including chiefly the study of literary works of art; fourth, grammar and the technical and scientific study of language, also including such branches as logic and psychology; fifth, history and the study of sociological, political, and social institutions.

Each of these groups, it is asserted, should be represented in the curriculum at all times by some topic suited to the age and previous training of the pupil. In this scheme of education it is assumed that the aim of the secondary school, as well as that of the college, is culture, and not a fitting for special vocations in life. The professional or graduate school should attend to the latter.

If this view of the aim of secondary education be correct, the course of study should be so arranged as best to promote symmetrical development. No study, therefore, should find a place in the curriculum whose sole claim, or chief merit consists in its adaptability to professional training. All educational philosophers, however, are not agreed that there are but five coördinate groups, neither more nor less, into which the proper subject matter of the secondary schools naturally fall. President De Garmo thinks there are but three. Froebel also divides them into three groups which he designates “(a) Religion. (b) Natural Science and Mathematics, (c) Language."

Dr. Hill in his "hierarchy of studies" adds the "religious group" to the five advocated by Dr. Harris, thus making a six-group classification and finally Dr. White comes forward with still another group which he terms "the industrial art group." including drawing, construction, book-keeping, etc.

But whether there be three groups, or five groups, or seven groups, which should always be represented in the courses of a well organized school whose purpose is symmetrical develop

ment, these learned gentlemen are more nearly in accord than this divergent classification would seem to indicate. Substantially the same topics are included, the classification being more comprehensive in the three-group arrangement and more sharply defined in the others. It seems, however, impracticable to carry out literally Dr. Harris's program in having at least one representative study of each group at all times in each course. The best high schools are now in my judgment requiring the maximum amount of work that should be attempted. No additional requirement. should be added. Readjustments of relative requirements in different subjects could, of course, be made without increasing the sum of requirements.

Nor would it be wise to cut down materially the amount of work in one line in order to gain time to introduce a greater number of subjects. Two or three lessons a week when five are necessary is a grave mistake, and has done much harm in many schools.

With these observations upon the subject matter of the high school courses we shall now consider the question of election.

Colleges and secondary schools are passing through a transition period in these closing days of the century. Never before have the college and the high school been in closer sympathy. College authorities are more and more endeavoring to make college entrance requirements fit into what the high schools can reasonably be expected to furnish.

The high schools, too, recognize the inspiration which the hope of entering college brings to the high school student, and they are willing to meet the college people half way upon a basis that is mutually satisfactory.

The great institutions of the land are leading in the matter of electives in en

trance requirements as well as in the studies that lead to their most honored and valuable degrees.

President Eliot in his recent report says of the new requirements at Harvard: "The new plan for admission will bring the college into closer connection with high schools throughout the country and will tend to enlarge the election of studies in all secondary schools; in consequence it will tend to make secondary education less discoursive for the individual pupil than it has been. The new requirements are not only perfectly adapted to the needs of the classical schools-indeed are better adapted to the programs of well conducted classical schools than any requirements for admission to Harvard College ever have been; but they are also well adapted to the needs of schools which maintain only a Latin-English Latin-Scientific course. Hereafter it will not be necessary for a boy of thirteen or fourteen years of age to decide then, once for all, the question whether he is going to college or not. If he should decide at sixteen or seventeen that he wants to go to college, most of the studies which he has already pursued in a good secondary school will count towards admission and he will only have to add in later years of his school course two or three subjects which he has heretofore neglected. This postponement of the most important decision which has to be made by or for a well-trained boy is itself a great advantage."

or

Greek is no longer a necessary requirement for entrance to Harvard. History, modern language or one of a wide range of scientific subjects may be offered instead.

The range of election for the individual candidate under the new scheme is illustrated as follows:

"Nearly three-quarters of his preparation may be just as it was one hun

dred or fifty years ago-namely, Latin, Greek, Mathematics and Ancient History; or, on the other hand, three traditional subjects may be represented by less than one-third of his secondary school subjects, namely by Latin, Algebra, and Geometry. Again, nearly half of his preparatory studies may be English and the modern languages, or the natural sciences, which thirty years ago, were not accepted at all for admission to college, may constitute a little more than one-third of his preparatory studies."

In a previous report President Eliot sets forth the attitude of Harvard towards elective studies in its entrance requirements in these words: "The college inclines to count for admission any subject which is taught in good secondary schools long enough and well enough to make the study of it a substantial part of a training appropriate to the pupil's capacity and degree of maturity. The college tends to accept any selection of subjects-made by the school, parent or pupil-which may fairly be said to constitute a sound training, and is disposed to leave to the secondary school its full share of responsibility for making wise selections."

