part 6, chapter 3 (volume 2).

EDUCATION: Prussia: A. D. 1874. The Educational Administration.

"There is no organic school-law in Prussia, ... though sketches and projects of such a law have more than once been prepared. But at present the public control of the higher schools is exercised through administrative orders and instructions, like the minutes of our Committee of Council on Education. But the administrative authority has in Prussia a very different basis for its operations from that which it has in England, and a much firmer one. It has for its basis these articles of the Allgemeine Landrecht, or common law of Prussia, which was drawn up in writing in Frederick the Great's reign, and promulgated in 1794, in the reign of his successor:--'Schools and universities are State institutions, having for their object the instruction of youth in useful and scientific knowledge. Such establishments are to be instituted only with the State's previous knowledge and consent. All public schools and public establishments of education are under the State's supervision, and must at all times submit themselves to its examinations and inspections. {721} Whenever the appointment of teachers is not by virtue of the foundation or of a special privilege vested in certain persons or corporations, it belongs to the State. Even where the immediate supervision of such schools and the appointment of their teachers is committed to certain private persons or corporations, new teachers cannot be appointed, and important changes in the constitution and teaching of the school cannot be adopted without the previous knowledge or consent of the provincial school authorities. The teachers in the gymnasiums and other higher schools have the character of State functionaries.' ... It would be a mistake to suppose that the State in Prussia shows a grasping and centralising spirit in dealing with education; on the contrary, it makes the administration of it as local as it possibly can; but it takes care that education shall not be left to the chapter of accidents. ... Prussia is now divided into eight provinces, and these eight provinces are again divided into twenty-six governmental districts, or Regierungen. There is a Provincial School Board (Provinzial-Schulcollegium) in the chief town of each of the eight provinces, and a Governmental District Board in that of each of the twenty-six Regierungen. In general, the State's relations with the higher class of secondary schools are exercised through the Provincial Board; its relations with the lower class of them, and with the primary schools, through the District Board. In Berlin, the relations with these also are managed by the Provincial Board. A Provinzial-Schulcollegium has for its president the High President of the province; for its director the vice-president of that governmental district which happens to have for its centre the provincial capital. The Board has two or three other members, of whom, in general, one is a Catholic and one is a Protestant; and one is always a man practically conversant with school matters. The District Board has in the provincial capitals the same president and director as the Provincial Board; in the other centres of Regierungen it has for its president the President of the Regierung, and three or four members selected on the same principle as the members of the Provincial Board. The provincial State authority, therefore, is, in general, for gymnasiums, the larger progymnasiums, and Realschulen of the first rank, the Provincial School Board; for the smaller progymnasiums, Realschulen of the second rank, the higher Burgher Schools, and the primary schools of all kinds, the Governmental District Board. Both boards are in continual communication with the Educational Minister at Berlin. ... Besides the central and provincial administration there is a local or municipal administration for schools that are not Crown patronage schools. ... In most towns the local authority for schools of municipal patronage is the town magistracy, assisted by a Stadtschulrath; sometimes the local authority is a Curntorium or Schulcommission."

_M. Arnold, Higher Schools and Universities in Germany, chapter 3._

"The secondary school differs from the elementary schools by a course of instruction going beyond the immediate demands of every-day life; from the special school, by the more general character of the courses of instruction; from the university, by its preparatory character. It has the special aim to give that sound basis of scientific and literary education which enables a man to participate in solving the higher problems of life in church, state, and society, In accordance with their historical development, two directions can be clearly traced, viz., the gymnasium and the real-school: the former comprising gymnasia and pro-gymnasia; and the latter real-schools of the first class, real-schools of the second class, and higher burgher-schools."

_History of Secondary Instruction in Germany (U. S. Bureau of Education, Circulars of Information, 1874, no. 3), page 41._

"The name gymnasium came into use as early as the sixteenth century. The ministerial decree of the 12th of November, 1812, ordered that all learned school institutions, such as lyceums, pedagogiums, collegiums, Latin schools, etc., should bear the name gymnasium. A gymnasium is and has long been a classical school."

_U. S. Commissioner of Education, Report, 1889-90, page 318._

ALSO IN: _V. Cousin, Report on the state of public instruction in Prussia._

EDUCATION: Prussia: A. D. 1885-1889. The Elementary School-System.

