In conclusion, an important question for a class of officeholders is, How many of them can acquire a leading or self-supporting position? There are 41,545 teachers for 30,871 schools. According to the above numbers about 11,000 teachers are between the ages of 20 to 27, hence every country school teacher can be a principal or have full charge of a school himself at the age of 27. On an average, teachers of 60 years of age and older may become principals with two or more assistants; but every country school teacher between 25 and 50 years of age might have a position with one assistant. The ambition to superintend others in their profession is easily realized in the country as well as in cities. In 1891 there were 3,871 schools in cities. If the appointment of principals went directly according to time of service, every teacher 49 years old and over could be rector or principal in Berlin, despite the great number of schools. This end could be attained. at 47 years of age. As the appointment of principals follows from other considerations, partly justifiable, rather a large proportion of teachers must relinquish the anticipation of practicing their profession in an independent or prominent position, a fact fraught with many suggestions which explain the proposition of Dörpfeld to introduce schools of four classes.

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMMON-SCHOOL SYSTEM OF BERLIN.

The following statement is abridged from a work of Dr. Hermann Zwick, one of the six assistant superintendents (Stadtschulinspectoren) of Berlin, published as a memorial on the occasion of opening the two hundredth communal school. Omissions in this English version are made in sections of no interest to the American reader. The whole exposé is well adapted for comparison with our American conditions as found in large cities. The author touches upon the interior work of the schools as well as their exterior management and government. His work is a calm, dispassionate statement, which deserves great credit. CONTENTS.-Historical Review-The Communal School System from 1820 to 1869The Communal School System from 1870 to 1893, especially from 1878. (1) Repeal of tuition fee; increase in attendance. (2) Census of children of school age; estimates for classes and schools. (3) Number of classes in communal schools; buildings; their arrangement and equipment. (4) Number of pupils to one teacher. (5) Teachers, salaries, hours of duty. (6) Supervision, school districts, school boards. (7) Course of study, length of sessions, division of time, examination for promotion, branches of study: Religion, German, arithmetic and geometry, history, geography, natural history, drawing, singing, female handiwork, gymnastics, domestic training, school gardens. (8) Continuation of teachers' studies. Conclusion. Supplement: Eleven tables.

INTRODUCTION.

The education of the young is a public affair, common to all citizens; hence it can flourish only in public schools under the care and management of the entire population, endowed with the prerogatives of selfgovernment.

This conviction is the fundamental thought that has created the Berlin common schools, and has guided all efforts toward their perfection on the part of the city authorities. The system began on a small scale, but it has since assumed the proportions of a stately, well-constructed edifice. In viewing the course of its development two periods are distinctly discernible.

During the first period, from 1826 to 1869, the city authorities gradually assumed the care of the children of school age by establishing a well-organized system of schools and making arrangements for regular attendance of all the children of that age. The tuition was either gratuitous or a fee had to be paid. However, the common school had the unmistakable stamp of a pauper school, which seemed for a time indelible, the well-to-do classes of society avoiding them and patronizing private schools.

In the second period, from 1870 to the present time, the public school system of Berlin became what it is now, to wit: A common schoo tem in the true American sense of the word. Its exterior and

is well planned in outline; it is capable of being enlarged, and affords opportunities for new members to be organically connected with it. Its gates are open to the youth of all strata of the population and instruc tion is gratuitous, while the fulfillment of the duty of attendance is secured by laws which appear to the community as self-evident as nat ural laws. The common school of Berlin is supported on the principle that all children, regardless of the wealth or poverty of the parents, shall sit side by side in school, and be taught and trained according to the same principles of culture and civilization, because this is considered the best way for the elevation of the morally forsaken and for uniting the different classes of society and establishing a homogeneous population.

Within the second period the year 1878 has especial significance, inasmuch as it is the year in which the completion of the system was reached. The municipal supervisory organs that are considered necessary conditions of a sound internal development began their activity during that year, and more attention was given to the pedagogical management, as well as to a careful revision of the course of study. Beginning with that year the common school system increased to unheard of dimensions, so that within fifteen years the number of school buildings increased from 100 to 200; the number of children attending from 79,000 to 180,000; the number of classes from 1,365 to over 3,300, and the annual expenditures, exclusive of new buildings, increased from 3,890,668 marks to nearly three times that sum, namely, to 9,191,327 marks. This memorial is intended to sketch the last period more minutely, but in order to understand and judge it correctly a review of the development preceding it is necessary.

THE COMMON-SCHOOL SYSTEM FROM 1820 TILL 1869.

The beginning of the Berlin common school system dates from the year 1820. In this year the city relieved the State of the care of the city poor, and also of the pauper schools. Six pauper schools, with 7 classes and 500 children, besides 700 children taught in private schools-that was the nucleus of the system; up to that year the public schools of Berlin were not communal institutions. The children of school age attended partly secondary schools, but for the most part the numerous graded and ungraded private schools, the educational results of which were very meager. The children of the poor had been attending schools connected with orphan asylums or church congregations and other corporations; a large number (in 1818 about 8,000 of 27,000) did not attend any school.