I have given this full explanation of the position of Harvard College since that institution, perhaps, represents the most advanced thought on entrance election. Other great institutions, however, are scarcely less aggressive, notably Cornell, Chicago University, and Leland Stanford Jr. University.

President Schurman says: "We hold fast to the principle at Cornell of making courses conform to men and not men to courses."

President David Starr Jordan, of Leland Stanford, says of election: "The greatest extension of the influence of the American university during the last twenty years is due to the enrichment and individualization of their

work. They are worth more to the community since they give what the people need. The inflexible curriculum, with its arbitrary classification of studies, has ceased to be sacred. It has found its level as a mere matter of convenience, and to convenience realities are no longer sacrificed."

This growing unanimity of sentiment in college circles respecting the flexibility of entrance requirements is having its effect upon the curriculum of high schools. The high school and college are fast learning each other's needs and limitations. The National Educational Association by appointment of joint committees and in many other ways is promoting harmony between these hitherto somewhat discordant interests. The joint committee on college entrance requirements appointed in 1895, after four years of painstaking labor, made an elaborate report at the last meeting of the association. Its chairman, Mr. A. F. Nightingale, says of the report: "If there is one central thought in the report it is that of electicism, of wide options in secondary schools and in requirements for admission to college. The question of intrinsic and relative value of studies is not dwelt upon. The test of the value of a study resides more in the teacher and the pupil than in the study."

"The young people of the nation," says Mr. Nightingale, "must be furnished opportunities for such an education as their natural endowments seem to foreshadow will be of most value to them. We shall not have, then, so many physicians that ought to be farmers, SO many lawyers that ought to be blacksmiths, SO many preachers that ought to be peddlers, nor so many failures in business because of mistaken vocations. Woe to the one who crowds upon a young and innocent mind a study, which, though meat

to the parent or teacher, may be poison to the pupil! Child study, mental aptitudes, individual trend, the eternal fitness of things should absorb our thought and demand our vigilance in the arrangement of a curriculum of study for every boy or girl who passes. through the secondary school and college. The sky is streaked with the gray of a better dawn; the clouds of pedantry are passing away; individualism in education is the promise of a rational future." For himself he says: "I would abolish all rigid classification and grading and consult individual tastes, talents, powers, preferences, conditions, and capacities. Let some go forward as rapidly as they will; others, as slowly as they must. Let some take many studies, others few; let some remain all day; others, a much less time. The Almighty makes a separate die for every creature that comes from His hands. In the laboratory of nature no two things are alike, and the mechanism of mind varies with each individual. Pud'n Head Wilson proved that no two thumb marks were alike, and in this statement Mark Twain strikes the keynote of modern educational philosophy."

There are other influences besides the colleges and the reformers in the teaching forces of the secondary schools that are helping to bring about this radical departure from the traditional high school curriculum. The patrons of the public schools, in some instances, are insisting upon the introduction of what they are pleased to term more practical subjects. Director Sargent of the Cleveland public schools, speaks for a large class of patrons in his last report when he says: "In my judgment the high school course should be extended and enlarged in the scientific, the mechanical, and business departments. Science and mechanics are the great field for the immediate future. I do not advocate the curtailment of the classical or col-

lege courses; I believe that we ought to provide, as we always have, for the preparation for college, but I do advocate full business courses, full mechanical courses, full scientific courses so that pupils may be prepared for the higher polytechnic schools.

"My central thought has been to suggest some plan by which the usefulness of our high schools can be largely extended and brought closer to the necessities and requirements of the people by whom and for whom they are maintained.

"Such a change as I have suggested would in my judgment popularize, and advance our whole system of public education, broaden its scope and influence and furnish to the pupil a more thorough and practical preparation for the duties and affairs of life."

When it is remembered that but a small per cent of hight school graduates go to college, the suggestions of Mr. Sargent as to the modification of the high school courses in the interests of this large class whose formal edu'cation ends with the high school, seem just and reasonable.

The elective system in the high school has been in operation for some years in modified form in several eastern cities. notably in the city of Washington, but the first step towards putting into operation an elective plan on a large scale was taken in Chicago a few months ago. Dr. A. F. Nightingale, assistant superintendent of high schools, and an eloquent champion of electicism, submitted to the councils of the different high schools in Chicago a course of study in which it is proposed to make everything elective but English.

