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Of these 18 are bearers of the diploma of licentiate of commercial science. These pupils are distributed among the following occupations:

OCCUPATIONS OF EX-STUDENTS OF THE COMMERCIAL INSTITUTE, ANTWERP.

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Connected with the university of Liege is a school of mines of high repute; but as a type of this branch of higher technical education, the institution at Mons may be briefly described. The degree of engineer from this establishment is greatly valued.

As long ago as the year 1836 it was proposed by M. Thorn, governor of the province of Hainaut, to establish a technical school for teaching subjects appropriate to the different industrial professions. The school was opened at Mons, November 1, 1837. At first the course of instruction was of two years' duration, but in the school year 1876-'77 the curriculum was enlarged, and the course was lengthened to four years.

Still the actual organization of the School of Mines and Industry was not perfected until October 1887, when the institution known as L'École d'Industrie et des Mines was established at Mons, the capital of the province.

Fourteen professors and five instructors are on the teaching staff. The course includes the specialties of mining, metallurgy, industrial chemistry, mechanics, locomotive, civil, and electrical engineering. At the beginning of the fourth year each pupil is allowed to choose what specialty he will adopt; until that period the studies and practical work are the same for all students.

The annual tuition fee is 120 francs ($23.16). At entrance pupils must be at least 16 years of age, and pass an examination in French, geography, history, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry.

The school at Mons possesses a library, laboratories, and collections, and is well equipped for its work, especially in the department of electrical engineering.

The expenses for the year 1890 amounted to 62,450 francs ($12,052.85). The state subsidy for the year was 20,043 francs ($3,868.30), the provincial subsidy was 27,087 francs ($5,227.79), the city of Mons subsidy was 9,320 francs ($1,798.76). The average attendance at the Mons school is 80 pupils a year.

CHAPTER IV.

PRESENT STATUS OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN

FRANCE.

CHAPTER IV.

PRESENT STATUS OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN FRANCE.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.

Public school education in France began practically in 1833. In that year the distinguished statesman, Guizot, organized primary instruction, dividing it into two grades, called respectively elementary and advanced. The lower division, the elementary, included moral and civic instruction, reading, writing, the elements of French grammar and of arithmetic, and the legal system of weights and measures. In the advanced grades, in addition to these subjects, pupils were to be taught the elements of geometry and its usual applications, mechanical drawing, surveying, some practical notions of the physical and natural sciences, singing, the elements of history and geography in general, and particularly the history and geography of France.

The advanced primary schools did not have the success which was hoped for them, for reasons which it would serve no particular purpose to outline here, so that in 1850 they were legislated out of existIn 1881 they were revived, and, since 1886 particularly, they have undergone a marked development. Curiously enough their suppression served to show the great gulf which existed between primary and higher education. It also marked Che period of attempts to span it, in a measure, by so-called technical trade schools.

The system of public education in France has been entirely remod elled in the last decade. The law of June 16, 1881, made primary education absolutely free. The law of March 28, 1882, rendered attendance at school compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 13 years, and gave to instruction a purely secular character. The law of October 30, 1886, definitely organized primary education in its various grades and confided it exclusively to the laity. In accordance with the terms of this enactment primary instruction covers the following classes of schools:

Infant schools (known popularly as kindergartens).
Elementary primary schools.

Advanced primary schools (a) and supplementary courses in
connection with elementary primary schools (b).

Schools of manual apprenticeship, as defined by the law of
December 11, 1880.

a The advanced primary school (école primaire supérieure) in France corresponds very nearly to the American high school. Scholars enter at 13 years of age, after having graduated from the elementary primary school, and remain until 16 or 17. b In certain towns or villages where a small number of pupils wish to proceed with the higher primary instruction after having graduated from the elementary courses, instead of building up a new advanced primary school the instruction is given in courses annexed to the elementary primary schools and called cours complémentaires.

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INFANT SCHOOLS.

The so-called infant school (école maternelle) or, to translate literally, mother school, is really not a school in the strict meaning of that word. It is designed to create a pleasant and imperceptible passage from the home to the school, imitating the affection and indulgence of the family while at the same time initiating the pupil into school work and regularity. Less attention is paid to teaching the child a mass of facts than to the development of its different faculties without fatigue, constraint, or excess of application. He is taught to love the school and early to acquire a taste for work.

Below will be found in detail the programme of studies of these infant schools. The manual exercises are of the simplest sort, but they are, in a measure, an introduction to the more advanced training in the elementary primary schools.

There are two grades in the infant schools, an infantile division for children between the ages of 2 and 5 years, and an advanced division for those from 5 to 6. Both sexes are received, but in the elementary and advanced primary grades boys and girls are taught in separate buildings. The following is the official programme of courses of study in the infant schools:

First principles of moral edu cation.

Exercises in language.

Object les

sons. Information about common objects.

First notions of natural

history. Illustrations on charts.

COURSE OF STUDY IN THE INFANT SCHOOLS.

Children from 2 to 5 years.

Care taken of the children in order to
teach them good habits, to gain their
affection, and to cause them to maintain
good relations the one with the other.-
First notions of good and evil.

Pronunciation.-Exercises having for aim
the augmentation of the vocabulary of
the child.-Little memory exercises
(songs, fables, tales); questioning.

Names of the principal parts of the hu-
man body; of the principal animals of
the region; of nutritious plants and
those most constantly seen, as trees and
familiar flowers.-Name and usage of
objects serving for clothing or used in
the house, for eating and at labor.-
Study of colors and combinations at
play. Notions in regard to day and
night.-Observations upon periods of
time (a day, week).-The names of day,
evening before, and the morrow.-Age
of the child.-The attention of the
child is called to the differences be-
tween heat and cold, between rainy
and fine weather.-Observations upon
the seasons, their influences and prod-
ucts. First lessons in the education
of the senses.-The child is taught to
select and compare colors, shades,
forms, lengths, weights, temperatures,
sounds, odors, and flavors.

Children from 5 to 6 years.

Simple conversations interjected during class exercises and recreation.-Little poems explained and learned by heart.Relation of moral tales, followed by questions to make sure that the pupil has understood the point.--Songs.-Particular attention given to those children in whom the teacher has noticed some fault or vice springing up.

Combined exercises of speech, reading, and writing, preparatory to orthography.-1. Oral exercises; familiar questions having for object to teach children to express themselves clearly; correction of faults of pronunciation and local accent.-2. Memory exercises; recitation of short poems.-3. Written exercises; dictation, first of a single word, then of two or three, then of short phrases.-4. Readings by the teacher, which are listened to and repeated by the pupils.

Elementary notions in regard to the human body; talks on hygiene.-Comparative study of animals, plants, stones, and metals the child knows.-Distinction between plants used for nouri-hment and those employed industrially.-Stones and metals of ordinary usage. The air, water (vapor, steam, cloud, rain, snow, ice).-Little object lessons, with the objects themselves either before the eyes or in the hands of the children.-Familiar conversations with the object of teaching certain elementary facts (the right and the left; names of days and months; the seasons; the distinction between the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms), especially to cause them to observe, compare, question, and remember.

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