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form a course of study apart, strictly limited to a minimum or 

 completely distinct from classical instruction ; it comprises 

 three degrees — the primary, the grammar school, and the high 

 school course — sometimes combined in a single school, and 

 again subdivided among three different schools, but in all cases 

 connecting with the higher education, whether literary or profes- 

 sional, so that a child of the working class has the opportunity 

 of gratuitously continuing his education as far as his tastes and 

 aptitudes permit. 



8. The training of teachers is now almost universally regarded 

 as the essential condition of sound, popular education, and the 

 number of State Normal Schools is rapidly increasing. 



9. As the career of teaching is often taken up merely pro- 

 visionally by young men or women who do not intend to con- 

 tinue in the field, there results a very grievous instability in 

 the teaching force — though it should be observed that there is 

 some compensation for this evil in the fact that it draws into 

 the work a large number of young schoolmasters full of ardor, 

 equipped beyond the needs of the common school course, and 

 untrammelled by the spirit of routine. 



10. The coeducation of the sexes is the rule in the American 

 public school system, and except in some of the great cities is 

 becoming more and more the rule. The results of this usage 

 are generally represented as excellent in both the moral and 

 the intellectual aspect The only or at least the chief objec- 

 tions heard, are based on the excess of labor which the system 

 imposes on young girls. 



11. From these causes and from the marked taste of Amer- 

 icans for innovation and new departures, it has come to pass 

 that the schools of the United States show a diversity of organ- 

 ization, and a multiplicity of forms, courses of study, text- 

 books, and methods, which result in much experimentation 

 and a lamentable loss of time ; but which, by leaving a great 

 deal to the free choice and responsibility of teachers and local 

 authorities, interests them directly and personally in the suc- 

 cess of the school. 



12. Thence result, also, extraordinary efforts and boundless 

 liberality directed to giving the schools, both in the construc- 

 tion of the buildings and in the establishment and maintenance 



