priated for this purpose by municipal authorities. On the other hand, the municipal authorities have the power to stop school expenses and close the schools at the end of six months in each year if they think the scale of expenditure is too high for the approval of the popular will. This balance of power, which has long been a feature of the school system, has worked most satisfactorily, giving to the board sufficiency of independence in the matter of expenditures and to the administrators of the public revenue the power to check any extravagance on the part of school boards. This wise, far-reaching, and fruitful provision is doubtless one of the very best features of the system. The result has been a liberal support of the schools, while the tendency to extravagance on the part of school boards and the tendency to parsimony on the part of city councils have been kept under wholesome restraint. As a matter of fact, the schools have in no case been actually suspended from lack of funds.

Another important power which is believed to be peculiar to the school boards of this State is that of providing school accommodations temporarily without regard to municipal appropriations therefor. The result of this power is that, as a rule, no children are deprived of schooling from lack of school accommodations.

School boards may be divided into three classes respecting their power in purchasing sites and building school-houses, namely: (1) the class exercising all the power in purchasing sites and building school-houses, (2) the class which divides this power with the city council, (3) the class which has no authority whatever in providing school accommodations. St. Louis affords an example of the first class; Chicago and Boston, of the second class; Philadelphia and Hartford, of the third. In Chicago the sites are purchased by the city council; the rest is done by the school board. In Boston until 1875 the school board had no authority in determining the location or character of the school-houses; since that date they have had the veto power, both in respect to location and plans, and this division of power has thus far proved very satisfactory. Had this veto power been given twenty years earlier the four story school-houses in that city would have been fewer.

The history of city systems of schools makes it evident that in the matter of administration the tendency is towards a greater centralization and permanency of authority and that this tendency is in the direction of progress and improvement. No doubt excessive decentral. ization of administration has been one of the chief obstacles to improvement in every department of our free school system.2

ORGANIZATION OF INSTRUCTION.

The characteristic fact in the pedagogical organization of our city

1A student of this subject would also do well to note the experiences in Ohio and other States along the line of application of the so-called Akron school law for the organization of city boards of education.

For the writer's observations on "Supervision" see pages 52-59.

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The

schools is the division of the schools into three grades: the high, grammar, and primary. The demarcation between the primary and grammar divisions has no foundation in the nature of things. The grammar and primary courses of study taken together constitute the elementary course and should be considered as a whole. On the other hand, the elementary and high schools constitute two distinct categories of instruction. The high school belongs to secondary instruction, or the first stage of liberal education. Elementary education is that which is deemed essential for every citizen, whatever may be his destination, and hence it is that which is generally considered as obligatory. high school, on the other hand, while it is desirable that it should be open to all, is not expected to give instruction to the masses of pupils. In theory there is a very considerable approximation to uniformity in respect to the upper limit of the elementary course, or, what amounts to the same thing, in respect to the line of demarcation between the grammar and high school courses. In general it is intended so to frame the elementary course, as to its stages and the amount of work to be done, that the average pupil may complete it at the age of fourteen, provided the system of instruction is conducted with sound judgment and efficiency. While there is a general uniformity as to the upper limit of the elementary course and the lower limit of the high school course, there is a very considerable diversity as to the upper limit of high school instruction, both in respect to the studies prescribed and the period at which they are supposed to be completed, as is more specifically set forth under the head "High schools." While the lower limit of elementary education is, of course, substantially uniform in respect to the substance of the matters taught, in respect to the age it is not so, the lower limit as to age being six in a large proportion of the cities, while perhaps in a nearly equally large proportion it is five.

In the city of St. Louis the whole course of public instruction is divided into three periods of four years each, the primary, grammar, and high school courses comprising four years each; so that the pupil entering the primary school at the age of six, by regular promotions, will have graduated at the high school at the age of eighteen. The courses of these three grades are subdivided, respectively, into four divisions, each intended to be completed in one year's time. The plan of organization of which this is the type has been quite largely adopted in western cities. In Cincinnati we find a somewhat different type of organization. Although the age at which pupils begin and the time required to complete the whole course (12 years) are the same as in St. Louis, the elementary course is differently divided. The schools of the lowest grade are called district schools, with a course of instruction comprising five years. The schools embraced in the upper grade of the elementary course are called intermediate schools, with a curriculum designed to be completed in three years. This type of organization is found to some extent in other cities in Ohio, and, perhaps, in some other neighboring States.

In the Middle and Eastern States we find organizations differing somewhat, not only from those described, but also from each other. In New England cities very generally the primary course comprises three years, for pupils from five to eight years of age, while the grammar school course comprises six years. In Philadelphia and some other cities, there is a separate grade of schools between the primary and grammar, with a course of study comprising two or three years, called intermediate. In Richmond the primary course comprises four years, the grammar three, and the high three.

Besides this view of organization, which regards the scope of instruction, the division into grades, and the subdivision into classes, there is another view relating to the disposition and grouping of the grades and classes into schools for the purpose of direction and management by principals. In most cities the high school grade constitutes a separate establishment, while there is much diversity in the grouping into schools of the classes of the elementary grades. In the Western States, most commonly elementary schools comprise both the primary and grammar grades under the same principal and are housed in the same building. In the Middle and Eastern States, on the other hand, primary and grammar grades of pupils are generally instructed in separate schools, the schools of either grade having their own principals. In New York the primary schools are very large establishments, some schools containing as many as fifteen hundred pupils. In Boston, on the other hand, the primary schools are intended to be establishments of moderate size, the maximum primary building erected in recent years containing not more than eight school rooms. The average number of teachers to a primary school building in 1876 was a little less than six. From one to three or four of these neighborhood primary schools are grouped around each grammar school, in locations best adapted to accommodate the pupils, the master of the grammar school exercising the function of principal of these schools. This mode of organization possesses peculiar advantages.

