EXHIBITION.-Page 202.

of a technical character to the courses of High Schools in others of our cities, all point clearly to the adoption of a policy favourable to technical education. The Franklin Institute,_of Philadelphia, has long laboured in the cause of practical science; and the Wagner Free Institute is doing a good work in the same direction. We have two flourishing Art Schools or Schools of Design, one in Philadelphia, and the other in Pittsburgh. There are also Commercial Schools and Schools of Dentistry, Music, Elocution, and Calisthenics. In the field of Natural Science, Art, and Literature, the American Philosophical Society, the American Historical Society, the Numismatic Society, the Academy of Natural Science, and the Academy of Fine Arts. There are 14,849 public and large private libraries, containing 6,377,845 volumes; 600 periodicals, circulating nearly 4,000,000 of copies; and hundreds of flourishing Lyceums and Literary Societies.

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION.-The Medical Colleges of Pennsylvania are widely known; There are also a number of Theological Schools and several Law Schools.

war.

SOLDIERS' ORPHAN SCHOOLS.-In 1865 Pennsylvania established a comprehensive system of schools for the destitute orphans of her soldiers killed or crippled in the late civil Into these schools 8,500 children have been gathered from all parts of the State, fed, clothed, instructed, and cared for until sixteen years of age, at a cost to the State of $5,000,000. Of charitable institutions, Girard College for Orphans is the most noted. It has now a sufficient income to maintain and instruct 1,500 children.

II. THE EDUCATIONAL EXHIBIT OF THE KINGDOM OF SWEDEN.

This Kingdom had already distinguished itself by its educational exhibit at the Paris Exposition of 1867, and especially at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873. But, as these places were in Europe, it was a less difficult and expensive undertaking, to transport a large variety of articles to the French and Austrian Capitals, than it was to have them despatched to the New World. It showed great enterprise and decision on the part of a comparatively small kingdom, in the north of Europe, to enter into competition with so formidable, and noted an educational competitor, as the United States of America.

The study of the educational contribution from Sweden, was, however, a great treat to the Americans, as it was to Canadian Educationists, who visited Philadelphia. The mode adopted by Sweden to illustrate her processes of education, was most striking and instructive. Few who visited the exhibition, would likely visit Sweden; she, therefore, in effect, transported to Philadelphia, as it were, a little shady nook of a rural village, with its quaint, but tasteful School-house.* Once within its doors, the visitors would be as literally in one of the village schools of the kingdom, as he would be were he in Sweden itself. There was the hall or entry, with its fittings and huge barometer--the schoolroom with its tile stone, desks and seats, teacher's platform, musical instruments, maps, illustrations, apparatus and other appliances, the teacher's private room, or class-room, and above all, the teacher's apartments, occupying one side of the school-building. †

Hon. Mr. Philbrick, the excellent Superintendent of Public Schools in Boston, thus refers to his own experience at Vienna, where a Swedish School-house had also been exhibited. He says:

* The size of this very neat building, was 40x50 feet. The frame work of the School house was brought from Sweden. The Architects were Messrs. Issens and Jacobson, and the Exhibitor, C. O. Wengstrom, of Stockholm.

+ In connection with this peculiarity of the Swedish School-house, I may say, that as teachers in Sweden are generally married men, provision is made in the School-houses for their accommodation, and a plot of ground is assigned to them for cultivation, as a garden. I have referred to Norway farther on.

"I had made some effort to take out with me to Vienna, an edifice to illustrate our idea of a Model School-room, with its fittings. I felt pretty sure that nothing but money was wanted to make this project a complete success; but when I entered the beautiful Swedish School-house, and took my seat on the Master's platform and surveyed the spectacle presented by the school-room, with its apparatus and fittings, I felt glad that my attempt to bring over a school-room had failed, because I could not have matched what I saw before me. I reckon that the State of Massachusetts will get paid for the cost of sending me to Vienna, a hundred times over, by the benefit derived from the knowledge of the idea of a school-room (German and Swedish) which I brought home with me."

In addition to the Swedish School-house, its fittings, furniture, and apparatus, there were about 400 other articles, illustrative of educational systems, methods, and libraries exhibited.

In speaking of the Swedish exhibit, the editor of the Pennsylvania School Journal says:"Among the school apparatus and appliances exhibited, there are maps much superior in fulness, accuracy, and execution, to any school map we have in this country, some philosophical apparatus, very fine geological, botanical, zoological, and other charts, a chart of weights and measures, and collection of birds, fishes, plants, fossils, etc.

"We were particularly interested in a case containing, in small spaces, specimens of ores, rocks, nuts, grains, seeds, plants, insects, shells, etc. This case is probably not over five feet square, and may be two or three inches in depth. It is placed against the wall, and consequently occupies but little room. Its contents are several hundred specimens of objects, of a character admirably adapted to interest and instruct young children. With a little effort, and a few dollars of expense, it could be placed in any school-room. In our primary schools, as material for object lessons, its value would be incalculable.

