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METHODS OF EDUCATION
IN THE
UNITED STATES
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BY
ALICE ZIMMERN
*T
Æate Scholar of Girton College, Cambridge
Mistress at the Aigh School for Girls, Tunbridge Wells
3Lotttgtt
SWAN. S O N N E N SCHE IN & CO
NEW YORK : MACMILLAN & CO



I894
DUTLER & TANNER,
THE SELwooD PRINTING Worrs,
FROME, AND LONDON.
ºs
PR E FA C E
IN view of the growing interest in Secondary Edu-
cation in the United Kingdom and the important
problems awaiting solution, the Gilchrist Trustees
decided in the early part of 1893 to send five women
teachers to America, for the purpose of studying
and reporting upon Secondary Schools for Girls and
Training Colleges for Women in different parts of
the United States. The Trustees made their in-
tention widely known, and invited the governing
bodies of the various women’s colleges and associa-
tions of teachers to submit to them names of per-
sons specially qualified. Out of the list of able
and experienced women teachers thus furnished to
them, the Trustees, after careful consideration of the
qualifications of the numerous candidates, selected
the following five and awarded to each of them a
travelling scholarship of £100 to enable them to
spend two months in the United States in prose-
cuting their enquiries:—Miss A. Bramwell, B.Sc.
(Lecturer at the Cambridge Training College); Miss
S. A. Burstall, B.A. (Mistress at the North London
- b
vi AA’A.A.A. CAE
Collegiate School for Girls); Miss H. M. Hughes
(Lecturer on Education at University College, Car-
diff); Miss M. H. Page (Head Mistress of the
Skinners Company’s School for Girls, Stamford
Hill); and Miss A. Zimmerm (Mistress at the High
School for Girls, Tunbridge Wells). The five
scholars visited America in the summer of 1893, and
submitted to the Trustees carefully prepared reports,
one of which—viz. that by Miss Zimmern—is pre-
sented to the public in this volume. The Trustees
have aided in the publication of these reports, be-
cause they believe that a knowledge of the educa-
tional systems and experiments which have been
tried in America cannot fail to be of interest and
value to those engaged in teaching in the United
Ringdom.
R. D. ROBERTS,
Secretary to the Gilchrist
Th'ustees.
17, VICTORIA STREET,
LONDON, S.W.
1894,
INTRODUCTION
IN the summer of 1893 I was enabled, by the kind-
mess of the Gilchrist Trustees, to spend some time
in the United States, with a view to obtaining in-
formation on educational matters. I left England
at the end of April, visited New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, and Washington, then travelled by way
of Newhaven and Northampton to Boston, in which
city I spent nearly three weeks. From Boston I
went by Rochester and Niagara to Ann Arbor, the
seat of Michigan University, thence to Chicago,
where I spent four weeks. From Chicago I re-
turned by the beautiful Canadian route vid Toronto,
the St. Lawrence, and Montreal; thence by Lakes
George and Champlain to Albany, and down the
Hudson to New York. I sailed for England on
August 5th. -
During seven weeks of my stay the schools were
Open, and I was able to visit these, hear lessons, and
converse with the teachers. I saw schools in New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Newhaven, Boston,
and neighbourhood; visited the Educational Bureau
at Washington, the Universities of Yale, Harvard,
and Michigan, and the colleges of Wassar, Smith,
V .
vi JAWTRODUCTION
Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore. During
my stay at Chicago I attended the Educational
* Conferences, the meetings of which occupied a
fortnight. I found the educational exhibits at the
World's Fair useful in supplementing much that I
had seen. I had the privilege of spending a week
in one of the halls of the University of Chicago
with members of the Society of Collegiate Alumnae,
who were then holding their annual meetings, and
this gave me an opportunity of becoming acquainted
with the views of the best women on educational
matters.
A stay of three months is, of course, insufficient
for any exhaustive inquiry into the educational
systems of so vast a country. I have Only tried to
deal with certain points, and on these too I desire
to express my opinion with extreme diffidence.
The subjects I chiefly investigated were: Arrange-
ment of Studies; Methods of Teaching, in par-
ticular of Classics, Modern Languages, History and
English Literature; Manual Training; and Women's
Colleges.
I desire to take this opportunity of thanking the
Gilchrist Trustees for enabling me to take so inte-
resting a journey, and the Council of the Girls'
Public Day School Company for giving me three
months’ holiday in which to travel, and for the kind
interest they have taken in my tour.
MIETELODS OF EDUCATION
—-e-Hºº-º-º-º-
CHAPTER I
P U B LIC S C H O O L S
THE difficulties which beset any attempt to describe
even a small part of the American educational
system are very great. The vast size of the country,
its division into States, each with its own Organiza-
tion, the absence of all central or national control,
the mingling of public and private effort, all these
circumstances tend to complicate and hinder the
work of the investigator. Indeed, it may be safely
said that the English system of education no longer
seems complicated to those who have made any
study of the American.
The one connecting link which binds together all
parts of America is the universal love of education,
expressed in the constitution of almost every State
by the well-known formula—“Religion, Morality,
Knowledge, being necessary to good government
B
2 MAE 7TP/ODS OF EDUCA TYOAV
and the happiness of mankind, Schools and the
means of education shall be for ever encouraged.”
Non-educational visitors to the States are sometimes
a little tried at being dragged from school to school
by their host as a means of entertainment. To
educational visitors the way is made very plain; all
doors are open to them, and the courtesy and kind-
mess of principals and assistants add much to the plea-
sure and interest of their investigations. American
schools are public in the fullest sense of the word.
The doors are open to friends and strangers, and
parents need never feel that their children’s educa-
tion is a matter of which they have no knowledge,
since they can easily obtain access to any of the
classes.
The diversity of system is due to the circumstance
that each of the older States worked out the problem
of education for itself, and gradually settled down
into its present methods. Thus, in New York, the
Dublic Free School Society did much towards
forming the present system of Common Schools; and
when these were organized in 1853, it handed them
over to the State. In Massachusetts, progress was
largely due to the efforts of Horace Mann. The
newer States had only to follow the lead of the
A UE/./C SCA/OO/LS - 3
others; the school system was organized from the
first as a matter of course, and they had plenty of
models before their eyes on which to form their
OWIl. - g
In the older States, the funds for school purposes
were originally raised independently in each par-
ticular district, and voted for one year only. This
was the extreme of decentralization. As the fund
became a certain one, and was partly placed under
State control, a tendency towards centralizing set
in ; but this operated unequally in different States,
and thus in some it is the State Board which
determines what schools shall be required of differ-
ent districts, how teachers shall be examined and
appointed, what registers shall be kept, what special
grants made for building purposes, etc.; in others
this is determined by the district or county, and the
control of the State is a purely general One. The
greatest need now in many States is more centraliza-
tion and greater stability, for at present a new Board
in some towns may completely overthrow the exist-
ing system of studies.
There are, however, a few very important points
on which there is a good deal of agreement through-
out the States. To begin with, all the public Schools
4 AME THODS OF EDUCA 7TWOAV
are free, at any rate to residents in the district to
which each school belongs. In some cases admission
is refused to children outside the district, in others it
is granted in return for a not particularly low fee.
This is the case with the Boston High School.
Another important point is that the common schools
are open to all, and not meant merely for the children
of the poor. Legally there is nothing to prevent rich
parents in England from sending their children to
State-aided schools, though as a matter of fact it is
a rare, though not unknown, occurrence. In the
United States the theory is that all children,
whether rich or poor, of whatever class, attend the
same schools, and receive the same education. As a
matter of practice, the exceptions to this rule are so
numerous that it can only be stated with consider-
able modifications.
I took some pains to find out whether the children
of people I met in the various places I visited
attended public or private schools, and the answer
was almost invariably private, with a few exceptions
in districts where the character of the streets and
residences was such that no poor people could live
there, and the schools, though free, were almost
entirely filled by the well-to-do classes. Again and
A UB/C/C SCATOO/CS 5
again. I have been told, in recommendation of a
particular school, that no poor children attended it.
The construction of an American town, with its
regular system of blocks and absence of back streets
and alleys, lends itself to a division into rich and
poor districts as an English town would not.
Again, the higher grades of the schools, in par-
ticular the High Schools, are largely attended by
boys and girls of a better social position; for in the
United States, as in England, the majority of
children of the wage-earning class are very early
withdrawn from school. Some few States have com-
pulsory laws, but they are not much enforced ; and
the fact that the number of pupils in the primary
and grammar Schools (ages about Seven to fourteen)
is 96; per cent. of the whole number under tuition
shows that free secondary education does not suffice
to fill the schools. It is roughly estimated that the
number of children attending private schools is one-
twelfth of that attending public schools, and this
cannot differ very greatly from the proportion in
England. Many leading educationalists in the
States deplore the tendency of the richer classes to
send their children to private schools, as they con-
sider the mixture of classes in itself an educational
6 MAE THODS OF EDUCA TVOAV
factor. Frequent allusions were made to it at the
Chicago Conference; but whether with approval or
disapproval, it was regarded as a fact that must be
acknowledged. r -
Nearly all the public schools are divided into
grades corresponding to our standards. Some large
Schools are so classed that each grade only occupies
half a year; other smaller ones generally have a
grade for each school year. Most schools provide
for eight or sixteen grades, of which half are spent
in the primary and half in the grammar School.
The work for each grade is carefully planned out
and fitted to the next, and no child who has not
mastered the work of one class may pass to another.
There is no miscellaneous promotion during the
year, as is so frequent in our secondary schools.
It is possible, therefore, to plan out courses of study
which shall be taken in turn by each child who
passes through the whole school, and thus the work
of each class is firmly linked on to the next. A
girl who has passed through all the grades is said
to “graduate ’’ on leaving the grammar School, and
is then qualified to continue her education at a
High School, or, in some cases, at a Normal School.
Graduation at the grammar School is for a large
PUBLIC SCHOOLS 7
majority the limit of education ; hence the need of
regarding the work of the primary and grammar
Schools as a whole, since it is by no means safe to
reckon On a continuance of instruction.
As to the teaching which is most valuable during
these years opinions differ widely, as indeed they
must, where what is the end for some pupils must
be regarded as the beginning for others. One of
the sessions of the Chicago Conference was devoted
to discussing the question—“What shall our public
schools teach P” and very various opinions were
enounced by many educationalists of standing,
some advocating merely the “three R's,” to which
the Chicago Schools are now forced to confine
themselves, and others pleading for the fullest and
richest course that can be supplied. As a matter of
fact the subjects taught do not differ very greatly
from those of our elementary schools, in which the
pupils continue through the seventh and ex-seventh
standards. Pupils remain in the grammar school
till the age of fourteen or fifteen ; hence they can
and do pass beyond what we should call the seventh
standard stage. There is less choice of subjects in
America than in England. The school committee
or Superintendent generally marks out the exact
8 METHODS OF EDUCATION
time-table to be followed by the schools under his
charge, and each subject must be taken by each
child. Speaking generally, more attention is given
to sewing and singing in England, and to drawing
and science in the United States. Again, the pen-
manship seemed to me inferior in America. United
States history is taught in every school, while many
English schools are content to leave their pupils in
absolute ignorance of the past of their country. As
a rule, neither Latin nor modern languages are
taught in the grammar School; and this is a great
disadvantage for those pupils who proceed to the
high schools, and have there to take up what would
have been easier and pleasanter at an earlier age.
Manual training of some sort is gradually finding
its way into most schools in the States as in Eng-
land. American boys and girls seem expected to
work much harder than English ; for after school
hours, lasting from nine to twelve, and two to four,
there are a good many home-lessons to be prepared,
chiefly, it seemed to me, learning from text-books.
I also fancied that American children had less play
than English. As far as it is possible to compare,
the American primary and grammar Schools more
closely resemble our own elementary schools than
PUBLIC Schools 9
the lower classes of our high schools. In these
Latin and French are usually begun at an early
age, and even the smallest children of the school are
allowed to reap some advantage from the presence
of University-trained teachers; the classes are
smaller, and each class is taught by a variety of
teachers. In America, it often happens that a
teacher is only licensed to teach a single grade, and
Cannot proceed to another without further examina-
tion; hence she is bound always to teach her own
class Only, and though she no doubt acquires great
familiarity with her subjects and with various
methods of teaching them, yet the children lack the
life and brightness gained from a teacher with a
fuller and deeper knowledge of her subject.
The next step in the educational ladder is the
high School, which takes the pupils on till the age
of eighteen, when they graduate and enter a college
or a technological school, or else pass straight away
to the Occupation of their lives. Of course one of
the functions of the high school is to form the link
between the grammar school and the University.
Hence the studies are such as would prepare for a
college entrance examination. With an elementary
System that teaches no Latin, and, as a rule, no
IO MAE 7TP/ODS OF EDUCA 7TWOAV
modern language, when children reach the age of
fourteen or fifteen without going beyond the limits
of United States history, and where in many cases
Science has no place at all, the work left for the
high School is very great; and for any student to
take up all subjects would be impossible. Hence
separate courses are absolutely necessary. The
college candidate takes the classical; the pupil
whose studies end with school, the English course;
the boy or girl who has definitely chosen science as
life-work finds a scientific course prepared; and a
new feature is the manual training course. Some-
times all these courses are found in One school; at
others they are accommodated in different buildings.
Boston has a Latin and English school for boys,
and one each for girls, and a magnificent Mechani-
cal Arts High School is now in process of erection,
for which the town has voted the sum of 160,000
dollars. Of course only a large town can afford
such ample provision for the small proportion of
pupils that continue beyond the grammar-school
age; but in places that are not very large the cus-
tom, prevailing very frequently in the United
States, of teaching boys and girls together in the
same school, brings together sufficient numbers to
A UAE Z/C SCHOO/CS J I
justify the establishment of a high school. The
high school is the American answer to the second-
ary education problem, for in the United States the
logical division holds good, that it is the nature of
the teaching, and not the social class of the taught,
that distinguishes between primary and secondary
education. Primary, in its wider sense, is that
which is offered to all alike up to the age of four-
teen, and is meant to fit them either to enter with
Some measure of intelligence on the Occupations of
daily life, or else to proceed thence to the high
school. Secondary is the education of the high
school, whether special or general. Superior is the
work of the college or the University.
The curriculum of the high school is often under
discussion by educationalists, and even when all the
Sub-divisions are possible, it presents a good many
difficulties ; in particular, the demands of the
various colleges are often conflicting, and even the
demands of the same college differ according to the
nature of the course to be pursued by the student.
When schools are small the difficulty becomes a
Serious One. An extreme case was quoted at the
Chicago Conference of a school with four teachers
that had to prepare pupils in four distinct courses:
I 2 A/E 7A/O/OS OF AZZO UCA 7TWOAV
—(1) classical; (2) literary with French or German
substituted for Greek; (3) Latin scientific course;
(4) business course, emphasizing English. Hence
there is much discontent expressed in schools with
college requirements, and this has culminated since
the establishment of Chicago University with its
six different groups of entrance requirements,
which must be chosen according to the subjects to
be taken up for a degree. To an outsider these
difficulties seem vexatious and useless. Surely an
examination like that of Girton and Newnham,
with a few elementary compulsory subjects, and a
choice of one or two advanced, would be enough to
show that the student was fit to enter, and it would
rest with the college to see that he did not leave
without submitting to such tests as should prove
his ripened scholarship.
Sooner or later some kind of agreement will
doubtless be found between colleges and Schools.
This difficulty is in some respects an artificial One,
and cannot compare with that of maintaining the
right adjustment between what we should call the
classical and modern sides; but this too is gradually
approaching a solution in both Countries, except
that while we in England have for some time
A UE L/C SCA/OO/LS 13
grasped the need of division in boys' schools, little
progress has been made in the case of girls. Many
of our high schools allow a choice between Latin
and German ; but this is often an arbitrary one
made by the children themselves, or by not very
wise parents, and not always with due regard to
the girls' future. In the sixth form girls drop some
subjects and give additional time to others, with a
view to future work; but there is little system
about this, and it is often very disturbing to the
school work. In America the fact that boys and
girls often attend the same high school leads to the
same careful arrangement of the girls' curriculum
as of the boys'; in fact, it is usually the same for
both, with slight modifications and a system of
carefully chosen electives.
In Boston, the Latin and English High Schools
for girls are quite distinct, but in the same build-
ing, and under the direction of the same head
master. Thus it is possible for many of the special
teachers to teach in both, and a general harmony
in work results. The course of the English High
School lasts three years, and there is also an ad-
vanced fourth year course.
I4. AMAZ 7TA/O/OS OF AE/O OVCA1 T/O/V
Course of studies in the English High School at Boston.
|FIRST YEAR:-
English language and literature, four hours a
week. Ancient history, two hours.
Language (French, German, or Latin), four or
five hours.
Algebra, with generalisations of arithmetic,
about four hours.
Botany, four hours.
Drawing, two hours.
Singing, one hour.
Physical training, two hours.
SECOND YEAR:—
English language and literature, three hours.
Mediaeval history; modern history begun, two
hours.
Language Continued, three or four hours.
Plane geometry, three or four hours.
Zoology, followed by short course in physiology
and hygiene, three hours.
Drawing, two hours.
Singing, One hour.
Physical training, two hours.
Elective substitute for zoology, book-keeping,
including commercial arithmetic,
A UB/./C SCHOOLS I 5
THIRD YEAR:—
English language and literature, three hours.
Modern history, civil government, three hours.
Language continued, or French or German
begun, three hours.
Algebra and plane geometry completed, two
hours.
Physics, three hours.
Chemistry, three hours.
Singing, One hour.
Physical training, two hours.
Electives: substitute for foreign language—
phonography; substitute for mathematics—
drawing. -
In the fourth year nothing is required but
Bnglish and gymnastics, and there is a large choice
of electives.
In the Latin School a plan is adopted which makes
it possible for the pupils to begin Latin at an earlier
age than fourteen or fifteen, which for most is too
late. They are admitted as early as twelve, if they
can pass a certain examination, and are them
enabled to have a six years' course in the high
School. -
I6 MAE 7TP/O DS OF EDUCA 7TWOAV
Course of Studies in the Latin High School at Boston.
FIRST YEAR:-
English, including history, five hours.
Latin, five hours.
Geography, two hours.
Physiology and hygiene, half an hour.
Arithmetic, four hours.
Objective geometry, half an hour.
Gymnastics and singing, two hours.
SECOND YEAR:—
Almost the same division. A little botany
begun.
THIRD YEAR :—
|Friglish, five hours.
French or German, three and a half hours.
Latin, five hours.
Elementary Science, half an hour.
Mathematics, four hours.
Physical training and singing, two hours.
In the fourth and fifth years, Science is dropped;
English, Latin, and mathematics each reduced one
hour, and the foreign language one hour and a
half. The five hours thus obtained are given to
Greek.
A U/3/./C SCA’OO/CS 17
<-- - -
SIXTH YEAR :—
English, including history, two hours.
Latin, four hours.
Greek, four and a half hours.
Elementary science (physics), three and a half
hours.
Mathematics, four hours.
Physical training and singing, two hours.
The physics are required for the Harvard entrance
examination, and thus a pupil who has passed satis-
factorily through the six years is ready for college
work. -
If she has not taken up both French and German,
she can substitute another subject for One of these
languages.
I quote the course of studies in the High School
at Newtonville, near Boston, and that at the High
School of Newhaven, in Connecticut, which is, of
course, under different State control, while the end in
view is Yale rather than Harvard. (See page 171.)
Both are attended by boys and girls. Newhaven is
also on the point of opening a manual training high
school. (See page 132.)
I 8 MAE 7THODS OF EDUCA 7TWOAV
Newtonville High School—General Course.
FIRST YEAR:—
English language and literature, history. Five
exercises a week.
Science: physics (first course), five months;
botany or zoology (first course), five months.
Four exercises a week.
Military drill (elective), calisthenics (for girls).
Two exercises a week.
Elective studies: Latin, three ; algebra, three;
drawing, three; commercial arithmetic and
book-keeping, three.
SECOND YEAR:—
English language and literature, history. Five
exercises a week.
Science : physics or botany (second course), five
months; chemistry (first course), five months.
Four exercises a week.
Military drill and calisthenics. Two exercises
a week.
Elective studies: Latim, three ; plane geometry,
three; French, three ; German, three ; draw-
ing, three.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS I9
THIRD YEAR :—
English language and literature, history. Five
exercises a week.
Science: chemistry (second course) or miner-
alogy, five months; political economy or
geology, five months. Four exercises a week.
Elocution, One ; military drill and calisthenics.
Two exercises a week.
Elective studies: Latin, three or five; solid
geometry, three ; French, three ; German,
three; drawing, three.
FouTTH YEAR :—
English composition, rhetoric, history of Eng-
lish literature, the reading and study of
authors, and history. Five exercises a week.
Science : psychology or physical geography,
# year; ethics or physiology, year; logic
or astronomy, year. Four exercises a
week.
Elocution, one ; military drill (elective), and
calisthenics. Two exercises a week.
JElective studies: Latin, three or five ; trigon-
Ometry and Surveying, three ; French, three ;
German, three ; drawing, three.
ME THODS OF AZA) UCA TVOAV
Row,” Years' Classical Course.
FIRST YEAR:—
English language and literature, three; an–
cient history, two ; algebra, five ; Latin,
five; military drill (elective) and calisthenics,
two ; drawing (elective), three.
