Popular Science Monthly/Volume 79/December 1911/The Germans at School
| THE GERMANS AT SCHOOL |
By Professor HUGO MÜNSTERBERG
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
AT the time of their political weakness the Germans were derisively called the thinkers and dreamers. When the other great nations divided the world of reality among themselves, the Germans took refuge in the realm of fancy. The stronger peoples considered them as the members of a rich household look on the poor schoolmaster at their table. That time has passed away. The politics and commerce and industry of Germany have secured its powerful position in the world, and no one doubts the strength of the Germans in the field of the real facts. But there was mingled with the derisive mood of previous times a silent respect for that German idealism. The name of thinkers and dreamers appeared to some, and not to the worst, a title of honor. The world acknowledged that in scholarship and research and education the Germans were able to teach mankind. Their schools were models and their methods superior, and in the days of war the world accepted the saying that the German schoolmaster had won the battles. How much of this honor and glory has been left in these days of German commercial, industrial and political advance? Has the forward striving in the realm of might and power meant loss of prestige, and, what is more important, loss of true achievement in the field of thought and education, or did the progress of modern Germany involve as much intellectual gain as practical profit? The Germans at work easily win the admiration of every visitor who goes to their centers of industry. Are the Germans at school equally deserving of honorable praise, or are they simply resting on their laurels?
The educational life of a country is always a great organism in which all parts are interdependent. There can not be good schools without good universities, nor good universities without good schools. The quality of the teachers and the quality of the pupils, the general education and the special instruction are all intimately related to one another. We must look into this organic system if we want to ascertain its strength and endurance. A few educational show pieces are not enough. Is there progress and growth in all the essential parts. We may begin with the German university, which is, after all, the real heart of the whole Organism and which had more direct influence on American educational life than any other part of the German educational system. Those who built up the great American institutions in the last generation from mere colleges into true universities had received the decisive impulses in German academic halls. To be sure in recent years a kind of reaction has set in in America. The tradition that German university work represents the highest standards of scholarship has recently been roughly handled by skeptics. Some have claimed that German university research is too specialistic and on that account too narrow. The German scholars lack the wide perspective which has been characteristic of so much of the best English work. Others insist that the structure of the German publications is formless. They long for the French polish and clearness. Some blame the German professors for a certain remoteness from life and feel that American scholarship will abolish this kind of "scholarship for scholars" and will again unite science and life. It was inevitable that such a reaction should occur. The young generation of American university instructors found a situation entirely different from that which their teachers had found some decades before. Great American universities had been built up in the meantime and had created a new spirit of scholarly independence which naturally took the turn of a slight opposition to the former masters. But such reactions are only passing moods. Those who know German scholarship to-day have no doubt that all these accusations never have had less justice than at present. Certainly German scholarship is specialistic, and there will never be any true scholarship which is not founded on specialistic work. Any thorough research must be specialistic, and research without thoroughness can never secure lasting results. But the work of the great German naturalists and historians has shown at all times the tendency to wide generalizations, and the present day perhaps more than the last half century is again filled with broad philosophical endeavor. Still more unfair is the often repeated cry against the formlessness of German scholarship. Not every doctor's thesis can be a thing of beauty, but perhaps there has never been a time in which the German language has been so shaped by aesthetic ideals. The German bookbinders were for a long while notorious for tasteless covers, but the general opinion in recent international exhibitions has been that now no country makes more beautiful bindings than Germany. This artistic improvement of the book is not confined to the cover. The content of the German book shows a literary finish in structure and style which ought not to be overlooked. Finally, as to the aloofness of German scholarship, the triumphs of modern German technique and medical therapy speak loudly enough of the comradeship between science and life. And how could it be otherwise in a country which has become so mark-hunting and practical. The best proof of the injustice of such accusations and attacks lies in the number of American students who still feel attracted by the German academic atmosphere in spite of the wonderful development of American higher institutions of learning.
