SJN JOSE 29 



■presentada al Congreso Constitucional by the Sub-secretario 

 de Estado en el Despacho de Fomento. 



A few blocks from the Museo was the three-storied Co- 

 legio de Seiioritas, the highest educational institution for 

 girls in the republic. Its director, Professor J. Fidel Tris- 

 tan, educated under German professors in the University of 

 Santiago, Chile, and speaking English fluently, was our 

 chief guide and mentor in our explorations and to him more 

 than to any other one person do we owe much of our success. 

 Education receives great attention in Costa Rica and the 

 sums spent for this purpose form a large part of the national 

 expenditures,^ The report of Don Alfredo Volio, Secre- 

 tary of State in charge of Public Instruction for 1909, gave 

 the number of official primary schools in October, 1908, as 

 357, of which 82 were for boys, 79 for girls and 196 for both 

 sexes. The 357 schools had 887 teachers and 27,452 pupils 

 (14,210 boys, 13,242 girls). The Colegio de Seiioritas had a 

 five-year course and gave instruction in mathematics, geog- 

 raphy, physics, chemistry, natural sciences, history, peda- 

 gogical psychology, the practice of teaching, Spanish, 

 French and English, domestic economy, singing, drawing, 

 manual training, calisthenics, morals and religion. The 

 number of students including those in "preparatorio" in- 

 creased from 97 in 1899 to 306 in 1908. The roof of the 

 Colegio (like any other of the higher buildings in San Jose, 

 indeed) commands magnificent views of the vicinity of the 

 capital. Along the northern horizon from east to west are 

 Irazu, the pass of La Palma leading northward to Carrillo, 

 the lesser cerros of Zurqui, the volcano Barba, the pass of 

 Desengano, the volcano Poas and lastly the Aguacate 

 Mountains; on the east. La Carpintera (5700 feet) separates 



' For the figures for 1909 and 1910, respectivel}', see the Bulletins of the Pan 

 American Union, vols. XXXI, p. 121, and XXXIII, pp. 87-88, Washington, D. C, 

 July, 1910, and July, 191 1. 