SECOND YEAR:—
English language and literature, two; Latin.
five; Greek, or French, or German, five :
geometry, three ; French, three ; military
drill and calisthemics, two ; drawing (elec-
tive), three.
THIRD YEAR:—
English language and literature, one ; ancient
history, two ; Latin, six; Greek, six, or
French Or German, five ; algebra, two :
French, three; elocution, one ; military drill
and calisthemics, two ; drawing (elective)
three.
FourTH YEAR :—
English language and literature, two ; Latin,
seven; Greek, or French, or German, five ;
geometry, two ; physics, four ; elocution,
One ; military drill (elective) and calisthenics,
two; drawing (elective), three.
A U/3/L/C SCA/OO.Z.S. 2 I
This course of studies is subject to such modifi-
cations as the High School Committee, the superin-
tendent, and the master of the school may from
time to time think necessary.
Institute Course.
FIRST YEAR :—
IEnglish language and literature, history. Five
exercises a week.
Latin, five ; algebra, five ; military drill (elec-
tive) and calisthenics, two ; drawing (elec-
tive), three.
SECOND YEAR :—
English language and literature. Five exer-
cises a week.
Latin, five ; French, three ; plane geometry,
three ; military drill and calisthenics, two ;
drawing (elective), three.
'THIRD YEAR :—
English language and literature, history. Five
exercises a week.
French, three ; arithmetic, three ; algebra,
three ; plane geometry, three ; elocution,
one ; military drill and calisthenics, two :
drawing (elective), three.
2
2
METHODS OF EDUCATION
FourTH YEAR :—
English language and literature. Two exer-
cises a week.
Advanced algebra, three ; Solid geometry,
three ; physics, four, or German, four ;
chemistry, three, or French, three ; elocu-
tion, one ; military drill (elective) and calis-
thenics, two ; drawing (elective), three.
This course of study shall be subject to such
modifications from year to year as may be necessary.
Course of study in the Hillhouse High School,
Newhaven.
Classical :—
|FIRST YEAR :
Algebra, Latin (7 rec.), English.
SECOND YEAR :—
Latin, English, algebra, plane geometry, Greek.
THIRD YEAR :—
Latin and Roman history, German or French,
Greek and Greek history.
FourTH YEAR :—
Latin, German or French, Greek, solid geometry,
and English.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS 23
Scientific : —
FIRST YEAR :
Algebra, Latin (7 rec.), English, drawing (Op.).
SECOND YEAR :-- t
Latin, English, algebra and geometry, English
and United States history, drawing (Op.).
THIRD YEAR —
Latin, geometry and trigonometry, physics,
English.
Bnglish :-
FIRST YEAR :—
Algebra, Latin (7 rec.), English, drawing (2 rec.).
Second YEAR –
Latin, English, algebra and geometry, general
history, drawing (2 rec.). -
THIRD YEAR —
Botany and Zoology, Latin, civil government
lectures, German or French, physics, drawing.
|FourTH YEAR :—
English literature, German or French, astro-
nomy, physical geography, geology, physi-
ology and hygiene.
Three Years' Commercial :--
FIRST YEAR :—
Algebra, English, - German, arithmetic, office
work, penmanship.
24 MAE 7"HO/OS OA” A.DUCA / /OAV
SECOND YEAR: —
English, German, civil government, book-keep-
ing, actual business, penmanship.
THIRD YEAR:—
English, German, physics, type-writing, steno-
graphy, commercial law.
Third year commercial is optional.
High schools are gradually making way through-
out every State in America. Massachusetts requires
every town of 500 families to establish one, and of
more than 50,000 inhabitants an evening high
school." *
Obviously the high Schools in these small places
cannot be as efficient as in the large Ones,
since the greater part of the work falls on one
master; and very small schools are allowed to
reduce the number of subjects taught. Two or more
small towns may join together for the purpose of a
high School, thus obtaining a larger and more
efficient One. I had no opportunity of visiting a
high school in one of the country districts, but I saw
a primary and grammar School which convinced me
* It is worth noting that the word “town " may in America
be applied to a collection of villages, and that what we call a
town they usually designate as a “city.”
PUBLIC SCHOOLS 25
that the high standard of the large towns was by no
means kept up in the small ones. Two of the most
important elements of success are wanting there—
numbers to facilitate proper grading, and money to
pay efficient teachers and procure needful apparatus.
Hence a school in which the children are occupied
but not taught ; where one class reads aloud while
the teacher, who is engaged with another set of
children, pays no attention to them. The teacher
receives a starvation wage, which may be all she is
worth, seeing that she has perhaps never even
attended a high school, but is certainly not such as
to attract good teachers. The average salaries in
American schools are low—£70 in New York State,
£60 in Maryland, £100 in Massachusetts; and when
we take into consideration that at Boston the
teachers are fairly well paid, and there are two or
three salaries of £700 for head masters, whilst some
of the high school assistants get as much as £300,
it is clear that there cannot be much left for the
country teachers. Hence the enormous inequality of
American schools, greater than anything that can be
found in England.
Some towns have not yet adopted the high school
for girls, but instead have a normal school, to
26 MAE 7TA/O DS OF AE/D UCA 7TWOAV
which graduates of the grammar Schools may pro-
ceed. The normal school does some of the work of
the high school, but mingles with it professional
training for teachers. This has the disadvantage of
giving the professional bias too early, and it is
doubtful whether either kind of work is as well done
as it would be in separate institutions. There are
schools of this character at New York and Phila-
delphia. At New York the course lasts four years,
and is much like that of a high School, except for
two hours a week given to pedagogy in the third
year, and three in the fourth year, out of which last
time is taken for a very little practice in teaching.
At Philadelphia, all the actual practice that falls to
the lot of each student is one single week, and she
watches the teaching of another student for a week
before that. Hence it is but fair to regard such
institutions as high schools with a slight professional
bias. There are other normal schools, such as that
at Boston, where only pupils from high schools are
taken, and these are meant exclusively for teachers.
All work in all the States that forms part of the
public school system is under supervision ; there is
usually a State superintendent, whose duty it is,
directly or indirectly, to examine and license
A U/3/./C SCATOO/LS 27
teachers, and to control the schools of the State
generally. With him co-operate the county or
district superintendents, and in some cases each
city has its own superintendent. The work allotted
to these Officials varies a good deal, but either the
Superintendent or the Board of Education, or both,
has the power to determine which subjects shall be
taught in the schools, and often how they shall be
taught, to fix the school hours, to appoint teachers,
etc. Very little liberty is left to the teachers; they
may sometimes be consulted about the choice of a
text-book, but they have no right to expect this,
and, as a rule, this duty falls to the Boards or super-
intendents. Some towns have, besides the Superin-
tendent, a system of supervisors, who are specialists
in particular subjects, which they organize and
direct in all the schools of that town. It is their
duty to study new methods, to direct the teachers,
and see that the work is rightly carried out, and the
needful accommodation and apparatus supplied, and
they report to the Educational Board on their own
particular subject. It is believed that careful
Supervision and superintendence may do much to-
wards obtaining good work from a merely average
teacher; and as the great majority of the American
28 MAE ZTAZO/OS OF AZZO UCA 7TWOAV
teachers are untrained, and may have had no teach-
ing beyond that of the high School, and not always
that, some such system is absolutely necessary to
keep up the standard of work. It appears on the
whole to work well and economically, though it is
impossible that it should not sometimes be galling
for a really capable teacher to have to follow such
minute directions as are laid down in many of the
courses of study.
CHAPTER II
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
THERE is probably no country in the world where
private schools are so numerous and so good as in
the United States. It must be borne in mind that
in America our own girls' high Schools, started by
companies or endowed, would be called private, as
the term “public '' is only applied to State-sup-
ported Schools; but even schools started and
managed by individuals play a part in the States
which is rarely accorded them in England, and
many of them do excellent work. A glance at the
calendars of the various colleges shows how large is
the number of pupils entering from private schools.
Thus, out of a total of 351 students who entered
Harvard in 1890, only ninety were prepared in the
public schools. At some of the women's colleges
the proportion of pupils from private Schools is even
greater.
In America, as in England, the question is some-
29
3O ME 7TP/O DS OF EDUCA 7TWOAZ
times raised—“Ought not the State to take some
cognizance of the schools that are not under Govern-
ment control?” And the answer has, as yet, always
been in the negative. I am not aware that any
such proposal as that in Our Teachers' Registration
Bills has yet been made; indeed, such a scheme
could not be worked in the States without much alter-
ation in the present system, under which license to
teach in one State does not apply to any other; nor
is there a plan on any large scale like that of our
local examinations, which enables schools to com-
pare their standards and the public to gain some
motion of results. The Regents of the University of
New York have dome something in this direction,
but it applies chiefly to public schools. Harvard has
also instituted a sort of “local examination,” which
is taken by some private schools. Occasionally a
State University—for instance, Michigan—under-
takes to inspect the schools, whose graduates it
exempts from entrance examination; but this, too,
applies chiefly to public schools.
The great advantage of private effort is that it
makes new experiments possible which would only
be sanctioned in public schools by a very enlightened
Board, such as is by no means found in every
PRIVATE SCAOOZS 3 I
American town. Often these private schools serve
as what the Americans call an “experiment station,”
and the results, if satisfactory, gradually make their
way into the public Schools. In some cases, a suc-
cessful venture is actually made over by the origin-
ator to the town.
A very interesting experiment in early education
is the Working Man's School in New York, started
by the Society for Ethical Culture, of which Dr.
Felix Adler is the President. Its purpose was a
protest against the dull round and mechanical
methods of the schools in that city. It was started
as a free kindergarten for the children of the poorer
classes in One of the very poor districts of New
York. At the end of two years some of the children
were ready to leave the kindergarten, and the pro-
moters, unwilling to Sacrifice the good foundation
already laid, determined to form classes for older
children, in which the principles of the kinder-
garten should still be carried out. The school was
originally started only for the children of the poor,
and admission was free; but as the value of the
teaching became known, rich people applied to send
their children there; and a limited number were
admitted on payment of a tuition fee to help defray
32 METHODS OF EDUCAZZON
the expenses of the school. The promoters say,
“The Working Man's School aims to be a model
public school, and to serve as an experimental field
in which new methods of education as they arise
may be tried for the benefit of the entire public
school system.” Such work will always be done
best by voluntary effort, since a large school system
cannot be easily swayed or changed.
The aim of the school is summarised thus: “Not
merely to teach the three R’s, nor to enable pupils
to earn a living, nor to endow them with accomplish-
ments, nor to make them intellectually efficient, but
to build up manhood and womanhood.” Its special
features are:—
I. Manual training in all classes for pupils of every
age and both sexes.
II. Freehand drawing and modelling in all classes.
III. Science teaching in all classes. The aim is to
develop a power of observation and the love of
mature. Pupils work from their own specimens, and
assist in conducting experiments. *
IV. Weekly matural history excursions, and visits
to leading industrial establishments in the upper
classes. t
V. Unsectarian moral instruction in all classes.
PR/ VA TE SCA/OO/CS 33
VI. Regular examination of pupils by the school
physician, and study of their psychic characteristics
by the entire corps of teachers.
I quote the paragraphs on method :—
“The method pursued is the creative method of
learning by doing.”
“The various special features introduced are so
many tests to assist the teachers in discovering the
pupil’s natural bent.”
“The plan is to use the special talent of the pupil
as a point of vantage, in order to make him interested
in knowledge generally, and also to develop the more
gifted along the lines of their particular individuali-
ties.”
“All-round culture is the end, special culture the
means.”
“The system of instruction is designed to be an
organic whole; the co-relation and co-operation of all
departments of the school towards a common end is
the principal feature always kept in view.”
1 spent a morning at this school, and was much
impressed by the manner in which the teachers used
the intelligence of the children. *
I heard a lesson in form-geometry, in which the
class were led to discover, by observation, facts in
D
34. ME 7TA/O/DS OF EAD (7CA 7TWOAV
connection with parallelograms. They were thus
prepared, by independent discovery of the fact, for
the abstract proof which would be presented to them
much later. In geography a class was revising, and
therefore the work was a little, disconnected; but
though a text-book had been used, there was none of
the routine question and answer which had struck
me in the public schools. The child’s intelligence
was always brought into play. The same may be
said of the mechanical drawing, which in some cases
consisted in making a plan of a building that the
child had himself sketched from the real object.
Each boy in the class was doing a different piece of
work, and all seemed eager and keen. The girls'
sewing was equally good and careful.
One special feature of this school is the careful
CO-Ordination of studies. In England, and in par-
ticular in Our high schools, the specialization of
teachers is apt to result in keeping each study as
a thing apart. History is taught by One teacher,
geography by another, often without any regard for
the period of history which is being studied at that
time; drawing by a third, geometry as a thing apart
by a fourth, and morality in connection with Bible
teaching by a fifth, without any attempt to draw
AA’ſ IVA TE SCA/OO/CS 35
into this study the lessons to be learnt from all the
others. Hence ensues a rivalry of subjects, instead
of an attempt to work all into one harmony. Each
teacher plays for her own hand, and seeks to secure
the maximum of time for her own subject. As the
teaching of a large number of subjects by One
teacher is certainly not desirable, the remedy would
be that advised by Dr. Adler, carefully to plan out
the work, and from the first co-ordinate drawing
with form-teaching and geometry, reading with
literature and moral instruction, as well as with
science and history, and composition with all.
The school is rich in Zoological, botanical, and
Imineralogical collections. It possesses a library of
nearly 1,700 volumes for the use of teachers and
pupils, as well as a full Collection of all the leading
educational journals, American and foreign, for the
use of the teachers. * +
The Working Man's School, though private, is
graded in the same way as a public school. It is
divided into three kindergarten, three primary, and
five grammar classes. The average age for leaving
is fourteen. It works on the assumption that up to
that age teaching should be alike for all, rich and
poor, boys and girls.
36 MAE TA/O/DS OF AE/DUCA 7TWOAV
The Bryn Mawr Girls' School is one of the schools
sometimes called “fitting ” or “preparatory,” be-
cause its course is arranged with a view to the
entrance examination of a college ; in this case of
the Bryn Mawr College. It is very difficult for the
public high school, with the many and varied de-
mands upon it, to prepare satisfactorily for entrance
to college; and though the problem is being gradu-
ally solved in large schools by sub-division of courses,
yet the work of the private schools that prepare
for college is a very important one. At Baltimore
the standard of the high school is low, and the Balti-
more College has found it necessary to start its Own
Latin school in Order to ensure the proper preparation
of the students. The Bryn Mawr School was started
by some rich educationalists of Baltimore, and no
money has been spared in making it good in every
particular. Pupils pay fees, 160 dollars a year (£32);
but this is not expected to cover the expenses. The
school is not a large one—under 200. It is worked
much on the lines of Our high Schools, but the sur-
roundings and equipment are far superior. Girls are
admitted at the age of tem. The plan is that of
specialist teaching, and all the teachers are college
graduates. Each teacher presides Over a room,
JºA2/JVA 7TE SCA/OO/CS' 37
which is sacred to her own special subjects, and
equipped accordingly with appropriate photographs,
books of reference, maps, etc. There is a large
central schoolroom, adorned with a fine copy of the
Parthenon frieze, and out of this opens a library for
the use of the girls. Each girl has her own seat
and desk in the schoolroom, but during study hours
she may, if she please, work in the library, in order
to have books of reference at hand. The girls go
for their lessons to the subject rooms, and return
afterwards to the schoolroom. The excellent con-
struction of the building enables this to be done
without disorder. A very interesting feature is the
gymnasium, presided Over by a special teacher, and
the girls do all their exercises under the superinten-
dence of a lady doctor, who examines each, and
assigns to her the exercises she specially requires.
There is also a swimming tank, in which the girls
are taught to swim, and luxurious little dressing-
rooms with shower baths, for refreshment after
gymnastic exercises. There is a playground in
which the girls play tennis, an unusual sight in an
American school. The courses of study are carefully
planned, and where possible made to co-ordinate.
The teachers are all fitted to direct their subjects,
38 A/A2 7TAZO/OS OF EXO UCA TYOAV
and infuse originality into the teaching. In fact,
the whole school leaves the impression of thorough
work amid pleasant surroundings.
At Philadelphia much of the best work is under
the direction of the Society of Friends, many mem-
bers of which live in that city. The Friends' Select
and Central Schools for boys and girls do excellent
work, and so does the William Penn Charter School,
which, though meant for boys, has admitted the
daughters of the Principal, and may some day
extend the privilege further. These schools take
children at an early age, and are thus enabled, like
our High Schools, to begin Latin and modern
languages early, instead of Cramming all advanced
work into the last years of school. The gymnasium,
workshops, and laboratories are supplied with all
that is most helpful in apparatus. -
The Packer Institute, at Brooklyn, was founded
as early as 1845, therefore before the establishment
of any of the Women's colleges. Its aim was to
provide a liberal education for girls, and it still works
on these lines; but it also undertakes to prepare
pupils for the entrance examination of a college, or
else enables them to continue their studies for the
first two years of a college course. There are
AA’ſ VA 7TE SCA/OO.Z.S. 39
Primary, Preparatory, Academic, and Collegiate
departments. The academic department is entered
at about the high School age, and girls who have
graduated at One of the Brooklyn grammar schools
are admitted to this without further examination.
The academic and college courses each occupy three
years; thus the full course continues two years
longer than the Ordinary high school work. There
are two main courses of study ; the Latin course,
which includes Latin for at least four years, and a
modern language or Greek; and the mathematical
course, in which advanced mathematics are sub-
stituted for two years' Latin. Appended are these
preparatory and academic courses.
Conspectus of Studies in the Preparatory Department.
|FourTH GRADE.-I. September to February.
II. February to June.
Barnes's Arithmetic.—Cancellation, fractions, great-
est common divisor. Least common multiple.
Fractions through multiplication.
Whitney and Know.—Elementary lessons in
English, through the year.
Maury’s Elementary Geography, through the
Middle States.
4O A/AE 7TA/O/OS OA' A D OVCA 7TWO/V
A Modern Language.—Oral, twice a week, through
the year.
Reading.—Daily.
Science Lessons.—Plants and animals. Once a week.
Drawing–Twice a week.
THIRD GRADE.-I. September to February.
II. February to June.
Barnes's Arithmetic.—Division of fractions. Review
of fractions. Relation of numbers. Decimals.
Tables of denominate numbers.
Reed and Kellogg's Graded Lessons.—Through the
year.
Maury’s Manual of Geography.—To South America.
To Europe and review. -
A Modern Language.—Oral, twice a week, through
the year.
Composition.—Once a week, through the year.
Elocution.—Twice a week.
Science Lessons.—Elements of astronomy. Once a
week.
Drawing.—Twice a week, through the year.
SECOND GRADE.-I. September to February.
II. February to June.
Barnes's Arithmetic.—Denominate numbers. Per-
centage to discount (omitting stocks).
A/º/JVA 7/7 SCA/OO/CS 4 I
Reed and Kellogg’s Higher Lessons.—-To lesson
seventy-One.
Maury's Manual of Geography.—Beginning at
Europe, complete the Manual. Review the
Manual.
A Modern Language. —Oral, twice a week, through
the year.
Composition.—Once a week, through the year.
Elocution.—Twice a week.
Science Lessons.—Elements of physiology. Once a
week.
Drawing.—Twice a week, through the year.
FIRST GRADE.-I. September to February.
II. February to June.
Barnes's Arithmetic.—Stocks to partnership.
Algebra.
Reed and Kellogg's Higher Lessons.—Continued,
completed and reviewed. -
History of the United States and its People.—
Through the year.
A Modern Language.—Oral, twice a week, through
the year.
Composition.—Once a week, through the year.
Elocution.—Twice a week.
Science Lessons.—Lessons about air and water.
Once a week.
42 Al/A2 7TA/OA).S. OA' A D UCA1 T/O AV
Drawing.—Twice a week, through the year.
Conspectus of Studies in the Academic and Collegiate
Departments.
THIRD ACADEMIC GRADE.
I. September to February.
Latin. Modern language. Zoology." English
history. Readings from Scott.
II. February to June.
Latin. Modern language. Algebra. Through
Simple Equations. (The whole year.)
SECOND ACADEMIC GRADE.
I. September to February.
Latin. Modern language. Algebra. Through
quadratics. (The whole year.) Rhetoric. Gold-
Smith and Irving.
II. February to June.
Latin. Modern language. Physical geography.
Roman history. Macaulay and Addison.
FIRST ACADEMIC GRADE.
I. September to February.
Latim. Modern language.” Physiology. Al-
* Students qualified to enter the second semester of a
modern language may substitute it for zoology.
* At this point Greek may be substituted for a modern
language. Studies italicized are required of all regular
students.
AA’/ VA 7TP, SCA/OO.Z.S. 43
gebra. Plane geometry. Mediaeval history.
(American literature.)
II. February to June.
Latin. Modern language. Plane geometry.
Modern history. Milton and Shakespeare.
THIRD COLLEGIATE GRADE.
I. September to February.
Latim. Modern language. Advanced algebra.
English literature.
II. February to June.
Latim. Modern language. Botany. Solid
geometry. Amcient history. Victorian poets.
SECOND COLLEGIATE GRADE.
I. September to February.
Latin. Modern language. Chemistry. Trigo-
mometry. Constitutional history. Rhetoric.
II. February to June.
Latim. Modern language. Comic sections.
