5 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



schools, as likely to yield results which, can not but be conducive 

 to educational progress in this country. 



As might be expected from the eminence of its author, the 

 paper of President Eliot has excited much interest in regard to 

 the French secondary school programmes. Much comment has 

 resulted both as to the facts and the conclusions arrived at. The 

 facts represented in the address as to the age of matriculates in 

 American colleges are only too patent. The defects of the pro- 

 grammes of the preparatory schools of this country are unfortu- 

 nately equally patent. The great need of some readjustment of 

 existing methods of our fitting schools and schools of grammar 

 and even primary grades, for the benefit of boys preparing for 

 modern collegiate, scientific, and university training, is so impera- 

 tive that no friend of educational advance in this country can fail 

 to welcome this valuable contribution to the literature of the sub- 

 ject given by the President of Harvard University. But, not- 

 withstanding his admirable paper, and the comment which has 

 followed, so far as one can judge from the literature of the con- 

 troversy, no one has apparently made haste to follow President 

 Eliot's advice and make any serious comparative examination of 

 the French and American school programmes. On the contrary, 

 there are indications that, with true American inconsequence, 

 many persons are already either clamoring for the adoption of the 

 French curricula forthwith, as a panacea for all our secondary 

 school deficiencies, or, with great lack of knowledge and accurate 

 information, are condemning them outright as a foreign growth 

 quite unsuited to American soil. This is to be regretted ; for as- 

 suredly the comparative study of the programmes of the two coun- 

 tries would give American school boards and American parents 

 much information that should be known and accurately known. 

 This examination is additionally desirable from the fact that, in 

 his felicitous presentation of some characteristics of the lyce'e cur- 

 riculum, Dr. Eliot seems to have omitted to note some of the 

 more important features of the programmes that give them their 

 strength, and has quite failed to point out how it happens that the 

 French boy is really enabled to pass his examinations for the 

 baccdlaureat es lettres at the early age of seventeen years. It may 

 also be said that the examination is likewise desirable for the rea- 

 son that President Eliot has inadvertentlv made some statements 

 as to the French courses of study that the official programmes 

 hardly seem to warrant. 



In the present paper the attempt will be made to present, in a 

 somewhat more precise manner than has been undertaken by 

 President Eliot, certain details of the curricula of not only the 

 classical lyce'es, but also of the secondary special schools of 

 France. In connection with this, the attempt will also be made to 



