilliant speci- mens in entomology, the whir of busy wheels, the resounding clangor of anvils, the spitting lathes and the hoarse saws, even the stuffed zoological freaks bleeding excelsior at every pore — yes, even the frequent magazine article or scarcely less frequent monograph or volume — these appeal much more powerfully to the passing visitor, to the stray legislator, to the average Croesus, to the general public, than does the quiet classroom in the classics or history or economics, even tho there be a rare touch of enthusiasm. The unreasoning impatience of only too many people found expression in the query once put to Presi- dent John Raymond, " Why don't you write something? " " Because," was the instant reply, " my entire strength goes in
I
i9oo] Wanted — a teacher 439
daily ministration to my educational children." Said a candi- date for a position in an Eastern college, when asked, " What have you produced?" "Two senators, three judges, and many good citizens " : an answer that may well be remembered and pondered by some high in educational position and power, as well as by the public at large.
But tho they are under extraordinary pressure, educa- tional administrators cannot escape sharp and just criticism if they forget that actual teaching power, the ability to excite interest and to hold attention, to arouse enthusiasm, to stimu- late thought — this is of prime importance. To accept this principle and stay by it calls for no small amount of moral and administrative courage. In the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, the question was once asked, plainly and directly : " How many of the college presidents now on this floor have made their first inquiry about hew men, that respecting their actual and positive power in the class- room ? " At least fifteen presidents were in attendance, but " they all with one consent began to make excuse." Appar- ently, not one had asked, '' Can he teach? "—2^^ the test ques- tion ; not one had made the possession of this power the deter- mining factor. President Francis A. Walker once said that he doubted if more than fifteen per cent, of those whom he had known as members of college and university faculties pos- sessed in a special degree the ability to impart knowledge, and that even less were able to establish cordial and helpful rela- tions with any large number of their students. The writer of this article has known intimately the faculties of at least four universities, during a quarter of a century given to educational endeavor : and has noted with constant and increasing anxiety the small number of graduates who, in returning to their alma mater, seek out their one-time instructors with the eagerness and warmth of feeling which mark the recognition of close and helpful and friendly relations. The occupant of one chair —one only! — whose students of even twenty years' standing still trusted him and loved him, still came to him in person or by letter for counsel or for approbation, still expected him to be interested in their whereabouts and whatabouts, still asked
440 Educational Review [December
all manner of favors of him with a confidence born of all these years of glad acquiescence and service — this man was regarded as a phenomenon, an anomaly, and as not altogether above sus- picion as to his '' methods " ! Let any unprejudiced person move freely among the students of any institution, or at any university club, seeking information on this point precisely as he would seek information about anything else; and he will be surprised at the unanimity with which both recent and older graduates will deny personal influence and instructional power to the majority of those under whom their college work was carried on. A physicist of high standing, who was recently asked how his attention and interest happened to be turned in that direction, answered, " I was so fortunate as to be in col- lege when the professor of physics had an attack of typhoid fever. An eight-hundred-dollar tutor took his place; and for the first time in more than thirty years was physics taught in that college ! " Such conditions are by no means as excep- tional as they ought to be. Against such conditions it is well to protest; as unnecessary, as wasteful of both time and oppor- tunity, as defeating the true end of all education.
The question is sometimes asked, in a mournfully apologetic tone, as one might say ." Please excuse us for continuing to exist and for cumbering the ground " — What is to become of the small colleges? The answer is not as difficult as some believe. Having no need of men who are pre-eminently in- vestigators, let the small colleges give strictest attention to the creation of faculties in which teaching-power largely predomi- nates. There is scarcely a so-called minor college in New England or the Atlantic States the endowment of which will not fairly meet such demands. If the administrative authori- ties of- any such college will have the grace and the courage to examine carefully its curriculum, cut out everything that is more properly graduate study, eliminate largely, if not entirely, what are known as graduate or university methods; reduce the work in science to those elemental forms by which a youngster may secure a reasonably intelligent impression of the funda- mental principles of any given science, and of the place and value of that science in the world at large (do not let six
ipoo] Wanted — a teacher 441
months' study of the angleworm constitute all the biology in the curriculum!); rearrange its entire work upon the sounder philosophy of later educational research, with some reasonable recognition of relative educational values and relations; de- termine that its classes or divisions shall never include to ex- ceed twenty students; say frankly that, as a lad has but one chance at instruction and inspiration, he shall have that chance under known and approved instructors who have power, mag- netism, and enthusiasm — and stay by this decision at any cost of personal discomfort because of the possible necessity of dis- turbing long-time personal or institutional relations — any minor college that will do this will find its students trooping home on their first vacation with hats high in the air for their teachers, and longing to return ; will find its doors besieged by a clamorous crowd seeking admission, at the end of the very first year of the experiment; and will find flowing into its coffers ample means for continuing and even for enlarging such work. Among a large number of the best-known educa- tors of this country this general statement of the possibilities of the smaller college is accepted without hesitation and with- out shading it off in the least.
It may be said, it has been said, that such men are so rare that the larger institutions will tempt them away from the smaller colleges as soon as their reputations have become established. Well, a worse fate might come to a small college than to have its teaching largely, if not entirely, in the hands of bright, ambitious, young fellows, whose future is still before them; even tho their tenure of office did not average more than, say, five years. A college faculty is not in serious dan- ger of being surcharged with youth and vigor and enthusiasm, tho in a true teacher these qualities are perennial. It is men, old or young, whose future is behind them who are dangerous and burdensome.
But while the larger colleges and the still fewer universities may and do offer great inducements to the investigator and to the man of research, it will be a long time before they either can or will offer to the enthusiastic teacher the conditions which alone are satisfactory to him and will bring him contentment :
442 Educational Review [December
that is, the positive assurance of small classes; of foundation work as well as advanced work; of opportunity and leisure for personal contact; and above all the institutional tradition and precedent of hearty and sympathetic and even affectionate co^ operation between student and faculty. The true teacher seeks for all these, and creates them, just as keenly and as surely as the investigator seeks for laboratories and equipment and creates these.
Wanted, then, a teacher I Not a recitation-post, not a wind- vane, not a water gauge, not a martinet, not a pedant, hot a pedagog — the mere slave to the student; but a teacher, " one who is a combination of heart, and head, and artistic training, and favoring circumstances." One who has that enthusiasm which never calculates its sacrifices, and is willing to endure all things if only good may come. One who loves his work; who throws his whole soul into it; .who makes it his constant and beloved companion by day and by night, waking and sleeping; who can therefore see more in his work than can any other, and who therefore finds in it possibilities which bring his whole nature into play; who catches from its very barrenness of out- look an inspiration which quickens the blood in his veins; one who faces its difficulties with an indomitable temper. One who has that genius which someone has happily defined as " an infinite capacity for work growing out of an infinite power of love." One who feels the keenest self-reproach because students fail to advance : who believes that it is largely his own fault if they do not learn. One who can change the sham- bling and uncertain mental gait of the average student into firm and definite and well-ordered activity. One who can take that nebulous, filmy, quivering mass which a boy's family and friends kindly call his brain, and give it clearness of outline, and toughen its fiber, and make it lithe and sinewy. One who tries to clear up a bewildered brain; who has infinite patience and pity for the weak ; who will not suffer them to be crowded to the wall; who believes there is more glory in the salvation of the one stupid and slow than of the ninety and nine who need not a master. One who can open the mind of a boy with- out committing statutory burglary. One who understands
1900] Wanted — a teacher 443
that a lawless and disintegrated herd of hlase young men does not constitute a college. One who can develop the spiritual side of a boy's nature, his character, the man in him, the man of feeling and emotion which can and will dominate both mind and muscle. One who in all this will do little more, after all, than help the lad to help himself; will do it all thru him and largely by him. One who can teach the boy how to get life — a far grander thing than to get a living. Above all, one who feels that as a teacher he is a born leader of men, a kingly citizen, and who does not propose to be degraded from his liigh estate.
James H. Canfield
\ Columbia University ! ,
II
LIMITATIONS OF THE POWER OF THE COL- LEGE PRESIDENT.^
Gathering as we do to celebrate the inauguration of a presi- dent of this honored university, the theme which has been sug- gested as both pertinent to the occasion and as timely in view of recent discussion, is the limitations of the president's power in the American college. In the brief time allotted me, I shall treat the subject merely in its relation to the three bodies which it chiefly concerns — the trustees, the faculty, and the students.
The trustees represent the supreme authority, subject only to the legislative body that appointed them and to the conditions of their charter. On them the President's tenure of office and salary depend. In most colleges he is made, also, a member of the corporation, and frequently its president, but his vote counts no more than that of one of his associates, and like them, he is subject to the will of the majority. They may assert their authority so restrictively that he will become merely their executive agent, or, thru indifference or preoccupation, they may leave the administration so completely in his hands that the corporation will become of little more account than a passive seal to give legal validity to his acts. In either case the institution is likely to suffer a grievous injury. The men best qualified for the presidency will not accept it on the con- dition of becoming merely an executive officer; and no college, however able its president, can afford to dispense with the intelligent co-operation of its trustees. When due care has been taken to select trustees of broad views and practical sagacity, representing varied pursuits, — the more representa- tive the better, — they supplement a president's deficiencies, and multiply his resources. Their friendly opposition will serve to correct his judgment, and their wise suggestions will improve
' An address delivered at the inauguration of Rush Rhees, LL. D., as president of Rochester University, October ii, 1900.
444
Power of the college president 445
his plans. Factious opposition, springing from narrow-minded- ness or obstinate self-will, may, it is true, do much to make the administration of any man a failure. That evil, however, is less to be dreaded than those which arise from the imperious temper of a president who practically usurps the functions of the governing body and acts without the aid or restraint of the corporation. Of course, it is of primal importance that the trustees should select a man to whom they can grant the liberty essential to successful leadership ; and while they may properly refuse to sanction some of the measures which he advocates, they should not compel him to execute any to which he is much opposed. To his opinion in the selection of teachers, especially, the greatest deference should be given. Nor should he be required, by majority vote, either to appoint or to retain a teacher whom he considers unfit for a position. When on such an issue he can no longer secure the support of the corporation, both self-respect and the interest of the institution would seem to demand a president's resignation.
It is in his relation to the faculty, however, that the president may find the greatest aid and the greatest hindrance to his work. They determine, more than any other body, the char- acter of a college, and in manifold ways they may strengthen or weaken its administration. It is much harder to get a good faculty than to get a good working corporation. First-class teachers are rare. No college or university, however rich or powerful, has enough of them. Those best endowed some- times feel their professional poverty most keenly, and are forced to supply their deficiencies with second-rate men. The typical faculty represents great inequalities of intellectual at- tainments and personal power. If it be an old institution, the president will find, at first, most of the teachers better ac- quainted with its internal management than himself; the ma- jority of them his peers; the heads of the departments gener- ally his superiors in their knowledge of the branches which they teach. Exceptionally fortunate is the college, if in its teaching force there be found no clogs.
How shall this heterogeneous company become an organic unity where the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of
44^ Educational Review [December
thee, nor the head to the feet, I have no need of thee ? Can it be accompHshed most effectually by giving the president auto- cratic power ? This has been affirmed recently in an entertain- ing article in the Atlantic monthly, by " One of the guild," who maintains that the president of a college should have the same authority that the president of a commercial corpora- tion has over his subordinates. The general policy of the in- stitution, the requirements for admission and degrees, the dis- cipline of the students — all should be determined by him, sub- ject only to the trustees. The remedy, in short, for the chief defects in the administration of our colleges is presidential autocracy.
Nor are illustrations wanting of the practical application of this remedy. " We have no faculty meetings now," said a professor in one of our large colleges of recent origin. " We had them at first, but there was so much quarreling, and so little progress made, that the president decided to have none, and he manages the college now as he thinks best, or thru the committees which he appoints. On the whole, it is a relief, and there is less friction between departments." Said a pro- fessor in another college : " Our president is a good deal of a tyrant, but he succeeds in getting funds and in keeping the college well to the front, so that we are disposed to let him have his own way."
Autocracy, however, is a hazardous expedient, and is likely to prove ultimately as pernicious in a college as it is in a state. It induces too great reliance upon the distinctive characteristics of a despot, and too little upon those of a gentleman. Infalli- bility and omniscience are not the prerogatives of college presi- dents, and the conceit of them should not appear as their foible. Like men generally, they need to learn the strength or the weakness of their measures in the light of other minds, and to get the broader outlook which comes when a subject is seen from various standpoints.
Granted that a man of superior intellectual and moral power might effect some desirable changes more speedily than if he were compelled to wait for the tardy approval of tliose more sluggish and less intelligent, still it may be doubted whether.
ipoo] Power of the college president 447
for the permanent life of the institution, the autocratic spirit will be the most quickening and fruitful. A college is not a mechanism directed by a master workman. Its aim is not the accumulation of wealth, but the development of character and intelligence. This must be accomplished by the exposition rather than by the imposition of opinion, by persuasion rather than by coercion. The most progressive president can afford to tolerate the sometimes tedious discussions of faculty meet- ings, in order to secure that unanimity of thought and senti- ment which will make his associate teachers more efficient co- adjutors in the prosecution of his plans. One man power is apt to enfeeble or to alienate those who are subject to it. In educational procedure it is better to lead than to drive. A heavier load can be moved and greater speed made, when all pull together. Successful autocrats are few, and however long their term of service, it is short compared with the life of an institution. If they leave as an inheritance a spirit which has suppressed free inquiry, and which has made it difficult to secure and retain teachers of strong personality, the loss will probably be greater than any apparent gain which may have come thru the rapid achievements of a Napoleonic • policy. In many colleges veto power over faculty action is granted the president, and it may be a desirable safeguard, as it is in civil assemblies, against hasty legislation; but a president, if he be wise, will exercise that prerogative sparingly, if ever, and he will suffer no serious loss if it be denied him. In our oldest college and university, no veto power whatever is given to its president. In the corporation his vote counts no more than that of any other member. In the faculty, where every mem- ber whose appointment is for more than one year has an equal right of speech and suffrage, and in the board of overseers elected by the alumni — which has veto power over both cor- poration and faculty, — the president has only a single vote. But notwithstanding these limitations to his authority, whereby his projects may be frustrated by men less clear-sighted than himself, I venture to say, the man who to-day stands pre- eminent in the academic authority which he exercises is the president of Harvard University. Few men have been more
44^ Educational Review [December
vigorously opposed or have seen their measures more often defeated by the rule of the majority, but every educator knows how royally he has triumphed over these limitations to his power, and how they have contributed to his success.
The atmosphere of republican institutions is not favorable to autocracy; and the president of an American college is likely to find his power augmented rather than lessened by treating his faculty as a parliamentary body with constitutional rights, which he is bound to respect and maintain.
Finally, in the relation of a college president to its students the same principles will apply; he may increase his power by constitutional limitations. It is interesting to note the tend- ency to give up the dictatorial policy which has prevailed in most American colleges in the management of the student body, and to return to some of the forms of democratic student government which existed in the earliest European universi- ties. Undergraduates as a class are too immature to legislate on matters which most deeply affect their educational interests, but there are questions concerning their social life which they are competent to decide; and it is a valuable educational process for them, also, to have the responsibility of legislation. They will be disposed to observe the laws which they enact more faithfully, and to criticise them less captiously, than if the same laws were imposed by a superior body in which they had no voice. Where such a system has been adopted, its benefits have appeared in lessening both the traditional antipathy of the students to the faculty, and the tenacity with which they cling to hereditary, barbaric customs. And a great deal is gained, if thereby they become the allies instead of the opponents of the administration.
It is a misnomer, which may be a source of serious mis- understanding, to call the youngest and least authoritative assembly the Senate ; for whatever legislative functions may be granted to the students, they evidently should be subordinate to the trustees and faculty. Veto power over their legislation the president undoubtedly should possess, but this prerogative he will not often need to exercise as he wins the students' con- fidence, and they learn to respect his opinions.
igoo] Power of the college president 449
In fact, it may be said, in his relations to all the bodies over which he presides, whether veto power be granted him in their by-laws or not, his most effectual veto is in himself, in the in- fluence of his own personalit}^ What he is will determine more than any legislative enactment what his authority will be. The greatest limitations to his power are in himself. To main- tain and increase his sway, it is of supreme importance that he be able to repeat sincerely the Master's words, " Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am, but I am among you as one that serveth." His authority will be proportional to the faithfulness and efficiency of his service. Opposition, harsh and unjust criticism, he will undoubtedly meet; the oppo- sition he can most triumphantly overcome, and the criticism he can most conclusively answer, by assiduously developing in himself the best traits of mind and heart. Adding to the strength and courage of his convictions that charity which is not easily puffed up, he will learn how to accommodate him- self to others, how to bear with them, how to win their confi- dence and to secure their friendly co-operation.
A man thus disposed grows more powerful with his years. His word has the forceful momentum of his achievements and established character. Anderson at Rochester, Hopkins at Williams, Wayland at Brown, Woolsey at Yale, show how the president of a college, by magnanimity, by wisdom, by un- selfish ministry, can win an authority more extensive than legis- lators could ever grant to their executive officer, more absolute than the most ambitious autocrat could ever attain. Men like these give to colleges their most permanent and extensive in- fluence. For Rochester University we can wish no better for- tune than the power of such a life in the president whom she inaugurates to-day.
L. Clark See lye
Smith College. Northampton, Mass.
Ill
SCHOOL REMINISCENCES, (I)
Before I was old enough to attend school I had often heard my parents talk with relatives and neighbors about the schools and schoolmasters they had known, and how the boys and girls conducted themselves, and the pranks they sometimes played upon one another or on the teacher. These topics of conver- sation so interested me that in my own mind, in advance, I had pictured out every detail of school work, the benches, pupils, how the pupils sat, said their lessons, played, ate their dinners, and literally fought, bled, and lived thruout the school term. To heighten my feelings in this imaginary life, the people, both young and old, used to spell at night around the fireside; one would pronounce the words from the spelling book and the others would spell. At times the old, old Webster's Spelling- book would be used instead of the Elementary. So by the time I was six years old, without learning the words, I knew how to spell several hundred words from having heard them spelled. Frequently during each day I would go around spell- ing words aloud. During these years I was also accustomed to hear the older people on Sundays sing hymns, and talk of the various Bible stories and characters. These were always conversations of deep interest to a wondering child who was trying to build up a theory of how things came to be on the earth as he knew them. As I look back over that period in my life I can see how these impressions have, with little change, clung to me thruout the years. The people I heard talk were mostly Baptists. They were New Englanders, New Yorkers, Virginians, Kentuckians, and Tennesseeans, with a sprinkling of those who had grown up from descendants of these. All the older people talked Scripture. They compared views and argued, sometimes lustily. The real Bible stories, which I would separate from these discussions, were told over again and again by my mother, father, and grandmother, and I al-
450
School reminiscences, {I^ 451
ways had new questions to ask after each repetition. No other history could be more real than this oral history.
Another influence entered deeply into my life at the same period, and that was the Life of Francis Marion by Weems. This book was read and talked over in my hearing till I knew the substance of every chapter. I lived thru the entire Revolu- tionary period. In those days the people read but few books, but they knew them better, I am sure, than the majority of readers know the books they read now, and I think the spirit of doubt had not taken such a deep hold on the average mind as it has in this age.
My mother's father was a justice of the peace, and I heard more or less talk about law and criminals, and such things, and there grew up in my mental equipment dim notions of the power of law and obedience to its requirements; I suppose some such notion as the average small boy has now of police authority. At any rate I had it, and it meant a great deal to me.
When I was about seven years old I went to school one week, as well as I now remember. I was put to spelling, but that week left few impressions on my mind. That week I saw a book called a geography. It was left on the writing bench at noon, and I slipped up and opened it, and I saw the picture of a man sticking a butcher knife into the breast of a bear; the bear was reared up on its hind feet and was trying to hug and bite the man. I asked a large girl what the reading was and she said, " Norway." I learned no more than that of geography, but wondered which was " Norway " — the man, the bear, or the fight. If I said a lesson that week I do not now recall it, but I do remember that a boy somewhat larger than I stuck my thigh with a honey-locust thorn, and I hit him when he did it, and the teacher made us stand on the floor. It may have been that this was the reason why I attended this school a week and then quit, or that my parents did not send me longer. The teacher was a tall man, and he carried a switch in his hand as he walked around over the floor. I knew him in after-years and the people called him a good teacher.
Two years later I started to school again — this time to an
452 Educational Review [December
uncle. We lived three and a half miles from the schoolhouse. My book was a '' blue-back speller." I missed school two weeks out of twelve; but I spelled and read thru that book. School began as soon as the teacher came, and he quit in time for the children to get home before dark. I said from twelve to fourteen lessons a day. The big boys all read once a day, usually from the Life of Washington, or the Life of Marion, and then sat out in the woods " to cipher," while the girls and the little boys stayed in the schoolhouse and said their lessons. I spelled and read by myself, and the first pupil who came in the morning said his lessons first for that day. The walk was a long one, but sister and I started early each morning. The schoolhouse was made of logs; a cabin set in the thick woods on a wagon road cut thru the timber. One day a heavy rain came up at noon, and the lightning struck a linden tree at the northeast corner of the schoolhouse, and more than half of us were knocked off the benches on to the floor. I can see the blue and red rings of that lightning around the schoolhouse yet, and hear the howl of the dog as he was recovering from the shock. I cried and wanted to go home to mother. At this school I played all the games the little boys played, but we were not permitted to play marbles, bull-pen, or cat, with the big boys and the teacher.
