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lies are sent in preference. In general it is noticeable that the communities maintaining the best public High Schools are also those which have the best private secondary schools. The majority of High School pupils come from the great mid-, • dle class of the land, which may be said to include all but the very poor and the very rich. Some seven years ago an investigation was made concerning something over a thousand pupils. in the High Schools of Worcester, Medford, Melrose, Stoneham, and East Boston, representing fairly the High Schools of Massachusetts. Of these pupils, 25 per cent. were children of parents who pay only a poll tax, or none at all; 64 per cent. were children of parents taxed for $3000 or less; about 75 per cent. had parents taxed for less than $5000; and but 13% per cent. were of parents paying a tax on more than $10,000. A recent speaker has estimated that five-eighths of the High School pupils of the country are children of the laboring classes. Certainly many of them come from homes in which the parents make genuine and prolonged sacrifices to secure for their children a much more liberal education than fell to their own lot. On the other hand, it is not unusual to find the boys and girls from the wealthiest families in the town sitting in the High School side by side with children of the workmen employed by those families, and all receiving precisely the same instruction and treatment. The school is thus strongly democratic in its influence, and becomes a nurse of right feeling' of class for class, or rather of individual for individual, which is even better. After a score of years of service in public High Schools, attended by both sexes, the writer has yet to see the first instance of serious harm resulting from the association in these schools of young people from families of different social strata. On the other hand, in a land where personal ability is the chief criterion of success, and where class distinctions are so little regarded, and especially where social position is so likely to be altered, or even reversed, within a generation, it is most helpful to the young people of all classes to know their fellows for their real worth. This service to the rising generation is admirably performed in

every community by the public schools, and most effectually by the public High School.

The system of grading which is most common in the public schools assumes five years as the age of entrance to the primary school, and provides nine grades, each detaining the pupil for a year, for the completion of the elementary course. The pupil who should proceed methodically over this course would thus pass from the last stage of the elementary work, i.e., from what is termed the grammar school-to the High School at about the age of fourteen. Practically, however, the average age of entrance in most city High Schools is a half year or a year more; but there are extremes, of rare occurrence, when a pupil enters the high school at as low an age as twelve and as high as sixteen.

By the time of completing the elementary course, and as a preparation for his future High School work, the pupil is supposed to have familiarity with the elements of arithmetic, geography, American history, grammar, including spelling, and the writing of a fair hand. It goes without saying that in many schools this work is well done, and in others but poorly; that in every group of grammar school graduates some are well prepared for advanced study, others have nearly reached the limit of their development, in an academic sense, and not a few have in some part wasted their opportunities. The teaching in lower grades has been improved within recent years, especially in what are termed primary schools, and in many schools the development of power, rather than the mere acquisition of knowledge, is now the main aim. For pupils thus trained the transition to higher grades is obviously less abrupt, and accompanied by less strain, than in the case of children poorly equipped. The school system, however, still needs a closer adjustment at the point of contact between the grammar and High Schools. Evidently this adjustment will be easier if the passage from the grammar school to the High School be in the main a change from the elementary study of certain subjects to the more detailed study of the same, rather than a step from one subject to another which is both more

complex and of a different nature. For some unexplained reason, altogether too few pupils enter the High School really knowing how to study. President Dwight declares that a youth should have learned this lesson at the age of thirteen, but this is an ideal to which there are comparatively few practical responses.

The decision as to what pupils shall enter the High School often rests with the local school committees, and not with the teachers from whom these pupils come or those to whom they are to go. As these committees are elective, it follows that they are sometimes sensitive to the wishes of ambitious parents, and lenient to deficiencies in preparation. They even boldly assert on occasion that all who have completed the last year in the highest grammar grade should, without regard to any tests of fitness, be "promoted" to the High School. But more frequently a judicious consultation of the representative of the committee and the principal teachers of the grammar schools determines the composition of the group of pupils who enter the High School; very rarely do the High School teachers themselves have any voice in the matter.

PROGRAMMES AND INSTRUCTION.

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On entering the High School the pupil usually has a choice offered him of two or more courses. If his parents wish him. to be prepared for college, his time for the four years will be chiefly spent upon Latin, Greek, algebra, geometry, and the English language and literature, together with other subjects required by the particular college selected; among these may be history, French, German, and physical science. This course] is often styled the classical or college preparatory course. requires four years, at least, and in many schools a subsequent year of post-graduate study is necessary in order to meet the requirements of the more exigent colleges, unless the student has exceptionally good ability and health. The few High Schools which have as their sole work the fitting of pupils for college, withdraw their pupils from the grammar schools two years or more before their elementary studies would naturally.

end, and keep them for six years. By far the greater number of High School pupils do not go to college, but pursue what may be termed a general course. This usually includes, in mathematics, elementary algebra through quadratics, elementary plane geometry, and a review of arithmetic; three or four years of Latin; a year of French or of German; a year of general history; a year of physics, or a half year of botany and a half year of zoology; a year of chemistry; and a varying amount of study-from one to four years-of the English language and literature. In most schools provision is made for the substitution of other studies for the Latin required in the general course, forming what is often termed the English course. In place of the Latin various substitutes are found, sometimes a modern language, or additional English study, or book-keeping and an increased amount of science teaching. In some schools the English course occupies a year less time. than that offering Latin, In a very few schools a briefer course still, often called the business course, covers but two years. This has not been found altogether satisfactory where adopted.

Reference to the published programmes of various High Schools would illustrate the great variety of ways in which the High School idea is working out its evolution. This variety of plans, which must seem so strange to European observers, is a natural consequence of the American doctrine that the responsibility for the schools rests with the local authorities rather than with the central government. The national officers have no control over the public schools in the States. The State governments, moreover, simply see to it that the local communities (towns and cities in the East, and counties elsewhere) establish and maintain schools, but do not usually enforce uniformity of courses or methods, and are not often careful to secure helpful inspection of the schools. The character of the public schools, therefore, and, in particular, of the public High School, registers quite well the degree of culture of each local community. In each case the opinions of the school board determine the course of study for the school. Teachers have

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nominally no power in the matter, though virtually they exert considerable influence in the decision of questions relating to the internal management of the school, such as courses of study and methods of instruction. Unfortunately teachers are by no means agreed upon many questions concerning High School courses. From these conditions there can be no result but wide variety. It is doubtless true that the varying interests of communities call for different courses of study in different places, but child nature is so nearly the same everywhere that some degree of unity seems possible, as it certainly is desirable.

The character of the instruction given in American High Schools is by no means uniform. The principals of these schools, particularly in the East, are generally men of collegiate training, and their assistants are usually men and women who, if they have not been to college or a scientific school, have graduated from some secondary institution. The High School teachers commonly receive the largest salaries paid by the town for instruction, and not infrequently represent the union of sound learning with ripe experience in the work of education. In the smaller schools, especially in the South and West,

are to be found, on the other hand, youthful teachers whose il.

studies are not yet complete and whose experience is near its beginning. Owing to peculiarly American conditions, very little has yet been done in colleges or normal schools for the provision of men and women suitably equipped for High School teaching-that is to say, having at the outset high scholarship and an intelligent acquaintance with the art of teaching, derived both from theoretical study and from observation of good models. But there are plain signs of a rising public demand in this direction, and preparations are in progress for meeting it.

The High School teachers of the present generation, having worked out the problems of their daily tasks with little help save that which comes from intelligent reading, and from contact with their fellows in school or at educational gatherings, have not all attained ideal success as instructors. They are,

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