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STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 Board of Education Special Reports on 
 Educational Subjects. 
 
 Vol. 7. The Rural Schools of North-west France. 
 
 Vol. 24. A Comparison between French and Eng- 
 lish Secondary Schools. 
 
 United States Bureau of Education. 
 
 Report of the Commissioner of Education for 
 the Year ending June 30, 1910. Vol. I, Chap- 
 ter XV, Education in Ireland. 
 
 Reisn's Encyclopedia of Education. 
 
 Article on Higher Education in England and 
 Wales. 
 
 The Teaching of Modern Languages, with 
 Special Reference to Big Towns. London : 
 Blackie & Son. 
 
 Memorandum on Modern Language Teaching. 
 Cambridge : The University Press. 
 
 Pitt Press Series. Appendix to (i) Remi en 
 Angleterre, (2) Le Blocus. Cambridge : The 
 University Press. 
 
 Siepmann's French Series. London : Mac- 
 
 millan & Co. 
 Une Ann6e de College k Paris— Andre Laurie (in 
 
 conjunction with Fabian Ware). 
 Marchand d'AUumettes — A. Gennevraye. 
 Un Saint — Paul Bourget. 
 
 Little French Classics. London : Blackie & 
 Son. 
 Histoire de I'Adjudant — A. de Vigny. 
 Le Philosophe sans le Savoir — M.-J. Sedaine. 
 
 Oxford Modern French Series. Feuilletons 
 choisis. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 
 
 Translation of " Underground Man," by G. Tarde. 
 London : Duckworth & Co. 
 
 Translation (in conjunction with F. Rothwell) of 
 "Laughter," by H. Bergson. London: Mac- 
 raillan & Co. 
 

 STUDIESClMSr.ii-Oi^U^ii. 
 
 FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO 
 ENGLISH PROBLEMS 
 
 BY 
 
 CLOUDESLEY BRERETON 
 
 M.A.CANTAB. L.-fes-L. PARIS 
 
 OFFICIER DE l'iNSTRUCTION I'UBLIQUE 
 
 CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE NAT. EDUC. ASSN. (aMERICa) ETC. 
 
 HOR OF "the ORGANISATION OF MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING" "RURAL EDUCA 
 
 IN FRANCE " (board OF EDUCATION SPECIAL REPORT) ETC. 
 
 TRANSLATOR OF " LAUGHTER " (bERGSON) "UNDERGROUND MAN " (tARDE) ETC. 
 
 LONDON 
 GEORGE G. HARRAP 6- COMPANY 
 3 PORTSMOUTH STREET KINGSWAY W.C. 
 
 1913 
 

 
 EDUCATJO^J npr4^w. 
 
 
 v'i) 
 
 GLASGOW : PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 BY ROBERT MACLEHOSK AND CO. LTD. 
 
* * 4 
 ,* * * 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 A KIND of tidal wave of unrest is at present sweeping through 
 the Enghsh educational world, and the future outlook is 
 still more unsettled, as the Government, through Lord 
 Haldane, have recently indicated a possible reorganization 
 or at least readjustment of our system of national education. 
 The spirit of inquiry and discontent has invaded even the 
 most cloistral of our schools, and time-honoured methods 
 and traditional aims are everywhere being challenged and 
 criticized. Instinctively we look abroad to see how our 
 neighbours are faring, not without a hope that a careful 
 investigation of their methods of dealing with similar prob- 
 lems may in some cases indicate a solution or a way out 
 of our growing difficulties. 
 
 The present volume of collected studies is concerned with 
 a large number of such thorny questions. The first and 
 longest, which has already appeared as a Board of Education 
 special report, deals with some of the principal controversies 
 connected with secondary education in France and England. 
 It discusses, for instance, the relations between State and 
 local control, the supervision of private schools, the quali- 
 fications, salaries and tenure of assistant masters, the en- 
 forced cehbacy of many of the English teachers, the position 
 and powers of the headmasters in the two countries, the 
 merits of yearly or terminal promotions, of the " set " 
 system versus the rigid class organization, and the kindred 
 
 54.1 jn 8 
 
= e « « 
 
 c c c * 
 c e e t J 
 
 vi — « « • .. PREFACE 
 
 c c 
 
 etc c 
 c c 
 
 prbl)M^^of dlS.ss:Qr» -specialist teachers. The burning ques- 
 tion of external examinations is dealt with at considerable 
 length and the " ungodly jumble " of examining bodies in 
 England exposed, as well as the too mechanical nature of 
 many of our examinations, which a study of French methods 
 might correct. A good deal, too, may be learnt, it is be- 
 lieved, from the French method of studying the mother 
 tongue and from the more intellectual atmosphere that 
 pervades the French school, while the superiority of the 
 English public school in forming character is also insisted 
 on. An attempt is made throughout to indicate that while 
 educational machinery — or rather organization — is an abso- 
 lute necessity, its whole raison d'etre is not to lessen and 
 hamper the living thing it deals with, but to ensure that 
 life may be diffused and distributed more abundantly. 
 In these days when the majority of our views and con- 
 ceptions are sicklied o'er with a philosophy too exclusively 
 based on the quantitative and mechanical sciences it is 
 well to remember that the school is not a factory but a 
 nursery, and that its products are not standardized auto- 
 mata manufactured and turned out by the gross, but are 
 or should be subtly differentiated human beings. Edu- 
 cation in its final analysis is really a problem in psychology ; 
 and perhaps in support of this view I may cite a letter from 
 Monsieur Henri Bergson, the well-known author of L' Evolu- 
 tion creatrice : 
 
 " I have at last finished the reading of your study, and 
 I want to tell you how much it has interested and instructed 
 me. Not only is it full of material information which one 
 can find in it alone, but, moreover and above all, it contains 
 a complete comparative psychology of the two systems 
 of education, which is of the highest interest. It is the 
 first time to my knowledge that a work of this kind has 
 been undertaken, or at least has been pushed to such a 
 
• • 4 J 
 
 ' * a 
 
 PREFACE '-' • '- ' '-' ' ''Vii 
 
 I t 
 t 1 1 1 
 
 degree of thoroughness. One will be, ablG,_li '^ttt.Siir^i tb: /', 
 derive from it useful lessons both in France and in England." 
 
 As for its general accuracy as far as France is concerned, 
 I may perhaps quote from a letter of Monsieur A. Ribot, 
 formerly Premier and chairman of the Commission on 
 Secondary Education in France, which reported in 1899 on 
 the subject in seven volumes : 
 
 " It is not possible, I believe, to treat this subject with 
 a greater competence, or a more perfect knowledge of all 
 the details. The sojourn that you have made in France in 
 order to understand our methods of teaching has allowed 
 you to go to the bottom of things and not to stop short at 
 superficial views." 
 
 Many of the leading educationists in England, France, 
 Germany and America have expressed themselves in equally 
 favourable terms, so it is to be hoped that the facts and 
 views contained in the report are reasonably correct or at 
 least well founded. 
 
 The article on French Universities is an object-lesson of 
 the way in which the French, in spite of their excessive 
 centralization, have developed a system of local univer- 
 sities. That on Rural Education deals with a question of 
 capital importance for us at the present time. The system 
 of giving the dwellers in the country a " townee " education 
 is gradually passing away, and perhaps this article may 
 help to hasten the necessary transformation, by recognizing 
 the child's actual environment and experience as the prin- 
 cipal basis of its education. The article on Moral Instruc- 
 tion in France deals also with another burning problem, 
 which is more and more coming to the front in this country. 
 It attempts to show that the subject as taught in that 
 country is not a dry-as-dust collection of moral maxims, but 
 an organic and natural outgrowth of that intellectualism 
 touched with emotion that is the predominant feature and 
 
• •• • 
 • • . • » 
 
 Viii-- • • ..-...• ^ PREFACE 
 
 //\yei3i>ijt,iri*FfencK.*€diication. The article in question has 
 had the honour of being translated into French for the 
 Revue pedagogique, the official organ of French education, 
 at the instance of Monsieur Louis Liard, Vice-Rector of 
 Paris University and the head of French education. 
 
 It is unnecessary to speak on the importance of school 
 hygiene at the present day and on the question of some sort 
 of physical training for the young, whether military or not. 
 The monograph on " Physical Education in France," pre- 
 sented to the Royal Commission on Physical Training, deals 
 with these and other similar topics which are still warmly 
 debated in this country. The other reports on French 
 institutions are sufficiently explained by their titles. 
 
 " A Look Round German Schools " and " The New Way 
 of Teaching Classics in Germany " emphasize various points 
 where we may with advantage copy German methods, 
 especially in respect to teaching the mother tongue and the 
 classical languages, while the article on " Toward France 
 or Germany : English Education at the Crossways," sums 
 up in favour of the former rather than the latter as the more 
 worthy of our example in those departments of education 
 in which our own system seems to be weak. If America, 
 on the one hand, seems more remote than France or Ger- 
 many, as far as distance is concerned, it is in regard to some 
 of its educational problems far nearer than any European 
 country. The munificence of its millionaires in the cause 
 of education, its rapid assimilation of the alien, and the 
 cult of individuality rather than of results in its schools 
 are all points that we in England would do well to imitate. 
 We cannot go to school with any nation, or in other 
 words we cannot blindly adopt the organization or methods 
 of any of our neighbours, for each nation has evolved its 
 own particular way of dealing with its educational flora, 
 the result of long years of trial and experiment ; but as 
 
PREFACE \/ '-'''. > — ix 
 
 ardent pueri-culturists, to use the Frencl* <enn; we^-c^tiHTy' /^ 
 to study and understand the methods and above all the 
 loving care and insight that each nation lavishes on the 
 coming generation. If we know our own country well, we 
 can with a certain diffidence say what is practical in the 
 way of imitation, whether it be adoption or adaptation ; 
 we can also see what it is advisable to safeguard against 
 — for prevention is a large part of educational practice, 
 and the teacher who says " Don't " to himself saves himself 
 from having to say many " Don'ts " to the children ; and, 
 lastly, we may catch what is perhaps the most difficult, 
 yet the most precious thing of all, a portion of that divine 
 spirit or afflatus that pervades a great national system, and 
 make it not merely our own, but communicate its inspiration 
 to our fellow-countrymen, whether they be administrators, 
 teachers, or parents. 
 
 I have to thank the Comptroller of His Majesty's Sta- 
 tionery Office for leave to publish the first article, which 
 formed part of volume 24 of the Board of Education series 
 of Special Reports and Enquiries. I have also to thank 
 the Editors, past and present, of The Monthly Review, 
 Nature, The Journal of Education, The School World, School, 
 and The Practical Teacher for similar permission to re- 
 publish articles which have appeared in their pages. 
 
 CLOUDESLEY BRERETON 
 
• • • » - 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Comparison between French and English 
 Secondary Schools i 
 
 [Reprinted from Vol. 24 of Special Reports on Educa- 
 tional Subjects, published by the Board of Education.] 
 
 Thirty Years of University Education in 
 France 173 
 
 [Nature, August 6th, 1903 ; reprinted in The Educa- 
 tional Review of America.] 
 
 French Rural Education 185 
 
 [Address delivered at the Society of Arts, December 
 loth, 1902.] 
 
 The True Inwardness of Moral Instruction in 
 France 
 
 {Journal of Education, February, 1908; translation in 
 Revue p^dagogique.'] 
 
 214 
 
 Physical Education in France .... 223 
 
 [A monograph included in the Report of the Royal 
 Commission on Physical Training {Scotland), June 
 20th, 1902.] 
 
 The Infant Schools of France .... 245 
 
 [The Practical Teacher, September, 1898.] 
 
xii CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Paris International Guild .... 250 
 
 [The Journal of Education, December, 1902.] 
 
 A Look Round German Schools .... 253 
 
 [The Journal of Education, April, 1904.] 
 
 The New Way of Teaching Classics in Germany 263 
 
 [The School World, May, 1904 ; reprinted in The 
 Educational Review of America.] 
 
 Toward France or Germany? English Educa- 
 tion AT THE CrOSSWAYS 274 
 
 [Lecture delivered at the Sorbonne; The Monthly 
 Review.] 
 
 A BiRD*s-EYE View of American Education . 291 
 
 [The Monthly Review, December, 1901.] 
 
A COMPARISON BETWEEN FRENCH AND 
 ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 
 
 B.E. 
 
SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS 
 
 PACK 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 Difficulties of making a comparison — extent of ac- 
 quaintance with French schools — the recent educa- 
 tional reforms in the two countries — coming prob- 
 lems in England — contrast rather than comparison 
 — each may learn of the other .... 9 
 
 I. Administration. 
 
 (i) Relation to the State and to the Locality. 
 
 France : (a) Relation to the State — (6) to the locality — 
 the lycee autonome — etahlissements litres — England : 
 relation to the State and the locality — non-local 
 schools — local schools — the private schools — op- 
 tional inspection — superiority of France in central 
 control — redeeming points in England — local con- 
 trol : superiority of England — to encourage private 
 initiative in France . . . . . , .13 
 
 (ii) Proviseurs and Headmasters : their Relative 
 Positions. 
 
 The proviseur (or directeur) — his position — defects in 
 his position — partial reforms — a lycee autonome : 
 Lakanal. — The English headmaster : his inde- 
 pendence — his position as regards the boys — his 
 personal influence ....... 22 
 
 (ill) Teachers : their Appointment, Qualifications, 
 and Position. 
 
 Professeurs and maitres-repititeurs — (a) Professeur — 
 his high qualifications — the licence — the agregation 
 training — the Ecole Normale — the doctoral — connec- 
 tion with the University too close ? — need of caution 
 in making financial comparisons between France and 
 England — the hours of work — prospects — fixity of 
 tenure — pensions — salaries — (b) Mattre-rSpeiiteur — 
 his position — proposed reforms — the English teacher 
 — the French teacher best off — the English teacher's 
 qualifications — registration — qualifications, in theory 
 
4 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 PAGE 
 
 nil in practice varied and extensive — dangers of 
 asking too much of teachers — training — salaries : 
 their infinite variety — prospects — lack of leisure — 
 tenure — social position — marriage prospects . . 30 
 
 II. Internal Economy. 
 
 (i) Formalities on Admission — Age of Pupils — Super- 
 annuation. 
 
 Formalities on admission, age limits : {a) France — (6) 
 England — Superannuation . . . . .41 
 
 (ii) Maintenance of Standard — Organization of 
 
 Classes, Sets, etc. 
 
 Maintenance of standard — class organisation — sets : 
 (a) France — (b) England — standard maintained in 
 England by external examinations — a possible alter- 
 native — sets : their raison d'etre — possible extension 
 of the system ........ 42 
 
 (iii) Form Masters or Expert Teachers. 
 
 (a) France : preponderance of the specialist teacher — 
 {b) England : visiting specialists a pis alley — possible 
 increase in specialist teachers — the form master : his 
 degrees of excellence . . . . . -44 
 
 (iv) Average Length of Time spent in each Class — 
 Promotion. 
 
 Stay in each class — promotions : [a) France — [b) Eng- 
 land — promotion by seniority ..... 47 
 
 (v) Examinations : their Conduct and Aim — Prepara- 
 tion FOR the Higher Examinations — Radical 
 Differences between French and English 
 Examinations. 
 
 (a) France — the lower classes free from public ex- 
 aminations — certificat — baccalauriat — difficulty of 
 examination — the first part (formerly rhetorique) : 
 subjects — carnet scolaire — aim of the first part — the 
 subjects in philosophy — conduct of the examinations 
 in the two parts — the aim of the second part, and of 
 the examinations as a whole. — The rhetorique supS- 
 rieure — mathematiques speciales and the cours 
 sp^ciaux de mathematiques — the special schools — 
 entrance age — a case for co-ordination — the chauff- 
 age. (h) English examinations : the present chaos — 
 external examinations ; the Trojan horse — multi- 
 plicity of examinations in the schools — multiplicity 
 of entrance examinations — evil effects on the schools. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 5 
 
 PAGE 
 
 — The uses of examinations — possible remedies — 
 radical differences between French and English 
 examinations — Enghsh examinations mainly an 
 audit of knowledge — a verification of facts — French 
 examinations an audit on the art of production 
 rather than of reproduction — the best method 
 probably a compromise between the two ideals. — 
 Oral examinations — superiority of the French — the 
 merits of oral examinations — probable revival of 
 oral examinations in England ..... 48 
 
 (vi) Privileges attached to Completion of Full School 
 Course. 
 
 In France : one general leaving certificat which is an 
 entrance to all the professions — far-reaching effects 
 of this new reform — In England : school leaving 
 certificate in its infancy — equivalents . . .62 
 
 (vii) School Hours. 
 
 {a) France : school hours — length of lessons — (6) Eng- 
 land : school hours — length of lessons . . .64 
 
 (viii) Home Work. 
 
 (a) France : little or no regulation — (6) England : 
 some regulation. — Desiderata — comparison between 
 hours in French and English schools . . .66 
 
 (ix) The Teaching of Subjects. 
 
 Only a partial comparison possible — the mother tongue 
 — the French essay — the real meaning of composition 
 — the effect of this literary excellence on modern 
 language teaching in England. — Position of the 
 mother tongue in theFrench schools of to-day. — Latin 
 and the mother tongue (France) — The mother tongue 
 in England — reform tendencies — classics in French 
 schools — methods — classics in England — attempted 
 comparisons with France — English and French Latin . 
 — Modern languages : (a) France — {b) England — a 
 word for translation — history and geography : [a] 
 France — {b) English history — geography : (a) France 
 — a point for English schools to consider — mathe- 
 matics : France — two great advantages — points 
 worth noting — science : France — comparative lack 
 of practical work — superiority of England — other 
 subjects . . . . . . . . -70 
 
 Appendix. — Comparison of the teaching of subjects by 
 M. Duhamel entitled " Une Experience pedagogique 
 franco-anglaise " ....... 90 
 
6 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 PAGE 
 
 (x) General Teaching Methods — Marks. 
 
 (a) France : the methods — (i) old style — (2) new 
 style — (&) England : the two aims of questioning un- 
 differentiated. — Marks : their pros — their cons — the 
 cult of marks — good servants, bad masters . . 94 
 
 (xi) Standard of Mental Maturity and Intellectual 
 Attainment. 
 
 Comparatively early mental maturity of the French 
 boy — influence of education — of race — of milieu — 
 the absence of a schoolboy atmosphere as it exists 
 in England — the home influence in France . . 97 
 
 (xii) Rewards and Punishments. 
 
 Rewards — punishments — [a) France — (6) England — 
 impositions — their abuse — the ethics of " caning " — 
 its philosophical basis . . . . . .101 
 
 III. Relations between Home and School. 
 
 (i) Day Boys and Boarders. 
 
 {a) France : carnet de correspondance — ties between 
 parents and teachers — the French mother — P6re 
 Didon on the subject — (&) England : growth of tie in 
 the day-schools — the schoolmaster a foster-parent — 
 tie between home and boarding schools — parental 
 pride in the schools — the " old boy " and the school 
 — social ties between headmaster and parents — 
 parents' meetings . . . . . . .104 
 
 (ii) Hostels. 
 
 In France : hostels — In England : hostels and houses 
 — the female element — which ideal ? — State or 
 family ? . . . . . . . . .110 
 
 (iii) The Religious Question. 
 
 Provisions for religious instruction in France — (i) the 
 aunionier — a new departure : (2) la morale — a speci- 
 men lesson — la classe de philosophie — England : the 
 Broad Church spirit in the schools — a noteworthy 
 tendency . . . . . . . . .112 
 
 IV. Boy Life. 
 
 (i) School Games. 
 
 School games in France — their history — obstacles to 
 their spread : (i) Fear of accidents — (2) parental 
 indifference and opposition — (3) premature recruit- 
 ing by the clubs — the real value of games appreciated 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 7 
 
 PAGE 
 
 in some quarters — games in England — dangers con- 
 tingent on the excessive pursuit of athletics — the 
 athletic master — the degradation of the intellectual 
 life — the remedy — Mr. Benson on the subject . • 117 
 
 (ii) Gymnastics. 
 
 Gymnastics : their limited vogue in French schools — 
 les hataillons scolaires — England : gymnastics — cadet 
 corps. — Anthropometric developments . . .124 
 
 (iii) Opportunities for Intellectual Self-development. 
 
 France : school libraries — class libraries — England : 
 school libraries — the school and the public library — 
 school reading-rooms — comic papers too much en 
 evidence — original prize competitions in England — 
 tlie concours general . . . . . . .126 
 
 (iv) School Societies. 
 
 School societies in France — the English debating 
 society — its merits — literary societies — school 
 theatricals — other societies — the school magazine . 129 
 
 (v) School Surroundings — Social Life — Manners — 
 Code of Honour. 
 
 France : the milieu — {a) moral surroundings — signs 
 of a change — the saving virtue in French education 
 — (&) material surroundings — no gathering of the 
 classes in the French schools — hence little sense of 
 community — caution against exaggerating the situa- 
 tion — manners and character . . . -131 
 
 England : the life of the boarder — its untroubled joys 
 — need of choosing a career — the day boy — the public 
 school tradition — manners — attempted sketch of the 
 typical boy . . . . . . . .138 
 
 Appendix. — " L'Honneur chez le Lyceen fran9ais," 
 by M. Veillet-Lavall^e . . . . . .143 
 
 V. New Experiments in Secondary Education. 
 (i) The Chorus of Critics — P^re Didon. 
 
 The chorus of critics — new experiments — P^re Didon 
 — his life-purpose — criticisms of the present system — 
 the needs of the age — how to meet them in the 
 schools — P^re Didon in England — his premature 
 death — the extent of his influence .... 146 
 
 (ii) M. Demolins and his Imitators. 
 
 M. Demolins — A quoi tient la supeviorite des Anglo- 
 Saxons — an interesting comparison — L'^ducation 
 
8 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 PAGE 
 
 nouvelle and the ficole des Roches — the school at 
 work : a visit — its future — the ficole de I'lle de 
 France — its programme 152 
 
 (iii) M. DUHAMEL. 
 
 M. Duhamel — his profession of faith — the raison d'etre 
 of the new departure — French education as it is — a 
 health catechism — the new regime on education — 
 the College de Normandie — sumptuary laws — a 
 modest beginning essential — general regulations — 
 vices secrets — their prevention — subsequent history 
 — English influence in France — imitation should not 
 be all on one side 159 
 
 Bibliography . 167 
 
INTRODUCTION i 
 
 A COMPARISON between any branch of English education 
 and its corresponding equivalent in some foreign system can 
 never be easy. The elasticity and variety that prevail in 
 every grade of English school make it difficult in many cases 
 to say with absolute definiteness what is really typical and 
 representative. At practically every point of comparison 
 one could cite schools which in the particular matter under 
 review can vie successfully with the best that obtains in 
 the best schools elsewhere. But Enghsh secondary edu- 
 cation, like the English climate, is made up of a very large 
 number of samples. If its specimens when good are very, 
 very good, it is no less certain that when they are not they 
 are often horrid enough in all conscience. 
 
 Still no doubt a rough and ready estimate can be framed 
 of the management, methods, aims, and ideals of the general 
 run of English secondary schools, and to provide such an 
 approximation will be the earnest endeavour of the present 
 writer. 
 
 1 Note. — The second draft of this report was finished in November, 
 1903. It was revised by means of notes in January, 1909, and Jan- 
 uary 1913, and to these footnotes the date has been prefixed. I have 
 to thank especially for aiding me in making these revisions M. Liard, 
 Vice-Recteur de I'Universite de Paris ; M. Bayet, Directeur de 
 I'Enseignement Superieur ; M. Gautier and M. Lucien Poincar6, 
 successively Directeurs de I'Enseignement Secondaire ; M. Brissou, 
 private secretary to M. Gautier ; M. Darlu, Inspecteur-General au 
 Minist^re de 1' Instruction Publique ; M. Gabriel Lippmann, Membre 
 de rinstitut, Professeur a la Sorbonne ; M. £mile Boutroux, Membre 
 de I'Academie fran9aise ; M. Henri Bergson, Professeur au College 
 de France et Membre de I'lnstitut ; M. le Docteur Mathieu, President 
 de la Ligue fran9aise pour I'Hygi^ne scolaire ; M. Brunot, Professeur 
 d'Histoire de la Langue fran9aise a la Sorbonne ; M. Belot, Inspecteur 
 de I'Academie de Paris ; M. J. Demeny, Official Director of Physical 
 Exercises ; M. Alfred de Tarde [Agathon) ; Mr. J. E. C. Bodley, the 
 author of France, from whom I have received many valuable hints. 
 
10 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 Happily the selection of normal types is far less arduous 
 in the case of the French schools, owing to the uniformity 
 of standard which State control and State oversight con- 
 tribute to maintain, though it is probable the writer could 
 hardly have ventured on the task if he had not had the 
 exceptional privilege, through the kindness of the late M. 
 Greard, formerly Vice-Recteur of the University, of passing 
 more than a year in a well-known lycee, first as an eleve de 
 rhetorique and afterwards de philosophie at the mature age 
 of thirty- two. 
 
 Thanks to his exceptional position he thus enjoyed the 
 friendship and confidence of boys and masters alike. With 
 the former, once the excitement attending his apparition 
 had evaporated, he quickly found himself on terms of the 
 most charming cordiality. He saw them not only at school 
 but in private hfe and in their own homes, to which he was 
 not infrequently invited. He was thus able to study the 
 French boy in a close and thorough fashion, and, while not 
 blind to his failings, to appreciate his many excellent quali- 
 ties and sympathize with the disadvantages under which 
 his education often labours. 
 
 Again, from his close intercourse with the professors he 
 learnt to realize their high standard of culture, the con- 
 scientiousness and lucidity of their teaching, and their pro- 
 found sense of the high intellectual task entrusted to them, 
 even if on the educational side there seemed large lacunce 
 for which the system itself was rather to blame. ^ As far 
 then as his experience goes, the writer can speak with con- 
 fidence, though from the very nature of things the com- 
 parison on the French side must necessarily be very largely 
 confined to the State schools. 
 
 Even with these reservations the list of difficulties is by 
 no means exhausted. Both France and England have just 
 gone through an educational revolution, the effects of 
 which are far from being as yet complete. Each scholastic 
 system is therefore in a state of unstable equilibrium, 
 though no doubt once it has found its new centre of gravity 
 
 ^ Cf. Coubertin, L' Education anglaise en France, p. no : " Ce n'est 
 pas I'ouvrier, c'est I'outil qui ne vaut rien." 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS ii 
 
 it will ultimately come to rest in a stronger position.^ In 
 France the revolution has mainly affected curricula ; ^ with 
 us it has been above all administrative. While our neigh- 
 bours across the Channel have been recasting their pro- 
 grammes from top to bottom, we have been reconstructing 
 and consolidating our whole system of national education, 
 in which for the first time secondary education finds definite 
 official recognition. 
 
 It must be owned that in spite of the new complexities it 
 introduces, the reform presents at least one advantage for 
 anyone attempting to institute a comparison, inasmuch as 
 it allows us to say with more certainty than before what 
 is and what is not secondary education.^ Here, however, 
 the advantage ceases. These far-reaching administrative 
 changes are bound to produce in their turn a crop of other 
 reforms before the schools settle down into something like 
 stable conditions. The mere fact that henceforth the 
 localities are responsible for the supply of secondary 
 education in their midst must not only influence the 
 financial, administrative, and pedagogical condition of 
 the schools under their control, but also of the bigger 
 schools, which, though virtually independent, are obliged 
 to a certain extent to keep step with the local authorities' 
 schools. 
 
 To mention only a few of the questions which must shortly 
 come to the front, we have the cost of secondary education, 
 involving * proper staffing and proper salaries ; the tenure 
 
 ^NoTE. — (1913). This prophecy seems Hkely to come true as far 
 as France is concerned. In France certain readjustments have 
 taken place in the curriculum, and others seem possible. But the 
 actual division into four optional courses will in all likelihood remain 
 untouched. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) Since 1903, a new factor has appeared in the 
 definite separation of Church and State. The effects of this change 
 will be noted in the course of the report. 
 
 3 An instance of the difficulties of defining secondary education may 
 be seen from an article in La Revue Internationale de I'Enseignement, 
 February, 1899 : Chronique de I' Enseignement, Angleterre. Les Re- 
 formes prochaines dans I'Enseignement secondaire, by Cloudesley 
 Brereton. 
 
 * Note. — (1909.) Many of these necessary reforms have been 
 taken in hand and solved to a certain extent. See notes on the 
 section entitled " Teachers " and elsewhere. 
 
12 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 of teachers and their relations to the headmasters ; the need 
 of properly thought-out time-tables with an eye to the needs 
 of the district, involving on the one hand a definite challenge 
 to the supremacy of Greek in the higher schools and on the 
 other the necessity of rehabilitating literary studies ^ in the 
 lower secondary schools. In these circumstances it seems 
 more than probable that not a few of the contrasts made 
 in this paper will shortly be more or less out of date. One 
 says contrasts advisedly, because the points of difference 
 in the two systems are infinitely more numerous than the 
 points of resemblance. This is really a gain for both 
 countries. Where one is strong the other is often weak. 
 Where the one has made mistakes the other is often in the 
 happy position to profit by them, if it will. Each, in fact, 
 has much to learn from the other, both in the things to copy 
 and in the things to avoid. 
 
 I have to thank, for their valuable assistance in aiding 
 the completion of the report, M. Rabier, Conseiller d' Etat, 
 Directeur de TEnseignement Secondaire ; M. Chariot, In- 
 specteur-General au Ministere de ITnstruction Publique ; 
 M. Hovelaque, Inspecteur-General au Ministere de ITn- 
 struction Publique ; M. H. Lemonnier, Rapporteur de la 
 Classe III (Enseignement secondaire) a I'Exposition de 1900, 
 Professeur a I'Ecole Normale et a la Sorbonne ; M. Izoulet, 
 Professeur au College de France, ancien Professeur de 
 Philosophic au Lycee Condorcet ; M. Picavet, Redacteur- 
 en-chef de la Revue internationale de V Enseignement, Secre- 
 taire au College de France ; M. Blanchet, Proviseur au 
 Lycee Condorcet ; M. Ponee, Secretaire de la Direction de 
 I'Enseignement Secondaire au Ministere de ITnstruction 
 Publique; M. Duhamel, Directeur du College de Normandie; 
 the late M. Demolins, Directeur de I'ficole des Roches ; 
 M. Scott, ancien Directeur de I'Ecole de ITle de France ; 
 M. J. Manchon, Professeur au College de Normandie ; 
 M. Veillet-Lavallee, Professeur au College Stanislas; and 
 many others. 
 
 ^ See Report on the Teaching of Literary Subjects in some Secondary 
 Schools for Boys, by J. W. Headlam, Esq., M.A., in the General 
 Reports on Higher Education for the year 1902, published by the 
 Board of Education, Cd. 1738. 
 
3 •» 
 
 I. ADMINISTRATION 
 
 (i) Relation to the State and to the Locality 
 
 The secondary schools of France are divided into two cate- 
 gories, the ecoles d'etat and the ecoles libres. The State 
 schools are divided into lycees and colleges ; ^ the former, which 
 only exist in the more important towns, are entirely at the 
 charge of the State, the colleges are supported in part by the 
 town, but the position of the teacher as a State servant is 
 the same in both types of school with the exception of one 
 or two schools in Paris. All lycees and colleges take day- 
 boys ; many also have a boarding house attached. 
 
 The lycees and to a great extent the colleges are managed 
 direct from the Ministry, which inspects all State schools 
 through its inspecteurs-generaux or through its represen- 
 tatives on the spot (recteurs or inspecieurs d' academic. (It 
 settles everything from the appointment of teachers ^ to the 
 fixing of fees in the day and boarding departments, except 
 that in the case of the colUge the towns in which they are 
 situated have also a voice in the matter. The colleges are 
 in fact divided into two categories, those en regie, in which 
 the State and the locality are severally responsible in certain 
 agreed proportions for the financial conditions of the day 
 and boarding departments. 
 
 About 14 per cent, of the colleges are under this regime, 
 the rest, some 200 odd, are a la charge du principal — that 
 is to say, the State and town are responsible as heretofore 
 for the finances of the day department. They also decide 
 
 1 The comparative importance of the lycee and college may be seen 
 from the following figures. About 38 per cent, of pupils are in the 
 colleges and 62 per cent, in lycSes (statistics of 1901 and 1908). There 
 are 107 lycees and 233 colleges (in 1909, 108 lycies and 237 colUges). 
 
 2 The iconome in the college is appointed by the town, and his 
 appointment is confirmed by the Ministry. 
 
14 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 ^ the maximum fee that may be charged in the boarding 
 1 '.d^pk^rtfneht.' which is' handed over to the principal of the 
 •'•' 'Schoor^fo be' conducted at his own risk, the town being 
 ultimately responsible for any deficit that may occur. In 
 general there is a separate agreement between the town and 
 the principal, which deals specifically with these matters. 
 Except for these financial arrangements the locality has but 
 little part in the management of the school ; an effort has 
 been made recently to remedy this defect, and the official 
 authorities on the spot are urged — 
 
 " To adapt the organization of the teaching to the local needs and 
 possibilities by remembering that if it is incumbent on the colleges 
 to offer the most varied resources and programmes to a clientele, 
 which does not wish to dissociate itself from them, and which seeks 
 to find what it needs on the spot, this variety renders indispensable 
 a flexibility in organization which has perhaps hitherto not received 
 suf&cient consideration." 
 
 The idea is to encourage the locaHties to provide extra 
 funds for such special courses as it desires to see introduced 
 into the school teaching. These courses have to be sanc- 
 tioned by the rector of the local university, though this 
 difficulty does not seem to be very serious, as the word has 
 gone forth that these new departures are to be encouraged. 
 So far apparently several towns have availed themselves 
 of the privilege. Attempts have been made at co-ordina- 
 tion in connection with the college, a higher primary school, 
 or an ecole pratique de commerce or an ecole pratique d' agri- 
 culture.'^ With a view to lessening further the present 
 excessive centralization, a new departure has recently been 
 made by the creation in different university regions of a 
 certain number of lycees autonomes, which are allowed to 
 make experiments within certain limits. 
 
 ^ For a beginning in these matters see Special Reports on Educa- 
 tional Subjects, Vol. 7, Rural Education in France, page 180. Note. — 
 (1909.) In no less than twenty-four instances in the provinces an 
 ecole primaire superieure has been placed side by side with a college 
 under the same principal, in order that the pupils may pass freely 
 from one to the other, the college, of course, giving a general education 
 and the ecole primaire superieure a technical, commercial, or agri- 
 cultural training. I was also informed of a college in the north whose 
 principal had successfully adopted an experimental course adapted 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 15 
 
 The greater number of etahlissements lihres are schools 
 which were formerly conducted by reHgious orders, ^ but 
 have been transferred to private owners or to companies, 
 as a result of the Law on the Associations. ^ The others 
 consist of " free schools " hke the ecole alsacienne, or of 
 ordinary private schools, including those which have been 
 recently founded on more or less EngUsh lines. In all these 
 schools the right of the State is restricted to a sanitary in- 
 spection of the buildings and to an inspection of the text- 
 books and note-books of the pupils. The object of this 
 last-named safeguard is to prevent anything being taught 
 which is contra bonos mores or against the Government. The 
 inspectors have no right to be present at any of the lessons. 
 
 to the needs of his district. But such experiments are apparently 
 rare, as Isl. Maurice-Faure complains there are now in the lycees no 
 supplementary classes preparing pupils for commerce, the Post Office, 
 or the railways. He further points out that there exists, apart from 
 the higher primary schools, a so-called "regional" and technical 
 education, but it is given in free schools, some of which receive State 
 and municipal grants. There is, apparently, still need for greater 
 elasticity in respect to local requirements, in spite of the trade schools 
 established by the Ministry of Commerce. 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) This is no longer true, as these schools have lost 
 a very large number of pupils. The latest figures available (1906) 
 give the number of pupils in the quondam religious schools as 20,820, 
 as against 35,049 in the enseignement libra seculier, and 98,963 in the 
 State schools. The latter have, since 1907, lost a certain number of 
 pupils (96,289, 1908), though their net gain since the passing of the 
 Association Law is still very great, as the numbers (82,000 in 1901) 
 show. Part of this decrease is due to the fall in the birth-rate ; part 
 is due to the opening of a certain number of religious schools on the 
 Belgian frontier and in England. It is considered probable by com- 
 petent judges that the younger brothers of the boys who now go 
 abroad for their education will frequent the State schools in ever- 
 increasing numbers, owing to the enormous pressure indirectly 
 exercised in all spheres of life by the State. — (1913.) The rehgious 
 schools have recovered some of their lost ground — 56,836 in Novem- 
 ber, 1912, as against 17,563 in the enseignement libre seculier (laique) 
 and 98,399 in the State schools. 
 
 ^ There are still under consideration proposals for drastic changes 
 in the conditions of the enseignement libre, as far as secondary schools 
 are concerned, even if the loi Falloux is not abolished outright, and 
 the so-called monopole established instead. Note. — (1913.) These 
 revolutionary changes seem less likely to occur : a certain apaise- 
 ment has set in, and people are frightened at the prospective expense, 
 of which they have already had a foretaste by the compulsory closing 
 of the rehgious elementary schools. 
 
i6 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 The head teacher in the secondary portions of these 
 schools must possess the title of bachelier, but no professional 
 qualifications are required for the rest of the staff. Com- 
 pliance with similar conditions is a sine qua non for opening 
 a private school, and infraction in their maintenance may 
 entail the compulsory closing of the school either for a time 
 or indefinitely. Every French parent knows that to what- 
 ever school he sends his son, that establishment possesses 
 the Government guarantee that the sanitary conditions 
 comply with a certain definite minimum, and that the head 
 teacher is at least a qualified person. 
 
