U: 
 
 * 
 ^ 
 ' 
 I 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES 
 
 REPRINTED FROM THE REPORT OF THE ENGLISH EDUCATION 
 
 DEPARTMENT FOR 1888-89 WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE 
 
 CONTROLLER OF H. M. STATIONERY OFFICE 
 
 BY 
 
 J. G. FITCH, M.A., LL.D. 
 
 ONE OF HER MAJESTY'S CHIEF INSPECTORS or TRAINING COLLEGES 
 
 ILondon 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK 
 
 1890
 
 Press of .1. J. Little & Co., 
 Astor Place, New York. 
 
 of Cal.
 
 Library 
 
 LA 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE occasion of the appearance of these " Notes " 
 will be best explained by quoting the following 
 extract from my annual official report on English 
 Training Colleges, presented to Parliament in 1889: 
 
 "Through the favor of your Lordships, I was 
 permitted last year to extend the usual official 
 holiday, and so to gratify a wish which I had long 
 entertained, to visit some of the leading schools 
 and colleges in America. I have appended to this 
 report, in the form of some notes, such of the chief 
 facts and considerations brought under my notice 
 in the course of this journey as I thought most 
 likely to prove interesting and suggestive to school 
 managers, masters, and mistresses at home, espe- 
 cially to those who are concerned in the training 
 of elementary teachers." 
 
 This sentence indicates, I hope, with sufficient 
 clearness, the very limited scope and pretensions of 
 the notes which are here reprinted. A full and 
 exhaustive account of so complex a subject as 
 American Education would have been impossible 
 
 394821
 
 4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in the very brief time at my disposal. And it was 
 mainly to furnish hints and information to my 
 own countrymen, and not with a view to tell the 
 American public anything which they did not 
 know before, that these notes were written. Never- 
 theless, since a wish has been expressed by some 
 of my many Transatlantic friends that what I have 
 here said should be reprinted in the " States," 
 my consent to that course has been willingly given ; 
 and the more willingly because to the real sym- 
 pathy and admiration with which I witnessed some 
 of the chief educational phenomena in America, 
 there is added in this instance a very deep sense 
 of the generous and thoughtful attention which I 
 everywhere received from those whose institutions 
 I visited or whose help I sought. 
 
 To institute comparisons of the methods, the 
 extent, or the results of educational work in Europe 
 and in America would be presumptuous without a 
 much fuller acquaintance with the interior life of 
 schools and colleges than it would be possible for a 
 visitor to obtain. And as to mere figures, statistics, 
 and printed reports, they may prove seriously mis- 
 leading, unless the special conditions which give 
 their true significance to those details are thoroughly 
 understood. If I needed a warning against indulg- 
 ing in hasty generalizations from data imperfectly 
 understood, I should find it in a recent article, 
 otherwise very weighty and suggestive, which ap- 
 peared under the honored name of Dr. Edward
 
 INTRODUCTION. O 
 
 Everett Hale in the Forum of July last. In it the 
 writer says : 
 
 " We spend more on public education in Amer- 
 ica than has been spent upon it in Great Britain in 
 twenty years. In the year 1886, which I select for 
 comparison because it is the latest in ' Whitaker's 
 Almanack/ the State of Massachusetts alone, with 
 a population of less than 2,000,000 people, expended 
 about $6,000,000 for the public education of its 
 children, while the kingdom of Great Britain, with 
 u population of 35,000,000, expended only $17,000,- 
 000 in the same time. What follows, of course, is 
 that there are twenty times as many readers in 
 America in the same population as there are in 
 England. " 
 
 The misleading character of the statement here, 
 and the fallacy of the remarkable inference which 
 is deduced from it, and which I have printed in 
 italic, will be evident on considering two things : 
 
 (1) The figures quoted by Dr. Hale represent the 
 parliamentary grant for elementary education only ; 
 that is to say, for children presumably of the 
 laboring class, whose education is not prolonged 
 beyond the fourteenth year, and who are supposed 
 to need the assistance of a public fund in order to 
 procure the means of education. No grant is 
 made by Parliament for the instruction of children 
 of the middle and upper classes who do not use 
 the public elementary schools, nor for advanced 
 or high-school instruction for pupils of any class ;
 
 6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 whereas the Massachusetts fund provides for 
 higher and intermediate, as well as for purely 
 elementary education, and the public schools are 
 attended by the children of all classes of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 (2) The statistics presented in Dr. Hale's article 
 are from the official returns of the Education De- 
 partment. But that Department simply adminis- 
 ters a " grant in aid " of local effort. The sum 
 annually voted by Parliament for elementary edu- 
 cation is only a part, and not the largest part, of 
 the fund available even for that limited purpose. 
 During the year referred to, in which $17,000,000 
 in the form of grants from the Imperial Exchequer 
 were appropriated to elementary schools, the con- 
 tributions of parents in the shape of fees to the 
 same schools amounted to $8,500,000, the volun- 
 tary subscriptions to $3,500,000, the local rates to 
 $5,500,000, and other resources to $500,000, thus 
 making a total revenue of $35,000,000 for the ele- 
 mentary schools alone ; whereas the figures quoted 
 for Massachusetts represent the entire school fund, 
 which is not, so far as I can ascertain, supplemented 
 by contributions either from parents or from other 
 sources. 
 
 Indeed, there is little or no analogy between the 
 educational systems in a young community which 
 has found itself unhampered by traditions, and 
 free to fashion new institutions ; and those of a 
 country like England, in which educational systems
 
 INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 if so they may be called are unsymmetrical, 
 and are the outcome of compromise and of his- 
 torical development. As I have in another place* 
 had occasion to say, "It is very characteristic of 
 this country, of its genius, its traditions, its history, 
 and the idiosyncrasies of its people, that many of its 
 most cherished institutions are the result of growth 
 rather than of manufacture ; have not been con- 
 sciously predetermined by legislators or by theorists, 
 but have shaped themselves by a process of slow 
 evolution to suit the changed circumstances and 
 needs of successive generations." This general 
 statement is strikingly verified in the history of 
 education in England, and in the character of the 
 provision now made for sustaining it. 
 
 For example : secondary and intermediate edu- 
 cation is in England provided wholly by voluntary, 
 local, or private effort, and has never yet been di- 
 rected or subsidized by the central government. 
 There is, therefore, no organized system of public 
 instruction extending beyond the requirements of 
 children who leave schoolforwork in their thirteenth 
 or fourteenth year. An increasing number of the 
 secondary schools of England are established at the 
 instance of local committees or of public bodies, such 
 as the Girls' Public Day School Company, or are the 
 result of the combined efforts of the parents. Such 
 schools, when established, are generally placed under 
 
 * In the article " Education,'' in Chambers' s Cyclopaedia.
 
 8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the supervision of responsible governing bodies, 
 and are annually subjected to examination by the 
 Universities or other public authority. But the 
 most important part of the provision for secondary 
 education is supplied by Endowed schools, to which 
 in England the name "grammar school " is gener- 
 ally given. Many of these foundations date back 
 to the time of the Beformation, some of them still 
 inherit revenues originally transferred from the 
 monastic institutions which were dissolved early in 
 the sixteenth century ; and many others owe their 
 origin to the testaments and deeds of gift of muni- 
 ficent founders. These foundation schools were 
 chiefly designed for instruction in Latin and Greek. 
 They are scattered throughout the whole country, 
 and over all of them the State, as the supreme 
 trustee of all endowments for public purposes, 
 has from time to time exercised, though to a very 
 limited extent, its right of supervision. But they 
 have not been coordinated or subjected to any 
 general scheme of public instruction. The legisla- 
 tion of 1869 has empowered a Commission to frame 
 schemes for the reconstitution of the governing 
 bodies, for releasing those bodies from the obliga- 
 tion to obey antiquated and unworkable regula- 
 tions, and for modernizing and improving the 
 courses of study. It is a conspicuous feature of all 
 these schemes that by them a substantial part of 
 the endowment is reserved for the purpose of help- 
 ing meritorious scholars to obtain gratuitous educa-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 tion, either by securing for them free places on the 
 foundation, or by means of scholarships and exhi- 
 bitions enabling the holders to proceed to the Uni- 
 versities or other places of higher education. But 
 with these exceptions, no public fund in England 
 is available for instruction in secondary and higher 
 schools ; and the parents of children in such 
 schools are always required to pay the full cost of 
 the education they obtain. 
 
 And the relation of the central government in 
 England to the primary instruction of the labor- 
 ing classes differs essentially from that which exists 
 either in the States of the American Union or in any 
 country in Europe. Till near the middle of this 
 century the only means available for such instruc- 
 tion were provided by educational societies, by the 
 churches, or by private philanthropy. It was in 
 1832 that Parliament voted, by way of experiment, 
 a small annual sum of 20,000 for the building of 
 schools, and intrusted the distribution of the fund 
 to the two educational societies which had been 
 founded by the supporters of Dr. Bell and Joseph 
 Lancaster. In 1839 a Committee of Council was 
 formed for the administration of a rather larger 
 sum for the maintenance of schools, and in 1846 
 a more elaborate scheme of grants in aid of volun- 
 tary schools was organized. But until the Act of 
 1870 no other primary schools existed in England 
 except those established at the instance and on the 
 responsibility of voluntary bodies. In . that year
 
 10 INTKODUCTION. 
 
 Parliament for the first time accepted, as a national 
 obligation, the duty of providing schools, and en- 
 acted that wherever the existing provision of effi- 
 cient voluntary schools was inadequate, it should 
 be incumbent on the district to establish a School 
 Board and to supply the deficiency by means of a 
 local rate. But from the first the principle adopted 
 by the legislature has been that the State should 
 begin by recognizing the agency of all efficient vol- 
 untary and religious bodies, and should seek their 
 cooperation. The Department of the State in- 
 trusted with the duty of administering the parlia- 
 mentary grant was not called into existence for the 
 purpose of imposing on the nation its own educa- 
 tional theories, or of prescribing in all cases what 
 should be learned or how it should be taught. It 
 was charged with the distribution of a sum of pub- 
 lic money in aid of local effort, leaving to school 
 managers, whether elected Boards or voluntary 
 Committees, the fullest freedom of administration 
 and initiative in regard to the choice of teachers 
 and the processes of instruction. At the same time 
 it necessarily reserved to itself the power to lay 
 down the conditions under which the grant shall 
 be obtained, and to proportion the amount of that 
 grant to the number of the scholars and to the 
 efficiency of the schools. Accordingly, regula- 
 tions are laid down describing the minimum of 
 school accommodation and equipment, and of the 
 staff of qualified teachers which will entitle a school
 
 INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 to recognition ; and a programme, both of obliga- 
 tory and of optional subjects, is issued to indicate 
 the character of the educational results, which will 
 be taken into account in computing the grant. To 
 this extent, and to this extent only, can the Govern- 
 ment of Great Britain be said to control public 
 instruction, or to have an educational system at all. 
 
 These facts, so familiar to my own countrymen, 
 are here recounted, partly with a view, to show to 
 American readers the very exceptional conditions 
 which dominate the organization of English educa- 
 tion, and mainly in order to explain the point of 
 view from which an English official is likely to look 
 at the whole problem, and to observe the spirited 
 and well-devised measures by which America is 
 seeking to solve it. 
 
 December, 1889.
 
 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 
 
 THOSE who would understand the educational 
 institutions of America must first give special condi- 
 heed to the exceptional conditions under to?he e l^ierC 
 which these institutions originated and can Uniou - 
 still continue to work. The American Republic is 
 a unique organization. It differs essentially from 
 France, in which the several departments are mere 
 local administrative areas, with little or no politi- 
 cal autonomy, and form together a nation, "one 
 and indivisible," controlled and regulated at Paris 
 as the capital and centre of the national life. It 
 is somewhat less unlike the Swiss Federation. The 
 acts of the several cantons of Switzerland derive 
 all their validity from the Federal Government at 
 Berne. The " Pact " of 1803 defines the several 
 powers of the League and of the cantonal govern- 
 ments, and gives much larger powers to the former 
 than belong to the Federal Government at Wash- 
 ington. America is, as Mr. Bryce has well de-
 
 14 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 scribed it, "a commonwealth of commonwealths, 
 a republic of republics, a State which, while one, is 
 nevertheless composed of other States even more 
 essential to its existence than it is to theirs." The 
 States are older than the Union. " The Constitu- 
 tion of 1789 turned a league of States into a Federal 
 State by giving it a national Government with a 
 direct authority over all the citizens." But the 
 nature of this authority was strictly denned and 
 limited, and did not supersede the governments 
 of the several States. Each community retained 
 many of the attributes of a sovereign State, and 
 while parting with such rights as those of coining 
 money, maintaining an army, making treaties and 
 the like rights which belong to the nation in its 
 corporate capacity, secured for herself by Article 
 1 of the Constitution complete independence in 
 regard to all matters of internal administration. 
 " The powers vested in each State are all of them 
 original and inherent powers which belonged to the 
 State before it entered the Union. Hence they are 
 primd facie unlimited, and, if a question arises as 
 to any particular power, it is presumed to be en- 
 joyed by the State unless it can be shown to have 
 been taken away by the Federal Constitution, or, 
 in other words, a State is not deemed to be subject 
 to any restriction which the Constitution has not 
 distinctly imposed." (Bryce's American Common- 
 wealth, I. 424.) 
 
 Among the prerogatives of an independent and
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 15 
 
 
 
 autonomous Government, with which the States 
 have not parted, and are not likely to Education es- 
 
 , , , sentially a mat- 
 
 part, is the absolute control of public ter for the 
 
 mi 1 f States, not for 
 
 education. There is, therefore, no na- the Union, 
 tional or American system, but a number of sepa- 
 rate systems. Each State has its own educational 
 laws, and raises, appropriates, and distributes school 
 funds in its own way. 
 
 There is, it is true, at Washington, a central 
 Bureau of Education, which was found- The washing- 
 ed in 1867, and which is maintained tonBnreau - 
 by Congress at an annual charge of about $50,000. 
 It is intrusted with the duty of collecting statistics 
 and publishing and circulating information ; but it 
 has no authority. It cannot even enforce the pro- 
 duction of figures or information, or impose any regu- 
 lation or principle of action on the legislature of any 
 State. The commissionership has during twenty 
 years been held by three distinguished men, Henry 
 Barnard, General Eaton, and N". H. Dawson, and 
 an energetic commissioner may secure for his office 
 a good deal of indirect influence by the publication 
 of reports and of useful monographs, the work of 
 skilled writers in special departments of educational 
 work. The Bureau also gathers together, chiefly 
 for the information of members of Congress, numer- 
 ous memoirs and reports respecting the educational 
 systems in foreign countries, and is forming by 
 degrees a valuable educational library. But it is in 
 no sense a controlling or even an advising body,
 
 16 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 
 
 aiid its existence is hardly recognized by the local 
 educational authorities in the several States. 
 
 In one respect only has the central Government 
 Provision of concerned itself with education. In 
 
 public lands for 
 
 education. 1785 it was ordained that in all new 
 States hereafter to be added to the 17 then existing, 
 a special appropriation of one-sixteenth of the 
 public laud should be reserved for the purpose of 
 supplying a school fund. There are now 42 States 
 in the American Union, but many of them sold the 
 lands in order to defray the initial charge of erect- 
 ing schools, and comparatively few now enjoy the 
 rent or use it as a permanent revenue for main- 
 tenance of the schools. They all require further 
 aid from State or local taxation. The State of 
 Indiana has the distinction of having husbanded 
 its resources with exceptional discretion and ability, 
 and its last report shows that out of a total school 
 revenue of $1,657,703 about 81,000,000 were de- 
 rived from property, $449,979 from local taxation, 
 and $204,985 from liquor licenses, and other minor 
 sources. As a rule, however, the annual charge to 
 be met by local assessment is much higher than in 
 this case. 
 
 The relations of the several provinces in Canada 
 Reaembiance to the Dominion Government are 
 states of the closely analogous to those of the States 
 
 Union and the . 
 
 provinces of the of the American Union to the Jbederal 
 
 Canadian Do- . , - . ,-, 
 
 minion. Government. Neither in the States 
 
 nor in the Dominion is there any centralized system.
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 17 
 
 Hence there are considerable diversities in the 
 character of the educational arrangements in dif- 
 ferent parts of the North American continent. 
 An enterprising and liberal community may make, 
 and often does make, ample provision for sumpt- 
 uous school buildings and an ambitious course of 
 instruction. But if a local educational authority 
 chooses to accept a narrow and poor ideal of educa- 
 tion, or to make grudging and insufficient appro- 
 priation of public money for its support ; if, for 
 example, its law is satisfied with country schools 
 which are open only six or even four months in the 
 year or contains no provision for enforcing attend- 
 ance, there is no central authority which can exer- 
 cise any influence upon it, or which is entitled to 
 declare that the educational provision is insuffi- 
 cient. 
 
 Here, for example, is a very significant extract 
 from the last official report from the State of Ala- 
 bama : 
 
 "In point of material resources and natural ad- 
 vantages Alabama is surpassed by no State in the 
 Union. . . If in our haste to grow rich we 
 neglect our public school system and the moral 
 training of our youth, these natural advantages and 
 boundless resources may become a snare to us. . 
 But if we foster our public school system, as many 
 of our sister States have done, we shall be blessed 
 with a thrifty, enterprising class of immigrants, 
 who will appreciate free public schools, and who 
 2
 
 18 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 will invest their money among us and heartily co- 
 operate with us in developing our State and in per- 
 petuating our free institutions. To such a class of 
 immigrants a public school system that pays no 
 more than $1 per child, including poll-tax ; that 
 pays teachers on an average only $21.87 per month ; 
 that runs its free public schools only 70 days in 
 the year, and that does not pretend to provide any 
 school buildings, is not very inviting." 
 
 In one respect, at least, the public school system 
 The common throughout the Union is uniform. It 
 states 8 always 1S entirely secular, and no church or 
 religious body as such has even an in- 
 direct control over the external or internal manage- 
 ment of the common school. It is not unusual for 
 the school-work to begin with a short religious 
 exercise a hymn, the Lord's Prayer, and a reading 
 from the Scriptures " without written note or oral 
 comment/' and the public law of Massachusetts pre- 
 scribes that : 
 
 " It shall be the duty of all preceptors and teach- 
 ers of academies, and of all other instructors of 
 youth, to exert their best endeavors to impress on the 
 minds of children and youth committed to their 
 care and instruction, the principles of piety and 
 justice and a sacred regard to truth, love of their 
 country, humanity and universal benevolence ; 
 sobriety, industry and frugality ; chastity, modera- 
 tion and temperance ; and those other virtues which 
 are the ornament of human society, and the basis
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 19 
 
 on which a republican constitution is founded : and 
 it shall be the duty of such instructors to endeavor 
 to lead their pupils, as their ages and capacities will 
 admit, into a clear understanding of the tendency of 
 the above-named virtues to preserve and perfect a 
 republican constitution and secure the blessings of 
 liberty as well as to promote their future happiness, 
 and also to point out to them the evil tendency of 
 the opposite vices." 
 
 These injunctions, however, are merely general. 
 Neither in the time tables and schemes of instruc- 
 tion for Boston, nor in those of any State or city, 
 have I found provision for Bible reading by the 
 scholars, or for religious teaching in any form. 
 
 For this and for other reasons the public school 
 system, though theoretically comprehensive, does 
 not extend to all the children of school age. On 
 the one hand, the Koman Catholic Church and 
 some members of the Episcopal and other churches 
 desire for their children definite religious instruc- 
 tion, and make considerable sacrifices in order to 
 maintain denominational schools in efficiency. On 
 the other hand, many of the richer people dislike 
 the publicity and the associations of the common 
 schools, and prefer to educate their children at 
 their own cost in private establishments. In the 
 city of Philadelphia 110,000 scholars are to be 
 found in the public schools, and 30,000 are taught 
 in the schools of religious bodies or of private 
 teachers. In Boston it is computed that five-sixths
 
 20 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 of all the scholars under instruction are in public 
 and one-sixth in private establishments. In the 
 'city of New York the proportion of scholars with- 
 drawn either on religious or on social grounds from 
 the public schools is said to be increasing. No 
 supervision of any kind is exercised by the local 
 governments over the private and denominational 
 schools. They are not inspected, except for sani- 
 tary purposes; their teachers are not required to 
 hold any certificate of qualification, and they re- 
 ceive no aid whatever from public funds. In dis- 
 tricts in which the Catholic influence has become 
 powerful a desire is often strongly expressed to 
 adopt so much of the English system as will allow 
 the religious schools to receive pecuniary help, and 
 to be recognized as part of the provision for public 
 instruction on giving due evidence of efficiency in 
 regard to secular teaching. But at present no 
 State or city has yielded to this demand. Indeed, 
 the question is often discussed whether, having 
 regard to the terms and to the spirit of the Federal 
 Constitution, and to the absolute religious equality 
 which that instrument secures to the community, 
 it is within the power of any single State to make 
 grants of public money to schools under the man- 
 agement of clerical bodies. The question has not 
 been authoritatively settled ; and whenever it takes 
 a practical shape, and any State or city seriously 
 proposes to accept the co-operation of the churches 
 and to subsidize denominational schools, a very
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 21 
 
 grave and acrimonious controversy may be expected 
 to arise and to excite interest throughout all the 
 States of the Union. 
 
 No such difficulty about the recognition of de- 
 nominational schools exists in Canada. g ut not j n 
 Under the British North America Act Canada - 
 of 1867 the supporters of separate schools were 
 guaranteed certain privileges which the local legis- 
 lature may extend but may not abridge. Thus, in 
 Ontario or Upper Canada, though the public school 
 system is undenominational, the Protestant separate 
 and the Roman Catholic separate schools are recog- 
 nized as adjuncts to it, and receive grants and regular 
 inspection under the Minister of Public Instruction. 
 In the province of Quebec or Lower Canada the 
 Council of Public Instruction is composed of Ro- 
 man Catholic ecclesiastics and laymen and of Pro- 
 testant members. These are divided into two com- 
 mittees, Protestant and Catholic, and the school 
 funds raised by taxation are divided between the 
 two bodies and between the schools of the two 
 classes in proportion to the population. There are 
 Protestant Inspectors and Catholic Inspectors, and 
 the two committees regulate the choice of books 
 and the system of instruction for their respective 
 schools. There is, therefore, in this province, and 
 especially in the city of Quebec, in which the pro- 
 portion of French Catholics is large and increasing, 
 an essentially denominational system ; and Catholic 
 schools and teachers enjoy a larger share of public
 
 22 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 recognition and of material help from public funds 
 than in any Catholic country in Europe. 
 
 Throughout the American Union, although each 
 State has its own educational authority, the prac- 
 tical working of the school system is left to the 
 Local adminis- school boards or to the committees of 
 trative bodies. sma n er administrative areas, such as 
 the county or the township. Every large city, also, 
 has its own school committee, makes from the local 
 taxation its own appropriation of money, appoints 
 its own officials, issues its own licenses to practise, 
 and its own regulations and schemes of instruc- 
 tion. For all practical purposes the organization 
 of public instruction in Boston or Chicago is as in- 
 dependent of the State authority of Massachusetts 
 or Illinois as if the city happened to be situated 
 in another State. 
 
