ized business schools for those of secondary school age. In addition to the foregoing there should be commercial continuation schools for those already employed in business and these evening schools should furnish an opportunity for advanced education and higher efficiency.

It remains to attempt the statement of a principle which should guide in our dealing with applied education. It seems easy of statement. Every worker in every calling should have two educations: the first general, the second special. The first education should make one a man, infinitely greater than his calling; the second education is that which gives the technical equipment by which the man may honorably and successfully follow his calling. Applied studies wisely introduced do not preclude a general education. They can be made to supplement and intensify a general education.

The question of supreme significance in this discussion is what will be the result of a practical education upon the future? Does the encouragement of training for agriculture, industry, and commerce mean, in the words of Rudyard Kipling, that

"Little folks of little souls

Rise up to buy and sell"?

If a utilitarian education is at the loss of manhood the sooner we discourage it the better, but if, as I believe, these branches of applied education mean a larger and better manhood, then we should give them the fullest encouragement. Education is not an affair of the church alone, it is more than moral; it is not for narrow political purposes alone, it is more than political. Education should be moral, it should be political, but quite as important, it should be economic, industrial, commercial. The following, according to President Hadley, is the threefold way that our education should improve: to make men better and sounder morally and spiritually, to make them better members of the body politic, and to make them better workers. The merest statement of this ideal is sufficient to gain assent for it. Education of the heart, the head, the hand, and the bringing of these into balance in the life, this it is that will give a nobler manhood. Let no one cavil at practical education as being of Independent, December 15, 1900.

the earth earthy. The object of the education here discussed is "not to make money, but to make men." This practical education is dedicated to the propositions that manhood, courage, discipline, can be learned from honest toil, and that it is better for a young man to go into a school which prepares him for work on a farm, in an office or shop, and thus learn to be a useful member of society, than it is for him to dawdle aimlessly and learn to be a loafer.

Deep-seated and far-reaching conflicts are now going on in society. Appalling evidences of class spirit are apparent. Earlier political lines are disappearing and new diversions are being formed based on wealth and social differences. Fraud, commonly termed graft, has run riot. Textile strikes in New England, coal and iron strikes in Pennsylvania, labor wars in Colorado, these and many other outbreaks are but the minor notes of a swelling tide of unrest and dissatisfaction. Let us not be pessimistic, let us be firm in the belief that in the future American democracy will find solutions for the vexatious problems of the distribution of wealth, and settle the contests between labor and capital. But let us not blind our eyes to plain truth. Social welfare will be secured only by the adjustment of these conflicting elements.

No one can read the following statement of Bishop Spaulding and not think twice, our present economic and commercial systems are subversive of civilization. They sacrifice men to money; wisdom and virtue to cheap production and the amassing of capital. They foster greed in the stronger and hate in the weaker. They drive the nations to competitive struggles which are as cruel as war, and in the final result more disastrous; for their tendency is to make the rich vulgar and heartless and the poor reckless and vicious." "

It is the condition here described which was presented by Matthew Arnold in another way, as

"This strange disease of modern life,
With its sick hurry, its divided aims,

Its heads o'erstocked, and its palsied hearts."

Spaulding, Socialism and labor, p. 173.

It is education broadly conceived and liberally provided to which we must look for the regeneration of modern society. Public welfare is still bound up with the work of the schools. Schools which satisfactorily discharged their functions a generation ago are not adequate to satisfy present demands. If our economic communities are to be rendered safe, if modern life is to have a higher form of industrialism and commercialism, if society is to see less of selfishness and more of service, then a practical education which is at the same time liberal must find its place as an important part of our systems of instruction. CHEESMAN A. HERRICK

PHILADELPHIA, PA.

VI

THE REVISED ACADEMIC SYLLABUS OF NEW YORK STATE

In December, 1880, the Board of Regents for the first time issued a syllabus of studies for secondary schools. Since that date six revisions have been made, the last of which appeared in July, 1905. These revisions, recurring regularly every five years, not only indicate the rate of progress in secondary schools, but also constitute a permanent and interesting record of the changes that are being made from time to time in educational ideals and educative processes. It is not intended, however, to trace this path of progress, but to state briefly some of the fundamental differences between the syllabus of 1900 and that of 1905.

The Committee of Ten, in 1893, enunciated and emphasized the doctrine that "all the subjects which make part of the secondary school course should be taught consecutively enough and extensively enough to make every subject yield that training which it is best fitted to yield." This "fundamental conception" received scant recognition in the syllabus of 1900. It provided, to be sure, four-year courses in English and Latin, three-year courses in Greek, German, and French, a two-year course in Spanish, and year-courses in algebra and plane geometry-in all twenty-one courses, expressed in years. In addition to these, however, it contained forty-four courses limited in extent to a half-year, and six others restricted to a period of ten weeks. In each of these 50 subjects of the syllabus, a student could take a separate examination and obtain credit towards a state diploma.

It is evident that under the syllabus of 1900, not a few students and schools, impelled by a natural desire to follow lines of least resistance, failed to pursue the more advanced and consecutive courses provided for them, and taking advantage

of the freedom accorded them by a large range of half-year courses, were able to obtain state credentials which not only do not meet college-entrance requirements but have inconsiderable value as evidence of sound scholarship or substantial achievement.

The truth of this statement is clearly demonstrated by an investigation recently made by the Examinations Division. It appears from the records of all students graduated in June, 1905, from 24 high schools located in villages representative of all sections of the state, that forty-three per cent. of all the counts were based upon courses running half a year or less. The showing made by the cities is more favorable. The records of 80 students taken in order from 8 cities, both large and small, disclose the fact that one-third of the counts were earned in the short courses. It should be noted that this investigation is confined to graduates.

We obtain a more comprehensive view of the extent to which the work of the schools has been given to half-year courses, when we learn that of all the answer papers written by students in the schools during the year 1903-4, 66% per cent. were founded upon the 50 short courses laid down in the syllabus of 1900. Expressed in general terms, this means that students in the secondary schools of the state have given half their time to short courses.

After a careful consideration of the foregoing facts, it seemed wise in the revised syllabus to establish conditions that should tend to deter students from taking up subjects of study that are primarily informational and lacking in logical sequence, and that should impel them rather to lessen the number of subjects studied, and to increase the extent to which each is pursued. It was believed that a smaller number of subjects, pursued with greater continuity and thoroness, would result in superior training and scholarship for both students and teachers.

The consequences of this decision to give in the syllabus of 1905 greater recognition to the time element in education, are as follows: (1) All half-year courses, excepting three in biologic science, have been abolished; (2) an additional year has