110 



for master or mistress. Nowhere in the United States is this 

 arrangement found. It is an evidence of a state of things not 

 without its unfortunate side: the teacher is engaged for a year 

 simply; he is paid by the month, and most frequently his 

 certificate has but a limited duration. Under these circum- 

 stances he but comes and goes ; when he is not a resident of 

 the locality, he takes board for the school term and has nothing 

 but a study or office in the school-house. 



School-houses of New York City. — In the school buildings in 

 New York City everything is sacrificed to the reception hall 

 with its vast platform, fitted to hold a desk, several arm-chairs 

 and a piano. In the hall it is that the stranger visiting the 

 school is received. The movement of five or six hundred chil- 

 dren entering in good order, to the sound of the piano, from 

 six or eight adjoining rooms, while the folding doors opening 

 below, show the smallest scholars ranked on steps — all this 

 makes a fine show ; but it is purchased too dearly, if the studies 

 and the health of the children are to suffer thereby, as we can- 

 not but think that they must 



The Kindergarten. — ^Infant Schools, which in France precede 

 the primary school, form no part of the public school sj^stem 

 of the United States. The few infant schools which exist are 

 private establishments, or else free institutions, without legal 

 recognition. Nevertheless, since 1871, Kindergartens on the 

 Froebel plan have been attached to some of the public schools 

 of Boston and St. Louis, and these establishments are every 

 year gaining ground in a quite marked manner in all the States. 

 The obstacles still encountered by the Kindergarten arise partly 

 from American domestic manners, and partly from the prejudice 

 which this German importation arouses in the minds of certain 

 superintendents. 



Woman in America is much less employed than she is in 

 France, Belgium, and England, in industrial employments that 

 take her from her household. ''Home, Sweet Home" is for 

 the Anglo-Saxon a species of worship, and in this sphere the 

 wife is to maintain order, peace and happiness, by attending 

 to her husband and children. It is not to be thought of that 

 she should go to a place of employment in the morning and 

 stay there till evening. The hearth must not be cold nor the 