 The local authorities or school boards are very 
 differently constituted. In some cases they are 
 nominated by the governor of the State, in others 
 by the mayor of the city, or by the judges. In one 
 town the body of aldermen constitutes the school 
 committee.' In other cases there is direct popular 
 election ad hoc. But all the local committees, 
 however constituted, are more or less the product 
 of political influences, and are subject to frequent 
 changes. One hears frequent lamentations over 
 the personal incompetence of many of the mem- 
 bers of such committees to serve as efficient direct- 
 ors of education; and over the manner in which
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 23 
 
 patronage is abused and appointments of teachers 
 are made through personal interest and favor. 
 Especially it is urged, with some truth, that the 
 constant changes in the composition of the boards 
 render it difficult to pursue a continuous policy or 
 to develop the school system on a fixed plan. 
 There is little or no comity among the several edu- 
 cational authorities, scarcely any interchange of 
 teachers, and little opportunity for comparison of 
 experience, except by purely voluntary associations. 
 Notwithstanding this diversity of organization, 
 there are certain general resemblances 
 
 ii_ i i- ii_ u L Genera' *ea- 
 
 in the plans of instruction throughout tare? of the 
 the States. The chief features which 
 they possess in common are the following : 
 
 The period of elementary education is from 6 to 
 14. The schools are divided into primary depart- 
 ments, which receive children from 6 to 10 ; and 
 grammar departments, in which the scholars range 
 from 10 to 14. Each division is subdivided into 
 classes or grades. In schools in the great cities 
 there are often 12 or 14 grades, some of which 
 represent half-yearly courses of instruction ; in 
 most of the schools there are, between the ages of 
 6 and 14, eight yearly courses or grades ; while in 
 small ungraded schools in the country, although 
 the scholars of advanced age are expected to show 
 greater proficiency, a classification into two or 
 three groups for purposes of collective instruction 
 is recognized.
 
 24 XOTES ON AMEKICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 Classification by age, though not rigidly insisted 
 on,* is more common than in our 
 
 Classification. 1 . 
 
 schools. At the end ot each period the 
 .scholars are examined for promotion, sometimes by 
 their own teachers, more often by the school super- 
 intendent and his Inspectors, and the scholar who 
 is not successful remains in the lower class, other- 
 wise he is expected to be found in the class appro- 
 priate to his age. The liberty of classification en- 
 joyed by English teachers, which enables them so 
 often to place in the First Standard, appropriate to 
 the eighth year, new scholars of 10 or even 11 years 
 of age, could not, as a rule, be exercised in Amer- 
 ica, except at the risk of censure. 
 
 In the pages appended to these notes I have 
 summarized the official requirements for the grades 
 
 * This sentence has been much criticised, though not re- 
 futed, by some of our teachers at home. It simply records 
 the undoubted fact that, so far as my observation extended, 
 the ages of American scholars corresponded more nearly to 
 the "grade" or class in which they were placed, than the 
 ages of children to the appropriate " standards " in English 
 elementary schools. On the question of the right basis of 
 classification I have here expressed no opinion. But I have 
 no doubt that while it would be absurd and pedantic to 
 place children in classes solely on the ground of the differ- 
 ences in their age, there is no good school of any rank, from 
 Eton down to the humblest pauper school, in which teachers 
 do not take into account the age of the pupil as one impor- 
 tant factor in determining the class in which he is to be 
 placed, besides their estimate of his ability and attain- 
 ments.
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 25 
 
 corresponding to the English standards, taken from 
 several local regulations. They may be" regarded 
 as fairly typical. An English boy who goes through 
 the course with credit up to 14 is said to have 
 passed the Seventh Standard. An American boy 
 who reached the same point would be said to have 
 " graduated" in the grammar school. 
 
 Above the grammar school many States and 
 cities provide high schools. These fur- 
 
 r , ,. , , , High schools. 
 
 nish an education adapted to scholars 
 from 14 or 15 to 18. The admirable high schools 
 at Boston, the English and the Latin, described 
 with such strong appreciation in the report of the 
 late Bishop (then Mr.) Fraser in 1866, continue to 
 flourish and to offer a generous and stimulating 
 course of instruction in language and history, sci- 
 ence and mathematics. The " elective" system 
 under which the parents are at liberty to take so 
 much of the programme as may suit the special 
 aptitudes and destination of their children prevails 
 largely in the high schools as in the universities 
 of America. The following programme of the 
 Washington High School will serve as a character- 
 istic illustration of the aims and plans of some of 
 the best schools of that class :
 
 XOTES ON AMEBICAK SCHOOLS 
 
 WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL. 
 
 Three Courses of Study outlined. 
 
 YEAH. 
 
 ACADEMIC. 
 
 SCIENTIFIC. 
 
 BUSINESS. 
 
 f 
 
 English. 
 
 English. 
 
 English. 
 
 
 History. 
 
 History. 
 
 History. 
 
 
 Algebra. 
 
 Algebra. 
 
 Algebra. 
 
 First. 
 
 Latin. 
 
 German. 
 
 Book-keeping and 
 Business Arith- 
 metic. 
 
 I 
 
 Physiology. ) L 
 Physical \^' 
 Geography, j Ures - 
 
 Physiology. ) T 
 Physical L*** 
 Geography, f tl] 
 
 Physiology. ) T 
 Physical t"*- 
 Geography. > tl 
 
 f 
 
 English (1st half 
 year). History and 
 Political Economy 
 (2d half year). 
 
 English (1st half 
 year), History and 
 Political Econ'my 
 (2d half year), or 
 Chemistry (whole 
 year). 
 
 English (1st half 
 year). History and 
 Political Econ'my 
 (2d half year), or 
 Chemistry (whole 
 year). 
 
 Second. - 
 
 Geometry. 
 
 Geometry. 
 
 Book-keeping and 
 Business Arith- 
 metic. 
 
 i 
 
 Latin. 
 
 German. 
 
 Commercial Law 
 and Commercial 
 Geography. 
 
 I 
 
 Physics or Greek. 
 
 Physics. 
 
 Physics. 
 
 f 
 
 Trigonometry and 
 Surveying or Eng- 
 lish. 
 
 Trigonometry and 
 Surveying or Eng- 
 lish. 
 
 
 Third. 
 
 Latin. 
 French or Greek. 
 Botany. 
 
 Chemistry and Min- 
 eralogy. 
 
 History and Politi- 
 cal Economy. 
 
 German. 
 French. 
 Botany. 
 
 Chemistry and Min- 
 eralogy. 
 
 History and Politi- 
 cal Economy. 
 
 Diplomas given at 
 trie end of two 
 years, but gradu- 
 ates desiring to 
 continue in school 
 may take suitable 
 studies of third 
 year in other 
 courses. 
 
 I 
 
 Advanced Physics. 
 
 Advanced Physics. 

 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 27 
 
 (a) Elective studies are printed in italics ; all others are prescribed. 
 
 (b) General exercises in composition, declamation or reading, and 
 drawing are required in all the courses ; a general exercise in music is 
 optional. 
 
 (c) Instruction in a mechanical workshop is provided for selected stu- 
 dents from each of the boys' classes. 
 
 (d) Not more than four studies may be pursued at one time. 
 
 (e) Candidates for diplomas must pursue all the prescribed studies of 
 the first and second years, and at least three studies in the third year ; 
 students who from any cause fail to meet this requirement are enrolled 
 as "unclassified." 
 
 It should be observed that the American high 
 school is unlike any institution in Eng- T 
 
 J . . . Difference 
 
 land. It is essentially a continuation between an 
 
 17 American high 
 
 school, and is in close organic con- school and an 
 
 . English gram- 
 
 nectioii with the primary or grammar mar or mter- 
 
 -i A -n mediate school. 
 
 schools. It does not receive pupils till 
 the age of 14, and all its arrangements pre-suppose 
 that, before entering it, the pupil has gone suc- 
 cessfully through the ''grammar" grades. An 
 English " grammar school " or middle school exists 
 side by side with a public elementary school, but 
 has no relation to it. The latter takes scholars 
 from 6 or 7 to 14, and the former from 7 or 8 to 17 
 or 18. The two are attended by scholars of very 
 different social ranks, and each has its own course 
 of instruction fashioned from the first ont the 
 theory that the course will extend to a certain age, 
 and that this course must, in view of that fact, 
 have a completeness of its own. The broader and 
 more liberal aims of the English grammar school 
 affect the character of the daily lessons from the 
 first. Subjects are begun in it by the age of 10 or
 
 28 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 11 which do not come into the curriculum of the 
 elementary school at all. Hence if by means of 
 scholarships or otherwise a boy of promise is to be 
 taken from the lower school to the higher, it is 
 necessary to choose him early, say at 11 or 12, and 
 to transfer him to the one from the other at once. 
 He would not derive the full advantage of the 
 higher school course if he stayed to complete the 
 seven standards of the elementary school. But in 
 America the "ladder" is differently constructed. 
 The end of the grammar school curriculum coin- 
 cides with the beginning of that of the high school. 
 Both schools are generally under the same manage- 
 ment. And, except for the fact that it is the 
 poorer parent who is compelled to withdraw his 
 child earliest for labor, both are attended by the 
 same class of pupils. Hence a good deal of the 
 waste of power in England, owing to the separation 
 of children of different social ranks into distinct 
 schools during the period of purely elementary 
 education is avoided. Our " higher " schools are 
 higher, not because they are occupied in doing 
 advanced work, nor because relatively to the needs 
 of a scholar in the early stage of his education 
 they are giving better elementary instruction, but 
 partly because they contemplate the extension of 
 the studies to a later age, and mainly because they 
 are attended by pupils whose parents are rich 
 enough to pay for their education, and therefore 
 do not need the help of a Government grant.
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 29 
 
 The supply of high schools is not uniform 
 throughout the country. They are to be found in 
 most though not all of the great cities. The pub- 
 lic school law of Massachusetts requires a high 
 school whenever the place contains 500 children of 
 school age ; and that State contains no less than 
 229 high schools. The public school system of 
 the city of New York includes no high school. 
 The place of such an institution is partly supplied 
 by the College of the City of New York, which 
 gives a scientific and literary training to young 
 men, and partly by the Normal school for young 
 women which is not, as its name seems to imply, 
 an institution wholly for the training of teachers, 
 since its lower classes give a good general educa- 
 tion, and since many scholars enter it without any 
 intention of proceeding to the higher departments 
 in which special professional training is given to 
 future schoolmistresses. When it is considered that 
 instruction in all the schools which are once incor- 
 porated into the public school system is gratuitous, 
 it is not a little remarkable that the proportion of 
 scholars availing themselves of this provision is so 
 small. In Chicago, for example, a prosperous city 
 of 875,000 inhabitants, amply supplied with excel- 
 lent schools, there are only 2,000 scholars in the 
 high schools, of whom less than 500 are boys ; and 
 of these it is computed that less than half remain 
 long enough to complete the course. In Boston, a 
 city in which the appreciation of knowledge and
 
 30 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 culture has long been exceptionally high, the ele- 
 mentary schools are attended in all by 55,451 schol- 
 ars, of whom 2,211 are in the highest class and 
 3,429 are in the second class, corresponding to our 
 7th and 6th Standards respectively. The grammar 
 school diploma was in 1887 awarded to 1,992 
 "graduates." This gives a proportion of scholars 
 successfully completing the elementary school 
 course in a given year of about one twenty-eighth 
 of the whole number of pupils, and, assuming an 
 average stay in the schools of seven years, this points 
 roughly to the conclusion that one-fourth of the 
 scholars will probably proceed to the end of the 
 course. In the same year the schools of the Lon- 
 don School Board are reported to have presented 
 264,791 scholars for examination in standards, of 
 whom 6,379 were in and above the 7th Standard, a 
 number not amounting to one-fortieth of the 
 whole, and suggesting that if seven years be the 
 ordinary length of the school life, not many more 
 than one-sixth of the scholars now in board schools 
 will remain long enough to complete their course 
 by passing in Standard VII. Considering, how- 
 ever, that the scholars in the London board schools 
 belong almost all to the wage-earning class, and 
 that those of the Boston public schools include the 
 children of persons of all social grades, the com- 
 parison is nowise unfavorable. If we had, as in 
 Boston, statistics showing the total number of 
 scholars of all ranks who remained under instruc-
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 31 
 
 tion till 13, 14, and 15 respectively, it may be 
 doubted whether London would appear at any dis- 
 advantage. Yet the statistics of Boston give a 
 higher average of scholars in advanced schools and 
 classes than those of any other city in the States, 
 whose figures I have had an opportunity of exam- 
 ining. Of the 1,992 who "graduated" in the Bos- 
 ton grammar schools, 1,081, or 54 per cent., subse- 
 quently entered either the English or the Latin 
 high schools. This fact represents a very satisfac- 
 tory proportion. But applying the same test, and 
 by taking into account the numbers who reach the 
 advanced class in the high schools, it appears that 
 little more than one-fifth complete the four years' 
 course and become "graduates" of the high school. 
 Indeed, a comparison of the general statistics of 
 school attendance in America with comparison of 
 
 those of our own country cannot 
 fairly be made without keeping in view attendance. 
 the fact that here the public elementary schools are 
 designed for the children of the laboring class, and 
 are not used except to a very small extent by parents 
 above that class. But the educational returns of 
 America extend to the children of all the classes 
 who attend public schools at all. It should also be 
 borne in mind that according to the latest returns 
 the population of the United States (57,929,609) 
 is, roughly speaking, about double that of England 
 and Wales. In the light of these facts the follow- 
 ing figures are significant : The report of 1887 of
 
 32 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 the Commissioner of Education shows the number 
 of scholars on the rolls in all the public schools to 
 be 11,805,660, and the average number in daily 
 attendance to be 7,571,416, or 64 per cent. In 
 the report of the English Education Department 
 for last year 4,635,184 were enrolled on the registers 
 of the elementary schools of England and Wales ; 
 of whom 3,527,381, or 76 per cent., were in average 
 daily attendance. This average, it must be ob- 
 served, is computed in England on a minimum of 
 400 school attendances, or 200 days, in the 'year. 
 But in many parts of America the schools are open 
 less than half this num ber of times. For example : 
 In the State of Connecticut, which is said to take 
 the lead in regard to the enforcement of attend- 
 ance, the law is satisfied with 120 days' attendance 
 in the year ; and in many districts of that State 
 schools are open only for six months in the year. 
 The average term of the school in the State of Mis- 
 sissippi was 84 days in the year 1887. In the State 
 of New York the Act requires 14 weeks of school 
 attendance in the year. The new compulsory law 
 of 1887 for the State of Maine, which is designed 
 to supersede the less stringent regulations hitherto 
 in force, requires attendance for 16 weeks in the 
 year. 
 
 One obvious conclusion from these returns is that 
 the system of free schools does not necessarily 
 secure a high average of regularity in attendance. 
 There are compulsory laws in several of the great
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 33 
 
 cities, and truant officers whose business it is to en- 
 force them ; but they are in most cases very leni- 
 ently administered, and in many towns, and over 
 large tracts of country, they do not exist at all. It 
 is the experience of all school authorities that 
 wherever wages are high, and there are many open- 
 ings for juvenile labor, the children drop off in 
 great numbers at 11 and 12 years of age ; and that 
 there are no public measures which are effective 
 enough to prevent it. The rule which so often 
 prevails in the states of Germany, requiring attend- 
 ance at a continuation school or Fortbildungs 
 Schule in the case of all scholars who fail to reach 
 a certain standard in the ordinary day schools at 13 
 or 14, has no force in the American States. Statis- 
 tics of actual illiteracy have not been compiled in 
 such a way as to furnish data for any comprehensive 
 induction ; but those of several States may be use- 
 fully compared. In the State of Massachusetts the 
 last report computed that there were, in 1885, 
 122,263 " illiterates," forming 7.73 per cent, of the 
 population. Of these, 6.79 per cent, were born in 
 Massachusetts, 4.58 in other States, and 88.63 per 
 cent, were foreign born. These figures include illit- 
 erates of all ages, many of whom have come into the 
 State after reaching maturity. If only the minors 
 from 10 to 20 are considered, they will be found to 
 be only 9.92 of the total number as against 11.99 in 
 1875. This is one of the most favorable statements, 
 and shows how very large a part of the ignorance 
 3
 
 34 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 and poverty of the New England States is imported. 
 But other figures offer a striking contrast. In Ala- 
 bama, out of a population of 1,262,505, no less than 
 433,447 over the age of 10 were unable to write. 
 Michigan, with a much more generous school sys- 
 tem, had, out of a population of 1,648,690, only 
 63,672 illiterates ; and Arkansas, out of a popula- 
 tion of 1,542,359, had 410,722. 
 
 In regard to the material fabric of the schools 
 generally, only two or three facts need 
 
 The school J . 
 
 buildings and to be mentioned. The teaching is 
 conducted in separate class-rooms, but 
 provision is nearly always made for one hall large 
 enough to contain the whole of the pupils, and 
 available for collective exercises, and for the annual 
 prize giving and other ceremonials. In some in- 
 stances both of these objects are fulfilled in the same 
 apartment. At a large school in New York I saw 
 several hundred scholars assembled for the opening 
 exercise and singing, and immediately afterwards 
 a number of partitions, which had been ingeniously 
 attached to the roof, descended at a signal, and the 
 whole of the large hall was at once transformed into 
 a number of separate class-rooms. The schools 
 generally are less amply furnished with play- 
 grounds than schools of corresponding grades in 
 England ; and it seemed to me that much less use 
 was made of them during the mid-day recess. Some 
 of the elementary schools, especially in New York, 
 were too crowded for health or comfort. The offi-
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 35 
 
 cial regulations issued by the City Superintendent 
 prescribe the following as the minimum of floor- 
 space and air-space per pupil : "In the three lower 
 classes of the primary schools, five square feet and 
 seventy cubic feet ; in the three higher grades, six 
 square and eighty cubic feet ; in the four lower 
 grades of grammar schools, seven square feet and 
 ninety cubic feet, and in the four higher grades, 
 nine square feet and one hundred cubic feet per 
 scholar." Space, however, is exceptionally valuable 
 in the city of New York, and these minima are 
 generally exceeded in other places. The plan of 
 seating pupils at single separate desks is common 
 and has many advantages ; but it does not econo- 
 mize space well. It fills a room with desks, so that 
 there is no space for collective movement or for 
 causing the class to vary its position by occasional 
 standing ; and if the numbers are large the scholars 
 are spread over so wide an area that the teacher's 
 voice is needlessly tried. 
 
 One very useful mechanical device, which is not 
 without an important incidental effect The continuous 
 on the whole character of the teach- blackboard, 
 ing, is to be found in nearly all the best American 
 schools. It is the continuous blackboard, or black- 
 ened surface extending all round the room, after 
 the fashion of what house painters here call a 
 "dado." I am frequently struck in England with 
 the waste of power caused by the smallness of the 
 blackboard surface accessible to the teacher. More
 
 36 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 than half of what is written or drawn in illustration 
 of the lessons I hear at home is rubbed out directly, 
 and before it has served its purpose, simply because 
 room is wanted to write or draw something else. 
 English teachers have yet to learn the proper use of 
 a blackboard. There is much waste of time when- 
 ever anything is sketched or written upon it, and 
 not afterwards read or referred to, and made an 
 effective instrument of recapitulation. Unless the 
 questions, " What have I written here ?" "Why 
 did I write it ? " " What is the meaning of this 
 diagram ?" "Can you explain it to the class?" 
 occur later in the lesson, the board should not be 
 used at all. Nor unless the series of demonstra- 
 tions, examples, or pictures remain within sight of 
 the learner during the whole of the lesson, and for 
 a time afterwards, is it possible for him to go back 
 and get a clear notion of the right order of its de- 
 velopment, or to see any continuity or wholeness in 
 it. An American teacher generally understands 
 this. He begins at one end of the wall behind his 
 estrade and goes on to the other end ; erasing noth- 
 ing, but letting all the parts of his subject be illus- 
 trated in order, and referring back to them from 
 time to time. And at the end of his lesson he sends 
 some of the scholars to the side walls to work out 
 in the presence of the class other problems, to re- 
 produce a diagram, or to write an illustrative sen- 
 tence. There is plenty of room on the walls for 
 failures as well as for successes. Both are retained
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 37 
 
 within sight of the pupils for a time ; and in the 
 hands of a skilful teacher the good and the bad 
 exercises are equally instructive. The wall surface 
 is also available for many other purposes setting 
 out the work to be done for home lessons ; writing 
 out the sums which have to be worked, the lists of 
 words which have to be wrought into sentences ; or 
 giving a specimen map or diagram for imitation. 
 
 The power of rapid and effective freehand drawing 
 is cultivated more generally, and with The nge to ^ 
 more success, among the best American made of it- 
 teachers than among our own, and it gives them a 
 great advantage. A diagram sketched out then and 
 there to illustrate a science lesson, a map which 
 grows under the teacher's hand as one fact after 
 another is elicited and explained, have a far greater 
 effect in kindling the interest of children and fixing 
 their attention than any number of engraved or 
 painted pictures, however good. Whatever forms 
 part of the permanent decoration of a schoolroom 
 is apt to be taken for granted, and practically dis- 
 regarded by children. But a new drawing made ad 
 hoc and associated with something which at the time 
 is being enforced or made interesting by the teacher 
 has a value of a far higher kind. The new regula- 
 tions of our own Science and Art Department re- 
 specting the conditions of the drawing certificate for 
 teachers emphasize strongly the importance of un- 
 copied and free blackboard drawing. But the best 
 of the American training colleges have for several 
 
 394821
 
 38 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 years given special attention to this part of the 
 teacher's qualification. I have seen the students of 
 a normal school busily engaged during the midday 
 recess of the juvenile practising school in dashing 
 off with a few simple strokes outline pictures of birds 
 and flowers, of ships or of houses, or copies of the 
 little illustrations to be found in story books ; so 
 that when the children returned they should find 
 something new all round the room to look at and to 
 talk about. 
 
 It will be seen from the tabulated statement of the 
 requirements in the various grades how 
 
 Drawing and - 1 
 
 manual in- large an importance is attached to draw- 
 
 struction. . A 
 
 mg in the American schools. It is, in 
 fact, the one form of manual training on the value of 
 which all the best educational authorities are agreed. 
 Many misgivings are expressed even by some of the 
 ablest of those authorities about the educational 
 value of other kinds of Hand-arbeit, but none as to 
 the importance of drawing and design. In America, 
 as in England, discussions about "technical" and 
 manual instruction excite great public interest. But 
 there are two classes of persons who advocate the 
 introduction of such training into schools ; and 
 there is a little confusion between the objects seve- 
 rally aimed at by these two classes. One section 
 of educational authorities desires to train skilled 
 handicraftsmen, and sees with alarm the increasing 
 distaste of the American boy for manual labor. It 
 is said with truth that by far the larger proportion of
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 39 
 
 mechanical trades is in the hands of foreigners. 
 This is not altogether surprising. The air of 
 America is full of commercial speculation and 
 enterprise, and of restless ambition. New royal 
 roads to success, new ways of making rapid fortunes, 
 are opening every day. A lad of any promise is 
 attracted to the "store," to the railroad, or the 
 office, and thinks that mechanical labor, if not just 
 a little servile and undignified, is at any rate a very 
 slow process for "getting on" in life. It is be- 
 lieved by many of the advocates of manual training 
 that the best corrective for this growing evil will be 
 the introduction of organized hand-work into the 
 ordinary curriculum of a school; and it is hoped in 
 this way not only to increase the tactual skill of the 
 pupil, but also to awaken an intelligent interest in 
 such work, and to invest it with more dignified 
 associations. Other persons view the whole problem 
 in a different aspect. They believe that, apart from 
 all considerations of industry or utility, the right 
 training of the fingers and the senses is a valuable 
 part of general education, and has an important 
 reflex action on the intelligence of the pupil and on 
 his fitness to perform any of the duties of life. 
 Some very valuable and costly experiments have 
 been tried in many places to meet one or other of 
 these two views. The Technological Institute at 
 Boston, the Pratt Institute at Brooklyn, and the 
 Manual Training School at Chicago have mainly 
 for their purpose to increase the scientific knowl-
 
 40 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 edge, the skill and the producing power of those 
 who may look forward to becoming the captains of 
 industry and directors of manufacture. The insti- 
 tutions established by Dr. Felix Adler and Dr. 
 N. Murray Butler in New York, and the Manual 
 Training School at Philadelphia, are types of 
 schools having a more distinctly educational aim. 
 All of these institutions are the product of private 
 munificence, and none of them except the last is 
 incorporated into the public-school system of the 
 city in which it is situated. It is to the energetic 
 initiative of the school superintendent of Philadel- 
 phia that the introduction of this new experiment 
 into that city is mainly due. He defends it, not on 
 grounds of any industrial or economic needs, but 
 solely on educational considerations. He says: 
 
 "Manual training is founded on the claim that 
 it gives a more complete education than is afforded 
 by the course of instruction now followed in the 
 schools. It undertakes so to modify the existing 
 methods of training as to yield an education that 
 shall make the graduate of the public school a more 
 harmoniously developed and efficient member of 
 society. The instruction given in our schools is 
 too one-sided. . . . To a very large extent the 
 schools neglect the training of those powers which 
 bring the mind into true relations with its physical 
 environment. A very large portion of the time of 
 pupils in schools of every grade is devoted to the 
 study of words. Educational reformers for nearly
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 41 
 
 300 years have been seeking to remedy this defect. 
 The introduction of object lessons and of science 
 instruction were well-meant efforts in this direction, 
 and manual work is nothing more than a further 
 extension of the same principle. It seeks to train 
 the hand and the eye, not for the purpose of super- 
 seding the action of the mind, but as the efficient 
 agents of the mind in gaining a truer and fuller 
 knowledge of the world. Emerson says in his terse 
 way that ' manual labor is the study of the external 
 world.' It is in the spirit of this maxim that the 
 new education seeks to widen the training of chil- 
 dren in the direction of the harmonious develop- 
 ment of mind and body through such agencies as 
 the best experience may dictate." 
 
