and the programme of studies for each class of schools has been carefully prescribed by official regulations. Thus there is very little overlapping of studies from grade to grade and great uniformity in primary school work throughout the country. The recent tendency has been to relax somewhat the extreme uniformity which formerly prevailed, leaving larger liberty to local inspectors and school directors as to the application of the programmes in particular places and schools. It is still true that the official programmes (especially when accompanied with typical time-tables) give a very intimate view of the work of all classes of schools in France pertaining to the primary department. Peculiar interest therefore attaches to the series of programmes which form a prominent feature of Chapter XIII. The elementary primary schools cover the period of obligatory school attendance (i. e., ages 7 to 13). It will be seen by comparing their programmes with typical programmes for the United States, also presented in the chapter, that there is quite close agreement between the two countries in respect to subjects of study and the extent to which each study is carried. In the French programmes, however, peculiar stress is placed upon instruction in morals, the complete programme of which subject will be found in the chapter. In addition to the formal instruction in morals (la morale) during specified periods, it is expected that the subject will be diffused, as it were, throughout the entire instruction of the school.

On the intellectual side the subject specially emphasized is the native language and literature. The importance of making this branch the core of the whole instruction was urged by the school council of Paris in 1899, when the revision of the official programmes was under discussion, and the influence of this council naturally prevailed in this matter. All critics of the French schools recognize the peculiar efficiency with which this part of the programme is carried out.

Although great stress is placed on the importance of manual training by French educators, it is evident from the programmes presented that this branch has its development chiefly in city schools, where it takes the form of sewing for girls and wood and metal work for boys. By reference to the programme of a small country school with a single master (pp. 599, 600), it will be seen that the so-called manual training is reduced in that school, practically, to drawing and theoretical instruction in the elements of agriculture. The same programme illustrates the method of consolidating the work of the two higher divisions of the primary school where circumstances do not permit the normal division into three sections.

To the American reader the most significant lesson brought out by the programmes is that of the distinction between the higher primary schools of France and the high schools of the United States. From the former the classics are entirely excluded, and in the smaller towns

and villages the higher primary schools offer little more than a continuation of the simple branches of the elementary grade. In Paris and other large cities, as Lyon and Lille, the higher primary school is generally a highly organized school, offering elaborate courses of instruction in science and modern languages, with peculiar emphasis on the practical application of these branches.

Great complications have arisen in the effort of the administration to provide high school instruction which should meet the demand of parents for the practical training of their children and at the same time raise the general level of popular intelligence. The history of the struggle between these two purposes is incidentally brought out in the chapter here considered. A solution-or at least a temporary solution-of the problem has been found by the creation of a new class of industrial high schools, viz, schools of commerce and of industry, whose general character is defined in the chapter, and their programmes brought into comparison with those of the higher primary schools. Both classes of schools, the higher primary and the schools of commerce and industry, are supported by the combined efforts of the State and the communes. As a rule, in cities outside of Paris, these schools have boarding departments managed sometimes by the municipality under a salaried "économe," but more frequently by the director of the schools. The pupils are drawn not only from the town but from the neighboring region. About half the primary schools for boys and two-thirds of those for girls are of this character, and thus, as explained by Mr. Morant in an interesting report on this subject, France is provided with a "widespread system of municipal boarding schools with the staff supplied at the expense of the State." The higher primary schools of France as now organized resemble the modern departments of our own high schools, while the schools of commerce and of industry may be likened to our industrial high schools. In addition to the schools named, the State maintains four national schools (écoles nationales professionnelles) intended as models for the complete education of the industrial classes. These schools embody in fact the conception of specialized training for the people which was entertained by the leaders of the French Revolution, and which the present Republic has endeavored to realize in practical form. The four schools referred to combine in one establishment an infant school, a primary school, and a technical high school. As explained by Mr. Buisson, they are not in any sense special technical schools, more or less complete schools of engineering (écoles d'arts et métiers); they are associations of schools comprising an infant and a primary elementary school, and at each stage technical instruction which, commencing from the earliest age, when it is of little importance, continues

66

a Successor of Mr. Sadler as chief of the division of special inquiries of the English educational department.

up to the very end of the course, when it becomes of the first moment. When he has arrived at this final stage the apprentice, who now only needs the practice of his trade to become a workman, leaves the national school and goes either into a workshop or into a technical school, in the proper sense of the term. Hence these establishments

provide a general preparation for artisan and industrial life."

The distinction between the technical department of these schools, which the pupil enters at 14 to 16 years of age, and the schools already described is clearly brought out by the weekly programmes presented on page 618. These four State schools and the schools of commerce and industry form, with the numerous trade schools, schools of agriculture, and the higher technical schools for which France is justly celebrated, a complete system of special training adapted to every form of industrial demand.

It will readily be seen that peculiar prominence has been given to the idea of industrial training for the French masses in contrast with the classical education provided for the élite of the nation, but as opportunities for the advancement of the people and their political power increase the evil effects of an extreme social cleavage in education become more and more apparent. The Government has recently endeavored to break down these class distinctions by correlating the higher primary schools to the classical colleges. The new programme for the latter (lycées and communal colleges) includes a scientific course without Latin and Greek. The relation of this course to that of the higher primary schools will be seen by comparing the secondary programme (pp. 619-621) with the programmes already considered. This is the last of a series of efforts looking to the unification of the whole scheme of public education in France.

