The grading of schools has not progressed in Prussian schools as in American city schools, as is seen from the subjoined figures. There

In schools with one teacher there were instructed in either whole or half-day sessions:

The school children in some districts have far to go to reach school. In order to ascertain where new schools were needed, the Government made inquiry concerning the distance children had to walk, and the

ED 99-10

following is the result. More than 2 kilometers (or about 1 miles) was walked by

The number of regular teachers in the public elementary schools

To these should be added assistants and special teachers who are not appointed as class teachers:

The schools are classified according to religious denomination as follows:

The expenditures for public elementary schools are summarized as follows:

Of these sums the following amounts were paid for the purposes mentioned:

Salaries for regular teachers, excluding all special teachers.. $19, 604, 782
Pensions

New buildings..

682,859 4,483, 228

The last-named sums have been expended for the purposes mentioned below:

II. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND COMPULSORY EDUCATION IN CENTRAL EUROPE.

[After a statement in Rein's Encyclopedia of Education.]

TOPICAL OUTLINE.-1. Historical remarks.-2. Present regulations as to school age and duty of attendance: (a) In Prussia; (b) in other German states; (c) in other foreign countries.-3. Actual attendance in public elementary schools.-4. Control of attendance.-5. Punishment for absence from school.-6. Dispensation from attendance.-7. Propositions for changes.

1. HISTORICAL REMARKS.

Regular school attendance is necessary for successful instruction. It is brought about by various means in different strata of society and the different grades of the schools. Whereas educated and well-to-do parents, as a rule, strive to give their children thorough schooling under all circumstances, and even at great expense, the less educated and poorer classes seldom, if ever, recognize the necessity of regular and progressive instruction. Even when the value of greater knowledge is appreciated, parents attend more to what concerns their immediate wants and a livelihood, thinking that absence from school may be easily repaired. Physical wants are felt. Intellectual wants are not. Thus it comes that even enlightened, conscientious parents in moderate circumstances do not send their children to school regularly unless compelled by law. It has therefore been considered the duty of the State in German-speaking countries to enforce school attendance. Even though educated and well-to-do communities may

have established a thorough school system (which was the case for centuries in Germany before the State took hold of education) without any intervention whatever from the State, it is understood by German administrative law that regular and general public instruction begins only with the adoption of the law of compulsory school attendance. Hence it is stated that the German school system, meaning the State system, dates back only to the first compulsory school laws of Prussia (about the middle of the seventeenth century). Feeble as they may have been, they established the principle of the State's authority.

It is true that compulsory school attendance may be justly considered an infringement on civil liberty, and especially a limitation of parental authority, and in England and the United States that view held sway and, until the middle of this century, prevented the passage and successful execution of compulsory school laws. But their necessity and judiciousness had been recognized early in Germany. Since Luther (1483-1546) the fact has been frequently dwelt upon that parents are not always the most pious, conscientious, and farsighted educators. Moreover, the law of school attendance, as it exists, does not much affect parents who are enlightened and mindful of their children's welfare. As a rule, it is felt by those only who misjudge the real good of their children or make it secondary to their worldly interests. That compulsory education forces many parents to make great personal sacrifices can not be denied, as the actual premises are not in every case met when the law is enforced. The earlier school laws and regulations in central Europe are principally characterized by being purely police measures and limited to admonition and stimulation. Their requirements were seldom mitigated by positive measures, such as providing for school facilities. In the beginning compulsory education is everywhere and always felt to be severe and meets with energetic contradiction and opposition. Those who favor keeping the masses in ignorance encourage opposition, either openly or secretly. In the course of time, however, the masses become reconciled, and the law enforcing regular school attendance is recognized as a protection; yet its suspension would be followed by a noticeable. falling off of attendance, even in the most advanced States.

By compulsory school attendance the Germans do not mean the obligation of sending children to any one particular school, but only the legal requirement of giving them regular, sufficient, and continuous instruction conferring adequate proficiency. The so-called forced school attendance is, in reality, nothing more than compulsory education. Most of the school laws that have been in effect up to the present do not go beyond this. Consequently all private educational enterprises, including private instruction by tutor at home, are allowed the same liberty in their development as public schools. In single instances, as in Bavaria, efforts have been made through the royal

authorities to interpret the law of compulsory education as compelling attendance at one particular class of schools, i. e., the public schools. The political measure of "obligatory attendance at public schools," i. e., the duty of sending a child to a public school for a specified number of years, or until graduation, has gained many warm advocates in southern Germany, and was mentioned in the platform of one German political party, the Social-Democracy, in the year 1891. When we speak of compulsory education in central Europe (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), the term generally applies, as a matter of course, to the education acquired in public elementary schools. No one is obliged to attend secondary schools, where irregu larity of attendance is a violation of private rule, to be punished by the school authorities, but not by police or higher officers of the law. The earliest school ordinances (Schul-Ordnungen), those of the ́ sixteenth century, make no mention of school attendance, the regularity of which was attempted by other means. The ordinance of Count (Landgraf) Philip the Generous, of Hessia, for instance, closes with these words:

In all places where schools exist the clergymen shall urge and earnestly exhort parents to send their children to school, so that they may learn.

The ordinance of 1559 in Würtemberg required only attendance at catechism class on Sunday. The "general regulation" of the elector of Saxony, Augustus I (1580), required the regular attendance of boys only. This prescription is undoubtedly one of the first legal measures relating to the subject under discussion.

A general attendance of both boys and girls has been required in the most advanced German States since the very beginning of legislation on this subject, but with greater rigor since the middle of the seventeenth century. Pre-eminence, not in point of time, but as respects energy and success, is due to the Duchy of Gotha, the regent of which, Ernest the Pious, a friend and promoter of learning, published his well-known "Schul-Methodus" in 1642. One passage of this famous document reads:

All children, boys and girls, in cities as well as in villages, should, when 5 years old, without further delay, after the announcement is made from the pulpit, be sent to school. They should remain so long without interruption during the winter and summer, until they have learned all the necessary rudiments and can recite what has been taught them. They should not leave of their own choice, still less should they be withdrawn, until upon examination by their superior they are found worthy of discharge and are dismissed in a proper manner.

The law of the largest German State, Prussia, to-day, does not go beyond these requirements but covers exactly the same ground. Most of the German States followed the example of Ernest the Pious, only after several decades. According to the "general ordinance" of the Duchy of Brunswick, 1647—

All parents shall be compelled to send their children to school, either to the schoolmaster or the sexton of their respective villages, until the children can