I also listened to all the recitations, and I heard what the teacher said to the big boys about their '' sums." The girls read in different books, and after a lesson was once read I knew it very well. In this way I became acquainted with a great deal of reading matter that I never read.
There was one drawback in going to this school. A farmer by whose house we had to pass had a large pet sheep, and when a lamb the farmers' boys had taught it to butt, and as his sheep- hood would frequently wander a mile or so along the road which we traveled, there was no way of telling when he would see us and start after us. We often had to climb saplings, get on big logs, or clamber up to the top rails of the fence to get out of his way, and he would not always go away after he " treed " us.
In this school the pupils studied spelling, reading, arithmetic.
1900] School reminiscences, (/) 453
and the big boys and girls wrote in their copy books at a high bench against the wall. The teacher had an hour for '' setting copies," and he wrote an even, round, plain hand. The ink was made by boiling the bark of the soft maple till the decoc- tion was quite thick, and then a few lumps of copperas were added to fix the color, which was either black or dark brown. In the fall the more artistically inclined boys and girls, espe- cially the smaller ones, would gather ripe poke-berries and squeeze the red juice out of them into a bottle and write with '' red ink." My first efforts at '' straight lines " and '' pot- hooks " were made in poke-berry ink, and I can testify to the fact that '' I painted the pages red " ! Our pens were always cleaned by '' licking. them," and the faces the children some- times made after '' licking their pens " were terrible to behold.
The teacher exercised considerable care in regard to pen- holding, but his instruction availed little, since the biggest boys could not touch the floor with their feet when they sat on the high bench to write. The little fellows sat humped up and did the best, perhaps, they could. At the writing time there was no inconsiderable amount of talking indulged in by the '* big scholars," but the little ones were promptly suppressed.
The amount of '' ciphering " done at these schools, and in the country schools generally after harvest till time to gather corn in November, covering a period of about twelve weeks, barring two weeks for '' corn-cutting," was immense. All the big boys, as soon as school was called in the morning, picked up their slates and arithmetics and went to the woods, and seated themselves on logs, against trees, or lolled in the shade, and talked and worked problems. The better scholars helped the poorer ones, each working for himself, and only those the most advanced in arithmetic ever went to the teacher for a solution, unless a dispute arose as to how a problem should be worked. When a pupil had found a problem that '* stalled him," he balked and came to the teacher, provided no one out in the woods could work it. Sometimes the best places to work would be a quarter of a mile or more from the schoolhouse, not far from a peach or apple orchard, or a good watermelon patch. It was a matter of honor never to destroy fruit or melons, but
454 Educational Review [December
it was regarded as no crime to go into an orchard or melon patch and get what one wanted to eat, either in lUinois or Mis- souri prior to the Civil War, and the boys who went forth in quest of ciphering, melons, or fruit, frequently went to their parents' orchards, just as everybody went into a " blackberry patch '' to pick berries to eat or to make pies. In order to have the necessary wants in the way of fruit and melons sup- plied, the lesser boys usually made the excursions while the larger ones worked their sums and explained them afterward. The working of a sum was a simple affair. The worker set down the figures and did the work as the sum was supposed to require, and then, when he had finished it, he '' would spit on it and rub it out," and tell you '' to work it." If you tried and failed, he would repeat the performance, and you tried it again. All my teachers under whom I studied, or rather '' ciphered," taught arithmetic the same way. The learner got a glimpse of the work, and then went at it for himself. When a pupil wan- dered in from the woods to have the teacher work a sum, this pupil heard the little scholars recite their lessons while the teacher worked, and sometimes a weak teacher was kept work- ing sums half the time. " To stall the teacher " was regarded as a master feat in arithmetical strategy. Occasionally the teacher would leave the schoolhouse and come out where the boys were to see how they were getting along, or maybe to give some personal assistance in arithmetic or to talk over the neighborhood news, or eat peaches, apples, or watermelons. If anything was there to eat, he was always given some of whatever there was. Frequently he took apples and peaches back to the schoolhouse with him, and I have seen two or thre6 of my teachers, along in the afternoons, pare two or three apples and give some of the pieces to the smaller children in school time. Often a little fellow would sidle up and say, " Teacher, please may I have the peelings and the core? "
About twenty minutes before time to quit school in the fore- noon or afternoon, the teacher would say, '' Get your spelling lessons ! " and then everyone in the schoolhouse began shouting the words and spelling as loud as he could. This was the signal for all " cipherers to come in," and in they went to stand
1900] School re?niniscences, {I^ 455
up and spell. Somtimes by way of diversion the spelling les- sons were studied and spelled in the woods, especially if it was a hard lesson. After the little class had spelled and the big class had spelled, noon came, and the girls and little boys were left about the schoolhouse while the teacher and the big boys either played marbles, bull-pen, or cat, some distance from the house. When the weather was very cold, the favo- rite game was '' shinny." The teacher, unless he was lame, always played with the boys and played as one of them. He was the master in the school, and in case of dispute he was the arbiter; otherwise he was as one of the big boys. As I look back over the country schools I first attended, my teachers were all fair-minded men — not much of the scholar, but really human.
One of my teachers was a sort of Chesterfield. He made all the pupils take what he called a '' course of manners " on Friday afternoons. The thing was first done in this way : He called out his own son and myself before the school. Then he sent me outdoors, and at a signal I came in. As I entered the door the teacher greeted me as follows : '' Good-afternoon, Mr. Greenwood, I hope you are well." '' Quite well," I was told to reply. Next, he said, " Mr. Greenwood, permit me to introduce you to my friend, Mr. Campbell." Mr. Campbell and I shook hands, and I had to say, " Mr. Campbell, I am happy to form your acquaintance. I hope you are enjoying excellent health." To which Mr. Campbell responded, '' I am delighted to know you, Mr. Greenwood. Indeed it gives me great pleasure to form your acquaintance."
He taught us how to stand, how to shake hands, how to place our feet when bowing, and then what expressions to use upon being introduced to married women, young women, and girls. He would have one pupil introduce another to all the other pupils in the room, and he kept this up till all of us knew what to say, what to do, and how to meet a guest, offer him a seat, and so forth.
My first lesson after the necessary preliminary drill was to introduce the teacher's son, " Mr. Campbell," to each pupil of the school. We started in, and I had introduced him to about
45^ Educational Review [December
twenty pupils when we came to a boy named Samuel Beam. I went thru the regulation formula, but Master Campbell balked. Instead of saying, " Mr. Beam," he snuffled thru his nose — '' How are you. Beam ? " And his father could get no other greeting out of him. The boy did not like Beam, and in consequence thereof he positively refused to say more, and his father gave him a whipping for disobedience and impoliteness. The boy afterward told the other boys that Beam had such an ugly face that he could not call him " Mr."
This teacher was a polite man and he endeavored to incul- cate politeness among his pupils as a necessary part of a com- mon-school education. There was a ludicrous side to this : to see boys and girls, all barefooted at a schoolhouse in the back- woods, bowing and scraping and imitating what this man re- garded as the best usage in polite society. This was before the days of comic papers, and now such a performance would receive liberal treatment at the hands of the newspaper men.
At the age of nine, my third teacher. Miss Lucy Thompson, told my father that I ought to study geography. I had not yet had an arithmetic, but had picked up a little knowledge of it by watching other boys, somewhat older, do their sums. Father bought me Mitchell's Geography and atlas. The first day I said fourteen lessons in it, and the teacher cut me down to three after that. I must have spent nearly three months in this book, reading it thru and hunting out the map ques- tions. The summer following Mr. Alfred Lewis came around teaching geography classes. The term was ten days. Father sent me to this singing geography school and I learned from memory — a plan of repetition the gentleman followed — every- thing on Mitchell's atlas. This man sang the mountains of the world to the inspiring air of " Old Dan Tucker." That geography sticks to me to this day, and Mr. Lewis, whom I learned to know in after years, said that I learned better than anyone he had ever taught. I learned all the facts about each object mentioned so far as they appeared in the atlas or in the text-book, or as Mr. Lewis mentioned them incidentally. I learned more local geography in ten days, as I found it on the
1900J School reminiscences, {I^ 457
atlas, than it is possible to have learned in any other way. There is nothing like it in modern methods, neither is there much in the new methods of teaching spelling, but the fact is, method has little in it when compared to the work of an en- thusiastic learner. As I look at it now I think the reason I made such wonderful progress in local geography was that I centered all my faculties on it, and my mind was not diverted by other matters. There is a deep educational question under- lying it after all, and that is, how do we know that the best way to study any subject is not to take one thing at a time and stick to it ? The best student I ever knew would not take during his entire course more than three studies, and he was master in these, no difference what they were.
Late in the fall after I had learned geography, my father bought me a slate and Smith's Arithmetic, and the teacher said I could cipher. I turned my attention to ciphering and I went at it in a hurry, so that in three months I had worked the last problem in the book, '' the man shooting the squirrel." I went over it so rapidly that it was the second time in going thru before I had all the knowledge well pigeon-holed. After this I traded some marbles for Adams's Arithmetic and I worked thru it, tho a boy one day accidentally dropped my book into a bucket of water, and the backs came off; yet I managed to keep the pieces till I *' ciphered thru it." Some boys had Smiley's Arithmetic and one had Ray's, and father bought a copy of Ray's for me. It was harder and much better than any other I had used. I was now able to help all the boys in school in their arithmetic, altho I never recited a lesson in it to a teacher in my life. I now read in McGuffey's old Fourth Reader, and the lessons in McGuffey's old Readers were on a much higher literary plane than any other series of Readers since issued in this country, and it is a great pity that the high moral and literary standard set by Dr. McGuffey has not been followed by others instead of the great letting down in Readers — now not much above senseless twaddle. As character- builders McGuffey's Readers exerted tremendous influence on two or three generations of men and women. Unfortunately that high standard cannot now be reached by the silly Readers
458 Edtuatzonal Review [December
used in the schools. I hope the period of dilution has expended itself.
A boy came to school with one of McGuffey's Fifth Readers, but he could not read it, so I borrowed it and I read Marco Bozzaris and other choice selections. This boy, who had come from Massachusetts, had Cutter's Elementary physi- ology and hygiene and he lent this book to me also. I had heard talk of human skeletons, and this little book filled me with unspeakable wonder and delight. But our teacher was a stiff-necked old fellow, and whenever he looked around he had to turn his body, and this gave me a good chance to hide the book before he could catch me with it. The boys, not in his hearing, however, called him '' old stiff-neck." He was a fairly good teacher, I suppose, but he was a thirsty soul and frequently '' fired up " on Saturdays, but was always " cooled down by Monday morning." During this winter a man by the name of Sweet came from New York to our neighborhood. He taught arithmetic, grammar, and especially reading. He would teach a month at a time, and his pupils advanced very rapidly. I studied reading and arithmetic under him, and I was greatly pleased with the reading, because he taught the sounds of the letters, and when he was drilling a class in reading, — about forty of us, — we could be heard, when the wind was not blowing hard, something like two miles from the church in which he kept his school. One day he whipped a fifteen-year- old girl with his cane, and the citizens were about to mob him, and he fled to parts unknown. I think he was the only genuine teacher I ever had, but he must have been an impetuous and irascible man, unable to control his temper. He asked the girl to read, and she wanted him to excuse her, so he flew at her in a rage and beat her with his cane. The sympathy of the school was with her. What I learned from him stuck to me well. I learned cancellation, cause and effect in arithmetic, the sounds of the letters, and that reading was something more than calling words.
The next school I attended it was thought by somebody that I was far enough along to study grammar; a young man and two young women were trying to do something with the sub-
«9oo] School reminiscences, (/) 459
ject, so father bought a copy of Smith's Grammar, and I went at it. We got over as far as Rule Fourteenth, and I knew the book by heart as far as I had studied it. The only thing that puzzled me was — " that which " and the '' thing which." I tried in vain to find out each of these " which's " as a material, tangible, visible thing, and the teacher could not help me. I think the others knew no more about the subject than I did. I held the " which's " in my mind for a month or two, and finally I came to the conclusion that instead of saying " that which," or the " thing which," I could say '' what " and be done with it. This was a great mental relief. I had also begun to read in Wilson's History of the United States. There were eight boys and girls in this class and we were called up to read the first thing in the afternoon. We took our seats on a long bench and read around several times — each reading a para- graph. We read from fifteen to twenty pages at a lesson, and when we had read thru the book, we began at the first and read thru again. I supplemented much of this history reading by two books which father had bought — Thomas's Pictorial his- tory of America, and the Western pioneer by John S. Williams of Cincinnati. About this time father also bought the writ- ings of Dr. Thomas Dick and I read these books very carefully, and some parts many times. They opened up a new world to me, and they had a great deal to do in shaping my thoughts and actions. I was now ready to read anything I could find, and I read all the books the neighbors had. About this time I saw a man who had studied algebra, so he said, and I wanted to know what it was like, so he asked me what x stood for, and I replied " ten," and he then told me that x stood for " any- thing," and this was indeed a deeper mystery to me than " that which," or the " thing which." I never saw him afterward, so I had to carry this dim, vague idea till I eventually bought an algebra and began to read it.
An uncle of mine, a young man, had bought Fowler's Phrenology, illustrated and applied, and once or twice he left it out of his trunk, and I read a few pages in it, but he would not let me have it. I gathered enough from it to see that it told about people, the different kinds, and I was very anxious
460 Educational Review [December
to learn about them, but he positively refused to let me see the book. I remembered the name, and a few years later when I saw it advertised in a newspaper I sent for it, and in a year or two I had read nearly all that had been written on that subject.
A man by the name of Chamberlain taught a school within about three miles of my father's house, and I went twenty-five days to his school, carrying a rifle with me to shoot at deer on the way to and from school. This school was a fair specimen of the others I have described, except that Mr. Chamberlain wrote a very beautiful hand. He knew little, but it sufficed for the pupils he had. Prior to this I had studied algebra, geometry, mensuration, Latin grammar, Spanish grammar, Olmstead's Natural philosophy, Butler's Analogy, phre- nology. Combe's Constitution of man, read the Bible thru twice, read the Revised Statutes of Missouri, much of RoUin's Ancient history, Plutarch's Lives, the Life of the Empress Josephine, Napoleon and his marshals, Burritt's Astronomy, Comstock's Philosophy and Chemistry, mythology, Mrs. Lin- coln's Botany, Cutter's Larger physiology, and Gunn's Do- mestic medicine. I had also borrowed and read a History of the zvorld, and of winter evenings would walk or ride anywhere within eight or ten miles to be at a spelling school or a debate.
The summer following the winter after I had attended Mr. Chamberlain's school twenty-five days, a short, thickset man, named John C. Gibson, from Indiana, moved into our part of the country. He was a genial, whole-souled man and a Baptist preacher. He was self-made and pretty well made at that. He liked me and I liked him, and he owned about fifty books, and I gained much from him. He lent me Campbell's Rhetoric, Hervey's Meditations, Nelson On infidelity, Gilles's History of Greece, and Benson's Commentaries on the Bible. It was he who asked me to mark on a bench with my pocket knife how many times a certain preacher during his sermon would say, " on this occasion." I did so out of curiosity, and when he had dismissed the congregation, I counted 79 marks to his credit. Mr. Gibson moved to Kansas and died there some years later. He was a popular man with the young
i9co] School reminiscences, (/) 461
people, and one could not be with him without learning some- thing. He was full of ideas, and knew some law besides.
In the fall and winter following I attended school at Kirks- ville, Mo. A man by the name of Sherman came there and started a school. He held exhibitions every week or two. He w^as a good teacher of reading, grammar, and possibly of be- ginning Latin. I studied grammar, algebra, geometry, and Latin under him. I learned rapidly, and I worked out all the mathematical problems the pupils brought to him. He prayed at morning, noon, and night, and then would get drunk after dark and be sober in the morning. He lasted thru the winter season, borrowed several hundred dollars from the brethren and decamped in the spring — no one ever knew where. He said he was a graduate of Union College, New York. He would have green boys spouting Latin before they could read intelligently in the Third Reader. I went to school to him eighty days, and I studied hard and learned all I could. There were five boy^ of us about the same age. Later, two of us' be- came teachers, two are leading ministers in their respective de- nominations, and one is a newspaper man. Another, a very bright little boy, about fifteen years old, died the next year of typhoid fever.
Perhaps the greatest benefit we derived from this winter's schooling came from the debates that we five engaged in. We had no judges or auditors, but we divided, and made the best speeches wx could on such subjects as we thought worthy of our attention. In order to read a lx)ok or a magazine, we *' pooled the price," and made one book or magazine answer for all. We enjoyed with keen relish what information we ob- tained in this way. I have frequently thought that ordinary poverty is a blessing in disguise to most ambitious boys. A few months before I had sold a two-year-old steer for fifteen dollars, and this amount I had invested in books, mostly text- books, and a history of China and Latta's Chain of sacred zvon- ders. During the spring and summer I worked on the farm as usual and in the fall I went to Canton Seminary, where I passed examination during the year in twenty different sub- jects ; the common branches were all reviews as well as several
462 Educational Review
of the more advanced branches. This school was fairly strong- in English, Latin, mathematics (up to analytics), rhetoric^ physics, and chemistry. I took all they had except Greek, which I studied later. But this year's work was too hard on me, and at the close of the year I had to give up reading for nearly twelve months, but as soon as I was able I started in again with great vigor, which I have kept up to the present moment with no cessation.
Some years ago I counted up the months I had attended school as a pupil, and they amounted to about forty-four months, but if I were asked how long I have been a student, I could truthfully say, ever since I learned to read.
While in Canton Seminary, Canton, Mo., one of my pro- fessors was Dr. Amos Lusk. He was one of the most accom- plished linguists I ever knew. He was my professor in Latin. He was a very scholarly man. Dr. Samuel Martin was my professor in chemistry. He was good also, and besides, he knew mathematics and Latin quite well. I also, studied logic under Dr. Martin, but it was not well presented in the text or by the professor.
Prior to going to Canton I had taught or kept one winter school for three months, and one fall term of three months. Having run over some of the studies with my pupils, I had a great advantage over my classmates, because I was better grounded in the common branches. This gave me a start which placed me far in the lead.
J. M. Greenwood
Superintendent of Schools, Kansas City, Mo.
I
IV
FAILURES IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE HIGH
SCHOOL
At the outset allow me to assume, without attempting proof, that there are now more failures in the first year of the high school than are really necessary. Then, after considering cer- tain difficulties that ordinarily attend boys and girls as they enter upon high-school studies, we may venture to classify the causes of failure and to mention such remedies as have been suggested by experience.
The pupil, on passing from the grammar school to the high school, comes to a new building, having different appointments and usually situated farther from his home than the old one. Notwithstanding his longer journey, he must arrive a half- hour earlier. This often occasions an earlier breakfast, if not earlier rising. On arrival, instead of a session of two and a half hours before dinner and a shorter one afterward, with some two hours between free from study, he now has a long session of five hours, broken midway by a half-hour of recess, and perhaps at other times by five minutes of relief from atten- tion. The new conditions tend to increase the school strain, especially toward the close of the session, and to prolong the interval between the morning and the midday meal. Until new habits are well established, there is certainly a liability of greater fatigue in school ; but in compensation there is a greater opportunity for daylight freedom after school is over. More- over, much help may be afforded by the provision of a sub- stantial and appetizing luncheon at the high-school recess.
The change of teachers may also have a bearing on the case. The grammar-school teacher whom the pupil leaves is often the ablest and most experienced in the building, for, despite our contrary theories, the best teachers tend toward the higher grades in a given school. Besides the ordinary teacher, too, he may have had the service of a special teacher whose business
464 Educational Review [December
it was to lead or push the laggards and to unify the product of the school plant. In the high school he is sure to come under the charge of a new teacher, and usually under one somewhat differently equipped. She commonly has an ampler educa- tion, being more probably a college graduate, but she sometimes has had less experience in dealing with the deficiencies of boys and girls. The larger the scholarship, the more inspiring the teacher should become, but it sometimes happens that a scholarly teacher is so eager to advance in her subject that she forgets to accommodate her pace to the shorter steps of her young companions. When, however, ripe scholarship is sup- plemented by practical insight into school conditions, and fired by a sympathetic heart, we have the best type of teacher for the entering pupil.
