development of the Philippine people its importance can hardly be overestimated. A private secondary school, which has been established since 1898 and which made a complete and interesting exhibit, was the "Liceo." This is an example of a number of schools in the islands, several of which were represented by excellent exhibits, that are organized, directed, and taught entirely by Filipinos. The "Liceo" maintains a primary department, which is preparatory to the secondary school. Like the University of St. Thomas, its classes are carried on in Spanish, though English is taught in this and other private schools much as German and. French are taught in classes in American high schools. As we have found true in America, they are learning that a practical working knowledge of a language is seldom acquired in this way.

In viewing this exhibit of public and private schools one heard frequent expressions of wonder that so much had been accomplished in the short time American schools have been established. To think for a moment that the level of culture and intelligence shown in this exhibit has been attained in four years would be a great mistake. The advent of civilization in the Philippines was many years earlier than in any part of the territory of the Louisiana Purchase, and Spain must be given credit for having provided means for the progress and development of the people of the Philippines during her rule. True, their advance has not been as rapid along many lines as in America, and their civilization has been adapted to their tropical environment and is consequently different from our own. Unfortunately the educational facilities possessed by the Spanish were not such as to provide for a large proportion of the people.

The vast majority of the inhabitants of the islands are now very ignorant, and a determined effort is being made by the Bureau of Education to reach them all. The development of the Filipino teachers is a necessary first step. The present aim is to give every Filipino boy and girl three years in an elementary school. That may not seem a high ideal from the view point of the American teacher, but it is a practical and a possible working plan whose accomplishment will work wonders for the Philippine people. Intermediate, secondary, and special training schools will be maintained, and the demands for new schools and a university will, as far as possible, be met as they arise; but the main work in the Philippines will be in the primary schools for many years to come.

The work of the schools is not confined to the "common branches," but includes manual training and practical industrial work. It is the intention to have a practical school of industrial training in each province and to have agriculture taught in every school. Nature study is now taught in the primary schools, and the course of study is especially arranged to suit local conditions and materials.

Those who have seen the skillful handiwork of pupils shown in the exhibit will be at least hopeful, if not sure, of the results of training in such crafts as pottery work and textile weaving. The basket work, hats, textiles, mats, drawings, and carvings shown in the exhibits of the various primary and secondary schools were of particular interest to American teachers of manual training. One of these teachers, whose excellent work gives weight to the remark, exclaimed enthusiastically, "Why, that's what our American schools are working toward!"

In coming to St. Louis from the Philippines the writer was accompanied by two assistants, Miss Maria del Pilar Zamora and Mr. Antonio Estudillo. By the death of Mr. Estudillo, a few weeks after his arrival in St. Louis, the Philippine bureau of education lost one of its most valued teachers. His appreciation of the opportunity to visit the United States and his eagerness and ability to make the most of it made his death seem particularly sad.

Most visitors to the exposition since the opening of the Philippine model school are familiar with the work of its teacher, Miss Zamora. Every morning from 9 to half past 11 from one to two thousand people visited this school. If they came before half past 10 they saw a class of 21 Visayan boys and girls studying reading, writing, history, geography, arithmetic, and composition. These were pupils from the Visayan village, a few of whom had attended American schools in the islands. In all the surroundings and furnishings of the schoolroom, and in the exclusive use of English as the language of all the classes, the visitor saw a faithful portrayal of a Philippine school.

If the visitor tarried after the dismissal of this class he saw another class enter the schoolroom, a class of pupils such as no schoolhouse ever held beforethe children from the villages of non-Christian Filipinos. An important thing for the reader to remember about this class is that the Negritos, Igorote, Tinguian, Bagobos, and Moros of which it was made up are as much of a curiosity to the civilized Filipinos as to ourselves. A Sioux Indian on Broadway would not attract more interest than a Bagobo on the main business street of Manila. Miss Zamora, for example, had never seen one representative of any of these non-Christian tribes before, and she has lived all her life in Manila. As an ethnological study this class was very interesting. The progress made by the Igorote and Moro pupils was more rapid than that of the others, while the Negrito, the aborigine of the islands, proved to have the least mental capacity.

Practically all the educational work in the Philippines is concerned with the children of the twelve Christian tribes, of whom the Visayan village showed a true picture. These twelve tribes form over seven-eighths of the population of the archipelago, the school population numbering approximately one and a half million.

PORTO RICO.

BY E. W. LORD, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION.

ORGANIZATION.

