234 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1050 



the solid line showing those in science are de- 

 clining, indicating that the percentage of 

 high-school students who go on to college is 

 constantly diminishing, but, in so far as the 

 graph throws light on our problem, it indi- 

 cates that classical studies, among high-school 

 graduates intending to go on to college, have 

 been growing in disfavor more rapidly than 

 the scientific. 



The apparent increase, the country over, in 

 the enrolment in Latin, and the decrease in 

 physics, chemistry, physiology, et cetera, may 

 be due to such changes in restricted regions 

 which are not standing in a position of edu- 

 cational leadership. Such, I think, is the ease, 

 and hence I do not believe that the data Mr. 

 Fisher uses can show the trend in modern sec- 

 ondary education. In the first place, the great 

 increase in public high-school enrolment has 

 been in the rural high schools. The sort of 

 course in vogue there will determine, there- 

 fore, in large measure, the increasing enrol- 

 ment in the various subjects. Mr. Fisher's 

 second chart indicates that the percentage of 

 population in public high schools has increased 

 much more rapidly than the population of the 

 United States, but that the rate of increase in 

 urban high schools has been very slow. In 

 other words, the drift which his figures might 

 show is a drift that is found in the rural high 

 schools. From 1890 to 1913 the percentage 

 of the rural population (in cities of less than 

 8,000) attending the rural high schools has 

 risen from 0.15 per cent, to 1.40 per cent., 

 while the percentage of urban population in 

 urban high schools has only risen fom 0.Y4 

 per cent, to 1.4Y per cent. In 1890, the en- 

 rolment in rural high schools was only half 

 (50.4 per cent.) of that in city high schools; 

 in 1913 it was 11 per cent, greater. We 

 should hardly look to the rural high schools, 

 which have been established in such numbers 

 in the last decade or two, to set the pace in 

 educational matters. The trend in education 

 would be much better indicated by the move- 

 ments in the larger high schools and in the 

 more progressive states. In the second place, 

 in the decade from 1900 to 1910, 59.5 per cent. 

 of the increase in high school attendance was 



in the North Atlantic states, a region still 

 under the dominance of classic ideals in its 

 smaller high schools. This fact would tend 

 to make any reports including these figures 

 show a dominance of the classics. Thus in 

 Connecticut^ the number of students pursuing 

 various branches is given as follows: Modern 

 language, 7,586; Latin and Greek, 5,94Y; 

 mathematics, 12,070; literature, 21,429; sci- 

 ence, 6,876. In Ohio, however, the figures are : 

 modern language, 53,681 ; Latin, 45,023 ; mathe- 

 matics, 200,875; literature, 61,755; science, 

 489,412.* Yet one would hardly even accuse 

 New England of leading secondary education 

 away from the sciences to the humanities. 



The Ohio State Eeport (1913) gives com- 

 parative figures (p. 13) for a much shorter 

 period than the U. S. Commissioner. I give 

 them herewith for 1909 and 1913. 



1909 1913 



Science 467,668 487,974 



Latin 42,765 45,023 



English 747,813 756,009 



The data for New Jersey can be given only for 

 the last two years. 



1912 1913 



Science .'17,509 22,478 



Latin 15,003 13,147 



English 28,540 32,230 



These citations are not selected. Eeports were 

 requested from what seemed a fair sample of 

 states, namely, N. H., Vt., Mass., Conn., N. T., 

 N. J., Pa., Ohio, Mich., Minn., la., Va., Md., 

 Ky., Ga., Ore., Cal. The ones cited are the 

 only ones among these which gave the desired 

 information. 



Not many of the states furnish, for a 

 period of years, data regarding the enrolment 

 in various subjects in the high schools. I 

 give herewith the graph (Fig. 3) of the state 

 of Minnesota, showing the percentage of the 

 total enrolment in science, Latin and Eng- 

 lish. The percentage in mathematics and in 

 the history group has remained at about the 



3 P. 228, "Eeport of the State Board of Edu- 

 cation," 1910-11. 



4 Ohio School Eeport, 1913, p. 70-73. 



