FRANCE. The survey of public education in France (Chapter XI) emphasizes the effort made by the Republic to infuse into the centralized system the spirit of professional freedom. The most important departure that has been made from the policy that prevailed under the Empire is the transformation of the State faculties into independent universities. This change, which was advocated in the earliest days of the Republic, and especially by Jules Ferry during his ministry (1879-1882), began to take practical shape in 1885. The successive measures tending to the desired result are noted. Finally (1890) a bill was introduced for organizing the faculties as universities. After varying fortunes the bill passed during the present year, although in a modified form. In fact it adds little more to the changes already effected than the title of minister. This, however, is not an empty name, for, as expressed by M. Rambaud, minister of public instruction, "The institution which is a university in all but the name, lacks legal existence in its true character." The criticism, that the measure is opposed to the development of specialties, was met by the minister with particulars showing the impulse given to this very feature as the university idea has grown. This portion of the minister's speech, which is cited in full (pp. 624–625), affords an interesting view of the efforts made by the faculties to bring their scientific instruction and researches into fruitful relation with local industries. A similar tendency to specialization is noted in the faculty of letters, especially in the creation of chairs of local history and literature. There are indications that under the new order the financial resources of the universities will be increased by private benefactions and by larger municipal subventions. The need of improvement both in the amount and management of the finances is shown by the director of superior instruction, M. Liard, who draws very suggestive comparisons between the budgets of German and French universities (cited, pp. 628-629). The question of the correlation of secondary and superior courses is agitated in France, but in a form quite different from that which it assumes in our own country. The typical secondary schools of France, the lycées, comprise a complete course of liberal education leading to the baccalaureate degree; the superior courses have been heretofore purely special in their nature. Even the faculties of letters and arts, at least outside of Paris, have been engaged almost exclusively in preparing intending professors for the licentiate or the examination for special positions (agrégation). The endeavor has been for some time. to attract other classes of students to these faculties-to make them, in short. centers of general study and thus prolong the period of liberal culture. This it is difficult to do without radical changes in the lycée, ED 96-II ** the oldest and most tenacious feature of the French educational system. At present, discussion centers in the baccalaureate. So long as this remains the goal of the lycée it is difficult to extend the course of liberal training over into the faculties. Hence the proposition to abandon the baccalaureate or to substitute a leaving examination at the end of the lycée as discussed in Chapter XI. The statistics of primary schools presented in the same chapter show a continuance of the decline in enrollment that has been noticed in previous years. From 1891 to 1895 the decrease was three-tenths of 1 per cent. This condition excites some attention because (1) the ratio of decline is greater for boys than for girls, and (2) because it takes place only in public schools and secular private schools, chiefly in the former. The opinion is expressed by M. F. Buisson that some error lurks in the figures respecting the enrollment of boys which, it is believed, will be discovered by further investigation. It is interesting to note that of the teachers in public primary schools less than three-tenths of 1 per cent of the men and only 5 per cent of the women were without diplomas. The current obligatory expenditure for public primary schools increased by very nearly $3,000,000 from 1892 to 1894, reaching in the latter year $37,048,012, or $8.78 per capita of enrollment and 97 cents per capita of the population. If the State expenditure for primary normal schools and the optional expenditure for primary schools borne by the communes be included, these per capita are raised to $10.24 and $1.13, respectively. The chapter contains a detailed statement of the requirements for admission to the French faculties (now universities), for which the office is indebted to M. Paul Melon, of Paris, general secretary of the committee of patronage of foreign students. Following this is a statement as to the status of foreign students of medicine in France, prepared by Mr. Henry Vignaud, chargé d'affaires of the United States at Paris. Dr. Alcée Fortier, of Tulane University, Louisiana, has contributed an account of his personal observation of the annual competitive exercises of the lycée at the Sorbonne, and his subsequent visit to the lycée "Janson de Sailly," which gives a very lively conception of the methods and policies of secondary education in France. Chapter XII deals with education in Mexico and Central America. A résumé of the history of education in Mexico is followed by an account of the educational convention of 1890 and of the work of the various institutions devoted to engineering and mining, medicine, agriculture, commerce and industry, fine arts, military and normal schools. To this is appended an examination of the educational status of the various Central American States. Chapter XIII contains a report of the fifth International Prison Congress. COMMERCIAL EDUCATION IN EUROPE. One of the most valuable chapters in this report