235 CHAPTER XXI. THE SCHOOLS OF SWITZERLAND. RESEMBLANCE OF THE SWISS SCHOOLS TO THOSE OF GERMANY-THE ZURICH SCHOOLS TO BE TAKEN AS REPRESENTATIVES OF THOSE OF SWITZERLAND-COMMUNAL SCHOOLS -COMMON POPULAR SCHOOLS-OBLIGATORY ATTENDANCE-SCHOOL AUTHORITIES— THE SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP-THE COMMUNAL SCHOOL COMMITTEE—THE DISTRICT SCHOOL COMMITTEE SCHOOLS THE EDUCATION COUNCIL HIGHER POPULAR (SECUNDARSCHULEN)-SCHOOL COMMITTEES FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS-CANTONAL SCHOOLS THE GYMNASIUM AND THE INDUSTRIESCHULE — THEIR GOVERNMENT, COURSE, FEES, AND INSTRUCTION-MUNICIPAL SCHOOLS AT WINTERTHUR-ASSOCIATIONS OF TEACHERS-PRIVATE SCHOOLS-THE UNIVERSITY-THE FEDERAL SCHOOL, OR POLYTECHNICUM-MERITS AND DEFECTS OF SWISS SCHOOLS-THE SWISS AND THE SCOTCH CONCEPTION OF EDUCATION-SUPERIORITY OF THE GERMAN CONCEPTION OF IT-EXCELLENT FOUNDATIONS LAID BY THE SWISS. WHA HAT is most important in the Swiss secondary schools is so closely akin to what is to be found in Germany, that the sketch I have given of the higher schools of Prussia might serve in the main for those of the most notable Swiss cantons also. But I will take the opportunity which Switzerland gives me to notice the secondary schools, which in Germany I have chiefly noticed by their classical side, by that side of them which is not classical, and also in connection with the primary schools. Nowhere is the continuity between the primary and the higher schools so complete as in Canton Zurich, which I therefore will take as a representative of Switzerland, in the same way that I took Prussia as the representative of Germany. Zurich is, no doubt, an eminently favourable representative to take; it is on the whole the best provided with schools of all the Swiss cantons. Its schools, however, are scarcely better, even as a whole, than those of Canton Aargau and Canton Basle; in the classical school, Canton Basle probably surpasses Canton Zurich. Even in cantons which are generally spoken of as backward, Lucern, for instance, my astonishment was, and the astonishment of every Englishman accustomed to the unhappy deficiencies of our own school system must be, not to find the Lucern schools no better than they are, but to find them so good as they are. Zurich, therefore, though a very favourable specimen, is not unique, is still representative; and every day, as the great movement of education goes on which has for the last thirty years made the force of Switzerland, the cantons which are behind Zurich are more and more exerting themselves to emulate her example. Canton Zurich has about 260,000 inhabitants, the immense majority of whom are of German stock and Protestants. Nearly a third of the whole public expenditure of the canton is directed to education, and one in five of the population are in school. The schools in the canton are communal, cantonal, or federal. The system begins with the communal school. By the school law of the canton, instruction is obligatory on all children between the ages of six and sixteen. The communal day-school takes the child at six. It is a school of six classes, three of them Elementarclassen, and three of them Realclassen; each class takes the child a year to pass through it. By the time he has passed through the communal day-school he has, therefore, completed his twelfth year. He has still three years more of obligatory instruction before he arrives at his confirmation;-this, which answers to the première communion of the Catholics, being for Zurich Protestants the epoch to which the term of obligatory school-attendance is reckoned, and this epoch being reached when the child is sixteen. If he does not pass from the communal day-school into a school of a higher order, two courses are open to him. Either he attends the Ergänzungsschule, or finishing school, which is in fact a department of the communal day-school for his benefit and that of others like him, with eight hours' instruction a week, the eight being generally taken in two mornings; or, if he cannot spare time for even so much as this, he becomes a Sing- und Unterweisungsschüler. He is a pupil of the Singschule, to keep up by one hour's practice in the week that knowledge of church music and singing which in Protestant Germany is thought so important; and he is a pupil, for Unterweisung, or religious instruction, of the pastor of the place, who has him for an hour and a half in the week to keep up his religious instruction preparatory to his confirmation. The instruction comes to much the same in amount as the instruction of our Sunday-schools. One of these two courses is obligatory, from the age of thirteen to the age of sixteen, upon every child who does not go to some higher school. I have seen many of the Swiss primary day-schools, and think them in general better than even the inspected schools of this class with us now are. The programme of work for them is fixed by the Education Council of the canton, and embraces religious instruction, the mother-tongue, arithmetic and geometry, the elements of natural philosophy, history and geography, singing, handwriting, drawing, gymnastics; and, for girls, needlework. Needlework is taught in the dayschool to the three elementary classes only; for girls in the real classes of the day-school, and for girls in the Ergänzungsschule, there are special schools, weibliche Arbeitschulen,* to which they have to go for their instruction in needlework. The needlework of girls in the elementary schools of Germany and Switzerland is very much better than that of girls in ours. The Arbeitschulen are of course taught by women, but the immense majority of the Zurich day-schools are mixed schools, and taught by men. The canton has a Normal School at Küssnacht to train its teachers, who have of course to pass an examination and to obtain a certificate. From seven to thirteen, therefore, every child in Canton Zurich has the instruction of such a day-school as I have described. In 1864 there were 365 day-schools in the canton, with 515 departments under separate teachers (Einzelnschulen). The moment the number of scholars in a school exceeds 100, the law compels the school to have a second teacher and a second school-room. But the Education Council may order this relief when there are more than 80 scholars, and, in fact, as soon even as there are more than 40 or 50, the commune of its own motion frequently bestows it; providing, if not a second schoolmaster, at least a trained *There were, in 1864, 322 Arbeitschulen of this kind in Canton Zurich. |