^* ^"^^ "^^ vS&* ^^ % ^ /%. i^ \>^V^ "V^'^V' \'**\/^ ""-<^ ^--.f^ o V > '^ ^v.0^ " " " ^ ^0 ^0 . .,.• / \/^?^'\/^ V'^^V %,'^^*\/^ v--\^°' SUPPLEMENTARY EDUCATIONAL MONOGRAPHS Published in conjunction with THE SCHOOL REVIEW and THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JOURNAL No. 19 May 1922 THE SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF AMERICAN SECONDARY EDUCATION THE SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF AMERICAN SECONDARY EDUCATION By GEORGE SYLVESTER COUNTS THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO CHICAGO, ILLINOIS uK'- Copyright 1922 By The University of Chicago All Rights Reserved Published May 1922 mi 14 1922 t> I ACKNOWLED GMENTS Many persons have contributed to the success of this study, and, while it is quite impossible to name all those who have helped in one way or another from the securing of the data to the reading of the manuscript, the writer wishes particularly to express his appreciation of the kindly co-operation of the following workers in the field without which the study would not have been possible: Assistant Superintendent G. M. Laselle, Principal James C. Moore, Principal H. J. Hanson, Dr. A. C. Sides, Mr. Frank M. Ham, Mrs. Florence F. Batchelder, Miss Katherine A. Flanagan, and Miss Harriet F. Lambert of Bridgeport; Superintendent W. H. Holmes of Mt. Vernon; Assistant Super- intendent W. J. S. Bryan and Principals William M. Butler, Stephen A. Douglas, John J. Maddox, Armand R. Miller, John R. Powell, H. H. Ryan, and Frank L. Williams of St. Louis; Vocational Difector S. E. Fleming and Principals Karl F. Adams, L. P. Bennett, F. L. Cassidy, V. K. Froula, O. L. Luther, and James A. Reed of Seattle; and Morton Snyder formerly Princi- pal of the University of Chicago High School and Principal Lewis Perry of the Phillips-Exeter Academy. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE List of Tables ix List of Figures xiii PART I. INTRODUCTION Chapter I. The Problem i Chapter II. Source and Collection of the Data .... 5 Chapter III. Character of the Cities Chosen for the Study . 14 PART II. ANALYSIS OF THE DATA Chapter IV. Parental Occupation — Classification . . . 21 Chapter V. Parental Occupation and Total Enrolment . . 26 Chapter VI. Parental Occupation and Progress through the School 36 Chapter VII. Parental Occupation and Children of High-School Age Not in High School 46 Chapter VIII. Parental Occupation and the Course of Study . 55 Chapter IX. Parental Occupation and Expectations Following Graduation 74 Chapter X. The Public High School and the Cultural Level 87 Chapter XI. The Public High School and Family Influences . 95 Chapter XII. The Public High School and the Immigrant . . 106 Chapter XIII. The Public High School and the Negro . . . 114 i-^ Chapter XIV. The Public High School and Psychological Selec- tion 124 Chapter XV. The Population of the Private Secondary School 135 PART III. CONCLUSION AND INTERPRETATION Chapter XVI. The Selective Character of American Secondary Education 141 Chapter XVII. The High School and Democracy .... 149 Index 157 LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE I. Number and sex of high-school students filling out the information card in each of the cities lo II. Number and sex of children filling out the information card in each of the non-high-school groups 1 1 III. Number and distribution of children taking the intelligence tests II IV. Increase of population in each of the four cities from 1870 to 1920 IS V. Racial and ethnic composition of the populations of the four cities according to the Census of 1910 16 VI. Nativity of foreign-born whites and parents of native whites of foreign parentage in the four cities (19 10) . . . 17 VII. Total number of persons ten years of age or over engaged in each specified occupation in each of the four cities (1910) 18 VIII. Number of children of high-school age, number of children in the public high schools, and percentage of children of high- school age in the public high schools in each of the four cities and in the United States in 1918 20 IX. Occupations of the fathers or guardians of 17,265 students in the high schools of four cities — all four years combined. — 1919-20, 1920-21 26 X. Probable occupations of the fathers or guardians of 100 high- school students taken at random from the high-school populations of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle — all four years combined 29 XI. Probable age-distribution of the fathers of 1,000 high-school students, derived from data given by 1,391 students in Lincoln High School, Seattle 3° XII. Percentage of males engaged in each occupation who are forty-five years of age and over, derived from the Census figures for selected occupations in Bridgeport, St. Louis, and Seattle (1910) 32 XIII. Estimated number of men forty-five years of age and over engaged in each set of occupations in Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle (1910); number of high- school students whose fathers or guardians are engaged in IX LIST OF TABLES PAGE each set of occupations in the same cities, according to studies made in 1919-20 and 1920-21; and number of the latter for every 1,000 of the former for each set of occupa- tions 33 XIV. Percentage of students in each of two high-school years from each of the occupational groups in the high schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle. Data from 6,782 Freshmen and 2,522 Seniors .... 37 XV. Percentage of children from each occupational group in each of two school grades. Data from 739 children in the sixth grade and 136 in the Senior year of the high school, Mt. Vernon 40 XVI. Probable occupations of the fathers or guardians of 100 high- school seniors taken at random from the high-school popu- lations of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 44 XVII. Percentage distribution of the occupations of the fathers or guardians of two groups of children. Data from 514 chil- dren of high-school age at work and 6,138 children in high school, Seattle 47 XVIII. Selection of curricula by children from the various occupa- tional groups, Bridgeport High School, all classes . , 56 XIX.' Number and percentage of students from each occupational group pursuing each of the five curricula. Boys and girls combined. Mt. Vernon High School 61 XX. Percentage of students in each of the Mt. Vernon high schools coming from each occupational group 61 XXI. Selection of curricxila by children from the various occupa- tional groups. St. Louis high schools (white), all classes 65 XXII. Percentage of girls from each occupational group pursuing the general and the two-year commercial courses. St. Louis high schools, all classes, December, 1920 .... 66 XXIII. Percentage distribution of the occupations of the fathers of 67 students pursuing the classical course and 189 the fine arts course in the St. Louis high schools, all classes . . 68 XXIV. Selection of curricula by children from the various occupa- tional groups in the Seattle high schools, all classes . . 70 XXV. Probable distribution of 100 girls from each occupational group over the six courses open to girls in the Seattle high schools, all classes 71 LIST OF TABLES xi TABLE PAGE XXVI. Probable distribution of loo boys from each occupational group over the five curricula open to boys in the Seattle high schools, all classes 72 XXVII. Expectations following graduation of 9,286 girls in the high schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 76 XXVIII. Percentage of girls from each occupational group intending to go to college, enter normal school, or engage in clerical work on leaving high school. Data from 9,286 students in Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle ... 78 XXIX. Percentage distribution of the occupations of the fathers or guardians of 3,391 girls in all four high-school years and of 688 girls in the Senior year who are intending to go to col- lege. Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle . 79 XXX. Expectations following graduation of 7,979 boys in the high schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 82 XXXI. Number and percentage of boys from each occupational group intending to go to college after graduation from high school in Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle, all classes 84 XXXII. Occupations of the fathers or guardians of 451 students in the first year of the high school who do not expect to com- plete the course, and the percentage from each occupational group not expecting to complete the course. Data from 6,782 Freshmen in the high schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 86 XXXIII. Percentage of students pursuing each curriculum in whose homes there are telephones. Mt. Vernon high schools, all years 93 XXXIV. Percentage of students in the high schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle, having one or both parents deceased. Data from 17,265 cases ... 96 XXXV. Percentage of students in each year of the high school having one or both parents deceased. Data from 17,265 cases in Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle ... 98 XXXVI. Percentage of students in each of two groups having one or both parents deceased. Data from 4,437 students in the Freshman year of the high school in Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, and St. Louis 100 XXXVII. Number of high-school students in four cities having each indicated number of brothers and sisters .... 103 XXXVIII. Numberof firstborn for every 100 lastborn children in each of four groups of children of high-school age in Bridgeport . 105 Xll LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE XXXIX. Nativity of the fathers of 2,257 students in the Bridgeport High School 107 XL. Nativity of the fathers of children in evening high school, trade school, and compulsory continuation classes, Bridgeport 109 XLI. Nativity of fathers of children in the Mt. Vernon sixth grade and in each year of the Mt. Vernon high schools. . . no XLII. Percentage of girls in each group pursuing each of the cur- ricula open to girls in the Bridgeport High School. Girls grouped according to nativity of fathers . .111 XLIII. Percentage of boys in each group pursuing each of the cur- ricula open to boys in the Bridgeport High School. Boys grouped according to nativity of fathers . . .112 XLIV. Number of boys to 100 girls in Bridgeport High School. Students grouped according to nativity of fathers. Data from 2,257 cases 113 XLV. Distribution by sex and year in high school of 727 students in the Sumner (colored) High School of St. Louis . . 115 XLVI. Occupations of the fathers of 727 students in the Sumner (colored) High School of St. Louis 116 XL VII. Percentage of students in the colored and white high schools of St. Louis having one or both parents deceased . . 117 XLVIII. Percentage of girl students in the colored and white high schools of St. Louis pursuing the different curricula . .119 XLIX. Percentage of boy students in the colored and white high schools of St. Louis pursuing the different curricula . .120 L. Expectations following graduation of girls in the colored and white high schools of St. Louis 121 LI. Expectations following graduation of boys in the colored and white high schools of St. Louis 122 LII. Median scores made by girls and boys in each year of the high school in Bridgeport. Chapman-Welles Test. Data from 2,537 cases 124 LIII. Median scores made by girls and boys in the first year of the high school, the evening high school, the first year of the trade school, and the compulsory continuation classes in Bridgeport. Chapman-Welles Test 125 LIV. Median scores made by girls and boys in the various cur- ricula in the Bridgeport High School. Chapman-Welles Test 128 LIST OF TABLES xiii TABLE PAGE LV. Median scores made by Freshman girls and boys in each type of curriculum in the Mt. Vernon High School. National Intelligence Tests 129 LVI. Scores made by girls and boys from different occupational groups in the Chapman-Welles Test. In each case the median scores made in the four high-school years are aver- aged. Data from Bridgeport High School . . . .129 LVII. Median scores made by Freshmen of the Mt. Vernon High School in the National Intelligence Tests, classified accord- ing to the occupation of the father 130 LVIII. Scores made in Chapman-Welles Test by girls and boys, classified according to nativity of the father. Median scores made in the four school years are averaged in each case. Bridgeport High School 131 LIX. Comparison of scores made by firstborn and lastborn children in the Bridgeport High School in the Chapman-Welles Test. In each case the median scores made in the four high-school years are averaged 132 LX. Comparison of median scores made in the National Intelli- gence Tests by firstborn and lastborn children in the Mt. Vernon High School 133 LXI. Comparison of median scores made in Chapman-Welles Test by children coming from families of three different sizes in the Bridgeport High School. In each case the median scores made in the four high-school years are averaged . 133 LXII. Comparison of median scores made in the National Intelli- gence Tests by children coming from families of three different sizes in the Mt. Vernon High School . . . 134 LXIII. Occupations of fathers or guardians of 201 students in Phillips-Exeter Academy and 418 in the University of Chicago High School 136 LXIV. Occupations of fathers or guardians of 17,265 students in the public high schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle, and 619 students in the PhiUips-Exeter Academy and the University of Chicago High School . 138 LXV. Nativity of fathers of 619 students in the Phillips-Exeter Academy and the University of Chicago High School . 139 LXVI. Median number of brothers and sisters of the students in the public high schools of four cities and in two private secondary schools ' . . . . 140 LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 1. Showing relative rates of increase in the total population, the number of pupils enrolled in the elementary school, and the number of students enrolled in the public high school. United States, 1870- 1918 2 2. Showing the number of children in the high schools of four cities (Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, Seattle) from each occupa- tional group for every 1,000 males over forty-five years of age engaged in that occupation in the four cities, according to the Federal Census for 1910. Data from 16,283 high-school students 33 3. Showing for each occupational group the number of students in the Senior year for every 100 in the Freshman year of the high school. Data from Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle . . 38 4. Showing percentage of children in each grade from the sixth to the twelfth whose fathers are engaged in each of four groups of occupa- tions. Mt. Vernon, May, 192 1 40 5. Showing for each occupational group the number of children in the Senior year of the high school for every 100 from the same group in the sixth grade of the elementary school. Mt. Vernon, May, 1921 42 6. Showing the number of children in the Senior year of the high school in foiur cities (Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, Seattle) from each occupational group for every 1,000 males over forty-five years of age engaged in that occupation in the four cities, according to the Federal Census for 1910. Data from 2,382 high-school Seniors . 42 7. Showing the number of children from each occupational group among children of high-school age at work for every 100 children from the same group attending high school. Data from 6,387 chil- dren in high school and 514 at work. Seattle, 1919-20 ... 48 8. Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers of 243 students attending the high-school department of the evening school. Bridgeport, December, 1920 49 9. Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers of 198 students in the state trade school. Bridgeport, February, 1921 ... 51 10. Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers of 579 children attending the compulsory continuation classes of the evening school. Bridgeport, December, 1920 53 xvi LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 11. Showing the number of children from each occupational group among children of high-school age not in high school (evening high school, trade school, and compulsory continuation classes) for every loo students from the same group attending the regular day high school. Data from 2,257 children in high school and 1,020 in the other three groups. Bridgeport, 1920-21 53 12. Showing the percentage of girls from each occupational group pur- suing the college preparatory and commercial curricula. Bridgeport High School 57 13. Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers of the 250 girls pursuing the college preparatory course in the Bridgeport High School 58 14. Showing for each occupational group the number of students (both sexes and all classes) in the vocational high school for every 100 from the same group in the academic high school. Data from 306 students in the former and 778 in the latter. Mt. Vernon . . 62 15. Showing the percentage of boys from each occupational group pur- suing the two- and one-year vocational courses. St. Louis high schools (white) 67 16. Showing the percentage of girl students in each of the high-school years intending either to go to college or to enter clerical service following graduation. Data from 9,286 girls in the high schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle . . . . 77 17. Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers or guardians of 688 girls in the Senior year of the high school who are intending to go to college. Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 80 18. Showing for each of two occupational groups the percentage of girls in each year of the high school intending to go to college. Bridge- port, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 81 19. Showing the percentage of girls and the percentage of boys in each year of the high school intending to go to college. Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 83 20. Showing for each of two occupational groups the percentage of boys in each year of the high school intending to go to college. Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 85 21. Showing the average number of telephones per 1,000 inhabitants in five groups of states inigi 7, arranged in order of the percentage that high-school attendance was of total public-school attendance in 1918 89 LIST OF FIGURES xvii FIGURE PAGE 2 2. Showing the percentage of children in the high school, the trade school, and the compulsory continuation classes, in whose homes there are telephones. Data from 2,531, from 198, and from 421 cases respectively. Bridgeport, February and March, 1921 . . 90 23. Showing the percentage of students in each year of the Bridgeport High School in whose homes there are telephones. March, 192 1 90 24. Showing the percentage of girls in each of three curricula in the Bridgeport High School in whose homes there are telephones. March, 1921 91 25. Showing the percentage of boys in each of five curricula in the Bridge- port High School in whose homes there are telephones. March, 1921 91 26. Showing for each grade from the sixth to the Senior year of the high school the percentage of children in whose homes there are tele- phones. No data for the seventh and eighth grades. Mt. Vernon, May, 1921 93 27. Showing percentage of children in each of two groups having one or both parents deceased. Data from 514 children of high-school age at work and 6,387 children in high school. Seattle, 1919-20 . 99 28. Showing percentage of children in each of four groups having one or both parents deceased. Bridgeport, 1920-21 99 29. Showing the percentage of children in the sixth grade and in the high school whose mothers are engaged in remunerative employment. Mt. Vernon, May, 1921 loi 30. Showing percentage of children in each of four groups whose mothers are working at remunerative employment. Bridgeport, 1919-20 . 102 31. Showing median number of brothers and sisters for the children in each of four groups. Bridgeport, 1920-21 104 32. Showing for each ethnic group the number of students in the Senior year for every 100 in the Freshman year of the high school. Data from 2,257 cases. Bridgeport 108 S;^. Showing the percentage of children in each of four groups whose fathers were born in the United States. Bridgeport . . .110 34. Comparing the negro and white high-school students in St. Louis with respect to the percentage having one or both parents deceased 117 35. Showing percentage of negro and white children in St. Louis high schools whose mothers are engaged in remunerative employment 118 36. Comparing whites and negroes with respect to size of family from which the high-school students come. St. Louis . . . .118 37. Showing the median score made in the Chapman- Welles Test by the boys in each of four groups. Bridgeport 125 xviii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 38. Showing by percentages the distribution of scores made by each of three groups of boys in the Chapman-Welles Test. Data from 426 boys in the first year of the high school, 112 boys in the first year of the trade school, and 201 boys in the compulsory continuation classes. Bridgeport 126 39. Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers or guardians of 619 students in Phillips-Exeter Academy and the University of Chicago High School. Jime, 1921 137 PART I. INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM For two generations the public high school in the United States has grown at such a rapid rate as to give it a unique place in the history of educational institutions. Appearing late in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, it at once entered into a struggle for survival with the dominant secondary school of the time, the private academy. For a half-century the high school maintained itself with more or less success, and was well established by 1870. During the fifty years that have elapsed in the meantime it has expanded in a manner quite without precedent. From 1890 to 1918 the number of high schools reporting to the Bureau at Washington increased from 2,526 to 13,951 ; the number of pupils in attendance from 202,963 to 1,645,171; and the number of teachers from 9,120 to 81,034. At the same time the population of the United States increased from 62,622,250 to approximately 105,253,000. Thus while the high-school enrolment increased 711 per cent the total population increased but 68 per cent. From year to year this institution has constantly attracted a larger and larger proportion of the children of high-school age in the nation. This remarkable expansion of the high school is impressively pictured in Figure I in which the high-school enrolment is compared with that of the elementary school and with the total population at five-year periods from 1870 to 191 8. The curve for the high school begins with 1871 instead of the year before, because data for 1870 are not available. That the curves for the three series may be easily compared they are based on index numbers, derived as indicated in the explanation of the diagram. It is seen at once that the high-school curve is distinctly different from the curves for the elementary school and the total popula- tion. The latter are almost identical and show a steady progression of the arithmetical type. The increase of the elementary-school enrolment for fifty years has evidently been a function of the general population increase. The curve for the high school, on the other hand, is of the geometrical order. For the first decade, from 1870 to 1880, the increase in high-school enrolment actually failed to keep pace with the growth SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION of population; during the following decade the two series were parallel; and since 1890 the high-school enrolment has been growing at a rate constantly accelerated from period to period without showing any- marked dependence on the general increase of population. Truly the American pubUc high school occupies a unique place among educational institutions. Total population Elementary-school enrolment. High-school enrolment 1870 1880 1890 1900 Year Fig. I. — Showing relative rates of increase in the total population, the number of pupils enrolled in the elementary school, and the number of students enrolled in the public high school, United States, 1870-19 18. The index numbers are found by dividing the total population and the total enrolment for each date by the respec- tive averages for the eleven periods considered. (Adapted from U.S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, No. ig, 1920, p. 47.) And the end is not yet, as the merest glance at the high-school curve shows. In view of the direction it is taking today, apparently there is but one ultimate Umitation to the increase in the high-school registration, and that is to be found in the number of children of high-school age in the population. We are already hearing murmurings about universal secondary education. It is pointed out that, in spite of the very rapid increase in high-school enrolment in recent years, there are enrolled today in our secondary schools, both public and private, only about THE PROBLEM 3 2,000,000 out of a total of approximately 8,300,000 children of high-school age in the nation. Some of our states are passing compulsory education laws that break with our tradition of compulsory education for the elementary period only, and point toward some measure of compulsory secondary education. The conception of secondary education as education for the selected few, whether by birth or by talent, appears to be giving ground before the assaults of political democracy and the demands of a society of increasing complexity and wealth. Some are saying that, as public elementary education is no longer education for the masses, but rather education for childhood, so secondary education is no longer education for the classes, but rather education for adolescence. Thus in a statement made by the teachers of the Washington Irving High School for Girls in New York City in 191 1 we find these words: "A public high school differs from an elementary school chiefly in the age of its children." Such a statement marks a new era in the history of secondary education. In view of the remarkable increase in high-school enrolment and the changing conception of secondary education, it is becoming increasingly pertinent to inquire into the character of that student population which is attracted to the public high school. And it is the object of the present study to make such an inquiry, at least in so far as the city high school is concerned. Is it true in practice that the public high school differs from the elementary school chiefly in the age of its children ? Has the revolu- tionary increase in the high-school enrolment involved the abandonment of the selective principle in secondary education ? And more specifically, from what occupational groups do the high-school students come ? Are all social classes fairly well represented? Is the public high school popular in the real sense of the word, or are we maintaining at public expense a secondary institution for certain favored classes in spite of this extraordinary growth of recent decades? Are the children of immigrants, the very children whose years in high school might be expected to yield the largest returns to both the individual and society, to be found in the high school in proportionate numbers ? Do the various immigrant groups exhibit special or characteristic traits toward high- school attendance ? What is the reaction of the fi^gro toward the public high school ? How are the children from the different social, cultural, and racial elements grouping themselves in the high school with respect to the courses pursued ? What are their expectations following gradua- tion? From the standpoint of securing a secondary education is it 4 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION fortunate or unfortunate to be the last-born ? How great is the mis- fortune of losing one or both parents ? What is the psychological equip- ment of those children who enter high school, as compared with those who do not? Who remain for graduation? In a word, what is the sociological and psychological character of the public high school population? Many of these questions have received consideration in other investigations — they all receive some attention in the present study, although the emphasis throughout is sociological rather than psychological. It is clear that a thorough study of the high-school population is fundamental to the solution of all problems of organization and adminis- tration. The high-school student should furnish the point of departure for the wise determination of high-school poUcy and practice. It is equally clear that an adequate social interpretation of the high school must rest upon relatively complete knowledge of the social sources from which its population comes, as well as on comparatively general agreement as to the objectives at which the school is aiming. The contact which the high school makes with the social order through the Freshman year is as significant as that which it makes through the graduating class. With the former are bound up questions of large social import, such as the relation of groups to groups, the stability of classes, the source of leadership, and the distribution of power, at least in so far as these matters may be affected by the secondary school. It is hoped that this study will make some contribution toward such an interpretation. CHAPTER II SOURCE AND COLLECTION OF THE DATA In attacking this problem it was decided to take a complete census of the high-school population in several American cities representing different parts of the country. Obviously, returns from a single high school drawing its students from a single quarter of one of our large cities would not be satisfactory because of the well-known tendency of populations of similar social and economic standing to gravitate to the same section of the city. It was thought desirable to study a community sufficiently complex to present all the more important groups (except the agricultural) found in modern society, and sufficiently large to provide representation of each of the groups adequate for statistical purposes. For these reasons an entire city was studied in each case. THE GROUPS STUDIED The cities chosen for the central part of the study were Seattle, Washington; St. Louis, Missouri; Bridgeport, Connecticut; and Mt. Vernon, New York. These four cities were selected primarily because it was found possible to secure data from them, and not because they represent an ideal combination to picture the condition of secondary education in the United States. The writer has worked in St. Louis, Seattle, and Bridgeport in one capacity or another that has brought him in touch with the public schools in these places. It was, therefore, pos- sible to get that degree of co-operation in gathering the data that is neces- sary to insure reasonable accuracy in so comprehensive a study. Mt. Vernon was chosen because records from the National InteUigence Tests were already available for all students in the elementary school and the first year of the high school. Nevertheless, a fairly good case can be made out for the selection of these cities from the standpoint of their representative character, as will be pointed out in the following chapter. In addition to the census of the high-school population, data were secured from certain other groups in Seattle, Bridgeport, and Mt. Vernon, which it was thought would throw light on our problem. In Seattle a study was made of children of high-school age at work in the commercial and industrial plants of that city. In Bridgeport facts were secured from three additional groups of children: (i) those attending 6 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION the evening high school; (2) those enrolled in the state trade school, an institution offering an intensive and practical two-year course in some fifteen trades and operating under the provisions of the Smith-Hughes Act; and (3) those found in the