While such an organization would place the administration into the hands of experts, it would separate it too much from the direct influence of the community, and would lessen the touch between the school administration and the people. Moreover, such a board, with the salaries and patronage controlled by it, would inevitably become the prey of politicians. The slowly accumulating skill and experience of one set of officers would be wasted by the periodic changes which are characteristic of all political offices.

If, therefore, a board of education, appointed by the mayor, or elected by the people, is the proper body for the administration of the public schools in a large city, what shall be its function, and how can its work be so constituted as to make it possible for the public-spirited business or professional man to serve without giving to this gratuitous work an undue share of his time? The new charters answer these questions by making the functions of the school board legislative, administrative, and supervisory, while they assign the laborious executive duties to salaried chiefs of departments, whom they invest with large and independent powers, so that they can be held responsible for the conduct of their respective departments. The board controls the revenues and the annual appropriations which limit the expenditure for each line of service; it elects the officers and controls their action by rules; it approves or rejects the appointment of teachers, the recommendations for text-books and supplies; it decides what schoolhouses shall be built and repaired. But the initiative in these actions and the conduct of the daily business, it leaves in the hands of the experts whom it employs.

The gentlemen who have preceded in this discussion have dwelt on the charters of New York and St. Louis, respectively. Leaving the discussion of the general features, I desire to present a few additional details in the practical working of the new charter in St. Louis.

1. New school sites are selected and recommended to the board by a committee of officers composed of the superintendent, the architect, and the treasurer.

2. Teachers are nominated by the superintendent and appointed by the board. (The appointment of teachers and the marking of their standing by the principals will be fully discussed by Mr. Ben Blewett, assistant superintendent, in the afternoon meeting, and, in order to avoid repetition, a further treatment of this topic is here omitted.)

3. The superintendent has power to arrange the course of study, subject to the approval of the board. In actual fact, the present course of study was worked out in detail by the grade teachers and principals of the city, who met n committees for this purpose.

4. The charter prescribes that the initiative in selecting text-books is in the hands of the superintendent. He recommends, and the board confirms or rejects. A sweeping change was made in the books eight years ago, after a thousand opinions from the teachers had been solicited and received.

5. Contracts for supplies are awarded once a year. The charter requires that the awards for all educational supplies be made on recommendation of the superintendent. In practice, the selection of the proper supplies, pens, and pen-points, crayons and slates, paper and pencils, is left to the workers who are to use them every day. The workman selects his own tool. Committees of principals and teachers are formed who test the samples of the various bidders and report their recommendations to the superintendent.

6. The charter gives to the superintendent the right to appoint his own clerical force, without further confirmation. The board decides the number of clerks and their salaries.

These details show the underlying principle of the new law: The administration of the schools is intrusted to pedagogical and technical experts, under the supervision of the representatives of the people. It may be said that in the new charters the teaching profession is on trial, as far as its ability is concerned, to take an important share in the government and administration of publicschool systems.

In St. Louis a new charter has been in force for eight years, and it must be judged not only by the apparent reasonableness of its provisions, but by what it has actually accomplished. It must be known by its fruit.

If the following conclusion of this paper recites briefly what has actually been accomplished in the public-school management in St. Louis during that period, I beg to disclaim any spirit of boastfulness. Other cities have done as much or more. But it is necessary for my argument to show that the practical working of an ideal law has led to material results.

Under the new charter the whole system of schools in St. Louis has been reorganized. An absolutely new type of school building, fire-proof and two stories high, has been devised. The new school plan embodies the best provisions for heating and ventilation. Buildings of this kind have been erected in every part of the city, and antiquated buildings are being gradually replaced by them. The new sites purchased are located by experts, and a whole block of ground is not considered too large for a school site. In the most recent buildings, gymnasiums and shower-baths are provided.

A new course of study, made by the co-operation of the whole teaching force of the city, has been adopted. An entirely new set of text-books has been introduced, selected by teachers and superintendent with no other consideration than the merits of the books.

A library of supplementary reading, in sets of no less than twenty-five to thirty books of each title, has been gradually placed into each school building, amounting to no less than 140,000 volumes at present.

