DEPARTMENT OF SECONDARY EDUCATION.

SECRETARY'S MINUTES.

FIRST SESSION.

PLYMOUTH CHURCH, ST. PAUL, MINN., July 9, 1890.

The Department was called to order at 3 P. M.

In the absence of the President, Vice-President, and Secretary, W. T. White, of Tennessee, was called to the chair, and R. H. Tripp, of Iowa, was appointed Secretary pro tem.

The first paper on the program was one by A. F. Bechdolt on "The High School as a Fitting-School."

At this juncture the President of the Department, Henry E. Chambers, of New Orleans, took the chair. He explained that he had been unavoidably detained.

John W. Johnson, of Mississippi, read a paper on "The Demands of the High School for Severance from the College and University."

At the conclusion of his paper Mr. Johnson read four resolutions, which he proposed should be discussed by the Department.

The first resolution was discussed by Professor Chandler, J. H. Baker of Colorado, A. F. Bechdolt and -Lewis of Minnesota,- Chandler andSmith of New York, R. H. Tripp of Iowa, Mr. Johnson, and others, and was adopted with a slight amendment.

On motion, further discussion was postponed until after the reading of C. W. Bardeen's paper on “The Effect of the College Preparatory High School upon Attendance and Scholarship in the Lower Grades."

Returning to the resolutions, the second and fourth were adopted, after discussion by Rogers of Iowa, Lewis of Nebraska, and others. The third resolution was discussed by J. H. Baker,

Sprague of Rhode

Island, Rogers of Iowa, and others, and was not adopted.
The Department then adjourned.

SECOND SESSION.-JULY 11.

The second session of the Department was called to order by the President, at 3 P. M.

Supt. Rogers of Iowa, John A. Hardigan of Vermont, and H. A. Slack of St. Paul, were appointed a Committee on Nomination of Officers.

E. A. Steere, of Montana, read a paper on "The High School as a Factor in Mass Education."

"The High School as a Finishing-School," was the subject of a paper by J. H. Baker, of Colorado.

Mr. Baker was followed by Miss Christine Sullivan, of Ohio, whose subject was "Art Instruction in the High School; its Utility and Value."

W. M. West, of Minnesota, read the last paper, which was entitled "The Scope and Purpose of Historical Study in High Schools."

This paper was discussed by L. C. Lord of Minnesota and Prof. Crowel of St. Louis.

The Committee on Nomination of Officers reported as follows:

President F. E. Plummer, Des Moines, Iowa.

Vice President S. W. Landon, Burlington, Vermont.

Secretary W. F. White, Knoxville, Tennessee.

This report was adopted.

The following resolutions were offered by R. H. Tripp, of Iowa, and were adopted:

Resolved, 1. That we look with alarm at the gigantic efforts being made by the Louisiana Lottery Company in endeavoring to perpetuate in this country one of the most destructive agencies to public morals and to school interests.

2. That we cannot commend too highly the unselfish and fearless action of the Governor of North Dakota, Justice Miller of the same State, and Governor Nichols of Louisiana, in their persistent and strenuous opposition to this most infamous scheme.

The Department then adjourned.

PAPERS.

THE HIGH SCHOOL AS A FITTING-SCHOOL.

A. F. BECHDOLT, MINNESOTA.

The high school is the successor to and outgrowth of the academy. Before the public-school system was fully developed and had secured recognition as the American system, all the higher training of the country below the college standard was done by academies. Now there were all kinds of academies. Some derived their patronage altogether from those who were preparing for admission to some one college; others claimed to prepare young men for business. Some boasted of the strict discipline enforced; others, of the delightful home-life offered. Some were strictly boys' or girls' schools, and others, again, were co-educational.

As the academy lost its hold upon the people, the wider and more various became the purposes it sought to serve. All this has become the inheritance

of the high school.

One citizen supports the high school because it is a "fitting-school" for college; another, because it prepares for business; another, because it is a school where children may become familiar with the elements of the natural sciences in an experimental way; and still another believes in it because of its training in manual labor. The result is that it becomes a difficult question to define the functions of a high school. This much seems clear to me: that the high school, as at present organized, is a provisional arrangement.

When American communities throughout the Atlantic border and Mississippi valley become fixed and staple in their composition, and approach in character, somewhat, the communities of the Old World, then will come about a differentiation of schools. We will then have the free public classical preparatory school for college; similar preparatory schools for scientific schools, for the arts, and for business.

For the present, the high school is both a "fitting" and a "finishing" school, and in most places a school for both sexes. Naturally, the course of study must be shaped to serve in some fashion these varied purposes, and always to accommodate itself to both male and female minds. With so many various ideas afloat in the community as to the function of the high school, it is plain that the character and quantity of the work done there will not be so good as would be the case were all of one mind. Nor ought it to be wondered at that in trying to serve so many masters the high school is inclined to love

case.

some one, and to neglect, perhaps even ignore, all others. The chief moral support of the high school comes from those who have graduated from our colleges, and more especially from our classical colleges. The majority of its other friends would have it serve temporary needs according to the changing wants of the community. Education, as an end in itself, school training from the standpoint of the highest service to be rendered to ourselves and fellows, is not a factor in swaying the average citizen in voting money for the support of high schools. With him the lower and more universal motive, What is all this worth to me as a money-making machine? is far more powerful and constraining. In directing and moulding the work of our high schools, collegebred men have until recent years been all-powerful. The reason is, they had a definite purpose and end in view. With others, this was in general not the The college-bred men received from the community a certain recognition, perhaps at all times not well founded, as better able to deal with school problems than men brought up in the school of the world. Certainly these men came to the front and shaped the work of the schools. Other collegebred men took charge of the schools. None better than they could be found. Quite naturally the course of study of our high schools came to be entirely modeled on the demands made by colleges for admission to the classical course. Communities grumbled under the infliction. The dislike for the classics gained ground and rooted itself in the community because it was something forced upon them against their will. The attendance upon high schools diminished, just as it did in our colleges. Gradually our colleges widened their doors, became more liberal in their courses of study, offered electives, established scientific schools, and in various ways exhibited a more or less hearty acquiescence in the doctrine that a man may become educated and yet be unacquainted with the classics.

To properly prepare pupils for the new courses of study open to them in our colleges, the high school was forced to find teachers for the sciences thorough in their knowledge and skilled in the teaching of the natural sciences. The schools again filled with pupils, and broader and more liberal provisions were made for their support. The teachers of science became apostles of dissent, and gradually there has grown up within the schools a sentiment opposed to the domination hitherto exercised by the classics. The friends of classical education have, it seems to me, acted very unwisely. Instead of seeking to come to some adjustment with the advocates of the sciences, instead of recognizing that the world does move, and that the nineteenth century has before it school problems and school work unknown to the eighteenth, for which adequate provision must be made, the position occupied by the advocates of the classics has rather been one of conscious infallibility. This is the only path to an education, the only road to intellectual enlightenment. All others are a deception and a snare. Thus the friends of the classics seemed to say. In consequence, the high school to-day is drawn in two directions, seeking to do all that the classical colleges demand as a preparation