stages in its development: the pioneer stage, having Boston as its centre; the philanthropic stage, which began in the village of Florence, Mass., and reached its climax at Kindergartens.San Francisco, California; the national or strictly educational stage, which began at St Louis; and the so-called maternal stage, which from Chicago as a centre is spreading over the entire country. During the first stage public attention was directed to a few of the most important aspects of Froebel’s teaching. During the second stage the kindergarten was valued largely as a reformatory and redemptive influence. During the third stage the fundamental principles underlying kindergarten training were scientifically studied and expounded, and the kindergarten became part of the public school system of the country. The fourth stage, which, like the third, is fortunately still in existence, aims at making the kindergarten a link between the school and the home, and so to use it to strengthen the foundations and elevate the ideals of family life. By 1898 there were 4363 kindergartens in the United States (1365 of which were public), employing 9937 teachers (2532 in the public kindergartens) and enrolling 189,604 children (95,867 in the public kindergartens). Of the 164 public normal schools, 36 made provision for training kindergarten teachers. The scientific and literary activity of some of the private kindergarten training classes is very great, and they exert a beneficial and stimulating effect on teaching in the elementary schools. It is generally admitted that from the point of view of the children, of the teachers, of the schools, and of the community at large, the kindergarten has been and is an inspiration of incalculable value.
The elementary school course is from six to nine years in length, the ordinary period being eight years. The pupils enter at about six years of age. In the cities the elementary schools are usually in session for five hours daily, except Saturday and Sunday, beginning at 9 a.m. There is an intermission, usually of an hour, Elementary schools.at midday, and short recesses during the sessions. In the small rural schools the pupils are usually ungraded, and are taught singly or in varying groups. In the cities and towns there is a careful gradation of pupils, and promotions from grade to grade are made at intervals of a year or of a half-year. The best schools have the most elastic system of gradation and the most frequent promotions. In a number of states there are laws authorizing the conveyance of children to school at the public expense, when the schoolhouse is unduly distant from the homes of a portion of the school population. Co-education (q.v.) in the elementary school has been the salutary and almost uniform practice in the United States. The programme of studies in the elementary school includes English (reading, writing, spelling, grammar, composition), arithmetic (sometimes elementary algebra also, or plane geometry in the upper grades), geography, history of the United States, and elementary natural science, including human physiology and hygiene. Physical training, vocal music, drawing and manual training are often taught. Sometimes a foreign language (Latin, German or French) and the study of general history are begun. Formal instruction in manners and morals is not often found, but the discipline of the school offers the best possible training in the habits of truthfulness, honesty, obedience, regularity, punctuality and conformity to order. Religious teaching is not permitted, although the exercises of the day are often opened with reading from the Bible, the repetition of the Lord’s Prayer and the singing of a hymn. Corporal punishment is not infrequent, but is forbidden by law in New Jersey, and in many states may be used only under restrictions. Text-books are used as the basis of the instruction given, and the pupils “recite” in class to the teacher, who, by use of illustration and comment, makes clear the subject-matter of the prescribed lesson. The purpose of the recitation method is to make the work of each pupil help that of his companion. Skilfully used, it is the most effectual instrument yet devised for elementary school instruction.
The secondary school course is normally four years in length. The principal subjects studied are Latin, Greek, French, German, algebra, geometry, physics, chemistry, physical geography, physiology, rhetoric, English literature, civics and history. Although but 11·36% of the students in public high schools and 25·36% of those in private secondary Secondary schools.schools are preparing for a college or scientific school, yet the conditions prescribed by the colleges for admission to their courses affect powerfully both the secondary school programme and the methods of teaching. Of late years no educational topic has been more widely discussed than that as to the proper relations of secondary schools and colleges. As a result, special examinations for admission to college are either greatly simplified or entirely abolished, and the secondary studies are much more substantial and better taught than formerly. An increasing proportion of secondary school teachers are college graduates. The most extraordinary characteristic of secondary education in recent years is the rapid increase in the number of students taking Latin as a school subject. Meanwhile the proportion of those studying physics and chemistry has fallen off slightly. The rate of increase in the number of pupils who study Latin is fully twice as great as the rate of increase in the number of secondary school students. Between 1890 and 1896, while the number of students in private secondary schools increased 12%, the number of students in public secondary schools increased 87%. Since 1894 the number of students in private secondary schools has steadily declined.
The American college, although it is the outgrowth of the English colleges of Oxford and of Cambridge, has developed into an institution which has no counterpart in Europe. The college course of study, at first three years in length, was soon extended to four years, and the classes are uniformly known as the freshman, The colleges.the sophomore, the junior and the senior. The traditional degree which crowns the college course is that of Bachelor of Arts (A.B.). The studies ordinarily insisted on in the case of candidates for this degree are Latin, Greek, mathematics, English, philosophy, political economy, history, at least one modern European language (French or German), and at least one natural science. The degrees of Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Bachelor of Philosophy (Ph.B.), and Bachelor of Letters (B.L.) are often conferred by colleges upon students who have pursued systematic courses of study which do not include Greek or the amount of Latin required for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. The best colleges give instruction which is similar in character to that given in Germany in the three upper classes of the gymnasium and in the introductory courses at the universities, in France in the two upper classes of the lycée and in the first two years of university study, and in England in the upper form of the public schools and during the years of undergraduate residence at Oxford and Cambridge. Since 1870 the colleges have developed enormously. Their resources have multiplied, the number of their students has increased by leaps and bounds, the programme of studies has broadened and deepened, the standards have been raised, and the efficiency of the instruction has greatly increased. Rigidly prescribed courses of study have given way to elective courses, and a knowledge of Greek is no longer required for the degree of A.B. at such influential colleges as Harvard, Columbia, Cornell and Williams. A strong effort is being made to have the leading colleges give but one degree, that of Bachelor of Arts, and to confer that upon those who complete any substantial course of college studies. A marked change has taken place in the attitude of the college authorities toward the students. In 1870 the college president was a paterfamilias. He knew each student and came into direct personal contact with him. The president and the faculty had supervision not only of the studies of the students, but of their moral and religious life as well. The older type of college professor was not always a great scholar, but he was a student of human nature, with keen intuitions and shrewd insight. The new type, which had come into existence at the opening of the 20th century, was more scholarly in some special direction, often regarded teaching as a check upon opportunities for investigation, and disdained troubling himself with a student’s personal concerns or intellectual and moral difficulties. The change was not altogether
