see how he stands with the world; it is a good thing for a school-boy once in a while to be called upon to tell definitely what progress he has made, what power he has gained in the time that has passed. The examinations may be used to spur a lazy pupil, without unduly urging the one who studies faithfully; they make very good exercises in the use of language; our pupils do not worry nor fret over them; on the contrary, the children themselves see in the examination a means of finding out whether they really understand what they have studied." [Superintendent L. P. Nash, Hingham, Mass.] "These examinations are in writing on the subject studied, and are intended to ascertain how much the pupils have been benefited, rather than how much they remember. I have found them valuable; they serve to show improvement and deficiences. The attention of the teacher is called to both." [Superintendent F. E. McFee, Woonsocket, R. L.]

"After all the agitation on the subject of examinations for promotion has had its day and the atmosphere has been cleared of the smoke of the conflict, I predict that the examination, by some other party than the teacher of the class, will survive as a prominent factor in determining the promotion and classification of pupils. It may not be difficult to conceive an ideal condition of things in which such means would be unnecessary and useless, but that condition does not now exist and, I am afraid, will not exist this side of the millennium." [Superintendent A. T. Wiles, Covington, Ky.]

Well-conducted written examinations, at suitable intervals, furnish to teachers and pupils reliable information upon various matters which it highly concerns them to know, and which could be obtained by no other means. They reveal to pupils their deficiencies and acquaint them with the accuracy and permanency of their knowledge and their ability to express, in writing, what they have labored to acquire. They furnish teachers with the desired information concerning the knowledge or ignorance of their pupils of the subjects pursued, and reveal to them also the efficiency and defects of their own instruction." [Superintendent J. H. Davis, Somerville, Mass.] Opposing views. Dr. E. E. White, now superintendent of the Cincinnati, (Ohio) schools, is pre-eminently the leader of the anti-examination crusade, and it is but proper to quote length. In his last report is the following:

his utterances at some

In considering, from a wider survey, the evils resulting from stated written examinations when used to determine the promotion and classification of pupils, and to compare schools and teachers, I once used these words:1

They and narrowed and grooved their instruction; they have occasioned and made well-nigh imperative the use of mechanical and rote methods of teaching; they have occasioned cramming and the most vicious habits of study; they have caused much of the overpressure charged upon the schools, some of which is real; they have tempted both teachers and pupils to dishonesty; and last, but not least, they have permitted a mechanical method of school supervision.

These tendencies have

It is not asserted that these results, especially in the degree here indicated, have universally attended the adoption of the "examination system." been more or less effectively resisted by superintendents and teachers, and they have been measurably offset, in some instances, by other measures, as the considering of the recitation record of pupils; but the testimony of educators, competent to speak, conims the writer's experience and observation, and inside facts show that the above indictment of the system, when used for the purposes named, is substantially true. In the very nature of things the coming examination with such consequences must largely determine the character of the prior teaching and study. Few teachers can resist such an influence, and, in spite of it, teach according to their better knowledge and judgment. They cannot feel free if they would. The coming ordeal fetters them more or lee, whatever may be their resolutions, and many teachers submit to it without resistance; and this is sometimes true of teachers who have been specially trained in normal schools and are conscious of the power to do much better work. They shut their eyes to the needs of the pupil and put their strength into what will "count" in the exami

nation.'

On visiting the schools I found on every hand these unfavorable influences of the system, and all efforts to secure the adoption of more natural and rational methods of teaching ran directly against this examination wall. I soon became convinced that no satisfactory change in school instruction could be effected while this hindrance was in the way,

ritten examinations to determine the fitness of pupils for promotion. But this involved the derising of another method as a substitute, one that would afford relief and, at the same time, secure that degree of uniformity of attainment essential to the proper classification of pupils. The disposition to make a change was enhanced by the discovered fact that the examination system was failing to secure this result-the one specially sought to be attained by it. It was found on inquiry that the lower third of the pupils ad

"Elements of Pedagogy, page 199."

mitted to the high schools in September, 1886, were in attainment more than a year be low the pupils in the upper third of the class, and a like difference in attainments was found in the classes in the intermediate schools. The very thing that the 'percented examinations' were failing to secure, was needed uniformity of attainment.

