As to whether this is feasible or not, I shall not waste words in trying to convince anyone. Should any doubt, try it, is my advice. This is the best and quickest way to settle such questions. The Graded Lessons is used by the pupils one year, and in the sixth and seventh grades the Higher Lessons is studied, after the same general plan as that pursued in the lower grades. We cut nothing out of the text, but rearrange some of the material by putting it together in a better way to handle it, so that it may be the more easily comprehended by the learners.

In United States history, McMaster's is the regular text. It, with much collateral reading, gives the children a fair knowledge of the history of the United States, and some glimpses of outside matters, past and present. The way for this is prepared in the lower grades also.

Lest some may conclude that music, drawing, and calisthenics are not taught, I will simply state that the Kansas City schools were the first in this country to employ a supervisor of calisthenics, and to teach the subject in all the grades in the ward schools; and that it, in due time, spread to other cities. I will also remark that we never employed a special teacher of penmanship, because we had no use for one when our pupils. did prettier writing, whether slant or vertical, than do the pupils of any other city, except the children of the Cincinnati schools; and from them our children learned to do it.

I think that I have shown that by sticking to the common branches, as we have, and having kept steadily in mind solid attainments in these branches, not omitting any essentials, but by emphasizing them, neglecting nothing important, all that is really valuable to the child in a wardschool course can be learned in seven years. Furthermore, I do not hesitate to affirm that, in view of all the facts, an eight-year course is one year more than pupils of average ability need to do the work.

IV.

THE EFFECT A SEVEN-YEAR COURSE HAS ON HIGH SCHOOL

ATTENDANCE

A few years ago, and even at the present time, various remedies were and have been suggested, and some of them strenuously and ably advanced as successful measures for increasing the attendance in high schools. In some cities and towns it was maintained, with some degree of plausibility, that if Latin and algebra were left optional in high schools, the boys who had completed the ward-school course would gladly enter the high school. This elimination, which was the substitution of a downy bed for solid work, has had little appreciable effect one way or the other. There has not yet been found a quick commercial or an electric method of learning any subject outside of faithful, persistent, intelligent work. The mind. yet moves in its own way, and possibly will continue to do so as long as the earth spins in space. Legislation does not change human nature, and neither do milk-and-water courses of study make sound scholarship, no difference how deep or thick the sugar-coating is.

A more hopeful panacea was the manual-training high school, which, it was believed, would be sure to catch and hold boys and girls better than the old-fashioned high schools had done; but with the largest city manual-training high school in this country, after several years of experience, we have found thus far that it neither holds pupils in school so well as do the other high schools, nor do they pursue their studies so persistently; that is, they do not stick to what they start in with so continuously, especially in mathematics, Latin, German, French, English, and natural science. But in manual training and domestic science the classes continue at a relatively high level.

Another view was that of large options in high-school studies. This, I believe, is a potent factor in influencing some minds not yet fully qualified to choose intelligently, but capriciously, such studies as strike the fancy of the pupils for the time being, or in sliding thru school on a down grade. There must be a broad and deep educational background in the mind of man or woman upon which a solid structure can be built. That, in my opinion, is the only safe and sure foundation to fit boys and girls for the manifold duties of life. In high schools, as in other schools, the chief factor is whether the pupil is sent to school or he goes to school. The sent pupil looks out for soft snaps; the other goes to work.

Turning aside from these reflections, I cannot account for the heavy enrollment and attendance of pupils in the high schools of Kansas City except upon the hypothesis of a seven-year course as compared with an eight-year course in other cities.

A few references will be sufficient to indicate what I mean. In New York the total enrollment in all the high schools is 3.4 per cent. of the entire enrollment; in St. Louis, 2.6 per cent.; in Cleveland, 6.4 per cent.; in Los Angeles, 6.2 per cent.; in St. Paul, 5.2 per cent.; in Springfield, Mass., 5.2 per cent.; in Denver, District No. 1, 10 per cent., (the richest school district in the United States in proportion to population); in Omaha, 8.2 per cent.; in Buffalo, 5.1 per cent.; in Chicago, 4.49 per cent.; in Lowell, 6 per cent.; in St. Joseph, 7.2 per cent.; in Indianapolis, 7.2 per cent.; in Boston, 6.2 per cent.; in Kansas City, 12.5 per cent.

