Released from school before the completion of the fourteenth year, hav ing completed the course.. 62,838 Excused from attendance owing to physical or mental defects, or placed in asylums Truants, or withheld from attendance 10, 041 945 Total.. 5,291, 455 If we rely upon the census, we find that nearly 8,000 children are not accounted for on the school rolls in Prussia. In Bavaria the number of children at public elementary schools has decreased in late years despite notable improvement in the system of education, to wit, from 859,116 in 1886-87 to 817,589 in 1892-93, but then the attendance at holiday schools and continuation (day and evening) schools has considerably increased, to wit, the former 263,103 in 1884-85 and 304,227 in 1892-93; the latter 24,031 in 1884-85 and 31,121 in 1892-93. The actual school enrollment in the schools of other countries is characterized by the following ratios to the population: Ratio of elementary pupils to the population.1 A few items concerning the various crown lands of Austria may be added. In 1889–90, the number of physically and mentally normal children who were withheld from attending school was very large, despite the compulsory attendance law in force, to wit, 436,731. This shows that the execution of the law, being in the hands of local authorities, varies considerably. It is noticeable that in crown lands settled chiefly by Germans the percentage is small, while in those chiefly Slavic it is large. Other sources give the following ratios: Denmark, 10.61 per cent; Greece, 4.02 per cent; Sweden, 14.72 per cent; Norway, 15.65 per cent; Spain, 7.68 per cent. * Enrolled 8.14 per cent, but actually present only 5.91 per cent. European Russia without Poland. Includes all children receiving instruction in day schools and ambulatory schools. This ratio includes all children of school age, which is presumably identical with the number enrolled in school. Percentage of children withheld from school in Austrian crown lands in 1889–90. The previous table, which credits Austria with 13.4 per cent of children in school, proves that the conditions there have greatly changed in recent years, chiefly owing to the imperial school law of 1869, amended in 1888. 4. CONTROL OF ATTENDANCE. For the control of school attendance, individual school boards in some countries, in others the governmental school authorities, have issued orders in pursuance of which they exercise control in conjunction with the police authorities. The great variety of relations. existing does not allow entering upon details respecting this control. The Prussian provincial governments have issued orders which prescribe the keeping of enrollment and absence lists of pupils (see order of the authorities at Bromberg, December 1, 1870); also orders which require control of attendance at religious lessons in nondenominational schools (see order of the authorities at Dantzic, March 31, 1872); also orders which require that the "floating school population," children living on canal and fishing boats, be accommodated in any school convenient to them for the time during which they leave their boats, usually not less than a week; likewise orders which provide for juvenile shepherds, whose attendance at school causes trouble in the eastern provinces, chiefly devoted to agriculture and cattle raising. In regard to the last-named category of children, the earlier and stricter laws have been amended on account of the opposition raised by agriculturists. These amendments have made the control much less strict, and they may be said to stand in contradiction to the strict prohibition of child labor expressed by the imperial factory law. 5.-PUNISHMENT FOR ABSENCE FROM SCHOOL. In Prussia the penalties attached to absence from school are accounted as penalties for the transgressions of parents, and are treated as such. Accordingly, an appeal to law is possible; the motion for punishment must be made by the school inspector (superintendent). Without such a motion, the police authorities that decide upon the punishment are not justified in interfering. The police judge has the right, however, to set aside any motion which seems to him without cause. (Ministerial act of July 17, 1873.) School inspectors may demand an ED 99-11 account of the judgment rendered; in case of a setting aside or modification of their motion, they have the right of appeal to a higher court. The limit of punishment is fixed partly by laws, partly by regulations. Wherever the general civil code rules, and according to the act of May 6, 1886, for East and West Prussia (two provinces which formerly did not belong to the German Federation), as also for Silesia, school attendance is controlled by the school and police authorities. Section 48, article 12, part 2, of that code reads: School inspectors, with the aid of magistrates [which means police authorities], are required to see to it that all able-bodied and mentally competent children, in obedience to the foregoing provision (section 43), regularly attend instruction, by force, if necessary; and that delinquent parents be punished. The police are authorized, on their part, to institute regulations, and to impose fines "in accordance with the prevailing local circumstances." This is important, as the earlier regulations provided for such low fines that parents did not feel their payment as a burden. Fines are paid into the school treasury. Besides punishing parents with fines, and in default of them with confinement for a number of days, the children may be forced to attend school by police or truant officers. 6.-DISPENSATION FROM ATTENDANCE. Religious instruction occasions much irregularity in attendance, particularly if children are required to go any distance for that purpose, as is often the case in rural districts. School authorities are battling against such irregularity in vain. In Catholic countries, part of one day in the week, generally Thursday, is set aside for religious instruction. Absence from secular instruction on Saturday, or else exemption from written work during school hours, is often required by and also granted to Jewish children. Other dispensations, for instance, for purposes of employment, aiding parents in gaining a livelihood, have, in the course of time, become very rare in Germany. The increase of national prosperity, which has been quite phenomenal during the last twenty years, and the consequent increase of parental supervision, have given children more chances to attend school. The prohibition by imperial law of child labor in factories (June 1, 1891) has done more even than the increased prosperity. Still, too much of children's time out of school is often taken up by home industries, which materially depreciates the advantages of exact regular attendance. In the country, particularly in the eastern provinces, agricultural labor, such as tending flocks, is still performed by children. The time of instruction for some children, and for nearly all during the summer, is so much shortened that good progress in school can not be expected. This is the case especially in Mecklenburg, where the "Dienstschule" (service school) is still a poor substitute for a modern public elementary school. Some vacations, for instance, the one during beet-raising time, are also among the deplorable causes of irregularity in attendance; these vacations afford the opportunity of drawing children into industrial labor in a way that undermines their health and morals. 