compulsory continuation classes of the evening school, an interesting Connecticut institution enroUing children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years who have left the regular day-school to go to work without having completed the elementary grades. In Mt. Vernon the sixth grade was included in making the study. Facts from these non-high-school groups are of exceptional value in interpreting the data from the high-school students. Also for the purpose of getting some idea of the character of that large body of young folk attending the private secondary schools of the country, data were secured from the University of Chicago High School and the PhiUips-Exeter Academy. A separate chapter will be set aside for the analysis and interpretation of data secured from these sources. THE METHOD OF PROCEDURE With a few exceptions a uniform procedure was followed in getting the data. In the schools, both high and otherwise, a card similar to the one reproduced below was filled out by all the children in attendance on a certain day. MOUNT VERNON HIGH SCHOOL Date Name Sex Age yrs mos. Grade in high school Course Is there a telephone in your home or the home in which you live ? Language or languages spoken in your home Information about father : Living ? Country of birth Present occupation Where or for whom does he work ? Is he either owner or part owner of the business in which he works ? Occupation while alive or while working if not living or working now ? Information about mother: Living ? Country of birth Helping to support family ? If so, how ? If you have a guardian, give his occupation How many brothers and sisters have you ? How many are older than you ? Do you expect to complete your high school course ? If not, why not ? What do you intend to do after graduation from high school ? To each teacher in charge of a ''home room" was sent the number of cards required. Along with this set of cards went a single card filled out for a hypothetical case, and the following set of instructions: SOURCE AND COLLECTION OF THE DATA The chief object of this investigation is to discover the extent to which the students in the public high school are drawn from the different population groups. The items relating to the parents are, therefore, to be regarded as the most significant. The others are of subordinate interest. The high-school student should fill in every blank (provided, of course, the question is pertinent to his case) except the one for his name. It is not neces- sary to have the student's name, if care is taken to fill out the card accurately and fully. This item would be of value only in case it should be found desirable to refer the card to the student for more complete and definite information. In answering the questions relating to the occupation of the father, it is particularly important that the answer be as definite as possible, in order that the father may at least be accurately placed in one of the larger occupational divisions, such as, unskilled labor, semi-skilled labor, skilled labor, the clerical occupations, personal service, the professions, the managerial and employing occupations. There are two types of answers to be avoided. There is the vague and indefinite answer such as "shipyards." Unless this is accompanied by a statement of what the father does in the shipyards, the answer is without value. In the second place, the student may use a term which has several meanings, such as "agent" or "engineer." Obviously such an answer may be variously construed. There are many different kinds of agents and several different kinds of engineers. The questions concerning the father's place of work and his ownership in the business are for the purpose of checking and clarifying the response to the question about, occupation. It may be helpful in securing accurate information to consult the following list which, according to the United States Census for 1910, includes the principal occupations of the people of the United States: Actors Agents, general Agents, insurance Agents, raUway station Agents, real estate Architects Authors Baggagemen Bakers Barbers, Hairdressers Bartenders Blacksmiths Boarding-house keepers BoUer-makers Bookkeepers Brakemen Brokers, commercial Brokers, stock Builders Butchers Cabinet-makers Candy-makers Canvassers Carpenters Carriage drivers Chambermaids Chauffeurs Chemists Cigarmakers Clay- and stone-workers Clergymen Clerks, store Clerks, other Collectors Cooks Commercial travelers Compositors Conductors, steam raUway Conductors, street railway Coopers Dairy farmers Deliverymen Dentists Designers Detectives, Marshals, etc. Domestics, general Draftsmen Dressmakers Druggists Dyers Editors Electricians Electrotypers, Stereotypers Elevator tenders Engineers, civil Locomotive Mining Stationary Engravers Express messengers 8 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION Farmers Filers, Grinders Firemen, fire department Locomotive Stationary Fishermen Foremen, manufacturing Foresters Fumacemen Gardeners, Florists Glassblowers Hatmakers Hostlers Hotelkeepers Housekeepers, Stewards Janitors Jewelers Laborers, domestic Farm Garden General Public Service Railroad Store Launderers (not in laundry) Lawyers, Judges Lithographers Longshoremen Lumbermen Machinists Mail carriers Mail clerks, railway Other Managers, manufacturing Manufacturers Masons, brick and stone Merchants, retail Wholesale Millers, grain, etc. Milliners Miners Molders, Founders Motormen Musicians Nurses, not trained Others, trained Officials, city State and U.S. Opticians Paperhangers Pattern-makers Photographers Physicians, Surgeons Plasterers Plumbers Policemen Porters (not store) Postmasters Pressmen, printing Professors, college Reporters Restaurant-keepers Roofers Sailors (U.S. Service) Others Salesmen, and saleswomen Saloon-keepers Sawyers Sewers (factory) Shoemakers (not factory) Showmen Soldiers- Stenographers Stonecutters Surgeons, veterinary Switchmen, Yardmen Tailors Teachers Teamsters Telegraph operators Telephone operators Tinsmiths Undertakers Upholsterers Watchmakers Waiters Of course il should be made clear to the students that this information is strictly confidential and will not be used in any personal connection whatsoever. It would be well at the outset to state to them the purpose of the investigation and the necessity of having accurate information. Their co-operation is necessary in securing it. In order to clarify any misunderstanding concerning the meanings of the questions, the card for a hypothetical case is filled out and accompanies this explanation. Be sure to allow the students sufiicient time to answer every question with care, even though it may be necessary in some cases to permit them to take the card home to consult the parents. Each card should be examined after the student has filled it out in order to correct any obvious errors and to see that all questions are answered. Your help in this way will be greatly appreciated. There were, however, some exceptions to the plan of procedure just outlined. The cards used in Seattle and St. Louis did not include SOURCE AND COLLECTION OF THE DATA 9 the questions concerning the language spoken in the home and the country of the parent's birth. But they did include questions re- lating to student self-support, which were discarded in the latter part of the investigation. Also the inquiry about the telephone in the home was made only in Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon. In Seattle and St, Louis the father's occupation three years ago was requested for the purpose of determining the extent of occupational change during high- school attendance. In one of the Seattle high schools (the first in which the study was attempted) an effort was made to get definite information as to the father's income, but without success. The question was entirely too personal and was consequently dropped from the card lest it imperil the accuracy of the returns to the other questions. Also in the first Seattle high school the questions about brothers and sisters did not appear on the card, with the result that the returns on this item are not complete for the city of Seattle. In Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon children did fill in the blank for the name, and there seemed to be no objection to it. In St. Louis and in four of the six Seattle schools this was not required of the students. In Mt. Vernon the set of instructions did^ot accompany the cards to the teachers. In view of the size of the school and the consequent greater intimacy of contact between the supervisory staff and the teacher, it was thought sufiicient to send to each teacher merely the card filled out for a hypothetical case. In concluding this enumeration of the exceptions to the general method of procedure, it should be pointed out that the cards used in the evening high school, the trade school, and the compulsory continuation classes in Bridgeport and the Mt. Vernon sixth grade were modified in each instance to meet the requirements of the situation. The facts for the children of high-school age at work in Seattle were obtained through personal interviews by investigators who went into all the commercial and industrial estabhshments of the city in which it was known that such children were at work. This was done through the co-operation of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. For the most part the investigators were teachers in the public schools of the city. In Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon the sociological data were supple- mented by inteUigence test records. In the former city the Chapman- Welles Junior- and Senior-High School Classification Test was given to the four groups of children already mentioned. To the compulsory continuation classes and the children in the trade school, the test was given by the writer, while the giving of the tests in the day and evening high schools was under the direction of high-school supervisors and lO SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION teachers who were more or less experienced in giving tests. In Mt. Vernon the National IntelHgence Tests, Scale B, Form I, were given by persons within the system. The data for the study were collected during the years ig^Q, 1920, and 192.J. The cards were filled out in the Seattle high schools at intervals during the months of November and December of 1919, and January of 1920. The children of high-school age at work in that city were interviewed during the Christmas vacation of the school year 1919-20. The data from St. Louis were secured in December, 1920. In Bridgeport the cards for both the day and evening high schools and the continuation classes were filled out in December, 1920, and those for the trade school in February, 192 1. The intelligence tests were given there in December, 1920, and in January, February, and March, 1921. In Mt. Vernon the tests were administered in October, 1920, and the cards were filled out the following May (192 1). NUMBER OF CASES STUDIED In getting the returns from the high schools an effort was made to obtain responses from all children in attendance on that day. The number filling out the cards in each city is indicated in Table I. Thus for this basic part of the study there are 17,992 cases. Of the 8,264 cases reported for the St. Louis high schools, 727, constituting the entire enrolment of one of the schools, are negroes. This very interesting group will receive special attention in a separate chapter. TABLE I Number and Sex of High-School Students Filling Out the Information Card IN Each of the Cities City Number of High-School Students Girls Boys Total Bridgeport. Mt. Vernon St. Louis. . Seattle TotaL . 1 ,220 4,462 3,572 1,037 568 3,802 2,815 2,257 1,084 8,264 6,387 9,770 17,992 The number of children in the special groups outside the regular day high school from whom information of a similar character was received is shown in Table II. No one of these groups is very large. Neither is any claim of complete returns made except for the trade SOURCE AND COLLECTION OF THE DATA II school and the Mt. Vernon sixth grade. In the other three cases the most that can be claimed is that random samplings have been secured. The number of children of high-school age at work in Seattle was certainly TABLE II Number and Sex of Children Filling Out the Information Card in Each of the non-hlgh-school groups Number of Children Group Girls Boys Total Children of high-school age at work in Seattle 249 147 14 305 341 265 96 184 274 398 243 198 , 579 Bridgeport Evening High School State Trade School at Bridgeport Bridgeport Compulsory Continuation Classes . Mt. Vernon Sixth Grade 739 Total 1,056 1,217 2,273 much greater than 514. In the Bridgeport Evening High School there were approximately one thousand students. Many of them were far beyond the high-school age. But only students twenty-one years of age or less were included in this study. Likewise returns were secured from only about 50 per cent of the children in the compulsory continu- ation classes. In each instance, however, those studied are thought to be quite representative of the group. TABLE III Number and Distribution of Children Taking the Intelligence Tests Number of Children Group Girls Boys Total Bridgeport High School 1,362 86 9 220 192 1,169 95 164 201 216 2,531 Bridgeport Evening High School 181 State Trade School at Bridgeport Bridgeport Compulsory Continuation Classes 173 421 Mt. Vernon High School 408 Total 1,869 1,845 3,714 The groups to which the intelligence tests were administered were not completely identical with those for which the sociological data were 12 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION secured, because some days or weeks or even months elapsed in each case between filling out the cards and taking the test, or vice versa. The number taking the test in each group is shown in Table III. It will be noted that in some cases the number taking the test is larger than the number filling out the cards, and in other cases the reverse is true. However, this is a matter of no importance when group results alone are wanted. ACCURACY The accuracy of the data is of course a matter of fundamental importance. Are the returns accurate or at least of such a character as to guarantee reliable conclusions ? Let us first consider the socio- logical data. The first question here pertains to the character of the informa- tion requested and the wording on the card. Is the high-school student in possession of the information asked for? He undoubtedly is, with the possible exception of the information relating to the father's owner- ship of the business in which he works. And even here, the responses to the other questions about the father's occupation make it possible in most cases to arrive at a reasonably satisfactory single result. Are the questions definite and do they call for specific information? Here again the answer is in the affirmative. Is there good reason for suspect- ing that the high-school student might color his replies to some of the questions ? Probably in some cases there would be a temptation to put a more favorable construction on the father's occupation than the facts would warrant. This temptation, however, was largely removed in St. Louis and in the four Seattle high schools where the student's name was not called for. Thus the returns from Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon may be checked against those from the other two cities. It is also highly probable that the average high-school student is over-optimistic about his prospects. Consequently little weight should be attached to his stated, intentions following graduation from high school, as an index of what he really is going to do. But, even so, as a statement of his intention, as an idea that occurred to him for a reason, it does in the writer's opinion have some validity. And no other claim for accuracy will be made regarding it during the course of the study. Did the students make a serious effort to fill out the cards and furnish the desired information ? They evidently did in the great majority of cases. It is true that in almost every high school one or two boys took the whole matter as a great joke and taxed their ingenuity to the limit to give the least possible bit of valuable information and the largest possible SOURCE AND COLLECTION OF THE DATA 13 amount of nonsense. But, on the Vhole, the replies showed careful attention to the work in hand and a serious effort to co-operate in providing the information. A second general question pertains to the collection of the data. Is there any good reason for believing that the returns are from a selected group ? On the whole the answer is a negative one. In each high school, with the exception of the Soldan High School of St. Louis, the day on which the census was taken was a normal day and the cards were received from practically all the students in attendance. At the Soldan the cards were filled out the day before the Christmas vacation and there were many absent, particularly among the Seniors. Subse- quently an effort was made to complete the census, but evidently there was a considerable number of students in this high school from whom no cards were received. And it happens that incompleteness at this point has probably colored the returns from St. Louis to a small degree, because the Soldan High School serves a rather homogeneous and select middle-class constituency. It should therefore be remembered, when we note the social composition of the high-school population of St. Louis, that our figures do not give the non-labor groups as large a representatioil as they probably have. In collecting data from the non-high-school children there is no good reason for suspecting bias. For obvious reasons, in the case of the evening high school in Bridgeport, the study was limited to students of twenty-one years of age and under. Except in those cases where it is expressly stated to the contrary, the returns apparently are complete and unselected. CHAPTER III CHARACTER OF THE CITIES CHOSEN FOR THE STUDY Before going into an analysis of the results of the investigation, it will be well to examine briefly into the character of the cities from which the data were secured. This is a matter of prime importance in a study such as this one, in which the sociological interest is prominent. It has already been intimated that the study was not undertaken in these cities primarily because of their representative character. They were studied because they presented the opportunity. They were studied because it was possible to study them. Nevertheless an examination of the facts will show them to be fairly representative of the country. GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL In Seattle we have a city of the Pacific Coast, representative of the North and the far West. St. Louis lies between the North and the South, and between the East and the West, exhibiting in some measure the characteristics of all. Bridgeport, an Atlantic seaport and industrial center, and Mt. Vernon, a growing community just outside the city of New York, stand for the East. To be sure, the real South is not ade- quately represented; neither is the Great Lakes region; nor the plains states. Furthermore, Boston and New England might not be satisfied with Bridgeport. But it must be admitted that these four cities do represent different parts of our country. No one of our cities can trace its history back to 1607 or 1620, although the city of Bridgeport does claim that there was a settlement of white people made in territory constituting the site of modern Bridgeport as early as 1639. It was not, however, until 1836 that the city was incorpo- rated. St. Louis is one of the oldest cities west of the Alleghanies, reaching back to the days of Marquette and Joliet and La Salle. It was incorporated as a city in 1822, and thus holds the distinction of having been the first city incorporated west of the Mississippi. Naturally the rise of Seattle came later as a part of the development of the Oregon country. Yet its date of incorporation goes back to i86g. Mt. Vernon, though possessing a considerable history as a town, did not become a city until 1892. 14 CHARACTER OF CITIES CHOSEN FOR STUDY 15 An examination of Table IV is of interest at this point. It shows the increase of population in each of the four cities from 1870 to 1920. The facts here presented reveal important and significant differences among the cities. Clearly they are not all of the same type. Fifty years ago St. Louis was a great urban center of more than 300,000 inhabitants. Seattle, on the other hand, a city that likes to call itself TABLE IV Increase of Population in Each of the Four Cities from 1870 to 1920 Year Bridgeport Mt. Vernon St. Louis Seattle 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 18,969 27,643 48,866 70,996 102,054 143,555 2,700 4,586 10,830 21,228 30,919 42,726 310,864 350,518 451,770 575,238 687,029 772,897 1,107 3,533 42,837 80,671 237,194 315,312 the New York of the Pacific today, was at that time nothing but an assemblage of shacks about a trading post, housing scarcely more than a thousand souls. St. Louis has been growing gradually during this period, but not so rapidly as most American cities, while the growth of Seattle, especially during the decade from 1900 to 1910, has been nothing short of phenomenal. In Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon we have two cities exhibiting the steady and rapid growth characteristic of industrial centers developing in the well-populated sections of our country during the last half-century. They are intermediate between Seattle and St. Louis. For the purposes of this study it is fortunate that we have cities showing these different rates of growth. In Seattle we find a vigorous, adventurous, and youthful population, composed of elements lured to this metropolis of the Northwest from the states to the east, and among whom the native son is rare indeed. Here society is less stable; the lines between social classes are not rigidly drawn. Everybody works. Seattle is not a city of magnificent residences. In St. Louis, on the other hand, we have an altogether different situation. The city is old, in American and middle western terms, and the population has not increased rapidly during the last generation. Society is more stable. The lines between classes are more closely drawn, although the people are less aware of those lines in St. Louis than in Seattle. Habit and custom have assumed their expected r61e. The old families do exist and St. Louis i6 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION does have its magnificent residences. It is a place in which to live as well as to work. These differences are of the largest significance for the study. THE PEOPLE A study of the people inhabiting these four cities shows us a popula- tion almost as varied and complex as that of the nation itself. In Table V are the facts pertaining to race and nationality as given in the latest TABLE V Racial and Ethnic Composition of the Populations of the Four Cities According to the Census of 19 io Race or Nationality Bridgeport Mt. Vernon St. Louis Seattle Number Per- centage Number Per- centage Number Per- centage Number Per- centage Native white (native 27,156 37,314 36,180 1,332 72 26.6 36.6 3S-S 1 .2 . I 11,433 10, 539 8,029 896 22 37.0 340 26.0 2.9 .1 269,836 246 , 946 125,706 43,960 S8i 39-2 35.9 18.4 6.4 .1 105,784 61,134 60,835 2,296 7,14s Native white (foreign and mixed parentage) Foreign-born white 25.8 25.6 I.O Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Total 102,054 100. 30,919 100. 687,029 100. 237,194 100. available census, that of 19 10. A glance at this table is illuminating. Bridgeport is one of the most foreign of American cities with onl y_26.6 per cent of its inhabitants reported as native white of native parentage. Practically the entire remainder is either foreign born or of foreign and mixed parentage, since the colored races have but a negligible representa- tion. At the other extreme is Seattle which is one of the least foreign of our cities with 44.6 per cent of its inhabitants of native white parentage. In St. Louis is found a different situation. The native white stock is w^l represented, as is also the native white of foreign and mixed parent- age; whereas the proportion offoreign-ljorn white is the lowest for the four cities, and is decidedly low for the larger American cities. Mt. Vernon presents no distinctive features. Finally it should be noted that St. Louis has a good representation of\i|egroes, while the Orientals, particularly the Chinese and the Japanese, constitute an important element in the population of Seattle. But how are the different immigrant strains represented ? Do we find both the "old" and the "new" immigration? In Table VI is the answer. Here the immigrants and native whites of foreign parentage are grouped according to the country from which they or both their CHARACTER OF CITIES CHOSEN FOR STUDY 17 parents have come. Again each of the cities presents individual features. In Bridgeport the most numerous immigrant group comes from that polyglot section of Europe formerly known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire; in Mt. Vernon the Italians hold first place; in St. Louis almost one-half of the immigrants are of German stock; while in Seattle the immigrants from the Scandinavian countries constitute the largest single group, as classified. In so far as the immigrant population is TABLE VI Nativity of Foreign-born Whites and Parents of Native Whites of Foreign Parentage in the Four Cities (1910) Country Bridgeport Number Per- centage Mt. Vernon Number Per- centage St. Louis Number Per- centage Seattle Number Per- centage Austria-Hungary Canada Great Britain . . . Germany Ireland Italy Russia Scandinavia. . . . . All others Total 16,883 2,002 6,383 6,136 13,070 7,420 6,242 3,725 3,437 426 345 1,367 3,924 2,403 4,371 933 537 1 ,112 2.8 2.2 8.9 25-5 15.6 28.3 6.0 3-5 7.2 28,377 3,138 11,270 138,094 41,326 11,360 23,868 2,926 28,350 2,901 14,317 13,025 13,898 7,294 4,399 3,513 28,353 12,209 2.9 143 130 13-9 7-3 . 4-4 3-5 28,5 12.2 65,298 15,418 100.0 4,709 99,909 concerned, Seattle represents the ''old" immigration, the immigration from the north and west of Europe, with only 10.8 per cent from Austria- Hungary, Italy, and Russia. In St. Louis, which is also predominantly a center for the "old" immigration, 22 per cent of its immigrants are from these three countries of the south and east of Europe. In Mt. Vernon this percentage rises to 37.1;* and in Bridgeport to 46.7. Thus it is clear that from the standpoint of race and nationality these four cities give a fairly complete picture of urban America. OCCUPATIONS For the purposes of this study perhaps the most important informa- tion about the population pertains to the occupations. In what occupa- tions are the people of these four cities engaged ? The facts on this point, according to the census of 1910, are found in Table VII. An examination of this table shows the variety of occupational interest characteristic of American cities. Of the nine great occupational divisions recognized by the census the seven which might be expected in urban communities are proportionately represented in these four SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION cities. To be sure, the percentage of persons engaged in public service, according to the census classification, is quite small in each case, but this is characteristic of cities generally. Although American cities are as a rule predominantly industrial, and although the cities here studied are no exceptions to this rule, yet the table shows marked differences among them in the proportion of the inhabitants engaged in the manufacturing and mechanical occupations. At the one extreme is Bridgeport with over 60 per cent of its people so engaged, and at the other is Seattle with scarcely more than 30 per cent. St. Louis occupies a middle ground. TABLE VII Total Number of Persons Ten Years of Age or Over Engaged in Each Specified Occupation in Each of the Four Cities (rgio) Occupational Division Bridgeport Mt. Vernon St. Louis Seattle Number Per- centage Number Per- centage Number Per- centage Number Per- centage Agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry Extracting of minerals Manufacturing and me- chanical industry 477 26 30,696 2,788 5,053 681 2,259 4,531 3,407 I.O .1 61 .4 5.6 10. 1 1.4 4-5 9.1 6.8 120 20 4,147 939 2,330 169 1,173 2,107 1,347 1.0 .2 33.6 7.6 18.9 1-3 9.5 17.0 10.9 2,203 1,621 133,151 28,079 54,117 5,858 15,952 46,288 33,445 .7 • 5 41-5 8.7 16.9 1.8 50 14. S 10.4 4,460 1,915 39,639 17,116 20,266 2,585 8,762 17,289 10,253 1.6 32.4 14.0 Trade 16.6 2.1 Professional service Domestic and personal 7.2 14.1 Clerical occupations 8.4 Total 49,918 100. 12,352 100. 320,714 100.0 122,28s 100. The range here presented is almost as great as that to be found among the larger American cities. Bridgeport is an industrial center of the clearest type, while Seattle is a community with a greater variety of interests, in which industrial development is in its earlier stages. In the latter city there are almost as many persons engaged in trade and transportation as in industry. This is to be expected in a great seaport in which the commercial interest is naturally very large. The table shows important differences in the proportion of the populations engaged in the other occupations, but enough has been said to make it clear that these four cities are fairly representative of American cities with respect to occupational interests. A slight additional comment of a more specific nature concerning the character of the industrial undertakings in each of the four cities will be of value, because of the dominant role played by industry in the American city. To an appreciable degree industry gives the city its tone. CHARACTER OF CITIES CHOSEN FOR STUDY 19 Almost every conceivable thing is manufactured in Bridgeport from collar buttons to field artillery. Its most important products are corsets; foundry and machine-shop products; electrical machinery and supplies of all sorts; cutlery and tools; and copper, tin, and sheet-iron products. In addition, the people of Bridgeport make automobiles, carriages, cigars, bicycles, boots and shoes, carpets, firearms, paint, patent medicines, hosiery, sewing machines, silverware, typewriters, and a host of other things. Mt. Vernon is largely a place of residence for persons working in New York City. Yet there are several concerns engaged in the manufacture of motor vehicles, optical instruments, silver products, shirt waists, etc. St. Louis manufactures a great variety of goods. The products in whose manufacture the largest numbers of workers are engaged ar e bo ots and sjioes; printing and publishing; men's and women's clothing; foundry and machine-shop products; furniture; lumber and timber products; carriages and wagons; pottery and terra cotta; stoves and furnaces; copper, tin, and sheet-iron products; and in a happier day great quantities of liquors and stimulating beverages. Seattle, though less given to manufacture, does produce many things. Quite naturally first among them are lumber and timber products. Others are foundry and machine-shop products; confection- ery; copper, tin, and sheet-iron products; flour and grist-mill products; and furniture. There are also a goodly number of persons engaged in printing and publishing; the slaughtering and meat-packing industries are developing; and during the war Seattle developed into a great shipbuilding center. VALUE OP PROPERTY No picture of a city is complete without some reference to the value of its property. This is especially true in any study of public education, an enterprise dependent on taxation for support. According to a special report of the census in 1919 the estimated true value of property per capita in St. Louis was $1,497.85, while the average for the group of American cities having over 500,000 inhabitants, the group to which St. Louis belongs, was $1,584.51. The corresponding figures for Seattle were $1,630.88 and $1,617.88; for Bridgeport, $1,592.05 and $1,353.25; and for Mt. Vernon, $ 1,28 6.28 and $1,234.30. According to these estimates, no one of the four cities represents either of the extremes of wealth or of poverty. With the exception of St. Louis, they are slightly above the average for cities of their class, but the superiority is not marked in any case. All appear to be cities of moderate wealth. 