It is believed that the general course of study outlined above is within the resources and reach of the high schools of the State, and especially of those schools which employ two or more teachers. It is based on the actual experience of the best schools. The changes made for the purpose of adjustment relate chiefly to mathematics and Latin, and these features have already been tested by school experience.

Your committee desires, in this connection, to emphasize the importance of a wiser concentration of energy in high-school instruction. The undue multiplication of branches of study and text-books is a serious dissipation of power. The principal aim of the high school is to give its pupils efficient training in the fundamental studies-what Dr. Harris calls the "fundamental disciplines."

II.-On the side of the college.

The course of study outlined above is an adequate preparation for all bachelor courses in college, the A. B. course alone excepted, and here the difficulty relates exclusively to the Greek. The colleges are at liberty to require for admission to all bachelor courses (1) requisite knowledge and skill in the common branches; (2) Latin, at least three years, and for technical courses either Latin or German; (3) the elements of algebra and plane and solid geometry; (4) English and English literature (character and amount to be announced at least one year in advance); (5) United States history and general history (limited); (6) physiology, physical geography, and the elements of at least two of these four sciences-botany, zoology, physics, and chemistry; and (7) drawing, music, and vocal culture.

In place of the Greek now required for admission to the A. B. course, they may call for spherical geometry, higher algebra (full one-half year), and trigonometry, at least plane-in other words, for present freshman mathematicsand also for some extra Latin, if necessary, and for one year of present college instruction in botany and zoology and physics and chemistry, now provided for in the high-school course.

Your committee suggests the following plans for meeting the absence of Greek preparation:

1. An acceptance of preparation in freshman mathematics (outlined above for third and fourth years of high school course) as a full substitute for one year of Greek. This change can be met in the college in two ways. Students who enter without Greek but with freshman mathematics can be permitted (1) to devote in the first year two recitation periods daily to Greek, omitting mathematics, or (2) what may be better, one period daily in freshman year to Greek and one to sophomore mathematics, and in the second year two periods daily to Greek, omitting mathematics.

It is believed that either of these plans will bring the student, who matriculates without Greek, but with extra mathematics, to the junior year regular in all his studies, and this, too, without serious loss or inconvenience. To the college it involves the expense of two extra daily exercises in Greek for one year or one extra daily exercise for two years; and every fairly endowed college ought to be able to furnish this extra instruction.

2. A more radical plan of adjustment and a better one in the bringing of Greek wholly within the college course, as has been done successfully by several State universities. This change brings all the college courses into harmony with the high-school course outlined above. The adjustment of the courses is complete. Students who enter with two full years of Greek preparation can enter the junior class in Greek, and those with one year of Greek the sophomore class in Greek, the only changes required being in the recitation scheme or programme. No extra instruction in Greek is required.

Four years ought to be sufficient for the thorough mastery of the present Greek course, now requiring as a rule five years. It is believed that a year can easily be saved by making the Greek instruction continuous and more enthusiastic, and, as John Stuart Mill once clearly pointed out, time can also be saved by the use of better methods of teaching. (Besides, extra Greek as an elective can easily be provided in the senior year.)

AGENCY FOR EFFECTING PROPOSED ADJUSTMENTS.

It is clearly not sufficient to devise and adopt plans for adjusting high-school and college courses of study. What is also needed is the providing of an efficient agency for carrying these plans into effect; and here the experience of

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several of the States is suggestive-notably of New York, Michigan, and Min

nesota.

The following plan for Ohio is recommended:

1. Let the association of Ohio colleges, or, if preferred a league of those Ohio colleges that may be willing thus to cooperate, formulate and prescribe the minimum requirements for admission to the several courses in each of the colleges associated, the same to be announced at least one year in advance. These requirements should be made definite, and they should fall within the general course of study above outlined for the high schools of the State.

2. Let committees be appointed by the college association, each representing at least two colleges, to visit the high schools within easy reach, and by personal inquiry and inspection determine whether such high schools are able to furnish the necessary preparatory training for one or all of the college courses, as indicated in the prescribed requirements for admission, the results and conclusions to be reported to a general committee of the association.

3. Let the high schools found worthy of such indorsement be put on a list of approved high schools and to give increased interest and weight to such approval let the graduates of these schools be admitted on application to any of the associated colleges without examination, save it may be in one of the more disciplinary branches, as Latin or algebra and geometry. These examinations might be helpful in securing greater attention to these studies and also in establishing a higher standard of attainment in them.

