wise would take up high-school work. It is difficult, of course, in most communities to make provision for a subject in which the class is ordinarily so small, but by proper arrangement of courses such work can be provided for in connection with the Latin at a minimum of cost. And especially in this great Western country should every effort be made to conserve those studies which represent the ideal in thought and life. Principals and teachers will do well to read that most interesting paper, prepared just a year ago, on "The social need of Greek," by Mr. E. Benjamin Andrews, in which he shows so conclusively that “while a majority of educated persons in a society may be ignorant of Greek, all can not be. A remnant large enough to diffuse the cultivation proceeding from it must know the tongue, and that at first hand." His conclusions were, in part, as follows:

1. Social, and not merely individual, needs should be borne in mind in all large educational planning.

2. All believers in a rich and rounded social education should feel, think, speak, and act appreciatively toward Greek study.

3. Colleges and high schools with reasonably ample facilities should be encouraged to continue teaching Greek if already doing so; if not, to begin.

4. Since the excellence of the Greek discipline is less obvious than that of most studies, teachers should see that pupils likely to profit by it in a high degree at least consider this discipline, and should advise those pupils, if they wish, and such a course is possible, to elect and pursue Greek.

5. Pupils in Greek who show special ability and taste for it should be urged to the utmost proficiency in it.

COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL COURSES.

A second tendency, already noted, is the introduction of courses of instruction relating to commercial and industrial subjects. The passing year has seen great strides forward in this particular. Is this phase of secondary work imoving perhaps at too rapid a rate? We must not forget that years are required to develop a new subject for practical educational results. Are we throwing aside those subjects whose educational value has been tested beyond question for the sake of introducing new subjects which, at all events, for a long period must prove to be of lesser value? The present writer has no desire to make objection to the introduction of new subjects, provided such introduction is accomplished cautiously and judiciously. Objection is made only to the adoption of too large a number of subjects, for which good methods have not yet been found; the promiscuous and miscellaneous use of anything that meets the demand of a passing In any case, in meeting the demands thus made, redoubled effort must be put forth to work out the methods by which this new material may be adapted to the needs of a true education. It must follow, as a matter of course, that if elementary instruction draws material from the industrial, political, commercial, and agricultural realms, such material must also find its place in secondary instruction. But the problems connected with its introduction are not such as to find easy solution; and it may fairly be questioned whether, up to this time, the results achieved have been in any sense satisfactory. I would not suggest that this work is not to be continued, but it must be acknowledged that the most urgent need exists for caution and for a scientific study of the questions involved.

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COLLEGE ENTRANCE CERTIFICATES AND EXAMINATIONS.

The third tendency which during the present year has attracted special attention is the substitution of the certificate system for examinations in connection with college entrance. To those of us who are familiar with the working of this system in the West this proposition has in it nothing that is new. It would seem, however, that this idea, born in the West, is making its way slowly but surely into the Eastern sections of the country. The indications are quite clear that

before long the certificate system in one form or another will be adopted by Eastern institutions. An important step in this direction has been taken within the year by the United States Military Academy, at West Point. In accordance with recent regulations made by its faculty and approved by the Secretary of War, candidates who are graduates of high schools will be accepted for membership in the first year. The regulations of the Military Academy are more liberal than they should have been made, inasmuch as graduates of three-year schools as well as those of four-year schools are eligible for admission. A modification of these rules will be adopted.

The success of the college entrance board of the association of the Middle States and Maryland has been greater than could have been anticipated. The work of this board is an intermediate step between the Eastern plan of entrance examinations set by each college for itself and the Western plan of certificates. It is openly asserted by some of the strongest adherents of the college entrance board that its work is paving the way for the adoption of the more general certificate plan. In this connection I might quote from a letter written me by the principal of a prominent New England academy: "The most important event of the year in secondary education has been the expansion of the work of the college examining board into New England, whereby at present all the New England colleges, excepting Harvard, will receive the college board certificates in place of their own examinations."

At several meetings of the high school and college teachers held last autumn in New England to discuss the question of joint boards of examination for entrance, such as the Middle States have adopted, this movement, though strongly urged by Harvard University and by Yale University, was overwhelmingly defeated. On the other hand, a motion made to revise, coordinate, and extend the certificate system met with great approval.

It is thought by some of the ablest representatives of secondary education in New England-among others Principal Coy, of the Hotchkiss School-that the experience of the past year includes as an encouraging feature the change on the part of the colleges to revert to the old standards of requirements which laid emphasis upon power and discipline rather than upon technical knowledge. It is believed that a beginning in this direction has already been observed, and that there exists a widespread conviction that such a course is required by sound doctrine. Certain Western institutions have laid emphasis upon this point for several years. It is gratifying to note that the recognition of this principle is gaining ground in the New England colleges. The principle involved is one essential to the best interests of secondary education, and unless this principle is adopted unreservedly, secondary training will not only lose a large share of its value, but in many cases prove distinctly injurious.

