cap and belt, a small wooden musket, and simple blouse and skirt.

Vocal music is taught regularly in the common schools of most cities; we were surprised to find how rarely the Tonic Sol-fa system was employed; many teachers were wholly ignorant of it. In many High Schools one lesson a week is given in class singing; we heard several such lessons, the teacher being in every case a man. The work was very similar to what is done in England; there was perhaps less fulness and richness of tone than might have been expected from the numbers. The songs sung were more classic in character than in most English schools; the text-books, as in other subjects, were superior. We heard some especially beautiful singing in the Coloured High School in Washington.

Very much more attention is paid to Elocution in American schools and colleges than with us; we did not notice any superiority in the manner of reading or answering over what is heard in England; the same faults are common to the pupils of both countries. Teachers seem to lay most stress on realizing the inner meaning of a passage to be recited; we were, however, not able to give much time to this subject.

It is clear from what has been said above that great attention is now being paid to physical education in America; the subject is discussed frequently at teachers' meetings, in reports of superintendents, and elsewhere. To an English critic, however, the comparative absence of free games is a serious fault. No formal method can do as much for physical

health and development as games in the open air, pursued freely and not as a task. We do not refer to boys in this criticism; athletics at men's colleges and in boys' schools were outside the scope of the present inquiry; but we feel obliged to say that games are not encouraged in the women's colleges and girls' schools as they are in England. The difference of national habit must of course be allowed for; climate too is a factor, but when so much is being done for gymnastic training, it seems strange that more effort is not given to the introduction and organization of games suitable for women and girls in institutions for secondary and higher education.

CO-E

CO-EDUCATION OF BOYS AND GIRLS

The

O-EDUCATION is almost everywhere the custom in American public elementary schools. The common school of the rural districts has always been a mixed school, like the old parish schools of Scotland, and for the same reason. city schools followed this example. In the public High Schools, however, there is occasionally a difference, the girls having a separate school, although co-education prevails in the elementary schools of the place. Boston is an example of this peculiarity; but the reason is not to be found in any pedagogic theory, but in the fact that originally there was no public secondary education for girls, and that when public opinion demanded that High Schools should be open to them, it was more convenient to provide a separate school. The Boston Boys' Latin School is 250 years old; the Girls' Latin School dates only from 1852.

There are ten High Schools under the Boston School Board, four separate and six co-educational. The latter belong to the suburbs, which were originally small towns, and which have now been incorporated in Boston. No alteration has been made in these, so clearly the existence of separate

M

Girls' High Schools in Boston is not to be taken to mean that Boston educational opinion does not favour co-education. At Cambridge, and Brookline, near Boston, the High Schools are co-educational, as the writer learnt from visiting them. The same obtains, we believe, in New England generally. In Brooklyn, New York, and Philadelphia, there is one great Girls' High School, called in the two last named cities a Normal College. The Brooklyn High School for girls was founded at a later date than that for boys, so it seems analogous to that of Boston. Baltimore has separate High Schools for girls; Washington on the other hand has not. There are four High Schools in that city, all co-educational, three for pupils of white race, and one for the coloured people. In the West co-education is universal, both in elementary and High Schools.

These observations refer, of course, only to public schools; as far as we could learn, no private schools adopt co-education.

Full details on this subject are to be found in one of the Circulars of the Bureau of Education, "Coeducation of the Sexes in the Public Schools of the United States." This pamphlet gives the reasons for co-education, as stated by teachers and superintendents. They may be formulated as follows:

"Co-education of the sexes is preferred because it is Natural, following the ordinary structure of the family and of society; Customary, being in harmony with the habits and sentiments of everyday life, and of the laws of the State; Impartial, affording one sex the same opportunity for

1 Teachers' Guild Library.

culture that the other enjoys; Economical, using the school funds to the best advantage; Convenient, both for superintendents and teachers, in assigning grading, teaching, and discipline; Beneficial, to the minds, morals, habits, and development of the pupils."

We have quoted the passage in full, as it states so concisely the various advantages claimed for co-education. We were not able to learn much on the subject from interviews or from personal observation. The custom was so natural, and so harmonious with the social usages of American life,1 that there seemed to be little to say. The one fact we learnt from conversation with teachers was that co-education made discipline easier. This seemed to be a generally accepted truism. The boys are restrained by the presence of the girls, and the latter are roused and stimulated to study by the example of the boys. We repeatedly asked whether teachers found any difference of method necessary in addressing either sex, or whether the rates of development were different, but the answer was always in the negative. In fact teachers who had experience in co-educational schools always declared themselves to be perfectly satisfied with the system, and to find no difficulties in it. We might perhaps note here that there is generally a Lady Vice-Principal of a mixed High School who is specially responsible for the girls, and whom they can consult on matters of health. In the class-room no difference was to be observed between boys and girls; they sat where they pleased, and their conduct and answering were