Table VI presents the statistics of schools which report to this Office under the head of secondary instruction. In 1884 they numbered 1,588, having 7,923 instructors and 152,354 pupils, as against 1,482 schools in 1882, having 7,449 instructors and 138,384 pupils. The pupils are about evenly divided between the two sexes, the boys numbering 71,759 and the girls 75,897. Nearly one-half of the schools are conducted on the coeducation system. About three-fifths of the teachers employed are women. The total value of the property belonging to these schools, so far as reported, is $21,938,219; amount of productive funds, $11,351,526; income from these, $1,246,089; receipts from tuition fees for the current year, $2,395,699. Table VI, appendix, shows very clearly the status of the individual schools of this class with respect to endowments, patronage, income, and teaching power. Table VII embraces a class of schools engaged also in the work of secondary instruction, but having more definite aim and more uniform character than the preceding. The name preparatory indicates their special function, which is to fit pupils for college; and, although a large proportion of their pupils do not pass on to the superior institutions, their curriculum is determined by the college requirements. In 1884 these schools numbered 169, having 1,183 instructors and 18,319 students, as against 157 schools in 1852, having 1,041 instructors and 15,681 students. Of the entire number of the preparatory schools, 128, or a little more than three-fourths, are in the New England and Middle Atlantic States. These include 75 per cent. of all the scholars in this class of schools, 82 per cent. of the property valuation, 93 per cent. of the income from productive funds, and 79 per cent. of the tuition fees. An examination of the table of benefactions, appendix, will show how largely both classes of schools are indebted for funds to the liberality of the people. The number of scholars they report as preparing for college is as follows: Table VI, preparing for classical course, 8,195; for scientifie course, 4,598; Table VII, preparing for classical course, 4,513; for scientific course, 2,020; or a total of 19,326. The number who have entered college since the close of the last academic year is from schools in Table VI, 2,358; Table VII, 991. Entered scientific schools, Table VI, 818; Table VII, 300; total, 4,467. By reference to my last report it will be seen that the number of pupils preparing in the schools of Tables VI and VII for the college classical or scientific courses was 15,858, 28 per cent. of whom it appears have since entered. The number reported this year as making similar preparation in the schools of Tables VI and VII is 19,326. There are in addition 17,007 pupils making such preparation in the preparatory departments of universities, colleges, and schools of science. The general statistical summary of pupils receiving secondary instruction includes all the schools engaged in the work, excepting free high schools outside of cities containing 7,500 inhabitants and over. The total number of such pupils is given as 271,215, or 1 in every 184 of the inhabitants (census of 1880). This proportion would be considerably increased if the enrolment in all free high schools were included. It must, however, be remembered that the free high schools other than those presented in the city table are not as a rule of as high grade as the schools included in the statistical summary here considered. The reports of the rural high schools from year to year are quite incomplete. So far as they are attainable they are summarized briefly under the head of Secondary Instruction in the abstracts of the report. The department of secondary instruction in our country offers much cause for criticism and much room for improvement, but the condition in this respect is far from uniform throughout the different sections. A large part of the country, it must be remembered, is not sufficiently advanced in population and wealth to support sec ondary schools of a high order distinct from the elementary schools on the one si and degree conferring institutions on the other. In the States that take the lead population and material resources, provision for secondary instruction is most co plete and the courses of instruction appropriate for its different purposes are more o less specialized. There are, it need hardly be said, great differences of opinion and no little confusion of mind as to the courses of study, methods of instruction, and standards of attainment by which these different purposes may be best accomplished. It is evident that so far as secondary schools are feeders for higher institutions, whether classical or scientific, their studies and standards must be regulated by this relation. This fact is sufficiently recognized among us, and the persons whose business it is to see that the secondary and superior institutions are properly coördinated seem to be fully alive to the present necessities of the case. Several measures have been recently adopted for the furtherance of this end. Among these are the policy of admitting to certain colleges and State universities graduates of accredited high schools and academies without examination and the agreement on the part of a number of eastern colleges as to admission requirements and a common standard of examination. These measures have been explained in previous reports. The experience of several higher schools of science as to the results of the preliminary training of their pupils has helped to a better understanding of what that preliminary training should be and has led to better provision for the same. It is with respect to that large class of pupils whose school education ends with the secondary grade that the outlook is most unsatisfactory. Courses of study offered to such pupils have not been carefully planned, and they have little of the stimulus that is supplied by judicious examinations and definite expectations, as represented by diplomas and other testimonials of work accomplished. A glance at Tables VI and VII will make it clear also to any candid observer that the money invested in secondary schools is totally incommensurate with the work to be accomplished. Formerly the conferences of the principals of secondary schools and others interested in their conduct had almost exclusive reference to the relation of secondary to superior schools Lately the conferences and published discussions have taken a wider range, comprehending the varied relations of the schools to the probable destiny of the pupils and to the requirements of the time. This is particularly noticeable in the discussions of high schools, their functions, standards, &c. The critical scrutiny to which the public high schools are subjected reacts in their favor by giving them the most powerful motive for keeping up to the full measure of existing requirements. In respect to the adjustment of studies to pupils who are not likely