 It cannot be said that these principles, though 
 accepted by many of the most thoughtful educators 
 in the States, have so far prevailed as to affect the 
 recognized curriculum of school studies in any of 
 the great educational centres. I learned with in- 
 terest that the School Committee in New York had 
 determined to introduce manual training by way 
 of experiment into nine of their (lower) primary 
 schools and six of the grammar (or upper primary) 
 schools. But on inquiry I found that this meant 
 little more than the adoption for the first time of 
 the little mechanical occupations of the Kinder- 
 garten and drawing into the younger classes, and 
 of needlework as a new employment for girls. The 
 Slojd or Swedish system of training by woodwork
 
 42 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 and the use of carpenter's tools is not, so far as I 
 can learn, adopted by any school authority. Draw- 
 ing, as I have said, is the one manual art about the 
 value of which all are agreed. And, after all, it is 
 the one manual art which is least likely to degen- 
 erate into mechanism or to lose its educational 
 character. It is quite conceivable that the arts of 
 carpentering, modelling, sewing, and fashioning 
 paper and metal may, when once acquired, become 
 mere routine, and cease to have any effect on the 
 general development of the learner's capacity and 
 intelligence. But drawing and design are arts 
 capable of infinite developments and applications, 
 and, when once acquired, can never lose their power 
 to stimulate thought, to purify taste, and to call 
 forth new efforts. 
 
 An interesting and novel experiment has recently 
 been tried with a view to make the study 
 
 Teaching , ," , 
 
 drawingbycor- of drawing more general throughout 
 
 respondence. 
 
 the States. The " Prang Institute " at 
 Boston has devised a plan for home study and for 
 instruction by correspondence, with a view to meet 
 the needs of teachers in remote places who feel 
 the need of further guidance as to the best mode 
 of teaching. They are furnished with materials, 
 copies, and definite instructions, and their perform- 
 ances in drawing, modelling, and design are sent 
 regularly to headquarters for criticism. Large 
 numbers of teachers have availed themselves of this 
 arrangement, though at a distance from oral in-
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 43 
 
 structors, and are pursuing regular courses of exer- 
 cise under guidance. I have seen many of the 
 exercises produced under these conditions, and am 
 assured that many of them show unusual excellence. 
 The following programme shows one of the courses 
 prescribed : 
 
 "Study of models, and clay modelling of models 
 and objects. 
 
 " Laying of plane geometric forms with tablets 
 and sticks to represent objects and ornament. 
 
 "Paper cutting and folding. 
 
 (l Freehand Drawing : Pencil holding; free move- 
 ment ; character of line ; drawing from ob- 
 jects, from dictation, from memory, and from 
 tablet and stick arrangements. 
 
 " Making models and objects in paper, cloth, 
 leather, wood, etc. 
 
 "Management of the different kinds of work in 
 classes. 
 
 "Constructive Drawing: Facts of form ; various 
 geometric views or orthographic projections; 
 foreshortening ; conventions ; working draw- 
 ings ; use of instruments ; drawing to scale ; 
 freehand and instrumental geometric views 
 or orthographic projections of simple models 
 and objects placed in a variety of positions ; 
 geometric problems ; constructive design. 
 
 "Representative Drawing: Objects as they ap- 
 pear ; foreshortening ; freehand perspective 
 of cylindrical and rectangular solids ; group-
 
 44 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 ing of objects ; composition or pictorial 
 design. 
 
 "Decorative Drawing : Geometric forms in orna- 
 ment ; principles in arrangement of forms for 
 decoration ; beauty in ornament ; historic ex- 
 amples of ornament ; natural forms in orna- 
 ment; conventionalization; decorative design; 
 historic styles of ornament. 
 
 " Suggestions for the use of color. 
 
 " Collateral reading. Application of drawing in 
 other studies. Why form study and drawing 
 should be taught in public schools. 
 
 " The work is arranged in twenty stages, so that 
 students during the course may send their 
 work to Boston twenty times and receive 
 criticisms upon it. 
 
 "At the completion of the lessons an examination 
 is given on the work of the course ; and all 
 students passing this examination receive 
 certificates of having passed in the subjects 
 of drawing necessary for teaching the study 
 in grammar schools." 
 
 Infant schools, in the English sense of the word, 
 are almost unknown in America, chiefly 
 
 Infant schools. . * 
 
 because the course of primary instruc- 
 tion is not generally supposed to begin till the 
 seventh year. In Boston, however, "kindergarten" 
 schools were established, in the first instance, by the 
 private efforts of a benevolent lady, and have since 
 been taken over and incorporated into the public-
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 45 
 
 school system. In St. Louis also the system of 
 Frobel was introduced as a voluntary experiment 
 and afterward adopted by the board. In both cases, 
 however, the "kindergarten " was regarded at first 
 as a thing apart from the ordinary primary school. 
 The system and methods were wholly unlike, and 
 the games and manual employments of Frobel con- 
 stituted almost the whole occupation of the children. 
 Some disappointment was experienced at the result 
 by many teachers. It was found that this playful 
 discipline did not afford the best preparation for the 
 serious work of the ordinary primary school. The 
 English ideal of an infant school one in which 
 elementary instruction in reading, writing, and 
 counting is interspersed with simple lessons on the 
 phenomena of nature and of common life, and with 
 interesting and varied manual employments, has 
 not prevailed in America. I confess I greatly pre- 
 fer it. It seems to me to put what is commonly 
 called " kindergarten" methods and discipline into 
 their proper place, rather as organic parts of a good 
 and rounded system of juvenile training, as helps to 
 the general development of the observant faculty 
 and to the acquisition of knowledge, than as con- 
 stituting even in the earliest years a separate organ- 
 ization, having aims and principles different from 
 those which should prevail during the rest of the 
 school life. Whatever is good and true in the prin- 
 ciples of Frobel and Eousseau, is applicable not to 
 infants only, but also to the discipline of children
 
 46 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 of all ages. Separate Frobelian institutions, for 
 " kindergarten" ti'aining and manual employments 
 alone, are in my opinion foredoomed to failure. 
 
 I did not think either the reading OT the writing 
 Reading and ^ ^ e scholars whose performances I 
 writing. witnessed were better, age for age, than 
 
 those which one meets with every day in good ele- 
 mentary schools at home. Less use is made in the 
 lower classes of large hand as a means of showing 
 the true forms and proportions of letters, and as a 
 general rule the style of writing appropriate to 
 small-hand is adopted from the first. The use of 
 the type-writer is now so much more common in 
 American houses of business than in England that 
 I had few opportunities of seeing the handwriting 
 of the youths who had gone from school into such 
 houses ; but what I saw has not been clearer or more 
 readable than that of lads of the same age in London. 
 The reading books as a rule are bright, well illus- 
 trated, and attractive; but rather more fragmentary 
 than our own, and are generally designed rather to 
 form a taste for reading than to convey much infor- 
 mation. I was very glad to find that the absurd 
 practice so common in English schools of constantly 
 interrupting the reading lesson for exercises in oral 
 spelling was everywhere discouraged in America. 
 Spelling is a matter for the visual memory and for 
 transcription, not for oral recitation. Pictures of 
 words need to be seen and recognized, and time is 
 terribly wasted by the mere utterance of the letters
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 47 
 
 that compose them. The following passage from 
 the " manual" issued by one of the city school su- 
 perintendents deserves the attention of English as 
 well as American teachers : 
 
 " Do not use concert drill. The impression made 
 upon the mind by writing the same word often 
 and by frequent reviews in the form of dictation 
 will be found much better aids to the memory than 
 any amount of oral repetition. It is next to im- 
 possible to prevent concert exercises in spelling 
 from degenerating into a mere unconscious utter- 
 ance of words, a species of action destructive of 
 every purpose for which a well-ordered school is 
 maintained." 
 
 One exercise in reading I found in the grammar 
 schools of America \vhich might be usefully adopted 
 here. Scholars are set down for a quarter of an hour 
 to read a page or two in silence, and are told that 
 at the end of the time there will be questions and 
 conversation upon it. We often act as if the only 
 reading to be performed in school was reading aloud 
 in class. Thus the habit of using a book in the one 
 way in which its use will be of most value to a scholar 
 in after life reading to himself and feeling himself 
 responsible for getting at and appropriating its 
 meaning is not properly acquired. 
 
 Much more attention is paid than in our schools 
 to what I may call " oral composition," Ora , composi . 
 to exercises in which the scholar is called tion. 
 upon to stand up and reproduce a story, or to say
 
 48 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 what he knows or what he thinks about the subject. 
 E. g., a list of words which have occurred during a 
 reading lesson is written on the board, and the 
 scholars are called on individually to rise and make 
 sentences, containing one or more of the words. A 
 rough outline picture is drawn, and the scholar is 
 asked to make a little story about it. Answers to 
 questions are expected to be given in whole senten- 
 ces, not in single words. Tinje is reserved at the 
 end of the lesson for recapitulating parts of it by 
 the scholars themselves, with less of prompting and 
 questioning than is common in our schools. Often 
 a boy or girl is called on to come forward and cat- 
 echise the class on what has been learned. No 
 doubt this causes delay, and makes a lesson seem to 
 move slowly and to cover but little ground ; but the 
 principle underlying the practice is entirely right. 
 There is no true teaching unless the learner is made 
 to speak his own words, as well as to listen to those 
 of an instructor. 
 
 " Minds that have nothing to confer 
 Find little to perceive." 
 
 This is not unf requently overlooked. The opposite 
 practice, which I have often to complain of at home, 
 has the disadvantage of giving the learners too little 
 to do for themselves. The teacher often hurries on, 
 asking questions which admit of being answered in 
 single words ; satisfied if he secures interest and at- 
 tention and if the scholars seem to acquiesce in what
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 49 
 
 he states. But he needs to be reminded that ac- 
 quiescence is not knowledge ; that it is very possi- 
 ble to assent to many propositions without under- 
 standing them ; and that Charles Kingsley's playful 
 description of a school in which " the master learned 
 all the lessons and the scholars heard them " is not 
 wholly a figment of a novelist's imagination. 
 
 The great facility possessed by the average Ameri- 
 can in the art of public speaking is not 
 only fostered by the numerous conven- 
 tions and ceremonials which form so conspicuous 
 a feature of transatlantic life, it is largely encour- 
 aged by the discipline of the schools. Children are 
 practised from the first in looking large numbers of 
 other children in the face and reciting with courage 
 and self-possession. English readers of American 
 books, must, however, be on their guard against 
 misunderstanding the word " recitation/' which so 
 frequently occurs in them. It does not mean, as 
 with us, an elocutionary effort of any kind ; but it 
 simply denotes any oral lesson or catechetical exer- 
 cise. Nevertheless, recitation in our sense of the 
 word is practised in various forms. If the scholars 
 have prepared a written exercise they are asked to 
 read it aloud to the class. Solos are to be heard as 
 well as choruses in the music lessons. The teacher 
 will often write or select from a book a little dia- 
 logue, which is learned by three or four picked 
 scholars, and recited in the hearing of the class with 
 much dramatic action and emphasis. Connected
 
 50 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 with every school and college, from the primary 
 school up to Harvard University, there is an annual 
 ceremonial day, on which, in the hearing of parents 
 and the public, the pupils who have written the 
 best essays or who can do anything particularly well, 
 are called on to declaim or otherwise display their 
 powers. It is needless to say that these exhibitions 
 are very popular, that they keep up a sense of pride 
 and local interest in the public schools, and that they- 
 powerfully stimulate the more ambitious scholars. 
 That they also encourage self-consciousness and the 
 love of display, that the show compositions are often 
 not original productions, and that there wafe a slight 
 air of unreality and pretentiousness about some of 
 the " commencement " exercises which I witnessed, 
 must, I fear, be admitted. This drawback is fully 
 recognized by many of the best teachers with whom 
 I conversed on the subject, but when due precau- 
 tions are taken I cannot doubt that there is a genu- 
 ine advantage in these displays, both as means of 
 enlisting popular and parental sympathy in the work 
 of education and as an incentive to scholars to do 
 their best. 
 
 It seemed to me that an undue proportion of 
 what was learned was learned by heart, 
 
 Memory exer- * 
 
 else. an( j that even the oral exercises which 
 
 were supposed to be spontaneous were too much 
 alike, and conformed too often to certain conven- 
 tional patterns which were in constant use in the 
 schools. What is oddly called "memorizing" is a
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 51 
 
 very favorite exercise ; but it is often confined to 
 the reproduction of scraps of information or short 
 passages from text-books. Many more rules, defi- 
 nitions, and aphorisms are committed to memory 
 in American than in English schools. I heard in 
 one class the boys get up one after another and 
 give by rote in succession a few sentences recording 
 the names, dates, and chief performances of the 
 eighteen presidents of the United States. In an- 
 other school, the girls recited in order the names of 
 principal inventors and discoverers, with a descrip- 
 tion of the exploits of each. Of course, all these 
 facts are worth knowing, but the particular words 
 in which the compiler of the text-book has em- 
 bodied them have no value in themselves ; and as 
 far as they have any eifect at all, learning them by 
 rote tends to discourage any effort of thought about 
 the subject itself. I am glad to know that in Eng- 
 land the only purely memoriter exercise prescribed 
 in the Code is the learning of good poetry, in 
 which not only the substance is interesting, but the 
 form is itself valuable, and has a grace and charm 
 and therefore an educative value of its own. The 
 practice so common in our best schools at home of 
 learning by heart in the highest classes one hun- 
 dred of the noblest lines of a play like Julius 
 Ccesar, and reading in connection with the whole 
 drama some of the history of the period, is very 
 little followed in the American schools. In many 
 of them a great deal of what is learned by heart has
 
 52 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 no literary merit, and can therefore do little to im- 
 prove the vocabulary or to refine the taste of the 
 learner. 
 
 The teaching of arithmetic is greatly helped in 
 America by the fortunate circumstances 
 that all the money is decimal, and that 
 a good many of the antiquated terms found in Eng- 
 lish tables of weights and measures are not in use. 
 Hence all compound arithmetic is easier, and time 
 is saved which can be well devoted to the explana- 
 tion of principles and to examination of the prop- 
 erties of numbers, and the reasons for arithmetical 
 processes. In most of the schemes of instruction 
 the arithmetical course is laid out in a careful and 
 logical order ; the method of Grube being very gen- 
 erally adopted. The characteristic feature of this 
 method is that it does not regard addition, subtrac- 
 tion, multiplication, and division as four processes 
 graduated in difficulty, and to be learned in suc- 
 cession ; but it assumes that the true progression is 
 from small numbers to large. Hence the beginner 
 takes, for example, the number twelve. He is 
 made to see and to count cubes, balls, or other ob- 
 jects. He adds, subtracts, multiplies, and divides 
 all the numbers up to twelve. He is shown or 
 helped to find out in how many ways that number 
 is made up of parts. He learns all its fractions 
 and aliquot parts ; he applies the number to hours, 
 to money, and to inches, and whatever arithmetical 
 process is possible within that narrow limit he
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 53 
 
 learns to perform. After that he proceeds in the 
 next class, say, as far as the number 50, and will 
 take up the arithmetic of one dollar, not going be- 
 yond the limit, but performing every operation 
 within it. Big numbers and elaborate notation are 
 reserved till later. It is believed that by knowing 
 all the properties of small and manageable num- 
 bers, and by varying the exercises upon them, the 
 scholar obtains a far better mastery over figures, 
 and a truer preparation for dealing with more com- 
 plex magnitudes, than if he works in succession a 
 number of sums in groups, each group illustrating 
 a single rule. The method seems to me a good 
 and rational one, and I was much pleased with the 
 results. It is certainly more interesting to the 
 children. The helpless way in which scholars at 
 home sometimes ask, when a question is given, 
 " What rule is it in ?" is a sure proof that they 
 have been unintelligently taught. 
 
 Much use is made of mental arithmetic in all the 
 schools, and the " manuals " suggest Mental arith- 
 some ingenious devices for varying the metlc - 
 form of the questions. Here, for example, is a lit- 
 tle artifice which I found in very 
 effective use in some of the lower j g 
 
 classes. The nine digits are writ- 2 5 
 
 ten on the board in a circle, and 8 
 
 in any irregular order. The 
 teacher takes a pointer and begins, for example, 
 with an outside number, 4. He points in rapid
 
 54 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 succession to each of the numbers, requiring the 
 pupils to say as he goes round from the figure 3 to 
 the right, 4, 7, 12, 20, 27, 31, 37, 39, 40, 49. He 
 then begins again from the top, or from any one 
 number in the circle, and moves round to the left. 
 By trying at different points, starting with differ- 
 ent numbers from without, he may get an endless 
 variety of combinations, and make the addition 
 of any one number to another unit very familiar. 
 And whenever he sees that there is a hitch or pause 
 in proceeding from one number to another, he 
 notes that particular combination as one in which 
 mistakes are more likely to occur, and gives a num- 
 ber of special exercises upon it. 
 
 One excellent practice is in general use in the 
 best American schools which I have seen. A - 
 scholar is frequently asked to make sums, to set a 
 question in a rule, and to come forward and work 
 it out in the presence of the class. Sometimes, 
 when a process has been explained, the home lesson 
 does not take the form of set exercises to be 
 wrought out ; but the scholars are told to invent 
 for themselves, and work by next day any sums 
 they like in illustration of the rule. On the whole, 
 I it does not seem to me that the boys and girls are 
 working questions quite so difficult as those of 
 the same age in England, or that their answers 
 are more generally correct. Ability to manipulate 
 numbers is understood to come earlier than power 
 to comprehend mathematical demonstration, and
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 55 
 
 such demonstration is often deferred. But, speak- 
 ing generally, the rationale of the rules is often 
 better explained than at home. It should be ob- 
 served that in the exercises for solution much care 
 is taken to give practical problems such as would 
 occur in ordinary business writing out bills, com- 
 mercial letters, calculations of bank interest, and 
 fictitious ledgers and cash-books. 
 
 All the schemes of instruction insist in some 
 form on object lessons, or " observation 
 
 , 11 j T Object or "ob- 
 
 leSSOnS, as they are often called. In serration ies- 
 
 some cases hygiene is the favorite sub- 
 ject, in others botany, in some natural history, in 
 others the ordinary scenes and incidents of town 
 or country life. Grammar and analysis are in- 
 cluded in all cases ; but in the earlier classes the 
 English exercises consist mainly of simple compo- 
 sition and punctuation, and the use of capitals ; 
 formal grammar being deferred a little later than 
 in English schools. The logical analysis and syn- 
 thesis of sentences receive a good deal of attention. 
 But verbal analysis, the structure and decomposi- 
 tion of words, the meaning of significant prefixes 
 and final syllables, and the grouping together of 
 words having a common root, or a common ele- 
 ment in meaning an exercise which in judicious 
 hands is found so stimulating in many English 
 schools is not always prescribed or practised. I 
 could observe little practical difference between 
 American schools and our own in regard to the
 
 56 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 teaching of geography and history. The maps 
 were often excellent and well finished, but not bet- 
 ter than are to be seen any day in London Board 
 schools ; and our own method of beginning with 
 the geography of the immediate neighborhood, and 
 connecting from the first physical geography with 
 commercial and political facts, is generally adopted. 
 If the scholars showed, as a rule, a fuller acquaint- 
 ance with the history of their own country than 
 English children of the same age, it may be ac- 
 counted for by the fact that there is much less of 
 it to learn. Few of the prescribed lessons go back 
 even to the colonial days. It is to the glorious 
 annals of American progress during the century 
 succeeding the Revolution that the attention of 
 the scholars is chiefly directed. 
 
 Closely connected with this subject, another 
 Lessons in feature of American schools deserves 
 patriotism. particular mention. Special lessons are 
 everywhere given on the American Constitution, 
 on the rights and duties of American citizens, of 
 the President, of Congress, of the Senate, and of 
 the States. National anniversaries are very relig- 
 iously observed. " On the school days immediately 
 preceding the 4th of July and the 22d of February 
 (Washington's birthday) in each year," say the 
 regulations of the New York School Board, " the 
 principals of all the grammar schools in the city 
 shall assemble the pupils of their respective schools 
 and read, or cause to be read, to them either the
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 57 
 
 ' Declaration of Independence ' or ' Washington's 
 farewell address to the people of the United States/ 
 combining therewith such other patriotic exercises 
 as may be advisable." There can be no doubt that 
 in this and other ways, the schools try successfully, 
 not only to inform the children about the govern- 
 ment under which they live, but to inspire them 
 with a pride in their country and its institutions. , 
 An American boy thinks that in no other country 
 would it be possible for him to enjoy real freedom, 
 or so many civic privileges. I was talking to a 
 class once about the meanings of some words which 
 were written on the board as a verbal exercise, and 
 "equality" being one of the words, I asked the 
 boys to put it into a sentence. One after another 
 made up a sentence about the equality of all Ameri- 
 can citizens, and when the question was further 
 put, " Equality in what ? in height, in size, in for- 
 tune, in good looks, in wisdom, in goodness ?" the 
 negative answers were followed unanimously by the 
 phrase, "in political rights." It was evidently the 
 feeling of the class that such equality in political 
 rights existed nowhere else in the world. One may 
 be amused at this, but it is nevertheless true, on 
 both sides of the Atlantic, that a boy is more likely 
 hereafter to* do something to make his country 
 proud of him, if he is early taught to be proud of 
 his country, and to have some good reason for 
 being proud of it. 
 In the country places, throughout the States of
 
 58 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 the Union and the provinces of the Canadian 
 Dominion, it is a common practice to 
 
 Arbor day. , A -i TIT 
 
 set apart one day in April, May, or 
 June for planting trees, shrubs, and flowers in the 
 school precincts, and for the general ornamenta- 
 tion of the school premises. The authorities per- 
 mit this to count as a lawful school day. During 
 the forenoon the grounds are levelled, stones and 
 refuse removed, holes made for the trees, a flower- 
 bed is laid out or a part of the ground is sodded or 
 seeded with lawn grass. While the boys are thus 
 engaged, the girls are employed in putting in order 
 and ornamenting the schoolroom, arranging flow- 
 ers, and displaying specimens of maps, writing, and 
 other manual work. Trees planted are associated 
 with the name of a class or a teacher, or of some 
 public event. 
 