Last winter there were three hundred American students in German universities, and it must not be forgotten that these young men and women are not undergraduate college students, but that the German university welcomes them only if they can show their college diploma. The German semesters correspond to the study in the post-graduate departments of the American universities. As Director of the AmerikaInstitut, I wrote to these three hundred delegates of the new world and asked them with what training they came and for what purpose, whether they felt satisfied or whether they found anything of which to complain, what they were doing and what they were intending to do, and what they could suggest. The answers display an interesting variety. The young American scholars came from all parts of the country and their favorite spots in Germany are Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Heidelberg and Göttingen. In their studies naturally the German language and German literature take the lead, but philosophy, history, political economy and, in the line of science, chemistry and medicine stand next. Mathematics is also often chosen, and, on the whole, there is no corner in the field of learning to which some Americans are not turning. Lowest in the list is the study of law, which of course is best pursued in one's own country. As to their aims and reasons for coming to Germany, some, to be sure, had no deeper argument than that they "had a fellowship," and some that there "is no special reason." Some wanted to see a foreign civilization at first-hand in order to be able to judge more correctly of their own, or to study German in order to teach it in America. But the overwhelming majority insisted that there was still superior opportunity for their special branches in German institutions and that the most thorough and deepest preparation could still be gained on German soil. The two fundamental tones of the replies were given by the one who wrote: "I came to train myself to think independently," and by the other who wrote: "The best that was offered me in the American lecture room, library and seminary was the fruit directly or indirectly of German research. I wished to come into intimate contact with it." As to their satisfaction with the results, praise and complaint were intermingled. Many asserted that they were entirely satisfied, not a few expressing themselves in terms of enthusiasm. Some limited their approval to certain sides: "Very well satisfied with intellectual side of the university, but have not received much help religiously." Others miss the American sports or the social life among students. Many are dissatisfied with the lack of personal contact with professors. Again some complain that the student finds no oversight and is not called to account and that accordingly too much loafing is possible. Some complain that the attendants do not understand English or that the libraries do not give out the books quickly enough. Some suggest more opportunities for learning the language, others demand the removal of evil social influences and student drunkennes. But there is an almost surprising unity in the instinctive acknowledgment of the admirable methods of research and of highly advanced instruction. This cordial appreciation by those who stand in the midst of the German influences corresponds to the judgment of all who see German academic life with impartial eyes. There is an intensity in the search for truth and an eagerness for the development of the best scholarly methods which is still unsurpassed in the world.
The weaknesses of the German university are not few. To those who come from American traditions the most regrettable difference is the lack of interest in the student's life. The student is practically left to himself. This is true as to his social life and true as to his studies. No one supervises him, no one cares whether he is industrious or lazy, and the result is that many a weak man comes to grief who might have succeeded with the help and control of the American system. But these defects of the German university as educational institutions are the necessary counterparts of their excellencies as places of independent scholarship. The highest goal of intellectual achievement will always be reached only in complete freedom, and this freedom is somewhat dangerous for the weak man. There can be no doubt that the German system is indeed much more adjusted to those above the average than to those below, and the opposite is true of the American system. But it is not only the lack of personal help and the demand for his own activity which is in contrast with the American ample provisions for intellectual support. Even the choice of the teachers differs in the same direction. The American instructor is appointed, above all, because he is a good teacher; the German because he is an important contributor to the advancement of knowledge. He may be and not seldom is a poor teacher. Yet the German university ideal suggests that the true student will profit more from the contact with a man who has mastered the method of research than with any inferior scholar, however effective he may be as a teacher. The American is often no less surprised by the way in which the professors are chosen for appointment. The American universities are monarchies. The president with his trustees elects a new member of the faculty without being dependent upon the vote of any professor. In the democratic life of the German university the government which has to make the appointments is dependent upon the vote of the faculty itself. The professors choose their own colleagues. This again in principle indicates the desire to make the point of view of scholarship superior to every administrative question. It can not be denied that in practise it frequently looks quite differently. The influence of the colleagues is too often exerted in the interest of some groups, cliques and petty prejudices. It would be a blessing for many a university faculty in Germany if an American president with his great powers stood above them. The Germans themselves are far from considering their universities perfect. Intense