Two large high schools, each costing about $500,000, have been erected in the last three years. Each of these schools has the usual literary and scientific equipment of modern high schools, and, in addition thereto, a fully equipped manual-training department for boys, including bench- and lathe-work, forge- and machine-work. For the girls there is a domestic-science department, including artistic needle-work, dressmaking and fitting, millinery work, and art-work in leather, wood, and metal; the lessons in cooking are connected with the study of the hygiene of the home, and the chemistry and physiology of food.

Over fifty new high-school teachers have been appointed in the last two years, the selection being made with no other consideration than that of efficiency.

The service of the colored schools of St. Louis has been entirely recon

structed. Their standard of scholarship is now equal to that of the white schools. The corps of teachers in the colored high school has been practically renewed in order to obtain the most efficient service. A fully equipped manualtraining department has been added to it.

Manual training and domestic science have been introduced into the district school course of all the city schools. No boy leaves the schools without having had some training in the use of the ordinary tools. No girl leaves the higher grades without having had instruction in the household arts and household knowledge.

The evil of early withdrawal of children from school has, in a measure, been checked. The attendance in the higher grades has increased. The enrollment in the high schools has doubled in five years, from 1,500 in 1900 to 3,500 today.

Teachers' salaries, while still low, have been raised. In case of the ordinary grade teacher, the increase amounts to 25 per cent. The increase of the principals' salaries, in first-class schools, amounts to about 20 per cent. The text-books in all grades, including the high school, are furnished to the children at public expense. So is all stationery used in school.

In the teaching force inefficiency is being steadily eliminated; but the teacher feels absolutely safe that her continuance in office depends on no one's favor, but on her own efficiency. The principal's position has been elevated in value and dignity. Every teacher feels that his opinion of her efficiency is of importance, and that his suggestions are heeded.

In the daily teaching a spirit of greater freedom prevails. Supervision no longer tests results only, but appreciates the methods of the teacher, and her efforts at self-culture and progress.

There has been a strong awakening of the pedagogical spirit. There are numerous grade meetings, at which attendance is voluntary; no record of attendance is kept. It is rare for such meetings not to draw a full quota. The first principals' meeting, called by the superintendent at the beginning of this year, which was open to all, was attended by 1,200 teachers. The pedagogical Society of St. Louis, which is a voluntary organization for self-improvement and professional study, and which meets every second Saturday in each month, enrolls over 1,500 members. The spirit of the whole teaching fraternity is loyal and thoroly harmonious.

The conduct of the business of the board under the new law has been free from friction. The board exercises its controlling power constantly, and scrutinizes every officer's action with great care. It uses freely its supreme power to decide the policy of the schools and to regulate it by legislation. But, at the same time, it encourages the chief officers to use their own independent judgment in the conduct of public business, within the limitations of its rules. I do not know of any friction between the board, or members of the board, and its officers. The actual condition is in full harmony with the spirit of the new law.

ROUND TABLES

ROUND TABLE OF STATE AND COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS

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HIGH SCHOOL PRIVILEGES FOR COUNTRY PUPILS

C. P. CARY, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, MADISON, WIS. That it is desirable for the country boy and girl to have educational privileges equal to those offered city boys and girls may be taken for granted. The intelligent people of our country-and this means the vast majority of our citizens—are no longer satisfied, if indeed they were ever satisfied, with the mere rudiments of an education such as is comprised in the common-school curriculum. The education of the country boy and girl is a matter in which all are vitally and zealously concerned. It is a truism that country pupils should have every possible facility and encouragement to develop thru secondary and higher education in all their latent possibilities. Such facilities and encouragements many of them do not now have. It is the business of all persons of influence in the molding of affairs of this sort to do all in their power at this time to place the country pupil and the secondary school in the closest possible proximity. Our problem is one of ways and means.

Within the past few years numerous attempts have been made to bring the high school within reach of the country child. In some states county high schools have been established; in others township high schools have been encouraged; and in still others district high schools, all looking toward the training of the country child. The county high school has received more attention in Kansas than in any other state, and, as I am informed, the results have been satisfactory. There are some reasons, however, why a high school established with the county as the unit should not be popular. The location of the school would naturally be at some central point, and it will readily appear that if the county is of average extent, the school would in many cases be so remote from the homes of the inhabitants that the expense of attendance would probably equal, if not exceed, the expense necessarily incurred in attending some normal school, or other educational institution, offering equal or superior advantages. The burden of sustaining a county high school must, of course, be borne by the taxpayers, a very large majority of whom are in no position advantageously to avail themselves of the opportunities offered by the school. The remoteness of the homes of the patrons would certainly have a marked deterrent effect upon the attendance.