20 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION THE HIGH SCHOOL AND CHILDREN OF HIGH-SCHOOL AGE A final question and one most significant for this study pertains to the high school itself in these four cities. What proportion of the children of high-school age (taken somewhat arbitrarily in this study to include all children from fourteen to seventeen years of age) are enrolled in the high school? The facts bearing on this point appear in Table VIII in which is given the estimated number of children of high-school TABLE VIII ^Number of Children of High-School Age, Number of Children in the Public High Schools, and Percentage of Children of High-School Age in the Public High Schools in Each of the Four Cities and in the United States in 1918 Children of high-school age. Children in public high schools Percentage of children in public high schools Bridgeport Mt. Vernon St. Louis Seattle 10,618 3,169 59,324 23,368 1,990 I ,010 10,586 6,719 18.7 319 17.8 28.8 United States 8^i053_,872 1,645,171 20.4 age in each of the cities and in the nation in 1918, the number of children enrolled in the public high schools according to the report of the Bureau of Education for the school year 191 7-18, and the percentage that the latter is of the former. No claim is made of absolute accuracy for these figures, but they are unquestionably approximately correct. The table shows that two of the cities (Bridgeport and St. Louis) have a somewhat smaller proportion of their children of high-school age in the public high school than the country as a whole; whereas, the other two (Mt. Vernon and Seattle) are markedly above the average practice for the nation. Seattle's record is particularly noteworthy in a city of more than 300,000 inhabitants. In fact there are few cities as large as Seattle having so large a proportion of their children of high- school age in high school. This diversity of practice in a matter which lies at the heart of this study is of large value and reference to this table will be made in later chapters in connection with the analysis and interpretation of the results of the investigation. PART II. ANALYSIS OF THE DATA CHAPTER IV PARENTAL OCCUPATION— CLASSIFICATION Occupation is the central fact in the lives of the great masses of people. It is the interest that occupies the time and energy of the ordinary person for the major part of his waking hours. In large measure it determines his place of residence, his associates during the working-day, and his more intimate acquaintances and friends of the leisure moments. If pursued for years, it will set its mark on his physical nature and will stamp his mind with its special pattern. It will deter- mine to a considerable degree what he does, what he thinks, and his outlook on life. Increasingly, it seems, a man's occupation in this complex world determines his political affiliations. Consequently this part of the study, setting forth the relation of parental occupation to high-school attendance, may be regarded as its most important contri- bution. CLASSIFICATION OF OCCUPATION The first task encountered as soon as the tabulation of the data commenced was a classification of occupations significant for the purposes of the study. The classification used by the census, recognizing nine great occupational divisions, was inadequate, since it fails to distinguish the various grades of occupations within an industry, due to large-scale production and specialization of function. For example, the division of "manufacturmg and mechanical industries" includes in one group those who own the industries, those who manage them, those engaged as technicians, and those who perform the manual labor involving varying degrees of skill. All persons concerned with the production of a par- ticular commodity are grouped together. For the purposes of the census this classification is undoubtedly satisfactory, but for the purposes of this study it is as clearly unsatisfactory. The ideal classification would be Taussig's famous classification into the five non-competing groups, viz., professional, semi-professional, skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled occupations. And at the outset of the investigation this classification was chosen, but as the work pro- ceeded it was abandoned. The reasons for this were several. As already 22 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION indicated this classification is ideal, but it was found exceedingly difficult to use. The lines between the groups are not clearly defined in industry, to say the least. The division between the skilled and the unskilled is certainly no longer altogether clear. However, with relatively complete information for each case, this classification could be attempted with some measure of success; but with the relatively meager information obtained in this study, it was found unworkable without resorting to many arbitrary decisions. It was therefore decided to abandon the attempt at the ideal and adopt a classification that would not give the impression of greater accuracy than the facts would warrant. The classification finally adopted takes the census classification as a basis, but goes considerably further by breaking up the more complex groups and recognizing certain other groups running directly across the great occupational divisions of the census. The aim is to get classes of reasonable homogeneity from the standpoint of social status, position in the economic order, and intellectual outlook. The result is not altogether satisfactory, and it is far from the ideal, but facts to be presented later show the classification to possess some merit. The groups recognized are as follows: I. Proprietors. — Bankers, brokers, druggists, hotel-owners, landlords laundry-owners, lumbermen, manufacturers, merchants, mine- owners, publishers, shopkeepers, undertakers, etc. II. Professional service. — Actors, architects, artists, authors, cartoonists, clergymen, dentists, engineers (civil, chemical, electrical, mechanical, mining), journalists, la\\yers, librarians, musicians, pharmacists, photographers, physical directors, physicians, social workers, surgeons, teachers, etc. III. Managerial service. — Agents (express, railroad, steamship, telegraph), contractors, foremen, managers, officials and inspectors (private), officials and inspectors (public), superintendents, etc. IV. Commercial service. — Agents (real estate and insurance), buyers, clerks in stores, commercial travelers, salesmen, etc. V. Clerical service. — Accountants, bookkeepers, canvassers, cashiers, clerks (except in stores), collectors, etc. \'I. Agricultural service. — Dairymen, farmers, fruit-growers, gardeners, nurserymen, ranchmen, stock-raisers, etc. VII. Artisan-proprietors. — All artisans who own the shops in which they work, including bakers, barbers, blacksmiths, cabinet-makers, cleaners and dyers, cobblers, draftsmen, electricians, machinists, milliners, plumbers, printers, tailors, tinners, etc. PARENTAL OCCUPATION— CLASSIFICATION 23 VIII. Building and related trades. — Cabinet-makers, carpenters, electricians, glaziers, lathers, masons, plasterers, plumbers, sheet-metal workers, structural iron workers, etc. IX. Machine and related trades. — Anglesmiths, blacksmiths, coppersmiths, designers, draftsmen, engineers (stationary), firemen (except loco- motive and fire department), forgemen, founders, machinists, mechanics, millwrights, molders, pattern-makers, tinsmiths, tool- makers, etc. X. Printing trades. — Bookbinders, compositors, electrotypers, engravers, linotypers, pressmen, printers, typesetters, etc. XI. Miscellaneous trades in manufacturing and mechanical industries. — Bakers, bottlers, brewers, cigar-makers, cobblers, coopers, corset- cutters, cutlers, dyers, glass-blowers, grinders, meat-cutters, milliners, platers, shoe-cutters, tailors, tanners, weavers, etc., and machine operatives. XII. Transportation service. — Baggagemen, brakemen, chauffeurs, conductors, draymen, engineers (locomotive and marine), firemen (locomotive and marine), longshoremen, mail carriers, mariners, motormen, sailors, switchmen, yardmen, etc. XIII. Public service. — Detectives, firemen (fire department), guards, marines, marshals, policemen, sailors, soldiers, watchmen, etc. XIV. Personal service. — Barbers, chefs, cooks, doorkeepers, janitors, laun- derers, porters, sextons, waiters, etc. XV. Miners, lumber-workers, and fishermen. XVI. Common labor. XVII. Occupation unknown. The first group, the proprietors, includes all the owners of enterprises in whatever field, except the farmers and certain small owners put into Class VII among whom ownership is really secondary to the practice of some skUled trade. This group is the most powerful occupational group in any American community; its members constitute the backbone of the chambers of commerce and similar organizations; it occupies a strategic position in a society based on private property and it controls economic power. In criticism of this classification, it may be said that ther- is an exceedingly wide range among proprietors. Small shop- keepers are classed with captains of industry and owners of great wealth. There is without question some justice in this criticism, and in the early part of the investigation an effort was made to divide this group into "large" and "small" proprietors. But it was necessary to abandon this effort because of the practical impossibility of introducing this 24 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION distinction with the available data. Nevertheless ownership does give a certain security even though the business is small. It also gives an outlook on life. While there is superficial heterogeneity, there is fundamental homogeneity throughout the group. The second group, professional service, requires little comment. It is perhaps in all respects the most homogeneous group in the classifica- tion. Its membership is the most "learned" in the community. In the third group are placed all those persons except owners, who perform any managerial or directing function in all enterprises, whether of a public or private character. In the ordinary industrial organiza- tion it includes everything from foreman up to superintendent. All persons who are active in the buying or selling of goods, except owners, are placed in the fourth group, commercial service. Real estate and insurance agents are all included in this class, even though they are said to be owners or part owners of the business, because in most cases ownership may mean nothing more than the renting of an ofl6ce. The function performed is that of salesman. The fifth and sixth divisions require no explanation. Clerical service is rather clearly defined. Agricultural service includes owners, tenants, and laborers. It is, however, a small group in any city and is foreign to the urban economy. The seventh division, labeled the artisan-proprietors, covers a group of occupations which are really reminiscent of an earlier economic order. Toward the beginning of this study these occupations were not recog- nized as a separate group, but, as case after case appeared in which the artisan owned his shop, it became clear that some separate provision should be made for them. The eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh divisions include all skilled and semi-skilled workers in the manufacturing and mechanical in- dustries. The first three are among the most homogeneous groups in the entire classification, each being composed of a series of rather closely related and well-known trades. The fourth is a sort of an omnibus class into which all the remaining occupations in this rather broad field, including the machine operatives, are placed. It partakes more of the nature of the semi-skilled trades than any other group in the classifica- tion. The twelfth division includes practically all of the workers in the field of transportation and is consequently a rather heterogeneous class. The group ranges from longshoremen to railroad engineers and conductors. But since the group is not large in any city it was thought PARENTAL OCCUPATION— CLASSIFICATION 25 unwise to further complicate the classification through the recognition of another division. The last five divisions require little comment. The meaning of public service is clear and the same may be said of personal service. The fifteenth division is quite heterogeneous, including the workers in mining, lumbering, and fishing, but it hardly exists in our cities. In the skteenth division are placed all common laborers from whatever field. It includes all apprentices and helpers, and is as nearly unskilled as any group to be found in modern society. And finally, in the seventeenth and last division, are found all cases in which the father's occupation was not given or in which the data were so meager or indefinite as to make classification impossible. The data analyzed and interpreted in the following chapters are based on the foregoing classification. In every case where information was given the student was placed in that division to which his father's occupation belongs, even though the father was unemployed at the time, retired for any reason, or not living. In case the father's occupation was not given and the occupation of the guardian was, the classification follows the latter. In no instance was the mother's occupation used for this purpose, even though information concerning both the father and guardian was lacking. This policy is based upon the assumption that the father's occupation is of real significance in determining the social status and outlook of the child almost regardless of whether he is working at the time or not; and that the occupation of the mother is of little importance in this respect. She does what she is able to do, when it is necessary for her to support her children, and the opportunities open to her are limited. It should be repeated that the occupational classification outlined in this chapter is not ideal in theory, and in practice is less so. In the first place it is extraordinarily difficult to classify occupations today, because the lines between them are not clearly drawn in the economic order and occupations are being formed and reformed in an evolutionary series. The profound changes ushered into industry with the advent of power-driven machinery, marked concentration of labor, and minute specialization have not run their full course. In the second place, in some cases the information given by the student was not so clear as might be desired. These difficulties and shortcomings should not be forgotten while reading the following chapters. CHAPTER V PARENT.4L OCCUPATION AND TOTAL ENROLMENT In this chapter will be presented the facts showing the occupations of the fathers or guardians of 17,265 students in the high schools of the four cities. This number does not include the 727 colored children in the Sumner High School in St. Louis, which will receive special treat- ment in a separate chapter. In interpreting these facts attention will be directed to the number of persons in the general population engaged in the different occupations. OCCUPATIONAL COMPOSITION OF THE HIGH-SCHOOL POPULATION The gross data are given in Table IX. All four high-school years are combined. It will be observed that of the 17,265 students, 3,427 have fathers who are occupied as proprietors, 1,629 have fathers engaged in some sort of professional service, and so on. TABLE IX Occupations of the Fathers or Guardians of 17,265 Students in the High Schools of Four Cities — All Four Years Combined — 1919-20, 1920-21 Number Percentage Parental Occupation Bridge- port Mt. Vernon St. Louis Seattle Total i a c '3 Total Proprietors Professional service. . . . Managerial service Commercial service. . . . Clerical service Agricultural service. . . . Artisan-proprietors Building trades Machine trades Printing trades Miscellaneous trades .. . Transportation service . Public service Personal service Miners, lumber- 451 137 38s 163 98 49 III 116 318 7 139 77 57 52 304 128 181 122 67 II S6 57 25 4 32 26 9 6 I 18 37 1,603 661 1,228 818 550 63 398 428 432 no 362 397 III 81 5 69 221 1,069 703 1,052 534 281 293 158 724 452 65 121 346 93 99 60 88 249 3,427 1,629 2,846 1,637 996 416 723 1,325 1,227 186 654 846 270 238 66 213 566 20.0 6.1 17. 1 7.2 4-3 2.2 4.9 S-l 14. 1 6:^2 3.4 2.5 2.3 1-7 2.6 28.0 II. 8 16.7 II-3 6.2 1 .0 5-2 5.3 2.3 .4 3.0 2.4 .8 .5 .1 1.6 3-4 21 8 16 10 7 5 5 5 X 4 5 I I 3 8 3 9 3 8 3 7 7 4 8 3 4 I I 9 16.7 II. I 16. s 8.3 4.4 4.6 2.5 II. 3 7.1 I.O 1.9 5-4 i-S 1.5 • 9 1-4 3-9 19. 8«^ 9-4'^ 16. s>^ 9.5*^ 5-8 2.4 4.2 7.7 7.1 i.i 3.8 4-9 1.6 1.4 ■ 4 1.2 3-2 Common labor Unknown 38 59 Total 2,257 1,084 7,537 6,387 17.265 100. 100. 100. 100. 100. For comparative purposes the reader should pass to the second part of this table in which the facts are given in percentages. A glance at 26 PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND TOTAL ENROLMENT 27 the percentages for the four cities combined shows four non-labor groups in the lead in the following order: first, the proprietors; second, mana- gerial service ; third, commercial service ; and fourth, professional service. Among the labor groups only two could be said to be well represented, namely, the building trades and the machine trades. The printing trades, pubhc service, personal service, miners, lumber-workers, fisher- men, and common labor have a negligible representation. But 3.2 per cent of the cases are classified as unknown. This means that satisfactory information was received from practically all of the students. An examination of the remainder of the table, giving the facts for the individual cities, shows considerable variation in the character of the high-school population from city to city. Thus the percentage of proprietors ranges from 16.7 in Seattle to 28.0 in Mt. Vernon; that of professional people from 6j[ in Bridgeport to il.$ in Mt. Vernon; that of agricultural workers from .8 in St. Louis to 4.6 in Seattle; that of persons engaged in the building trades from 5.1 in Bridgeport to 11.3 in Seattle; that of those working in the machine trades from 2.3 in Mt. Vernon to 14. i in Bridgeport. It is interesting, on the other hand, to note the constancy of the representation of managerial service, the percentage ranging merely from 16.3 in St. Louis to 17.1 in Bridgeport, a range of less than__i per cent. The differences in the character of the high-school population are to be explained either in terms of the special occupational and industrial interests of the four cities or in terms of the proportion of children of high-school age enrolled in the high school. For example, the first explanation accounts for the very large proportion of students in the Bridgeport High School whose fathers are engaged in the machine trades. Because of the nature of Bridgeport's industries an exceptionally large number of her workers are machinists. Conse- quently the number of machinists' children in the high school is unusually large. As a matter of fact, there is evidence to indicate that the machin- ists of Seattle send a much larger percentage of their children to high school than do those of Bridgeport. The relatively large proportion of children in the Mt. Vernon High School coming from the non-labor groups is also to be explained in terms of the character of the adult population. As aheady pointed out, Mt. Vernon is largely a residential city for middle-class folk haying business in New York City. Differences in occupational and industrial interests, however, do not account for the appreciably larger representation of the proprietors in the St. Louis than in the Seattle schools. The second explanation is pertinent here. In the adult population there is actually a larger proportion of proprietors 28 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION in Seattle than in St. Louis. But since the St. Louis schools attract a much smaller percentage of the children of high-school age, her high- school population is more highly selected, containing fewer children from the laboring classes and a larger proportion from the well-to-do groups. Many other interesting differences will be noted by the careful reader who examines the table. A more concrete picture of the high-school population is presented in Table X, in which are given the probable occupations of the fathers or guardians of one hundred high-school students taken at random from the high-school populations of the four cities. If all the students in these high schools should be transported to the same place, and if the reader, happening to arrive at that place, should make inquiry of the first one hundred young people encountered regarding the parental occupa- tion, he would get a result not very different from that presented in this table. The writer is of the opinion further that a similar sampling of the high-school populations of four other representative American cities would yield a corresponding result, because of the fundamental similarity of populations and conditions from city to city. To be sure, the exact occupations here given would not all appear, although a surprisingly large number of them would, but the general impression conveyed would be about the same. Thus, instead of a hotelkeeper there might be an additional grocer; among the professional people there might be several physicians, and no civil engineer or architect; and in the place of the painter there might appear a sheet-metal worker. In constructing this table individual occupations were necessarily selected somewhat arbitra- rily in a good many instances, since it was necessary to choose from several occupations, no one of which occurred as frequently as once among every one hundred high-school students. For example, the occupation of railroad conductor, or that of street-car motorman might have been selected instead of that of locomotive engineer. The merest glance through the table will show many more cases where the same method was necessarily followed and where the same criticism is perti- nent. The larger occupational divisions, however, would probably appear in any large and representative high-school population just about as they do here. COMPARISON WITH THE ADULT POPULATION The analysis of the high-school population just presented gives the impression that the laboring classes do not constitute the prepon- derant element in the public high school. The reader also, in all proba- bility, carries the impression from everyday experience that in the PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND TOTAL ENROLMENT ' 29 u 2 u 1-1 C 3 '.3 pin Labor- Union Official Com- mercial Traveler Ui oi -3 (In »-. *-■ (L) tin 3 CQ 3 3 8 -S2.a 0) e 3 's i— 1 (1) c l| 3 |& to ..§ 3 y 3 § 3 6 >- 62 13 .S U4 2 aj eq 3 6 aj "o fa c 4= 3 3 bg OJ ti .sg9 C/2 3 OJ S2 13 .S in 3 -0 aj 3 Ph 'en CI, S 3 y 3 OJ tj fa 5J bC :« 3 C/2 3 aj S2 t-l fa 3 kH OJ a aj S S 3 ni 6 u in tn ■fci bO 3 Q 3 Q 3 OJ ,=^fa Is :3 bo •c Q i-i u 2 'a u < 3 i-i 2 3 1- i-i V) 3 (1) t/i c: bc y a |faU U 3 4-1 < bO 3<1 l-H 13-^ ■I-' M aj ^ 3 aj 30 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION ordinary American city a large proportion of the population, if not a majority, are manual laborers. An attempt will now be made to discover the relation between the representation of each of the occupa- tional groups in the general population and its representation in the high school. The problem is complicated somewhat because of the well-known fact that certain of the occupations are carried on in large measure by young people. This is true of the clerical occupations, for example, certain commerical occupations, many of the miscellaneous trades, common labor, and others. Obviously it would not do therefore to compare the number of children in high school from a certain occupa- tional group with the total number of persons engaged in that set of occupations. The occupation recruiting its ranks largely from persons on the youthful side of middle Ufe could not possibly have a large propor- tion of children of high-school age. In attacking the problem two things are necessary: first, a knowledge of the age of the fathers of high-school students; and second, a knowledge of the number of men of this age to be found in each group of occupations. The first of these two tasks is an easy one. It would not be difficult to make a rough estimate of the probable age-distribution of the fathers of high-school students from our knowledge of biological laws. It is not necessary to rely on such an a priori judgment, however, since the facts were obtained from the entire student population of one of the large Seattle high schools. Table XI is derived from the data furnished by these students. According to these figures an age-period of twenty years, the period from 40 to 6o', includes over 80 per cent of the fathers ; and the median age is 48.5 years. Since this particular high school draws its student body from no special social class, facts from other communities would probably parallel these rather closely. TABLE XI Probable Age-Distribution of the Fathers of 1,000 High-School Students Derived from Data Given by 1,391 Students in Lincoln High School, Seattle Age-Period 30-4 35-9 40-4 4S-9 SO-4 SS-9 60-4 6s-9 70-4 7S-9 Total Median Number. 7 83 218 278 229 102 59 17 5 2 1,000 48. 5 The second task, involving the determination of the number of men of the foregoing ages in these cities engaged in each set of occupations. PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND TOTAL ENROLMENT 31 is not so easy. In the first place, the occupational census for 1920 is not yet available. It is therefore necessary to place reliance on the data presented in the previous census, that of 1910. It is improbable, however, that the occupational distribution of the population in any city has changed in any marked degree during the past ten years. Consequently this may not be regarded as a source of serious error. In the second place the age-periods recognized in the occupational census are not exactly the periods that would be most serviceable for this study. Furthermore, in the distribution of occupations by age- periods, the facts are not given for all occupations nor for all cities, but only for certain selected calUngs in each of the cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants. The only complete occupational census includes in a single figure the entire number of males over ten years of age pursuing each occupation. Thus for Bridgeport, St. Louis, and Seattle the num- ber of males engaged in certain selected occupations is given by the following age-periods: ten to thirteen years; fourteen to fifteen; sixteen to twenty; twenty-one to forty-four; and forty-five years and over. In view of these facts it was decided to merely make the best possible estimate of the number of males over forty-five years of age in each of the four cities engaged in each of the occupational divisions used in this study. This was done by first tabulating the total number of males over ten years of age to be found in each of these divisions in each of the four cities. Then, for each of the three larger cities, the selected occupa- tions, for which the detailed age-distribution was given, were arranged under the classification used here, and the proportion of males over forty-five years of age was noted. The results of this calculation are given in Table XII. The wide range in the proportion of workers in the various occupations who are over forty-five years of age is at once apparent. At the one extreme are the managerial occupations in which 36 per cent of the workers are in this age-group; at the other are the clerical pursuits in which this percentage is but 14. Perhaps the reader has already observed that two of the occupational divisions used in our classification do not appear in Table XII, namely, agricultural service and the artisan-proprietors. The first was not included because the agricultural occupations do not constitute a normal part of the fife of the city. Many of the high-school students from this source are hving in the city for the purpose of attending school. There is consequently no natural relation between the number of children in the high school whose fathers are engaged in these occupations and the number of adults so engaged, according to the census. The artisan- 32 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION proprietors were omitted from this table, because in the census report they are not distinguished from the retail dealers and the manufacturers on the one hand and the artisans on the other. TABLE XII Percentage of Males Engaged in Each Occupation Who Are Forty-five Years of Age and Over, Derived from the Census Figures for Selected Occupations in Bridgeport, St. Louis, and Seattle (1910) Occupation Proprietors Professional service Managerial service Commercial service Clerical service Building trades Machine trades Printing trades Miscellaneous trades Transportation service Public service Personal service Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen Common labor Percentage Forty- five Years or Over 35 28 14 27 24 16 17 17 30 18 20 20 Going back now to the total number of males over ten years of age engaged in each set of occupations in the four cities and applying the percentages given in Table XII, it is possible to approximate the actual number of men over forty-five to be found in these pursuits in 1910. This figure, along with the number of high-school students whose fathers or guardians are engaged in the same occupations, is given in Table XIII. The relation between these two sets of figures is also given in this table in terms of the number of students in the high schools of these four cities from each occupational group for every 1,000 men over forty-five engaged in the same occupations. This relation is really the final object of this rather extended series of computations and calculations. This table shows very clearly that certain of the occupational groups have a much better representation in the high school than others in proportion to their representation in that part of our population in which the fathers of children of high-school age are found. Since these same facts are presented graphically in Figure 2, the reader's time will be economized by directing his attention to it at once. A hasty survey of the diagram showg that the laboring groups suffer in the comparison, PARENT.\L OCCUPATION AND TOT.\L ENROLMENT 33 TABLE XIII Estimated Number of Men Forty-five Years of Age and Over Engaged in Each Set of Occupations in Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle (1910); Number of Hi^h-School Students Whose Fathers or Guardians Are Engaged in Each Set of Occupations in the Same Cities, According to Studies Made in 1919-20 and 1920-21; and Number OF the Latter for Every 1,000 of the Former for Each Set of Occupations Parental Occupation Men Forty-five Years of Age and Over Students in High School Number in High School for Every 1,000 Men Forty-five Years and Over Proprietors Professional service Managerial service 11,135 4,520 7,120 6,682 4,558 9,872 7,681 845 7,881 5,793 1,560 4,941 1,142 12,429 3,799 1,629 2,846 1,637 996 1,433 1,300 186 809 850 270 249 66 213 341 360 400 245 . 219 145 169 220 Commercial service Clerical service Building trades Machine trades Printing trades Miscellaneous trades 103 157 173 50 58 17 Transportation service Public service Personal service Miners, lumber-workers, and fishermen . . . Common labor Total 86,159 16,283 189 Managerial service (400) Professional sei^yice (360) Proprietors \ (341) Commercial service\ (245) Printing trades (220) Clerical service (219) Public service (173) Machine trades (169) Transportation service (1S7) Building trades (I4S) Miscellaneous trades (103) Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen (S8) Personal service (SO) Common labor (17) All occupations (189) ■ Fig. 2. — Showing the number of children in the high schools of four cities (Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, Seattle) from each occupational group for every 1,000 males over forty-five years of age engaged in that occupation in the four cities, according to the Federal Census for 1910. Data from 16,283 high-school students. 