philharmonic society, with a government subsidy. Of the attendance of pupils, about 40 per cent are females.[1]
The school of arts and trades, with its five-year course of mathematics, physics, chemistry, industrial inventions, political economy, Spanish, French, drawing, and mechanical arts, is attended by a large number of students.[2] The school of commerce and administration, and those for the blind and deaf-mutes, are objects of special care and attention.
For women there are several superior schools, and their number and attendance is increasing with the general progress.[3] In the school of arts for women at Mexico, instruction is given in photography, telegraphy, printing, and other branches, with a view to open a path for them in useful careers. The boarding-schools, which absorb a comparatively large number of girls, also impart several advanced studies.[4] Special primary schools exist for women as for men, besides evening classes.
In view of the rapid spread of education and the demand for teachers, the creation of normal schools has hardly grown apace. The smallness and uncertainties of the pay, and the rather equivocal position of primary teachers, have neutralized the aspirations of candidates.[5] Primaries will, no doubt, be surrendered more and more to the charge of women.
The national university, once the pride of Mexico, has disappeared before the encroachments of professional colleges. The similar establishment at Guada-
- ↑ An orchestra and theatre are attached. Besides the branch mainly attended in the school, mathematics, book-keeping, geography, history, French, Italian, and even drawing and painting are taught.
- ↑ Laboratories and workshops are attached. The semi-penal school at Tecpan is similar in range.
- ↑ With rare exceptions, the branches are limited to mathematics, domestic hygiene, book-keeping, botany, history, modern languages, painting, and feminine work. Soc. Alex. Geog., Boletin, 3d pt, v. 684, etc.; Arch. Mex., Col. Ley., ii. 7-10; Romero, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, ix. 124-6.
- ↑ These schools gained by the closing of convent schools, of which 21 are mentioned in Mex., Mem. Sec. Just., 1844, doc. 19, and others in Id., 1829, docs. 12 et seq.
- ↑ In colleges, the pay varies from $300 to $2,000; but in primaries it is as low as $6 to $10 a month. Ia the large towns, $50 is considered a high rate.