Biology. English literature.
SENIOR YEAR.
I. September to February.
Latim. Modern language. Qualitative analysis.
Physics. Calculus. Geology. Lectures on
American history once a week. Logic and
psychology. English literature. Early English.
44 A/A27 AHO/OS OF AZZO UCA 7TWOAV
II. February to June.
Latin. Modern language. Astronomy. Physics.
History of art. Psychology.
I saw something of the Latin and Greek work,
both of which were excellent. I was greatly in-
terested in a history lecture dealing with very
modern events in Europe, and, in particular, dis-
cussing the recent foreign policy of the two political
parties in England.
The number of pupils last year was 756, and the
number of teachers 53. As a result of this liberal
proportion, small classes, and a great deal of indi-
vidual attention are possible. The school was
founded and built by Mrs. Harriet Packer, and the
fees charged amply cover the working expenses;
they range from eighty dollars (sixteen pounds) in
the Primary Department, to one hundred and sixty
dollars (thirty-two pounds) in the Collegiate. The
buildings, equipments, etc., are admirable.
The Cambridge School for Girls is largely at-
tended by the daughters of professors at Harvard.
The teachers are specialists, and they are numerous
enough to make Small classes possible. There are
two departments: (1) A preparatory department,
for pupils between eight and twelve; the subjects
AA’/VA 7TP2 SCA/OO/CS 45
taught are reading, writing, spelling, elementary
science, arithmetic, geometry, singing, drawing,
French or German, geography, English language,
and use of the voice. (2) The academic depart-
ment, ages from twelve to twenty. Here the sub-
jects are elective. There is a special classical
course, which prepares for college; the subjects it
includes are French, German, history, Latin, Greek,
arithmetic, algebra, geometry, English, physics, and
astronomy. Pupils who complete this course may
enter Harvard “Annex” with advanced standing;
that is, they are excused one year's work.
The fees range from one hundred dollars (twenty
pounds) to one hundred and seventy-five dollars
(thirty-five pounds) a year. There are two board-
ing houses connected with the school, and board
and lodging and tuition together range from nine
hundred dollars (one hundred and eighty pounds) to
one thousand dollars (two hundred pounds) a year.
At present the School is struggling under the diffi-
culties of insufficient housing; but a site for a new
building has already been chosen, and before long
it will doubtless be as excellent in accommodation
as it is already in plans and methods of teaching.
CHAPTER III
METHODS OF TEACHING-
THE great difference between American and English
schools lies, not so much in the time-table and
arrangement of work, as in the nature and aim of
the teaching. Broadly, the English school aims at
written, the American at oral, work. The work of
an English school could be tested with some fairness
by an examination of the written work of the
classes. The corresponding idea of the American
school would be gained by going in to the actual
lesson and questioning the pupils. The English
idea of home work is something to be written; the
American, something to be said. In the very lowest
classes, great attention is paid to the answering of
questions in complete sentences, arranging thoughts -
in the child's own language, describing objects
exhibited to the class, and expressing something for
the teacher to write on the blackboard. Arithmetic
generally means mental arithmetic ; science, obser-
46
MAE 7THODS OF TEACA///VG , 47
vation by the class. Sometimes a teacher will take
home a pile of papers, look them hastily through,
and comment on important points; but the idea
prevalent in England that every written exercise
should be converted into a perfect piece of work by
corrections on the teacher's part, is contrary to the
whole spirit of American teaching. I did not hear
one lesson in which the teacher dictated notes to be
written out by the pupils, and to be again read by
the teacher. Facts are taken from the text-book;
comment and discussion belong to teacher and class
alike, the teacher directing the discussion, but some-
times taking very little part in it. When writing
is required, the blackboard plays a very important
part. This generally goes round three sides of the
room, and is available not only for the teachers, but
also for the pupils. My impression was that Ameri-
can teachers use the blackboard less than we do,
while their pupils use it more. Pupils are called out
to work sums and problems before the class, and
quick questioning, leading the others to take part in
what is going on, enables this to take the place of
a good deal of written home work. Similarly, in
foreign languages, translating sentences On the
blackboard takes the place of many of Our exercises,
48 AMA 7TA/O/OS OF AE ZO UCA 7TWOAV
and has the immense value of being done quickly
and forcing the pupils to have their knowledge ready
for use. In drawing the blackboard is of great
importance. Often a girl is called up to draw an
object from memory, and the rest of the class criti-
cise her effort. .. -
The effect of this system is to throw the pupils
a good deal. On their own resources, and this is
largely to the good. They are expected to put
their own work right, to see that they get the
greatest benefit from the teacher's explanation, to
express themselves in their own words, and record
what they themselves have observed. It makes
them self-reliant, quick and ready of expression, but
it does not make them meat, or methodical, or
accurate. English teachers would be greatly
shocked at the style of much of the American
written work. American teachers would be even
more shocked at the untidy, scrappy answers given
by many of Our pupils, at their inability to think
quickly, and their very slight power of using books
unless the exact reference has been given by the
teacher.
A mixture of the two systems would produce
admirable results, but even an interchange would
ME 7TA/O DS OF 7'EA CA///VG 49
be valuable. The American child thinks quickly,
but dislikes being tied down by rule or method.
Some of our drill and mechanical work would be of
value to him. The English child thinks slowly,
naturally relies on his teacher, and rather likes
mechanical work. For him the quick questioning
and training in expressing his own thoughts would
be of the greatest value. As a matter of fact, each
nation does what it finds easiest. At a lecture
given in one of the normal colleges, I heard this
statement :—“It is a well-known fact that we all
express ourselves more easily and better in speaking
than in writing.” To the English present this
sounded startling, for we are accustomed to regard
the opposite as almost axiomatic.
A noticeable feature in American schools is the
large amount of apparatus used. Plentiful black-
boards, maps, pictures, models, scientific collections,
etc., are regarded not as luxuries, but as necessities.
Teachers show with pride the various contrivances
for facilitating their work and adding to the vivid-
ness of the teaching : maps arranged in cases so
that they can be drawn down by springs when
wanted ; gas laid on by the side of the teacher's
desk, so that when experiments have to be per-
E
5O MAE 7TATO DS OF AE/DUCA 7TWOAV
formed in the class-room, this can be satisfactorily
done; large flat-topped desks for the teachers, with
plentiful drawers and shelves, on which are
arranged the most important books of reference
connected with their work; special stands for
exhibiting objects to the class, and other countless
devices helpful to teachers and taught. Many
schools have two large laboratories—one for physics,
and One for chemistry—a studio, and a gymnasium.
Some have rooms specially fitted up as libraries, in
which the pupils are allowed to work during study
hours. They have also access to the splendid free
libraries found in every American town, and this
accessibility of books greatly influences the teach-
ing, since it is possible to refer older pupils to many
original sources, which, under any other system,
would be quite inaccessible to them. In some large
schools and in colleges, specially trained librarians
are able, by method and arrangement, to make the
contents of the library of real use to the students.
When manual training is taught, there is a good
supply of benches, tools, etc. The needs of object
lessons are considered by the School. Again and
again American teachers have said to me, “We are
very well supplied. Yes, we have everything we
A/E 7/7OADS OF 7TAZAC///AVG 5 I
need for our work; ” and it was impossible not to
feel many a jealous pang at the thought of Our
schoolrooms at home, of Ordinary class-room often
turned for the occasion into studio or laboratory,
to the great discomfort of all parties concerned,
and the detriment of the pupils.
The discipline seemed to me good in nearly all the
Schools I visited, less rigid than ours, and more
dependent on the mutual good-will of teacher and
taught, than Om mechanical rules. Too little
attention seemed to be paid to the manner of sitting,
and supposing a pupil did not care to attend, and
occupied herself in some other way, little notice was
taken. As a rule, the classes seemed interested and
anxious to learn. If they did not, it was assumed
that the loss was theirs. Here again the idea of
individual responsibility seemed strongly marked.
I carried away a very pleasant impression from
nearly all the classes in which boys and girls were
taught together. The pupils seemed generally
alert, and the whole work seemed brisk and full of
interest. It is impossible for an outsider to judge
of the difficult question of co-education. As regards
the intellectual results, the general opinion is in its
favour. I have heard such contradictory reports of
52 MAE 7TA/OA)S OF EDUCA 7TWOAV
the moral effects, that I hesitate to pronounce an
Opinion, and would rather give that of an experi-
enced teacher who had herself studied, first at
Vassar College (for women only), then at Cornell
(mixed), and had taught for several years in a
mixed and afterwards in a Girls' High School. Her
Opinion was that the good effects outweigh the bad,
and that the evil springing from the closer contact
between boys and girls is slight compared with that
resulting from keeping the sexes too much apart.
All seemed to agree that more supervision was
required in a mixed school, and that of course must
add somewhat to the difficulty. The economic gain
is a great one, as it makes larger schools with better
grading possible.
Teaching of Literature.
The teaching of English literature in America
possesses peculiar interest for the English visitor.
If it is true that to understand Old England we
Ought to see New England, where many of our old
customs are still fresh and living, it is equally true
that, if we want to find a real living love for our
Own English classics, we had better seek it in the
United States than on this side the water. In
many of Our schools there is hardly such a thing as
A/A2 ZTAZOZ),S OF 7'EA CA///VG 53
literature teaching at all. There is a lesson bearing
that name on most time-tables, but it is often a
lesson in language, not always of a systematic
character, a great part of the time being given to
studying etymology of out-of-the-way words, and
discussing little unimportant details in set books.
This deterioration in our literature teaching is due
to the too successful attempt to make literature an
examination subject, coupled with the disastrous
system of prescribing set books to be read, re-read,
criticised, paraphrased, patronized, and found fault
with by young, immature critics. The whole aim of
literature teaching, to train the mind to love of the
beautiful, is forgotten in the necessity of cramming
notes for examination. Reverence and awe, which
it should produce in young minds by the presenta-
tion of the beautiful, is exchanged for a desire to spy
faults quickly, and thus gain marks on questions set
in the examination about Shakspeare's incom-
sistency, anachronisms, misinterpretations of history,
etc.
It was a great pleasure to find some of the old
literature teaching surviving in the United States,
and, Curiously enough, I found it at its best in schools
that were in other respects rather behind the times,
54 METHODS OF EDUCATION
while a tendency to degradation of literature seemed
observable in some of the more advanced schools.
In the Baltimore High School, whose general
standard and attainments are far below the New
England schools, the instruction in literature was
admirable. There is a carefully-planned course to
extend over the whole three years, and give briefly
the history of English literature, with detailed
study of the more important authors. I saw essays
on Browning and Tennyson written by the highest
class, and was greatly pleased with the interest and
appreciation shown by the pupils. They bore
tokens of careful teaching, but there was no
monotonous repetition of the teacher's views.
The pupils had evidently read and thought for
themselves. I heard a lesson in another class who
were studying Swift. The pupils had been set to
do different work, and communicate the results to
the class. One girl was called on to read a summary
of arguments she had made from Swift's “On the
inconvenience of abolishing Christianity,” which
was really excellent. A discussion ensued on
Swift's own religious views; and the manner in
which it was treated showed how wide was the
girls' reading, and how keen their interest. I was
MAE 7"AſO/OS OF 7TEACAA/AVG 55
similarly impressed, at the New York Normal
College, by a lesson on Ruskin, in which the teacher
was illustrating Ruskin's views on certain subjects
by extracts from his writings. Here, too, the girls
had read and thought for themselves, and were
encouraged to express their views. It is interesting
to note that those schools whose curriculum is
specially directed towards preparation for college,
are not those that do the best work in literature.
They are to some extent hampered by the entrance
examination, though this has, I believe, nowhere the
cramping influence exercised by our own local
examinations. Set books for outside examinations
must always to some extent cramp the work, besides
introducing the necessity of different work for
different colleges, but the colleges do their best to
minimise these evils. Yale is just adding literature
to the subjects of its entrance examination, and set
books are required which are, to quote the Cata-
logue, “selected as well for their probable
attractiveness to the preparatory student, as for
their intrinsic importance.” We are also told that
“the questions will be constructed with a special
view to testing the candidates' familiarity with the
subject matter.” Michigan University, which, by
56 MAE 7TAZO/DS OF AZZO UCA 7TWOAV
its inspection of schools is in a position to direct
their teaching somewhat, requires an essay to be
written on some subject taken from one of the set
books, and lays down particular directions as to the
mode of study, among which I note (1) daily recita-
tions for at least one term in some such work as D. J.
Hill’s “Elements of Rhetoric and Composition,” or
A. S. Hill's “Principles of Rhetoric "; (2) a careful
study of one of Shakspeare's plays in an annotated
edition; (3) weekly exercises in Original composition.
The set subjects for 1894 are, “Julius Caesar,”
Addison’s “Sir Roger de Coverley,” “Tom Brown
at Rugby,” “Marmion,” “Rasselas,” “Oliver
Twist.” The examination for the Bryn Mawr
entrance is similar. The 1894 subjects are:
Chaucer:—“The Nonnes Tale,” Shakspeare:–
“Midsummer Night's Dream ” and “Twelfth Night,”
} )
Addison’s “Sir Roger de Coverley,” Macaulay :-
“Essays on Addison and Johnson.” This was what
was required of the candidates in 1892:—“Give an
account of Lamb's boyhood and early impressions,
as made known to us in the essays of Elia ; or give as
full an account as possible of the life of an English
Country Gentleman in the Eighteenth Century, as
described in the Coverley papers.” Harvard also
MAE 7TA/O DS OF 7TEA CA//AWG 57
requires set books, but distinctly states: “ The
student should read the prescribed books as he reads
other books; he will be expected not to know them
minutely, but to have freshly in mind their most
important parts.” In the manual of the Boston
High School course of study, these directions are
given to the teacher:-" The purpose and spirit of
the author and the merits of his thought and style
should be pointed out, his defects should be but
lightly touched ”; and again :-"Of course the
authors should be mainly studied for their literature;
if the pupils will but read with a genuine interest,
and with a fair comprehension of thought and
sentiment, not only will their standard of reading
and thinking be raised, and their literary taste
improved, but also their ability to use good English
will be increased. Merits rather than defects in the
exercises used for improving the style of expression
should be emphasized.” I quote in full the English
course of the Washington High School. This work
is compulsory, for though the principle of that school
is the elective one, certain subjects are prescribed
for all, and among them English.
FIRST YEAR:—
Representative discourse. Structure and ex-
58 MAE 7TP/ODS OF EDUCA 7TWOAV
pression, description, narration, comparison
and exposition. Twenty-seven hours.
Brief outline of English literature. Twelve
hours.
Selections from standard authors. Seventy
hours. -- *
Tennyson, Dickens, Macaulay, Coleridge,
Byron, Goldsmith, etc.
SECOND YEAR:—
Argumentative discourse — proofs a priori,
proofs by example, proofs by evidence.
Eighteen hours.
Principles of rhetoric. Thirty-six hours.
Addison, Milton. Eighteen hours.
Shakspeare (comedy). Thirty-six hours.
THIRD YEAR:—
Chaucer, “Prologue" and “Nonnes Tale.”
Twenty-eight hours.
Bacon, “Essays.” Twenty-four hours.
Milton, “Paradise Lost.” Twenty hours.
Shakspeare (tragedy). Seventy-two hours.
FourTH YEAR:—
The English essayists. Thirty-six hours.
MAE 7TA/OA),S OF TEA CA///VG 59
The English novel. Thirty-six hours.
Topics for research, criticism and invention,
connected with a study of modern poetry
and a review of grammar and rhetoric.
Seventy-two hours.
The Manual Training High Schools, in spite of
the great importance attached to the actualities of
life, are far from neglecting the literary side. All
have a careful course in English literature, even
when the exigencies of other subjects crowd out
foreign languages. At the Pratt Institute High
School the literature is very carefully connected
with history teaching. Thus the first year's his-
tory work is in ancient and mediaeval history, and
the reading consists of Hawthorne's Tanglewood
Tales, Bryant's translation of Homer, Macau-
lay's Lays of Ancient Rome, Shakspeare's Julius
Caesar, and other classics treating of the history
period. The second year is given to general history,
beginning with the Renaissance, and special pro-
minence is given to English history. The corre-
sponding literary work is on those English classics
of Shakspeare, George Eliot, and Dickens, which
are concerned with the period from the Renaissance
to the French Revolution. The third year is given
6O METHODS OF EDUCATIow
to modern history, and, not quite consistently, to
Chaucer’s “Prologue,” one of Shakspeare's historical
plays, and Fisk’s “Critical Period of United States
History.”
Besides the study of authors, much stress is laid
On rhetoric, by which is really meant the principles
of style and composition; though we are inclined
to smile at the high-sounding title, it is certain that
some study of the broad principles underlying litera-
ture must be valuable and stimulating. In the
United States this study is very common, and
Compulsory in many of the colleges for the first and
second year students. -
If the Americans are more successful than we
in teaching literature, the same can hardly be
said of language. The public schools here labour
under very serious difficulties, especially in cities
like New York, that receive large numbers of
foreign immigrants. Some of the children can
speak hardly any English; others, who come from
poor and ignorant homes, are quite unable to ex-
press themselves correctly. Hence the work of the
American teacher is made exceedingly hard. It is
impossible under the circumstances to aim very
high, and in many cases the requirements even of
METHODS OF TEACHING 61
college admission go no further than the putting
into correct English of incorrect expressions. This
kind of work is at all times of doubtful value, since
it often serves rather to impress the fault on the
pupil’s mind; but when we find candidates for
Harvard asked to correct such sentences as—“Would
not Shakspeare have been likely to at least have
heard of these savages P’’ “He claimed that Smith,
whom he supposed was an American, had written
} )
him a letter’”; “I never have, and I hope I never
will, see him "; “I do not know but what I ought
to have been clearer”; and the following in the
Harvard examination for women : “The prince
asked her for most every dance ’’; “She said that
she had lain the book on the table "; “I studied
Latin some when I was at home”; it does cause a
very disagreeable shock of surprise. Undoubtedly,
the general standard of English language teaching
is low, though there is great compensation in the
excellence of the literature.
Teaching of History.
It would not be easy to make any general state-
ments as to the teaching of history in either
America or England. In both countries the geo-
62 A/E 7TA/O/OS OA' A DUCA 7TWOAV
graphical position makes a certain amount of isola-
tion possible, and they can if they please collect
from the great mass of universal history that which
specially concerns themselves. This facilitates his-
tory teaching in the schools, but detracts much
from its real value, tending to give a distorted view
of the progress of the world, and to accentuate the
narrowness of Outlook to which both these nations
are liable. The United States and England agree in
the great prominence each gives to its own history,
often to the exclusion of all others. In the United
States this is deliberately done, because the aim of
the public schools is to produce good citizens, and
for this purpose a somewhat exaggerated view of
their own importance is beneficial rather than other-
wise. A child from the primary school upwards
is taught to believe that “America licks creation,”
much as our own boys used to be taught that one
Englishman could beat three Frenchmen; and they
are accustomed to hear their own country lauded
over every other. Undoubtedly this frame of mind
is useful in producing a certain narrow-minded * *
patriotism, very useful for ordinary working pur-
poses; but it is, of course, fatal to anything like a
true historical outlook. In England, where, till
METHODS OF TEACHING 63
quite lately, there has been no attempt to combine
citizenship with history teaching, the narrowness
seems to have less deliberate purpose, and is due
partly to insularity, and partly to the extreme diffi-
culty of general history. Whatever the cause, it is
certain that England and the United States are
much in the same case; with this difference, that
United States history is much shorter than English,
and therefore, when the children in primary and
grammar Schools have again and again worked
through the text-book, until every little detail is
imprinted on their minds, they are sometimes
allowed in the High Schools to turn to “fresh fields
and pastures new,” and learn something about the
rest of the world. This may be called the rule in
the public high Schools, but some of the private
schools have attempted a wider course of study.
Here, again, the New York Working-man's School
is to the fore with a course so interesting that I
quote it in detail:—
FIRST GRADE :-
Myths and fairy tales, primitive peoples (Eski-
mos, North American Indians). The coming
of the white men, meaning of holidays,
simple biographies.
MAE 7TAZODS OF EADUCA TVOAV
SECOND GRADE :—
Myths, stories from the Odyssey and from Ger-
man mythology, primitive peoples, poems
bearing on history, simple biographies.
THIRD GRADE :-
Stories of inventions and inventors, Robinson
Crusoe, early history of New York.
|FourTH GRADE :-
Tepresentative stories from universal history.
The Pilgrims and Puritans.
|FIFTH GRADE :-
American History, from discovery of continent
to the present time, in outline, based on
readings from Montgomery's Beginner's Uni-
ted States History.
SIXTH GRADE :-
The Oriental nations, History of Greece (Fyffe's
History Primer of Greece) and Rome (Creigh-
ton's History Primer of Rome).
SEVENTH GRADE :-
Sheldon Barnes' Studies in American history.
EIGHTH GRADE :-
Beview of ancient history, mediaeval and
modern European history in outline.
MAE 7THO/OS OA” 7TEA CA/ZAVG 65
It must be remembered that this only takes
children to the age of fourteen or fifteen, and those
who go on to the high schools will have further
opportunities of detailed work.
Another well-arranged course is that of the Bryn
Mawr School at Baltimore, which girls enter at the
age of twelve:— -
CLASS I. :—
A six months’ Course, three lessons a week.
