S4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



programmes, none is more interesting than that of the rela- 

 tive number of hours devoted to mathematics in the French and 

 American courses. The figures are as follows : French lycee, 

 740 hours ; Boston Latin School, 1,387 hours. The French boy- 

 arrives at the end of his classical preparatory course of study, 

 having been subjected on an average to less than two hours of 

 recitation per week in mathematical subjects. The average Amer- 

 ican pedagogue would certainly rise with protests deep, and dis- 

 gust profound, if ever it were proposed to him to fit a boy for 

 college with an allowance of only 8'7 per cent of the whole school 

 course for his arithmetic, algebra, and geometry.* Yet this is 

 precisely what the French do — in their classical course. In the 

 Boston representative course the percentage is 17*8 per cent. 



As the treatment of mathematics in the French classical course, 

 with the limited time allotted to this study, is of general interest, 

 a resume of it is given here. In the preparatory class of the lyce'e, 

 as well as in the classe de liuitieme following, the allotted time is 

 devoted to simple arithmetical work in whole numbers, mental 

 work, and to the solving of easy problems. In septieme (third 

 year of the course) are added decimal numbers and the metric 

 system, with drawing of geometrical figures. In the next year 

 there is a review of work oh whole numbers, a continuation of 

 mental exercises and problems, and decimals ; work on fractions 

 is entered upon, and elementary geometry is begun. In the suc- 

 ceeding year arithmetic is continued, with the study of the rule of 

 three, interest, discount, with simple problems in alligation, a 

 detailed review of the metric system, and with further very ele- 

 mentary geometrical exercises. In quatrieme, theoretical geom- 

 etry is begun, with one recitation per week. In troisieme, the two 

 hours per week are devoted to a review of ' arithmetical subjects, 



* The percentage of hours devoted to recitations in mathematics, in such typical fitting 

 schools of the United States as have supplied data to the writer, is as follows : Boston Latin 

 School (with four years' grammar-school course added), 17*8 per cent. Boston English High 

 School (with two years' grammar-school course added), 16'6 per cent. Phillips Academy 

 Exeter, N. H., classical course, 26*5 per cent ; scientific course, 26*9 per cent. Williston 

 Seminary, Easthampton, Mass., classical course, 26*7 per cent; scientific course, 25'7 per 

 cent. Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., classical course, 25*7 per cent ; scientific course, 

 28*8 per cent. St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H., classical course, 24*9 per cent ; scientific 

 course, 27*8 per cent. Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, X. J., classical course, 17 per 

 cent ; scientific course, 22*7 per cent. St. Mark's School, Southborough, Mass., exclusively 

 classical, 21*6 per cent. Doubtless these percentages may, in some of the schools cited, be 

 increased or decreased in the case of certain pupils ; but they represent the mathematical 

 courses as prescribed for the major portion of them. How strikingly the figures illustrate 

 the different methods of treatment of the mathematical question, in the United States and 

 France, will be understood when it is further stated that the percentage allowed to math- 

 ematics in the French lycee course is only 8*7 per cent, and in the secondary special course, 

 where mathematical studies are considered by the French to be especially prominent, only 

 17 per cent. 