The new subjects also contribute somewhat to the beginner's cares, making larger demands upon his imagination and his powers of reasoning. He leaves arithmetic with its concrete- ness for the abstractions of algebra, and the history of familiar America for the more remote concerns of England or the Mediterranean lands; to his English, usually slender enough in vocabulary and in structure, he adds some foreign tongue. All these changes make severer calls upon him for sustained attention, for concentration of effort, and for completeness of grasp. Then, too, the new ways of living give him during study hours less than formerly of his teacher's personal atten- tion, and throw upon him more responsibility for the accom- plishment of his work. Of course this is as it should be, for our youths of fifteen ought to be something better than babes in leading strings; but the change introduces an element of new difficulty into the path of the young learner. Whether he shall overcome this by readily responding to the new conditions is what settles the question of his becoming a scholarly man. To avoid failure he must learn to study independently as well as with the teacher at his shoulder, he must have accuracy as an ideal, he must be faithful and persevering, and by his own initiative he must on occasion put aside personal gratification for remoter rewards, living laborious days for the joys that await him at their end.
ipoo] Failures in first year of high school 465
These difficulties, tho real, are not a sufficient explanation of the failures previously alluded to. They are, indeed, occasions for stumbling, but they all can be overcome. For the true ■causes of discomfiture we must look to something deeper and more abiding in the child's experience than the temporary novelties involved in a change of schools. These causes are, perhaps, half a dozen in number and often appear in combina- tion one with another.
The first is deficient preparation in the earlier schools, a cause that invariably seems more important to the young teacher than to the old, to high-school teachers than to workers in elementary grades. In my opinion not much attention -should be bestowed upon it. It is naturalto ascribe ill success in one range of studies to poor work in preceding grades, and the criticism is passed back all the way from college to kinder- .garten ; but after all we must recognize the fact that all teachers are doing about as well as they can under the conditions that environ them, and deprecate their failures as strongly as do their fellows in more advanced work. If anyone sees a remedy for apparent weakness below, let him bring that remedy with his criticism, and he may be sure of a welcome. But when we of the high schools are tempted to deride the product of the grammar schools, and to stop with that, it is far better to stop before we begin. It is our chief business to accept that product in the main, and to build upon it as fair a structure as we can.
We may properly go farther, and acknowledge that there are •considerations which render it more difficult than formerly for the elementary schools to send up excellent material to the doors of the high school. The first of these is the enlarged area of high-school attendance. The increase in home com- forts for laboring men, the freer supply by the community of both education and its accessories, and the more general recog- nition of the value of school training as a preparation for the competitions of life, all tend to bring to the upper grades from toiling homes multitudes of children who in an earlier genera- tion would have entered the ranks of wage-earners with less by far of formal education. This brings a larger proportion of pupils who by heredity, or by unscholarly and even unsanitary
4^6 Educational Review [December
home surroundings, are necessarily limited in the respect of in- tellectual progress. I am not deprecating the change. The gain to common life is enormous, and the public school should rejoice in its opportunity; but we should not fail to observe the increased difficulty in furnishing to the high school homo- geneous and excellent material for secondary education.
Moreover, the work of the grammar schools is now in a transition period. The old conception of elementary training was simple enough and could be realized after a fashion ; it was a thoro drill in the instruments of the acquisition and expres- sion of knowledge — reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, statistical geography, and a little history. This modicum was smitten into the minds of the pupils by summary effort — by suggestion, persuasion, or compulsion, as the temper of teacher and pupil made necessary. Now the cher- ished conception of the modern elementary school is quite dif- ferent. The teacher aims to secure for the child a salutary physical environment and training. Then she seeks to open his mind to the world, stimulating and gratifying his curiosity by means drawn from many fields of human research and activity. She tries, also, by directing the child's processes of acquisition, to develop interests that shall be permanent and power that shall become habitual, and she strives to acquaint him with some of his duties and privileges as a social being. Hence the modern school has among its subjects nature-study, something of the fine arts in drawing and modeling, some form of manual training, biographical and historical study^ literature, music, gymnastics, and occasionally physics, al- gebra, geometry, or a foreign language; these in addition to the number work, the geography, the reading, and the writing of a former day. There is withal an attempt to appeal to the individual pupil and develop any power that may appear.
The effort to realize such ideals with the instruments at hand has led to considerable confusion. New subjects have been introduced till teachers and pupils feel harassed and dis- satisfied, while the old remain, pruned here and there, but still mingled with the new. The courses of study are congested and not infrequently are administered by agents who, tho well-
ipoo] Failures in first year of high school 467
meaning and faithful, are unsympathetic or bewildered. The result upon the pupils is diffusion without precision. '' My boy," says a father, '' knows many more things than I did at his age, but he seems to know nothing quite so well."
This cannot last forever, but will yield to clearer views and more intelligent action. The newer ideal will prevail, for it is the truer to Nature's plan of development and the better suited to the needs of modern life. Schools and teachers will adjust themselves to it, or will fall out by the way. Meanwhile, let the high schools take what comes to them, without grumbling at what cannot be helped, and speed each youth, ,according to his ability, along the upward path.
One deficiency that will appear in every entering class, con- stituting a second of our causes of failure, is a lack of proper habits of study in view of the demands of high-school life. The best remedy for this is a sort of mothering of the young- sters by their teachers. I like to choose for the instructors of the first-year classes women who by nature or by effort have the qualities we admire in a good mother, — patience, steadi- ness, self-poise, aptness to guide, insight into disposition, fore- sight of the learner's difficulties, readiness of resource to meet them, sympathy in dealing with the unlovely. I value scholar- ship highly in a teacher, in broad ranges as well as in narrow, but for the beginners, if I can have but the one, give me the mother rather than the scholar. Such an one will lead them to plan the division of their study time within school and at home. She will show them the result of wandering thought, of neglect, of interruptions, of putting off till to-morrow what should be done to-day. She will help them thru those last two hours when Nature by her higher fatigue curve displays cau- tionary signals, advising us to take in sail and speedily find a harbor. She will not fail to search for interests in these young hearts and to provide ways in which she may tie those interests to the school subjects.
But our teacher cannot do this closer work effectively if we do not release her from the treadmill of recitation at suitable times. Give her at least one spare hour in the school session every day, and do not overwhelm her with pupils, if you really
468 Educational Review [December
mean to have her play the mother. For her business will be not merely to tell the boys and girls what to do, but to see that they do it, to make sure that right ways of study become habitual; and this requires individual contact of the minds and hearts of teacher and pupils.
Still a third cause for failure is found in a lack of inherent interest in the specific work which the pupil has to do. While it sometimes is good for us all to do what for the time is un- welcome, and to find in the joy of a result ample reward for the drudgery that necessarily precedes it, it is undoubtedly true that mentally we grow most surely thru the mode of culture that leads forth our interest voluntarily. After duly safeguard- ing the pupil's path from whims and crotchets, and after sup- plying out of experience the incentives likely to be overlooked by the unwary, it is best to direct the young learner along the line of his aptitudes as they become apparent. The teacher should regard with especial care the boy or girl who is unin- terested, in the hope to discover the reason behind the lack of interest. Is it because the teacher herself is lifeless in present- ing the subject? Is it because the pupil's energy is absorbed in less important interests? Is there anything abnormal in the child's health, or habits, or home conditions? Or has he simply got upon the wrong track? I do not find that very many beginners in a high-school system offering a considerable range of choice, present and prospective, are permanently de- void of interest. It seems advisable, therefore, to provide a reasonable number of options at the beginning of the pupil's high-school career, with an increase in the number in suc- cessive years. It is well, also, for the principal of the school to be watchful for indications, of error in the choices made, and to use a free hand in making transfers when they become desirable.
A fourth cause of failure is the state of mind in a pupil which teachers, when speaking freely, generally call laziness. The boy shows disinclination for all effort except play, shirks his work, neglects duty, and this not temporarily, but as an ordi- nary course of procedure. Each such case deserves the teacher's examination by itself. Whatever can be learned
1900] Failures in first year of high school 469
from former teachers, from parents, or from fellow pupils, should be allowed to illumine, but not to prejudge, the case. With the entering students the change to a new subject some- times induces a change of attitude; more often the new teacher captures the heart and leads the indolent fellow to make greater effort simply to please her, until habits of regular effort are set up. It sometimes appears on closer investigation that a boy who seems lazy is not really disinclined to work, but simply lacks interest in the particular assignment. Recently a sixteen-year-old boy, new to the school, was sent to me for truancy. An investigation revealed a general impression that he was of good ability, but lazy. When we were alone I said :
" Joseph, your teachers think you are lazy. What do you think?"
With a quick look he replied :
" Do you think a fellow is lazy who gets up at four in the morning and feeds more than a dozen horses before break- fast?"
Then it came out that he really was a bright boy and will- ing to study, but thru a change of residence and a few weeks' absence he was then doing work which he had previously done for parts of two years in another school. Naturally it had no fresh interest for him, and there was little incitement for him to do his best. The case was plainly one that called for better adjustment on my part by the provision of work better suited to his abilities.
Sometimes apparent laziness is due to the opposite cause; a pupil may be too immature to comprehend the subjects which involve reasoning and abstract conceptions. The lack of grasp leads to loss of interest, to idleness, and to habitual laziness. The remedy in such a case is essentially the same as in the case of pronounced dullness, of which I shall write shortly.
Again, the boy whom we think indolent is sometimes really a victim of low vitality from physical causes not understood at the time by himself, by teacher, or by parent. There are not many such cases, proportionally, but enough to warrant care on the teacher's part not to be hasty in condemnation.^
^ See D'Arcy Thompson's Day dreams of a schoolmaster, chap, xxiii.
470 Educational Review [December
Indeed, the main point which experience among deficient pupils emphasizes is that we should not rest satisfied with a casual judgment, another's or our own, to the effect that the pupil is lazy, but that we should plunge our analysis more deeply till we find the reason for the alleged laziness. Then we may have grace given us to apply an appropriate remedy, one that shall move the atrophied will to more vigorous effort.
But if in the last analysis we discover that the disinclination has its origin in vicious habits or some other aspect of worth- lessness of character, and become satisfied that neither personal effort by the teacher nor the sweep of school discipline can avail, what shall be done with the offender? My answer is, remove him from the school. The moral shock of exclusion sometimes brings a boy to his senses, enabling him to see the duties of school life with more mature vision, and arousing in him a nobler purpose. If this result is manifest, be sure to welcome him again when he wishes to take up work with real earnestness. The high school in any case is too expensive a machine to be clogged with useless and refractory material. There is no proper place in it for drones who resist all efforts to transform them into workers. Happily the extreme of ex- pulsion is seldom necessary, for when it looms in sight, parents, pupil, and teacher all have strong motives to avert its nearer approach; but when it is actually necessary, it is, in my judg- ment, a perfectly justifiable weapon against indolence, as against immorality.
Another cause of failure is an enfeebled condition of health. When this is temporary, insistence upon having the missing work made up, even if private tutoring be involved, is a rea- sonable preventive of ultimate failure. If the illness is such that prolonged weakness must ensue, upon presentation of a physician's certificate the quantity of the pupil's work should be reduced to a point at which standard quality of what is at- tempted is feasible. Care should be taken to show the parents that this reduction involves extra work at some subsequent time, or else delayed graduation. This consideration will counteract the complaisant tendency of some family physi- cians, and will avoid future misunderstandings. Of course,
igoo] Failures in first year of high school 471
those pupils who perform satisfactorily the reduced amount of work thus provided should not be grouped among the failures.
We come now to the last cause for failure which I shall enumerate — dullness in the pupil. This is the most efficient cause of all, and the hardest to remove. Pupils who are slow rather than quick of apprehension, sluggish rather than re- sponsive to intellectual stimuli, must be counted upon and reckoned with in every school. It is they upon whom the change to the more abstract subjects and the closer reasoning of the secondary school bears most heavily. We do not have the most backward cases at all; they are selected out by the elementary schools ; but many with weak mental capacities are helped forward by teachers and friends so that they hope for good to themselves in the high school. Nor is their hope in vain if they do not lose heart; but their way is beset with thorns.
If any satisfactory standard of minimum requirement is to be maintained, many of these pupils cannot be saved from failure except by wise administration, patient teaching, and a willingness on their part to take a longer time than some other pupils to attain the same minimum of quality. Some of the backward pupils will apprehend a given point — say the method of subtraction in algebra — when it has been taught once in advance and again in immediate review with suitable con- crete examples to illustrate it. Others need a fourfold or six- fold repetition to fasten the idea. But patient repetition and sufficient variety of illustration will secure the possession of the process, and sufficient practice will make it a habit, and so a permanent acquisition as long as it is in use. The problem of saving the dull from failure, therefore, is essentially the prob- lem of securing sufficiently good teaching for a sufficiently long time, with sufficient opportunity on the teacher's part to study the particular pupil and deal wisely with him. This involves a number of necessities of an administrative sort. Classes must not be large, but small. Teachers of skill and experience must be employed in these classes. Their time must not be wholly taken by class work, but some freedom must be allowed them to work with pupils one by one or in groups of two or three.
472 Educational Review [December
In schools large enough to have many dull pupils, there must on general grounds be several divisions of the pupils in each sub- ject taken the first year; the interests of the dull pupils will be best served if, as soon as convenient, these divisions are made on the basis of ease of apprehension. Of course this is a deli- cate matter to handle, but the interests of the best and of the poorest scholars alike advise it. It is clear that the dullest pupils require a longer time than the average to reach a given minimum, and equally clear that the quickest of mind should not be made to mark time while the slower are coming into line. Meanwhile, that is to say while the bright and the dull are commingled in the divisions, they all should be the objects of careful study and adequate stimulation.
It is my custom, for instance, to obtain from each of my assistants who have to do with my fourth class, the beginners, one month after they enter a statement showing who are fail- ing to reach our minimum standard and what seems to be the reason. For the next two weeks I devote a portion of each day to these pupils, inviting them to my office. I do not seek to frighten them; I am careful not to scold them. I try to learn from them what they think the reason for their failure is, and mentally compare their opinion with the judgment of the teacher already on record. In most cases the teacher's opinion is confirmed by evidence elicited from the child. Then I set about rousing these pupils to the use of their best efforts and of wiser methods in case the latter are needed; employing persuasion and playful raillery, or earnest appeal and encour- agement, as seems wisest. The pupil is alone with me for these few minutes and our conversation is confidential. A month later I send to the father of any who then remain delinquent in their studies a printed note calling attention to the lack of suc- cess of his child, and inviting a conference. At the end of the third month a note will go from the Secretary of the High School Committee informing the parents that the pupil, being still delinquent, has been placed on special probation. At the end of the fourth month under our rules pupils still delinquent have forfeited membership in the school. They may be dropped from the school, if we deem it best, and that has often
1900] Failures in first year of high school 473
been done in the past. Where dullness or immaturity is the cause of the continued failure, it is better to withdraw the pupils from their divisions, making a new one which shall have work designed to prepare them to begin the work of the lowest class again, and under more favorable auspices, another autumn. The parents are glad to assent to this five-year course in preference to the summary dropping of their children.
This is one way of combining careful administration with patient teaching, allowing time to lend its aid when needed. There are others, doubtless, which are as good or better. But there are some boys and girls for whom the best plans that we can conceive are unavailing; they seem to be instances of arrested development in respect to all power that can be tested in the academic or manual work of the school. The passing from school of each such one saddens me and keeps me ever in search of the philosopher's stone which shall transmute all baser metal in our schoolrooms into pure gold.
In the search for symptoms by which we may rightly diag- nose each patient that comes before us in the course of our daily duty, and especially in the application of our remedies, there is one thing we must remember. The physician who enters upon a modern surgical operation without making sure that his in- struments and his hands are antiseptically clean can have no assurance of a successful issue for his most brilliant effort. He has actually invited failure. There is in the schoolroom an antiseptic : its name is sympathy. By this I mean the quality which places the scholarship and experience of a refined man or woman at the service of the most unlovely child, which shares itself with the needy who does not recognize his own need, which feels, as Sir Launfal came to feel, that " the gift without the giver is bare." Sympathy it is that must accom- pany all our efforts, however well intended or well directed, if we would be certain of success with any type of delinquents. When this quality is discerned by the pupil, it tends to summon forth the best there is in him. To follow the leadings of a sympathetic interest in our pupils calls for patient and perse- vering labor, it is true, but it also brings its rich rewards.
474 Educational Review
The other day there was read to me from the evening paper a dispatch telling of the storming of a bandit camp in the Philippine Island of Negros by a captain of the Sixth In- fantry and his men. It carried me back twenty -four years to the day when I first met that captain, then an auburn-haired, freckle-faced little failure at a New England high school. And I thought of the struggles we had with him, of his vic- tories over temper^ of the new interests and new ideals that came from the school to this motherless and fatherless boy, of the appointment to West Point that we secured for him, and, too, of that letter which came to me with his wedding cards, after he had received his commission, in which his old roguery mingled with the tenderest gratitude, — " Mr. Ruling, if I ever amount to anything, you will have to bear the blame of it." That fellow was saved by sympathetic treatment, and, I assure you, the memory of it on that evening did much to relieve the weariness and loneliness of an otherwise tedious day.
Ray Greene Huling
English High School, Cambridge, Mass.
GOVERNMENT OF WOMEN STUDENTS IN COL- LEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
Those of us who are engaged in the practical work of stu- dent government are constantly confronted by a changing yet endless series of problems. Some of these are obvious, others present themselves only after years of work; some are of trifling, others of vital importance; some solve themselves almost as they arise, others are apparently impossible of solu- tion; as soon as one is successfully met another still more baffling rises in its place; or one that has defied our best at- tempts for years will thru some event which we lay to chance, with the incoming, say, of a new class, suddenly vanish for- ever. On our success in reaching solutions for the greater number or for the more important of these problems, depends the success of our system of government; in the finding such solutions our work consists. It is no great wonder, then, that we should grasp at any possible help in the solving of them by trying to learn how similar problems have been solved else- where.
The solution worked out elsewhere will not be of direct serv- ice as a solution for the new problem at home. There are new factors always in the new problem which must be reck- oned with first. But it will be of service toward a solution, and as such none of us can afford to dispense with it. So we answer patiently and fully countless questions as to our " sys- tem of government," our ** regulations for conduct," the *' en- forcement of such regulations," and the like; just as we ask, when we need it, similar help from outside; feeling that in these ways we contribute most efficiently and most constantly to the solution* of the great universal problem, always insoluble, yet always, too, in process of being solved — the problem as to what makes for the best life of students everywhere. It is in
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47^ Educational Review [December
the hope of contributing to that solution, and meanwhile of saving time for the many who must ask and who must answer, that the academic committee of the alumnae of Bryn Mawr Col- lege have put together the following paper.
So little as yet exists in print concerning student government that it has proved necessary to resort to the old method of '' troubling with questions " those already overburdened with duties. The facts embodied in this paper have been furnished in response to a questionnaire sent out to twelve of the lead- ing women's colleges and coeducational universities of the United States. The answers have generally been made by the dean of the college in question; sometimes by its president, always by some person in high authority; so that such infor- mation as the paper contains is made public with the full con- sent and approval of the colleges concerned, and carries all possible weight as a statement of fact. The information de- sired has been furnished in every case with a courtesy and a cordiality which the committee have taken as proof of a genuine interest in the plan of publishing at last in available form, the main facts concerning the government of women students.
The plan followed in arranging these facts has been, taking the colleges and universities in alphabetical order, first, to out- line the general system of government in each ; and then, in so far as space and expediency permitted, to give in some detail the regulations in force in them concerning conduct and life. It is possible thus to compare, both in their general principles and in their more minute provisions, the systems of government among women students all over the United States- The com- mittee hope that the facts, thus for the first time collected, will to-day be of suggestiveness to those who are facing the prob- lems of student government, and as a matter of historical interest, will have a permanent value.
General Systems of Government
Barnard College — The system of government in force in Barnard College, originating with the dean of the college in
i9oo] Government of women students 477
1894, and in its most recent development thru the suggestion of the head of Fiske Hall, the hall of residence, is on the whole a form of self-government. A majority of the students still are non-resident and the problems of government for them are met by a self-government committee of the undergraduate association — the president of the undergraduate association serving as chairman of the committee, and the other four mem- bers being elected from the four classes, each by her own class. This committee draw up rules which are reported to the asso- ciation and enforced by the dean; the ultimate responsibility, therefore, not only for suspension and expulsion, but for the everyday enforcing of regulations, rests upon her. The rules apply to the students while in the university buildings only, and deal with quiet in the academic buildings; the use by the students of the bulletin boards; the taking of books from the reading room; the eating of luncheon in the buildings; the use of lockers, and so on. They do not cover matters of conduct.
In the dormitory (Fiske Hall) the management of the stu- dents necessitates some additional machinery; accordingly the students in mass meeting elect an '' advisory committee " of five, who, with the advice of the head of the house, control the details of hall-life. This twofold organization for govern- ment— the self-government committee, backed by the dean, and the committee of five, in consultation with the head of the hall — bears no direct relation to the faculty in general, and none of its members are officially connected with the college. To its legislative power no limit is set; but it is wholly without execu- tive power. The meetings are well attended; the government is popular; the offices are desired. Any regulation now in force could be done; away with precisely as it was made, by vote of the undergraduate association; and in the case of the regula- tions of the committee of five, by vote of all the students in hall; the one exception being the responsibility for chaperonage of the students in residence, which rests with the head of the house.
