The tables given show at a glance the allotments of time to various subjects which are considered suitable in the primary schools. A few of the most striking differences between the German schools and our own may be selected for comment. First, the relative simplicity of the German time-table is obvious; the subjects of instruction are fewer, and the classes are not broken up, as ours are, to attend special classes in manual training, drawing, housewifery, cookery, and laundry. There are some classes in manual training, and a beginning has been made in housewifery, but I am informed that these classes are not compulsory, and that the time given to the other subjects of school instruction is not encroached upon. Secondly, the attention paid to the study of the mother tongue1 is markedly greater than in our own country; in this respect the German schools resemble those of France and America. Thirdly, the study of foreign languages, except in Hamburg boys' schools, finds no place in the curriculum of the ordinary primary school. Perhaps the Hamburg syllabus is rather fuller than those of the other towns which I visited. It is significant that Hamburg began late; its general school system dates only from 1871. "We are like you," one Hamburg teacher said to me, "we began when London began." If we consider the scheme of 1 The compulsory time allotted to English in the first class of the higher grade schools of London is three and a half hours per week for boys, and four and a half hours per week for girls. work which the London Board planned in its early days, and the similarly exaggerated syllabus 2 of the French in 1882, we may fairly draw the con 1 The Work of the London School Board, by T. A. Spalding. Professor Huxley's committee recommended (a) Essential subjects : 1. Morality and religion. 2. Reading, writing, and arithmetic; English grammar in senior schools, with mensuration in senior boys' schools. 3. Systematised object lessons, embracing in the six school years a course of elementary instruction in physical science, and serving as an introduction to the science examinations conducted by the Science and Art Department. 4. The history of Britain. 5. Elementary geography. 6. Elementary social economy. 7. Elementary drawing, leading up to the examinations in mechanical drawing and to the art teaching of the Science and Art Department. 8. (In girls' schools.) Plain needlework and cutting out. (6) Discretionary subjects: 1. Algebra and geometry. 2. Latin, or a modern language. The Board had already decided, before receiving the committee's report, to include morality and religion, singing and drill. The curriculum cannot be said to have failed for want of copiousness. It was a well-ordered, if somewhat one-sided, scheme of education, which honestly endeavoured to cover all the ground of instruction which could by any means be construed as elementary. 2 Les Nouveaux Programmes des Écoles Primaires, by MM. Brouard and Defodon : L'article premier de la loi du 28 avril 1882 définit ainsi l'instruction primaire : "L'instruction primaire comprend : L'instruction morale et civique; La lecture et l'écriture; La langue et les éléments de la littérature française ; La géographie, particulièrement celle de la France; L'histoire, particulièrement celle de la France jusqu' à nos jours ; Les éléments des sciences naturelles, physiques et mathématiques; leurs |