and economic condition of the students. Civic instruction has a large place in the programmes, and the subject is much more thoroughly treated than is possible in the primary schools. The students in general show deep and earnest appreciation of the opportunities thus afforded. The growth of the work is plainly shown by the following statistics:1

To the total given above should be added 5,000 classes maintained by chambers of commerce and private societies, and also 1,600 "réunions" of young girls held in the schools on Thursdays and Sundays.

Attendance upon the courses.

These courses are supplemented by popular lectures, illustrated usually by the stereopticon. From Paris, where this feature was introduced by the "Ligue de l'enseignement," it has spread, little by little, through the provinces, and has helped to bring to the attention of the common people the beauties of classic art, picturesque and impressive scenes of nature, or events in history, and even scientific facts.

The number of popular lectures reported year by year is as follows:

1894-95..

1895-96..

1897-98..

10, 379 261, 476

$117,752

The rapid extension of the classes and lectures is due, in great measure, to the support of the Government, but it should be remembered that the first impulse came from private sources and the greater part of the expense is still defrayed from private funds.

The sums expended in this work by private societies, namely, societies for popular instructions, associations of former pupils, chari

1 Report of M. Édouard Petit for 1897-93. Revue Pédagogique, December, 1898, pp. 477-484; January 1899, p. 52.

214,000 illustrated.

3 50,052 illustrated.

ED 9970

table associations, is not reported. The subscriptions from individuals amounted, in 1897-98, to $10,824; the receipts from fees to $8,340; municipal grants to $306,748; grants from departmental councils to $10,800; subvention from the State, $30,000.

The State appropriation is used chiefly in providing awards for the public school teachers who give their services to this work. These awards take the form of medals, prizes, increase of vacation, and supplements of the salary.

The effect of public instruction in diminishing illiteracy is shown as follows:

The system of State secondary education in France has been the subject of repeated attempts at reform from the downfall of Napoleon to the present time. To the problems that everywhere present themselves in respect to this department of education, there are added in France peculiar complications arising from the central control of the schools and the extreme conservatism of the educated classes.

The purpose of the present Republic to infuse new life into the State lycées and colleges has been shown by successive measures, giving increased freedom to principals and professors with respect to the conduct of studies and the internal discipline of the secondary establishments.

The professors on their part have been stimulated by these measures to a livelier interest in their professional work and relations.

Congresses of secondary professors.-This was particularly shown in 1896 by a movement for bringing about conferences of the professors engaged in this department. A memorial was addressed to the minister asking his authorization for a congress of the professors. This was granted with certain restrictions. It was decided that the deliberations of the congress should be limited to pedagogical and personal questions, with avoidance of those pertaining to the administration, and that the programmes of this and other similar congresses should be submitted in advance to the minister, who reserves the right to eliminate questions of which he disapproves. In accordance with this

authorization, three general congresses of the professors of the lycées and colleges have been held. Full reports of the first and second congresses have been published, from which it is seen that the deliberations were kept strictly within the prescribed limits. The subjects that were uppermost were the organization of societies of professors for mutual support and insurance; university extension, and the means of giving greater recognition to the assistant professors of secondary education. A noticeable feature of the second congress (held in 1898) was the presence, for the first time, of delegates from the lycées for girls. The third congress, held in April of the present year, was organized in three sections. The first considered questions of discipline, of moral education, and of the examinations for the public scholarships offered in the lycées for girls; the second section examined principally proposals with respect to the examinations for the bachelor's degree; the third considered the province of students' associations. This section submitted also proposals respecting university extension and the organization of an international congress to be held in 1900 in connection with the Paris Exposition. The maintenance of the existing baccalaureate was approved by the congress, but it was urged that the composition of the examining jury should be changed. It was originally proposed that the programme should include discussions of the questions entrusted by the Chamber of Deputies to the commission on secondary education, but this subject was eliminated by the minister, who held that the commission itself afforded full. opportunity for the professors to be heard on the questions at issue.

Commission on secondary education. The latest official action with respect to secondary education is the appointment of a commission by the Chamber of Deputies to examine the several measures proposed for the reform of the existing system and the conditions that have given rise to these.

The commission has submitted a voluminous report of the depositions presented before it in its sessions from January to March, which cover every phase of the problem of secondary education as it has developed in France.1

In the introduction to this report the commission indicates the scope of its inquiry, the conditions that have called it into existence, and the

1 A commission appointed by the Senate to examine the project of law for the reform of secondary instruction, submitted by M. Combes, former minister of education, has just issued its report, which bears the name of the secretary, M. Pozzi. The document is received as this goes to press. It appears that the commission recommends the adoption of the bill by a vote of 5 to 4 members. The bill proposes to do away with the baccalaureate and to substitute for this an examination of maturity to be held within the school (lycée or college) whose course the candidate has followed. The examining body is to be composed of secondary professors, but presided over by a university professor appointed by the minister. A similar examination is proposed for private institutions before an examining committee to be formed by the minister of public instruction. The bill and the report of M. Pozzi have already excited intense discussion. The measure proposed, if adopted, would radically change the nature of secondary education as constituted in France.

trend of opinion with respect to the questions at issue. This introduction is here epitomized.