The pro

posed course contains a wide range of subjects under the heads of Language, Mathematics. History, Science, Commercial, and Miscellaneous.

The pupils are to make a judicious selection from the long lists of studies

offered with the advice and approval of parents and principal except that the study of English language and literature shall be required of all pupils onehalf of the curriculum.

"A complete curriculum shall consist of 3,000 hours of successful work, e. g., a study pursued five times a week for one year will constitute 200 hours; one pursued twice a week for one year will constitute 80 hours.

"When a curriculum is completed the pupil will be entitled to a diploma which shall state the studies pursued, and the length of time each has taken.

"The program of studies will be so arranged that difference in the capacity, application, and health of the pupil will be considered. Those of good health and unusual ability will be enabled to complete the curriculum in less time than those whose health or capacity makes it wise for them to proceed more slowly. The average time in which a curriculum of 3,000 hours is expected to be completed is four years, but a pupil will be given a diploma whenever he finishes the prescribed course of 3,000 hours, be it a longer or shorter period. The elective system has been in successful operation in the Galesburgh, Ill. high school since 1895. The growth in the enrollment of the high school there has been almost phenomena!, increasing in these years 122 per cent while the grades from which the school is fed have increased only 9 per cent. The number pursuing other than college courses is 56.7 per cent. "The elective system," they claim, "gives all the people the kind of education they desire for their children and it interferes in no way with those who wish to prepare for college. The records show that the elective plan has increased this number." The plan adopted at Galesburg briefly stated, is as follows: "Each subject in the course of study is given a certain number of credits. no credits being

given when a subject is not completed. When a pupil receives one hundred credits he is given a diploma in which are written the subjects completed and the value of each making not only an intelligible but an honest diploma."

"The judgment of the board of education as to the best combination of studies is expressed in the three courses as laid down called respectively the Scientific, Latin, and Commercial. However, for good reasons, any subject taught in any course during a given term may be taken by a pupil and the corresponding credits will be given."

Superintendent Steele says: "When a pupil makes his own choice of subjects he no longer feels that his work is a task imposed upon him by his teachers, but as something he himself has assumed. He studies for a purpose, the essential element of all successful work; he looks upon the school as his greatest opportunity and upon his teachers as his best friends. This transforms the atmosphere of the school into that of the model home. The elective system never drives a pupil away from school by closing the door of graduation upon him, but if failure does overtake him, he has a chance to redeem himself in other lines."

In a recent letter from Mr. F. D. Thompson, the principal of the High School at Galesburg, he calls especial attention to the form of diploma they grant and observes: "With such a diploma there is no question that may be raised as to what graduation from the school means which cannot be answered. The longer we use the elective plan the better we like it in the management of the school and in the spirit that it fosters by putting the motive of study where it belongs."

The question of election is before the High Schools of the country now as never before. An era of freedom of choice in the selection of studies is

evidently upon us. Public sentiment in its favor appears to be enormously, on the increase. The pendulum has started with tremendous impulse in the direction of electicism. The secondary schools must generally conform to the spirit of the times and furnish the kind of education the age demands.. But is there nothing to fear from this. radical movement? May not the cause of education suffer harm from the leadership of individual enthusiasts? The evils of the present condition of the high schools have doubtless been overdrawn by excited reformers. The average reformer is something of a poet. A vivid imagination furnishes much of the material from which are fabricated startling tales of gross injustice to which the high school youth are subjected. If the champion of reform be gifted with fluency of speech as well. as with a fertile imagination, he makes. a case that appeals to the chivalric senseof all lovers of justice and wins instant sympathy for his cause. He is the Wer dell Phillips of educational reform when he eloquently pleads for the emancipation of the embryonic Edison who is condemned to three or four years of Charnel house Greek or when he heroically strives to rescue an unknown George Eliot from the dungeon. of mathemactical despair, or, seeks to extricate "some mute, inglorious Milton" from the sulphurous fumes of a scientific Hades. He forgets in his mad enthusiasm that the geniuses to whom he likens the captive souls are perhaps themselves the impossible product of the system he condemns. Unembarrassed by such trifling facts he eloquently pleads for the striking of the fetters from the minds of thousands of enslaved high school boys and girls who are being robbed of their birthright of opportunity to develop their latent genius by being condemned to the study of that at which their instincts revolt and which they have no