Geography of the Western World.
Physical features studied by use of outlines,
filled in under the direction of the teacher.
Map drawing. School collection of photographs
used.
CLASS II. :—
Six months, three lessons a week.
Description work. Physical features of Euro-
pean Countries, studied according to their
historic development. Order:—Greece, Italy,
Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands,
Great Britain. Slight notes On other countries
in connection with these.
* History Proper.
CLASS I. : — -
Elementary ancient history.
66 MAE 7TA/OADS OF AEZO UCA 7T/OAV
CLASS II. :—
Legendary age of Greece.
CLASS III. : —
Roman institutions.
CLASS TV. :—
English history. The girls read some of
Shakspeare's historical plays, Scott's novels,
and portions of Macaulay's History.
CLASS V. :—
American History. N.B.-Ancient history may
be substituted.
CLASS WI. :—
In 1892 and 1893, American history as above;
1893 and 1894, European history (elective).
N.B.—If possible, this should be all lecture
and library work. Once a week a talk on
current topics is given to the whole school.
Here geography and history are connected where
possible, and the study of Roman history is brought
into connection with the study of Latin, while
literature is closely correlated in all periods.
The teaching of history in most schools is from
text-books. Often the book is used as a reader in
the lower classes, and later on certain portions are
ME 7"AſO DS OF 7 FA CA/V/VG 67
set to be learned, not as a rule by heart, but in such
a way that the pupil can answer intelligently the
questions put in class. These questions are generally
printed in the book at the end of each chapter, an
arrangement that was described to me as “labour-
saving,” on an occasion when I made some protest
against it; to which the obvious comment is, that
printing the answers would still further conduce to
this end, if that is all we have in view. The Ameri-
can text-book is a peculiar institution, self-contained
and complete in itself. It is plentifully illustrated
with pictures and maps; it is divided into lessons or
portions; it supplies questions for the teacher, names
all other books that throw light on each particular
lesson, in fact, does the teacher's work for her. I
can hardly believe that such a text-book would seem
satisfactory to a real student of history, who would
wish to lead on her pupils by the method that
seemed clearest to her own mind; but work in the
primary and grammar courses is seldom in the
hands of such students. A mistress who has to
teach all the subjects in her Own grade would gladly
welcome all possible help, and in a case of this kind
it is probable that the class suffers less from over-
direction than it would from the opposite. Even
68 ME 7TA/OADS OF EDUCA 7TWO/W
with this minute detail the difference between
intelligent and mechanical teaching is apparent.
At a school near Boston, I learned that the class
had been taken by their teacher to visit some
historic monuments in that city, and a living inter-
est was thus brought into the work; but the danger
of the text-books is that a dull teacher can and does
entirely rely on it, and the work degenerates into a
mere hearing of lessons.
Besides history teaching in many of the grammar
and some of the high schools there is instruction in
“Civics,” particularly interesting to us just now that
it is being introduced into our own Schools. Here,
too, there are text-books, and this is probably neces-
sary, for to keep such instruction impartial in any
country in which the party system of government
prevails, is a very diffièult matter, and a book that
can clearly and impartially set forth the constitution
of a country is a real boon to the teacher. In Civics
teaching two methods seem to prevail. One is the
over-patriotic One, which I was sorry to find in the
schools of New York. Its aim is to declare that the
United States is the best-governed country in the
world, and prove it by more or less inaccurate state-
ments about other countries. From the text-book
ME 7"HODS OF TEACA/WWG 69
in use at New York I cull the following:—“It was dur-
ing Henry's reign that an old man, Wolsey by name,
who had been a life-long friend of Henry the Eighth,
received a death sentence, because he would not do
a dishonest act for the King.” “Elizabeth Organ-
ized a Church, and said there must be no other kind,
and if any one was found attending any other
church, he was executed.” “In England they have
what is called a House of Commons, which many
people think is like our House of Representatives.
President Lincoln is said to have asked the following
question of some gentlemen — Gentlemen, if we
were to call a sheep's tail a leg, how many legs
would the sheep then have P’ ‘Why," said they,
‘five legs, of course.’ ‘Not so, gentlemen,' answered
Mr. Lincoln. “Why not ?' asked they. “Because,
gentlemen, calling a sheep's tail a leg does not make
it one.’ And so, calling the House of Commons like
our House of Representatives does not make it so.”
“In the House of Commons many of the members
are only twenty-One years old—mere boys to make
the laws for one of the largest countries in the
world.” “We have no King John, who can im-
prison us at his will, or smother innocent little boys.
We have no Queen Elizabeth to dictate how we
7o A/AE 7TP/O DS OF AE/O UCA 7TWO/V
shall worship the ever-living and true God. None
such are found in this glorious Republic, in which
the supreme power is vested in the people.” Fur-
ther confusion is created by the absence of all dates,
and the impression left on the reader's mind that
King John, Henry the Eighth, etc., are, all alive at
the present day, ready to torture or behead any one
who annoys them. American Institutions are also
represented as of indigenous growth, and English
ones treated as though they were feeble copies. The
value of such teaching seems rather doubtful.
Happily the problem has been taken up by more
competent writers, who realize that no description
of the American Constitution is complete without
some warning reference to the prevalent corruption,
and the tendency of power to fall into the hands of
the worst men. In Boston I found an excellent
book—“The American Citizen,” by C. S. Dole,
which is really a text-book of morals and elemen-
tary political economy, as well as an admirable
introduction to the Constitution of the United
States. This is the plan :—Part I. The beginnings
of citizenship. This includes the family, the school-
room, playground, club or debating Society, per-
sonal habits, principles that bind men together,
METHODS OF TEACHING 7.I.
duties that men owe each other, etc. Part II.-The
Citizen and the Government. This discusses the
purpose of Government; Local, State, and Federal
Government, Courts of law, taxation, the school
system, voting, political parties, etc. Part III.-
Economic duties, or the rights and duties of busi-
ness and money. Part IV.-Social rights and
duties, or the duties of men as they dwell together
in society. Part V.-International duties.
This book is intended for the higher classes of
grammar schools and for high schools; and it
necessarily touches on subjects of some difficulty,
which are most skilfully dealt with. Thus :—
“The ideal or best possible citizen is Conservative
and Progressive at once, for he prefers the old and
familiar methods of government as long as they
continue to do good service, but he is perfectly
willing to listen to any plan which promises better
service. He is cautious in trying political experi-
ments, but fearless as soon as he sees that the
change is right.” “Many see no valid reason why
women should not exercise the suffrage equally
with men. In England this is now allowed in the
case of women owning property. Some steps have
been taken towards it in the United States. It is
72 METAODS OF EDUCATIO/W
at present one of the open questions upon which
women as well as men are divided.” The practices
of cheating at elections, rings, Office-seeking, etc.,
are boldly faced and condemned, while the writer
points out that the best citizens desire the removal
of these abuses. The spirit that animates the
whole is well summed up thus:–“A citizen's duty
and responsibility bind him to his Own Country, as
family ties bind him to be faithful to his own rela-
tives; but while patriotism urges us to serve the
interests of Our Own Country, it never requires us to
serve our own country to the injury or loss of other
nations. It is not patriotism to cry, ‘My country,
right or wrong,” or to help and uphold one's Govern-
ment in doing injustice to another country.”
In the high school it is generally assumed that
United States history is known, and here an
attempt is made to give some sketch of the history
of other Countries. In some schools several hours a
week are given to the subject, and it is therefore
possible to take a brief outline of general history,
beginning with ancient, and proceeding in chrono-
logical order to modern times. No attempt is made
to specialize in set periods at school. All such work
is left for college, its fitting place. Happily, the
MAE 7TP/ODS OF 7"AºA CA///VG 73
United States have avoided the error into which so
many of Our Schools have fallen, and sought their
models rather in German than in English schools.
I have already quoted (page 59) the course in the
Pratt Institute High School. That in other schools
is very similar. Speaking generally, the work of
the three years is : —
|FIRST YEAR :—
Ancient history.
SECOND YEAR :—
Mediaeval history.
THIRD YEAR :—
Modern history. - - - - -
With four or five lessons a week, a very good general
outline may be given. Sometimes, but not always,
there is a special review of American history in a
fourth year. Of course even better results would be
achieved if some of this work could be begun at an
earlier stage, especially the stories from Greek and
Roman history, which are so popular in the lower
grades of a school, and which, by presenting the
human and picturesque aspect, stimulate a love of
the subject. Here is another disadvantage of the
division into primary, grammar, and high schools,
each separate and independent. A course cannot
74. A/E 7THODS OF EDUCA 7TWOAV
be begun in One school and finished in another.
Besides, in the grammar school there is “grade ’’
and not “subject” teaching, and so difficult a sub-
ject as history cannot be profitably taught by a
teacher who has also to take every subject with her
Own class. In these schools, history must be con-
fined within the narrowest limits, and the text-
book must, as a rule, be the limit for teacher and
pupil. The better class of private schools can, of
course, aim at something higher. The need of
combining subject with class teaching is beginning
to be felt by educationalists, and many are express-
ing their desire for the appointment of College
women in grammar, as well as in high Schools.
When this becomes general, history teaching will
improve, and traditionary text-book methods grad-
ually disappear. At any rate, the need for better
teaching is acknowledged by advanced teachers,
and the present state of things is thus summed up
in the preface to an admirable volume—“Methods
of Teaching History,” in the Pedagogical Library,
edited by G. Stanley Hall: “ History was chosen for
the subject of the first volume of this educational
library, because, after much observation in the
School-houses of many of the larger cities in the
MAE 7TA/O/OS OF 7 EA CA///VG 75
eastern part of our country, the editor, without
having a hobby about its relative importance, or
being in any sense an expert in history, is con-
vinced that no subject so widely taught, is, on the
whole, taught so poorly. Most text-books now in
use are dry compilations, and yet are far more
closely adhered to than even the best should be in
this department. Teachers of history generally
give instruction also in several other often unrelated
branches, and, worst of all perhaps, history is
crowded into a single term or year.”
The editor lays great stress on—first, the impor-
tance of beginning early with story-telling ; second,
the need of beginning historical instruction earlier,
and not crowding all together into the last years of
school life. For this special teachers are required.
“The high educational value of history is too great
to be left to teachers who merely hear recitations,
keeping their finger on the place in the text-book,
and only asking the questions conveniently printed
for them in the margin or back of the book,
teachers who know that their present method is a
good illustration of how history ought not to be
taught, and who would do better if opportunity
were offered them.”
76 METHODS OF EDUCATION
The inductive method in the ordinary sense is
not applicable to history; hence one of two methods
is generally adopted—that in which the pupil does
all the work, that is, learns the lesson from the
text-book, and is questioned by the teacher; and
that in which the teacher does the work and lec-
tures to the pupil, dictating some notes to be
Committed to memory. Roughly speaking, the -
American method is the first, the English the
second. A compromise is hard to find. It has
been attempted in some colleges, and is sometimes
described as the “laboratory method '' in history,
or better, as the method of “independent research.”
The plan here is to assign different topics to indi-
vidual students, let them work these up in all the
books at hand, and communicate the results to the
class. At other times they are set to search special
authors for references to subjects indicated, and to
collect all the allusions that throw light on them,
compare with those found by other students, and
thus a class may between them, with the Pro-
fessor's direction, collect all the evidence obtainable
on a given subject. This is admirable training for
original research, which is expected in the best
universities from those who take graduate work in
ME 7TA/O DS OF 7TEA CA///VG 77
history. It is not, however, a school method, and
the exigencies of school work, with its multiplicity
of subjects, would make this impossible, even if it
were desirable. Some intelligent teachers, who are
themselves historical students, induce the pupils to
read, and discuss with them the results of their
reading, and this work is facilitated by cheap re-
prints of such documents as Magna Charta, Bill of
Bights, Declaration of Independence, etc., which
bring them within reach of all.
It may be said that history teaching in the
|United States is still in the transition stage; the
carefully-planned Courses and elaborate methods are
a counsel of perfection; they will not be found in
the average school, where the text-book still holds
undisputed sway, but they will penetrate some
day; for the desire for better things has grown
strong. It has taken root in the universities, and
it will penetrate down into the schools and work
a revolution there.
Teaching of Classics.
In the United States, as in most other countries,
a classical education falls to the lot of the minority,
but while in England the right to it is still largely
a matter of class, in the United States the High
78 MAE 7TA/OADS OF AEADUCA 7TWOAV
School system opens it to all who can afford
sufficient time for a study which does not bear
on the practical needs of life. These must always
be the few, and hence, in spite of the ambition
for college implanted in so many young Americans,
the classical courses and Latin schools never attract
as many pupils as the English substitutes. But
it is interesting to note that Latin does keep an
honoured place in American Schools, and some of
our English revolutionists would be surprised to
find that the go-ahead Americans, far from throw-
ing it overboard altogether, find a place for Latin
in some of the English and scientific as well as
the classical courses, and that at the newest of all
Universities—the University of Chicago—Latin is
compulsory for all the Academic Courses, even
that in Science, and Greek as well for that in
Arts. It is interesting to note that at Boston
Latin is compulsory in both English and Latin
schools, Greek in the Latin. At the New York
Normal College, Latin is required of all students,
Greek only of those that take the Academic
Course. At Newhaven, Latin is required of all
high School pupils except those that take the
commercial course.
ME 7THODS OF TEACA/AVG 79
I believe I am right in stating that nowhere in
the public schools is Latin begun in the grammar
school. Here, again, the whole burden falls on the
high school. Three or four years, of which a
great portion is given to other difficult subjects,
are all that can be spared for Latin and Greek. In
comparing the results with those obtained in Eng-
land, we meet the difficulty of defining the English
standard, which probably varies more in classics
than in any other subject, while the teaching given
to boys and girls is very different. Of course there
is nothing in the American high Schools that can
be compared with the achievements of our great
public schools, which boys enter from good pre-
paratory schools; but again in many of Our inferior
schools the results in classics bear no proportion
to the time spent on them. Perhaps the boys and
girls in the American High School can best be
compared with the girls in our own High Schools,
who, though they begin the study much earlier,
yet have fewer lessons a week, and therefore at
the end of their course have probably spent about
the same amount of time On it as their American
sisters. Whether it is better to begin early and
learn slowly, or late and learn fast, is a disputed
8O A/E 7TA/O/OS OF AZZO UCA 7TWOAV
question. In the American school it is not opinion,
but necessity, imposed by the system of grading,
that causes this late beginning. Many of the
teachers regret it, and indeed the Boston plan of
admitting promising pupils at an early age to the
Latin schools aims at avoiding the evil. The
shortness of the course necessitates the greatest
economy of time. Nothing superfluous must be
learned ; of course there is no verse composition ;
practically there is no prose, though there is a good
deal of retranslation of sentences from the books
in reading. The study of grammar is limited to
what is absolutely essential, that is chiefly acci-
dence. The aim throughout is a reading and not
a writing knowledge of the language, and all
efforts are concentrated on this with a good deal of
Sll CCGSS. %
Of course, teachers and pupils differ in the United
States as elsewhere, and it would be impossible
to pass any sweeping criticism on the teaching of
Latim ; but, as a rule, I found the construing good
and spirited, and the knowledge of the subject
matter considerable. Almost everywhere some his-
tory and literature are connected with the teaching,
and the aim seemed to teach not only Greek and
MAE 7TA/O/OS OF TEA CAZAVG - 8 I
Latin, but also Greece and Rome. At the Boston
Latin School the historical course for Class IV.,
which begins Greek, is “reading Plutarch's ‘Lives
of Famous Greeks,’ reading descriptions of and
studying the great events in the history of Ancient
Greece, and making oral or written reproductions
or abstracts of the same.” Class III, takes up
Plutarch’s “Roman Lives,” and adds to them Macau-
lay’s “Lays of Ancient Rome.” Ancient literature
is also studied wherever possible, and in some of
the Colleges lectures are given in this subject, not
of an advanced character, but simply to supply a
framework into which to fit the works read by
the students. This is of great assistance in giving
life to the study.
Great stress is laid on sight reading as well as
on prepared translation, and this is usually taken
orally in class, instead of being written work as
with us. Even work set for examination is often
read in this way, for it is chiefly translation that
is required, with questions on subject matter, and
I have never seen an American examination paper
that dealt with the small points of scholarship and
different readings to which so much time must be
given in our schools. Exercises are usually pre-
G.
82 A/E 7TA/O DS OF AZZO UCA 7TWOAV
pared by pupils, and read in class, or else written
On the blackboard, each pupil taking a different
sentence. There does not seem to be anything like
Our drill in exercises or grammar, but this is in
no sense what is aimed at.
In Some places an attempt has been made to,
teach Latin by what is called the “natural method,”
but this does not seem to have been a success, and
it has been generally abandoned. One school which
I visited had tried this plan, but was now using
more accurate grammatical methods, and the Super-
iority of the construing in the lower classes, which
had been taught more grammatically, was very
marked.
All the classical work is mapped out with a view
to economy of time. Pupils commence with acci-
dence, and soon begin to read. The directions for
the Boston Latin Schools give this suggestion:—
“Beginners should hear much easy Latin read
and translated, and should read aloud the same or
similar passages, and translate them into English,
so that Latin words, the changes in their forms,
and the force of their changes, may become familiar.”
Reading is the main object, and everything else
subordinate to it. Syntax is largely taught in
MAE 7TP/O DS OF 7TEA CA///VG 83
connection with reading, and special exercise books
are published to accompany certain books of Caesar,
Cicero, etc., thus enabling the reading and writing
to be pursued side by side on a plan somewhº
resembling that of our Parallel Grammar Series.
Not much attention seems given to irregular forms,
which absorb so much time in our schools. There
is a good deal of retranslation, but no composition,
except in very advanced classes, which are said
to be doing College work. Great stress is laid on
a knowledge of ancient history, institutions, etc.,
and photographs, maps, casts, even magic lantern
slides are used to emphasize this part of the work.
In classics, as in many other subjects, much
waste is saved by the careful planning of courses.
I append those of the Boston Latin School, the
Packer Institute, and the Cambridge Girls’ School.
Latin Course at the Boston Latin School.
CLASS WI.
LATIN:—Five hours a week.
1. Forms and constructions, with exercises thereon.
2. Oral and, occasionally, written translation of (a)
easy Latin, and (b) at least Books I, II, and III.
of Caesar's Gallic War. (c) Unprepared translation
of easy Latin. -
84 MAE 7THO/OS OF EDUCA 7TWOAV
3. (a) Reading aloud, copying, and writing from
dictation familiar passages from Caesar. (b) Repeat-
ing aloud or writing passages from Caesar that have
been carefully studied and committed to memory.
4. English into Latin, including simple Oral and
written exercises based upon passages from Caesar.
CLASS V.
LATIN:—Five hours a week.
1. Regular forms, with simple exercises illustrat-
ing their use.
2. (a) Oral and written translation of easy Latin
into English. (b) Unprepared translation of easy
Latin with the help of the teacher.
3. (a) Reading aloud, copying, and writing from
dictation Latin simple in construction, and composed
of words familiar to the pupils. (b) Simple oral and
written translation of English into Latin.
CLASS IV.
LATIN:—Five hours a week.
1. Oral and, Occasionally, written translation, at
least, (a) of Books IV. and W. of Caesar's Gallic
War; (b) of 1000 lines of Ovid ; and (c) of Book I.
and a part of Book II. of the AEneid. (d) Umpre-
pared translation of average passages from Caesar
and of the easier passages from Ovid.
MAE TAZODS OF TEACH/AVG 85
2. (a) Writing from dictation, and committing to
memory passages from Caesar. (b) Reading met-
rically and committing to memory passages from
Ovid.
3. English into Latin, including oral and written
exercises based upon passages from Caesar.
CLASS III.
LATIN:—Four hours a week.
1. Oral and, occasionally, written translations (a)
of the remainder of Book II., and the whole of Books
III, IV, and V. of the Æneid; (b) of Sallust's
Catiline; and (c) of at least one of Nepos’ Lives;
(d) Unprepared translation of average passages from
Caesar, and of the easier passages from Sallust,
Nepos, and Virgil.
2. (a) Writing from dictation, and committing to
memory, passages from Sallust or Nepos. (b) Reading
metrically, and committing to memory passages from
Virgil.
3. English into Latin, including Oral and written
exercises based upon passages from Caesar, Sallust,
or Nepos. .
CLASS II.
LATIN:-Four hours a week.
1. Oral and, Occasionally, written translations (a)
86 ME 7 HODS OF AEA) UCA 7TWOAV
of at least three more books of the AEmeid and the
Eclogues of Virgil; (b) of at least four orations of
Cicero; and (c) of some of Nepos' Lives. (d) Un-
prepared translation of average passages from Caesar
and Nepos, and of the easier passages from Virgil
and Cicero.
2. (a) Writing from dictation and committing to
memory passages from the prose writers studied;
and (b) reading metrically and committing to
memory passages from Virgil.
3. English into Latin, including oral and written
exercises based upon passages from Caesar, Nepos, or
Cicero.
CLASS I.
LATIN:—Four hours a week.
1. Prepared and unprepared translations, Oral and
written, from Virgil and Cicero.
2. (a) Writing from dictation and committing to
memory passages from Cicero ; and (b) reading
metrically and committing to memory paSSages
from Virgil.
3. English into Latin, including Oral and written
exercises based upon passages from Nepos and
Cicero.