ELECTIVE WORK IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

The tendency toward the introduction of elective work in secondary schools has unquestionably increased during this past year. In so far as such election is virtually an arrangement of studies in groups of closely connected subjects, no exception to it may be taken; but to the proposition that the average secondary student is able, even with the parents' help, to select his subjects, and that such selection, because it is an election on his part, is preferable to the grouping of subjects which the best experience has approved, the writer desires to enter earnest protest-a protest based upon experience with students of a still maturer age. It has been my experience, after careful study of the facts as brought to light in the operation of different systems, that the average boy or girl in the freshman or sophomore college year exhibits an utter inability to make wise decision between various courses of instruction. The choice will be determined, in a majority of

instances, by the hour of recitation or some statement concerning the course by a fellow-student. Least of all does he have in mind the relationship of the course to the work which lies before him. I am therefore strongly of the opinion that unless the choice of subject in secondary work is practically controlled by the principal, election will prove injurious rather than helpful. Much is said, in connection with the open elective system, both in secondary school and college, of the advice given by instructors and the assistance rendered by parents, but practical experience goes to show that no one is more easily influenced by whims than the parents, and that too frequently the instructor is a specialist who has little interest in or knowledge of subjects outside of those with which he himself is directly connected.

DEMAND FOR SPECIAL TEACHERS.

The rapidly growing demand on the part of high schools and academies for teachers of athletics, manual training, and domestic science is significant of important educational tendencies, and the demand is no less significant than the fact that at the present time teachers in these specialties are so few that the demand can not be met. It is no longer possible for a teacher of Latin or a teacher of mathematics to perform service in these new departments. Not only is the amount of work called for too great, but the training required is of so special a character that a teacher is not fitted to perform the work who has not received special instruction. It would be well for the cause of secondary education if some of those teachers who to-day are preparing themselves for the teaching of English or Latin or mathematics were to consider whether they might not be more certain of a strong position if their special training should be made in one of these more practical subjects.

HIGHER STANDARD FOR HIGH-SCHOOL TEACHERS.

An interesting feature of the year that has closed has been the not infrequent announcement of the appointment in secondary schools of a man or woman holding the degree of doctor of philosophy. The number of high-school teachers having the full college training has been greatly increased during the year, at least in Western schools. There is, to be sure, some danger that the newly fledged doctor of philosophy will have become so great a specialist as to be unfitted to teach the elementary courses required in the high school. But this is by no means so true of the doctor of philosophy trained in an American institution as of the doctor of philosophy trained in a foreign university. American universities, while laying equal stress upon research, do not fail to keep before the mind of the candidate for the doctorate the practical side of life and teaching, and it will mark a splendid point of realization in the history of secondary work when a proportion at least of the teachers in any secondary school shall be doctors. Side by side with this point is that very closely related demand which calls for special pedagogical training of college graduates who desire to become high-school teachers. It appears, on the one hand, that the average secondary teacher shows a remarkable lack of broad, liberal knowledge. Men, as a matter of fact, go through our American colleges without securing accurate knowledge in any subject which they study, and the close of their college course finds them in possession of no really solid mass of facts to build upon. It is maintained by some of our secondary-school leaders-for example, Dr. Julius Sachs, of the Collegiate Institute in New York City-that this statement holds good of work in the classics as well as in subjects like history and modern languages. It is the testimony of the teachers in the normal schools and teachers' colleges that they are unable to take up the discussion of methods of teaching in secondary subjects because they find themselves immediately confronted with the necessity of teaching the subject-matter. This difficulty, I maintain, will never be adequately met until those who plan for

themselves a career in secondary teaching have done that work in a particular department which is now ordinarily done for a doctor's degree. On the other hand, it is equally true that many teachers are found to possess the necessary scholarship who lack the knowledge of pedagogical principles that is needed for the simplest kind of instruction. The best teachers, in my experience, are often those who at first show no special ability for teaching, but have given themselves to the study of the principles of teaching and have overcome difficulties that at first seemed insuperable. In both directions, therefore, the movement forward is encouraging.

TREND OF HIGH-SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT.

