A DANISH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 159 



me by Mr. Jerndorff Jessen, and may therefore be 

 taken as accurate. Here I shall content myself with 

 setting down what I saw on my visit to the school. 



First I was taken to the room devoted to Nature 

 lessons, in which are included physics, zoology, botany, 

 and physical geography. It is provided with circular 

 desks, and on the walls hang many diagrams. From 

 its windows may be seen the school garden, where 

 boys of the fifth and sixth classes, and from twelve to 

 fourteen years of age, are instructed in horticulture. 

 The opportunity for such instruction is given to the 

 cleverest lads who have no gardens of their own at 

 home. Sixty-five boys had gardens here in the 

 summer of 1910. They are allowed to carry away 

 the vegetables which they produce. 



Leaving the Nature-lesson room I was taken up- 

 stairs to where the sixth or head class were employed 

 upon a reading lesson. These were intelligent-looking 

 and well-dressed boys, one of whom read extremely 

 well. I noticed that the master checked their pro- 

 nunciation carefully, and asked questions to discover 

 whether they understood what they were reading. In 

 an adjoining room other sixth-form boys were doing 

 arithmetic. 



Next I went to where the seventh, or top class of 

 girls, who are from thirteen to fourteen years old, 

 were engaged upon a lesson in English. First these 

 girls sang " God Save the King " for my benefit, 

 almost as well as our own children would have done. 

 Then they were told to read from an English book, 

 six or eight of them in different parts of the room. 

 There was not one whom I could not understand 

 perfectly, while the accent and pronunciation of some 

 of them were excellent. If a French or German 