 One could not help being impressed everywhere 
 by the excellence of the discipline, and 
 
 Discipline. * 
 
 the more so as it is said to be main- 
 tained almost uniformly without resorting to cor- 
 poral punishment. Indeed, in most of the State 
 and city regulations teachers are absolutely forbid- 
 den to inflict such punishment at all. There was 
 no lack of evidence of high animal spirits outside 
 the schools ; but within there seemed to be little 
 difficulty in maintaining discipline. Even at the 
 universities, at Columbia and at Harvard, where I 
 witnessed both the out-door sports and the academic 
 I ceremonial, I was struck by the dignity and serious-
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 59 
 
 ness of the students in the college itself, the ab- 
 sence, not merely of rowdyism, but of all unseemly 
 shouting or unruliness. 
 
 The chief feature in the schemes of instruction 
 is the minuteness with which all the General charac- 
 details are specified and the little room schemes of 
 that is left for the discretion or special lnstruction - 
 preferences of the teacher. In the high schools 
 and universities the practice of prescribing "elec- 
 tive " subjects is very common ; but here the 
 choice is open to the parent or scholar, not to the 
 teacher. In the schemes for primary and gram- 
 mar schools, corresponding to our public element- 
 ary schools at home, there are hardly ever any alter- 
 native or optional subjects. There is a fixed menu, 
 and not, as in the English schedules, provision 
 for a diner a la carte in the form of a list of class- 
 subjects, or specific subject from which the teacher 
 may choose that which he can teach best, and which 
 is most useful or most appreciated in his own dis- 
 trict. Every subject is obligatory. The books to 
 be used, the limits of work to be done in each grade 
 or standard, are, in most cases, rigidly prescribed. 
 I was looking at the copy-books in one school and 
 observed that the series of exercises was graduated 
 on a novel and rather elaborate theory, beginning 
 with an analysis of the parts of letters. I asked 
 the teacher whether she found the plan worked 
 well. She replied that it worked ill and that she 
 greatly disliked it; but, she added, "these copy-
 
 60 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 books are prescribed by the school superintendent 
 and we must not use any other." Repeatedly I 
 have been told, when asking some simple question 
 closely connected with the subject in hand, that it 
 was "beyond the grade." A class of boys of 13 
 was working fractions, and when I was questioning 
 them on a fraction and suggesting that other figures 
 similarly related would express the same fraction, I 
 happened to use the word "proportion." The 
 teacher stopped me at once with the remark that 
 proportion did not come until the next grade. 
 There is certainly less room for spontaneity or orig- 
 inality of plan on the part of the teacher than in 
 our own country. It seemed to me, too, that many 
 of the authorized time-tables cut up the day's work 
 into too many short lessons on different subjects, and 
 that the teaching was often scrappy and superficial, 
 affording less room for the thorough examination 
 of a subject than might be desired. Text-books 
 and certain accepted formulas appeared to dominate 
 the work of the classes too much, and, in spite of 
 the undoubted merits of some features of the edu- 
 cational system, I have not the least reason to be- 
 lieve that American boys and girls are more soundly 
 taught or are provided with a better intellectual 
 outfit for the business and duties of life than Eng- 
 lish children of the same age, who are brought up 
 in a good elementary school. 
 
 The chief executive officer and the adviser of the 
 local educational authority is the School Superin-
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 61 
 
 tendent. He occupies a position wholly unlike that 
 of any scholastic officer in any country The school 
 
 ~ W.LI- i J enperintend- 
 
 m Europe. Within his own domain, ent. 
 whether a State, a county, or a city, he combines 
 in himself the characters of a minister of public 
 instruction, an inspector of schools, a licenser of 
 teachers, and a professor of pedagogy. Under the 
 sanction of his board or committee he draws up the 
 detailed regulations for the work of all classes in 
 the schools, and often appends to them a manual, 
 or at least an explanatory memorandum prescribing 
 the method in which each subject shall be taught. 
 He conducts, with the assistance of his 
 
 , ,, , . ., T i His duties. 
 
 staff of inspectors, the periodical exam- 
 inations for determining the list of promotions 
 among scholars from grade to grade. He sets the 
 questions. He examines all candidates for the office 
 of teacher in his district, and awards to them diplo- 
 mas authorizing their employment in schools, and 
 stating the grades of teaching for which they are 
 severally qualified. It is part of his duty to hold 
 "institutes" or assemblies of teachers, and to in- 
 struct those of them who have not been previously 
 trained in the work of their special classes. He 
 often conducts voluntary periodical conferences 
 with the older teachers, and gives lectures to them 
 on the history and philosophy of education. He is 
 assisted by a staff of inspectors or supervisors who 
 visit schools under his direction and share with 
 him the duty of examining children for promotion.
 
 62 
 
 Sometimes he has an ingenious plan for availing 
 himself of the services of the teachers in the annual 
 examinations. He arranges that each question shall 
 be answered on a separate sheet of paper, and then 
 confides the marking of all the answers to one given 
 question to one person. In this way he secures 
 uniformity of judgment and avoids all suspicion of 
 partiality. At his central bureau are often to be 
 found a good professional library, for lending and 
 reference, for the use of teachers ; specimen juvenile 
 libraries suited to diiferent classes of schools, and a 
 museum of objects and appliances illustrative of 
 the best methods of teaching. One of the ablest of 
 the school superintendents showed me some large 
 portfolios and bound volumes in which he had care- 
 fully collected and dated during some years past 
 the best specimens of work done at the annual ex- 
 aminations, drawings, written answers to questions, 
 themes, compositions, and the like. He was thus 
 able, he said, to compare the work of one year with 
 another, and to form an exact estimate of general 
 progress or of the working of any new experiment. 
 The person charged with these multifarious and 
 His uaiiflca important duties has almost invariably 
 tions. i never met with one exception to the 
 
 rule been himself a teacher. Not, indeed, an ele- 
 mentary teacher, for if he were it is urged with 
 some truth he would not be so likely to secure the 
 / confidence and respect of those whom he superin- 
 tended, and would not be qualified either to exam-
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 63 
 
 ine high schools or to advise the board in reference 
 to the due co-ordination of the work of primary and 
 secondary instruction. But he has nearly always 
 before his appointment served with distinction as 
 master in a high school, or as professor in a normal 
 or other college. He is, therefore, familiar with all 
 the details of school work, and able to give valuable 
 counsel in regard to methods. To this fact he owes 
 much of his influence among teachers and much of 
 his public usefulness. If to the same fact he also 
 owes certain prepossessions, and a certain lack of 
 intellectual detachment, which render it difficult 
 for him to recognize impartially the merit of good 
 work of very different types, it must be admitted 
 that these are possible disadvantages. But, in the 
 opinion of the best authorities, they are enormously 
 outweighed by the advantages which he has de- 
 rived from his previous educational experience. 
 
 The main drawback to the usefulness of the school 
 superintendent is the precarious tenure Limitg tohig 
 of his office. He is appointed by a local usefulness, 
 school committee, which is itself directly or indi- 
 rectly the product of popular election, and which 
 is liable to frequent changes. He is himself subject 
 to triennial, or even to annual, re-election, and can- 
 not count on that re-election unless he is persona 
 grata to the local authority of the day. He is en- 
 titled to no pension and to no compensation for loss 
 of office. He is, it is true, not one of that large 
 army of functionaries whose offices become vacant
 
 64 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 on the accession of a new president, for he is not 
 an officer of the Federal Government, but of the 
 State or the city. Local politics, however, are sub- 
 ject to fluctuations certainly not less frequent and 
 decisive than those of the Union itself. Every school 
 superintendent has, therefore, a personal interest 
 in local elections, which sometimes necessarily 
 identifies him with party controversies, and which 
 must, in any case, tend to withdraw his attention 
 from his proper duties. Moreover, he has a strong 
 motive to ingratiate himself with those who will 
 have the power to re-elect him. The exercise of pat- 
 ronage is the pleasantest and often the most cov- 
 eted part of the prerogative of a local alderman or 
 committeeman. He wishes, it may be, to procure 
 for a niece or other protegee an appointment as 
 teacher. Her qualifications may not be high, but 
 the^fl^ of the school superintendent will entitle her 
 to a diploma, and that officer is under the strongest 
 temptation to grant it on lenient terms. This is 
 not the place in which to dwell upon the large ques- 
 tion of Civil Service Reform, which is so anxiously 
 discussed by American statesmen, but within the 
 sphere of educational work the need for it is no less 
 felt than in the Customs or in the Post Office. A 
 body of public officers like the members of the per- 
 manent Civil Service in England, bound by the 
 traditional etiquette of their profession to hold 
 themselves aloof from all party politics, and to place 
 their best services at the disposal of chiefs of differ-
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 65 
 
 ent administrations, yet, at the same time, secure 
 in their position quamdiu se bene gesserint, does not 
 exist in America. Till it exists the nation will not 
 induce the ablest men to take up departmental duty 
 as a life's profession, nor will it obtain even from 
 those who now undertake it the fullest and highest 
 service which they are capable of rendering. 
 
 Practically inseparable from the American sys- 
 tem, there is another danger, on which definite 
 statements could not be properly made without 
 great caution, even were the data for accurate gen- 
 eralization less obscure and more accessible than 
 they are. The school authorities in their official 
 programmes prescribe not only subjects of instruc- 
 tion, but also, in most cases, the books and the ap- 
 paratus which should be employed. Occasionally, 
 but not frequently, there is an authorized list of 
 books from which the teachers are under certain 
 conditions free to choose. More often the list of 
 school-books is definitely enforced. Large pecu- 
 niary interests those of publishers and producers 
 of school appliances are therefore involved. The 
 smartness and energy of American traders are well 
 known, and since the introduction of a new series 
 of copybooks or of a manual may bring a large 
 profit to a business house it is not surprising that 
 the way is open to a good deal of subterranean in- 
 fluence if not to actual bribery. It is known that 
 some great publishing firms spend considerable 
 sums in manipulating the elections for school com- 
 5
 
 66 
 
 mittees, with a special view to the adoption of 
 particular reading-books or text-books. A great 
 temptation is therefore presented to those officers 
 who are charged with the duty of framing the lists 
 of school requisites, and experience shows that this 
 temptation is not always resisted. 
 
 This difficulty is partly, though not wholly, 
 avoided by the practice which is adopted in the 
 Province of Ontario. Here, when the Minister of 
 Public Instruction approves a reading-book or text- 
 book, the Education Department buys up the copy- 
 right, and thus becomes a distributor, without any 
 intermediary agent, of its own books. This plan 
 makes it next to impossible that any officer of 
 the department should have a private commercial 
 understanding with a publisher. But it does not 
 overcome the graver difficulty. The selected book, 
 however good, will certainly not be in the judgment 
 of all the best teachers the fittest book for their 
 own purpose, nor that which they can use the most 
 effectively. And even though it may be, on the 
 whole, the best book which could be chosen, the 
 fact that its use has been enforced by authority 
 tends to discourage the most valuable forms of 
 educational enterprise, and to make the production 
 of a still better book difficult. 
 
 The subject of school superintendence connects 
 
 inspection and itself closely with the whole question 
 
 lon ' of inspection and examination, and with 
 
 the means adopted in order to secure the continued
 
 AXD TRAINING COLLEGES. 67 
 
 efficiency of the schools. A comparison of these 
 means with those employed in our own country 
 might prove misleading, inasmuch as the conditions 
 are wholly dissimilar. There is nothing in America 
 analogous to the Education Department in England, 
 distributing from a central office a vast sum annu- 
 ally voted by Parliament in aid of local effort, and 
 at the same time leaving all initiative the choice 
 of teachers, of books, and of methods, and the 
 whole of the organization and daily discipline to 
 independent local bodies. The boards and com- 
 mittees of an American county or city are them- 
 selves the school managers ; they appoint, pay, and 
 dismiss teachers and prescribe plans and machin- 
 ery, and their income is derived from one source 
 only the public fund, placed at their disposal by 
 the taxpayers. They have in their hands many 
 means of keeping up the standard of the schools, 
 while the central government in England has but 
 one the power to grant or withhold subsidies, and 
 to proportion the amount of those subsidies to the 
 proved efficiency of the teaching. The method 
 generally adopted by the various school authorities 
 in America is to issue a very definite programme, 
 to prescribe minutely the work to be done in each 
 '' grade " or class, to put forth also a manual or 
 explanatory memorandum indicating the methods 
 which are to be adopted in teaching each subject ; 
 and then, by means of frequent inspection, to find 
 out whether these directions are habitually carried
 
 68 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 into effect. There are examinations, of course, 
 especially when once a year the scholars are indi- 
 vidually tested in order to determine whether they 
 are qualified for promotion ; but the main purpose 
 of inspection is to ascertain whether the teachers 
 are using the approved methods and conforming to 
 the official programme. This plan of inspection 
 has some obvious merits ; but it is open to many 
 objections, and is deeply disliked by many of the 
 best teachers. In England, if the universities 
 examine the public schools, if external examining 
 authorities make an annual report upon a grammar 
 school or a girls' high school, or if H. M. inspectors 
 examine an elementary school, it is with the results 
 of the work that they are concerned. The methods, 
 the books, and the organization are left to the 
 discretion of the teachers, who, whether engaged 
 in higher or lower schools, would regard as an 
 intolerable restraint the authority of any external 
 body which laid down for the daily work of each 
 class regulations as minute as those contained in 
 some of the American manuals. Such regulations, 
 though they are often drawn with great ability, 
 and though they are of undoubted value to inex- 
 perienced or unskilful teachers, have a tendency to 
 discourage originality, to destroy all sense of free- 
 dom and elbow-room on the part of the best teach- 
 ers, and to make school work run in too mechanical 
 a routine. While I was in New York an indig- 
 nation meeting was held, and attended by many
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 69 
 
 teachers and friends of education, to protest against 
 the existing system, to set up a society for the 
 reform of the city schools, and to denounce the 
 "hated manuals" put forth by the board. Very 
 strong language was used at the meeting and in 
 the press. " Our system," it was said, " does not 
 properly educate, and is conducted too much on 
 the principle that the teacher's work is to cram 
 the pupil with hard facts. The school system of 
 this city is nothing more or less than a magnif- 
 icent piece of machinery, crushing out, whether 
 designedly or not, all individuality. Uniformity is 
 the thing aimed at, and the uniformity achieved 
 is that of mediocrity." I thought I had heard 
 language of this kind somewhat nearer home, but 
 I had never before heard it used against public 
 authorities because they did not measure the teach- 
 ing in schools by its results, but would insist on 
 minute and mechanical rules controlling the proc- 
 esses by which the results were produced. And 
 over and over again I have been asked by teachers 
 what sort of test was applied to educational work 
 in England ; and when I have replied that it was 
 the business of officials here to ascertain what 
 work had been done, but not to criticise methods, 
 except in so far as those methods were shown to 
 have failed to achieve their purpose, teachers have 
 invariably told me that they would greatly prefer 
 being judged under such a system, and that it 
 would be far more tolerable and effective than their
 
 70 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 own. The truth is that till the end of time any 
 
 I conceivable system w4tie]i subjects either teaching 
 work or any other work to external criticism is 
 sure to be unsatisfactory to some of those who are 
 criticised. But once admit that public authority 
 is to be brought to bear on school work at all, there 
 are, it would seem, only two possible ways of doing 
 it. Whether the immediate object be to award 
 credit to the teachers, or to assess the share of a 
 public fund to which the school should be entitled, 
 or to make a report for the information of the 
 public, is immaterial. The work of a school must 
 be estimated either by its methods and machinery 
 or by its results ; and of the two the former plan 
 hampers teachers and restricts their freedom far 
 more than the latter. It presupposes that the 
 method approved by authority is the best in all 
 circumstances and in the hands of all teachers ; 
 and it greatly discourages all independent effort 
 and all invention of new and better methods. 
 
 I may add here that the salaries of school super- 
 Saiaries of intendents vary greatly according to the 
 
 school super- . , 1 , , , . . 
 
 intendents. size and wealth of the communities 
 which they serve. The highest salary enjoyed by 
 any city superintendent I know is $8,000, the 
 lowest $2,500. County superintendents, as a rule, 
 receive less. In Delaware, for example, the salary 
 of a county superintendent is fixed at $1,000. Gen- 
 erally the stipend of a superintendent is fixed so as 
 slightly to exceed the largest salary enjoyed by the
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 71 
 
 teacher of the most important school which is 
 under the supervision of the board. The average 
 salaries of the inspectors who serve under the 
 superintendent are also somewhat higher than those 
 of the teachers, and range from $800 to $2,000. 
 
 The number of teachers employed in all the 
 public schools and colleges of the States 
 is given, for 1887, as 104,249 men and 
 191,439 women. When it is considered that this 
 number includes all the teachers and professors in 
 high schools and many State colleges, and that men 
 form the majority of the teachers in the southern 
 States and in Indiana, the preponderance of female 
 teachers in the northern and eastern States is seen 
 to be very large. As a rule, all the work of the 
 primary departments and nearly all that of the 
 grammar schools is performed by women. The 
 chief exception to this rule is that there is often 
 a head or presiding master over the whole of a 
 grammar department, and he not infrequently has 
 one or two masters to assist him in the higher 
 classes. Although, theoretically, the schools are 
 mixed, boys and girls often going to the same 
 school, there is generally a division of the boys' and 
 girls' classes in the higher grades whenever the 
 number of pupils is large enough to admit of such 
 a division. There being no system of pupil-teach- 
 ership, candidates enter the profession at 17 or 18, 
 having generally passed through a high school, 
 and subsequently satisfied the school superinten-
 
 72 NOTES OX AMERICAN' SCHOOLS 
 
 dent by passing an examination. No class preju- 
 dices prevent the daughters of lawyers or clergymen 
 from undertaking the office of teacher in a primary 
 or grammar school ; and, as a rule, the teachers in 
 such schools are of rather higher social rank, and 
 have often had a wider general education, than 
 those employed in English elementary schools. 
 They are, in the first instance, after probation, 
 licensed only to take charge of a class of a given 
 grade, generally the lowest ; and if they desire a 
 diploma qualifying them to take charge of a higher 
 class, they must come up again for further exami- 
 nation, and have their fitness to take such a class 
 duly certified. This practice appears prima facie 
 to have two disadvantages. It puts the least 
 experienced and skilful teachers to the lowest 
 classes, where experience and skill are often most 
 needed. It attaches each teacher too closely to a 
 particular class, and cuts up the whole school into 
 practically independent parts. The system lacks 
 the elasticity which would allow of the free use of 
 an assistant for that particular work which she 
 could do best, and it fails to give to the members 
 of the staff a due sense of responsibility for the 
 efficiency and repute of the school as a whole. 
 Marriage is generally held to be an act of resigna- 
 tion, and, in fact, the average tenure of office on 
 the part of the female teachers does not much 
 exceed three years. In the single State of New 
 York there are 31,726 teachers in the public
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 73 
 
 schools, of whom 7,000 entered on their work in 
 the year 1887, but this number includes all the 
 masters of high schools and male professors in 
 colleges, most of whom remain much longer in the 
 profession than women. Even these men, however, 
 more often adopt teaching as a temporary employ- 
 ment, and leave it for the ministry, for the news- 
 paper press, or for commerce, than the corre- 
 sponding class of men in this country. 
 
 The salaries of teachers differ greatly in dif- 
 ferent places. The city of New York 
 
 _ . ., Their salaries. 
 
 may be quoted as having made an 
 exceptionally liberal provision in this respect. 
 Principals of the larger grammar schools receive 
 from $2,250 to $3,000, vice-principals from $1,800 
 to $2,000 ; and in the smaller grammar schools 
 principals are paid from $1,200 to $1,700, and 
 vice-principals $1,000 to $1,200. The salaries of 
 male assistants range from $1,000 to $2,000, and 
 of female assistants from $500 to $1,100. They are 
 graduated partly by length of service, but prin- 
 cipally by the grade or class which is placed in the 
 hands of the teacher. Promotion generally meana 
 taking an advanced class. In the country places 
 the chief teacher sometimes receives from $900 
 to $1,200, and his or her assistants $400 to $500. 
 The average salaries of white teachers, however, in 
 the State of Maryland, scarcely reach $300. The 
 engagement of country teachers is often by the 
 month only, and 'even by the week. In New
 
 74 NOTES ON" AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 Hampshire the average wages of male teachers 
 were $41, and of female teachers $24 per month ; 
 and in Pennsylvania men received on an average 
 $38.50 and women $20.80 per month. They who 
 would compare these salaries with those of English 
 teachers must bear in mind the higher rents and 
 greater cost of living, and will find it safe to divide 
 by six rather than by five, in order to represent 
 the purchasing power of these stipends in English 
 sovereigns. 
 
 There is no general standard of qualification rec- 
 Their quaiifl- ognized in the States. Each school corn- 
 cations, mittee has its own regulations, and in- 
 sists that a teacher shall satisfy the requirements of 
 its own superintendent ; and the diploma given in 
 one State, even to a graduate of a normal school, 
 is not available in any other State, and, indeed, is 
 very rarely accepted without further examination. 
 A certificate of professional competency is, there- 
 fore, wholly local in its application. Considering 
 the very short time which the average teacher 
 spends in the profession, it is not surprising that 
 comparatively few give up the needful time and ef- 
 fort to obtain special preparation in normal schools. 
 The proportion of trained to untrained teachers is 
 highest 56 per cent. in Massachusetts ; it varies 
 from 20 to 26 per cent, in Vermont, Rhode Island, 
 Pennsylvania, and California. It is lowest in the 
 State of New York, 4 per cent. But of the whole 
 number of public teachers employed in the States it
 
 AND TKAINING COLLEGES. 75 
 
 I 
 
 is computed that no more than 10 per cent, have 
 received any normal training at all; and "normal 
 training," it must be remembered, is very differ- 
 ently interpreted, meaning often twelve months', 
 six months', or even three months' attendance at a 
 training college. 
 