"The New Yorker, anxious for a high degree of perfection in the elementary schools of his State, must be struck forcibly by the following merits of the Elementary School System of Prussia. ...

1. Compulsory education laws, necessitating a full and regular attendance of the children of school age.

2. Official courses of study fixing the work to be accomplished in each of the different grades of schools. Uniformity is thus secured in the work done in all schools of the same class.

3. Definite qualifications and experience in teaching for eligibility to the office of school commissioner.

4. Provisions elevating teaching to the dignity of a profession and making the tenure of office secure.

5. Trained teachers in rural as well as city districts and a school year of at least forty weeks.

6. General supervision of instruction for children of school age in private schools and families, including the qualifications of instructors. ...

Every Prussian child between the ages of 6 and 14 must, except in cases of severe illness or other extraordinary cause, be present at every session of the school he attends. The lists of the children of school age, in charge of the local police (in rural districts the Burgermeister), are kept so carefully that it is impossible to escape the provisions of the compulsory education laws, as much so as it is to evade the military service. Dispensations amounting to more than four weeks in the school year are never given to children under 12 years of age, and to them only when sickness in the family or other unusual cause make it advisable. ... In order to understand the qualifications required of school commissioners (Kreisschulinspektoren) in Prussia, let us review briefly the requirements of male teachers.

1. Elementary schools. It may be stated at the outset that almost all the male elementary school teachers are normal school graduates. To insure similarity in training and a thorough knowledge of character, few foreigners and few beside normal school (Schullehrer-Seminar) graduates are admitted to the male teaching force. From 6 to 14 the would-be teacher has attended, let us suppose, an elementary school. He must then absolve the three years' course laid down for the preparatory schools. ... He is now ready for the normal school. At the close of a three years' course at the normal school he is admitted to the first teachers' examination. If successful, he must next practice as candidate or assistant teacher not less than two years and not more than five years before his admission to the final test. ... If a teacher fails to pass the examination within five years, he is dropped.

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2. Middle schools. For teachers of lower classes the same requirements with the addition of ability to teach a foreign tongue, or natural history in its broadest sense, and the attainment of the mark 'good' in all subjects at the final examination. ... For higher classes, a special examination provided for middle school teachers. ... There is really no gradation between elementary and middle schools. The latter merely go on somewhat further with elementary school work, introducing French, Latin and English.

3. High schools (Realschulen, Realgymnasien, Progymnasien and Gymnasien). All high school teachers, except those engaged in technical departments, must first absolve the nine years' gymnasial course, which commences at the close of the third school year.

Next comes the university course of three or four years. The candidate is now ready for the State examination. The subjects for this State examination ... are divided into four classes:

1. The ancient languages and German; 2. Mathematics and natural sciences; 3. History and geography; 4. Religion and Hebrew.

At the close of one year's practice to test teaching capacity he receives a second certificate and is thereupon engaged provisionally. ... The school commissioners ... are either former regular high school teachers, general doctors of philosophy or more rarely theologians, or former normal school teachers. All must have had practical experience in teaching. ... The work to be accomplished in each Prussian elementary school is definitely laid down by law. Each school is not a law unto itself as to what shall be done and when and how this is to be done. I have learned by practical experience that the work in ungraded schools compares most favorably with that of graded schools."

_J. R. Parsons, Jr., Prussian Schools through American eyes, chapter 1, section 5-10._

