on presupposes, as a rule, a certain degree of intelligence and energy, and those ho in this manner create new societies, understanding the value of instruction, ish to assure its benefits to their children. There are, no doubt, exceptions to the le. The Slavic race which is pouring itself into America at present disquiets the merican educators on account of its ignorance, and La Plata, which is principally lonized by southern Europeans, counts a large number of illiterates. When a lony contains inferior races, as coolies, negroes, etc., like Rèunion, the Cape of bod Hope, French Guiana, and New Caledonia, then the ignorant preponderate and le level of instruction is very low.

From this it may be concluded that race and climate exercise some influence upon imary instruction. It is only the people inhabiting southern Europe or the hot untries of South America that have an enrollment in school of fewer than 10 pupils r every 100 inhabitants, except in Russia, Finland, and Manitoba, which are laborg under special climatic and social conditions. The Teutonic race, comprising Scandinavians, Germans, Dutch, and Anglo-Saxons, appears in our day to occupy e first rank as far as concerns the development of primary instruction, and it must admitted that these races are mainly Protestant. The Slavic race, and still more Mongolian, are evidently the least advanced races inhabiting Europe. Outside Europe most of the countries that are peopled by half-breeds of Indian and aniard stock are on a still lower level.

But the severity of a winter climate is no insurmountable obstacle to instruction, is proved by the Scandinavian States and Canada. During the long months of nter, when all agricultural labor must cease, the farmer can send his children to village school or teach them at home, though during the summer, when the stock in the pasture, and especially during the busy days of harvest, the children can be spared. These conditions occur in the most widely separated countries, ether it be the United States, or Switzerland, or France.

It is legitimate to inquire what effect the relatively great wealth of a nation has on the education of its people. As it is necessary to expend constantly very large ns in order to educate the whole mass of a nation, it is indisputable that the session of wealth gives great facilities to popular education. The Australasian onies and the United States seem to be the countries where the expenditure is gest per capita of population and of attendance at school; but as the relation of expenditures to the attendance is far from being exact, it is better not to be too itive in laying down the rank that each State is entitled to from such data, for itzerland and Scandinavia, although only moderately wealthy, instruct their chiln well. Certain it is, however, that the absence of pecuniary resources in the open ntry is an obstacle to securing satisfactory schools in such localities, and this tacle is, especially in Russia, one of those that neutralizes the zealous activity of cators. If the influence exerted by rich manufacturing industries is inquired >, it is found that on the one hand they permit the maintenance of large schools 1 fitted with apparatus and placed in the immediate vicinity of the pupil's home, that on the other hand the business of the city, the seat of large industries, acts the children by the opportunity of earning money (appât de salaire), thus ling to take the pupils at an early hour from the school, and, further, that various reasons the large cities are not always the most favorable places for ndance.

he school serves to instruct youth, but it also propagates ideas that will conte the national spirit. This it accomplishes through nearly every branch of ruction, especially through the teaching of geography, history, and civics, but most effective work in this line is done by the personality of the teacher. This lency of the elementary school should not be disguised, for it is legitimate. It cessary that in each nation there should exist above the clashing of ideas, of and special interests a certain national spirit which binds together the *≈ 96

-20

of the copious narrative of this author, with our own comment on what seems to be the occasional bias of citizenship of his own great Commonwealth.

The reader who comes from our account of the educational status of the province of Pennsylvania to the story of the first half century of its history as one of the most important States of the new Republic, will not be surprised at the statement that at the beginning and the close of the Revolutionary war were the most unpromising periods of its educational condition at any time in its history. The State then had a population of 350,000, outside a few important centers thinly sprinkled over a vast area of 45,215 square miles. The old-time interest inspired by William Penn, Franklin, Rush, and other laborers in education, was largely local and municipal, and offered few opportunies for the rural districts. The main achievement so far had been the establishment of several reliable schools in Philadelphia, including the University and the Friends' public school. The different religious denominations were, as usual, at their work of establishing education on sectarian lines, although some of them, like the Presbyterians, had a broader outlook beyond their own household of faith than others. But then, as for an entire generation afterwards, the children of the common people were sacrificed on the altars of nationality, sectarianism, and social discrimination. "In 1775 not only was the number of scholarly men in the province small, but comparatively few grown persons could do more than read, write, and calculate according to the elementary rules of arithmetic, and many remained wholly illiterate." "The college, the Friends' public school, the academy at Germantown, and scarcely a half dozen private classical schools in the older settled counties, with in all an attendance of 300 or 400 students, absolutely exhaust. the advantages of this character enjoyed at home by our Revolutionary fathers."