META/ODS OF TEA CANAVG 87
Latin Course at the Cambridge School for Girls.
1. Lindsay and Rollins’ Easy Latin Lessons.
Reading of connected stories.
2. Caesar's Gallic War begun, together with a
systematic study of Latin Grammar. The contem-
porary Roman history in its relation to Caesar is kept
in view as far as possible. A written translation
every week.
3. Parts either of the Gallic War Or the Civil
War are read the first term, and the grammatical
study is continued. Later Virgil is taken up, and
several books of the AEneid and some of the Ec-
logues are read.
4. Six of Cicero's most important orations are read
carefully with reference to the contemporary history.
Parts of Sallust's Catiline are read in connection
with Cicero's Orations against Catiline.
5. Cicero and Virgil are read more extensively
than in previous years. The course is in preparation
for the advanced elective in Latin in the college
examinations. -
6. Work in Cicero, Livy, and Terence correspond-
ing to the work of the Freshman year in Harvard
College. The Course prepares its students to enter
the Sophomore Latin classes of the college. Pupils
88 ME THODS OF AE/DUCA 7TWOAV
who do not expect to enter college may take this
Course, if qualified.
7. Latin composition. In preparation for the ex-
amination for admission to college.
Packer Institute.
FIRST AND SECOND YEARs:—
Elements of grammar, four books of Caesar,
Cicero's First Oration against Catiline, prose
composition begun.
THIRD AND FourTH YEARs:—
Other orations of Cicero, parts of Virgil and
Horace, prose composition" completed.
|FIFTH AND SIXTH YEARS :—
Selections from Livy, Juvenal, Pliny, Cicero's
philosophical works and Roman histories.
The two last are private schools, which lay great
stress on classics, and the Smaller classes and greater
liberty enable them to achieve more than can be
done by most of the public schools. The Boston
Latin School has a six years' course (see page 15).
The last two years' work at the Cambridge School
and Packer Institute is classed as college work, and
'Of course the term “prose composition ” is not used in the
sense we give it.
AMAE 7THODS OF 7'EA CA/NAVG 89
pupils who have done this are admitted with ad-
vanced standing. As an example of an ordinary
three years' course, I give the Latin course at the
Maryland High Schools.
FIRST YEAR:—
Latin grammar and reader.
SECOND YEAR:—
Caesar, three books.
THIRD YEAR :—
Virgil, AEmeid, four books, Sallust, Conspiracy
of Catiline. - -
As an example of a Greek course, I quote that of
the Boston Latin Schools.
CLASS III.
GREEK:—Five hours a week.
1. Forms, with simple exercises illustrating their
TLS62.
2. (a) Oral and written translation of easy Greek
into English. (b) Oral translation of, at least, a part
of Book I. Of the Anabasis. (c) Unprepared trans-
lation of easy Greek, with the help of the teacher.
3. (a) Reading aloud, copying, and writing from
dictation Greek, simple in construction, and Com-
posed of words familiar to the pupils. (b) Simple
90 MAE 7TAZO/OS OA' A D OVCA 7TWO AV
oral and written translation of English into Greek,
including exercises based upon passages from Book I.
of the Anabasis.
CLASS II.
GREEK:—Five hours a week.
1. Forms and idioms, with exercises thereon.
2. (a) Oral and written translations of, at least,
Books I-IV. of the Anabasis or its equivalent. (b)
Unprepared translation of simple Attic prose. (c)
IReading aloud, writing from dictation, and Com-
mitting to memory familiar passages from Greek.
3. English into Greek, including oral and written
exercises based upon passages from Xenophon.
CLASS I.
GREEK:-Four and a half hours a week.
1. Either translations from Homer, including
unprepared translations of average and easier pas-
sages; or translations from both Homer and
Herodotus, including unprepared translations of
the easier passages.
2. Reading metričally and committing to memory
passages from Homer.
3. English into Greek, including oral and written
exercises based upon passages from Xenophon.
MAE 7TP/O DS OF TEA CA/NAVG 9I
Teaching of Modern Languages.
In modern languages the same difficulty of late
beginning has to be faced, and here it is the more to
be regretted, as much trouble is taken to impart a
speaking knowledge of the language, often by
methods which, delightful to young children, are
not quite suitable for older ones. I heard an admir-
able lesson on the Berlitz method, in which no
English was spoken, and the objects in the room
were used as far as possible to provide subjects for
conversation; but the children were too old for this,
and the sense of absurdity checked their power of
expression. Such teaching could be introduced with
very great advantage into the public schools, and
indeed in New York German is taught, and often
very successfully, by German teachers. Except
that the natural methods seem to have won a wider
popularity in the United States than in England, I
do not think there are any essential differences
between our methods of teaching modern languages;
but we carry Our girls further in them. Sight trans-
lation of moderately easy French and German is
generally the end aimed at in the United States
high Schools. There is no literature, or composition,
or advanced grammar. The college entrance re-
92 MAE 7TP/O DS OF AEDUCA TVOAV
quirement is usually sight translation, sometimes
accompanied with very easy questions in grammar.
It is desired that students should be able to use
reference books in French or German if required,
and the teaching is directed to this end. Some-
times the lesson is given in the foreign language,
and this is helpful in familiarizing the pupil with
the sound, though not much is really gained by it,
as it is often a mere repetition of the same phrases.
At the Boston Latin School French or German
is studied for three years. These directions are
given :—
“Pupils should, with the help of the teacher, read,
at the outset, French or German, and translate it
into English. They should be trained to observe
forms and idioms, and the force of these ; and thus
should acquire some real knowledge of the foreign
language before they begin to study its formal
grammar.”
Sight translation is usually taken from a con-
tinuous narrative, and not selected passages, as with
us. The continuous reading is particularly useful
at first, as children becoming familiar with One
style soon read with some ease, and thus gradually
acquire a grasp of the language. The aim is not to
AMAE 7TA/O/OS OF TEA CAZAVG 93
read, re-read, and re-translate one particular set
book, but to read a great deal, until the words and
idioms of the new language sink into the mind.
The object is to learn the language, not to get up a
book. There is so much that is good in the Ameri-
can modern language teaching, that it is impossible
not to hope that some day it may be begun lower
down in the schools, and thus achieve its best
results. I quote the French and German courses at
the Bryn Mawr School and the German at Washing-
ton High School, where French is not taught.
Bryn Mawr School.
ERENCH :—The whole course lasts six years, with
four lessons a week.
CLASS I. :—
Vocabulary learnt through words written on
the board. Practice in question and answer
is given on these. Some poetry is learnt and
short stories; avoir and étre ; little games
played in French.
CLASS II. :—
Cogery's Elementary French, short exercises
and vocabulary learnt through these ; exer-
cises worked orally and then written, auxili-
ary verbs and four conjugations. Book
94. Alſ/2 TA/O/DS O/7 E/DUCA /YOAV
read: “Mémoires d’un fine.” Amswers in
Trench to questions. Games and exercises in
writing letters.
CLASS III. :—
Chardenal's First French Course, case, gender,
etc., feminines and plurals, verbs irregular ;
Book read, “Le Roi des Montagnes.”
CLAss IV. :—
Chardenal continued, construction of sentences,
irregular verbs finished; Book read, Daudet,
“Lettres de mom Moulin.”
CLAss W. :—
Demogeot : Extracts of French writers in the
sixteenth century to Our day, prose and
poetry, set translation, review irregular verbs,
and work to end of Chardenal.
CLASS WI. :—
Five lessons a week.
Selections read from different authors, a
large vocabulary acquired ; Bué, French
idioms.
GERMAN:-Four lessons a week.
CLASS I. :–
Nouns, adjectives, possessive and personal pro-
mouns, easy conjugating, strong verbs, reading
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vanced composition, grammar. One hundred
and forty-four hours.
|FourTH YEAR :—
Sheldon's German Grammar, Goethe's Meister-
werke complete, selections from Schiller,
Lessing’s Nathan der Weise.
CHAPTER IV
MANUAL TRAINING:
THIS is the name used in America for instruction in
hand-work, given for educational purposes, and is
really preferable to our English term, “technical
education.” The word “technical "implies acquaint-
ance with the details of a particular trade Or
profession, and it is an anomaly to have it stated in
Our Technical Instruction Act that “it shall not
include the teaching the practice of any trade, or
industry, or employment.” This anomaly is the
cause of much confusion, and it even hampers to
some extent the work of our Technical Institutes,
since one section of the community regards them as
training schools for trades, and another as continua-
tion schools, where the chief aim is a development
of the hand and eye. The Americans define sharply
between manual training and technical education,
and gain thereby the advantages that belong to
greater definiteness of aim.
98 MAE TA/O DS OF EDUCA TVOAV
There are three objects that may be sought by the
pupil in manual work.
I. Education: the purpose being the harmonious
development of the faculties. This is the aim of
the manual training high School, and of course of
the kindergarten. Attempts are now being made in
many parts of the States to bridge Over the gap
between the kindergarten and the high school by a
continuous and carefully developed course of manual
exercises interwoven with the Ordinary school work.
This training in the kindergarten, primary, and
grammar Schools is for all. The manual training
high school marks the first step in specialization,
and the point when the pupil must decide whether
his further education is to be on the practical and
scientific, or literary and classical side.
II. Technical skill in the various branches of
industrial and domestic art, handicrafts, and
mechanical trades. This is the work of trade
schools, of which some few exist in America. They
labour under considerable disadvantages, owing to
the hostile attitude of the local trades' unions; still
they are gradually making way, and doing something
to replace the system of apprenticeship, which is non-
existent in the States. This is also the character of
AMA AWUAJC 7TA’A ZAV/AVG 99
a great part of the work done in those magnificent
foundations known as the Drexel, Pratt, and Armour
Institutes.
III. Special instruction given to those who wish to
Supplement the training of school by attention to
particular branches of manual training. This work
is somewhat of the character of that done at Our
Polytechnics and Technical Institutes, and by many
classes held under the direction of the County
Councils. This is given in the institutes already
named, and also in many others; thus, classes for
Cookery and dressmaking, woodwork, etc., are held
by the guilds in connection with the churches in
most American cities, and by the Young Men's
and Women's Christian Associations, which are
established on an extremely broad basis, and admit
to the benefits of such classes Christians of every
shade of belief, and even Jews and Freethinkers.
Of these the first class is the only one directly
Concerned in Secondary education.
The Subject of manual training is at present
exciting great interest in America. This is due
largely to a feeling of reaction in a country where
hand-work has for long been completely without
honour, and labour was both dear and bad, and the
IOO MAE 7TAZO/DS OF AE/O ÚCA 7TWO/V
workman’s pride in his work almost unknown. With
this feeling prevalent, the great development of the
schools, with their exclusively mental training, was
a doubtful blessing both to the individual and the
Community. Indeed an American writer thus
describes the situation :--‘‘Our system of education
trains boys, not to become craftsmen, but to be un-
willing to be put to any kind of craft.” Gradually
the idea gained ground that the schools themselves
should be used as a means of combating this evil.
Gradually too, the idea spread that it was the har-
monious development of body and mind that was
required, and when once this was fully grasped, the
Americans set to work with their usual energy to
provide a remedy. To quote from the address given
at the Chicago Educational Conference by Dr.
Woodward, Director of the Manual Training School,
St. Louis:—“Manual training, as an educational
factor, owed its existence to a widespread conviction
that the attention of the schools has been dealing too
exclusively with the abstract and the remote, and
not enough with the concrete and present. The
thought-product of the schools was too dim and un-
certain, and the knowledge gained had no sufficient
bearing on matters of daily life. Consequently, the
A/AAWUAJC 7TA’AAAW/AWG I O I
pupil lacked mental vigour and clearness, and his
school experience was deficient in practical elements.
Manual training embodies prominently the modern
idea of substituting things for words, observation
for printed description, and personal experience for
the recorded experience of others.” This new
impulse to the schools spread upwards and down-
wards; it led on the one hand to the endowment by
generous millionaires of the splendid institutes
already mentioned, on the other to the spread of the
kindergarten movement, which has found such
favour in some American cities as to be almost a
religion to its most ardent votaries. The whole
salvation of the child—moral, mental, and physical—
is to be sought in the kindergarten. *
I am not aware that anything very new has been
introduced into the kindergarten in the United
States, but energetic attempts are being made to
make the transition from kindergarten to primary
work less sharp, and to carry Froebel’s principles up
beyond the kindergarten stage. This is at present
engaging the attention of many practical teachers,
and formed an important part of the discussion at
the Chicago Conference. Different schools have
different methods. Work in cardboard, paper-fold-
I O2 A/A277A/O DS OF EDUCA TYO/V
ing, etc., is popular in some, clay-modelling in others;
woodwork of an easy kind, by Slöjd or other systems,
is popular, but this is chiefly left to the grammar
grades. -
I quote a few courses to show how the problem
has been handled by different schools. I give the
boys' as well as the girls’ work, because the former
has been as yet far better worked out than the latter,
and also because there is much in it that might be
adapted to the use of girls:–
The Colorado State Normal School teaches Slöjd
from the kindergarten to the high School.
1. Stick-laying, paper-folding, cutting, pasting,
Sewing, clay-modelling, etc.
2. Geometric solids and objects involving them,
made in paper and paste-board.
3. Moulding and carving, in putty, clay, and
paraffin.
4. Work in thin wood with tools.
5. Work in thick wood. --
Here the word “Slöjd” is obviously used in its
Original sense of “skill,” and not in the narrower
sense of making a particular series of models in
woodwork.
The Jewish School at Chicago teaches:–
MAAWUAA TRA/AW/AWG IO3
. Slöjd from grades eight to five.
Cardboard work from eight to five.
Woodwork for boys, four to one.
Machine-work for boys, two and one.
Sewing for girls, eight to one.
i
Cutting for girls, four to one.
7. Domestic economy, two and one.
N.B.—Here the first grade is the highest,
The Working-man's School at New York gives
form lessons and manual work to boys and girls in
the first and Second grades. In the third, fourth,
fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, the boys do
more advanced manual work, mechanical drawing,
etc., and the girls Sewing and easy dressmaking.
Clay-modelling is taught from the Second to the
eighth grades. In this last they model heads from
Casts. -
Designing is taught from the fifth to the eighth
grades, accompanied by studies in historic ornament.
|Freehand drawing is taught from the third to the
eighth grades.
In Washington, Brookline, Brooklyn, and Boston,
the kindergarten work is continued in the primary
grades by stick and canvas laying, paper-cutting
and folding, clay-modelling, working in cardboard,
IO4. A/AE 7TA/O/),S OF EVO UCA 7TWOAV
drawing and designing. Sewing for the girls is
but slowly making its way into the schools. The
diversity of American systems allows, of course, all
infinite variety; each state—or in some states each
town—is at liberty to take up or neglect manual
training as it pleases; and as it is just now one of
the burning questions of American education, the
war between the advocates of manual training,
generally known by their adversaries as the “fad-
dists,” and its opponents, is being very eagerly
waged. As far as it is possible to prophesy, after
so short a stay in the country, I am inclined to
think that the manual training advocates will carry
the day, and that the education which tends to
train both mind and hand will be more and more
firmly established throughout the States.
Among interesting experiments in manual work
for primary and grammar grades, I note the fol-
lowing:—
Slöjd.—The Slöjd work, as taught at Nāās, in
Sweden, under Dr. Salamon, is too well known in
England to require detailed description. Excellent
as are its aims, it has not taken a very strong hold
in English Schools. There can be little doubt that
this is due to its being a system adapted to the
A/AAVOA / TRA/AWAVG IO 5
needs of a very different country, and to the inelastic
methods of transplanting that system bodily into
England without regard to our different circum-
stances. The Swedish theory that Slöjd should be
taught by the Ordinary class teacher, combined
with the English theory that the teacher must be
trained in Sweden, must necessarily hinder the
spread of Slöjd. Other objections are: its unsuit-
ableness for class teaching, the unsatisfactoriness of
the models, and the slight acquaintance with tools
possessed by teachers after a short course of six or
twelve weeks’ training. - -
In 1887, an attempt was made at Boston to intro-
duce Slöjd by way of an experiment. At first the
System was imported ready-made from Sweden, and
failed altogether through lack of interest in the
pupils. In 1888 a new teacher, fresh from Sweden,
took the work in hand, and proceeded to adapt it
to American needs. His first step was to change
the models, many of which are totally meaning-
less to English and American boys. Objects used
in American life were introduced, many of the
earlier models were made larger than the Swedish,
and care was taken to avoid too monotonous repeti-
tion of an exercise or form. Next the working
Ioé /MA2 THODS OF EDUCA 7TWON
prints were abolished, from which the pupils had
simply copied the drawings on the wood, and they
were required to make and work from their own
drawings on paper. This added immensely to the
educational value of the work. The small classes of
ten or fifteen were found quite useless, when it
became a question of really embodying Slöjd in the
School system; a successful attempt was made to
teach classes of twenty or thirty, and by careful
arrangement of the benches, it was found possible to
work this. To avoid the serious expense of fitting
up workshops in the individual schools, a system of
centres has been adopted at Boston. Here work-
shops have been fitted up, and these are attended
on different days by boys from different public
Schools. An interesting centre in a very poor dis-
trict, is the industrial school at North Bennett
Street. This, like much of the best educational
work at Boston, was started by Mrs. Quincey Shaw,
and afterwards made over to the town. Classes
from different schools attend here once a week for
lessons of two hours. The boys learn shoemaking,
printing, or Carpentering. The carpentering here
is a mixed system of Slöjd and joint-work. It has
a somewhat more practical tendency than the Or-
MAAWUAJC Z RA YA///VG Io'7
dinary Slöjd work, and is meant for boys who will
early have to earn their living, and may wish to
take up carpentering as a trade.
Another variety was introduced last year, namely,
a course of models, beginning with saw work.
Some large models were made first, as being really
easier, and the knife brought in later on. Another
experiment was to bring the work into the ordinary
Schoolroom, thus obviating the expense of special
workshops. The apparatus for this consists simply
in a small tray or board, 19 inches by 13 inches,
with a wooden rim, two triangles, dividers, rules,
file, and a knife with a stout handle and a blade an
inch and a half long. Very thin board is used;
the object to be made is first drawn upon it, and
then cut out with the knife, and the various parts
are put together in some permanent form.
Similar in its aim is a course of whittling in Wood,
accompanied by simple exercises in mechanical
drawing. This course is given in the regular
Schoolroom to the whole class. A desk cover table
has been designed to fit on the regular school desk,
Containing a drawer with a block of paper 7, inches
by 8% inches, ruler, try-square, pencil, Slöjd knife,
Compasses, gimlet, and a sand-paper block.
IO8 MAE 7TA/O/OS OA' A D OVCA 7TWOAV
In most of the Boston schools the actual Slöjd
work is confined to the second grammar grade; but
the expedients described above with cardboard
work, paper - folding, etc., afford excellent and
cheaper opportunities for manual development in
the lower grades. There is no definite system laid
down for all Boston schools, but considerable
freedom of choice is allowed, and different plans are
purposely tried, with a view to testing the efficiency
of each.
The system of centres facilitates the appointment
of specialist teachers, and makes a longer and more
careful training possible than would be the case
were the already overburdened form teacher ex-
pected to add another to a long list of teaching
subjects. The requisites for a teacher's diploma
a,I’é –
1. The satisfactory completion of thirty-one
models.
2. Proof of ability to make and use working
drawings, and of skill in the sharpening and care
of tools.
3. Evidence of teaching ability.
4. A short essay on the theory and educational
value of manual training, written in class.
MAAWUAJC 7T/84/AV/AVG IO9.
The conditions of entering the training class
3,176) ...—
1. Graduation from a Normal school, or training
and experience, which is considered as an equivalent.
2. Twenty-five hours a week for six months must
be given to the study of the theory and practice of
educational manual training.
3. Students are received on probation. Those
showing little aptitude for the work will be advised
to discontinue the course.
As yet no attempt has been made at Boston to
teach girls Slöjd. In the manual training depart-
ment of the New York Normal College, I saw a
class of students working at it. They used some
Swedish and some American models, and those who
showed inventive power were encouraged to devise
and work out fresh models for themselves. The
blackboard was largely used in explaining and illus-
trating, and the class, although small, seemed to be
full of life and interest. I was told that the de-
mand for Slöjd teachers was very small in New
York, and that there was little inducement for the
students to take it up. Indeed, manual work has
mot yet gained much ground in the public schools
there.
I IO METHODS OF EDUCATION
Philadelphia, though in many respects behind-
hand in educational matters, has made an excellent
start in this direction. In fact, it was really here
that manual work first originated in the States, and
this was largely due to the efforts of Mr. Charles
Leland, who is chiefly known in this country as a
writer, and is probably most popular as the author
of the “Breitmann Ballads.” It was he who chiefly
influenced the Board of Education to introduce
hand-work into the public schools, and, in con-
junction with Mr. Liberty Tadd, who still directs
the school, he worked out a scheme of instruction.
The fact that seventeen different methods were
tried and rejected before the inventors were satis-
fied, shows the earnestness with which they
grappled with the problem. To quote Mr. Liberty
Tadd's own words : “Only after striving and
struggling up above the use of instruments of pre-
cision, rules, compasses, mechanical methods, etc.,
could we recognise the futility of their use in de-
veloping the mind, the judgment, and the hand ;
Only by trying, testing, and proving the fallacy of
the old methods, did we emerge into the light of
better ways. Flat copies, feeble art methods, abuse
of geometric forms and blocks (making blockheads),
A/AA/UA / 7 AºA //V/AWG I I I
false, artificial, and unnatural systems, devised for
money-making purposes, were tried and proved
wanting.”
