5c6 



NA TURE 



\_Marck 27, 1884 



effective teaching of what is already there. The Report 

 remarks that it is impossible to examine the various 

 courses without being struck with the general neglect of 

 elementary science; adding that "the rural schools would 

 Eeem to be favourably situated for the study of nature in 

 some of her varied aspects. The well-known effect of 

 such sludy upon the mind, its value as a resource to the 

 individual, and its relation to the tendency of modem 

 thought, are so many reasons for its introduction into 

 these courses." 



The higher classes, we are told, are working tarder at 

 the schools, but the key to the repcrts from so many 

 States in which population as well as cost and efficiency 

 are said to have increased while attendance has not, evi- 

 dently is that a class is rapidly increasing in America 

 now who make no demand for education and do net 

 appreciate it. The chief of the four recommendations 

 with which the Report ends is the appropriation of more 

 national land for the purposes of education in impoverished 

 portions of the country. Yet the special reports of New 

 York and Connecticut show that ignorance is not caiised 

 by want only : for the reduced attendance is accounted 

 for by commercial prosperity and demand fcr labour, 

 during which a hard-struggling population is tempted to 

 forsake school in order to earn money. 



Maryland reports great illiteracy among both blacks 

 and whiter, and shows a decrease in everything except 

 expenditure. North Carolina is much more satisfactory, 

 partly through the help of religious bodies, who are 

 making great efforts for the benefit of the negro, whose 

 education remains the difficult question of the United 

 States. More than half as many more black children are 

 uneducated in the whole Union than white children. 

 From the Report it is evident that many of the Northern 

 States feel that they are ah'eady heavily taxed for the 

 support of their own schools. Yet their wealth is im- 

 mense compared with that of the Souihern States ; the 

 Report quotes personal property and real estate as two 

 and a hair times greater per head in the three States of 

 New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania than it is in 

 the south. Again, it is a small class in the north that 

 does not appreciate education, but in the south not only 

 is the negro himself careless about it, but there is often to 

 te found among the whites a bitter hatred of the educated 

 black. It is absurd to leave a difficult and costly matter 

 like his education in the hands of his late master?, and 

 expect thtm to both do it and pay for it ; and the only 

 practical method is, .'S our Report recommends, for the 

 nation to establish and maintain good schools in the face 

 even of hostility. In some places where the Peabody 

 Fund is pus) ing the work on, the negro is better cared for 

 than the white child, but its ac'ministrators cannot under- 

 take the education of a whole people. 



The endeavour to make elementary science a feature 

 of the higher grade schools Iras revealed the same 

 difficulty as has been pointed out at home, viz. the 

 lack of teachers prepared to give the instruction. 

 "The lifeless routine of memorised recitations is wone 

 than useless in science. It paralyses the fa- ulties by 

 which the facts of science are apprehended, and ren- 

 ders true progress impossible. This is a matter de- 

 manding attention in normal schools." In a few cities 

 special means have been provided for meeting the emer- 

 gency. In Boston, courses of lectures were given success- 

 fully by the professors of the Institute of Technology 

 upon different brarches of natural science, designed to 

 meet the want of ter.chers ; and a similar i ourse before 

 the Teachers' School of Science, on physics, zoology, 

 botany, and geology, were well illustrated by experi- 

 ments and sptcimei s, f.nd attended by 400 teachers, the 

 entire expense being borne by two ladies. The Lawrence 

 Scientific School, Harvard University, teaches all the 

 principal sciences experimentally, students being assisted 

 also by seholarships. Many women in the normal col- 



leges are now giving special attention to them. A 

 branch specially recommended to be taught there is the 

 laws of health. Of all agencies these noimal schools can 

 do most to promote tie s)Siemalic training of the body. 

 A gymnasium, the study of physiolcgy, hygiene, and 

 sanitation arc urged as invaluable to teachers, and it is to 

 them that we mu t look in some measure for the diffusion 

 of knowledge with reference to the laws of health. A 

 quotation from Dr. Schrodt is made, almost equal to 

 saying that every boy when he leaves school " ought to be 

 either a fool or a physician ' 1 The laws of health should 

 be made as familiar to the minds of children as the rudi- 

 ments of language and numbers. We are gl.id to note in 

 Prof. Hitchcock's report on college hygiene that he re- 

 commends simultaneous care of the digestive organs 

 with relaxation of mental effort, rather than violent exer- 

 cise, for students. A larger number of the training 

 schools report laboratorie-, museums, &c., and the 

 Bureau urges the usefulness of an educational museum 

 from which it would circulate illuitrations of the most 

 improved appliances. 



Passing to more specialised education, hardly any 

 schools have increased in every way more than commer- 

 cial and business colleges ; there were one- fourth more 

 establishments and scholars than in the previous year. 



Kindergarten schools had more than 60 per cent, more 

 scholars. They may well be supported if they carry out 

 all that their progi-amme lays down, which includes, and 

 indeed places foremost all that ought to be the work of 

 home, and uses the word education in its very widest sense. 

 The training described in the normal kindergarten schools 

 surely must wonderfully assist all the students in their 

 future duties as mothers ; and an orphan in the care of 

 one of these schools, many of which are carried on as 

 charities, is hardly to be pitied ! 



Two fewer colleges, but more property and greater 

 teaching power, with 3000 more students, shows that the 

 multitude of these institttions in the United States is being 

 checked by natural selection, while greater efficiency is 

 found among the surviving fittest. Much interchange of the 

 inhabitants of the various States to the Universities of 

 others takes place. There is happily hardly any local feeling 

 in favour of attending a college in the student's native 

 State, anel there could hardly be a more unifj ing action 

 u^on a population hke that of the United States than this of 

 students meeting from all points to disperse again and 

 take inrtuential positions in all quarters. 



.\t Harvard College the President remarks that the 

 scientific turn of mind is comparatively rare among the 

 young men who enter the college, a lar^e majority of the 

 studems preferring languages, metaphysics, history, and 

 political economy to matherr atics, physics, zoology, and 

 botany — perhaps the result of the training in the secondary 

 schools. But studies made to a gi eat extent elective have 

 not led to the choice of those requiring least effort. Many 

 more selected scientific subjects in their senior than in 

 their junior years. At Columbia College geology was 

 elected by every member of the class, and astronomy by 

 all but one. About three-fifths selected chemistry, tw-o- 

 fiflhs philosophy, and one-fifth political economy. Studies 

 are thus selected in harmony with tastes and proclivities, 

 and pursued with interest and satisfaction. "The mental 

 discipline incident to the study of chemistry especially 

 entitles the science to take a place among advanced 

 couises of study, a truth recognised by many collegiate 

 institutions, both by giving the science increased atten- 

 tion in fixed courses, and also by placing it on an equality 

 with classical and mathematical studies when the elective 

 system has been adopted." 



Well worihy of the attention of all friends of technical 

 education in England are the numerous efforts to carry 

 out the same desirable ends in the United States. A 

 schcol of applied science has been organised at Cleve- 

 land, C hio, for this purpose. "The course of study will 



