unless there is a teachers' meeting; the principal, however, and the staff of his office generally remain.

Parents who wish their girls to learn music make arrangements privately; no such lessons, except class singing, are given in connection with the public High Schools. Drawing is a regular school subject, generally optional, and is given with the other lessons in the morning. Needlework and cooking, if taught at all, belong to the lower school (the grammar school).

It would be contrary to the spirit of the American public school system to have backward pupils return in the afternoon for special teaching; the school is free, and therefore it would be considered unjust to give one pupil more teaching than another. Such special help, if necessary, must be provided by the parents.

The amount of time given to home lessons varies in different schools. For High School pupils, about three hours a day is probably the average; many teachers state that such is their expectation. Most schools arrange for at least one study period each morning in school. In the Cambridge High School, one lesson at least is to be learnt at home-probably two, but here two study hours are given in school each day, the period being from 8:30 to 1:30. Thus the time spent on preparation is more than three hours, but then much of it is taken during the school time. There is an excellent plan in the Boston Girls' High and Latin Schools; home lessons are not prepared for every class lesson, one or two lessons being given every day, for which there is

nothing done out of class.

The principal informed us that this plan was adopted to prevent over-work. In the High School, Ann Arbor, where the strain of preparing for the University of Michigan is felt somewhat severely, the students are considered fortunate if they get their work done in four hours. The rules of the Board of Education of the public schools of San Francisco require that the total time. for home study shall not exceed three and a half hours daily; at least, one hour a day is there required to be set apart for study in school. An inquiry was recently held there as to whether the parents considered there was too much home work set; 59% replied in the affirmative, 41% were satisfied with the existing rule.

It was impossible for the writer to inquire as to whether there is over-work in American schools, and even if time had allowed of inquiry, it would have been difficult to obtain definite results; one point may be mentioned however, the great consideration for the health and comfort of girls and of women teachers, shown by both principals and superintendents. Again and again, on explaining some English custom, we were told that it could not be adopted because it would involve too great a strain on the health of girls or teachers; this is one reason given for not having many examinations, and for making those they have of less importance than with us. Several principals complained of the injury to girls' studies and health, caused by social engagements, parties, Sunday-school work, and church work.

We have already alluded to the large sums devoted to school buildings in America, and to the consequent magnificence of many of these. A remarkable case which is often quoted is that of the city of Duluth, on Lake Superior, which has a population of 35,000. It has recently erected a High School building costing $300,000 (£60,000), with a tower and wings, and finished inside with polished hardwood.

As a rule, school buildings are entirely detached from other houses, standing in the centre of what is called a "lot," and often at the corner of two streets; there is thus ample provision for light and air. The floor space is generally much greater than that in English schools; not only are separate desks the rule, but there is a broad passage-way all round the room between the desks and the wall, in all the newer buildings. The corridors and staircases are very wide, and this is perhaps one cause of the ease of movement of large numbers.

To an English woman the ventilation is, in general, deficient, though much attention is supposed to be given to the subject, and many systems of artificial ventilation are used. Some schools, e.g., the Cambridge English High School, are admirably ventilated. The heating is to English ideas excessive, the standard being 70°; the temperature, however, often rises above this. We cannot but attribute to this cause much of the pallor of girls and women teachers, and the languor of their movements. In one school in a large Eastern city, on a day early in April, the writer was obliged to go out

into the open air at every interval between lessons, in consequence of the heat and closeness of the atmosphere. This was, however, a building of the older style, containing 1,700 pupils.

The schoolrooms are well furnished, the desks and chairs being of excellent types. We noticed a particularly good form of chair for such lessons as involve the use of a book. It resembled a Windsor arm-chair with a cane or wood seat, and a movable flap on the right arm sufficiently large to hold the note-book. These chairs are much used in the American college lecture halls, and in schoolrooms for small divisions, for which they are very convenient.

All schoolrooms are surrounded with blackboards fixed to the wall; they begin at a convenient height from the floor (twenty inches for little children), and are four to five feet high. It might be thought that this would make the room dark and dull, but such is not the case, for the rooms are well lit, and the wall space above the blackboard tinted in light colours, and often ornamented with pictures and busts. Besides this, the board itself is covered with drawings and written work. The appearance of the rooms is pleasant, and, to a visitor, the mass of written matter on the walls peculiarly interesting and suggestive; it must be even more useful to the pupils themselves, as they see a record of the whole lesson which appeals to the eye, and thus makes a deeper impression than is possible when old work has to be rubbed out to make way for the new. What is put on the blackboard is almost entirely

the work of the pupils; the amount of space makes it possible for the teacher to draw illustrations for her lessons at convenient times, and these illustrations remain till wanted,-sometimes for several days. We saw some admirable maps, diagrams, abstracts, and analyses, etc., the work both of teachers and pupils.

Frequently in a mathematical lesson ten or fifteen pupils would be working algebra or geometry at the board at one time; this was done quickly and simply with quiet self-reliance. It formed a convenient method of ascertaining whether the pupils knew their work or not. The writer cannot speak too strongly of the value of this simple device of a continuous blackboard; most English schools have much to learn from America in this respect. Dr. Fitch, in his Notes on American Schools and Training Colleges, highly recommends the American blackboard system.

In the Girls' Latin School at Baltimore, we saw blinds which pulled up from the bottom of the window, as well as ordinary blinds falling from the top; thus the light could be exactly regulated.

It is difficult to give any general account of a typical High School building. We did not meet with any example of the English type of schoolrooms opening from a great hall, or of tiers of rooms opening into corridors, as in the City of London School for boys. The American type is a square building, three or four stories high, with a corridor in each story down the middle, and rooms opening from each side of it. There is often a second