 The normal or training colleges are very un- 
 equally distributed through the coun- Training co i_ 
 try. In some of the Southern and leges - 
 Western States notably in Colorado, Delaware, 
 Ohio, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, South 
 Carolina there are no normal schools, at least, 
 none available for white teachers. In Pennsyl- 
 vania, however, there are 11 normal schools, in 
 Massachusetts 6, in Maine 4, in California 2, in 
 Alabama 6 3 for white and 3 for colored students 
 in Connecticut 4, and in New York 9. Many of 
 these institutions, however, are not purely normal 
 schools, in the English sense of the word. The 
 largest of them all for example, that in New York 
 city is a high school with 1,600 pupils, and its 
 course of instruction lasts four years. The first 
 and second of these years, and a large part of the 
 third, are devoted to ordinary academic instruc- 
 tion ; and it is in the third and fourth years only 
 that the professional training of future teachers is 
 undertaken. Since large numbers of the pupils 
 quit the institution at the end of the second and 
 third years, and have had no intention of taking up 
 the teaching profession, it is only the compara-
 
 76 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 tively small number who "graduate" by complet- 
 ing the four years' course that can be said to be ac- 
 tually trained as teachers ; and all of these find em- 
 ployment in the city as primary, grammar, or high 
 school teachers. Many other of the normal schools 
 are in like manner ordinary high schools, with a 
 class of advanced pupils in the last year, or in the 
 last six months, studying school methods and or- 
 ganization. The theory of teaching is one of the 
 " elective studies" in some of the local high schools. 
 As a rule, the purely normal colleges are for 
 women only, but in several of them a very small 
 number, not exceeding 10 per cent., of male stu- 
 dents may be found. The colleges are nearly al- 
 ways day schools, the students living at home or 
 in lodgings. Men who intend to devote themselves 
 to the teaching profession prefer to graduate at 
 one of the ordinary higher colleges, and to rely on 
 their academic distinctions ; and do not, except to 
 a very inconsiderable extent, go to normal institu- 
 tions. Several of the universities and colleges have, 
 however, contrived to engraft a teaching or peda- 
 gogic faculty upon the ordinary academic organiza- 
 tion. The University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, 
 was one of the first to try this experiment. Mr. W. 
 H. Payne, one of the leading writers on education 
 in America, was charged with the duty of initiating 
 the work, and in his hands it has had considerable 
 success. Many of the young men and women in 
 the university were found to be destined for im-
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 77 
 
 portant educational posts, as high school principals 
 and lecturers, and as superintendents of city 
 schools, and a course of special training was de- 
 vised for them in the history, science, and art of 
 teaching. But these students are not separated 
 from the rest in the general studies, and it is re- 
 garded as a great advantage that no such separa- 
 tion is made. The branch of "pedagogics" is 
 supplementary, and forms one of the " elective " 
 courses which the university permits to count for 
 a degree. In several of the western universities 
 the same experiment is being tried with some suc- 
 cess ; but at Baltimore, at the College of the City 
 of New York, at Columbia University, and at the 
 great college for ladies at Wellesley, although ex- 
 periments have been made in establishing chairs 
 of education, the number of students availing them- 
 selves of the privilege has been comparatively small. 
 There is in America, as in England, a growing con- 
 viction that special training and a knowledge of 
 the principles of teaching are as much needed by 
 teachers in higher and secondary schools as by 
 those who teach the rudiments, but it cannot be 
 said that effect is given to this conviction on any 
 large scale. 
 
 The character of the instruction in the training 
 college proper will be readily inferred from the fol- 
 lowing programme, which is, with small exceptions, 
 common to all the State normal schools of Massa- 
 chusetts :
 
 78 XOTES OX AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 " The design of the normal school is strictly pro- 
 Schemeof nor- fessional ; that is, to prepare, in the 
 
 mal instrtic- ' .. , , 
 
 tion. best possible manner, the students for 
 
 the work of organizing, governing, and teaching 
 the public schools of the commonwealth. 
 
 " To this there must be added the most thorough 
 knowledge of the branches of learning to be taught 
 in the schools, of the best method of teaching those 
 branches, and of right mental training. 
 
 " The two years' course includes the following 
 
 studies : 
 
 Geometry, arithmetic, algebra, bookkeeping. 
 Physics, chemistry, mineralogy, botany, zool- 
 ogy* Physiology, geography, geology, astron- 
 omy. 
 Reading, orthography, etymology, grammar, 
 
 rhetoric, literature, composition. 
 Penmanship, drawing, vocal music, gymnastics, 
 
 military drill. 
 Psychology, science and art of education, school 
 
 organization, history of education. 
 History, civil polity of Massachusetts and of the 
 United States, and school laws of Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 " The four years' course, in addition to the 
 
 studies named above, includes : 
 Advanced algebra and geometry, trigonometry 
 
 and surveying. 
 
 Advanced physics, chemistry, and botany. 
 General history, drawing, English literature.
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 79 
 
 Latin and French required ; Greek and German, 
 as the principal and visitors of the school 
 shall decide. 
 
 " Tlie nature of the purely professional part of 
 this course will be best understood by the help of 
 the following detailed syllabus : 
 
 "Education. The educational study of man. 
 1. The study of the human body for the laws of 
 physical health, strength, and beauty as conditions 
 for the activity of the mind. 2. The study of 
 educational psychology. Definition and division of 
 psychology. The intellect reason, the presenta- 
 tive, representative, and reflective powers. The 
 sensibilities the appetites, instinct, desires, affec- 
 tions. The will and the moral nature. The sub- 
 ject is taught from the facts of the student's con- 
 sciousness. The end sought is the knowledge of 
 the powers of the mind, the ordor of their develop-' 
 ment, the conditions and products of their activity, 
 and the ability to use this knowledge in the educa- 
 tion of children. 
 
 "Science and Art of Teaching. Principles of 
 education, as derived from study of man. The art 
 of teaching definitions : knowledge of the mind, 
 the pupil, the subject ; selection and arrangement 
 of subject-matter ; method of teaching; language, 
 voice, and manner of the teacher: means of making 
 the teaching impressive ; object and method of 
 criticism ; teacher's preparation. Course of studies 
 arranged for the primary, intermediate, and higher
 
 80 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 grades ; method of teaching in the studies of the 
 primary course and practice with children. 
 
 "School Organization. What it is to organize a 
 school. Advantages of a good organization. Open- 
 ing of the school. Classification of the school. 
 Distribution of studies. Arrangement of the ex- 
 ercises. Provisions relating to order. 
 
 " School Government. Definition of government 
 and what government implies in the governor and 
 in the subject. School government ; definition, 
 the teacher's right to govern, and the end of school 
 government. The motives to be used in school 
 government, and the method of their application. 
 
 " History of Education. School Laws of Mas- 
 sachusetts." 
 
 At the Worcester Normal School there is a sys- 
 Apprentice- tern of what is called apprenticeship, 
 8hlp- which, inasmuch as the young people 
 
 are required by it to do actual service in the 
 schools during the period of their training, is the 
 nearest approach I have met with in America to 
 what is known as pupil-teachership in England. 
 The student of 16 or 17, after three terms, or a 
 year and a half in the normal school, is allowed to 
 go into one of the public schools of the city of 
 Worcester to serve as assistant to the teacher of 
 that school ; to take part in the instruction, man- 
 agement, and general work, under the direction of 
 the head master ; and even to act as substitute for 
 the class teacher for an hour, a half-day, or a day,
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 81 
 
 at the discretion of the master and with the ap- 
 proval of the superintendent. One student only at 
 a time is assigned to any one teacher ; but each 
 student serves in at least three grades of schools in 
 the course of his term of service, the duration of 
 which is six months, or half a school year. After 
 finishing his apprenticeship the student resumes 
 his course at the normal school, spending another 
 half-year there before receiving his diploma. 
 
 During the period of apprenticeship four days of 
 each week are devoted exclusively to teaching by 
 those employed in the work. One day of the week 
 (Wednesday) is spent by them in the normal school, 
 where they are employed, not in the ordinary study 
 and work of the institution, but in the following 
 manner : 
 
 " They hold such consultation with the teachers 
 of the school, and make such use of books, as may 
 be most helpful to them in their immediate work 
 as apprentices. 
 
 " They make informal statements of such facts 
 of their experience as may be of advantage to the 
 other students to hear, concerning ways of teach- 
 ing, cases of discipline, and the like, keeping in 
 mind always the private character of the daily life 
 of the school-room, and under special warning 
 against revelations that might seem objectionable. 
 
 " Each apprentice keeps a diary of the occupa- 
 tion and experience of every day's service, and this 
 
 record is inspected by the faculty of the normal 
 6
 
 82 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 school. He also makes out a report at the end of 
 his term, in which he gives his own estimate of his 
 success in his work/' 
 
 It is a characteristic feature of all the best of 
 the American training schools that in 
 
 Education as a * 
 
 science. them more attention is given than in 
 
 England to the philosophy of educational methods 
 and to such psychological truths as underlie all 
 rules of teaching, and give validity to them. Such 
 works as those of Spencer and Herbart are studied 
 by the best of the professors, and an attempt is 
 made to give to the student leading principles which 
 he must work out and develop in a prescribed order. 
 This theory is entirely right ; but it seemed to me 
 that in practice it sometimes restrained the spon- 
 taneity and inventiveness of the students, and led 
 them to suppose that all lessons of a given charac- 
 ter ought to be shaped to one pattern, and devel- 
 oped in one particular manner. For example, in 
 one college the principle is laid down that in an 
 observation or object lesson there should be three 
 stages the presentative, the representative, and 
 the thought stage. The thing discussed must first 
 be seen, and, if possible, handled, and the scholar 
 made to tell all he can observe about it. Then in 
 the second stage the words, technical or otherwise, 
 which represent the various properties and incidents 
 of the object, have to be explained ; and, lastly, 
 there should be intelligent exercise on the meaning 
 and drift of what has been learned. Now, there
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 83 
 
 is undoubtedly a true philosophy underlying this 
 rule, and a little reflection on it is well calculated 
 to rebuke the very common practice of untrained 
 teachers, who begin every lesson with a formidable 
 explanation of all the hard words they are going to 
 use, instead of, first of all, evolving the facts, and 
 afterwards giving the technical terms which con- 
 note the facts. But the student who is obliged to 
 keep this "counsel of perfection" perpetually 
 before her, and to cast every lesson in the same 
 mould, loses a great many opportunities of present- 1 
 ing truth in new and effective ways. It seemed to 
 me, as I listened to some of the sketches of lessons 
 which had been prepared, and to several of the 
 criticism lessons in normal schools, that the stu- 
 dents were rather too much enslaved by formulas. 
 The young teacher who gave the lesson in the pres- 
 ence of the principal and her fellow-students was 
 too much hampered by the fear of departing from 
 the prescribed order ; the students who criticised 
 seemed only concerned to notice whether the order 
 had been observed. A lesson on a knife began by 
 letting the children take the article in hand and 
 say in succession, " I have a knife, it has two parts, 
 a handle and a blade ; the blade is sharp ; it will 
 cut," etc. Then its hardness and smoothness and 
 other qualities came into review, and then followed 
 a little talk about the uses of a knife and the care 
 which should be exercised in using it. But the 
 question what was steel made of, or how it was
 
 84 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 manufactured did not arise. It was " beyond the 
 grade/' In like manner I heard several lessons on 
 a flower, on an eagle, etc., and, although the 
 teacher very patiently strove to make the children 
 one by one tell all they could about it, the lessons 
 mainly helped them to recount what they would 
 have known without teaching, and did not carry 
 them much forwarder. All the criticisms of the 
 students were on the method only, " How far did 
 the lesson illustrate in its order and development 
 the principles which had been laid down by the 
 college lecturer ?" The question which would first 
 occur to an English student in a criticism lesson, 
 " What have the children learned which they did 
 not know before ? " was not asked. In several 
 other ways I observed that minute pains had been 
 taken to furnish an outline or pattern of the way in 
 which a given lesson, say, a biography, a grammat- 
 ical term, colonization, or the geography of a river, 
 ought to be developed ; and that the students were 
 then invited to take a cognate topic, and fashion a 
 lesson on the same model. The practice is unques- 
 tionably valuable, and might with great advantage 
 be more frequently adopted in our own training 
 colleges at home. But unless care is exercised it 
 has a tendency to, degenerate into routine, and by 
 leading the student to suppose that all lessons of a 
 particular kind should only be given in one way, to 
 discourage all independent efforts to discover still 
 better ways. The avenues of access to the under-
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 85 
 
 standing and sympathy of a child are many, and 
 have not all been found out yet. It is possible to 
 have a very logical method and yet to give a very 
 ineffective lesson. 
 
 Some other of the plans adopted in good normal 
 schools also deserve notice. There is Qne?tlonino . 
 the method of "questioning practice," 
 which differs in many ways from an Ci8es - 
 ordinary criticism lesson, and yet has the same 
 object in view. A lecture is given by the professor, 
 and several of the students are selected on the next 
 day to question the whole class upon its subject, 
 each taking one portion, so as to cover the entire 
 ground traversed by the lecturer. Two or three 
 other students are afterwards called on in succession 
 to comment on the style and effectiveness of the 
 questions, and the presiding officer sums up with 
 observations both on the questioners and their 
 critics. 
 
 Platform exercises also furnish a useful form of 
 discipline. The authorities at one of the Massa- 
 chusetts normal schools state in their programme : 
 
 "No efforts are spared to train the pupils to 
 habits of self-reliance. It is to this end that 
 special importance is attached to the platform exer- 
 cises. These occupy a half-hour or so every day, 
 and during this period pupils volunteer, each for 
 five minutes or more, to read or recite, or to talk to 
 the school upon any subject which they may have 
 chosen. At such a time they have constantly to
 
 86 NOTKS ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 meet the criticism and questions of teachers and 
 fellow-pupils ; and thus the exercise has been found 
 to be valuable, not only in training the pupils to 
 use the English language with facility and force, 
 and to speak with distinctness and accuracy, but in 
 bringing them to face the sort of difficulties that 
 they may be expected to meet in their profession. 
 On Wednesdays the apprentices have exclusive pos- 
 session of the platform, and on each such occasion 
 they give to the school the results of their past 
 week's experience in teaching." 
 
 In view of the annual ceremonial at the end of 
 Public decia- the academic year, when the leading 
 theme" and local authorities and the public always 
 essays. assemble in great numbers, the students 
 
 are encouraged to prepare original essays on sub- 
 jects selected by themselves, and the best of these 
 are publicly recited. Among the subjects handled 
 by the students at one such ceremony at which I 
 was present were : " A Few Characteristics of Ger- 
 man Schools ; School Hygiene ; Eichter's Levana ; 
 the Savagery of Childhood ; Tree-Planting at the 
 School ; Furniture and Decoration of the School- 
 room ; the School monarchy or republic ; Locke's 
 Views on Education ; the Physical Basis of Brain- 
 work ; Rosmini's Ruling Principles of Method ; 
 Some Disadvantages of the Inductive Method of 
 Teaching; Methods of Teaching Writing; Children's 
 Make-believes." 
 
 Considering how very small a proportion of the
 
 AND TRAILING- COLLEGES. 87 
 
 American teachers undergo this discipline, it is 
 interesting to inquire what substitutes substitutes for 
 exist, and by what means the defi- "fl^rfioa- 
 ciency of normal training is supplied. dets y stem -" 
 In Chicago, where the school authority gave up its 
 normal school as unnecessary, what is called the 
 "Cadet System" has been adopted in its stead. 
 Young people who have passed through the high 
 school are provisionally admitted to teach for a few 
 weeks the lower classes of a primary school, without 
 pay. If they show promise they are temporarily 
 engaged at 75 cents per day, for a short time, and 
 are required to attend on Saturday classes held by 
 one of the assistant superintendents, who takes in 
 turn the teachers of one grade after another and 
 instructs them in the method applicable to it. After 
 a few weeks' attendance at such a class, and after 
 passing the examination, the candidate receives a 
 diploma from the school superintendent, and be- 
 comes recognized as one of the staff for the city 
 schools. At Grand Rapids, in the State of Michigan, 
 the " Cadet System" has also superseded the regular 
 training school for resident graduates of the high 
 schools. " This plan assigns young persons desir- 
 ing to fit themselves for the profession as assistants 
 to principals of schools, who supervise their practice 
 work in the lower grades of the school. The city 
 superintendent recommends that these cadets be 
 instructed as a class in the principles and methods 
 of teaching and then be assigned to work them out
 
 88 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 for themselves ; and if the work of a year fails to 
 develop fairly good teachers, they are dropped 
 altogether from the rolls." 
 
 Normal classes are often conducted by the school 
 Normal superintendent or under his authority, 
 
 classes. with a view to professional improve- 
 
 ment, and to the discussion and illustration of 
 school methods and discipline. Lectures of a 
 higher and more speculative kind are given by some 
 of the abler school superintendents, and attendance 
 on these is voluntary. The following is a syllabus 
 of a course of lectures on the history of education, 
 and on modern educational theories, given by Mr. 
 MacAlister, the city superintendent in Philadel- 
 phia. It illustrates well the desire of some of the 
 leading educational authorities of America to give 
 a scientific character to the study of education ; 
 and to find, by means of the investigation of the 
 history and philosophy of the subject, a sound and 
 safe basis for practical rules. 
 
 "1. THE KISE OF MODERN EDUCATION. The 
 decay of classical culture. Condition of society 
 and education in the Middle Ages. Foundation of 
 universities. Revival of learning. Invention of 
 printing. Bacon and the inductive philosophy. 
 Humanism and the scientific spirit. Change in 
 man's relation to nature. Eevolution in method of 
 thinking. Influence of these changes upon educa- 
 tion and schools. Humanistic education. Begin- 
 ning of schools for the people.
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 89 
 
 " 2. COMENIUS, THE FOUNDER OF THE NEW 
 
 EDUCATION. Sketch of his life. His application 
 of the Baconian philosophy to educational prob- 
 lems. Educational writings. Pansophic scheme. 
 Educational theories : 1. Methodology ; 2. System 
 of school organization ; 3. Foundation of primary 
 education. Influence of Comenius on the progress 
 of education. 
 
 "3. THE ENGLISH EEFORMERS. The Humanistic 
 movement in England. The views of Erasmus. 
 The Humanistic leaders John Colet, Sir Thomas 
 More, Roger Ascham, Richard Mulcaster. Influ- 
 ence of Bacon on the realistic spirit. John Mil- 
 ton's theory of education. John Locke : his phil- 
 osophy of mind and its relation to educational 
 method ; his educational theories. Locke's place 
 as an educational reformer. 
 
 " 4. ROUSSEAU, THE PREACHER OF NATURALISM 
 IN EDUCATION. Condition of society and state of 
 education in his time. His view of human nature. 
 Activity of educational thought. Emile : discus- 
 sion of its educational doctrines ; fundamental 
 principles ; subjects to be taught ; methods of 
 instruction. Rousseau's influence upon educational 
 theory and practice. 
 
 " 5. PESTALOZZI, THE APOSTLE OF EDUCATIONAL 
 REFORM. His life and experiments as a teacher. 
 The essential principles of his method : symmetri- 
 cal development of all the powers of body and 
 mind ; training of sense perception ; self-activity
 
 90 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 of the mind ; observation ; the order and devel- 
 opment of training ; acquisition and expression ; 
 discipline. Pestalozzi's place in modern pedagogy. 
 His influence upon theoretical and practical educa- 
 tion. 
 
 " 6. FROBEL, THE PHILOSOPHER OF CHILD- 
 HOOD. Fundamental principles of his philosophy of 
 education. His extension of Pestalozzi's method. 
 His philosophy of child nature. The kindergarten. 
 The gifts and occupations their meaning and use. 
 Influence of Frobel's philosophy upon general 
 education. Its relations to family life ; to element- 
 ary methods of instruction ; to manual training ; 
 to discipline ; to social progress." 
 
 A belief in the paramount importance of spe- 
 Teachcre' c ^ a ^ preparation of the teacher's office, 
 institutes. j g verv strong throughout all parts 
 of America, and is daily becoming stronger and 
 more general. This belief finds expression in 
 many ways, notably in the existence of institutes, 
 teachers' associations and conventions, and in read- 
 ing circles. 
 
 By an "Institute" is meant a sort of normal 
 class, held periodically for the teachers of a dis- 
 trict, and furnishing instruction in the art and 
 practice of education, and an opportunity for the 
 discussion of methods. Institutes are, in fact, mi- 
 gratory and occasional academies, and they were 
 brought into existence before any regular normal 
 schools were founded. The first meeting of this
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 91 
 
 kind was held in Hartford, in Connecticut, as far 
 back as 1839, by Henry Barnard, who was the Sec- 
 retary to the State Board of Education, and who 
 gathered together twenty-six young teachers in the 
 public schools, and provided for them, during sev- 
 eral weeks, a course of lectures, reviewing the 
 topics usually taught in the common schools, to- 
 gether with instruction in method, supplemented 
 by visits of observation to the public schools of the 
 city. I ought, in passing, to say how much the 
 literature of education owes to Mr. Barnard, who 
 has during a long life spent himself, and, I fear, 
 much of his fortune too, in efforts to reprint 
 costly works and monographs on education. It 
 was a great pleasure to me to see this educational 
 veteran at a meeting of teachers in Rhode Island 
 last autumn, and to find him still, in his honored 
 old age, as keenly interested as ever in the advance- 
 ment of educational science, and in the practical 
 improvement of scholastic methods. The example 
 he set was imitated at first in a rather fitful and 
 hesitating way, but afterwards more systematically. 
 The earliest of these gatherings were purely volun- 
 tary on the part of the teachers, and grew out of 
 the endeavor to qualify themselves for their work; 
 but soon, during the first decade, several of the 
 New England States began to make it an obliga- 
 tion on the young teachers to attend them, and to 
 place the management of them in the charge of the 
 school superintendents, or other officers appointed
 
 92 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 for the purpose. By degrees the system spread, at 
 first to the Southern, and afterwards to the West- 
 ern States, and the " Teachers' Institute " is now 
 a recognized factor in the educational system 
 throughout the Union, and in the Dominion of 
 Canada. The data for any safe general statement 
 in reference to them are somewhat scattered, 
 diverse, and obscure. In a few States institutes 
 are not legally required to be held at all ; in some, 
 institutes are incorporated into State or district 
 systems, and in others into county systems. In 
 some they are held under State authority, and in 
 others under local authority. In some cases the 
 expenses are paid by State funds, in others by 
 county funds, in others by contributions from the 
 teachers, and in others by the fees for teachers' 
 licenses. In some cases the institutes are held at 
 a fixed time, when the schools are closed, and in 
 others they are held at any time the local authori- 
 ties may choose, and when the schools are in ses- 
 sion ; in some, the schools are closed during the 
 sessions of the institute, in others they remain 
 open. In some the teachers are paid for attending, 
 or fined for not attending ; in others neither course 
 is pursued. Some of them are held by voluntary 
 or private persons, and others now by far the 
 greater number by the official superintendent of 
 the district, or under his direction. The time 
 devoted to them also varies materially. In many 
 States provision is made for an annual session of
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 93 
 
 from three to six days, and in a few for a session 
 of two, or even three weeks. In other States the 
 teachers are required to meet monthly, or once in 
 two months, for two or three hours in the evening 
 or on Saturday. 
 
 But, though diverse in all these respects, the 
 object to be attained, and the method of attaining 
 it are practically uniform. They are designed, in 
 the first place, and mainly, for the help of the 
 large number of teachers who have not been trained 
 in normal seminaries ; and, in the second place, 
 for helping those who have been so trained. 
 " Their aim," says the last report of the Commis- 
 sioner, " is to revive the spirit and confidence of 
 teachers, awaken a pride in the profession, stimu- 
 late to self-improvement, and by a progressive 
 course of study and instruction review the branches 
 taught in the schools, and increase the practical 
 requirements of the teachers/' Accordingly it is 
 the duty of each official school superintendent, or 
 district inspector, to classify the teachers of his 
 district, and to gather into their several classes 
 those who take up the work of each grade. A 
 young teacher, it must be observed, is, on admis- 
 sion, examined and certified, with a view to her 
 service in a class of a given grade. She cannot 
 take charge of a higher class without a further ex- 
 amination, and a higher diploma. While attached 
 to a particular class, it is her duty to attend the 
 lessons at the institute specially adapted to the
 
 94 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 work of that particular grade, so that in each de- 
 partment the young people are receiving instruc- 
 tion in method, in so far as it is applicable to the 
 work of their own classes. Besides this, collec- 
 tive instruction is given occasionally on larger 
 questions relating to the general principles of 
 teaching and organization. But, on the whole, 
 it may be said that " institutes/' in the American 
 sense, while not designed in any way to supersede 
 regular normal training, furnish, in many cases, a 
 useful supplement to it, and in many more help, 
 in an appreciable degree, to supply the lack of such 
 training. 
 