"An impression seems to prevail that written examinations have been wholly dispensed with in the Cincinnati schools. This is an error. The written test is no longer made the basis for the promotion of pupils, and it no longer occurs at stated times, but it is continued as an element of teaching, where its uses are many and important. It is now distributed throughout the year and comes without previous notice.

"There is nothing in the new plan that prevents the superintendent from subjecting the instruction in any branch or in any grade or school to such tests, oral and written, as will in his judgment indicate the success of teachers or suggest and promote needed improvement in methods. It is believed that the use of special tests from time to time, the same being unannounced and unanticipated, are much more effective and salutary than a reliance on stated examinations for which pupils may be specially prepared and even 'crammed,' to use a word which, as an educational term, ought to be obsolete. Besides, it is not easy to prepare tests that will disclose imperfections in teaching and, at the same time, be a fair basis for promotion. An examination employed as an aid in teaching and study is one thing; an examination regularly instituted to determine the transfer of pupils is a different thing."

Other arguments advanced upon the same line are as follows:

"Nothing is more delightful to a teacher than to have his work commended, and if by industrious examination we ascertain the parts of each teacher's work that can be justly commended, he will daily seek to make it worthy of praise in all respects. The teacher is daily finding out the attainments of each member of his class, and when the time arrives for promotion, is it not wise, if we would properly grade the schools and stimulate the scholars, to avail ourselves of this knowledge? If the teacher knows that this opinion of his pupils, ascertained through daily contact with them in the classroom, is going to be the most important item in determining the question of promotion, will he not endeavor all the more faithfully to teach his class and manage it so that his work may have the greatest possible effect in getting his pupils ready for promotion? And will not the pupils, who know that their teacher mainly decides upon their fitness for promotion, be more anxious to work so as to deserve their teacher's good opinion? Under the present system there is no doubt of the fact that our pupils are acquiring not only more knowledge than by the old method, but that they are acquiring vastly more power, and what is most desirable, our teachers are encouraged to use better methods of instruction." [Superintendent H. A. Wise, Baltimore, Md.]

"The factitious importance of high per cents., a superstition in which pupil, parent, and teacher join, and which makes it almost impossible for the superintendent so to prepare for the examination as to have its real purpose carried out, makes it a time of excitement injurious in some instances to health, and injurious in all instances to sane habits of study." [Superintendent J. J. Burns, Dayton, Ohio.]

* * *

"The plan of admitting to the high school without a special examination has been in operation for twelve years. We are told that with our present method the high school will contain some poor scholars. This is true, and we presume this would be the case in any school under any system. A school is maintained for the benefit of the community, not for the purpose of affording a place where certain good scholars may recite daily. The schools must take the material that is found in the community and work with it. A dull child must attend somewhere. We can not select the class of pupils we desire. We can keep a child for years in one grade, but he cannot be denied the benefits of the schools, even if in the curriculum there are studies in which he fails term after term to pass an examination. We are told also that there will be shirking on the part of many unless the members of the class are driven to their work under the spur of an examination. This is a confession of weakness upon the part of teachers and examiners and a charge of lack of capacity and disinclination to work upon the part of the pupils. Not all who are enrolled upon a school register are capable of becoming good scholars. There are many teachers who are doing good work in the school-room to-day that were unable when pupils to pass a good examination. Their efficiency now, however, is not questioned." [Superintendent J. G. Edgerly, Fitchburg, Mass.]

