speeke and write both wittely with head, and faire with hand, as scarce one or two rare wittes in both the Universities have in many years reached unto."

Our fathers brought across-the water the idea that children of both sexes needed to know how to read the Bible; that beyond that all boys needed the ability to write and cast accounts; while the Church and the State needed some boys who were versed in the classics and higher English, "that learning might not be buried in the graves of the fathers." So much the community would provide for. For the daughters of kings or for girls of noble birth who might be wives and mothers of kings they would have generous culture provided by private means; but in the New World there were to be no queens nor mothers of queens, so they quietly left the higher education of girls to those few who might "think a good deal of themselves."

THE CLEVELAND SCHOOLS.

PRINCIPAL EDWARD L. HARRIS, CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, CLEVELAND, OHIO.

B

EFORE the year 1892 the system of school government in Cleveland was much like that of other communities. The same responsibility was placed upon the Superintendent of Schools, and there was the same lack of all power and authority on his part. The members of the Board of Education were not inferior to those of other cities; in fact, they were above the average. The same results, nevertheless, must always follow when men who are elected by popular vote, often for one term only, are entrusted with the selecting and hiring of teachers and the determining of courses of study and text-books to be used.

Such was the sentiment in Cleveland that a change was demanded. In March, 1892, the legislature of the State passed an act entirely re-organizing the Board of Education; in fact, it did away with the old board and substituted a system since known as the Cleveland Plan.

OUTLINE OF PLAN.

In the new order the Board of Education is divided into two parts the legislative, called the Council, and the executive, called the Director. The council is composed of seven mem

bers, elected at large, four of whom are elected at the spring election with the Mayor and other city officials, and serve for two years. The other three members of the council and the Director of Schools are elected the alternate spring at a time when the city is not influenced by municipal politics and elections. The council is simply a legislative body. It" shall have the power to provide for the appointment of all necessary teachers and employees, and prescribe their duties and fix their compensation," and here the duty of the council in reference to teachers ends. The transfer of property, the building of schoolhouses, all expenditure of money except to the amount of $250, for which an appropriation has already been made, must be made by order of the council; but all resolutions involving the expenditure of money or the change or adoption of text-books must be submitted to the Director for his approval or disapproval. To become valid such resolutions must receive his signature, or, if vetoed by him, must be reconsidered by the council and receive an affirmative vote of two thirds of the members of the council.

The Director of Schools is the chief officer of the school system. Not only is he the executive, charged with carrying out all orders of the Board, but all duties not legislative devolve on him. Power is centralized and responsibility is located.

One of the first duties and one of the most important for the first Director was the appointment of a Superintendent of Instruction. "The school Director shall, subject to the approval of and confirmation by the council, appoint a Superintendent of Instruction who shall remain in office during good behavior, and the School Director may at any time, for sufficient cause, remove him." Here the duty of the Director in reference to teachers ends.

To the Superintendent is given the power to appoint and to discharge all teachers for whom provision has been made by the council. This includes his assistants in his office, his principals as well as teachers; it includes all in the department of instruction.

The Director appoints all janitors of buildings and all other employees of the Board, including the superintendent of buildings and his office force.

There are two features in which the present system has a decided advantage over the former one. The first is this: the appointment of teachers is entirely removed from the legislative body and consequently from those who are not experts in teaching; the teachers are not subject to that baneful influence of politics either in their appointment or in their removal. True, a great responsibility is placed in the hands of one man, the Superintendent, and were he a small man or a tyrant he could work much harm to the teaching force and to the cause of education: the teachers' tenure of office might and would depend on his mere whim.

The man who has made a life study of education; who is intrusted with such great responsibility, will meet it conscientiously and attempt to realize fully the great possibilities under the system. There is less danger in being responsible to one man, who is himself a teacher, fully conversant with the duties of a teacher, than to twenty who know little or nothing of such duties. At any rate, the teachers of Cleveland have no cause for complaint under the present administration.

