EDITOR'S TABLE. 



267 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



THE ''AMERICAN EXPERIMENT" IN 

 EDUCATION. 



STATE Superintendent of Education 

 Andrew S. Draper lately delivered 

 an address on education before certain 

 teachers' associations. He also lately 

 made a report on the same subject to 

 the Legislature of New York. In the 

 address he spoke of the " stern logic of 

 the American experiment" having forced 

 free schools upon the countries of Eu- 

 rope. What the stern logic of the 

 American experiment teaches we are 

 ourselves not prepared to say ; but we 

 notice that, in his annual report, Super- 

 intendent Draper tells us that one re- 

 sult of the American experiment is that 

 since 1851 there has been a steady de- 

 crease in the percentage of attendance 

 at the public schools. These are his 

 words : 



"The reports show that in 1851 the 

 ' total attendance ' comprised 75*6 per 

 cent of the school population. This 

 percentage has constantly fallen off with 

 surprising regularity during the inter- 

 vening forty years. In 1861 it was 65*6 

 per cent, in 1871 it was 68*4 per cent, 

 in 1881 it was 61*4 per cent, and in 1891 

 it was 57*8 per cent. This is a showing 

 which must engage the attention of all 

 thoughtful persons. There should be 

 some explanation of it, or there should 

 be vigorous measures to remedy the 

 growing evil of non-attendance upon 

 the schools. Is there any explanation ? 

 Are the circumstances as unfortunate as 

 the figures indicate ? It should be said, 

 in the first place, that the ' school popu- 

 lation,' being all between five and twen- 

 ty-one years, includes many children 

 whose parents deem them too young to 

 go to school, and a great many more 

 who have gone through the schools and 

 commenced work. In other words, the 

 statutory school age is both younger and 

 older than the actual school age is, or 



ever can be, in the greater number of 

 cases, and is therefore misleading. This 

 will indicate why the percentage is 

 small, but not why it continually grows 

 smaller." 



The fact is that, since the establish- 

 ment of kindergartens, children are go- 

 ing to school at a younger age now than 

 they did a generation ago ; and it is 

 also the case that boys and girls stay 

 longer at school nowadays than they 

 used to do ; so that, in the absence Of 

 other influences, the percentage of at- 

 tendance ought to be higher considera- 

 bly than it was in 1851. Perhaps it was 

 that forty years ago people had not yet 

 learned to undervalue education on ac- 

 count of its very cheapness. "Whatever 

 the explanation, it seems to us that "the 

 logic of the American experiment " re- 

 quires to be further explored. 



THE LAW AND THE DOCTORS. 



Mr. Frederic Harrison and Mrs. 

 Fawcett have been having a little con- 

 troversy of their own on the subject of 

 "the emancipation* of women." Mr. 

 Harrison is desirous that women should 

 have all possible educational advantages, 

 and he says many fine things about their 

 intellectual and moral powers ; but he 

 still holds that their place is in the 

 home, not in the factory, the counting- 

 house, the Government office, or the 

 political meeting. Mrs. Fawcett points 

 out the impossibility of confining women 

 to the home in these days when 60 

 many of them have no home, or none 

 that can give them a living ; and, apart 

 from that, she resents the idea that 

 women are not adapted to extra- 

 domestic tasks and duties. The con- 

 troversy is in able hands, and we have 

 no wish to intervene at present. One 

 remark that Mrs. Fawcett makes, how- 

 ever, seems to call for a word. She 