reform movements are reshaping the entire university life, but it is characteristic that no so-called reform propositions are taking hold which limit in any way the freedom of study. The Germans do not want more examinations by which the student becomes more or less a school pupil, although they believe in thorough discipline and supervision even in the highest classes of the Gymnasium, which corresponds to the average American college. The most wholesome change in the student life is the quiet but steady repression of the vulgar beer-drinking habits with all the noisy accessories. The entire student life, has become cleaner and more modern. The old traditions had come from a time when the young academic scholar wanted to emphasize the contrast between his eager life and the dullness of the philistine crowd. But modern times have changed this contrast by bringing life and interest and political activity into those crowds and the student has thus lost his right to live a life entirely different from that of his social surroundings. The rush of young Germany toward the university is still steadily increasing. There are about 63,000 students in the twenty-one high seats of learning, 12,000 in the law schools, 12,000 in the medical schools, about 4,000 students of divinity and the remainder in the so-called philosophical faculty which corresponds to the American graduate school. It is characteristic that the chief increase has come to the universities in the large cities in which the old-fashioned student life has always played a small role. In Berlin there are 14,000 persons attending the lectures and in Munich 7,000, in Leipzig 6,000. Yet especially those universities in small towns which are famous for the beauty of landscape have had their proportionate growth. In lovely Freiburg in Baden the one thousandth student was welcomed with a celebration at the time when I came there as a young instructor. Recently they have celebrated the coming of the three thousandth student. The rapid growth of the academic communities strongly suggests the foundation of new universities. Münster in Westphalia grew into a full-fledged university only a few years ago, Frankfort-on-Main is at present fighting with enthusiasm for the development of its academy into a university. The Prussian Diet is still seriously objecting to this ambition of the citizens of Frankfort, as it fears that the smaller universities in the neighborhood would be the sufferers, but the university of Frankfort is surely to come. The same may be said of the university of Hamburg, which so far consists of a number of interrelated institutes. But while the universities are growing in number and branching off in new and ever new specialties, they are also being supplemented by new forms of scholarly activity. The most characteristic new feature which gains increasing importance is the erection of research institutes, especially in the field of natural science and medicine. There investigations can be carried on without any reference to instruction, the scholars are disburdened from every educational responsibility, and the progress of knowledge becomes the only goal. At the same time the number of technical schools on the level of the universities has been increased to twelve, since those of Danzig and Breslau have recently come into existence, and Germany's famous mining schools, forest schools, agricultural schools and veterinary schools show the same signs of flourishing life.
The greatest change, however, in the academic life of the nation has come through the new regulations which link the university with the schools. The American schools have usually left a certain freedom in the choice of studies within a single institution. In the same high school the boy can take a classical course or a more realistic course. Germany has always had separate schools for the different schemes of preparation. The higher schools which engaged the boys to the nineteenth or twentieth year have always been of three types, the Gymnasium which puts the chief emphasis on Latin and Greek, the Real gymnasium which omits the Greek and emphasizes modern languages and the Oberreal gymnasium which has very little Latin but much natural science. They correspond roughly to the American high school and a modest American college or the first two or three years of the best colleges. The tradition allowed only those who had the certificate of the Gymnasium to take up the study of law, medicine, divinity and philology. The university study of natural sciences and of modern languages besides a number of practical callings were the only goals accessible to those who came from the other two types of schools. Long struggles which excited all Germany led to the abolition of this monopoly by classical education. With the year 1902 the great modern school reform began and every year has brought new advance. To-day practically every boy who has passed through a school of any one of the three types finds the doors of the university wide open, whatever profession he may choose. It may be too early to judge whether only advantages will follow in the train of this reform. There are not a few who are afraid that the realistic schooling of the future lawyers and government officers may be a danger for the idealistic character of the national life, and there are many who believe that even the physician needs to read his Plato in school time more than to begin at once with the chemical laboratory. But in any case the great change has brought fresh air into the academic halls. The second great change was the full admission of women. For a long time they had the permission to attend lectures but no academic rights equal to those of men could be acknowledged for the women students until they should bring to the entrance door of the university the same certificate as the boys were expected to bring from their schools. The real advance of the women in the university sphere depended upon the establishment of girls' schools which would lead to exactly the same goal as the Gymnasium for boys. This was at last accomplished by the splendid organization of girls' instruction of three years ago.