The visits of these examining committees should be improved to interest teachers and pupils in higher education and also to create a livelier interest in the community in the character of its high schools. It is easy to see how such visits could be made important occasions for strengthening the high schools as well as increasing interest in college education. The fact that these committees represent the colleges of the State and no particular institution would largely reinove embarrassment on the part of the examining visitors. Of course no school should be visited without prior permission.

The faculty of the University of Michigan has for many years carried out a plan similar to the one commended above, and it is the testimony of all concerned that it has brought the high schools into closer relations with the university and headed many young people toward its halls. It has also greatly improved and strengthened the high schools of the State in public interest. Citizens take a special pride in seeing the high school of their city or town on the approved list and the visits of the university committees are made occasions of special interest.

The demands of the colleges on the secondary schools.-School and College: The problem of earlier graduation from college has in New England led to a somewhat odd result, a positive demand for a reform in the curriculum of the elementary schools. The colleges having in recent years appreciably increased their demands upon the secondary schools, are not now so inconsistent as to call for the accomplishment of the greater rate of labor in a shorter period, but are joining in a claim that more of the preparation for college should be done before the fifteenth year of the pupil's life. Two methods of accomplishing this are suggested-the clipping-down process," by which the pupils who are to go to college shall be taken out of the elementary schools at the age of 11 or 12 and transferred to schools which shall specially prepare them for college; and the enrichment" method, by which certain subjects essential in preparation for college may be begun three or four years earlier than they now are, and may be taken in the elementary schools. There are difficulties in both the proposed methods.

The relation of grammar and high school education to collegiate. Frank A. Hill, head master Cambridge English High School: The great majority of pupils in the two hundred and fifty high schools of Massachusetts are pursuing a course of study that does not connect with the college. For such pupils the high school is a cul-de-sac, leading nowhere. Harvard College welcomes connection with all good high schools. It has provided avenues by which they may hope, one of these days, to prepare pupils without Greek. Unfortunately, it is harder to fit pupils for Harvard without Greek than with it. The greater demand is made on those less able to meet it.

It stands to reason that a training suited to a person whose course must cease after four years in the high school ought to be worth following up in college should the high school graduate desire to go higher. I urge most strongly the connection of the college with the public-school system all along the upper line,

not simply at those favored points where the classically trained touch the college. This connection would reduce the age of admission of many a belated pupil. This connection once established, a certain absurdity would disappear. Who would have dreamed, in advance of knowledge of this absurdity, that sonsible men were capable, first, of raising barriers between the high school and the college; secondly, of removing them between the high school and the professional school, and then, thirdly, of wondering why our youth so numerously skip the college to enter the professional school. Such inconsistencies are due to independent groups of men working at cross purposes, consequences natural enough under the intense localism of our educational systems, but impossible under the strong central authority of France or Germany. If both routes to the professional school are to be kept open, it is more pressing duty to lengthen and stiffen the secondary courses for the benefit of those who take the short route than to shorten and probably weaken them for the benefit of those who take the long route.

The pupil who begins at 6 and moves along normally may enter college at 19. This is young enough for average minds. Quick, strong minds may profitably enter a year or two earlier. For such the way should be shortened, but not by contracting the whole system. It should be shortened, not solely for the purpose of keeping active minds sufficiently busy. The Harvard Grammar School, of Cambridge, is trying an interesting experiment in this direction.

The time has come to consider the wisdom of increasing the range and the grade of scholarship within the pursuit limits of the grammar school. When we note how much the boys of the gymnasium and the lycée have accomplished by the time they reach 15, the question comes home whether our grammar-school pupils are working on a basis sufficiently liberal and with a spirit sufficiently serious. There are strong reasons, however, why they can not do as much a the pupils abroad. We should be temperate in our suggestions of possible improvement.

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The arithmetic course should be reduced to make room for algebra and geometry, algebra through equations of the first degree, and geometry in a way to test the observing, inventive, and reasoning faculties, but with recognition of the fact that its principles can be grasped for practical purposes long before it is possible for the average pupil to give the formal and rigorous demonstrations of Euclid.

Elementary science should have a place. There is something seriously defective in our teaching if under it pupils do not gain in power to see and to think. Geography should be made an observational study to an increased extent. This can be effected with the aid of the porte-lumiere, a darkened room, and stereopticon views.