"It seems wise that, if possible, the instruction in our schools should be freed from the narrowing and mechanical influence of the present system of examinations. Any attempt, however, to relieve the situation by freeing some branches from prescribed examinations might intensify the pressure on percented branches. I believe a large per centage of the teachers are decidedly opposed to that cramming and driving for per cents. and to a narrow-rut, routine method of teaching which these percented examinations necessarily impose on the schools." [Superintendent S. S. Taylor, St. Paul, Minn.]

PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

Each year adds to the importance attached to the training of the first three or four years s of a child's school life. In the last Annual Report of this Bureau the subject was touched, and an intimation given as to the increased attention which the lower grades were receiving at the hands of school boards. During the year just past this movement, if such it may be called, has extended until every city in which this Office has a correspondent has been more or less affected by it.

It cannot be said that the full importance of primary schools is yet universally recognized in the substantial matter of dollars and cents, but that importance is certainly realized; and such is the progressive spirit now manifested by school authorities that the realization of a genuine need is almost invariably the precursor of its recognition in the more substantial way.

It may, therefore, be confidently predicted that primary schools everywhere will soon be placed upon their deserved basis of equality, at least, with schools of higher grades, not only in the matter of equipment but in quality of teachers as well.

The extracts below show the reasons for the efforts that are being put forth in this direction, and in a measure, the progress already made toward the accomplishment of the

desired end:

"Nearly two-thirds of the pupils attending our schools receive instruction in the primary department. Considering this, together with the fact that here the foundation of their training is laid, and that many pupils finish their education in them, there can be no question of the fact that these schools should receive the most of our care and attention-every convenience should be supplied, and every inducement held out, so that all the children of proper age in the city might be able to avail themselves of their humanizing influence. As they are equipped, organized, and conducted, so will our system be-they are the vital part, and their improvement or decline will in the greatest degree affect the whole system. They should be amply supplied with inviting school buildings, conveniently located, suitably arranged and furnished, and with experienced and wellpaid teachers." [Superintendent Henry A. Wise, Baltimore, Md.]

The views of Superintendent A. T. Wiles, of Covington, Ky., are expressed by this quotation from the late Joseph Paine, of the College of Preceptors, London:

Whatever may be done in the case of those children who are somewhat advanced in their course, and who have, to some extent at least, learnt how to learn, it is most of all important that, in the beginning of instruction, and with a view to gain the most fruitful results from that instruction, the earliest teacher should be an adept in the science and art of education. We should do as the Jesuits did in their famous schools, who, when they found a teacher showing real skill and knowledge in teaching in higher classes, promoted him to the charge of the lowest. There was a wise insight into human nature in this. Whether the child shall love or hate knowledge--whether his fundamental notions of things shall be clear or cloudy-whether he shall advance in his course as an intelligent being or as a mere machine- * * * depends almost altogether on the manner in

which his earliest instruction is conducted." "In a system of schools the primary grades are in many respects the most important. In our own city this is particularly so. In these schools, embracing the work of but three years, we have as many children and as many teachers as there are in all the other grades combined, covering a period of ten years of school work.

"For this reason the teaching in primary schools should be of a superior character, and teachers should be selected for them who are fond of children and who have an aptthese schools where right teaching is of greatest value, and where poor teaching is most these tech. At this age children are most susceptible to impressions, and it is in injurious. In advanced grades indifferent teaching may be endured without serious resalts, provided the child has had the advantages of good mental training in the lower that the pernicious effects of poor teaching in advanced grades will be greatly diminished." [Mr. William Connell, city superintendent, Fall River, Mass.]

or first four years of school life. Seventy-four pupils of every one hundred never go be"The greatest good to the greatest number demands the best teachers in the primary yend the fourth grade." [Report of the Superintendent of City Schools, Cairo, Ill.] "The primary department of our schools has received, as it should, the chief consideration

been doubled within the past few years.

