176 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CO-ORDINATION OF OUR EDUCATIONAL 

 INSTITUTIONS. 



By Dr. EDWARD H. MAGILL, 



EX-PRESIDENT OF SWARTIIMORE COLLEGE. 



THE common consensus of thoughtful minds in these latter 

 days has been gradually tending more and more toward the 

 proper co-ordination and correlation of our educational institu- 

 tions. In a comparatively new country like ours it may naturally 

 be supposed that, as the need for various grades of these institu- 

 tions has arisen, the want has not always been supplied with a 

 sufficiently careful consideration of the needs of those of other 

 grades, and that, as a result, the general educational interests of 

 the country require some readjustment and reorganization. It 

 should be observed in the beginning that no censure is intended 

 to be applied to any institution or class of institutions for their 

 present status, as this has resulted from the progressive stages of 

 their growth and development, and no sudden or violent change 

 is contemplated or desired. The general outline here to be pre- 

 sented is rather an ideal system for future realization, toward 

 which all may gradually work as their surroundings and circum- 

 stances may permit. 



Within the past few years a new class of educational institu- 

 tions has been introduced from abroad, which have received, in 

 their name, the impress of their foreign origin. Of course, we 

 allude to the kindergarten schools, which may now be regarded 

 as the foundation of our present educational system, the culminat- 

 ing point of which is the university. The value of this new im- 

 portation is no longer seriously questioned by educators, and we 

 cordially accept it here as supplying a need which may be satis- 

 factorily filled by the devotion to it of about three years of the 

 life of a child. In these three years, from the age of three to six, 

 with competent trained teachers, the little ones receive a training 

 of the hand, the eye, the ear, the voice, and the mind that tells 

 powerfully upon all the subsequent years of their school and col- 

 lege life ; and the social, moral, and unsectarian religious element 

 of their natures receives in these early years a most profound and 

 lasting impression. With this foundation, entering upon the pri- 

 mary grade at six, this can well be completed in three years, from 

 six to nine, and after these six years of school life the intermediate 

 grade can be well covered in three years more, from the age of 

 nine to twelve. This outline presupposes also the saving of much 

 valuable time by omitting studies which belong to a more mature 

 stage of mental development, and especially much of the time 

 devoted to the foundation of mathematical studies, which should 