I hesitate to recommend an additional language for the grammar schools. Latin would hardly be tolerated. I fear it would be difficult, except in highly intelligent communities, to convince the public that French or German ought to be taken up in our grammar schools, although it is the practice abroad to begin a modern language very early. The additions proposed-they would be largely substitutions should be worked out in a tentative way, some single school in an advanced community being selected for the experiment.

The changes proposed would require more teachers of a high range of attainments. This is the coming opportunity for the young women of the colleges as well as for the grammar schools. The proportion of liberally educated young women is increasing; the supply of such women for high schools promises before long to exceed the demand. It will be a glad day when the public shall demand as generous preparation for the teachers of the lower schools as for those of the upper.

The difficulty is with the preparatory schools.-H. L. Stetson, president Des Moines (Iowa) College: If the proper preparatory work could be accomplished I think there would be no complaint with reference to the length of our present college courses. If the student could be started at 13 or 14 years in his preparatory work, and if it could be made to cover the subjects most essential for him to enter his college course, he would be able to graduate at the end of the four years at about the age of those young men who enter the various professions without the college training: and the result of my investigation has led me to this conclusion. that the whole difficulty is not in the college course, but is in what leads to it. Our preparatory work is in such chaotic condition; we have so few thoroughly good preparatory schools. Some of them are engaged in teaching the classies and others entirely in teaching the sciences. Their pupils come to us without any regular preparation, and they are compelled to spend more time in

preparing themselves for the four years than frequently is necessary to accomplish the entire course in college. In answer to these demands which have been made for increased scientific instruction the high schools-of the West particularly-and very many of the academies are devoting more and more time to the sciences and to English literature; and it may be, if this instruction is increased and made what it might be, our colleges may have to readjust their courses of study to this fact, requiring less of the classics for entrance and giving more attention to them and more attention to advanced work in the sciences, and in this way possibly we may be able to meet all the demand that is made for less time to secure an education.

Suggestions.-D. C. Gilman, president Johns Hopkins University: (a) The authorities in our educational system should really, as well as nominally, distinguish between the requirements of three scholastic periods, namely, the school, the college, and the university; or, in other words, between what is essential, what is liberal, and what is special in a prolonged education.

(b) The period of college life, which of late years has been carried forward so that it extends on the average from 18.5 years to 22.5 years (in many, perhaps in most of the older colleges) may be brought back to an earlier age, say from 16 to 20 years.

(c) The significance of the baccalaureate-degree school should be restored, so that it may be at least a trustworthy certificate, an approximate measure, both of the capacity and of the acquisitions of the possessor. In one way or another a consensus should be reached as to the "dignities, rights, and privileges to that degree appertaining."

(d) The rigidity of the class system should be relaxed, so that those who are exceptionally favored or exceptionally strong may, if they choose, run the course in less than the average time; and likewise so that any who are embarrassed by ill health, the necessity of earning a support, or the inadequacy of their early opportunities may spend more than the usual time without any implied discredit; indeed, without attracting any attention. The exaggerated emphasis given to the class system in our colleges seems to me most unfortunate.

(e) The enormous waste of time and energy at the school period, the time of préparation for college, must be arrested.

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If these remedies could be adopted, what would be the result? School life would usually end at 16 years of age, when "matriculation" in a college would indicate that the scholar was ready for higher studies. College life would usually end at 20 years of age, when a bachelor's degree would denote the attainment of a liberal education. Those who are fleet would go over the course in less time, and those who are handicapped would proceed at a slower rate. The hare would generally win; but, sometimes, the turtle. Professional or special education would then continue as long as the scholar might wish, three years being probably the usual period in schools of law, medicine, and theology. The young man would thus receive at 23 years or upwards his professional certificate or his diploma as a doctor of philosophy. He would have finished his university pupilage. An education like this would usually extend over eleven years-four in the preparatory school (from 12 to 16), four in college (from 16 to 20), and three in a professional school (from 20 to 23); but the period might be shortened or lengthened according to individual abilities or disabilities. If, then, the stronger universities would take the ground that, as a rule, none should be admitted to the professional courses, or to the freedom of university instruction, until they had attained a bachelor's degree, or in some other way acquired a corresponding preparation for advanced work, the reproaches of which we are conscious would soon disappear, and higher education would be more generally diffused, more wisely ordered, more serviceable to the public.