Prussia has now four types of higher schools for girls, each of which may be divided into various independent departments. In the center stands the upper girls' school, a somewhat revised edition of the traditional German school for girls. There are ten classes which are usually passed through in the period from the sixth to the sixteenth year. The first three classes are preparatory, with eight to ten hours a week instruction in the mother tongue, three hours arithmetic every week, two to three hours writing, two hours needlework, three hours of religion, which is an organic part of every German school, two half hours of singing, two half hours of gymnastics and some drawing as well. In the seven upper classes the German language takes six, five and finally four hours a week, and French exactly the same number, altogether thirty-two hours each in those seven years. English is taught in the four upper classes only four hours a week, mathematics three hours a week throughout, geography two hours through the seven years, natural history two hours, religion two hours, drawing two hours, singing two hours, gymnastic two hours, needlework two hours, but this is no longer obligatory in the four upper classes. Those who have passed through this ten years' course may enter either the so-called Frauenschule or the Seminary or the Studienanstalt. The first is planned to complete the education of a young woman who seeks a higher training without any professional aim. It is adjusted to the needs of women who are to play an intelligent role, not only in the home, but also in social life. It is in no way a finishing school for one who aims to shine in society, but meant for those who really want to serve. It is usually a course of two years in which pedagogy, household economy, kindergarten work, hygiene, political economy, civics, bookkeeping and needlework stand in the foreground, while modern languages, history, literature, natural science, art, drawing and music are relegated to the position of minor electives. The Seminary, on the other hand, is meant for those who aim to become teachers of the lower schools. It demands three years' scholarly work and one year of practical training in schools. In those three years of theoretical study, French, English and mathematics take four hours a week each year, German, natural science and religion three hours a week, pedagogy, history and geography two hours. In their fourth year, the practical term, the candidates study pedagogy and methods of teaching seven hours, eight hours a week thesis writing, six hours training in practical class work and six hours training in the practical methods of the various subjects, including laboratory experiments. In addition to all this, through the four years there are three hours of gymnastics, two hours of drawing and one hour of singing. For the friends of women's progress, however, the chief accent of the system lies on the Studienanstalt. It is a school of six classes demanding six years' work open to those who have passed the first seven classes of the higher girls' schools. The three highest classes of the girls' school are then skipped, and instead of them the six years' course undertaken. This, however, is again divided into three separate schools corresponding to the Gymnasium, the Real gymnasium and the Oberrealschule of the boys. In the Gymnasium course during those six years the girls have three hours a week German, six hours a week Latin, at first three, later two hours French, in the first two classes three hours a week English, in the last four classes eight hours a week Greek. Through all the years there is history two hours, mathematics first four, later two hours, religion two, geography one, gymnastics three and drawing three. In the Real gymnasium the girls have no Greek whatever, but throughout six hours Latin, three hours French, three hours English and somewhat more mathematics and natural science than in the Gymnasium course. Finally in the Oberrealschule Latin too is omitted while both French and English are increased to four hours a week, mathematics to five, natural science to four and German also to four. This new plan adapts itself most successfully to the various needs, and the only danger lies in the fact that inasmuch as these three last types of schools open wide the way to the professional studies of the universities the number of academically trained women may soon by far surpass the demand of the community.
