It was at this juncture that the new scientific spirit asserted itself in the defense of the realia, and demanded a type of school which should prepare for the practical professions of life. The result was the "Realschule," which had been foreshadowed in the military academy of the eighteenth century. The political events following the French Revolution had done much to bring about this educational revolution. The gymnastic reforms of Father Jahn, inaugurating a new idea of physical culture as the basis of national education, the new discoveries in natural science, especially in geology and geography, the political and social revolt expressed in the July revolution of 1830, and in the young German movement of the early thirties-all clamored for a new education dealing with the momentous issues of practical life.

Kortüm's Instructions" for final examinations in the burgher schools and Realschulen (1832) required an essay in French and English or Italian. This examination qualified for the one-year military service and for postal, forestry, architecture and subaltern state service. The "Kabinetşordre," of June the 6th, 1842, restored gymnastics to the curriculum and gave a new impetus to the patriotic movement toward popular freedom, which had been suppressed during the period of the “Reaction."

A new era began in German education with the National School Conference, convened by Ladenberg in 1849, and with the subsequent reorganization of the Realschulen in 1859. By this new effort the Realschulen were divided into two classes or orders: Realschulen I Ordnung, and Realschulen II Ordnung. The first class covered a period of nine years, and required Latin, and qualified for all professions not demanding a complete university education. The second class prepared more specifically for the higher technical callings. In the Falk Reform of 1882 the instruction in the Gymnasium took on more practical features borrowed from the Realschulen. Latin was reduced nine hours, and Greek two hours, while French was increased four hours, history and geography three hours, mathematics two hours, natural science four hours. Manual training schools (Gewerbeschulen), without Latin, became Oberealschulen.

Meanwhile a movement for more radical reform in the direction of the realia had begun. As early as 1865 Director Ostendorf, of Lippstadt advocated the earlier introduction of French as a preliminary step toward Latin. In 1871 an effort was made in Altona to introduce this reform, but it was not until 1878 that Dr. E. Schlee inaugurated the Reform School in the Realanstalt of Altona. In this new school no Latin was required during the first three years from Sexta to Quarta, inclusive. With the beginning of Untertertia the elective system was put into operation, and the pupil allowed to take the Gymnasium course on the one hand or the Realschule on the other. A new phase of reform was agitated by F. Hornemann in a plea for the so-called Union School ("Einheitsschule"), and this movement took organized shape in 1886 in the socalled Deutscher Einheitsschuleverin." The object of the movement was to establish a more democratic type of school, in which all classes should have a uniform education, but the movement was found to be practically unacceptable because of its socialistic tendencies. While the idea of the Einheitsschule was given up, the Altona reform gained recognition, and ultimately took its place. In 1889 the "Verein für Schulreform" was organized with Freidrich Lange at its head, and Zeitschrift für die Reform des höheren Schulwesens "

with the
as its organ.

In 1890 Emperor William II summoned the December conference and delivered his memorable address to the schoolmen, declaring that the schools had lost touch with real life and must regain it; that German must be made the foundation for the Gymnasium, and the German essay the center about which all revolves, closing his address with these memorable words: "Gentlemen, men must not look at the world through spectacles, but with their own eyes, and take pleasure in that which they have before them, in the Fatherland and its institutions. You are called upon to aid in this task."

In 1892 the plan of a Reform School, already introduced at Altona, was adopted in more systematic form in the city schools of Frankfurt-on-the-Main, with the distinct purpose of uniting the aims of the Gymnasium and the Realschule in one complex

elective system. The first three years of this curriculum are the same for all pupils. In this first period, from Sexta to Quarta, inclusive, one foreign language, namely, French, is required. With Untertertia, Latin is introduced and French continued; with Untersecunda, Greek is introduced for those wishing to follow the old classical course of the Gymnasium, or English for those wishing to pursue technical studies. The schedule given below will show the number of hours and the distribution of subjects in the curriculum now extended from the first Frankfurt Plan (Gymnasium and Realschule) of the common substructure of three years to the present curriculum with the substructure of five years. This summary is taken from the work recently published under the editorship of W. Lexis and entitled "Die Reform des höheren Schulwesens in Preussen," Halle 1902.

Gymnasium and Realgymnasium with the first five years alike. Frankfort Plan extended.

The results of the Reform School experiments, both in Altona and in the Musterschule in Frankfurt, have justified the elective principle which has long been in force in a variety of

forms in our American colleges, and in some of them has gone to such extremes as to demoralize the steady purpose which should be maintained in any system of academic education. The German reform method guarantees a certain dignity and stability of curriculum, which might well be heeded by the American colleges. This is particularly applicable to the language courses. It is a well-known fact that the German pupil of the Realschule and Gymnasium in Germany enters the university with an incomparably better command of foreign languages than that possessed by the graduate of the American college. This is a condition of things in America for which the secondary schools are primarily responsible and which it is impossible for the college to effectually correct. Our secondary schools, not content with the essentials of college preparation, overburden both the curriculum and the pupil, and seek all possible short cuts to bring the pupil through the course, thus eliminating or neglecting the great essentials of thorough language study-systematic grammar, writing and conversation. This state of things can only be thoroughly corrected in a uniform national system of education, with graded schools.

A glance at the salient points in the history of German education must impress the observer with the importance of a uniform national system. This is illustrated from the days of Charles the Great to those of William II. The rapid progress made in the cloister schools and cathedral schools in the reign. of Charles the Great was due, in large measure, to the edicts of the great emperor, which gave to all church institutions a national character and enforced a general system of instruction. In like manner the rise and decline of provincial universities after the Reformation furnish ample illustration of the chaos which may reign when the central government loses its control over education. It is with the reforms of the Prussian school system, begun by Frederick the Great and continued by his successors, and culminating in the national system of education in the new German Empire, that German education has achieved such signal results. Whatever objections may be offered on political grounds to the principle of centralized control, the results of the national German school system, begin

ning with the Volksschule and finishing with the university are an incontestible argument for national uniformity and control in education. Nor does this centralized national control necessarily interfere with freedom and individuality in the provincial or local schools, as anyone knows who has studied at German universities. The one staple, and almost the only staple of uniformity in the German universities, is a general concensus as to curriculum and thoroughness of instruction. Scarcely any two universities offer in the same semester in a given department the same subject. There is, moreover, the greatest opportunity for individuality, both in the choice of subjects and the mode of treatment. The university is recognized as the arena of liberty, freedom to learn and freedom to teach (Lernfreiheit and Lehrfreiheit). The Gymnasium and Realeschule are considered, properly, the apprenticeship stage of the student's education, in which he learns the essentials of culture, the foundations upon which his profession must rest.

The reform school, with its liberal opportunity for election at certain critical points in the course, is the soundest system of election which has yet been found. It gives ample opportunity for the student to change his preparatory course before entering the university or technical high school, and, what is of vast significance and advantage over the free elective system of the American college, it guarantees that the preparation shall proceed far enough in the chosen direction to insure a thorough grasp of the essentials. This system adapted to the conditions of our American schools would leave to the colleges and secondary schools all the necessary freedom, and, at the same time, greatly improve the standards of our scholarship by eliminating the loose methods of instruction, premature or illadvised election, and best of all, by bringing all schools, public and private, up to a uniform and efficient standard of scholarship.