so far as schools are concerned, has influenced for good the cause of elementary education more than any other American state or city. To understand the system of public instruction now in use in Boston, the growth of which started in the early years of the colony, one must have in view its vital connection with the development of the community. Things may be observed in them which seem inexplicable or hardly justifiable when looking at them solely from the theoretical point of view, but which are easily accounted for on historical grounds.

The first school in Boston was the Boston Latin School, opened in 1635, and until 1682 the only public school in Boston. Its purpose was not at all like that of the schools of later times, but solely the preparation of boys for the university in order that the colony might be aided in securing, says the historian, "a body of learned men who by acquaintance with ancient tongues should be able to obtain a knowledge of the scriptures and qualified to discover the true sense of meaning of the original." There were no lawyers in the colony at that early time nor any physicians. The profession of medicine was practised, so far as it was practised at all, by the ministers of religion and by certain experienced women. The only apparent motive, therefore, a parent had in sending his son to the one public school in Boston at this time was his desire to educate him for the ministry. The Boston Latin School in its original purpose has never been changed. It has always been a Classical School. "Other schools have taken the advantage of recent changes in the requirements for college, preparing boys with little Latin and no Greek, but the Latin School continues to provide the old and excellent classical preparation."

In 1682, the Latin School being much overcrowded, the town, after a protracted and acrimonious discussion, "voted to set up two schools for the teaching of children to write and cipher." This change, in the mind of the common people, led towards a chance to become a clerk. It did not include reading for that was learned at home or

from private teachers. One of these two schools soon took up classical studies in addition to the writing and the ciphering and for more than a century was known as the North Latin School. "Nevertheless, the vote of the town establishing the two writing and ciphering schools is a deliberate public recognition of the form of some elementary education for the common purposes of life and likewise of the importance of providing this for all who wish to obtain it." In 1790 the North Latin School was restored to its original purpose and later became known as the Eliot Grammar School, a name which it still bears. Meanwhile the other writing and ciphering school held to its original purpose and in the course of time also became a grammar school. Other schools of this type were established as the town grew larger, the studies being limited to writing and ciphering thru the rest of the seventeenth and well on towards the middle of the eighteenth century.

These early schools were opened only for boys. For more than a century girls were not admitted at all and when they were first admitted in 1789 they were permitted to attend only half the year, from April to October. It was not before 1828 that girls were admitted to the grammar schools on equal terms with the boys. Meanwhile theeducational wants that demand reading, grammar, geography and history, were making themselves felt more and more. Towards the middle of the eighteenth century the introduction of these studies in the public schools was advocated by persons who believed that the schools ought to be reformed by such an enlargement of the scope of their instruction. These studies became the fads of the day; that is, new things not yet accepted by the great majority. The new studies were greatly opposed by the teachers of the schools of that time, who, having been chosen merely for their ability to teach children to write and cipher, felt themselves incompetent to teach reading, geography and history. Hence, arose a long controversy which ended in a compromise whereby a peculiar plan of school organization came into existence. A new master, called a grammar

master, was appointed in each school to teach the new studies reading, grammar, geography, and whatever higher studies might be added from time to time-while the old master, henceforth called the writing master, was still employed to teach writing and ciphering, to which branches single-entry bookkeeping appears to have been added in the course of time.

The children in each school were divided into two sections, one attending the grammar master's room forenoons and the writing master's room afternoons, while the other part attended in the reverse order. The grammar master's ( room was usually upstairs and the writing master's room downstairs. This arrangement prevailed in the Boston schools for more than a hundred years and was discarded only when its inherent faults had grown to the point of rendering it no longer tolerable. The first strong effort to abolish this system was made in 1830 by Lemuel Shaw, chief justice of the supreme court of Massachusetts, then a member of the School Committee. His attack was made by bringing forward a new plan which provided for one master at the head of each school with a sufficient number of subordinate and assistant teachers to instruct in all the branches of a good English education; but this system had a long and hard struggle to establish itself. With all the sound arguments and reason and experience on one side, a campaign of no less than seventeen years was necessary to bring its merits into general recognition. "Like many another school reform it would seem to be inimical to what the school masters were pleased to regard as their fixt rights and interests." The first victory was won over this stubborn opposition in 1847 by the establishment of the Quincy School with John D. Philbrick as master. The Quincy School, therefore, marks an important epoch in school organization. The building was especially designed to accommodate the new organization and it has since served as a model for many buildings of the same type both in Boston and elsewhere. One feature of this design, the single desk and chair for each pupil, came into use at this

time. In a few years the single-headed system became universal in Boston. Each of the schools one after another was reorganized. The writing masters were dropt from their places and the grammar masters became supreme each in his own school. The older writing teachers were carried on the pay roll as pensioners, the last writing teacher dying in 1877.

Another reform advocated by Chief Justice Shaw prospered for a time, which was the separation of the sexes so that boys and girls in the grammar school should attend in different buildings. This became the established practise in Boston, and in Roxbury, where it still continues, but not elsewhere. The first period, therefore, when the Boys' Latin School was the only school, existed from 1635 to 1682. The second period, the period of the writing and ciphering schools in addition to the Latin School, was from 1682 to about 1740. The third period from about 1740 to 1847 when the grammar schools were partly writing schools. The next period from 1847 to 1876 was a period of reconstruction and enlargement. The studies that had already been given room in the schools needed to be rearranged and adjusted to the system of grades which the new organization had made necessary. The requirements for promotion from grade to grade needed to be defined and to be made operative in the schools. Not only was there a lack of uniformity in the standards of proficiency set up in the different schools, but there were wide differences in the range of instruction offered. "The schools had never been subjected to efficient supervision and had always enjoyed a free scope for the development of individual ideas. The consequence was that boys went up to the high school some well and some ill prepared for advance work, and the girls, for whom no high school existed in the early part of this period, were permitted to take some advance studies in the grammar schools. Thus it came to pass that the girls' grammar schools were considerably superior to the boys' grammar schools both in the range of the instruction given and in its quality."

Then there were new brances of instruction, like music, drawing, physiology, physical geography and natural history, room for which in the girls' schools was demanded by the reformers of the day. "The official career of John D. Philbrick as Superintendent of Schools, extending from 1856 to 1878, covered the greater part of this period. His great work in the grammar schools was to design and bring into effective operation a uniform course of study. Circumstances did not then permit an entire clearing of the ground for a wholly new structure, but the new construction must be combined with the old." The course of study in use today is mainly that which he framed, the changes being comparatively few and not of a radical nature. What Mr. Philbrick was prevented from accomplishing in his time was the bringing of this course of study into effective and complete operation in all the schools. There was much passive opposition to be overcome. School masters are usually great for passive opposition and perhaps none was ever greater than the Boston school master of the last generation. Each was the supreme ruler of his own school district and relying on the support of his district committee, he could defy the interference of all other authorities and he often did so."

"During this period, Roxbury, Charlestown, Dorchester, Brighton and West Roxbury were annexed to the city of Boston. There was a great need of help in supervision owing to the necessity of applying the Boston Course of Study to the schools of these cities. In 1876, at the time of the reorganization of the School Committee, the Board of Supervisors, now the Board of Assistant Superintendents, was created. The Board of Supervisors, six members, were specifically created independent of the Superintendent of Schools and intended to be a check to his activities and influence, and made their reports directly to the School Committee. Only the high character of the members of this anomalous body prevented serious trouble during the life time of this Board, which became the Board of Assistant Superintendents in 1906. To illustrate the con