 Besides these local institutes, which are essen- 
 Teachers' tially normal classes, engaged in a good 
 Associations, jjggj o f mere }y technical work, there are 
 in America other and larger organizations, of a 
 wholly voluntary kind, which, though mainly, are 
 not exclusively composed of teachers, and which 
 seek to elucidate the higher and more general as- 
 pects of education ; and to bring the teaching pro- 
 fession into due relations with all the more advanced 
 thought of the country, with the professors of her 
 universities, and with the best of her writers and 
 her clergy. Foremost among these was the New 
 England Association of Teachers, which has subse- 
 quently changed its name to the American Institute 
 of Instruction. It was founded in 1830 at Boston, 
 and the first meeting attended by 300 persons, 
 chiefly from the Eastern States, was presided over
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 95 
 
 by the well-known Dr. Waylaud, the President of 
 Brown University. In his introductory address he 
 struck the keynote of the whole enterprise, and 
 foreshadowed, with keen insight, the future history 
 of an Association, which, after fifty-eight years of 
 growth, is to-day more flourishing and influential 
 than ever. He said : 
 
 "In the long train of her joyous anniversaries, 
 New England has yet beheld no one more illustrious 
 than this. We have assembled to-day, not to pro- 
 claim how Avell our fathers have done, but to inquire 
 how we may enable her sons to do better. . . . 
 We have come up here, to the City of the Pilgrims, 
 to ask how we may render their children more 
 worthy of their ancestors, and more pleasing to 
 their God. We meet to give to each other the 
 right hand of fellowship in carrying forward this 
 all-important work, and here to leave our profes- 
 sional pledge, that if the succeeding generations do 
 not act worthily the guilt shall not rest upon those 
 who are now the instructors of New England." 
 
 In the four days during which the meeting lasted, 
 these were the subjects discussed : Physical educa- 
 tion ; the development of the intellectual faculties 
 in connection with the teaching of geography ; the 
 infant school system ; the spelling of words, and a 
 rational method of teaching their meaning ; lyceums 
 and literary societies, and their connection with 
 the school ; practical methods of teaching rhetoric, 
 geometry and algebra ; the monitorial system ;
 
 96 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 vocal music; classical learning; arithmetic; the 
 construction and furnishing of schoolrooms. Very 
 early in the history of the Association it was re- 
 solved that the clergy of all denominations, and 
 the representatives of the press in the neighbor- 
 hood in which the meeting was held, should be 
 invited. Among the lecturers who spoke before 
 the Association, during its early years, I find the 
 names of Jacob Abbott, whose books many of us 
 delighted in as children; of Noah Webster, the 
 lexicographer ; of George Ticknor ; of Spurzheim, 
 the German philosopher ; of Calhoun, the states- 
 man, who lectured on the duties of school com- 
 mittees ; of Lowell Mason, who advocated the in- 
 troduction of music into the common school; of 
 Judge Story, on the Science of Government as a 
 branch of general education ; of Ealph Waldo Em- 
 erson, on the best mode of inspiring a correct taste 
 in English literature; of Horace Mann, on the 
 necessity of previous study to parents and teachers ; 
 of John Philbrick, on school government ; of George 
 Sumner, on the state of education in some countries 
 of Europe; of Gideon Thayer, on the means of 
 awakening in the minds of parents a deeper interest 
 in the education of their children ; of Miss Pea- 
 body, on Kindergarten, the Gospel for children ; 
 and of Henry Ward Beecher, on the New Profes- 
 sion. From the numerous other topics treated at 
 these annual meetings, I select a few characteristic 
 examples :
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 97 
 
 The study of the classics ; training the human 
 voice ; the number of hours a day to be devoted to 
 instruction ; the sources of personal power ; the 
 self-education of the teacher ; the legitimate influ- 
 ence of schools on commerce, on agriculture, on 
 manufactures, on civil polity, and on morals ; the 
 cultivation of a sense of honor among pupils ; the 
 right and wrong use of text-books ; the rights of 
 the taught ; oral teaching ; the co-education of the 
 sexes ; drawing not an accomplishment, but a lan- 
 guage for the graphic representation of facts, and 
 as a means of developing taste ; psychology in rela- 
 tion to teaching. 
 
 As I look down through the annals of this Asso- 
 ciation, I am struck with two or three facts : (1) 
 That it has succeeded in enlisting the cooperation 
 and sympathy, not only of teachers of all ranks, 
 from the primary school to the university, but 
 of many of the most prominent thinkers, pub- 
 lic writers, clergy, statesmen, and lawyers in the 
 States. (2) That its peripatetic character has en- 
 abled it from year to year to break new ground, to 
 awaken new local interest, and to exercise a sort of 
 missionary influence on the improvement of educa- 
 tion throughout the whole country. (3) That the 
 subjects of discussion are mainly practical, and 
 have a direct bearing on the improvements of school 
 methods ; but that many of them are of a larger 
 and more speculative kind, selected with a view to 
 broaden the intellectual horizon of the members, 
 7
 
 98 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 and to find new meeting-points between the world 
 of the schoolroom and the world of thought and 
 of industrial and intellectual activity outside of the 
 school. (4) That in all the topics of discussion I 
 fail to find one which touches the question of the 
 payment of the teacher or his pecuniary or profes- 
 sional interests. 
 
 I had the great pleasure last year of attending 
 The American the fifty-eighth annual gathering of this 
 institute. thriving Association. At Newport, in 
 Rhode Island, there were assembled during four 
 days about a thousand members, including the 
 teachers of primary and grammar schools, the pro- 
 fessors in the chief colleges and universities in the 
 New England States, the principal teachers and 
 authorities of the normal schools, and nearly all 
 the school superintendents and official inspectors ; 
 besides a few public men, such as the Mayor of 
 Newport, and the State Commissioner, members 
 of School Boards and Committees, and the like. 
 There were animated meetings at the beginning 
 and end of each day, for lectures and addresses on 
 the more general popular aspects of education, and 
 throughout the day sectional meetings, in three or 
 four groups, for papers and discussions on special 
 topics. A simple and touching religious exercise 
 introduced each day's proceedings, and there was 
 at times hearty choral singing, which, with one or 
 two excursions at the end, constituted the only dis- 
 sipations of the assemblage. The subjects were of
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 99 
 
 the same general character as I have already de- 
 scribed, and I was especially struck in observing ' 
 the terms of perfect freedom and equality subsist- 
 ing between the teachers of all classes, and the 
 public officials concerned in the administration of 
 the various State systems. 
 
 Another very characteristic meeting at which I 
 had the opportunity of being present, The Col i ege 
 was that of the College Associations of ^Middif 1 f 
 Pennsylvania, now enlarged in its scope States - 
 so as to include the Colleges and Universities of 
 the Middle States and Maryland. It was held in 
 the magnificent University buildings in Philadel- 
 phia, and after an address of welcome from the 
 Provost of the University, proceeded to discuss 
 seriously, during two or three days, a number of 
 topics especially concerned with higher education : 
 For example, the Place of History in a College 
 Course; the Influence of Endowments on Education; 
 the German University of To-day ; Post-graduate 
 Courses ; Pedagogics as a Part of a College Curric- 
 ulum, and the Education of Women in Colleges ; 
 the Proper Requirements for Admission to a College 
 Course. The treatment of the setopics was serious, 
 and both scientific and practical ; there was full 
 recognition of great principles, and yet an anxious 
 attempt to see those principles in the light of the 
 actual problems of a professor's life. 
 
 An equally significant experience awaited us 
 when we crossed the northern boundary of the
 
 100 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 State of Maine, and found ourselves in the Domin- 
 u ion of Canada. At St. John. New 
 
 The Conven- 
 tion of the Brunswick, was held last July a con- 
 Maritime Pro- . f 
 vinces of Can- vention of all the teachers of the mari- 
 time provinces of New Brunswick, Nova 
 Scotia, and Prince Edward's Island. Here, again, 
 the gathering comprehended teachers of all ranks, 
 from the primary teacher to the university princi- 
 pal and professor, the State superintendents, all 
 the inspectors of schools, and a number of public 
 men. Sir William Dawson came from Montreal, 
 and the Governor of New Brunswick, the Premiers 
 of the three provinces, and one of the Ministers of 
 the Dominion also took part in the proceedings. 
 There were some twelve hundred persons at the 
 opening and closing meetings. But the sectional 
 discussions throughout the day were largely at- 
 tended, and were concerned with many important 
 points of detail, which were earnestly debated. 
 There was a special section devoted to the investi- 
 gation of infant teaching and discipline, and at 
 this meeting some papers, read by female teachers 
 of experience, were of unusual merit and suggest- 
 iveness. Another section devoted itself to the con- 
 sideration of the work of normal schools ; another 
 to questions relating to the teaching of different 
 branches of natural science ; another to the right 
 ornamentation, furnishing, and equipment of the 
 common school, and to the right use of its play- 
 grounds and accessories ; and another to the con-
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 101 
 
 sideration of modes of inspecting and examining^ 
 school organization and work. It was impossible 
 not to observe here, in Canada, as well as in the 
 States, how much of stimulus and encouragement 
 teachers, especially the younger members of the 
 profession, derived from these gatherings ; how 
 many new and germinating ideas were dissemi- 
 nated, how many valuable friendships were formed, 
 and to how large an extent public opinion, both 
 within and without the profession, was helped, 
 strengthened, and ennobled. The free interchange 
 of thought and experience between the teachers 
 and the officials who are charged with the super- 
 vision and administration of schools, struck me as 
 especially valuable, and has evidently done much 
 to promote that cordial cooperation of teachers 
 and inspectors in the discharge of a great public 
 duty, which is so noticeable both in the Union and 
 in Canada. All through the Dominion of Canada, 
 as well as through the States of the Union, scores 
 of such local meetings are to be found seriously at 
 work during the first, second, and third weeks of 
 the summer holiday ; and_I was very deeply im- 
 pressed to see such eager and enthusiastic com- 
 panies of hard-worked teachers, who, after a long 
 session, and in the hot weather of July, voluntarily 
 dedicated the first few days of their well-earned 
 vacation to self -improvement and to professional 
 fellowship. It must be owned that the American 
 has a genius for organizing conventions, and that
 
 102 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 all sections of the community find greater delight 
 in attending them than we of the old world are 
 wont to experience."? The popularity of such con- 
 ventions seems to increase year by year. There is 
 now, besides the various local gatherings in States, 
 and in groups of States, a National Educational 
 Association, which organizes every year a collective 
 meeting on a huge scale, at some great centre, one 
 year at Chicago, another at Boston, another at 
 St. Louis, and last year at San Francisco. Some 
 thousands of teachers spent three, four, or five 
 days in travelling across the continent from differ- 
 ent parts, in order to attend the grand congress, 
 which lasted from the 17th to the 28th of July. 
 The programme is very elaborate including pro- 
 vision for receptions, sections, departments, sub- 
 committees, concerts, public harangues and excur- 
 sions. Such great gatherings are suited to the soil, 
 and fit in better with the habits and social arrange- 
 ments of America than with those of England. 
 But I think they grow out of a genuine zeal for 
 the improvement of education, and out of a repub- 
 lican sentiment that every man who has got any- 
 thing good to say, or has made a useful invention or 
 discovery, is bound to communicate it to his fellow- 
 teachers, and to invite their criticisms upon it. 
 
 I have elsewhere * described the curious, but 
 very characteristic American institution known 
 
 * In the Nineteenth Century for October, 1888.
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 103 
 
 as the Chautauqua Summer Assembly. In the 
 remote north-west corner of the great 
 
 Chautauqua. 
 
 State of New York, a clearance has 
 been made in the " forest primaeval/' and near the 
 shore of a little lake. Here, during July and 
 August, may be seen an encampment of from eight 
 to ten thousand persons, living in tents or wooden 
 cottages, and forming themselves daily into classes, 
 reading parties, working in laboratories, studying 
 in small companies in a library, or listening to lect- 
 ures. They have a number of separate rooms for 
 different kinds of study or manual work, a gym- 
 nasium, and a vast amphitheatre rudely fashioned 
 on the curved slope of a hill, with a roof, and one 
 wall on the side on which there is an organ and a 
 platform, but otherwise open to the air and the 
 woods. It is one of the most memorable and affect- N 
 ing of my American experiences to have addressed 
 6,000 people in this sheltered place, to have heard 
 their voices as they uplifted a psalm, while the 
 ancient trees waved and rustled all round them in 
 the summer twilight, and to have witnessed the 
 hearty enthusiasm wherewith the whole of this 
 large company, comprising persons of all ages, 
 shared the simple recreations of the place, and yet 
 seemed all bent on efforts after self-improvement. 
 This assembly is the parent of many similar local 
 assemblies, and the headquarters of a vast organ- 
 ization, extending through the whole length and 
 breadth of the Union, and of the Canadian Domin-
 
 104% NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 ion, and known as the Chautauqua Reading Circle. 
 Its members, upwards of 100,000 in number, are 
 scattered all over the American Continent, and 
 their one tie of association is that they all pledge 
 themselves to read every year a certain set of four 
 or five books, to write papers in form of resume, 
 criticism, or account of what they have read, and 
 when opportunity offers, to meet from time to 
 time, to read the books together, to discuss their 
 contents, and, if possible, to obtain from some 
 competent professor or schoolmaster an occasional 
 lecture in the elucidation of the prescribed book. 
 It has been a remarkably successful enterprise, has 
 developed among many persons who have had few 
 opportunities of early study, a sense of intellect- 
 ual fellowship with other self-taught and striving 
 students, and has exercised a far-reaching influence 
 on the mental life and thought of the American 
 people. The whole movement began eighteen 
 years ago in the form of a voluntary association of 
 teachers chiefly connected with Sunday-schools, 
 who met together for the study of the Bible, and 
 for mutual conference about the best mode of giv- 
 ing religious instruction. Very soon it was found 
 that masters and mistresses employed in the pri- 
 mary schools and grammar schools of the States 
 wished to associate themselves with the Assembly ; 
 and the Teachers' Retreat was organized, partly for 
 summer rest and congenial fellowship, but mainly 
 for the systematic reading of the best educational
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. .""IDS 
 
 literature, and for the discussion of the methods 
 and processes of education. So, during the two 
 months of the Assembly, about two weeks are an- 
 nually appropriated to the members of the teaching 
 profession, and year by year the number of such 
 persons to be found at Chautauqua increases. Out 
 of this experiment grew in time a Teachers' Reading 
 Union, for the benefit of those who were too widely 
 scattered to give personal attendance at the meet- 
 ing. This department of the whole work of the 
 institution is separately organized. 
 
 It suggests the names of suitable books, facili- 
 tates the circulation of them among the members, 
 provides three regular and several advanced courses 
 of professional reading ; the book-work being sup- 
 plemented by written correspondence, and records 
 of experience, and by special counsels forwarded 
 by the professors to the members. For the annual 
 fee of one dollar, each member is entitled to re- 
 ceive during the year seven such communications 
 in answer to questions, or in explanation of diffi- 
 culties. 
 
 This example has been extensively followed. 
 The "Teachers' Reading Circle" is now 
 
 n Reading Circles. 
 
 recognized everywhere as the most val- 
 uable agency for the improvement of the rural 
 schools, and as a humble, but not ineffective, 
 substitute for normal training. The report of 
 the Commissioner of Education says that, in the 
 case of country teachers, " Whatever knowledge
 
 106 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 they obtain of the theory of teaching, and what- 
 ever promptings they receive to enter on the 
 study of mind, and to learn something of the 
 laws of its growth, may be set down largely to the 
 credit of the reading circle." President Allyn, of 
 Illinois, says, " The work of the teachers' reading 
 circles is in the direction of healthful mental and 
 moral progress. No one can read a good book 
 without profit, and when such a book is in the line 
 of one's life-work, it is both inspiration and motive 
 power." As these views have prevailed, the system 
 has, during the last seven OK eight years, been 
 largely extended. Ohio and Wisconsin were among 
 the earliest States to form State Teachers' Heading 
 Circles, Indiana soon followed, and at present more 
 than twenty States have formally adopted the plan. 
 It is estimated that at least 75,000 teachers in the 
 United States are reading, methodically and sys- 
 tematically, works bearing upon professional and 
 general culture. 
 
 I abridge from the last report presented to Con- 
 gress by the Commissioner of Education the fol- 
 lowing particulars respecting the formation and 
 work of these associations : 
 
 " The objects of the State Teachers' Reading 
 Circles are siibstantially the same, namely, the im- 
 provement of the members in literary, scientific, 
 and professional knowledge, and the promotion of 
 habits of self-culture. This end is sought by pre- 
 scribing a certain course of study, securing books
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 107 
 
 at reduced rates, preparing lists of the best educa- 
 tional publications, by offering advice and direction 
 as to the methods of reading and study, by exam- 
 inations of the work done, and by certificates of 
 proficiency. 
 
 " The act of organizing the State Circle has 
 generally been accomplished at the annual assembly 
 of the State Teachers' Associations, and the work 
 is usually carried on under the control of this asso- 
 ciation. Directors, boards of management, etc., 
 are chosen, who map out the course and direct the 
 work of the circle. County and local circles are 
 also formed, subsidiary to the general or State 
 circle, and even individual members may pursue 
 the course alone. 
 
 "The conditions of membership are liberal, any 
 teacher or other person being received who prom- 
 ises to pursue the prescribed course of study, and 
 pays the small fee usually 25 cents, or 50 cents 
 annually. Meetings of local circles for conference, 
 discussion, and review are held once a week in 
 some States, and bi-weekly in others. The course 
 of study is usually outlined and published in the 
 educational journals, and in the county papers. 
 
 "In the preparation of these outlines, a depart- 
 ment of study is under the special supervision of 
 some member of the State Board. The object of 
 this study is twofold, namely, professional and 
 general culture. As for the prominence given to 
 one or the other of these subjects, that is deter-
 
 108 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 rained by the actual needs of the teachers. The 
 fourth year's reading (1886-87) for the Ohio 
 Teachers' Reading Circle is given herewith, to in- 
 dicate the general scope of such studies. 
 
 " I. Psychology. ( Sully's Teachers' Handbook 
 of Psychology/ 
 
 " II. Literature. ' Hamlet/ and ' As You Like 
 It.' Selections from Wordsworth. 
 
 "III. History. Barnes' ' Brief General History 
 of the World,' or Thalheimer's 'General History.' 
 
 "IV. Political Economy. Gregory's 'Political 
 Economy,' or Chapin's 'First Principles of Politi- 
 cal Economy/ with at least one educational period- 
 ical. 
 
 " In a majority of the States provision is made 
 for stated examinations of the work performed, and 
 certificates are awarded with diplomas upon com- 
 pletion of the course. 
 
 "The Union Reading Circle, a paper published 
 in the interest of this work, reports (June, 1887) 
 three new societies in Georgia, two in Kentucky, 
 five in Iowa, and twelve others in as many different 
 States. Memorial days are now the fashion ; the 
 poets Bryant, Longfellow, and Tennyson, with 
 Dickens and other literary men, receiving their 
 share of honor in various places. The Agassiz 
 Society of Philadelphia promises to make the 
 summer vacation an opportunity for scientific re- 
 search and study, and each one will contribute 
 towards the common museum. The Gesenius, u
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 109 
 
 new circle of Cleveland, makes Hebrew a specialty, 
 as the Xenophon Society carries on the systematic 
 study of Greek. The Curtis Society of Buffalo, N. 
 Y., studies politics, and discusses all questions of 
 reform. The Tulane Home Study and Beading 
 Society is organized, with headquarters at Tulane 
 University, New Orleans, La. 
 
 " Besides the State associations, others claiming 
 a national character have been organized. In 1885 
 the Teachers' National Reading Circle was legally 
 incorporated under the laws of New York. Prof. 
 W. H. Payne, of Michigan, was chosen President, 
 supported by 18 directors, constituting the official 
 board. This organization provides 18 courses of 
 reading, 6 being professional, 3 in general culture, 
 and 9 non-professional. In the first, 27 books are 
 recommended. Each course includes 3 groups of 
 studies, 2 books in each group, and any course (3 
 books for the year) may be taken by the reader. 
 Diplomas will be granted to the members who pass 
 the three different examinations in some one pre- 
 scribed course, and who prepare an accepted thesis 
 on some educational topic connected with the reacl- 
 ing. . . . One or two of the educational de- 
 partments of Canada prescribe a course of reading 
 for teachers, purely voluntary, and hence followed 
 by no examinations. The department provides, 
 however, that ' should the teachers of any inspec- 
 torial division agree to read the course with this 
 end in view, and should the county board of ex-
 
 110 NOTES ON" AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 aminers make adequate provision for such exami- 
 nation, the department would recognize, by special 
 certificate, this additional element of professional 
 culture.'" 
 
 It will be observed that all the organizations 
 I have described local institutes, general con- 
 ventions, reading circles, teachers' retreats set 
 before them two objects, and two objects only, 
 self-improvement, and the improvement of edu- 
 cation. There is a remarkable absence in Amer- 
 ica of discussions on what may be called the 
 politics of education, or on the means of obtain- 
 ing professional influence outside the profes- 
 sion itself. And it is to this singleness of pur- 
 pose, to the essentially practical aim of the great 
 gatherings of teachers, that one may fairly attrib- 
 ute the interest which is universally shown in 
 them, the warm and respectful welcome which 
 they receive from parents and local authorities as 
 they itinerate from town to town, the large share 
 of importance assigned to the meetings in the 
 local press, and the extent to which the influence 
 of the teaching body has steadily been enlarged 
 during the last 60 years. Public opinion, after all, 
 evinces a true instinct when it shows as it always 
 does a certain distrust of trading and profes- 
 sional associations, obviously designed to keep 
 up the scale of remuneration, to assert corporate 
 rights and privileges, or otherwise to protect class 
 interests. It has a suspicion that these interests
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. Ill 
 
 are not necessarily or always identical with the 
 larger interests of the community. But it recog- 
 nizes and rightly recognizes the national impor- 
 tance of any efforts by which teachers as a body 
 seek to understand and to do their work better ; 
 and to keep themselves in due rapport with the 
 communities whose needs they seek to supply. 
 
 All through the States there is a much greater 
 demand for educational literature than in England ; 
 and even the more philosophical treatises on edu- 
 cation, such as those of Herbert Spencer, Alex- 
 ander Bain, and Professor Sully, are eagerly and 
 largely read. I cannot help thinking that the 
 strong professional feeling which seems to incor- 
 porate all classes of teachers, and to make them 
 and the public officials conscious of a common 
 interest in educational progress, is one of the most 
 encouraging and hopeful signs of the times. 
 