This vivid activity in the direction of liberal changes through governmental initiative does not exclude an abundance of efforts to break new educational paths. For instance much interest is centered nowadays on the so-called reform schools. They aim toward postponing the decision for a particular type of school as late as possible. The usual schools are different from the start. The classical schools begin with their Latin in the lowest classes. The reform school systems, of which the model was the city school system of Frankfort, have a common foundation for all schools, reminding one in this respect of the American principle. The much-discussed Frankfort plan in the first three classes gives to all the pupils in common five hours German, six hours French, two hours geography, five hours mathematics, two hours of natural science, two hours of writing, three to two hours of religion, three hours of gymnastics, two hours of drawing and two hours of singing. Only with the fourth class does the bifurcation begin. In the classical course the fourth class begins at once with ten hours Latin and the sixth class with eight hours of Greek, while in the realistic course the Latin is started in the fourth class, with eight hours going down to six, and the English begins in the sixth class with six hours. There is still much distrust of this apparently very reasonable procedure. Every one feels that the momentous decision of the character of the education ought to be made at an age when the individual differences show more clearly than in the first years of school life, but the friends of the traditional Gymnasium are still convinced that a thorough classical training in accordance with the old German ideals ought to shape the mind of the youth in the characteristic way from a tender age. There the German school men still stand in the midst of passionate discussions.
But the intense pedagogical forward movement of the German people must not be studied only in the programs of the official schools. After all they represent the conservative aspect. The most progressive changes which would upset the traditions altogether are expressed in private institutions, usually the creations of enthusiastic idealists. They feel that there is a deep-lying antagonism between the claims of the official school and hundreds of thousands of hopes. Undoubtedly a large part of the nation is convinced that the whole school system is antiquated and too little adjusted to the needs of the new Germany. The schools still carry with them too much of that Germany which lived and thought but which was politically powerless and in the practical world helpless. The new German who does not look into the clouds but prefers to stand with both feet firm on the ground wants knowledge of natural science instead of languages, wants development toward national patriotism instead of religion in school, and wants civics instead of archeology. The center of it all is the firm demand that the youth be prepared for the national life with its social demands and its realistic energies. The character is to be developed still more than the intellect, and the mind is to be schooled for a time which overstrains a man unless he is trained for concentration. Of course much superficiality and pedagogical amateurishness are in play there. Especially the educational value of the natural sciences is still a very doubtful claim in the eyes of those who have really watched the outcome. But in this point too the serious reformers propose a fundamental change. They say that natural sciences are indeed without fundamental significance for the mind of the youth if the instruction means only a heaping up of information. In these days of rapid naturalistic progress the temptation is always great to bring the boy in contact with as many fields of positive knowledge as possible. But there is too much kaleidoscopic unrest in this superficial excitement of the intellect to bring any lasting gain. The new leaders therefore wish that knowledge be considered as unimportant and that the mastery of method and of naturalistic thinking alone be emphasized. The boys are to learn how to learn from nature. And in a corresponding way these groups of reformers wish to change the teaching of history. The children are not to learn the facts but the methods to find out the true facts from various sources. They are to be brought into contact with the old reports by which the events of the past are transmitted. The knowledge of the languages ought to be gained by practise in conversation, the knowledge of the earth by wandering and living in nature.