A system of government primarily dependent on an under- graduate association cannot, of course, technically touch graduate students; and even in hall graduate students in Bar-
47^ Educational Review [December
nard are less restricted, as to chaperonage and so forth, than are the undergraduates; while for non-resident students, graduate or undergraduate, during the time in which they are not actually present in university buildings, the college assumes absolutely no responsibility.
Brown University — Brown University,^ having no hall of residence for women, controls the conduct of its students only in the most general way. The dean and an advisory council of women are responsible for their welfare; but no attempt is made to govern the details of the students' lives. Each stu- dent cottage must be suitably chaperoned, tho its head is not appointed by the university; she has, however, control of the students under her charge and is practically answerable for them. Should the conduct of a student prove unworthy, the student is asked by the dean and the advisory council to with- draw.
Bryn Mawr College — Bryn Mawr's system of self-govern- ment, instituted in 1891, is, on the whole, the most completely organized and fully developed in the country. " All persons pursuing studies at Bryn Mawr College are ipso facto mem- bers " of the students' association for self-government. This Association works thru an executive committee elected from among its own members, on whom the entire responsibility rests for the government of the college students — even to the point of recommending the refusal to allow a member to live longer within the college halls, or even her suspension or ex- pulsion. Such a recommendation insures the passing of the sentence, altho as a matter of form the letter conveying it is signed on behalf of the trustees by the president of the college. Bryn Mawr's elaborately organized system has been the ob- ject of so much curiosity that it seems worth while to give in full certain paragraphs from its constitution.
Article V — The executive power of the association shall be vested in a president, a vice president, a secretary, a treasurer, and an executive board composed of the president, vice president, and three other members.
' Since this article was written the creation of a new office, the dean of women, in Brown University, may be regarded as a step toward a more complete system of organization and of government for the women students.
I poo] Government of women students 479
The officers and the other three members of the executive board shall be annually elected by ballot by the association in the fbrtnight after the announcement of the resident fellowships, and shall enter upon their duties immediately at the conclusion of all the elections.
Only graduates and members of the three upper classes are eligible to- offices and to membership of the executive board.
Then, after an enumeration of the duties of the different officers, obvious enough, follows :
The duties of the executive board shall be to apply the will of the associ- ation as expressed in the constitution, by carrying into effect the judicial decisions and enforcing the legislative resolutions of the association, and by executing its own administrative decrees in matters not covered by the legislative resolutions ; the action of the board being subject to revision or appeal in all cases by the association sitting as a judicial body.
Article VI — The legislative power of the association shall be exer- cised by the whole association, one-third of whose members shall constitute a quorum.
Article VII — The judicial power of the association shall be vested in
1. The association sitting as a judicial body. This body shall constitute the highest court, wherein the rule of a majority consisting of two-thirds of the members of the association shall prevail ; and
2. The executive board constituting the lower court, before which all matters must first be brought, and from which alone an appeal may be made to the whole association sitting as a judicial body.
In extraordinary cases the association sitting as a judicial body, and upor^ an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members of the association, may delegate its supreme jurisdiction to a special court consisting of the exec- utive board and two members of the advisory board. The election of the two members of the advisory board by the association shall follow im- mediately.
Article VIII — There shall bean advisory board composed of ten mem- bers of the association, whose duties shall be to advise with the executive board at the request of one or more members of the executive board.
The advisory board shall be annually elected by ballot, two members by each class and two by the graduates, in the fortnight following the election of the officers and executive board ; the term of office to be coincident with that of the executive board.
And, finally, one of the by-laws of the association reads :
1. That the immediate responsibility for the conduct of the students in each dormitory rest with three or more proctors.
2. That proctors be elected in every hall at the beginning of each semes- ter by the students of the hall.
3. That proctors be subject on election to the approval of the executive board, and to removal by it at any time, if deemed inefficient by the board in the performance of their duties.
4^0 Educational Review [December
Such machinery is of course not often called into service, tho in extreme cases it serves to safeguard the rights of the association against the possible mistakes of the executive board. For the practical purposes of every day the proctors and execu- tive board are sufficient. When the proctors report difficulty the members of the board meet and decide upon any case in accordance with what they believe to be the will of the associa- tion; they notify the offending student. She may within a certain time appeal to the whole of the association, when a meeting is held and the case voted on. So far in the history of the college the decisions of the executive board have been upheld by the association.
This system, of course, gives to the students an extraordi- nary independence of power. Within the limits laid down by the constitution, — " the association shall have power to deal with all those matters concerning the conduct of the members in their college life which do not fall under the jurisdiction of the authorities of the college, or of the mistresses of the halls of residence," — their authority is absolute. And when one realizes how few matters of conduct are thus ruled out, — matters exclusively academic, or involved merely in the prac- tical running of a dormitory, — it is easy to see that the stu- dents in Bryn Mawr hold in their hands a great power for good or ill.
The offices are the greatest honor the student body can con- fer, and elections are the event of the year. The government, originating as it did with the students themselves, and at their own petition, has a singularly strong hold upon them. The rules governing conduct are embodied in a set of regulations made by the association from time to time as need arose. Fines are fixed for the neglect of certain of these (failure to register absence over night from the college hall, for instance) . In cases of continued defiance, suspension for a time, and re- fusal of the right to live within the college halls have been pro- nounced.
The limits to the responsibility of the college for students not resident within its own buildings have never been defined.
Chicago University — The University of Chicago, in the
1900] Government of women students 481
scheme of student government in practice ever since its foun- dation, offers a solution of the problem wholly different from those already presented.
The students are graded according to their academic rank as graduate, senior college, and junior college students. Each of these bodies is under the direction of a separate faculty in all matters affecting academic relations, including conduct in classes. Student interests which are not of an academic nature are administered by the board of physical culture and athletics, and the board of student organizations, publications, and exhi- bitions. The deans are the executive officers. -Action taken by these faculties and boards is subject to revision on the educational side by the university senate, and on the adminis- trative side by the university council. Each body of students chooses from its own membership an official council which *' serves as the executive committee of the students of the col- leges, considers any matters referred to them by the faculty and reports upon the same, superintends any meetings or celebra- tions of the students of the senior and junior colleges respect- ively, and the counselors act in connection with the faculty officers of each division."
The students may be divided into three classes according to their residence: (i) those who live at home; (2) those who live in lodging houses or boarding houses; (3) those who live in the university houses. Very little social control is exercised over the first two classes except such as seems expedient to the dean in individual cases. There is a general rule, however, that undergraduate students not living in university houses may not live in any building in which a family does not reside.
The university houses are organized under a common set of principles and rules established by the university, of which the following are the most important : '
1. Composition of a house.
{a) Members of the university entitled to continuous residence in a par- ticular hall constitute a house.
{b) Residence in a hall is limited to students in attendance on courses in the university, and officers of the university.
2. Officers.
4^2 Educational Review [December
Each house has a head, appointed by the president of the university; a counselor, chosen from a faculty of the university by the members of the house, of which house committee the head of the house is chairman, and the counselor a member ex officio, and a secretary and treasurer elected by the members of the house. Each house, thru its committee, makes a quarterly report to the president. A house may select, with the approval of the university council, one or more persons not directly connected with the university, as patrons or patronesses.
As each house is allowed the privilege of choosing its own specific rules, there is considerable variety in them, and this is greatly desired by the university.
In Green House, for example, certain specific rules will give an idea of the sort of regulations made. The residents of the hall are members or guests; all members of the university assigned to rooms in Green Hall being considered guests un- less elected to membership. At the end of the tenth week of residence guests become eligible to membership; a quarterly meeting for the election of members is held during the eleventh week of each quarter, after notices of the meeting and lists of eligible guests have been sent to members of the house. The assent of three- fourths of those present is required for election. Membership then becomes active upon entering the second quarter of residence and signing the constitution.
The house is governed by a body of rules — the by-laws — adopted by a two-thirds vote of all the members. House membership has been withdrawn because of continued viola- tions of the regulations. Under such circumstances the head and counselor of the house recommend the withdrawal of membership to the board of student organizations. With re- gard to the officers of the house it is further provided that the counselor hold office for one year; other officers chosen by the house are elected for three months only.
The house committee of Green House number eight ; to them are intrusted the execution of the by-laws of the house and its general regulation; and the committee are empowered in cases not covered by the house rules to provide for the welfare of the house. When three-fourths of the members of this committee vote that membership has been forfeited by a student in the
ipoo] Government of women students 483
hall, this vote is carried to the head and counselor, who take action upon it.
Cornell University — At Cornell the system of government is but slightly organized; it may be said to be approaching self- government. While the ultimate responsibility in such ques- tions as involve suspension and expulsion rests v^ith the presi- dent, the practical responsibility for everyday matters of con- duct rests with the warden of Sage College, assisted by the executive committee of students of Sage College, — a repre- sentative body of nine members elected by ballot by the women students of both dormitories, eight members by the whole body of students excepting the freshmen, one member by the fresh- men as a class. This executive committee have, strictly speak- ing, neither executive nor legislative power; these belong tech- nically to the warden and her assistant; but the committee are consulted before any new legislation is determined upon; and they help practically, with some additional proctors appointed by themselves, in enforcing the general principles of good government and orderly life thruout the halls.
The most obvious duties of this committee are to further in every way possible the order of the students' life in the dormi- tories, their unity of spirit, their sense of responsibility; to act as their representatives as reception committee at all social entertainments given by the women students as a whole; to preserve absolute quiet at night thruout the halls, and reason- able quiet at all times; and, in general, to serve as a channel of communication between the students and the warden.
Besides the social prestige, at receptions and the like, which their position gives them, the committee and proctors are en- titled to invite a larger number of guests to college entertain- ments than other students; they may remain out of the halls in the evening unregistered for one hour later than other stu- dents; they have the first choice of rooms each year at the assignment of rooms.
Explicit rules governing conduct are very few; they cover registering absence from the dormitories after ten o'clock; quiet in the dormitories after the same hour; the chaperoning of evening parties, excursions, and drives. All the students
484 Educational Review [December
meet the warden at short intervals during the year for talks on general matters of practical bearing in their lives; in this way, in default of written rules, a general understanding with regard to questions of conduct is maintained.
But dependence is placed chiefly upon a student's sense of honorable and suitable conduct, and of responsibility for the name and standing of the students as a whole; and a student who proves unfit to govern her own life is asked to withdraw.
In general the same principles of conduct apply to both graduates and undergraduates, tho the former of course hold a more complete responsibility for themselves. Over students not resident in its own buildings the university assumes no con- trol ; their lives are governed merely as individual members of homes.
Michigan University — The University of Michigan, an- other coeducational university, presents a plan of government similar to the preceding. Thirty years ago the plan of provid- ing dormitories was abandoned, and since that time, the women students as well as the men have boarded in families and frater- nities, and the same system of government prevails for both. No woman student, then, is expected to enter or is allowed to remain in the university, who is not competent to take care of herself, and to govern her own life, and the responsibility of living under such an understanding seems to be felt by every student almost as soon as she enters the university.
There is no organized self-government. For practical pur- poses the government of the women rests upon the dean of women and the president of the university; in extreme cases, involving suspension, on the faculty. That is, if after the dean or president has remonstrated with a student, she continues in any misconduct, her family is at once asked to call her home. Students are thus sent home for very light offenses, for under this broad system it is of course impossible to allow much care- lessness, even, to exist with impunity; so that if, for example, she defied any one of the very few regulations that exist, a student would be at once asked to withdraw.
As a general rule, in cases of very serious offenses, students are summoned before the faculty and allowed to speak for
1900] Government of women students 485
themselves before final judgment is passed; but no woman student has ever thus been called up. Cases of discipline among the women are in any event exceedingly infrequent, and the authorities of the university do not hesitate to express their conviction that with the closing of dormitories most of the difficulties and problems of student government cease alto- gether to exist.
Radcliife College — In Radcliffe College the system of gov- ernment in force since the foundation of the college is as fol- lows: The ultimate responsibility rests upon the governing boards of the college — the academic board and the council. For practical everyday purposes the government rests upon the women students themselves, as individuals ; the college is a college of non-resident students, and the tendency of the elective system, too, is toward separation.
The students have at times considered the formation of a self-government society, but have hitherto decided against it; so that, at present, the legislative power resides in the govern- ing boards of the college; while the executive power is vested in the academic board as regards instruction, and in the dean as regards discipline.
The great safeguard, not only against defiance of the prin- ciples of government in the college, but against misconduct of any sort, is the strong traditional public opinion of Cambridge. Indeed the system of government is part of the old tradition of the town, when the Harvard students lived in private families. Very great freedom from actual rule is therefore possible, and in the circumstances most desirable; for example, advanced graduate students, — and these are numerous at Radclifife, — who have already had some years of independent life in study abroad could not reasonably be held to the provisions made for the youngest girls, living for the first time away from their families. Almost entire freedom from fixed rule is secured by the large number of good homes which are open to the women, in Cambridge.
Such regulations as exist are few — two, relating to resi- dence, being the most important; the students must live in houses approved by the Dean ; in these houses there must be no
4^^ Educational Review [December
young men received as permanent or transient boarders. With regard to ordinary conduct, a statement is made to the students when they meet on the first day of the college year; and from time to time a mass meeting is held. Should a student defy the college she would be requested to withdraw ; such cases are exceedingly infrequent, and the punishment has never had to be made public.
Smith College — The government of Smith College is still, fundamentally, the one with which the college began. Its authority is in the hands, not of the students themselves or of a self-government organization, but of the ladies in charge of the college houses, the house committee, the faculty, the presi- dent, and, in addition to these, the body known as the confer- ence committee, consisting of the class officers of the faculty and the (student) council of the college. Ultimate measures — suspension or expulsion — are the province of faculty and president; in everyday matters of life, the relation between the students and those over them is one of conference, suggestion, and consultation, the students themselves being trusted with some of the executive details connected with their social life. They have thus some executive, and no legislative power, save what resides in their right to consult and confer with those who hold that power.
The student council of Smith College consists of ten mem- bers,— three seniors, two juniors, one member of the second class, and the presidents of the four classes. These are elected annually, one junior member and one second-class member holding over to the following year. The object of the council, says its constitution, shall be to represent the students in their common interests, and to serve as a medium of communication between the classes, or between faculty and students; to in- fluence the students in the direction of definitely organized pub- lic sentiment for the regulation of their social life; and in gen- eral to aid in establishing a better understanding between faculty and students upon subjects of mutual interest.
The council's duties, formulated in by-laws, are to seat classes in chapel and to maintain order during chapel exercises ; to oversee the reading-room and its funds ; and to have charge
1900] Government of women students 487
of the property-box and of the calendar of dates for entertain- ments. None of these matters are of course matters of gov- ernment; the latter rests with the various committees and per- sons already enumerated. The main dependence is, however, — and this is perhaps the chief characteristic of the Smith Col- lege system of government, — on conference and consultation between the students and the authorities, thru certain com- mittees and officers. Academic matters, attendance upon classes, absence from college and the like, come under the house committee and faculty, while matters of chaperonage, social engagements, and entertainments, are generally settled by the house committee and those in charge of the college houses.
Certain regulations exist which are enforced on penalty, as usual, of the withdrawal of the student. At the same time a " procedure of information " is in force for the help of a delin- quent student, that she may have full chance for change of con- duct. Even in matters, however, where no regulations exist the authorities quite definitely discourage the presence of stu- dents in any w^ay hostile to the temper of the college.
Questions of government are not in Smith College compli- cated by the presence of graduate students in the college houses. The same system is therefore in force for all resi- dents, upper and under classmen faring alike, save that more consideration is likely to be shown to first offenses and to stu- dents presumably unfamiliar with the mode of life.
With regard to another question — a serious one in Smith in view of the immense number of students forced, for lack of room, to live out of the college houses — the question of gov- ernment for students not resident in college buildings, the col- lege meets the problem by '' urging upon the off -campus stu- dents " the regulations that it enforces upon those in college houses. In matters of ultimate propriety it assumes responsi- bility even for these students; in other matters there is less regularity of life in the town boarding houses than in the dor- mitories, tho the college uses what influence it can bring to bear, up to the point of necessary discipline.
Stanford University — In Leland Stanford, Jr., University, altho there are collegiate halls of residence for the women stu-
488 Educational Review [December
dents, the system of government in force closely resembles that of the University of Michigan. The immediate responsibility for everyday matters rests with the mistress of Roble Hall and her assistant, the mistress of Madroiia Hall; for ultimate measures of discipline, upon a standing committee of the faculty — the university committee on student affairs.
As in the University of Michigan, there are no rules recog- nized by the university as governing conduct. It is assumed that students knov^ how to conduct themselves; should one prove incapable or unwilling, she is asked by the committee, either with or without previous warning, to withdraw. The university is not the place for her, — to quote President Jordan, — " if she does more harm to others than we do good to her."
The committee on student affairs might legislate if need arose, but legislation is supposed to be chiefly the unwritten law of common sense, and the committee's work is in greater part executive.
With regard to its executive decisions no penalties are fixed and in general no punishment administered for misconduct; in rare cases students are suspended for a definite period; but as a rule the university relies on its power to send away students who are not to be trusted with the conduct of their own lives. Aside from this general understanding with regard to the gov- ernment of all students of the university, graduates and under- graduates, upper and under classmen, men and women alike, are certain provisions meeting the needs merely of women resi- dent in the college dormitories, and affecting only the orderly conduct of a community life in the halls. The organization that exists to that end is not recognized in any way by the faculty committee; and its officers, a house president and com- mittee, are not officially connected with the university. They are elected by the women students themselves, and their power, dealing only with affairs in the hall, depends strictly on the " consent of the governed."
Vassar College — In Vassar College, while the ultimate re- sponsibility in matters of government rests upon the president, everyday details of it are divided between the president, the faculty, the lady principal, and the s'tudents' association.
ipoo] Government of women students 489
This students' association forms a system for government not quite duplicated elsewherey* and may be described in some detail.
In the first place, — and in this the function of the association differs from that, for example, in Bryn Mawr, — the students' association is an executive body merely, the legislative power residing solely with the formal authorities of the college, — the president, faculty, and lady principal. The work of the asso- ciation is therefore far less burdened with responsibility than would at first appear; its duty is merely the enforcing of cer- tain regulations and principles already established. Moreover, even these regulations are closely limited in scope, covering only hours of retirement for the night, hours of quiet for study, provision for exercise and attendance at the Chapel services. The conduct of the students, strictly speaking, including all social matters and offenses as individuals, is under the control of the lady principal.
Yet it will be admitted by anyone who has had experience with the government of students that it is precisely regulations concerning such matters as are intrusted to the students' asso- ciation that are most difficult to enforce practically ; the Vassar system, then, is of great interest as a method by which such enforcement has been secured.
The association consists of all the students of Vassar who sign its constitution and by-laws. Any student who fails thus to become a member of the association submits herself to the supervision of the faculty. Practically it may be said, there-' fore, that the association includes the whole body of students. The officers are a president, a vice president, and a secretary- treasurer, elected by ballot every May at the annual meeting of the association. The association is not a governing organiza- tion solely. It elects committees for Founder's Day and Washington's Birthday. It issues the monthly Miscellany, and it ratifies the election of its editors, and of the officers of the college glee and mandolin and guitar clubs; and it meets the expenses incurred by these musical clubs.
Its most important function, however, is the enforcement of the regulations already alluded to, thru the means of its self-
490 Educational Review [December
government committee. This committee consists of the presi- dent and vice president of the, association and in addition nine members, two each from the senior, sophomore, and freshmen classes, and three from the junior class. The election of these members by their respective classes is ratified by the association as a whole. This committee on self-government has for its duties '' to enforce the rules of the association in respect to self- government, to attend to all reported breaches of said rules, to construe said rules, and in other ways to further the interests of the members of the association in respect to self-govern- ment." The by-laws go on to provide that
{a) The committee on self-government may, at its discretion, summon before it any member or members of the association,
and that
{b) The committee on self-government may, on the vote of any seven of its members, temporarily suspend from membership in the association any member or members guilty of flagrant breach of the rules in respect to self- government.
The term of suspension shall not exceed one semester.
The secretary of the committee shall send notification of such action to the faculty of the college.
An appeal from the decision of the committee may be made to the as- sociation.
The association thus succeeds in. enforcing the regulations of the authorities of the college regarding the matters 'already enumerated; hours for study, sleep and exercise, and attend- ance at the college religious exercises.
So far as the students are not self-governing, — and it may be said that they are not self-governing, either as individuals or as a body, in matters of actual conduct, — power, both legis- lative and executive, is in the hands of the authorities; in academic matters in the hands of the president and faculty; in social matters, or matters of individual offense, in the hands of the president and lady principal. There are no written rules or regulations governing conduct. The lady principal instructs the freshman class immediately upon its entrance in the social usage of the college, and supplements that instruction as the year goes on by talks or reprimands to the whole body
1900] Government of women students 491
of students, while the president frequently addresses the col- lege on both general and specific questions in morals and manners.