 This regard for quality and standard is carried to such 
 a pitch that no free school can call itself a lycee. The 
 general public are, however, so alive to the needs and 
 standards of education that the various " fiat-catching 
 titles " of Academy, Academical Institution, High School, 
 etc., are unknown in France. Whatever may be the state 
 of some of the ecoles litres, they do not apparently need a 
 fancy signboard to attract the attention of ignorant parents. 
 It is rumoured that the Government intend shortly to 
 demand that the teachers in the higher parts of these schools 
 should be licencies ; ^ such a state of things is, however, 
 already the rule in not a few etahlissements litres.^ 
 
 In England the different categories of secondary schools, 
 either within or without the full purview of public control, 
 are still very numerous. Matters, again, are complicated 
 by the dual control which is exercised by the State and the 
 localities over many of the schools. The Education Act of 
 1902 in fact divided up the non-private schools into local 
 and non-local schools according to whether they were aided 
 or not from the public funds. Under the latter heading 
 fall the so-called great public schools such as Eton and 
 Harrow, and such of the smaller endowed schools as do not 
 accept State or rate aid. The majority of these non-local 
 schools are, however, to a certain extent under the Board 
 of Education, in respect to their endowment and finance 
 as well as their educational functions, though this control, 
 
 ^ Note. — (1913.) Nothing so far has been done. 
 2 At least for the school year 1903-4. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 17 
 
 owing to the lack of any organized system of compulsory 
 inspection, is largely nominal. These schools, therefore, 
 enjoy a large measure of autonomy.^ 
 
 The so-called local schools are far from being a homo- 
 geneous body. They include in their ranks the grammar 
 schools in receipt of public aid, trust schools, which retain 
 a sum not exceeding 4 per cent, per annum on the capital 
 expenditure for the purpose of repaying the amounts origin- 
 ally subscribed, and the growing number of municipal and 
 county council schools which have been founded during the 
 last ten or twelve years by the local authorities. In the 
 case of grammar schools, the Board of Education exercises 
 a certain amount of oversight in respect to the purely ad- 
 ministrative side of the endowments, etc., as well as over 
 the curricula, or those parts of it which are inspected and 
 receive grants from the central authority. It is clear that 
 through the action of its inspectors, who freely criticise the 
 methods and equipment, it has a considerable influence on 
 the schools. 
 
 But the real control is more and more passing into the 
 hands of the local authority, which acts not only as a receiver 
 but as dispenser of the grants earned in these schools, and 
 in addition sometimes subsidizes them out of moneys re- 
 ceived from local sources. ^ The power assigned to the 
 localities under the recent Act to frame for themselves their 
 own system of education, subject to the approval of the 
 Board of Education, again gives the localities a strong voice 
 in the framing or re-casting of the programme of studies in 
 these schools. The Board of Education has indeed divided 
 
 1 (1909.) — It would appear that the comparative autonomy of 
 these schools is likely to be challenged in the near future, the Board 
 having recently announced its intention to inspect one of the largest 
 of these schools (St. Paul's). It is noteworthy that a motion at the 
 Headmasters' Conference, December, 1908, welcoming inspection by 
 the Board under certain safeguards, was only lost by 25 to 20. — 
 (1913.) A certain number of these schools have since voluntarily 
 accepted inspection by the Board, notably Harrow, Wellington, 
 Clifton, Bradfield, Dulwich, etc. In fact, over half the schools on the 
 Headmasters' Conference have asked the Board to inspect them. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) The position is now roughly as follows : The 
 county councils aid an increasing number of these schools, but no 
 longer receive the Government grant. Their own subsidies are, 
 
 B.E. B 
 
i8 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 up the schools in question into two classes, A and B, i.e. 
 into schools which are roughly technical and scientific, and 
 those which rather give a more literary and general educa- 
 tion. For a school to pass from or be placed in either one or 
 the other class requires its sanction, but the lines are so elasti- 
 cally drawn that a school in either category, and especially 
 in B, possesses a wide latitude in framing its programme.^ 
 
 Outside these schools come the so-called private schools, 
 which are likewise a very heterogeneous body. They in- 
 clude a large number of first-rate ^ preparatory schools, 
 which serve as nurseries and feeders to the big public schools 
 and the private schools generally, good, bad, and indifferent. 
 The classification of these schools has as yet not got beyond 
 mere enumeration. In the only comprehensive statistics 
 on secondary education which have so far been compiled 
 and published, all private venture schools have had perforce 
 to be included, down to the veriest dame school and private 
 kindergarten,^ it being quite impossible to find a line of 
 demarcation. 
 
 All these schools, however, now have a right to demand 
 to be officially inspected at the public cost, both in respect 
 to their teaching and buildings, provided they fulfil certain 
 conditions. Both they and some or all of the teachers in 
 them may be recognized as efficient by the Board of Edu- 
 cation. It seems possible that this optional inspection 
 
 however, framed in consideration of the amount of the Government 
 grants. At the same time, the number of municipal and county 
 council secondary schools has largely increased. 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) Important reforms have taken place of recent 
 years which should lead to the codification of secondary education. 
 The Board has issued a list of secondary schools, has abolished 
 the division between A and B schools, given the schools greater 
 liberty to draw up their time-tables, and has made a start towards 
 providing for the training of secondary teachers. 
 
 2 A competent authority, Mr. Tarver (in The Nation's Need), esti- 
 mates the amount expended by parents on preparatory schools in 
 England at about a million and a quarter per year. 
 
 3 Even in France the difficulty of classifying what is and what is 
 not secondary education is not unknown, as there is no official de- 
 finition. Thus it has been held at law that a boarding-house kept 
 by a dame for children attending a free school was an establishment 
 of secondary education. (Gobron, Legislation et Jurisprudence de 
 r Enseignement public . . . en France, 1900, § 1664, p. 466.) 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 19 
 
 may prove the thin end of the wedge in the way of bringing 
 all the private schools in the country under a limited form 
 of public control. When the majority of efficient private 
 schools have received public recognition, those who still 
 hang back may possibly be legally forced to submit to 
 inspection or else be compulsorily closed. 
 
 In this way we may see the end of the charlatanism which 
 is still too rife among our private schools. At present any- 
 one in England, even a ticket-of-leave man, may, as Matthew 
 Arnold has remarked, open a school in England. The 
 question is not merely a question of instruction, it is also a 
 matter of public health. It is indeed curious to observe 
 that while we have done as much as any nation towards 
 improving the sanitation and hygienic conditions of public 
 and private buildings, not a single legal enactment has been 
 passed for laying down certain definite minima in ventilation 
 and sanitation for such premises as are intended to be used 
 for school purposes for which no public money is claimed. 
 Overcrowding, foul air, insanitary conditions may be 
 rampant. The authorities are powerless to interfere. 
 
 On comparing the two systems it would seem in the case 
 of France that State control has produced one great ad- 
 vantage. By maintaining a thoroughly qualified staff corps 
 of teachers, supervised by a body of competent and ex- 
 perienced inspectors, it has established a uniformly high 
 standard of intellectual efficiency in the State schools to 
 which our secondary schools in the mass can afford no com- 
 parison. Again, in requiring certain minima in matters of 
 sanitation and school hygiene, as well as in the qualifica- 
 tion of head teachers in private schools, France is certainly 
 ahead of England as far as the bulk of the private schools 
 is concerned. 
 
 On the other hand, the greater liberty enjoyed by our 
 almost autonomous public schools has not been without 
 compensation. It has saved us from the opposite dangers 
 of excessive uniformity, and tied our hands less in the 
 making of new experiments. Again, in such cases in which 
 public inspection has been only optional, it has been ren- 
 dered more elastic by giving the^local authorities or the 
 
20 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 schools themselves a choice of inspection either by the 
 State or the Universities, thereby interesting the Univer- 
 sities at the same time in those institutions which supply 
 their future recruits. ^ 
 
 This last advantage also obtains in France, where the 
 State and the University are one, but at the same time in 
 the absence of such a latitude in choice, variety and elasti- 
 city are far more difficult to attain. In fact the French 
 secondary school, being an integral part of the University,- 
 it is possible that the connection between the two is rather, 
 if anything, too close. In France the locahty has had 
 hitherto but little or no voice in the management of the 
 schools, to which it often contributes a considerable sum. 
 As has been already stated, an effort has been lately made 
 to give it an interest in the subjects taught, but the experi- 
 ment is still too recent to pass a judgment on the results. 
 
 In England, while introducing or extending the principle 
 of State control, we have attempted to guard ourselves 
 against the danger of excessive centralization in the future 
 by giving to the locality a very definite suzerainty over its 
 schools with a view to allowing it to make experiments and 
 work out for itself the particular organization and kind of 
 education which best accords with its particular needs. . We 
 have, in fact, applied on a large scale the principle enun- 
 ciated by M. Ribot : On connait mieux sur place ce qui con- 
 vient a chaque localite. No doubt we run the risk of the 
 locahty making a certain number of mistakes, but there is 
 little doubt that such a measure of decentralization will con- 
 tribute to the advantage of English education in the long run. 
 
 In France the State in its struggle with the religious 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) This, no doubt, 'has been an advantage in the 
 past, but there are signs that in the future it will be necessary to take 
 steps to standardize the different inspections by making the inspec- 
 tion a joint matter between the University, or locality, and the State 
 — if not between all three. 
 
 2 (191 3.) — It is worth noting that the French term University has 
 two meanings. In addition to the ordinary English one, it signifies 
 in ordinary parlance the whole corps enseignant in the secondary 
 schools and the Universities under State control. It also technically 
 includes the elementary teachers who are under the University for 
 teaching purposes, though nominated by the prefect. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 21 
 
 schools has tried to cover the whole ground with a network 
 of secondary schools. There are, however, certain regions 
 where no State college exists and the towns refuse to support 
 one or prefer to assist a religious school. In his report on 
 the Secondary Education Commission M. Ribot proposed 
 that the State should actually subsidize a society formed for 
 creating a local school or even a university professor, who, 
 while accepting full inspection and the usual State cur- 
 ricula, would be willing to run a big school as a private 
 venture. Such a school in his opinion " will perhaps have 
 more of a life of its own than an ordinary college, it will 
 adapt itself better to local necessities." 
 
 The suggestion received further sanction by being adopted 
 by the Parliamentary Commission itself as one of its pro- 
 posals, with the additional rider that any State professor 
 employed in such a school should preserve his rights of pro- 
 motion and pension. Finally the law of July, 1900, em- 
 bodied the proposal in its fifth article, but up to the present 
 time nothing has been done, as the State is busily engaged 
 in preserving and putting on a better footing the colleges, 
 but according to M. Rabier ^ there is good reason to believe 
 the permission will be turned to good account. It is very 
 significant to see, in a country where the public authorities 
 are accustomed to do far more than in England, the locality 
 already has the right, and the State now further proposes 
 to assist private initiative from motives of economy, apart 
 from the religious question, which, of course, has a certain 
 weight in the matter. 
 
 It is curious that we in England, on the other hand, who 
 owe a great debt to initiative, should seem indisposed to 
 subsidize even the efficient private schools. Perhaps our 
 local authorities have not yet realized, like their French 
 compeers, the enormous cost of an efficient system of secon- 
 dary education. At all events, putting aside all other argu- 
 ments, there seems, to judge by the French, a certain amount 
 to be said for giving public assistance to efficient private 
 schools, or for allowing them to be attended by county 
 
 ^ See E. Rabier, Instruction puhlique : Enseignement secondaire, 
 p. 32. 
 
22 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 council scholars in places where no proper facilities for 
 obtaining a public secondary education exist. ^ ^ 
 
 (ii) Proviseurs and Headmasters : their Relative 
 
 Positions 
 
 In the State schools the official head, who in a lycee is 
 called the proviseur and in a college a directeur or a principal, 
 is above all things the administrator, the director of the 
 school, the titular head of the professeurs and surveillants, 
 or repetiteurs (ushers).^ He has two other officials at his 
 side, one the censeur, who looks after the discipline and is 
 responsible for arranging the hours in the time-table, and 
 the other the econome, who acts as bursar or steward, an 
 office which in smaller schools is held by one of the teaching 
 staff. His pay, even in a Paris lycee, does not exceed, in- 
 cluding free quarters and allowances, £360 per annum.* 
 
 1 This has, of course, been done in some places in England. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) Connection between the Elementary and Secondary 
 School. — It is curious to note that in a democratic country like France 
 the number of scholarships assigned by the State to secondary educa- 
 tion only amounts to about 1,000 a year (or, roughly, 5,500 scholar- 
 ships in all). Of these, only some 1,580 are held by pupils coming 
 direct from elementary schools, i.e. about 25 per cent, of the whole. 
 The total number of scholarships obtained by elementary children 
 per year is under 300. W^hile in country districts the number is 
 therefore quite inadequate, there is apparently in the bigger towns 
 a sufficient supply owing to the action of the municipaUty. In 
 England there are no State scholarships, but in country and town 
 alike the number (in London alone over 3,500) is large, not to say 
 lavish, especially as the overwhelming majority of our scholarships 
 are given for purely literary attainments. It is to be hoped that in 
 the future we may be able to endow constructional and artistic 
 aptitudes, even if it be to some extent at the cost of reducing the 
 number of our purely literary scholarships. It is significant that 
 changes in this direction are foreshadowed in the new scholarship 
 scheme of the L.C.C. In both England and France efforts have 
 been and are being made to co-ordinate the curricula of the elemen- 
 tary and secondary schools, but the break in the gauge, though 
 lessened, still remains. According to M. Steeg {Rapport Steeg), 
 " L'enseignement secondaire ne se superpose pas a I'enseignement 
 primaire, il s'y juxtapose " (p. 72). 
 
 3 Note. — (1909.) The two categories have now become four : 
 professeurs , professeurs adjoints, niaitres-repetiteurs, surveillants. 
 
 * See Report Kirkman, p. 632. Note. — (1909.) It has now been 
 raised tO;^50o.— (1913.) ^^360. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 23 
 
 He has no pecuniary interest by way of a capitation fee or 
 otherwise in the financial success of the estabhshment if 
 it be a day school, and he can make nothing out of the 
 licensed victualhng if it be a boarding school, unless it be 
 a college au compte du principal ?■ 
 
 At the time of Matthew Arnold's visit to France in 1859 ^ 
 the position of proviseur was looked on as one of the prizes 
 of the profession. Since then the position has apparently 
 lost many of its advantages. Its present unsatisfactory 
 state was brought out in a startling way by the Parliamen- 
 tary Commission of Enquiry into the Condition of Secondary 
 Education of which M. Ribot was chairman. In the volume 
 in which he summed up the general conclusions of the Com- 
 mission he writes : ^ " Every effort has been made to 
 deprive the proviseurs of what freedom of action was left 
 to them." A proviseur whom he quotes says : " A mourn- 
 ful uniformity reigns in our schools." There is no solidarity 
 between the different officials. Each one shuts himself up 
 in his special compartment, in his restricted sphere of duty. 
 
 The proviseur entrenches himself too much within his ad- 
 ministrative functions. His freedom of action is extremely 
 limited. He cannot decide on his own responsibility on the 
 purchase of a book or a piece of scientific apparatus. He 
 cannot give the smallest tip to a school servant out of the 
 money at his disposal. The boarding fees, the tuition fees 
 are fixed without his being even consulted. He has been 
 deprived of the right he once possessed of reducing the fees 
 under certain conditions. The programmes in all their 
 details are settled for him by the consultative council 
 (Conseil Superieur de ITnstruction Publique). The number 
 of his masters is fixed without his having a voice in the 
 matter. If he wishes to form classes in any particular 
 subject he has neither the right nor the means to do so. 
 
 " No wonder," M. Ribot says, " a good proviseur is pretty 
 rare." How can it be otherwise, when " many professors 
 refuse the post because they do not wish to exchange their 
 
 1 See above, p. 13. 
 
 2 See Matthew Arnold, A French Eton, p. ii. 
 ^ See R. E., Chapters I and II, passim. 
 
24 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 independence for the worries of a situation full of responsi- 
 bilities and devoid of initiative ? " At present a proviseur 
 has no voice in the appointment of his staff. A proviseur 
 informed the present writer that at the very most if he 
 knows the recteur of the university he can go and see him in 
 a friendly way, ask to be allowed to look at the list of candi- 
 dates, and suggest to him So-and-so as specially suitable 
 for filling the vacancy. But sometimes a professor arrives 
 and presents himself to the proviseur with the words, " I 
 present myself to you as your new professor of philosophy," 
 etc., and that is the first occasion of their acquaintance. 
 
 According to M. Ribot a proviseur should at least have 
 the right to fill up the inferior posts. Again, to win the 
 confidence of families one must live for some time in a place ; 
 the fashion has been to shift the proviseurs about far too 
 frequently. " In fifteen years," said the recteur of Caen 
 University, " I have seen 28 different proviseurs in 8 lycees," 
 M. TAbbe Follioley stated before the Commission that before 
 his arrival at the lycee of Nantes there were 25 proviseurs 
 in 24 years. The average stay of one proviseur in a lycee 
 is three years, whereas in a " free school " the direcfeur 
 often stops 15 or 20 years. M. Ribot attributes these fre- 
 quent changes to political influences. The extraordinary 
 law which rendered the proviseur responsible for all 
 accidents to the pupils on the premises naturally pre- 
 vented most proviseurs from encouraging games. ^ The 
 law 2 still exists in a modified form, and acts no doubt 
 as a great deterrent to the organization of school athletics 
 on a large scale. On this side, therefore, the moral influence 
 of the proviseur over the boys is naturally restricted. 
 
 ^ Probably the most extraordinary case on record in which the 
 courts held the headmaster of a school pecuniarily responsible to the 
 parents for damage done to their child was that in which one boy was 
 seriously injured by another in a fight which took place more than a 
 quarter of a mile from the school premises. 
 
 2 The State accepts responsibility, reserving to itself the right of 
 rendering the proviseur liable if in its judgment the latter is to blame. 
 This naturally makes the proviseurs take all sorts of precautions in 
 order to be on the safe side. A series of unpreventable but untoward 
 accidents for which the State had been mulcted would naturally have 
 a bad effect on his official career, — (1909.) The law still exists. The 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 25 
 
 In the big lycee, on the other hand, the complexity of his 
 duties makes the proviseur " the head of an administration 
 much more than the director of a house of education." 
 How can it be otherwise when, as in some cases, the school 
 population under him amounts to nearly two thousand 
 souls ? ^ One proviseur of such a lycee received in a single 
 year 30,000 visits. No wonder he had a good deal of trouble 
 even to know his staff by sight ; and as for knowing the 
 bulk of the pupils, that was clearly impossible. Every 
 morning, however, he held an enquiry, like the colonel of 
 a regiment, into what had happened the day before. He 
 thus came to know the names of those who figured with 
 sufficient frequency on the black Ust. To combat this diffi- 
 culty M. Ribot would reduce the hmit for each lycee to 300 
 to 400 pupils. And he cites with approval the phrase of 
 another witness before the Commission : " What is wanted 
 at the head of each of our establishments is an apostle ; 
 too often there is only an official." 
 
 M. Ribot and his fellow commissioners made certain re- 
 commendations for amending these defects in the proviseur' s 
 position. The Ministry have taken note of them, and in 
 certain University regions they have created the so-called 
 lycees autonomes, of which Lakanal, just outside Paris, may 
 be taken as a specimen type. 
 
 The proviseur in this case is far more like a real com- 
 mander-in-chief than merely primus inter pares among the 
 other officials and professors. The boarding arrangements 
 and general management are in his hands instead of being 
 entrusted to a separate official (the econome). The balance 
 of any moneys he does not expend, instead of being returned 
 to the Treasury, can be devoted by him to any purpose he 
 
 results are sometimes very curious. This year the Ministry forbade 
 Rugby to be played at the lycee of Rouen, owing to the dangers to 
 life and limb. The boarders were obhged to give up the game, but 
 the day boys apparently owing to its prohibition played with greater 
 zest than ever. 
 
 1 Note. — (1913.) In Paris six lycees have over looo pupils, and 
 three over 900. Bordeaux, Marseilles and Lyons have over 2000, 
 seven more towns have over 1000, and two more over 900. In 
 England the only school with over 1000 is Eton, which has about 
 1200. 
 
26 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 pleases. Thus, in 1902, he constructed a winter garden with 
 the surplus. The lycee, which cost 10,000,000 francs, is 
 surrounded by a magnificent park, which, however, requires 
 draining. The Government have made him a grant of 
 25,000 francs to carry out the necessary work. 
 
 He has had the same free hand in rearranging the sleeping 
 arrangements in the boarding house. In place of open 
 dormitories he has built cubicles which are tall and well 
 ventilated. Each boy is shut in for the night, but by break- 
 ing a little " Judas," not unlike the glass covering of a fire 
 alarm, he can let himself out in case of necessity. The pro- 
 viseur has given up the old system of surveillants for the 
 dormitories and enlisted in their place young students who 
 are working for special examinations or surveillants who are 
 only appointed from year to year. He has thus got rid of 
 the permanent official with much of the unpopularity and 
 dislike attached to the calling in the eyes of the pupils. On 
 the other hand, he has tried to break down the party- 
 wall between teachers and ushers by making the latter 
 take part in the work of the lower classes — an excellent 
 innovation. 
 
 Furthermore, the proviseur has thrown himself heart and 
 soul into the moral education of his pupils. Every month 
 he holds a separate meeting of each of the sections into 
 which the school is divided, discusses in general terms the 
 besetting sins he has observed, and discreetly distributes 
 praise and censure. The effect on the tone of the school is 
 already very marked. There is an undoubted growth of the 
 spirit of esprit de corps. It is further fostered by school 
 entertainments which are held from time to time in the large 
 reception rooms, and which are attended by parents and 
 friends of the boys. 
 
 What cannot fail to interest English people is the fact that 
 at the moment of my visit I found two English boys in the 
 school of whom the proviseur spoke in the highest terms as 
 being an excellent influence in the school. A private con- 
 versation with the boys themselves showed that the good 
 feeling and good opinion were by no means one-sided. Both 
 the boys had been at an English school, so they were able 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 27 
 
 to make comparisons. They spoke of the kindness of boys 
 and masters, and, what seemed a specially typical trait, 
 they dilated on the excellence of the " grub." ^ It was 
 certainly very interesting to come across such a pleasant 
 example of the entente cordiale. 
 
 The headmaster is extremely keen on the interchange of 
 pupils with other countries. He thinks, with apparently a 
 good deal of reason, that Enghsh boys who want to have 
 a year at French before going into business cannot do better 
 than come to him, while at the same time he pays us the 
 comphment of thinking that our boys will in many ways be 
 an excellent influence for good among their French fellows. 
 Certainly the idea has much to commend it. The cost is 
 not excessive, and the sanitary arrangements which I looked 
 over appear to be thoroughly up to date. If this is a speci- 
 men of the average lycee autonome, it ought soon to become, 
 by force of example, the rule and not the exception. ^ 
 
 In comparison with the position of the French proviseur 
 or directeur the Enghsh headmaster is a far more important 
 person. He is often a veritable pastor agnorum, a pontifex 
 maximus, in comparison with whom the French educational 
 chief seems a mere rex sacrificulus. He has no censeur on 
 his right hand with whom to share the power of the fasces, 
 no econome on his left with whom to divide the financial 
 
 1 Note. — (1913.) Such an authority as Mr. J. E. C. Bodley 
 informs me that this is typical. This view is confirmed by an article 
 of M. le Docteur Mathieu, president of the International Congress 
 on School Hygiene, in Hygiene scolaire (July, 191 1), on the results of 
 an official inquiry into the feeding, ventilation, sanitation, etc., in the 
 lycees from 1900-1910. Dr. Mathieu's chief criticism is that the fare 
 might be in some cases reinforced from the point of view of vegetables 
 and sugar products. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) All lycees have now become lycies autonomes. 
 Unfortunately the reform, which was intended to be first and fore- 
 most pedagogical, has become mainly economical. As M. Maurice- 
 Faure in his report says, the root idea was excellent. It was meant 
 to give the administration of the lycee more liberty, to inspire a sort 
 of corporate responsibility ; with a possibihty of catering for local 
 needs, and securing financial economy. The latter ideal, however, 
 has prevailed to the practical exclusion of the others in the great 
 majority of lycees. A very grave mistake was made, at the outset, 
 by excluding the professors from the meetings of the administration. 
 This, however, has been remedied (November 25th, 1908). 
 
28 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 control. His power over his assistants is, at least in theory, 
 absolute. 1 He can dismiss at three months' notice, without 
 cause assigned, a master who has served the school faithfully 
 for thirty years. Until recently he was appointed for life ; 
 now he is usually appointed for a fixed period indefinitely 
 renewable, and in actual practice he is rarely if ever ejected 
 unless he has proved himself impossible as a headmaster. 
 
 Like bishops and judges he is never supposed to grow old, 
 and superannuation is a word which as regards himself is 
 wellnigh unknown in his vocabulary. ^ This may at times 
 lead to abuses, but the merit of the system is very great. 
 Without freedom there can be no responsibihty. The 
 English headmaster is no mere caretaker, but a business 
 manager put in to run the concern by his governors, who 
 wisely allow him Hke any other business manager a wide 
 latitude. Nominally, of course, he is under the control of his 
 governing body, but in the great majority of cases he is really 
 the moving spirit of the board. They recognize that he must 
 naturally know far more of the inside working of the school 
 than they, and it is only in matters of finance that they 
 exercise a preponderating voice. 
 
 The headmaster's position towards the boys is very largely 
 a matter of his own making, apart from the prestige he may 
 have inherited from his predecessors. His school is not so 
 large as a rule as the average lycee, though Thring ^ would 
 consider more than one of our public schools far too big. 
 His routine duties are probably considerably less. As a 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) This is still true of the general run of secondary 
 schools. But the position has been modified in the so-called endowed 
 schools by the Endowed Schools (Masters) Act, 1908, which makes 
 the assistant master the servant of the governing body and regulates 
 the terms of dismissal. Again, in the majority of the schools main- 
 tained by the county councils the local authority reserves to itself 
 the right of dismissal after a year's probation. This, in practice, 
 considerably adds to the security of tenure on the part of the assistant 
 master, 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) In certain schools, notably those belonging to 
 the county councils, this is no longer the rule. 
 
 3 Se& Parkin's Life of Thring, vol. i. pp. 73. 74, where 330 is laid 
 down as the ideal number. The late Dr. Haig-Brown was strongly 
 of opinion that 500 should never be exceeded. See Biographical 
 Memoir (p. 69). 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 29 
 
 rule there is no Government office to which he has to make 
 returns. He has thus a greater opportunity for taking an 
 active part in the work of the school. He nearly always 
 devotes some of the time to teaching, and in the more 
 modern schools supervises to some extent the teaching of 
 his assistants. This brings him into real contact with the 
 boys in school. 
 
 As a rule he takes the highest class, though he does not 
 necessarily neglect the little boys.^ He is thus able not 
 only to keep in touch with the most advanced work done in 
 the school and by setting a good pace in the VI Form to 
 ensure that the teachers below must follow suit or be found 
 out, but also he is able to exercise a personal influence on 
 those boys who are most influential in the school. He does 
 not merely aim by precept and example at giving tone and 
 character to the school. He interests the head boys directly 
 in its good government by making them prefects and treat- 
 ing them as responsible beings to whom certain privileges 
 are attached — for he is no believer in the civitassine suffragio. 
 
 Nor does his sphere of influence end here. As often as 
 not he is an old athlete, and outside the class-room, even if 
 emeritus, he still takes a paternal interest in the games and 
 expects his assistants at least to do the same. Here again the 
 moral aim comes to the fore. The doctrines of honesty and 
 loyalty he has upheld either in the class-room or the school 
 pulpit find constant appHcation in the tradition of fair 
 play and straightforwardness which rules the playing field. 
 
 Naturally in a day school his influence is less paramount, 
 yet there is no difference other than a difference of degree. 
 If he is really a strong man his influence is over the whole 
 school, not merely in the school-room and in the games, but 
 it passes out into the daily life of the pupils and forges in 
 their yet untempered hearts behefs and ideals that can 
 never be broken. This is the great glory of the English 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) If he has a besetting sin it is that he undertakes 
 too much teaching, and is apt to allow himself to be cumbered by too 
 much serving. He becomes, in fact, so immersed in details that he 
 at times loses sight of those wider issues which no school can afford 
 to disregard without finding itself out of touch with the deeper needs 
 of the nation. 
 
30 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 Public School, which the Thrings and Arnolds have lived 
 and died for. They took up the ideal of the education of 
 a gentleman, based very often on a strong Christian belief 
 and moulded into a modern form, raising it beyond the level 
 of mere rule and precept till it became the very life and 
 atmosphere not only of our ancient and religious founda- 
 tions, but of those great public schools which sprang into 
 existence during the latter half of the nineteenth century.^ 
 
 (iii) Teachers : their Appointment, Qualifications, 
 
 AND Position 
 
 The staff in a French State school is divided into pro- 
 fesseurs and mattres-repetiteurs.^ The broad distinction 
 between the two, as has already been indicated, is that the 
 former teaches, and the latter looks after the boys in pre- 
 paration and out of school. 
 
 The standard of attainment in the professorat has so risen 
 that a candidate for the post, except in the purely prepara- 
 tory classes,^ must be at least a licencie, that is to say, he 
 has not only passed the baccalaureat or entrance examina- 
 tion in the university, which is generally taken at 17, but 
 he has also passed the licence which roughly corresponds 
 to a degree in honours at Oxford or Cambridge or the London 
 M.A. He cannot, however, become a full-blown professor, 
 that is, a professeur titulaire, in a lycee, unless he has also 
 passed a very stiff competitive examination, called the 
 agregation, in some special " School," such as Philosophy, 
 
 1 Thomas Arnold believed that a school could be a Christian society, 
 and Edward Thring believed every boy had a soul to be saved : 
 quotation from an anonymous writer in Skrine's Pastor Agnorum, 
 p. 13, an excellent book, which may be consulted on the ideals which 
 underlie the calling of an English headmaster. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) Four categories : Professeurs, professeurs ad- 
 joints, mattres-repetiteurs , and surveillants. 
 
 3 In the classes enfantines and prdparatoires (pupils 6-8) the teachers 
 are primary masters and mistresses. In the classes elementaires, 
 especially in the lycees, the professors possess either a certificat d' apti- 
 tude for teaching in secondary schools or a university degree {bachelier 
 or licencie) . For a fuller account of teachers' qualifications see Report 
 Kirkman. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 31 
 
 Letters, Mathematics, etc. Success in this examination 
 definitely entitles the teacher to permanent Government 
 employment. 
 
 Pedagogical training has hitherto been confined to a term's 
 residence in a school as a teaching student. According to 
 the proposals of the Parliamentary Commission all future 
 teachers will have to go through a stage of student-teacher 
 in a lycee or elsewhere, and no one will be allowed to assume 
 the title of agrege till he has obtained a certificate of teaching 
 proficiency. The Ecole Normale, which prepares a limited 
 number of students, the pick of the secondary schools of 
 France, for the university and school teaching, has hitherto 
 neglected pedagogics. The Parliamentary Commission has 
 recommended that the school should be henceforth con- 
 ducted not merely as a school of advanced study but as a 
 veritable pedagogical institution. Recently the various 
 professors have given lectures on the teaching of their own 
 particular subjects,^ and still wider reforms are in contem- 
 plation. ^ 
 
 Over and above the agregation comes a purely voluntary 
 examination, the doctorat, awarded mainly on the merits 
 of a thesis involving original research. All secondary 
 teachers who aspire to be full university ^ professors must 
 take this examination. It will be realized, therefore, how 
 high the standard of scholarship is of the more brilHant pro- 
 fessors in secondary education. This is not, however, with- 
 out its drawbacks. There is a certain restlessness on the 
 part of the young and able professor to get into the univer- 
 sity enclosure, together with the feeling that the public 
 school is only a lieu de passage. 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) All students at the Ecole Normale are obliged to 
 pass a space of three months or more with one of their professors. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) The number chosen each year for the £cole Nor- 
 male has been increased. Formerly, only twelve were taken, later 
 there were twenty, and now the number has been raised to forty. 
 All these cannot be accommodated at the school as boarders. Those 
 who live outside receive a bourse d' agregation. This has robbed the 
 local universities of some of their best students. 
 
 3 Only a docteur can be a professeur titulaire in a university. An 
 agrege can be maitre de conferences or charge de cours, but in the latter 
 case at least he is supposed to be working for a doctoral. 
 
32 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 One cannot expect in such persons, any more than in the 
 future curate who takes up teaching for a year or two in 
 England, much of the sentiment of giving up their Hves to 
 the work, and perhaps the aloofness that exists between 
 professor and pupil in France is due in part to this somewhat 
 too intimate connection between the school and university. 
 There is, nevertheless, a good side to the medal. The French 
 university professor has won for himself by his stay in the 
 schools some notion of the standard of attainment other 
 than that obtained by the setting of scholarship papers. 
 In any case it seems more logical to start as a teacher and 
 to finish as a don, than to begin as a don and go on as a 
 headmaster. 1 
 
 It must be remembered that a true estimate of salaries 
 can only be made b}^ comparing them with those of other 
 civil servants in France. It is certainly not an exaggeration 
 to say that State salaries in England are half as much again 
 as they are in France, and in some cases they are more than 
 double. 2 Again, there are no " extraneous tasks." ^ The 
 teaching hours are also comparatively short. In the lycees 
 the maximum number of hours' class work per week re- 
 quired of the professors in the two highest forms varies from 
 twelve to fourteen hours, with a possible two hours' overtime 
 for which extra pay is given. The maximum number of 
 hours is not always exacted, especially in the classe de 
 rhStorique,^ in which the number of pupils is often very large. 
 
 1 The Teacher. On this point see " Organised Education and the 
 Teacher and the State," by J. C. Tarver, M.A., in What is Secondary 
 Education ? pp. 309, 310. " To our largest and richest schools men 
 are not infrequently appointed as headmasters who have had no 
 personal experience of school work and school organization. We not 
 only make appointments equivalent to suddenly promoting a sub- 
 lieutenant to the command of a regiment ; we do worse. We are not 
 shocked when, to continue the parallel, a general is put in command 
 of a ship, for a successful university tutor need know no more about 
 school work than a line officer about the organization of a man-of-war." 
 
 2 This is due to the fact that in some cases the salary has remained 
 the same since the beginning of the last century. 
 
 3 Note. — (1913.) This of course implies no supervision or de- 
 tention or oversight of any kind out of school. A professor would 
 not feel necessarily obliged to take cognizance of two schoolboys 
 fighting or misbehaving themselves in the street. 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) Or premiere, as it is now generally called. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 33 
 
 The maximum number of hours in the second and third 
 class amount to fifteen, with a possible two hours' overtime 
 for which extra pay is given. In the division eUmentaire 
 the maximum is nineteen, with two possible additional hours 
 of overtime. In the colleges the corresponding maxima are 
 an hour and occasionally two hours longer, with the same 
 possibiUty of overtime. The number of pupils per class 
 or per professor, however, is often considerably less than in 
 the lycee. These comparatively short hours allow of private 
 study, which renders the pursuit of the doctoral possible or 
 permits the professor to increase his income by private 
 lessons or by literary work. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the out-of-class work in the 
 way of preparation (which is a very serious thing in France) 
 and in the way of correction is very heavy. Thus in the 
 classe de fremiere (formerly rhetorique) the professor may 
 have fifty French essays to look over, many of them eight or 
 ten pages long. The correction itself is very carefully done. 
 It not only deals with spelHng or grammatical errors but 
 with faults of style. There is little doubt that the new pro- 
 grammes have for the moment at least added to the work of 
 the professors by increasing the number of lessons which they 
 have to prepare for the different sections, with a correspond- 
 ing increase in the amount of written work to be corrected, 
 and also by raising the actual number of teaching hours. 
 
 Apart from the university professorships to which the 
 doctoral is a stepping-stone, the full professor can also become 
 an inspecteur-general, a rector of a university, not to mention 
 a proviseur^ His position is in fact a highly honourable 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) During the last few years, however, the desire 
 to enter the teaching profession has considerably slackened. This 
 is clearly indicated by the decrease in numbers of those trying for 
 the certificat d' aptitude and the agregation (for statistics, see Rapport 
 Steeg, pp. 44-47) ; the level of the examinations themselves has also 
 fallen {un sensible dechet, according to M. Maurice-Faure) . The 
 causes, no doubt, are multiple. First and foremost is that while 
 the cost of rent and living has largely increased (in some towns M. 
 Steeg estimates it a third), the salaries, in many cases, have remained 
 at the same figure as in 1872. The wave of economy that has passed 
 over the lycees has meant, in many cases, more hours' work and less 
 chance of extra remuneration for overtime, the supplementary lessons 
 being handed over to the ripititeurs for economic reasons. This has 
 B.E. C 
 
34 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 one. A professeur in a lycee or college is as much a professeur 
 de V Universite as a professor at the Sorbonne {Report Kirk- 
 man, p. 632). One and all the professors are members of the 
 learned professions in the most literal sense of the word. 
 
 The average teacher is appointed about the age of twenty- 
 five. He becomes there and then a State servant with the 
 ordinary fixity of tenure, with a right to a pension after 
 thirty years of work or at sixty years of age. He can, at his 
 own request, be continued on till sixty-five. He is appointed 
 by the Minister. Promotions are made in proportion of (i) 
 on the grounds of seniority, and (2) at choice.^ As we have 
 seen, the headmaster has no voice in his appointment. The 
 latter has but little more power in the matter of dismissal. 
 In the case of disagreement between proviseur and professeur, 
 an inspecteur-general makes an inquiry into the rights and 
 wrongs of the case and distributes his criticism accordingly. 
 If the relations between the two are very strained, the pro- 
 fesseur is moved to another school. 
 
 The following is the scale of pay in the lycees and colUges : 
 
 Lycees {Seine and Versailles) 
 Professors in the preparatory classes — initial • ;£i2o rising to ;^ 192 * 
 Professors in the other classes — initial . . ;^200 rising to £z^o^ 
 
 Lycees de Province 
 
 Professors in the preparatory classes — initial . ;^ioo rising to ;^I56.* 
 
 Professors in the other classes — initial . • ;^I28 rising to ;^2i8. 
 
 Professors charges de cours (all classes) — initial . ;^84 ^ rising to ;^I92.^ 
 
 led to a cry against I'enseignement au rabais. Fewer private lessons 
 are obtainable, as many religious schools have been shut, and a large 
 number of cours dejeunes filles have been formed into regular colleges. 
 A Parliamentary Commission has reported on the subject, and the 
 Minister is preparing a Bill. The situation is summed up by M. 
 Steeg, who says : " It is easy in effect to show that the Third Re- 
 public has assured to the personnel of secondary education a treatment 
 which can only be considered inadequate " (p. 55). — (1913.) There 
 has now been a general rise of salaries (see notes on this page). 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) This has been modified. After four years every 
 professor has his class. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) ;^2oo. 
 
