All the work is unified about one idea, "Germany is the greatest nation in the world, and it is going to be greater." German and the modern languages, science and history and geography, are tied up with all the other subjects in the curriculum. The German teacher may assign a composition upon the Latin which has been translated at the last hour. It is not unusual for a history class, for instance, to spend time upon the technical elements of a chemical discovery, the effect of which has been to advance the cause of Germany. The teacher is so thoroly familiar with all the work that the class before him has had, that he is enabled to draw upon all its previous work. The teacher will come to a point such as the "wheat industry in France," in connection with a study of the geography of the land. "You remember two years ago you studied the wheat plant in Naturkunde. What are its demands?" The class recalls the point and the lesson proceeds. That much time at least is saved. It advances the lesson. It reviews previous work. The most striking illustration of this use of previous work is in the history work in the French lycées, where the basic note books and topical outlines used by advanced students, were prepared when they were little fellows in the lower classes.

This economy of time depends, chiefly, upon two factors, both of which are worthy of investigation and practical application, a highly organized course of study, the pursuit of which the teacher may count upon, and teachers sufficiently well trained to be proficient in more than one line, and familiar with the work done in the rest of the school.

The foreign teachers are very well trained. The agrégation in France, the mark of the expert scholar and teacher, is more to be desired than fine gold, while the examination for the Ph.D. degree in Germany is far less difficult than the teachers examination. Teachers teach more than one subject, and they teach these subjects well. Versatility is a prerequisite.

When the higher work is planned to build upon that al

ready done; when teachers are masters of related subjects as well as their own; when they are thoroly familiar with the work done in other and previous classes; then and then only, can correlation of subject matter be more than a word. To establish it in this country will require enormous effort, better teachers, a continuous curriculum and a new point of view. It ought, however, to effect a tremendous saving of time.

Granted, however, that we were mechanically to perfect the administration of our schools; closely to articulate the course of study; and adequately to provide correlation of subject matter; no real economy would be effected if the knowledge and training were not connected with actual uses in the world at large. I do not mean by "use" the breadand-butter-work-with-your-hands theory. I mean by useful, any knowledge or training which will actually contribute toward the earning of a living, toward prolongation of life, toward the performance of the duties of citizenship, toward moral uprightness and the proper spending of the leisure period.

A large percentage of high school teachers still believe in formal discipline; that training in one line will transfer widely; that the mind is like a reservoir, to be filled by any knowledge or work done, to be drawn upon at any time in any direction that the individual may see fit. It is the trained mind that is the great goal of education, and most teachers are aiming at this particular type of mind. The result has been a peculiar deadening of school work. Teachers have felt that any study, so long as it were protracted and severe, would help fill the reservoir; and that the teacher's duty consisted in the mere requirement of effort. Emphasis was placed upon remote ends, in the distant future. There could be no economy under the old theory in training for a great number of specific habits, when a general training would do for all.

Modern experimenters, however, have drawn up their siege guns, and while they have not demolished the fort of formal discipline, they have demonstrated but one way to

capture it. Experiments in marking A's and typewriting, ball tossing, telegraphy and puzzles, do not prove that there is no mental training to result from Latin or mathematics or history. They do, however, point to the probability that transfer of training, general discipline, comes only in proportion as there are common elements, elements which as a rule have been perceived to be common. It is, of course, likely that habits of thought and methods of attacking problems will be common to more situations than bits of subject matter which as a rule have their lonely place. The difference between the old theory and the new is this: the old theory believed that thinking ability was secured thru any kind of work that was hard; the new theory believes that thinking ability is secured by having problems to think about, and many of them, and that thinking is tied up with the immediately useful. We only think when we have a problem, is the purport of Dewey's work, a problem the solution of which is worth while to us. The new psychology and sociology turns our attention away from the distant future to the present, away from broad, general values to specific uses. We need discipline. No economy could be effected without that. But no longer is there a dualism of general training on the one hand, and specific training on the other. The only way to get the general training . is thru the specific.

The secretary of the Board of Education in the State of Massachusetts made a survey of the number of high school pupils taking various subjects in his state. On the basis of the results he made the following query:

"Can any logical reason be assigned, why algebra, a branch which not one man in a thousand ever had occasion to use in the business of life, should be studied by more than 2300 pupils; and bookkeeping, a subject which every man, even the day laborer needs, should be attended to by only a little more than half that number? Among farmers and roadmakers, why should geometry take precedence of surveying, and among seekers after intellectual truth, why should rhetoric have double the number of followers of logic?"

Is this emphasis on the practical, immediate end too modern? Is it too far in advance of our time? It was written by Horace Mann in 1842. The great economy of the European schools is that they aim at something in particular and get there. It seems reasonable to say that if the teachers and curriculum-makers of the American secondary schools will only aim at something in particular, and make the best use of modern psychology and sociology in getting there, that tremendous economy will be effected.

sense.

It is not intended to criticize the subjects in our curriculum. The methods used are the subject of attack. Formal discipline turned our eyes away from use, in the broadest Modern investigation emphasizes it more than ever. Latin has great use, provided that the teacher knows what it is, and provided that more of it is taught. The average pupil gets the tool, and then never does anything with it. Mathematics or English or history or science could be taught so that something could come of them. When teachers receive the modern point of view, and put it into practise, certain changes will come. Certain phases of subjects, the use for which has long past, will be dropt. New phases of these subjects will be added. It is highly necessary that we keep our eyes and ears open to possible economy in this direction, never forgetting the poor boy who has to leave school early. This will eventually prove to be the great economy, the fundamental thing in education.

Historians measure the progress of the world in terms of the saving of life. Medical advance means the institution of measures designed to prolong our years upon the earth. Business efficiency is the science of the making of our efforts go a longer way than before, the improvement of our earning and spending capacity. There is no phase of human endeavor which would mean more to our country than actual economy of the precious years of human life, the lessening of . the number of years demanded in preparation for that life. It is an easy thing to talk about improvements in education. Many of our best ideas were originated thousands of years ago. I trust that in the study of economy of time in second

ary education, some practical workable suggestions will be formulated, capable of being put into practise this year, regarding the mechanical administration of our schools, the articulation of our course of study, the introduction of more efficient teachers and methods, and the turning of our attention to actual uses in the world at large. It is very possible, then, that we may actually save many years of human life, years which have been absolutely wasted in the past.

WILLIAM F. RUSSELL

GEORGE PEABODY COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS

NASHVILLE, TENN.