There are no fixed penalties for breaking any of the rules in force. In case of continued defiance a student is quietly sent home, as unfit for college life.
The system of government, so far as the students' share in it is concerned, originated in 1890. Up to that time there was but little public spirit, but little sense of responsibility on the part of even the better grade of students for the conduct of anyone except herself. Also it was impossible to find out the breakers of rules without a system of espionage odious to the students and distasteful to the authorities. The general idea of the present system originated with the president. Since its adoption the authorities themselves report " the general spirit of the students is in favor of law and order and they co- operate with the authorities to secure it."
Wellcsley College — The system of government in Wellesley College is very definitely not a form of self-government. It rests in the hands of an academic council of the faculty, and more especially, and for everyday purposes, in the hands of the president and heads of houses.
Wellesley is practically alone in assuming absolutely the same responsibility for the conduct of its students whether resident in the college buildings or not; the only exception it admits being in the case of students living at home with their parents. To this end a list is supplied of such boarding or lodging places as are approved by the dean, and a student may not even change her place of residence from one to another of these without the president's approval. The rules governing conduct in the college houses may thus be extended to the homes in town where students live, and a consistent system of government maintained over the whole student body. One special privilege is allowed upper — as distinguished from under-class men, — that of registering their own absences from town instead of asking for the permission required for fresh- men and sophomores. Aside from this the same regulations apply to all undergraduates.
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The executive power resides with the president, the dean, and the heads of the houses; the legislative power with the faculty, which made the regulations for conduct now in force, and which modifies them from time to time, as occa- sion demands. This system of government, of faculty origin, has remained practically unchanged for the past ten years, hav- ing successfully supplanted a system adapted to a younger and less responsible class of students than those now in the college.
University of Wisconsin — The system adopted within two years by the students in the University of Wisconsin, at the suggestion of the dean of women there, is one of rather com- plete self-government. The ultimate responsibility for sus- pension and expulsion rests with the faculty of the university, but for practical purposes the government is in the hands of the students themselves. It bears no official relation to the authorities of the college, and the limits of its jurisdiction are still unsettled; but it is within itself fully organized — with officers elected by ballot of the association, who, as executives, enforce the decisions of their legislative body, the association itself.
The regulations, then, made by the association cover most of the questions of conduct likely to arise, and might be added to by voluntary act of the students. All regulations are sub- mitted for approval to the dean of women and to the social committee of the faculty.
In case of continued defiance of the principles of self- government, resulting in conduct really reprehensible, appeal could be made to the authorities; as yet no penalties exist; and recourse has not been necessary to any severe punishments.
The same system of government extends to all the women students alike, whether graduate or undergraduate, whether resident in university buildings or no ; tho the same regulations are not always applicable to both. The non-resident women students are free to consult constantly with the dean of women; but, except for the existence of such a dean, the responsibility assumed for their conduct by the university differs not at all from the responsibility assumed for the conduct of its students who are men.
1900 J Government of women students 493
The newly organized system of self-government has resulted in an increase of esprit de corps, in a moderation of the excesses in the social life, above all, in a feeling of responsibility for the social standards of the university at large.
Detailed Provisions for Conduct
In addition to the general statement concerning the govern- ment of each college, its principles and scope, a statement of the more minute details and provisions of the government may be of value. It is this part of the paper which, if of less interest to the general reader, is likely to prove of most sug- gestiveness to those who are engaged in practical work in our colleges.
The list of matters governed and controlled, whether by formulated regulations or by public opinion merely, cannot, of course, hope to be exhaustive; it can at best be but suggestive. Such matters may be grouped under the heads : regulations for the details of life in the dormitories; regulations for those de- tails of life which may be classed as academic; and regulations for the social life of the college.
Regulations for the details of life in the dormitories cover such matters as retirement for the night; hours of quiet for study and sleep; safeguard against fire; the use of wine and cigarettes; spending the night away from the college buildings; the time of return to the college buildings in the evening.
The time of retirement for the night is regulated by the " ten o'clock rule " very strictly at Smith and at Wellesley; the former notes it as "a college rule of utmost emphasis " ; the latter in its house rules states: "at 10 p. m. students will promptly extinguish their lights, go to bed, and preserve quiet." The rule has within the past few months been done away with at Vassar College. In certain other colleges, Stanford and Cornell, for example, the electric light plant is closed at 10.30 or II. But lamps may be u&ed, and in general it may be said that the time of retiring is left to the discretion of the students.
Hours of quiet for study and sleep are far more universally regulated. Of the colleges considered in this article, where
494 Educational Review [December
dormitories exist, all but one have as a rule that absolute quiet be observed after lo or 10.30 at night; while most of them re- quire absolute quiet at all times in the corridors of recitation halls and in the reading rooms.
Hours of quiet during the day thruout the dormitory are less universally required; the following are typical provisions:
In the dormitories, from Monday to Thursday inclusive, there shall be quiet from 8 to i in the morning, from 2 to 4 in the afternoon, from 7.30 to 9.15 and after 10 in the evening . . . there shall be quiet on Friday morning from 8 to i, on Saturday morning from 8 to i, on Friday after- noon from 2 to 4, ort Friday and Saturday evenings after 10.30, and on» Sunday evening after 10 o'clock (Bryn Mawr).
Quiet shall be maintained in the corridors and rooms from 9 to 12:30, 2 to 5 and after 8 P. M., except Friday evenings and Saturday after- noons and evenings (Chicago).
There shall be reasonable quiet in the halls at all times ; there shall be no playing upon musical instruments in the drawing rooms or in the students' rooms, except between the hours i to 3 and 5 to 8 P. M. (Cornell).
The hours reserved as quiet for study are those in the morning ; in the afternoon from 2 to 4; in the evening from 7.30 to 9.30; and after 10 o'clock (Wisconsin).
There shall be no unnecessary noise in the corridors of the main building and no playing of musical instruments in the students' rooms during the hours usually given up -to college duties and before 5 o'clock on Sunday afternoons (Vassar).
Safeguard against fire is provided almost universally by a general system of fire alarms thru the halls, with directions for use and men within call. It is sometimes also secured by special regulations such as the following : " no oil stoves may be used" (Bryn Mawr, Cornell); "only safety matches are allowed " (Cornell, Wellesley) ; '' no lamps shall be filled in a room with a light " (Bryn Mawr) ; " no lighted lamp shall be carried in the corridors " (Bryn Mawr) ; " no lighted lamp shall be left burning in an empty room " (Wellesley) ; " lamp shades of combustible materials are not allowed" (Welles- ley) ; " long drapery must be secured so as to guard against danger" (Wellesley, Bryn Mawr).
Safety is also sometimes provided for by fire drills at regular intervals; in Cornell at the opening of every term, under the leadership of the assistant to the warden; and at Bryn Mawr, under the leadership of a student captain.
1900] Government of women students 495
The use of wine or cigarettes in the college buildings is formally prohibited in only two of the colleges under consider- ation: the presumption being, however, that it would be for- bidden more generally had the question ever arisen.
With regard to the time of return to the college buildings in the evening, the hour varies in different colleges; but there is practically everywhere the understanding that after some fixed hour the head of the hall must know the whereabouts of a student not in the hall. In* Vassar the hour is 7 o'clock; in Wellesley, 9.45; in Smith, 10; in Cornell, 10, "except when a student is at the library, where she may remain until 11 "; at Leland Stanford, Jr., 10.30. Sometimes the rule is absolute that students are not allowed out after the hour named; in Smith, for instance, " the 10 o'clock rule must be observed as to dances;" and in Wisconsin the students in hall have a rule that they must always be at home by 12.
A student wishing to spend the night away from the college buildings must in most cases register her temporary address with the head of the hall ; this is the provision, for example, at Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Cornell, Wellesley; in some cases defi- nite permission must be asked and obtained; for instance, in Smith, Vassar, and Wisconsin.
Regulations of the details of college life which may be classed as academic cover not much more than attendance upon lectures and at chapel, and cheating at examinations.
These matters are in general provided for by faculty rule, and so do not come under the head of student government, as such. In some of our colleges, however, the students themselves en- force the rules. In Smith, for instance, they report the non- attendance at chapel to class officers. In Vassar, too, attend- ance is compulsory, with three " cuts " allowed in each semes- ter; tho ''the prearranged absence of several students . . . shall not be allowed." Wellesley states : '' On Sunday attend- ance at Chapel or on some other public religious services is ex- pected." Aside, from these few provisions, these " academic " matters are in all the colleges under consideration wholly sub- ject to faculty control.
The regulations for the social life of the college as a whole
49^ Educational Review [December
include such matters as chaperonage, ordinary social engage- ments with men, and formal social entertainments.
With regard to the vexed question of chaperonage the greatest variety of usage prevails; the determining factor in every case being, of course, the usage of the town or the sec- tion of the country in which the college is situated, and the fact of residence in a large city or small village.
Almost universally the principle is observed that students shall not go in large parties without a chaperon to places of public amusement or to social entertainments in the evening, or to athletic games other than their own (Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Cornell, Smith, Vassar, Wellesley). In smaller groups women students are sometimes chaperoned by upper-classmen to the theater (Cornell); or may go out in the evening, if senior college students (Chicago), or are exempted from the general rule if they are over twenty-five (Barnard, Bryn Mawr) ; or if they are graduate students or auditors (Barnard).
Regulations, less general, because adapted for the special situation of a college are : students must be chaperoned when they go to entertainments' given by other colleges (Bryn Mawr) ; they must have, as well, written permission from their parents (Smith); or when they go to entertainments in any neighboring town (Smith) ; or on the train in the even- ing (Bryn Mawr) ; or when they go out alone in the evening, except to the library or in a cab (Barnard) ; or when they drive with men (Vassar); except in groups in the daytime (Cor- nell) ; or when they receive men in their private studies (Bryn Mawr, Vassar) ; excepting members of their own families (Bryn Mawr).
These specimens of the regulations which exist cover, after all, only a few of the emergencies that present themselves; in general it may be said, that the ultimate responsibility for the chaperonage of students in colleges which have dormitories rests with the heads of the houses or halls; in colleges which have ho dormitories, with the heads of families or homes in which the individual student resides. In Radcliffe, for example, a student is free to live only in a house approved by
i9po] Goverii7nent of women students 497
the dean of the college; in other universities (Leland Stanford, Jr.; Michigan, Wisconsin) dependence is had on moral pressure and influence to avoid compromising conduct, and on the power of the university to send home students whose be- havior is vexatious or unworthy.
For ordinary social engagements with men provisions are in force varying all the way from minute and detailed supervi- sion to almost absolute freedom.
In general, men visitors are received only in the drawing rooms of the dormitory; in a few cases where the students have, in addition to their bedrooms, private studies, special pro- visions exist. For instance, in Barnard, a student may re- ceive her men friends in her private study; in Bryn Mawr she may receive members of her immediate family, but alone; or, with a chaperon, entertain her men and women friends to- gether; in Chicago, Vassar, and \Vellesley a man may visit a student's room only by permission of the head of the house.
Other specimen regulations are: brothers may visit their sisters alone in their rooms, with no other students present (Barnard, Bryn Mawr); or if announced beforehand (Bar- nard) ; no men are admitted to the students' rooms in the even- ing except a student's father, who may be received until 9 o'clock (Bryn Mawr).
In a few of the colleges restrictions exist as to the days on which men visitors may be received: in Chicago "as far as possible " only Friday and Saturday evenings are reception evenings; in Wellesley and Wisconsin also two days of the week serve; and in most of the colleges Sunday visiting is dis- couraged. But, as a whole, students are free to receive visits from men at any time before the halls close for the night.
The women's colleges have much stricter provisions against •dancing with men than have the coeducational universities. At Bryn Mawr a junior promenade (with no dancing) is given ; at Vassar there are each year two large dances to which men are admitted; at Smith men are not allowed on the floor at house dances in the gymnasium, and " in no case are they ad- mitted to entertainments from which the men of the faculty are excluded."
498 Educational Review
The greater freedom allowed to women students in the co- educational universities in dances and the like, extends as well to all the social life, altho a few special provisions exist; in Cornell, for instance, the women students do not walk with men in the evenings. But as a rule the students in women's colleges are restricted somewhat closely in all their social rela- tions, while in coeducational universities they are trained to depend for guidance upon their own judgment and good sense, and are expected themselves to control the details of their lives.
The geographical situation of our greater coeducational col- leges explains this fact somewhat; the girl living out of the Eastern and Southern States is, as a rule, and even at home, trained to a greater independence than her more conservative sisters. But the fact stands, and it is an interesting one to note, underlying all these different systems, that no more com- promising conduct results in the case of women living in co- educational universities, with almost complete control over their own lives, than in the case of women living in women's colleges with so much less frequent temptation and so much closer a shelter over them of definite collegiate control. It is a fact which argues well for the American college girl.
Louise Sheffield Brownell Saunders
The Balliol School, Utica, N. Y.
VI
THE INTERNATIONAL JURY ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION AT THE PARIS EXPOSITION
Of all the international juries formed in Paris in 1900 none had graver responsibilities than the jury on elementary education. The fact was emphasized by the chdice for presi- dent of M. Bourgeois, who held also the same office in the superior jury, in which the inferior tribunals of all sections of the exposition culminated. Wherever serious problems of state are concerned — and in France, elementary education is such a problem — and wherever delicate alliances with other European powers are involved, the talents of this distinguished diplomat are called into requisition. He has won honor for France in several important missions; he was her chief repre- sentative at the Hague conference; and moreover, he had been minister of education at critical periods in the recent history of France. Only a man of such quality could safely be trusted with the claims of clerical schools in a country where church and state are rivals, or with the honor of a powerful ally like Russia, in which popular education has yet but feeble life.
In the case of an educational jury there are few, if any, a priori rules of procedure. Its method and standards depend largely upon circumstances; hence perhaps its operations may be best revealed thru an experience from which the personal element cannot be wholly excluded.
My own appointment came as a surprise and left no time for reflection, as I was obliged to sail within five days of the notice. I arrived in Paris the evening of May 2 1 and reported the fol- lowing morning to Professor James H. Gore, juror in chief for the United States. The first general meeting of all the Ameri- can jurors was held in the United States Pavilion, in the fore- noon of May 23, when Professor Gore outlined, in a general way, the duties and responsibilities of jurors, and emphasized
499
500 Ediuatio7ial Review [December
in particular the importance of their hearty co-operation. I was the only woman present on that occasion, a fact which did not escape the notice of Commissioner General Peck, who, hav- ing first addressed the assembly as " Gentlemen," immediately added, " and I am glad to see that one of the lady jurors is also present." I may note here that the commissioner general, altho burdened with care, never failed to show cordial interest in my mission when we met.
On the afternoon of the same day all the jurors, French and foreign, gathered in the grand hall of the Trocadero for the public inauguration of their work. M. Millerand, Minister of Commerce, under whose auspices the exposition was organ- ized, presided. The Minister gave a brief address of welcome and was followed by M. Picard, commissioner general and executive chief of the entire work, who read rapidly the regula- tions by which the jury were to be governed. It was estimated that eighteen hundred persons were in the assembly, of whom three were women.
As these two meetings were the only official engagements for the juries until the following Saturday, I found time dur- ing the first week in Paris to familiarize myself with the gen- eral arrangement of the exhibits which belonged to my province and to examine, somewhat in detail, those of France and of the United States. The former was of special importance, because it was made the basis of classification for all the others and presumably would furnish also the standard of awards.
The educational exhibit of the United States was under the immediate charge of Mr. Howard J. Rogers of New York, di- rector of education and social economy. Mr. Rogers had arranged his material admirably. It was attractive to the eye, and not only so, but every part was easily reached. This was a consideration of great importance to the jury and to the large number of specialists who wished to study the exhibit minutely.
The spirit of cordial co-operation between the directors and the jury which Professor Gore had urged was fully realized in this section. Altho charged with the interests of some thirteen class juries, Mr. Rogers was unfailing in his attention to the demands of each. He was ably supported in his efforts by his
1900] Elementary education at Paris exposition 501
staff of assistants, who won everybody by their efficient and courteous service. I may add that the same spirit of mutual helpfulness was shown by our four jurors who Were appointed in the different classes of Group i — all worked together for the common interest.
The organization of the class juries was effected Saturday, May 26, and as elementary education (Class I, Group i)^ was the first in order, I had the distinction of being the first Ameri- can to go into conference with our foreign colleagues. One other foreign juror, M. Bela Ujvary of Hungary, and eleven French jurors were present. The jury organized by electing its officers. For president the choice, as foreseen, was M. Leon Bourgeois, for reporter M. Rene Leblanc, inspector general of primary instruction; for secretary, M. Just Baudril- lard, inspector of primary instruction for the department of the Seine. No election for vice president was made, but it w^as understood that the position was to be filled by the English juror. This arrangement accorded with the rule that the presi- dent and the vice president should be of different nationalities. The decision to reserve the second office for an Englishman, at a* moment of strained relations between the two nations, was a sign of the liberal policy which marked all the proceedings of the educational jury. The position was one of peculiar re- sponsibility, as it fell generally to the incumbent to preside over
^ The juries, it should be explained at the outset, were of three prders, the class and group juries and the superior jury. The class jury was composed of experts or specialists in the particular material of their class. The constitution of group juries was ordered as fellows : A group jury shall comprise (i) a president, two or three vice presidents, and a secretary, who may be chosen from persons other than class jurors. They shall be nominated by the commissioner general with the concurrence of the directors general, and of the director of fine art as to works of art, and shall be appointed by the minister of commerce, industry, posts and tele- graphs, agreeing with the minister of fine art as to the group of works of art. (2) The president, vice presidents, and recorders of the class juries.
A special decree determined the composition of the highest tribunal, the superior jury, in which all sections of the exposition were represented. It had as honorary president the minister of commerce and as honorary vice presidents the minister of public instruction, the minister of agriculture, and the commissioner general of the exposition. The following were also entitled to membership : the presidents and vice presidents of group juries, and the commissioners from countries represented by more than 500 exhibitors, the members of the superior committee of revision, and the director general.
502 Educational Review [December
the deliberations of the body. The choice was exceedingly fortunate, as the English member, Mr. Brereton, proved to be a man of practical experience in the school affairs of England and of the Continent, of cosmopolitan views and a justness of judgment that won the confidence of the entire jury. When complete the jury numbered fourteen French members and nine representatives of foreign countries, of whom one, M. M. Colliere, was a Frenchman charged with the interests of the South African Republic. Russia had two jurors, being the only foreign country that had more than one representative in this class.
The subject with which this jury had to deal presented many difficulties by reason both of its nature and vast extent. It comprised 4548 separate entries, 41 15 for France (including its colonies) and 433 for foreign countries. These separate entries or exhibits were for the most part collections, so that the single or particular objects may be estimated at ten or twelve times the totals given. The exhibitors were the education depart- ments of nations, states, cities and other units of administra- tion, corporate bodies, private firms, and individuals.
It will be readily seen that no jury, acting as a whole, could examine this vast and varied collection within any reasonable time. It was decided therefore at the second meeting, which took place May 30, to organize the body in four sub- juries. Following the French classification, these sub- juries were assigned respectively to elementary primary schools (including kindergartens or infant schools), superior primary schools (a grade below our high schools in standard, and having extended courses of industrial training), manual training, and normal schools. For convenience the sub-juries were designated as first, second, third, and fourth.
The president of the first sub- jury, in which I was enrolled, was M. Ferdinand Buisson, who for twenty years was the head of the system of primary instruction in France and who, at present, holds the chair of education at the Sorbonne; in his absence, which was not unusual, on account of official engage- ments, his successor in the ministry, M. Bayet, generally pre- sided.
1900J Elementary education at Paris exposition 503
The organization completed, the jurors entered at once upon their practical duties. The examination of material went on almost daily, Sundays excepted, from May 31 to August 9, a little less than two months and a half. It was arranged at the outset that each sub- jury should meet three times a week for conference, and the full jury once a week, and this plan was adhered to, so far as circumstances permitted. Sub- jury I began its examinations with the French section. This sec- tion comprised two great divisions, the division of public educa- tion, called collectively the exhibit of the ministry of public in- struction, about 4000 entries, and the division of independent exhibitors {exposants lihre), consisting chiefly of the teaching brotherhoods and sisterhoods, from whom a little less than one- fourth (23 per cent.) of the children of school age still receive their elementary education.
The grand exhibit of the ministry was to be estimated on an international basis, compared as to its magnitude, its organi- zation, its purposes, its processes, and its results with the cor- responding systems of the United States, Great Britain, and other countries; but further than this, each individual contribu- tion to the collectivity was to be judged from an official stand- point, critically and impartially; it was with this purpose in view, a purpose of significance to the republic as well as of vital interest to individual teachers, directors and inspectors, that the French members of the jury had been selected. Everyone was a specialist in some department of school work, and to their aid, in accordance with the official regulations governing the jury, they summoned a body of expert men and women who applied themselves to the task of examining the exercise-books, the drawings, the innumerable products of needle and tool, and estimating their relative value in the light of official require- ments. Virtually then for France the jury work was of the nature of an annual examination, and a large proportion of the awards indicate the relative excellence of its own schools as determined by its own experts. In respect, however, to the par- ticulars which could properly be considered from the inter- national standpoint, the French jurors modestly awaited the
504 Educational Review [December
propositions of their foreign colleagues. In all such cases the French exhibit deserved and obtained high recognition.