 3 Note. — (1909.) Professeurs charges de cours, ;^i8o, rising to ;£240. 
 * Note. — (1909.) ;^20o. ^ Note. — (1909.) £92. 
 
 ^ Depends on the class. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 35 
 
 The Colleges 
 Class I. {licence or certificat d' aptitude) — initial . ;{ioo rising to ;^i36. 
 ClsLSsll. {bachelier) — initial .... ;^76 rising to ;^ 103. 
 Class III. {brevet) £6^ rising to £8^.^ 
 
 All the above salaries are non-resident. For a few other 
 perquisites see Report Kirkman, p. 629. 
 
 The mattres-repetiteurs are appointed in the same fashion 
 as the professors. They must be at least bacheliers. More 
 than one-third are licencies. They have fixity of tenure and 
 the right to a pension after 30 years' service. 
 
 Their position 'does not appear to be altogether satis- 
 factory either to themselves or to the schools. During the 
 last few years they have formed an association to formulate 
 and demand the abolition of their grievances. M. Ribot 
 has clearly perceived that their anomalous position is one 
 of the Brennpunkte ^ in the whole question of reform. He 
 
 1 Note. — (1913.) The present classification and rate of pay of the 
 secondary teachers are as follows : 
 
 Lycies {Seine-et-Oise) 
 
 Professors in the preparatory classes .... ;^i6o-;/^240. 
 
 Professors (including one-fifth of those in the prepara- 
 tory classes) ....... ;^i8o-;^26o. 
 
 Full professors {agreges) ...... 2220-236o. 
 
 Lycees de Province 
 
 Professors in the preparatory classes . . . . ;^ii6-;^i96. 
 
 Professors (including one-fifth of those in preparatory 
 
 classes) . . . > . . . . . ;^i28-;^2o8. 
 
 Full professors (not agreges) ..... ;^i48-^226. 
 
 Full professors {agrigh) ...... ^148-^248. 
 
 Marseilles and Lyons give from ;i^8-;^20 more in each class. 
 
 Colleges 
 
 One-fifth of professors assimilated to lycie professors . ;^i8c>-_;r26o. 
 
 Professors (ist category) ...... ^i04-;^i84. 
 
 Professors (2nd category) ..... ;^8o-£i6o. 
 
 Professors {bachelier) (no 6th or 5th class) . . . £i2^-£ij2. 
 
 Elementary teachers {brevet) (no 6th, 5th, or 4th class) . 2116-^140. 
 
 Professors in the first and second category receive £4 a year more 
 in Lyons and Marseilles, and ;^i2 more in Seine and Seine-et-Oise. 
 Elementary teachers receive ;/^i2 more in Lyons and Marseilles, and 
 from ;^32 to ;^40 more in Seine and Seine-et-Oise. 
 
 * " C'est le point faible dans I' organisation des lycees et des colUges." 
 -—/?.£. p. 31. 
 
36 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 devotes an entire chapter to the consideration of their case. 
 To begin with, their social position, subordinate as it is to 
 that of the professor, is an open sore. " Every moment, 
 even when licencie, the repetiteur is reminded that there is 
 a profound demarcation between the professeiir and him- 
 self." He takes no part in the teaching, though formerly 
 he not infrequently became professor. 
 
 Of the 2,319 repetiteur s in the schools, only eighty in the 
 year 1897 became professors. The reason lies in the fact 
 that to get into a lycee one must practically be an agrege 
 nowadays. According to M. Ribot, the reform of their 
 economic position is not the most important matter. The^^ 
 are practically paid at the rate of college professors minus 
 certain deductions which are not, however, equitable. The 
 duty of maintaining order in " preparation," at meals, in 
 the playground, and in the dormitory is enough to ruin the 
 disposition of any highly educated man. 
 
 The remedy clearly lies in uniting the dual functions of 
 discipline and teaching.^ In this way only can the repetiteur 
 lose his present gaoler-like air. Much may be done by 
 utilizing the services of the professeurs stagiaires. In most 
 schools the whole question of surveillance has been handed 
 over to the proviseur, who arranges the matter according to 
 his own ideas. The repetiteurs have generally been replaced 
 by surveillants selected by the proviseur. 
 
 Not possessing the French passion for symmetry and 
 distinctness which has led them into that thoroughgoing 
 classification which ends by not only separating duties but 
 also by putting asunder the persons who perform them, we 
 have been saved from establishing such a fatal division as 
 that which exists between the hras religieux of professors 
 and the hras seculier of surveillants.^ 
 
 1 This element of weakness was clearly seen by Jules Simon as far 
 back as 1848, when as rapporteur for the Budget of Primary Instruc- 
 tion he expressed the hope that in the near future closer relations 
 would prevail between the mattres d' etudes and the professeurs, and 
 that a certain number of functions would become common to both. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) There are now, as has already been noticed, 
 four categories : professeurs, professeurs adjoints, maitres-ripetiteurs, 
 and surveillants. The mattres-rdpetiteurs can now become professeurs 
 adjoints, and owing to financial reasons there is a distinct tendency 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 37 
 
 But, on the other hand, the balance of comparison as far 
 as the teacher's standard of attainments go is immensely 
 on the side of France, and certainly the teachers' position, 
 speaking generally, and their social position and standing, 
 are distinctly higher. 
 
 To begin with, what are the qualifications required of a 
 teacher in England ? A few years ago they were theo- 
 retically nil. The registration ^ of teachers is gradually 
 introducing a minimum standard,^ but, as things are at 
 present, a ticket-of-leave man may still open a school. 
 A fortiori, he may naturally be an assistant-master. In 
 practice, however, each headmaster sets out what he wants, 
 and certainly the list of requirements must often seem to a 
 French teacher inordinately long. 
 
 The following are two specimen advertisements culled 
 from the educational press. 
 
 May, 1904. — Wanted, after the Easter holidays, an Assistant 
 Master for classics, English, and drill. Ability to take part in the 
 games will be considered an additional qualification. 
 
 June, 1904. — Assistant . . . with university qualifications and 
 experience in teaching in classics, science, and mathematics, modern 
 languages, and music. Candidates must be members of the Church 
 of England. 
 
 to give them work rather than the more highly paid professeurs when 
 extra lessons are needed. The result is that the gap between the 
 two grades is considerably less, and it would appear to be merely a 
 matter of time as to when the repetiteurs will one and all receive the 
 title and functions of professeurs adjomts. See Rapport Maurice- 
 Faure, pp. 239, 240, in which the ideal to be aimed at is spoken of as 
 the " identification progressive des fonctions de professeur et de re- 
 petiteur," the latter not merely giving lessons but acting as a sort 
 of understudy to the professor. The surveillants have now been 
 abolished, except in the boarding schools, in which they are appointed 
 by the headmaster, and are regarded as largely oiseaux de passage. 
 
 ^ Note. — {1909.) The registration of teachers is unfortunately in 
 a state of suspended animation. More may be expected from the 
 registration of efficient secondary schools, a list of which has been 
 issued by the Board. — (1913.) Recently a Teachers' Registration 
 Council has been formed containing representatives of the univer- 
 sities, secondary, technical and elementary teachers, as well as of 
 teachers of art, music, physical exercises, shorthand, and of those 
 engaged in teaching the blind and the deaf. 
 
 2 In addition, all State-aided schools are now obliged to possess a 
 staff adequate in number and qualification for providing instruction. 
 
38 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 In the first advertisement the foreigner, no doubt, would 
 be startled at the great prominence given to athletics, and 
 would vaguely wonder whether the school must not rather 
 be a gymnasium in the modern sense of the word. In the 
 second he would probably be struck by the stress laid on 
 the moral side of the teacher and by the requirements of a 
 religious test. The former would possibly seem to him 
 admirable, the latter he would most likely regard as a relic 
 of ecclesiasticism from which he has shaken himself free. 
 He would be no less amazed at the vast range of subjects 
 that the professor is required to teach. In fact, if entirely 
 ignorant of English education he might well imagine that 
 Admirable Crichtons were as plentiful as blackberries ; and 
 in his position as speciahst he might — agrege though he was 
 — admire the encyclopaedic range of subjects that the 
 English teacher apparently has at his fingers' ends. 
 
 As regards training, the matter, as in France, is still in 
 its infancy. Still, the regulations for the registration of 
 teachers seem likely to change the present state of affairs 
 in the future.^ 
 
 Coming to the question of salaries and emoluments, there 
 is no doubt that the masters in the big public schools are 
 higher paid than the professor in a similar school in France, 
 especially if one takes into consideration the profits that 
 are made out of the licensed victualling business by those 
 masters who are fortunate enough to possess a boarding 
 house. 2 It should be noted, nevertheless, that, once the 
 smaller schools are reached, the salaries tend to decrease 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) This hope has not been fulfilled, but much may 
 be expected from the new Regulations for the Training of Secondary 
 Teachers issued by the Board of Education, and the introduction of 
 a clause in the Regulations for Secondary Schools requiring a certain 
 proportion of trained teachers on the staffs of schools receiving 
 grants. — (191 3.) Something may be expected from the new Teachers' 
 Registration Council. 
 
 ^ Note. — (1912.) Mr. J. E. C. Bodley tells me of an interesting 
 case of a professor in a southern lycee who was offered a post in one of 
 our big public schools at double his existing salar5^ He refused 
 because he would be worse off, as (i) the cost of living and especially 
 the scale of living was higher than in France ; (2) his boys in France 
 were educated for nothing ; (3) he made money by giving private 
 lessons to boys unconnected with the lycie. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 39 
 
 rapidly, till in some schools it will be found that the salary 
 apart from board amounts to a merely nominal sum, while in 
 certain cases the system obtains of what in equine circles is 
 called "meat for manners," otherwise called "mutual terms." 
 
 Compared, therefore, with French teachers, each of whom 
 is paid a living wage, the general run of English teachers are 
 certainly not so well off. For if there are a few bigger 
 prizes in the lottery, far too many have plenty of chances of 
 drawing a blank — a condition of things which does not 
 exist in French State schools. The English teacher can, it 
 is true, become a house master, a headmaster, or even a 
 bishop, but once he has left the university he has little or 
 no chance of returning as a professor. His prospects, there- 
 fore, are far more limited than those of his French confrere. 
 
 He has not, either, the leisure of his French colleague. ^ 
 Very often, if he is in a boarding school, his work is never 
 done. How many an English master would be content if 
 he only had that " excessive " number of twenty hours per 
 week ! Many have far nearer thirty. How can they find the 
 leisure for self-improvement, which the French authorities 
 consider so important ? The Enghsh teacher must regard 
 with feelings akin to envy the position of his Gallic colleague, 
 secured against every chance of unjust dismissal, with the 
 certain prospect of a pension at the end of his career.^ 
 
 In England security of tenure does not in theory exist.^ 
 Most engagements are made by the school year or the term, 
 with often a half-term's notice. The appointment of a new 
 
 1 In many cases the out-of-school work of the French professor is 
 heavier, but even when allowance is made for this his work is prob- 
 ably lighter than that of the English teacher. 
 
 * Note. — (1909.) Things have considerably improved, especially 
 in schools connected with or under the county councils, in the last few 
 years. Regular scales of salaries with proper increments have been 
 established. In London, all schools accepting the Council's scale 
 pay the following salaries: — Assistants: initial salary, /150; rising 
 by yearly increments of ;^io to ;^3oo. (Heads of departments, 
 ;^35o.) Headmasters, according to the size of the school, are paid 
 from ^400 to ;^8oo with ;^2o increments. The evils of capitation fees 
 are thus avoided. Teachers in the Council's service can also con- 
 tribute to an adequate pension scheme. There is also a lower scale 
 for teachers without a degree already in the service. 
 
 3 Note. — (1909-) See previous note for modifications, p. 28 above. 
 
40 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 headmaster who " knew not Joseph " is sometimes the 
 signal for a clean sweep of those who have spent their best 
 years in serving the school. While the French teacher's 
 salary increases with his years of service, the Enghsh teacher 
 finds his financial value depreciate every year, and if he 
 wants to change when he has reached what in antiquity was 
 considered the prime of life, he is told by the school agents 
 that no headmaster will look at a man over 36.^ Many 
 headmasters prefer youth, which they can train, to ex- 
 perience, of which they are sometimes said to stand in awe. 
 
 The only member of the profession who triumphantly 
 withstands the ravages of time is the headmaster himself. 
 It is not an unknown thing for the hale and hearty principal 
 of 65 to look down on the assistant of 40 as decrepit and 
 past work. Fortunately the best of our headmasters have 
 felt the need of providing for their assistants by means of 
 voluntary pension systems to which the school funds con- 
 tribute their quota.^ In position, again, the English master 
 is certainly less fortunate. Mr. Benson classes him as a 
 second-class gentleman, the first class being occupied by the 
 representatives of Army, Navy, Civil Service, and land 
 agency (!) . In the smaller schools his social status is probably 
 still lower, and he ranks about on a level with the curate. 
 
 In France the prestige of the State teacher and his official 
 standing make him a highly eligible parti,^ especially in the 
 eyes of those mothers who wish to choose a steady man for 
 their daughters in the same way as some mothers in England 
 have a distinct preference for a clergyman. On the other 
 hand, the Englishman, except in a few schools or unless he 
 is lucky enough to obtain a house-mastership, is often con- 
 demned by a straitness of means to celibacy, his only 
 consolation being that of acting as a foster-father to other 
 people's children. 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) This is not so universally true as ten years ago, 
 owing to the decreasing number of persons entering the profession. 
 
 2 Note. — London has established a system of pensions for its 
 municipal secondary teachers, and State pensions have now been 
 promised by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the State contributing 
 £1 to the teacher's £'j. 
 
 5 Note. — (1913.) This of course assumes that the parties con- 
 cerned are of the same religious and political complexion. 
 
II. INTERNAL ECONOMY 
 
 (i) Formalities on Admission — Age of Pupils — 
 
 Superannuation 
 
 The only formalities to fulfil for entrance into a State 
 school are the presentation of a demand for admission 
 signed by the parent or guardian, with a certificate of suc- 
 cessful vaccination. There is no age limit, as the present 
 writer himself can vouch for. On their entrance into a petit 
 lycee the pupils are classed more or less according to their 
 age. If after a week or two the professors find that one 
 of the new-comers is not up to the work he tells the pro- 
 viseur, who sends the pupil down to the class below. In 
 the big lycee there is an examination, not for admission, 
 but for placing the pupil. Boys who are old enough to 
 enter the rhetorique (classe de premiere) are allowed to do so 
 without examination, the assumption being that they are 
 studying for the first part of the haccalaureat. Pupils enter 
 the petit lycee at the age of five or six, and the lycee proper 
 at eleven or twelve. 
 
 In England some of the big public schools have a very 
 stringent entrance examination,^ owing to the number of 
 applicants being far larger than they can possibly accom- 
 modate. Preference is, however, given to those who have 
 put down their names beforehand for vacancies. So keen 
 is the competition in some schools that parents will often 
 put down their children's names many years in advance. 
 A good many other schools have no entrance examination 
 at all, or only one for placing the pupils. The age at which 
 boys enter naturally varies, but speaking generally a boy 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) A certain number of the public schools have 
 now combined in order to have a joint entrance examination. 
 
42 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 enters the big public schools at thirteen or fourteen, unless 
 there be a preparatory house or division, in which case he 
 goes earlier. 
 
 In practice boys never stay on much over nineteen, and 
 this privilege in boarding schools is only obtained by those 
 who have reached a certain standard of attainment. There 
 is in fact a regular system for weeding out those boys who 
 are dunces or who fall behind the others. Unless a boy of 
 a certain age has reached a certain class, he is superannuated, 
 as it is called — that is, he is politely requested to leave, the 
 request, like those of royalty, being equivalent to a com- 
 mand. The method does not exist in French schools. 
 Though clearly of advantage to the school itself in making 
 short shift of stragglers and eliminating its most palpable 
 non-valeurs and failures, it is doubtful whether this method 
 of " enlightened discrimination " is quite fair to the boys 
 themselves or their parents either. 
 
 (ii) Maintenance of Standard — Organization 
 OF Classes, Sets, etc. 
 
 In the French State schools the standard is more or less 
 maintained in the different colleges and lycees and also 
 between them by the official programme and the baccalaureat 
 as well as by a system of universal inspection. The classes 
 themselves are organized for a year's work. In the upper 
 classes of the first and second cycle the pupils in the several 
 divisions are as a rule taken together in the subjects common 
 to the two programmes. There are no sets in the lycees, 
 but quite recently the mathematical pupils in the third and 
 fourth classes have been divided up into two sets for geo- 
 metry. 
 
 In England, with no official programme and no universal 
 inspection, the standard of work in the upper classes and 
 between school and school is maintained by external ex- 
 aminations which have to a certain extent been forced 
 on the schools by public opinion. As a rule a large number 
 of boys escape this public test, and in any case nothing like 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 43 
 
 the same degree of uniformity of attainment is possible as 
 in France. 
 
 The problem in the future for the headmaster is largely 
 a question as to whether he will abandon the tyranny of 
 excessive external examinations for the possibly preferable 
 alternative of internal inspection and examination, the 
 latter being largely intermixed under the supervision and 
 control of the Government, the Local Authority, or the 
 Universities. In this way the standard in the classes 
 might be maintained, and the dangers of over-uniformity 
 be avoided, which a single general examination always 
 threatens to produce. 
 
 If the same high level of attainment which prevails in 
 French schools is not to be found in Enghsh schools as a 
 whole, the comparative autonomy of the Enghsh school has 
 allowed it to give a wide extension to the system of sets 
 which act not only as capacity-catching machines, by giving 
 the clever boy a chance of forging ahead in his best subject, 
 but also as incapacity-catching machines, a sort of ambul- 
 ance for those who have fallen out on the march, being 
 unable to go the pace of their fellows in some one particular 
 subject, while able to keep with them in the rest of the 
 programme. Transferred to a set below the others, they 
 are able to keep in touch with the subject and even pro- 
 gress, instead of being put out of the game altogether. 
 
 This, as Mr. A. T. Pollard ^ has pointed out, is the real 
 raison d'etre of the set method. It is, in fact, devised for 
 the exceptional case, which he puts as low as one per 
 cent, in a junior school. The percentage is, however, 
 immeasurably higher in the higher classes, in which the 
 straggling must needs be considerably greater. Judging 
 by what has taken place in America in the way of estab- 
 lishing elective studies, it seems quite possible that we in 
 England may in the future still more largely employ the 
 " set " method in order to maintain a middle course between 
 
 1 Cf. Teaching and Organisation, edited by P. A. Barnett, pp. i8, 
 19, quoted by M. E. Sadler in Report on Problems in Prussian Secon- 
 dary Education for Boys (Special Reports on Educational Subjects, 
 Vol. 3, p. 129). 
 
44 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 the somewhat inelastic allgemeine Bildung ideal in Germany 
 and the extraordinarily wide freedom of the American 
 schools.^ 
 
 (iii) Form Masters or Expert Teachers 
 
 In the lower classes of the petit lycee the same teacher 
 takes everything, but from the fourth class upwards of the 
 lycee the practice obtains of having professors for subjects 
 rather than for classes. The whole system of the agrega- 
 tion favours such a division, as success in that examination 
 depends on excellence in one particular group of subjects, 
 such as philosophy, history and geography, letters, etc. 
 Until recently the French, Latin, and Greek in each class 
 were taught as a rule by one master, but now with Greek 
 altogether optional and with Latin optional for half the 
 pupils, the same professor has in some divisions only the 
 French ; even the history from the sixth class upwards is 
 henceforth to be taught when possible by a speciaHst. 
 
 In modern languages, again, efforts are being made that 
 the pupil may have the same teacher two years running, 
 the idea being that one professor should cover the whole 
 teaching in the subject when possible. In some classical 
 divisions even the French and Latin are under different 
 teachers. In the opinion of some, the new reform has gone 
 too far in thus spUtting up the classes amongst so many 
 masters. The classes have become hke sheep that have no 
 shepherd, and the shepherds themselves have been reduced 
 to the position of drovers who barely know the numerous 
 flocks entrusted to them by sight. Such at least is the 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) The size of classes naturally plays a great part 
 in the efficiency of this teaching. The wave of economy that has 
 followed on the establishment of the lycee autonome has been re- 
 sponsible for increasing the size of classes which were often already 
 too large. M. Steeg talks of classes of nearly fifty {Rapport, p. 51), 
 and there are others bigger still, notably one of 100 in the rhetorique 
 superieure at Louis-le-Grand . In England, and especially in London, 
 there has been a strong movement to reduce the numbers, and in 
 London the proportion of pupils per teacher works out (irrespective 
 of the head) at about twenty to one. In many of the Girls' Public 
 Day Schools Company schools it is still less. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 45 
 
 complaint of more than one professor, and it is probable 
 that something in the nature of appointing form masters 
 will have to be effected in the near future.^ 
 
 In England the visiting master has in many schools been 
 a prominent feature. In fact, most of the subjects which 
 have since effected a lodgment in the curriculum have crept 
 into the school on these terms. The system, however, 
 presents nearly all the inconveniences of special teaching 
 without the advantages. The visiting master is not " on 
 the strength " of the educational regiment, he lacks the 
 prestige and not infrequently the authority of a regular 
 member of the staff, and his interest in the school can hardly 
 ever be so intense. It is true an official recognition has been 
 given to the system by the appointment of regular traveUing 
 teachers to visit groups of schools, but it is well understood 
 that the chief reason for its adoption has been that of economy. 
 
 Still, among regular teachers there is Httle doubt that the 
 specialist is likely to become more numerous. Differentia- 
 tion is the law of the school curriculum to-day, and as each 
 subject, whether science, modern languages, the mother 
 tongue, history, or that Cinderella of education, geography, 
 emancipates itself and claims to be regarded no longer as a 
 " by-subject that anyone can teach by keeping a lesson or 
 two ahead of his class, but as one that needs as serious and 
 thorough treatment as classics or mathematics," so the 
 increase of specialist teachers seems inevitable. ^ 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) This has become somewhat of a burning ques- 
 tion. M. Steeg says in his Rapport, p. 39 : " U n'y a plus de classe 
 une et plus de professeur de classe. Cast a nos yeux V inconvenient le 
 plus sdrieux de la nouvelle organisation des itudes." Parents are 
 beginning to complain that owing to the multiplicity of professors 
 there is no one among them who knows sufficiently about the work 
 of their son, and can tell them exactly where he needs special atten- 
 tion. Others accuse the present system of leading to overwork, 
 owing to the competition among the professors for the pupils' time, 
 A general resume of the situation is given by Dr. M. de Fleury in 
 L' Hygiene scolaire for October, 1908, in which he points out that in 
 one class in a certain lycie there are seven professors. The remedy 
 is probably the appointment of definite form-masters like the German 
 Ordinarius. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) The ideal seems to be, in the higher classes at 
 least, while retaining the form master as far as possible, for the 
 
46 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 Nevertheless it would probably be difficult to find a 
 school in which the ideal of the form master had been 
 totally given up. It is true that his sphere of duties varies 
 from school to school. He may merely teach the class in 
 the majority of subjects, sit in the class-room which is called 
 after the name of his form, and be responsible for the 
 weekly marks of the boys ; or in the feudal hierarchy that 
 obtains in the school he may act as a tenant-in-chief to the 
 headmaster's overlord, responsible for the work and well- 
 being of the members of his class, corresponding perhaps 
 directly with the parents and acting in loco parentis towards 
 their offspring. His influence may spread further, till he 
 becomes a pillar of the school constitution whose word is law, 
 an ipse dixit that no boy would dare to question or disobey. 
 
 Nay, he may become the uncrowned king of the place, 
 of wider influence and wider reputation than the head- 
 master himself, for headmasters come and go but he 
 " abideth in his place " and receives into his keeping the 
 children of those he taught as children, maybe dying the 
 unmitred abbot of the school in which he first made his 
 profession as a schoolmaster, a novice in the best sense to 
 the very end, being ever a learner, remaining ever young, 
 holding no conspicuous post of honour, yet held in honour 
 by all. It is needless to mention names, for nearly every- 
 one can recall one of these strong influences for good with 
 which our big public schools have abounded — these nameless 
 great ones who saw their greatness realized in others, who 
 stamped their mark on the lives of a whole generation, 
 their monument sometimes some class-room or playing- 
 field called after their name, more often a spirit incorporated 
 with the genius loci, so that those who seek it find it every- 
 where in the life around, and know that " he being dead yet 
 speaketh," and that the thoughts he uttered make every 
 year a fresh lodgment and nest in youthful hearts that never 
 knew the heart in which they were first hatched and bred. 
 
 specialists to have at leasttwo subjects — SiHauptfacha.nd a Nebenfach, 
 as in Germany. This could be easy enough in modern languages, 
 for instance, if we had not the absurd system of expecting a teacher 
 to take both French and German instead of one of the two languages 
 and his own. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 47 
 
 (iv) Average Length of Time spent in each Class — 
 
 Promotion 
 
 In the French schools not only to each class is assigned 
 a definite amount of work for the whole year, but the work 
 itself is definitely split up into portions for each of the school 
 terms. A boy is therefore perforce obliged to stop a whole 
 year in a form. The removes are made without any further 
 examination for all pupils who have obtained 50 per cent, 
 of the marks given during the last term, and of those given 
 at the competitive compositions at the end of or during the 
 year. If the pupil has obtained too low a mark for pro- 
 motion he goes in for a pass examination for which he 
 has probably been preparing during the holidays. This 
 examination is held at the beginning of term by the pro- 
 fessor of the class he desires to enter. The professor has 
 thus the right of accepting or refusing him. 
 
 In theory, backward boys are thus obHged to go over the 
 whole year again. But as a matter of fact those who are 
 rejected take extra lessons, with the professor himself if 
 they are wise, and so generally succeed in getting into the 
 class in the following January, the school year beginning, 
 as with us, in September. 
 
 In England, where every school is more or less a law unto 
 itself, a clever boy may go up two and even three forms in a 
 year. This is rendered possible by the less amount of co- 
 ordination that exists between the classes. As has already 
 been pointed out, the standard of work apart from tradition 
 is principally set by the requirements of external examina- 
 tion, while the standard itself is maintained in class by an 
 elaborate system of marks ^ by which the English head- 
 master is dispensed from inspecting his own class-rooms. 
 
 ^ Marks are a convenient shorthand method of giving a bird's-eye 
 view of the progress of the class. Many masters feel the burden and 
 weight of them — which is not unnatural, seeing they add the duties 
 of scorer to one who is already bowler, fielder, and umpire, not to 
 mention the making out of elaborate weekly averages. Many a 
 master would look more kindly on the presence of the headmaster 
 and inspector in his class if he reahzed that it might release him from 
 serving the weary tables of multiplication and division. 
 
48 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 The French system probably errs on the other side of 
 uniformity, but as long as in a large number of schools the 
 master's class-room is like the Englishman's residence, a 
 castle, into which the headmaster has by custom only a 
 limited right of entry, it is obvious that a clever boy can 
 skip with less danger to himself from class to class than he 
 could, were it possible, in a French school, for if there are 
 likely to be lacuncE in his educational progress there is more 
 chance of these being filled up, with overlapping nearly a 
 certainty in the work of the different classes. 
 
 A less desirable practice which obtains in some English 
 schools is the custom of promotions by seniority, or charit- 
 able promotions as they are sometimes irreverently called, 
 due in most cases to the headmasters yielding to the unwise 
 solicitude of the parents. This practice of taking the pupil's 
 age into account, as if it were a high mark which helped to 
 swell the general total, seems as logical as the book-keeping 
 of the college bursar who showed a balance of over £1,900 
 by inadvertently adding in the date of his balance-sheet. 
 Its effects are often disastrous. The struggHng boy is 
 taken clean out of his depth, a certain amount of unneces- 
 sary ballast is added to the dead weight the form master 
 has to move, and an undesirable premium is put on these 
 " cart before the horse " promotions. No doubt there are a 
 certain number of dull and neglected boys in French schools. 
 No doubt French professors are not always adamantine in 
 the presence of parental pressure, but as a general rule 
 there are fewer of these dunce-promotions than with us. 
 
 (v) Examinations : their Conduct and Aim — Pre- 
 paration FOR THE Higher Examinations — Radical 
 Differences between French and English Exami- 
 nations 
 
 The lower classes of the French secondary schools are 
 unharassed by external examinations.^ Matthew Arnold 
 has remarked on examinations in France being put at the 
 
 1 Cf. M. Arnold, A French Eton, p. 328. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 49 
 
 right age (fifteen to twenty-eight), and on Httle boys of 
 nine being free from the drudgery they entail. The stan- 
 dard is maintained, as has already been pointed out, by the 
 general uniformity of the programme backed up by State 
 inspection. The internal examinations are not all squeezed 
 into the last fortnight or three weeks of the school year, 
 during which the EngUsh pupil undergoes a veritable 
 Kci/wo-t? of knowledge ; as a rule compositions, as they are 
 called, are set in every subject once a term, and these 
 compositions are separated by at least a week from one 
 another. 
 
 The system has its drawbacks as well as its advantages. 
 Teachers complain that once the pupils have been examined 
 in a subject they are apt to neglect it for the rest of the 
 term in order to concentrate on those in which they have 
 still to be examined. Under the new dispensation at the 
 end of the first cycle of studies, that is to say, in the case of 
 pupils aged fifteen or sixteen, a certificate of secondary 
 studies of the first degree can be awarded to pupils on the 
 result of the marks obtained by them during the four years 
 of the first cycle, on the deliberation of the professors whose 
 classes they have followed.^ 
 
 But the real goal of the full-blown secondary pupil is, of 
 course, the baccalaureat. Although the courses leading up 
 to it are four in number, Latin-Greek, Latin-Science, 
 Latin-Modern Languages, Science-Modern Languages, no 
 distinction is henceforth made between them. One and 
 all they serve at once as a leaving certificate and an entrance 
 to the universities and the liberal professions. The bac- 
 calaureat remains as before divided into two parts. The 
 first, formerly called the rhetorique, is taken by the pupil of 
 the first (or rhetoric) class. Then a year after comes the 
 second part, which is taken by the pupils in the philosophy 
 or mathematics class. The age for entrance is sixteen ; 
 
 1 Note. — {1909.) This certificate does not seem to have been a 
 great success so far. " The diploma has hardly any value in the eyes 
 of the pupils " {Rapport Maurice-Faure, p. 222). The reasons given 
 are that many pupils have not stayed long enough to qualify, so that 
 only a few, and those not necessarily the best, get it. — (1913.) No 
 improvement to chronicle. 
 
 P.E, D 
 
50 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 candidates below this age require a special permission to 
 enter for the examination.^ The difficulties of the examina- 
 tion are shown by the following fact, that the number of 
 passes are well under 50 per cent.^ 
 
 Leaving out of account the old haccalaureat, which finally 
 came to an end in 1905, the new haccalaureat, like the old, 
 is divided into two parts, each part having four separate 
 divisions corresponding to the different courses in the 
 schools. In the First Part {classe de premiere) there is a 
 French essay common to all four divisions. Three subjects 
 are given, but only one may be chosen. Further, there is a 
 version latine, i.e. a passage to be translated from Latin into 
 French, which is common to the three sections in which 
 Latin occurs ; an exercise in ^ mathematics and physics for 
 the sections in which science occurs, and a composition in a 
 foreign language at the choice of the candidate in the 
 section in which modern languages occur ; and lastly a 
 passage for translation from the Greek in the purely classical 
 section. This gives, then, three written papers in each 
 section. 
 
 All candidates who desire to present themselves for the 
 oral examination must first pass the written section. Half 
 marks are necessary for a pass, equal marks are given for 
 the compositions and versions, with the exception of the 
 composition in mathematics and physics, which counts 
 double. At the oral the classical pupil has to translate and 
 comment on a passage in classics, on another in modern 
 language, as well as commenting on one from the mother 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) These permissions (or dispenses) are, unfortun- 
 ately, on the increase, owing to the extra demands made by the 
 service de deux ans in the army. Thus, while all other countries are 
 increasing the time devoted to education, France is diminishing it. 
 The effect on the study of philosophy appears to be very unfortunate. 
 The pupil who takes up the subject at sixteen instead of seventeen 
 has not the same mental maturity. — (1913.) The number of c^is- 
 ^ensgs seems to have become stationary: in 1909, 1,297; ^^ iQio. 1.308. 
 
 2 Note. — {1909.) Last year they varied from 49 per cent, to 
 40 per cent, n the different courses. — (1913.) Between 48 and 40 per 
 cent. 
 
 ^ For a detailed programme of each subject see the Programme des 
 Examens du nouveau Baccalatireat de I'Enseigvement secondaire (Paris, 
 Imprimerie Delalain) . 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 51 
 
 tongue, besides answering questions in ancient and modern 
 languages, geography, mathematics, and physics. The 
 other sections are examined in the same fashion in the sub- 
 jects of these sections. 
 
 A zero in any subject produces a failure, half marks are 
 necessary for a pass, the mention assez bien being awarded 
 to those who obtain 60 per cent., hien to those who obtain 
 70 per cent., and ires hien to those who obtain 80 per cent. 
 A candidate who has failed at the oral is excused for two 
 sessions from having to take the written examinations. To 
 eliminate to a certain extent the element of chance from the 
 examination, every candidate is allowed to present a carnet 
 or livret scolaire, which gives in a concise form his school 
 record. If his case is a doubtful one either at the written 
 or oral examination, he cannot be "ploughed" until the 
 jury have taken into consideration his ** school record " 
 and decided against him.^ 
 
 The rhetorique portion of the examination still preserves 
 its rhetorical aspect. The French essay is looked upon as 
 the most difficult part of the examination, as being that 
 part of the examination on which the examiners lay most 
 stress. The version latine for those who take Latin is 
 regarded with almost equal awe by the candidates. A mere 
 word for word translation showing that the student has 
 grasped the meaning of the passage is insufficient. The 
 pupil is given some twenty lines from some classical author 
 and three hours to do it in ; the greater part of those three 
 hours is intended to be devoted to poUshing the French. 
 
 In the Second Part the courses are reduced to two ; the 
 students in the classical and Latin-modern languages 
 sections take the so-called philosophy proper. The written 
 work in this division consists of a French dissertation in 
 •philosophy and a paper in natural history and physics. 
 The oral section comprises a viva-voce in philosophy, and 
 explanations of a philosophical author the pupils have read 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) An examiner of some years' standing states that 
 the carnet scolaire is of the greatest use in deciding the passing of a 
 pupil in doubtful cases, and that much practice enables an examiner 
 to easily allow for the personal equation of the teachers who have 
 signed it. 
 
52 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 in class, with further viva-voce examinations in modern 
 history, physics, and natural history.^ 
 
 The written work in the mathematical division comprises 
 three papers, on mathematics, physics, and philosophy. 
 The oral section comprises an interrogation on mathematics, 
 physics, chemistry, natural history, modern history, and 
 philosophy. The same rules for passing the written and 
 oral portions of the examination which obtain in the First 
 Part also apply to the Second Part, as well as those for 
 obtaining distinction. 
 
 In the First Part the papers in aU the sections are for 
 three hours, except that in mathematics and physics, which 
 has four hours assigned to it. In the Second Part the paper 
 for those taking the full course in philosophy is four hours 
 in length. The same candidates have only a two-hours 
 paper for their physics and natural history. The candi- 
 dates in mathematics have three hours for each of their three 
 papers. In each part the average length of the oral exami- 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) During the last seven years the historical part 
 in the examination has been abolished, and more stress laid on the 
 explanation of certain set books, for which a special mark is accorded 
 at the examination. It is complained that this excision of the past 
 places the pupil too much at the mercy of the professor's personal 
 ideas. But the explanation of the set books is held to provide the 
 necessary counter-balance. The tendency on the part of the pro- 
 fessors is to leave more and more on one side the logical and meta- 
 physical side, and to study moral and social questions. Certain 
 critics remark that this growing variety in opinion may lead in the 
 long run to a sort of anarchie philosophique, but the danger seems 
 somewhat remote. Variety is the indispensable condition of true 
 progress, and sincerity is, after all, the most precious quality in 
 teachers and in taught. Speaking from experience, the present 
 writer can bear witness that the Sorbonne of some ten years ago was 
 too rigidly orthodox. More serious seems the criticism that the 
 courses given by some of the professors appear to lack a central idea. 
 — (191 3.) At the present time the metaphysical side is certainly less 
 studied and the social side more and more, though complaints are 
 sometimes made that the sociology taught is too scientific and 
 abstract. On the other hand, the introduction of modern questions 
 sometimes leads to difficulties. Quite recently a professor at the 
 College Chaptal has been attacked in the Press for dictating a passage 
 from Karl Marx to his class. This development seems inevitable, 
 and similar difficulties will arise in English schools when the dis- 
 cussion of present-day questions invades, as it is certain sooner or 
 later to do, our history lessons. The only safe way will be to give 
 both sides of the question. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 53 
 
 nation is three hours. The jury are composed of members 
 of the Faculty of Letters and Science, together with an equal 
 number of teachers either in active service or on the retired 
 list. No teacher can examine his own pupils. 
 
 The introduction of the teaching element is largely due 
 to a desire to lighten the duties of the university professors, 
 who find the haccalaureat a great strain on their univer- 
 sity work. A German happily summed up the previous 
 situation by saying that the French apparently thought it 
 necessary to use their best razors to cut blocks. The exami- 
 nation itself is held twice a year, at the beginning and end 
 of the school year. 
 
 The aim of the examination in rhetoric is to test an 
 education which in the main is Hterary and aesthetic. The 
 aim of the examination in philosophy is an audit of the 
 pupil's studies, not only in " le beau," but also in " le vrai " 
 and " le bien." Thus French education covers the whole 
 held of the mental faculties. No year is more important 
 in the pupil's life than that of philosophy. He finally 
 learns and realizes that everything in his work so far has 
 been devoted to the object of making a savant and a man of 
 him. A rhetorical education by itself has great dangers. 
 One brought up exclusively under its regime is more or less 
 at the mercy of words. It is true that a philosophical 
 education puts us also at times at the mercy of ideas, but 
 the danger is certainly preferable. A rhetorical education 
 gives us in fact the colour of ideas ; the philosophical adds 
 a sense of their structure. 
 