"Norlund's apparatus for teaching arithmetic seems to be well adapted to the purpose. We were specially interested in a frame arranged to aid children in comprehending the decimal scale in numeration. There are in the frame two hundred and fifty-three holes of three different sizes, holes of the second size being ten times as large as those of the first; and those of the third ten times as large as those of the second. The horizontal rows contain nine holes of each size, the nine smallest ones being on the right hand, and the nine largest ones on the left. Little pegs or sticks are provided in bundles. The small holes will hold one each, the next in size ten each, and the largest ones a hundred. By this simple contrivance children can readily be taught to count, and to understand how ten units make one ten, ten tens one hundred, etc."

The whole of the Swedish educational display was in charge of Professor C. J Meijerberg, Special Commissioner of the Education Department, Stockholm. At the International conference on educational matters, which took place in Philadelphia, during the Exhibition, this gentleman gave much valuable information as to the practical working of the Swedish system of education. He arranged with me to give his aid in procuring at Stockholm, for our Educational Museum, some of the Swedish school apparatus, &c.

I have referred to the school exhibit of Norway in chapter xxii.

BRIEF SKETCH OF EDUCATION IN SWEDEN.

The official account of the present state of education in Sweden, prepared for the Centennial, is so voluminous that I avail myself of a sketch of it (which I condense) written from Philadelphia by a correspondent of the Chicago Tribune :

"The Teacher.-To the teacher is assigned the treble duty of instructing the youthful mind in book-lore, religion and practical art, half of the salary is paid by the Government, the other half by the people. To this is added fuel and fodder for his cow; every teacher who has been in the service for thirty years is allowed a pension for the remainder of his life, equal to three-fifths of his salary. If, after ten years of teaching, he becomes an invalid, or is disabled in any way from pursuing active duties, he may still retire on the same pension.

"Grades of Schools.-There are three grades of Schools in Sweden-the infant schools, primary schools, and the high schools. Education in the first two grades is compulsory, the infant schools (chiefly Kindergarten) are generally conducted by women; each school containing about twenty pupils. In this school the child receives its first lessons in reading and writing, with a little of arithmetic. The A. B. C. book (on exhibition) has this peculiarity that it teaches reading and writing at the same time. Thus, on the first page is the alphabet in Roman letters, while on the opposite page is the same in written characters. The child learns to associate each written character as he acquires it, with the printed letter; and the task is scarcely more difficult than learning either one alone. In forming the written characters in the copy-book, the Swedish pupil is aided at first by straight lines having the slant of writing, and placed closely together across the page.

No

"The primary school is the common school of the country. It does not correspond with our school of the name, being far more comprehensive. It embraces the whole of our public school in all its departments-primary, intermediate, grammar, and high. The qualifications of a teacher in the primary school are rigid. He is obliged by law to have previously attended a Normal school for three years, and to have passed a sufficient examination. Only within the past few years have women been admitted to teach in the primary school, and even now the number of female teachers is small. The branches taught are reading, writing, grammar, religion, arithmetic, geography, history, natural history, physics, chemistry, singing, drawing, gymnastics, military drill, etc. The law of compulsory education is strictly enforced. parent can delay sending a child to the primary school after the ninth year. The course of instruction usually lasts until the fifteenth year. The children of poor parents have privileges from which the wealthier are excluded, for they are allowed to get off with the minimum of instruction in the several branches. They can also arrange to attend school only one day in each week--Saturday-or to attend continuously three months in the year. The former plan is very generally adopted by the poorest, since Saturday is the day on which the studies of the week are reviewed, and by application and evening study the poor scholar can keep up with his class, and rehearse with the regular pupils in the lessons of the week.

"The laws of Sweden make it very unpleasant for illiterate people. Children are not allowed to go to the Lord's Supper without passing an examination in reading and writing, and young men and women must prove their ability to read and write before being allowed to marry; and the Government insists upon a rigid enforcement of the law.

66

Religious instruction is an important feature in the Swedish school system. It has its friends and its opponents among the people, but with them the question is whether the teacher should give actual instruction in the Bible and Catechism. There is a large party which holds on this question the theory that religious training should belong exclusively to the clergy. The prevailing religious denomination is the Lutheran, and, of course, the religious teachings in the schools are on the Lutheran basis. Yet, while the Lutheran church is all powerful, other denominations are allowed full liberty, and in the chief cities may be found Baptists, Methodists, Roman Catholics and Jews, who worship according to their own forms. There is a provision in the school law by which if the parent belongs to the Baptist or other persuasion, he sends a written request to the head teacher that his child be excused from that part of the course, and the request is always respected. Religious instruction comprises Bible reading, Bible history, instruction in the Catechism, singing hymns, and prayer. This comes immediately at the opening of school, and generally lasts half an hour.

"METHODS OF TEACHING.-Some very excellent methods of teaching the common branches are shown in the Swedish school-house. For beginners in geography, for instance, there is a blackboard upon which is painted an outline of Sweden-simply the coast lines and the rivers being depicted. In place of towns there are only little iron pins fastened into the board at the points where these towns should be located. Accompany ing the board is a little box containing a large number of oblong blocks, each half an inch in length. Upon one side of the block is printed the name of some town. On the oppo

site side of the block is a small hole, fitting exactly the pins on the blackboard. The pupil is required to select a block from the box and place it on a pin, which should rightly locate the town printed on its face. Any one will see how greatly this simple apparatus relieves the tedium of study. The pupil finds it not a dry and difficult task, but an interesting recreation and amusement.