"Among the first measures of reform in school organization in 1879 was the repeal of system of salaries that did very great injury to this class of schools. No opportunity abeuld be omitted to extend the efficiency of the primary schools; they are the basis of largest number of our people." system, and constitute that portion of it which carries the benefits of education to the cation, Philadelphia, Pa.] [Mr. Edward T. Steel, president of the board of edu

"My work of superintending has been very much lightened by the action of the board in placing the most experienced teachers in the F grade and by retaining them there. In all good schools much attention should be given to the lower grades, but with such an excellent corps of teachers as the board has placed in the F grade, I am relieved of the necessity of visiting and instructing these teachers." [Report of the Senior Principal, Newport, Ky.]

แ

"These teachers [of the primary schools] are doing their work well. They are keenly alive to its importance. The old idea of placing here inexperienced teachers or persons of ordinary capacities and meager acquirements has no favor with the board of education. No one has more need of experience in dealing with minds than she who has them in charge through the most critical period when they are receiving impressions as lasting as life. The work done has been exceedingly satisfactory in most part, giving evidence of most faithful efforts on the part of the teachers, and corresponding progress of the pupils under their instruction." [Mr. Newton C. Dougherty, superintendent of schools, Peoria, Ill.]

AGE FOR ADMISSION TO PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

This question is frequently discussed, and, like all others, has called forth wide differences of opinion. The growing popularity of kindergartens and kindergarten methods has served to strengthen the ranks of those favoring early admission to the schools, while the general insufficiency of accommodations adds a potent argument to those advanced by the advocates of the other side.

The subject is not a new one, and the reproduction of a considerable number of arguments is unnecessary. The two quotations immediately following fairly show the opposing views of American school-men upon the question. The fact that the two gentlemen quoted, both eminent educationists, held the same position and were surrounded by the same conditions at the times of writing detracts nothing from the interest of the discussion.

"Under the laws of the State, children need be but five years old in order to be admitted to a public school. Of the 70,925 on register in our schools at the close of the year but 2,241 were under six years of age. That there would be a much larger number of pupils between the ages of five and six in attendance upon our schools, if sufficient accommodations were provided, is unquestionably true. The wisdom of permitting children under six or seven to attend school has frequently been discussed. Very many are of the opinion that the age limit for the admission of pupils should be fixed at seven or eight. In discussing this matter in my report for 1884, I said:

"The proposition to exclude from the schools children under six years of age has been made under the misapprehension that it would remove the necessity of furnishing additional accommodation for our primary classes. The 2,639 children from five to six years old in attendance upon our primary classes are distributed among over fifty schools, and their dismissal would not remove the necessity of a new school building in any locality now demanding one.

"A study of the table on page 40 of this report reveals the fact that in the richer neighborhoods of the city there are comparatively few children attending school who are not more than six years old, and that in the poorer neighborhoods there are in most of the schools from one hundred to two hundred between the ages of five and six. It must not be assumed that these young children are simply kept quiet in school and that they do not make any noticeable advancement in their studies. A visit to one of our sixth primary classes will prove the opposite to be true. Children entering school at five, as a rule, complete the first reader before they are six and are able to write numerous words and sentences from dictation. Many of these children are taken from school at an early age, and a law excluding them till six years old would not only shorten their school life but keep them longer upon the streets where those habits and tendencies are formed which seriously interfere with their future usefulness as citizens.'

"Such study and thought as I have been able to give this question during the two years since the above was written have confirmed me in the opinion I then expressed.

"In St. Louis kindergarten schools, to which children are admitted at the age of four, are maintained largely at the public expense. It is claimed by those in charge that the pupils who enter these schools at four and continue until they are six have become fitted intellectually to take up the regular grade work, and that they advance more rapidly than children who are admitted to the regular school work without such preparation. If these claims are well founded it would certainly seem to be sound public policy to make provision for the education of children who have reached the age of five or six. The work required of pupils so young should certainly be adapted to their age, but any regulations or law fixing the legal age for the admission of pupils at over five years should be opposed." [Report of Mr. Calvin Patterson, city superintendent of public instruction, Brooklyn, N. Y., 1886.]