This is typically combined in the much-admired institutions of Dr. Lietz, the so-called Landerziehungsheime, educational homes in the country. Lietz was a young enthusiastic teacher who was moved by the ideal of building up healthy, strong, joyful, energetic and judicial men who would be in sympathy with their fellow creatures and understand the needs of the common people, and yet who would be inspired by art and science and technique. He has created in the loveliest regions of Germany three national schools, for the youngest children between seven and twelve in Ilsenburg in the Hartz, the second in Haubinda in Thuringia for the boys between twelve and fifteen and the third in the castle of Bieberstein in the Rhön Mountains for boys between sixteen and twenty. All three places are far removed from the turmoil of the world, and the boys find there a most harmonious interconnection of intellectual training, handicraft work, agricultural activity, sport and inspiring social intercourse between teachers and pupils. It is a delight to see those happy youngsters under conditions in which their natural instincts for out-of-door life and for social companionship, for manual activity and for sport, are so wholesomely satisfied and at the same time where their intellectual development is secured by individualizing training in scholarly method. They learn really to love the literature and the history of their country and to become personally interested in the political and the economic structure of their nation. Their minds are opened to music and art, to religion and morality. Small groups of them undertake walking trips not only into the near neighborhood, but to far-distant parts of the fatherland in a simple camping style. Sometimes even long journeys to Egypt and elsewhere have been undertaken in the vacation time. Truly it is an ideal method to develop a healthy mind in a healthy body. Whether it will become the crystallization point for general educational changes in Germany is, however, more than doubtful. So far these reforms are in an uphill fight. They suffer from that which they feel as an unfairness, namely, from the fact that their schools must lead the boys to the same examinations which the regular school boys have to pass if the pupils are to go over to the university or to any other official career. This demands that in the last years much cramming be introduced and that features be forced on these new boy paradises which seem very foreign to their spirit. They demand, accordingly, new regulations which will give to the new types of schools more appropriate examinations as end points. As long as this is not granted, these schools remain confined to narrow circles. But more important perhaps is the second fact. The Germans feel on the whole very unwilling to give their sons and daughters out of the house, if the education can possibly be obtained in the neighborhood. The system of the American academies and boarding schools is contrary to all German traditions. Especially in the large cities in which the Americans are most readily inclined to send their children away for the educational years, the Germans would least think of separating the youth from the home.
It may seem surprising to American observers that in the abundance of educational schemes which recent times have ripened in Germany nowhere has a serious movement toward coeducation been started. In a very modest way it has been forced on the communities in those places in which girls want to be prepared for the university but where no special Gymnasium classes for girls have been arranged. Just these exceptional cases however hasten the establishment of special Gymnasiums for women. The German community is decidedly unwilling to gather in one schoolroom boys and girls beyond the age of the elementary school. They do not object to the coeducational instruction of small children in rural schools. This is a frequent practise. Nor do they object to the comradeship of young men and women on the level of the highest university work. But in the broad period of the development of adolescence they believe in strict bieducation. Even when the material of study is the same, differentiation of method is demanded and German pedagogues decidedly object to women teachers for grown-up boys. The fact is that the new girls' school plans, even where they lead to exactly the same goal as the Gymnasium or the Realschule, distribute the material in a characteristically different way from the program of the boys' schools. They acknowledge the psychological laws of the different rhythm of the development of the two sexes. The well-known suggestion that the boys become refined and the girls strengthened through the presence of the other sex is the more powerless since the educators feel justified in reporting that even America, where the experiment has been tried most extensively, is in a stage of reaction against the coeducational enthusiasm.