 It would be beyond the special purpose of these 
 notes, which concern themselves mainly 
 
 .,, T , ,. .,/ Colleges. 
 
 with such observations as may possibly 
 prove suggestive to the teachers in our own training 
 colleges and elementary schools, to do more than 
 barely mention any facts relating to higher schools 
 and colleges. But many institutions recently built 
 and endowed by private munificence possess a splen- 
 dor and completeness of equipment rarely seen on 
 this side of the Atlantic. New universities and 
 colleges are being created yearly. The three great 
 colleges for women Wellesley, Vassar, and Bryn
 
 112 NOTES ON AMERICAN" SCHOOLS 
 
 Mawr are amply supplied with laboratories, art 
 galleries, and every modern appliance for effec- 
 tive teaching, and are surrounded by extensive 
 and beautiful grounds. There were enumerated 
 in the last official returns of the 38 States of the 
 Union no less than 491 distinct institutions for 
 higher education, of which 283 were universities, 
 colleges, and higher schools, 75 were colleges for 
 women, and 133 were professional schools, chiefly 
 theological or medical, but unconnected with uni- 
 versities. Every one of these 491 institutions 
 possesses the right to confer degrees. This right 
 is in each case granted in a charter by the Governor 
 and legislature of the State in which the college is 
 situated, and is very easily obtained by almost any 
 superior school of fair repute. The degrees are 
 conferred by the professors and teachers without 
 external examination or criticism. There is no 
 common standard of qualification ; nearly every 
 student who passes with fair credit through the three 
 or four required years " graduates " as a matter of 
 course. The conception of a "University" as an 
 organization apart from a college and entitled to 
 apply a uniform and impartial test to students who 
 have been taught under different conditions, does 
 not exist in America. The difference in the condi- 
 tions which govern universities and academic organ- 
 ization in general in England and in America will 
 be best understood by considering that in all there 
 are only five public bodies in England and Wales,
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 113 
 
 four in Scotland, and three in Ireland, which are 
 empowered by charter from the Crown to confer 
 academical degrees. In Oxford or Cambridge 
 the university exists, in a certain sense, indepen- 
 dently of the several colleges associated with it, 
 subjects all the students to the same examination, 
 and confers degrees that have a recognized meaning 
 and value. The University of London receives 
 from all parts of the Kingdom students of all 
 classes, whether taught in colleges or not, and 
 after a series of examinations, gives the titles of 
 Bachelor, Master or Doctor, in the several faculties 
 of art, science, medicine, laws and literature. The 
 degree has in every case a fixed and well-known 
 connotation. No purely professional corporation, 
 e. g., a medical school, is empowered to give the 
 title of Doctor. Hence, M.D. in England is a 
 title conferred by a university alone, and always 
 signifies that besides professional qualification, the 
 holder has received a liberal education. The uni- 
 versities of the United Kingdom have of late 
 added to their special academic work the impor- 
 tant function of testing and certifying the results of 
 instruction in the secondary and high schools in all 
 parts of the country. By means of local examina- 
 tions, a standard of requirement has been set up 
 for junior and senior candidates of 15 to 18 
 years of age, and thousands of pupils in the higher 
 schools who are not destined for the universities 
 are annually certified to have reached this standard. 
 8
 
 114 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 But there is nothing analogous to this in the 
 United States, and there are therefore no data for 
 a comparison of the value of degrees in that 
 country and in our own. Here, at least, the public 
 know well what a university degree or certificate 
 means, because it is granted by an independent 
 and detached body. In America each separate 
 institution which has the power to grant distinctions 
 may have its own scheme of study, and lay down 
 its own conditions of graduation, and the public 
 have* no means of knowing whether those condi- 
 tions are leniently or stringently enforced. As with 
 the public schools, so also with colleges and univer- 
 sities, the educational authority is in every case 
 entirely isolated and local, and no means exist for 
 comparing the achievements of one such body with 
 those of another, or with any common standard of 
 efficiency. Parents and the public are therefore 
 compelled to accept the account of its work which 
 each institution gives of itself. They are unable 
 to check that account by reference to any external 
 and responsible authority or by any recognized test 
 of acquirement. The consequence is that degrees, 
 as such, unless obtained at one of the seven or 
 eight universities of the highest rank, as Harvard, 
 Yale, or at Baltimore, are of no value in the States 
 and mean very little. It is manifest that the 
 American system helps to promote the general 
 diffusion of knowledge among those who have 
 passed the school age ; but it is equally manifest
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 115 
 
 that it helps to dignify with academic titles the 
 kind of work which in Europe would be done in 
 gymnasia, in tycees,or in grammar schools, and that 
 it somewhat discourages the attainment of a high 
 standard of scholarship. 
 
 The one great safeguard, however, for the con- 
 tinued and rapid improvement of edu- 
 
 . . , Public opinion. 
 
 cation in America is the universal 
 interest shown in it by the community. There is 
 no matter of public concern more keenly and 
 frequently debated. Any complaint of negligence 
 or inefficiency in connection with the schools 
 rouses the indignation of parents and excites gen- 
 eral discussion. There is everywhere manifest an 
 eager, almost a restless, desire to effect improve- 
 ments and to try new experiments. The immense 
 commercial prosperity of America, no doubt, causes 
 many persons there, as elsewhere, to take a merely 
 material view of the purposes and uses of educa- 
 tion. But there is no lack of loftier and more 
 generous ideals. For example, I know no wiser or 
 more felicitous description of the true aim of a 
 school than is contained in the words of President 
 Adams of Cornell University, when he says, " The 
 main object of education is not merely the acqui- 
 sition of information ; it is not even the develop- 
 ment of the faculties ; it is, or ought to be, the 
 awakening of certain desires that will serve to the 
 pupil as a sort of perpetual inspiration through 
 life." This is, J believe, an ideal vividly present
 
 116 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 to the minds of many of the leading men and 
 women of America, and one which is every day 
 likely to be more nearly realized. 
 
 To any observer who is interested in the social 
 and intellectual progress of the race, and who 
 cares to understand the forces which are shaping 
 the character and fortunes of the coming genera- 
 tions, a visit to America is an exhilarating experi- 
 ence. The atmosphere, both moral and physical, 
 is eminently stimulating. The signs of energy 
 and enterprise, of hopefulness and boundless prom- 
 ise, meet the eye in every direction. " Every 
 American," said to me one of the leading clergy- 
 men in Boston, "every American is an optimist." 
 He cannot help being so. He has at his command 
 vast and undeveloped material resources. He is 
 conscious, in himself and in his countrymen, of 
 ambition and enthusiasm, of the ability to sur- 
 mount difficulties, and of yet unused intellectual 
 strength. His golden age lies in the future, not in 
 the past. He does not indulge in the English- 
 man's habit of self-depreciation. He never falls 
 into the mood in which his English cousin is often 
 fain to disparage the institutions of his own coun- 
 try, and to assume that educational or other work 
 is better done by foreigners than by himself. He 
 believes that Englishmen are only half sincere 
 when they use such language. But if he is some- 
 times boastful, it is because he feels secure in the 
 conviction that he can justify his boasts. He is
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 117 
 
 aware of many of the defects in his own educa- 
 tional system, especially its frequent lack of thor- 
 oughness, and he is very sensible of the need for 
 amendment. But he is not disheartened, for in 
 the first place he believes that he is fully able to 
 effect improvement, and in the second place he 
 means to do it.
 
 118 NOTES ON AMEKICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 SCHEMES OF GRADED INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY 
 
 AGE. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Under 7. 
 
 (a.) Elements o 1 
 
 Language. R e a d - 
 
 Language. Read- 
 
 
 reading, writing 
 and arithmetic. 
 
 ing; spelling; ex- 
 ercises in corn- 
 
 ing simple names 
 of things at sight. 
 
 
 
 bin i n g sounds 
 
 Phonic method. 
 
 
 (6.) Lessons on ob- 
 
 form, color, parts 
 
 Written, not oral, 
 
 
 jects, the pheno- 
 
 and uses of fam- 
 
 spelling. 
 
 
 m en a of nature 
 
 iliar objects. 
 
 
 
 and of common 
 
 
 Writing. Easy 
 
 
 life. 
 
 Counting by ones to 
 100, by twos to 50 
 
 letters and words 
 containing them. 
 
 
 (c.) Appropriate anc 
 varied manual 
 
 backwards from 
 10 to 1. 
 
 Conversations about 
 
 
 employments. 
 
 
 familiar things. 
 
 
 Singing. 
 
 Slate writing short 
 
 
 
 Needlework (girls). 
 
 words. 
 
 Arithmetic. All 
 
 
 
 
 the four rules with 
 
 
 
 Drawing straight 
 lines, vertical, ob- 
 
 numbers up to 5, 
 with objects and 
 
 
 
 lique, etc. 
 
 figures. 
 
 
 
 Vocal music. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lessons on form 
 
 
 
 
 and objects. 
 
 Under 8. 
 
 To read a short par- 
 
 Language. Read- 
 
 Languaqe. Read- 
 
 Standard 
 
 agraph from a 
 book not confined 
 
 ing, meaning of 
 words, spelling. 
 
 ing, phonic drill, 
 vocal drill, tone, 
 
 I. 
 
 to words of one 
 
 punctuation, les- 
 
 inflection, etc. 
 
 
 syllable. 
 
 sons on form, col- 
 
 Learning simple 
 
 
 Copy in manuscript 
 
 or, objects. 
 
 verses. 
 
 
 characters a line 
 of print, and write 
 from diclation not 
 more than 10 easy 
 words, commenc- 
 ing with capital 
 
 Arithmetic. Ad- 
 ding single col- 
 umns of 10 fig- 
 ures. Multiplying 
 by 2. 
 
 Spelling of common 
 and easy words. 
 
 Writing copy from 
 blackboard. 
 
 
 letters. 
 
 
 Short sentences 
 
 
 Copybooks (large or 
 
 Writing. Short 
 
 from dictation. 
 
 
 half text hand) to 
 
 sentences from 
 
 
 
 be shown. 
 
 copy. 
 
 Arithmetic. All
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGE. 119 
 
 SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN FROM 6 TO 14. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 ONTARIO (FOUR 
 STAGES). 
 
 Under 7. 
 
 Under 8. 
 
 Standard 
 I. 
 
 Conversation and 
 oral exercises. 
 
 Beading by the 
 " word and sen- 
 tence " method. 
 
 Writing and spell- 
 ing. 
 
 Arithmetic. All 
 operations with 
 numbers up to 10. 
 U.S. money. The 
 inch, pint, etc. 
 
 Moulding in clay 
 and elementary 
 drawing. 
 
 The musical scale. 
 
 Reading. Oral ex- 
 ercises in the use 
 of verbs. 
 
 Copying &nd writing 
 capitals. 
 
 Combination of 
 numbers up to 60. 
 Notation up to 
 1,000. Elementary 
 fractions. Tables. 
 
 Music by note. 
 
 Drawing in two 
 dimensions. 
 
 Conversation about 
 familiar things. 
 Use of singular 
 and plural words. 
 
 Recitation of " gems 
 of poetry." 
 
 Writing words and 
 short sentences. 
 
 Reading by words, 
 not letters. 
 
 Arithmetic All 
 combi nations 
 from 1 to 10, with 
 counters or other 
 objects, before 
 figures. 
 
 Geography. O r a 1 
 lessons on wind, 
 rain, snow, hills, 
 valleys, springe, 
 etc. Points o f 
 compass. 
 
 Lessons on color 
 and form, and 
 linear drawing. 
 
 Oral lessons on 
 plants, animals, 
 color, etc. 
 
 Writ ing. Copy 
 short sentences 
 from blackboard. 
 
 Reading. Phonic 
 drill on elementa- 
 ry sounds. 
 
 form and meaning 
 of words in sen- 
 tences (only one 
 new word in a 
 sentence). 
 
 First reading book. 
 
 Spelling from read- 
 ing lessons on 
 slates, and orally. 
 
 Numeration to 1 .000. 
 Addition and sub- 
 traction. 
 
 Linear drawing. 
 
 Geography. Con- 
 versational 1 e s - 
 sons about the 
 earth.
 
 120 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 SCHEMES OP GRADED INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY 
 
 AGE. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Under 8. 
 
 Notation and nume- 
 
 Drawing. Trian- 
 
 four processes 
 
 
 ration up to 1,000. 
 
 gles, concentric 
 
 with numbers up 
 
 Standard 
 
 Simple addition 
 
 squares, etc. 
 
 to 20, coins, pints, 
 
 I. 
 
 and subtraction of 
 
 
 yards, feet. 
 
 
 numbers of not 
 
 Common objects 
 
 
 
 more than three 
 
 and substances. 
 
 Drawing. Straight 
 
 
 figures. In addi- 
 
 
 lines in various 
 
 
 tionnot more than 
 
 
 combinations. 
 
 
 five lines to be 
 
 
 Simple designs to 
 
 
 given. The mul- 
 
 
 be invented by 
 
 
 tiplication table to 
 
 
 pupils. 
 
 
 6 times 12. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lessons on animals 
 
 ' 
 
 To repeat 20 lines of 
 simple verse. 
 
 
 and plants, and 
 aspects of nature. 
 Color, etc. 
 
 
 To explain a plan of 
 
 
 
 
 the school and 
 
 
 
 
 playground. The 
 four cardinal 
 
 
 
 
 points. Themean- 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 ing and use of a 
 
 
 
 
 map. 
 
 
 
 
 Needlework and 
 
 
 
 
 knitting (girls). 
 
 
 
 Under 9. 
 
 Standard 
 II. 
 
 To read a short par- 
 agraph from an el- 
 ementary reading 
 book. 
 
 Language. Read- 
 ing 'in books. 
 Spelling familiar 
 words. Exercises 
 
 Reading. Recita- 
 tion of short pas- 
 sages in prose and 
 verse. Punctua- 
 
 
 
 in place and direc- 
 
 tion. 
 
 
 A passage of not 
 
 tion. 
 
 
 
 more than six 
 
 
 Spelling. Dicta- 
 
 
 lines, from the 
 same book, slow- 
 ly read once, and 
 then dictatedword 
 by word. 
 
 Arithmetic. Writ- 
 ten and mental up 
 to multiplication 
 with two figures. 
 Federal money. 
 
 tion. Marking of 
 long and short 
 vowels and silent 
 letters. Occasional 
 oral spelling only. 
 
 
 Copybooks (large and 
 half text hand) to 
 be shown. 
 
 Penmanship on pa- 
 per. 
 
 Writing on ruled 
 paper. Oral and 
 written composi- 
 
 
 
 
 tion; short sto- 
 
 
 Notation and nu- 
 
 Drawing. Hexa- 
 
 ries; letters. 
 
 
 meration up to 
 100,000. The four 
 
 gon, octagon, and 
 other rectilinear 
 
 Words alike in 
 sound but differ- 
 
 
 simple rules to 
 
 figures. 
 
 ent in meaning.
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 121 
 
 SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN FROM 6 TO 14 Cont. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 ONTARIO (FOUR 
 
 STAGES). 
 
 Under 8. 
 
 Standard 
 II. 
 
 Under 9. 
 
 Standard 
 II. 
 
 Oral lessons on ani- 
 mals. Time by 
 the clock. Color, 
 etc. 
 
 Oral exercises in use 
 of adjectives and 
 relative pronouns 
 (no rules or defi- 
 nitions); writin 
 spelling ; repro- 
 duction of snort 
 stories. 
 
 AriUtmetic, oral and 
 written. Elemen- 
 tary fractions. 
 Weights and mea- 
 sures. 
 
 Geography. Plan 
 of schoolroom. 
 Cardinal points. 
 The globe. 
 
 Music by note. 
 
 Spelling, oral and 
 written, of easy 
 words. 
 
 Arithmetic. Num- 
 bers up to 20, and 
 problems involv- 
 ing them. 
 
 Home Geography. 
 Roads, nvers,etc., 
 withmapof school 
 premises and dis- 
 trict. 
 
 Historical a n e c- 
 dotes. 
 
 Drawing lines and 
 angles. 
 
 Oral Lessons. Use 
 of personal pro- 
 nouns. 
 
 Reading from books 
 and at sight from 
 other books not 
 in use in the class. 
 Scholars to read 
 to the Class. 
 
 Spelling drill on 
 words most com- 
 monly misspelled. 
 
 Writing on paper. 
 Capitals to be 
 used. 
 
 Arithmetic. Calcu- 
 lations up to 144. 
 
 Rote singing. 
 
 Oral exercises in 
 language. 
 
 Common objects, 
 their parts and 
 qualities.
 
 122 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 SCHEMES OF GRADED INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY 
 
 AGE. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Under 9. 
 
 short division. 
 
 Sewing iu g i r 1 s' 
 
 Arithmetic. All 
 
 
 The multiplica- 
 
 classes. 
 
 processes up to 
 
 Standard 
 
 tion table and the 
 
 
 144. Roman nume- 
 
 II 
 
 pence table to 12s. 
 
 
 rals. Notation up 
 
 
 
 
 to thousands. 
 
 
 To repeat 40 lines 
 
 
 
 
 of poetry, and to 
 know their mean- 
 
 
 Geography. D i a - 
 gram of school 
 
 
 ing. 
 
 
 premises; points 
 
 
 To point out nouns 
 
 
 of compass; globe. 
 
 
 and verbs. 
 
 
 Draining. Free- 
 
 
 Sewing and knitting 
 (girls). 
 
 
 hand. Rectilinear 
 andcurvedfigures. 
 Object lessons. 
 
 
 The size and shape 
 
 
 
 
 of the world. Geo- 
 
 
 
 
 graphical terms 
 
 
 
 
 simply explained 
 and illustrated by 
 
 
 
 
 reference to the 
 
 
 
 
 map of England. 
 
 
 
 
 Physical geogra- 
 phy of hills and 
 
 
 
 
 rivers. 
 
 
 
 
 Or Elementary 
 
 
 
 
 science. 
 
 
 
 Under 10. 
 
 To read a passage 
 from a more ad- 
 
 Language. Bead- 
 ing (3d book). 
 
 Eeadlnq. Phonic 
 analysis. Recita- 
 
 Standard 
 
 vanced reading 
 
 Oral lessons on 
 
 tion and compo- 
 
 III. 
 
 book, or from 
 
 qualities, etc., of 
 
 sition. 
 
 
 stories from Eng- 
 
 familiar objects. 
 
 
 
 lish history. 
 
 Composition, 
 
 Writing. Copy- 
 
 
 
 spelling, meaning 
 
 books and copy- 
 
 
 Six lines from one 
 
 and use of words. 
 
 ing of choice ex- 
 
 
 of the reading 
 
 
 tracts in prose 
 
 
 books of the 
 
 
 and verse. 
 
 
 standard, slowly 
 
 Arithmetic. Writ- 
 
 
 
 read once and 
 
 ten and mental. 
 
 Nouns and Verbs 
 
 
 then dictated. 
 
 Weights and 
 
 and their use in 
 
 
 
 measures. 
 
 sentences. 
 
 
 Copybook* (capitals 
 and figures, large 
 and small hand) 
 to be shown. 
 
 Geography (without 
 text-books) from 
 
 Arithmetic. A 1 1 
 four rules to hnn- 
 d r e d e of thous- 
 
 
 
 globes and out- 
 
 ands. Weights, 
 
 
 The former rules, 
 
 line maps. 
 
 measures, and
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 123 
 
 SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN PROM 6 TO UCont. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 ONTARIO (POUR 
 STAGES). 
 
 Under 9. 
 
 Standard 
 III. 
 
 Under 10. 
 
 Standard 
 III. 
 
 Drawing. Leaves 
 and simple solids. 
 
 Oral Lessons. Ani- 
 mals named 
 reading books. 
 
 Notation to 1,000. 
 Coins and simple 
 weights and meas- 
 ures. 
 
 Geography. The 
 globe generally, 
 size, zones, cli- 
 mate, races of 
 men. 
 
 History. Oral les- 
 sons on States and 
 Governments. 
 
 Elementary Physio- 
 logy and Hygiene. 
 
 Drawing triangles 
 and squares. 
 
 Oral Exercises. 
 Elementary gram- 
 mar and analysis 
 of sentences. 
 Writing a letter. 
 
 Arithmetic. R e - 
 duction ; simple 
 fractions ; inter- 
 est. 
 
 Geography. The 
 Northern States. 
 
 Music. Singing at 
 sight in keys of 
 C, G, D, and F. 
 
 Drawing. Combi- 
 nations of square, 
 
 Oral Exercises . 
 Use of "who, 
 which, and that." 
 Letter writing, 
 descriptions of ob- 
 jects and events. 
 
 Reading. Second 
 book. 
 
 Writing and spell- 
 ing on slates and 
 paper. 
 
 Reading. Prose Numeration to 1,- 
 
 chiefly ; spelling. 
 
 Arithmetic, oral and 
 written, with 
 numbers up to 
 10,000. Simple 
 fractions up to 
 twelfths. 
 
 Weights and time. 
 Geography. North 
 
 000,000. 
 
 Multiplication and 
 division. 
 
 Local geography 
 and definitions. 
 
 Elements of musi- 
 cal notation.
 
 124 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 SCHEMES OF GRADED INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY 
 
 AGE. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Under 10. 
 
 with long divis- 
 
 Penmanship. Prac- 
 
 money, concrete 
 
 
 ion. Addition and 
 
 tice in capitals. 
 
 illustrations of 
 
 Standard 
 
 subtraction o f 
 
 
 fractions. 
 
 III. 
 
 money. 
 
 Drawing from dic- 
 
 
 
 To recite with in- 
 
 tation and from 
 chart. 
 
 Geography. Physi- 
 cal features. 
 
 
 telligence and ex- 
 
 
 America. 
 
 
 pression 60 lines 
 of poetry, and to 
 know their mean- 
 
 Combination of cir- 
 cles with recti- 
 linear figures. 
 
 Drawing and de- 
 sign from copies 
 
 
 ing. 
 
 
 and objects. 
 
 
 Sewing (girls). 
 
 
 Lessons on plants. 
 
 
 To point out nouns, 
 verbs, adjectives, 
 adverbs, and per- 
 
 
 Animals. The 
 human body. 
 
 
 sonal pronouns, 
 
 
 
 
 and to form sim- 
 
 
 
 
 ple sentences 
 
 
 
 
 containing them. 
 
 
 
 
 Physical and politi- 
 
 
 
 
 cal geography of 
 
 
 
 
 England, with 
 special knowledge 
 
 
 
 
 of the district in 
 
 
 
 
 which the school 
 
 
 
 
 is situated. 
 
 
 
 
 Or Elementary 
 
 
 
 
 science. 
 
 
 
 Under 11. 
 
 Standard 
 IV. 
 
 To read a few lines 
 from areading 
 book, or History 
 of England. 
 
 Language. Head- 
 ing (4th book); 
 oral lessons on 
 plants ; composi- 
 tion, written and 
 
 Reading. Accent, 
 emphasis. Use 
 of dictionary. 
 Recitation. Copy- 
 ing letters, bills, 
 
 
 Eight lines ot poetry 
 or prose, slowly 
 read once, and 
 
 oral. Suffixes. 
 Arithmetic. Com- 
 
 accounts. C o m - 
 position. Analy- 
 sis of simple sen- 
 
 
 then dictated. 
 
 m o n fractions, 
 
 tences. 
 
 
 Copybooks to be 
 
 with their appli- 
 cations. 
 
 Arithmetic. Meas- 
 u r e s , multiples, 
 
 
 shown. 
 
 
 fractions. 
 
 
 
 Geography. Amer- 
 
 
 
 Compound rules 
 
 ica and Europe. 
 
 Geography. -L a t i- 
 
 
 (money) and re- 
 
 
 tude, longitude, 
 
 
 duction of com- 
 
 Penmanship. 
 
 United States.
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 125 
 
 SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN FROM 6 TO 14 Cont. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 ONTARIO (FOUR 
 STAGES). 
 
 Under 10. 
 
 Standard 
 III. 
 
 Under 11. 
 
 Standard 
 
 rv. 
 
 oblong, and eqni 
 lateral triangles. 
 
 Cutting out geo- 
 metrical figures. 
 
 Oral Lessons. Per- 
 sonal habits. 
 Conduct. 
 
 America. Physi- 
 cal and political. 
 Sketch maps. 
 
 History. Local 
 traditions, growth 
 of cities, and of 
 government. 
 
 Physiology. Parts 
 of the oody. The 
 senses. 
 
 Drawing . The 
 circle ana its com- 
 binations, with 
 rectilinear figures. 
 Use of color. 
 
 Grammar. C o m - 
 position, business 
 terms, analysis, 
 reading. 
 
 Arithmetic. Prime 
 numbers, factors, 
 measures and 
 multiples, frac- 
 tions. 
 
 Recitation of prose 
 and verse. 
 
 Train, orally and by 
 dictation, in the 
 right use of nit, 
 set, lie, lay, shall. 
 and will, and 
 other words often 
 misused. 
 
 Outline geography Head, 
 of principal conn- 
 tries. 
 
 Singing at sight in 
 keys of C, G, D, 
 F, and B flat. 
 
 'inland use of 
 dictionary for 
 meaning of new 
 words. 
 
 Arithmetic. Deci- 
 
 Oral and written 
 composition. 
 
 Object lessons.
 
 126 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 SCHEMES OF GRADED INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY 
 
 AGE. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Under 11. 
 
 mon weights and 
 
 Short phrases and 
 
 History . Biog- 
 
 
 measures. 
 
 easy sentences. 
 
 raphy, oral les 
 
 Standard 
 
 
 
 sons. 
 
