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of the State system of Massachusetts, that it requires a special note. Besides the work of collecting and diffusing statistical and other information above referred to-in itself a most valuable function, as any one who reads the Annual Reports of the Board may ascertain-the secretary and his agents visit the several towns and cities for the purpose of holding teachers' and other educational meetings, and often give lectures on pedagogics at the Teachers' Institutes, which are meetings under the State law for professional instruction. From 20 to 25 of these are held every year, and they are attended by about 2,000 teachers annually. The secretary also suggests to the Board and to the Legislature improvements in the present system, and in every possible manner arouses and guides public sentiment in relation to the practical interests of education.

Besides the ordinary schools, high, grammar, primary, and in some places kindergarten, the law requires evening schools to be maintained, and to be attended by young persons at work, who do not know how to write in the English language. There are 255 such schools; every city of 50,000 inhabitants is also required to maintain an Evening High School. There is a compulsory attendance law, enforced more or less thoroughly according to local influences. Several counties (Massachusetts is divided into 14 counties), and the City of Boston, support Truant Schools.

The free text-book system has been adopted by law (1884) in Massachusetts, each school committee purchasing the books, and lending them to the

pupils; it is declared to be an unqualified success. Any Town may also pay for the conveyance of pupils to school; this is declared by the secretary of the Board and other persons of experience to be an excellent measure, enabling rural and other districts to concentrate their resources.

An extremely important provision is that enforcing sanitary requirements on all schools, public or private, and directing the sanitary inspector, and the local boards of health to ensure the observation of the law.

We have already quoted the law of 1647, requiring the establishment of a grammar school in Towns of over 100 families. This is of course now obsolete; its place is taken by the law of 1868, as follows:

"Every town may, and every town containing 500 families or householders shall maintain a High School to be kept by a master of competent ability and good morals, who, in addition to the branches of learning before mentioned, shall give instruction in general history, book-keeping, surveying, geometry, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, the civil polity of this commonwealth and of the United States, and the Latin language. Such High School shall be kept for the benefit of all the inhabitants of the town, ten months at least, exclusive of vacation, in each year. And in every town containing 4,000 inhabitants, the teacher or teachers of the schools required by this section shall, in addition to the branches of instruction before required, be competent to give instruction in the Greek and French languages, astronomy, geology, rhetoric, logic, intellectual and moral science, and political economy."

164 cities and Towns are required to maintain High Schools, 223 cities and Towns actually do maintain them; there are now altogether 245 High Schools in

the State, containing 27,482 pupils, and employing 904 teachers. Any Town not required to maintain a High School may pay for the tuition of a child who attends the High School of another Town or city; two small Towns may unite to form a Union High School District, and have a school between them. In several Towns secondary instruction is provided for those students who would otherwise be in High Schools, by the Town's paying for their tuition in academies.

The public High Schools of Massachusetts have a distinguished reputation; they prepare largely for College, much more so than the High Schools of the Middle States. The town of Concord has 10% of its children enrolled in the High School. We visited the High Schools of two cities, Boston and Cambridge, and of one Town, Brookline; we shall therefore proceed to give some details concerning these.

Boston has ten High Schools-two for boys, the Latin and the English; two, corresponding to these, for girls, and six mixed High Schools, belonging to districts recently incorporated. The Girls' English High School was established in 1826; public sentiment was, however, against it, and it was abolished, to be, however, revived at a later date. The Girls' Latin School was established in 1878. We should state that, in Boston, the age of admission to the Latin School is low (twelve to thirteen years of age), the course there being five or six, and sometimes even seven, years in length.

Cambridge, a city of 70,000 inhabitants, adjoining Boston, has two public High Schools; one, the Latin, for boys and girls, prepares for College, and the other,

the English, is for those desiring a general education. There is a third, partly supported by the munificence of a citizen, for manual training (boys only). All have admirable buildings, well situated, beautiful, and perfectly adapted to their purpose. Reference is made to these schools elsewhere; it is enough to say here that their standing is worthy of the intellectual reputation of the city to which they belong.

Brookline is a suburban district (population about 7,000) near Boston, one of the primitive communities or Towns, governing itself still by a town-meeting or primary assembly, but remarkable for its assimilation of all that is best in modern municipal life. Its schools are deservedly famous for their excellence, the wealth and public spirit of the inhabitants having provided an almost ideal equipment, both in material and personnel. The system is complete in itself, from the Kindergarten to the High School, the latter preparing for College, and at the same time being closely related to the lower schools. Children of all classes attend the public schools, which are, of course, co-educational, and private schools hardly exist in the township. Brookline is perhaps the best example of the Massachusetts system of organization; and the excellence of its schools tends to prove that local government, when administered by cultivated and patriotic citizens, is the best method of school management.

It is almost impossible to convey in words an impression of the admirable character of these Brookline

145% of the High School pupils prepare for College.

schools; they must be visited and studied, and the work done in them examined. Reference is made. in the following chapters to details of the work,1 and a table of statistics is given in the Appendix. The reports, courses of study, programmes and syllabuses issued by the Superintendent of the School Committee are full of instruction, and might afford useful suggestions to English teachers: every visitor to America who is interested in education ought to go to Brookline, whatever else may be omitted. This New England Town may indeed be said to afford a standard of what a complete system of public education should be; the most bitter opponent of public control of education would find it difficult to maintain his opinion after visiting its schools and studying its documents. The conditions for such excellence—an enlightened community, the New England enthusiasm for education, wealth, and public spirit-do not often co-exist; in Brookline they are found in combination, and the result might be a lesson to English educators, even, perhaps, to English

statesmen.

C.-The High School Board of the State of Minnesota.

This State, which has been largely colonized from New England, and which contains a very large proportion of Scandinavians, has an excellent public school system. The schools of Minneapolis, its capital, are highly praised by Dr. Rice in his articles

1 See Chap. IV. pp. 92, 95, 101, and the Index.

2 For an account of Brookline, see New England Magazine for August, 1893.

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