224 



NATURE 



\July 6, 1882 



opportunity- -a very mischievous thing in its results — for 

 in nothing is it more true than in the case of education 

 that what is well begun is half done. Hence a good infant 

 school is an immense help to all subsequent stages, and 

 vice versd. So much is this deterioration felt in Michi- 

 gan, where salaries or schoolmistresses have been reduced 

 to the level of those of domestic servants, that the attend- 

 ance at the primary schools has absolutely fallen off ; and 

 the explanation of it seems to be that these faults are well 

 known to the intelligent public of the United States, and 

 accordingly the children are being removed to private 

 schools. The Commissioner very aptly quotes Roger 

 Ascham's words: 



" It is a pity that commonly more care is had, yea, and 

 that among very wise men, to find out rather a cunning 

 man for their horse 1 , than a cunning man for their 

 children. . . . To one they will gladly give a stipend of 

 200 crowns by the year, and loath to offer to the other 

 200 shillings. God that sitteth in heaven laugheth their 

 choice to scorn, and rewardeth their liberality as it should. 

 For he suffereth them to have tame and well-ordered 

 horses, but wild and unfortunate children ; and therefore, 

 in the end, they find more pleasure in their horse than 

 comfort in their children." 



This is not a bright picture of the work of education in 

 America. It certainly seems an indication that our 

 brethren there are losing faith in the old rule, that what is 

 worth doing at all is worth doing well, but it does not 

 go very deep below the surface of so vast a work. On the 

 whole there continues a steady rise in numbers of both 

 schools and pupils, though not so large since 1875, as we 

 should have expected in such a progressive country. 

 This rise also is almost wholly in cities, again pointing 

 to the difficulty of supplying the number of schools 

 required in so wide-spread a country. In one of the most 

 flourishing of these cities also, Chicago, it sounds more 

 like the (J Id World to read that more than 2000 children are 

 taught in underground rooms, where the light is so bad 

 as to expose their eyes to serious injury ! In New York 

 and New Jersey, where population in its extremes of rich 

 and poor keeps crowding together as in older countries, 

 the school attendance is actually falling off. In Maine, 

 New Hampshire, and Rhode Island the population is, 

 curiously enough, at the present time decreasing, but 

 school attendance is increasing ; not quite one-third of the 

 population attend daily ; nearly two-thirds are on the 

 books. In nearly all Southern States there is consider- 

 ably increased attendance. The administration of the 

 Peabody Fund has had a remarkable influence in deve- 

 loping the school spirit in the south, in awakening the 

 people to a sense of their obligation with reference to the 

 support of public schools and in maintaining a high 

 standard for such schools. This last result has been 

 accomplished by the wise policy pursued by Dr. Sears in 

 insisting upon a certain degree of excellence in a school 

 as the condition of receiving aid from the fund. 



An increase of more than 50 per cent, in the number of 

 students in the Schools of Science in 1S78 led to the 

 number of these schools being raised from 809 to 884 ; 

 but this increase of pupils hardly kept up in 1879. Still 

 science, though a long way behind theology in number of 

 schools, is rapidly gaining ground upon it, and has already 

 far outstripped it in number of students. In 1870 there 

 were 80 schools of theology with 3254 pupils, which 

 numbers have grown respectively to 133 and 4738; but 

 the corresponding numbers for science are 17, increasing 

 to Si, and 1413, increasing to 10,914 ! This has called 

 for a large increase of teachers ; and, accordingly, while 

 in secondary schools the proportion of those receiving a 

 scientific, to those receiving a classical, education is as 2 

 to 5, in the preparatory department of colleges the pro- 

 portion is as 4 to 5. At some of these colleges there are 

 workshops, where the use of tools is taught to students 

 by their being used in the production of other tools and 



things useful to the establishment. The Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology has one of4hese workshops upon 

 a plan designed at the Imperial Technical School of 

 Moscow, Russia. The income of these scientific colleges 

 is partly derived from the sale of lands allotted to them 

 in each state ; 30/. a year is charged to each pupil for 

 tuition, but it represents but a small percentage of the 

 income. The Cooper Union Free Night Schools of 

 Science are well described as "an intelligent application 

 of a great charity. Their purpose is the technical in- 

 struction of the labouring classes, and the means used 

 are a free library and reading-room, free lectures, and 

 two classes of schools, viz. the Evening Schools of Science 

 and Art, and the Art School for Women. All money 

 earned in the schools belongs to the pupil, and a number 

 are thus enabled to support themselves while studying. 

 A Telegraph Company has appointed a teacher in this 

 school, who trains the pupils in their methods of working 

 their instruments, and they have employed many of its 

 graduates on their lines. Still the Report endorses the 

 doctrine that even in technical schools, principles, not 

 practice, must be the leading object of a school, and that 

 even to those following a special business, a broad general 

 culture is very important, and a want of it very much 

 felt. After reviewing the various schools and institutions 

 of this class in the United States, the Commissioner of 

 Education is led to the conclusion that " the present con- 

 dition of scientific and technical schools in our country is 

 thus seen to be very promising. . . . Already they have 

 excited the people to an appreciation of scientific methods 

 and processes in their application to agriculture and the 

 mechanic arts ; and as the results of such methods are 

 more widely known and more fully comprehended, the 

 institutions rise in favour and influence, and the demand 

 for their graduates increases." 



Drawing is highly eulogised, and its importance in- 

 sisted upon. In Massachusetts any town may, and every 

 city and town having more than 10,000 inhabitants shall, 

 provide for instruction therein ; and a training school for 

 teachers has been organised to meet their wants, with the 

 result also of supplying designers to many manufacturers 

 who were in want of them. 



On the law schools in America, our Report observes 

 that it is surprising that a profession which requires such 

 thorough preparation, and which has in it so large a 

 number of men of wealth, and one which occupies so 

 important a place in the public affairs of the country, has 

 done so little to endow its schools in the most substantial 

 manner. 



Medical men are very plentiful in the United States 

 compared with other countries : I to every 600 inhabi- 

 tants, while Canada has only 1 to 1200 inhabitants, Great 

 Britain 1 to 1672, Germany 1 to 3000. A higher standard 

 of examination is recommended, and an all-round educa- 

 tion insisted upon. Only five schools at present require 

 the highest amount of study to qualify a full practitioner. 

 A valuable branch of education is the training schools 

 for nurses, which adopt a very high standard as to whom 

 they receive for their important functions. A small sum, 

 however, is paid to students, besides board and lodging, 

 the latter of which is carefully provided them at a bright, 

 cheerful home away from the hospitals where their duties 

 are inculcated. 



More than 30,000 blind people are among the popula- 

 tion of the United States, and their education is con- 

 sidered, like other education, a duty and not a charity, 

 and is provided out of national funds. Again, the educa- 

 tion of the feeble-minded is systematically provided for, 

 as being necessary for the prevention of crime, and useful 

 to individuals of all classes. This leads on to the most 

 important question ; n a country where population is 

 thickening even as much as in America, of Reform 

 Schools. There, under the Michigan system especially, 

 which all should investigate, it seems fully realised that 