Since the American occupation of Porto Rico in 1898 the American system of public schools has been completely introduced into the island. There is now in operation a system of rural, graded, high, and special schools, which compares favorably with the system of schools in any State in the Union, although, of course, much of the work is in an elementary condition. At the close of the first term of the school year 1904-5 there were enrolled in all the public schools 50,559 pupils. Of this number a little more than half, 25,486, were in the rural schools, the remainder in the graded schools, including high and special schools. The work is based on a course of study in eight grades. As, however, this course has been in operation only during the five years of the American occupation, and practically during only the past three years, there are very few pupils in the higher grades, all but about 1,000 being enrolled in the first five grades. All the rural and graded schools are taught by native teachers, many of whom have received their education either at the insular normal school or in some other normal school. In addition to the native teachers there are employed about 150 American teachers, whose special work is that of teaching English. These teachers are assigned to the graded schools, and go from room to room giving instructions to the pupils. Two or three times a week they give instruc tion in English to the native teachers, all of whom are required to study that

language. Both teachers and pupils are rapidly learning English, and it would appear that the time is not far distant when the educated people of Porto Rico will be able to use that language as well as their native tongue. In addition to the elementary schools there are now established four high schools, although only two of these are yet doing actual high school work. In the Central High School at San Juan there will be graduated in June, 1904, the first class from a Porto Rican high school, consisting of five young men, all of whom will probably continue their studies in colleges or universities in the United States or in Europe. Most of the teachers in the high schools are Americans.

A few kindergarten schools have been established, and these have proven ery popular, but owing to the expense involved it is not probable that this work can be extended. At the present time there are maintained four kindergarten classes, two in San Juan and two in Ponce.

Drawing and music are taught in the schools of the largest cities, special teachers for these subjects being provided in San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez. The children have a natural talent for drawing and make great progress in this branch of instruction. The work will probably be extended throughout the schools as rapidly as it can be done advantageously.

Industrial education is receiving considerable attention at the present time, the legislature having authorized the establishment of a number of industrial and manual training schools. Four of these schools which have already been established are proving very successful and apparently are meeting the special needs of the people even better than are the regular schools. In these schools there are classes in woodworking, printing, leather work, basket making, hat making, domestic science, sewing, dressmaking, etc., and also in the regular common school studies. Manual labor has always been distasteful in tropical lands, but it has been proved in our industrial schools that the pupils are willing to work hard and even to perform many unpleasant tasks if only they can see satisfactory results.

To provide as far as possible for higher education, the legislature has established the University of Porto Rico, and made generous provision for its support. As yet, however, the university has only one department organized-the normal department-which includes a first-class normal school, a practice school, and an agricultural experiment school, with which is connected a considerable property where agricultural work may be carried on. In this normal department good work is being done in training teachers for the public schools.

All educational work is carried on under the direction of the commissioner of education, who is appointed by the President of the United States. Local school boards, elected by the people, have some jurisdiction over the schools in their respective municipalities and cooperate with the district superintendents, who are appointed by the commissioner as his local representatives.

The great improvement which has been made in the actual school work is due in no small degree to the effective supervision of these superintendents, of whom there are at present 19, the greater number being Americans.

If we compare the present educational conditions in Porto Rico with conditions under the Spanish administration, we see that an immense advance has indeed been made. One year before the American occupation of the island there were in operation, according to reports made to the Government at that time, 539 schools, with an enrollment of 22,065 pupils. This, however, does not indicate that all of these pupils received regular instruction. It is probable, indeed, that considerably less than half this number were regularly in attendance at any school, and to those who did attend the instruction given was of a most elementary sort, including little more than a thorough drill in the church catechism and a parrot-like learning of certain facts of arithmetic, history, and natural

science. At the present time the total number of schools is about 1,100, more than twice the number maintained under the Spanish Government only five years ago. At the same time it is woefully true that the public schools are now able to accommodate less than one-fourth of the pupils who ought to be there, and this in spite of the fact that more than 25 per cent of all the revenues of the island, both insular and municipal, is expended for educational purposes.

The greatest need of Porto Rico at the present time is the establishment of an immense number of new schools under trained teachers. This, however, can not be accomplished without aid from the National Government or from some other source outside the island. The people here are doing everything that is possible; they realize the need of universal education and are making heroic efforts to extend the benefits of the public school as widely as possible.

No department of the American Government is more acceptable to the Porto Rican people than that which is bringing them the benefits of the American school system, and probably no department is doing more to introduce American ideas and methods. The children in the public schools learn loyalty to the American flag and are proud to consider their land a part of the great Republie. It is an inspiring sight to see a room full of these children of the Tropics lustily singing, in their best English, My country, 'tis of thee," and raising their hands in salute to the Stars and Stripes.

66

SOUTH DAKOTA.

EDUCATIONAL HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION.