In 1776 the first provisional constitution was formed for the State, and in it we find the following provisions concerning education: "A school or schools shall be established in each county by the legislature for the correct instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters paid by the public as may enable them to instruct youth at low prices, and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities." In 1789-90 the subject of education came before the convention on constitutional revision, and here was the first great "general engagement" of the opposing forces of universal education in the new Commonwealth. Under the lead of Timothy Pickering, a native of Massachusetts and a resident of the portion of Pennsylvania settled from New England, a proposition was made for a constitutional recognition of the New England system of general education. Defeated in this, Mr. Pickering substituted a compromise measure, under which the battle for the free education of the whole people was fought with varied success until 1874. This clause in the revised constitution of 1790 reads as follows:

"ARTICLE VII.-Section 1.-The legislature shall, as soon as conveniently may be, provide by law for the establishment of schools throughout the State in such manner that the poor may be taught gratis.

"2. The arts and sciences shall be promoted in one or more seminaries of learning." Meanwhile the legislature had made provision for an indiscriminate appropriation of public lands to seminaries of all sorts and conditions. For years it seemed chiefly to concern the fathers of the State to "aid the church and neighborhood schools in carrying forward the work in which they had been engaged for a hundred years." Between 1790 and 1834, the period now under consideration, "there were contributed funds to one university, five colleges, and about sixty academies, one in nearly every county of the State, a sum amounting to $100,000 or $500,000." In this way did the antipublic school sentiment of the State interpret the provision of the constitution, "for the establishment of schools." None of these "seminaries" were under State control, although some of them seem to have been under the direction of officials elected by the people of the county, and most of them were required to educate a certain number of "poor, gratis." The only provision of the legislature appropriating 60,000 acres of land for public schools failed of effect, the land having been appropriated to themselves by the academies, which were practically the only cient

tion presupposes, as a rule, a certain degree of intelligence and energy, and those who in this manner create new societies, understanding the value of instruction, wish to assure its benefits to their children. There are, no doubt, exceptions to the rule. The Slavic race which is pouring itself into America at present disquiets the American educators on account of its ignorance, and La Plata, which is principally colonized by southern Europeans, counts a large number of illiterates. When a colony contains inferior races, as coolies, negroes, etc., like Rèunion, the Cape of Good Hope, French Guiana, and New Caledonia, then the ignorant preponderate and the level of instruction is very low.

From this it may be concluded that race and climate exercise some influence upon primary instruction. It is only the people inhabiting southern Europe or the hot countries of South America that have an enrollment in school of fewer than 10 pupils for every 100 inhabitants, except in Russia, Finland, and Manitoba, which are laboring under special climatic and social conditions. The Teutonic race, comprising the Scandinavians, Germans, Dutch, and Anglo-Saxons, appears in our day to occupy the first rank as far as concerns the development of primary instruction, and it must be admitted that these races are mainly Protestant. The Slavic race, and still more the Mongolian, are evidently the least advanced races inhabiting Europe. Outside of Europe most of the countries that are peopled by half-breeds of Indian and Spaniard stock are on a still lower level.

But the severity of a winter climate is no insurmountable obstacle to instruction, as is proved by the Scandinavian States and Canada. During the long months of winter, when all agricultural labor must cease, the farmer can send his children to the village school or teach them at home, though during the summer, when the stock are in the pasture, and especially during the busy days of harvest, the children can not be spared. These conditions occur in the most widely separated countries, whether it be the United States, or Switzerland, or France.

It is legitimate to inquire what effect the relatively great wealth of a nation has upon the education of its people. As it is necessary to expend constantly very large sums in order to educate the whole mass of a nation, it is indisputable that the possession of wealth gives great facilities to popular education. The Australasian colonies and the United States seem to be the countries where the expenditure is largest per capita of population and of attendance at school; but as the relation of the expenditures to the attendance is far from being exact, it is better not to be too positive in laying down the rank that each State is entitled to from such data, for Switzerland and Scandinavia, although only moderately wealthy, instruct their children well. Certain it is, however, that the absence of pecuniary resources in the open country is an obstacle to securing satisfactory schools in such localities, and this obstacle is, especially in Russia, one of those that neutralizes the zealous activity of educators. If the influence exerted by rich manufacturing industries is inquired into, it is found that on the one hand they permit the maintenance of large schools well fitted with apparatus and placed in the immediate vicinity of the pupil's home, but that on the other hand the business of the city, the seat of large industries, attracts the children by the opportunity of earning money (appât de salaire), thus tending to take the pupils at an early hour from the school, and, further, that for various reasons the large cities are not always the most favorable places for attendance.