 Certainly one can speak with experience of the extreme 
 value of this philosophical education. It is not only for the 
 pupil a resume, an Erkldrung of the past, it is also a base 
 and groundwork for his future education, providing him as 
 it were with mental pigeon-holes wherein he may arrange 
 his subsequent experience. The mere fact of teaching the 
 pupil to examine, analyse, and classify his ideas, and arrange 
 them into a coherent whole, seems to me of the highest 
 value. The most effective personahties apart from fanatics 
 are those in whom this unification has obtained the greatest 
 extension, more especially when they possess in addition a 
 
54 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 strong will as driving power. It would be well if we in 
 England had a little more respect and appreciation of general 
 ideas, which, after all, are but the intellectual names of great 
 moral principles.^ We should certainly be able to reason out 
 many of our social and political questions more readily and 
 be less slaves to the gross sophisms which obtain currency 
 from the neglect of the ordinary cultivated man to examine 
 the exact meaning of the terms with which he reasons. 
 
 It is true that philosophy in France wears of all philo- 
 sophies the least forbidding look. It may not attain the 
 profundity of German philosophy ; in some cases it may 
 only be a sort of glorified common sense ; but in its lucidity, 
 in its close attachment to the problems of daily life it finds 
 at once its strength and its weakness. Nor is it by any 
 means so shallow as foreigners are inclined to think. The 
 depth is there, but the bottom is seen so easily because the 
 milieu is so transparent. In France the philosophers do 
 not forget that their subject is a branch of literature, and 
 the whole attitude of the best writers is not to pose as high 
 priests of mystery and explain the obscurum per obscurius, 
 but rather to show with the greatest suppression of self how 
 after all the thing is not so difficult to produce. Culture 
 fortified by clear thinking would appear to be the aim of the 
 two parts of the baccalaureate 
 
 In two or three of the big schools classes have been 
 started of recent years for those who have already passed 
 the baccalaureat and are working for the Ecole Normale or 
 the licence. These classes de rhetor ique superieure (or pre- 
 miere) are not altogether regarded with a friendly eye by 
 the universities, who look on the pupils of which they are 
 formed as already part of their clientele. France is the 
 country par excellence of delimitation, yet even here over- 
 lapping is not, as we see, entirely unknown. 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) For further development of these ideas see 
 p. 214, " The True Inwardness of Moral Instruction in France." 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) M. Steeg {Rapport Steeg) thus sums up the 
 general effect of a French secondary education : " Jl en snhsiste peu 
 de connaissances pricises et siXres. Ce qui demeuve, c'est une certaine 
 maniere de sentir, le souvenir elevi de nobles Amotions, quelque besoin 
 de penser, quelque curiosite et surtout une precieuse modestie" (p. 40). 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 55 
 
 Pupils who have taken the baccalaureat in the science 
 course follow, according to the career they intend to enter, 
 special courses for the Ecole Polytechnique,^ the Ecole 
 Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, and the Ecole Normale 
 Superieure (Section des Sciences). The courses are two 
 years in length, and are called respectively Elementary and 
 Special Mathematics. Those pupils also who are going to 
 try for St. Cyr, the Ecole Navale, the Institut Agronomique, 
 and the Ecoles Superieures d'Agriculture, attend special 
 courses directly preparatory for these various institutions ; 
 such courses are only organized in certain lycees. 
 
 The entrance age for these examinations naturally varies. 
 A candidate for the Ecole Navale must be not less than 
 fifteen or more than nineteen ; for the Polytechnique and 
 St. Cyr he must be over seventeen and under twenty-one ; 
 for the Ecole Normale he must be over eighteen and under 
 twenty-five ; for the Ecole Centrale, the Institut Agrono- 
 mique, and the Ecoles Superieures d'Agriculture he must be 
 over seventeen, but there is no higher Hmit of age. The 
 work in these classes is naturally dominated by the pro- 
 gramme of examinations in these schools. A certain 
 amount of agitation is going on at the present time in 
 favour of assimilating the requirements of those examina- 
 tions to those of the baccalaureat whenever they do not but 
 can be made to coincide. At present, for instance, there is 
 a lack of agreement between the mathematics required at 
 the baccalaureat and that required at the entrance examina- 
 tion of these schools. 
 
 Teachers complain that pupils will not get up certain 
 portions of mathematics which are set for the baccalaureat 
 because they are not required later on at St. Cyr or else- 
 where. Clearly the remedy here is greater co-ordination. 
 
 ^ The Ecole Polytechnique corresponds roughly to Woolwich : its 
 best pupils often become State engineers in the Fonts et Chaussees ; 
 the £cole Centrale is a much enlarged Cooper's Hill, or is rather 
 equivalent to the new London Charlottenburg ; the £cole Normale 
 is really a preparatory school for university professors no less than 
 for secondary teachers ; the £cole Navale represents the Britannia 
 (1909, Osborne) ; the Ecole St. Cyr corresponds to Sandhurst ; the 
 Institut Agronomique is a sort of Cirencester and Rothampstead 
 combined. 
 
56 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 These big schools cannot be allowed to dictate ad lib. to 
 the lycees. 
 
 One cause of complaint among others against the bac- 
 calaureat has been that it has led to overwork and many 
 have demanded its suppression. It has been felt, however, 
 that its advantages are greater than its defects. It is 
 significant that the proposal to substitute for it a school 
 examination in the presence of a delegate from the Ministry 
 was rejected by nearly all the teachers. The examination 
 therefore has been maintained. It is possible that the 
 complaints against the baccalaureat on the grounds of 
 overpressure were exaggerated,^ but there is reason to fear 
 that the overwork induced by the severe competitions for 
 the special schools is a very serious evil. 
 
 Many competent persons speak of candidates working 
 ten and twelve hours a day. M. Berthelot speaks of the 
 system as the cause of the physical and intellectual deca- 
 dence of the youths of the country. No doubt something 
 will have to be done to reduce the present chauffage to which 
 the unhappy candidates are at present subjected, but what 
 that something should be is difficult to decide. A com- 
 petitive examination must inevitably lead to overwork. 
 The best one can hope to do is to eUminate the unfit at as 
 early a stage as possible. ^ 
 
 ^ It is significant that complaints against the pressure of the new 
 baccalaureat are already beginning to appear, and it is freely asserted 
 that the sum total of work demanded is still greater than under the 
 old system. Matters are compUcated by the recent action of the 
 Minister of War, who has lowered the ultimate limit of ages for 
 admission into the army schools. This means that the pupils will 
 be more tempted than ever to take baccalaureat at fifteen in order to 
 find sufficient time to specialize for the army examination. — (1913.) 
 The programmes in all sections have been slightly lightened. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) The hostility to the baccalaureat has steadily 
 decreased since it has been seen that it is essential to have a leaving 
 certificate for the schools, and an entrance certificate for the higher 
 forms of education, and that an examination which fulfils this double 
 function is the last word on the subject. Unfortunately, it still 
 appears that the form and substance of the examination are dictated 
 too exclusively by the university, in spite of the presence of a secon- 
 dary teacher on the Board of Examiners. Other complaints to-day 
 are the surmenage owing to the extent of the programmes to be 
 studied, the drop in the age of the pupils who take the examinations, 
 and the decline in French composition and philosophy. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 57 
 
 To discuss the English examination system, or rather 
 chaos, would require a treatise in itself. Its genesis is 
 more easy to explain. The English school is a close 
 borough. In many cases public opinion has respected its 
 privileges, while demanding first of all an audit of those who 
 leave it and next an audit of those who are within its gates. 
 Headmasters to save their autonomy have allowed the 
 introduction of external examination. Nay, some of them 
 have gone further and in the desire to learn what their own 
 staff are doing they have actually joined in the demand for 
 public examinations. In any case the acceptance of ex- 
 ternal examinations has been the introduction into the 
 schools of a veritable Trojan horse. External examinations 
 once admitted within the walls of the schools have speedily 
 ended by dominating the teaching, so that to-day examina- 
 tions rather control curricula, whereas curricula should 
 control examinations. 
 
 The examination Moloch demands that all the children, 
 even of the tenderest age, should henceforth pass through 
 its fires. To-day we have examinations for all ages up the 
 school. Like the French, we have our special examination 
 for the Army, Navy, and Civil Service, but instead of having 
 one leaving certificate like the haccalaureat as the " open 
 sesame " to the universities and the professions, not only 
 has each university its own special examination, but many 
 of the professions have also preliminary examinations of 
 their own. It is true that the system of equivalences which 
 partially obtains modifies to some extent the mischief, but 
 the evils under which our education labours are none the 
 less very great. The schools themselves suffer, the upper 
 classes are cut up through pupils working apart at different 
 subjects, and much of the moral value of the last year at 
 school derived from work in common is lost. With the 
 influence of its leading boys thus comparatively diluted, the 
 moral effect of a strong sixth form is lost to the school. 
 
 The curricula of the schools naturally suffer. All exami- 
 nations imply specialization of a more or less narrow kind, 
 except those which by tempting the candidate to obtain 
 honours in as many subjects as possible tend to the opposite 
 
58 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 extreme of difhiseness. In either case subjects not in the 
 examination list are more or less scamped, if they do not 
 become a dead letter for those who are working for the 
 examination. The teaching suffers. Teachers are tempted 
 to neglect everything but what pays in the examinations, 
 to cut their subject down to its examination limits. In 
 their attempt to anticipate the examiner they are apt to 
 degenerate into the teaching of tips and tricks. Again, 
 the stereotyped nature of the questions engenders monoton- 
 ous and mechanical teaching. The boys suffer. Spontaneity 
 is discouraged, originality is discounted. The iron of the 
 examination enters into the boys' souls. The ideals of 
 knowledge are lowered, the mental outlook is narrowed, a 
 distaste for learning and literature is engendered. 
 
 Yet we probably cannot do without examinations. It 
 is rather their excessive use which is harmful. They have 
 their uses over and above their mere utilitarian value of 
 helping us to make selections and of being one of the ways in 
 which knowledge is audited. To mention only one of these 
 uses, there is the immense advantage of the habit of being 
 able to codify, arrange, and mobilize one's knowledge when 
 it is wanted. If it were not for the exigencies of examina- 
 tions, the English schoolboy would often have no notion of 
 how to put together and set forth what he has learnt. The 
 art of conveying one's knowledge is hardly taught in English 
 schools except for examination purposes. 
 
 The remedy probably lies in the great extension in the 
 system of equivalences, which might be carried out by a 
 joint board of the Board of Education, the local authorities, 
 and the universities, say a sub-committee of the Consulta- 
 tive Committee. These could act as a clearing house for 
 diplomas. They might in time be able to get the consent 
 of the various examining bodies to the establishment of 
 one single leaving certificate.^ Probably something might 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) The Consultative Committee issued a scheme 
 in 1904 {Proposals for a System of School Certificates, Board of 
 Education Consultative Committee), but nothing much so far has 
 been done. It is probable, however, that something in the nature 
 of joint examination and inspection outlined above will come to pass 
 in the long run. — (19 13.) Perhaps the recent report on Examinations 
 by the Consultative Committee may effect something. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 59 
 
 be done on the German system of having joint boards for 
 districts or groups of schools composed of a certain number 
 of trained examiners and inspectors to represent the Board 
 of Education and the local authorities and of the school- 
 masters themselves. 
 
 We want to guard against uniformity, which one single 
 examination common to the whole country would produce ; 
 we want to safeguard equivalence of value between the exa- 
 minations, and we want to bring in the teacher, who knows 
 more about the pupil than anyone, and who can best put him 
 through his paces ; and lastly we want to disturb the school 
 curricula and to cut up the school classes as little as possible. 
 
 The French may well congratulate themselves upon the 
 fact that even if preparation for their higher schools leads 
 to a considerable amount of overpressure, they are free from 
 the multiplicity of examinations which hang like a never- 
 lifting cloud over the English school, and produce a sort of 
 depressing examination atmosphere or cHmate which is at 
 least lacking in the lower portions of the French school. 
 There is, however, another point in which French examina- 
 tions radically differ from our own, which it would be well 
 for those who are interested in examinations in England to 
 consider, if not in part to copy. 
 
 The Enghsh examination is too exclusively an audit of 
 knowledge ; at its worst it is a mere audit of facts. The 
 competition is above all things a match against time ; the 
 pupil who can disgorge the greatest quantity of facts in a 
 given time comes out top. Naturally a certain minimum of 
 spelling and punctuation is demanded, and the facts them- 
 selves must be correct. But the workmanship side of the 
 question, style in the best sense of the word, occupies at 
 best a secondary position. Who can deny that examina- 
 tions on the whole are very largely a matter of memory, 
 either in the actual reproduction of what one has learnt or 
 in the production of something similar, be it either some 
 classical " tip " or some tricky solution in mathematics ? 
 Originality is too rarely sought for or desired. The arts of 
 exposition and development in composition are compara- 
 tively neglected. 
 
6o STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 When a French university professor is shown an EngHsh 
 examination paper containing some ten or twelve questions 
 he is lost in astonishment, and when he is told that full 
 marks alone can be obtained for answering them all, and 
 that only three hours is given for the paper, he is dumb- 
 founded. On recovering his speech he informs us that the 
 number of questions to* be attempted in the lycee for a three 
 hours' composition, as in the university for a six hours' 
 composition, would be one or two. One can only explain to 
 him that the English ideal largely partakes of Coleridge's idea 
 of a sponge, which when squeezed returns the water it has 
 absorbed, not always in its pristine condition, and that in this 
 competition of sponges the most absorbent naturally scores. 
 
 He wiU probably ask, Where does the composition come 
 in, the art of presenting one's subject in the clearest form 
 and in the best language ? One can only point out to our 
 critic that he has misapprehended the English point of 
 view, that the English examinee writes on the assumption 
 that he is writing for those who are acquainted beforehand 
 with what he ought to say, and who only want to verify his 
 remarks. In a word, the examiners are already " in the 
 know," the examinee has only got to prove that he is too in 
 order to satisfy them. Our French friend will then prob- 
 ably agree that the systems differ, and wiU point out that 
 the French examinee writes from the point of view of one 
 who wants to explain to the ordinary cultured person what 
 he has to say, and that he therefore tries to state the case 
 as it should be stated on its merits. 
 
 He may further pertinently add that, as far as the actual 
 value of the two systems goes, his method is superior. It 
 not only tests the originaUty of the pupil by laying stress on 
 the ability to put two and two together, and on the coUation 
 of facts apart from their mere collection ; it is also a first- 
 rate exercise in qualities which are of real use in everyday 
 life — to wit, the power to put one's views clearly and 
 distinctly, not to say persuasively. Direct reply on the 
 point seems difficult ; for are we not confronted here with 
 the chronic inabiUty of the average EngUsh boy, and also 
 to some extent of the average Englishman, to express him- 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 6i 
 
 self and his ideas in a coherent fashion ? The common sense 
 of the latter brings him nearly always to the point ; but it 
 is only after hunting all over the place like a hound on a bad 
 scenting day. 
 
 A certain amount of composition teaching on French 
 lines at school would have enabled him to dispense with 
 much of this discursive thinking aloud. But if direct reply 
 is difficult, we may still by way of rejoinder point out 
 certain dangers which lurk in the French system, by showing 
 that an extreme cult of the form may lead to undue dis- 
 regard for the subject-matter, how a skilled rhetorician may, 
 by his mere brilliancy, dazzle the eyes of his examiners 
 and conceal his lack of depth and grip of the subject. We 
 certainly do not want to produce mere writers of the type 
 of Brougham, of whom someone in discussing his articles 
 has wittily said : "He used to get into a bath of rhetoric 
 and splash about." 
 
 Probably both we and the French have got hold of 
 opposite ends of the truth, but on the importance of laying 
 more stress on the quality of the work apart from the 
 quantity we have certainly much to learn from them, especi- 
 ally in matters of composition in the wide sense of the word. 
 
 But our French critic has probably not finished with his 
 objections. He inquires why we have so largely aboHshed 
 oral examinations in England. We reply that we did so 
 because of the greater element of chance they contained 
 in comparison with the written test, and because a clever 
 but nervous candidate could not under such trying con- 
 ditions do himself or his knowledge adequate justice. Our 
 critic will point out that if the object of examination is to 
 produce learned recluses our second reason has considerable 
 weight, but that it can hardly be seriously maintained that 
 this is the usual object of examinations, that in daily life 
 knowledge is often of little good unless it can be mobilized on 
 the spot, that presence of mind and quickness of judgment, 
 provided it is sound, are qualities which are of the greatest 
 value. He admits that for a general estimate and survey 
 of the extent of the candidate's knowledge and abilities 
 a written examination is wellnigh indispensable, but 
 
62 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 he insists that the oral examination tests quahties which 
 are simply untouched and unassayed by the written 
 examination. 
 
 In suppressing the viva-voce examination we have cut the 
 Gordian knot, we have not solved it. We have merely 
 reduced and restricted our powers of finding out what a 
 candidate is really made of. In a word, for the sake of 
 obtaining uniformity in our tests, we have robbed them of a 
 large portion of their value. Anyone incredulous of the 
 value of oral examinations should attend the oral examina- 
 tions at the Sorbonne, which are open to the public and are 
 V often very largely attended by the friends and relations of 
 the candidate. Those for the haccalaureat are relatively 
 short, though even in these pupils are expected to be able 
 to give a connected account in those subjects which lend 
 themselves to narrative, not merely to answer a few names 
 and dates. 
 
 But in the higher examinations " the oral " assumes a still 
 greater importance. In history or philosophy candidates 
 for the licence are often given a subject to discuss for a 
 quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, and the examiner 
 looks for something which has at least a beginning, middle, 
 and end. Happily the spread of the direct method of teach 
 ing modern languages is bound to bring the question of 
 viva-voce examinations well to the front in England, and we 
 may perhaps hope in the near future to see such indispens- 
 able tests restored to their proper place in the majority of 
 subjects taken up for examination.^ 
 
 (vi) Privileges attached to Completion of Full 
 
 School Course 
 
 The new programmes have introduced one very sweeping 
 revolution. Formerly success in the classical section of the 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) Viva-voce examinations have already been 
 established in the London County Council intermediate scholarships, 
 and the French honour examinations at London University. They 
 are already optional for the examinations of the Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge Locals, as well as for the Modern Language Tripos at Cam- 
 bridge. An influential ' ' Report to the Modern Language Association 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 63 
 
 haccalaureat was necessary for those who intended to study 
 for certain of the Uberal professions. Now, though the 
 courses have been increased from two to four, the examina- 
 tion in them all bears the single title of haccalaureat ; that 
 is to say, in no matter what examination the pupil has 
 obtained his haccalaureat, he has henceforth the right to 
 present himself for all State and professional examinations, 
 whether he desires to enter the civil service, or become a 
 doctor, a barrister, etc. 
 
 The choice between the courses of study is left to the 
 parents. In practice they, as a rule, leave the decision to 
 the teacher. The Government have in fact instituted a 
 sort of universal suffrage among French parents on the best 
 kinds of curricula to follow. So far the one most in favour 
 seems to be the Science-Modern Languages, while the Latin- 
 Greek is in some country districts comparatively neglected. 
 There seems to be some probability that the Government 
 will suppress or confine to the larger schools those courses 
 which obtain comparatively few votes. The outlook for 
 classics is said to be far from brilliant.^ 
 
 In England the examinations which correspond most 
 closely to the haccalaureat are the leaving examination of 
 the London University, the Oxford and Cambridge Higher 
 
 on the Qualifications and Training of Modern Language Teachers," 
 pubUshed in Modern Language Teaching for April, 1909, demands 
 that they should be made compulsor}^ for the future master or 
 mistress in modern languages. 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) The predictions given above do not appear to 
 be likely to be fulfilled at present. The classics, though not in the 
 front, are still holding their own. Here are the statistics of the 
 results of the first part of the Baccalaureat Examination held in 
 July, 1908 (see Journal of Education, December, 1908, p. 820) : 
 
 Courses. Candidates. Passes. Percentage 
 
 of passes. 
 
 Science and Modern Languages . 3,897 1,626 42 % 
 
 Latin and Modern Languages . 3,058 1,255 4^% 
 
 Latin and Greek .... 2,886 1,306 45 % 
 
 Latin and Science .... 2,766 i»35i 49 
 
 /O 
 
 o, 
 /o 
 
 The greater number taking Science and Modern Languages is to be 
 accounted for by the fact that the course is very largely chosen by 
 the scholars who, coming up from the elementary schools, have 
 
64 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 Locals, and the Joint Board Examinations. The passing 
 of these examinations provides in many cases partial or 
 total exemption in the entrance examinations of the uni- 
 versities and numerous public bodies. The exemption, 
 however, is far more often partial than total, and each 
 particular pubHc body has its own list of obHgatory sub- 
 jects in which a candidate must pass in order to obtain 
 complete exemption. Something of the nature of a uni- 
 versal leaving examination — though not necessarily of a 
 uniform nature — would be a great boon in England.^ 
 
 (vii) School Hours 
 
 In France as a rule the day schools open at 8 or 8.30, and 
 morning school lasts till 11.30 ; in boarding schools there is 
 generally an hour's preparation before breakfast. There is 
 generally a break in morning school about 10.30. Afternoon 
 school lasts from 1.30 to 4.30. This does not imply that 
 all the boys are in school during these periods. In fact, boys 
 of from eight to ten years of age in the preparatory and 
 elementary divisions have only twenty hours a week. 
 Deducting the weekly half or whole holiday on Thursday, 
 this means they have only three and a half to four hours a 
 day. From twelve to sixteen the boys in the two divisions 
 A and B have twenty-three and twenty-two hours respec- 
 tively for the first two years, and twenty-two (plus four 
 
 naturally done no Latin. Still, we are told that in some schools the 
 classical section is being elbowed out for reasons of economy. — 
 (191 3.) The statistics for July, 191 2, are as follows : 
 
 Courses. 
 
 Science and Modern Languages 
 Latin and Modern Languages 
 Latin and Science 
 Latin and Greek 
 
 In five years Latin and Greek have lost over 700, or about 25 per 
 cent. ; Science and Modern Languages have gained within 150 as 
 many. The other sections, in both of which Latin occurs, have gained 
 together as much as Science and Modern Languages. 
 
 1 See School series of articles, January to May, 1904, on "The 
 Examination Chaos," by Cloudesley Brereton. 
 
 Candidates. 
 
 Passes. 
 
 Percentage 
 
 4.529 
 3.431 
 3,039 
 2,110 
 
 1.835 
 
 1.475 
 
 1.369 
 
 970 
 
 40% 
 43 % 
 48% 
 46% 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 65 
 
 optional hours) and twenty-four respectively in the second 
 two years. 
 
 In the first year of the second cycle the classical boys get 
 off with twenty-two hours, the Latin-modern with twenty- 
 three, the Latin-science boys with twenty-six, and the 
 science-modern with twenty-seven. In the first year of the 
 haccalaureat the classicals have twenty-two hours plus two 
 hours optional for drawing. The Latin-moderns have 
 twenty with two hours optional for drawing and two for 
 making up ground in Latin. The Latin-science boys have 
 twenty-five hours, and the science-modern twenty-seven. 
 In philosophy the hours for philosophy and mathematics 
 with their two subsections are thirteen and a half with three 
 optional, twenty-one with four optional, twenty-seven with 
 two optional, twenty-eight with two optional. These 
 hours do not look excessive, but the out-of-school work, 
 especially in respect to the preparation for the Government 
 schools, St. Cyr, etc., causes, according to all accounts, 
 great overpressure. ^ 
 
 The normal lesson is one hour in length. Occasionally 
 classes of an hour and a half are allowed, if the professors 
 and proviseurs desire it and the rector of the University 
 approves — a rather large order. The old lessons of two 
 hours, which were far too long, have been definitely 
 abolished. In the preparatory classes certain lessons may 
 be subdivided into half-hours, to wit, geography, etc. In 
 the higher classes, again, the programme allows lessons of 
 an hour and a half for chemistry and physics. 
 
 In the boarding schools the pupils get up at 6 a.m. and 
 sometimes at 5 a.m., which seems somewhat early, though 
 they go to bed at 9 or even at 8. Even the French day boy 
 gets up as a rule earlier than the English, 6.30 or 7 being the 
 usual time. He often prepares a large part of his work 
 before breakfast. This early rising is probably one of the 
 causes that keep him in health. 
 
 In England the school hours naturally vary, but as a 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) This overpressure appears to be growing. — 
 (1913.) All the four courses have now been slightly reduced, but the 
 total reduction does not amount to an hour in each year of the course. 
 
 B.E. £ 
 
66 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 general rule one may take it that the hours of work in a day 
 school last from 9 to 12 in the morning and 2 to 4 in the 
 afternoon. There is generally a break of 10-15 minutes in 
 the middle of the morning, or 5 minutes' interval at the end 
 of each lesson. The midday interval is given up, as in 
 France, to a substantial repast. There are generally two 
 half-holidays a week, and in the summer term a number of 
 free afternoons for cricket matches. With the exception of 
 the national holidays, the French schoolboy has no such 
 red-letter days in his calendar. School hours in England 
 average roughly about twenty-four to twenty-six hours a 
 week in day schools and thirty to thirty-two hours in board- 
 ing schools, though in the latter case some of the hours are 
 generally devoted to preparation. Boys in for special 
 examinations have naturally longer hours. 
 
 Science lessons in England are often one and a half and 
 even two hours in length. The other lessons seldom exceed 
 an hour in length. In some cases the lessons are only fifty, 
 forty-five, and in some rare cases thirty minutes in length. 
 The partisans of the shorter hours affirm that the teachers 
 get comparatively more out of the pupils in the shorter 
 time ; they also probably take more out of themselves. 
 While short periods are no doubt adequate for some sub- 
 jects, they scarcely suit all. A lesson in geography probably 
 requires less time than one in Latin. 
 
 (viii) Home Work 
 
 In France there are no definite rules and regulations for 
 settling the amount of time that pupils of different ages 
 should devote to their home work. At the beginning of 
 each school year there is often, however, a meeting of the 
 professors of each class to discuss the work to be done by the 
 pupil at home. If one professor fancies that his colleague 
 has been in the habit of getting the part du lion of the pupil's 
 preparation time, the matter is threshed out and a friendly 
 understanding arrived at. 
 
 This is certainly good, as far as it goes, but there must be 
 always a danger of an agreement being arrived at at the 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 67 
 
 price of the pupil being overworked. The eight-hours day 
 would certainly be a popular movement among the senior 
 students in the French lycees, in which it is stated the in- and 
 out-of-school work frequently amounts to ten and twelve 
 hours a day owing to the large amount of home work 
 which is set. The new programmes have rather added to 
 than diminished the amount of work necessary for the 
 baccalaureat. 
 
 In England in a certain number of schools the question 
 has been seriously tackled by the headmasters. Instead of 
 considering the amount of work to be done, always a more 
 or less hypothetical matter, reformers have rather regarded 
 the number of hours which can be properly demanded from 
 pupils of the various ages. When that has been decided, 
 these hours have been split up among the various subjects 
 which require preparation. But even here the determina- 
 tion of the hours and the distribution of the work are not 
 a sufficient safeguard in themselves. Much oversight is 
 requisite to see that the system is properly worked. The 
 average teacher is always tempted to give the ordinary boy 
 a bigger tale of bricks than he can complete in the allotted 
 period, and thereby the work suffers or the pupil's free time 
 is encroached on. 
 
 In fact, it is necessary not only to define the hours but 
 to arrive at a clear understanding of what a fair hour's 
 home work really is for the pupils of different ages. Unfor- 
 tunately in a good many schools the schoolboy is subjected 
 to all the evils of unrestricted competition among the staff. 
 Cases are not unknown where the headmaster exacts his 
 pound of flesh from the class, often a very liberal pound, and 
 expects his staff to go and do likewise. Under the principle 
 of " pull baker, pull devil," the strongest master gets the 
 lion's share, and the others come off as best they can. 
 
 Happily this theory of getting the last ounce out of the 
 pupil is defeated by the natural inclination of the average 
 boy to " knock off " when he is healthily tired, but its effect 
 on the conscientious is distinctly detrimental and cannot be 
 good for any of the boys concerned. A healthy boy has 
 only so much stored-up energy to expend per diem. You 
 
68 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 can probably get all you ought to get out of him, allowing 
 for growth, in four, five, or six hours at the most. To 
 spread the work over nine or ten merely means that you 
 exhaust him and probably produce less effect. Long 
 hours in the school do not lend themselves to greater pro- 
 ductivity in the long run, any more than they do in the 
 factory. 
 
 What is wanted in England and France is the formation of 
 a small class of medico-schoolmasters knowing both sides 
 of the question and able to speak with equal authority on 
 the medical and on the pedagogical side.^ 
 
 We have already in both countries school doctors who 
 have done a good deal for school hygiene. The study of 
 school fatigue has been started, but we want experts who 
 understand not only the medical but the pedagogical diffi- 
 culties. The medical man who is not a schoolmaster can 
 hardly realize that under the stress of present competition 
 it is not so much how few hours' schooling the pupil should 
 have, but how many one may safely give him without 
 injuring his health or physique. 
 
 It would certainly be a great advantage if the State could 
 erect a few experimental schools in which among other 
 interesting questions the problem of short hours in class 
 and preparation could be studied by trained experts. 
 Experimental stations have immensely benefited farming; 
 why should they not benefit puericulture ? In capable 
 hands the children experimented on would take little harm, 
 and the result of successful experiment would be of the 
 greatest value. No doubt the question of long hours, 
 especially in boarding schools, is largely bound up with 
 the problem of finding boys something to do, but that 
 something need not necessarily be " head work." There 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) A great step forward has been made in both 
 countries in the way of interesting the medical profession, the local 
 authorities, and the parents in school hygiene, notably by the holding 
 of Congresses at Paris and London. The new medical inspection 
 of the Board of Education will probably make medical inspection 
 universal shortly in the secondary schools. In the great majority of 
 London schools there is already not only a medical inspection of the 
 pupils, with remedial drill in the case of girls, but regular weighing 
 and measuring records are being compiled. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 69 
 
 are plenty of forms of manual employment to take its place 
 either as work or recreation.^ 
 
 M. le Docteur Hogg, writing in 1892, gives the following 
 interesting comparative table of the work and play in 
 EngHsh and French schools (see L'Hygiene scolaire dans 
 les j^tablissements de V Enseignement secondatre de la Grande- 
 Breiagne, p. 55) : 
 
 
 England 
 
 
 
 From 9 to 14 
 
 Hours 
 
 Work 
 
 • • • • 
 
 6 
 
 Play 
 Sleep 
 
 • • • • 
 
 • • • « 
 
 From 14 to 19 
 
 4i 
 io| 
 
 (Mondays, Wednesdays 
 Fridays) 
 Work .... 
 
 , and 
 6 
 
 Play 
 Sleep (S 
 
 ummer) 
 
 3 
 
 8^- 
 
 (Tuesdays, Thursdays, 
 Saturdays) 
 Work . . . . 
 
 and 
 8 
 
 Play . . . . 
 Sleep (Winter) . 
 
 6 
 9i 
 
 France 
 
 
 Preparatory Lycde 
 
 
 Hours. 
 
 Work (Summer) . 
 
 10 
 
 Play . 
 
 255 
 
 Sleep . 
 
 9 
 
 Work (Winter) . 
 
 II 
 
 Play . 
 
 3i 
 
 Sleep . 
 
 9h 
 
 Lycee 
 
 
 Work (Summer) . 
 
 12 
 
 Play . 
 
 ^h 
 
 Sleep . 
 
 8 
 
 Work (Winter) . 
 
 Hi 
 
 Play . 
 
 2 
 
 Sleep . 
 
 9 
 
 mm. 
 
 In most English schools the third half-holiday a week has 
 been suppressed and added to the work. A competent 
 authority states that the French hours have rather increased 
 than diminished. 2 The advantages on the side of the 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) See School, February and March, 1906, " Hand 
 Craft and Brain Craft." The practice of earmarking every hour of 
 the pupil's day not only undermines his self-reliance and self-initia- 
 tive, but precludes him from any chance of acquiring personal tastes, 
 and the power of independent work and thought. In some of our 
 schools a beginning has been made to meet this grave defect by 
 giving pupils in the school certain hours when they may read books 
 out of the Ubrary under the supervision of a teacher who merely sees 
 that quiet is maintained, and places himself at the disposal of any 
 pupil who desires explanation on any point. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) Cf. M. Maurice-Faure, Rapport, p. 229 : " Les 
 professetirs se plaignent aussi de la surcharge de certains programmes," 
 and he compares classes in Sections C and D with twenty-six and 
 
70 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 English boy in the shape of more sleep, longer hours of play, 
 shorter hours of work, are still very marked. 
 
 (ix) The Teaching of Subjects 
 
 The teaching of subjects is obviously one which cannot be 
 treated exhaustively. Here more than anywhere else in the 
 report, an effort will be made to describe what to the author 
 has appeared most typical in the two educations, but in any 
 case the treatment must necessarily be fragmentary and 
 incomplete. 
 
 Mother Tongue 
 
 In the classical and Latin sections pre-eminently, and in 
 that of science-modern languages, though in a less degree, 
 French is the central subject of the programme, inasmuch as 
 the classical teaching, though not the modern language 
 teaching, is to a large extent ancillary to the teaching of the 
 mother tongue. The great difference between the study of 
 classics in an English or a French school is that the English 
 boy mainly studies the classics for their own sakes, the 
 French boy for the assistance they give to a fuller and more 
 complete expression and understanding of his native lan- 
 guage. The mother tongue is often sacrificed to classics in 
 England, in France classics no doubt are sometimes sacri- 
 ficed to the mother tongue ; ^ but the converse is never true. 
 
 French seems to be the one modern language which has 
 not only definitely emancipated itself from a servile imita- 
 tion of classical idioms, but also built up for itself a national 
 style of its own, freer and less involved than Latin, from 
 which it sprang, and therefore more in accord with the spirit 
 of modern life. The emancipation of German prose seems 
 yet to come. For who can believe the long-winded German 
 
 twenty-seven hours a week with others in A and B with twenty-two 
 and twenty-four. M. Steeg {Rapport, p. 39) also admits " quelqtie 
 surmenage." 
 
 1 Note. — (1913.) The principal persons responsible for this cult 
 of the mother tongue are RoUin, the Jesuits, and, in later times, Hatz- 
 feldt (the master of Taine, Boissier, and other brilliant scholars at 
 the licole Normale) and Jules Simon. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 71 
 
 sentence is the last word on the subject, even if there were 
 not numerous signs of a change ? We in England have had, 
 no doubt, many admirable prose writers, but we have no 
 traditional school for the writing of prose such as has long 
 existed in France, and probably never shall have, till prose 
 writing comes by its own in the schools themselves. 
 
 In France even small boys of five and six in the classes 
 enfantines are encouraged to compose, though naturally 
 their compositions are only oral. Among the three principal 
 methods for the teaching of the mother tongue insisted on 
 in the programme comes the direction : " Very short stories 
 to be read aloud in class and told over again by the children." 
 In the class above a beginning of written composition is 
 made, and the twofold practice of oral and written com- 
 position is thenceforth continued right up the school. The 
 bien dire and Men ecrire are thus taught from the very outset 
 to the close of the school career. 
 
 It is curious to find persons in England who seriously 
 dispute the use of French as a mental discipline, when the 
 French themselves consider it in this respect equal to Latin 
 or Greek, one might almost say superior, because being their 
 own language it is naturally the better medium for their 
 children. The French — pace these English critics, who have 
 often but a superficial smattering of the language — are prob- 
 ably right. To begin with, their language possesses the best 
 traditions of ancient rhetoricians, handed down in an un- 
 interrupted apostolic succession through the Schools of 
 Lyons, Bordeaux, and Paris, or recovered by scholars at 
 the Renaissance. It is to-day a finished product which 
 has been worked up by generations of native Lorfginuses 
 and Quintilians. 
 
 While in England the word " composition " too often 
 means a mere reproduction in a Latin or Greek medium of 
 some passage taken from an English writer, a matter of 
 hitting on the right phrase or word, of reproducing in a 
 classical mosaic a design already given in English, it has 
 retained in France its fuller, truer, and really classical mean- 
 ing, of composing, of putting together, of construction. It 
 calls into play not merely the talent of the mosaic maker, of 
 
72 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 the reproductive workman, but of the architect, the master 
 builder, the original designer and artist. 
 
 In a word, the French writer is not a mere framer of happy 
 phrases. His chief glory consists in his skill in building up 
 phrases into paragraphs, and paragraphs into one single 
 harmonious, symmetrical, architectural whole. And herein 
 lies for us, if we are only able to grasp it, the supreme value 
 and importance of the study of French for ourselves. As 
 our artists go to Paris to learn technique, so our school- 
 masters may well go to France to study composition. We 
 do not want to create in our English schools a sort of bastard 
 French style. There is indeed little danger of such an 
 eventuality. We have too much of nationality, of racial 
 mother stuff in us ever to succumb to that temptation. But 
 we certainly may learn a good deal by studying structure 
 under the great French masters. To judge by many of our 
 composition manuals a vast deal more attention is still 
 given to botching the pupil's English and correcting his 
 punctuation than on insisting first and foremost that his 
 essay should be a member of the vertebrate family.^ 
 
 It seems impossible to insist too much on the literary 
 excellence of the French language, when we consider what 
 the teaching of modern languages in our higher classes 
 should be, when our pupils have acquired a fair working 
 knowledge of the tools of the new learning, understanding, 
 speaking, and writing. We shall not have profited much if 
 we surrender the shackles of the old-fashioned grammarian 
 for the fetters of the new philology. Here again the example 
 of the French teacher should come to our rescue and show 
 us a more excellent way. 
 
