734 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 697 



sion of the plan to America. He requested 

 that the foundaticn act in an official ca- 

 pacity with the royal government of Prus- 

 sia and that it arrange all details of the 

 exchange for this side of the ocean. 



Upon receipt of the communication from 

 the Prussian minister, the president of the 

 Carnegie Foundation brought the matter 

 to the attention of the trustees, and at the 

 meeting of the trustees in November, 1907, 

 it was voted that the president of the foun- 

 dation should undertake the supervision, 

 on the American side, of the exchange with 

 Prussia. This bulletin is prepared, there- 

 fore, in order, first, to suggest the general 

 nature and value of the system, and, sec- 

 ond, to give the details by which it is to be 

 put into operation. It is addressed espe- 

 cially to presidents of colleges, universities 

 and normal schools, to superintendents of 

 schools and members of school boards, and 

 to teachers who may wish to consider 

 spending a year or a half year in Prussia 

 under the conditions offered by the Prus- 

 sian government. 



GENERAL NATURE OF THE SYSTEM 



The plan for this exchange of teachers 

 is to effect a permanent arrangement by 

 which teachers of the United States shall 

 be assigned for a year or half year to 

 schools in Prussia, and vice versa. The 

 instruction to be given in Prussia will be 

 the teaching of English in a conversational 

 way. It is not, however, necessary that the 

 teacher should be a teacher of language in 

 this country, but that he should be a cul- 

 tured man able to conduct such exercises 

 in an interesting manner. 



The significance of the interchange of 

 teachers between countries in Europe has 

 greatly increased during the last two years. 

 The immediate end gained by the exchange 

 of teachers of language is the vitalizing of 

 the instruction in foreign languages and 



the correction of defects in the system of 

 instruction in one country or the other. 

 But the indirect products of the exchange 

 are far more important. A teacher trans- 

 planted for a year to a school in a foreign 

 country has the opportunity to improve 

 his whole view of educational methods. 

 He returns to his regular work with in- 

 creased efficiency and with freshened abil- 

 ity to teach. 



By such an exchange students at an im- 

 pressionable age learn of the social customs 

 and gain the point of view of the people 

 of the other country, and this under an 

 arrangement which is stimulating and in- 

 teresting in comparison with the formal 

 language study. 



The exchange is, therefore, one that min- 

 isters not only to the improvement of the 

 teaching of modern languages, but to gen- 

 eral educational efficiency, to a broader 

 understanding of other countries and a 

 betterment of international relations. 



From the point of view of the young, 

 ambitious American teacher, the oppor- 

 tunity to spend a year in Prussia is an 

 attractive one and should be considered in 

 about the same way as a fellowship in a 

 good American university. In either case 

 the remuneration is slight. The American 

 teacher who goes to Prussia for a year will 

 receive from the Prussian government from 

 one hundred to one hundred and ten marks 

 a month ($25 to $27.50). It is estimated 

 that this is equivalent to about $40 to $45 

 a month in a small town in the United 

 States, and that it will meet the actual 

 living expenses of the teacher during the 

 year. 



The remuneration is a secondary consid- 

 eration. Teachers, especially those who are 

 now serving their apprenticeships as schol- 

 ars or fellows in colleges and universities, 

 preparing themselves for the profession of 

 teaching, will recognize the benefit which a 