I have used the most recent information from these cities, and in several instances the reports for the second school year ending June, 1902. If this subject be viewed from the standpoint of graduates from the high schools in different sections of the country, the contrast is still more striking. The number of graduates for the last three years from the Kansas City high schools thus summarized is: in 1900, 387 graduates, 135 of whom were boys; in 1901, 430 graduates, 158 of whom were boys; in 1902, 486 graduates, 152 of whom were boys.

It may be that the public-school spirit in Kansas City is more enthusiastic than in other cities, but I hardly think so. I can see no reason why there should be a more pronounced feeling among us on this subject

than among other patriotic citizens living in other sections of our country. Neither am I persuaded that our citizens as a class are better able financially to keep their children in high school than in other localities, or that our principals and teachers persuade the children to go to high school more successfully than in other cities. Competition to get ahead in this world's goods is as keen and exacting with us as it is with you. Perhaps it is more pronounced than in many other localities. So far as I can determine by an analysis of the facts, I firmly believe that the chief factor is the seven-year course of study pursued in the ward schools. A good course of study in the ward schools and a heavy course in the high schools—just such courses as fit young men and young women for college or for life—are the inducements we offer to our boys and girls. Our plan has always been honest, persistent, intelligent, systematic, and conscientious work in ward and high schools.

Before closing, I will venture an opinion on the six-year plan for ward schools and six years for high-school work. In my opinion some pupils can be well prepared in six years for the high school. Such a course would further particularly such as are foreordained to take a classical course, and to begin it early in life, as is done in the German schools. . A six-year course for high schools, viewed from a financial standpoint, would render such a scheme impracticable, unless the salaries of highschool teachers were reduced to a common denominator with those teaching in the ward schools. I need not argue this question further. Summarizing the results, I conclude as follows:

1. That the custom of presenting tables of mean averages as a coefficient of the ages of children in a particular grade, or class, is practically of no real educational significance.

2. That the mean average age of a grade, or a class, completing a year's work is a false measuring unit by which to estimate the time required by each pupil to do the work.

3. It has been shown, and it cannot be successfully contradicted, that children admitted to school at six years of age, or older, do complete, in a satisfactory manner, as heavy a ward-school course in seven years as is pursued in first-class city schools of this country.

4. That Kansas City has a greater percentage of pupils in her high schools than any other city of the same or larger size, whether percentages be estimated on entire population, the total enrollment in the public schools, or the number of high-school graduates in proportion to the total population.

DISCUSSION

SUPERINTENDENT RICHARD G. BOONE, Cincinnati, O.- In the first place, the important point is not that the children shall have learned so much of the subjects, but that they should become eager to attack new problems. There are not so many

essentials in those branches as we may think. The child should learn how to make application to history of his studies in literature, and then he will be able to take history. work in the high school.

So in the nature work in the elementary grades, the child must learn how to get hold of its meaning, and then, when he comes to the high school, he can take whatever science is offered. We must remember that there is no convincing reason for the present curriculum; the amount of each subject put into it is arbitrary. The traditional limitation of subject-matter is being removed. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that the experience of the best schools is that during seven or eight years, without using more time for reading than before, we can read eight times as much as we used to think we could read. What is true of reading is true of geography. It is not necessary to reduce the number of books nor to reduce the assignment. The child needs to get at these things in a more resourceful way. The schoolmaster dawdles, works on the unimportant details of subjects, on things that bring no insight. Much in history is of no use to life; much in the field of nature study has no earthly use, and could not be of heavenly use, in the very nature of things. The trouble with too much of our work is that it is given up to details. If we only knew what to teach of these matters, far more could be done in six years than we now do in eight. It is not a question of years so much as of the age and development of the children.

We are all doing something in the direction of pushing down from the high school into the grades introducing into the elementary schools studies heretofore considered as high-school studies. We are beginning algebra in the grades, constructive geometry in the grades; history, belonging in the high school as formerly believed, is being done in the grades.

We have a peculiar situation in Cincinnati. Forty-five thousand children are in the schools, and seventeen thousand take the German language in the elementary schools, spending during the first four years one-half of their time in that subject. So far as I am able to see, the seventeen thousand do the work of the English course of study about as well as the others do. This means six years for our English course, and a large percentage of our children get for the English course only six years.