"I am of the opinion that it would be judicious on the part of the board of education to pass a resolution to the effect that after a given date, say January 1, 1889, not more than sixty pupils should be placed on register in any class in the public schools. The registers of these lowest classes could, in the mean time, be reduced by simply refusing admission to the youngest applicants. It is not a hardship that a child of five years should be asked to wait until it is six or seven before entering school. Indeed, the majority of educators are now agreed that children should not commence the grade work of the public school until after the sixth year has been passed. For my own part, I am strongly of this opinion. I believe that the average child is injured both physically and mentally by being put too early to the largely mechanical work of learning to read, write, and cipher. Physiological psychology tells us that up to the end of the seventh year the inner mental activity gradually develops itself to the point of equilibrium with the receptive functions of sense.' After that date 'conscious design' begins to take the place of instinctive impulse; habits of obedience are formed; memory, imagination, judgment, and reason are developed. To force this development is to outrage nature. To follow nature is the educator's wisest course. [Report of Mr. William H. Max

well, city superintendent of public instruction, Brooklyn, N. Y., 1887.]

The following is presented as an expression of foreign opinion on the same subject. In their last report the Committee of Council on Education in Scotland say: "Early school attendance is of inestimable advantage, and its use is seen in the later stages of the child's education, where the habits of discipline and attention thus early acquired can not fail to have an infl uence. Its importance, in view of any technical instruction which it may be possible to introduce into our schools, can hardly be exaggerated. We hope that the feeling in favor of such instruction is growing, and we trust that school managers will do all in their power to foster it, by providing special infant departments, by neglecting no means likely to stimulate their interest in their earliest school work, and especially by giving prominence to such exercises as may develop the faculties of observation, manual dexterity, and general intelligence. It is thus that the infant school may become an effective agency in the work of education, and may, especially for the poorer population of towns, take the place of the early home education open to others more favored. It must not be forgotten that for such children the alternative for attendance at school is neglect and the acquiring of habits which it is difficult afterwards to correct."

PHYSICAL TRAINING.

More attention has been accorded this subject than in previous years, and it can not be doubted that the time is approaching when the full value of physical development will be universally realized.

In discussing the proper age for admission to high schools, Mr. Ulric Bettison, chief superintendent of public schools of New Orleans, La., states: "The impression that our high school juniors are too young for their grade was doubtless produced by a glance at the pupils themselves. Among the number are many past the age of fifteen who are small, delicate, and childish in appearance." This could with equal truth be said of any school in the country, for there is none that has not a considerable proportion of pupils who are unnaturally "small, delicate, and childish in appearance." Such being the case, it can not be supposed that the application of the only real remedy will be long delayed.

In the Report of this Office for 1886-87 it was asserted that "beyond the general calisthenic exercises that obtain in some localities, no provision has been made by any city for the systematic training of the pupils of elementary grades."

This statement is still true, for no city even yet provides systematic physical training for elementary pupils, though important steps have been taken in this direction, as the following quotations show:

For the Hamilton-Street grammar school at Holyoke, Mass., "During the past year a gymnasium has been provided and furnished at a cost of $102.50. The following is a list of the apparatus: Quarter circle, parallel bars, rowing machine, two pairs chest weights, home exerciser, two pairs swinging rings, one hundred pairs dumb-bells. It is proposed to add to this from time to time if it prove a success. The gymnasium proper is designed especially for the use of teachers and the girls of the ninth and eighth grades. The room is open for exercise before and after each school session. Thus far this work has been purely voluntary. In addition to this work in the gymnasium, each class in the school is expected to be present once in two weeks in the large exhibition hall for practice half an hour in marching and dumb-bell exercise. It is believed that a little work of this kind judiciously and systematically carried on will greatly improve the health of both teachers and pupils, will prevent the tendencies to round shoulders, weak lungs, and listless motions, and thus, by strengthening the body, strengthen the

mind."