Prussian elementary schools are now free. "In this respect Prussia has passed through three stages. Under the first elementary schools were entirely self-supporting; under the second they received State aid, but were still largely self-supporting; under the third, Laws of 1888 and 1889, elementary schools were made free and the State pays a larger proportion of the cost of maintenance. Districts must pay for repairs, new buildings and cost of heating. If unwilling to provide proper accommodations for the children of school age, they can be forced by the government to do so. Poor districts may receive special government aid to meet such expenses. ... The direct aim of the laws of June 14, 1888, and March 31, 1889, was to lighten the burden of local taxation for schools for children of school age. These laws have had a beneficial effect in increasing slightly the wages of teachers. Teachers' salaries are still quite small in Prussia, particularly in the case of females. Allowances are generally made for house-rent and fuel. Teachers in rural districts are provided with a house and garden. Their salaries are often not much more than half those paid city teachers of the same grade, and yet, as regards professional training and character of work, they are fully equal to city teachers. ... The average annual salary received by teachers in Prussia in 1886 was $267.50. The average for the same year in New York was $409.27. The Prussian teacher, however, received fuel and dwelling free, in addition to his regular salary. ... In 1885 the population of Prussia was 28,318,470, and the total cost of public education per caput was $1,7717. Drs. Schneider and Petersilie of Berlin, in 'Preussische Statistik 101,' published in 1889, reckon the total cost for 1888, excluding army and navy schools, at $50,192,857. ... In Prussia, elementary instruction is the first consideration. The resolution adopted by the national assembly (Landtag) December 22, 1870, is a good illustration of this. It was at the very crisis of the Franco-German war, yet the Landtag called on the government to increase the number of normal schools and the capacity of those already existing, and 'thus to put an end to the practice of filling up teachers' vacancies by appointing unqualified individuals.'"

_J. R. Parsons, Jr., Prussian Schools through American eyes, chapter 1, section 15-17._

"Throughout Prussia there is now one school-room and one teacher to 446 inhabitants and 78.8 children actually attending school. This shows that there are far too few teachers. But the government and the cities have recently devoted considerable sums to the establishment of new places for teachers, so that, in the year 1881, there were 10,000 more teachers working in the public schools than in 1873. The salaries of the teachers were also raised. The average payment in the country is 954 marks, in the cities 1,430 marks. ... The expense of maintaining the Prussian national schools amounts annually to about 102,000,000 of marks, 43,000,000 of which are paid by the cities. One hundred and ten colleges for the training of teachers are now engaged in the education of male and female instructors, with an attendance of 9,892 pupils; that is, there is one pupil to every 2,758 inhabitants. In the case of the female teachers only, a considerable degree of assistance is rendered by private institutions. ... The intermediary schools established in 1872, and recently converted into the higher citizen schools, form a transition from the national schools to the higher schools. These teach religion, German, French, English, history and geography, arithmetic and mathematics, natural history and physics, writing, drawing, singing, and gymnastics. The course embraces six years without Latin, with the privilege of one year's service in the army instead of three. Complementary to the national school is the finishing school. There are a large number in Prussia, namely, 1,261 with 68,766 pupils: 617 with 10,395 in the country, and 644 with 58,371 in the cities. Of these 644,342 are obligatory by local statutes, 302 are optional. Since the law of 1878 special care has been devoted to the compulsory education of orphaned children. ... The preparatory instruction of female teachers leaves much to be desired."

_F. Kirchner, Contemporary Educational Thought in Prussia (Educational Review, May, 1891)._

"About 25 per cent. of all the teachers in public middle schools are women, hence ... women hold positions in these schools more frequently than in the lower, the purely elementary, schools of the kingdom. The greatest ratio of women teachers in Prussia is found in private middle schools, where 2,422 of 3,126 (or nearly 80 percent.) are women. ... In all the public schools of Prussia (elementary, middle, and secondary) only 10,600 women teachers were employed [1887], or 14¼ per cent. of all the teachers in the kingdom. ... Before the public schools of the kingdom had the care and close supervision on the part of the state which they have now, many more private schools were in existence than at present. During the last 25 years the private schools have not increased in numbers, but perceptibly decreased."

_U. S. Commissioner of Education, Report, 1889-90, pages 287-289._

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EDUCATION: Russia.

"After serfdom had been abolished, the Emperor Alexander II. saw that the indispensable consequence of this great reform must be a thorough reorganization of public instruction. In 1861 a committee was appointed to draw up the plan of a law. In 1862 M. Taneef submitted to the Emperor a 'General plan for the organization of popular education,' which contained some very excellent points. The result was the General Regulations of 1864, which are still in force. ... The difficulties which a complete reorganization of popular education meets in Russia are enormous. They are principally caused by the manner in which the inhabitants live, scattered over a large extent of country, and by their extreme poverty. ... The density of population is so small that there are only 13.6 inhabitants to one square kilometer (2.6 square kilometers to 1 square mile), instead of 69 as in France. Under these circumstances only the children from the center hamlet and those living-nearest to it could attend school regularly, especially during the winter-months. The remainder of the inhabitants would pay their dues without having any benefit, which would necessarily foster discontent. As Prince Gagarin says, 'It has, therefore, not been possible to make education in Russia compulsory, as in Germany, nor even to enforce the establishment of a school in each community.' It is doubtless impossible at present to introduce into Russia the educational systems of the western countries."

