schools. It is intended to carry them on to fractions, weights, and measures. appearance is not far from normal; two had defective hearing.

Their

The session is from 9 to 2, with two recesses of fifteen minutes each. The methods appear to be the ordinary school methods, with some allowance for easing off in case of fatigue; the teachers have a kindergarten training. There is some calisthenics, but no apparatus. Judged as regular school work, the work is good. There is no fixed age limit.

In regard to the future prospects of these children the principal made some observations. For a few, she believed, situations in dry-goods stores are a possibility, but the most are more likely to take up the trade of a carpenter, a painter, etc., and the intervals of idleness which occur in such trades are an element of danger for them. The almshouse seems to hang over most of them; there is a tendency to pauperization, to accept gifts of shoes, etc.; there are one or two whose parents are anxious to put them to work as soon as they reach 13, and parents often quite fail to recognize the defect.

In special school No. 2 there is an old-fashioned, low, narrow, upper room with 19 "backward" boys, the truants being downstairs. There is instruction from a male teacher in making useful small boxes, trays, etc., and Liberty Tadd's work. Of the backward boys some multiply three figures by three figures; some spell words of two syllables; only one can do division. The teacher can manage to work the whole class at once by making six grades or divisions for spelling and seven for arithmetic. Of the lower boys, one reads a few words only, one can only stick pegs, one (after three weeks' schooling) is just winding raphia into rings. There is no clay modeling, the most of the hand work is in raphia, and very good. The order in the room is good, but it is the last half hour of the five (9 to 2), and the observer's impression is that the session is too long for profitable work, and that the teacher and children show it. The influence of the woodwork must be beneficial.

The grading practicable in school No. 5, though only in two rooms, places them at a great advantage compared with the class last seen. Two physicians give volunteer care to the eyes and the general health of No. 5.

NEW YORK CITY.

The visit to this place proved unexpectedly interesting, as revealing the commencement of a new and spontaneous movement. My first visit was paid to City School No. 1, where Miss Farrell has conducted a class for several years. There were 15 boys present, principally east-side boys of foreign origin, sons of "business men," some of whom were being prepared for the fourth or fifth grade. The teacher did not think the experiment in this direction had proved particularly successful, as several have been rejected. Quite a number appeared intelligent and were working rapidly in their arithmetic books. In reading they gave the sense well and spiritedly (Fourth Reader). One boy has been quite an invalid; could not read a word five weeks ago, when he entered, and is now in First Reader. He expects to enter a grade next fall. They do facings correctly and promptly But along with the more promising there are one or two pretty low and unhopeful cases markedly defective.

The boys are excitable and hard to control, and the credit of what has been done is directly due to the teacher. One of the customs of the class is a rest period of five minutes every hour, with the head on the desk and eyes closed. The woodwork and the window-garden work and study seemed distinctly suited to the boys.

It was here that I learned of the interest taken in the defective and backward children by the principal of School No. 77, Miss Julia Richman.

This lady has, within a few weeks, secured permission from the school board to set aside for instruction in special classes those unable to continue in regular grades. In her school of 1,460 girls she found 29 such cases, or 2 per cent. To these she

added a few from outside, and divided them according to their ages, making an older class of 20 and a younger of 17 children. In the first class alone, 13 are suffering from adenoid growths. She has been greatly encouraged and ascisted in her benevolent intentions by Dr. Oppenheim, of this city.

The division by ages seems to be a judicious arrangement. In the older group there are some cases of very marked mental deficiency, so marked that they can hardly profit much by attendance even in this class. Their manner was dull and quiet in contrast to the natural, pleasing, and lively ways of the younger class, whose age averages 8, and of whom only two or three are considered defective, the rest having lost standing from backwardness. It is hoped that most of these younger children may be sent back to grades, though, perhaps, they may at a later time again require help.

The ladies who conduct these classes were chosen from the teaching force of the school. The plan of operations is so far rather tentative; the younger children are shown a good deal of nature in the open air. There has been no means of training these teachers, but they have since had opportunity for visiting the Boston special classes and the State school at Waltham, being most hospitably received in both places. The attitude taken by the school board, as far as I can learn, is encouraging. The first step has been taken in New York without prepossessions or pedantry, and a further step will be awaited with great interest.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

CHANGES IN THE AGE OF COLLEGE GRADUATION,@

By W. SCOTT THOMAS,

Teachers College, Columbia University.