to pass on to the colleges or schools of science, public schools can take much more prompt and decided action than private schools and they are more likely to be able to incur the expense of making adequate provision for instruction in science. In both of these directions the high schools are doing much more than is generally recognized for the advancement of secondary instruction among us. I hope very soon to be able to contribute to a better understanding of this matter by a presentation of facts much more full and detailed than is possible in my annual report. I cannot dismiss the subject without some reference to foreign systems and to certain recent utterances in other countries upon the problems which we also have to solve. The triple division of secondary instruction is recognized in Germany by the Gymnasien, Realschulen, and middle schools. In my previous reports the two former have been very fully described as regards their divisions, curricula, &c. The middle schools are intended for children whose parents can afford to give them a somewhat better education than is usually obtained in common elementary schools. A large middle school usually consists of eight classes, and if the system of parallel classes has been adopted each of these is again subdivided into two sections. The number of pupils in each class does not often exceed 50 and is seldom under 30. There is always a fairly complete set of apparatus for teaching drawing and physical science, as well as an abundant supply of specimens of all kinds for illustrating lessons on botany, zoology, and mineralogy. The curriculum is nearly the same as in the second class Realschulen, excepting that only one foreign language is taught, and as the pupils generally leave at about 14 or 15 years of age the course is less complete. At the international conference on education held in London, Dr. Bosscha, director of the Polytechnic School at Delft, described in detail the constitution and working of the hoogere burgerscholen of Holland. They are, according to his statement, schools destined for boys of 12 to 17 or 18 years of age, and offer courses parallel to those of the Gymnasien, in which boys of the same age are prepared for the universities. The schools are of two classes, one having a 5 and one a 3 year course. Says Dr. Bosscha: It is easy to understand that the opening of a new direction in education to that of the Gymnasien caused the number of scholars of the latter to diminish. Indeed, formerly many were sent to the Gymnasien because there was no other suitable way of giving a really developing education to boys of 12 or 13 years of age. This may have contributed considerably to give existence to the prejudice that no education of importance could be obtained without the study of Greek and Latin. This supposition was indeed true so long as there were, above the elementary schools, no other proper schools than the Latin schools. Till 1863 it was true in the Netherlands, but had to be given up when the hoogere burgerscholen had been established. The peculiar circumstances in which, after the said period, university education found itself during some years have coöperated to give a positive proof that the knowledge and development which is necessary for successful university studies can be obtained without the so-called classical education, e. g., without Latin and Greek; for in 1863 the stipulation was still in force that young men who had not studied at a gymnasium would be admitted to the university only if they could pass an examination for their admission before a committee of examiners from the literary faculty at every university. As may easily be understood this examination had, through the cooperation of different influences, in reality become so easy that a cursory study of a few months was sufficient to acquire so many Latin and Greek words as were necessary to be admitted to the university. The consequence was that many young men who were attracted by the thorongh instruction in the natural sciences which was given at the hoogere burgerscholen to the study of natural philosophy or medicine after having left the hoogere burgerscholen found admission to the university, where they entered upon their studies with a very slight knowledge of the ancient languages, but thoroughly prepared for their own profession, with nothing that bore resemblance to a classical education, but with much that had been derived from the present standpoint of science and of real life. Examinations and curricula were prominent topics before the conference. The need of the former was universally admitted, but there were differences of opinion as to the sources from which they should proceed and various other details. The concluding words of an address upon this subject by Mr. J. G. Fitch, Her Majesty's inspector of schools, expressed a view of the scope of these test exercises that was generally approved: We are likely soon to make a distinct advance towards that organization of secondary education in England which has long been so earnestly desired by the wisest of our statesmen and teachers. The endowed schools, though they do not cover the whole, or nearly the whole, of the ground, have in their control a substantial part of the secondary and higher education of the country. It will be a great gain if all these institutions are brought definitely within the scope of public supervision, and that the public should learn periodically what they are doing as well as what they were meant to do. But from one danger it is to be expected that we may keep free. There will, we may anticipate, be no aim at uniformity, no course of instruction prescribed by authority, and no standards. All these things are, to some extent, necessary in the case of the primary schools, because they receive a grant. When public money has to be distributed it becomes essential to lay down very definite conditions: to require at any rate a minimum of attainment in certain subjects which are universally regarded as indispensable and to mark out with some precision the character of the requirements in regard to those subjects and parts of the school work in which liberty of choice is permitted. But in the secondary schools there is no grant to be awarded and no necessity for laying down any course or official ideal whatever. It is impossible, of course, to forecast the view which the newly constituted public department will take of its duties to the endowed schools; but it may be conjectured that its attitude will be that of an inquirer, a helper, a reporter, an interviewer, if you please, rather than that of a master. It may suffice to say to each endowed school in turn: "What is it you propose to do? What are your own plans? What is your ideal? Now show us how you seek to realize it and what you have done; or, if your school has been examined by the university or other public authorities, let us see their report." After all, what the public wants is to know the facts, not to impose |