English; a remarkable illustration of this intense zeal for the language of the nation is the fact that English is the only compulsory study at Harvard University.

There is a third reason, much more difficult to explain, and not so generally commented upon as the others.

The great natural wealth of a new country suddenly opened to the conquest and appropriation of mankind, has tended to give material welfare an undue importance in America. Education is held to be the best means to restore the balance, and to preserve the ideal and spiritual elements of human life. Commerce and travel have made Europe familiar with American wealth and materialism; critics here have not fully realised the efforts made in America to elevate and purify the national sentiment by the influence of education. George William Curtis, in his address to the University of the State of New York, alluded to this in language whose dignity befits the subject. "But amid the exultation and coronation of material success, let this University here annually announce in words and deeds the dignity and superiority of the spiritual life, and strengthen itself to resist the insidious invasion of that life by the superb and seductive spirit of material prosperity. The most precious gift of education is not the mastery of sciences, but noble living, generous character, the spiritual delight which springs from familiarity

1

1 1890, University Convocation.

with the loftiest ideals of the human mind, the spiritual power which saves every generation from the intoxication of its own success.

Agassiz spoke for the scholar in science, when he was besought, for the reward of a fortune, to enter the services of a company, and answered:-'I have no time to make money.'"

This estimate of Education - as a check to materialism—is accountable for a phenomenon in higher education which strikes an English teacher at once, i.e., the tendency to make a subject attractive and simple, and to pay little attention to minute points of scholarship. It is easy to condemn this, and to reproach American schools with superficiality,—such a judgment is itself superficial, since it ignores some elements of the problem. When the boys have to be diverted from the mania for making money, and the girls from the passion for spending it, it is absolutely necessary for the teacher to present learning in its most alluring aspect. What is done may be done thoroughly, but, if it is done at all, it must be made enjoyable.

It may be said further, that, as a rule, persons who devote themselves to higher education in America have given up much; the natural gifts and industry required for a man to be a good teacher or professor would probably enable him to make a fortune in business. Thus teachers occupy a position somewhat resembling that of ministers of religion, their work being spiritual, and their reward being in part of an immaterial character.

The public school system in America has three

marked characteristics: it is free, local, and secular. The first comes from the feeling that education is a general public need and must be provided for, not by the parents, but by the public authority; the second is due to the strength of local influences, and the belief in local government and de-centralization; the third is in accordance with the spirit of the American Constitution,1 and the view of education as a unifying agent in a heterogeneous population. At the same time parents are free to send their children to a private or denominational school should they wish to do so; in no public school is any religious instruction given.

2

As there is so much feeling for education in America, there is a remarkable degree of unity, to an English observer, among the different parts of the educational system. Although there is a great gap between the secondary schools and the universities, the gap is in some places bridged, and many educators are discussing the best means of filling it up. Teachers pass with comparative freedom from one kind of work to another. The pre

valence of co-education adds to this unity, and men and women teachers work together much more than is the case in this country. Thus it is impossible to study secondary education for girls, without first studying the educational system as a whole; public secondary

1 66 Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." Amendment I.

2 In many parts of the country Sunday schools are large and successful, and are attended by all classes and by persons of all ages. They excite much interest and enthusiasm.

schools are under the same authorities and the same laws as the elementary schools.

Not only is there unity, there is an astonishing uniformity over the whole of the United States in organization, methods, courses of study-everything. Some districts and schools are, of course, better than others; some are permeated by a different spirit. But in outward form the uniformity over so large an area, with such absolute local freedom of variation, is extraordinary. The Educational Exhibit at Chicago showed this uniformity in a remarkable degree; the educational literature, reports, school laws, etc., show it also. It is perhaps not too much to say that there is less difference in form between the schools of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle in the State of Washington, than there is between the different girls' high schools in London. The causes of this uniformity may be seen in the chapter on "The Uniformity of American Life," in Mr. Bryce's book.1 To the influences mentioned there-equality, inter-communication, deference to the will of the majority, newness of the country may be added the influence of the many teachers' societies and meetings, by which technical knowledge is disseminated, and of that accessibility to new ideas which is so remarkable a feature of the national character. Thus, whatever is considered best tends to become general, and improvement, when it begins, is rapid. At the present time American educators are dis

1 Chap. cxii. p. 684.

cussing the problems of secondary education to a remarkable degree. It appears that they are not satisfied with their own system, feeling that it is in some respects deficient, and more particularly that there is not sufficient connection between the secondary schools and the universities. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, of New York, writes, "The specific problem in educational organization, that the American people have to deal with at the present time, is the co-ordinating of the secondary to the superior instruction." Professor G. Stanley Hall, of Clarke University, Worcester, Mass., says, "The chief disease to-day of the educational system of America is the isolation between the higher and the lower elements." In the current calendar of Harvard University occurs the following passage, written by President Eliot : the most pressing educational work in the United States namely, the work of reforming and uplifting secondary education."

A distinguished committee of ten, with President Eliot as chairman, has been recently appointed by the National Educational Association to investigate the courses of study and methods of secondary schools. Its conference took place in December, 1892, and the members have since been engaged in formulating the results. A report has already been issued.

There is one other feature of American education in the present day which cannot be ignored, though its bearing on secondary education is indirect; it is the spread of what is termed "the New Education"