UNITED STATES.]
EDUCATION 681 also, or plane geometry in the upper grades), geography, 351 private secondary schools for boys only, 537 for girls history of the United States, and elementary natural only, and 1212 which were co-educational. science, including human physiology and hygiene. Physical The American college, although it is the outgrowth of the training, vocal music, drawing, and manual training are English colleges of Oxford and of Cambridge, has developed often taught. Sometimes a foreign language (Latin, into an institution which has no counterpart in German, 01 French) and the study of general history are Europe. The college course of study, at' first begun. Formal instruction in manners and morals is not three years in length, was soon extended to four C° egGS‘ often found, but the discipline of the school offers the best years, and the classes are uniformly known as the freshpossible training in the habits of truthfulness, honesty man, the sophomore, the junior, and the senior. Whether obedience, regularity, punctuality, and conformity to order. or not, in view of changed educational and social conReligious teaching is not permitted, although the exercises ditions, a college course of four years is not too long is a of the day are often opened with reading from the Bible, question now under serious discussion. The traditional the repetition of the Lord’s Prayer, and the singing of a degree which crowns the college course is that of Bachelor hymn. Corporal punishment is not infrequent, but is of Arts (A.B.). The studies ordinarily insisted on in the forbidden by law in New Jersey, and in many States case of candidates for this degree are Latin, Greek, may be used only under restrictions. Text-books are mathematics, English, philosophy, political economy, used as the basis of the instruction given, and the pupils history, at least one modern European language (French or recite in class to the teacher, who, by use of illustration German), and at least one natural science. The degrees of and comment, makes clear the subject-matter of the pre- Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Bachelor of Philosophy (Ph.B.), scribed lesson. The purpose of the recitation method is and Bachelor of Letters (B.L.) are often conferred by to make the work of each pupil help that of his companion. colleges upon students who have pursued systematic Skilfully used, it is the most effectual instrument yet devised courses of study which do not include Greek or the for elementary school instruction. In 1897-98 there were amount of Latin required for the degree of Bachelor of 14,589,036 pupils enrolled in the public elementary schools. Arts. The best colleges give instruction which is similar The average length of the school term was 143T days. in character to that given in Germany in the three upper There were about 380,000 teachers engaged in the elementof the_ gymnasium and in the introductory courses ary schools. About 1,250,000 pupils were at the same classes at the universities, in France in the two upper classes of the time receiving elementary instruction in private or parochial lycee and in the first two years of university study, and in schools. England in the upper form of the public schools and The secondary school course is normally four years in during the years of undergraduate residence at Oxford length. The principal subjects studied are Latin, Greek, and Cambridge. Since 1870 the colleges have developed Secondary ^ren<]^ Germam, algebra, geometry, physics, enormously. Their resources have multiplied, the number schools. ori chemistry, physical geography, physiology, rhet- of their students has increased by leaps and bounds, c, English literature, civics, and history. the programme of studies has broadened and deepened’ Although but 11-36 per cent, of the students in public the standards have been raised, and the efficiency of liigh schools, and 25*36 per cent, of those in private the instruction has greatly increased. Rigidly prescribed secondary schools, are preparing for a college or scientific courses of study have given way to elective courses, school,. yet the conditions prescribed by the colleges for and a knowledge of Greek is no longer required for admission to their courses affect powerfully both the the degree of A.B. at such influential colleges as secondary school programme and the methods of teaching. Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, and Williams. A strong Of late yeais no educational topic has been more widely effort is being made to have the leading colleges give but discussed than that as to the proper relations of secondary one degree, that of Bachelor of Arts, and to confer that schools and colleges. As a result, special examinations for upon those who complete any substantial course of college admission to college are either greatly simplified or en- studies. A marked change has taken place in the attitude tirely abolished, and the secondary studies are much more of the college authorities toward the students. A generasubstantial and better taught than formerly. An increas- tion ago the college president was a paterfamilias. He ing proportion of secondary school teachers are college knew each student and came into direct personal contact graduates. In 1897—98 there were 5315 public secondary with him. The president and the faculty had supervision schools and 1990 private secondary schools, or 7305 in all. not only of the studies of the students, but of their moral In these schools 27,298 teachers were employed, 14,681 of and religious life as well. The older type of college them being women. The secondary school students num- professor was not always a great scholar, but he was bered 554,825, of whom 449,600 were in public high a student of human nature, with keen intuitions and schools. The boys numbered 241,359 and the girls shrewd insight. The new type is more scholarly in some 313,466. The most extraordinary characteristic of secondary education in recent years is the rapid increase in the special direction, often regards teaching as a check upon opportunities for investigation, and disdains troubling number of students taking Latin as a school subject. In himself with a student’s personal concerns or intellectual nine years the number of such students has increased from and moral difficulties. The change has not been 100,144 (33-62 per cent, of the total) to 274,293 (49-44 altogether for the better, and a desirable reaction is per cent.). Meanwhile the proportion of those studying now under way. Each college, however small or illphysics and chemistry has fallen off slightly. The rate of equipped, exercises a helpful local influence. Ninety per increase in the number of pupils who study Latin is fully cent, of all college students attend an institution not twice as great as the rate of increase in the number of more than one hundred miles from their own homes. Few secondary school students. Between 1890 and 1896, while the number of students in private secondary schools in- colleges have a national constituency, and even in these cases an overwhelming preponderance of the students come creased 12 per cent., the number of students in public from the immediate neighbourhood. This explains, in a secondary schools increased 87 per cent. Since 1894 the measure, the powerful influence which the college has number of students in private secondary schools has exercised in life of the nation. While hardly more steadily declined. In 1897-98 there were 34 public hUh than one in the a hundred of the white male youth of the schools for boys only, 29 for girls only, and the remainder country has had a college education, yet the college (0252) were co-educational. In the same year there were graduates have furnished one-half of all the Presidents of S. III.— 86
