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efficiency, and of raising the standard of attain

ment.

Every properly fitted school in America possesses an excellent library, which is largely used by the pupils. There seems usually to be a librarian on the staff, who is expected to help the students to use the books, during the study hours before alluded to, and at home. As is explained in the Chapter on Method, pupils are expected to get up subjects for themselves; this they do in great part through the school library. The Encyclopædia Britannica and the Century Dictionary are found in many such libraries; that of Washington, containing 5,600 vols., is open to pupils from 2 to 3.30 each day, under charge of the librarian. At the Ann Arbor High School, Michigan, the library consists of 4,480 vols., and is supplied with the best magazines and periodicals. "The library is made an important adjunct to the school in its regular work, especially in studies in history, the sciences, and literature. An experienced librarian is in attendance to furnish pupils with books, or to guide them in the work of research." We frequently entered these school libraries, and found the students working there very much as readers do in the British Museum. The risk of injury or loss does not seem to be so much considered, if only a number of pupils can be induced to use the books. The report of the Cambridge High School, which has a very fine library, states: "The books are easily accessible, for closed cases have been abandoned, and pains taken to make their use inviting and easy. It is better to

let books get mixed a little, or even to risk an occasional loss, than to set guard on them so that it becomes hard, if not disagreeable, to get at them."

In the great University Library at Harvard, there is an excellent plan which might be adopted in schools possessing a library. The professors each draw up a list of books useful in the courses they are giving; the librarian selects these from the library and places them together, each set on separate shelves, in an alcove round a table, the name of the course and the professor being placed on the alcove. The students can go and work at the tables, using the books as they please during the day, and can take any books home between 5 p.m. and 9 a.m. next morning. The writer saw this arrangement in working order, and was much impressed by its usefulness. By such means students can be trained to use a library who would otherwise never learn to depend on themselves.

We do not propose to enter into any details regarding the number of pupils in a given school. Local conditions govern this matter: a small town will have a small High School, a large city may have one great school with 2,000 girls, as in New York or Philadelphia, or may have several High Schools in different parts of the city, as Boston does. There the 3,488 pupils are distributed among ten schools. The public schools have usually larger numbers than ours, and the classes are larger. Boston even has an average of 31.3 girls to a teacher in the Latin School, and 340 in the English High School. This will seem to English teachers too large for

thoroughness, especially in teaching such subjects as Latin and mathematics. Probably one reason why the private schools do so much of the work of preparing for College is that the classes in them are smaller.

The idea of economy is probably the reason for the existence of such great city schools as those of New York and Philadelphia. "A mammoth school," says one authority, "can never be a good school." Whether this be so or not, it certainly seems to the writer that the very large schools in America are inferior to the smaller, particularly in that spirit of freedom, and that happiness and self-activity, which is the especial merit of American schools. The High School of Brooklyn, with its fine staff of teachers, is a marvel of organization. But even there, as it seemed to us, something was lost by the necessity of excessive attention to those details of discipline necessary when dealing with 1,800 girls under one roof. It may be a mere coincidence, but the most ideal schools we visited were those whose numbers were comparatively low.

In some cities the Girl's High School is also a normal school, girls taking the High School course, with a few lessons in pedagogy as a preparation for the work of teaching in the public schools. This system is gradually becoming obsolete, and the best authorities do not. approve of it, a separate and normal school with a purely professional course being preferred. However, a very large number of girls in a public High School look forward to teaching in the elementary schools of the city; probably this is one reason of the large numbers seeking admission.

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PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

N this subject it is very difficult to make any general statements; such schools naturally differ much more inter se than the public schools. Their special function is, according to high educational authority, to make experiments, to explore new paths in education, or rather, to vary the metaphor, to act as a nursery ground in which variations which naturally arise may be cultivated and tested, thence to be transplanted to the regular gardens of the public schools.

A particularly interesting example of this function is a private school for girls in New York. Here the principles of Herbart and Rein, his disciple, are being put into practice; the whole curriculum is arranged according to the "concentration " theory, and the lessons are illustrated by excellent sets of diagrams. The organization of the school deserves careful study, but it does not seem possible to give a clear account in writing. The system must be seen to be appreciated. One peculiarity is that the staff is largely male, the chief posts being held by men of high University rank.

Private schools may be divided into two classes. The first consists of Elementary schools, founded by various religious bodies, especially the Roman Catho

lic Church, and known as parochial schools. These present features of special interest, but are outside the scope of the present inquiry. The second class are the private secondary schools, corresponding to those in England; Americans, however, include in this category such schools as are not conducted for private profit, but are governed by a Board. Thus our girls' Endowed and Proprietary schools, which we term public, would be called private in America. There are, however, comparatively few such schools, though there are many so-called colleges giving really only a secondary education, whose legal status is very similar to that of an English Endowed School, only that in America there is no Charity Commission or other central body to control endowed educational institutions.

In New England there are certain schools termed Academies which prepare largely for College: these are comparatively ancient; they have endowments and trustees. Time did not permit a visit to any of these; they appear, however, to be more important for boys than girls. There is a strong tendency in the Eastern cities to establish schools similar to our High Schools for girls, and we visited two of these, one in Baltimore and one in New York. In Philadelphia the Society of Friends has for many years past maintained High Schools both for boys and girls. The reason for this tendency, as given by Americans themselves, is the injurious influence on the public school system of the corrupt municipal life of the great Eastern cities, with their mobs of ignorant foreign immigrants. Details of this disease

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