 Philology does not appear at all in the school course. In 
 
 1 Note. — (191 3.) In connection with the above remarks one may 
 perhaps mention two books which have recently appeared on the 
 actual teaching of French composition and literature. They are by 
 M. J. Bezard, and are entitled La Classe de Frangais and De la 
 Methode litteraire {Journal d'un Professeur dans une Classe de Pre- 
 miere) — the publishers being La Libraire Vuibert, Paris. They 
 should prove a veritable gold-mine of hints and suggestions to English 
 teachers of composition and literature, while the copious quotations 
 from the pupils' work reveal the high standard reached by French 
 pupils trained on these methods. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 73 
 
 its place we find a well-graduated course in the national 
 literature based especially on the actual study of great 
 masterpieces which are discussed on critical and aesthetic but 
 not on philological grounds. For foreigners, as for French 
 students, some knowledge of philology may seem desirable, 
 but a small manual will give all that is required for a literary 
 appreciation by an intelligent person of the evolution of the 
 language. Philology should come at the conclusion of our 
 literary education in the language. ^ It is in fact, as the 
 French hold, essentially a matter for late university or 
 post-graduate study. 
 
 Possibly under the old system which preceded the present 
 reform the study of formal grammar was overdone. To-day 
 the use of short grammars both in French and other lan- 
 guages from which the exceptions are largely excluded is 
 de rigueur in all the State schools, to the despair of many 
 publishers and second-hand booksellers. They, however, 
 are not the only discontented persons. The teachers in 
 some schools are also complaining. 
 
 They give as their reasons — (i) that less attention is 
 given than formerly to the art of expression ; the cultiva- 
 tion of V eloquence frangaise, which pushed to excess enabled 
 a person to write well on any subject whether he was 
 acquainted with it or not. This does not seem a great loss. 
 (2) They complain that the new method of reading by sight 
 has lowered the standard of orthography in the schools, 
 because under the new system pupils are no longer obliged 
 to spell their words. They learn to read more quickly, but 
 the education of the eye, on which spelling depends, is 
 neglected ; (3) less attention is given, as mentioned above, to 
 grammar. 2 This does not apply very much to the pupils doing 
 Latin and Greek, as, owing to the amount of classical gram- 
 mar they do, they get sufficient drill and practice in the rules. 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) The recent reforms of the Mediaeval and Modern 
 Language Tripos at Cambridge, which partially came into force in 
 1909, are largely based on these lines. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) The old method of studying grammar seems 
 doomed. Much may be expected from such new methods as that 
 outlined by MM. Brunot and Bony [Methode de Langue frangaise, 
 3 vols., Armand Colin), based on historical grammar and closely 
 correlated with composition. 
 
74 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 Moreover, during the classical lesson the mother tongue is 
 being studied concurrently in the shape of translations, and 
 the class itself is conducted in French. On the other hand, 
 the grammar in the modern language lesson is cut down to a 
 minimum, and the mother tongue is very largely excluded 
 from the class-room. It is said by some competent judges 
 that those studying English and German are on an average 
 two classes below those studying Latin in the study of 
 French, yet these boys have to be taken together.^ 
 
 There seems little doubt that, with French the direct 
 descendant of Latin, the study of the latter must be 
 advantageous to many French boys, and many moderate 
 reformers in language teaching are still unconvinced that 
 the drawbacks of elementary Latin outweigh its advantages. 
 Still it must be remembered that the parallel between 
 English and French classical teaching is not altogether, as 
 we shall see, complete. Where we attempt to form a 
 learned scholar the French seek to give a literary culture. 
 
 Of the teaching of the mother tongue in England one can 
 only say that on the whole it compares most unfavourably 
 with the teaching of the mother tongue in France. Our 
 chief hope lies in the very great progress that has been made 
 during the last ten or fifteen years.^ Until comparatively 
 recently, English when taught at all was taught with all 
 the paraphernalia of a dead language. Its grammar was 
 studied with the same minuteness as that of Latin and Greek. 
 Its rules, often merely descriptive and singularly imperfect 
 at that, were set up as veritable laws of reason more infallible 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) It would appear that the standard of French 
 composition has certainly fallen off of recent years. This is mainly 
 due to the decrease in the time allotted to French, three hours in place 
 of five. M. Maurice-Faure states in his Rapport (p. 229) that the 
 Conseil Superieur intends shortly to add another hour. — (1913.) 
 Another hour has now been added in the 6th, 5th and 3rd year of the 
 course, while in the 6th, 5th, 4th and 3rd year of Section A the hours 
 given to French and Latin have been combined to enable the class 
 professor to correct any special temporary weaknesses of the class 
 in either subject. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) See Report of a Conference on the Teaching of 
 English in London Elementary Schools (Chairman, Professor Boas), 
 published by the London County Council, 1909 ; second edition, 
 1912. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 75 
 
 than the enactments of the Medes and Persians. How 
 often has one heard and still hears in the schools such 
 instances of bastard logic as " Why is the plural of man, 
 men ? Because it is an exception to the rule," or " Why is 
 the participle of bring, brought ? Because it is an irregular 
 verb," and other pseudo-ratiocinations. 
 
 Then, again, authors were studied far more in the notes 
 than in the text. One can cite even to-day " school " editions 
 of selections from Milton more annotated even than Mayor's 
 Juvenal. Our pupils still read too much about authors and 
 not enough of their works. When poetry is learnt by heart 
 it is too often gabbled. Recitations and reading aloud are 
 far too widely neglected. Little or no literary and artistic 
 criticism is attempted or encouraged. No doubt there is a 
 certain type of mind which shrinks from all literary or 
 aesthetic criticism as savouring of affectation and rant and 
 bound to degenerate into sentimentality and slobber. Such 
 persons often have the root of the matter in them, but 
 apparently look on such feelings in the same Hght as their 
 deeper religious feelings, as sacred things only to be discussed 
 between a man and his Maker. Hence when they take a 
 literature lesson they either regard the pupils as hopeless 
 Philistines or treat them as Moses did the Israelites when 
 compelled in his anger to give them water to drink. They 
 forget that appreciation is largely a matter of imitative 
 sympathy, as Horace has shown for all time : 
 
 . . . Si vis me flere, dolendum est 
 Primum ipsi tihi. 
 
 Assuredly our national hatred of affectation and pre- 
 tension has its good side. It has kept down the breed of 
 poeticules and poetasters, and litterateurs of the fourth 
 water and of artists of the tenth magnitude ; but none 
 the less we ought to be able to give our pupils a sense of 
 the fineness of literary and artistic things without neces- 
 sarily converting them en masse into an artistic and literary 
 proletariat. 
 
 English is, however, excellently taught in some boys' 
 schools, and for this we have largely to thank the girls' 
 
76 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 schools, which in the teaching of this and of other modern 
 subjects have often proved the pioneers and promoters of 
 new methods. The reformed system of teaching modern 
 languages should be in the near future a valuable ally 
 towards modernizing methods. Just as teachers formerly 
 based their teaching of English on classical lines, so they are 
 nearly certain to remodel their English teaching on the 
 lines of the Neue Methode, once they realize its potentialities. 
 They will see that what is sauce for the French goose is 
 probably equally good sauce for the English gander, and 
 modify their cuisine accordingly. 
 
 We are already witnessing a strong movement in favour 
 of oral and written compositions, coupled with a revolt 
 against the tyranny of formal grammar, though not to the 
 extent of the liking of some reformers who, like Jack Cade, 
 would almost proscribe nouns and verbs, while at the same 
 time an increased interest is being shown in the literary and 
 artistic side of the language. We thus have three con- 
 current streams of attack playing on those institutions in 
 which the older traditions of teaching still prevail. Help, 
 too, is promised from a quite unexpected quarter. Science 
 teachers are insisting more and more on the need of clear 
 and well-ordered description on the part of their pupils. 
 Their assistance should be of the utmost value, over and 
 above the support thus given to the proper teaching of 
 English. It should rob the old quarrel between science and 
 literature of half its violence when once it has been generally 
 realized by scientists that clear exposition is an absolute 
 necessity.^ 
 
 Classics 
 
 The deposition of Greek from the position it held in the 
 old curriculum and its restriction to one of the four alterna- 
 tive courses cannot fail to have an effect on the quantity 
 of classical scholarships in the French schools. It is quite 
 
 ^ For further discussion on the subject see The Practical Teacher, 
 December, 1902, " Is it Possible to Improve the Teaching of EngUsh 
 Composition ? " by Cloudesley Brereton. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 77 
 
 possible that what is left will improve in quality.^ Matthew 
 Arnold remarked on the comparative lowness of standard in 
 Greek,2 and it is probable that the level of attainment was 
 much about the same before the present reform. The lycee 
 being open to all, and the classical course being the fashion- 
 able one for the haccalaureat, the standard was forcibly kept 
 down by the quantity of pupils of merely average or medi- 
 ocre abihty who persisted in taking the subject. With this 
 Ballast, as the Germans say, distributed, in part at least, 
 over the other courses, the standard will again have a chance 
 of rising. In any case, classics are far from being played out 
 in France, where even such out-and-out Socialists as 
 M. Jaures insist on their retention as necessary for the 
 education of a chosen few {elite). 
 
 The principal aim of the teaching of classics in France is, 
 as has been indicated above, to treat Latin and Greek rather 
 as a means of literary and rhetorical training, especially in 
 regard to the study and appreciation of the mother tongue, 
 than as an instrument of mental discipline. In a word, the 
 ideal is culture rather than exact scholarship. Or rather, 
 where we lay stress on didicisse fideliter artes, and expect 
 that the emollit mores will follow as a matter of course, they 
 lay stress on the emollit mores, and expect the faithful and 
 scrupulous scholarship will be acquired concurrently or as 
 a finishing polish. 
 
 We therefore naturally find in the schools that more 
 attention is paid to translation into French and far less to 
 translation into the foreign languages.^ Verse-writing has 
 of course been long,^given up.* Composition in the English 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) This prediction has been reaHzed. According 
 to M. Maurice-Faure the " section classique renferme en genital les 
 meilleurs eUves" (p. 230). 
 
 2 See M. Arnold, A French Eton, p. 367. 
 
 ^ " L' explication des textes sera le principal exercice de la classe " 
 {Plan d'£tudes et Programmes d' Enseignement dans les Lycees et 
 Colleges de GarQons). Again, in the higher classes we find added the 
 pupils will in addition be put on to supplementary reading which 
 will be marked in class. 
 
 ^ In the fourth and third classes versification and prosody are 
 studied and hexameters and pentameters scanned and French trans- 
 lations of them put back into Latin. 
 
yd> STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 sense of the word is less practised than heretofore. The 
 method of setting compositions out of books has been well- 
 nigh abandoned. What composition there is is based either 
 directly or indirectly on passages taken from the classical 
 authors the class have been reading, and includes free 
 composition. This recourse to re-translation is interesting 
 as an example of the methods advocated by Ascham and 
 the earlier humanists in England. Less attention, as we 
 have seen, is paid to grammar. 
 
 In translation what is specially insisted on is the transla- 
 tion of large portions of an author in preference to isolated 
 fragments, extensive rather than intensive culture being the 
 aim. The object of the teacher is to get a whole book read, 
 and to make it as far as possible a Uving thing, a bit of 
 hterature for the pupil. Details are not insisted on. 
 Literal translations are strictly forbidden, but good French 
 translations are in some cases allowed, and the tendency to 
 permit the use of these authorized versions is said to be 
 growing. Such practices must seem terrible to those 
 teachers in England who would burn if they could Mr. 
 Bohn and all his works at the stake, but at any rate it does 
 away with the illicit use of cribs. Great stress is now laid on 
 a literal translation the first time over, and equally great 
 stress is laid on polishing the revised translation into good 
 French. 
 
 There seems little doubt that, with the galaxy of brilliant 
 " men " that our public schools send up every year to the 
 universities, not only are the number of classical scholars 
 worthy of the name far more numerous in England, but that 
 the general standard of attainment in Greek and possibly 
 in Latin is distinctly on a higher level. To begin with, 
 classics in our big schools are studied on a far larger scale. 
 Hour for hour the EngUsh boy devotes a considerably longer 
 time to Latin and Greek in the course of his school career 
 than does the French boy. Much greater attention is paid 
 with us to composition, grammar, and to the points of 
 scholarship generally. 
 
 Possibly these differences, not in numbers but in degree of 
 attainment, tend to decrease in the university. More atten- 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 79 
 
 tion is there paid to scholarship, though the perpetual 
 protest against the erudition allemande even in high places 
 shows a preoccupation to preserve the distinctly literary 
 over the, one might almost say, philological character of 
 classical education, a character which is largely supported 
 by the fact that even in the licence es lettres at least half the 
 examination is taken up by the French language. With the 
 agregation, however, which is a highly speciahzed examination 
 open to students of any age, the elite who still continue their 
 classical education probably make up any leeway in the 
 matter of scholarship compared with the standard in 
 England ; while the doctoral, which is far more often taken 
 than the Litt.D. or D.Sc. with us, keeps the chosen few who 
 are still studying classics hard at work at original research, 
 when the majority of their compeers in England have given 
 themselves up to teaching or editing school books. 
 
 In all probability at the top there is little or no difference : 
 several EngHsh scholars have assured me of their high 
 admiration for the best French scholars of to-day. While, 
 then, at the top there is practically no difference, and half- 
 way up the ladder our scholars are probably ahead of pupils 
 of the same age in France, it is a very doubtful question 
 whether the French system with or without Greek is not a 
 much better training for the boy of average or mediocre 
 ability. Far too many boys leave the public schools with- 
 out having become even respectable scholars — a competent 
 authority like Professor Laurie puts their number at the 
 extraordinarily high figure of 95 per cent.,^ and does not 
 hesitate to use the stronger word " failures." 
 
 Even if these boys do carry something away in the shape 
 of greater mental elasticity owing to the classical gymnastics 
 to which they have been subjected, it is still a very great 
 question if for such boys the French method of attempting 
 to give at least a tinge of culture, to educate the taste and 
 develop the appreciation, is not a more valuable and lasting 
 
 1 S. S, Laurie, Studies in the History of Educational Opinion from 
 the Renaissance, p. 16. See also Public Schools and Public Needs, 
 by G. G. Coulton, for an unfavourable view of the classical attain- 
 ments of the average boy. 
 
8o STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 possession, and one that can be acquired by a very much 
 larger proportion of pupils. Had Greek in England been 
 taught on these lines, its position as a pass subject in the 
 university entrance examinations would certainly have 
 been stronger to-day. 
 
 It has been indicated in the course of the above com- 
 parison between classics in England and France that the 
 supremacy of the English pupil in Latin was only a possible 
 one, being based at the best on a more extensive scholarship. 
 The French boy has great advantages over the English boy 
 in the turning of his own mother tongue into Latin. He 
 starts with a language in which every word has a distinct 
 reproductive meaning. It may seem to us at times wordy 
 inasmuch as it deals with compliments or commonplaces, 
 but even in its most hollow-sounding periods each word 
 does really stand for something. 
 
 There are none of those gag-like phrases and expressions 
 which, to take a definite instance, abound in the works of 
 Bulwer Lytton, and which literally defy translation. Once 
 no doubt in certain contexts they had or still have a regular 
 meaning, but like coins they have become so worn and 
 debased from current use that they no longer represent any 
 definite thought value. Their only function is to stuff out 
 the sentence, mere make-weights to give it the requisite 
 balance. Again, there is a very great deal less of that 
 painful recasting and rearrangement of the whole structure 
 of the passage to be translated such as is necessary with us 
 in order to convert our Gothic-like English into something 
 of a classical type of architecture. No one who has not 
 tried can realize how easily French goes back into Latin till 
 he remembers that the words themselves take their root- 
 meaning from the Latin, and that, while minor changes 
 have to be made, structural alterations are comparatively 
 rare, for the logical sequence of thought is there already. 
 In a word, it is not surprising that the daughter's clothes 
 with a few alterations should be a passable fit for the 
 mother. 
 
 There is, however, another point which renders com- 
 parison somewhat difficult, not to say delicate. Composi- 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 8i 
 
 tion in a dead language has its fashions, and its fashion- 
 able models no less than any other human art. Nothing 
 surprised my French professors in Greek more than that 
 a writer like Thucydides, of an epoch when the literary 
 language was still obviously in the making, should be largely 
 taken at Cambridge as a model for the writing of Greek 
 prose. They could not understand the comparative neglect 
 of Isocrates. One could not help feeling they were largely 
 in the right. What should we think of a foreigner, say some 
 Babu professor, who set up Carlyle as a model of English 
 prose for the pupils to imitate ? It seems clear that at 
 bottom the personal equation of each teacher has in Latin 
 and Greek just as in everything else a certain authority and 
 influence. 
 
 Hence, what may be the vogue at Cambridge owing to 
 the personality of one or two leading professors need not 
 necessarily be the vogue at Oxford. But when we come to 
 the personal equation of the race, it seems highly probable 
 that each country out of the same classical models should 
 evolve something still more marked with the stamp of its 
 own native genius, still more strongly differentiated from that 
 of other countries. Just as there is certainly an Irish Catho- 
 licism, a French Catholicism, and a German Catholicism, 
 though they all firmly rest on the faith once delivered to 
 the saints, is it not natural that there should be a French 
 Latin, an English Latin, and a German Latin ? If literary 
 Padua had its Patavinitas, surely literary Lutetia must 
 have its Parisianisms, and Cambridge also its pecuUarities.^ 
 These would, it is most likely, be more marked in the schools, 
 and one cannot help feeling certain that the difference is 
 sufficiently great to render a comparison between the school- 
 boy Latin in the two countries a little difficult. 
 
 1 These impressions have lately been confirmed in a remarkable 
 manner. A piece of Latin composition, which had received an 
 extraordinarily high mark in one of the French universities, was 
 shown to a brilliant English scholar who is now a professor in one of 
 our universities. His only comment was, " That is not the Latin 
 we write." 
 
 B,E, 
 
82 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 Modern Languages 
 
 The teaching of modern languages is dealt with at such 
 length in the new programme that it seems unnecessary to 
 add much here. Certainly the simultaneous introduction 
 of the direct method into the French State schools through- 
 out the whole of the country, with the exception of those in 
 which it already existed, shows up the strong side of a 
 centralized system of educational control. The present 
 writer visited recently a good many classes in English and 
 German, and was astonished at the change which had taken 
 place during the last few years in the teaching of modern 
 languages. The highest praise is due to the two inspecteurs- 
 generaux who have helped to produce such a transformation 
 in so brief a time. The professors he saw were nearly all 
 picked men, but none the less the comparative purity of 
 their accent and their thorough command of English was 
 certainly remarkable. The English struck one as being on 
 even a higher level than the German. ^ 
 
 In England the direct method is certainly making great 
 headway, but in many schools the whole modern language 
 teaching requires reorganizing. In classics a certain amount 
 of variety of method in the same school does not seem to . 
 matter very much : the ground is gone over so many times. I 
 In modern languages unity of method — at least in the 
 earlier stages — and close co-ordination between the work of 
 the different classes is absolutely essential to successful 
 teaching. One imperfectly equipped master, whether at 
 the beginning, which is certainly most fatal, or in the 
 intermediary classes, means not only little progress, but 
 retrogression in all matters connected with accent and 
 idiom. This does not mean that the personality of the 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) Subsequent criticisms apparently show that 
 there is a certain danger under the new method of too much insistence 
 being laid, especially in the second stage, on the acquisition of voca- 
 bulary and fluency of speech, to the detriment of critical and literary 
 culture. There is some talk, in fact, of rehabilitating translation by 
 making it a subject at the baccalaureat. — (1913.) Nothing so far has 
 been done, 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 83 
 
 teacher is to be extinguished ; it merely means that the 
 ground must be staked out within which his personahty 
 is to have play. 
 
 It is probable that if we attain these desiderata we shall 
 not in the majority of our schools continue the direct method 
 in its strictness throughout the whole school course, but 
 rather, once the pupil has got a good hold of the accent and 
 the vocabulary, do a certain amount of translation into 
 English, if we do not also attempt a certain amount of 
 translation or re-translation into French.^ The splendid 
 discipline which translation provides in teaching us to match 
 nuances of thought in two different media does not seem to 
 be provided by any other school exercise. In composition 
 in one's own language one can attempt to express those 
 nuances which occur to one, but in free composition in a 
 foreign tongue the tendency is always to " cut " such 
 difficulties. 2 
 
 History 
 
 The teaching of history and geography ^ in the French 
 schools is at present in a state of transition. In the bottom 
 classes the new programme has been adopted, in the higher 
 the old is for the most part e7t rigiienr. Taking the history 
 first, we find that history in the classes enfantines consists of 
 biography and anecdote. In the division preparatoire it is 
 defined as tales and talks about great personages and the 
 
 ^ These are also the Unes on which the instruction is based in the 
 higher classes of the lycde. 
 
 - Note. — (1909.) Great success has everywhere been made, espe- 
 cially in the London schools, where the staffs, as a rule, contain 
 specialists thoroughly capable of grappling with the new method. 
 The second stage in modern language teaching has, however, still 
 to be reaUzed. Vide the papers read at the annual meeting of the 
 Modern Language Association at Oxford, January, 1909, on " The 
 Second Stage in Modern Language Teaching " {Modern Language 
 Teaching, February and March, 1909; London, A. and C. Black). 
 (1913). See also papers on " The Literary Stage in Modern Language 
 Teaching," read at the annual meeting in London, January, 191 3. 
 
 3 The teaching of geography is rapidly being put on modern lines, 
 according to the doyen of the'FacultS des Letires of Nancy, M. Auer- 
 bach, who himself is a pupil of the great reformer Vidal Lablache. 
 
84 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 principal facts in national history. In the elementary 
 division the subject is treated chronologically. The course 
 deals with summary notions of the history of France, with 
 special stress on essential facts from the beginning down to 
 1610. In the second year the pupil is equally rapidly taken 
 over the ground from 1610 to 1871. The pupils are then 
 taken back to the outlines of ancient history of the East and 
 to Greek and Latin history. 
 
 In the next class, the 5th, the Middle Ages and the 
 beginning of modern times are dealt with. The work of 
 the 4th class is devoted to modern times down to the reign 
 of Louis XVI, and the first cycle ends with the history 
 of France and Europe down to 1889. In the second cycle 
 the history of France and Europe from the tenth century 
 is gone over again in greater detail. The chief points to 
 notice are that while the historical order of development is 
 not neglected, the pupil is first of all taken rapidly over the 
 whole ground in order to obtain some idea of the sequence of 
 events which act as chronological points de reperc in his mind. 
 
 General notions of Eastern, Greek, and Roman history are 
 included for all boys, the French rightly considering that all 
 pupils should have some idea of what has been happily 
 called the embryology of civilization. Classical boys in 
 addition have extra courses in Greek and Roman history. 
 The first and second cycle are mainly devoted to a recapitu- 
 lation of the history of Europe and France. A pupil 
 therefore who has been through the full course will have 
 been over the ground three times. The subject is treated 
 throughout from the point of view of movements, policies, 
 regimes, etc., rather than from that of reigns and dynasties. 
 The military portion has been considerably curtailed,^ and 
 greater prominence given to political and social develop- 
 ment. 
 
 While the history of the English people presents a longer 
 sequence of orderly growth than that of any other nation, 
 its very length and numerous phases of development make 
 
 ^ The following note, in some form or other, appears at the bottom 
 of the programme of nearly every class : " Le professeur ne fera pas 
 I'exposi des ^iierres, il choisira quelques exemples d'actions militaires." 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 85 
 
 the mastering of even a bird's-eye view of it une oeuvre de 
 tongue haleine. We probably make a great mistake in 
 studying our history too much at the outset from the point 
 of view of reigns rather than of movements. We also 
 probably attempt to teach far too many names. The con- 
 centric method of teaching history has in its earlier stages 
 a good deal to commend it. Later, no doubt, there is a 
 great deal to be said in favour of taking up on comparatively 
 a large scale the history of some definite period, together 
 with some study of its original authority, but that should 
 come after the pupil has got a fair idea of the spacious 
 dimensions of English history. 
 
 In the same way the study of European history is better 
 kept in the background till the pupil has won a clear notion 
 of the continuity of the history of his own country. This 
 sense of the continuity of history is really a very precious 
 acquisition. It does not depend on the mere learning of 
 dates, useful as they are as milestones on the road of time, 
 whose symbolical representation enables the pupil to picture 
 to himself the immense distance at which he stands to-day 
 from Caractacus, Alfred, Knut, and William the Conqueror, 
 but rather on the feeling that they are all really and truly 
 the spiritual forefathers of the race of to-day, whose long 
 pedigree embraces not only these pious founders, but also 
 all who have made their names illustrious in helping to build 
 up the nation. 
 
 When the pupil reahzes that he is the descendant of a 
 people whose nationaUty is more than a thousand years old, 
 he acquires a sort of conscia virtus, as Virgil finely terms it, 
 which raises in him the resolve that he at least, in the 
 presence of any foreign foe whose mushroom nationality 
 dates but from yesterday, will never do aught unworthy of 
 his ancient Hneage. The annals of race, rightly understood, 
 are its Bible, its sacred book, wherein at times of difficulty 
 and danger, if it practises its sortes VergitiancB, it finds on 
 every page elements of wisdom and encouragement.^ 
 
 1 Note. — (1909-) The recent formation of an Historical Associa- 
 tion for Schools will probably do much for the teaching of history in 
 our schools in the near future. 
 
86 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 Geography 
 
 In geography the teaching begins with the explanation 
 of geographical terms and of the more ordinary physical 
 features, followed up by teaching the points of the compass 
 with the map of the class-room, school, the house, and the 
 street, with tales of travellers to be retold by the pupil. 
 For even in geography the pupil is encouraged to make a 
 connected narrative. The geography of France and its 
 colonies begins in the seventh class. Then comes general 
 geography, including elementary notions on the effects of 
 climate. A whole year is given to France in the first class. 
 
 There are several points that geographical experts might 
 be inclined to criticize here, especially in the order in which 
 the geographical facts and features are presented, but they 
 would probably agree in stating that, as in history so in 
 geography, what we want is an orderly presentation of the 
 subject, so that we may be certain that every child has had 
 a proper grounding in it when he comes to any school, 
 and has also had a complete course in it if he leaves at, 
 say, fifteen or sixteen. How this is to be done in England 
 is a difficult matter, but the syllabus issued by the Royal 
 Geographical Society ^ and Mr. Mackinder's ^ masterly 
 address at the British Association on the teaching of the 
 subject are indications that a feeling exists in this country 
 for arriving by common agreement at something like an 
 orderly treatment of this difficult subject. 
 
 No doubt our public examinations can and will do a great 
 deal towards bringing about this highly desirable result. 
 But while geography is excellently taught in some schools, 
 it is in the majority still a Cinderella, and did it not take 
 history as its chaperon it would not appear in some time- 
 
 1 Syllabuses of Instruction in Geography : I. In Elementary Softools ; 
 II. In Higher Schools. (Royal Geographical Society, i Savile Row, 
 London, W., 1903.) 
 
 2 See School World, November, 1903. For possible reforms under 
 existing conditions see paper read by the present writer on " The 
 Teaching of Geography in Secondary Schools " at the British 
 Association, September, 1903, republished by The Journal of Educa- 
 tion, December, 1903. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 87 
 
 tables at all. Nothing can be more disheartening reading 
 than Mr. Headlam's report on the teaching of geography in 
 second- and third-grade English schools in his paper on 
 Literary Subjects in Some Secondary Schools for Boys, 
 published in the Board of Education's General Reports on 
 Higher Education, 1902 : 
 
 " Geography, even in the upper forms, remains merely an ac- 
 quaintance with the names on the map. No attempt is made to 
 explain the general principles of physical geography on which the 
 configuration of the countries depends, or on the historical causes 
 of their political conditions. No attempt is made to connect the 
 history and geography " (p. 65).^ 
 
 Mathematics 
 
 Professors of mathematics in France have long possessed 
 two great advantages over their English colleagues. The 
 first is the metric system, which reduces all questions in 
 weights and measures to problems in simple arithmetic. 
 Pupils in English schools probably spend over two years 
 in mastering difficulties largely mnemonic which do not 
 present themselves to French boys. Arithmetic in French 
 schools is altogether a much less complicated affair. One 
 comes across such sensible stage directions at the outset as, 
 " Avoid the too frequent use of imaginary problems," 
 " Define always the terms employed," " The definitions, in 
 particular those which concern fractions, will be constantly 
 employed in the form of concrete examples." And this 
 brings us to the second great advantage. While we in 
 England still maintain an arbitrary division between arith- 
 metic and algebra, and have only just begun to banish 
 Euclid from our schools, ^ the French have long since elimi- 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) Great progress has been made, especially in the 
 reform of the papers set in public examination. In some schools 
 geography laboratories have been founded, and attempts are being 
 made to make geography a basis for historical teaching. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) Thanks largely to the British Association's 
 report on the teaching of mathematics {Discussion on the Teaching 
 of Mathematics . . . to which is . . . added the Report of the British 
 Association Committee, London, Macmillan, 1902), these criticisms 
 are, to a great extent, no longer true. The party wall between the 
 
88 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 nated the imaginary frontier between the first two and 
 have substituted for Eudid a more simple form of geometry. 
 The result is that the pupil's progress is far more rapid. 
 He speedily arrives at trigonometry and easy conies, and 
 instead of finishing up in some branch of pure mathematics 
 which seems to him to have no relation with any practical 
 reality whatever, he finds that his mathematics terminate 
 in the study of a concrete subject called cosmography. In 
 fact, speaking generally, the whole course, whether in 
 arithmetic, algebra, or geometry, is free from a vast amount 
 of unnecessary refinements, such as the simphfication of long 
 complex fractions or the working out of endless G.C.M. 
 sums in algebra. Those interested in hghtening the burden 
 of the English boy in mathematics would do well to study 
 the French programme, and above all the French text- 
 books.^ 
 
 Science 
 
 In science in French schools the practical side is un- 
 doubtedly the weak spot. Apparently the chemistry and 
 physics for the classical pupils in the philosophy class are 
 still taught on theoretical lines. The professor in his role of 
 scientific conjurer produces or not the necessary miracles, 
 and the pupils look on and copy down the explanations of 
 the professor. The teacher's mode of exposition is a model 
 of clearness, but the chorus-like part played by the pupils 
 is clearly insufficient. In the two upper classes of the 
 Latin-science and modern-language-science classes, two 
 hours' practical work per week appears on the time-table. 
 
 various branches has been broken down, and the teaching begins 
 with and is based on the concrete. The idea of basing the teaching 
 of mathematics on its historical development is gaining ground. 
 (Vide A Study of Mathematical Education, by B. Branford ; Oxford, 
 Clarendon Press, 1908.) 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) According to M. Gabriel Lippmann, excellent as 
 the mathematical teaching in French schools is, it might at the 
 start be still more inductive and concrete. Moreover, owing to 
 the increase in the granting of " dispenses," too many pupils have to 
 study the higher mathematics a year too soon. The programme in 
 Section C, according to M. Steeg, " exi^e des connaissances trop 
 complexes et trop difficiles, etant donni I'dge des ileves." He adds, 
 however, that modifications are taking place (p. 39). 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 89 
 
 No doubt of recent years an effort has been made to 
 render the teaching more practical, but the Ministry find 
 the cost of building and equipping the laboratories a very 
 heavy expense. There is Uttle doubt that the average 
 French professor must look with envy on the laboratories 
 in an ordinary Enghsh school.^ The amount that has been 
 spent on these in the last twenty years must run into 
 hundreds of thousands. ^ It will be noticed that not only 
 chemistry and physics but zoology, botany, and hygiene 
 are taught to all pupils who take the full course in 
 France. 
 
 Of the other subjects taught in the schools, the drawing 
 naturally attains a higher level. The wTiting is generally 
 pretty legible, if not very attractive to Enghsh eyes. Sing- 
 ing is indulged in from the loth to the 7th class. There 
 are also object-lessons for the Uttle boys. Book-keeping, 
 which includes not merely the keeping of accounts but 
 general commercial knowledge, has an hour devoted to it 
 in the 3rd and 4th classes for modem boys. The 3rd class 
 modem boys have also a course in common law, and that 
 seems very^ practical. In the classes of the preparatory and 
 elementary di\dsion5 moral and civil instruction is included 
 in the French history and geography lessons. In the fourth 
 and third an hour a week is given to the subject. The whole 
 question of moral teaching will be discussed when we reach 
 the rehgious question. ^ 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) This is no longer so much the case. Cf. M. 
 Gautier {Progress of Secondary Education in France, p. 12) : " L'en- 
 seignement des sciences physiques avail ite jusqu'alors un enseignement 
 purement theotique. Dans la mesure du possible, nous en avons fait 
 un enseignement pratique, c'est-a-dire, que nous avons amend les Sieves, 
 par les manipulations, par I' etude pratique des appareils, a etre capables 
 de fabriquer eux-memes ces appareils." 
 
 * Compare Sir WiUiam Abney's paper, report of the seventv-third 
 meeting of the British Association, September, 1903, pp. 865 j^. 
 
 3 Note. — (1909.) The general verdict seems to be that the new 
 programmes, in spite of a certain amount of overwork, are a great 
 improvement on the whole. As M. Steeg says, they are better 
 adapted to the needs of society and the aptitudes of the pupils 
 {Rapport, p 39). 
 
90 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 APPENDIX TO II (ix) 
 
 Being desirous of obtaining a second opinion on my impressions of 
 French and English education, and on the points of difference be- 
 tween the two systems, I asked my friend M. Duhamel,i Directeur 
 du College de Normandie, to furnish me with a short statement on 
 the subject. M. Duhamel has not only an extensive acquaintance 
 with French education, he has also had fifteen years' experience in 
 our big public schools. The comparison with which he has kindly 
 furnished me is, therefore, a document of exceptional value. 
 
 Une Experience pedagogique franco-anglaise, par M. J. 
 Duhamel, Directeur du College de Normandie 
 
 Un el^ve fran9ais travaille-t-il mieux et plus vite qu'un el^ve 
 anglais du meme age ? L'un a-t-il un procede, voire meme une 
 methode, que I'autre n'a pas ? Lequel des deux saura tirer le 
 meilleur avantage de ses lectures, des le9ons du maltre, qu'il soit en 
 presence d'un probleme ou d'une question litteraire ? 
 
 Poser la question n'est pas la resoudre ; mais elle est assez interes- 
 sante pour I'examiner de pr6s. Supposons deux 61^ves du meme age : 
 i6 ou 17 ans, l'un Fran9ais, en Premiere ; I'autre Anglais dans le 
 " VI Form." Tons deux ont une serie de compositions a faire : une 
 version latine, un th^me latin, une composition de vers latins, une 
 question d'histoire et enfin un sujet litteraire a traiter. Accordons- 
 leur deux heures pour la version et deux heures pour le th^me, trois 
 heures pour la composition d'histoire, autant pour celle de vers latins, 
 et quatre heures pour la dissertation fran9aise appelee " essay " par 
 le jeune Anglais. Puis, les ayant installes chacun k un bout de table 
 sans dictionnaires, gradus, grammaires, ni livre d'aucune sorte, 
 regardons-les travailler. 
 
 La version est de Tite-Live, elle a une trentaine de lignes. Les 
 deux eldves, fideles observateurs du conseil du maitre, ont commence 
 par la lire. Le jeune Fran9ais s'arrete, s'appuie tantot sur un 
 coude, tantot sur I'autre, il regarde dans le vide, semble chercher des 
 mots, puis il commence k ecrire. Mais avec quelle lenteur ! Sont-ce 
 les mots dont le sens lui echappe ? Ou bien, est-ce simplement le 
 desir de presenter une traduction litterale et en meme temps litteraire 
 qui le fait s'attarder ainsi ? 
 
 La lecture va nous le dire. D'abord, la version n'est pas achevee. 
 
 1 Died in 1910. His death was a most severe loss to French 
 education. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 91 
 
 c'est dej^ un mauvais point. Notre ecolier n'en a traduit que les 
 trois quarts, et encore il y a des lacunes. Des mots inconnus ont ete 
 laisses de cote, il y a aussi plusieurs contre-sens. fividemment c'est 
 le vocabulaire qui fait defaut. Dictionnaire en main le travail aurait 
 6t6 vraisemblement bon, a juger des passages entiers qui ont ete 
 compris et traduits. Car ce qui a 6te compris a ete traduit avec un 
 soin scrupuleux du fond et de la forme, on y sent I'effort, I'idee tr6s 
 nette de bien rendre la pensee. Les nombreuses ratures portent 
 precisement sur la forme, on s'est attache k bien exprimer ce qui 
 avait ete bien compris. Et au moment de mettre une appreciation 
 ecrite en marge on dira : " Ce qui a ete compris est bien traduit, mais 
 vous ne savez pas assez de mots, c'est la forme qui manque le moins 
 et le fond qui manque le plus." 
 
 Le jeune Anglais avait fini bien avant I'heure. II avait lu le texte, 
 puis sans se presser, sans presque s'arreter, il I'avait traduit. Comma 
 les paragraphes etaient mal alignes il avait recopie sa traduction avec 
 un souci tr^s louable de I'ecriture, et alors, posant sa plume, les mains 
 dans les poches, le dos appuye, il avait reve a ce que revent les jeunes 
 ecoliers anglais : a la prochaine partie de football et au nombre de 
 hits qu'il pourrait faire. Le texte a ete compris, a part quelques 
 faux sens, mais la s'arrete le merite. On sait des mots, on est familier 
 avec I'allure de la phrase latine, on la comprend presque a premiere 
 vue, mais, de la forme, nul souci. Savoir ce que " ga veut dire," " to 
 make sense," et c'est assez. Les phrases sont mal construites, la 
 traduction est sans couleur. Tons les mots sont traduits, mais a la 
 diable, tant bien que mal, plutot mal que bien. Et I'annotation est 
 celle-ci : " Le texte a ete assez bien compris, mais la traduction n'est 
 pas assez litteraire." 
 
 Resumons notre impression : I'eldve anglais a un vocabulaire latin 
 plus riche que I'ecolier frangais, il a lu et traduit des passages plus 
 nombreux. Lire beaucoup de latin est un moyen tres efficace pour 
 apprendre des mots, et il est en honneur en Angleterre. Mais la 
 traduction orale est necessairement plus lache et plus decousue que 
 la traduction ecrite, et, autant la version ecrite, d'ou nait la forme 
 litteraire, est commune, comme procede pedagogique en France, 
 autant elle est peu frequente en Angleterre. Si I'etude du latin pent 
 etre consideree comme un moyen de perfectionnement de la langue 
 maternelle elle n'est reellement productive que si, dans la traduction, 
 on a un egal souci de la forme aussi bien dans le texte que dans la 
 traduction. 
 
