July 29, 1904.] 



SCISNCE. 



133 



teachers— especially as they are mostly 

 women. And it has some serious conse- 

 quences. One of these is inability to con- 

 centrate the attention. Everywhere the 

 heads of the high schools complained that 

 the pupils who came from the elementary 

 schools could not concentrate their atten- 

 tion upon their work. Several were of 

 opinion that under the somewhat more 

 rigid conditions of the high school improve- 

 ment in this respect gradually took place 

 as the pupils moved up. On the other 

 hand, in more than one case it was ad- 

 mitted candidly by the head teacher of the 

 elementary school that the extent to which 

 the children could concentrate their atten- 

 tion diminished as they grew older and 

 passed up the school; thirty minutes, we 

 were told, was the longest period during 

 which boys could concentrate their atten- 

 tion and work effectively. This failing, I 

 believe, is not unknown in our OAvn schools. 



PuUic High Schools.— Although we 

 have no schools which are the precise 

 equivalent of these, some of our higher 

 grade elementary schools, come very close 

 to them in many respects. It is noteworthy 

 that, in a city like New York, few who can 

 afford to send their children to private 

 schools make use of the public high school 

 — one chief reason assigned being that the 

 classes in the latter are so large that indi- 

 vidual pupils can not receive sufficient at- 

 tention. Of those who enter, in New York, 

 about fifty per cent, (mostly boys) leave 

 during the first year to go into business; 

 under ten per cent, remain iintil the fourth 

 year. It is said that a much larger propor- 

 tion are retained in the schools in the mid- 

 dle west. 



In common with all my colleagues, I was 

 favorably impressed by the way in which 

 English literature was taught, but I could 

 not discover that the teaching was carried 

 to a logical end and fondness for reading 



inculcated.* I found no more evidence 

 that proper attention was paid to writing 

 and English composition than in our 

 schools ; the subject which of all others is of 

 primary importance seems to be equally 

 neglected in both countries. I met with 

 no proper attempt to correlate the English 

 composition with any of the practical work. 



In the teaching of mathematics and sci- 

 ence, the American high schools seem to 

 me to be considerably behind our best 

 schools. I came across little evidence that 

 the practical methods of teaching mathe- 

 matics and geometry which are coming into 

 vogue here are appreciated; and the old 

 academic methods of teaching science seem 

 to prevail almost exclusively. No proper 

 foundation for such work is laid in the 

 elementary schools. 



In one respect there has been an impor- 

 tant departure: the recognition of the 

 value of manual training has led to the 

 development of a special manual training 

 department and, in some cases, of distinct 

 manual training high schools ; in the latter, 

 manual training takes the place of classics. 

 In some cases, perhaps the majority, these 

 are tending to develop into trade schools 

 and to aim at proficiency in wood and metal 

 work; they are elaborately equipped with 

 tools. Nominally, they profess to regard 

 the manual work from an educational 

 standpoint, but it is quite clear that in 

 most cases the will passes for the deed and 

 that the teachers are not competent to de- 

 velop the subjects pedagogically. 



But we met with one most remarkable 



* In tlie new Morris High School in New York 

 — a magnificent building to accommodate nearly 

 3,000 pupils — a very fine library will be provided. 

 The head master told us that it was his intention 

 to develop the use of this systematically and that 

 many duplicates would be provided of important 

 books. A feature in this school will be a per- 

 manently darkened class-room with electric lan- 

 tern, etc., into wliich classes can go to witness 

 lantern demonstrations in connection with geog- 

 raphy lessons, etc. 