There was a certain advantage to the jury in the predomi- nance of French members, specialists all formed by the same in- fluences. It afforded, as it were, a fixed point of departure for opinions which, from the nature of the subject-matter, might easily become vague or capricious. Thus the judgment of nor- mal schools was fortified by the experience of M. Jost, the embodiment of the French ideal of training in education, which is a compound of sentiment and method. Manual training was viewed thru the eyes of M. Leblanc, author and chief in- spector of a system of instruction in this branch, rigidly geo- metric as to principles and rigidly industrial as to aims; tech- nical training for girls, thru the eyes of Mme. Chegaray, who has developed from the capricious demands of fashion a whole system of aesthetic culture; the judgments of the general spirit and force of school work caught their impulse from M. Buisson, who, of all men in France, best comprehends the ideal elements that lift education above the mechanical plane. This constant reference to exact standards disclosed thru analogy or opposition the essential characteristics of all the foreign exhibits. In this comparison it was seen that the type of our education is the free and the universal, as the type of French education is the ordered and the particular. Thus also it ap- peared that elementary education in Great Britain, operating in a narrow province and under a peculiar social and industrial stress, and without conscious philosophy, has here and there de- veloped a type in which the ideal and the practical purposes of popular education are happily balanced.
The examination of material went on continuously in the French section for a month, and during this time the confer- ences were limited to details of this particular system. Even in dealing with the independent French exhibits there was an evident, and probably necessary, reference to national condi- tions that it would have been absurd to bring into the considera- tion of foreign countries.- The tendency is illustrated by a proposition made in the full jury with respect to the exhibit of the Christian Brothers. This included school work from
1
i9oo] Elementary ediccation at Paris expositio7i 505
France and from all other countries in which these zealous teachers are found. It was proposed that the jury should con- sider the work of the Christian Brothers in other countries^ apart from their work in France. The idea seemed to be that the former should be treated solely on its educational merits and the latter partly in respect to its political bearings. The proposition was defeated by the combined opposition of the foreign members, supported by the judgment of many of the French members.
As week after week passed there seemed reason to fear that delay in entering upon the foreign sections might prove preju- dicial to their interests. So vast and imposing was the French exhibit that it was difficult to free the mind from its details, and we were in danger of viewing all the other exhibits thru the medium of this one. The subject was canvassed in the full jury and, with the candor that marked all their proceedings, the French agreed that work should be commenced at once in the foreign sections. The foreign members were unanimous in the opinion that the classification of the French schools which had determined that of the sub- juries could not be applied to foreign countries — to this view, the French members also assented, with the result that a fifth sub- jury was formed for the consideration of the foreign work. This jury comprised all the foreign and about two-thirds of the French jurors.
It was impossible to outline exactly at the outset the prin- ciples that should guide this sub-jury in its judgments. Edu- cation belongs to the spiritual forces that control human activity, and cannot be measured like commercial products by exact and uniform standards. Its values are always to be rela- tively determined, and to judge of it fairly one must not only examine the reports and the tangible products of its operation at a given time and place, but must also know its history in the country considered, and its progress there as compared with the progress in other countries. The method of the jury in respect to the foreign exhibits was the same as in respect to that of France; it consisted in the careful examination of the material ; conference as to its merits, and a conclusion summed up in the vote of the sub-jury and revised in the full jury. As the ex-
5o6 Educational Review [December
amination and conferences went on, certain principles of judg- ment were evolved which may be said to have a universal appli- cation, because they received the approval of specialists from many countries. For example, it was recognized that, to be worthy of the highest award, an exhibit should be complete and typical and of high educational merit. The exhibit of an edu- cational system was regarded as complete if it comprised photo- graphs showing school buildings both exterior and interior, classrooms with their furnishings, playgrounds and gymnasia, pupils' work in all departments, official programs, blank forms indicating the nature and methods of the administration, and reports and statistics setting forth results. The French were, however, somewhat chary of their grands-prix. In the case of school systems these were only awarded, as a rule, to two classes of administrations. First, those of large areas having dense populations like London, Paris, New York, Chicago, and Boston ; or, on the other hand, those having scattered and inert populations like many large districts of Russia; second, to ad- ministrations that deal with race problems, like that of Hawaii. Outside of France no individual school of the elementary class received a grand prize (the highest award) and, as before indi- cated, the schools of France were judged from an official rather than an international standpoint.
The disposition to restrict the considerations of the jury to educational principles and standards was shown in the reluct- ance to bestow a grand prize upon any exhibit into which the commercial element entered. The exception made in the case of the American Book Company is therefore a very high testi- monial to the excellence of the text-books which this company displayed.
The examinations of the sub-jury on foreign exhibits began with Hungary, which was visited June 26. Their work com- prised exhibits from twenty-three countries, of which eight only had jurors; the claims of the remainder were presented by their commissioners, and they relied for the results upon the fairness of the jury, a confidence which, as the event showed, was not misplaced. While the entire jury was mindful of the interests of all the countries that were without representation in that
ipoo] Elementary edMcation at Paris exposition 507
body, the chief responsibility in each case fell upon the mem- bers best acquainted with the particular country under con- sideration. Thus the French jurors best understood the claims of Spain, Italy, and Portugal. The American juror was recognized as the best authority in respect to Mexico, Cuba, and Japan; Sweden and Holland owed most to the English juror. It happened also that the firm stand taken by Mr. Brereton secured full recognition for Finland, which, altho a part of Russia, was in danger of having scant justice. By a peculiar combination of circumstances, the responsibility for the Transvaal exhibit fell also to the English member, who dis- charged the trust in a manner that won the admiration of the whole jury.
The American juror had the satisfaction of assisting ma- terially in preventing a wrong judgment in the case of Ontario. Thru a misunderstanding the school system of this province, which ranks among the first in the world, was not adequately represented at the time of the visit of the jury. Convinced that some mistake had been made, the American juror protested against the decision then reached. At the instance of the Ontario authorities, Mr. Brereton was subsequently authorized to reopen the case in the superior jury. He consulted the American juror (Class I) as to the history and importance of the system and, thus fortified, carried the case to successful issue, securing the just award of a grand prize.
In several instances the decision of the elementary jury was reversed by that body itself. The conferences in cases of wide disagreement were the most interesting features of the work. They were conducted often with much heat, but always with the greatest courtesy, and with an ever increasing understand- ing, on the part of the participants, of the value of different sys- tems of education.
The work in the foreign sections continued until July 14, after which date attention was again concentrated upon the French exhibits. These, it should be observed, comprised, in addition to the exhibit of France itself, material from twelve colonies in as many separate buiklings. One of the most mem- orable sessions of the jury took place in the Algerian pavilion
5o8 Educational Review [December
where M. Bayet, who had been formerly inspector of the Academy of Algiers, portrayed m vivid terms the progress of the new order of things among that mixed and unstable people.
The section of elementary education included, beside the ex- hibits of educational systems and of schools, exhibits by indi- viduals, by publishing firms, and by manufacturers of school furniture and material. Educational journals and mono- graphs prepared especially for the exposition excited special attention. It was difficult to obtain high awards for the for- mer unless they were well known outside of their own country; the case with the monographs was different, as their prepara- tion implied an interest in the exposition which deserved special recognition. Of the set of monographs contributed by the State of New York three were included in Class I, and all received awards. Regret was expressed that they were not available in the one language which all Europeans know, and everybody who could interpret their contents in French found eager listeners. France contributed many devices in educa- tional methods, outline lessons by teachers, and discussions of principles. Very few received more than honorable mention, and this was only allowed for unusual merit. In the case of apparatus and appliances it was required that they should con- tain an original element, that they should be simple in con- struction and of practical utility. The United States con- tributed three important exhibits of this kind : namely kinder- garten material from the Milton Bradley Company, the Perry Pictures for school use, and the art publications of the Prang educational company. These fulfilled all the conditions requi- site for a high award and received each a gold medal.
The work of the jury of Class I was everywhere critical and thoro. It was particularly so in our own exhibit, because of the genuine interest in the material. Said M. Izwolski of Russia, " It is the most interesting, if not the best, of all the ex- hibits." The " if " covered a criticism which I heard also from other members of the jury. The work of our lower grades illustrated an idea on which the French love to ex- patiate, but which they do not realize. We have really suc- ceeded in exciting the free activity of the child and making it a
1900] Elementary education at Paris exposition 509
power in his systematic development. It was fascinating to watch the effect of some of the childish compositions on a learned editor or even a philologist like M. Leger of the Col- lege de P'rance, who turned the artless effusions into French for a group of eager listeners. Everywhere they felt the child's personality in his work. On the other hand, it was noticed here and there that the work of the intermediate, or grammar grades was too diffuse, wanting somewhat in force and in that grasp of subjects which even children show when their person- ality yields to the influence of a superior teacher.
Not the least surprising of all our experiences was the suc- cess of the art exhibits from State and city schools. T© those who had seen our work in previous exhibitions, and who thought us hopelessly lost in imitative mannerism, it was a revelation. Said M. Buisson, as he turned over plate after plate in the winged frame, " This is a training in aesthetics." The appreciation found permanent expression in the award of a grand prize for the general system of drawing in the schools of the United States. Let me emphasize again that the admirable presentation of the material accounts in great part for the en- thusiasm it excited.
The service of the class jury in elementary education was of longer duration than that of any other class jury, and its work continued after the call of the group jury. Altho only officers of the class jury were entitled to membership in the group, our entire class jury was called in conference with this tribunal, so that there was full opportunity to protect the awards voted in the class jury. I had no occasion to avail myself of this privilege, as the votes of the elementary jury in respect to the ^ exhibits from the United States passed in the group jury with- out challenge.
The findings of the class and group juries in respect to Class 1 were confirmed also in the superior jury. From this body they passed to the committee of revision, whose function is chiefly that of correcting errors in the final report. At the date of this writing the revised official report of awards has not been made public. I can therefore only say at this time that as a re- sult of the decision of the jury of Class I, on which I had the
5 1 o Educational Review
honor to represent the United States, sustained by the group and superior juries, the United States received for its exhibits in elementary education, 12 grand prizes, 25 gold medals, 6 silver medals, 7 bronze medals, 2 honorable mentions; also for collaborators, 4 gold medals and 3 silver medals.
The service which these awards represent was long and arduous, but nothing that courtesy and hospitality could sug- gest was wanting to make it delightful. Its memories will, I am sure, be fondly cherished by every participant.
Anna Tolman Smith
Bureau of Education,
Washington, D. C.
THOMAS DAVIDSON Born 1840 Diediqoo
VII A MODERN WANDERING SCHOLARS
There passed away the other day, in a hospital at Montreal, a really great American scholar, who might have easily laid claim to having been, at the time of his death, one of the dozen most learned men on this planet. Living a quiet, retired life in a mountain farm in the Adirondacks, the most unworldly of men, caring absolutely nothing for money or fame, the late Thomas Davidson, whose very name is probably unknown to most of our readers, was one of the most gifted and remarkable men of the latter half of this century. To enumerate his writ- ings, learned and important tho they are, is to convey no idea of a spiritual personality to whom some (and among them the present writer) owe not a little. It was not the opinions of this " scholar-gipsy " which influenced his friends, for he was the most inconsistent of men, passing thru phase after phase of philosophic thought, and contesting in the afternoon the very doctrines he had urged in the morning. Whimsical, vehement, impatient, his satire and argument flowing like a torrent, and his dogmatic spirit sometimes carrying him to lengths he had never intended, yet to know Thomas Davidson was to love him, and not a few are the young men now coming to the front in American philosophy and scholarship who owe a quickening stimulus to that bright and eager, albeit angular, personality.
Mr. Davidson was American by adoption, not by birth. He came from that nursery of strong men where in his time they did literally cultivate literature on oatmeal — Aberdeen; and he was at the university at a specially brilliant era — that of Robertson Smith, Minto, and W. A. Hunter — all, alas ! gone prematurely over to the majority. Davidson had the blood of the wanderer in his veins; he could not rest at home, and so went over to Canada, but soon crossed the border into the
' From the London Spectator, October 6, 1900. 5"
5 1 2 Educational Review [December
United States, where he took up a position as high-school teacher in St. Louis. People who think of the Western American cities as given over to trade and materialism would have been surprised had they found themselves in the St. Louis of a generation ago, for it was one of the great centers of phi- losophy. The eminent man who is now at the head of the Federal Education Bureau in Washington was then editing at St. Louis the Journal of speculative philosophy, then the only metaphysical organ in the English language (to our shame be it said). The reason why this remarkable movement of pure thought centered in St. Louis was because of the immigration of German students and thinkers who had fled after the sup- pression of the 1848 rising, and many of whom settled down on the banks of the Mississippi. St. Louis ever after has been noted for Germans, philosophy, and the best beer in America. In this society Thomas Davidson found congenial souls, and to literature with oatmeal there succeeded the cultivation of phi- losophy with beer. They might have been at Leipzig or Heidelberg, save for the absence of dueling and other German formalities. Life was simplified and heightened by excur- sions into the forests and participation in the wild life then possible, but which the railway and the progress of industry have almost destroyed. The whole episode is indeed a delight- ful little bit of idealism in a rather prosaic century — plain liv- ing and high thinking, a finely-strung intellectual life hand-in- hand with simplicity and industry.
Thomas Davidson would have delighted Goethe; the Wan- derjahre of Wilhelm Meister was Davidson's own life. He, too, held that ''to give room for wandering the world was made so wide." As thoro an American as tho he had been horn within the shadow of Bunker Hill, he nevertheless was so classic in feeling that he yearned for the " palms and temples of the South," and he had his wish gratified. Attached, largely thru Longfellow's generous influence, to the examination de- partment of Harvard University, he soon had the opportunity of repairing to Athens, where he studied Greek archaeology. And here it may be said that perhaps Davidson was one of the greatest linguists of his age. Well grounded in Greek and
igoo] A modern wandering scholar 513
Latin (able, after the good old mediaeval plan, to speak as well as to read Latin), he obtained complete mastery of modern Greek within a few months of reaching Athens. He could make a speech in that language as easily as did Mr. Gladstone in the Ionian Islands. He spoke and read French, German, Italian, Spanish, Norse with absolute ease. He did his philo- sophic thinking in German rather than in his own tongue. He acquired later on complete proficiency in Hebrew and Arabic, and was fairly well versed in Czech, Russian, and Magyar. He never forgot a single word he had ever learned. His ad- miring friends tested him on one occasion in Greek. He never missed once, giving not only the ordinary, but exceptional meanings, and stating in what authors they were to be found. He could repeat most of Aristotle's Ethics from end to end in the original. He knew word for word that difficult second part of Faust which at times baffles even German professors, but his supreme love was Dante. He knew the whole of the Divina Commedia, and students who have read his introduc- tion to Scartazzini's handbook to the great Tuscan know how Davidson entered into the very soul of Dante. Thus did this simple, hearty, big-brained Scottish- American wander over the globe. To-day in his little villa in the Italian Alps, to-morrow in a lovely rose-covered villa in Capri, again among the slashed- faced students of Heidelberg, then at x\thens, or at rooms in London, or in the halls of Oxford and Cambridge, or under the shadow of the State House in classic Boston — thus did he absorb culture, study the world, and charm and entertain his hundred friends.
It is rather dangerous to be a great linguist, for the chances are that you will be nothing else — like Cardinal Mezzofanti. But Thomas Davidson was a contradiction to all rules. Tho he missed being a great thinker, he had a powerful, philosophic mind. Like all that St. Louis group, he had begun by being a strong Hegelian, but he lived to denounce Hegel as unfairly as he had once praised him. Mediaeval in his conception of (and we might say in his impersonation of) the wandering scholar, Davidson became mediaeval in his philosophy; he took up the study of Thomas Aquinas. Outside the ranks of the
5 1 4 Educational Review
profound Catholic scholars, there are few who can say they have mastered the Summa; one of those few was Mr. David- son. One must not hold him finally to anything, but at the time he wrote his learned work on Rosmini, the modern Catholic antagonist of the Jesuits, he certainly believed that Aquinas, based on the philosophy of Aristotle, had come nearer to solving the great riddle of being than any other thinker. In addition to the w^ork on Rosmini, which is scarcely appreciated in England, Mr. Davidson must have some credit for stimu- lating the Pope in the preparation of his celebrated Encyclical on Aquinas. There are not, it is safe to say, many laymen who have had three hours' confidential talk on philosophy with Leo XIII. , but Thomas Davidson was one. He was also inti- mate with some of the religious orders, and knew not a little of the inner life of the Catholic Church, with whose art and devo- tion he sympathized as much as he detested its politics. He loved Italy as a man loves his bride, and in Rome he fore- gathered with the veteran Mamiani and others who had helped in the risorgimento. His work on Aristotle as an educational thinker is one of the finest and most helpful treatises on educa- tion written in our time.
If the linguist is a specialist, the philosopher is regarded as a pedant. But it was the charm of this wandering scholar that he was ever human and ever young. Like Abou ben Adhem, he loved his fellow-men, and was as friendly with his old Italian housekeeper, who believed in ghosts and saintly protection, as with the learned men whose friend and correspondent he was. The present writer can see him now, embracing a genial Captain of the Alpine regiment stationed in the Italian mountain town where for a time he made his home. He was not quite a saint, but he loved much and he shall be forgiven much. He could have kept Socrates company over the amphora while the rest were under the table, and could have gone forth to teach with as clear a head. A unique character, built on a solid Scotch foundation, polished by travel and by thought, and with the bright and eager tone of the American, he was the best example in our time of the mediaeval wandering scholar.
VIII DISCUSSIONS.
A SIX-YEAR HIGH-SCHOOL COURSE
Educators have come to recognize but three divisions in the process of education from the kindergarten to the university — elementary, secondary, and higher/ There seems to be no edu- cational reason why the elementary division should include one-half of the entire period. On the contrary, there seem to be substantial reasons why it should not. If by combining the work of the seventh, eighth, and ninth years and placing them under the closer supervision and better trained teachers of the secondary school, one year can be saved to the pupil for other study, no added argument is needed for making the change. The question is, can a year be saved if the change is made?
Generally speaking, arithmetic, geography, and grammar are the major subjects taught in the grammar school during the seventh and eighth years. These subjects can and should be absorbed by correlation with the algebra, history, and lan- guage of the ninth year, and the three years' work done in two years, without loss to the present schedule, but rather to the infinite advantage of both the grammar school and high school programs.
One of the oft-repeated criticisms of our present educational scheme is that we are doing the same work over and over at different periods of the course of study. Our curriculum is not a carefully planned whole, but rather a sectional affair, the different parts of which seem to be, to a large extent, unrelated wholes. Much of our teaching still consists of telling, because subjects are not taught in their relation to other subjects. Much of the knowledge which the pupil now acquires at a need- less expense of nervous force would come to the student of maturer years without any teaching or telling whatever, in con- nection with his study of more advanced work, a condition ' Editorial in Educational Review, November, 1898, p. 4^1.
515
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which we fail to profit by at many points of our educational scheme.
The Committee of Fifteen recommend - that formal arith- metic be discontinued at the end of the sixth year, and that algebra in a modified form be introduced at the beginning of the seventh year and continued thruout the seventh and eighth years. The Committee of Ten also recommend ^ that algebra and concrete geometry be introduced into these years. Much of the seventh and eighth year work in arithmetic can be omitted and the rest profitably postponed to a later period in the course. If the student spends two years upon algebra there is little doubt that he would have as great a knowl- edge of the subject at the end of the eighth as he now has at the end of the ninth year, thus saving one-third of his ninth year for other work.
The correct teaching of history cannot be separated from the study of geography. Charts, maps, and globes form a sub- stantial part of the equipment for teaching histor}^ Map- drawing forms an essential part of the student's work in history study. There is no other subject taught in our public schools, reading alone excepted, that is of so great value to the future citizen as is the study of American history and the elements of civil government. These subjects should be placed at that point of the course where the largest number will be reached before leaving school. Comparatively few students leave school at the end of the sixth year. In a large number of States the compulsory education law prevents them from so doing; but it is a matter of statistics that nearly eighty per cent, do leave school without entering upon the work of the ninth year.
If the study of geography in the seventh year be combined with general history in a simple form, and charts freely used to locate important historical fields, not only does the student get a usable knowledge of geography, but he also gets an idea of universal history and brotherhood, with a consequent de- crease in his amount of provincialism. In this way his interest and sympathy with those outside of his own small circle in- crease to the betterment of his manhood and with no loss to his
2 Report of Committee of Fifteen, p. 68. ^ Repo7-t of Com?nittee of Ten, p. 35.
i9oo] Discussions 517
knowledge/ By the beginning of the eighth year he is ready for the study of American history and civil government, which he can easily complete in as good form as the student is now doing in the ninth year, and with a broader knowledge of the subject. This would result in a gain of the second one- third of the ninth year for other study.