34 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION and some of them sufifer very badly. Note the two extremes, for example. Managerial service leads with 400 students in high school to every 1,000 men over forty-five in the general population. At the other end of the series is common labor with but seventeen. The one labor group that stands out with a good record is the printing trades. It is one point ahead of one of the non-labor groups, clerical service. This is probably to be explained in terms of the superior education of persons engaged in the printing industry, the associations formed in the occupation, and the stability of employment. The favorable position of the public service is probably to be explained in the same way. A word of criticism is pertinent here. In the light of other findings of the study to be presented in later chapters there is reason to believe that the order of the groups at the upper end of the diagram is not altogether correct, due to certain difficulties arising from the effort to translate the classification of the census over into the classification used in this study. The managerial service certainly should not rank first, but it gets that rank here because the census does not in all cases draw a clear line between managers and owners. Also there are probably a considerable number of individuals returned as commercial workers who occupy managerial positions in commerce. Consequently the number of persons in the directing occupations is reported as somewhat smaller than the actual facts would warrant. This results in a larger proportionate representation in high school. Commercial service, on the other hand, should rank somewhat higher than it is placed here. This group of workers is probably diluted in the census report by the inclusion of a considerable number of clerical workers, due to the ambi- guity in the meaning of the term clerk. The order of the first four groups should probably be as follows: professional service, proprietors, com- mercial service, and managerial service. The evidence favoring this order will be noted from time to time in this study. It is probable, for three reasons, that the proportion of children in high school from the laboring groups is somewhat smaller than this diagram suggests. In the first place, the acceptance of the number of men over forty-five in each occupation as the basis for comparison gives a certain advantage to those occupations in which the proportion of such men is relatively small, because over 30 per cent of the fathers of high- school students are under forty-five. As a consequence, the occupations engaging few men beyond this age are not given a representation in the general population proportionate to the actual number of fathers of high-school students to be found in them. Since on the average the PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND TOTAL ENROLMENT 35 laboring classes are recruited less from the older men than are the other groups, it is apparent that the procedure followed here favors them. Of course, among the non-labor groups, it is true that the clerical and commercial workers are likewise favored. In the second place, the average number of children per family among the manual laborers is somewhat larger than it is among the other classes of the population. This is especially true of the lower grades of labor. Therefore, if the children from these elements in the population were enrolled in the high school in proportionate numbers, their ratio to the number of adults of the parental age in the same population groups should be larger than that for children from other classes with a lower birth-rate. In the third place, earlier marriages and a higher marriage rate among the laboring classes than among the more well-to-do members of society work toward the same end. These considerations should incline us therefore toward a revision of Table IX and Figure 2 in the direction of larger rather than smaller differences between the two extremes. CHAPTER VI PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND PROGRESS THROUGH THE SCHOOL In the previous chapter the character of the total high-school popula- tion has been under examination. The proportionately larger represen- tation of the proprietors, professionals, managers, and commercial workers was noted. In this chapter the composition of the school population in the earlier years will be compared with that in the later years. For this analysis we have data from the students in each of the four years in the high schools of the four cities and from the pupils of the sixth grade in Mt. Vernon. THE FRESHMAN AND SENIOR YEARS All are famiUar with the fact that the number of students in the Senior year of the high school is but a small fraction of the total high- school enrolment, far below the 25 per cent that would result if the same number of young people entered the Freshman class every year, if all were promoted regularly, if there were no deaths or eliminations, and if there were no accretions except at the beginning of the first year. According to the report of the Bureau of Education for 1917-18, the students in the first year of the high school constituted 39.8 per cent of the total high-school enrolment in the United States; those in the second year, 26.9 per cent; those in the third year 18.8 per cent; and those in the fourth year but 14.5 per cent. The relatively small propor- tion in the last year of the high school is due chiefly to two causes, namely, elimination and the increasing size of the Freshman class, the latter resulting from the normal population increase and the in- creasing interest in secondary education on the part of children and their parents. Because of the small number of students in the Senior year it is naturally assumed that some sort of selection is going on continually in the high school. Many studies have been made of the process of elimination and of the character of the ehminated. It is our purpose here to note the social composition of the student population in the last year as contrasted with the first. The facts for the four cities combined appear in Table XIV. For each of the two years the percentages of students coming from the various occupational groups are given. It is 36 PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND PROGRESS THROUGH SCHOOL 37 plain that the Senior class in these high schools does not differ from the Freshman class merely in the age of its students and their advance- ment in the course. The proportions coming from the different elements in the population are noticeably different. The children from the labor- ing classes constitute in every instance a smaller percentage of the total enrolment of the last than of the first year of the school. On the other hand a larger percentage of the Seniors than of the Freshmen are children of the proprietors, the professionals, the managers, and the commercial workers. Two groups make equal proportionate contributions to the two classes, namely, the clerical and agricultural workers. TABLE XIV Percentage of Students in Each of Two High-School Years from Each OF the Occupational Grouts in the High Schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle: Data from 6,782 Freshmen and 2,522 Seniors Parental Occupation Proprietors Professional service Managerial service Commercial service Clerical service Agricultural service Artisan-proprietors Building trades Machine trades Printing trades Miscellaneous trades Transportation service Public service Personal service Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen Common labor Unknown Total Freshman Senior 22.9 12.5 19. 1 II .1 S-9 2-3 3-5 5-3 4.6 .8 2-3 3-6 I . I •9 •3 .6 3-2 These same facts under a slight adaptation are presented graphically in Figure 3. Here is shown for each group the number in the Senior year for every 100 from the same group in the Freshman year. This ratio that the one year bears toward the other exhibits a very wide range among the various occupations, as an inspection of the diagram clearly reveals. As a general proposition, those occupations having a relatively poor representation in the high school are just the ones with a small proportion in the Senior year. At the two extremes are professional 38 SELECTWE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION service and common labor. For the former there are 60.2 students in the Senior year for every 100 in the Freshman year of the high school; whereas, for the latter this ratio is but 1 2.4. The facts for the Sophomore and Junior years, as might be assumed, show a condition intermediate between the two extreme years. They are therefore not given here. It seems that as we pass from year to year in the high school, we see the children from the laboring classes constituting a less and less important element of the student population. Professional service (60.2) Proprietors (48.2) Commercial service (48.2) Managerial service (46.2) Clerical service (37.4) Agricultural service (37.0) Artisan-proprietors (30.S) Printing trades (27.S) Public service (23-9) Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen (22.6) Building trades (22.4) Personal service (21.9) Transportation service (21.6) Machine trades (20.6) Miscellaneous trades (18.1) Common labor (12.4) All occupations (37-2) Fig. 3. — Showing for each occupational group the number of students in the Senior year for every 100 in the Freshman year of the high school. Data from Bridge- port, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle. An analysis of the data from the different cities shows some differences, but they are quantitative rather than qualitative. The laboring classes hold their own better in some of the cities than they do in others, but in every instance their record is relatively inferior to that of the other groups. Thus the nine laboring groups (the building trades, machine trades, printing trades, miscellaneous trades, transportation service, public service, personal service, miners, lumber-workers, and fishermen, and common labor) contribute 26^ per cent of the membership in the Senior class in Bridgeport; 23.3 per cent in Seattle; 15.2 per cent in St. Louis; and but 4.3 per cent in Mt. Vernon. These differences are, to be sure, accounted for in some measure by occupational differences PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND PROGRESS THROUGH SCHOOL 39 in the populations of the several cities. The high proportion in Bridge- port is certainly largely explained in this way. Bridgeport is very highly industrialized. The laboring classes consequently constitute an excep- tionally large element in the population. The very low percentage of children from these classes in the Senior year of Mt. Vernon is also to be explained largely in terms of the occupational character of the popu- lation itself. The records of Seattle and St. Louis, on the other hand, are not to be interpreted in this way. The large representation of the laboring groups in the former city is not due to their large numbers in the general population. As a matter of fact, they form a less important numerical group in Seattle than in St. Louis. The high schools of the former seem to hold the children of laborers unusually well. THE SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF THE SIXTH GRADE By the time the first year of the high school is reached the student population is already greatly reduced and presumably already considerably selected. It is fortunate therefore that for at least one of the cities, Mt. Vernon, facts regarding the social composition of the entire sixth grade were secured. Of course there are many children who do not even reach this point in our educational system, because of retardation and elimination. This group of children, there- fore, may be assumed to be somewhat different socially from the children in the first grade, or from the children secured by taking a cross-section of the entire population at any particular age. It nevertheless provides us with significant data for comparative purposes. The percentage of children from each of the occupational groups for both the sixth grade and the Senior year of the high school is given in Table XV. The difference between the first and last high-school years already noted is seen to be greatly accentuated. And it is probable that the difference would be somewhat greater in a city with a larger laboring population. Even here the majority of the children in the sixth grade come from the homes of laborers. This is certainly not true of the students in the Senior year of the high school. These two cross-sections of the school population give us two very different sociolog- ical pictures. They might almost be conceived as representative of two different social orders. The contrast is so striking that it seems advisable to give it a graph- ical representation. This is done in Figure 4 by taking four occupational groups showing different tendencies and plotting a curve for each, picturing its percentage representation in the school population of each 40 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION TABLE XV Percentage of Children from Each Occupational Group in Each of Two School Grades. Data from 739 Children in the Sixth Grade and 136 IN THE Senior Year of the High School, Mt. Vernon Parental Occupation Sixth Grade Senior Year of High School Proprietors 13 I - 6.8 10. 6.0 4-3 2.3 9.1 16. 5 4-7 ■4 5-2 4.2 1-5 2.4 ■4 10.8 2-3 29.4 16.9 20 6 Professional service Managerial service Commercial service iS-4 S-2 Clerical service Agricultural service Artisan-proprietors S-2 .7 .7 Building trades Machine trades Printing trades Miscellaneous trades 2 2 Transportation service ■7 Public service Personal service Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen Common labor .0 Unknown 30 Total 100. 100 t6 Building Trac Common Lab / / Professional S !rvice / Clerical Servi ^-^ ^ -" ' ^^ \ ^.^^ " 8 ' -^ \ ^ V N N N S \ 9 Grade Fig. 4. — Showing percentage of children in each grade from the sixth to the twelfth whose fathers are engaged in each of four groups of occupations. Mt. Vernon, May, 192 1. No data for seventh and eighth grades. PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND PROGRESS THROUGH SCHOOL 41 grade from the sixth to the twelfth. Since we have no data from the seventh and eighth grades the position of the curve in these grades for each group is purely hypothetical. Based on actual facts it would probably not follow exactly the course given it here, but its general direction would be the same. The diagram shows in an impressive way the diverse reactions of these four groups to educational opportunity. Each of the occupational divisions was chosen for a reason — common labor and professional service, because they represent the two extremes; clerical service because it represents an intermediate tendency; and the building trades because they constitute the largest labor group as well as the largest occupational group in the sixth grade. The proportion of children from the building trades and common labor in each grade diminishes very rapidly as we pass from one year to the next. The latter has practically disappeared in the Sophomore year, and the former are barely able to keep a slight representation until the end of the high school. Professional service, on the other hand, furnishes a constantly increasing percentage of the school population as progress is made through the schools. Clerical service improves its position slightly, but does Httle more than hold its own. The other non-labor groups show tendencies similar to those of professional service, and the remaining labor groups behave much as the building trades. ■ ' Perhaps one more chart bearing on this same matter will not tire the reader. In Figure 5 is shown for each occupational group the num- ber of children in the Senior year of the high school for every one hundred in the sixth grade. Comment is hardly necessary. The dia- gram carries its own message. It brings out with peculiar force the enormous contrast between the school populations in these two years of the Mt. Vernon public schools. Since the organization of most of the work in most of our high schools assumes four years of attendance, the number and character of the student population in the Senior year might be expected to afford one of the most satisfactory measures of the extension of secondary educa- tional opportunity. The Senior class should tell much about the success of the high school in reaching the various elements in the population. It is for this group especially that the ordinary high school is maintained. In the previous chapter the total high-school population was analyzed in the light of the social composition of that adult population from which children of high-school age come. This same thing is done for the students of the Senior year in Figure 6. Here is shown for each occupational group the number of students in the Senior year of the 42 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 36 Commercial service (47.7) Professional service (46.0) Proprietors U1.2) Managerial service (37.8) Clerical service (21.9) Artisan-proprietors (10.4) Miscellaneous trades (7.9) Transportation service (3.2) Machine trades (2.9) Building trades (.8) Printing trades (0) Agricultural service (0) Personal service (0) Miners, lumber-workers fishermen (0) Common labor (0) Public service (0) All occupations (18.4) Fig. 5. — Showing for each occupational group the number of children in the Senior year of the high school for every 100 from the same group in the sixth grade of the elementary school. Mt. Vernon, May, 192 1. 60 Professional service (69) Managerial service (68) Proprietors (S6) Commercial service (42) Clerical service (33) Printing trades (22) Public service (18) Machine trades (17) Transportation service (16) Building trades (IS) Miscellaneous trades (9) Miners, lumber- workers, fishermen (6) Personal service (S) Common labor (I) All occupations ] ~(28) Fig. 6. — Showing the number of children in the Senior year of the high school in four cities (Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, Seattle) from each occupational group for every 1,000 males over forty-five years of age engaged in that occupation in the four cities, according to the Federal Census for 19 10. Data from 2,382 high-school Seniors. PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND PROGRESS THROUGH SCHOOL 43 high school in the four cities for every 1,000 men over forty-five years of age engaged in that occupation in these same cities, according to the thirteenth census. The reasons for choosing the number of males over forty-five as the basis for comparison have already been given, so need not be repeated. As might be expected from the data presented in this chapter thus far, the differences between the laboring and the non- laboring groups are greater here than for the total high-school population. It appears that the chances that the child of a father engaged in one of the professional pursuits will reach the Senior year of the high school are sixty-nine times as great as those of the child whose father is a common laborer. These two occupational classes represent the extremes. The others fall in between in a gradual series with the laboring groups at the lower end of the distribution. Table XVI gives a concrete picture of the occupations represented in the Senior year of the high school as Table XI did for the entire high school. The same caution is necessary in interpreting this as was suggested in the discussion of the earlier table. Many of these particular occupations might not appear in a group of one hundred students selected at random from the Senior classes in the high schools of these four cities, but the larger groups of which these occupations are repre- sentative would. Nothing could show more plainly than this table that the students in the Senior year of the pubHc high school are socially a highly selected group. The objection may be raised here that the differences between the earlier and later years are due to the promotion of the fathers from less responsible to more responsible positions, or to their acquisition of property which enables them to set up business for themselves and thus enter the ranks of the proprietors. Obviously to the extent that this is going on during the period of high-school attendance the character of the student population in the Senior year will differ from that of the students in the Freshman year in the direction indicated in this chapter. If, for example, a goodly proportion of the fathers of high-school Fresh- men who are engaged in manual labor are promoted to managerial positions or go into business for themselves as proprietors during the succeeding three years, the students in the Senior year whose fathers are engaged in the managerial occupations or as proprietors will show an increased proportion, even though there is no elimination whatso- ever from high school in the meantime. It must be assumed of course at the same time that an equal number of fathers are not demoted from managerial positions or do not lose property, making it necessary for them to fall back into the ranks of labor. 44 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION ffi P< H 5 S ^ z tA o O li; O rt a w u > L/J ffi H O S ffi H (1 P4 o o M Pl< Ch r1 Q « pq « ft < i-! Ph O M w tD u 9-1 CD PL| .2 •'' 3 Q Manager of Grocery Store 1 13 a 2 c5^ 3 o3 1 O D O < Cobbler (Pro- prietor) l-H "o 11 o 'S 03 1^ n c o 1 11 1 la 'o >^ i- lA G (V fi a "c3 g 2 a- 3 tu 13 .S C/2 l-l , O -^ 2.2J pq "^ u Oj 3 o3 a "o PL, c u .r-J aj t >-■ 1- l-H -H be o is c 1- B 1 ■ II ^ h-) CP 3 OJ ,.~, Is 1 . .2 ^3 |£-S 1 11 S CO 1^ 1/1 ■g Lh r3 , c3 0-3'^ 3 S -a 2 >* 3 ..S 3 fa be a CA) OJ W 3 , — 1 OJ 03 to 1i ,-g 3 5 y 3 S O 3 >- 0) :3 M Pi OJ 03 a 3 1 (L> a bO 3 tH O :3 o G u s o C3 l-H 3 3 .5 3 3 3 2 ,csfa i-, o E 2 tn ^ fa 3 — . -< 3 be 5 2 CJ O fa 3 ;3 oj IS to U 3 03 U o 'S o a, B o U c pq u 2 o 3 |& If, ' continuation classes) for every 100 students from the same group attend- ing the regular day high school. Data from 2,257 children in high school and 1,020 in the other three groups. Bridgeport, 1920-21. t 3 200 400 600 (S7i) (109) ^ (82) ^m (72) ■i (71) ■i (57) ■ (so) ■ (46) (42) ■ (18) 1 (16) (11) (9) (9) (8) (45) ■ 54 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION the other groups is striking. As a matter of fact, all the labor groups occupy relatively unfavorable positions, except the workers in public service, who are found in third place. Too much weight, however, should not be attached to this exception because of the small number of cases involved. In concluding this chapter, the reader's attention should be called to the similarity of the results obtained in Seattle and Bridgeport. It is clear that these groups of children of high-school age outside the regular, high school are very different in social composition from the high-school population itself. The several occupational groups apparently arrange themselves in a graded series, with the proprietors and professional service at one end, and common labor at the other. CHAPTER VIII PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND THE COURSE OF STUDY In response to the growing social demand for an enriched course of study the pubhc high school has made many curriculum changes, partic- ularly since the opening of the twentieth century. Among them is the organization of several curricula, each designed to meet the needs of some portion of the high-school population. Those who have been strong advocates of these adjustments have maintained that the single curric- ulum, pointing toward the higher education, is inadequate and involves an injustice to great masses of young people who cannot possibly go on to college. It will be interesting to see how children coming from the various occupational groups react to this complex program. In each of the cities studied several different curricula are offered the students in its high schools. If all four cities offered the same curricula, it would be possible and desirable to discuss these curricula seriatim, bringing to bear on each curriculum the facts from all the cities. But such is not the case. Each city has organized its high-school course of study to suit itself, within certain limitations set by college-entrance requirements. Consequently the relation between parental occupation and course of study will be studied in each of the cities separately. BRIDGEPORT In the Bridgeport High School six curricula are offered the students. These are the college preparatory, scientific, general, normal, com- mercial, and industrial arts courses. Since the normal course is exclu- sively for girls and the industrial arts strictly for boys, thfs means five curricula for each sex. As will be noted later, however, several of these courses receive very light patronage. Space will not permit a detailed description of each curriculum, and perhaps such a description is quite unnecessary, since the general content of most of them is familiar to anyone acquainted with the American public high school. The following brief characterization taken from the high-school circular to parents will have to suffice. I. The college preparatory course prepares for the best colleges and universities as well as for the law and medical preparatory courses. 56 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION It Stresses the traditional academic subjects with special emphasis on the languages. II. The scientific preparatory course prepares for the best scientific and technical schools in the country. It differs from the coUege prepara- tory course merely in a larger provision for the study of science and mathematics at the expense of the languages. III. The general course is designed to offer a broad and practical education to those who are not preparing for a college or a scientific school. Subject to the approval of the principal, the student is allowed extensive privileges of election. IV. The normal course prepares students for the city normal school and offers a well-rounded and practical course with definite requirements for girls who are preparing for the important work of teaching. V. The commercial course prepares rather definitely for clerical positions with the usual offerings in the special subjects. VI. The industrial arts course is conducted through co-operation with the state trade school in which the shopwork is given. The course is either three or four years in length and is intended to train for the manufacturing and mechanical trades. TABLE XVIII Selection of Ctjrricula by Children from the Various Occupational Groups, Bridgeport High School, All Classes Girls Boys Parental Occupation 3 !2; 3 1 E c3 1 c c C/3 u [3 3 -a a 'S B S u "3 a 6 a .Si "d I Proprietors 88 40 39 26 II 7 5 3 8 I 6 2 S I 57 ir 74 18 16 8 16 19 45 23 14 10 6 2 13 81 17 92 36 IS 42 37 III 2 SI 23 21 20 14 18 I 2 6 2 3 2 2 229 70 211 82 63 32 63 60 168 8^ 39 36 27 16 39 lOS 25 36 31 10 I 21 15 41 2 26 12 5 S 4 4 4 2 12 I 1 3 I 2 10 4 I I 2 3 20 2 19 IS 8 5 S 9 24 I 6 9 7 6 9 3 6 I 12 I 3 I 2 6 2 2 I I I 87 37 95 16 S 20 28 69 I 19 14 8 12 6 10 Professional service Managerial service Commercial service Clerical service 67 174 81 35 17 48 S6 ISO 4 57 38 Agricultural ser\ace Building trades I 4 Miscellaneous trades I I Public service 25 Common labor 8 Total 250 332 613 22 3 1,220 343 47 148 39 460 1.037 An examination of Table XVIII shows very few girls taking either the general or the scientific curriculum. Likewise, the number of boys PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND THE COURSE OF STUDY 57 in either the general or industrial arts course is small. This leaves but three courses each for the boys and girls. The table reveals no pronounced tendency for the selection of courses among the boys to fall along occupational lines. Each of the three courses has a fairly good representation from all of the larger groups. It should be remembered, however, that so far as outlook is concerned, there is but little difference between the college and the scientific curricula. Among the girls, on the other hand, a very different situation is found. The girls from the several occupational groups do show tendencies College Commercial 75 loo Professional service (57.1)- -(24.3) Proprietors (38.4)- -(.$■^■4) Commercial service (31-7) -(439) Agricultural service (21.8)- -(46.9) Managerial service (18.S)- -(43.6) Clerical service (17.4)- -(52.4) Public service (13.9)- -(58.3) Artisan-pro prietors (7.9)- -(66.7) Miscellaneous trades (7.3)- -(62.2) Transportation service (s.i)- -(S9-o) Building trades (5-0)- -(61.7) Machine trades (4.8)- -(66.1) Personal service (3-7)- -(74.1) Common labor (0)- -(87.5) All occupations (20.5)- -(50.2) Fig. 12. — Showing the percentage of girls from each occupational group pursuing the college preparatory and commercial curricula, Bridgeport High School. to gravitate toward certain courses. This is clearly brought out in Figure 12 and Figure 13. In the former the percentage of students from each of these groups taking the college preparatory course is compared with the percentage in the commercial course. At the one extreme are the girls whose fathers are engaged in the professional occupations, with 57.1 per cent in the college course and but 24.3 per cent in the commercial. At the other is the common labor group with not a single girl in the former course and 87.5 per cent in the latter. 