The second element of advantage is this: some one person is made responsible. Just as one person, the Superintendent, is held responsible for the instruction, and good instruction, too, so is one person, the Director, held responsible for all other employees, for the fulfillment of all contracts and for the rightful expenditure of money.

There are two changes which might be made in the present plan which, in our judgment, would greatly benefit the schools: The first is the transferring the power of laying out the course of study and the selecting of text-books from the council to the Superintendent of Instruction. There is the same trouble now in this department of the work as there was formerly in the selection of teachers. An expert is needed in each case. As all educators know, there is no more difficult task to be performed than the one of making a suitable course of study and of selecting suitable text-books to go with this course. Let this work be given to those who have made, for years, a study of the conditions.

The second improvement in the plan would be the change in the manner of appointing janitors. They are at present entirely

independent of the Superintendent or the principals of buildings. In buildings where there are from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred pupils the selection of a janitor is fully as important as of any one teacher; if not in sympathy with the method of government in the school, about which he may know little indeed, he can do more harm than a poor teacher. This influence among

the boys should be guarded as carefully as that of a teacher. We believe, therefore, that the janitor of the building should be appointed upon the recommendation of the principal of the building, and should hold his position during good behavior and while doing satisfactory work. This would remove him, also, from political influence and make his tenure of office independent of it. A change in Director might, at present, mean an entire change in the force of janitors in Cleveland.

The regular school work is divided into three divisions: the elementary, comprising the first eight years; the secondary, the four years of the high school; and the training, comprising, for the young ladies, the two years of the normal.

The foundations of the work were carefully made in the early days by that honored Superintendent, who still dwells among us, Andrew Freese. The work was afterwards carried forward with wonderful success by such superintendents as Andrew J. Rickoff, B. A. Hinsdale, L. W. Day and other men of national reputation. There was never, perhaps, a more earnest spirit among the teachers than at the present time. In addition to taking personally some leading educational paper of the day, they very generally patronize the teachers' reading room, which is well supplied with such magazines; they maintain, and successfully, too, a course of lectures during the winter; they have formed and maintained an Art Association for the benefit of their respective buildings, that is, for procuring for their schoolrooms. works of art; they have formed groups for study and travel; all of which have given the results that could be expected,―a continued improvement in the scholarship and thought of the elementary pupils.

There is one feature which would doubtless strike the observer from some sections of the country as peculiar, and that is that there is not a male principal in the elementary schools. The male principals and male teachers, too, for the most part,

are reserved for the high schools. The good work done by the lady principals and their teachers cannot better be shown than by calling attention to the large percentage of the eighth grade pupils that are desirous of entering and do enter the high schools. In the central district over eighty per cent of the eighth grade continue their work in the high school. During the last ten years the high school attendance has increased one hundred per cent,-thirty per cent more than the increase in the elementary schools.

There are three high schools in the city at present, and two more high school buildings under process of construction. The largest and oldest of these schools is the Central High. It was opened on July 13, 1846, with thirty-four boys. It celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1896 by a grand re-union of alumni. There have been over thirty-three hundred graduates of this school alone, among whom are names very prominent in the world in finance, politics and literature. The graduates of the Central now number about two hundred and fifty each year. The enrollment at present is twenty-one hundred. There is ever present that assistance that comes from the inspiration furnished by large numbers united as one, and from a large and loyal alumni.

There are practically three courses of study in the high schools: the business, the scientific and the classical. The business course has the fewest in number in the Central, only about two hundred, and beyond the first two years is the least developed course in the school. This comes largely from lack of room for a proper equipment. One of the new high schools will have special attention, in construction and equipment, given to this work. There will be such an opportunity to do good work in this department as is demanded and proper.

The scientific course includes by far the largest number; in fact, the Central High is largely a scientific school, about fourteen hundred being enrolled in this department. There are in this course four years of required science of five hours each week, save the last year, which has four hours. Fully half of the time is given to laboratory work by the pupil. A choice of languages is given, one of which is carried through the four years,—that is, English, German or Latin. If either of the first