7. PROPOSITIONS FOR CHANGES. Propositions for changes come from two antagonistic parties-the one opposed to progressive national education and the elevation of the masses; the other, in favor of advancement of popular education as the guaranty of increased national prosperity in all directions. While the former is laboring not only to prevent every expansion and safeguarding of school attendance, but to bring about restrictions and contractions, the latter party, to which, of course, all educators belong, is aiming at extending compulsory education, and, first of all, at removing all hindrances to a complete utilization of school time for purely educational purposes. German teachers consider eight years' school attendance sufficient in general, presupposing that elementary instruction is continued and supplemented by an appropriate three or four years' course at well-organized continuation schools, be they agricultural, commercial, or industrial. The demand, coming especially from physicians, but sometimes also from educators, and not infrequently from politicians, to defer the commencement of school attendance one year until the beginning of the seventh year, could be justified if arrangements were made to prevent the neglect of uncared-for indigent children, and kindergartens or institutions of like kind were established in which young children would be properly occupied whose parents either can not, or will not, see to it that they have sufficient mental exercise. If study were omitted during the first year of school, and play and lively physical and mental occupation were introduced to a greater extent, the essential import of the demand for shortening the course of compulsory attendance at school would be complied with and the disadvantages of later entrance obviated. This demand, when it comes from politicians, naturally conceals another purpose, that of reducing the cost of schooling fully one-eighth. The public elementary school of the future will, beyond doubt, attach greater importance to the attendance of advanced children than those of an earlier period of age. During hard, poverty-stricken times, when public elementary schools were first established in Germany, a child was hurried from the cradle to the school desk in order to give it an education. The child formed a part of the assets of the family business. It had to do its share of bread-winning. At pres ent a much greater number of children are allowed a longer time for development free from the yoke of labor, and schools have the right to claim them at a later age. How far this period may be extended is an open question in Germany. As the interim between school and military service has already been very much curtailed by extending compulsory attendance to supplementary evening and holiday schools, it may be taken for granted that the interruption will, at some time in the future, be entirely bridged over. The entire educational history of Germany seems to indicate this. Whether compulsion is beneficial in all respects is doubtful. But it is an "ultima ratio" against brute force and evil influences in life, and it is indispensable to successful work of teachers. Penalties attached to absence from school are unavoidable, even in highly civilized states. Like all penal laws, they form a wall of protection. against the forces of evil. As for the rest, schools must endeavor to effect regular attendance by their internal organization, kind management, and wholesome influence upon the adults at home, also by their plan of study and ready cooperation in the amelioration of social conditions. Judges, it is true, can compel a few delinquents not to prevent their children from receiving the benefit of education, but Nemesis does not establish social progress; positive aid is necessary, therefore, and from that alone can it be expected that in the future no child shall suffer in its development because of ignorance and crudity or want and misery. III. TEACHERS' PENSIONS AND ANNUITIES IN CENTRAL EUROPE. [After an article by J. Tews, of Berlin, in Rein's Encyclopedia of Education.] TOPICAL OUTLINE.-Introduction.-1. General remarks.-2. Conditions governing pensions for teachers of elementary schools in Prussia.-3. Pensions for teachers of elementary schools in other German States.-4. Pensions for teachers of elementary schools in other European countries.-5. Pensions for teachers of secondary schools in Germany.-6. Pensions for teachers in secondary schools of other countries. INTRODUCTION. The statement that teachers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have long been entitled to a pension after a certain number of years of service, specified by law, is both correct and incorrect. It is true that after a certain term of faithful service they could resign and continue to draw a fraction of their salary—i. e., live on a pension. But this so-called pension was, to a large extent, money which the teachers had paid into the pension funds during their term of service. This was the rule until recently, but now State and communal governments have come forward to increase these funds by annual appropriations. This appreciation of the teachers' past services has during the last twenty years increased to such an extent in several States of central Europe that contributions to the pension funds on the part of the teachers have ceased, and the State and the communities now bear the entire burden. This is quite in harmony with other measures of social legislation inaugurated by Prince Bismarck, such as compulsory accident, and invalid insurance for laborers, old-age pensions for |