Whoever looks at the free play of educational energies in Germany's social organism is probably most impressed by the strong activity outside of the regular day schools. Instruction for those who go to school because they have not yet entered a practical life work is furnished everywhere in the world, but no country shows such systematic educational planning for those who have left school and are at work in business or in factories, in agriculture or in any other calling. The splendid development which this type of pedagogical influence has found in recent times has been to a high degree due to a reaction against grave misuses in the past. In early times, to be sure, the boy who left the primary school was under the strict control of the master in the workshop or in the business. But the nineteenth century changed those paternalizing conditions and brought complete freedom. The result was a steadily growing insubordination and obstinacy, frivolous breaches of contracts and unreliability, together with a craving for enjoyment on the moral side, and a lack of careful training on the professional side. The community felt this inability to get hold of the boys who had left school as one of the most serious national dangers. In response to this need the continuation schools were founded which are to develop the youth after the school years in moral, practical and intellectual respects. The essential difference from all other schools lies of course in the fact that these take only a fraction of the boy's time in order not to interfere with his work. But they receive their real social background by the legal obligation of the employer to give to every boy the opportunity to attend these school classes. Compared with the general elementary school, the continuation school is professional, while the other is a humanistic school. On the other hand, compared with the real technical schools both lower and higher, it combines the technical instruction with general education. But, above all, the technical schools demand for some years the whole working time of the pupils, while the continuation schools are only supplementary to the chief business of the boy. The technical schools, such as for instance all the agricultural schools or the special industrial schools or the commercial schools, are strictly professional; the continuation schools are essentially educational. It may be said that even the technical element in them becomes subordinated to the aim of making a whole man and not only a skilful worker out of the boy who has left the school in his fourteenth year. The principle of this continuation school has conquered all Germany, but the realization of it looks very different in the various parts of the country. In some, the communities are forced by law to establish such schools, in other parts the towns are free to arrange them according to the local needs. On the whole this difference seems less important, as the continuation schools are flourishing wonderfully in some parts in which the laws give large freedom in the matter to the community. The point about which the discussion at present seems much more excited is the question whether the school teacher or the man of practical life, the master in the arts and crafts, the business man, the farmer, the industrial specialist, is to be the decisive factor. The men of the workshop complain that these schools become worthless as soon as the methods and the points of view of the school teacher control them, and the opposite party believes that the highest value is missed if the spirit of the factory and not that of the schoolroom enters into them.
As the continuation schools were to serve the needs of young people in many different walks of practical life, the schools themselves had to develop an almost unlimited manifoldness. A subtle adjustment to the local conditions as well as to the varieties of industry and trade had to be aimed at. Continuation schools for candy makers and continuation schools for shoe makers had to be different. There are five chief types: the general continuation school, the commercial, the industrial, the rural and, exclusively for girls, the household economy school. Each of these types is realized sometimes in schools of obligatory character, and sometimes in schools where the attendance is voluntary, as well as in schools with prescribed courses, and in others with great freedom of election. The most famous system of continuation schools, the discussion of which has had most valuable influence on the whole German situation, is that of the city of Munich, where the indefatigable superintendent of schools, Dr. Kerschensteiner, has succeeded in a perfect adjustment of educational needs to the practical requirements of the community. Particularly his industrial continuation schools have been organized in such a way that almost every important business is represented by special classes for apprentices and special classes for journeymen and older working men. There are classes for chimney sweepers and for cabinetmakers, for coachmen and for ivory carvers, for watchmakers and for photographers, for tailors and for locksmiths, for barbers and for gardeners, for office boys and for waiters. There are altogether two hundred and ninety-six classes for the first years and one hundred and thirteen classes for those who are beyond the years of apprenticeship. About ten thousand boys are regularly attending. Every class has a careful program in which elements of general human education, elements of technical theoretical information and technical practical training, and finally elements of civic and sociological instruction, are harmoniously combined. This blending of different factors shows itself in the appointment of teachers. In the two hundred and ninety-six classes for the younger boys, for instance, we find seventy-seven general and thirty-seven technical teachers who devote to the work all their time and two hundred and twenty-one elementary-school teachers and one hundred and eleven technical and professional teachers who give instruction in their specialties as a side function, and one hundred and sixty teachers of religion. The essential point for an American spectator is, however, that the instruction for those thousands of young people in the midst of their practical life is given in the best hours of the day, either in the morning or in the afternoon, and that the employers are obliged to give them the opportunity to attend from six to ten hours a week for four years. Obligatory instruction in the evening when the young people come fatigued from their daily labor is excluded by the scheme. There is perhaps at present in the system of German school work no feature which so much deserves the attention of the American reformer as this whole plan of continuation schools as developed in the city of Munich and as more or less similarly organized in a large number of German cities.