Changes in the grammar-school programme.-The Association of Colleges in New England, at its annual meeting, November 5 and 6, 1891, resolved to recommend for gradual adoption the following changes in the programme of New England grammar schools: (1) The introduction of elementary natural history into the earlier years of the programme as a substantial subject, to be taught by demonstrations and practical exercises rather than from books; (2) the introduction of elementary physics into the later years of the programme as a substantial subject, to be taught by the experimental or laboratory method, and to include exact weighing and measuring by the pupils themselves; (3) the introduction of elementary algebra at an age not later than 12 years; (4) the introduction of elementary plane geometry at an age not later than 13 years; (5) the offering of

opportunity to study French or German or Latin, or any two of these languages from and after the age of 10 years. In order to make room in the programme for these new subjects the association recommends that the time allotted to arithmetic, geography, and English grammar be reduced to whatever extent may be necessary. The association makes these recommendations in the interest of the public-school system as a whole; but most of them are offered more particularly in the interest of those children whose education is not to be continued beyond the grammar school.

Discussion of the changes recommended in the foregoing paragraph.-George H. Martin, agent of the Massachusetts board of education, in an address before the Massachusetts Schoolmasters' Club: In discussing the proposed reforms I shall certainly limit myself to the class of pupils referred to in the memorandum issued by the college association, viz, pupils who are to leave school at 14. Concerning the first proposition to introduce elementary natural history in the earlier years there is practical unanimity among all public-school men. It was discussed by this club six years ago, and then the club was wholly in its fa vor. It is already a "substantial subject" in the best schools, and no school cu, riculum of recent construction would be considered complete without it, and it is taught everywhere objectively and not from books. It is true there is much crude and desultory work, but this is growing less as the limitations are removed. The subject is everywhere recognized as a most efficient instrument of training and is being used for that purpose. To say that it is in all schools in all communities would be to err, but the work is rapidly gaining, and its momentum will not be sensibly increased by the belated impulse from the colleges. I am prepared to indorse heartily the proposition to introduce elementary physics into the later years. It should be taught by experiment, and is already so taught in some grammar schools, but the "laboratory method" is not practical for grammar schools, nor is "exact weighing and measuring by the pupils themselves." This requires individual opportunity and time, neither of which the pupils in the grammar schools can have, and a degree of self-control which children under 14 have not acquired. Nor is this work desirable. What these children do need is some knowledge of the simple principles of natural philosophy which will enable them to understand the natural phenomena about them and the varied applications in modern industrial life-the pump, the steam engine, and the telegraph.

The third proposition is to introduce elementary algebra at 12 or earlier. From this I dissent. Elementary algebra has neither practical nor disciplinary value for pupils not going into the higher mathematics. Its relations are purely numerical, and with most pupils in the high schools its operations are chiefly mechanical. As a discipline it has no advantage over arithmetic. In fact, it has infinitely less value than the analytical processes of Warren Colburn's first book. It is true children may learn early to juggle with x, and they may be pleased to see how nicely the "sum comes out," but this is not algebra in any true sense. I have found by experience that real algebra is severe discipline for students from 16 to 20 who have had full high-school training. To learn to solve numerical problems in the easiest way is neither the end nor an end to be sought with much solicitude.

The next proposition is to introduce elementary plane geometry at an age not later than 13 years. By this the association doubtless meant demonstrative geometry of the Euclidian type. The mental discipline derived from this study is of great value, but such discipline can not be acquired by classes of children 13 or younger. They can, as so many older students have done, memorize theorems and demonstrations, and recite them glibly. But this is not geometry; it is only words. The question is not whether children can be put into geometry, but whether geometry can be put into them. But there is a kind of geometry which is already everywhere in use in the well-organized public schools, and which is being developed as far as the capacities of the pupils will admit. It is not called geometry, but industrial drawing. It is throughout a study of form, its properties and relations. It is form in the concrete; it deals with geometrical relations experimentally and constructively. Its logic is inductive rather than deductive, and it looks directly toward the practical necessities of handicraft as well as to the broader culture which is a universal need.

Coming to the proposed study of Latin and the modern languages at the age of 10, time will allow but brief consideration. I can not see that Latin for chil dren from 10 to 14 would have advantages either for discipline or use sufficient to justify its introduction. All that part which exercises chiefly the memory, and which constitutes the drudgery of the study, could doubtless be done earlier