cation, and to the natural aptitudes-the genius, the skill and sympathy, the intuitive clairvoyance which often, enable a woman to see what is going on in the minds of young learners, and to find the readiest way to their intelligence and their conscience. On this subject much additional experience of a peculiarly instructive kind has yet to be looked for from the other side of the Atlantic. Already there are signs of a reaction in public opinion, and of some dissatisfaction at the growing disproportion between men and women teachers. An able writer in the Educational Review of New York has recently pointed out that it is now quite possible for a youth to pass through all the grades of education from the primary school to the high school, and thence to the end of a university course, without ever having been taught by a man. All are agreed that the best characteristics, both of man and of woman, ought to be enlisted in the work of education, and that the services of both are indispensable. But at what particular stage in the career of a boy or girl there is most need of the more virile and masterful discipline, and what are the subjects and the kinds of instruction which are best suited for teachers and learners of the two sexes respectively, we have yet much to learn. A premature and unveri fied decision on this subject would be fatal to true educational progress. Meanwhile the large experience which America is accumulating, not only in Vassar, Bryn Mawr, and Wellesley, but in Columbia and other universities in which "co-education" has been tried and splendid provision has been made for the higher instruction of women, will prove most instructive to us in the Old World when we are considering their claims to the best intellectual culture our institutions can supply, and the influence of such culture, not only on the public life, but also on the domestic happiness of the whole community. Among other subjects prominent in educational discussions in the States, and likely to prove of increasing interest to Englishmen. are the "elective" system of studies in universities and higher schools; the place of Greek and Latin in a modern scheme of liberal education; the claims of technology and practical science; the Fröbelian method and its possible application to the advanced stages of juvenile instruction; the professional preparation of teachers; the encouragement of manual and sense training; university extension; methodology, both in general principle and ir. its detailed application to the several subjects of school instruction; colleges and schools of commerce and of agriculture; physical training; moral discipline and culture; the study of Art and its practical relation to the life of the community and to the cultivation of taste; the grading of schools; and the means of making the study of literature tell on the formation of character and the refinement of home life. On the relations which ought to be established between primary, higher, and secondary schools and the universities, on the differences which ought to characterise urban and rural schools, and on the greater services which educational institutions of all ranks may yet render in the cultivation of citizenship, a sane and genuine patriotism, and a sense of public duty, the later American writers teem with facts and with fruitful suggestions. All these are topics of grave significance to the English teacher who wishes to understand the work of the future and to take an honourable share in it. On no one of them has the last word yet been spoken; on all of them experience has yet much to teach. To the American they do not present exactly the same aspects as to ourselves, and the resultant in the shape of mechanism and the form and organisation of institutions will probably not be the same on both sides of the Atlantic. It is well that it should be so The progress of mankind is to be secured not by uniformity, or by exact imitation even of the best models, but by differentiatior, and by the evolution from time to time of new varieties of type both in principle and practice. Each nation must work out its own problems, in view of its special circumstances, its environment, its past history, and its own national aspirations. But the two nations are akin, not less in racial characteristics than in their ideals and hopes of future progress; and the educational problems presented to Englishmen are fundamentally the same as those which are engaging the best thoughts and efforts of our American brethren. For these reasons the substantial contribution made in the present volume towards a fuller understanding of the results of their experience deserves to be cordially welcomed and diligently studied in Great Britain and her colonies. J. G. FITCH. MORAL EDUCATION IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS. CONTENTS. PART I. THE SOCIOLOGICAL PROBLEM. INTRODUCTION. THE PROBLEM STATED.--The sociological aspect of education as recognised amongst American educators-The welding of races and of social classes in building up a democracy-The part to be played by the schools CHAPTER II. THE RECENT TREND OF EDUCATIONAL THEORY AND PRACTICE.Growth of an American education-New movements indicating this growth CHAPTER III. PAGE 17 THE RELATION OF THE NEW MOVEMENTS IN EDUCATION TO THE PART II. THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY. CHAPTER IV. THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY.-Mingling of rich and poor-Blending of nationalities-Relations of the individual to society, as illustrated in American school-life : (a) adjustment or conformity; (b) co-operation; (c) control-The English and the American child-Brief criticism CHAPTER V. THE SCHOOL AND THE OUTER COMMUNITY.-Education and crime CHAPTER VI. THE UNIVERSITY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, CHICAGO.-Aim and course of study-Results already attained-Brief criticism 5602. 54 B 2 |