I should be afraid to give you here the figures on attendance. I am not so well fortified on that point as is the writer of the paper. We in Cincinnati get very few children the whole ten months of the year. Thousands come not more than eight months, and thousands not more than seven months. When they finish in fifty-six school months, you see how much farther the reduction would go. The course is made out for eight years because the children are so irregular in attendance. If our children were in school nine months per year, or even eight months, seven school years would be all that is necessary.

There is a great waste of time. We do not begin to do what we might do if the circumstances were more favorable. As I have already said, the greatest trouble is that the majority of teachers do not see what is vital. They should select what is vital in your arithmetic, drawing, geography, history, grammar, spelling, etc. Some years ago, in an attempt to revise an elementary course of study, I went to some members of the faculty to ask assistance. In physics the teacher said, "All the points can be counted on the fingers of one hand." In history the teacher of that subject gave practically the same response. There are not many things to be taught in language, geography, etc. The problem is the problem of selection.

I recognize the fact that the time is needed for growing. An eight-year course must be better than a seven-year course on this account. I do not mean by this that we are to shorten the time in school. Mr. Greenwood is wrong about the seven-year course making a large high school. I think their manual training and the enrichment of the courses have popularized their high school. Altogether, it seems to me that we might make some shortening of the elementary course. I am not sure but his last suggestion for shorten

ing to six years the elementary course, with a little more time in the high school, may be worthy of adoption.

FRANK M. MCMURRY, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.-I want to support one of the thoughts suggested by Mr. Boone, namely, that there is nothing sacred about the present common-school curriculum. In the last fifteen years we have introduced subjects until we have probably twice as much as we had in the course before that time. We all know, however, that what we now have is the result of enthusiasm, enterprise, and extension. If we know that much we have introduced is not very valuable, why can we not agree that there must be much omission? We should unload from one-third to one-half of what we have. I was disappointed in the indication that the author of the paper wanted to hold in the course all that is now there. Why shall we not discuss the question of what can be left out of the course?

The omissions we have referred to will, on the whole, involve the omission of details. There are many details that lead nowhere to vitals, but there are details that will aid the comprehension of the subject and will greatly enrich the course. We must substitute details of the more valuable kind.

SUPERINTENDENT C. F. CARROLL, Worcester, Mass.-Yesterday, and on Tuesday perhaps, the question was presented here of dropping the high-school course two years lower. This morning the question is the shortening of the preparatory course. Twentyfive years ago President Eliot proposed the enrichment of the common-school course. The grammar-school principals almost made a riot, but now we are taking his view. Last night President Eliot proposed an industrial course reaching down thru the grades, and I think he voiced the feeling of almost all who are here.

Now, it seems to me that both this morning's discussion and the previous discussions are parts of the same question: How can we readjust the entire curriculum from the kindergarten to the university?

For my part, I am not particularly interested in shortening the elementary course. In New England nine years is still given to this course in many cities. I thought Superintendent Greenwood skipped something. In Worcester we send children to the high school below the age of fifteen years. It is reported that in Kansas City 35 per cent. go to the high school below fifteen; in our schools all go below fifteen after finishing a nine-year course. A larger percentage go to the high school in Worcester than in Kansas City.

It does not seem to me that this is the important question. As Mr. McMurry has said, it is the question of enrichment. We need something of history, something of literature, as was set forth on this platform yesterday. All these things really shorten and enrich and enlarge the elementary course. The languages should be put into the elementary schools, as Dr. Boone has already suggested. This is being carried out in a number of schools. Mr. Coy contended that it is not practical to teach languages and algebra in the elementary schools. I will tell you what I think we are accomplishing in the schools of Worcester. A year ago I asked the board of education to authorize putting German and French into the seventh grade, Latin and algebra into the eighth, algebra and geometry into the ninth. One very intelligent man, a college man, was anxious that his children be spared the mountain of higher arithmetic and similar omitted subjects. This year we have five city centers, containing nearly four hundred pupils, taking this work. There are administrative difficulties to be overcome. We simply select good teachers, employ one special teacher in French and one in German, and the schools go along in the usual way.

It is impracticable to lengthen the high-school course by dropping it down into the grades. The high-school teachers can never, in point of skill or sympathy or effectiveness, take the place of the teachers in the grades. I have been a high-school teacher. The teachers coming from college, as I did, anxious to take a chair, learn at the expense of your children and mine how to do good teaching.