The special points of this system are these :—
1. All work is freehand.
2. Much work is done by pupils on the black-
board, to promote freedom and firmness of hand.
3. Pupils are taught to use both right and left
hands, sometimes alternately and sometimes to-
gether, in particular in drawing symmetrical figures
and pairs of circles on the blackboard.
4. Imitation is avoided.
5. All work in wood, clay, etc., must be done from
Original designs.
Unfortunately, I was unable to visit the Industrial
Art School at Philadelphia, but the exhibits were so
admirably arranged at the World's Fair, that it was
possible to get a very good idea of the system, with
the help of the Director who was in charge. Some
little girls who were present illustrated the work,
and one little one, not much above kindergarten
age, showed the greatest delight in drawing on
the board, and seemed willing to go on indefinitely.
It is worth noting that this work could not be
done at all without the ample supply of blackboard
I I 2 A/AE 7TA/OA).S OF AZ DUCA 7T/OAV
so common in America. The advantage of space
when working to obtain freedom of movement is
so obvious, that I do not believe any teacher who
had once seen the equipment of an American School,
would ever again rest content with an English
allowance of blackboard. The difference in value
of a drawing lesson in which it is possible for
teacher and pupil to work before the whole class,
and let the work stand till the end of a lesson, and
the English plan, where the teacher alone can use
the few inches of board, and must rub out the work
before any one has had time to look at it, is just the
difference between economy and waste of power.
This Industrial Art School is attended by pupils
of the primary and grammar Schools, but attempts
to bring the work into the schools themselves have
been attended with considerable success. Classes
in drawing, modelling, and carving have been
established for teachers in the public schools. The
American plan of keeping each teacher entirely to
her grade facilitates matters here, as special atten-
tion is paid in each course to the nature of the
instruction required in the particular grade Over
which the teacher presides. Certificates are fur-
nished to teachers finishing the required courses.
MAAVUAL TRA //V/AVG II 3
It is found that sufficient teachers apply voluntarily
for instruction to facilitate the gradual introduction
of the system into the schools without much friction.
With regard to expenses, it has been calculated that
the working of the system costs, on an average,
from two to four dollars for each pupil per annum,
that is, from 8s. 4d. to 16s. 8d. of our money.
This is much cheaper than any other American
system of manual training—Slöjd, for instance,
involving very serious expenses in the way of
benches and tools. But money is seldom an in-
Superable difficulty in America, for if once the
Educational Board is convinced of the need of a
reform, it is generally ready enough to vote the
money. I append a table of the courses of instruc-
tion (pp. 114, 115).
One of the most fully developed schemes of hand-
work is the Prang system of drawing, which pre-
vails through a great part of the States.” It owes
its name to Mr. Louis Prang, a German refugee of
1848, who has succeeded in happily combining
German pedagogy with the American practical
spirit. This work is really the outcome of the
Boston Normal School of Art, which was started in
1870 on the lines of South Kensington. For ten
I
SYNOPTICAL TABLE OF THE COURSE OF INSTRUCTION
IN THE INDUSTRIAL ART SCHOOL, PHILADELPHIA.
Class D, 1st Term.
1st Month.
FIRST YEAR. 2nd Month. 3rd Month. 4th Month.
Elementary Drawing | Non-Imitative and Conventional
and Designing. elementary line forms.
work.
Blackboard Drawing. Units of above. Units of above.
Model and Object |Simple Geometri- Plant and Vase
Drawing. cal forms in forms.
linear.
Clay Modelling, Non-Imitative and
elementary forms. Line
tº Inear, Square
Wood Carving. straight, and
angle cutting,
Class C, 2nd Term.
FIRST YEAR. 5th Month. 6th Month. 7th Month. 8th Month.
Elementary Drawing Plant forms. Combination of
and Designing. preceding forms.
Blackboard Drawing. Units of above. Units.
Model and Object Animal forms. Arrangements of
Drawing. preceding forms.
Clay Modelling.
Wood Carving.
Conventional and
Plant forms.
Simple low relief.
F

SECOND YEAR. 5th Month. 6th Month. 7th Month. 8th Month.
Drawing and De- || Moresque elements Gothic elements
signing. and style. and style.
Blackboard Drawing. Units of above. Units of above.
Model and Object Animal forms Arrangements of
Drawing. foreshortened. preceding forms.
Clay Modelling.
Class B, 3rd Term.
SE con D YEAR. 1st Month. 2nd Month. 3rd Molyth. 4th Month.
Drawing and De- |Greek elements Roman elements
signing. and style. and style.
Blackboard Drawing. Units of above. Units of above.
Model and Object | Geometric forms Plant or Vase forms
Drawing.
Clay Modelling.
Wood Carving.
in Perspective.
Elements used in
drawing for the
preceding month.
in Perspective.
High and low re-
lief in style.
Class A, 4th Term.
Wood Carving.
Elements used in
drawing for the
preceding month.
Original panel.
º
I I6 ME 7THODS OF A DUCA 7TWO/V
years it continued in this manner, without making
much impression on the schools. Then Mr. Prang,
who was one of the directors, made an effort to
abolish the old-fashioned methods, and work out a
system which should be more in harmony with
educational principles and the needs of class in-
struction. A number of able teachers joined him
in the attempt to develop a system which should
be firmly founded in kindergarten methods; and
from the first the work has had the advantage of
being under the direction of a number of practical
teachers. The scheme has been gradually organized
and developed in view of the actual needs of the
Schools, and at present it provides for eight years'
instruction in the primary and grammar Schools.
The work of the first two years is closely linked
On to the kindergartem, in fact, we might Say it is
actual kindergarten work. It is known as “form
study from objects.” The purpose of this form
study is “to build up in the child's mind clear and
correct conceptions of form as a basis for thinking
and doing.” The forms are presented to the
children in such a manner as to lead them to grasp
the idea of types. Thus, beginning with Fröebel's
“Second Gift,” the first year's study takes in the
MANUAL TRAINING - II 7
sphere, cube, cylinder, hemisphere, square prism,
right-angled triangular prism. The second year
adds to this the ellipsoid, ovoid, equilateral triangular
prism, cone, square pyramid, vase. The children
study these by the help of sight and touch, and are
then allowed to express the results of their observa-
tions in various ways: —
1. Stating in words clearly and correctly what
they see.
2. Modelling the objects in clay.
3. Making them in cardboard.
4. Tablet and stick-laying to express the parts.
5. Paper-folding and cutting.
6. Freehand drawing. -
As drawing is looked on in these early stages
rather as a mode of expression than an attempt to
present perfect form, the children’s work is very
little criticised, and no attempt is made to correct
it. They are merely encouraged to express them-
selves as clearly as they can by means of clay,
pencil, etc. -
From the third year onwards all the work is
arranged under three heads :-Construction, Repre-
sentation, Decoration.
Construction includes “the study of the facts of
I I 8 Al/A, TA/OADS OF AZZO UCA 7TWOAV
form in their relation to each other as observed in
types and in common objects, the presentation by
drawing of these facts so arranged as to convey
definite ideas of form, size, and structure of the
objects in their reality, the making of objects from
drawings, and the application of this study and
drawing in elementary constructive design.”
“Representation includes the study of the appear-
ance of form in objects viewed under various con-
ditions, and in various relations; the expression by
drawing of ideas derived from such study, and the
application of this study and drawing in elementary
pictorial composition or representative design.”
“Decoration :-This includes the study of beauty
in geometric form, in historic Ormament, and in
natural forms; the expression of this beauty by
modelling, paper-cutting, and drawing, and the
adaptation of beautiful geometric, historic and natural
forms to purposes of decorative drawing.”
Construction has in view the constructive arts,
representation the representative arts, decoration the
decorative arts.
Under the heading of Construction comes the
following :-
1. Form study in models and objects.
MANUAL TRAINING II9
2. Pattern-making from models and objects.
3. View drawings and working drawings.
4. Conventions of constructive design.
5. Constructive design. -
The means of expression in constructive design
8.T6 —
1. Freehand drawing (particularly in the lower
grades).
2. Instrumental drawing in the higher grades.
3. Making simple objects in paper, card-board,
wood, etc.
The work in Construction is thus the proper
foundation for any kind of manual training, and
leads, by a gradual process of transition, from the
kindergarten to the manual training high School
or workshop.
Under the heading of Representation come the
following :-
1. Form study, leading to the discovery of the
principles of perspective.
2. Outline drawing.
. Rapid sketching.
3
4. Drawing in light and shade.
5. Study of good examples.
6
. Pictorial use of colour.
I 2G) ME 7"HO/OS OF EDUCA 7TWO/W
7. Representative design, i.e. pictorial composi-
tion. -
As yet, not much has been done in shading or the
pictorial use of colour in the eight grades for which
the course is mapped out. These subjects are more
fully treated in the high school, for which the course
is being gradually arranged.
Under Decoration are included :-
1. Study of typical forms of beauty as found in
historic ornaments.
2. The study of elementary principles of decora-
tion.
3. Adaption of natural forms to decorative design.
4. Type forms and geometric arrangement in their
relation to decorative design.
5. Creation of the beautiful in ornament by the
pupil himself through the use of geometric, historic,
and matural forms, in accordance with decorative
principles derived from geometric and historic orna-
ment.
A very important feature in this part of the work
is the study of historic ornament brought into con-
nection with styles of architecture, and closely
related to some study of the nations that express
themselves in these styles.
MAAVUAZ, TRA/AW/AWG I 2 I
The drawing in schools is brought into connection
with many other studies; for instance, language,
arithmetic, nature study, geography, history, etc.,
and it is also the basis of all manual training work.
It is treated as a mode of expression more matural
to the child than writing, and the desire common to
most children to draw on note-book, desk, etc., is
utilised and turned into its proper channel by
encouraging them to illustrate their written work,
to tell stories in pictures, in fact, to use the pencil as
freely as the pen. -
Much of the work exhibited at the World’s Fair
was excellent. *
The plan of combining drawing with other teach-
ing necessitates some knowledge of the subject on
the part of all teachers, and in order to help those
whose training in the subject has been insufficient,
a correspondence class has been organized, by which
the Ordinary grade teachers are trained in the
methods of the Prang system. A scheme of circuit
instruction and supervision has also been devised.
Circuits of from four to seven places are put under
One supervisor, who visits each place in the circuit
Seven times during the School period from Septem-
ber to June. During these visits teachers receive
I 22 - ME 7TA/O DS OF EDUCA 7TWOAV
instruction, hear lessons given by the Supervisor, and
generally obtain help and direction. Thus the
directors of the work are kept in sympathy with all
the teachers. The Pratt Institute now carries on
mormal classes in the Prang system, and many
teachers are trained there.
Like all American schemes of instruction, the
Work suffers rather from over-direction than the
Opposite. Minute manuals are published for the use
of teachers, and there are special drawing-books for
the pupils, which often supply external aids; for
instance, points from which to start work, flat copies,
Something like what the pupil has to produce, etc.
These drawing-books have led to some controversy,
resulting in the temporary abandonment of the
System in the Boston schools, but they are not an
essential part of the scheme. When the work has
been thoroughly taken up by training Colleges and
by technical institutes, teachers will be able to dis-
pense with many of these artificial helps; and the
real value will Increase rather than diminish thereby.
Sewing for girls is taught in some towns, but not
as generally as with us. I had some opportunities of
inspecting this work, and did not think that, as a
whole, it was either as well-planned or executed as
MAAWUAJC 7TRA/AV/AWG - I 23
that of our English schools. This opinion seemed
shared by the teachers, who told me that children
Coming fresh from England, and entering the Schools,
were always remarkable for the excellence of their
Sewing. I append a six years' Course of sewing in
the Philadelphia schools:—
Synopsis of the Course of Instruction and Training in
Sewing for Girls' Schools.
SECONDARY SCHOOLs.
FIFTH GRADE :-Five months.
Position of the pupils while engaged in sewing.
The proper use of the thimble finger, first
finger and thumb of the right hand. Posi-
tion of the left hand for holding the work.
Drill in the same.
Exercises in the action of taking a stitch and
drawing the thread through the material.
Drill in the threading of the needle. (Needles
and thread may be given out at the beginning
of the lesson.)
Turning, basting, and sewing plain hems. At-
tention to be given to accuracy in width of
hems and size of stitches used in basting and
hemming. Correct use of the scissors (paper
may be supplied for this purpose).
I 24 METHODS OF EDUCATIow
Over-seaming on turned edges; the raw edges
may be turned in and hemmed down.
If more material is needed than that furnished
by the Board of Education, towels, wash-rags, and
similar articles may be hemmed.
SIXTH GRADE :-Five months. {
Questions and exercises in the use of thimble,
Scissors, threading the needle, the direction of
the needle as used in basting and sewing a
hem. Time for these exercises, five minutes.
Over-seaming, with explanations and exercise in
joining a new or broken thread.
Running seam, composed of One running and
one back-stitch ; the raw edges to be overcast.
Cutting out and making simple articles, e.g.,
children's bibs, plain over-sleeves.
Work brought from home may be table-napkins,
towels, bags, desk-covers, and pillow-slips.
SEVENTH GRADE :-Five months.
Questions on position, the proper use of the
thimble and scissors. Exercise in threading
the needle. Questions on the direction of the
needle when used in basting, hemming and
Over-seaming. Time for this exercise, five
minutes.
MANUAL TRAINING I 2
5
Reversible seam.
Plain fell, Sewed with running stitches, strength-
ened by an occasional back-stitch, and finished
with hemming.
Back-stitched seam overcast on the raw edges.
Patching commenced.
Cutting out of plain under-waists without seam
under arm.
Work brought from home may be towels, table-
napkins, pillow-slips, ruffles to hem, bags and worn
articles that may need patching.
EIGHTH GRADE :-Five months.
Questions on the work of lower grades. Time
for this exercise, five minutes. - , --
Plain fell repeated. Gathering, placing or
stroking the same. .
Sewing the gathers into a band, using half back-
stitching; the band finished with hemming.
Darming commenced. Work to consist of stock-
ing darning and dress darning. -
Cutting out patterns of under-waists and aprons
of all kinds.
Work brought from home may be aprons, under-
waists, combing-towels, shoe-bags, ruffles to hem and
gather, darning and mending.
126 METHODS OF EDUCATION
GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.
NINTH GRADE :-One year.
Narrow hems; hems of medium and broad
widths.
Tucks. Threads should not be drawn from the
material to secure straight tucking.
Narrow plain fells. French fells.
Fine gathering, hemmed to a band.
Button-holes. Gussets.
Shirt, or other four-holed, buttons sewn on.
Stocking mending and patching.
Cutting out and making drawers from actual
measurements.
Shoe-bags, sleeves, aprons, muslin skirts, and plain
under-garments may be brought from home to be
made and kept in School until finished.
TENTH GRADE –One year.
Bias seams of all kinds.
Gathering, as done on dress skirts, to be over-
Seamed to a band.
The two stitches used on flannel under-gar-
ments, viz., herring-bone stitch and feather
stitch.
Button-holes.
Cutting out and making gored skirts.
MAAVOA Z 7"A’AA/V//WG 127
Children's plain underwear, boys' shirt-waists,
collars and cuffs, dusting-caps and plain flannel
skirts may be supplied from home.
Mending of all kinds must be encouraged by the
teacher.
ELEVENTH GRADE :-One year.
Questions and review of all work done in pre-
vious grades. W
Paper patterns drawn and cut for under-
garments from actual measurements.
Material for such garments brought from home
and cut out in school. Pupils taught to place
the patterns properly and economically Oll
the muslim. - - -
Work basted and fitted on the pupils.
TWELFTH GRADE –One year.
|Review of all work done in previous grades.
Pupils should be required to decide which seams
should be used for the several parts of garments cut
and made in this grade.
Birst steps in dressmaking.
Method of basting lining and material together,
for dress waists and sleeves. Trying on and
fitting the same.
Adjusting facings to lined, gored skirts, sewing
on braid, etc.
I28 METHODS OF EDUCA 7TWOAV
In Cookery teaching, as in so many other good
works, Boston took the lead, and here again the
effort was made by private individuals; and only
after the work was established and made a success
was it handed over to the town. The credit of this
is almost entirely due to Mrs. Quincey Shaw. In
the year 1883 she offered to give pupils in certain
schools free training in Cookery, housekeeping, and
laundry work for girls; and printing, shoemaking,
and carpentry for boys. In May, 1885, classes for
cooking were begun, and in October a regular
cookery school, with one hundred and fifty pupils,
was opened here, and a second in another part of
the town. These were the pioneer schools in the
country; and Boston became the centre of Cookery, t
and sent out teachers to other towns which followed
its lead. Other schools were started by private en-
terprise, and gradually one by one taken over by the
towns.
Cookery is taught in the grammar grades at
Boston, Philadelphia, Newhaven, and many other
towns. The system of teaching was imported from
England, and does not differ much from that in use
at Our elementary schools. A great convenience is
an arrangement by which gas-pipes are made to pass.
MAAWUAA TRA/AW/AWG I29
along the whole length of the tables, with burners
at intervals, covered by little gratings; so that two
pupils can share the use of one of these burners, and
thus do their cooking without moving backwards
and forwards to the other stoves. Of course this
only adds to the facility of the pupil’s work, which
is already made much easier than it can possibly be
at home ; and amid the present out-cry against gas-
stoves for cooking classes, it would hardly be likely
to find favour in this country. I append the course
in use at the Newhaven Cookery School.
1. Food, its uses. Why we cook our food. Mak-
ing and care of fire. Kitchen utensils, how to use
them. Questions.
2. Rules for housekeepers. Rules for cleaning
dishes, etc. Care of kitchen. Receipts for baked
potatoes. Croutons. Bread crumbs. Questions.
3. Classification of bread. How to measure. Table
of weights and measures. Abbreviations. Receipts
for baked crackers. Baked crackers with cheese.
Cracker brewis. Questions.
4. Cooking in boiling water. Difference between
boiling and simmering. Composition of potato.
Preparing vegetables for cooking. Time of cooking
vegetables. Receipts for boiled potatoes. Rice
K
I3O MAE 7TP/O DS OF AEZO UCA 7TWOAV
potato. Mashed potato. Potato cakes. Boiled eggs.
Questions. -
5. Steaming and other forms of cooking in boiling
water. Combination of food. Milk. Use of double
boiler. How to make one. . Receipts for oatmeal
mush. Baked apples. Steamed rice. Soft custard.
Coddled eggs. Questions. - * .
6. Meats. Classes of meat. How to tell good beef.
Care of meat. How to use different cuts of meat.
General rule for cooking all meat. Draw in note-
books diagram of Ox; divide it into the different
cuts. Write name of each piece. How used.
Receipts. Boiled mutton. Gravy for mutton.
Smothered beef. Clarified fat or drippings. Ques-
tions.
7. What to do with pieces of cold meat. Gravies.
Sauces. Thickening. Receipts for minced meat on
toast. Cottage pie. Scalloped mutton. Macaroni.
Hash. Tomato Sauce. White sauce. Questions.
8. Soups. Stock. General rule for stock. How
to use flour in vegetable soups. Why. Receipts for
soup stock. Mixed vegetable. Rice. Potato soup.
Questions.
9. Bread. Yeast. How made. Chemical change
that takes place in yeast bread. Time of baking.
MANUAL TRAINING I 3 I
Heat of oven. General rules for baking. Receipts
for yeast bread, graham bread. Cleaning tins.
Questions. *
10. Invalid cookery. Cooking. Caring for in-
valids. Food for invalids. Tea. Digestion. Re-
ceipts for lemonade, apple water. Rhubarb water.
Irish moss jelly. Milk. Porridge. Tea. Chipped
ice. Questions. -
11. Invalid cookery continued. Nutritious and
immutritious foods. Proper proportion of food. Re-
ceipts for toast. Water toast. Milk toast. Egg mog.
Beef juice. Beef tea. Ice Cream. Questions.
12. Broiling. Pan broiling, Time table for broil-
ing. First lesson in doughs. Baking powder. Action
of baking powder. How to chop Suet. Clean Currants.
Stone raisins. Receipts for broiled steak. Mutton
chop. Meat cakes. Suet pudding. Ginger and fruit
suet puddings. Lemon sauce. Hard sauce. Ques-
tions.
13. Stews, haricot. Ragout. Salmi. Chowder.
Fricassee. Pot pie. Braising. Receipts for beef
stew. Dumplings. Biscuit. Stewed prunes. Ques-
tions. .
14. Rolling. Frying. General directions for mix-
ing. Proportion of soda and acids to be used.
I 32 METHODS OF EDUCATION
Receipts for corn cake. Gingerbread. Soft and hard
molasses cookies. Doughnuts. Questions.
15. Care of food. Pies. Receipts for pastry.
Apple pie. Custard pie. Lyonnaise potatoes.
Creamed potatoes.
16. The cheapest foods. Serving. Receipts for
split pea soup. Scotch broth. Steamed brown bread.
Questions.
17. Poultry: to prepare poultry for cooking.
Salads. Receipts for chicken fricassee. Veal fricas-
see. Cranberries. Boiled dressing. Bread pudding.