 Autrement on apprendra du latin — mais non I'anglais ou le 
 franfais. Or, vivons-nous a une epoque ou I'etude du latin pour le 
 latin soit a encourager ? N'est-ce pas une incongruite pedagogique 
 que d'accorder un nombre aussi considerable d'lieures a I'etude d'une 
 
92 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 langue tr^s accapareuse de temps pour arriver a un si pauvre resultat 
 que celui qui consiste a pouvoir emailler ses ecrits ou sa conversation 
 de citations telles que : carpe diem, horresco ref evens, pro arts etfocis ? 
 Avoir peine dix ans pour en arriver la ! On ne saurait trop le repeter : 
 les humanites n'ont rien de commun avec les besoins de THumanite. 
 Shakespeare, Humphry Davy, William Cobbett, Walter Scott, 
 Bulwer, John Bright ne savaient pas le latin. Les traitera-t-on de 
 barbares pour cela ? 
 
 Mais, revenons a nos deux moutons. AprSs la version, le th^me et 
 les vers latins. A la mi-temps — ^pour parler le langage du sport — le 
 jeune Anglais avait pris son thdme latin. Latin de la decadence 
 peut-etre (latin de chien au-dela du detroit ; latin de cuisine en de9a), 
 mais du latin quand meme. L'ecolier fran9ais avait franchement 
 renonce a toute tentative d^s le debut. Soucieux de sa dignite, il 
 avait prefere remettre une copie blanche. Et pendant que son 
 emule passant a la composition de vers latins, voyait dactyles et 
 spondees s'aligner methodiquement au bout de sa plume, il se 
 recitait, pour passer le temps, des vers de Musset ou de Victor Hugo. 
 Comme le fr^re du Petit Chose d'Alphonse Daudet, il revait d'une 
 oeuvre poetique en douze chants pour son compte personnel. . . . 
 
 La composition d'histoire comportait trois heures de travail, avons- 
 nous dit. II avait ete entendu entre le professeur anglais et le pro- 
 fesseur fran9ais que chacun d'eux redigerait un texte de composition 
 portant sur I'histoire de I'Europe — a I'exclusion de la France et de 
 r Angleterre — et que les deux textes seraient tires au sort par les deux 
 candidats. Puisque nous sommes dans la domaine de I'hypothdse 
 nous supposerons que le texte redige par le professeur fran9ais 6chut 
 k I'el^ve anglais, et vice versa. Tons deux furent desorientes — c'est 
 les el^ves que je veux dire, et non les maitres ! 
 
 En voici la raison : la redaction faite par le professeur anglais 
 comportait quatorze questions, et I'el^ve fran9ais de s'ecrier : " Mais 
 c'est quatorze compositions qu'on me donne a faire et deux jours n'y 
 sufhraient pas ! " L'eldve anglais ne fut pas moins etonne en voyant 
 I'unique question posee par le professeur fran9ais. fitonnement 
 joyeux, car il y repond en dix lignes. Cependant que le " French 
 boy " ecrit pages sur pages et d'un ceil anxieux regarde a sa montre. 
 Pourquoi, d'un cote, une question unique avec dix lignes de reponse 
 et, d'un autre cote, quatorze pages de r6ponse a quatorze questions. 
 Qui a raison et qui a tort ? Quelle est la meilleure methode ? Une 
 question unique, ou des questions tres nombreuses ? Un fait a 
 envisager, expliquer, commenter, juger ; ou bien : une serie de faits 
 Isolds, de dates, de noms de batailles, de traites a rapporter ? 
 
 Cela est la methode fran9aise ; ceci la methode anglaise. Celle-la 
 vaut-elle mieux que celle-ci ou inversement ? Nous repondrons que 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 93 
 
 toutes deux sont defectueuses. Savoir des faits, des dates, des noms 
 de bataille, n'est pas savoir I'histoire ; epiloguer sur les conditions 
 d'un traite, voire meme sur une periode enti^re, ne constitue pas 
 davantage I'enseignement historique veritable qui doit participer et 
 de la connaissance et de la critique des faits. Une methode fait 
 appel k une faculte de second ordre : la memoire ; une autre au 
 jugement, faculty maitresse, mais dont les faits sont I'aliment in- 
 dispensable. 
 
 Et quand I'une ou I'autre de ces m6thodes est devenue exclusive, 
 I'ecolier emmagasine d'une part des faits sans lieu, ou de I'autre 
 s'habitue, avec des donnees insuf&santes, a ergoter sur un fait 
 isol6. C'est le ab uno disce omnes transports dans le domaine de 
 I'histoire. 
 
 Arrivons k la dissertation : car c'est dans ce travail de production 
 que I'etat d'esprit des deux ecoliers apparaitra le mieux. Supposons 
 que le texte de la composition est le suivant : ' ' Qu'est-ce qui constitue 
 les qualites de I'historien ? " C'est un sujet international. Chaque 
 ecolier est libre de choisir des examples dans I'antiquitS classique ou 
 dans la littSrature de son pays. Inutile d'attendre quatre heures 
 pour savoir le resultat. La superiorite de I'ecolier fran9ais s'afiQrme 
 la d'une fa9on peremptoire, non seulement dans le fond, mais surtout 
 dans la forme. 
 
 D6s les premieres lignes on se sent en presence d'un plan. La 
 question est posee. L'enfant n'a pas lu ni traduit Aristote, mais on 
 lui a longuement expliqu6 et souvent repete, que, dans toute com- 
 position, il y a un commencement, un milieu et une fin, que toute 
 phrase doit tendre a illuminer une pensee, a expliquer, prouver ; qu'il 
 faut savoir s'arreter a temps, conclure ; qu'enfin il y a une mani^re 
 de dire qui constitue ce que Ton appelle la forme litteraire laquelle 
 depend autant du choix des mots que de I'ordonnancement de la 
 pens6e et de I'agencement de la phrase ; autant de la cohesion et de 
 I'ordre dans les idees, que de I'expression meme de ces idees. Et il 
 rature ce mot, change cette epith^te ; allonge ici, raccourcit plus loin, 
 coupe cette phrase en deux, supprime les " que " et les " qui," les 
 "mais" et les " pourquoi," cherche k eviter les circumlocutions 
 vicieuses, la mani^re de dire de tout le monde. II fait appel a ses 
 souvenirs : citations notees au cours d'une classe ou d'une lecture, 
 car il a lu ses auteurs frangais, il en sait des passages par coeur et voil^ 
 que la citation vient naturellement sous sa plume ; et il est tres 
 fier de ressembler ainsi k Montaigne. 
 
 Resultat : cinq ou six pages de prose fran^aise tr^s acceptable et 
 meme souvent tr^s louable. L'Scolier anglais a noirci une page et 
 demie de lieux communs. II a ecrit tout cela " d'une seule encre." 
 II a fait un brouillon pour la forme. II n'y a rien change, ou presque 
 
94 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 rien, en recopiant. D'ou vient cette indigence si flagrante chez 
 r^colier anglais ? La reponse tient en deux lignes. 
 
 En Angleterre, dans les etablissements d'enseignement secondaire, 
 on n'enseigne aux eleves ni la langue ni la litterature anglaises. On 
 esp^re qu'ils apprendront I'anglais en faisant de mauvais vers latins 
 et de pidtres themes. C'est une erreur grave. II y a de grands 
 garfons, dans les meilleures ecoles, publiques ou autres, qui, a dix- 
 huit ans, sont incapables d'ecrire une lettre sans fautes d'orthographe 
 ou de style. Ce n'est pas une exageration, c'est un fait. 
 
 Faut-il s'en prendre aux el6ves ou aux maitres ? Aux maitres et 
 aux m^thodes, — et aux exercices physiques. L' Angleterre est par 
 excellence le pays des traditions bonnes et mauvaises. Est mauvaise 
 la tradition qui meconnait les besoins intellectuels de la generation 
 actuelle, qui cantonne les esprits dans la societe des morts, si grands 
 et si illustres qu'ils soient. La litterature anglaise est riche en pontes, 
 philosophes, historiens, "essayists"; et la langue elle-m^me, si 
 souple et si expressive, est pour le litterateur de profession aussi bien 
 que pour I'homme d'affaires, un instrument de puissance et d'action. 
 
 Mais si elle est d6bonnaire k qui la courtise, elle est maratre k qui 
 la dedaigne. II faudrait lire. L'6colier anglais n'en a pas le temps. 
 La vie au grand air, le football et les longues seances de cricket sont 
 absorbantes. Puis les magazines, les illustres, avec leurs couvertures 
 all6chantes, leurs gravures emoustillantes, ont plus d'attrait qu'un 
 essai de Bacon ou une stance de Byron. Byron ! Un nom qu'on 
 ne prononce qu'en rougissant dans les ecoles meme de gargons. 
 
 II faudrait que les Universites elles-memes donnassent I'exemple 
 en renovant leur enseignement ; mais les Universit6s sont conser- 
 vatrices et traditionnelles par essence. Quand elles bougeront, tout 
 bougera, comme le midi chez nous. Ce ne sera pas avant long- 
 temps. Est-ce a dire que I'instruction nationale en France, dans les 
 etablissements d'enseignement secondaire soit mieux organisee ? 
 Elle en a la pretention, helas ! Un ministre ordonne, d6crdte, afifiche 
 des programmes d' etudes qui, k I'user, sont impraticables parce que 
 surcharges. Un 616ve de Premiere pour la Section Latin-Sciences 
 a 27 heures de classes qui supposent un minimum de 6| heures de 
 preparation par classe. Total : 62 heures par semaine, c'est-^-dire 
 dix heures de travail par jour et cela ^16 ans 1 ^ 
 
 (x) General Teaching Methods — Marks 
 
 Until recently the prevailing system consisted of an 
 interrogation followed by an exposition orale. The interro- 
 
 ^ Note. — (1013.) See note, p. 65. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 95 
 
 gation (questioning) was based on a resume which had been 
 dictated to the pupils at the close of the preceding lesson, 
 and prepared by the pupils at home. The exposition ovale 
 was a lecture in which the professor broke fresh ground. 
 Now, except in philosophy, the professor is forbidden to 
 give a lecture or a course of lectures, even in mathematics, 
 on account of the reduced time allotted to the lessons (one 
 hour instead of two). Questioning and explanation are to 
 take up the chief part of the lesson. 
 
 The pupils get up at home the notes they have taken in 
 class, as well as a passage out of the text-book dealing partly 
 with what has been already discussed and partly with what 
 is new. In every subject connected answers are looked for. 
 Pupils often are put on to speak for three or four minutes. 
 All the members of the class are supposed to be questioned, 
 not one or two, which was the prevailing fault of the old 
 system. To see that this is done is one of the new duties of 
 the proviseur. And the younger generation of inspecteurs- 
 generaux take much pains to see that this rule is not 
 honoured in the breach. 
 
 In the English secondary schools lecturing has been 
 rarely the besetting sin of the teacher. Questioning has too 
 often reigned supreme, questioning which often lacked order 
 and required for its replies nothing more than a single word.^ 
 Apparently many teachers have never made the necessary 
 differentiation between pupils knowing the lesson and being 
 able to reproduce it. Yet it is one thing to give a certain 
 number of test questions to see if the pupil has learnt the 
 lesson or looked at it ; it is quite another thing to try to 
 see how much he has assimilated and can reproduce. 
 
 One may be able by means of skilfully framed questions 
 to extract a whole lesson from a boy in the shape of scraps 
 and tit-bits, and yet the boy himself might be quite incapable 
 of reproducing the lesson in something like a connected 
 shape. When it is pointed out to our teachers what a 
 valuable aid and adjunct to written composition this branch 
 
 ^ For an exhaustive diagnosis of prevailing faults in questioning, 
 which deals primarily with Irish schools but applies to not a few 
 English schools, see Report of the Temporary Inspectors, 1903, Inter- 
 mediate Education Board for Ireland, 
 
96 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 of oral narration is, they often try to shelter themselves 
 under the plea that it would never succeed with their pupils 
 as English boys are a tongue-tied race. New methods of 
 teaching modern languages are exploding this fallacy. Once 
 we have proved to the average teacher that a boy can 
 string together connected sentences in a foreign tongue, we 
 shall be able to make short shrift of this time-honoured 
 legend that the EngHsh boy cannot speak extemporarily in 
 his own language. 
 
 It is noteworthy that French teachers avail themselves 
 but rarely of marks except in the case of written composi- 
 tions. Opponents of the metric system will be interested 
 to observe that in the country which produced it the usual 
 maximum is twenty. We in England, generally speaking, 
 have gone too far in the cult of marks. As has been already 
 pointed out, marks are necessary, as long as an assistant's 
 class-room is his strong room and castle, as a record of and 
 check on his teaching. They are also undoubtedly useful 
 for indicating a boy's progress and for classifying him with 
 the other boys, and for the awarding of prizes. But the 
 whole system has in some schools been so worked to death 
 that teachers and pupils alike have fallen under its spell. 
 
 The keeping and addition of marks has become an impor- 
 tant item in overwork, more especially when the teacher has 
 to jot down every individual mark himself. It is obviously 
 a serious strain to have to tell off yet another set of brain 
 centres to carry on a third function in addition to those of 
 teaching and keeping disciphne. Pupils, again, are apt to 
 get keen on marks, and look at the subject they are studying 
 merely in terms of marks. From time to time some marks 
 enthusiast of the pure mathematical mind that wants things 
 right to five places of decimals, arises and complicates 
 matters with a view to approximating the symbol more 
 closely to the result for which it stands. The mark book 
 grows, and there is soon one page to serve as a day book 
 for recording marks, and another to serve as a ledger for 
 entering them and adding them up. 
 
 The whole system becomes an elaborate system of bank- 
 ing in which the weekly or, monthly totals and places 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 97 
 
 furnished to the parent represent the pass-book, the teacher 
 himself being a sort of automatic cash-register which banks 
 and records all receipts, enters them and adds them up 
 under different headings and issues a correct balance-sheet 
 at stated intervals. Is there any wonder if in the end 
 examiners and teachers forget that marks are only a means, 
 and that an imperfect one,^ to an end, and look on the pupil 
 as a mere mark-earning machine, much as the primary pupil 
 was looked on as a money-earning machine before the 
 introduction of the block-grant ? 
 
 The truth is marks are good servants but bad masters. 
 With small boys they have many advantages. Like 
 counters, they add zest to the game for those just out of 
 the kindergarten. They are particularly useful as indis- 
 pensable adjuncts to the system of taking places which 
 obtains so largely in the lower forms of English schools and 
 is so rarely seen in foreign. Up to a certain point, then, 
 as scaffolding to support and supplement the pupils' interest 
 in learning, they are excellent, but we must remember they 
 can never be woven into the framework of the building. 
 Again, from the teacher's point of view their usefulness as a 
 rough and ready reckoner of a pupil's progress is indis- 
 putable, while their value for appraising composition is not 
 to be gainsaid. Still, when we see how largely foreign 
 teachers are able to dispense with them, we may weU 
 ask ourselves whether there is not an abuse of marks in 
 England. 
 
 (xi) Standard of Mental Maturity and Intellectual 
 
 Attainment 
 
 If power to express oneself with comparative facility and 
 clearness, to seize readily the gist of questions, and to handle 
 with relative ease abstract and philosophical ideas, be signs 
 
 1 A friend of the writer was once proxime accessit for a scholarship. 
 He called on the tutor of the college to learn why he had failed. 
 " Well," said the latter, turning to the mark-sheet, " you see the man 
 above you got 285, and you only got 284 ! " The tutor was perfectly 
 in earnest. A mark once recorded became a chose jugee, a fact, and 
 no one could dispute there was a difference between 284 and 285. 
 
 B.E. G 
 
98 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 of maturity of mind, the French pupil is certainly ahead of 
 the English boy at the same age. Undoubtedly, again, his 
 literary and aesthetic sympathies are correspondingly more 
 developed. Some of his intellectual expertness must be set 
 down to the fact that secondary education in France goes 
 back still further even than secondary education in 
 England,^ and that while the universities and the schools 
 had also their dark age in the middle of the eighteenth 
 century, the traditions of bien dire and Men ecrire were never 
 lost. 
 
 But a still greater part of this apparent precocity is due 
 to the race and the milieu. The French are naturally quick 
 and vivacious. They have a mind that leaps to conclu- 
 sions (prime-sautier) . Happily the leap is generally correct, 
 though if they go past the point it is often a little difficult 
 to bring them back to it. Again, the French boy and the 
 French girl come to physical maturity earlier than the 
 English. One has only to compare the whiskered and 
 bearded pupils who are not uncommon in the upper classes 
 of the lycee with the comparatively smooth-faced English 
 boys of the same age in order to realize the difference. 
 
 The milieu, however, especially in Paris, is one of the main 
 factors in the rapid development of the French boy, involv- 
 ing as it does the practical absence of a real schoolboy 
 atmosphere and the relatively cultured environment of the 
 home in which he lives. 
 
 To take the first point. School to the French day boy 
 means little else than a labour-house, in which he has to put 
 in a certain number of hours of work per diem. Its external 
 attractions are very sHght. The pupil in the boarding 
 school lives under a regime of repression. The authorities 
 look on boyhood as an age ingrat, a difficult stage in man's 
 development, subject to outbreaks of all kinds of evil 
 passions, which has to be gone through and got over, say, 
 like measles or chicken-pox, and which therefore demands 
 
 1 A friend informs me that this mental maturity as far as dealing 
 with abstract and philosophic ideas is concerned is also a characteristic 
 of Scottish boys. It is probably due in their case to the influences of 
 three centuries of education, which has many points of resemblance 
 with French. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 99 
 
 incessant vigilance. We have really here the old conception 
 against which Rousseau flung his most daring paradox, that 
 the human creature is fonder ement maitvais, and that the boy 
 must be kept constantly under observation like a person 
 who may sicken at any moment for some disease or other. 
 
 No wonder then if boyhood to the average bo}^ seems more 
 or less servitude, from which he is anxious to escape : man- 
 hood means emancipation, and freedom to do what he 
 pleases. All his thoughts are turned towards the future in 
 which he promises to indemnify himself, not always wisely, ^ 
 for the present gene from which he suffers. He knows 
 nothing of the happy innocence of the average English 
 public-school boy, who lives in a world very largely of his 
 own, a world which may be filled too exclusively with games 
 and the hero-worship of athletes, but is none the less one of 
 the most delightful of worlds from the inside. 
 
 The English boy has solved, perhaps too thoroughly, the 
 problem of living in the present for the present. To-morrow 
 or the next half-holiday is the ordinary limit of his future, 
 its millennium the coming vacation. English boys will be 
 boys, and they live the life of a boy from the preparatory 
 school upwards. Even when they affect to be men, and 
 their affectation is very pronounced, they remain at heart 
 the veriest boys. While the French lyceen regards boyhood 
 as a college uniform to be doffed at the earliest moment, 
 the English boy puts on manhood without losing his 
 boyhood. 
 
 The whole tendency of the English school is to keep boys 
 young, often in the best sense of the word. If there is a 
 spot where the fountain of youth is really on tap it is at a 
 typical English public school. Does one know of any other 
 place where the spirits run so high, and the fun is so well 
 kept up, yet withal is so harmless ? So intense is the 
 interest of the school in itself, in its doings, that school 
 
 ^ See E. p. c. p., p. 16 : " Boire des bocks, fumer des pipes, hunter 
 les brasseries et les cabarets pornographiques, telle est la vie que revent 
 les quatre-cinquiemes des ' potaches.' " See also Coubertin, L'Bduca- 
 tion anglaise en France, the whole chapter — " Nos Lyceens." — (1913). 
 For a remarkable change in this spirit in certain circles, see Les 
 jeunes Gens d'aujourd'hui, by " Agathon," 
 
100 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 " shop " not merely pervades the common room and the 
 studies, it also penetrates and often dominates the masters' 
 sanctums. The life of the school is so self-centred it reminds 
 you of those vigorous but provincially minded city-re- 
 publics in mediaeval Italy, and one cannot help feeling the 
 need of a wider outlook and a deeper interest in the matters 
 beyond the bounds of the school.^ 
 
 But if such an atmosphere is totally lacking in French 
 schools, the home, especially in the case of the day boy, 
 comes to the rescue and supplies him with other interests. 
 While the English boy is still deep in cricket and football, 
 the French boy is taking a lively interest in literary, socio- 
 logical, or social questions. Quite recently the present 
 writer heard a class of small boys of 12 and 13 receiving a 
 lesson in la morale. The teacher explained to the inspecteur- 
 general who was present that he was rather inexperienced 
 in the matter, a point which was not very apparent. At 
 any rate he had some remarkably apt pupils. The lesson 
 was on calumny and slander. 
 
 I was immensely struck with the extraordinary abiHty 
 with which the children discussed knotty points of morality, 
 distinguished between kindred defects, and answered clearly 
 and to the point. I doubt if a class of boys of 16 and 17 in 
 England would have answered better. At all events they 
 would not have been so ready or so sure in their replies. 
 I could not help inserting in my notebook : Les Frangais 
 naissent psychologues. Another instance. At one of the 
 literary and social entertainments given by the pupils of 
 the lycee I attended, to their parents and friends, a little 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) For the limiting and, at times, disappointing 
 results of such an education, cf. Sir Arthur Hort {Papers on Moral 
 Education, communicated to the first Moral Instruction Congress, held 
 at the University of London, September 25th to 29th, 1908, p. 90 ; 
 London, D. Nutt) : " If in after-Hfe the man thus trained [i.e., on the 
 prefect system] proves after all deficient in the sense of what is 
 demanded of him as a citizen, the explanation is perhaps that as a 
 public-school boy he belonged to a society whose existence and whose 
 claims were more obvious than are those of State and Church. Still 
 it is undeniably disappointing that the sense of corporate life once 
 gained in a miniature society does not more often develop into 
 patriotism and similar virtues." 
 

 • J J J ■» J J J J 
 
 • J J ■» J , . 
 
 FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECOND ARV SCHOOtS ibi' ' ^ ' 
 
 comedy by one of the pupils who was only 17 was performed 
 with great success. Such an etude de mceurs could hardly 
 have been written by any person under age in England, not 
 only because of the observation it contained but also of the 
 maturity of judgment it displayed. 
 
 (xii) Rewards and Punishments 
 
 There is little difference between the prize systems of the 
 two countries, except that the good conduct prize which 
 still figures on the list of many public schools has no counter- 
 part in France. It is curious that the country of rosieres 
 and prix Montyon should never have thought of prix 
 d' encouragement to promote the breed of Gallic Sandfords 
 and Mertons. As minor rewards for good work in the 
 compositions, etc., the pupil receives a temoignage de satis- 
 faction. A certain number of these good merit coupons 
 entitle the possessor to a prize. They can also be exchanged 
 with the consent of the censeur against committal orders to 
 durance vile in the shape of " detention." There is, how- 
 .ever, no forced currency in this paper money. Otherwise 
 the clever but unruly coUegien would be directly tempted to 
 become a chartered libertine in class. 
 
 Corporal punishment has been abolished in all French 
 schools. The scale of penalties is as follows : (i) The bad 
 mark which is inscribed in the pupil's notebook which he 
 takes home. (2) The public reprimand by the professor 
 before the class. (3) The lesson done over again at home. 
 (4) The keeping in on Thursdays (the whole holiday). (5) 
 Temporary exclusion for three or four days. (6) Definite 
 expulsion. In the last case action is taken by the dis- 
 ciplinary council of the lycee. Generally, however, the 
 parents are sent for and it is explained to them that the best 
 thing they can do is voluntarily to withdraw their son. Boys 
 turned out of the class-room for misbehaviour must report 
 themselves to the surveillant-general, who puts them down 
 for detention on the next half-holiday. Boarders are 
 further punished by being docked of their half-hohday walk. 
 
id^ ' STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 Detention generally lasts two hours. Small boys are given 
 something to write, a Latin exercise for instance. The 
 older boys do what they please. 
 
 In addition to corporal punishment we have practically 
 the same range of penalties in our public schools, and in 
 some at least the impositions are unfortunately on a far 
 more liberal scale than in the French schools. There is still 
 a tendency to set far too long impositions, which take up a 
 good deal too much of the boy's spare time, encourage 
 scribbling, and even cheating in the shape of showing up 
 less than the number of lines imposed. If long sentences 
 make habitual criminals, long impositions certainly make 
 habitual idlers. A boy who gets deep into his master's 
 debt in the way of impositions speedily loses hope and 
 confidence in himself, and becomes resigned and indifferent. 
 From thence he passes by easy stages to the state of the 
 hardened sinner. The master, finding his one remedy fails, 
 lets him slide, and the boy's future as an intellectual non- 
 valeur is largely assured. 
 
 Apart from the fact that the punishment should always 
 fit the crime, it is curious that the weak master who sets a 
 heavy imposition for a peccadillo however slight robs him- 
 self of the effect of cumulative punishments ; he not only 
 plays his best card but the whole pack straight away. 
 Many headmasters keep a keen eye on the imposition book, 
 and thereby manage to prevent impositions from becoming 
 either too big or too numerous. As regards corporal punish- 
 ment, in most schools the right to administer it is confined 
 to the headmaster. So long as the English public-school boy 
 is what he is and his attitude towards caning is what it is, 
 it will take a good deal to persuade the average English 
 parent of the middle classes who has been through the mill 
 himself that caning is wrong or that its moral effects do not 
 considerably outweigh its moral disadvantages. 
 
 In fact, the average boy, if offered a long imposition or 
 instant liquidation by the cane, in nine cases out of ten 
 prefers to be dealt with summarily. He recognizes he has 
 done wrong, that amends have to be made for his wrong- 
 doing, and knows if he submits to it with fortitude few will 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 103 
 
 think the " licking " itself disgraceful, and most will feel 
 that his offence, however grave, has been largely purged. 
 Therefore, as Mr. Skrine ^ aptly says, he thinks no shame of 
 it, knowing his dignity is safe (italics are mine). Again, 
 there is an age in the English boy, which lasts from twelve 
 to fourteen, well known to the schoolboys as the " cheeky 
 age," and due no doubt to physiological changes that take 
 place at that age, changes which are still more marked in 
 the animal world. The lion cub, skittish and harmless as 
 a kitten, turns into a wild beast, and the playful calf becomes 
 a dangerous bull. 
 
 Happily the crisis in the case of human beings ends with 
 the entrance into the age of reason. Doubtless, under a 
 regime of repression this stage of development is less marked 
 than with us. But as long as our boys are brought up as 
 they are in a bracing, though by no means Spartan, atmo- 
 sphere, the budding energy in the boy is sure to burst out 
 into irrepressible, not to say irresponsible, self-assertiveness, 
 often in spite of the boy's own endeavour to check it. 
 C'est plus fort que lui. And the rod seems to supply the 
 necessary recall to realities which the struggling reason of 
 that age is not strong enough to effect. 
 
 1 See Pastor Agnorum, p. 57. 
 
III. RELATIONS BETWEEN HOME AND SCHOOL 
 
 (i) Day Boys and Boarders 
 
 The French boy has generally a carnet de correspondance 
 in which he is supposed to write down every day the amount 
 of his home work, and in which the professor, if he so desires, 
 can enter the pupil's marks and his own observations on 
 the pupil's behaviour. Parents are required to sign the 
 book morning and evening, or at least once a day. Occasion- 
 ally the pupil relieves his parents of the task, though it is 
 more than doubtful if they have given him the requisite 
 power of attorney. 
 
 The relations between the headmaster and the families 
 of the day boys are, as we have seen, often very slight. The 
 relations between the family and the class teachers are still 
 less. Very frequently the family does not know the pro- 
 fessor. They are indifferent or do not wish to trouble 
 him. The parents largely reserve to themselves their 
 educational rights, only delegating to the headmaster 
 the right of instruction. Perhaps political questions are 
 not altogether without influence on this strange parti- 
 tion of functions. Be that as it may, the underlying idea 
 seems to be that the parent commits his son daily to the 
 charge of the headmaster with the implied understanding 
 that he must produce him at the end of the day safe and 
 sound. 
 
 This habeas corpus notion is no mere figment. As we 
 have seen, until recently the headmaster himself, and now 
 the State, which has under certain conditions assumed his 
 responsibility, are required financially to guarantee the 
 parent against any accidents which may happen to the 
 boy on the school premises, no matter how much the boy 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 105 
 
 himself may be to blame. ^ No wonder that the average 
 parent looks on the day school as a kind of high-class stores 
 where the requisite kinds of knowledge are bought and sold 
 or as a sort of intellectual restaurant a prixfixe where, at so 
 much a term, the pupil may consume as much as he can. 
 There is little idea of the school as a workshop in which the 
 boy of to-day is to be fashioned and forged into the citizen 
 of to-morrow. 
 
 The fault, no doubt, in part lies with the French mothers. 
 To begin with, they are far more often than in England the 
 business member of the family, or at least a partner whose 
 advice is always listened and often deferred to by the 
 husband. They have a much greater voice in the bringing 
 up of the children. While the French father is merely the 
 " guv'nor," it is they who really rule the menage. They are 
 above all the confidantes and advisers of their son in his 
 various " escapades " and adventures, including even his 
 love affairs. They intervene to protect him from the pater- 
 nal anger, they act as his counsel for the defence with the 
 indignant proviseur. The tie between mother and son is 
 extraordinarily close and deep. 
 
 But if their affection for their offspring is very great, it is 
 seldom without a touch of egotism. They have the greatest 
 difficulty in persuading themselves of the need of loosening 
 the apron-string, so necessary as their boy grows up.^ 
 Often their son is an only child, and they succumb to the 
 very great temptation of spoiling him. For fear of possible 
 accidents they adopt a thousand precautions which cannot 
 fail to hamper his development as a man. They forget man- 
 liness can only be taught by men, that education consists in 
 the skilful and gradual relaxation of parental authority, in 
 the slow passage from a state of nature, in which the parent's 
 bidding is accepted without being understood, to a state of 
 reason in which behind the bidding the child has been 
 trained to see the reason which has dictated it. 
 
 ^ See p. 24. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) Cf. Le Poussin (Mother's Darling), now being 
 given at the Odeon. The whole play is an elaborate satire on the 
 mother who will not allow her boy to grow up. 
 
io6 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 In a word, the son passes from under the patriarchal and 
 monarchical regime to that of a republic, in which the 
 parent only occupies a higher place in the hierarchy than 
 himself.^ French education is stiU very largely based on 
 authority. Thus when the young man leaves home to 
 become a student, or enters the regiment, he suddenly 
 finds himself emancipated, and like the newly enfran- 
 chised slave he does not always know how to make a 
 good use of his liberty. How can he, when he has had no 
 preliminary lessons in self-dependence, self-control, and the 
 sense of responsibility ? The following passage from L' Edu- 
 cation presente of Pere Didon is very much to the point : 
 
 " One of the chief obstacles to a sturdy bringing up of the 
 young men of this country, I venture to say, is their mothers. 
 Mothers are the bottomless reservoirs of the terrible forces 
 of emotion. Why do they not apply them to rouse the vital 
 energies of their sons ? Why do they concentrate them on 
 their children, through imagining in their motherly simpli- 
 city all the better to guard and preserve them by their 
 tenderness ? Such divine and exuberant forces are thus 
 neutralized and brought to naught. But if the flood- 
 gates which hold them back were one day raised by 
 French mothers, the country would speedily see the dawn 
 of the day of national revenge, the dayspring of great 
 enterprises. 
 
 " Instead of everlastingly keeping watch over their 
 children, let them inspire them with courage ; instead of 
 tenderly smothering their sons with kisses, let them compel 
 them to live ; instead of seeking after, while keeping them 
 at their side, a selfish gentleness which saps their energies, 
 let them endeavour to make them a force whose sphere of 
 influence they will increase a hundredfold. In place of 
 
 1 The boy goes through the same gradual apprenticeship of Uberty 
 while at school. Mr. Benson {The Schoolmaster, p. 87) demands that 
 " as the boys get older it is important to remember that there should 
 be an increase of respectfulness imported into the manner of a school- 
 master and that they should be addressed as equals." He then goes 
 on to point out that all discipline should be explained to the elder 
 boys, who deeply value being taken into the master's confidence in 
 such questions. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 107 
 
 separating themselves from the daughters, whom they 
 readily send from home, let the latter be the ones that they 
 keep, and since at any price they desire to brood like a hen 
 o'er their offspring, let the latter be the ones that they brood 
 over ; but for heaven's sake let them cease to treat their 
 sons as vestal virgins." ^ 
 
 The relation between the headmaster and the parents of 
 pupils is equally formal. While socially the lower middle 
 class are proud of their boys being at a lycee or a college, 
 they take little or no interest in the welfare of the college 
 at large. 
 
 Someone has said that the successful headmaster or head- 
 mistress in England is a person who either fawns or tramples 
 on parents. The epigram, like many another, contains an 
 element of truth, but there are plenty of headmasters who 
 manage to steer a successful course between these two 
 extremes. In any case, in comparison with France, the 
 connection between the home and the school, whether day 
 or boarding, is undoubtedly more real than across the 
 Channel. Certainly in the day schools the intercourse 
 between the two parties has shown a distinct tendency to 
 grow during the last twenty years, thanks very probably 
 to the example of the girls' schools, which, in this as in 
 several other matters, have given a friendly lead to boys' 
 education. 
 
 The general run of headmasters in day schools are keenly 
 ahve to the importance of interesting the parents in the 
 proper supervision of the pupils' home work by methods 
 similar to those which obtain in French schools. Such 
 
 1 Note. — (1913.) M. Alfred de Tarde, the brilliant polemical co- 
 writer on education under the name of Agathon, tells me the younger 
 generation are full of desire for adventure and action, less desirous of 
 entering the poorly paid Government offices, and more ready to take 
 up lucrative employment in commerce and business. This is borne 
 out in part by the diminished number of candidates for the teaching 
 profession. The new movement is most evident among the sons of 
 the upper middle class. There is, in fact, a sort of national veveil 
 of the historic French qualities, due, no doubt, in part to the immense 
 success of the national sport, aviation, which has revealed to the 
 French nation the dormant fund of daring and resourcefulness in the 
 national character. The innate virtue has once more become self- 
 conscious. 
 
io8 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 methods are all the more necessary in this country as the 
 average English parent, though improving in this respect, 
 is probably not so impressed with the need of home work 
 being properly done as the French parent, who is a firm 
 believer in the value of knowledge and keenly anxious that 
 his child should obtain value for money. The system which 
 has been already described,^ of making the form master 
 directly responsible for the boys' work and conduct, 
 naturally forges an additional link between parents and the 
 school. 
 
 Again, while French parents seem indisposed to part with 
 any fraction of the p atria or materna potestas, English 
 parents appear more than ever inclined to recognize the 
 headmaster, or even in a boarding school the house master, 
 as a foster-parent, to whose moral as well as educational 
 control they are quite willing to commit their child, and with 
 some parents there is a distinct tendency to assign to this 
 scholastic godfather not only an undue share of respon- 
 sibility but also of blame for the shortcomings of their 
 offspring. It was no doubt such excessive delegation that 
 prompted a headmaster of wide experience to remark, when 
 asked what he thought of parents in general, that in his 
 opinion the majority ought not to be parents at all. He 
 had evidently come across a large percentage who had been 
 tempted to shuffle off more of their parental duties upon him 
 than the school in the most liberal spirit could venture to 
 undertake. Naturally the danger, such as it is, is mainly 
 confined to boarding schools. 
 
 In any case the head of a big public school, or his pro- 
 consuls the house masters, keep up an active correspondence 
 with the parents, who not only take an interest in their boy 
 as a pupil at the school, but also feel a certain pride and 
 satisfaction in the school itself, which constantly betrays 
 itself whenever they talk on the subject. They look on it, 
 in fact, as a sort of company or corporation in which 
 they are interested over and above the mere stake they 
 hold in it. 
 
 If they are themselves old boys, then their conversation 
 
 1 See p. 46 above. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 109 
 
 takes a more enthusiastic turn. They speak of the school 
 as a former home, a dulce domum for which they have still 
 the greatest and most profound affection, and of which they 
 can never forget they are ancient alumni. The prize day 
 or school cricket match is attended by them not merely for 
 the sake of seeing their boy among the prize winners or in 
 the school team, but also in order that for an hour or two 
 they may wander through its courts and playing fields and 
 recall the happy hours they once spent within its precincts, 
 or meet around the well-known cricket pitch the comrades 
 and cronies of bygone years.^ 
 
 In day schools the headmaster possesses further oppor- 
 tunities for getting into touch with the parents over and 
 above the ordinary school relations.^ Not being constantly 
 on the move like the French proviseur, who rarely stops long 
 enough in a place to get to know the local people, the 
 English headmaster and his wife not infrequently take an 
 active part in the social and literary life of the town, and 
 thus have many opportunities of coming into friendly 
 contact with the parents when off duty. Anyone who 
 knows France will readily grant that the social Ufe in 
 England is on a far wider scale. English people entertain 
 far more extensively, and society in this country is not cut 
 up into watertight compartments by reHgious and political 
 differences. In such informal meetings parents learn to 
 know and appreciate the headmaster as a man and not 
 merely as an official. Some few headmasters go still further 
 and establish regular parents' meetings, at which questions 
 of common interest are discussed.^ 
 
 1 This continuity between past and present which is largely lacking 
 in French schools is summed up in a phrase of M. Ribot, " Nos lycees 
 n'ont pas d'histoire." What feeling there is is represented by a sort 
 of scholar's affection for the ancient seat of learning from which he 
 was reared. Such scholarly patriotism is to be found among anciens 
 Sieves of Henry IV and other lycees famous for learning. 
 
 2 Compare M. Ribot, R. E., p. 12, speaking of the schools : 
 
 " Ce sont des lieux de passage 011 des hommes . . . trop souvent 
 inconnus de la ville qu'ils habitent, remplissent momentanement des 
 fonctions reglees par des instructions venues de Paris." 
 