is Chapter XV, "Commercial education in Europe." To gather material for this report Professor James, its author, visited Europe, and on his return prepared this exceedingly valuable analysis of commercial education in Europe, particularly in Austria, France, and Germany. His object was not to present complete statistical tables as to number of schools, teachers, and students, but to give full information concerning a few typical institutions. The report places all the important information concerning these schools, including their curricula, into a form available for the use of teachers, principals, superintendents, and others who may contemplate the establishment of such schools in this country. Professor James advocates the commercial high school, which should run parallel with the present high school, and also the commercial school of higher grade, which should rank with the college or be organized in connection with existing colleges and universities. SCANDINAVIA. Chapter XX contains the latest educational information from Sweden, whose school system has been treated in full in previous reports (Report 1888-89, pp. 196-221; 1891-92, pp. 423-449), as well as the first presentation of the conditions of education in Iceland, the governorgeneral, Magnus Stephensen, having courteously furnished interesting details. A movement to establish a university in Iceland is fostered by many learned men, natives of Iceland, who have received degrees from foreign universities. At the close of the sessions of the Althing in 1893 a committee of thirty members was formed to promote this object. While in Denmark women are excluded from taking part in the affairs of local government, in Iceland, its dependency, widows and spinsters are privileged to vote in all church and parish matters. In Sweden, as is the case in Norway and Denmark, church and state unite to educate the people; modern educational movements are discussed by the leading men of the country; commissions have investigated the subject of the health and eyesight of school children, the results of such investigation being to lessen the overpressure in the matter of school studies. The ambulatory schools, moved from house to house in the district, are agencies of rural education. Schools for the training of both sexes together are gradually being introduced; the universities of the three countries admit women to full university privileges. Manual training, which had its birth in these northern countries, is taught more especially from the practical side. In Sweden the secondary schools do not form a continuation of the elementary grades, as in America, but reform movements are contemplated which may do away with one or more of the lower classes of the secondary schools, thus making the elementary schools directly prepar atory to the secondary. EDUCATION OF THE COLORED RACE. Chapter XLII contains the statistics in detail of the 178 schools for the secondary and higher education of the colored race. These schools are distributed over 22 States, North Carolina having 27, Georgia 23, Tennessee 15, Virginia 13, South Carolina 12, Texas and Alabama 11 each. For the year ending June, 1896, these 178 schools had 40,127 students enrolled, an increase of 3,025 over the previous year. There had been an increase of 16 in the number of schools, most of these being public high schools. There were 25,092 pupils in the elementary grades, 13,563 students in the secondary grades, and 1,455 in the collegiate departments. A prominent feature in nearly all these schools except the public high schools is industrial training, the number reported as receiving industrial training in some branch being 12,341. There were 4,672 colored students studying to become teachers. Chapter XXII comprises a study of superior and secondary education in the United States by Dr. Gabriel Compayré, rector of the University of Lyons, France. Dr. Compayré represented the ministry of public instruction, France, at the Columbian Exposition (Chicago, 1893), and took a leading part in the educational congresses. The survey of our superior and secondary education is translated from the official reports of his mission presented to the minister. The study derives special interest from the fact that Dr. Compayré writes as an expert, making the French system his point of departure for the criticism and commendation of our own. Hence we have here an international study in which salient features of systems wrought out by two distinct peoples are brought into comparison. Chapter XXVIII deals with a subject indirectly yet particularly interesting to education. It contains an account of the Bertillon system of repressing crime by affording (it is claimed) an infallible means of identifying the habitual criminal, thus making operative the law which increases the punishment for a second offense. The merits of the Bertillon system have been proved by ten years of trial in France, and are attracting considerable attention elsewhere. In America it has many stanch and distinguished supporters. During the year 1896 New York adopted the system in its entirety, and a number of cities employ it. But its efficacy here is almost wholly dependent upon its universal adoption throughout the United States and Canada. In Chapter XXVII the reports made to this Bureau by the presidents of all the colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts are given. The chapter also contains a statement giving the money value of the proceeds of the 9,600,000 acres of land granted by the Federal act of 1862, of the organization of farmers' institutes in the several States, and of the character of the new institution in Germany known as the Mechanical Engineering Experiment Institute. All of which is respectfully submitted. The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. W. T. HARRIS, Commissioner. |