106 



for himself a stable and permanent position. Those who 

 abandon it before obtaining their retiring pension form the 

 exception. The young beginner expects to live and die a 

 teacher, and as each year adds to his previous experience, the 

 time comes when, possessed of adequate theoretical and prac- 

 tical knowledge, he is able to discipline his class methodically 

 and successfully. 



Not at all thus is it in the United States. The profession of 

 teacher seems to be a sort of intermediate stage in one's career 

 — a stage at which the young woman awaits an establishment 

 suited to her tastes, and the young man a more lucrative posi- 

 tion. For many young people, this transitory profession simply 

 furnishes the means of continuing their studies. Few male 

 teachers remain more than five years in the service; and, if 

 the lady teachers show a longer term, it is not to be forgotten 

 that marriage is usually the end of their desires, and that, once 

 married, they almost always resign their positions. It has 

 thus come to pass, by the mere force of circumstances, that 

 the school authorities have been led not only to establish 

 various regulations for the application of school laws, but also 

 to lay down detailed courses of study containing the subjects 

 to be taught in each kind of school, in each class, often in each 

 division, and this for each term, if not for each month in the 

 3^ear. The time-tables in schools that are at all regularly 

 attended are fixed in advance, the text-books are chosen by 

 the school board ; and finally, school manuals, often of great 

 value, are furnished as a vade mecum^ from which teachers 

 may derive information as to methods and the various details 

 of daily work. 



Time-Tables. — A class in an American public school, even in 

 the cities, comprises at, least three divisions or sections, and in 

 some classes with not more than forty-five pupils, five sections 

 are found. But while in France it is a principle not to go 

 beyond three divisions, and to bring these together as frequently 

 as possible in collective lessons, such as reading, writing, history, 

 geography, object lessons, and dictation — whereby these exer- 

 cises receive the amount of time required for some degree of 

 fullness in the development of the subject, — the American 

 system rarely admits a combination of this kind. Each divi- 