58 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION In Figure 13 the social composition of the entire group of girls pursuing the college preparatory curriculum in all four years is given. It shows in a striking way the class-character of this course. The first five groups, which may be regarded as the strictly non-labor groups, include 81.6 per cent of the total. Of the remaining 18.4 per cent, 2.8 are from the agricultural occupations; 2.0 from the artisan-proprietors; and 3.2 from fathers of unknown occupation. There remain but 10.4 per cent of these girls to represent the manual-labor groups. This Per Cent Proprietors Professional service Managerial service Commercial service Clerical service Machine trades Agricultural service Miscellaneous trades Artisan-proprietors Public service Building trades Transportation service Printing trades Personal service Common labor Unknown 3 10 20 30 4 ( ■> r- ~^ ^^^^^ ^^ (35 ^) 0) 6) 4) 4) ^^^^™ (16 m^H^^Hi ^^^^^ di- ^^^i^^i ^^^B 1 do ^^HI^^B (4 ^ (3 2) ^ (2 8) ■ (2 4) ■ (2 0) ■ (2 0) ■ d ( ( ( 2) 8) 4) 4) 1 1 1 1 . (0) (3 2) ■ Fig. 13. — Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers of the 250 girls pursuing the college preparatory course in the Bridgeport High School. tendency is yet more pronounced in the Senior year where 88.1 per cent come from the five non-labor groups and but 2.4 per cent from the labor groups. MT. VERNON On a small scale Mt. Vernon is experimenting with the specialized high school. There are two separate school buildings. In the one, known as the Academic High School, are taught the classical, scientific, and general curricula; while in the other, a vocational school, the commercial and practical arts curricula are offered. The situation here is of especial interest to us because in the other three cities studied the high school is of the general type. Exception might be taken to this PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND THE COURSE OF STUDY 59 Statement in its application to Bridgeport, for, although there is but one high school supported by the city, the state of Connecticut maintains a trade school there that enrols children of high-school age. It might, therefore, be maintained that in this city there are really two secondary schools, in one of which are taught the academic subjects; in the other, the practical arts. In all, six curricula are offered, five for the boys and five for the girls. Of these, three are academic and three vocational. To the former belong the classical, scientific, and general; and to the latter, the com- mercial, industrial arts, and household arts courses. The vocational curricula are so organized as to make possible the granting of certificates for short units of work. A short description of each course follows. I. The classical course is designed to meet the entrance requirements of college courses leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Its dis- tinctive feature is the requirement of three years of Latin and three years of either Greek, French, or Spanish. II. The scientific course prepares for college courses leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science, as well as for engineering and technical schools. It consists of about equal parts of English, foreign languages, mathematics, and science. III. The general course is rather elastic in its provisions and is organized to meet the needs of two classes of students: (i) those intend- ing to enter a normal or training-school for teachers; and (2) those who will leave school at the end of the high-school course. The subjects, however, are all from the traditional academic offering. IV. The commercial course includes the usual clerical and commercial branches, English, a little science and mathematics, and some provision for electives. It points toward wage-earning in the clerical occupations. V. The industrial arts course prepares in a general way for industrial pursuits. It is organized under a liberal elective system with the single restriction that seven- twelfths of the time be given to subjects of an academic character and the remainder to industrial branches, including joinery and wood-turning, printing, machine-shop practice, etc. VI. The household arts course, pointing toward homemaking, is organized according to the same principles as the course immediately preceding. Facts showing the selection of curricula by the students from the various occupational groups are presented in Table XIX. Because of the small number of cases representing certain of the occupations, the data for the boys and girls are combined in a single table. For a similar 6o SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION reason the industrial arts and household arts curricula are brought together under the more general caption of "practical arts." This table gives for each occupational group the actual number and the percentage of students pursuing each of the curricula. It is interesting to note the great popularity of the classical course. Each of the curricula is well patronized except the practical arts course. An examination of that half of the table giving the percentage of students from each group enrolled in each curriculum reveals tendencies of the order already noted in Bridgeport. If we take any one of the curricula we find a wide range in the emphasis given to it by children from the different occupations. Of course, in making these observations, too much weight should not be attached to the distribution for the occupations represented by very small numbers of students, such as the printing trades, personal service, public service, and the miners, lumber- workers, and fishermen. The curricula presenting the widest range are the classical and commercial courses. Fifty-eight per cent of the students whose fathers are engaged in professional service are taking the classical course, while but 5 per cent of the children of common laborers are pursuing this course. For the commercial course, this range is from 62 per cent for transportation service to 9 per cent for professional service. The range is not so large for the other three curricula, but it is considerable and large enough to be significant. As a general thing, the scientific and general courses are patronized in greater proportion by the non-labor groups, while the reverse is true for the practical arts course. Since the Mt. Vernon High School system consists of an academic and a vocational school, it is of interest to note the differences in the social composition of the students attending the two institutions. This is easily done by combining the data for the three academic curricula, on the one hand, and for the two vocational curricula on the other, as presented in Table XIX. The results of this process, followed by a reduction to percentages, are given in Table XX. A glance at this table makes it clear that these two high schools are appeahng to different elements in the population. It seems that the children of laborers who do go to high school attend the vocational school almost altogether. To be sure, the non-labor groups also send a reasonable proportion of their children to this school but they exhibit a strong inclination to favor the academic school. They supply 84.6 per cent of the students in the latter and but 47.1 per cent of those in the former. PARENTAL OCCUPATION .AND THE COURSE OF STUDY 6i TABLE XIX NlTMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS FROM EACH OCCUPATIONAL GrOUP PUR- SUING Each of the Five Curricula. Boys and Girls Combined. Mt. Vernon High School Parental Occupation Proprietors Professional service Managerial service Commercial service Clerical service Agricultural service Artisan-proprietors Building trades Machine trades Printing trades Miscellaneous trades Transportation service . . . Public service Personal service Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen Common labor Unknown Total . 1 43 74 47 Number 304 128 181 122 67 II 50 57 25 1,084 Percentage 28 17 9 16 14 31 45 34 56 56 25 50 62 56 50 100 SO TABLE XX Percentage of Students in Each of the Mt. Vernon High Schools Coming from Each Occupational Group Parental Occupation Academic High School Vocational High School Proprietors 32.0 14-7 19.2 5-6 4.6 •4 1.9 •9 •4 1.8 1-3 .1 •3 .0 •5 3-2 18.0 Professional service 4.6 10.5 6.5 7-5 6.5 2 6 Managerial service Commercial service Clerical serv'ice Artisan-proprietors Agricultural service Building trades 13.8 5-9 •3 5-9 5-2 2 6 Machine trades Printing trades Miscellaneous trades Transportation service Public service Personal service I*- 3 ■3 4.6 Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen Common labor Unknown 3-9 Total 100. 100 62 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION In Figure 14 an attempt has been made to measure the relative attractiveness of the two schools to the several occupational divisions. It is based on the number of children in the vocational school for every one hundred from the same group in the academic school. In order to get numbers sufficiently large to insure reliabiUty, several of the labor groups were combined, as indicated in the diagram. The difference between the two extremes is indeed striking. The proportion of children Common labor (35°) Transportation, public and personal service (223) Manufacturing and mechanical trades (203) Artisan-proprietors (s6) Clerical service (52) Proprietors (22) Managerial service (21) Commercial service (20) Professional service (12) All occupations (39) ■ ■ I Fig. 14. — Showing for each occupational group the number of students (both sexes and all classes) in the vocational high school for every 100 from the same group in the academic high school. Data from 306 students in the former and 778 in the latter. Mt. Vernon. from the professionals, the commercial workers, the managers, and the proprietors attending the vocational school is very small. The reverse is true for the children of the laboring classes, particularly laborers of the lower grades. The clerical workers and the artisan-proprietors occupy an intermediate position. ST. LOUIS The course of study in the St. Louis High Schools is more complex than that in any of the other cities studied. There are four-year, two-year, and one-year courses. Altogether, thirteen different curricula are offered, of which two are for girls exclusively, three for boys only, and eight for both boys and girls. The following descriptive statements adapted from the printed outhnes distributed to the parents will give the reader some notion of the character of these curricula: PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND THE COURSE OF STUDY 63 I. Four-year courses. — Seven four-year courses are offered with a basic requirement of one half-year community civics, one half-year of vocations, three or four years of EngUsh, and one or more years of history common to all. These curricula with their distinctive features are: 1. General course. — One or more years of science and other subjects to be chosen from specified lists for each half-year. In the third and fourth years of this course, there is a wide election offered, including units peculiar to other courses. 2. Scientific course. — Four years of mathematics; four years of science; two or three years of a foreign language. 3. Classical course. — Four years of Latin; two or three years of one other foreign language, if elected; one, two, or three years of mathematics, if elected; one or two years of science. 4. Fine-arts course. — Four years of art or music; one or more years of science; one or more years of mathematics, if elected; two or more years of a foreign language, if elected. 5. Manual training course. — Three or four years of manual training; three or four years of mechanical drawing ; two, three, or four years of mathematics; one, two, or three years of science; two years of a foreign language, if elected. 6. Home economics course. — Four years of household arts; three or four years of science; one, two, or three years of mathematics, if elected; and two or three years of a foreign language, if elected. 7. Commercial course. — Four years of commercial branches grouped in sequence; one, two, or three years of mathematics, if elected; one, two, or three years of science; two or three years of a foreign language, if elected. II. Two- and one-year vocational courses. — Four two-year and two one-year vocational courses are offered. Very little academic material is included in these curricula. They are as follows: 1. Two-year manual training course. — Joinery, turning, pattern- making, forging, tool-making, machine-shop practice, mechanical drawing, English, mathematics, and physics. 2. Two-year home economics course. — Household arts, English, botany, physiology, and chemistry. 3. Two-year commercial course. — Business English, commercial arith- metic, civics, commercial geography, penmanship, bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, and spelling. \ 64 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 4. Two-year vocational course in printing. — Printing, shop practice, English, drawing, civics, vocations, industrial history, shop mathematics. 5. One-year bookkeeping course. — Business EngHsh, commercial arithmetic, penmanship, spelling, bookkeeping, and typewriting. 6. One-year stenographic course. — Business English, spelling, stenog- raphy, and typewriting. The number of children from each of the occupational groups pursuing each of the curricula is given in Table XXI for the entire high- school population. Separate data for the boys and girls are presented. For convenience, since the number taking either course is small, the one-year bookkeeping course and the one-year stenographic course are combined under the "one-year commercial course." A glance at the totals shows practically all the girls enrolled in four curricula, namely, the general, four-year commercial, four-year home economics, and two-year commercial. Likewise, almost 90 per cent of the boys are found in the general, scientific, four-year commercial, and four-year manual training courses. It is interesting to note the status of the classical course with its 67 boys and girls, a mere vestige that tells very little of its glorious past. This curriculum has undoubtedly seen better days. Several of the short vocational courses have not, as yet at least, gripped the atten- tion of children of high-school age. With the other curricula offered it is clear that St. Louis is offering its children an enriched high-school curriculum. Let us see how the boys and girls representing the different social groups react to this diversity of curricular opportunity. A careful examination shows practically the same tendencies at work here as those discovered in Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon. The case is not quite so clear, perhaps, because the lines between the courses are not so plain. St. Louis has no curriculum that can be regarded strictly as college preparatory, unless it be the httle-patronized classical course. Perhaps the general course and the scientific course come nearest to it. At least, they do not point out into industry. Among the girls the home economics course is apparently about equally popular with all the occupational groups, although some slight tendency toward a greater proportional representation in this course on the part of the non-labor groups is observable. This constitutes some evidence favorable to the contentions of certain critics of the courses offered in this field that they do not prepare for wage-earning. The four-year commercial course attracts the daughters of the manual PARENT-\L OCCUPATION AND THE COURSE OF STUDY 65 55 U > OOtOlOtON NMM MM I'Bpjaunuo3 j'Ba^-auQ gupUUJ J'Eaji-OMJ, suiurejx i'Bnn'Bi\[ j'eaj^-OMx >t*^0 N -^M ro»0-*M -^-O •'t < jBpjauiuioQ iBa\-0Mx »^oo f^ -^ oi M r^ 00 ■ooo m •<)•-* m D^inapg o, «3 Tf CO M vO t^OO ro ■* M vO M , ^ u "0 -0 'S .2 J3 a a E -a c "3 -a a .5 3 c -3 c -C 11- XI E 3 :d < m >^ M &< « C/) < H IS Evening high school 22.6 21.4 7.0 ^.8 9.9 9-5 4.1 13.6 4.1 2.0 100. 243 Trade school 22. 2 76 ^i « 6 S-o 2.0 13-2 ■; f> h 6 6 4-S 100. 198 Continuation classes 17.8 33-7 7-S 3.2 1.8 24.2 5-9 S-4 3-7 1-7 ■ 5 100. 579 Total 19.8 29.3 7.6 4.2 3.8 18.5 6.S - 1-7 100. 1,020 social and economic position. At the other extreme are the peoples of Austria-Hungary, the Italians, and the Poles, among whom the propor- tional representation is much greater in the three groups of children not in high school than in the high-school population. Another interesting feature of the table is the much greater representation of the Irish and the Russian Jews in the evening high school than in the trade school and the continuation classes. This indicates an unusually strong interest in an academic education on the part of these races, as well as exceptional energy and earnestness in the pursuit of educational opportunity, since voluntary attendance at evening school at best involves serious immedi- ate, personal sacrifice. The percentage of children in each of these four Bridgeport groups whose fathers were born in the United States is shown in Figure t,^. Clearly the opportunities of secondary education are much more widely distributed among children of native parentage than among those born of immigrants. no SELECTIVE CHAIL\CTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION A single set of facts from Mt. Vernon should be presented here. Owing to the very small numbers of children from most of the immigrant stocks in the schools of this city, it is hardly worth while to make the detailed analysis that has just been made for Bridgeport. There is one immigrant group, however, that is very well represented — the Italians. Consequently in Table XLI is given the number of children in the sixth grade and each year of the high school from each of three Day high school (49-o) Evening high school (22.6) State trade school (22.2) Continuation classes (178) Fig. 33. — Showing the percentage of children in each of four groups whose fathers were bom in the United States. Bridgeport. groups — the native stock, the Italians, and all others. Again, it is to be observed that the children of native parentage make a superior record and that among the other races the children of Italian fathers have an almost negligible representation in the later high-school years. For every one hundred children in the sixth grade the native stock has 30.2 in the last year of the high school; the Italians but 3.5; and all other immigrant groups 20.2. TABLE XLI Nativity of Fathers of Children in the Mt. Vernon Sixth Grade and in Each Year of the Mt. Vernon High Schools Country of Father's Birth Sixth Grade Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior Total United States Italy 29s 256 188 234 59 132 194 29 99 133 8 60 89 9 38 945 361 All others 517 Total 739 425 322 201 136 1,823 THE CHOICE OF CURRICULA It is interesting to see how the different racial groups respond to the curricular opportunities offered in the Bridgeport High School. Since the curricula for the girls are somewhat different from those for the boys, the two sexes will receive separate consideration. PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE IMMIGRANT III In Table XLII are presented the curricular choices of the girls, grouped according to the nativity of the father. For convenience in comparison the distribution of each group of girls is expressed in per- centages. Thus, of the 634 girls whose fathers were born in the United States, 24 per cent are pursuing the college preparatory course, 27 per cent the normal course, etc. If we note the percentage of girls from each of the groups pursuing each of the three popular curricula, some rather pronounced differences will be observed. The tendency for girls of native parentage to enter the college preparatory course is TABLE XLII Percentage of Girls in Each Group Pursuing Each of the Curricula Open TO Girls in the Bridgeport High School. Girls Grouped According to Nativity of Fathers >. ^ M >-< ■2j C a a E a Curriculum CO w W >> S m .» ■a V 'S CIS •c < S C 3 •a c _c5 "o (I4 .3 a ■■3 a CO < < College 18 7 40 52 5 28 17 25 50 8 23 9 24 62 27 16 2i 54 3 2 36 25 57 4 27 so 28 47 2 42 67 55 Si 54 General 5 Scientific Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Number of cases 634 97 88 28 100 43 12 ■ 145 S8 IS 1,220 586 apparently considerably stronger than among girls of foreign parentage. Yet among certain of the immigrant groups, especially the Russian Jews and the people of the British Empire, excluding Ireland, the proportion to be found in this curriculum is almost as large as it is for the native stock. The Italians and the Irish are representative of the other extreme. The latter incline rather strongly toward the normal course. In fact 40 per cent of the Irish girls are planning to teach. The Russian Jews, on the other hand, show the least inclination in this direction. It is a fact worthy of attention in this connection that this curriculum is attracting a slightly larger percentage of the immigrant than of the native stock. The commercial course is also somewhat more attractive to the former, probably because of their lower social and economic level. Two-thirds of the Italian girls are enrolled in this course. Yet in Bridgeport, in every one of these groups, the percentage in the commer- 112 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION cial course is larger than that to be found in any one of the other curricula. It would be natural to suppose that the boys from these different groups behave somewhat as the girls do, but such is not the case, as a glance at Table XLIII shows. In contrasting the boys of native parentage with those of immigrant stock,' it will sufl&ce to confine our attention to but two of the curricula, the college preparatory and the scientific. No significant diflFerences appear in the choice of the other curricula. Throwing all the immigrant groups together it will be TABLE XLIII Percentage of Boys in Each Groxjp Pursuing Each of the Curricula Open TO Boys in the Bridgeport High School. Boys Grouped According to Nativity of Fathers Curriculum Id So •a "a & to c 3 i < E W a a i-i I 3 Pi c4 < 1 a College 23 4 IS S 53 47 6 15 3 29 26 ID i8 3 43 i8 4 17 40 7 19 36 8 18 3 35 61 8 31 59 I 9 30 16 4 4 8 68 31 ••38- 23 33 5 14 4 44 42 5 14 2 6i 34 37 Total lOO lOO lOO lOO 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 Number of cases 472 no 67 23 74 66 13 149 50 13 1.037 S6s observed that the college course is much more and the scientific course much less popular among these boys than among those of native parent- age. This tendency to choose the college course is especially strong among the immigrants from the south and east of Europe, including the Russian Jews. On the other hand, certain of the peoples from the north and west, notably the Scandinavians and the Germans and representatives of the British Empire in smaller measure, exhibit the American inclmation toward the scientific course. It is dif&cult to give an explanation of these differences since both of these curricula are primarily college preparatory. Apparently some of these groups are captivated by the name, at least in so far as the boys are concerned. BOYS AND GIRLS It is well known that there are more girls than boys in the American high school, there being only about 85 boys to every 100 girls for the country as a whole. This greater tendency for the girls to attend high PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE IMMIGRANT 113 school, however, is not characteristic of all the immigrant groups. Examine Table XLIV in which the ratio of boys to girls is given for each of the groups. Among those students whose fathers were born in the United States there are but 74.4 boys to every 100 girls. In the case of the Italians, on the other hand, the ratio is 153.5, ^^^ the boys are in TABLE XLIV Number of Boys to 'ioo Girls in Bridgeport High School. Students Grouped According to Nativity OF Father. Data from 2,257 Cases Country of Father's Birth United States Austria-Hungary British Empire Germany Ireland Italy Poland Russia Scandinavia All others Total All foreign No. Boys to 100 Girls 74-4 II3-5 76.1 82.1 74 o IS3-5 108.3 102.8 86.2 86.7 85.0 96.4 the majority in three other groups — the people of Austria-Hungary, the Poles, and the Russians. Again is to be noted the cleavage between the north and west and the south and east of Europe. The people from the former exhibit the American trait of sending the girls to high school, while those from the latter seemingly are less inclined to regard a secondary education as necessary for girls. CHAPTER XIII THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE NEGRO It is a well-known fact that the negroes do not patronize the secon- dary schools of the country in large numbers. The reports of the Com- missioner of Education, in so far as they present separate data for negroes, indicate a large amount of retardation and relatively early elimination for the race as a whole. Commenting on this matter the Biennial Survey of Education for 1916-18 by the Bureau of Education makes the following summary statement: "In short, over seven times as great a proportion of white pupils as colored pupils are to be found in secondary schools of the South." The causes of this situation are undoubtedly complex, reaching far back into the history and the nature of the negro. And no claim is put forward here of a complete explanation. Some interesting facts, however, have come to light that have at least some bearing on the question. Since the number of negroes in Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, and Seattle is negligible, no reference will be made in this chapter to data collected from these cities. St. Louis, on the other hand, as the population statistics already given show, does have a considerable negro population. Following the custom of the South this city maintains a dual system of education for the white and colored races, extending into the secondary field. One of the six St. Louis high schools, Sumner, is a negro high school. It is extraorinarily well attended, with an enrolment of over eight hundred. In fact, in proportion to the number residing in St. Louis, the negroes have as large an attendance in the public high schools as the whites. This is a remarkable showing, and it adds some interest to this part of the study. Seven hundred and twenty-seven students in the high school filled out the information card. While this was not the total enrolment, it did include practically all who were present on the day this census was taken. The distribution of these young people according to sex and year in the high school is given in Table XLV. It will be observed that there are almost twice as many girls as boys. This seems to be characteristic of negroes generally, as it accords with the facts presented in the reports of the Bureau of Education and some other studies that have been 114 PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE NEGRO 115 made. As already noted, this is a cultural trait peculiar to the civiliza- tion of America and the north and west of Europe. TABLE XLV Distribution by Sex and Year in High School of 727 Students in the Sumner (Colored) High School of St. Louis Sex Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior Total Girls Boys 173 102 115 66 105 32 91 43 484 243 Total. . . . 275 181 137 134 727 FATHER S OCCUPATION Naturally these colored children would be expected to present an occupational representation- quite different from that of the white children and characteristic of their race. Only slowly and against the most gigantic obstacles have the negroes been working their way upward through the several occupational levels since their emancipation from slavery less than three generations ago. At present the great majority of the members of this race in our cities are engaged in occupations requiring little skill. Their history has associated them with personal service. Since they own relatively little property few are found in those occupations which are based on its ownership, such as the proprie- tary and managerial callings. Furthermore, owing to a distinctly limited demand for professional service within the race, the number so engaged is small. The occupations of the fathers of these 727 students are shown in Table XLVI. According to the facts here presented, as might be expected, personal service has the greatest representation, including 22 per cent, almost one-fourth of the total number. Common labor is second, and the machine trades third. It is perhaps surprising to find the- clerical occupations occupying the fourth place, but this may be explained in terms of politics, since approximately three-fourths of them are mail clerks. Professional service is also represented in larger measure than might be expected. It should be remembered, however, that this type of service is not quite so rigid in its meaning as among the white population. Neither are the lines between occupations drawn so clearly. This fact is brought out by noting the composition of the several high-school years through data not presented in this Il6 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION table. The tendency noted again and again of certain of the occupa- tional groups to maintain themselves in the high school is not apparent here. The proprietors and professionals, for example, are no better TABLE XLVI Occupations of the Fathers of 727 Students in the Sumner (Colored) High School of St. Louis Parental Occupation Number Percentage 21 48 38 II 57 30 28 24 66 2 16 48 5 160 6 90 77 2.9 6.6 Managerial service 5-2 Commercial service 1-5 Clerical service 7-9 41 3-8 Building trades 3-3 Machine trades 9. 1 Printing trades .3 2.2 Transportation service 6.6 Public service .7 Personal service 22.0 Miners, lumber- workers, fishermen .8 12.4 Unknown 10.6 Total 727 100. represented in the Senior than in the Freshman year. The only excep- tion to the forgoing general statement is found in the case of common labor, which does exhibit the same traits as among the whites, but to a less marked degree. FAMILY INFLUENCES The negro family is not noted for its stability, and there are probably few factors of more importance in determining high-school attendance than the character of the family. Although it would be highly desirable to present data here dealing with the negro family in its varied aspects, this is not possible. Information was secured only on a few items. These, however, will be found to be significant. The first and most miportant matter pertains to the mortality of the parents. Obviously the death of one of the parents is a most serious matter in the life of the child, particularly among those classes of the population whose standard of living approximates the margin of exist- ence. In Table XL VII the facts for the students attending the Sumner PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE NEGRO 117 High School are compared with those for the students attending the other St. Louis high schools. And in Figure 34 the totals for the negro and white children are contrasted. According to the facts presented in this table 27.9 per cent of the negro children come from homes in which one or both parents are dead. This is more than one in every four students and is over twice the rate for the children of white parentage. The difference between the two races is more marked in the loss of the TABLE XLVII Percentage of Students in the Colored and White High Schools of St. Louis Having One or Both Parents Deceased High School Father Deceased Mother Deceased Both Parents Deceased Total Sumner High School (colored) Other St. Louis high schools (white) . 12.8 7.6 10. 3-8 1-3 27.9 12.7 mother than in the loss of the father; while the greatest contrast is seen in the loss of both parents, the rate for the negroes here being four times that for the whites. The high mortality rate among the negroes has long been noted. It is probably a function of their standard of living and mode of life. But its bearing on educational opportunity Negro (27.9) WWte (12.7) Fig. 34. — Comparing the negro and white high-school students in St. Louis with respect to the percentage having one or both parents deceased. has not received adequate recognition. Clearly this is an important consideration in a social order where large responsibilities for the educa- tion of the children still rest on the home. Another significant measure of the integrity of the home is found in the occupation of the mother. Is the mother helping to support the family by working at some form of remunerative employment outside the home? Here again, in Figure 35, the negro and white students in the St. Louis high schools are compared. And, again, the unfavorable position of the former is noted. Over 30 per cent of the negro mothers are helping to support the family, whereas only 5.6 per cent of the mothers of the white children are so engaged. As a matter of fact, no Il8 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION occupational group among the latter even approches the negroes in this matter. As might be expected, the common laborers present a record nearest that of the negroes, but even here only 13 per cent of the mothers are helping to support the family. Negro White (30.3) (5.6) c Fig. 35. — Showing percentage of negro and white children in St. Louis high schools whose mothers are engaged in remunerative employment. The size of the family from which the high-school students come is almost the same for the two races, if we think in terms of medians. For the negroes the median number of children in the family is 3.1; for the whites it is 2.8. The distribution of the size of the family for the two races, however, is somewhat different, as is shown in Figure 36. .,/ \ Whi Neg ro - . — / ■ ^^- '^v \, \^- -.