Vanilla sauce. Tomato soup. Questions.
18. Fish. Receipts for broiled, baked, boiled,
fried. Stuffing for fish. Drawn butter sauce. Egg
sauce. Fish chowder. Fish balls. Questions.
19. Eggs. Cake making. Baking. Receipts for
plain cake. Water sponge cake. Frosting. Omelet,
Egg. Vermicelli. Opening lobster. Coffee.
20. Laying table. Waiting on the table. Table
manners. Pouring coffee. Cleaning tins.
Next in order come the Manual Training High
Schools, though the aim of these is still educational
rather than technical. The entrance into one of
these schools must usually be the turning-point in a
MANUAL 7 RAINING I 33
career. Boys and girls who attend the manual
training high Schools have decided against a college
Course, - and made their choice between a theo-
retical and practical career. Their literary work is
not ended, but it is reduced to a minimum ; SO are
modern languages, while ancient ones are altogether
discarded, and the whole tendency of the work is
Scientific and practical.
There are two excellent manual training high
schools at Philadelphia. I visited one under the
direction of Mr. Sayre. This is only for boys, but as
there is much in the work that can be adapted for
girls, I give the curriculum :—
Course of Study.
The course of study covers three years. The
school-time of the pupils is about equally divided
between literary and manual work, One hour per
day is given to drawing, two hours to shop work,
and three hours to the usual academic studies.
The course of study embraces five parallel limes,
as follows:—
First. A course in language and literature, in-
cluding the structure and use of English ; com-
position, literature, history, economics, and German.
Second. A course in Mathematics, including
I34 METHODS OF EDUCATION
arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, ama-
lytical geometry, bookkeeping and surveying.
Third. A course of science, including geology,
physics, chemistry, physiology, economic botany,
mechanics, steam engineering, and applied elec-
tricity.
Fourth. A course in freehand, constructive,
and architectural drawing, designing and model-
ling.
Fifth. A course of tool instruction, including
joinery, parquetry, pattern-making, wood-turning,
wood-carving, forging, soldering, ornamental iron
work, moulding and casting, vice work, and
mechanical construction.
I saw a good many of the boys' drawings, and
was much pleased with some of the original designs
and the problems worked out in the architectural
drawing. As treated here, drawing is the first step
in manual training and it is the practical, useful
side rather than the artistic that is considered. The
work is arranged under the three sub-divisions of the
Prang system—Construction, Representation, and
Decoration, and to these is added a course in archi-
tectural drawing. In the tool instruction, each
exercise involves a mechanical principle; all articles
MAAVOA Z 7TRA //WZVG I35
must be of precise forms and dimensions given in a
drawing made by the pupil himself. The first year's
work is partly in wood, the course including sawing,
planing, squaring, chiselling, morticing, mitreing,
dove-tailing, and turning. This is followed by a
Course in parquetry from pupil’s own designs. In
iron, it consists in chipping, filing, and fitting of
plain and curved surfaces.
SECOND YEAR:-
1. Wood, pattern-making, moulding, and turn-
ing. Wood-carving from designs furnished
by pupils.
2. Iron, course in Smithing.
3. Casting in lead.
THIRD YEAR:—
Advanced course in pattern-making, vice and
machine tool work. The final exercise is the
construction by the class, from their own
drawings, designs, and measurements, of the
model of a steam engine, dynamo, or some
other machine,
The Pratt Institute Manual Training High School
is a school for both boys and girls, in connection with
the Pratt Institute at Brooklyn. In the words of its
founder: “The idea of the school is not to teach any
136 METHODS OF EDUCATION
trade, but to educate the pupils to work patiently,
systematically, and constantly in the use of hand,
eye, brain.” Many pupils prepare in the high
school for work in the other special departments of
the Institute, or for advanced scientific schools and
colleges elsewhere. The organization of the high
school as an integral part of the Pratt Institute
greatly facilitates the equipment and teaching. The
course of instruction is as follows:—
|PRATT INSTITUTE.
High School Course of Instruction.
FIRST YEAR.
LANGUAGE.-Composition, English classics.
History.—Ancient.
MATHEMATICS.—Algebra, plane geometry.
SCIENCE.-Physical geography, physiology, botany.
DRAWING.—Freehand and instrumental working
drawings; freehand, perspective, and cast draw-
ing ; design, developments, and intersections.
MANUAL WORK.—For Boys: Bench work in wood,
wood-turning, pattern-making.
For Girls: Sewing, hygiene, home nursing,
and wood-carving.
MUSIC.—Chorus singing.
PHYSICAL CULTURE.
MANUAZ, TRAINING I37
SECOND YEAR.
LANGUAGE.-Rhetorical analysis, English classics.
HISTORY..—Mediaeval and modern.
MATHEMATICS.–Plane and solid geometry, trigono-
metry, Surveying.
SCIENCE.-Physics, with laboratory practice.
DRAWING.—Historic Ornament, clay-modelling,
sketching, and design, mechanical and architec-
tural drawing, pen-and-ink sketching.
MANUAL WORK.—For Boys: Foundry moulding,
tinsmithing, forging.
For Girls: Dressmaking, wood-carving.
MUSIC.—Chorus singing.
PHYSICAL CULTURE.
THIRD YEAR.
LANGUAGE.-English literature, essays, French
or German.
HISTORY..—Modern.
CIVICS.–Political economy.
MATHEMATICS.–Principles of construction.
SCIENCE.-Chemistry, with laboratory practice;
metallurgy.
DRAWING.—For Boys: Advanced freehand and
mechanical drawing.
I38 MAE 7A/ODS OF AE/DUCA 7TWOAV
For Girls: Cast drawing, pen-and-ink sketch-
ing, water colour and design.
MANUAL WORK.—For Boys: Machine shop, vice
work; machine tool work, construction.
For Girls: Cooking, dressmaking, millinery.
MUSIC.—Chorus singing.
IPHYSICAL CULTURE.
School hours are from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with an
interval of half an hour for lunch. The day is
divided into six working periods, and about three
hours a day are given to home work. This amount
appears somewhat excessive, especially for girls.
Nine hours a day given to school work, with scarcely
any interval for exercise, games, or recreation, must
be a very severe strain, and it is difficult to believe
that this can be counteracted by the three half-hours
a week spent in the gymnasium, even though the
work there is supposed “to teach the pupil how to
sit and walk well, to breathe Correctly, and to obtain
perfect control of all the movements of the body, in
order that she may gain health and strength, and
learn to preserve her nervous force.”
I have no statistics to enable me to compare the
health of the English and American high school
girls, but I have no hesitation in saying that the
MANUAL TRAINING - I39
average English girl, though in Some respects stronger,
could not bear the strain put on her American sister.
The manual work of the boys is on much the same
lines as in the Philadelphia school. That of the
girls is, with the exception of wood-carving, rather
confined to what are commonly regarded as the
feminine arts. The work in sewing is above the
average of what I saw in America. It is necessary
to begin with the simplest stitches, as sewing is not
taught in the public schools of Brooklyn. Patterns
are given on Small pieces of cloth, muslim, Cashmere,
etc., and each pupil fills a little book with specimens
of her work. On the blank page opposite each is
pasted a type-written description of the particular
process illustrated. This volume thus becomes a
note-book and sampler in one, and is doubtless useful
for future reference. The teaching is characterised
by the thoroughness belonging to all the Pratt
Institute work. A great deal of time is given to
mending and darning, which is practised on articles
brought from home. Talks are given by the teacher
on the practical application of stitches, the growth
of cotton, etc., the nature and durability of different
materials. The pupils are required to take notes,
and at the end of the course they have to pass
I4O METHODS OF EDUCATION
an examination in theory and practice. Machine-
Sewing is also taken up; and it was pleasant to see a
Class of girls, each seated at a little table exactly the
right height, busily plying her machine. -
Dressmaking is begun in the first year. The
knowledge of mechanical drawing greatly facilitates
the draughting of skirts and bodices. The skirts
are first made up, then simple bodices and jackets.
During the last term of this year some time is spent
in making freehand drawings and water-colour
sketches of hats and dresses.
In the second year a great deal of time is given
to measuring and draughting, and then the pupil
makes for herself a simple dress of cotton or wool.
The teacher now talks to the class on dress materials,
and also on colour in its relation to dress.
In the last term of the third year each pupil makes
a dress for herself from an original design.
Millinery is not begun till the third year. It is
taught in so careful and systematic a manner as to
acquire thereby distinct educational value. The
pupils first practice trimming upon discarded straw
and felt hats, which they bring from home, using
coloured flannelette, Sateen, and cheese-cloth, to
represent velvet, ribbon, and crape. Later on they
MANUAZ TRAIAW/AWG I4 I
learn to make complete hats, using these materials;
and some that I saw were so pretty and the colours
and designs in such good taste that even in the
cheap material they might well be used for travelling
Or Ordinary rough wear. The last stage is for the
pupil to apply the principles learned in making a
finished hat for herself.
The instruction in Cookery is both theoretical and
practical. The theory consists of the study of foods
from the chemical, physiological, and economic point
of view. The calculation of dietaries affording suffi-
cient nutriment for the body's needs is a form of
work which, as far as I know, has not yet been
attempted in connection with English cookery
classes. The splendid equipment of the Pratt In-
stitute, with the opportunities for chemical analysis
of food, etc., of course facilitates this work. The
practical kitchen is a magnificent room supplied
with all that the heart of a cookery teacher could
desire.
Household science deals with the situation of the
house, the removal of wastes, water supply, ventila-
tion, heating and lighting, architecture, decoration
and furnishing, and the care in detail of every part
of the house. Such teaching ought some day to
I42 MAE 7A/O/DS OF AZZO UCA 7TWOAV
bear valuable fruit, and it is much needed in
America.
The instruction in drawing follows the lines laid
down in the Prang system. Lectures are given on
the history of architecture and ornament, illustrated
by photographs. The pupils make studies of historic
Ornament in colour and in pen and ink, and also
Originate simple decorative designs. Architectural
drawing forms an important part of the work. The
girls devote a great deal of attention to colour and
design, and drawing of draperies, etc. They are
encouraged to illustrate written work by designs,
and the end throughout is to make drawing the
basis and helper in other work instead of a thing
apart. w
This is not a free school, nor a part of the common
school system. The fees—30 dols. (£6) for the first
year, 45 dols. (£9) for the second year, and 60 dols.
(£12) for the third—are called merely nominal, but
they are not much lower than those of our high
schools, which are expected to be self-supporting
and capable of paying a dividend as well. Of course
the whole equipment is much more complete and
expensive than anything ever attempted in our
high Schools.
MANUAL TRAINING I43
I quote the syllabus of the girls’ work in the
Toledo High School, because an attempt is here
made to give them the benefit of the healthier
exercise in wood-work, as well as the specially
feminine arts. The course lasts four years.
FIRST YEAR :—
1. Arithmetic.
. Physical Geography.
2
. Grammar, spelling, and English composition.
3
4. Freehand and mechanical drawing.
5
. Light carpentering, wood-carving, and use
of tools.
SECOND YEAR:—
1. Algebra, arithmetic.
2. Physiology, botany.
3. Grammar, rhetoric, writing.
4. Freehand drawing and modelling, designs for
WOOd-carving.
5
. Clay modelling, wood-carving.
6
. Introductory course in cooking and garment
cutting and making. -
THIRD YEAR :—
1. Geometry, revision of arithmetic.
2. Physics.
3. English composition and history.
I44 METHODS OF EDUCATION
4. Freehand drawing.
5. Instruction in preparing and cooking food,
purchasing, care of sick room, etc.
FourTH YEAR :— -
1. Plane trigonometry, mechanics.
2. Chemistry. -
3. Book-keeping, ethics, rights and duties, laws
of right conduct, etc.
4. Political economy, English literature and
composition.
5. Draughting, Cutting, making, fitting of gar-
ments, household management, typewriting,
etc.
The Chicago Manual Training Schoolis exclusively
for boys. Its course does not differ much from
those already quoted. Five hours a week are given
to drawing, and seven and a half to ten hours to
shop work. -
The Boston Mechanical Arts High School is still
in process of erection, and a splendid building is
being constructed for it.
Pupils of these high schools who wish to continue
their course are ready to enter Technological Institu-
tions, such as the splendid Massachusetts Institute
of Technology at Boston, whose classes are open to
A/AAWOAZ ZTA’A/AV//VG I45
men and women alike; or the Scientific Depart-
ments of those colleges that do not require Greek or
much Latin for admission. Here the work is of
COULY'Sé distinctly technical.
The splendour of private munificence in America
is nowhere seen to better advantage than in the
Drexel, Pratt, and Armour Institutes at Philadelphia,
Brooklyn, and Chicago, each bearing the name of its
founder. Of these, the oldest is the Institute founded
by Mr. Charles Pratt six years ago, with an endow-
ment fund of two million dollars. Similar in aim is
the Institute at Philadelphia, founded by the late
Mr. Drexel in a building which combines artistic
beauty with practical utility. The Chicago Institute,
which takes its name from the founder Mr. Armour,
did not open till the autumn of last year.
The wide scope and large number of subjects
taught suggests a resemblance to our own People's
Palace and the Polytechnic Institutes, but the greater
thoroughness and the more careful planning of the
work suggests rather the City Guilds Technical
Schools, the National Training School for Cookery,
and the South Kensington Art Schools. The Pratt
Institute “seeks to provide facilities by which per-
Sons wishing to engage in educational, artistic,
L
I46 METHODS OF EDUCATIO/W
scientific, domestic, commercial, mechanical, and the
like pursuits, may lay the foundation of a thorough
knowledge, theoretical and practical, or may perfect
themselves in those occupations in which they are
already engaged.” Similar is the aim of the other
Institutes. -
The several departments of the Pratt Institute
include, besides the high school already des-
cribed:—
I. The Department of Industrial and Fine Arts,
sub-divided into :—
1. Regular art course.
Normal art course.
Clay modelling.
Technical design.
Architectural drawing.
Mechanical drawing.
Wood-carving.
Art needlework.
In each of these the course of study is arranged to
meet the requirements of three classes of pupils,
those who give to the work five days a week, those
who give three afternoons, and those who give three
evenings. No. 1 takes four years, the other courses
two years each.
MANUAL TRAINING I47
II. Department of Domestic Art, including physical
culture, sewing, dressmaking, millinery.
III. Department of Domestic Science, divided into
a Technical and an Educational Section. The Educa-
tional Section affords theoretical and practical
instruction in :-
1. Normal domestic science.
2. Household science.
3. Emergencies, hygiene, and home nursing.
4. Public hygiene.
5. Cookery.
The technical section includes the practical side
of cookery and laundry work. -- - -
IV. Department of science and technology, includ-
ing mathematics, physics, chemistry, electrical
instruction, work with steam and machinery, and
the Trade School, in which carpentry, machine
work, plumbing, house, sign, and fresco painting,
are taught as actual trades. In some of these
classes the Trade Associations co-operate.
V. Department of Commerce, subdivided into :—
1. Regular commercial course.
2. Phonography.
3. Typewriting.
4. Book-keeping.
I48 METHODS OF EDUCATION
5. Arithmetic and penmanship.
6, English.
7. Spanish.
VI. Kindergarten Department.
VII. Free Public Library.
VIII. Department of Museums.
I visited all the rooms of the building, and every-
where was struck by the suitability and completeness
of the equipment. Thus, in the Carpenter's shop,
there were little wooden houses constructed by the
pupils, each complete in its kind. I was equally
impressed by the courses in dressmaking and
millinery, which seemed more systematic than any-
thing we have attempted in England. In particular
the freehand drawing seemed very valuable.
The complete course in Dressmaking consists of
four grades of three months each ; three lessons a
week are given—two of two hours each to practical
work and one hour to freehand drawing and design.
I append the course of each grade.
Dressmaking Course at Pratt Institute.
|FIRST GRADE :-
Talk on colour and textiles applied to dress.
Instruction in the choice of materials.
Cutting foundation skirt from measure.
MANUAL TRAINING I49
Finishing skirt for trimming or draping.
Talk on form, line, and proportion, in relation to
draping and trimming.
Planning skirt.
Draping skirt.
Cutting bodice and sleeves from patterm.
Basting, fitting.
Trimming, finishing.
Examination.
Drawing.
Pencil practice. -
Study of the appearance of cylindrical objects.
Study of drapery.
Drawing of skirt, bows, etc.
SECOND GRADE :=
Talk on woollen textiles and their manufacture.
Choice of materials and colours.
Practice in taking measures.
Talk on form, including artistic and hygienic
principles of dress.
Instruction in draughting close-fitting bodice.
Cutting and fitting bodice limings.
Cutting and fitting plain cloth waist.
Cutting and matching striped or plaid bodice.
Draughting waist with extra seam for large figures.
I 50 A/E 7TP/O DS OF AEZO UCA 7TWO/V
Trimming and finishing bodice.
Examination.
Drawing.
Drawing of bodice and gowns.
Notes on form and colour.
Practice in the use of colour.
THIRD GRADE :-
The third grade is designed for those pupils who
have satisfactorily completed the second, and
includes the making of house and evening
dresses, which embody artistic lines and har-
mony in colouring.
Course of Study.
Instruction in choice of materials for house and
street wear, considering colour and texture.
Talk on the growth and manufacture of silk.
Taking measures and draughting Princess dress.
Talk upon the contour and poise of the body as
essential in artistic dress.
Planning Princess dress.
Cutting and making Princess dress.
Practice in draping, illustrating the principles of
variety, unity, and repose.
Cutting and making house or evening dress from
Original design by pupil.
MAAVUAJC 7TRA //W//VG I5 I
Review draughting.
Examination.
Drawing.
Problems in design.
Sketches in water-colour, of gowns, etc.
Outline and proportion of the human form.
Fourth GRADE —
Talk on the manufacture of cloths.
Draughting jackets of various styles.
Cutting, basting, fitting, and pressing.
Making various styles of pockets and collars.
Lining and finishing jacket.
Draughting child's dress and coat.
Examination.
Drawing.
Problems in design in pencil, pen-and-ink, and
water-colour.
Since hygienic dress is as important as artistic
dress, lessons in physical culture are given to all the
dressmaking pupils.
The aim is to produce a healthy body, and to
clothe it suitably and beautifully.
The millinery course is also very interesting.
I 52 ME 7THO/OS OF EDUCA 7TWOAV
Millinery Course at the Pratt Institute.
FIRST GRADE –
Talk on colour and textiles.
Instruction in choice of materials.
Wiring.
Folds.
Binding.
Fitted facing, full facing.
Puffed edge.
Varieties of bows.
Talks on the manufacture of straw and felt hats,
and of ribbon.
Talks on form and line.
Plain covered hat, made, trimmed, and lined.
Principles applied to a hat of choice materials.
Examination.
Drawing.
Pencil practice. -
Study of the appearance of cylindrical objects.
Drawing untrimmed hats.
Drawing drapery, bows, etc.
SECOND GRADE :-
Talks on colour, form and line.
Plain covered bonnets made, trimmed, and lined.
Full-crowned, fancy edge bonnet.
MAAWUAJC Z RA/AW/AWG I 53
Talk on the manufacture of crape, and on the
growth and manufacture of silk.
Crape bonnet.
Silk hat or bonnet.
Shirred bonnet.
Fancy toque or turban.
Principles applied to a bonnet and to a toque or
turban of choice materials.
Drawing.
Drawing trimmed hats and bonnets.
Notes on form and colour.
Practice in the use of colour.
THIRD GRADE :-
Making buckram and wire frames.
|Winter Season.
Fancy toque.
Evening bonnet.
Large velvet hat.
Summer Season.
Fancy toque.
Lace bonnet.
Large net hat.
Drawing.
Time and memory sketches.
Problems in design.
Sketches in water-colour, of hats, etc.
I54 MAE 7THODS OF EDUCA 7TWOAV
The courses at the Drexel Institute at Philadelphia
are very similar to these. Additional interest is
given to the work by a collection of old costumes,
which is to be made as complete as possible, so as
to furnish a real history of dress. The teacher was
engaged in collecting into scrap-books patterns of
every kind of material, and of everything used in
the finishing of a dress.
I saw a cookery class at work at the Drexel Insti-
tute, and it seemed very home-like to find the pupils
struggling with the familiar difficulties of puff-paste
“to be rolled out seven times.” This, however, was
a class of Occasional pupils, who were allowed to
choose their subject. There is a very full and
thoroughly scientific course for those who are work-
ing for a certificate or to become teachers. I did
not think, however, that the work differed much
from that of our Cookery Training Schools; indeed,
I saw the familiar South Kensington Cookery Books,
and learned that they form the basis of instruction
(with the necessary changes required by the differ-
ence between American and English food).
Chemistry and the study of disinfectants form
part of the full course, and so does a certain amount
of bacteriology.
MANUAL TRAINING I55
A class in Laundry work at the Pratt Institute
interested me chiefly as initiating me into the
mystery of “set tubs,” so dear to the heart of the
American help. I append the course:—
LAUNDRY-work AT PRATT INSTITUTE.
Day and Evening Classes.
The articles washed in one lesson are ironed in
the following one. The course covers three months,
and includes the following lessons:—
1. (a) Some historical notes regarding laundry-
work, location of the laundry, appoint-
ments, care of appointments.
(b) Classification of articles to be laundered.
White — table-linen, bed-linem, body-
linen. Coloured—flannels.
