the State fund; he is the only official in the American system who can be considered to resemble a Minister of Education. Further details on this subject may be found in M. Buisson's "Rapport sur l'Instruction primaire," and in one of the Bureau of Education Circulars by Dr. Philbrick, late Superintendent of Schools of Boston, Mass.1 M. Buisson gives elaborate tables of the organization in different States; it is, however, difficult to reduce the varying systems to any such general form.

Schools are supported almost entirely by local taxation; this, like nearly all direct taxation in the United States, is raised by a property tax of so many thousandths (or mils) on the dollar of valuation, all property possessed by the inhabitants of a district being assessed by the public authority for the purpose of taxation. It is almost impossible to compare this with the English rate of so many pence in the pound, as that is on rent only. A clearer estimate may be gathered by noting the amount per child raised by local taxation. For the United States as a whole, this amount is given as $17.22 (£3 128. Od.). A very wealthy district near Boston, Brookline, raised $35 (£7 6s. Od.). A poor township among the hills, Mount Washington, Mass., raises $3.90 (16s.). The average for Massachusetts is $24.53 (£5 Os. 10d.). Chicago spends $17.87 per child (£3 14s. 7d.). A Southern State, West Virginia only $8.87 (£1 16s. 5d.). Full and elaborate details on this subjects are to be found in

1 See Library of Teachers' Guild.

the Reports of the Commissioners of the Bureau of Education.

Besides the local tax, there is generally a State fund, often the proceeds of the sale of public lands, and often also a State tax. This is distributed by the State authorities to equalize the burden of taxation and provide for poorer districts. The amount and the regulations concerning this fund vary from State to State; some extracts from the last Bureau of Education Report may be of interest. The following passage is summarized from the report :In the North Atlantic States two per cent. is derived from permanent funds. A State tax is levied on all property in the State, and distributed in proportion to the number of school children. Its object is to equalize the burden of taxation. It is almost without exception devoted to salaries; funds for building and equipment are raised locally. Some States grant an appropriation in bulk from the State treasury. The theory of the State tax has now been adopted by nearly all the States of the Union. State moneys furnish the main support of the country schools of the South. The total sums spent on public education in the whole United States for the year 1889-90 was over 28 million pounds; this was raised from permanent funds, local taxes and State taxes. For the same period the number of pupils receiving elementary instruction is given as 12 millions in public schools and 1 millions in private schools. The statistics for secondary education are given in the Appendix.

There is nothing in the American system corre

sponding to the inspections of English public elementary schools by Her Majesty's Inspectors, nor is there anything resembling the Government grant. Nor are there any great public examinations affecting secondary schools such as the local examinations of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the Matriculation of the University of London, the College of Preceptors' Examinations, etc., etc. At first sight the absence of any such external tests in American High Schools strikes an English observer as the most remarkable difference between us and them. American educators indeed are in general opposed to the examination system, except under special circumstances, and with special safeguards. The writer many times asked if there were any demand for local examination by the Universities, and was always answered in the negative.

The qualifications of teachers for public schools are not subject to any general regulation. Each district and each school committee does as it pleases./ The present writer did not study this question, considering that it belonged rather to the subject of the training of teachers.1

Male and female teachers are both employed in the public schools, by far the greater number being women; the reason for this is not so much theoretical as practical, the women receiving lower salaries. Principalships are generally held by men, though some primary schools (schools for the youngest children) are under women principals.

1 See The Training of Teachers in the United States, by Miss Bramwell and Miss Hughes.

The percentage of male teachers employed has of late years been declining. This is considered an evil; the vigour of men is required, it is said, especially in dealing with boys after 14 years of age.

Another evil is that women teachers do not remain long in the schools, as they marry and leave.) This causes continual change and a constant flow of inexperienced teachers into the schools. Full details of the percentage of women teachers in different parts are given in the Bureau of Education Report; it is highest in New England and smallest in the South. The last report of the Bureau gives-Number of teachers, males, 125,602; females, 238,333; total, 363,935. The percentage of male teachers for the whole United States is 34.5. In New Hampshire it is 9.8, and in Massachusetts, 9·9.

The public schools are organized in three grades, Primary, Grammar or intermediate, and High Schools, and are always free. Indeed in the United States, the word public school always denotes a free school, the English sense of the term being entirely strange. Some city systems include kindergartens. In rural districts the schools are generally ungraded, the number of pupils being too few to arrange formal courses of study for each year. In the Appendix will be found a tabular statement, taken from the Report of the Bureau of Education, of the number of pupils receiving instruction in the various schools.

The Primary school takes children of six to nine years of age, who learn the elements of language, number, and, of course, reading and writing.

The Grammar school takes up the Primary school

с

children to the age of fourteen or fifteen, many leaving earlier to go to work. In this grade grammar, arithmetic, geography, literature, and United States history are taught. In the more progressive cities and districts a regular course of manual training, which begins with kindergarten occupations, and goes on to sewing and cooking for girls, and wood carving and iron work for boys, has been introduced of late years. The teaching of science in the common schools is a subject now exciting great interest in America. Much has been done in some centres; details will be given later. Indeed the enriching of the grammar school curriculum generally is now one of the most burning educational questions of the day. President Eliot of Harvard is the leader of a movement to introduce science, mathematics, and some foreign language into the grammar schools, time being found by improving the methods of teaching in other subjects, and by reducing the time given to arithmetic. As more than 90% of the population receive no further education than that given in the grammar schools, the importance of this reform cannot be overestimated. The grammar school in the higher classes corresponds to some extent with an English Middle School or Higher Grade Board School.

The High School is designed to take pupils at fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen years of age, and, like our English High Schools, fulfil for them two different functions,—either prepare them for the

1 Infra, pp. 98–100.