On the 1st of June, 1891, the number of schools was 204, with 3,435 classes (1,690 boys' and 1,709 girls' classes, 35 mixed), and a total of 182,393 children (90,297 boys, 92,056 girls), the number of teachers 4,138 (203 principals, 2,093 men teachers, 1,136 women teachers, 609 women teachers for women's handiwork, and 97 assistants); the annual expenditures amounted to 9,904,128 marks, to which the city treasury contributed 9,811,898 marks.

The first important step to a well-organized system supported by the community was made in the year 1826. The city council passed a resolution" to reorganize the pauper schools and extend them so that they would satisfy all demands." A member of the city council became the technical leader, whose title was "City school councilor." He cooperated with the city deputies and the royal commissioners in framing a plan of organization. According to his plan all poor children should in future be taught in public city elementary schools. In 1827 the city was divided into four "poor districts," each one of which should in future have at least one communal pauper school. The schools were named after the number of the district, and this has given rise to the nomenclature adhered to to the present day. Since it took a long period of years before these city schools could be erected, the attendance of pauper children was secured by paying tuition for them from the city treasury in private and parochial schools. Children of school age who were working in factories and shops during the day were required to attend evening and afternoon schools. A tuition fee was required if the conditions of the parents justified it; if not, the fee was remitted.

Since the city authorities had taken the public school system under its own care, and had appointed a professional supervisor, the former school board was dissolved, and a purely communal committee of school administration was appointed, in accordance with the law of 1808, which provided for the government of cities. This committee of the council was promptly confirmed by the authorities of the State. On the 1st of August, 1829, the committee began its work; its true name is "City school deputation." The city ordinance which called the school committee into existence defined its functions, and up to the present day they have not undergone any essential changes, although in the course of time its membership has increased in accordance with the phenomenal increase of the school system and the entire city. The committee consists of members of the "magistrat" (the upper house of the city legislature) and the common council (the lower house), of a certain number of private citizens elected by the two houses aforementioned, and of the ecclesiastical superintendents of the city (who up to the year 1877 acted as royal commissioners, that is to say, as the representatives of the State government); hence there were four distinct classes of members, namely, representatives of the upper and of the lower houses of the city council, private citizens, and ecclesiastical members. In 1853 a second city school councilor, specially designated for the elementary schools, was appointed by the council. In 1866, after most of the Catholic elementary schools had become city institutions, the archdeacon of St. Hedwich's Church became a member of the committee. Since the year 1875 the number of members has been 32, namely, 6 members of the upper house, 10 of the lower house of the city council, 11 eity deputies, 4 Protestant sup" intendents, and the Catholic archdeacon. In the year 1877 the

school inspectors (in this country called assistant superintendents) became also members of the committee; they are, however, city as well as State officials, and as State officers bear the title of "royal district inspectors." The business of the committee (school deputation) consists of the supervision and administration of the entire common school system of Berlin.

The city authorities began in 1827 with the establishment of communal pauper schools according to the plan agreed upon and the means available for that purpose. Up to the year 1840, 12 such schools, with 73 classes and 7,074 children, were in existence; in 1850, their number had increased to 15, having 126 classes and 10,691 children; in 1860, there were 20 schools with 185 classes and 14,178 children. The expenditures increased in the three decades mentioned from $52,467 to $130,945, and $200,902. The part borne by the community after the deduction of tuition fees amounted to $4,150 in 1840 and $111,904 in 1850, but $165,595 in 1860.

Each of these pauper schools had at first 4 classes or two grades; that is, 2 boys' and 2 girls' classes each, with 75 children; in all, about 300. Later they were changed, as the needs of the community increased, to 8 classes each; that is, 4 ascending grades for boys and 4 for girls, each school containing about 600 children.

These schools were partly kept in buildings owned by the city, partly in rented quarters. Since 1840 schoolhouses were built so that besides two dwellings for the principals and the first assistant teacher, there were eight class rooms. The thirteenth communal school attached to the Elizabeth Church, containing two dwellings for teachers and ten class rooms, which school has recently been removed to give room to a modern structure, dated from 1840.

The corps of teachers of these pauper schools consisted of a head teacher who was charged with the supervision of the external management of either the boys' or the girls' department. Later, this head teacher was made the principal of the entire school building. He acted as class teacher of the highest grade, assisted by the requisite number of class teachers, and a limited number of assistants, such as teachers of female handicraft. These last-named assistants did not have to pass an exammation, nor were the children graded in this branch. The salaries and number of hours of work were different for teachers of boys and girls. Those of boys received between $300 and $400, and assistants between $160 and $300. The class teachers taught between twenty-four and thirty-two hours, the assistants between eighteen and thirty-two hours. Teachers in female handiwork received a compensation of $50 per year for eight hours' work per week. Since the year 1810 a regular increase in salaries at stated intervals was arranged for. In 1855 a schedule adopted by the city council fixed the salary of head teachers at between $650 and $750; that of the class teachers in nine steps, between $300 and $550.