claim. Historically, the elementary school developed from the parochial school, and to the latter it owes its ideal core, which raises it above the level of purely intellectual training.1 An internal reason for making the elementary school denominational may be derived from the fact that the instruction of children is part of the cure of souls, for thus the different religious bodies must consider it their sacred duty to provide for the religious instruction of their little ones, so that, if religion be excluded from the elementary schools, they are in conscience bound to open special schools for the teaching of religion. But this severing of religious instruction from the rest of the curriculum involves a separation of what belongs together, and the school branches can not be permeated, as they ought, with the religious elements, and neither can the religious instruction be correlated with them. But to relegate religious instruction to the second place and make, say, moral instruction the core subject is impracticable; for moral instruction would either be opposed to the religious instruction and thus be a menace alike to education and morality; or it would be a vacuous thing because deprived of what religious instruction possesses in public worship and in the precepts governing life, and would, therefore, be uselessand since the elementary school can use time and energy to better advantage-even harmful.

2

To take religion out of the schools is a violation of a sacred right of a Christian people. The family is a member, not only of the organism of the State, but also of the organism of the Church, and the right of the State to introduce compulsory education does not include the right to enforce disloyalty to the Church. The parents' right to the religious instruction of their children was recognized by the originators of compulsory education, the enlightened autocrats of the 18th century, though they favored violent measures otherwise. It was left for the French Revolution, which trampled upon so many human rights, to rob man of this inalienable right also.

1 Vol. I, ch. XV, 1 and supra, ch. LXIV, 3.

2 Ch. LXIII, 2.

3

3 Vol. I, ch. XXVII, 6. Frederick II. condemned the practice of compelling Catholic parents to send their children to the schools of the "natural religion. He says in his Examen de l'essai sur les préjugés (Euvr., éd. Preuss, IX, p. 157): "C'est une violence d'ôter aux pères la liberté d'élever les enfants selons leur volonté; c'est une violence d'envoyer ces enfants à l'école de la religion naturelle, quand les pères veulent qu'ils soient catholiques comme eux.

The denominational character is the normal thing for the higher schools also, for the ethico-religious education must ever be the core of the intellectual. The learning in the school must be supplemented by a school life; and the religious serviceswhich must, if they are to mean anything, be conducted according to the rites of a definite denomination are an integral part of this school life. To establish an inner relationship between the religious instruction and the other subjects, especially history and language, the specific character of the religious instruction must be brought out; and it would be only an imperfect application of the concept of concentration to be content with vague and colorless generalities. Furthermore, the school. can better co-operate with the home, if both recognize the same religious basis; and even if the home has abandoned all religious practices, the religious atmosphere of the school may remedy, to some extent, this deplorable condition. Local conditions may at times render inter-denominational schools necessary, and with great prudence and tact it may be possible to obtain even in such schools the ethico-religious ends of education, yet the dif ferences between their pupils are such as to put perfect success out of the question. What is a thing of necessity may not be made the standard.

The denominational schools have been charged with failing to cultivate the national ideals and with proving unfaithful to what should be their chief aim: to unite by as many bonds as possible the young people of the nation, instead of estranging them from one another by stressing their religious differences. This national unity is, indeed, desirable for the sake not only of the nation but also of religion. There is no sincere Christian but hopes against hope for the fulfillment of the Master's words. concerning the one Shepherd and the one Flock.

But this unity is to be realized, not by obliterating the points of difference, but by bringing these to an intellectual issue. The different denominations should meet, not on the ground of a vague indifferentism, but in the Faith clearly presented to all. The school can and should foster this attitude of mind without, however, interfering with the different religious beliefs. These beliefs are treasures, not only for the adherents of the respective denominations, but for the nation; for they are a heritage from the generations of the past. The Faith of a Boniface and the other Apostles of Germany and the accounts of their holy labors in and for this Faith are a treasure alike for religious and national education. Luther's teaching that Faith is the most precious

of all gifts and that Scripture is the word of God, and the hymns which have given expression to these teachings-all this has inspired thousands of German hearts; and the Protestant school is in duty bound to preserve these treasures in opposition to the unchristian and un-German doctrine that Faith is something indifferent, as well as in opposition to the lies dug up from the old Gnostics and rabbis anent the spuriousness of the Gospels.' It is not only the history of the heroes of war that must be preserved as a valuable possession of the nation, for of still greater importance is the preservation of the memory of those heroes of peace who preached the truths of Christianity to our forefathers; but their splendid deeds will be unintelligible to those coming after us unless they can view them in the light of their own personal Christianity.

4. The system of education has, like the content of education, developed successively, and its parts are of themselves not correlated so well as the members of a body. The State does, indeed, connect the parts of the educational system, but this means only one step toward true correlation; and the union established by the authority of the State is insufficient, and must be supplemented by the correlating work of the teaching profession. The teachers can correlate the branches of the system of education, and their efforts must be directed toward accomplishing on a larger scale what the medieval universities did on a smaller.