In the spring of 1860 the settlers at Bonhomme built a little schoolhouse of logs, floorless and dirt roofed, and in it, in the month of May, Miss Emma J. Bradford assembled ten children and taught them for three months. This was the first schoolhouse in Dakota. In the autumn of 1864 Captain Miner proposed to his soldiers that they build a schoolhouse, and they soon had a comfortable log schoolhouse completed in the ravine at Vermilion, and Amos Shaw, one of the soldiers, conducted a school therein during the winter. From that date there has been no break in the public school system of Vermilion.

In 1865 Prof. James S. Foster arrived from New York with his famous colony of sixty families, and almost immediately Governor Edmunds appointed him superintendent of public instruction. Although the compensation of the superintendent was but $20 per annum, he gave himself energetically to the work and in a brief period had a regular system of public schools established and supported by taxation. The schools were scattered from Fort Randall to Sioux City, but he visited every one of them and encouraged both teachers and patrons, and induced the organization of districts and schools wherever he deemed it possible to sustain an establishment. He conducted the first teachers' institute held in the Territory on November 11, 1867, and it continued in session two weeks.

The first session of the Territoria! legislature, held in 1862, adopted a complete code of laws for the conduct of common schools, and it may be added that very few of its successors have failed to follow its example in this respect. By this first code the schools were open only to white children. As late as 1867 a hard fight was made in the legislature, without avail, to strike the word "white" out of the school law, and it was not until the passage of the civil rights bill by Congress that colored children were permitted full rights in our common schools. At the first session the University of Dakota was located at Vermilion.

From the planting of the schoolhouse in the ravine at Vermilion the develop

ment of the South Dakota school system has kept pace with, if it has not actually led, the demand of the constantly increasing population. The efficient work of James S. Foster for the establishment of the school system was efficiently supplemented by other Territorial superintendents, the office being filled by such men as Gen. W. H. H. Beadle, J. J. McIntyre, Eugene A. Dye, and A. Sheridan Jones. The work of General Beadle in this office made a deep impression, both for the efficiency of the schools at the period and for the cause of education through all of the subsequent years. He was first to grasp the value and possibilities of South Dakota's great inheritance of school lands, and to him more than to any other is due the wise safeguards which protect it from waste and peculation, as well as the minimum price at which it could be sold.

The earliest attempt to establish an institution giving a collegiate course was undertaken by the general association of Congregational churches, which met at Canton in June, 1881, and resolved to establish a college at Yankton. The college was duly established and received its first classes in September of that year. This same year the people of Vermilion set about placing the university on its feet, and an organization was effected which resulted in the voting of $10,000 of bonds by Clay County, the proceeds of which were used to construct a building which was ready for occupancy in the fall of 1882, and in it was instituted the university, which the ensuing legislature was prevailed upon to endow.

The legislature of 1883 located the agricultural college at Brookings, the normals at Madison and at Spearfish, and appropriated funds for the agricultural college and the Madison normal, which were opened the succeeding year. The next legislature endowed the Spearfish normal, and in 1887 the School of Mines at Rapid City was set up. This same legislature also located a normal school at Springfield, conditioned upon the village providing land as a site.

The legislature of 1899 located the Northern Normal and Industrial School at Aberdeen, and the legislature of 1901 gave it an endowment, so that the main building was erected and the school opened in the autumn of 1902.

In 1883 the Methodists located Dakota University at Mitchell, and the same year Pierre University was established by the Presbyterians. This latter institution has since been removed to Huron, where it is continued as Huron College. In the same year Sioux Falls College was undertaken by the Baptists. In 1884 the Congregationalists established an additional college at Redfield and the Episcopalians undertook All Saints School at Sioux Falls. The Scandinavian Lutherans established Augustana College at Canton the same year, and a normal school at Sioux Falls in 1889. The Mennonites founded a college at Freeman in 1903.

The State cares for its blind at Gary, its deaf at Sioux Falls, its feebleminded at Redfield, and its unruly at Plankinton.

All of the higher institutions of learning, both State and sectarian, are thoroughly equipped with buildings and apparatus, are modern and progressive, and are doing excellent work, having a combined registration of 4,000 students. The rural schools of the State are doing efficient work in conformity to an approved course of study. High schools are rapidly becoming unified and systematized, uniform courses being used in more than 75 per cent of the cities and towns. The South Dakota Educational Association brings the teachers together for annual conference. The State constitution adopted in 1899 safeguarded the school system in every possible way. The State supervision has been under the direction, successively, of F. L. Pinkham, Cortez Salmon, Frank Crane, Edward E. Collins, and George W. Nash.

There are, according to the 1904 returns, 136,996 school children in South Dakota, 5,025 teachers, 4,031 schoolhouses, 106,822 pupils enrolled. The value of schoolhouses and sites is placed at $4,224,815.94, and total expenditures for the year ending June 30, 1904, $2,868,115.03.