596 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 203 



But a youth enters at the age cf about 14, with 

 the attainments required for passing^ an exauiiiia- 

 tion for the entlassungs-zeugniss, or certificate of 

 discharge, from a mittlere volksschule, or popular 

 school of the second grade, — a school which in 

 Saxony must be organized in at least four classes, 

 with a two-years' course for each. In the train- 

 ing-school, instruction and lodging are free ; a 

 small sum is paid for board, but a certain num- 

 ber of free boarders, ' gifted poor children,' are 

 admitted. To the training-school is attached a 

 practising school, organized as a mittlere schule, a 

 middle school with four classes and 155 scholars. 

 In this school the students see and learn the prac- 

 tice of teaching. Their own instruction they 

 receive in small classes which may not have more 

 than 25 scholars. Their hours in class may not 

 exceed 36 a week, not counting the time given to 

 music. The matters of instruction are religion, 

 German language and literature, Latin, geog- 

 raphy, history, natural science both descriptive 

 and theoretical, arithmetic, geometry, pedagogy 

 including psychology and logic, music, writing, 

 drawing, and gymnastics. AH of these matters 

 are obligatory, but after the first year students of 

 proved incapacity for music are no longer taught 

 it. One-third of the teacbing-staflf of the train- 

 ing-school may be distinguished elementary teach- 

 ers without university training, but this propor- 

 tion is never to be exceeded. Each teacher, ex- 

 clusive of the director, is bound to give 26 hours 

 of teaching in the week. There are half-yearly 

 examinations : the six years' term may be length- 

 ened by one year for a student who is deemed not 

 ripe for the leaving examination, which comes at 

 the conclusion of the course. At the end of the 

 course, when the student is about 20 years old, he 

 undergoes the schulamtskandidaten-prufung, or 

 examination for otfice. The examination is both 

 oral and in writing, and turns upon the work of 

 the student's course in the training-school. The 

 examining commission is composed of the Min- 

 ister's commissary, a church commissary, and 

 the whole staff of the training-college. The staff 

 conduct the examination, the Ministers commis- 

 sary presides and superintends. If the student 

 passes, he receives his reifezeugniss, or certificate 

 of ripeness, and is now qualified to serve as as- 

 sistant in a public popular school, or as a private 

 teacher where his work has not to go beyond the 

 limits of popular school instruction. After two 

 years of service as assistant, at the age of about 

 22, the young teacher returns to the training- 

 school and presents himself for the wahlfdhigheits- 

 prihfung, or examination for definitive posting. 

 For this examination the commission is composed 

 of the Minister's commissary, a church commis- 



sary, the director of the seminar, and either two 

 of its upper teachers, or else other approved school- 

 men named by the minister. This examination 

 again is both written and oral. Mr. Arnold at- 

 tended the oral part on two days, and heard and 

 saw candidates examined in religion, music, 

 German language and literature, the history of 

 education, pedagogy, psychology, logic, and school 

 law. 



Training-schools for women are much less 

 numerous in Germany than those for men, be- 

 cause women are much less used in teaching 

 than men ; the presumption being that women 

 carmot teach satisfactorily certain matters of in- 

 struction in the upper classes of a popular school. 

 The result is that in Prussia there are 115 training- 

 schools for men, and 10 for women ; in Saxony, 

 16 for men, 2 for women. 



As to teachers' salaries and pensions, custom 

 and law vary greatly. In Prussia in 1878 the 

 average salary of a schoolmaster was £51 12s. per 

 annum. In Berlin the average salary was £103 3s. 

 In France the primary-school teachers must rise 

 through a series of grades, to each of which a 

 fixed salary is attached, varying from £36 to 

 £48 for a man, and from £28 to £36 for a woman. 

 If a school- mis tress marries in Germany, she loses 

 her situation. In all the countries visited by Mr. 

 Arnold, teachers have retiring pensions, to establish 

 which a deduction is made from their salary. 



In respect to the fourth and last" subject of in- 

 quiry, that as to compulsory attendance, Mr. Arnold 

 quotes Saxon law as representative for all the coun- 

 tries visited by him. It is thus : " Every child has 

 to attend, for eight years uninterruptedly, the com- 

 mon popular school in the school district where it 

 resides ; as a rule, from the completion of the sixth 

 year of its age to the completion of its fourteenth. 

 Children who by the end of their eighth school 

 year do not attain due proficiency in the principal 

 matters of instruction, that is to say, in religion, 

 the German language, reading, writing, and 

 arithmetic, have to attend school a year longer. 

 The holidays for the popular schools in Saxony are 

 fixed by law, and amount to 44 days in the year. 

 In general the school meets for a minimum of 

 three hours in the morning and of two hours in 

 the afternoon. ' Parents and guardians are 

 bound,' says the law, ' to keep childi-en of 

 school age to a regular attendance in school 

 hours. As a general rule, only illness of the 

 child, or serious illness in the child's family, 

 is ground of excuse for its missing school.' Ab- 

 sences, with their causes, are entered daily by 

 the teacher in the school registers. At the end of 

 every month he hands a list of them to the 

 managers, whose chairman has to bring, within. 