In most cities the territory is divided into districts corresponding to the organization of the schools; that is, each school or group of schools under the same principal has its own district, pupils being required to attend the school within the district where they reside.

Where this arrangement exists, a pupil can have no choice of schools; he must attend the one in the district where he resides. Hence there can be no competition between the schools in respect to the number or character of the pupils admitted. Of course, such district limits must be established and rigidly maintained where the salaries of principals depend on the number of pupils or grades of the classes under their direction. It is evident that this district system renders a perfect uniformity of text books necessary, no less than uniformity in the course

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of study. Otherwise the pupils in removing from one district to another could neither find their classes nor use their text books. New York is the most notable exception to this rule. In this city, while each ward constitutes a district with reference to the management of the schools by the local board of trustees of the ward, the attendance of the pupils is not restricted to any particular school or schools. This liberty in respect to attendance is rendered necessary by the want of uniformity of text books, which without this liberty would make it necessary for the pupils to change their text books whenever they changed their residence; and then the absence of district limits enables certain principals, with the concurrence of the local committees, to build up schools of a peculiar character, as there is nothing to hinder them from drawing their pupils from any part of the city. Hence the schools of New York, especially the grammar schools, have come to have a more marked individuality than those of other cities. One school, for instance, gets a reputation for fitting its pupils for the high school, while others become noted for fitting their pupils for practical business.

HIGH SCHOOLS.

The origin of our modern high school is coeval with the elementary public school. By the first school law of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, enacted in 1647, every town containing one hundred families or householders was required to "set up a grammar school," whose master should be "able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university." The establishment of the existing Latin grammar schools in Boston and Roxbury antedates this law. The institution of the English high school in Boston, in 1821, providing for a course of instruction in the French language and the English branches of a high school education, was designed for boys not destined to the university, but requiring a higher and broader education than was afforded by the elementary school, to fit them for responsible positions in commercial and industrial pursuits. So popular was this measure of educational progress that it was adopted by the citizens in town meeting, assembled in Faneuil Hall, with substantial unanimity. Happily the originators of this scheme were bold enough and sagacious enough to demand for the object in view a thoroughly organized and equipped separate school, instead of contenting themselves with the addition of a modern department to the ancient classical school, although that institution was then flourishing under one of the ablest of its line of accomplished masters. Fortunately this school has been permitted to maintain its individuality without interruption for more than three score years, the distinctive American representative of the German Realschule. A few years later, 1826, a similar high school for girls was established. Thus the founda tion of the American free high school system was laid; it was several years, however, before the high school began to be set up in the other parts of the Union.

The institution of the Central High School for Boys in Philadelphia, in 1837, on a more liberal scale than any which had preceded it, under the direction of a principal of eminent ability,' marks another era in the high school development. From this date the spread of the high school went on with increasing rapidity, and it is now probably recognized as an essential part of the public school system in nearly every city in the Union. In its development, however, it has not followed the original process. In a few of the largest and oldest cities, the beginning was made with a single boys' school, with classical and non-classical courses, separate girls' schools coming later; but in general (the demand for high school instruction for both sexes and of both kinds, classical and non-classical, being simultaneous and the means at the outset for providing it being limited) the beginning has been made with a single school mixed both as to sexes and courses. The first high school of this kind was established in 1831 at Lowell, then a small manufacturing town only about nine years old; in the beginning it had but one course of study, and that was imperfectly defined, and its organization was in all respects similar to that of the mixed country academies then so prevalent in New England. A few years later, however, the single course was replaced by two distinct courses, classical and non-classical.

This is the prevailing type of our high schools. But the history of education does not justify the assumption that it is a finality. The law of progress, after enforcing specialization of courses within an institution, proceeds at the next step to the specialization of institutions. In a certain number of the smaller cities the course is mostly limited to what may be called an English course, comprising only the rudiments of the Latin language and something of French and German, without any Greek. From this rudimentary type we find, in going upward through the successive ranks of cities below the first class, the high schools become more comprehensive in scope and complex in organization, in some cases comprising the preparatory, non-classical or English, commercial, and normal courses. The grand high school at Pittsburgh, installed in its palatial edifice, is an example of the expansion of the mixed high school into these four departments. The first stage of prog

1A. D. Bache, LL.D., subsequently Director of the Coast Survey.

2 Lowell high school was first opened with 47 pupils, boys and girls, in December, 1831, with Thomas M. Clark, now bishop of Rhode Island, for its teacher. He was then only nineteen years of age. He had an assistant, a Mr. Clapp. Originally, boys and girls sat in the same room, and from the first till now it fitted boys for college, and in it all the higher English studies were pursued. Originally it had but one course of study, poorly defined, and pupils staid in the school six or seven years; no regular limit as to time; and no diploma and no graduating exercises. Diplomas began to be awarded in 1858. There was no similar school of earlier date. Lowell is not an old city; it began to be about 1822. I first entered the school on Tuesday, July 15, 1845, and I left it in the summer of 1883. I served as principal thirty-eight years. Our course of study became fixed about 1858, when graduating exercises and the awarding of diplomas began.-(From a letter by Mr. C. C. Chase, April, 1884.)