There is a large and growing number of people who believe the fact that the English, PVench, and German boy of seventeen is as well versed in books as is the American boy of nineteen, is directly chargeable to the handicap of the American boy due to the " lock step "of the '' graded system." We owe much to our graded system of schools," but it must be so modified as to recognize that the pupil, not the grade, is the unit.^
Many parents have clearly defined aims for the education of their children. Our educational system in the public schools should be able to meet these advanced demands. There must be a flexibility in the course of study. An opportunity should be given to those who desire it to begin the study of French, German, or Latin in the seventh and eighth years. The Com- mittee of Ten recommend that these studies be offered as early as the beginning of the fifth year.^ This is done in private schools, and can be done in public schools, with the seventh and eighth grades a part of the high school.
One of the subjects last mentioned will take the place of Eng- lish grammar beyond the language stage. For those who do not care to have their children study a foreign language, some such course of English as that outlined by the regents of the University of the State of New York for the first year of the secondary school could be studied. Taking the entire seventh and eighth years upon this course of English, or upon a foreign language, would relieve the pressure upon the pupil and give him ample time to finish the subject at the end of the eighth year instead of at the end of the ninth, thus gaining the re- maining one-third of the ninth year. The question of " enrich- ing the grammar school course " has had a prominent place on educational programs for some time. Thus far the enriching' fias taken the form of addition thru the special teacher, until in
•* Fifth year 'book of the Herbart society.
5 Ne7v York Education, November, 1897, p. 129.
* Report of Committee of Ten, p. 96.
5^^ Educational Review [December
not a few localities the grammar school pupil has to recite six to eight periods daily, with no time in school for study. The program has not been enriched, it has been glutted. Small wonder it is that so few have the courage left to undertake the work of the high school. With the combination above sug- gested, the grammar school course has been enriched by the essentials of an education — history, civics, algebra, and an option upon English, French, German, and Latin.
The adoption of the above suggestion also solves another very vexing problem — the arrangement of a satisfactory high school program on the basis of fifteen hours of prepared recita- tion work each week for four years. ^ With the present re- quirements in language and mathematics this is quite impos- sible, if satisfactory courses are to be offered in history and science.
It is not an uncommon thing to hear expressed at educational gatherings a regret that so few men enter the teacher's profes- sion. Usually this expression is misunderstood, especially by the women in the audience. It is not made because men are better teachers than women, but because they are different.^ The regret is that the principle of co-education is so rarely extended to the teaching body. Few people will care to argue that it would be as well to have all teachers of either sex as it would be to have them of both sexes. It is customary even in women's colleges to have men on the instructing body, and this sensible custom is extending itself to our large universities. This is an added argument for dividing the public school pro- gram into even sexes.
The committee on college entrance requirements reporting to the National Educational Association, July, 1899, discussing a resolution favoring " a unified six-year high school course beginning with the seventh grade," said : '' The most necessary and far-reaching reforms in secondary education must begin in the seventh and eighth grades. Educators agree that these grades must be enriched by eliminating non-essentials and add- ing new subjects formerly taught only in the high school. . . In our opinion these problems can be solved most quickly and
'^ New York Education, September, 1899, p. 14. [ 8 School Bulletin^ January, 1900, " Men in the eighth grade."
1900] Discussio7is 519
surely by making the seventh and eighth grades parts of the high school, under the immediate direction of the high school principal. . . The seventh grade, rather than the ninth, is the natural turning point in the pupil's life. . . The transition from the elementary to the secondary period may be made natural and easy by changing gradually from the one-teacher regime to the system of special teachers, thus avoiding the vio- lent shock now commonly felt on entering the high school. . . As far as statistics are accessible on this point, the experiment of placing these grades in the high school has resulted in better scholarship, and a greater number of students entering the ninth grade," the first year of the high school.
F. D. BOYNTON Superintendent of Schools, Ithaca, N. Y.
EXAMINATIONS— AN APOLOGY
From time to time one educational method after another is arraigned before the bar of public opinion and compelled to give an account of itself and to show its reasons for existing or continuing to exist. This procedure has often a most salutary effect, especially where abuses have crept in and obscured or impaired the usefulness of the method.
The present is an era of " prove all things " ; it is well to give the other clause also a hearing : " Hold fast that which is good."
Of all the time-honored methods of education, perhaps none has been more abused and surely none more cordially hated than examinations.
They are charged with fostering deception, heart-burnings, injustice, superficiality, cramming, and nervous prostration. They have set up, not only for students, but for teachers, false standards of excellence, and have degraded the noble pursuit of learning to the level of a prize contest.
This is surely a serious arraignment and calls for some strong defense on the other side. That the examination sys- tem has often been grossly corrupted and abused admits of no denial; but the condemnation of the abuse of a system should not involve the condemnation of the system itself.
520 Educational Revieiu [December
For examinations have an educational value of a high order. If, however, they are to fulfill this high function it is obvious that they should not be used as the sole test of a student's know^ledge and ability, Hor merely as a condition for obtaining prizes, emoluments, and honors. Nor should they be used chiefly as a whip to urge on laggards and to terrorize the in- subordinate, nor, least of all, as brilliant displays of a teacher's ingenuity in the invention of tortures and the laying of pitfalls for the nervous or unwary.
As the object of education may be said to be twofold, acqui- sition of knowledge and acquisition of power, so the purpose of examinations may be said to be twofold, as a test of knowl- edge and as a test of power. The daily recitation tests chiefly knowledge; examinations test chiefly power. The test of power may and should be introduced into the daily recitation; and the examinations must always be, in some degree, a test of knowledge. But an examination of the best sort should be chiefly a test of power, and when properly planned it is a better test than the daily recitation or occasional review can be.
In support of this thesis the following propositions are sub- mitted. I. Examinations as a test of power.
(a) Examinations test the power of a student to deal with new material, as, for example, in sight translation; or with old material under new conditions and combinations, as in prob- lems in mathematics and science.
(&) Examinations test the power of a student to discrimi- nate between the important and the unimportant, the general and the particular, and thus to focus and clarify vague, hazy impressions.
(c) Examinations test the power of a student to appreciate the relation of hitherto unrelated details; to grasp his subject as a whole and to combine parts which have seemed to him fragmentary and disconnected into a vital, organic unity.
(J) Examinations test the power of a student to hold his knowledge ready '' on demand " ; to make ready application of principles to new facts or phenomena. They thus afford prac- tice in meeting just such demands as practical life makes.
(^) Examinations test the power of a student to stand alone,
1900] Discussions 521
to think for himself, to use his own powers and resources un- assisted by notes, commentary, or given results to be attained. Thus they help to develop self-mastery. All resources must be laid under contribution. All forces must rally to the attack. The occasion is momentous, the responsibility is real and must be met with coolness and nerve in order to success. Such an experience is a keen intellectual stimulus to the best effort and is also bracing to the moral powers. 11. Examinations as a test of knowledge.
(a) Examinations afford to the teacher the most impartial test of a student's real knowledge. All members of the class have the same questions proposed to them, and the same time given for considering and answering these questions under the fairest attainable conditions. The ideal condition is that the student be alone zmth the question, without help or hindrance from without, from book, teacher, or fellow-student.
(&) Examinations afford to the student the most searching and wholesome test of his own knowledge. He is thereby brought face to face with his own knowledge and his own ignorance. The consciousness that he is master of his subject is a reward for past labor " more enduring than bronze," and an encouragement to future endeavor.
The discovery that he is really ignorant of that which he sup- posed he had learned strips from him that "conceit of knowl- edge " which is the most serious obstacle to progress. Thus the timid student gains confidence and the conceited student gains humility. *
Angie C. Chapin
Wellesley College,
Wellesley, Mass.
IX REVIEWS
A history of education — By Thomas Davidson. New York : Charles Scrib ner's Sons, 1900. 292 p. $1.
Two tendencies manifest themselves in educational thought at the present time : one is the broadening of the conception of education; the other is the elevation of the study of education to a scientific plane. Both tendencies find illustration in Thomas Davidson's History of education. This work cannot be compared with other histories of education accessible to American teachers, for it is of an entirely different nature. It is not a presentation of characteristic features of educational systems and methods, tho the salient features of systems and methods are marshaled to bring out more clearly the develop- ment of the author's thought. Neither is it an account of the theories of men who have influenced the development of edu- cational thought, as are most current histories of education. It is a history of a philosophical character, but not a priori in its nature as are the best known of similar efforts, that of Rosen- kranz for example. On the contrary, it is an attempt to sketch the history of education in terms of the dominant evolutionary thought. Being neither a history of instruction, nor a history of '' pedagogy," nor an a priori philosophy of history, it is more truly a history of education than any work so termed. Education so viewed becomes one phase, perhaps the highest phase, of the evolution of the race; the complement of the former conception that education was one phase of the evolu- tion of the individual. The establishment as a working hypothesis of the thought that education was the process of development of the individual stands to the credit of the latter part of the eighteenth century. To the latter part of the present century belongs the merit of again broadening the con- ception of education and applying the same thought to the race
522
Reviews 523
that was then applied to the individual. It is this view of edu- cation as a phase of the social evolutionary process that fur- nishes the true basis for the study of the history of education. This thought is now a common possession and in its origin can be attributed to no one person or group of persons, but to Mr. Davidson belongs the credit of having first presented to Ameri- can teachers a history of education based on this idea. For this reason the work is so superior to all other histories of edu- cation that it cannot be classed in the same group.
In the progressive formulation of new ideas or revision of older ones, agreement can be expected concerning essentials only. So with this sketch, there are many points that will provoke disagreement. It is a great merit to assist in estab- lishing the more comprehensive and truer idea of education, but this conception may be made so broad that it loses in definite- ness and reaches that nebulous state that has brought so much of recent sociological and educational thought into disrepute. The author identifies education with conscious evolution — the process " where man takes himself into his own hand." But all history since the formation of political institutions is con- scious evolution. All legislation is '' man taking himself into his own hand." Unless the study of education is to become co- terminous with sociological study, a more definite delimitation is essential. Education not only indicates a consciousness upon the part of the social group, but a consciousness that change or progress is to be secured thru the individual and not simply thru the mass or thru institutions. Such a consciousness is very dim at first and there follows the absolute dominance of institutions in the earlier period of culture. Education indi- cates a consciousness that attractive methods are effective as well as coercive ones. It indicates a growing recognition of the value of the individual in comparison with the value of in- stitutions as a means for securing the development or any de- sired end of the social group. Education is a phase of the evolution of society; but unless it can be so defined as to find a definite place within the broad process of conscious evolution, such a conception will be of little assistance to those so over- whelmed with the immediate practical aspects of the process that they are unable to relate phenomena to remote principle.
524 Educational Review [December
This too great generality, together with the brevity of the sketch, is responsible for an abstractness that will render cer- tain portions of the book valueless to the large numbers of those engaged in the work of education that have been denied the privilege of the higher disciplines. To the brevity of the sketch is also due an emphasis that is hardly justified by the fact that certain portions of educational history are usually ignored or neglected. Few ideas of the history of education, certainly not the one so ably developed by the author, would justify the devotion of as much space to Moslem education as is given to Grecian and more than is given to the educational influence of the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the counter- reformation, or to education during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries.
And it is in these latter chapters that the reader will regret the absence of more prolonged discussions. There is in Eng- lish not even a sketch of the development of education since the time of the Reformation that can claim any historic or scientific value in this broad aspect of the subject. The best as well as the worst that has been done has been confined to biographical discussion or consideration of theories, or to de- tails of school systems or methods. Professor Davidson deals with individuals only as they represent and concrete the progress of education as a phase of conscious social develop- ment. Great educators and educational theories take their proper place in the history of education and thereby derive a new meaning and an enhanced interest. The discussion of the nineteenth century is especially suggestive and calls for a working out in detail in the future.
The author at times discards accepted terminology and uses terms to suit his own ideas, as in the word barbarian ; he is in- clined to advocate theories adverse to those accepted by special students and to burden his study unnecessarily with contro- verted questions, such as the question of Aryan origins, of authorship of Homeric poems, of the Turanian origin of Greek religion; and to introduce conclusions that are a priori, so far as any evidence presented or indicated is concerned. How- ever, despite these defects and others of detail, the work will be classed as the best sketch of the history of education in our
ipoo] Reviews 525
language, as the author's Education of the Greek people re- mains the best monograph contribution to educational history.
Paul Monroe
Teachers College, Columbia University
Comenius and the beginnings of educational reform — By Will S. Monroe, Instructor in the State Normal School, Westfield, Mass. (Great Educators Series.) New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1900. 184 p. $1.
Writing thirty years ago, Mr. Quick expressed the opinion that " one of the most hopeful signs of the improvement of education is the rapid advance in the last thirty years of the fame of Comenius, and the growth of a large literature about the man and his ideas." The past generation has witnessed no diminution of this interest; on the contrary, the fame of the old Moravian bishop has grown, many additional points of contact between his ideas and the dominant educational thought of the day have been discovered, his influence has in- creased, and the literature about the man and his ideas has grown apace. The latest addition to this literature is the recent issue of the Great Educators Series, Comenius and the beginnings of educational reform, by Will S. Monroe. This study is an addition to Comenius literature, since it is more than a biography of the man or an analysis of his educational thought and writings. The great educators are those who represent either the culmination of some movement in educa- tional thought, as did Herbert Spencer, or some dominant system of instruction, as did Quintilian. On the other hand, they may be prophets of a new dispensation rejecting the old and standing at the beginning of a new line of thought and a new system of practice. The study by Mr. Monroe presents Comenius as the forerunner of Francke, Rousseau, Basedow. Pestalozzi, Froebel, and Herbart and the long line of reformers who have shaped the dominant educational ideas and modified the practice of the present century.
The interest in the work centers largely in the chapters deal- ing with the educational antecedents of Comenius and those which treat of his influence on modern educators and his per- manent influence. The author points out clearly and briefly
526 Educational Review [December
the points of harmony between Comenius and each of the suc- ceeding reformers and compares the essentials of the Co- menian reform with the principles underlying the work in edu- cation in the latter half of the present century. It is true that Comenius had not arrived at that modern conception of educa- tion which holds it to be the development of the whole nature of man, and not primarily mere study. But he led in the transi- tion to that conception from the dominant humanistic educa- tion thru his effort to base education on the study of things.
The Renaissance tended to substitute the natural for the supernatural as the object of interest to the human mind; and the Reformation added its influence in replacing the dominance of institutions and of institutionalized thought with the right of individual judgment and personal freedom. But the critical spirit and the scientific method developed slowly. In the work of instruction this development was more retarded than in the broader aspects of human thought. But Descartes in phi- losophy and Bacon in science find their counterpart in Co- menius in education. Melanchthon remained the schoolmas- ter of Germany, but Comenius became the schoolmaster of the schoolmasters of the nineteenth century. Mr. Monroe's sketch of Comenius is written from this point of view.
In addition to the presentation of the influence of Comenius there is an extensive analysis of the educational writings of Comenius and a summary of his views. In this respect the author's work is no more valuable than similar work by Laurie, Quick, and others, but it is somewhat more comprehensive, and in its present form will be more accessible to American teachers.
The author is well prepared for the task so well accomplished by reason of his earlier work as editor of Comenius' School of infancy and by his investigation of the relation between Co- menius and Governor Winthrop, as well as thru his familiarity with the historical aspect of education. The work is up to the high standard set by the preceding volumes of the series.
Paul Monroe
Teachers College,
Columbia University
I poo] Reviews 527
A text-book of general physics — For the use of colleges and scientific schools — By Charles S. Hastings, Ph. D., and Frederic E. Beach, Ph. D., of Yale University. Boston; Ginn & Co. 1899. viii-|-768 p. $2.75.
This new work on general physics is a very important contri- bution to our text-book Hterature, because it is perhaps the most successful of the recent attempts made to furnish a book suita- ble for the old-fashioned college course in general physics, and yet at the same time treat the various topics from a modern point of view. So rapid has been the development of the purely physical sciences during recent years that the material in each which should be introduced into the classroom has in- creased overwhelmingly, and it has seemed as if the course in general physics were doomed. The present book will greatly aid in preserving in the college curriculum the most important course in science which it offers to the student. It not only presents in brief and logical form the general principles of physics, but it serves as an excellent introduction to a further study of the various topics treated.
Part I, pp. I- 1 59, is devoted to mechanics. In this section there are introduced various problems in mechanics, which in their practical application have come into prominent importance in late years; among these may be mentioned the effects of the earth's diurnal rotation on the winds. The surface tension of fluids is treated at unusual length. Part II treats of heat; and we find here brought together a most useful collection of thermal and thermodynamic problems and their applications. This section will be particularly useful as an introduction to the practical study of atmospheric physics.
Part III is devoted to electricity and magnetism, and is the best brief elementary treatment that we have seen of these sub- jects. The insertion in this section of the topics, the passage of electricity thru gases and electric waves, was particularly desirable, in view of the recent important advances in these subjects.
Part IV, on sound, has a particularly good introductory chapter on wave motion; and proper prominence is given in other sections to the analysis of musical tones, and Helmholtz's experiments on bowed strings.
Part V, light, pp. 599-752. In this section special atten-
528 Educational Review [December
tion is devoted to optical instruments, and to the interference, dispersion, absorption, and polarization of light; and a particu- larly valuable feature is the modern treatment of the optical phenomena of the atmosphere.
The authors have wasted no space in gradually approaching the difficulties of the various questions treated by them, and on this account the student will find the treatise hard reading if he uses it for a first book in physics. It is a book of distinctly college grade, and is not of the kind that is simple enough for high school use, and yet sufficiently advanced for college stu- dents. The authors are to be congratulated on their success in presenting in an elementary manner treatments of several im- portant matters which have hitherto been available only in very advanced forms. Notwithstanding this success, it is probable that a good many sections of the book will have to be omitted by the ordinary college classes on account of their advanced character.
We must confess that we should like to have seen a normal barometer and standard thermometer included in the list of laboratory apparatus which help to illustrate the book. It is high time that these instruments were introduced to our students.
This book will be found very handy as an up-to-date book of reference, especially by those college graduates of long stand- ing who desire to obtain an idea of the modern conceptions of heat, electricity, and magnetism. We can heartily recommend the treatise to students of meteorology, who will find gathered together here much necessary material that has heretofore had to be gleaned from a good many different books.
The make-up of the volume is exceedingly attractive, and the pages present a beautiful appearance. A good but not overfull index completes the work.
Frank Waldo
Cambridge. Mass.
1900] Reviews 529
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS
Mention of books in this place does not preclude extended critical notice hereafter
A new edition of Webster's International dictionary has ap- peared which is genuinely a new edition. The plates are new thruout, and definitions of 25,000 additional words are in- cluded in a supplement edited by Dr. William T. Harris. The familiar volume now consists of nearly 2400 pages with about 5000 illustrations,and is a more valuable book of reference than ever before, if that be possible (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C.
Merriam Co., 1900. 2364 p. $10). Twa of the most
attractive and useful manuals which have reached us in a long time are the latest issues in the Temple Primers, A history of politics, by Edward Jenks, M. A., and Am introduction to science, by the Master of Downing College, Cambridge. Both are accurate in scholarship, well-written, and admirably arranged. They bring together an astonishing amount of in- formation in small compass. Books of this type should find a place on teachers' reading-circle lists (New Yprk: The Mac-
millan Company, 1900. 172 p., 140 p. 40 cents each).
Professor John Bates Clark, whose Distribution of zi^ealth is a most important contribution to economic literature, has worked out an elaborate theoretical argument to prove that the distri- bution of the income of society is controlled by a natural law which, if it worked without friction, would give to every agent of production the amount of wealth which that agent creates. Unfortunately, however, friction is an essential concomitant of motion (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1900. 445 p. $3). Professor Ely has the teaching instinct and dis- plays it in his new Outline of economics (New York: The
Macmillan Company, 1900. 332 p. $1.25)'. In Love
and law in child training Miss Emilie Poulsson has put the philosophy of the kindergarten in admirable form for intelli- gent mothers (Springfield, Mass.: Milton Bradley Co., 1900.
235- p. $1). In his Advanced elementary science, Mr.
Edward G. Howe carries forward for grammar grades the place of work developed in his earlier book (New York: D.
Appleton & Co., 1900. 373 p. $1.50). A new issue of
the scholarly edition of Professor Charles G. Herbermann's
530 Educational Review [December
Sallust's Catiline is very welcome (Boston, Mass. : B. H. San- born & Co., 1900. 192 p. $1 ) . Three new issues in Apple- ton's Home Reading Books series are The storied West Indies, by F. A. Ober; Stories of the great astronomers, by Dr. E. S. Holden; and a condensation of the fine old Chronicles of Sir John Froissart, by Adam Singleton (New York: D. Appleton
& Co., 1900. 75 cents each). The deserved popularity of
Patterson Dubois's Point of contact in teaching is attested by the appearance of a fourth edition, revised and enlarged (New
York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1900. 131 p. 75 cents). Mr.