The programmes and time-tables of the secondary schools and the system of examinations have all been examined, it is stated, with reference to certain essential points. On one side there is a demand for the reform of the baccalaureate and the granting of the same sanctions to the modern as to the classical course; hence, the character of the modern course, its purposes, the length of time to be given to it, should be considered. On the other side, there is a question as to the classical course, whether it should be made uniform, at least up to the class of rhetoric (the last but one of the lycée course) for all students, for those who desire the most thorough literary training as well as for those whose preference is for a scientific career. The suppression of the special course (instituted in 1865 by Minister Duruy) is regarded on all sides as having sensibly diminished the number of students seeking to enter the lycées. It is thought that families should be able to choose between the classical course and a course shorter and better adapted to the needs of various regions. The programmes, says the report, are, in general, severely criticised; they tend, it is urged, to crowd the young mind with too many subjects learned superficially, to weaken its inclination for independent effort and its scientific curiosity. The reforms which have been already introduced in the lycées and the colleges have not settled in any definite manner the questions pertaining to the management of the boarding departments of the lycées, the conduct of physical training, and the relations of the tutors (répétiteurs) which at present are very unsatisfactory. There must be, it seems, some means of uniting and associating more intimately all those who are charged with the duty of forming the mind and the character of the young.

The administration (university) is convinced that the lycées should be freed from that excessive centralization which has destroyed their individuality, paralyzed the personal initiative of principals and professors, and reduced them to the state of mere functionaries, too much isolated from each other and having no close union either with the schools or with the region to which they respectively belong. It is desirable that the lycées and colleges should have a certain autonomy and moral responsibility; that the diverse orders of instruction should cultivate more intimate relations with each other. There is in this respect a general tendency of opinion to which, without doubt, the renaissance of the universities has contributed and which is worthy of serious consideration.

The commission was unanimous in the opinion that the time had come for making the inquiry as to the state of secondary education as comprehensive as possible, and the Chamber of Deputies was pre

pared to give it full authority in this respect.1 Such inquiries are, it is urged, extremely useful when they are timely and well conducted.

1 QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY THE COMMISSION.

I. Statistics of secondary instruction.

Variation in the number of students in the public establishments for the period 1879-1898, the number in the lycées and in the colleges to be given separately, distinction also to be made between the number in the classical course and in the special or modern course and the number of day students and boarders.-Variation during the same period in the number of students in private establishments; giving separately the number in classical courses; in special or modern courses; in schools preparing for the bachelor's degree; in "petits séminaries" (preparatory to divinity schools).— Probable causes of these variations.

II. Administration of the lycées and colleges.

Direction of the institution.-Manner of nominating the principals.-Necessity of increasing their authority. The value of conferences of professors and assistants (répétiteurs) and the disciplinary councils. Should a certain autonomy be given to the lycées and colleges?-Is it desirable to establish in each lycée and college a council composed of representatives of the professors and former students as a means of strengthening the bonds between the institution and the region to which it belongs?--What should be the functions of that council?

III. Education.

Conduct of the boarding department.-By what means may the interest of professors in the work of education be increased?-Status of the tutors (répétiteurs).-Is it possible to give them larger responsibility in respect both to instruction and education?-Physical education.-Liberty and responsibility.-Government of the older students.

IV. Organization of the teaching corps.

What measures should be taken for improving the professional preparation of professors?-Competitive examination for fellowship (concours d'agrégation).—Value of a university course.

A. Classical course.-Should it be extended or abridged?-To what extent?-What should be the normal duration of the course?-Are the programmes overcrowded?-How should they be lightened? Should certain subjects be made elective; for example, Greek?-How far should the programmes be adapted to local conditions?-What should be left to the initiative of the professors and of the councils of the respective establishments?

B. The modern course.-Is there a place for this course?-What should be the normal duration of the course? Should the programme be modified?-What is your opinion as to the uniformity in the plan of study and the programmes of this course?-Results thus far accomplished by the course.--For what careers are the students who follow this course destined?-What proportion intend entering upon industry or commerce?-What proportion the public service?-Should the teaching force be distinct from that of the classical force?-How should it be recruited?

C. Relations of secondary instruction to primary instruction and to technical instruction.-Is it desirable that pupils should not enter the lycées or colleges until they have passed through the primary schools?Should the superior primary course be correlated with the modern secondary?-Is it desirable to modify the programmes of the superior primary schools so that pupils may pass from these to the higher classes of the modern secondary course?-Statistics of technical instruction.-Results accomplished. Of the competition of the technical schools with the lycées and colleges.-To what extent can technical instruction be given in the lycées and colleges?

D. Study of the living languages and drawing.-Would it be possible to give a practical character to the study of the living languages by arranging for pupils to study for a while in foreign countrie› ?—Local adaptations of the courses in foreign languages.-Importance of instruction in drawing reforms needed.

V. The baccalaureate and examinations.

Should the baccalaureate be suppressed?-Of the substitution of a certficate of studies and of transition and leaving examinations (examens de passage et de sortie).-Should the method of the examinations be changed?--Should the diploma of the modern course admit one to the faculty of law and the faculty of medicine?--Is it expedient that the scheme of examination for admission to the special schools (i. e., of engineering, electricity, etc.) should be arranged with the concurrence of the university?

VI. General inspection-scholarships.

Should the general inspection (that is, the examination by the State officer) extend to the entire secondary school considered as a unit or only to the work of the individual professors?-Means of correcting the defects of the inspectorial service.-Secret notices.-Scholarships (bourses d'études).How should they be given?-Is it possible to follow the careers of students who have held these scholarships after their studies terminate?-How many intend entering the public service as teachers or other civil officers?