The school serves to instruct youth, but it also propagates ideas that will constitute the national spirit. This it accomplishes through nearly every branch of instruction, especially through the teaching of geography, history, and civics, but the most effective work in this line is done by the personality of the teacher. This tendency of the elementary school should not be disguised, for it is legitimate. It is necessary that in each nation there should exist above the clashing of ideas, of classes, and special interests a certain national spirit which binds together the ED 96-20

members of the social body, assuring concord and facilitating the administration of public affairs. But in this, as in many other political matters, the good may degenerate into the bad, as when a Government wants to impose its will in some matter for which there is no warrant other than a desire of subversion; for the school may in this manner become an instrument of oppression, by aid of which a dominating nationality may try to extinguish another nationality. Examples of this are seen in Alsace-Lorraine, in Poland, and in other countries.

The teacher may personally find himself mixed up with politics by becoming a kind of political agent-thanks to the relations he has with small cities and with the masses of the population. This is a deviation from his proper functions which, however seductive it may be to ambition, serves the ends of the master better than those of his school.

But the abuse of an institution should not cause the services which the institution renders to be forgotten, for if the sentiment called patriotism is more active and more widespread now than formerly, one is justified in attributing this fact partly, indeed, to the wars of the nineteenth century, but partly also to the training which the masses of the people have received in the elementary school.

CHAPTER XI.

EDUCATION IN FRANCE.1

France, Republic.—Area, 204,092 square miles. Population (actual), April 12, 1891, 38,095,156; domiciled or legal, 38,343,193.

Ciril divisions.—For purposes of civil government, France is divided into 86 departments (90 if Algiers be included), each having its local legislative assembly formed by election. The departments are subdivided into arrondissements and these into cantons. The smallest civil divisions comprised within the cantons are communes. For previous articles in the Reports of the Commissioner of Education see the following:

The educational system of France. (Report, 1888-89, Vol. I, pp. 112-149.) Report of the educational congresses and exhibition held in Paris, 1889 (Report, 1888-89, Vol. I, pp. 41-186), by W. H. Widgery.

Brief view of the educational system, with statistics for 1888-89. (Report, 188990, Vol. I, pp. 249-261.)

Elementary education in London and Paris. (Report, 1889-90, Vol. I, pp. 263–280.) Education in France: Statistics, 1890-91; progress of primary schools since Guizot's law, 1833; higher primary and classical schools of France. (Report, 1890-91, Vol. I, pp. 95-124.)

Education in France: Outline of the system, and statistics for 1892; State faculties; proposed transformations and development of teaching functions. (Report, 1891-92, Vol. I, pp. 73-95.)

Civil service in France, by W. F. and W. W. Willoughby. (Ibid., pp. 369-412.) Education in France: Outline view, with current statistics; inspection of infant schools; recent changes in the baccalaureate; reorganization of medical studies, and of the scientific course preparatory thereto. (Report, 1892-93, Vol. I, pp. 219–237.) Education in France, with statistics for 1891-92. (Report, 1893-94, Vol. I, pp. 187-201.)

Education in France: Statistics for 1891-92 and 1893; recent modifications in the department of secondary education; recent development of the faculties (universities); progress of the system of primary instruction; schools for adults; movements for the admission of American students to the universities of France. (Report, 1894-95, Vol. I, pp. 289–312.)

TOPICAL OUTLINE.-The French system under the Republic as preserving the form of the Imperial University, but gradually infusing therein the spirit of liberty; the organization and chief officials of the system The State inspection of primary schools; obligation of the communes to establish schools and statistical evidence of their general compliance with the law-Statistics of enrollment in 1891–95 and decline since 1891-92 affecting public schools and secular private schools-Results of school instruction as shown by the number of candidates for primary certificates (elementary

1 Prepared by Miss Anna Tolman Smith.