588 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



country homes? Two hundred of the needed 40,000 consolidated ru- 

 ral schools have been established, and practical studies in agricul- 

 ture and home economics are slowly but surely finding their places 

 in them. 



Education in the city industries in agriculture and in home eco- 

 nomics having become successful elements in our public education, it 

 is not too early to inquire how they may best be brought freely to all 

 American youth. No one can doubt that the introduction of these 

 subjects generally into the secondary and primary schools will 

 materially increase the cost of our public schools, nor that this 

 added Tost will several times over return in the greater earnings and 

 in the better homes of the coming generation. Those who have 

 most closely investigated the subject believe that the general adop- 

 tion of industrial education is in the same categorj' as were the adop- 

 tion of the steam engine, the self-binder and the sewing machine. 

 The vast expenditures of these mechanical inventions would have 

 seemed more appalling fifty years ago than would now the added 

 cost of industrial education. Our scheme of education for city life 

 is rapidly taking form for the non-agricultural classes in our tri- 

 partite system of primary, secondary and higher schools. The great 

 bulk of this work provided for by public taxation is organized under 

 an articulated system of eight years of primary, four years of secon- 

 dary or high school, four jears of collegiate work with one or more 

 added years for graduate courses. The privately endowed schools 

 of primary and secondary grade are no longer rapidly increasing 

 their numbers nor their income, though their value is and will con- 

 tinue to be second to that of the rising public school system. Per- 

 sons with private funds to give to good causes are more and more 

 recognizing that public funds are to carry the main burden of pri- 

 mary and secondary schools. Even the colleges and universities 

 of non-public character are meeting most powerful rivalry from 

 State colleges and State uhiversities. 



The city youth early gains a position on the educational ladder, 

 and with the hope and enthusiasm of youth he looks and climb up- 

 ward. The system ever leads him on as if all could find occupation 

 at the top. Kut necessity to labor for sustenance and other causes 

 compels or induces 98.6 out of a hundred (from statistics of attend- 

 ance in private and public schools and colleges throughout the United 

 States in the 1904 Report of the United States Commissioner of Edu- 

 cation) to stop short of the college ladder, and 9.4 out of a hundred 

 to stop before leaving the primary ladder and labor in the fields, 

 shops and homes. Higher education is very important; secondary 

 education even more important; but the great work of the schools 

 must be done in the primary schools. The main function of our sec- 

 ondary and higher schools is clearly to prepare teachers for the pri- 

 mary schools. 



The city-life system of education Avill prepare those who are to 

 continue on their educational course none the less well if the lower 

 schools devoted a fair amount of their time to education relating 

 to the sustaining industries. And there will be a far better self -se- 

 lection of those who are to continue in school that they may prepare 

 for the pulpit, for the bar, for the teacher's chair, or for the engi- 

 neer's or technician's post. The wider experience of the pupil who 