A remarkable fact in connection with secondary schools is their phenomenal growth. I do not stop to present the statistics, for these bave been indicated on more than one previous occasion. If it is true that the number of high-school students has doubled within the last decade; that the great majority of all students who enter college now come from the high schools (it is an interesting fact that even in New England, Dartmouth College should receive from high schools more than 100 of the 141 members of its present junior class); that the number of high schools is increasing rapidly in every State, and that the scope of their curricula is growing almost at a pace with the increase in numbers, the time has surely come when this factor in our educational machinery deserves greater consideration than it has hitherto received. Wedged in between the great common-school work and the higher work of colleges and universities, its prominence in the past has not been commensurate with its importance. The highschool curriculum can not longer be regarded as one to be adjusted as a preparation for college. It may be questioned whether preparation for college is the most important subdivision of high-school work. In any case these schools have come to occupy a unique field independent of higher institutions. In many sections of the country the work is coordinate with the work of the smaller colleges, and the preparatory schools connected with the smaller colleges no longer occupy their former place of importance and dignity. In fact, the high school is rapidly coming to be a rival of the smaller college itself. In some States the high school now does the work of the freshman year, and even some of the work of the sophomore year, this being recognized and accepted by the State universities. This tendency, while subversive of the relationships which have hitherto existed between college and preparatory school, and while injurious in the extreme to the growth and development of the smaller college, is a tendency which is invaluable and which deserves encouragement. It is a movement in the interests of economy, of better secondary education, and of better and broader higher education. The time is coming when, in every State, the leading high schools will carry the work to the end of the sophomore year in college. Nothing can be said in justification of the policy of stopping at an earlier point than this.

COMMISSION ON ACCREDITED HIGH SCHOOLS.@

If, as it has been suggested, the most significant step in the field of secondary education in the Eastern States has been the successful inauguration of the College Entrance Board, it is perhaps true that the most significant step in the West has been the establishment of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, of its commission on accredited schools. This commission was established in 1901 and made its first report at the annual meeting held in Cleveland March 28, 1902. The commission consists of about 40 members, equally divided between colleges and secondary schools. Its purpose is to effect reason

a The subject of admission to college on certificate of accredited secondary schools is treated in Chapter XII of this Report (pp. 527-539).-ED.

able uniformity in requirements for admission to college. If the plan recommended is put into operation, any student graduated from any school on the accredited list may without difficulty enter any college in the association.

The report defines a unit course of study as a course covering a school year with four or five periods of at least forty-five minutes each per week. It is recommended that the high-school curriculum contain not less than 15 such units, and that the same number be accepted as fulfilling the requirements for admission to college. Of these 15 units there shall always be 3 in English and 2 in mathematics. The report also presents:

1. Deânitions with detailed suggestions as to the ground to be covered in each unit of the several subjects of the high-school curriculum.

2. A plan of school inspection in accordance with which the list of accredited schools may be formed.

3. Suggestions for the assignment of college credit for high-school work done in advance of the college-entrance requirements.

In defining and describing unit courses of study the commission has based its recommendations on the definitions of the college entrance examination board of the Middle States and Maryland, the committee of twelve of the American Philological Association, the committee of twelve of the Modern Language Association, the committee of seven of the American Historical Association, and the department of science of the National Educational Association.

I wish to join with the distinguished educator of the State of Michigan, Mr. A. S. Whitney, in the following statement:

I believe that this movement of the North Central Association defining units of study and the way in which these should be pursued, together with the simplification and unification of high-school inspection by the various universities and colleges, will prove the most important uplift given the high schools for many a day. It will furnish something tangible, systematic, and scientific which will form a guide for all schoolmen to follow.

TRAINING OF MANUAL-TRAINING TEACHERS.

I can not conclude my statement concerning the secondary schools without mentioning the change which has been decided upon during the present year in the plans of the Chicago Manual Training School, an institution which has influenced secondary education in the West perhaps more than any other scholastic institution in the Mississippi Valley. By the terms agreed upon the institution will be associated with the new school of education in the University of Chicago. Special buildings for the prosecution of its work on a larger scale are being erected. Its work will remain a distinct and separate work, although associated in the closest possible manner with the other secondary work of the school of education. The trustees of the school believe that the time has come for it to enter upon a higher function than that which it has hitherto enjoyed, namely, that of training teachers for special departments of manual-training work. The educational world recognizes the valuable service which Mr. Belfield has performed in the cause of manual training, and stands ready to award him the credit which is his in view of the pioneer service he has rendered.

NEED FOR ENDOWED ACADEMIES.

My last point is to call attention to the lack of interest in the work of the academy as distinguished from that of the high school. The strongest supporter of the high schools believes as cordially as ever in the necessity of the academy. The high school can not, in the nature of the case, be a boarding school. The need of boarding schools for boys and boarding schools for girls is everywhere acknowledged, but such schools can not be made strong and effective so long as