Strictly speaking, there is at present no one teaching profession, but merely different categories of teachers that are almost as exclusive as the castes of ancient Egypt. The university professors consider themselves research workers and will have no intercourse with the schoolmen. Among the latter there are again two well-defined classes of teachers: those teaching in colleges and high schools look down with scorn upon the "schoolmaster" and the "schoolmistress," while these in turn think themselves superior in teaching ability, for this ability they deny to all other classes of teachers.

The chief reason for this aloofness and class-consciousness among various bodies of teachers lies in the separation of what should everywhere be found together: knowledge and skill in teaching, or mastery of the content of education and skill in its

1 Chizzuk Emuna, a work written by Isaac ben Abraham Troki (died 1594), has been the source for the "higher critics" of the Gospels from Voltaire to Strauss; cf. K. Werner, Geschichte der apolog. und pol. Literatur der christl. Theologie, 1864, I, pp. 80 ff.

presentation, or positive knowledge and methodological ability. The university professor must, of course, be a master in his special field; but, unless he wishes to make a practice school of his students, he should have previously spent some time in teaching. On the other hand, the elementary school teacher should have entered deeply into what he is to teach and should, as far as possible, have examined its several phases, even though he can not expect to present all that he has learned to his classes. The teachers of the secondary schools should likewise be versed equally well in the sciences and in the methods of imparting their content. There are, we must admit, university professors who are intent upon the inner formation and mental growth of their students, and in the secondary schools we meet also with teachers who write learned treatises and others who are gifted with remarkable didactic skill; and in the elementary schools, too, we find teachers who are earnestly striving after self-improvement and verify the truth of the saying Discendo docemus. Still these representatives of the teaching profession are too few and far between to establish points of contact between the different classes of teachers.

These points of contact can not be established before we have filled the one great gap in our educational system: adequate provisions must be made for training the professors for our gymnasiums. These professors can readily receive at present the training in the respective branches they are to teach, but the imperative need is that this training be supplemented by a course in the theory and practice of education as well as by work in a practice school. To make this possible, the pedagogical seminar of the university should be enlarged and connected with the gymnasium, whose philosophical course connects it with the university and whose lower classes follow immediately upon the work of the elementary school. This arrangement would supply a basis for the instructional technique of all grades and would thereby furnish a common centre for the training of the teachers of all kinds of schools. Thus the future university professor may profitably spend some time in teaching the senior classes of the gymnasium; and the future professor of the gymnasium may meet masters of elementary school technique and will hence learn to appreciate this technique as supplementary to his own

1 This is no less true of American college conditions: see Cyclopedia of Education, Vol. III, p. 76.

2 Cf. infra, ch. LXX.

teaching; and, lastly, the elementary school teacher, who is engaged in the lower classes, will learn to regard himself as a member of the whole organism of the teaching body, a fact which will not only increase his professional consciousness, but also let him realize his limitations.

That all the members of the teaching body should again be brought to realize their solidarity, must be demanded on even more important grounds than those discussed above. If the university professors lose their interest in the school and their appreciation of its work, then it is idle to complain that the university as such does not influence our school system. Still this condition of affairs is far from normal and compares unfavorably with the educational conditions of the Middle Ages.1 Deprived of the vivifying contact with teaching, science can not but grow rigid; and the work of teaching, if deprived of the inspiration of science, must become superficial in content. If the elementary school teachers are cut off from the representatives of the higher learning, their class-consciousness will likewise develop along the lines of exclusiveness. Tendencies, not clearly defined at first, will spring up, and the baser elements will work themselves to the surface, while the better elements are torn along or terrorized by the radical forces that join hands with ignorance.

Here lies the social question of the teaching profession, and two societies are to be commended for having undertaken to solve the problem. The first is the "Society for Scientific Pedagogy," founded by Ziller in 1868, which is a fruit of Ziller's pedagogical seminar conducted at the University of Leipzig since 1862. This society is open to the teachers of all grades of schools, and though its aims have, in some points, not yet been clearly outlined, it has suggested where we must begin in creating an organically graded teaching profession. In 1907 another society, similar in scope, was organized under the name of "Society for Christian Pedagogy."

2

5. We have seen that the schools must be graded according to the age of the pupils and according to the subject-matter of teaching, but in dealing here with the organic formation of the system of education we must treat the grading of schools from the viewpoint that all educational institutions are either basic, and therefore, typical for the rest, or accessory. The basic

1 Vol. I, ch. XIX, 7 and supra, ch. LXIV, 2.

2 The first year book of the Society was published in 1908 (Kempten, Bavaria).