_E. de Laveleye, Progress of Education in Russia (U. S. Bureau of Education, Circulars of Information, 1875, no. 3), pages 31-32._

EDUCATION: Scotland.

"The existing system of education in Scotland is an outcome of causes deeply involved in the political and religious history of the country. ... This system was preceded by a complicated variety of educational agencies, of which the chief were parish schools, founded upon a statute of 1646, which was revived and made operative in 1696. Parish and burgh schools, supported by local funds and by tuition fees, made up the public provision for education. In addition there were schools partly maintained by parliamentary grants, mission and sessional schools maintained by the Established Church and the Free Church, and other parochial and private schools. Parish and burgh schools carried instruction to the level of the universities, which were easily accessible to all classes. The date of the passage of the 'Scotch Education Act' (1872) was opportune for the organization of these various agencies into a system maintained by the combined action of the Government and local authorities. In framing the Scotch act care was taken, as in framing the English act two years before, to guard the rights of the Government with respect to funds appropriated from the public treasury. At the same time equal care was shown for the preservation of the Scotch ideal. This was a broad and comprehensive ideal, embracing the different grades of scholastic work. ... This ideal differentiates the Scotch act from the English act passed two years before. The latter related to elementary schools exclusively; the former has a wider scope, providing the foundations of a system of graded schools correlated to the universities which lie beyond its province. With respect to the interests of the Government, the two acts are substantially the same. ... For the general direction of the system a Scotch educational department was created, composed, like the English department, of lords of the privy council, and having the same president. ... The act ordered every parent to secure the instruction of his children between the ages of 5 and 13, or until a certificate of exemption should be secured. Parents failing in this obligation are subject to prosecution and penalty by fine or imprisonment. The compulsory provision extends to blind children. Parochial or burghal authorities were authorized to pay the tuition fees of those children whose parents could not meet the expenditure, a provision rendered unnecessary by the recent remission of all fees. The Scotch act, by a sweeping clause, made compulsory attendance universal; the English act left the matter of compulsion to local managers. A subsequent act (1878) fixed the standard of exemption in Scotland at the fifth [grade, or year of study], which pupils should pass at 11 years of age. In 1883, the upper limit of compulsory attendance in Scotland was raised to 14 years. ... The universities of Scotland have been more intimately related to the life of the common people than those of any other country. In this respect, even more if possible than in their constitution, they present a marked contrast to the English universities. To their democratic spirit may be traced many of the characteristics which differentiate the Scotch people and policies from those of England. To their widespread influence, to the ambitions which they awakened, and the opportunities which they brought within the reach of the whole body of Scottish youth is due, in large measure, the independent and honorable part that Scotland has played in the history of the United Kingdom. This popular character of the universities has been fostered by the curriculum of the common schools, by the easy passage from the schools to the higher institutions; by the inexpensive mode of student life in the university towns, and by the great number of scholarship funds available for the poor. These conditions, however, have not been without their disadvantages. Of these, the chief are the low entrance standards and the consequent forcing of preparatory instruction upon the university professors. ... As a result of long-continued efforts a Scotch universities act was passed in 1889. This act provided for the reorganization of the four universities; for the elevation of their standards; the enrichment of their curricula, and the increase of their resources. ... The Scotch universities have taken part in the popular movements of the last decade. They maintain local examinations for secondary schools and students. St. Andrews has been particularly active in promoting the higher education of women, having instituted the special degree of L. L. A. (lady literate in arts). Edinburgh also grants a certificate in arts to women. Aberdeen has recently appointed a lecturer on education, following thus the precedent set by Edinburgh and St. Andrews. The four universities are united in a scheme of university extension."

_U. S. Commissioner of Education, Report, 1889-90,