The belief seems to have become general that the American boy of to-day takes his first collegiate degree-A. B. or its equivalent--a good deal older than his father took his and a great deal older than his grandfather. The present study was undertaken with a view to determining from actual records the measure and rate, if real, of this increase. The plates and tables that are presented herewith tell, in the main, their own story; my task will be little more than the making of a running commentary upon these.

The calculations are based upon nearly twenty thousand cases and include the graduates of eleven colleges, representing all parts of the country except the extreme West. If undue weight seems to be given to the New England colleges, my excuse is twofold: First, the proportion of colleges that date back fifty years or more is much larger in New England than elsewhere; secondly, I have used all the published material I have been able to find, in the shape of alumni catalogues, which give the date of birth of graduates. These have, moreover, been largely supplemented by private information very kindly furnished by the officers of colleges whose general catalogues do not come down to the year 1900.

The results are given in decade periods for the double reason that shorter periods are unwieldy, becoming too numerous, and because the longer period is more reliable. Two or three year periods often show what seems a very decided trend in a given direction; but this is in all cases decidedly modified, if not entirely obliterated, by the addition of the remaining years of the ten. The results thus win stability and evenness.

Before beginning the discussion of the tables and plates, one further word of explanation may be given. It will be noted that in Table I and elsewhere the median age is used rather than the average age. The reasons for using the median age-the point above which and below which, respectively, one-half of the students in each decade graduate--are evident. In the first place, the labor of finding the exact arithmetical average of the age of graduation of 20,CCO students would be enormous; and when found it would not give us what we wish, viz, the age at which the students, or a definite percentage of them, actually do graduate. It is evident that a few students graduating in a class above 40 years of age-by no means an unheard-of state of affairs-would unfairly raise the average age of that class, since it is manifestly impossible to graduate twenty years below the normal age. Again, a class, or series of classes, may graduate a considerable number of its members below 20, while a still larger number graduates above 24 or 25. The curve of distribution

a Reprinted by permission from the Popular Science Monthly, June, 1903.

of the ages of graduation will then resemble the letter M. Manifestly, in such a case, which occurs several times, the arithmetical average tells us nothing of value. Finally, the median age gives us the exact information that one-half the students in question graduated at or above the given age and the other half at or below it. The curves of distribution, moreover, given in the plates for all graduates and all colleges for the years 1850-1859 and 1890-1899 show exactly what percentage graduated at each age.

We now come to a consideration of Table I. The most obvious and surprising thing that strikes us at first sight is the fact that our assumed great increase in the age of graduation, taken generally and so far as our material reaches, is absolutely nonexistent.

a In Table I, decade "1770-1779" equals Dartmouth 1771-1779; decade “1800-1809" equals Middlebury 1803-1809; decade “1830-1839" equals Alabama 1832-1839, New York University 1833-1839, Oberlin 1837-1839, Wesleyan 1833-1839; decade “1850-1859" equals in Syracuse 1852-1859. In each case the correeted year marks the date of the first graduating class. In decade ** 1890-1899" Adelbert includes only the years 1890-1895; New York University, 1890-1894; Syracuse, 1890-1898. In Alabama University there were no graduates for the years 1866-1871, inclusive. During several of these years the university was closed. "are as follows: Dartmouth, Oberlin, DePauw, each, class of 1900 only; Wesleyan, Alabama, and Vermont, classes of 1900-1501; Bowdoin, 1900-1902. The whole number of cases in this "decade" is 572.

The data for the decade "1900

In reference to the degrees included in the investigation, I have attempted to use only A.B., Ph.B., and B.S. In a few instances the last-named degree seems to be used as a semiprofessional degree, implying, for instance, that the student has taken an engineering or some such course not purely "cultural." It seemed impossible to shut out entirely cases of the semiprofessional degrees. The number of them is, however, too small to materially influence the results. In Dartmouth College the graduates of the Chandler Scientific School are not included in the calculations, for the reasons above given. The justice of the exclusions above referred to is evident at once, for the examination is an attempt to show the changes that have come about in the college course as formerly understood: that is, when it did not include the study of a profession within itself, as several of the present courses do.

Only young men have been considered in my inquiry. It is interesting, however, to note that if young women had been included in the investigation the averages and medians would have, in almost every case, been materially reduced. In other words, the young woman is either more highly selected as a student or she meets with fewer hindrances external to her work while going through high school and college. At any rate, whatever the cause or causes may be, the young women graduates are, as a rule, younger than the young men in the same college. This subject is worthy of a separate inquiry.