(36) Students pursuing certain studies in public normal schools in 1902. It must be understood that the list of studies presented here does not cover all the branches taught in normal schools, or normal courses, but those named have more to do with the theoretical side of pedagogic preparation, while the more practical features may be said to be studied all the time by all classes during the course. It is necessary, too, to consider the relative length of the periods devoted to each study, some requiring a full session and others being completed in a single term, after which other of the shorter studies are taken up in their place. SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES. (37) Number of secondary students per 1,000,000 of the population in public and in private institutions, 1891–1902. During the twelve years noted in this chart the attendance in public secondary schools per 1,000,000 people in the United States has more than doubled, the average increase being nearly 9 per cent each year. The proportion of the population in attendance in private schools has been nearly stationary. Public high schools show a strong tendency toward growth in all sections of the country, the maintenance of secondary schools at public expense having obtained a fixed place in educational policies. (38) Number of students to each 1,000,000 of school population in 1902. The rise of the public secondary schools is one of the most striking features of American educational progress, and a consideration of the relative numbers attending private and public schools in the different geographical groups of States shows to a large extent the status of public secondary education in each particular group. (39) Number of pupils in private high schools and academies controlled by the several religious denominations, 1902. The attendance in private high schools and academies is shown by the table to be nearly equally divided between nonsectarian institutions and those under control of religious denominations. COMMERCIAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES. (40) Students pursuing commercial studies in several classes of institutions, 1894 and 1902. Nearly all classes of schools above the elementary grade have made provision for instruction in bookkeeping, stenography, and allied branches. The period of nine years just passed has witnessed the establishment of many business departments as well as complete business high schools in the various cities of the country. The pupils taking business courses in the public high schools have increased fivefold, while in private institutions of the same grade the increase has been nearly fourfold. SECONDARY STUDIES RELATIVE NUMBER OF PUPILS PURSUING EACH BRANCH. (41) Percentage of students in public and in private high schools pursuing certain studies in 1902. This table indicates the main variations between the private high schools and public institutions of the same grade in the matter of their curricula. The figures show that a larger proportion of public high school students study Latin, algebra, geometry, physics, physical geography, physiology, rhetoric, English literature, history (of the United States), and civics than pursue these same studies in the private high schools. On the other hand, in the case of Greek, French, German, trigonometry, chemistry, geology, the reverse is true. No explanation of this fact entirely satisfactory could be given without combining the relative numbers in the two classes of schools preparing for college. The Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1902 shows that 10.66 per cent of the students in public and 24 per cent in private high schools are preparing for college. It will be seen that the class of studies in which private students outnumber public embraces those which either lead to or justify the expectance of further study in higher institutions, while the group in which the number of public exceeds the private students may be regarded more as finishing studies. For instance, it may be safely said that none take Greek without the expectation of a college course, while Latin is universally accepted as the language to be first begun and longest studied. N. B.-The person examining this table should bear in mind that many of the branches of study mentioned are only pursued during one or two years, and that even though all pupils might pursue a given branch at some time during their course, only a limited percentage would be occupied with it in any one year. For instance, in the programme of studies recommended by the committee of ten, Greek is prescribed only during the third and fourth years of the classical course. Now, if all the pupils in all the courses were obliged to take Greek in those years, only 31 per cent would be studying it at any given time, on the basis of the committee's programme (31 per cent of all the students being in the third and fourth years); hence if 2.5 per cent are studying Greek in a given year out of a possible 31 per cent, as is the case in the public high schools, it follows that 2.5 thirty-firsts, or 8.1 per cent, of the pupils of those schools study Greek during their course. Physics furnishes another illustration. This study is prescribed in the second year of each course; 26 per cent of the high school pupils are in the second year; therefore that is the greatest possible per cent of pupils studying it at one time. In the public high schools in 1902 there were 17.48 per cent studying physics, indicating, on the same basis as before, that 67 per cent of all pupils of those schools study physics at some time. |