 3 In this connection the Parents' National Education Union 
 (founder Miss Mason) may be mentioned as a social agency that 
 attempts to bring the two parties into closer touch. 
 
no STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 (ii) Hostels 
 
 In the French boarding school the pupils are all herded 
 together, whatever their numbers, in one single building. 
 There are, it is true, a number of pensions in the big towns, 
 often under rehgious control, which send their boarders to 
 the lycee. Such a boarding house is Fenelon,^ in Paris, the 
 boys of which attend Condorcet. There exists, however, 
 no organic connection between these institutions and the 
 lycee or college. The vast majority of colleges, as we have 
 seen, have boarding houses ^ which the principal conducts 
 at his own risk. But otherwise there is no system of 
 boarders being taken by the other masters of the staff which 
 is so common in England. Apart from official difficulties, 
 the truth is that the fee charged in the ordinary boarding 
 school, and especially in the religious schools, is often so 
 low that there is Httle inducement for the ordinary professor 
 to go in for licensed victualling on a large scale.^ 
 
 In England, the hostel and the house system are the main- 
 stay of the pubHc schools. Instead of boarders being 
 crowded together into one huge barrack, they are split up 
 among different hostels and houses, which generally con- 
 sist of separate buildings containing on an average about 
 thirty to forty boys. Both hostels and houses are in nearly 
 all cases managed by teaching members of the staff, the 
 difference being that the term " hostel " is generally appHed 
 to estabhshments which are run to the pecuniary profit of 
 the school or the headmaster, while the term " house " 
 denotes that the establishment is conducted as a private 
 speculation at the master's own risk. 
 
 In the latter case the house is partly filled by the master 
 
 1 For more details on these pensions see Coubertin, L' Education 
 anglaise en France, pp. 76 and 77, and for the sombre side of the life, 
 as far as the headmaster is concerned, cf. Monsieur le Principal, by 
 Jean ViolUs (Paris, Calmann-Levy, 1908). 
 
 2 Les colleges a la charge du principal ; see p. 13. 
 
 3 Note. — (1909.) The French parent looks so closely into the 
 boarding fees that the raising of the pension by so small a sum as £2. 
 a year has, according to the Rapport au Senai of M. Maurice-Faure, 
 affected the entry in several lycees. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS iii 
 
 himself, who speedily estabUshes a connection, and partly 
 by the headmaster, who distributes the overflow from his 
 own house among his colleagues. Being places of consider- 
 able profit, the houses are much sought after. Vacancies 
 are generally filled up by the headmaster by seniority from 
 among the existing members of the staff. The greater 
 number of assistant masters are probably celibates, not by 
 vocation or preference but for economic reasons. Promotion 
 to a headmastership or a house-mastership offers an opportu- 
 nity for matrimony of which the average master gladly avails 
 himself. The establishment itself is generally the gainer. 
 
 The presence of a lady about the house makes its influence 
 felt in many ways. It tends to remove a certain brusquerie 
 and bluntness with which the English boy is at times re- 
 proached, and adds a touch of home life which is not without 
 its value. Some enthusiasts would like further to convert 
 the boarding house into a sort of glorified family circle, and 
 for this purpose have not hesitated to introduce under a due 
 precaution co-education in order to supply to something like 
 an adequate extent the home atmosphere. But there are 
 a good many old-fashioned persons who look on the compara- 
 tive isolation of the school from home life as by no means a 
 defect but a necessary complement to it. 
 
 They realize how in no small degree the school acts as a 
 training for that larger life of intellectual and physical 
 activity and of citizenship which awaits the scholar at the 
 end of his career, and in which the qualities most required, 
 the sense of responsibility and independence, are not always 
 the virtues the most cultivated in the home circle.^ Boys 
 need hardening, as steel needs tempering, though this by 
 no means implies the employment of Spartan methods. 
 We have developed two distinct ideas of education in 
 
 ^ On the function of the school as providing a preparation and 
 initiation into social life, compare the masterly paper by Dr. W. T. 
 Harris read at the fortieth annual meeting of the National Educa- 
 tional Association (United States of America) in 1901, and published 
 in the Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the fortieth annual 
 meeting of the Association (Winona, Minn.), " Isolation in the 
 School : how it helps and how it hinders." Dr. Harris is, of course, 
 speaking mainly of day schools, but his contention applies equally 
 to boarding schools. 
 
112 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 England, the boarding and the day school. Possibly the 
 best type of school is that which combines the two elements. ^ 
 
 (iii) The Religious Question 
 
 Each lycee or college d'internes has its chaplain or chap- 
 lains,^ Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish. Their position is 
 satisfactory ; they are quite independent, and could be very 
 influential, but in general they are regarded by the authori- 
 ties with a suspicious eye. This makes them in turn afraid 
 of appearing too zealous, and their energies therefore are 
 mainly engrossed by their work outside the school. As far 
 as my information goes, they do not appear to get hold of 
 the bulk of the boys. This is probably one reason among 
 others why the authorities have felt it necessary to introduce 
 moral instruction into the secondary schools. It makes its 
 appearance in all of the three divisions. In the preparatory 
 elementary division it forms part of the lessons in French, 
 history, and geography, and consists of short lessons or 
 stories followed by a causerie on their contents. In a word, 
 the teacher is expected to improve the occasion when he sees 
 the opportunity. 
 
 The subject reappears again in the last two years of the 
 first cycle. It is laid down that the teaching should be 
 given where possible by the French master, who thus finds 
 himself converted into a lay director of consciences. The 
 subjects dealt with in the fourth class consist of various 
 kindred virtues and vices grouped under the headings of 
 sincerity, courage, honesty, goodness, moral delicacy, and 
 self-education of the individual. Thus, under the education 
 of self we find the sense of moral dignity as contrasted with 
 the conventional sense of honour, the government of self, 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) In spite of one or two interesting experiments, 
 we are still very far from trying co-education on a big scale, and it 
 must be added that the more thoughtful among the leading teachers 
 in women's education appear to be against it. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) Since the separation of Church and State, the 
 existing aumoniers (chaplains) are maintained till their death or 
 retirement. Their place is then taken by a priest nominated by the 
 bishop. If the latter refuses to act, the children are sent to mass on 
 Sunday. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 113 
 
 firmness of character and unselfishness, the inward authority 
 of the conscience and the respect of rules, the man of duty. 
 
 In the third class the course is composed of " readings, 
 stories, conversations of a methodical kind suitable to render 
 intelligible the value of the aim of mankind and of society." 
 The headings deal with solidarity, justice and social fra- 
 ternity, the family, the professions, the nation, the State 
 and its laws, humanity, individual liberty, and social order. 
 These, however, are the very dry bones of the subject. 
 Through the kindness of M. Darlu, inspecteur-general, I was 
 able to be present at several lessons on the subject. Mention 
 has been made of the precociousness of the pupils, and their 
 ability to make a psychological analysis. 
 
 The teachers ^ were careful to render the instruction con- 
 crete by appealing to the books the class had been lately 
 reading. The inspector-general made it still more practical 
 by bringing it down to the level of daily life, from which he 
 cited numerous apposite examples. On one occasion he 
 dwelt with almost national complacence on the fact that 
 hypocrisy is not a French failing, and ehcited from the 
 pupils that the chief French defect was on the contrary 
 almost exactly the reverse, a weakness for bragging of and 
 exaggerating one's vices — a point which the writers on 
 France do not always remember, when they accept state- 
 ments by French writers as sober and uncoloured presen- 
 tations of the truth. 
 
 The pupils had notebooks in which to enter the resume 
 given by the teacher. The inspector-general did not hesi- 
 tate to declare that the notebook should be specially looked 
 after and cared for, that they, the pupils, should surround 
 it with almost pious attentions (entourer de soins presque 
 pieux). He seemed to regard it in fact as a kind of lay 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) The principle of giving the instruction in the 
 classes mentioned is now finally established, and apparently gives 
 good results when the lesson is taken by the French teacher in the 
 class, who not only knows the pupils better than any other, but has 
 also a good idea of their mental attainment and can illustrate his 
 teaching from literature, or from the life of the class. In some cases, 
 however, the teaching, for motives of economy, is entrusted to the 
 professor in philosophy, and in such the work is not always so 
 successful. 
 
 B.E. H 
 
114 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 breviary. Most of the pupils in this particular class heard 
 him gladly, though one or two showed signs of inattention. 
 The person least impressed by the lesson seemed to be the 
 proviseur who happened to be present. Perhaps he was still 
 sceptical about the new departure. 
 
 But whether successful or not the experiment is extremely 
 significant of the growing sense of the need of doing some- 
 thing for the moral and civic education of the young and of 
 bridging the moral isolation in which teachers and taught 
 stand to each other. It must not be thought that the 
 introduction of la morale in these classes is a mere interlude 
 in the school course which is subsequently dropped out. 
 The whole subject comes up again and is studied in a far 
 more systematic and detailed fashion when the class of 
 philosophy is reached, which it must not be forgotten is the 
 Erkldrungsjahr par excellence of the school course, explaining 
 to the pupil the raison d'etre of his pre\dous studies and pro- 
 viding him with definite principles and ideals for his future 
 life as an intelligent being and as a citizen in a free State. 
 
 Quite a third of the course is concerned with la morale 
 proper, and the latest addition to the rubric deals with the 
 question of alcoholism. As one who owes a great debt to 
 his study of philosophy in France, the present writer feels 
 it difficult to speak too highly of the benefits received from 
 such a course, not the least important of which is the co- 
 ordination of self. He cannot help feeling, however, that 
 such a philosophy, invaluable as it is to the pupils for whom 
 it is meant, should lay more stress on the supreme value of 
 the will. Le cceiir est principe et fin, le cerveati n'est que 
 moyen. As it is, the course has a tendency rather to pro- 
 duce intelHgent beings than masterful men of action.^ 
 
 English people will have no doubt great difficulty in 
 understanding how morality can be taught apart from 
 religion, though there is little doubt that much of the so- 
 called undenominational teaching is half-way on the road to 
 it. With us morality is either a matter of religious sanction 
 or of unconscious tradition, or of both combined. The 
 
 '^ See p. 214, "The True Inwardness of Moral Instruction in 
 France." 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 115 
 
 school chapel supplies the former, but a good deal of the 
 moral tone that pervades a public school is " immanent 
 morality," indwelling in the place itself. As good air is as 
 important as meals and climate, the makers of the English 
 pubhc schools have realized that the school atmosphere is 
 as important as the spiritual food provided in the shape of 
 religious instruction given in the chapel or the class-room. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the actual amount of dogma taught 
 is often comparatively small, as a great deal of the actual 
 reUgious teaching is given by laymen. While the large 
 boarding schools are nearly all nominally Church of England, 
 and as a rule under clerical headmasters, the spirit of the 
 place is generally so hberal that many of the schools are 
 frequented by the sons of Nonconformists and Jews ; for 
 the latter religious facilities are provided, otherwise they 
 take their full share in the life of the school. In fact, while 
 the Broad Church party have greatly diminished within the 
 Church itself owing to the tendency of the latter to split up 
 into High Church and Evangelical, it is probably the Broad 
 Church traditions that are still the most powerful in the 
 public school. 
 
 At all events, until recently we have never had the 
 reUgious question seriously raised in our secondary schools. ^ 
 The Royal Commission on Secondary Education ^ thus 
 described the situation in 1895 : " With regard to religious 
 instruction in schools, it has long been the steady aim of 
 educational legislation in England to remove all just causes 
 of offence or friction, and to secure, as far as possible, that 
 differences of religious belief shall not unduly restrict the 
 diffusion of educational benefits. . . . There has also been 
 during the last half-century a marked growth of good sense 
 and good feeling in such matters. In English secondary 
 education ' the rehgious difficulty ' is now extremely rare. 
 Evidence supplied by the actual working of the schools, 
 and derived from all parts of the country, abundantly 
 
 ^ Cf. Coubertin, L' Education anglaise en France (p. 114) : "La 
 religion n'est pas une legon a apprendre, c'esi une atmosphere d 
 respirer.^^ 
 
 2 Vol. i. pp. 74-75. 
 
ii6 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 proves this. At the same time it would be unwarrantable 
 to affirm that there is no latent uneasiness. . . . Perhaps 
 that very feeling is not without its value as a partial safe- 
 guard against the danger which it apprehends." 
 
 The Education Act of 1902 has, however, introduced 
 certain limitations into the hitherto existing state of affairs, 
 which was so hopelessly illogical in strict theory, yet has 
 worked so admirably in practice. Already the Technical 
 Instruction Act of 1889 has provided that no student in a 
 rate-aided school receiving technical instruction should be 
 obliged to attend any religious observance or teaching. 
 This principle was under the new Act extended to pupils in 
 all aided schools, and thus included not only a very large 
 number of secondary schools but also the pupil teachers in 
 day centres which are now placed under the rubric of 
 secondary education.^ 
 
 An important change which is worthy of note is the 
 gradual decline of the monopoly of the clerical headmaster. 
 Until recently the headship in our big public schools was 
 only open to those who were actually in Orders or who were 
 prepared to take them. Meanwhile the supply of teaching 
 clergymen is growing every year less and less. It became 
 clear by the law of averages alone that the overwhelming 
 majority of lay masters must of necessity contain better 
 men than the diminishing number of clerical masters could 
 supply, even counting in those who were willing to enter the 
 Church if appointed to a headmastership. 
 
 Such a condition of things was not fair to the schools, 
 which have a right to be as efficiently staffed as possible, let 
 alone the grievance of the able layman whose conscientious 
 scruples prevent him from taking Orders. The matter now 
 appears to be slowly righting itself. Quite recently laymen 
 have been appointed to the principalship of some of the most 
 important public schools, with the result that the religious 
 duties of the office have been relegated to a school chaplain, 
 who roughly corresponds to the French aumonier. 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) Some interesting experiments in moral instruc- 
 tion are now being given in some of our secondary schools, in London 
 notably in the William Ellis School (Gospel Oak), and the Northern 
 Polytechnic Secondary School. 
 
IV. BOY LIFE 
 
 (i) School Games 
 
 The effort that has been made to introduce EngUsh games, 
 most of which, strange to say, had their origin in France,^ has 
 partially succeeded. The movement began, however, out- 
 side the school, and the founders of the principal clubs, the 
 Racing Club and the Stade Fran9ais, looked on athletics 
 mainly as a means of distraction, as a pastime in the strict 
 sense of the word.^ It was not till about 1883 that public 
 
 1 Note. — (1913.) The master of the Charterhouse after a visit to 
 France in 1637 could not help commenting, in no complimentary 
 spirit it is true, on the prevalence of such games as tennis in France, 
 where he says, "It is more common than throughout the rest of 
 Christendom ; the country is sown with tennis grounds, they are more 
 numerous than churches." " The French," he continues, " are born 
 with a racquet in their hand, women play, children play, workmen 
 play." " There are," he declares, " more tennis players in France 
 than there are drunkards in England." It was even found necessary 
 to pass regulations with a view to restricting the vocabulary of the 
 players. Thus one of 1592 laid down: " Gentlemen who wish to 
 play tennis must play to recreate the body and to divert the mind 
 without either swearing or blaspheming, under a penalty of five sols 
 for each offence." 
 
 2 Note. — (1913.) It would appear, according to my friend M. 
 Boutroux, that before 1870 games of all kinds were exceedingly 
 popular in the schools. They took place in the playgrounds and 
 were entirely run by the boys themselves, as were the games in 
 England at a similar period. They included les barres, la balle au 
 camp (a sort of rounders), la balle au mur (fives ?), le jeu de vise (a 
 sort of hide-and-seek), le cheval fondu (a very rough game), le saut 
 de moutons. Marbles were also in favour, and each season had its 
 particular games. Accidents were not uncommon, and even loss 
 of life was known. The games had an immense effect on school- 
 boy honour. Any boy caught cheating was liable to undergo ordeals 
 of Indian severity. It is noteworthy that the chief athletes were 
 held in high honour by their peers. All this, within the State 
 schools at least, seems to have disappeared after the war. The 
 causes probably were the rush to work under the device " Education 
 
ii8 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 opinion, frightened by over-pressure in the schools, turned 
 for a remedy to physical exercise as one of the best means 
 of recreation. The idea of this disciplinary value of games 
 as a training of character has been very slow in making its 
 way.i 
 
 The school athletic associations have had a hard struggle 
 for existence, and in most schools only a very small per- 
 centage of the pupils play games. Thus at one of the big 
 lycees out of 2,000 pupils only some eighty belonged to the 
 school association. The principal reasons of the slow 
 progress of the movement are, first, the fear of accidents, 
 which has already been alluded to. The school authorities 
 are naturally but little eager to increase the extent of their 
 responsibilities or those of the State. The second reason is 
 the lack of playing fields. The majority of the Paris lycees 
 and those in other cities are built in the middle of the town. 
 Pupils are obliged to go outside for their games, a consider- 
 able amount of time is lost in coming and going, and grounds 
 to play on are by no means easy to find. 
 
 Another reason is the indifference and even hostility of 
 the parents ; apart from the fear of accidents, they dread 
 the waste of time on the part of their children. The exa- 
 minations for public posts are now so severe that they look 
 on the time given to play as so much time lost to work. 
 Thus a vigorous writer of a polemical tract on the subject, 
 who prefers to guard his anonymity, says : 
 
 " The chief, the unique preoccupation of the good father 
 of a family is that his son should enter a Government school. 
 If he is deceived in these hopes, at once he hustles him into 
 
 exalteth a nation," the coming of intellectualism, the semi-democra- 
 tization of the lycees, the screwing up of examinations, the growing 
 popularity of the Government service, and most of all the responsi- 
 bility of the proviseurs for accidents, which no doubt led to the total 
 prohibition of rough games in the playground. These well-authenti- 
 cated facts seem to have escaped the notice of French writers on the 
 subject — another striking instance of the completeness of the break 
 with tradition in France. 
 
 1 The greatest credit in the matter is probably due to M. Pierre 
 Coubertin, who, in addition to his two books on the subject — L'£du- 
 cation en Angleterre and L' Education anglaise en France — was one of 
 the principal founders of the League for the Propagation of Physical 
 Exercise in Education, of which Jules Simon was the president. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 119 
 
 a Government office. . . . Why should this wide-awake 
 father make his son into a man of action, since the son is 
 destined to the most regular, the least interrupted, the least 
 manly of existences ? Why should this dyspeptic and 
 apoplectic father make his son into a healthy and robust 
 man, since he is fated in his turn to become dyspeptic and 
 apoplectic through a sedentary Ufe ? . . . In truth, why 
 should this father of a family say to his son, * Go and play 
 football ; go and row ' ? Rather he will reply to this son 
 of his the day that the latter, feeling the sources of life 
 bubbling up within him, shall ask him for a jersey to play 
 in or a pair of spiked shoes for running : ' Yes, certainly, 
 these exercises have their utility, as far at least as health is 
 concerned ; but you are already so old. 
 
 " ' Reflect that you have hardly two or three years left 
 for getting into the £cole Polytechnique or the ficole 
 Normale. Take my advice, make use of your Thursday 
 [whole holiday] to go over your Wednesday's lesson, and of 
 your Sunday to prepare your work for Monday. Defer till 
 later these English extravagances. You will have the time 
 to take all that up when you have left the Government school 
 and have got a berth.' Note that the father himself, who 
 is perhaps favourable to the cause of athletics, is opposed to 
 them on account of the programmes and examinations." ^ 
 
 There is, however, still another reason for the comparative 
 weakness of the school athletic associations. It is the 
 drainage of their clientele by the big Paris clubs. These 
 clubs, in their desire to swell their numbers, pursue the best 
 players in the Association in a way which would do honour 
 to the modern athletic impresario in England, the pro- 
 fessional football manager. 
 
 " The moment a good player reveals himself in a school team, or a 
 promising runner appears, at once a club sends an ambassador. He 
 is flattered, cajoled, almost forcibly introduced into the club. This 
 disgraceful bargaining is subject to the rise and fall of the market, for 
 a rival club makes equal efforts to carry off the future champion. The 
 two parties bid against one another, and their bids take the shape of 
 a place of honour in the first team, a seat on the committee, etc. 
 
 1 See £■. ^. c. ^., pp. 18 and 19. 
 
120 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 The highest bidder wins the day. . . . Even the small fry which help 
 to make up the number are also the subject of a lively competition. 
 " In favour of schoolboys the entrance fee, comparatively high, is 
 suppressed. The monthly subscription is lowered by half. . . . 
 What pupil out of a 4th form will resist the temptation of hearing 
 a well-known athlete call him ' my dear pal,' of finding a member of 
 the committee amiably shaking hands with him ? And the school- 
 boy enters the club, plays in the club team on the club ground, 
 dresses in its pavilion, wears its colours, and regards with some dis- 
 dain the last member of the school club going off to play on a ground 
 half covered with trees, and putting on a pair of trousers over his 
 flannels for lack of a dressing-room." ^ 
 
 No doubt in Paris and elsewhere games have enormously 
 increased, and their players who are stolen from the school 
 team are not lost to athletics. But the point — and it is a 
 very serious one — is that the good effect of games on the 
 school life itself is lost. 
 
 Yet the real discipline of games is by no means unknown 
 in France, as may be seen from another quotation from 
 the same writer : ^ 
 
 " What we want to insist on is the function of games to teach 
 courage, endurance, sticking together {solidarite), and loyalty, virtues 
 that no programme of studies contains among the subjects to be 
 taught [this, as we have seen, has been altered, but does not vitally 
 affect the argument], and which no professor ' sells ' to his pupils 
 along with history and Greek. What we should like to establish 
 clearly is that games are the school for life. What is the good in 
 actual life to be able to exhibit gilt-edged prizes as proofs of learning 
 if one is cowardly, weak, selfish, and disloyal ? . . . The worst 
 danger of excessive intellectualism is not so much to impoverish the 
 individual or to paralyse one part of him in order unduly to develop 
 another as to give a wrong bias to the heart and to rob it of its most 
 fruitful feelings, of those which make the individual into a social 
 being. 
 
 " As for ourselves, we declare in all sincerity that of the heavy 
 baggage of knowledge amassed at the lycee, the only knowledge of 
 everyday practical use has been that which we acquired in our 
 athletic society. We do not speak of the immediate results on our 
 physique of the practice of games but of the following acquisitions. 
 We were the founders of our society. We saw what difficulties one 
 
 ^ E.p. c.p., p. II. 2 Ibid. pp. 28 and 29. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 121 
 
 has to meet in order to form an association ; how numerous, diverse, 
 and contradictory are the interests and passions involved, with what 
 prudence the leader must act, and, desirous of possessing our own 
 independence, we have learnt to respect that of others. 
 
 " All the lessons of our professors of history have been only able 
 to teach us to write a good composition on self-government fit to win 
 a prize at a general public examination ... in our school associa- 
 tion we have practised ourselves this self-same self-government, we 
 have tasted its delights, and we no longer desire any other. 
 
 " As for comradeship, which is the true school virtue and the first 
 germ of that great social virtue, solidarity, virtue which the day boy 
 ignores and which the boarder practises in a tyrannical and vicious 
 manner, one learns it better in a school association than in a league 
 of revolt against the spying usher, the professor, and the authorities. 
 He is a good comrade who, in a football match, when fagged out or 
 even injured (which is really in itself an inestimable blessing) has con- 
 tinued to play all the same in order to assure the victory of his fellows, 
 he is a good comrade who, having sprained his foot in a cross-country 
 race, continues his course limping in order not to place his team last." 
 
 The writer of the above paragraphs appears to have under- 
 stood so thoroughly the value of games from the English 
 point of view that there seems little need of expatiating 
 further on this, the strong point in English education. It 
 is only necessary to add that while in the big public schools 
 the cult of games is universal, in some of the schools in large 
 towns, owing to the lack of proper facilities, the school clubs 
 are not so strong as they might be, and the esprit de corps 
 which is such a marked feature of the big public school is 
 comparatively weak. Nor must it be forgotten that all 
 virtues have their attendant vices, and it can hardly be 
 denied that in some cases the cult of games has been pushed 
 to such excess that prowess on the playing-fields stands far 
 higher in the mind of the rank and file of the school than 
 pre-eminence in the class-room.^ 
 
 1 Note. — (191 3.) On the subject of games, Dr. Mathieu, dealing, 
 in 1911-12, with the official reports on the subject [see p. 27, note), 
 says that the data given are often rather vague. 27 lycees have 
 tennis grounds, 41 playing-fields (in some cases provided by the old 
 boys), football is played in 33 schools, shooting is practised in 21. 
 7 lycees have bicycle societies, 11 have " country-houses " for the 
 amusement and " aeration " of the pupils, several have parks. The 
 regulation school walk, he regrets to note, has not yet died out. 
 
122 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 This transvaluation of values has certainly been rendered 
 more thorough by the appointment as masters of men for 
 their athletic rather than for their intellectual attainments. 
 Furthermore, their presence in enlarged numbers in the 
 teachers' common room has undoubtedly helped to foster 
 the indifference of the average assistant master to the 
 scientific side of his profession. The forte of the average 
 athletic master is athleticism, not teaching, and teaching 
 problems therefore only too naturally bore him, especially 
 as his real sphere is often rather in the playground than in 
 the class-room. His own triumphs in the playing-fields are 
 only too likely to give him a false perspective of life, and 
 make him blind to the necessity of sterling hard work in 
 school. Of course a good athlete who plays hard, works his 
 boys hard, and takes a keen interest in teaching, is the heau 
 ideal of a master, but such pent-athletes of the scholastic 
 palcBstra are comparatively rare. 
 
 But the cult of athletics among the members of the staff 
 has not only proved an obstacle, a non-conductor to the 
 growth of a scientific interest in the art of teaching, it has 
 also led to a certain neglect of intellectual topics, which 
 cannot help having its effect on the boys themselves. 
 When masters not only with the boys but also among them- 
 selves come down to the level of the boys' conversation, 
 how can the boys be expected to rise to anything higher ? 
 A river cannot mount unaided above its source. Yet some- 
 thing urgently wants doing to raise the level of the average 
 public-school boy's interest above mere cricket and football 
 " shop," and to give him if possible more intellectual ideas. 
 Mr. Benson does not mince matters when he says : 
 
 " We send out from our public schools year after year many boys 
 who hate knowledge and think books dreary, who are perfectly self- 
 satisfied and entirely ignorant, and, what is worse, not ignorant in a 
 wholesome and humble manner, but arrogantly and contemptuously 
 ignorant — not merely satisfied to be so, but thinking it ridiculous and 
 almost unmanly that a young man should be anything else ! " ^ 
 
 It is clear the boys of themselves will never be able to 
 change their ideals ; the mot d'ordre, the example, must 
 
 ^ See Benson, The Schoolmaster, p. 65. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 123 
 
 come from the masters themselves, but it must be no mere 
 " Up-service " to ideals they do not really reverence. A 
 great deal of the talk about games in France has come to 
 nothing, because the speakers have not really the root of 
 the matter in them. It is true the influence of the home in 
 England is often hardly on the side of culture. 
 
 Still the master's duty as the high-priest par excellence of 
 culture is clear. If he only has a belief in that which it is 
 his bounden duty to teach and to practise, the necessary 
 change will not be long in making itself felt. An intellectual 
 revolution can hardly be so difficult to effect as a moral one. 
 Where the elder Arnold succeeded, the followers of his son 
 would not be likely to fail. The one thing needful is con- 
 viction on the part of the teacher in the reality of his subject 
 and the importance of his mission. There is no reason 
 whatever why the cult of Hercules should exclude the 
 worship of Minerva. 
 
 The following passages ^ are a striking confirmation of 
 the views advanced above : 
 
 *' It must be frankly admitted that the intellectual standard main- 
 tained at the English public schools is low ; and, what is more serious, 
 I do not see any evidence that it is tending to become higher. . . . 
 I do not think that they (the masters) care about making them (the 
 boys) intellectual ; intellectual life is left to take care of itself. . . . 
 It seems to me that the Athenian ideal — that of strong intellectual 
 capacity — is left out of sight altogether. ... I believe we have 
 condescended far too much to the boy's ideal of life. ... So far 
 removed is the intellectual ideal from the mind of the ordinary man 
 that it is difficult even to write of it without being misunderstood. 
 It is understood to be a kind of mixture of priggishness and pedantry ; 
 it is confused with learning ; it is supposed that the intellectual man 
 is the kind of man who always wants to talk about books. . . . The 
 aim ought not to be to turn everyone into a literary personage. 
 Literature is only one province of the intellectual life. . . . My 
 idea of an intellectual person is one whose mind is alive to ideas. . . . 
 My own belief is that a good many young boys have the germ of in- 
 tellectual life in them, but that in many cases it dies a natural death 
 from mere inanition, . . . The question of how to alter this is a 
 difficult one. ... I believe the only way is for the masters to be 
 
 1 Benson, The Schoolmaster, p. 55 et seq. 
 
124 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 interested themselves. . . . Therefore I maintain that it is not an 
 advisable thing so much as a positive duty for teachers to contrive 
 some intellectual life for themselves, to live in the company of good 
 books and big ideas. . . . To omit intellectual enjoyment from our 
 programme, to pass over one of the strongest of boyish faculties, 
 seems to me the kind of mistake that will be regarded some years 
 hence as both pitiable and ludicrous." 
 
 (ii) Gymnastics 
 
 A friend, writing on the subject of gymnastics, says : 
 *' They are in principle obligatory, and therefore unpopular. 
 Many pupils also are exempted from attending the gym- 
 nasium. The pupils find the exercises monotonous, with 
 the result that punishments are not unknown. This further 
 tends to make the subject distasteful to the pupil. It is 
 only serious in the special class preparing for St. Cyr, etc.'* 
 On the other hand, the championnat interscolaire has cer- 
 tainly in some schools done a good deal to create interest 
 in the subject. The championnat, which is held once a 
 year, gives prizes and certificates not only for squads of 
 pupils but also for the best work on the horizontal and 
 parallel bars, for boxing (French and English), fencing, and 
 la canne, which is a sort of singlestick without the basket-hilt 
 to protect the knuckles. 
 
 The present writer visited a certain number of classes on 
 behalf of the Royal Commission on Physical Training.^ 
 In some of them the exercises were well and smartly exe- 
 cuted, but the dumbbells in use were often too heavy. The 
 gymnastics generally were of the military kind. Swedish 
 exercises for the younger pupils seem unknown, though they 
 have already been introduced with good results into the 
 primary schools. Of physical training on scientific lines, 
 apart from mere " acrobatics," little has so far been done 
 in secondary schools, except in the Gironde, where Dr. 
 Tissie, of Bordeaux, has effected certain reforms. As far 
 
 ^ See Report of the Royal Commission on Physical Training {Scot- 
 land), vol. i. pp. 31, 32, vol. ii. pp. 397-405, reprinted in this 
 volume, see p. 223, and the preface to M. Demeny's Les Bases scien- 
 tifiques de l' Education physique. See also note, pp. 238-244, for 
 subsequent developments. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 125 
 
 as one could learn, no attempt has been made so far in the 
 State secondary schools to measure and weigh the pupils 
 and record their growth. The question of school diet has 
 not apparently been mooted either. Ventilation and 
 scientific warming are attracting some attention. The 
 cadet corps (hataillons scolaires), which came into fashion 
 after the war of 1870, were abandoned as far back as 1890 
 as a hopeless failure.^ 2 
 
 In many English schools, mostly boarding, gymnasiums 
 have been built, and gymnastics have also been rendered 
 compulsory. A high standard is often attained, as may be 
 seen by the achievements of the various school teams at 
 the public schools competition at Aldershot. Drill is given 
 in many schools, and in not a few it is also used as a method 
 of punishment. But physical exercises without apparatus 
 with a view to improving physique rather than to forming 
 mere muscle or teaching certain athletic tricks are not very 
 common in secondary schools. The movement in favour 
 of creating cadet corps has received an enormous impetus 
 from the Boer War. The public school cadet corps are not 
 only represented in great numbers at the shooting com- 
 petitions at Bisley, they also take part in actual manoeuvres 
 at Aldershot and elsewhere. 
 
 ^ See Report of the Royal Commission on Physical Training (Scot- 
 land), vol. ii. p. 397. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) The new military law for two years' service has 
 introduced, however, a most important reform. According to the 
 law no one can become a sous-officier or officier who, on enlistment, 
 has not already obtained the diplome de preparation militaire. These 
 demands of the different branches necessarily vary, but the full list 
 of subjects includes gymnastics, power to read the ordnance survey, 
 shooting, drill, and riding. The recruit who has passed this examina- 
 tion can become a brigadier after four months, sergeant after ten 
 months, and officer (sub-lieutenant) after twelve months. The 
 reform is enormously important, for two reasons. The advantages 
 offered induce the best men to qualify for the various grades. The 
 personnel of these grades is thus recruited after the most intelligent 
 system. Moreover, the sons of the bourgeoisie, who as a rule detested 
 their year of service in the ranks, are delighted under the new con- 
 ditions -with the life which permits them rapidly to rise and even 
 become officers before they finish their last years. If conscription 
 ever came to England, we might possibly, with advantage, consider 
 the adoption of a somewhat similar system. 
 
126 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 If not overdone, the movement seems likely to be prolific 
 in real good to .the nation, not only in improving the 
 physique of those concerned, but also in teaching them to 
 hold a rifle and acquire a certain amount of military training 
 which is not likely to be entirely forgotten. The dangers 
 of militarising the nation do not seem to be excessive, and 
 volunteering, even to those who are against war on principle, 
 must seem preferable to conscription, which in the opinion 
 of our military experts is the only alternative ^ to it for 
 bringing up our defensive forces to the proper level, 
 
 A certain amount of very useful work has been done by 
 the Anthropometric Society in obtaining measurements of 
 pupils all over the country. In an increasing number of 
 schools 2 a careful register and record are being kept of the 
 pupils, who are weighed and measured at regular intervals. 
 The question of school hours, the print of books, of light, 
 ventilation, heating, sanitation, and school diet are more 
 and more engaging the attention of experts.^ In all these 
 matters we are certainly ahead of France.* 
 
 (iii) Opportunities for Intellectual Self- 
 development 
 
 A great effort has been made during the last few years, 
 largely by the professors themselves, to provide facilities 
 for self-improvement on the part of the pupils. At present 
 every lycee or college possesses a library which is nominally 
 reserved for the professors, but the pupils may be authorized 
 by the latter on their own responsibility to take out books. 
 
 1 See Sir Evelyn Wood's speech at the opening of the Gresham 
 School, Holt (reported in Times, October ist, 1903). 
 
 2 Note. — This is now the rule in the London schools and also in 
 other parts of England. 
 
 3 See report of Committee of the British Association on the con- 
 dition of health essential to the carrying on of the work of instruction 
 in schools. Presented to the Educational Science Section of the 
 Association, September, 1903. (Reprinted in The School World, 
 November, 1903.) 
 
 * The difference seems likely to decrease. The first Congres 
 d'Hygiene scolaire et de Pedagogic physiologique, organized by the 
 Ligue des Medecins et des Families, was held at the Sorbonne, Novem- 
 ber, 1903. Among other matters touched on in the presidential 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 127 
 
 In addition certain schools have estabHshed class libraries 
 which are constantly being added to both by presentations 
 of books and by regular contributions on the part of the 
 pupils. They contain not only books of reference but also 
 reading books for home use. 
 
 A large number of English schools possess school libraries. 
 Very often in a big school there is a junior section. In some 
 of the big towns a great deal has been done to create a close 
 connection between the primary schools ^ and the public 
 free libraries, which have opened special departments for 
 school children. There is no reason why the movement 
 should not be largely extended to day pupils in secondary 
 schools. Many schools, especially boarding schools, have a 
 common-room in which a certain number of daily and 
 weekly papers are taken in by the boys themselves. Very 
 often the higher forms use their own class-rooms for the 
 purpose. The newspaper is the daily encyclopaedia, and 
 the future citizen of the empire should be encouraged to get 
 a grip of current questions for himself. 
 
 The popularity of the cheaper comic papers, which some- 
 times form too large an element of the stock-in-trade of these 
 reading-rooms, is not such a pleasant feature. Apart from 
 their jokes, which are harmless enough, they tend to en- 
 courage scrappiness in reading, and that particular dis- 
 cursive butterfly type of mind which finds an interest in a 
 column of disconnected snippets. One cannot help feeling 
 that this mental attitude, or rather mental instability, is 
 
 address were the subject of the number of hours of work per day, 
 school hygiene in general, and the question of school colonies. 
 
 Note. — (1913.) The Third International Congress on School 
 Hygiene, which was held in Paris in 1910, marks another step 
 forward. See also the article in Hygiene scolaire, Oct. 191 1, of Dr. 
 Mathieu, who condemns some of the older buildings outright. The 
 ventilation is still often defective. The lighting and heating have 
 much improved, but the school furniture is often old-fashioned. 
 The dormitories have been improved, and cubicles substituted in 
 some cases. Shower-baths have been introduced everywhere, but 
 the lavatories still leave much to be desired. 
 
 ^ See Report on the Connection between the Public Library and the 
 Public Elementary School, published in vol. 2 of Special Reports on 
 Educational Subjects, Board of Education. Also issued as separate 
 reprint. 
 
128 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 due in part to the effect of examinations on the teaching of 
 to-day. The necessity of answering a baker's dozen of 
 questions in an hour and a half or two hours naturally leads 
 to a taste for disjointed facts, for nothing can be studied 
 a fond, and to a form of interest that moves by fits and 
 starts and is never long-lived. 
 
 One may probably class among the incentives to, if not 
 among the opportunities for, self-development the number 
 of special prizes offered for composition outside the regular 
 course work in classics and English, both in prose and verse. 
 These compositions, which are by definition the unaided 
 work of the pupil, are one of the best ways of " extending " 
 the pupil and of encouraging thorough and original work. 
 They have not infrequently allowed a boy who has not 
 otherwise distinguished himself in class to strike out for 
 himself a line of his own and given him thereby the oppor- 
 tunity without which the talent within him would never 
 have been brought to light. It says much for the honour 
 of the English schoolboy that these compositions are nearly 
 always his own unaided production. 
 