William L. Scruggs, formerly American minister to Colombia and Venezuela, has written a valuable and lextremjely interest- ing book entitled The Colombian and Venezuelan republics (Boston, Mass. : Little, Brown & Co., 1900. 350 p. $2.00). Our native trees, by Harriet L. Keeler, is a capital com- panion for country walks. The illustrations are superb (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1900. 533 p. $2,).
Charles H. Ham did yeoman service in the early years of
the manual-training movement, and it is gratifying to see his Mind and hand in new form and dress. It is a vade mecum for students of manual training (New York: American Book Co., 1900. 464 p. $1.25). An ingenious form of assist- ance for students who are acquiring a Latin vocabulary, is provided by Word lists for Livy, which Mir. E. C. S'hedd of Lewis Academy, Wichita, Kan., has prepared and printed for the use of his pupils. It is astonishing how few words occur more than ten times in loither Book i, 21, or 22 of Livy's his- tory (Wichita, Kan. : Published by the author, 1900. 16 p.'
10 cents). The two latest issues of the Abhandlungen aus
dem Gebiete der padagogischen Psychologic u. Physiologic, edited by Professors Schiller and Ziehen are Dr. August Wesser's Kritische Untersuchungen iiber Denken, Sprechen u. Sprachunterricht and George Schneider's Die Zahl im grundle- genden Rechnenunterricht. Both are extremely valuable and original studies, which deserve fuller mention (Berlin: Reuther u. Reichard, 1900. 51 p., 87 p. M. 1.25, M. 1.60).
A new edition, well made and well printed, of the English
books required for college entrance work, reaches us from the Globe School Book Company, of New York and Chicago. — In
1900] Reviews 531
the History of the higher criticism of the New Testament Pro- fessor Henry S. Nash has written a most instructive and well- balanced account of the rise and development of modern criti- cal method in reference to the New Testament books. His treatment is as full of suggestion as of information (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1900. 192 p. 75 cents).
The appearance of a second, revised edjition of Crew'sl
Elements of physics enables us to call attention again to its excellence as a text-book ( New York : The Macmillan Com- pany, 1900. 353 p. $1.10). Dr. Newell of the Lowell
(Mass.) State normal schodl has done a great dieal to make pos- sible the extension of modern methods of teaching chemical science by both the matter and the method of his Experimental chemistry (Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., 1900. 410 p. $1.10). One of the most intelligent and best-selected col- lections of documents to illustrate historical teaching which we have seen is Source-hook of English history, by Dr. G. .C. Lee of Johns Hopkins University (New York: Henry Holt &
Company, 1900. 609 p. $2). Professor Gudeman's
scholarship and reputation are sufficient recommendation for his edition of the Agricola and Germania of Tacitus, just pub- lished (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1900. 293 p. $1.40).
Professor Newhall of Kenyon College has sdected the Charmides, Laches, and Lysis ofi Plato for annotation, with a view to their use chiefly as literary masterpieces, the element of philosophical interpretation being present, but subordinate
(New York: American Book Co., 1900. 140 p. $1).
Two of our best American scholars in the fidld of elerr>entary and secondary school English, Superintendent Maxwell of New York City, and Dr. George J. Smith of his board of examiners, have collaborated in the preparation of a text-book, which is of more than usual importance. It is entitled Writ- ing in English, and is designed to gi?ide the composition work in grammar and high-school classes. It is a sound and suc- cessful piece of work (New York: American Book Co., 1900.
269 p. 75 cents). A very charming book is Selections
from Plato by Mr. Forman of Cornell University. The selections are made for the purpose of portraying Socrates in Plato's language (New York: The Macmillan Company, tqoo. 51.2 p. $1.90).
X
EDITORIAL
Reforms at the ^^^ Scottish Universities' Commission, ap-
Scotch Universi- pointed under the act of 1889, have pubHshed
^^^ their report, and recite the following changes
as the most important of those which they have brought about.
1. An entrance examination, common to the four universities or some examination accepted as equivalent, is now the indispensable preliminary to a course qualifying for graduation. Junior, or non-qualifying classes, in Latin, Greek, and mathematics, are still allowed to exist, because of the very inadequate provision for secondary education in many districts of Scotland. The commissioners, however, distinctly say : " We do not think it desirable that the junior classes should be a permanent part of the uni- versity equipment."
2. The course for the M. A. degree has been made less rigid and more varied by the permission of a choice of subjects within certain definite limits, and graduation with honors has been encouraged.
3. The institution of a common fee fund in each university, with the payment of professors by fixed salaries instead of mainly by class fees, is a great reform, and removes the old obstacle of " vested interests" to the recognition of new subjects and more varied courses of study.
4. Where funds do not admit (as is, unfortunately, too often the case) cf the establishment of professorships for the teaching of new subjects, lectureships may be established for short periods without committing the university to a permanent expenditure on what may not prove a successful experiment.
5. By a special ordinance the commissioners gave power to the uni- versities to admit women to graduation. All four universities have already availed themselves of this power in the faculties of arts, science, and medi- cine. In these faculties men and women are now students on the same conditions, and a change which is absolutely revolutionary has been very quietly carried out and accepted.
The commissioners are obliged to express regret at their in- ability to provide for the extension and better equipment of the university libraries.
We directed attention last month to the pro- H^rrTry°De^g?eT PO^al of President Thwing of Western Re- serve University that the new degree of D. A., doctor artis, be established, to be conferred by colleges and
532
Editorial 533
universities as an honorary degree upon men distinguished in technical and industrial pursuits, for whom the degree of doc- tor of laws seems inappropriate. A number of college presi- dents have kindly responded to a i^equest for an expression pf opinion regarding President Thwing's suggestion, and their views are given below :
President James B. Angell University of Michigan
I cannot say that I feel particularly drawn to the indorsement of the sug- gestion made by President Thvving for the establishment of a new honorary degree. My colleagues, with whom I have had opportunity to confer, seem to hold the same view.
Dean L. B. R. Briggs Harvard University
I do not see why we need an honorary degree between A. M. and LL. D.; but I am open to conviction.
President Nathaniel Butler Colby College
There seem to me to be no sufficient reasons for adopting President Thwing's suggestion for the establishment of the new honorary degree D. A. (i) I think that the general consciousness which concerns itself with academic degrees would not be likely to differentiate between the values respectively of doctor artis and inagister artis. (2) The value of a degree is very largely a matter of tradition. The new degree obviously would pos- sess no value from that point of view. It would be doubtful whether those upon whom it would be conferred would attach any great importance to it. (3) A third objection to the new degree would, as I judge, lie in the fact that its adoption would tend to multiply degrees at a time when a good many of us are feeling that precisely the opposite thing ought to be done. Further, the attempt to establish this degree would almost seem like an unnecessary invention rather than an evolution. All of which is to say that I cannot see any good reason for the establishment of the new degree.
President Franklin Carter Williams College
I should not be in favor of establishing any new degree for men who consider themselves too distinguished to be masters of arts and who are not quite distinguished enough to be doctors of law. There would be no historic significance to the degree ; and if the master of arts were only con- ferred on persons of eminence in some direction, it seems to me it would have significance enough not to be lightly esteemed.
President Charles W. Eliot Harvard University
Concerning President Thwing's proposal for a new honorary degree I shall have to say that it does not seem to me likely that Harvard Univer- sity would establish a new degree for honorary use. A new and strange form of compliment can hardly be as effective as a traditional and familiar one. I should admit, however, that it would be difficult to justify theoretic- ally the present use made of the degree of doctor of laws.
534 Educational Review [December
President W. H. P. Faunce Brown University
It seems to me that the proposed title would be quite as scholastic as any that the colleges now confer, and hence unsuited to the purpose in view — the recognition of men of affairs as distinguished from men of thought or simple scholarship. For such men, it would seem desirable to have a term disconnected with purely academic tradition. I would rather favor some such phrase as " master of affairs," or " guardian of the state," or " bene- factor of the republic." I would cut loose entirely from the term " arts," and also from the word " doctor."
President Arthur T. Hadley Yale University
Looking at the matter superficially, the balance of reason seems to be slightly against the establishment of the degree of doctor of arts. Had it been desirable to constitute a title for our LL. D. degree ab initio, this would doubtless have been a better one ; but in our by-laws it is specifi- cally understood that LL. D. is a degree in arts, and I believe that the same understanding holds good with all the other colleges. I should much prefer to treat the custom of giving honorary degrees as a survival from the olden time, and treat it by the old methods, rather than dignify it by making a new degree for the special purpose.
This is simply a statement of impressions, and is not to be regarded as an unalterable final opinion.
President George Harris Amherst College
I do not favor another honorary degree. Those for whom M. A. is not
enough and L.L. D. too much can receive L. H. D., which is^ow given by
many colleges to authors and educators.
President David Starr Jordan Stanford University
I am totally opposed to the granting of honorary degrees of any kind,, believing that the college degree should be made simply a certificate of the work completed at the institution which grants it. I should also be op- posed on general principles to the multiplication of titles. If we have any honorary degree at all let it be doctor of laws, and let the degree itself adapt its meaning to the needs of men entitled to honorable academic recogni- tion. To make another degree to catch the men of doubtful worth in order to retain the honor due to LL. D. does not specially appeal to me. I am, however, strongly in sympathy with the suggestion of Professor Bacon of Yale that we turn the whole business of degrees over for the Chautauqua ladies and gentlemen to play with. But I see no more reason why colleges should confer the degree of LL. D. on successful generals than that suc- cessful investigators should be dubbed " colonel " or " major " by the War Department.
President Seth Low Columbia University
I confess to a great reluctance to see degrees multiplied. I cannot help thinking that usage has already given to the honorary degree of doctor of laws a very wide significance. It seems to me better to continue the sig- nificance of that degree, in case of need, than to multiply honorary degrees still further.
1900] Editorial 535
President Cyrus Northrop University of Minnesota
I will say, first, that the University of Minnesota has never conferred an honorary degree and at present does not purpose to confer any, so that the subject is not one that particularly concerns us ; — and, second, that my own taste does not favor a multiplication of honorary degrees with which either to delight the recipient or to astonish the public. I think that men who are not fit to receive any existing degree can live quite comfortably without one.
President A. V. V. Raymond Union College
I am opposed on general principles to the multiplication of degrees. If we go much further in this direction we shall bring the whole subject of honorary degrees into ridicule. I see no good reason for the degree of D. A., proposed by President Thwing.
President J. G. Schurman Cornell University
I am certain the scheme is not feasible, and I doubt even if it is desi- rable. It would be many years, and perhaps some generations, even if such a change were inaugurated, before the public attached to the new degree the value which the older honorary degrees at present enjoy.
President M. W. Stryker Hamilton College
The proposal of President Thwing to institute degree of D. A. strikes, me as sensible. It should obtain recognition as a distinctively honorary degree and should supersede honorary A. M.
President Benjamin Ide Wheeler University of California
I am not opposed to the creation of new degrees, provided there is a proper discrimination exercised regarding the values attaching to each de- gree, and especially if some order can be introduced into the present uncer-^ tainty and confusion. It seems to me that the tendency during the last few years of our educational development to limit the number of degrees has wrought little good and much mischief. What we needed was order and not destruction. I do not see why President Thwing did not make his degree doctor artiwn instead of doctor artis.
College En- ^^^ Saturday, November 17, the College trance Examina- Entrance Examination Board for the Middle tion Board States and Maryland formally organized, and
the important experiment which it has in hand was begun. The Board, for the year 1901, consists of the following members :
53^ Educational Review [December
Barnard College, Pennsylvania University,
Acting Dean Robinson Professor Lamberton
Bryn Mawr College, Rutgers College,
President Thomas President Scott
•Columbia College, Swarthmore College,
President Low President Birdsall
•Cornell University, Union College,
Professor H. S. White President Raymond
Johns Hopkins University, Vassar College,
Professor Griffin President Taylor
New York University, Woman's College, Baltimore, Chancellor MacCracken Professor Van Meter
and, as representatives of the secondary schools, Dr. Julius Sachs of New York, Dr. Edward J. Goodwin of New York, Dr. Walter B. Gunnison of Brooklyn, N. Y., Mr. Wilson Far- rand of Newark, N. J., and Mr. Charles S. Crosman of Haver- iord, Pa. President Low was elected chairman of the Board for the year, and President Thomas vice chairman. Professor Butler of Columbia University is the secretary and executive officer of the Board. The executive commiittee consist of President Low, President Thomas, President Taylor, Pro- fessor Lamberton, and Dr. Sachs.
The executive committee have authorized a preliminary •statement that the uniform examinations of the Board in chemistry, English, French, German, Greek, history, Latin, mathematics, and physics will be held at points to be designated in the Middle States and Maryland and thruout the West dur- ing the week beginning June 17, 1901. The list of examiners for 1 90 1 and more detailed statements regarding the conduct of the examinations will be made public shortly. The Eoard are confident that these examinations will be largely attended and that many secondary school students will take them as graduation examinations, tho without the intention of going to college. It is expected that not a few schools, l3oth public and private, will require these examinations of their pupils for graduation.
At their last meeting the New England Association of Col- leges and Preparatory Schools authorized the appointment of a strong committee to take into consideration a similar plan for the colleges of that territory.
1900] Editorial 537
School Affairs ^^ ^^^ convinced that unwittingly we did in injustice to the San Francisco board of edu-
San Francisco ^^^-^^ ^^ reprinting, in the Review for Octo- ber last, articles from several San Francisco newspapers adverse to the w^ork of the board. The best opinions we can command are that these newspaper criticisms were personal, factional, or political in their origin, and that they did not represent the fair judgment of the city. The most unpreju- diced judges advise us that the board of education are honest in intention and in effort, but that an impossible situation has been created by the preposterous provisions of the San Fran- cisco charter, to which we have referred several times.
The court of appeals of Maryland has sus- Notes and News tained the action of the school commissioners
of Baltimore in electing James H. Van Sickle, formerly of North Denver, Colo., to be superintendent of schools. A taxpayer brought suit to enjoin the city authori- ties from paying Mr. Van Sickle's salary, upon the ground that he was not eligible, under the Baltimore charter, for the post to which he had been chosen. The charter contains this provision : " All municipal officials, except females, shall be registered voters of the city of Baltimore." Applied to a superintendent of schools such a provision is nothing less than absurd, and the court of appeals has decided that the super- intendent of schools is not a '' municipal official " as that term is used in the charter. When the full text of the decision is printed, we hope to find that the court has followed the best precedents and held that both the city school commissioners and the city superintendent, no matter how or by whom chosen, are not municipal officers at all, but direct representa- tives of the sovereign power of the State of Maryland.
Professor Sorley of Aberdeen has succeeded to the chair of moral philosophy at the University of Cambridge made vacant by the death of Henry Sidgwick, and Dr. Robert Latta of Uni- versity College, Dundee, has succeeded Professor Sorley.
53^ Educational Review [December
It is planned to print in the Educational Review for April of each year, an annotated bibHography of the Hterature of education, in EngHsh, for the calendar year preceding. The first of the series, covering the year 1899, was. printed in the Review for April last. This bibliography will be prepared by Mr. J. I. Wyer, Jr., librarian of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb. Mr. Wyer would be glad to receive at, any time from authors and publishers notice of the appearance of any book or article which his bibliography should include.
Dr. Helen C. Putnam of Providence, R. L, has written ad- mirably on the subject of vacation schools. Her account of vacation schools and playgrounds in Providence is included in the Rhode Island school report for 1890, ancT'her very useful and suggestive paper on '' The physician's influence in re vaca- tion schools " appeared in the Bulletin of the American Academy of Medicine for October, 1900.
For the following additions to the long list of amusing items culled from school examination papers we are indebted to an anonymous writer in Longmans' Magazine.
The blood in the body is taken by means of tubs to the heart and there detained.
A volcano is a burning mountain that has a creator and throws out melted rooks.
I came sore and conquered.
The night rat came rolling up ragged and brown.
His brain was teething with grand ideas in all directions.
If the earth did not revolt, we should always have equal nights and days.
Stored in some trouser-house of mighty kings.
The lungs are organs of execration.
When Earl Godwin came back to England all the people flocked to the station to meet him. ' The earliest newspaper of those times was the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
The base of a triangle is the side which we don't talk about.
The apex of the heart is placed downwards and slightly upwards.
The subjunctive mood is used in a doubtful manner.
Rapids are pieces of water which run with great force down the middle of rivers.
Excommunication means that no one is to speak to some one.
The North and South Poles mean that if a ship comes near one and looks for the farther one she can't see it.
1900] Editorial 539
The earth is round, like a plate, but some people think it is flat. The North Pole has not been sufficiently explored to judge of that part being jound.
A diplomat is some one who puts true things in a better light, which changes them and alters their sense.
Polynesia is a group of small islands in the Pacific which are under the protection of the British, otherwise seem very quiet and peace-loving.
In one of his latest reports Superintendent Greenwood of Kansas Gity, Mo., has this to say, in his original way, of " Re- modeling children " :
Can a man make himself over.f* Can a leopard change his spots, or the Ethiopian his skin .'' What answer does education give to this question } Is there a strong typical resemblance among educated people of all kindred nationalities, as there is said to be among the thieves of Europe and America .'' If there be those who need remodeling, can they be remade by the aid of educational surgery.? All these questions, when stripped of superfluous matter, simply mean that if we would produce a better class of people than any now existing as a nation, we must insinuate into hereditary influences noble aspirations, that will counteract or reinforce the trans- mitted traits. To work upward the lower stratums of human nature is to substitute higher motives for lower ones, that the mind may be moved by feelings leading to that high conception of things that has stimulated the great and the good of all ages. Under whatever name this work is under- taken, it is teaching. The teachers accept the human material sent to them, and if it is faulty, they endeavor to improve it by the application of such influences as they have control of. The general vagueness, called humanity, has transmitted with the life of each individual both good traits and pernicious ones, in the formation of each one's mental and physical equipment, the accumulated inheritance both of mechanism and function- so that education is a destroying process, going hand in hand with the building-up one. Unless the forces of education, be moved in the right direction, the child may be injured, when the aim is to help him. The child must be docile — that is, in the right frame of mind, susceptible to the learning influence ; and if not, then the teacher must bring about the necessary change, thru the medium of skill and patience. Two possible variations [may arise : the teacher becomes impatient, or the pupil grows intractable. Either is fatal unless the evil is removed. A keen analyst can hardly tell which is the more dangerous. The teacher's impatience may be controlled ; if it is not, usefulness is gone. Heroic treatment is demanded for the intractable pupil, in order to bring into active operation a better attitude of mind. Should the pupil be deficient in receptive power, whether of discipline or instruction, the teacher must first bring to bear such a force as will, if possible, produce the desired result. Great is the teacher who reads human nature as it is. Youngsters may be sent to school perfectly docile, or as untamed as young
540 Educational Review
tigers, but the solvent, kindness, will tame the ferocious hyena, as well as the more kindly disposed animals. Unless the mental deficiencies are extremely abnormal, the savage nature of the most refractory child will yield to the same subtle influence. What is herein indicated may not reach every case, but it will win most of them, leaving a small remnant — the incorrigible — to suffer the consequences of their own folly. No provision, it may be argued, is left for these sudden explosions of temper which sometimes burst forth without a moment's warning, crimes, as it were, without malice aforethought, that need immediate attention. Such ebullitions of passion are exceedingly rare, and, unless they lead to manslaughter, or the brandishing of dangerous weapons, I am still of the opinion that it is better, in applying the proper remedial agents, to proceed at a very moderate pace. Universal experience is, that one heated by passion will probably act unwisely. By slow degrees, then, the character may be largely modified by neglecting or suppressing certain personal traits and stimulating others. In this sense pupils may be remodeled. To indicate the path of action is as much as can be done to encourage and inspire the thoughtful teacher.
School and home education makes a suggestion — which some persons and things in Washington, D. C, ought to ap- prove— for the guidance of school director Bell of Cleveland, O., and those allied with him i'n nagging and worrying Super- intendent Jones. It says :
Bell ought to induce the United States senate to send an investigating committee to Cleveland to take evidence concerning the incompetency of Superintendent Jones. They would gather up all the hangers-on about the office and Secretary Rossiter and a score of educational freaks from the denizens of the city, and with Senator Stewart as chairman, Mr. Bell might rely upon a favorable verdict which would enable him to use his autocratic power to dismiss Mr. Jones without endangering his own official head. We assure Mr. Bell that we will not send in any bill for commission for this suggestion, should he succeed in his enterprise.
Professor Hanus and the seminar in education at Harvard University are conducting an extensive investigation into the working of the elective system in schools and colleges. Pro- fessor Hanus is particularly anxious to reach all secondary- schools which have adopted an elective system, and he will gladly send his question-papers to every such school that com- municates with him.