^ ^ --. Number of Children Fig. 36. — Comparing whites and negroes with respect to size of family from which the high-school students come. St. Louis. The curve for the negroes is a peculiar one. It shows the most frequent number of children per family to be one. Whether this curve is charac- teristic of the negroes in St. Louis or to be explained in terms of the operation of a selective principle in the high-school population, it is impossible to say. CHOICE OF CURRICULA The children in the Sumner High School are offered practically the same choice of curricula as the children in the other St. Louis high schools. In view of the difference already noted in the social composition PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE NEGRO 119 and occupational outlook of the two races, it would be natural to expect the negro children to exhibit distinctive traits in the selection of courses. It will be interesting to survey the facts. Table XLVIII presents the curricular choices of the 484 negro girls in comparison with corresponding data from 3,978 girls of white parentage. The facts are given in percentages to make the comparison easy. An examination of the table will show that there are just two points at which the two races exhibit sharp differences. In the first place, the four-year home economics course appears to be actually TABLE XLVIII Percentage of Girl Students in the Colored and White High Schools of St. Louis Pursuing the Different Curricula Curriculum Four-year general . Four-year scientific Four-year commercial Four-year home economics. Four-year classical Four-year fine arts Two-year commercial Two-year home economics. One-year commercial Total . Negro 43-4 .6 23.6 30.4 1.6 •4 White 44.1 .6 21 .6 95 1 .0 3-6 18.5 •4 •7 100. o popular among these colored girls, over 30 per cent of them taking it. This is the only group discovered in the four cities that seems to be interested in this course. It might be explained on the grounds that these girls are preparing for personal service, but data to be presented later indicate that only one of the 484 girls displays any intention of entering this occupation following graduation from high school. In the second place, the two-year commercial course is distinctly unpopular among these girls. Among the girls of white parentage, on the other hand, this course draws more students than any other course during the first and second years, except the general course, which points particu- larly to college. This difference may be due in part to inferior opportu- nities to enter into the clerical occupations on the part of colored girls. Perhaps, after all, the surprising thing about the facts presented in this table is that both races register practically the same proportion of I20 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION the girls in the general course. This indicates a strong college tradition in the Sumner High School, as well as in the other high schools of the city. Among the boys the differences are more pronounced than among the girls, as a glance at Table XLIX will prove. This is somewhat surprising because, among the whites, the girls appear to be more bound by the occupational group from which they come than are the boys. TABLE XLIX Percentage of Boy Students in the Colored and White High Schools of St. Louis Pursuing the Different Curricula Curriculum Four-year general Four-year scientific Four-year commercial .... Four-year manual training . Four-year classical Four-year fine arts Two-year commercial Two-year manual training. Two-year printing One-year commercial Total . Negro 14.0 9-5 20. 2 54-7 1 . 2 •4 White There the boys tend to break over the class lines, while the girls conform to them. Only a small percentage of the colored boys are pursuing the general curriculum, in which are enrolled 42 per cent of the white boys. The four-year manual training course, on the other hand, is extremely popular with the negroes. Almost 55 per cent of them are taking it. The four-year commercial course is also much more popular among them than among the whites. The various short courses appeal to the boys of neither race. EXPECTATIONS FOLLOWING GRADUATION Perhaps just as significant as the curriculum chosen, if not more so, is the statement of expectations of the students following graduation. To be sure, little weight can be attached to these statements as indexes of what these boys and girls will actually do when they leave the high school. In truth, the evidence is quite strong in the other direction, namely, that many of them will not do that which they say they will do. But, as an index of the traditions and atmosphere of the school, these statements undoubtedly have weight. PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE NEGRO I2l A glance at Table L shows quite conclusively that at least according to their statements the negro girls are not intending to enter the occupa- tions in which their parents are engaged. Apparently they plan to attend college in proportionately larger numbers than do their white sisters. They are likewise attracted to the normal school in such numbers as to set at rest any fear among the champions of education lest the colored schools be closed for lack of teachers. It should also be TABLE L Expectations Following Graduation of Girls in the Colored and White High Schools of St. Louis Expectations College Normal school .... Business college. . . . Other school Travel Home Professional service . Commercial service Clerical service .... Industrial service . . Personal service . . . Work Undecided Total percentage. Negro 35-3 26. 2 2. 1 3-9 13-5 . 2 II. 6 1-5 . 2 2.4 3-1 100. o White 30 noted that many of those mentioning the college as their immediate objective, intend ultimately to enter the teaching profession. And the 13.5 per cent grouped under professional service includes a large propor- tion who are expecting to begin teaching with only the high-school training. Clearly teaching is attractive to these young people. The profession still retains the prestige which it has lost among members of the other race. A summary inspection of the table shows that the occupational interest which dominates this group of negro girls is the professional, and that they are hoping the high school will provide a means of escape from the wage-earning class from which they come and back to which most of them will probably have to go. The negro boys also are intent on a higher education. This is seen in Table LI. According to their statements 63 per cent of these boys are planning to attend college. This is almost 12 per cent greater than for the boys of white parentage. A second interesting feature of the table is the relatively large proportion of colored boys looking toward 122 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION the industrial occupations. But this is absolutely quite small, amounting to only 8.7 per cent. A third point of interest is the smaller proportion of negroes who are undecided. A glance at the preceding table shows this to be true of the girls as well as the boys. In conclusion it may be said that this brief and somewhat superficial study of the population of a single negro high school throws some light on the relation of the negro to our secondary schools. His relative TABLE LI Expectations Following Graduation of Boys in the Colored and White High Schools of St. Louis Expectations College Business college Other school Travel Farming Professional service ... Commercial service . . . Clerical service Industrial service Public service Personal service Transportation service Work Undecided Total percentage Negro 63.0 4.6 •4 •4 1 . 2 .8 5-3 8.7 .8 7.8 7.0 White 51-4 •5 2. 2 . I •4 i.o 3-2 5-5 2.6 . I ■3 16.7 16.0 absence of interest in the high school is rather easy to understand. As a race the negroes are engaged in occupations which require little skill, for which the remuneration is low, and whose respectability is not high. Their standard of living is also low, and the home is not the center of stimulation and inspiration that it is among other groups in the population. The family is notoriously unstable because of the absence of those traditions that would give it stability. The high mortality of the race also acts as a disorganizing and disintegrating force in many negro homes. Taking into consideration these various influences, the attendance at the Sumner High School in St. Louis is little short of marvelous. These young people are carrying on a struggle for secondary education that is really unique in the annals of American education. The obvious handicaps under which they are striving can be duplicated by few social groups in this country today outside their own race. The present study shows no group within the white popula- PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE NEGRO 1 23 tion in the four cities investigated waging the fight so successfully and against such tremendous odds, as is the negro population of St. Louis. Those elements of the white population that might be regarded as approximating the negroes in standard of living, social tradition, and the general organization of life are very far from doing as well. The children from these groups hardly get into the high school at all. It is very doubtful if, outside the negro populations of a very few of the large cities midway between the north and south, such as Washington, there is any population group within the nation that is doing so much to send its children to high school as are the negroes of St. Louis. CHAPTER XIV THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SELECTION It has been made clear in the earlier chapters that the student population of the public high school is sociologically highly selected. It remains to consider briefly the question of psychological selection — briefly because this does not constitute the central part of the study and because much has been done in this field in recent years. Psychological tests were given to the four groups of children in Bridgeport and to the students in the first year of the high school in Mt. Vernon. In the former city the Chapman-Welles Junior and Senior High School Classification Test was used and in the latter the National Intelligence Tests, Scale B, Form i. We shall now examine the data secured from these two cities, giving special attention to the data from Bridgeport, because of the more comprehensive study made there. CHILDREN OF HIGH-SCHOOL AGE IN HIGH SCHOOL AND OUT The median scores made by the girls and boys in each of the high- school years in Bridgeport are given in Table LII. Although the facts in this table, apart from a comparison with data from the other groups TABLE LII Median Scores Made by Girls and Boys in Each Year of THE High School in Bridgeport — Chapman- Welles Test. Data from 2,537 Cases High-School Year Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior Number of cases 1,36:: Girls Boys 72.9 89.7 90.8 101. 8 95-4 110.7 99.2 113. 8 1,175 studied in this city, are of no great significance to this study, there are several points of interest to be noted. The median score increases noticeably in the succsessive years of the high school, yet for both sexes the most pronounced difference occurs between the Freshman and Sophomore years. This may be due to disproportionate ehmmation 124 PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SELECTION 125 at this point in the high school, but more probably to the fact that the test is not well adapted to measuring differences among the more mature students in the later high-school years. It is also observed that the median score for the boys is in each case appreciably higher than that for the girls. It seems probable that this is likewise to be explained in terms of the organization of the test. But it is the comparison with these other groups of children of high-school age that interests us. These comparative scores are pre- sented in Table LIII. No score is given for the girls in the first year of TABLE LIII Median Scores Made by Girls and Boys in the First Year of the High School, THE Evening High School, the First Year of the Trade School, and the Compulsory Continuation Classes in Bridgeport — Chapman -Welles Test Group Girls Boys Number of Cases First year high school 72.9 60.0 8Q.7 78.1 62.0 40.9 910 181 Evening high school First year trade school Continuation classes 29. 1 421 the trade school because the number of cases was entirely too small to insure reliability. The outstanding fact in the table is that, speaking in terms of medians, the children in the Freshman year of the high school are distinctly superior to those in the other groups. And in the case of First year high school (89.7) Evening high school (78.1) First year trade school (62.0) Continuation classes (40.9) Fig. 37. — Showing the median score made in the Chapman-Welles Test by the boys in each of four groups. Bridgeport. the evening high school the difference is more significant than these scores indicate, because these students are on the average two to three years older than those in the first year of the high school. In Figure 37 a graphical comparison is made of the median scores for the boys in these four groups. No comment is necessary. 126 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION Median scores, however, tell but a part of the truth. For this reason P'igure 38 was constructed, in which is presented the complete distribution of the scores made by each of three groups of boys, those in the first year of the high school, those in the first year of the trade school, and those in the compulsory continuation classes. The boys in these three groups are of approximately the same age. Observe the character of the curves. The curve for the high-school Freshmen ^s 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 '1 l_ F"irst-Year High School First- Year Trade School Continuation Classes 20 15 1 1 __J 1 lo i I 1 1 — 1 '— - ■ 1 ! ! -] 1 — ^.. 1 ■ 1 .... 1 r " 130 140 ISO Fig. 38. — Showing by percentages the distribution of scores made by each of three groups of boys in the Chapman-Welles Test. Data from 426 boys in the first year of the high school, 112 boys in the first year of the trade school, and 201 boys in the compulsory continuation classes. Bridgeport. shows a fairly normal distribution about a center of superior ability, while that for the continuation classes exhibits a similar distribution about a center of mediocre or inferior ability. On the other hand, the curve for the first year of the trade school shows a wide and somewhat irregular distribution. The first two curves are to be expected, but why this peculiar distribution for the trade school ? The probable explana- tion is to be found in the educational status of this institution and the attitude of school teachers and others toward it. There is no policy of admission that would close the doors of the trade school to children judged inferior by academic standards. In many instances, as a matter of fact, children who have failed in the conventional curriculum are encouraged to try this school. This accounts for the large number of PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SELECTION 1 27 cases at the lower end of the distribution, but it does not explain the presence of many children of average and even superior ability. Appar- ently they enter the trade school either through necessity or because of interest in, or an aptitude for, various types of manual activity. Perhaps a word should be said about the overlapping of these curves. This is certainly just as significant as the fact of median differences. There is very large overlapping between the high-school and trade- school curves, and even the compulsory continuation classes hold a considerable area in common with the high school Freshmen. Although the children in these classes have in the main been rejected as unfit by the school, there is a surprisingly large amount of ability to be found among them. There are even a few of distinctly superior promise, at least as measured by this test. On the other hand, in the high school there are some children of remarkably inferior ability. Thus, while we may say that the high-school population represents a certain measure of psychological selection, it is clear that this principle does not operate conclusively in a negative fashion and much less in a positive way in determining attendance at high school. Neither are all of meager intellectual endowment barred from high school, nor are all possessing superior talent to be found within its doors. There is another point of interest in the data from the trade school that deserves some comment. The boys in the second year not only did not do as well in the test as those in the first year, but they actually made a median record almost ten points lower. As already given in the table, the median for the first year is 62.0, while that for the second year is but 52.9; and it should be noted further that there is a median age difference of 1.3 years in favor of the second-year boys. While no sweeping conclusions may be drawn from data from a single school, these facts give rise to the suspicion that the work of the trade school is not of such a character as to demand ability of the type measured by this and similar tests. CHOICE or CURRICULA ' That a certain amount of psychological selection is expressed in the choice of curricula is to be expected. The extent to which this occurs in the Bridgeport High School is shown in Table LIV. Here are given the median scores made by both boys and girls pursuing the various curricula in each year of the high school. Data are presented for but three curricula for each sex, because of the very small number of students to be found in the other curricula offered. Examination of that part of 128 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION the table presenting the facts for the girls reveals appreciable differences. Averaging the medians for the four years we get a record for the girls in the college preparatory course of 95.9, as compared with 89.8 for those in the normal course and 86.8 for those in the commercial course. These differences are not large, and there is great overlapping of the distribu- tions, but they do indicate some selection. TABLE LIV Median Scores Made by Girls and Boys in the Various Curricula in the Bridgeport High School — Chapman-Welles Test Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior Average No. Cases Curriculum Girls College 730 75-4 71.8 97-7 87.0 89.4 loi .0 95-7 91 .6 III. 7 98.0 94-4 95-9 89.8 86.8 271 Normal Commercial 376 715 Total 72.9 90.8 95-4 99.2 89.6 1,362 Boys College 92.5 86.3 82.9 105.3 100.8 100.9 113. 114.6 121. 5 118. III. 5 1350 107.2 103 -3 no. I 371 Scientific 556 Commercial 148 Total 89.7 101.8 no. 7 113. 8 108.7 1,075 Turning to the other half of the table, which gives the facts for the boys, we observe no consistent tendency for any one of the groups to show superiority from year to year. There are some average differences, but they are not significant. The absence of any definite selection here may be due to the fact that no one of these curricula is strictly vocational, although the commercial course approaches it. If the number in the industrial arts course were sufficiently large to furnish reliable medians, it is probable that some selection would be found among the boys. In Mt. Vernon the National Intelligence Tests were given to the high-school Freshmen. The median scores made by both sexes in the different curricula are given in Table LV. The several academic curricula are grouped, and no data are given for the girls pursuing the industrial arts course because of an insufficient number of cases. It is at once apparent that in Mt. Vernon the academic curricula are attracting the students of superior ability regardless of sex, while the lowest record is made by the boys in the industrial arts course. Yet it should be noted PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SELECTION 129 that there is much overlapping, and that in the vocational courses there are many students of unusual talent. TABLE LV Median Scores Made by Freshman Girls and Boys in Each Type of Curriculum IN the Mt. Vernon High School — National Intelligence Tests Curriculum Girls Boys Median Score No. of Cases Median Score No. of Cases Academic I'^'i . ^ 157 85 155-0 147-5 130.0 180 Commercial Industrial arts 144. I 67 34 PARENTAL OCCUPATION In Table LVI are given the scores made in the Chapman-Welles Test in the Bridgeport High School by the students grouped according to the occupation of the father, the boys and girls being kept separate TABLE LVI Scores Made by Girls and Boys from Different Occupational Groups in the Chapman-Welles Test. In Each Case the Median Scores Made IN THE Four High-School Years Are Averaged. D.a.ta from Bridgeport High School Parental Occupation Proprietors Professional service Managerial service Commercial service Clerical service Artisan-proprietors Buildings trades Machine trades Miscellaneous trades Transportation service Personal service Common labor All manual-labor occupations, All occupations Girls Average of Medians 91 103 94 94 95 85 91 92 QI .6 No. of Cases 213 66 191 77 55 59 54 161 74 36 23 16 404 1,128 Boys Average of Medians 105 -4 104.8 109.4 no. 5 107.7 107.8 103.7 107.3 107.9 112. 5 loi .9 95-0 105.8 106.9 No. of Cases 193 59 i6i 71 31 39 47 131 51 28 19 17 316 because of the sex differences already noted. For each group the median scores for the four high-school years are averaged. Several of the 130 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION occupational groups are omitted from this table because of inadequate representation in one or more years. For the purpose of focusing special attention on the laboring groups they are all combined into a single group at the bottom of the table. In this group are included the building, machine, printing, and miscellaneous trades, the transporta- tion workers, public service, personal service, and common labor. An examination of the table shows no clear differences. And the evidence from the separate years of the high school, not given here, supports this statement. Although for both the girls and the boys the combined labor groups do average a point or so lower than the entire high-school population, the difference is so small as to constitute an entirely insufficient basis on which to build sweeping conclusions. In TABLE LVII Median Scores Made by Freshmen of the Mt. Vernon High School in the National Intelligence Tests, Classified According to the Occupation of the Father Parental Occupation Median Score No. of Cases Proprietors Professional service . . . 147 158 152 152 138 152 141 9 2 5 5 2 5 5 50 25 23 22 Managerial service Commercial service Clerical service 13 12 Artisan-proprietors All laboring groups 48 Bridgeport at least the high-school students from the various occupational groups exhibit about the same measure of ability. This indicates again that the children of manual laborers who get into the high school are relatively highly selected, since the testing of an unselected group of children from this source shows an intelligence level appreciably lower than that of children from the professional and more prosperous classes. In Mt. Vernon, however, we do find some differences in the small group in the Freshman class for whom we have all the necessary data. The facts are presented in Table LVII. In order to secure a sufficiently large number of cases for statistical purposes all the laboring groups are combined. If the record made by the children of this combination group is compared with records made by those whose fathers are engaged in other occupations, the comparison is found to be somewhat unfavorable to the laboring classes, although the clerical service does show a slightly PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SELECTION 131 lower record. But even in Mt. Vernon the complete distributions show the differences to merit less attention than the points of agreement. THE IMMIGRANT The test records made by the high-school students in Bridgeport, classified according to the father's country of birth, appear in Table LVIII. Since this table is organized in the same way as the previous table giving similar data for the occupational groups, no explanation is necessary. If we compare the records made by the combined immigrant groups with those made by children of native parentage, they are found to be ahnost identical, the boys displaying slight superiority in the former and the girls in the latter group. These differences are not large enough to enable us to say, however, that the immigrant boys are superior and the immigrant girls inferior to the American children in this high school. With the exception of the Italian and Polish children, whose records are considerably below the average for both sexes, the children of foreign parentage appear to hold their own very well. TABLE LVIII Scores Made in Chapman-Welles Test by Girls and Boys, Classified Accord- ing TO Nativity of the Father. Median Scores Made in the Four School Years Are Averaged in Each Case — Bridgeport High School Country of Father's Birth United States Austria-Hungary British Empire Germany Ireland Italy Poland Russia Scandinavia All foreign countries, Girls Average of Medians 92.5 92. 1 86.0 90-3 80.0 83.8 91.8 93-9 90.6 No. of Cases 586 93 82 27 98 39 8 135 51 644 Boys Average of Medians 106.7 109.2 108.7 III .9 100.5 99.0 99-4 109. 2 106.3 107. 1 No. of Cases 405 97 57 19 66 55 10 132 49 493 A similar situation is found among the Freshmen in the Mt. Vernon High School. Since the number of children of immigrant stock is small, they are all included in a single group. This gives us for the girls of native and foreign parentage the median scores of 155,5 ^^^ 151 -3 respectively. The corresponding scores for the boys are 156.2 and 132 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 154.0. There is in each case a sHght difference favoring the former, but hardly large enough to deserve comment. We may say, therefore, that, regardless of any differences in ability that may be found in unselected groups of children from the native and various immigrant stocks, such differences are practically obscure in the high-school population. FAMILY INFLUENCES A study of the records made in the tests by the firstborn and lastborn in families of two or more children brings to light evidence which supports the conclusions in an earlier chapter that selective influences are operat- ing at this point. In Table LIX are compared the scores made in the Chapman-Welles Test by the firstborn and lastborn children in the Bridgeport High School. As in previous tables, in order to get a single measure for each group the median scores made by the students in the four years are averaged. For both the boys and the girls, it will be observed, the firstborn make a score significantly larger than that made by the lastborn children. TABLE LIX Comparison of Scores M.^vde by Firstborn and Lastborn Children in THE Bridgeport High School in the Chapman-Welles Test. In Each Case the Median Scores Made in the Four High-School Years Are Averaged Girls Boys Order of Birth Average of Medians No. of Cases Average of Medians No. of Cases Firstborn Lastborn 94.8 87.8 287 247 108.3 102.8 264 205 Among the Freshmen of the Mt. Vernon High School the same rela- tion is found, as an examination of Table LX will show. What is the explanation? Certainly not that firstborn are brighter than lastborn children, but rather that the former in the high school are more highly selected groups than the latter. Among certain elements of the population the firstborn child is more likely to be called on to sacrifice his own educa- tional opportunities in the interests of the family than is the lastborn. Especially, if he does not possess unusual ability, it seems that he will receive less encouragement than his younger brother or sister to remain in school. In other words, that general tendency of the high school to select PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SELECTION 133 children of superior talent and reject others operates with peculiar force among the firstborn, because of the influence of certain sociological factors. TABLE LX Comparison of Median Scores Made in the National Intelligence Tests by Firstborn and Lastborn Children in the Mt. Vernon High School Order of Birth Girls Boys Median Score No. of Cases Median Score No. of Cases Firstborn Lastborn 151-3 147-5 27 22 154-2 146.7 38 24 It is also interesting to note the relation of ability to the number of children in the family, keeping in mind of course that the validity of these tests is assumed. The facts from the Bridgeport High School are presented in Table LXI. It will be observed that the students are classified into three groups on the basis of the number of children in the family from which they come. First, there is the family with an only child; second, the family with from two to four children; and third, the family with five or more children. According to this table the score seems to vary inversely with the size of the family for both the girls and the boys. TABLE LXI Comparison or Scores Made in Chapman-Welles Test by Children Coming FROM Families of Three Different Sizes in the Bridgeport High School. In Each Case the Median Scores Made in the Four High-School Years Are Averaged Number of Children IN THE Family Girls Boys Average of Medisns No. of Cases Average of Medians No. of Cases I 94.2 92.6 89.3 118 599 308 113. 6 107.0 104.2 112 2-4 5+ 523 263 Data bearing on this same point from Mt. Vernon appear in Table LXII. The evidence here corroborates the findings in Bridgeport. Apparently the superior children exist in proportionately larger num- bers in the smaller families. But the explanation is probably to be 134 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION found in the voluntary limitation of the birth-rate among the more intelligent and foresighted elements of the population. The ultimate TABLE LXII Comparison of Median Scores Made in the National Intelligence Tests by Children Coming from Families of Three Different Sizes in the Mt. Vernon High School No. OF Children IN THE Family Girls Boys Median Score No. of Cases Median Score No. of Cases I 148.8 146.7 139.2 9 62 19 165.0 151-4 139.6 8 2-4 5+ 63 39 effect of such a policy on the soundness and quality of the racial stock is obvious, but a discussion of this matter is beyond the scope of this study. CHAPTER XV THE POPULATION OF THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL There are in the United States 158,745 students enrolled in the private secondary schools, according to the report of the Federal Bureau for the school year 19 17-18. While the proportion of the total secondary- school population to be found in these schools has been decreasing gradually for fifty years and probably for an even longer period, the number is still sufficiently large to receive attention in any study of this character. This chapter may, therefore, be regarded as a supple- ment to the more detailed study of the social composition of the public high-school population reported in the preceding chapters. It will throw additional light on the extension of the opportunities of secondary education to the various strata of American society. But there is a second consideration that lends significance to this part of the study. It has been remarked that in the primitive peoples inhabiting various parts of the globe today we may see our contempora- neous ancestors. While this construction must not be taken literally, since each people, even the most primitive, has experienced a longer or shorter period of evolution that has produced certain unique and special charac- teristics, it does contain a certain element of truth. So in the private secondary schools of today we see preserved some of those features which characterized the secondary institutions of a few generations ago, before the rise of the public high school. By comparing the high-school population with that of the private secondary schools we may, therefore, get some idea of the distance we have traveled in actual practice from the conception of secondary education as class education. Of course there are certain forces operating today to determine the character of the population of these private schools which did not affect the schools of the earlier period, but in general the impression made by the com- parison probably corresponds with the facts. The elements in the popu- lation which patronize the private secondary schools today in all probability gave their children a secondary education in the days when it was not free and when it looked toward the college altogether. To be sure, a considerable number of parents who do not patronize the private secondary schools would send their children to these schools today if there were no public schools of secondary grade, but it is not probable 135 136 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION that these additions would greatly change the social complexion of the student population there enrolled. THE SCHOOLS STUDIED Data were secured from two schools: the one, a day school in the Middle West, and the other, a famous boarding-school in New England. They are respectively the University of Chicago High School in Chicago, Illinois, and the Phillips-Exeter Academy at Exeter, New Hampshire. Owing to the very rapid development of Roman Catholic secondary schools during the last twenty years, an effort was made to secure the facts from one of these schools, but without success. The administrative officers approached seemed not to be interested in a study of this character. Perhaps a few words should be set down concerning the nature of the two schools studied. Exeter Academy is a non-sectarian school offering TABLE LXIII Occupations of Fathers or Guardians of 201 Students in Phillips-Exeter Academy and 418 in the University of Chicago High School Parental Occupation Exeter Academy U. OF C. High School Total Number Percentage Number Percentage Number Percentage Proprietors Professional service Managerial service Commercial service Clerical service Artisan-proprietors Agricultural service Manual labor 88 62 21 15 5 3 2 2 3 44 310 IO-5 7-5 2-5 i-S 1 .0 1 .0 1 .0 176 130 50 41 8 5 2 42.1 311 12.0 9.8 1.9 I .2 ■5 264 192 71 56 13 8 4 2 9 42.7 310 9.0 2.1 1-3 •7 •3 1-4 Unknown 6 1-4 Total 201 100. 