2. (a) Theory: talk upon water, washing soda,
soaps, bleaching-powders, bluings, with
tests. Methods of removing stains.
(b) Practice work : Scalding, rinsing, and
bluing bed-linen and towels.
3. (a) Theory: sprinkling, stretching, folding,
and ironing. Starch—history and pre-
paration.
(b) Practice work: starch-making. Table-
linen.
I 56 MAE 7THO/OS OF AE/O UCA 7TWOAV
4 and 5. Body-limen and handkerchiefs.
6 and 7. Shirts, collars, and cuffs. Cold and
boiled starch. *.
8. Underwear—silk, merino, flannel.
9. Prints and hosiery.
10. Clear-starching: infants' dresses, fancy hand-
kerchiefs.
11. Lace and embroidery.
12. Crewel embroidery, coloured silk embroidery.
CHAPTER W
(Reprinted from the Educational Review, by kind
permission of the Editors)
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
To give an account of American Colleges for women
with any degree of accuracy would require a stay of
at least a week in each, and the number of these
colleges is so large that a year's study would be by
no means too much to devote to them. There are
about 600 institutions in the United States with
the power of conferring degrees, and the value of
these differs so much that it would be impossible
to make any general statement Concerning them.
Opinions differ in England as to the relative values
of Oxford, Cambridge, and London degrees; how
much more, then, as regards the 600 universities
and colleges of America
The number of women seeking a college education
in America is very much larger than in England, as
it is quite usual there for girls on leaving school
to proceed to college without any idea of
157
I 58 MAE ZTA/OADS OF AEAD UCA 7TWOAV
taking up distinct professional work afterwards.
The graduates of the leading women's colleges have.
formed themselves into a body known as the
Association of Collegiate Alumnae with a view to
social and educational work. Owing to the large
number and varying standard of the American
colleges, it has been found impossible to admit all
the women having degrees, and a list of colleges
has been made whose graduates may claim
admission to the Association. These are fifteen in
number, and include some colleges for women only,
and some co-educational institutions. The colleges
included are Oberlin, Vassar, Michigan, Cornell,
Wisconsin, and Boston Universities, Smith and
Wellesley Colleges, the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Wesleyan, Kansas, Syracuse, North-
Western, and Californian Universities, and Bryn
Mawr College.
The Association now numbers over 1,500
members.
It occupies a very important position in the States
and is regarded as a body to be consulted on all
leading educational questions. It is divided into
State branches, and different committees take up
different work. Questions of college admission,
CO/./A.G.E.S. AAV/O UAVZ VAZA’.S/ZYAZS I 59
degree examinations, school curriculum, etc., have
been considered and influenced by it ; and a success-
ful labour bureau has been started by its members.
Its work has been of the greatest value in procuring
acknowledgment for the work of university women.
The position of women at most of the universities
and colleges that admit both sexes is that of
students for whom the institutions were not
originally intended, but who have been more or less
warmly welcomed when once their admission was
secured. , Co-education at college is a far later
institution in America than we in England generally
suppose. The State University of Michigan at Ann
Arbor, and Cornell University, which are now
regarded as strongholds of co-education, did not
open their doors to women till 1870 and 1874
respectively, though Oberlin had led the way as
early as 1835, and Boston, Swarthmore, and the
University of Missouri followed. It is only the
very youngest of the American universities that
from the first have put both sexes on an equal
footing, while Chicago, the very latest, has even
given some women a place in the faculty and a
voice in the government of the university. Most of
the universities now admit women, though some few
16o MAE 7TA/O DS OF AZZO UCA 7TWOAV
still refuse admission to them ; but even Johns
Hopkins, one of the last to hold out, is making a few
concessions. Yale, though still closing its doors to
women undergraduates, has freely admitted them as
graduate students, and gives its fellowships to men
and women without distinction. Undoubtedly this
is a first step to full admission, and, after granting
the greater boon, it is not likely that the less will be
withheld.
Harvard has adopted a somewhat Curious line,
based on an imitation of Girton and Newnham. An
“Annex” for women (now known as Radcliffe
College) was opened thirteen years ago, where
lectures are given by Harvard professors, and the
students have every facility for following the Harvard
undergraduate course. They have to pass the same
entrance examination as the Harvard students, and
if they pass, satisfactorily through the prescribed
course, they receive a certificate to that effect, but
are not allowed to take a degree. They have not
the privilege of Girton and Newnham students in
being allowed to attend most of the university and
college lectures, and, as the “Annex” authorities do
not undertake to provide board and lodging, and
there is thus no need for what we should call a
CO/C/LAEGES AAWD UAVI VERS/7/ES' I6 I
woman's college connected with the University,
there seems little reason for this system of Separate
lectures. The feeling that this is an anomaly is
growing, and it seems probable that before long the
“Annex” will be incorporated as part of the
University, and the lectures and degrees thrown
open to women." e -
The colleges for women only which take the chief
place in the United States are Vassar, Wellesley,
Smith, and Bryn Mawr. I name them in the order
of their establishment. I visited all these, and also
the women's college at Baltimore.
These institutions give their own degrees, hence
the exceeding difficulty of obtaining a standard
of comparison. We, in England, are accustomed
to look on a new degree with suspicion, and
our desire is usually to assimilate new colleges
to some existing institution. In America all uni-
versities are new, with the exception of Harvard
and Yale; hence an institution started for women
alone may win quite as good a position as One for
* The matter is just now under discussion; and it seems
very probable that the efforts of those who desire to win
the Harvard degree for women will be crowned with success.
M.
I62 MAE 7TAZO/OS OF AZZO UCA 7TWO/V
men alone, and there is no prejudice against a self-
centred college, which does its own examining and
confers its own degree.
A college course in America usually occupies four
years, which are known as the Freshman, Sophomore,
Junior, and Senior years. The students who enter in
the same year are known as a class, and each class
bears as its designation the name of the year in which
it will graduate. Thus, a student who enters in
1893 belongs to the class of 1897, and so forth. The
class feeling is very strong, and corresponds in a
way to the loyalty of one of our university men for
his own particular college. The class is also the
unit of teaching, and in the first two years of college
life the students are grouped much as they would
be in the higher classes of a school, where the
greater part of the course is compulsory. But some-
thing is left in a few subjects to individual choice.
There is no sharp transition between school and
College, no sudden change from work under super-
vision to individual choice and responsibility. The
number of classes that must be attended is fixed,
and is usually alike for all students, whether they
come well or ill prepared. \
The feature that strikes a newcomer as strange is
CO/C/LA. GES A/V/D UAVI VERS/TVES I63
the valuing of work by the number of hours given
to it, rather than by the amount done. Fifteen
hours a week spent in the class-room is the usual
requirement, with, of course, the necessary time for
preparation. Examinations play a subordinate
part, and there is no great final test of work done;
hence the importance of counting the number of
hours spent in the class-room. In some cases an
examination is specially set to a student who has
been absent more than the permitted number of
times, in Order to determine her fitness to remain
with the class.
Specialising, as we understand it, is unknown in
an American college, and in considering the work,
we have to put aside all our preconceived notions of
Triposes and Honour Schools. The work more
nearly resembles that for the Ordinary London
Degree, with this important difference, that there is
no one great examination in which the work of all
the years is tested, but the standing of a student
depends on the work in and out of the class-room
throughout her course, and it is the teacher in each
subject whose opinion is decisive.
The examination for admission is usually a very
comprehensive One, and the requirements have an
I64 MAE 7A/ODS OF EDUCA TVOAV
important influence on the schools that prepare for
them. Occasionally the requirements differ accord-
ing to the course to be taken up in College, and this
must further complicate the work of the schools.
Thus, at Smith College, where there are three
courses, leading respectively to the degrees of
Bachelor of Art, Bachelor of Science, and Bachelor
of Literature, the requirements for admission to the
first are Latin, Greek, mathematics, English, ancient
history; for the second the Greek and Greek history
are omitted, and either French or German or some
science substituted ; for the third, either Latin and
Boman history or Greek and Greek history may be
omitted, and French or German substituted.
The Bryn Mawr entrance examination allows
some choice to the individual candidate. Elemen-
tary mathematics, Latin, easy history, English, and
science are required of all. Then comes a choice
between three groups—Greek and French, Greek
and German, French and German. Further, some
advanced mathematics (solid geometry and plane
trigonometry) and the omitted fourth language are
required, but need not be taken at matriculation,
if the candidate prefer to postpone them till her
college course.
CO/L/LAEGAES AAWD UAV/VERS/ZTIES I65
At Wellesley the requirements are, for the
classical course, English (including grammar,
literature, and rhetoric), geography, history of the
United States, Greece, and Rome, mathematics,
Latin, and Greek. For the scientific course French
or German is substituted for Greek.
Vassar requires the same subjects from all
candidates—viz., English, history, mathematics,
Latin ; and either Greek, German, or French as a
Second language.
Most colleges accept certificates from schools
approved by the particular college, and the system
appears to work well on the whole, though in the
case of certain colleges of inferior standing there is
a good deal of laxity. If candidates from One of
these schools prove unsatisfactory, the college can
refuse to accept future certificates, and every really
good college values its standard too highly to admit
pupils on too easy terms.
The curriculum of any of these colleges is a be-
wildering study for the uninitiated. As a rule there
are compulsory and “elective ’’ studies, and it seems
a little difficult to see why each student should not be
allowed to choose her own courses, subject to the
approval of the college authorities, and irrespective
I66 MAE 7TA/O DS OF EA) UCA 7TWOAV
of the fetish of “fifteen hours spent in the recitation
room.” But further examination reveals a good
deal of method in the arrangement. The aim
being, not to produce special knowledge, but rather
an all-round training, certain subjects are chosen as
a necessary foundation for the others, and here the
modern languages, so much neglected at School,
come in for their due share of consideration. It is
very common to insist on the study during the first
year of either French or German, whichever has
not been taken up at the entrance examination.
This is work of a school character, often very
elementary, and even in Some cases Open to
beginners. The object of this study at college is to
enable students to use French or German books of
reference as well as English, and for this purpose it
is chiefly a reading knowledge that is sought.
Advanced grammar, composition, and literature are
reserved for those courses which belong properly to
degree work, and not to preliminary study. The
same plan is pursued with regard to Greek when
this is required for a degree. In some colleges
elementary knowledge of modern languages is
required for all courses, in others only for the
scientific and literary courses. But, in nearly all,
COZ LEGAES A/VD UAV/VAERS/TVES 167
the first year is largely devoted to filling up gaps in
elementary work, which cannot be avoided without
disturbing the ordinary curriculum of the public
schools. Some private schools, through their
greater freedom, are able to go much further in
college preparation, and it is not unusual to hear
that a certain school does “college work” in its
highest classes. This is in no sense university
work, but rather what is done in the sixth form of
our best high schools, where small groups of girls
can receive individual attention.
In some colleges no electives are allowed in the
first year. This is the case at Wassar, and was
formerly at Wellesley, but now much choice is
allowed in the latter college.
At Vassar, Smith, and Wellesley, work is divided
into compulsory and elective subjects in such a way
that the number of electives gradually increases,
and, in the last year only three or four hours a
week are given to compulsory work, the rest being
left to the choice of the student under competent
advice. The Smith College Calendar distinctly
states that “the design is to require of each student
a sufficient amount of prescribed work to ensure a
high grade of scholarly culture, and yet leave room.
168 MAE 7TP/O DS OF EDUCA 7TWOAV
for the exercise of individual taste.” This aim is
well borne in view, and, I think, attained, and
though, amid the mass of subjects taught, it is
impossible to attain a standard that could be
really called a “high '' one, yet it is worth consider-
ing whether, for the average girl, who neither desires
to become a teacher nor a specialist, it is not of
greater value than our own specialising work. I
have no hesitation in saying that, in careful co-
ordination and choice of subjects, it is far more
valuable than the Ordinary Degree course of Oxford
or Cambridge.
Bryn Mawr follows what is known as the group
system. There is very little compulsory work, and
of this much may be done before entrance, and
that which is required after need not be taken in
specified years. When it is once completed the
student may devote herself entirely to elective and
group work, thus aiming at a higher standard of
scholarship than would be attainable were the class
system strictly adhered to. In all departments
there is a course of five hours a week for two years,
called a major course. Whenever one year of this
course is of such a nature that it can be taken
separately it is marked as a minor course. Every
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES I69
Candidate for a degree is required to take two
homogeneous courses, which constitute a group.
The object of this is to lay the foundations of a
Specialist knowledge. The required studies—viz.,
English, philosophy, science, and history are in-
tended to ensure a more liberal training than could
be gained by devoting all the time to one group
of studies, and yet they are not so much as to
divert the student too much from the central sub-
ject of study. Some portion of time is also given
to “free electives,” which enable a student with
Specialising tendencies to give more time to her
chosen subject, and one who prefers to range at
will to take up some entirely new study. The re-
quirements for the degree of B.A. may be sum-
marised thus:— -
1. Every candidate must possess a reading know-
ledge of French and German, and some acquaint-
ance with Latin.
2. Required studies : English, five hours a week
for two years; science or science and history, five
hours a week for two years; philosophy, five hours
a week for a year.
3. Two major courses of five hours a week for
two years each, Constituting a group.
I.7o METHODS OF EDUCA TVOAV
4. Free electives five hours a week for a year and
a half, to be chosen by the student.
All this is in addition to the requirements for
matriculation.
It is interesting to note that the system of major
and minor electives has been borrowed from the
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; and undoubt-
edly Bryn Mawr, like Johns Hopkins, will do much
to raise the standard of both school and university
teaching in America. Nearly all the Bryn Mawr
professors hold high European degrees, and the
learning and thoroughness of the Old World, com-
bined with the greater freedom of the New, should
result in excellent work, the influence of which
Ought to react favourably on Our Own English
colleges, if we could make up our minds to admit
that there is something to be learned, even from
a new university.
Harvard and Yale, the oldest and best known
of the American universities, represent the two
extremes of the college system—Harvard inclining
to give the student large choice, both at entrance
and throughout his course, while Yale keeps rigidly
to the old class system. As these universities do
much to mould the school system of many States,
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 171
_*
a brief outline of the courses may be interesting.
Yale accepts no certificate from any other in-
stitution in place of its entrance examination, nor
does it allow candidates any choice of subject. The
requirements are:–
1. Latin grammar. -
2. Caesar–Gallic War (books 1–4).
3. Cicero — Orations against Catiline and for
Archias, and, in addition, either the Milo, or the
Manilian Law, or the Cato Major, or the Marcellus
and the Fourth Philippic.
4. Virgil–Bucolics, and first six books of the
AEneid, including Prosody.
5. Ovid–Metamorphoses, translation at sight.
6. The translation at sight into simple and idio-
matic English of passages from prose Latin.
7. The translation into Latim of connected pas-
Sages of English prose.
8. Roman history to the death of Augustus.
9. Greek grammar.
10. Xenophon—Anabasis (four books).
11. Homer—Iliad (three books) with Prosody.
12. The translation at sight into simple and idio-
matic English of a passage from some work of
Yenophon.
I72 ME THODS OF EDUCA 7TWOAV
18. The translation into Greek of connected pas-
Sages of English prose, employing the vocabulary
and idioms of the first four books of Xenophon's
Anabasis.
14. Greek history.
15. Higher arithmetic — including the metric
system of weights and measures. -
16. Algebra—so much as is included in Loomis's
Treatise, up to the chapter on Logarithms.
17. Plane geometry.
18. French or German—so far as to translate at
sight easy prose into English, and also to translate
easy English exercises into French or German,
the candidate being at liberty to decide for himself
in which of the two languages he shall be ex-
amined.
In 1894, and after, some English literature will
be added to these.
The studies for the first two years are compulsory,
and as students may be admitted at the early age
of fifteen, though it is hardly likely that many
avail themselves of this privilege, the work of these
years may be regarded as advanced School work.
During these years the time is assigned as follows:—
CO/L/A2 GAZS AAWD UAV/VAERS/7ZAZS I73
I. Freshman Year.
Greek, Latin, and Mathematics 12 hours
Modern languages tº º º ... 3 º
English ... tº ºp tº e tº e ... 1 ,
Total tº º º ... 16
) )
II. Sophomore Year.
Greek, Latin, and Mathematics 10; hours
Modern languages tº º º ... 2
English ... tº e tº tº & ... 2% º
Total tº gº tº ... 15
) )
Supposing a student can pass a Satisfactory exami-
nation in any of these subjects he is excused attend-
ance at that class, and allowed to choose an elective
Occupying the same amount of time.
Thus far the work is preparatory. In the Junior
year two-thirds, and in the Senior over four-fifths,
of the time is given to elective studies. It is the
work of these two years that determines the stand-
ing of each graduate. Special honours are conferred
at the end of the senior year in elective studies,
grouped so as to constitute a homogeneous series.
The whole work in that group is taken into con-
sideration, and a thesis dealing with a related sub-
ject must also be presented.
Harvard allows a good deal of choice to the
I74. MAE 7THO/OS OF EDUCA 7T/OAV
candidate for admission, though certain subjects
must either be presented on entrance, or else taken
up during the college course. The requisites are :
some knowledge of English, Greek, Latin, German,
Trench, history, algebra, plane geometry, and
physics, with advanced preparation in two subjects
chosen from among the languages, mathematics, or
physical sciences. But if a candidate prefers to
omit either Greek or Latin, and either French or
German, he may do so by passing in an additional
number of advanced subjects. Under some circum-
stances a student may enter without passing in all
subjects—that is, he may be “conditioned ’’ (a mild
term for failing) in some, and allowed to make up
the work afterwards.
The work of the freshman year consists of sixteen
hours a week of lectures and recitations. In the
three later years Only twelve hours are required,
but there is more laboratory work, thesis writing,
and outside reading and research. Some specially
well-prepared students take the whole course in
three years. The requirements are eighteen courses
of study, of which two are prescribed and the rest
elective. There is very little work of a really
elementary character, and the elective principle
CO/C/ASGAES AAWD UAVI VERSITIES I75
makes a much nearer approach to specialising
possible; hence the generally acknowledged high
standard of Harvard.
A student's standing is determined by annual
examinations throughout his course. The degree
of B.A. is given in four grades—the degree without
distinction, the degree cum laude, magna cum laude,
and summa cum laude. The only examination which
plays a really important part in an American college
is the entrance, and it is almost the only one in
which the work of one teacher is tested by another.
The rule throughout American schools and Colleges
is that the teacher is the examiner. This is so
contrary to our principles that it is a little difficult
at first to realize that anything can be said in its
favour, and there can be no doubt that sometimes
in the case of institutions of inferior standing it
does lead to abuse. But a system that would be
impossible where so much depends on the final
examination, may work quite well when the exami-
nation is only an accessory, and the class-room
work and general progress of the student really
determine his position.
An important feature of most American univer-
sities is graduate work, leading on to the degrees
176 Aſ E 7A/ODS OF AZI) UCA TYON
of M.A. and Ph.D. These degrees are also conferred
by some of the women's colleges. Such work is
often called university work, as distinguished from
college work. In fact, the American use of the
words “college’ and “university’ differs greatly
from our own. Harvard College is that part of
Harvard University which prepares for and confers
the degree of B.A. The college, together with the
scientific school, the graduate School, and six pro-
fessional schools make up the university. College
work is general liberal training, university work is
specialising and professional. It is very common
for those who have taken the bachelor's degree of
one university to take up their graduate studies in
another; and facilities are everywhere offered for
admitting graduates from other universities, pro-
vided the degree is considered of equal value. This
possibility of study at different universities without
loss of standing is an enormous gain, and it is a
privilege of which women very largely avail them-
selves. One of the Wassar professors told me that
they did not encourage their students to stay on
after graduation, but rather advised them to go
elsewhere and study under fresh teachers and in
fresh Surroundings. Many continue their studies
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 177
in Europe, and European Fellowships for this pur-
pose are given by the Society of Collegiate Alumnae,
the Women’s Education Association, and Bryn Mawr
College. Of the Collegiate Alumnae, whom I had
the privilege of meeting, many had pursued their
studies in two or more places, and I am sure that
it had given them a width of Outlook that our
students often lack.
An interesting feature of the American University
is the “Summer School.” This is not, like the
Long Vacation Term, meant as an additional help
for undergraduate students, but as an opportunity
for graduates to refresh their knowledge, and to be
brought into contact with the latest ideas on their
own subjects. The advantage of thus enabling
teachers and others to keep in touch with the work
of their university is very great, and this is a
measure which might with immense advantage be
introduced into our own women’s colleges.
Much of the work is done by what in America
are called “recitations,” which we should call
classes or lectures, in which the students are called
on to take some part. Advanced work is largely
taught by lectures, but the students are encouraged
to resort to Original authorities, and occasionally
N
178 METHODS OF EDUCATION
individual students are asked to work up a par-
ticular part of the subject, and communicate the
results to the class. I heard some interesting
lectures in history and literature, and several Con-
struing classes in Latin and Greek, which did not
differ much from the work in our best sixth forms
or beginners’ work at College; and at Bryn Mawr,
where graduate work plays a very important part,
one advanced class in Greek for graduate students
with much discussion of nice points of scholarship.
Probably the work at Bryn Mawr and the Harvard
Annex most closely resemble that of Girton and
Newnham; but here, as elsewhere, comparisons are
difficult and apt to be misleading.
Butler & Tammer, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.
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