EDITOR'S TABLE. 



413 



runs very high in Germany, and that 

 the reports against the real schools were 

 all written by prejudiced classical ex- 

 tremists. It turns out, moreover, that 

 the whole question was decided upon in 

 advance, and with the greatest empha- 

 sis, before the experiment had been tried 

 to test the preparation of the real- 

 school graduates, and that from the out- 

 set the problem was not that of the 

 progressive principles of higher educa- 

 tion, as we understand it in this coun- 

 try, but a question of national politics 

 in relation to the policy of the univer- 

 sities. The historic ascendency of dead 

 languages, as against the rising claims 

 of science, is to be maintained in Ger- 

 many for state reasons. This is no 

 mere inference, but the bluntly de- 

 clared position. When the matter was 

 first broached, in 1869, of admitting 

 the real - school graduates to the uni- 

 versities, the Philosophical Faculty of 

 the Berlin University protested ve- 

 hemently against the contemplated ac- 

 tion on the grounds here stated. They 

 said : " While the university has no 

 reason to withhold its advantages, it 

 must not, in its desire to make the 

 higher education accessible to the great- 

 est possible number, forget its peculiar 

 purpose and its historical task. Its du- 

 ty is to fit the youth for the service of 

 state and church." Again: "The fac- 

 ulty are compelled ... to utter a warn- 

 ing against the surrender of that which 

 has been till now the common basis of 

 training of all the higher public func- 

 tionaries, and which, if it be once given 

 up, can never be regained." And still 

 further: "The Philosophical Faculty can 

 not give their consent to such a move- 

 ment. They are convinced that no suf- 

 ficient compensation is given in the real- 

 schule for the lack of classical educa- 

 tion. They fear that so decided a low- 

 ering of standards would be accompanied 

 by weighty consequences, especially in 

 such a state as Prussia." And finally, 

 "The faculty, therefore, believe they 

 owe it to the university and to the 

 state to declare themselves in the most 



positive manner against a more exten- 

 sive admission of Realschuler." 



These statements give us the key of 

 the celebrated " Berlin Report." A des- 

 potic paternal government has church- 

 and-state reasons for maintaining a 

 dead-language culture as a national pol- 

 icy. The whole vast machinery of edu- 

 cation in that empire is run in subor- 

 dination to the ideal of government — 

 a military despotism, and, to discipline 

 a community into thorough subjection 

 to this ideal, centuries of history prove 

 that there is nothing equal to the dead 

 languages and classical studies. Hence 

 the traditions must be maintained in 

 their full rigor, the existing faculties 

 must not be divided, science must not 

 be suffered to take a coequal place with 

 the other faculties, or to become an in- 

 dependent power in the universities ; 

 in short, no rival system of organized 

 higher education, based upon modern 

 ideas, must be tolerated. 



The whole question was thus pre- 

 judged and predetermined, and no ex- 

 periment that could possibly be made 

 under the Bismarckian regime would be 

 allowed to disturb the foregone church- 

 and-state conclusion of the Berlin Philo- 

 sophical Faculty. The real-school grad- 

 uates were, however, admitted to the 

 university, and after ten years it was, 

 of course, reported by the same faculty 

 that the policy pronounced bad at the 

 outset was bad at the end. The real- 

 school graduates were declared failures, 

 as they must have been failures by the 

 church - and - state standards assumed, 

 whatever their proficiency. That the 

 teaching in the real schools was inferior 

 to that in the gymnasiums was allowed 

 no weight; that the gymnasiums were 

 pets of the Government and the real 

 schools neglected was of no importance, 

 that the brightest youths and the best 

 stock of Germany crowded into the 

 gymnasiums, leaving the lower grades 

 to tlie real schools, amounted to noth- 

 ing; and that the system of study in 

 the real schools had not been shaped as a 

 preparation for higher university work, 