Chapter XIV (pp. 623-677) contains a number of reports on educational subjects and institutions received by the Department of Commerce and Labor from United States consuls abroad and kindly furnished to this Office by that Department. These reports become increasingly interesting from year to year. The most comprehensive of these reports come from Germany, a country which continues to develop new ideas in education and new institutions to embody them. We find there, for instance, a Hebrew school of agriculture, a school to prepare farmers for the colonies, general and special schools for local industries, trade schools and secondary technical schools, recently, also, “practical medical schools" to supplement the theoretical medical courses of universities. These new schools are evidently on the plan of the London hospital medical schools-St. Bartholomew's, Guy's, and others-which have long been noted. An article on "Education and the elimination of crime" from a German magazine gives some convincing proofs that education is the best means for the prevention of crime. Great Britain, for instance, in 1850, had only 11 school children to every 1,000 inhabitants, and 122 criminals to every 100,000,

ED 1903- IV

while in 1887 the number of school children was 125 to every 1,000, but only 38 criminals to every 100,000. The number of youthful criminals fell during that period from 45.8 to 21.5 to the 100,000. Also worthy of consideration is an account of the prison population in Japan, where the number of prisoners shows on the whole a tendency to decrease, which may be owing to the marked increase in school attendance in that Empire, though the consul reporting the facts attributes the apparent diminution of crime to other agencies. The report on industrial education in Europe shows that considerable progress has been made in this particular. There is, however, one feature of special education in Germany which deserves notice. Nowhere in Germany have the utilitarians encroached upon the elementary school (age of pupils, 6-14). Special education, be it commercial, agricultural, industrial, technical, or trade education, is reserved for pupils who have passed through the elementary school; that is, for children from 14 to 18 years of age.

The German Empire being a union of 26 States, and school affairs being administered by the governments of the separate States, as is the case in this country, it has always been difficult to obtain information on the subject of expenditures for the German schools as a whole. Recently the imperial statistical office in Berlin has undertaken the work of collecting the school statistics of the entire Empire. The first results of this work are given in a consular report from Frankfort. It appears that the number of pupils attending the German public elementary schools was 8,829,812 in 1901, and that the total cost of their maintenance was 412,886,000 marks, or about $100,000,000. This sum does not include expenditures for high schools, nor for kindergartens, nor for any special (evening or day) schools devoted to commercial, industrial, technical, agricultural, or other special instruction.

Commercial education occupies a large space in the consular reports. In Germany, at least, this form of education is comparatively new, since most of the commercial schools of that country do not date back further than 1885. The announcement is made from Munich that young women have gained, at last, admission to the university on equal terms with young men. Medical supervision of schools in Berlin and Paris is the subject of a report from Frankfort which shows the slight difference in method of the two systems. The chapter closes with a report on Russian schools made by our consul in Vladivostok, Siberia. It reveals a condition of public education which explains the high percentage of illiteracy in Russia.

Chapter XV (pp. 669-687) contains a list of foreign higher seats of learning revised up to the summer of 1903. The list is somewhat longer than that in the preceding report, from the addition of theological, law, and other professional schools, colleges, and independent faculties of Europe. These higher seats of learning are grouped

according to date of founding, number of students, alphabetically, and by countries. This last list shows a great array of institutions for general culture and special studies in Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. In order to facilitate correspondence with foreign seats of learning the names of the acting heads-rectors, chancellors, or directors--will be given in future. In attendance at universities and technological and professional schools of all kinds, Germany outranks all other countries, having one student in such institutions for every 800 inhabitants. The only noticeable decrease is found in the number of American students in Germany, while the number of other foreign students steadily increases.

Chapter XVI (pp. 689-719) contains a concise historical account of the kindergarten in the United States by Miss Laura Fisher, director of the public kindergartens of Boston. After quoting early expressions from Hon. Henry Barnard and others introducing this institution to American notice, the author enters upon the history of kindergartens in this country, first naturally describing the private institutions and mentioning names that have become famous in the cause of infant training, such as Miss Peabody, Mrs. Kriege, Mrs. Boelte, John Kraus, and others. She then turns her attention to the charity kindergartens, and again a large number of well-remembered and revered names meet the eye of the reader. Here we see mentioned Mrs. S. H. Hill, Mrs. Pauline A. Shaw, Miss L. B. Pingree, and many others. Then the author enlarges upon the subject of public kindergartens. The work of Miss Susan E. Blow in St. Louis here occupies the chief place of honor, for it was due to her labors that the kindergarten came to be introduced into the public schools. Perhaps in nothing is the public kindergarten so potent as in its influence upon primary school methods, just as was confidently expected when public kindergartens were first introduced in St. Louis. Four timely questions relating to management and organization receive attention. In a subsequent section of the chapter, the author discusses kindergarten principles and practices and advocates an enlargement of the sphere of activity of kindergarten pupils. The kindergarten normal schools come in for a discussion, their courses of study are quoted, and an outlook into the future of the kindergarten closes the chapter. The statistics are grouped well, and reveal a healthy growth all over the country.

Physical training.-In Chapter XVII (pp. 721-757) Dr. E. M. Hartwell, late director of physical training in the public schools of Boston, gives a general view of the subject of physical training, including the physiological principles on which it is based, its aims, the different typical systems, and the distinctive features that characterize this form of training in the United States, as well as its prevailing tendencies.

The human body is a machine capable of transforming the potential