The township high school is better in respect to the matter of facilities for attendance, because the territory from which the attendance is drawn is much more limited. On the other hand, the equipment of the school for efficient work is likely to be somewhat inferior, for the reason that the support of the school depends upon a comparatively small area and consequently the burden falls with greater weight upon the taxpayers. This is not an argument against township high schools. It is simply the limitation which is found in the less thickly settled townships, where no city or village is at hand to assist in its maintenance. The town or township is a convenient unit for high-school purposes, and such schools should be encouraged in all sections of the country remote from good high schools.

In this round-table discussion I shall discuss Wisconsin conditions only, leaving to other superintendents the discussion of conditions in their own states. Wisconsin has been liberal in the encouragement of free high schools. Thirty years ago special state aid was provided for, to be paid annually to such schools, in amounts not to exceed $500 to any one school. In 1885 the legislature made provisions for township free high schools

supported by districts comprising all the territory in a town. The legislative act provided a separate fund of $25,000 as special state aid; and also provided that one-half the amount expended for instruction in these township free high schools should be paid to such school district each year. It was supposed that this would stimulate the organization of free high schools of this class. The result was that a very large part of the special aid for the township free high schools remained uncalled for in the state treasury. Later on the legislature provided that the unexpended balance of this fund should be placed in the district free high-school fund. This largely increased the apportionment to each district free high school organized at that time.

The total number of free high schools in the state at the present time is 248, of which 232 have adopted, and are now maintaining, four-year courses of study. The number of three-year free high schools in the state is rapidly diminishing; that is to say, they are developing into four-year schools. There are now but sixteen three-year-course high schools, whereas there were thirty-two in operation during the year ending June 30, 1904. There are also fifteen schools known as independent high schools. These schools without exception offer strong four-year courses of study. They are located principally in the larger cities, Milwaukee alone having four. It is evident that the greater the num ber of high schools, the more accessible they become for the rural population, provided attendance is duly encouraged.

I now come to the consideration of a law that has within the past few years worked very beneficial results in Wisconsin. This law has for its title "An Act relating to encouraging attendance upon free high schools by residents of towns and villages having no free high schools, and prescribing the conditions entitling persons to attend." This is commonly known as the high-school tuition law, and reads as follows:

The free high-school board of any free high-school district organized under the laws of this state shall admit to the high school under its control, whenever the facilities for seating and instruction will warrant, any person of school age prepared to enter such school, who may reside in any town or incorporated village, but not within a free high-school district, and who shall have completed the course of study in the school district in which he resides or one equivalent thereto.

Provision is made in another section of the statute for the payment of tuition by the town in which the pupil resides, the maximum rate being fixed at fifty cents per week. The free high-school district may charge a higher tuition than fifty cents per week, but the town in which the pupil resides is under no obligation to pay more than the rate fixed in the statute. This law is proving exceedingly stimulating and valuable in the direction of bringing high-school privileges to country pupils. The average annual increase of attendance of rural pupils at high schools prior to the passage of this law was about two hundred (the total attendance at high schools of country pupils was about 3,500), but the annual increase since the law went into operation is about five hundred, or two and one-half times as great. Based on the actual attendance, the increase for the past three years has been 1,334, or 37 per cent. This increased attendance means more of a forward movement in the matter of high-school education than appears on its face. It is well known that whenever a member of any family, or for that matter of any community, takes work in advance of the common-school course, other members of the family or community are stimulated thereby in the same direction. The free high schools are in this way extending their sphere of influence in every community that is within reach of a high school; and with 248 free high schools in the state, high-school privileges are convenient to a very large percentage of the school population.

Again, high-school graduates are in Wisconsin quite largely drawn upon, in counties where county training schools do not exist, to fill positions as teachers in rural schools. This means a large improvement over the "home product" of past years in the preparation and ability of those placed in charge of the common schools, with a consequent stimulus to pupils and encouragement for them to take high-school courses.

The number of graduates from all free high schools in the state for the year ending