 IV. 
 
 To recite 80 lines ol 
 poetry, and to ex- 
 
 Drawing . Ellipti- 
 c a 1 and other 
 
 Scifnce. P 1 a n t s . 
 
 
 plain the words 
 
 curves ; designs 
 
 hygiene. 
 
 
 and allusions. 
 
 for borders, etc. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Drawing. G e o - 
 
 
 Sewing and knit- 
 
 
 metrical, decora- 
 
 
 ting (girls). 
 
 
 tive, model, etc. 
 
 
 To parse easy sen- 
 
 
 
 
 t e n c e s , and to 
 
 
 
 
 enow by examples 
 
 
 
 
 the use of each of 
 
 
 
 
 the parts of 
 
 
 
 
 speech. 
 
 
 
 
 Physical and politi- 
 
 
 
 
 cal geography of 
 the British Isles, 
 
 
 
 
 and of British 
 
 
 
 
 North America or 
 
 
 
 
 Australasia, with 
 
 
 
 
 knowledge of 
 
 
 
 
 their productions. 
 
 
 
 
 Or Elementary 
 
 
 
 
 science. 
 
 
 
 Under 12. 
 
 To read & passage 
 
 Language. -R e a d - 
 
 Eeading and recita- 
 
 
 from some stand- 
 
 ing, composition, 
 
 tion. Common 
 
 Standard 
 
 ard author,or from 
 
 prefixes and suf- 
 
 prefixes and suf- 
 
 V. 
 
 a History of Eng- 
 
 fixes. English 
 
 fixes. Parsing and 
 
 
 land. 
 
 grammar (without 
 text-book). Parts 
 
 analysis. Business 
 correspondence. 
 
 
 Writing from mem- 
 
 of speech. Sub- 
 
 
 
 ory the substance 
 of a short story 
 read out twice ; 
 spelling, hand- 
 writing, and cor- 
 rect expression to 
 be considered. 
 
 ject, predicate, ob- 
 ject. 
 
 Arithmetic. F o r - 
 mer rules applied. 
 
 Geography. Re- 
 
 Arithmetic. Per- 
 centage, fractions, 
 English money, 
 computation of 
 time, longitude, 
 insurance, etc. 
 
 
 
 view America, 
 
 
 
 Copybooks to be 
 shown. 
 
 A.ia and Africa in 
 outline. 
 
 Geography. Eu- 
 rope, Asia, Africa. 
 
 
 Practice,bifis of par- 
 
 History of United 
 
 History of United
 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 127 
 
 SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN FROM 6 TO 14 Cont. 
 
 Under 11. 
 
 Standard 
 IV. 
 
 Under 12. 
 
 Standard 
 V. 
 
 Drawing objects 
 and patterns. 
 
 Cutting out of geo- 
 metric figures. 
 
 Oral Lesson*. Con- 
 duct and habits. 
 
 Analysis and syn- 
 thesis of simple 
 sentences. Pars- 
 ing. Simple pre- 
 fixes and affixes. 
 
 Composition. 
 Writing business Arithmetic. 
 letters. 
 
 Arithmetic. Vu 1 
 gar and decimal 
 fractions ; m e a s- 
 urement of rec- 
 tangular surfaces. 
 
 reography. Illi- 
 nois and neighbor- 
 ing States. New 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 mal fractions to 
 three places, 
 prime number* 
 and factors, sim- 
 ple mensuration 
 of surfaces. 
 
 Geography. United 
 States, with spe- 
 cial study and 
 map of Massachu- 
 setts. 
 
 Outline History of 
 United States. 
 
 Physiology. Food, 
 air, exercise. 
 
 Drawing. Ellipse, 
 oval, etc., in com- 
 bination. 
 
 Form compound 
 and complex sen- 
 tences. 
 
 Beading poetry. 
 Vocal drill. 
 
 ic. Mnlti 
 plication and divi 
 sion of fractions. 
 
 Geography. Briti s 
 America and Mex- 
 ico, Europe. Lat- 
 itude, etc. 
 
 Physiology. The 
 nutritive and di- 
 gestive system. 
 
 Reading 3d book. 
 
 Spelling with verbal 
 distinctions. 
 
 Writing business 
 forms. 
 
 Arithmetic.- Great- 
 est common meas'- 
 ure; reduction 
 and compound 
 rules. 
 
 Drawing. 
 
 Geography of North 
 America. Map 
 drawing.
 
 128 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 SCHEMES OF GRADED INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Under 12. 
 
 Standard 
 V. 
 
 eels, and single 
 rule of three oy 
 the method of 
 unity. 
 
 Addition and sub- 
 traction of proper 
 fractions, with de- 
 nominators not 
 exceeding 10. 
 
 To recite 100 lines 
 from some stand- 
 ard poet, and to 
 explain the words 
 and allusions. 
 
 To parse and ana- 
 lyze simple sen- 
 tences, and to 
 know the method 
 of forming Eng- 
 lish nouns, adjec- 
 tives, and verbs 
 from each other. 
 
 States without 
 text-book. 
 
 Penmanship . 
 Large and small 
 hand. 
 
 Drawing and de- 
 sign. Patterns, 
 ornaments, foli- 
 age, etc. 
 
 ng and i 
 t (girls). 
 
 out 
 
 Geography of Eu- 
 rope, physical and 
 political. Latitude 
 and longitude. 
 Day ana night. 
 The seasons. 
 
 Or Elementary 
 science, or His- 
 tory. 
 
 Map drawing. 
 
 Two specific sub- 
 jects.* 
 
 States, colonial 
 period. 
 
 Science. Animal 
 
 Shysiology and 
 ygiene. 
 
 Constructive and 
 decorative draw- 
 ing. 
 
 * In the Fifth Standard and upwards, teachers are at liberty to select 
 two additional or specific subjects from a schedule, containing Mechan- 
 ics, Geometry and Algebra, Animal Physiology, Botany, Domestic Econ- 
 omy, Elementary French, Latin, etc.
 
 AXD TRAINING COLLEGES. 129 
 
 SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN FROM 6 TO 14 Cont. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 Under 12. 
 
 Standard 
 V. 
 
 England States ; 
 outline maps. 
 
 Physiology. How 
 we live. 
 
 Part and chorus 
 singing by note. 
 
 Drawing. Cutting 
 patterns and de- 
 sign. 
 
 Oral Lessons. Hab- 
 its, conduct, city 
 government. 
 
 Drawing. H e x a - 
 gon, pentagon, 
 octagon, design. 
 Use of color. 
 
 Letter writing, bills 
 for merchandise His, 
 and for service. 
 
 Music by note. 
 
 Words. Grammati- 
 cal classification 
 and inflection. 
 
 >(ory. English 
 and Canadian. 
 
 Oral Lessons. Ani- 
 mals and plants.
 
 130 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 SCHEMES OF GRADED INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY 
 
 AGE. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Under 13. 
 
 To read a passage 
 from one of 
 
 Language. -R e a d- 
 ing, composition 
 
 Reading. Recita- 
 tion, declamation, 
 
 Standard 
 VI. 
 
 Shakespeare's his- 
 torical plays, or 
 
 formation of de- 
 rivative words, 
 
 figures of speech, 
 Latin prefixes and 
 
 
 from some other 
 
 grammar. 
 
 derivations. 
 
 
 standard author, 
 
 
 
 
 or from a History 
 of England. 
 
 Arithmetic. Per- 
 centages and their 
 
 Writing. R e p r o - 
 duction of stories 
 
 
 
 application. 
 
 and descriptions. 
 
 
 A short theme or 
 
 
 Letter writing. 
 
 
 letter on ah easy 
 subject; spelling. 
 
 Geography. South 
 America and Eu- 
 
 Syntax and analy- 
 sis. 
 
 
 handwriting and 
 
 rope in detail. 
 
 
 
 composition to be 
 
 
 Arithmetic. D i s - 
 
 
 considered. 
 
 History of United 
 
 count, p art n e r- 
 
 
 
 States to the Rev- 
 
 ship, use of busi- 
 
 
 Fractions^ vulgar 
 
 olution. 
 
 ness terms, check. 
 
 
 and decimal ; sim- 
 
 
 credit, debit, etc. 
 
 
 ple proportion and 
 simple interest. ' 
 
 Penmanship. Let- 
 ter writing. 
 
 Geography. A n s - 
 
 
 
 
 tralia. Special 
 
 
 To recite 150 lines 
 
 Drawing from dic- 
 
 knowledge of 
 
 
 from Shakespeare 
 
 tation and from 
 
 State of Pennsyl- 
 
 
 
 or Milton, or some 
 
 chart, ornamental 
 
 vania. 
 
 
 other standard 
 
 designs, etc. 
 
 
 
 author, and to ex- 
 
 
 History . The 
 
 
 plain the words 
 
 
 American Revolu- 
 
 
 and allusions. 
 
 
 tion and Constitu- 
 
 
 
 
 tion. Civil war. 
 
 
 To parse and ana- 
 
 
 
 
 lyze a short com- 
 plex sentence, and 
 
 
 Elementary physics 
 and physiology. 
 
 
 to know the mean-l 
 
 
 
 ing and uses oft 
 
 Drawing, construc- 
 
 
 Latin prefixes in 
 
 
 tive arid inventive. 
 
 
 the formation of 
 
 
 
 
 English words. 
 
 
 
 
 Sewing and cutting 
 
 
 
 
 out (girls). 
 
 
 
 
 Geography of the 
 world generally. 
 
 
 
 
 and especially of 
 
 
 
 
 the British colo- 
 
 
 
 
 nies and depend- 
 
 
 
 
 encies. Inter- 
 
 
 
 
 change of produc- 

 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 131 
 
 SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN FROM 6 TO 14 Cont. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 Under 13. 
 
 Standard 
 VI. 
 
 Syntax, paraphrase, 
 and analysis. 
 
 Composition. Busi- 
 ness forms. 
 
 Analysis of senten- 
 ces, subject, pred- 
 icate, and their 
 modifications. 
 
 Writing and spell- 
 ing. 
 
 Arithmetic, C o m- 
 mission, discount, 
 insurance, import Arithmetic. 
 duties, etc. 
 
 Geography. Gre&l 
 Britain and Eu- 
 rope. Map draw- 
 ing. 
 
 History of United 
 States. Washing- 
 ton. 
 
 Historical 
 read in connec- 
 tion. 
 
 :. C o 111- 
 pound numbers, 
 weights and meas- 
 ures, percentages. 
 
 Geography. A s i a. | 
 Africa, and Aus- 
 tralia. Commerce i 
 of United States. 
 
 History of America i 
 
 poems Physiology. Circu- 
 latory ' and respi- 
 ratory system. 
 
 Music by note. 
 Writing the seven 
 scales. Part sing- 
 ing. 
 
 Dra wing. I n v e n - 
 tion, etc., of pat- 
 terns and orna- 
 ments. 
 
 Oral Lesson*. Hab- 
 its and conduct. 
 
 Drawing from 
 spherical' objects. 
 Design using geo- 
 metrical forms/ 
 Tinting.
 
 132 NOTES ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS 
 
 SCHEMES OF GRADED INSTRUCTION IN PRIMARY 
 
 AGE. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 NEW TOKK. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 Under 13. 
 
 tions. Circum 
 
 
 
 
 stances which de- 
 
 
 
 Standard 
 
 termine climate. 
 
 
 
 VI. 
 
 Or Elementary 
 
 
 
 
 science, or H i s- 
 
 
 
 
 tory. 
 
 
 
 
 Two specific sub- 
 
 
 
 
 jects. 
 
 
 
 Under 14. 
 
 To read a passage 
 from Shakespeare 
 
 Language. Read- 
 ing, meaning and 
 
 Reading, recitation, 
 decl amati on. 
 
 Standard 
 
 or Milton, or from 
 
 use of words. 
 
 Prose and poetry 
 
 VII. 
 
 some other stand- 
 
 Grammar. The 
 
 versification. De- 
 
 
 ard author.orf rom 
 
 formation of 
 
 rivation of words. 
 
 
 a History of Eng- 
 
 words from roots. 
 
 
 
 land. 
 
 
 Writing commer- 
 
 
 A theme or letter. 
 
 Arithmetic. Ex- 
 
 cial forms and 
 
 
 Compos i t io n, 
 spelling and hand- 
 
 change, Custom 
 House business. 
 
 letters. Para- 
 phrase and analy- 
 
 
 writing to be con- 
 
 partnersh ip, and 
 
 sis. 
 
 
 sidered. 
 
 mensuration. 
 
 
 
 Note-books and ex- 
 
 
 Arithmetic. Pow- 
 
 
 ercise books to be 
 
 Geography. Gen- 
 
 ers of numbers. 
 
 
 shown. 
 
 eral review, Con- 
 
 square root, men- 
 
 
 Compound propor- 
 
 s tit u t i on, and 
 
 suration. 
 
 
 tion, averages, and 
 
 State Govern- 
 
 
 
 percentages. 
 
 ment. 
 
 Commercial geogra- 
 
 
 To recite 150 lines 
 
 
 phy, sketch maps. 
 
 
 from Shakespeare 
 or Milton, or some 
 other standard 
 
 Penmanship. Bus- 
 iness forms ; let- 
 ters. 
 
 History. The Fed- 
 eral and State 
 
 
 author, and to ex- 
 
 
 Constitutions. 
 
 
 plain the words 
 
 Drawing on paper. 
 
 
 
 and allusions. 
 To analyze s e n - 
 
 Designs, etc. 
 
 Physiology and Phy- 
 sics advanced. 
 
 
 tences. and t o 
 
 Plane geometry and 
 
 
 
 know prefixes and 
 
 perspective. 
 
 Drawing and de- 
 
 
 terminations gen- 
 
 
 sign. 
 
 
 erally. 
 
 
 
 
 The ocean. Current? 
 
 
 
 
 and tides. General 
 
 
 
 
 arrangement of 
 
 
 
 
 the planetary sys- 
 
 
 
 
 tem. The phases 
 
 
 
 
 of the moon. 
 
 
 
 
 Or Elementary 
 
 
 
 
 science, or His 
 
 
 
 tory. 
 
 
 
 Tiro specific sub- 
 
 
 
 
 jects. 
 

 
 AND TRAINING COLLEGES. 133 
 
 SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN PROM 6 TO 14 Cent. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 Under 13. 
 
 Standard 
 VI. 
 
 Under 14. 
 
 Standard 
 VII. 
 
 Grammar, parsing, 
 composition, oral 
 composition on 
 works read. 
 
 Arithmetic.-Sqnare 
 root, mensura- 
 tion, stocks. 
 
 Longitude and time. 
 
 Geography in con- 
 nection with his- 
 tory. 
 
 History of the Uni- 
 ted States and 
 England (in con- 
 nection with set- 
 tl em e n t and 
 
 rowth of United 
 tates). 
 
 Physiology. How 
 we live. 
 
 Music by note, ad- 
 vanced. 
 
 Drawing. Per- 
 spective, etc. 
 
 Oral lessons on con- 
 duct. American 
 authors. 
 
 Analysis of com- 
 pound sentences. 
 Declamation. 
 Oral and written 
 composition. 
 
 Reading in turn to 
 the whole school. 
 
 Arithmetic. Ratio, 
 proportion, inter- 
 est, discount, and 
 business forms. 
 
 Geography. Physi- 
 cal facts gener- 
 ally. 
 
 vo- 
 
 lution, A_merican 
 Constitution, slav- 
 ery, growth of in- 
 dustries. 
 
 Physiology. H y - 
 giene : effect of 
 stimulants, n a r- 
 cotics, etc. 
 
 Drawing and de- 
 sign. 
 
 Reading 4th book. 
 
 Writing business 
 letters and ac- 
 counts. 
 
 Drawing. 
 
 Geography of the 
 world. Map draw- 
 ing of Canada. 
 
 Arithmetic. Frac- 
 tions, interest, 
 percentage. 
 
 Grammatical para- 
 ing and analysis. 
 
 English and Cana- 
 dian history.
 
 ' THE BEST EXISTING ' VADE MECUM ' FOB THE TEACHER." 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 LECTURES ON TEACHING, 
 
 Delivered in the University of Cambridge, 
 
 J. G. FITCH, M.A., 
 
 With Introductory Preface by THOMAS HUNTER, Ph.D., President of 
 the Normal College, New York. 
 
 16 mo, Cloth. $1.OO. 
 
 From the New England Journal of Education. 
 
 "This is eminently the work of a man of wisdom and experience. 
 He takes a broad and comprehensive view of the work of the teacher, 
 and his suggestions on all topics are worthy of the most careful con- 
 sideration." 
 
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 Saturday Review.
 
 ' It comprises fifteen lectures, dealing with such subjects as organiza- 
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 methods of instruction ; and though the lectures make no pretension 
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 " It is safe to say, no teacher can lay claim to being well informed 
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 adoption by several State Teachers' Reading Circles, as a work to be 
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 "We are delighted %ith the new edition of Fitch's Lectures, and com- 
 mend it to all American teachers." Journal of Education. ~
 
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 MACMILLAN & CO'S 
 
 CHAUCER'S 
 
 CANTERBURY TALES. 
 
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 12mo, $1 .60. 
 
 CONTENTS: 
 
 Contemporary Men and Events of Chaucer's Period. 
 
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 Life in the time of the Poet, in Six Sections, by the present Writer. 
 
 Section L THE TABARD. 
 
 Its History A Visit to the Tabard. 
 Section II. CHIVALRY. 
 
 The Knight The Squire The Yeoman. 
 Section III. RELIGION. 
 
 The Religious Orders The Monk The Prioress The Friar 
 
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 Section IV. PROFESSIONAL MEN. 
 
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 The Alchemist The Clerk of Oxenford. 
 
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 The Merchant The Shipman The Haberdasher, etc. The 
 Cook's Tale of the Prentice The Cook The* Wife of Bath. 
 
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 LONGER ENGLISH POEMS. 
 
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 EDITED BY 
 
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 16mo. $1.10. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PREFACE. Suggestions on the Teaching of English. 
 
 SPENSER . Prot hal ami on . 
 
 MILTON. Hymn on the Nativity L'Allegro II Penseroso 
 
 Lycidas. 
 DRYDEN. MacFlecknoe A Song for St. Cecilia's Day 
 
 Alexander's Feast ; or, the Power of Music. 
 POPE. Rape of the Lock. 
 
 JOHNSON. London The Vanity of Human Wishes. 
 COLLINS. The Passions. 
 
 GRAY. Elegy The Progress of Poesy The Bard. 
 GOLDSMITH. The Traveller The Deserted Village. 
 BURNS. The Cotter's Saturday Night The Twa Dogs. 
 COWPER. Heroism On the Receipt of . my Mother's 
 
 Picture out of Norfolk. 
 SCOTT. Cadyow Castle. 
 WORDSWORTH. Ode : Imitations of Immortality from 
 
 Recollections of Early Childhood Laodamia. 
 BYRON. The Prisoner of Chillon. 
 KEATS. The Eve of St. Agnes. 
 SHELLEY Adonais. 
 
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 GOLDSMITH. The Traveller and the Deserted Village. 
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 THE ENGLISH POETS 
 SELECTIONS. 
 
 WITH CRITICAL INTRODUCTIONS 
 
 BY VARIOUS WRITERS, 
 
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 BY 
 
 MATTHEW ARNOLD. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
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 In Four Volumes. 12mo. 
 
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 Student's Edition. Each volume sold separately, $1.00. 
 
 Vol. I. Chaucer to Donne. 
 
 Vol. II. Ben Jonson to Dryden. 
 
 Vol. III. Addison to Blake. 
 
 Vol. IV. Wordsworth to Rossetti. 
 
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 A HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 (1660-178O) 
 
 EDMUND GOSSE, M.A. 
 
 Clark Lecturer in English Literature at Trinity College, 
 Cambridge. 
 
 I2mo. Cabinet Edition, $1.75; Student's Edition, $1.00. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Poetry after the Restoration. 
 
 Drama after the Restoration. 
 
 Prose after the Restoration. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Swift and the Deists. 
 
 Defoe and the Essayists. 
 
 The Dawn of Naturalism in Poetry. 
 
 The Novelists. 
 
 Johnson and the Philosophers. 
 
 The Poets of the Decadence. 
 
 The Prose of the Decadence. 
 
 Conclusion Bibliography Index. 
 
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 A HISTORY 
 
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 G-EORGE SAINTSBUBY. 
 
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 CONTENTS: 
 
 From Tottel's Miscellany to Spenser. 
 
 Early Elizabethan Prose. 
 
 The First Dramatic Period. 
 
 "The Faerie Queene " and its Group. 
 
 The Second Dramatic Period Shakespeare. 
 
 Later Elizabethan and Jacobean Prose. 
 
 The Third Dramatic Period. 
 
 The School of Spenser and the Tribe of Ben. 
 
 Milton, Taylor, Clarendon, Browne, Hobbes. 
 
 Caroline Poetry. 
 
 The Fourth Dramatic Period. 
 
 Minor Caroline Prose. 
 
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 MACMILLAN & GO'S 
 
 THE ATTIC THEATRE. 
 
 A description of the Stage and Theatre of the Athenians, 
 and of the Dramatic Performances at Athens. 
 
 BY 
 
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 and Wadham Colleges, Oxford. 
 
 "With Facsimiles and Illustrations. 
 8vo, $3.OO. 
 
 CONTENTS: 
 
 DRAMATIC CONTESTS AT ATHENS THE PRODUCTION OP 
 A PLAY THE THEATRE THE SCENERY THE ACTORS 
 THE CHORUS THE AUDIENCE. 
 
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 JAMES COW, M.A., Litt. D. 
 
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 from his daily reading." From the Preface. 
 
 CONTENTS: 
 
 A. Classical Texts. The Greek Alphabet The Latin Alphabet- 
 Books and their Publication The History of Classical Manuscripts 
 Modern Libraries of Classical MSS. Apparatus Critici Textual 
 Criticism Famous Scholars Dialects ana Pronunciation. 
 
 B. Greece. Greek Chronology Greek Metrology History of Athe- 
 nian Government Population of Attica The Athenian Officials- 
 Athenian Deliberative Assemblies The Athenian Army and Fleet 
 Athenian Legal Procedure Athenian Finance Sparta Colonies 
 and Cleruchies. 
 
 C. Rome. Roman Chronology Roman Metrology History of Ro- 
 man Government Rome under the Kings The Republic of Rome 
 Characteristics of Magistracy Religious Functionaries Delib- 
 erative Assemblies Classes of the Free People Government of 
 Italy and the Provinces The Imperial Government The Roman 
 Army Navy Law Finance. 
 
 D. Drama. The Greek Drama The Roman Drama. 
 
 E. Philosophy. INDEX. Greek Index Latin Index, and English 
 Index of Subjects. 
 
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 GREEK VERBS, 
 
 IRREGULAR AND DEFECTIVE: 
 Their Forms, Meaning,, and Quantity. 
 
 EMBRACING ALL THE TENSES USED BYTHE GREEK WRITERS, 
 
 With References to the Passages in which they are Found. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM VEITCH, LL.D., Edin. 
 
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 A Hand-Book to Modern Greek. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDGAR VINCENT and T. G. DICKSON. 
 
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 PART IV. Selections from Contemporary Greek Writers. 
 
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 Rev. HENRY FANSHAWE TOZEE, M.A., F.R.G.S., 
 
 Fellow and Tutor of Exeter College, Oxford. 
 
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 Introduction The Indo-European Languages Sounds and their 
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 Consonants The Spirants Combinations of Sounds Ablaut or 
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 Part II. MOUPHOI.OGT. 
 
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 Index to Latin Words. 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
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