The classical education, as common to all scholars, is here closed. But for those who intend devoting their lives to classical learning and teaching, the philological training continues in the universities.

TABLE OF LESSONS IN THE BLOCHMANN-VIZTHUM COLLEGE, (1840,) AT DRESDEN.

XIII ORGANIZATION AND INSTRUCTION

OF

BURGHER SCHOOL IN LEIPSIC, SAXONY.

IN Leipsic the public primary schools are of three sorts, the first for the use of the children of the poor who receive supplies from the public; the second for those who, not belonging to this class, would still be burthened by the payment of a school fee; the third, the burgher class. Many of the schools are endowed. The Burgher school is considered by Dr. Bache one of the most complete in its plan of organization in Germany. He thus describes it:

This school is designed to educate children of the middle ranks of society, and those of the upper ranks whose parents wish them to receive a public education. It is composed, 1st. Of an elementary school for both boys and girls, which pupils should enter at six years of age. There are three classes, in the lowest of which the two sexes are taught in the same room. The pupils are retained, in general, a year and a half to two years, leaving this department at eight years of age and proceeding to the next higher.

2d. The burgher school proper. Here the boys and girls receive instruction separately. There are six classes for boys, each of which occupies a year. After passing through the three lower classes, the sixth, fifth, and fourth, the pupils begin separate courses, according to their inclination or supposed destination in life. This is at about eleven years of age. Those who are intended for trades, and whose school education must finish at fourteen, to enable them to begin their apprenticeship, pass through the remaining classes, the third, second, and first of the burgher school.

Other boys who are intended to pursue higher departments of mechanical occupations, or for manufacturers, clerks, miners, foresters, stewards of estates, merchants, artists, civil officers, &c., pass into the department called the "real school," terminating their course there at about sixteen years of age. Others who are intended for the learned professions go at eleven to a gymnasium, pass through its classes at eighteen, and enter the university, being prepared for a profession at twenty-one.

3d. The "real school" or higher burgher school. In this there are four classes, intended to occupy together about five years, and to prepare the pupils to enter a commercial, polytechnic, architectural, or mining academy, according to his vocation.

Omitting the girls' school, the scheme thus marked out will appear better by the following skeleton:

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.-Three classes. Pupils 6 to 8 years of age.
BURGHER SCHOOL.-Three classes. Pupils 8 to 11 years of age.

HIGHER BURGHER SCHOOL.-Three classes. Pupils 11 to 14 years of age. The pupils are apprenticed on leaving the school. Or,

REAL SCHOOLS of four classes. Pupils 11 to 16 years of age, and pass to a polytechnic, commercial, mining, architectural, &c., academy. Or,

GYMNASIUM (grammar school) of six classes. Pupils 11 to 18 years of age. They pass to the university, where, after a course of three years, they may be admitted to one of the learned professions.

A plan at once convenient and rational is thus marked out for a youth's education, depending upon the views of his parents, their circumstances, and his own talents and dispositions. The first four named schools are united in one building, erected by the liberality of the town of Leipsic, and have the same director.

The subjects and the order of succession of the different courses are good.

there is a constant reference to the ultimate object of the instruction, and no branches are inserted in the programme merely for the purpose of preparing pupils for the higher classes of other schools. It is, on the contrary, considered better that pupils should obtain access to them through the lower classes of the same school. By detaining them here, injury would be done to both schools. The primary instruction which is common to all the pupils, embraces a moderate number of branches, and terminates at an age when experience has shown that the culture by the ancient languages should be no longer postponed, in the case of those who are intended for the learned professions, and when the studies of others destined for the arts should take a different direction. The question, whether the proper age has been adopted for this separation is wholly one of experience, and the facts in reference to it will be submitted in speaking of secondary instruction.

The subjects taught and the time they occupy in the elementary school agree very closely with those of the first two classes in the seminary school of Berlin. Drawing on slates and singing are both introduced here, constituting an advantage over the other; they are brought in as a relief from intellectual exercises, and as objects of direct attainment. The number of hours of duty is but four on four days of the week, and two on each of the others. These might, I think, be increased to the standard of the primary schools, twenty-four hours per week, without fear of over-tasking the pupils; and if a portion of the time were bestowed on judiciously arranged exercises, the physical as well as moral education would be improved. The moral training of the play-ground is not as yet an element in any of the German systems. The same master teaches in succession all the studies of his class.

The pupils pass from the third to the second class at the end of six months, a change which is favorable to their progress, since at this early age strongly marked differences appear soon after entering the school. With a similar view of fitness in regard to their age, the plan of daily exercises is not rigorously prescribed, but is merely indicated to serve as a general guide in relation to the time to be devoted to the different subjects.

I found occasion in this school to remark the danger of defeating the exercises of induction, by making them merely mechanical, by the reception of fixed answers to invariable questions; and, also, the necessity of selecting very simple melodies for the early exercises in singing; beyond these, the exertion of the voice of the child, so far from being a physical benefit, is a positive injury. My preference for beginning arithmetic with a reference to sensible objects, that is, by denominate numbers, was again strongly confirmed.

It might seem impossible to determine how many pupils of a definite age might, with advantage, be intrusted to the care of one teacher under a given method of instruction. The average for branches of the same kind is not, however, so wide from the extremes as might at first be supposed. In the simultaneous method, the skill of the teacher is the chief determining quality. The various subordinate ones depending upon the pupil, the particular exercise, the arrangements in reference to ventilation, warmth, &c:, will readily suggest themselves. In the midst of all these, the average shows itself to attentive observation. It is easy to see how many pupils are attending to what is going on, and if the teacher be skilled in his art, the number is thus obtained, which a class should not exceed. For the intellectual exercises, I obtained in this way from thirty-five to forty in the German schools as the maximum number of an elementary class; the observation in reference to the classes of the best teachers here confirmed these numbers. In the mechanical branches, the number of pupils may be very much increased, without material injury to the instruction, and hence, the classification which suits them is not adapted to the intellectual departments.