418 100. 619 100. a four-year academic course and enrolling about 575 students, all of whom are boys The University of Chicago High School is coeducational and non-sectarian and is definitely college preparatory. Its registration is about 475. Both schools have tuition fees, that of the former being $200 and that of the latter $275. In addition to the tuition fee at ^Exeter there are the annual charges for room and board and other assessments which range from $336 to $1,091, according to the catalogue for 1920-21. POPULATION OF THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 137 Data were not secured from the entire population in either school, since it was felt that a random sampling would be sufficient for our purposes. As shown in Table LXIII returns were received from 201 students in Exeter and 418 in the University of Chicago High School. THE PARENTAL OCCUPATION As in the study of the public high school, the most significant thing here is the occupation of the parent or guardian. The facts for the two schools are presented in Table LXIII. A glance at this table makes it clear that the social composition of the student population in these Proprietors (42-7) Professional service (31.0) Managerial service (11.5) Commercial service (90) Clerical service (2.1) Artisan-proprietors (1.3) Agricultural service (.7) Manual labor (.3) Unknown (1.4) Fig. 39. — Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers or guardians of 619 students in Phillips-Exeter Academy and the University of Chicago High School. June, 192 1. schools is decidedly different from that of the public high-school popula- tion. And, furthermore, Phillips-Exeter Academy and the University of Chicago High School draw their students from almost exactly the same elements in the population. About the only difference worthy of mention is the slightly larger representation of the managerial and commercial workers in the latter and a correspondingly greater per- centage of proprietors and clerical workers in the former. The percentages for the two schools combined are presented graph- ically in Figure 39. It will be observed that the proprietors have the largest representation, with 42.7 per cent of the students. Then follows 138 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION the professional service with 31.0 per cent. No other group can be said to be well represented in these schools. Consequently it may be said that private secondary schools of the more exclusive type are organized practically for these two classes in the population. The relatively poor representation of the managerial service is perhaps surprising until it is recalled that quite a large proportion of the purely managerial positions are not high-grade positions and that many of the individuals holding these positions have been promoted from some form of skilled labor. Considering their numbers in the population the commercial workers have a fair representation, while the clerical workers are almost wholly absent. There are very few artisan-proprietors and farmers; and the many grades and varieties of manual labor combined account for only .3 per cent of the total enrolment of the two schools. It is probable that more detailed and comprehensive knowledge of these few cases would reveal the influence of certain special circumstances not ordinarily associated with manual labor. It is interesting at this point to make a comparison with the public high-school population. This is done in Table LXIV. According to TABLE LXIV Occupations of Fathers or Guardians of 17,265 Stxidents in the Public High Schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle, and 619 Students in the Phillips-Exeter Academy and the University of Chicago High School Parental Occupation High Schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, Seattle Phillips-Exeter Academy and University of Chicago High School Proprietors Professional service Managerial service Commercial service Clerical service . . . Artisan-proprietors . Agricultural service Manual labor .... Unknown Total 42.7 310 II-5 9.0 2.1 1-3 •7 ■3 1-4 100. o this table only two occupational groups have a greater proportional representation in the private than in the public secondary schools — the professional service and the proprietors. All the rest are less well represented, although only slightly so in the case of the commerical service. Then follow the managerial service, the clerical service, the POPULATION OF THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 139 artisan-proprietors, the agricultural service, and finally manual labor. It is in this last group that the most pronounced difference is to be found. While 29.1 per cent of all the students in the public high schools come from the laboring classes, only a negligible proportion of those in these private schools are from this source. Thus, while public secondary education in the United States is still highly selective, it is certainly much less so than private. And, assuming that these private schools do give us a relatively reliable picture of the social composition of our secondary-school population of a few generations ago, it is clear that we have traveled a considerable distance from the conception of secondary education as class education. NATIVITY OF THE FATHER The students in these two schools are very largely of American parentage. This is shown in Table LXV in which they are classified TABLE LXV Nativity of Fathers of 619 Students in the Phillips- Exeter Academy and the University of Chicago High School Country of Father's Birth United States Austria-Hungary Britisii Empire France Germany Ireland Italy Russia Scandinavia All others Total Number 540 6 41 4 17 3 619 Percentage 87 according to the nativity of the father. In the two schools combined 87.3 per cent of the fathers of the students were born in this country, and over one-half of the remainder were born in English-speaking countries. It will be rioticed further that the south and east of Europe are practically without representation. These schools draw from the native stock and the peoples from the north and west of Europe. NUMBER OF BROTHERS AND SISTERS In view of the foregoing facts concerning occupation and nativity it is to be expected that the families from which these children come should 140 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION be somewhat smaller than those from which the public high school is recruited. And such is the case to a small degree, as may be seen by examining Table LXVI. According to this table the median number of brothers and sisters is higher for the students in the public high schools in each of the cities than it is for those in either of the private schools. This figure is lowest in the University of Chicago High School, where it is but 1.3, and highest in the Bridgeport High School, where it reaches 2.3. TABLE LXVI Median Nximber of Brothers and Sisters of the Students in the Public High Schools of Four Cities and in Two Private Secondary Schools Secondary Schools Bridgeport Mt. Vernon Seattle St. Louis Exeter Academy University of Chicago High School . Median Number Brothers and Sisters 2-3 2. I 2.0 1.8 1-7 1-3 In conclusion it should be pointed out that the differences between the public high school and these private secondary schools are actually greater than statistics indicate. In all probability, for example, there is an important average difference between the managerial service represented in the two types of schools. Fathers engaged in these occupations who send their children to the private school hold positions somewhat superior as a rule to those held by fathers similarly classed who send their children to the public schools. Many of those represent- ing the managerial occupations in the high school are foremen while this grade is practically absent in the private school. The same may be said of each of the remaining occupational groups, when examined in the concrete. Thus we may conclude that, while the public high school is still a class institution in a very real sense, yet the great increase in the secondary-school population of the last forty years marks a consider- able advance toward the democratization of secondary education. PART III. CONCLUSION AND INTERPRETATION CHAPTER XVI THE SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF AMERICAN SECONDARY EDUCATION In view of the foregoing analysis it is clear that we in America have not abandoned in practice the selective principle in secondary education, even though we have established a free public high school in almost every community in the country. It is not strictly in accord with the facts to say that "a, public high school differs from an elementary school chiefly in the age of its children." It is true that children in high school are on the average somewhat older than those in the elemen- tary school, yet, as a matter of fact, there is not very much difference in the ages of pupils enrolled in the eighth grade and those in the first year of the high school. High-school students, even today and in spite of the amazing growth of the_high-^cJi.ooJ_enrolment since- 1880, are a highly selected group! And this difference is just as important as the difference in age. Secondary education is not education for adolescence, as elementary education is education for childhood, but rather education for a SQ]£,cted_group^f^ adolescents, as we have seen in the preceding chapters, and as we shall note again now in summary. PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL There is a close relation between parental occupation and the privileges of secondary education. If we examine the entire high-school population, we find certain occupational groups very well and others very poorly represented, in proportion to their numbers in the general population. Among the former are the five_^reat_jiqn4abor groups with professional service occupying the most advantageous position, followed by the proprietors, commercial service, managerial service, and clerical service. At the other end of the series are the lower grades of labor with common labor almost unrepresented and personal service, miners, lumber-workers, and fishermen, and the miscellaneous trades and machine operatives in the manufacturing and mechanical industries, occupying somewhat better positions in the order named. The other occupational groups are found between these two extremes. Next to the non-labor groups are the printing trades and the public service, 141 142 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION followed by the machine trades, transportation service, and the building trades. In general, the order here given reflects the social and economic status of the occupation, its educational and intellectual standards, and the stability of employment. Not only do these various occupational classes exhibit different degrees of representation in the high school at the beginning of the course, but those very groups that are under-represented in the Freshman year have the smallest ratio of Seniors to Freshmen. In fact, the representation of an occupation in the first year of the high school is at the same time a fairly accurate measure of its tendency to persist through the fourth year. Consequently, the differences among the groups become more and more pronounced in the successive years of the school. The student population gradually becomes more and more homogeneous as the source from which it is drawn becomes more narrow, until by the time the Senior year of the high school is reached, the student body exhibits a distinctly class character. Here the represen- tatives of the laboring classes are few indeed in proportion to their number in the general population, and the lower grades of labor have practically disappeared. This is brought out in striking fashion by the data from Mt. Vernon in which the sixth grade is contrasted with the last year of the high school. Evidence in corroboration of these conclusions, drawn from a study of the high-school population, is derived from the investigation of groups of children of high-school age not in high school in Seattle and Bridgeport. In the former city, a study of 514 children of high-school age at work showed a social composition very different from that of the high-school population. Here, four great labor groups — the building trades, common labor, machine trades, and transportation service — con- tribute over 60 per cent of the children. The situation is just the reverse of that found in the high school. In Bridgeport a similar condition is found. In the evening high school of that city the sons and daughters of the laboring classes constitute the great majority of the enrolment with the machine trades in the lead, followed by the miscellaneous trades, common labor, and the building trades. In the trade school the situation is about the same except that the representation of the laboring classes is yet larger and common labor forges ahead of the miscellaneous trades to second place. Apparently the children of the laboring classes are destined to follow in the footsteps of their fathers. This representation of the labor groups is still further increased in that group of educational unfortunates enrolled in the compulsory continuation classes in which SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 143 common labor holds first place, accounting for over one-fourth of the entire registration. These differences in the extent of educational opportunity are further accentuated through the choice of curricula. As a rule, those groups which are poorly represented in the high school patronize the more narrow and practical curricula, the curricula which stand as terminal points in the educational system and which prepare for wage- earning. And the poorer their representation in high school, the greater is the probability that they will enter these curricula. The one- and two-year vocational courses, wherever offered, draw their regis- tration particularly, from the ranks of labor. This tendency is con- siderably more pronounced among the girls than among the boys. The former seem to be peculiarly bound by the social class from which they come. One is surprised at the unmistakable class character of the girls' college preparatory course in a high school such as that in Bridgeport. Furthermore, the thesis may be cautiously advanced that these differ- ences appear somewhat more clearly in the East than in the West, but it is hardly safe to generalize on the basis of returns from four cities. A study of expectations following graduation, as given by the students, indicates that this selective principle continues to operate beyond the period of secondary education. Those classes which are least well represented in the last year of the high school will apparently be yet less well represented in the colleges and universities. And, as in the case of the choice of curricula, this tendency is more marked among the girls than among the boys, in the East than in the West. THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE CULTURAL LEVEL Parental occupation, as one index of cultural level, exhibits a close relation to educational opportunity. The same is true of the possession of a telephone in the home, according to the returns from Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon. In the former city, it was found that telephones are two and one-half times as frequent in the hornes of high-school students as in those of children attending the trade school, and seven times as frequent as in the homes of the children in the compulsory continuation classes. Furthermore, the percentage of telephones increases decidedly from year to year in the high school. Thus we find but 39.7 per cent of the students in the Freshman year coming from homes with telephones, whereas in the Senior year, this percentage is 60.3. There are also wide differences among the curricula in this respect. In the case of the girls, telephones are almost twice as frequent in the homes of those who are 144 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION enrolled in the college preparatory as in the homes of those taking the commercial course. And these curricular differences are less marked among the boys than among the girls as was observed in the study of the parental occupation. Data from Mt. Vernon, including returns from the sLxth grade, support in every particular these conclusions drawn from the Bridgeport study. THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND FAMILY INFLUENCES All the evidence brought to light in this study points to the impor- tance of the family as a powerful factor in determining attendance at high school. The mortality of parents of high-school students is found to be considerably below the expectation for children of high-school age, and does not increase perceptibly from the Freshman to the Senior year. In fact, according to the returns from Mt. Vernon, the mortality of parents is appreciably higher among sixth-grade children than among students in the last year of the high school. An examination of the various groups of children of high-school age not in high school shows a much higher mortality of parents here than among high-school students. In the case of young people attending the evening high school in Bridge- port, the mortality of parents is extraordinarily high, more than two and one-half times as high as among those attending the day high school. Unquestionably the disorganization of the home through the death of a parent is reflected in the diminution of the opportunities of secondary education. While the evidence is neither quite so clear nor quite so objective, apparently the engaging in remunerative employment on the part of the mother acts in the same way as the death of a parent. Comparisons made among the groups studied usually hold in the one case as in the other. Yet, it must not be forgotten that the working mother is usually just one element in a complex social situation. The influence of the size of the family on educational opportunity is not altogether clear. On the average, those elements in the population who do not patronize the high school have larger families than those who do, but there is no evidence to indicate that the size of the family itself is a determining factor; for the number of brothers and sisters is no smaller among Seniors than among Freshmen, and the very large families have just as high representation in the last as in the first year of the high school. Likewise the very small families do not apparently increase their representation in the later years of the high school. SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 145 The order of birth seems to be a matter of more importance, although the complexity of the situation is hardly compatible with any but the most cautious of statements. Our clearest evidence, drawn from the four groups studied in Bridgeport, indicates that the firstborn has somewhat more limited chances of securing a high-school education than the lastborn child. It is on him particularly that the burden of family support is likely t^ fall, if one or more of the children must help to bear it. THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE IMMIGRANT Returns from Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon indicate very clearly that children of native parentage attend the public high school in proportionately much larger numbers than do children of immigrant parentage. There are certain immigrant groups, however, that approxi- mate, if they do not surpass, the native stock in their zeal for secondary education, altogether apart from the social and economic handicaps under which the immigrant labors. Among these, probably the Russian Jews stand at the top, followed by the Irish, the Germans, and the peoples of the British Empire. At the other extreme are the Italians, the Poles, and the races of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire who patronize the high school in exceedingly small measure. Disregarding the record of the Russian Jews, it may be stated as a general principle that the farther east and south we go in Europe, as the source of our immigrants, we find less interest in secondary education. The well-known tendency among our own people for the girls to pat- ronize the high school in greater numbers than the boys is reversed among certain immigrant stocks. Thus, while in the Bridgeport High School there are but 74 boys of native parentage to every 100 girls, among the Italians this ratio of boys to girls is 154. This social trait, if such it may be called, varies much from group to group. Beginning with the Irish who exhibit the American trait in approximately its native strength of sending girls rather than boys to high school, the proportion of boys steadily increases as we pass east and south into Europe. Among the peoples of the "new" immigration the right of the girl to a secondary education is not recognized as on a parity with that of the boy. In choice of curricula the girls of immigrant stock are clearly less inclined toward the college preparatory course than are the girls of native parentage. Curiously enough the reverse is true of the boys, but, since the boys of American parentage are exceptionally well repre- sented in the scientific course, which in reality is a college preparatory 146 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION course, no large significance should be attached to this difference between the foreign and native stock. THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE NEGRO While for the country as a whole the proportion of pegroes of high- school age to be found in our high schools is very small, in the city of St. Louis they do about as well as the whites. A study of the student population in the negro high school of this city helps us to understand the difficulties that stand in the way of educational achievement on the part of members of this race. The fathers of the students in this high school are for the most part engaged in manual labor, and the lower and less respectable grades of manual labor, particularly personal service and common labor. The negro family exhibits a large measure of disorganization, as indicated by such crude and unsatisfactory phe- nomena as a deceased parent or a working mother. In the high-school population of St. Louis the parental mortality for the negro children is well over twice as high as for the children of white stock, and the frequency of the working mother is between five and six times as great for the students of the one as for those of the other race. All of which makes it safe to conclude that nowhere else in the nation is there a similarly large representation of any other race living on the same social and economic level that is sending as large a proportion of its children to high school as the negroes of St. Louis. The negroes exhibit in a pronounced fashion the American trait of sending a larger proportion of their girls than of their boys to high school. In choice of curricula, theHegro girls differ from their wdite sisters chiefly in avoidance of the two-year commercial curriculum and in their very frequent selection of the home economics course. The rcegro boys avoid the general and concentrate on the manual training course. Following graduation, the negro girls expect to attend normal school and enter professional service in much larger numbers than do the whites. And they are not apparently looking forward to clerical service in proportionate numbers. Surprisingly, in the case of the boys, the only important difference between the two races is the much larger expectation of college attendance on the part of the Jjegroes. It should be kept in mind, however, that these conclusions are based altogether on statements by the students, and consequently require considerable discounting. THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SELECTION Not only is the high-school population selected sociologically, but it is selected psychologically as well. Children of high-school age not SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 147 in high school, whether they be in the evening high school, the trade school, or the continuation classes, show a lower intelligence rating on the average than do those in high school. But there is much overlapping in the distribution of ability for the two groups. There is much excellence out of, as well as much mediocrity in, the high school. The trade-school population shows a particularly wide distribution of ability. In the high school itself the traditional academic curricula draw a higher type of ability, on the average, than do the newer and vocational curricula. Here also, however, the overlapping of the distributions is pronounced, and perhaps even more significant than the average differ- ence. The children from the laboring classes exhibit ability of practically as high grade as do those from the other occupational groups. This is probably due to the much greater elimination of children of labor parentage. Likewise the children of immigrants do about as well on the tests as do the children of native stock. Firstborn make records somewhat superior to the records of lastborn children. This is probably to be explained in terms of greater elimination and thus more rigid selection among the former. The intelligence score also varies inversely with the size of the family. The explanation here is apparently to be found in the limitation of births among the more foresighted elements in the population. THE POPULATION OF THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL In the population of the private secondary school, which charges a considerable tuition fee and which is fundamentally college preparatory in its function, we probably have as accurate a picture as we can get today of the sources from which the private academy drew its students before the rise of the free public high school. While this picture is certainly not accurate to the details, the general outlines in all proba- bility do not falsify the facts. Taking the student populations of Exeter Academy and the Univer- sity of Chicago High School, we find the laboring classes practically absent, in contrast to a representation of 29 per cent in the public high school. Furthermore, these two schools draw almost three-fourths of their students from two occupational groups — the proprietors and professional service. Also almost 90 per cent of these students are of native parentage. Thus, while we may say that public secondary education is still highly selective, it is obvious that it has been and might be much more so. 148 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION CONCLUSION Little need be said in conclusion. The story that has been told in the foregoing pages is not a new one. Misfortune, as well as fortune, passes from generation to generation. The children of unfortunate par- entage are unfortunate, assuming here that the current secondary edu- cation is worth to the individual some fraction of its cost. The ancient adage, "To them that hath shall be given," is true today as in olden times. When not preserved through the operation of biological forces, the inequalities among individuals and classes are still perpetuated to a considerable degree in the social inheritance. While the establishment of the free pubHc high school marked an extraordinary educational advance, it did not by any means equalize educational opportunity; for the cost of tuition is not the entire cost of education, or even the larger part of it. Education means leisure, and leisure is an expensive luxury. In most cases today this leisure must be guaranteed the indi- vidual by the family. Thus secondary education remains largely a matter for family initiative and concern, and reflects the inequalities of family means and ambition. CHAPTER XVII THE HIGH SCHOOL AND DEMOCRACY More than twenty years ago John Dewey, in the opening paragraph of his School and Society, gave this expression to his conception of the ideal relation that society should sustain toward its children: "What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the com- munity want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy." With this ideal, properly interpreted, all believers in democracy are in sympa- thetic and complete accord. At the present time, in the light of the facts revealed in this study, it is clear that we are very far from the realization of this ideal in our own country, at least in so far as secondary education is concerned. We are probably as near to it, if not somewhat nearer, than are the people of any other nation;, and yet the facts do not set especially well with our professions of equality of opportunity, [assuming of course that secondary education does increase an individual's chances for what we call success in modern life, as well as contribute to the general enrichment of life. In a very large measure participation in the privileges of a secondary education is contingent on social and economic status. In this connection, as in others, it would be difficult, in the thought of Bernard Shaw, to place too much emphasis on the need of a child's using wisdom in the choice of its parents; and yet, in view of the differential birth- rate, the number of chances of choosing the more highly educated and well-to-do parents is distinctly limited, and is gradually becoming more so. UNIVERSAL SECONDARY EDUCATION But it may be maintained that this ideal of equality of educational opportunity does not mean sameness of opportunity, nor does it mean necessarily equality in years of educational experience. Some natures, as certain soils, will respond to more intensive cultivation than others. Surely no one would defend the proposition that all persons should continue their education through the three years of the university graduate school in the interests of equality of educational opportunity. The endowment of the individual must be recognized in each case. The 149 150 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION most that can be demanded in recognition of the ideal is that the poten- tialities of the individual be realized. It is obvious that the selective principle, resulting in elimination, must appear at some point in our educational system. But at what point should the principle appear, and under what conditions should it operate? This really raises the question of the wisdom and justice of universal secondary education. In theory we are apparently rather definitely committed to the idea, although in practice we are yet very far from its realization, as this investigation shows. If the course on which we have embarked is unwise, it should be changed while there is time and in the light of a thorough analysis of the matter. Should Dewey's ideal apply to the period of secondary education ? What is the place of sec- ondary education in a democracy ? Let us pass to the various consid- erations which these questions bring to mind. THE FINANCIAL OBJECTION It has been pointed out with truth that our people have embarked upon this ambitious program of secondary education without fully realizing the financial burden that such a program entails. The increase in high-school enrolment has not been unattended by increasing costs. In fact today we hear from various quarters the complaints