26 



NA TURE 



[May 10, 1883 



other special difficulty of the United States. The scat- 

 tered population leads inevitably to small schools : in 

 Maine, 1200 out of 4000 had average attendances ranging 

 from two to twelve ; this leads, of course, to low pay ; 

 and this to low attainments on the part of the teachers, of 

 whom not more than 4 per cent, have had normal train- 

 ing. A great drawback to teachers also is the uncertainty 

 of their tenure of office. In some States the School 

 Committee have no power to hire teachers for more than 

 a year, and engagements are seldom made for a longer 

 time. In others, men are employed for winter and 

 women for summer terms, thus causing an uncertainty in 

 the profession, which must be highly mischievous. It is 

 a feature in American education, that in both elementary 

 and secondary schools more than half the teachers are 

 women. In this respect the United States differs from 

 every other nation ; and a fear is expressed lest it may 

 involve the sacrifice of some of the conditions essential to 

 the development of strong self-reliant characters. As the 

 Transatlantic ladies are supposed not to be wanting in 

 these themselves, let us hope that it may not have such 

 an effect ; but that it may be said of this arrangement that— 

 "Emollit mores, nee sinit esse feros." 

 The Commissioner in his Report says that, " carefully 

 considering the position of woman in the work of educa- 

 tion, what she has done, and may do, as a teacher, what 

 her nature and experience may fit her to do better than 

 man, as an officer, inspector, or superintendent, he has 

 favoured the opening of appropriate offices to her in con- 

 nection with institutions and systems of instruction." He 

 " regrets to say that women have shown more indifference 

 to this opportunity than he expected." There are 227 

 women's colleges in which every advantage is offered 

 that men have, but they are not popular. Still he points 

 out that since women were elected in 1873 to the Boston 

 School Board, and subsequently admitted to that and 

 other Boards, the employment of them on sub-committees, 

 for which they were best adapted, has been the introduc- 

 tion of a new force ; in other words, it is in the line of 

 progress. 



The Report urges the desirability of well-trained 

 teachers, more particularly in the case of scientific know- 

 ledge. " Such knowledge finds its application in all arts 

 and industries, and in all measures for the preservation 

 of health and life, and it offers the only means of dissi- 

 pating the fears and superstitions, and correcting the 

 foolish practices arising from ignorance of the phenomena 

 and laws of nature." It points out also that the general 

 Government is doing more in behalf of scientific work 

 and publications than all the other agencies put together. 

 Partially, no doubt, the result of a feeling making its 

 way among educationists, but partially also a sign of the 

 moderate level of education reached, is the small number 

 {448) in Ohio who learn Greek. A curious mark of 

 changed relations is to be found in the fact, that still 

 fewer (418) learn French ; while nearly 100 times the 

 number (40,813) learn German ; against nearly 650,000 

 who learn spelling. 



Where the ordinary primary education is good in 

 America, evening schools of elementary grades are less 

 sought after than those of advanced grade, except in 

 cities where there is a large foreign population. In com- 

 munities, distinguished alike for intelligence and business 



enterprise, evening high schools are especially appre- 

 ciated, the most promising artisans and clerks looking to 

 them for the means of continuing their studies. 



The peculiarly American institution of summer schools 

 is being turned to admirable use by teachers occupied 

 with regular school duties during the rest of the year, 

 who go with scientific expeditions and to stations main- 

 tained by the universities, and profit by the facilities for 

 study and investigation thus offered them in combination 

 with fresh air and change of scene. 



There has been scarcely any increase since 1875 > n tne 

 number of universities or colleges as they are indis- 

 criminately called, but the new States are many of them 

 overprovided with these higher-branch schools, while 

 deficient in the elementary schools at present more neces- 

 sary. The disproportion between colleges and preparatory 

 schools in certain States may be judged by the report that 

 while Tennessee has twenty-one colleges, Massachusetts 

 with a larger population reports seven. The former State 

 has two preparatory schools ; the latter twenty-three. 

 Under such circumstances it is not strange that some of 

 these universities or colleges should be doing the work of 

 the lower grade schools, as thirteen are ^reported as 

 doing only. 



In 1871 Arkansas established an industrial university 

 which soon after possessed classical, agricultural, engi- 

 neering, commercial, and normal courses, and a prepara- 

 tory department. In various other States similar centres 

 of education in practical subjects were opened, and the 

 variety of subjects and arrangements for teaching them, 

 which are to be found in so many independent centres, 

 will be found very instructive to all who are inquiring 

 about technical education, especially agricultural. Several 

 of these courses are such as have been approved of after 

 varied experiment ; an advantage which they have over 

 the schools of science not endowed by the national grant, 

 where the will of the founder has had a contrary effect. 



Michigan University has inaugurated an excellent work 

 in providing that a faculty will visit once every year any 

 public high school in Michigan on request of its School 

 Board, and report its condition. " If the faculty shall be 

 satisfied that the school is taught by competent instructors 

 and is furnishing a good preparation for any one or more 

 of the regular courses of the University, then the graduates 

 from such preparatory course or courses will be admitted 

 to the freshmen class of the University without examina- 

 tion, and permitted to enter on such undergraduate course 

 as the approved preparatory work contemplated." This 

 is a method of making the same labour serve the double 

 purpose of inciting the school to efforts, and also of 

 matriculating the University students. The matriculation 

 examinations at so many of these universities were natur- 

 ally of most various standards, and some approach 

 towards a uniform standard has been made between ten 

 principal colleges in New England. 



In the Illinois State University a peculiar government has 

 been tried called " The Students' Government," by which 

 every official was selected or appointed by the president 

 whom they had elected, and all the forms of a Republican 

 Government are gone through ; forming an excellent 

 practice to the students and probably raising a good 

 esprit de corps. 



The comparison of the state of medical instruction at 