The principal subjects of instruction in the burgher school, including both the lower and higher departments, are religion and morals, German, French, arithmetic, geometry, natural history, history, geography, calligraphy, drawing, and vocal music, and to these are added in the highest classes technology and physics. The list differs from that of the Dorothean higher city school, and the seminary school of Berlin, in the omission of Latin and the introduction of technology and

*See page 133.

physics, both which differences mark the proper character of the school. It is not intended that the upper classes shall prepare pupils for the higher classes of the gymnasium, but that those who are to be trained in the classical studies shall have previously passed to the lower classes of the gymnasium, where they properly belong, and where they can obtain the instruction appropriate to their objects. The distribution of time is shown in the annexed table, which is similar in its arrangement to those already given.

PLAN OF INSTRUCTION IN THE HIGHER AND LOWER BURGHER SCHOOLS OF LEIPSIC.

The increase in the number of branches as the pupils rise to the upper classes, seems to me judiciously made in this plan. At the same time, the number of hours per week is gradually increased, and perhaps beyond the due limit, though it would require longer attention than I could give to this institution to affirm positively that this is the case. Comparing the programme with that of the classes of corresponding age in the seminary school of Berlin, a general similarity appears throughout, although each has distinctive features. In the sixth class, of which the pupils are of the same age with those of the fourth in the seminary school, a few lessons of natural history and geography ("knowledge of home") are given, and with advantage. The number of hours per week devoted to the different studies is nearly the same in both schools.

In the fifth class, natural history and history are introduced in the burgher school, and in its corresponding classes in the seminary school, Latin, French, and geometry. The number of hours of arithmetical instruction is greater in this school than in the other.

A similar difference continues in the fourth class, as it is not the object to begin -French until after those who leave the school at fourteen have terminated their Course. The elementary exercises of geometry are begun in this class of the burgher school.

The third class is the first or lowest of the higher burgher school, and the pro

This includes the exercises of reading.

In this is included an hour of preparatory exercises for geometry. 1 Anthropology.

Elementary natural history and natural philosophy.

gramme of this and of the second agree in the main with those of the seminary school. Greater attention is devoted to religious instruction, to arithmetic, and drawing, and less to French, in the burgher than in the seminary school. The number of hours given to the first named branch in the burgher school is double that in the other, and the number to the last only one-half, which is, probably, too small an allotment for the object. Technology and physics are taken up in the first class of the Leipsic school, and Latin is continued through all those of the Berlin institution.

In regard to the plan of treating the subjects of instruction, the following is a comparison of the two schools:

1. In religious instruction, the general train is the same, being more detailed in the burgher school, and having a special course of morals in the higher classes. In general, the German institutions are very free from an objection urged to a course of religious instruction, in a former part of my report, namely, that it was addressed rather to the understanding than to the heart. There is no express instruction in morals, but it is because the morals of the Scriptures mingle with their daily lessons, and no special course is needed, until a more advanced age, than that embraced by these schools in general.

2. The course of German language (including composition) and reading, is parallel with that of the Berlin seminary school, except in the two higher classes. In these a turn is given to the compositions to adapt them to the peculiar destination of the pupils, who are also exercised in speaking, by reading dialogues and brief dramatic pieces. In a country enjoying a constitutional government, the art of public speaking may not be neglected by its citizens.

3. The course of French, in the burgher school, struck me as rather defective, probably from the small amount of time which is devoted to it, as already stated. 4. Mathematics.-The courses of arithmetic and geometry are also parallel with those in the seminary school. The mathematical studies here are extended further in Algebra, and include logarithms, mensuration, and surveying.

5. Natural history, physics, and technology. The early beginnings of this course are exercises in induction, directed particularly to awaken habits of observation and reflection. Later, some of the more interesting parts of natural history are taken up, and, finally, the subject is treated somewhat systematically, and a technological direction given to it. The physics consists of such popular notions of natural phenomena as should be possessed by all. The technology explains the processes of some of the common arts and trades.

6. The course of geography begins like that already described at Halle, but subsequently pursues the inverse order, giving an idea of the earth as a part of the world, its form, motions, &c. Director Vogel has conceived the plan of presenting the parts of the earth always in their just proportions, as upon the sphere, and has contrived for this purpose a globe which may be divided through the equator or through a meridian. The hemisphere being suspended with its plain surface against the wall, presents the convex surface, with its delineations, in true proportion. This idea he proposes to extend, by substituting for maps, in the early recitations, portions of spherical surfaces, with the delineations of the countries upon them.

After taking a general survey of the different countries, especially those of Europe, the pupils pass to the geography of Germany. They then enter more into the details of the countries of Europe, draw maps, and, finally, study mathematical and physical geography in a scientific form. To carry out his views of the connection of history, natural history, and ethnography with geography, director Vogel has prepared a school atlas upon a new plan. The vignettes surrounding the maps contain illustrations of these different kindred branches, and address the eye of the learner, thus impressing the memory with their connection with the countries delineated. For example, around the maps representing the different quarters of the globe are the characteristic plants, animals, and men of the different regions near to the portions of the country where they are found. The more detailed maps of the countries give a view of their natural productions, represent the more prominent or characteristic qualities of the nation, the arts which flourish more particularly among them, and give medallions portraying their great historical characters, or including the names of their distinguished men, or the dates of important historical events.