of the tax- payer as he is asked to meet increasingly heavy demands on his pocket- book for educational purposes. Undoubtedly a further extension of secondary education will mean greater educational costs. The education of all children of high-school age would probably involve four times the present expenditure, with no improvement in the quality of instruction. This statement of course disregards those economies that would be realized in the small high schools through a more intensive use of the present teaching stafif and material equipment. This would result in an increase in the cost of secondary education to a figure somewhere between one-half and three-quarters of a billion of dollars. And in the minds of some people such expenditure is too stupendous to be entertained for a moment. A further analysis is needed, however, to discover the real nature of this opposition to further educational expenditure. Is it that the economic system is unable to bear the added burden; that the methods of taxation are antiquated and not adapted to modern conditions; or merely that the people do not regard a further extension of secondary education as worth the cost ? The first of these questions must certainly be answered in the negative. Any nation that can spend billions on THE HIGH SCHOOL AND DEMOCRACY 151 armaments can spend a half billion on secondary education, if it so desires. A people that spends annually three billions of dollars on luxurious services, over two billions on tobacco and snuff, one billion on candy, and three-quarters of a billion on perfumery and cosmetics, need fear neither bankruptcy nor revolution by even quadrupling the present expenditure for secondary education. The economic system can bear it. An affirmative answer to the second question can be as easily defended as the negative answer to the first. The methods of taxation for the support of education are antiquated and do not insure an equitable distribution of the burden. A century ago the property tax was fair, because property was tangible and usually a satisfactory index of an individual's ability to pay. Today the situation is quite different, due to industrialization and the increased complexity of an economic life in which property assumes many intangible forms and is no longer a fair index of ability to pay. The increase of educational costs demands, on the part of educators, close attention to the problems of taxation. The third question is also an important and even basic one. [We may at least say with assurance that, if the majority of the people want a further extension of secondary education, they will get it regardless of the cost, that is, if they want it_as much or more than they want tobacco, snuff, candy, perfumery, cosmetics, and other things, for which they are spending their money now. -^Whether or not they want it will depend on two things: first, the value of secondary education; and second, their realization of its value. Both of these are, in large measure, prob- lems for the educator. On the one hand, he must organize and administer secondary education in such a way and with such clarity of purpose that its value will be unequivocal and patent to the ordinary citizen without the interposition of educational sophistry and cant. Educational purpose and educational accomplishment must be stated in terms of those things that most people regard as valuable and worth while. \Qn the other hand, the educator must inform the citizen that secondary education is so organized and so administered. Only when people are made to feel that education is as valuable as tobacco and cosmetics will they be as willing to spend their money for the one as for the other. But certainly the matter of cost is not in itself a sufficient reason for opposing universal secondary education. PUBLIC SUPPORT OF SELECTIVE EDUCATION There is another side to this question of finance that deserves attention. At the present time the public high school is attended quite 152 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION largely by the children of the more well-to-do classes. This afifords us the spectacle of a privilege being extended at public expense to those very classes that already occupy the privileged positions in modern society. The poor are contributing to provide secondary education for the children of the rich, but are either too poor or too ignorant to avail themselves of the opportunities which they help to provide. LBut it will be answered that the high school is supported by taxation, and that the poor do not pay taxes. This is obviously an unsound position to assume, since all people who wear clothes, eat food, and live in houses do pay taxes either directly or indirectly. Of course, no assumption is made here that all taxes are shifted to the consuming public, for they are not. Some are shifted altogether, others only partially, and still others not at all. The consumer does pay taxes, but not the consumer only — this and no more is assumed, but it is sufficient to warrant the foregoing statement. It is sometimes said in extenuation of this condition that society as a whole profits from the education of the few through the superior service that the few render; and there is much that may be said in support of this theoretical position. In fact this is about the only justification for public support of higher and professional education, which are necessarily selective. Yet in practice it must be admitted that many individuals use the gifts of society for self-aggrandizement and are quite unconscious of any social obligation. This is particularly true of education in its various forms' which has been regarded too much as a natural right or gift from God and too little as a preparation for social service. Indeed in many quarters it is even looked upon primarily as a means of avoiding the hard and disagreeable work of the world and a sure road to those callings that combine high remuneration and respectability with the comforts of life. Elementary education, which is guaranteed to all, may perhaps be regarded as a natural right, but secondary education, limited as it is, can be justified at all only in terms of the unqualified recognition on the part of the high-school student of the social obligation involved. There is no such recognition in the public high school today, although the narrow source of its students makes this obviously and peculiarly necessary. THE PERIL TO SOCIAL STABILITY In some countries the universalizing of secondary education would be viewed with alarm on the grounds that it would produce social instability and result in the disintegration of the established order. THE HIGH SCHOOL AND DEMOCRACY 153 Indeed, such a disquieting view has been taken by some foreign educators of the effect of our limited (though extensive in comparison with other countries) secondary education on American society. The idea back of this view is apparently that it is dangerous for any society to produce a larger number of trained minds capable of self-direction and critical thought than may be required to fill the customary positions of leader- ship. Unquestionably there is something in this argument, if we look at it from the standpoint of those occupying the strategic and privileged positions in the existing order and who may consequently be expected to lose through any change that might be effected. On the other hand, if we are interested in the welfare of the great mass of the people, there is nothing to fear in the universalizing of secondary education; in the very considerable increase in the number of individuals capable of thoughtful leadership in every class of the population; in the presence of larger numbers of persons qualified to serve as informed and critical followers in the various social groups. In other words, any individual or any class depending on special privilege of any sort for its position in society has good reason for fearing the further extension of secondary education; all others may look upon such change with equanimity. It is of course assumed that this further extension would take into consideration all differences in individual aptitude and interest. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFICULTY Perhaps the strongest objection to universal secondary education is the psychological objection, to which reference has been made in an earlier paragraph. The wide range of intelligence among children of a particular age is well known, and we may assume the same for other psychological traits. Nature has thus set limits to the educahiiity of all her c hildren . In some this limit is very low, as in others it is extra- ordinarily high; at the one extreme is the idiot who can profit but little from either experience or instruction, while at the other is the child of genius for whom the most difficult intellectual tasks are easy and whose hours of instruction are very productive. To the one, secondary education is out of the question, while to the other, it is scarcely the beginning of an education that will continue throughout life. If, however, we think less in terms of the extremes, which account for but a small proportion of the total number of cases, and more in terms of the great mass of individuals in between, much of the force of this objection is destroyed. There are undoubtedly individuals at the lower end of the distribution for whom education during the adolescent 154 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION years would be unprofitable, because intellectual maturity is already practically attained, and on a very low level. Just how high the intelli- gence level should be in order to profit from twelve years of instruction, which takes the child through the elementary and secondary schools, is a question as yet unanswered. For certain types of subject-matter the level obviously would be higher than for others. It seems reasonable to assume that, through the proper adaptation of subject-matter and methods of instruction, secondary education might be so administered as to be profitable for all except those who are clearly feeble-minded. This would of course involve a thoroughgoing departure from the cur- ricula and methods of the conventional type, which are the legitimate offspring of the selective principle. That there is some scientific justification for the psychological objec- tion to universal secondary education is admitted, but such justification does not extend to present practice. Much might be said for a secondary education that is based frankly and definitely on the principle of psycho- logical selection, but ours is not of that type. It is true, as this study shows, that on the average, high-school students exhibit a higher intelli- gence level than do those children of high-school age not in high school. But what is the explanation ? That the high school has purposefully selected these individuals because of their superior ability? Not at all, or at least not altogether, by any means. It seems just as probable that the selection is sociological first and psychological second; that children enter and remain in high school because they come from the homes of the influential and more fortunate classes, and not because of their greater ability. It is the usual thing for these two to go together, but a society is conceivable in which by some chance the individuals in the upper social and economic strata incline toward intellectual medi- ocrity. In such a society, assuming the large parental influence in deter- mining educational opportunity which characterizes our own system, the children in high school might represent on the average a lower type of ability than those on the outside. Admitting that this is an extreme statement of the case, it nevertheless contains a certain element of truth. The high-school population includes many individuals of mediocre and inferior ability, and the population of high-school age not in high school includes many of superior talent, although the proportion on the upper levels is larger inside the high school. At the present time we have neither universal secondary education, on the one hand, nor selection according to any defensible principle, on the other. THE HIGH SCHOOL AND DEMOCRACY 155 LITTLE PLACE IN INDUSTRY FOR ADOLESCENTS One other consideration favoring a further extension of secondary education deserves mention.) In the Cleveland vocational survey it was found that there is p rascally no place in modern industry for children under sixteen or seventeen years of age. Normally, below this age a child enters an occupation with but little profit to either himself or society. Since there is so much that needs to be done in preparing these young people for the many and varied responsibilities of citizenship, vocation, parenthood, and the other important activities of life, and since this can hardly be accomplished in the elementary school, it seems the part of wisdom to enrich their lives and equip them to become more useful members of society through the agency of the secondary school. A BROADER PROGRAM NECESSARY The methods to be employed in bringing the opportunities of second- ary education to practically all adolescents, regardless of class distinc- tion, can hardly be discussed here. Undoubtedly our compulsory- education laws will have to be extended beyond the period of elementary education, and several states are already leading the way. We shall have to abandon our conventional ideas of secondary education as necessarily involving a four-year school, or a six-year school as under the reorganization, in which students attend four to six hours in the middle of the day for five days of the week during some nine or ten months of the autumn, winter, and spring seasons. Pedagogical traditions and administrative conveniences will have to adapt themselves to the conditions of life. ^Whether or not the community will have to go beyond the provision of free tuition and free textbooks to at least a partial support of the student during his period of attendance at school is a nice question. In certain cities where poverty and ignorance are to be found in their most extreme forms the community will probably have to bear responsibilities that the home or the individual will carry in others. But these are matters to be determined in the light of experience. CONCLUSION In our march toward the educational ideal referred to at the beginning of this chapter and which is clearly compatible with the professed ideals of our democracy, we must recognize two principles. In the first place, up to a certain point in our educational system we must have practically complete attendance of all the children of the community 156 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION with adequate provision for individual differences in ability, aptitude, and interest. Where this point should be is, in the main, an unanswered question, although there is some evidence that we shall place it well up into the secondary period and possibly at its close. The writer is inclined to favor the latter practice, because of the tremendous educa- tional demands of an infinitely complex world that is rapidly becoming a single society. 'Jn the second place, beyond this point of complete attendance, in so far as public education is concerned, further education must rest on some objective basis rather than on the chances of circum- stance and the whims of fortune. In theory today the public supports higher education for the purpose of securing trained persons to perform those important services that require special types of ability, knowledge, skill, and discipline. But no serious effort is made to discover the number of trained persons of each type required and the amount of training necessary in each case; nor is there a diligent search made through the lower school population for those special and superior types of ability that will most satisfactorily do those things that society wants done. Beyond the compulsory-school period a boy attends high school or college, not necessarily because of any special promise, but possibly because he is the only child of fond and well-to-do parents or because he likes foot- ball. To be sure, we make certain minimal demands of a formal sort, but the larger purposes of this selective education are obscured, and they will remain so until they are clearly defined and their implications find definite expression in practice and tradition. Why should we provide at public expense these advanced educational opportunities for X because his father is a banker and practically deny them to Y because his father cleans the streets of the city ? We must distinguish between that educa- tion which is for all, and that which is for the few. At present our second- ary education is of the first type in theory, and of the second in practice ^We must bring the theory and practice together: either open the doors of the high school to all children, and take care that all enter without favor, or frankly close its doors to all but a select group, adopt objective methods or selection, and teach to this selected group the meaning of social obligation. There is no other course that leads to democracy, that puts the high school at the service of every class without distinction, and at the same time renders the largest service to the entire community. INDEX INDEX Accuracy of returns, 12 Adolescence, secondary education as edu- cation for, 3 Adolescents, little place in industry for, 155 Age: of fathers of high-school students, 30, 97; of mothers of high-school students, 97 Agricultural service, classification of, 22 Artisan-proprietors, classification of, 22 Austro-Hungarian Empire, 107 Austro-Hungarians: representation of, in high school, 109; ratio of boys to girls in high school among, 113 Boys to girls in high school, ratio of, 113 Bridgeport, 5, 9 British Empire, 107; representation in college preparatory course of peoples of, II I ; representation in high school of peoples of, 108-9 Broader program of secondary education necessary, 155 Brothers and sisters of high-school stu- dents, number of, 102-4 Building and related trades, classification of, 23 Bureau of Education, i, 2, 26, 114, 135 Chamber of Commerce, Seattle, 9 Chapman-Welles Test, 9, 124 Children: of high-school age, 2-3; of high-school age in high school, 2-3, 20 Children at work in Seattle, 5, 9, 46-48; mortality of parents of, 99; occupa- tions of parents of, 46-48, 142 Children of high school age not in high school, 2-3, 5, 9, II, 46 ff.; intelligence test records of, 125-27; mortality of parents of, 99-100; occupations of parents of, 52-54, 142 Chinese in Seattle, 16 Cities studied, the four, 14 ff.; geo- graphical location of, 14; history of, 15-16; industries of, 18; occupations of people of, 17-18; property in, value of, 18; proportion of children in high school in, 20; racial and ethnic compo- sition of people of, 16-17 Classification of occupations, 21-25 Clerical service, classification of, 22 Commercial service, classification of, 22 Common labor, classification of, 23 Comparison: of high-school population and adult popvdation, 28 ff.; of high-school Seniors and adult popula- tion, 42-43; of sixth grade and Senior year of high school, 41-42 Compulsory continuation classes of Bridgeport, 6, 11; intelligence test records of children in, 125-27; mor- tality of parents of children in, 99-100; occupations of parents of children in, 51-52 Course of study and parental occupation, 55 ff.; of high-school students in Bridgeport, 55-58; of high-school stu- dents in Mt. Vernon, 58-62; of high- school students in St. Louis, 62-68; of high-school students in Seattle, 68-72 Cultural level and educational oppor- tunity, 87 ff. Democracy and the high school, 149 ff. Democratization of secondary educa- tion, 140 Denmark, 107 Dewey, John, 149 Elementary-school enrolment, i, 2 Equality of educational opportunity, 149 Evening high school of Bridgeport, 6, 1 1 ; intelligence test records of students in, 125-27; mortality of parents of stu- dents in, 99-100; occupations of parents of students in, 48-50 Exceptions to method of procedure, 8-9 Expectations: of boys following gradua- tion, 81 ff.; of girls following gradua- tion, 75 ff.; following graduation, and parental occupation, 74 ff. Family: size of, and educational oppor- tunity, 102-4; influences and high- school attendance, 94 ff., 144 Fathers: of high-school students, age of, 30; of high-school students, mortality of, 96 159 l6o SELECTIVE CH.\RACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION Financial objection to universal second- ar3' education, 150 Geographical location of four cities studied, 14 Germans: representation of, in college preparatory course, 112; representa- tion of, in high school, 109 Germany, 107, 108 Girls: planning to enter clerical ser\ace, 77~79; planning to enter college, 77~79; planning to enter normal school, 77-79; to boys in high school, ratio of, 113 Hebrews, 107, 108 High school, growth of, i, 2 History of four cities studied, 14-15 Immigrant, the, and high-school attend- ance, 106 ff., 145-46 Industries of four cities studied, 18-19 Information card, 6 Instructions, set of, 7-8 Intelligence tests: administering the, 10; number taking, 11; records of chil- dren from different immigrant groups in, 131-32; records of children from different occupational groups in, 129- 31; records of children from families of different sizes in, 133-34; records of children in different high-school years in, 124-25; records of children pur- suing different curricula in, 127-29; records of children not in high school in, 125-27; records of first- and last- bom children in, 132-33 Ireland, 107 Irish : ratio of boys to girls in high school among, 113; representation of, in college preparatory course, 111-12; representation of, in high school, 109 Italians: ratio of boys to girls in high school among, 113; representation of, in coUege preparatory' course, 111-12; representation of, in compulsory con- tinuation classes, no; representation of, in high school, 109 Japanese in Seattle, 16 Jews {see Russian Jews) Laboring classes: and high school of the four cities, 38-39; representation of, in pubUc and private secondary schools compared, 138-39 Life tables, 97 Lincoln High School of Seattle, 30 Little place in industry for adolescents, 155 Machine and related trades, classifica- tion of, 23 Managerial servdce, classification of, 22 Method: of procedure, 6-8; exceptions to, 8-9 Miners, lumber workers, and fishermen, classification of, 23 Miscellaneous trades, classification of, 23 Mortahty: of parents and educational opportunitj', 100; of parents of chil- dren at work in Seattle, 99; of parents of children not in high school in Bridge- port, 99-100; of parents of high-school students, 95 ff.; in different cities, 96-97; of parents of students in differ- ent high-school years, 98 Mother, occupation of, and educational opportunity, 100-102 Mothers of high-school students, age of, 97 Mt. Vernon, 5, 9 National Intelligence Tests, 5, 10, 124 Native stock: ratio of boys to girls in high school of, 1 13-14; representation of, in college preparatory course, 111-12; representation of, in high school, 109 Nativity: of fathers of students in private secondar\' schools, 139-40; of parent and children not in high school, 108-9; of parent and choice of curricula, 111-12; of parent and education of girls, 113; of parent and progress through high school, 108 Negro: and choice of curricula, 118-20; and expectations following gradua- tion, 120; and family influences, 116- 1 7 ; and number of brothers and sisters, 118; and occupation of mother, 117- 18; and parental mortality, 117; and parental occupation, 1 15-16; and the public high school, ii4ff., 146; chil- dren, educational handicap of, 122 Negroes of St. Louis, 10, 16; remarkable educational record of, 122 New immigration, 16-17, 108, 113 Non-high-school groups studied, 1 1 Norway, 107 INDEX i6i Number: of brothers and sisters of high- school students, 102-4; of brothers and sisters of students in private secondary schools, 139-40; of cases studied, 10 Objections to universal secondarj- educa- tion, 150-54 Occupation: change of, 45; importance of, 21; of mother and educational opportunity, 100-102 Occupational census, 3 1 Occupations, classification of, 21-25 Occupations: of fathers of high-school students, 26 ff . ; cities compared with respect to, 26-27 (see Parental occupa- tion); of people of four cities studied, 17-18 Old immigration, 16-17, 108 Old and new immigration, differences between, 108,113 Order of birth and educational oppor- tunity, 104-5 Parental occupation: importance of, 21; and children at work in Seattle, 46-48, 142; and children in compulsory continuation classes of Bridgeport, 51-52, 142; and children in sixth grade, 39-41; and children in trade school, 50-51, 142; and children not in high school, 52-54, 142; and course of study, 55 ff.; and expectations following graduation, 74 ff.; and high- school population, 26, 141; and high- school Seniors, 41-45; and students in evening high school, 4S-50, 142; and students in private secondary schools, 137-39 Peril to social stability of universal secondary education, 152-53 Personal service, classification of, 2;^ Phillips-Exeter Academy, 6, 136 Poland, 107, 108 Poles : ratio of boys to girls in high school among, 113; representation in high school of, 109 Population of four cities studied, 15; nativity of, 17; occupations of, 17-18; racial and ethnic character of, 16 Population of United States, i, 2 Printing trades, classification of, 2^ Priv^ate secondary schools, 135 ff., 147; number of students in, 135 Probable occupations: of fathers of one- hundred high-school Seniors, 43-44; of fathers of one hundred high-school students, 29 Program of secondary education neces- sary, broader, 155 Professional service, classification of, 22 Property in four cities studies, value of, 19 Proportion: of children in high school, 20; of men over forty-five in each occupa- tion, 32 Proprietors, classification of, 22 Psychological objection to universal secondary education, 153-54 Psychological selection of high-school population, 124 ff., 146-47 Public service, classification, 23 Public support of selective education, 151-52 Racial and ethnic composition of people of four cities studied, 16-17 Ratio of boys to girls in high school, 113 Representation: of different occupational groups in high school, ^^-y of different occupational groups in Freshman and Senior years, 36 ff.; of laboring classes in public and private secondary schools compared, 138-39 Russia, 107, 108 Russian Jews, 107; ratio of boys to girls in high school among, 113; represen- tation in college preparatory course of, in; representation in high school of, 109 St. Louis, 5, 9 Scandinavia, 107 Scandinavians: representation of, in college preparatory course, 112; repre- sentation of, in high school, 109 Seattle, 5, 9 Secondary education: as education for adolescence, 3; question of universal, 149 ff. Sex of high-school students, 10 Sexes, ratio of, in high school, 113 Sixth grade of Mt. Vernon, 6, 11; mor- tality of parents of children in, 98; social composition of, 39-41; tele- phones in homes of children in, 92-93 Size of family and educational oppor- tunity, 102-4 l62 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION Smith-Hughes Act, 6 Soldan High School of St. Louis, 13 Stabihty, peril of universal secondary education to social, 152-53 Students not expecting to complete high-school course, 84-86 Sumner High School of St. Louis, 26, 114 ff. Sweden, 107 Taussig's classification of occupations, 21 Telephone: in home and choice of cur- ricula, 91-92; in home and different high-school years, 90-91 Telephones: in Bridgeport, 89; in homes of different groups of children, 90; in Mt. Vernon, 92-93; number of, in different states, 88-89 Trade school, 6, 1 1 ; mortality of parents of children in, 99-100; occupations of parents of children in, 50-51 Transportation service, classification of, -3 Tuition fees, 136 United States, 107, 108; population of, I, 2 Universal secondary education, 149 ff.; financial objection to, 150; peril to social stability of, 152-53; psyi^ho- logical objection to, 153-54 University of Chicago High School, 6, 136 Value of propert}' in four cities studied, 18 Washington Ir\ing High School, 3 PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. Z1S7 >o LRBl- VOLUME III A historical volume No. I. Educational Legislation and Administration in the State of New York from 1777 to 1850. By Elsie Garland Hobson, Ph.D. Pp. 268. Price $1.60, postpaid. - No. 2. The History of Educational Legislation in Ohio from 1803 to 1850. By Edward Alanson Miller, Ph.D. Pp. 245. Price $2.00, postpaid. No. 3. Development of High-School Curricula in the North Central States. By John Elbert Stout, Ph.D. Pp. xii+322. Price $2.00, post- paid. No. 4. A History of Educational Legislation in Mississippi from 1798 to i860. By William Henlngton Weathersby, Ph.D. Pp. xii-f 204. Price $2.00, postpaid. In view of the rapid changes which are taking place in the cost of publi- cation, future monographs will not be grouped in volumes but will be Hsted and annoimced as individual issues. The numbering will continue the series of whole numbers. No. 17. An Experimental Study of the Eye- Voice Span in Reading. By Guy Thomas Buswell, Ph.D. Pp. xii+106. Price $1.00, postpaid. No. 18. How Numerals Are Read. An Experimental Study of the Reading of Isolated Numerals and Numerals in Arithmetic Problems. By Paul Washington Terry, Ph.D. Pp. xiii+105. Price $1.00, postpaid. No. 19. The Selective Character of American Secondary Education. By George Sylvester Counts, Ph.D. Pp. xviii+156. Price $1.50, postpaid. SUBSCRIPTION RATES The School Review $2.50 a year The Elementary School Journal ...... 2.50 a year Address all communications regarding subscriptions to The Department OF Education, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. Supplementary Educational Monographs Edited in conjunction with The School Review and The Elementary School Journal and published by THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO VOLUME I An experimental and statistical volume No. I. Studies of Elementary-School Reading through Standardized Tests. By William Scott Gray, Ph.D. Pp. viii-i-158. (Out of print.) No. 2. An Experimental Study in the Psychology of Reading. By William Anton Schmidt, Ph.D. Pp. iv+126. (Out of print.) No. 3. The Administration of Secondary-School Units. By Leonard V. Koos, Ph.D. Pp. X-I-194. (Out of print.) No. 4. Arithmetic Tests and Studies in the Psychology of Arithmetic. By Georgk S.t Counts, Ph.D. Pp. iv-Hi28. (Out of print.) No. 5. Types of Reading Ability as Exhibited through Tests and Laboratory Experiments. By Clarence Truman Gray, Ph.D. Pp. xiv-i-196. (Out of print.) No. 6. Survey of the Kindergartens of Richmond, Indiana. By Alice Temple, Ed.B. Pp. ■ vi+s8. (Out of print.) VOLUME II An experimental and statistical volume No. I. Scientific Method in the Reconstruction of Ninth-Grade Mathematics. By Harold Ordway Rugg, Ph.D., and John Roscoe Clark, A.B. Pp. vi-l-190. (Out of print.) No. 2. An Experimental Study in Left-Handedness, with Practical Suggestions for School- room Tests. By Arthur L. Beeley, A.M. Pp. viii-f 74. Price $0.55, postpaid. No. 3. The Handwriting Movement. A Study of the Motor Factors of Excellence in Pen- manship. By Frank N. Freeman, Ph.D. With the assistance of H- W. Nutt, Mary L. Dougherty, C. F. Dunn, and P. V. West. Pp. xvi-l-170. Price $1.35, postpaid. No. 4. Reading: Its Nature and Development. By Charles Hubbard Judd, Ph.D. With the co-operation of William Scott Gray, Katherine McLaughlin, Clarence Truman Gray, Clara Schmitt, and Adam Raymond Gilliland. Pp. xiv-l-192. (Out of print.) No. 5. A Survey of Commercial Education in the Public High Schools of the United States. By Leverett S. Lyon, A.M. Pp. x-l-62. Price $0.65, postpaid. . No. 6. Home Economics in American Schools. By Mabel Barbara Trilling, Ethelwyn Miller, Leona Florence Bowman, Florence Williams, Clara Blanche Knapp, Viola Maria Bell, Bertha Miller Rugg, with the collaboration of Harold Ordway Rugg, Ph.D. Pp. x 4- 124. 11 plates. Price $1.25, postpaid. 'X/^^^y"^ V'^'V' "V^^V^ < „ C ^ 5°^ ^^-^^^ '. « o , ■^ o > ./^•\/ "°^''^-/ ^^/^--y' %'-^-.o'' V ■'\..%*° ^ .'>'"-. ''■ •1 o. • ■ >