 The French possess a somewhat similar method of en- 
 couraging extra study in the concours general} in which all 
 the best scholars in the French schools throughout the 
 country are examined in all the subjects of the programme 
 according to their classes, and prizes and honourable 
 
 1 The examination has now been abolished. As it included a 
 yearly examination for picked boys from the third up to the first, and 
 the philosophy classes, it was doubtless too great a strain, but it was 
 none the less an excellent method for selecting the boys who went on 
 to the £cole Normale. Some critics see in its abolition a certain 
 tendency towards levelling down things which is apparently making 
 itself felt in some circles in France to-day. It is suggested that it 
 would not be impossible to revive the good side of it by re-establishing 
 it in conjunction with the two examinations for the baccalaureat, by 
 giving prizes for the best candidates in the written work in the two 
 parts, and putting on a few extra papers for certain subjects, now 
 taken orally, which naturally only those who were specially strong 
 in these papers would take in preference to the viva-voce. — (1913.) 
 The concours general will probably be re-established shortly. The 
 necessary funds for its re-establishment have already been voted by 
 the Chamber of Deputies, though not by the Senate. It will, how- 
 ever, be confined in all likelihood to four or five subjects, and be 
 open only to boys in the top classes. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 129 
 
 mention are awarded. ^ No doubt the examination acts 
 as a splendid, if sometimes excessive, incentive to work 
 among the better boys, and produces surprises like the 
 special compositions in England. But the preparation 
 for such an examination has less of the voluntary char- 
 acter about it, and leads rather to extra coaching than 
 to absolutely original work and research on the part of 
 the pupil. 2 
 
 (iv) School Societies 
 
 School societies, apart from the athletic associations, 
 scarcely exist in French schools. From time to time a lycee 
 will organize an evening's entertainment, consisting of 
 acting, recitations, etc., but the efforts made are sporadic. 
 The performance over, the temporary committee dissolves, 
 and the lycee becomes once more a conglomeration of 
 individuals. This is sincerely to be regretted. The vast 
 amount of talent that such an evening reveals makes one 
 wonder why some sort of permanent society cannot be 
 constituted more or less on the lines of Enghsh school 
 societies. 
 
 Many schools in England have a debating society in which 
 the destinies of the empire and of humanity in general are 
 made or unmade at fortnightly or monthly intervals during 
 the winter. Masters not infrequently take part in it, and 
 its effects on the whole are excellent. The youthful advo- 
 cate of " retaliation " or the abolition of capital punishment 
 accepts his r6le with a most becoming seriousness. In 
 working up his case he not only learns how to consult and 
 handle original authorities ; he also goes through the ex- 
 cellent training of having to think out what he wants to say 
 and put it into intelligent language. In a word he learns 
 to speak, a thing he rarely does inside the school, where 
 
 1 The competitions include pupils of the third class. 
 
 2 For a good description of the concours geniral from a schoolboy's 
 point of view, see Une Annee de College a Paris, by Andr6 Laurie. 
 (Pascal Grousset.) 
 
 B.£. I 
 
130 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 verbal brevity is only held in higher honour than verbal 
 anacoluthon. 
 
 The procedure is moulded on that of the methods of 
 Parliament, and the experience which the budding chairman 
 of the meeting derives from his management of his school- 
 fellows is no doubt of the highest value. In fact, the society 
 is one of the ways of teaching self-government, and not the 
 least valuable. The youngest members quickly understand 
 the need of order and the necessity of allowing each side to 
 state their opinions, however unpalatable some of them may 
 be to the majority. If the school history of the present 
 members of Parliament were traced, it would probably be 
 found that a large proportion of them delivered their maiden 
 speech in the school debating society. 
 
 Here is a point our French friends might well copy, not 
 as an aid to oratory, in which they already excel, but as a 
 discipline towards listening to both sides of the question. 
 Apart from the unwritten procedure which governs their 
 debates, nearly all their societies contain a rule that all 
 religious questions are debarred. In France it might be 
 advisable to add " and political" to the rubric. 
 
 The debating societies have not infrequently a literary 
 section attached to them in which readings from Shake- 
 speare and other standard authors take place, and before 
 which the school poet and the school essayist read their 
 earliest contributions to literature. In some instances a 
 sort of golden book is kept, in which the most worthy of 
 these lucubrations are inserted on the vote of the majority. 
 In many schools theatricals take place at least once a year, 
 in addition to the recitations which are a standing dish at 
 every speech day. Sometimes scenes are given from 
 Shakespeare, out of some play the pupils are studying — a 
 feature that adds enormously to their appreciation of the 
 play ; often it is Sheridan who is drawn upon. Here, 
 again, the theatrically minded members of the staff lend 
 their aid and coach the budding Roscius or act as stage- 
 managers. 
 
 Moreover, many schools have also photographic and 
 scientific societies, which, under the leadership of the science 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 131 
 
 master or the photographic enthusiast on the staff, make 
 excursions in the neighbourhood and photograph its scenery, 
 or study its fauna or flora, its geological or archaeological 
 remains. They have also their indoor meetings, and an 
 account of their proceedings or researches appears in the 
 school magazine, a publication which is to be found in the 
 vast majority of secondary schools. 
 
 The magazine serves not merely as a record of sports, 
 games, matches, concerts, outings, prize givings, departures, 
 new arrivals, and old boys' successes ; it contains as well 
 a certain number of original contributions, together with 
 the inevitable editorial, in which the piece de resistance, the 
 chou and the clou, is the everlasting wail of the editor at 
 the penury of contributions. The advent of the school 
 " mag " is one of the excitements of term, and the first 
 appearance of one's name in print, even if it is only for a 
 third prize in the 100 yards under 12, is a thrilling event 
 which has probably for the person in question but few 
 parallels in life. Here again our French friends might copy 
 with advantage. Their school record would certainly never 
 suffer from any dearth of literary contributions.^ 
 
 (v) School Surroundings — Social Life — Manners — 
 
 Code of Honour 
 
 To understand the social life of the pupil it is necessary 
 to get a clear idea of the milieu in which as a day boy he 
 passes the greater part of his day, or as a boarder he Uves 
 entirely. If before the Revolution the school resembled 
 a cloister, the alterations made by Napoleon converted it 
 into a barrack. As Pere Didon has well said, in L' Education 
 presente : ^ 
 
 * Note. — (1909.) Certain lyc4es possess " Old Boys' Clubs." The 
 majority do little more than have an annual dinner, but in some cases 
 they attempt to find pupils places in the business world and elsewhere. 
 Some of these societies have been recognized as being d'utiliU puhlique. 
 The majority of old boys' clubs in England exist for social and 
 athletic reasons. 
 
 »Pp. 318, 319. 
 
132 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 " Napoleon I wanted soldiers : all the schools became barracks,* 
 all the pupils conscripts — living under the eye of overseers [sur- 
 veillants] who had all the roughness of sergeants and corporals, and 
 keeping step to the martial roll of the drum. [N.B. — The drum is 
 still used in the French lyc&e for announcing the beginning and end 
 of lessons.] . . . With the same powerful hand Napoleon at the 
 same time organised, mobilised, and got together another army not 
 less compact and skilfully grouped to defend public and social order : 
 the army of functionaries. There was no longer room, not the least 
 room, left for private initiative." ^ 
 
 Other influences which followed had their effect on the 
 schools, first what may be called the literary regime, and 
 lately the growing claims of science ; but their influences, 
 as Pere Didon has remarked, have rather been successively 
 superposed than successively exclusive one of the other. 
 The military State education for which Napoleon intended 
 the remodelled lycee to provide has largely lost its raison 
 d'etre. Yet no new ideals have adequately taken its place. 
 The former soul of the institution is dead, or rather the 
 transmigration of the modern spirit into the deserted tene- 
 ment is yet but half accomplished. Yet so perfect is the 
 machinery that it still continues to function as heretofore. 
 
 Still the signs of a quickening spirit are not to be over- 
 looked. The ParUamentary Commission has emphasized 
 the fact that the proviseur must be something more than a 
 mere fly-wheel in the administrative machine, he must also 
 be a living and moral force in the household over which he 
 presides, in which he must not merely be chief in financial 
 and administrative matters, but also have some degree of 
 influence and control, not only over his staff but over the 
 pupils. In this way only can responsibility be fixed, unity 
 effected, and the Germanic idea reaUzed of an institution 
 being not a mere inanimate thing endowed with a fictitious 
 
 * Cf. Demolins, A quoi tient la SupSrioritd des Anglo-Saxons, p. 7. 
 Cf. M. le Docteur Hogg, L'Hygiine scolaire dans les J^tablissements 
 d' Enseignement secondaire de la Grande-Bretagne, p. 19. " The small 
 French boy ... in a college is a number. He wears a uniform, he 
 marches in rank and silently on his way to the class-room, the study, 
 the refectory ; all his movements, all his acts are commanded, even 
 if their rhythm is not given by the rolling drum or the pealing bell." 
 
 * Cf. Demolins, A quoi tient la Superiority des Anglo-Saxons, passim. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 133 
 
 civil personality, but a true and living organism whose 
 component parts are living persons. 
 
 Over-delimitation leads to undue simplification. To 
 obtain a superficial symmetry one is obliged to eliminate 
 what is really vital. The divisions between proviseur and 
 professeur, between professeur and siirveillant are un- 
 doubtedly an administrative convenience, but they have 
 cut the life-strings of French education, and isolated the 
 pupil from the most precious influences. What has kept 
 French education alive has been the intellectual enthusiasm 
 of the professor for his own particular subject and for 
 culture as a whole. He has never fallen into the German 
 failing of becoming a speciaHst pure and simple or a specialist 
 with merely encyclopaedic attainments. In a word he has 
 never confused culture with encyclopasdism, much less has 
 he sacrificed it to specialism. In this he has had an admir- 
 able influence over the elite of his pupils. 
 
 But these ideals, precious as they are, which have done 
 so much for the intellectual side of French education, can 
 hardly be said to make for complete living. One cannot 
 help finding them one-sided and insufficient in the light of 
 modern thought, with its growing stress on will-culture, on 
 self-government, on initiative and activity. As M. Duhamel 
 points out,^ even the Commission failed to make sufficient 
 investigation into the means most suitable for forming the 
 characters of the pupils, in accustoming them to the ideas 
 of responsibihty, liberty, and action. We may, therefore, 
 conclude that these elements are still far too scantily re- 
 presented among the moral and social influences which 
 surround the pupil's existence. 
 
 The material factors in his hfe are also unpropitious. 
 The lycee far too often preserves the birth-marks of its 
 military origin. An English writer in the Globe ^ describes 
 the lycee he attended as a boy as 
 
 " A large barrack-like building in the centre of the big town, sand- 
 wiched in between a church and a tall block of houses, lying between 
 a street the chief channel of traffic and a lane that acts as a sort of 
 backwater for the overflow crowd from the larger thoroughfare ; such 
 
 1 See Comment elever nos Fils, p. 2. ^ June 27th, 1898. 
 
134 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 was the position of my lycee. As I looked on that dingy mass of 
 bricks and mortar I could not help thinking of the great English 
 school I had left, standing up in the midst of its green playing fields. 
 We entered. Within were two narrow courts, one for the bigger and 
 the other for the smaller fellows, where the games flourished in a sickly 
 fashion. Around on three sides lay the class-rooms and on the fourth 
 the gymnasium. The whole had rather a prison-like air, and I 
 realised I was for the moment confined to one of those scholastic 
 casernes that Napoleon determined the lycee should be." ^ 
 
 It must not be supposed that the average lycee is ill- 
 lighted and badly ventilated. On the contrary, the more 
 recently constructed lycees, on which the Government have 
 lavished many millions of francs, are models in this respect.^ 
 
 Still, under these conditions it is not surprising to find 
 the life of the ordinary schoolboy, whether day or boarder, 
 depicted in gloomy colours. The polemical writer of the 
 tract on physical culture thus describes the situation : ^ 
 
 " When the drum has beaten the lyceen enters the gate of the lycie 
 with the same air as the soldier passes through the iron gates of the 
 military quarters. As the soldier calls the barracks a gaol, so the 
 lyceen calls his lycee. Thus the day boy experiences twice a day the 
 feeling of the boarder who goes out on Sundays : that of the soldier 
 on leave." 
 
 Speaking of the boarder's life, Pere Didon dilates on 
 
 " That long period of ten years, bounded on every side by a strict 
 discipline, with its monotonous days, its ever parallel hours of work 
 and play, regular as the hours of a clock, interspersed with rewards 
 and punishments, that prolonged absence from the family — lessened 
 as it is, but never sufficiently to the liking of the pupil, by the annual 
 holidays and exeats — those courts with their iron bars and prison- 
 
 1 Matthew Arnold [A French Eton, p. 321) spoke of the " courts . . . 
 looking to an ex-schoolboy from any of the great English schools 
 hopelessly prison-like." 
 
 ' Such as Janson-de-Sailly, Lakanal, Louis-le-Grand, etc. See 
 Dr. Hogg, L'Hygidne scolaire dans les ^tablissements d' Enseignement 
 secondaire de la Grande-Breiagne . In less than six years (1880-1883) 
 the Government spent on buildings and repairs more than ^4,000,000 
 (110,866,665 frs. 66 centimes, to be exact). 
 
 ' It is curious to note that the attempt to move the lycies out into 
 the suburbs has not been a success so far as tested by actual results. 
 Parents seem to prefer the proximity of the school to fresh air for 
 their children. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 135 
 
 like walls, bereft of the poetry of silent cloisters, invaded by the 
 gloomy sadness of barracks and gaols, that enlistment in a sort of 
 miniature army in which one has nothing to do but obey [armee toute 
 passive] : it is all this that fills boys with loathing. On reading these 
 pages they will find perhaps that on almost all these points they are 
 right, and that without doubt the future will modify from top to 
 bottom that external organisation of school life which is so de- 
 pressing " (pp. vi, vii). 
 
 One of the most remarkable features common to English 
 schools which is lacking in the ordinary lycee is the absence 
 of any general reunion in the morning for prayers or for 
 receiving the orders for the day. It is strange that the 
 French, with their facility for realizing the possibility of the 
 spectacular and their talent for and delight in well-ordered 
 display/ have never discovered the profound effect that 
 such a gathering of the classes has on the mind of the small 
 boy on seeing all at once the great army of which he, though 
 he be but the youngest conscript, is nevertheless a member. 
 Nothing helps better to impress upon him the sense of 
 esprit de corps than his daily parade. 
 
 He sees the head boys of the school, the prefects, armed 
 with an authority and prestige that makes them appear to 
 him as heroes and demi-gods ; their almost, to him, super- 
 human size appals him, till he realizes that his place will be 
 one day where they are standing now. He hears read out 
 the names of those who have brought honour and lustre to 
 the school, and his heart swells at the thought that perhaps 
 he too one day will be cited in the order of the day as 
 having deserved well of the community, and the thought 
 itself becomes the father of the wish that in due time brings 
 about its accomplishment. These are sentiments that 
 never come to the average French day boy. He never sees 
 the whole school together except at prize-givings. Day by 
 day he goes straight from his home into his class-room, unless 
 perhaps he spends some five minutes in the playground en 
 route. 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.^ " II est vrai que chez nous les sentiments nationaux 
 prennent facilement la forme d'une m,anifestation, d'une representation, 
 car il y adu thedtral en nous." — " Les Cahiers de Felix Pecaut," Revue 
 pedagogique, November, 1908. 
 
136 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 He gets to know his twenty or thirty class-mates more or 
 less, he forms a few acquaintances with other boys in the 
 playground, in the interval or before school. But he does 
 not even know the vast bulk of the school by sight, and 
 scarcely half a dozen of his acquaintances ripen to friend- 
 ship. Only if he joins the small group who form the 
 association scolaire does he become initiated into the larger 
 freemasonry of perfect comradeship. " This camaraderie," ^ 
 says the anonymous writer quoted above, " is strong and 
 lasting. In our case, and the fact possesses in itself docu- 
 mentary value, of all the young fellows we have known at 
 the lycee, the comrades whom we still have are all without 
 exception members of our school association." 
 
 The same author adds : "Of our school career we retain 
 many sorrowful recollections, and a single pleasant one over 
 which our mind sometimes lingers, our school association. 
 As for the image of the lycee, as it plunges deeper into the 
 mists of the past, it assumes a more gloomy and depressing 
 aspect. Never have we returned to look once more on that 
 building which, inasmuch as we were confined in it, remains 
 always in our eyes a prison [boUe]." M. Duhamel also 
 writes : " How few French pupils leave school with the con- 
 viction of having spent happy days there ! " ^ 
 
 One cannot help feeling that some of these criticisms are 
 slightly overdrawn. The truth is the French are not averse 
 to the habit of dire du mal de soi-meme. Again, the French- 
 man, while inclined to make light of his difficulties while 
 they last, takes his revenge afterwards in the pictures he 
 draws, or rather overdraws, of them. Moreover, the writers 
 quoted above are all reformers, and one of the first rules for 
 attracting attention is to crier haul. 
 
 Judging by my youthful comrades at the lycee, if they did 
 not regard it as a Paradiso they scarcely found it such a 
 Purgatorio as these writers would have us believe. Those 
 who wish to see a more roseate view of French school life 
 should read Une Annee de College d Paris, which gives an 
 excellent notion of the interior of a French school, a little 
 
 1 E.p. c. p. See p. 30. 
 
 ' Comment elever nos Fils, p. 277. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 137 
 
 idealized perhaps in some directions, but certainly no more 
 exaggerated than the extracts quoted above. 
 
 As one who has seen a good many specimens of the French 
 boy at close quarters and has lived on intimate terms with 
 him and his family, I am surprised at the wonderful possi- 
 bilities in his character, and incline to attribute the majority 
 of his faults to the defects in his bringing up. No one can 
 fail to be struck with the quickness and sureness of his 
 intelligence. He is naturally poUte,^ obliging in the small 
 things of life, affable, and cheerful. He possesses to the full 
 that appreciation of life which is the mark of his race. For 
 him the question is not whether life is worth living, much 
 less whether it is a bore, but how he can best get most out 
 of it in the way of pleasure and amusement. 
 
 As art to the Greeks was not synonymous with mere 
 monetary outlay, so the French boy does not confound 
 pleasure and expense. He is therefore generally in good 
 spirits, and if he is rather fond of la blague, a curious ad- 
 mixture of conceited exaggeration and intentional hum- 
 bugging, are our boys always devoid of swagger or of trying 
 to " green " a. " new chum " ? Again, is not this inflated 
 manner of talking when applied to the authorities a way of 
 taking his revenge on the despotic regime under which he 
 fancies he groans and which he thus hopes to temper with 
 his epigrams ? That he is a frondeur at times cannot be 
 denied, but here again it is no doubt because he feels that 
 such an attitude is the only one by which he can maintain 
 his independence in the presence of an authority more 
 intent on imposing itself than on getting itself accepted 
 (sentie plutot que consentie). 
 
 If he is rather lacking in endurance,^ can one blame him, 
 
 1 Matthew Arnold, A French Eton, pp. 358-359: "I had been 
 struck with the good manners and the natural poHteness they showed, 
 quite down to the little boys, when tried by the unusual incident of 
 a stranger and a foreigner in the schoolroom : I am sure in England 
 there would have been much less rising and bowing and much more 
 staring and giggling." 
 
 2 I remember a very remarkable case. A certain young fellow of 
 about eighteen had taken up running. Being a novice, he was often 
 allowed the longest start. Once he was passed by an opponent he 
 had the greatest difficulty in not giving up. One day I well re- 
 
138 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 when one sees how everything conspires to keep him de- 
 pendent on his parents ? Our boys of sixteen and seventeen 
 have often a regular allowance on which they are expected 
 to clothe themselves and defray their out-of-pocket ex- 
 penses. Occasionally deficits occur which result in enforced 
 contributions from the parents, but the system of making 
 a boy manage his own income and balance his own budget 
 works on the whole very well. The French boy, as far as 
 one can learn, has no such financial liberty while at school. 
 As regards the code of honour which prevails amongst 
 French schools, the present writer has been fortunate 
 enough to receive a statement (see Appendix, p. 143 below) 
 from a friend who has had experience of schools both as a 
 pupil and a teacher. The document has also been seen by 
 another friend of still wider experience, who finds nothing 
 in it to add to or modify. 
 
 To describe the life of the English boy at school is often 
 — at least as far as the boarder is concerned — to describe 
 the happiest years of his whole life. It begins in his pre- 
 paratory school, in which life is made too easy, if anything, 
 for him. It continues on through the public school which 
 he enters at the age of thirteen or fourteen. But probably 
 the best period of all comes with the years from sixteen to 
 eighteen or nineteen, when he begins to be someone in the 
 school, is made a house or school monitor, gets into the sixth 
 form, and plays for the school at cricket or football. The 
 present is so bright and so absorbing that he scarcely thinks 
 of the future at all. If he is conscious of it at all in his mind 
 it is only as of a vague and not unpleasing contingency. 
 
 Every year sees him clothed with wider authority and 
 prestige. The healthy open-air life, the pleasurable sen- 
 sation of growth, even if they rarely rise above the level of 
 subconsciousness, form a solid foundation to the joys of 
 his existence. His milieu is in sympathy with him, and he 
 with his milieu. If life means not merely a preparation 
 
 member he had promised his trainer he would not give in to the habit. 
 He did, however, and on returning to the pavihon exclaimed, almost 
 in tears, " C est plus fort que moi." The trainer, who had a very wide 
 experience, informed me it was by no means an isolated case. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 139 
 
 for each successive stage but also the living out of each 
 stage as if it were an end in itself, then as regards the second 
 ideal the English educator may be held to have come nearer 
 the mark than any other modern educator. 
 
 Boyhood is certainly not sacrificed. The severest critics 
 of the system can only say that it is unduly prolonged, and 
 that while we make in many ways the transition to manhood 
 easier than elsewhere, we neglect the intellectual side too 
 much and defer till too late the idea that a choice of career 
 is imperative on all ; we do not sufficiently insist that a 
 career should not merely be a sort of pis aller, a kind of 
 refuge for the destitute, a corvee imposed on us by the stern 
 necessity of having to earn our daily bread, but a calling, a 
 vocation, a life-work in the highest sense. Gray no doubt 
 was right in the main when, watching the boys at their 
 games, he wrote, " Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be 
 wise," but there is a point at which ignorance unduly pro- 
 longed leads to a rude awakening. 
 
 The portals of every profession are getting every day 
 more crowded, and entrance and subsequent success depend 
 more and more on early preparation, not speciaHzation, 
 but self-preparation, self -dedication, if the word is not too 
 strong, to the career one intends to follow. The day of the 
 amateur in all professions is slowly passing away, and it is 
 more and more being realized by the thoughtful that educa- 
 tion, in order to prevent the multiplication of non-valeurs 
 and waste-products, must more and more undertake the 
 task of organizing the selection, not so much by constructing 
 an elaborate system of examinations, sieves for sifting out 
 the unfit, as by adding to its duties that of impressing on 
 the young the need of choosing a profession and taking, if 
 possible, an interest in it while still at school.^ 
 
 With all the insistence which our education lays on the 
 cult of activity and the cultivation of the will, it seems 
 
 ^ Cf. for the same idea M. Hanotaux, Du Choix d'une Carriere, p. ii : 
 " Pas de forces perdues, telle doit etre la pensee constante d'une sociSte 
 et d'un gouvernement." The writer in question is so anxious that 
 boys should take up a career, he would clear the majority of them 
 out of the schools at fifteen. Cf. also p. 43, " The Professor's Duty 
 in the Matter." — (1909.) Cf. School I'FaWc?, September, 1908. 
 
140 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 somehow to have forgotten that these pure sciences need 
 also to be taught in an applied fashion to be really fruitful. 
 We turn out hundreds, blest with good intentions and strong 
 in potential energy, but we neglect to teach the application 
 of these qualities to the tests of daily life. Vis consili expers 
 mole ruit sua. The State receives batch after batch of well- 
 affected citizens who have, however, been but ill trained in 
 one of the most important branches of citizenship, that of 
 adding to its general productivity by being an efficient 
 worker. We have to add to the catalogue of virtues taught 
 in school the virtue of the producer. ^ 
 
 No doubt the day boy who passes his time half at home 
 and half at school lives in a more varied atmosphere, but 
 none the less there is scarcely a secondary school in the 
 country to which the influence of the public school tradition 
 does not extend. If it was not in the school originally, it 
 has been brought there by the members of the staff, who, 
 being old public-school boys, have acted like missionaries 
 in sowing the good seed through the length and breadth 
 of the land. What is the tradition ? A resume of the 
 works of Thomas Arnold and Edward Thring, and of their 
 numerous disciples, with readings in Tom Brown, would 
 alone give an adequate idea of its many-sided variety.^ 
 
 But if one desired to sum up the dominant character of 
 its spirit, apart from the religious basis on which its founders 
 
 ^ Note. — (1909.) The question of vocational education is rapidly 
 becoming one of the most burning questions of the day, especially in 
 respect to the after-careers of the scholars in trade and industry. 
 Cf. Continuation Schools in England and Elsewhere, edited by M. E. 
 Sadler (Manchester : The University Press) . In London steps are 
 being taken not only in the so-called higher elementary schools, but 
 also outside, through the formation of joint committees of employers 
 and trade unions in the different trades, in order to organize better 
 the selection of future careers and callings among the pupils. This 
 movement cannot fail to have, in the long run, the most profound 
 effect on the curriculum and destiny of the so-called lower secondary 
 schools. — (191 3.) The subject formed one of the principal topics for 
 discussion at the educational section of the British Association of 
 this year. 
 
 2 Reference should also be made to the works of Henry Newbolt, 
 the Poet Laureate of the public schools, especially his two poems 
 entitled " Clifton Chapel " and " Vita'i Lampada,'" with its refrain of 
 " Play up, play up, and play the game," 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 141 
 
 placed it, one must, strangely enough, have recourse to 
 our French neighbours, who, in this as in so many other 
 matters, have done its thinking for Europe. To them we 
 owe the coinage of the two phrases noblesse oblige and esprit 
 de corps. The former, Norman and aristocratic in origin, 
 is an epitome of all the virtues that formed the stock-in- 
 trade of the ancient school of chivalry and mediaeval knight- 
 hood ; the latter, more in sympathy with the Anglo-Saxon 
 spirit, embodies the old civic idea of a Uving corporation 
 and the modern conception of organic oneness. 
 
 In these two phrases all moral and civic instruction seems 
 to be comprised, the one laying stress on the obligation of 
 the individual to himself and other individuals, the other 
 on his duties to his fellow-citizens and to the State. No 
 doubt to Thring and Arnold the idea of school was not 
 merely that of a republic of free aristocrats, but also of a 
 veritable civitas Dei. Just as the mediaeval doctors wove 
 into the fabric of their religious belief many of the doctrines 
 they found in those pre-Christian doctors of the Church, 
 Aristotle and Plato, so the leaders of the educational 
 renaissance of the nineteenth century found much of their 
 inspiration in the classical and knightly traditions of the 
 past in their desire to give an education not only of a 
 Christian but of a gentleman, to make their schools in the 
 widest sense schools of manners. 
 
 In studying the manners of the English public-school boy 
 a foreigner would probably be struck by his frankness, 
 independence, absence of swagger or affectation, and easy 
 assurance, consisting of a large dose of self-satisfaction, 
 probably well grounded and tinged with a cheerful disregard 
 of or indifference to the opinions of strangers, not unmixed 
 with contempt when they were not of the same way of 
 thinking as himself. On the other hand, he would note a 
 curious readiness to swear by everything enunciated by 
 those who were the bell-wethers of public opinion within 
 the school itself, and would realize that the Englishman's 
 preference for men rather than measures goes down deep 
 into the national character. 
 
 A closer acquaintance would probably show that he had 
 
142 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 a regard for truth, and a keen sense of honour, that he could 
 keep his temper, that he had pluck and endurance, and did 
 not boast about what he had done, if he did not rather ape 
 humility in pretending to know nothing about it ; that he 
 was loyal, honest and trustworthy. His extremely limited 
 vocabulary of English undefiled would astonish our foreign 
 friend, who would be further bewildered by his flow of 
 slang, nor would the amazement of the critic diminish on 
 learning that this very slang was regarded as part and 
 parcel of the school life, and any attempt of the authorities 
 to put it down would involve a language question to which 
 even Bohemia could offer no parallel. 
 
 In fact, our critic would speedily discover that the English 
 boy is intensely and violently conservative, that procedure 
 is his principal guide in life, and precedent its chief illumina- 
 tion, that Mrs. Grundy's reign in the social world is nothing 
 to the cast-iron regime which rules within the precincts of 
 Harchester, that innovation can only come when Brown 
 Primus, the head of the school, or Jones Major, the captain 
 of the eleven, decides to innovate, and neither, they all 
 know, will ever innovate rashly. Our critic will also prob- 
 ably wonder at the narrow sphere of interests in which the 
 pupil Uves, and while approving of the zest he gets out of 
 life, and the excellent terms on which he generally lives with 
 those in authority, he will rate less highly his general 
 ignorance of literature and art, and pity his contemptuous 
 attitude towards them. 
 
 More remarkable still will seem to our critic his absorbing 
 interest in games, so much so that the former may perhaps 
 ironically ask whether the schools themselves are not really 
 gymnasiums in the literal sense of the word, whose aim is 
 to produce a race of professional athletes, boating men, and 
 " sportsmen " generally. He would be surprised to learn 
 that while in France the majority of young Frenchmen 
 dream from their earliest years of obtaining a snug berth 
 under the Government for the rest of their natural lives, the 
 English boy is often so light-hearted that he has not seriously 
 considered the future at all, but trusts to luck '' for some- 
 thing to turn up." 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 143 
 
 Our critic will probably look with disapproval on the 
 orgies that sometimes take place in the school tuck-shop, 
 and be not unamused to learn on remembering the " butter " 
 towers of his own cathedrals, for which mediaeval indul- 
 gences had furnished the necessary funds, that modern 
 gluttony had been utilized towards meeting the cost of 
 substantial additions to the fives-courts and other athletic 
 desiderata of the school. 
 
 In religion our critic would discover that the pupil as a 
 rule belonged to the Church of England as by law esta- 
 blished, and that the numerous problems which engaged 
 the mind of the philosophical youth of eighteen abroad 
 rarely troubled the head of one whose piety, Hke that of his 
 race, was mainly of a practical nature. He would find that 
 in some schools the vices secrets were by no means unknown, 
 and that conspiracies of silence made them difficult to 
 discover. He would also learn on talking over the matter 
 quietly with the headmaster that matters were probably 
 better than they were twenty years ago,^ and that the mot 
 d'ordre of those in authority was : " Pensons-y toujour s, 
 n'en parlons jamais." 
 
 . APPENDIX TO IV (v) 
 
 L'HONNEUR CHEZ LE Lyc£eN FRAN^AIS 
 
 II y a lieu, ce me semble, d'etablir une division tr^s nette entre les 
 deux genres externe et interne. Reunis en classe, quatre ou cinq 
 heures chaque jour, ils sont ensuite separes et ne peuvent communi- 
 quer entre eux. Les influences qu'ils subissent sont fort differentes 
 et leurs origines ne sont point identiques. 
 
 L'externe vit dans sa famille. II en epouse generalement les id6es, 
 et le niveau de sa moralite variera suivant le ton plus ou moins elev6, 
 les sentiments et la mentalite de ses parents. II n'est en contact avec 
 ses camarades que pendant des heures brdves chaque jour : en classe, 
 il est soumis k Taction morale du professeur, action trop courte, trop 
 intermittente et pas assez intime pour avoir grand effet, (en mettant 
 
 ^ Cf. Benson, The Schoolmaster, 149-160, and Skrine, Pastor Ag- 
 norum, pp. 198-201, where the whole question is discussed in a 
 practical manner. 
 
144 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 k part, bien entendu, des exceptions rares, mais remarquables) . II 
 cause avec ses amis pendant quelques minutes a peine avant la classe ; 
 il accompagne un condisciple avant de rentrer chez lui, et c'est tout. 
 La formation mentale de I'externe est done, en somme, isolee ou 
 fragmentaire. Le t5rpe externe n'est pas uniforme. 
 
 L'el^ve externe est cependant assez sensible au bon renom de son 
 lycee, surtout a Paris oii il existe plusieurs lycees qui se disputent les 
 prix du Concours G6neral. Dans les villes de province oii le lyc6e 
 est unique et I'emporte beaucoup sur les etablissements libres, ce 
 sentiment est naturellement trds faible. L'esprit de camaraderie 
 est, chez I'externe, pen developpe en raison meme de sa vie isol6e. 
 Le jeune externe est g^neralement trop choye dans sa famille : ses 
 qualit6s viriles sont, par suite, tr^s peu marquees, sauf chez celui qui 
 pratique les exercices physiques. Ce dernier type tend k se r6pandre : 
 les associations scolaires sportives augmentent en nombre et en 
 importance. 
 
 Chez les bons 616ves, il y a une rivaht6 ardente pour les places de 
 composition et les prix de fin d'annee. Parfois, ce d6sir tr^s vif de 
 triompher dans les compositions pousse 1' enfant ou le jeune homme 
 k user de moyens illicites, a copier sa composition. Cette faute parait 
 plus frequente chez I'externe que chez I'interne. Le code d'honneur 
 qui la r6prouve avec energie est moins respecte par les eldves qui ne 
 vivent pas en commun. L'externe, plus effemine, se bat rarement 
 avec un camarade. Les combats, en general, ne sont pas regies, ont 
 lieu sans preparation, sans seconds. Les eldves externes ont presque 
 tou jours de meilleures mani^res que les internes : leur contact 
 journalier avec leurs m^res, leurs sceurs, explique ce fait. Chez les 
 grands, les tentations des grandes villes amdnent d'assez bonne heure 
 un relachement dans leurs moeurs. Le jeu aux courses est une des 
 plaies qui sevit avec le plus d'intensite. 
 
 Chez I'interne se retrouvent les qualites et les defauts inherents a 
 tous les hommes qui vivent en coUectivites exclusivement masculines. 
 II y a beaucoup d'analogie entre le pensionnaire au lycee et le soldat 
 k la caserne. Tous deux ont la meme franchise un peu brutale, la 
 meme gaite exub6rante et un peu grossi^re. L'esprit de camara- 
 derie, par I'eflfet ce cette vie en commun, est plus intense parmi les 
 internes que parmi leurs camarades externes. La d^nonciation d'un 
 camarade est consid6ree par eux comme une faute particuli^rement 
 grave et punie avec severity par des brimades diverses, surtout par 
 la " Quarantaine." 
 
 Dans les lyc6es fran9ais aucune intimity n'existe entre les maitres 
 d'6tudes, le censeur et le proviseur d'une part, et la masse des 616ves 
 d'autre part. Le role des 6ducateurs semblant etre r^duit a I'appli- 
 cation des r^glements disciplinaires, il rSgne une sorte d'6tat de 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 145 
 
 guerre latent entre radministration et les 616ves. Dans cette lutte, 
 les 616 ves internes sont tou jours 6troitement unis, et ils aiment mieux 
 6tre tous punis que de laisser chatier le camarade coupable d'une 
 faute commise dans I'interet (bien ou mal entendu) de tous. Dans 
 certains cas, ils forcent un coupable a se ddnoncer lui-meme, mais ils 
 ne le d6noncent pas. II existe done chez eux un veritable code 
 d'honneur dont les lois de la camaraderie sont la base. Dans les 
 associations telles que la " taupe," (candidats a Poly technique), la 
 " Corniche " (candidats a St. Cyr), ces lois de la camaraderie sont 
 observees avec plus de rigueur encore. 
 
 Un defaut assez repandu chez les internes est la tournure d'esprit 
 que Ton appelle la fanfaronnade dii vice. Les lendemains de conge, 
 I'interne aime, en general, etonner ses camarades par des recits souvent 
 imaginaires des debauches qu'il a pu commettre. Le dimanche soir, 
 beaucoup de "grands" affectent d'etre gris en rentrant. L'interne 
 est souvent assez courageux ; issu d'une famille habitant la cam- 
 pagne, il connait les animaux, son temperament est robuste. U a, 
 en revanche, moins de finesse d'esprit et moins de delicatesse que 
 I'externe citadin. Les brimades individuelles sont rares, et tou jours 
 un el6ve faible, maltraite de ses camarades, trouvera un defenseur. 
 Un 616ve n'est, on peut le dire en th^se g6nerale, maltraite par ses 
 condisciples que lorsqu'il s'est montre mauvais camarade et pen 
 sympathique. 
 
 II est presque certain que, au point de vue du mensonge, la masse 
 des externes est d'un niveau moins eleve que I'ensemble des pension- 
 naires. L'interne est un peu plus sincere que I'externe, precisement 
 parce qu'il est plus viril, 
 
 Les batailles ne sont pas rares chez les internes. Le combat est 
 plus r^gle ; souvent meme, il est stipule que les coups de pied seront 
 laiss6s de c6t6 ; des seconds aident parfois les combattants ; la 
 galerie de spectateurs veille jalousement a ce que la lutte soit re- 
 gulidre. Le combat est violent. L'intervention d'un maitre en 
 am^ne d'ordinaire la terminaison. 
 
 Les vices secrets, point rares malheureusement, sont presque 
 
 affich6s par les jeunes internes. A partir de 15 ans (a peu pr6s) 
 
 l'interne ne conviendra point qu'il s'y livre et mentira en le niant ; 
 
 mais il fera profession ouverte, en revanche, d'avoir des relations avec 
 
 des femmes les jours de sortie. 
 
 C. Veillet-Lavall^e, 
 
 LicenciS-es-Lettres. 
 
 Note. — (1913.) For the changes on the moral question that are 
 taking place among the younger generation see Les jeunes Gens 
 d'aujoicrd'hui, pp. 63-64. 
 
 B.E. K 
 
V. NEW EXPERIMENTS IN SECONDARY 
 
 EDUCATION 
 
 (i) The Chorus of Critics — Pere Didon 
 
 The critics of French secondary education have been 
 numerous, and their points of criticism have greatly varied. 
 Some have laid hold of the fact that the school is too 
 essentially a nursery of officialdom ; others who have seen 
 deeper have seen that the fans et origo malt is the Napoleonic 
 constitution of the lycee, which still persists, though its 
 raison d'etre has gone. Others, again, have emphasized the 
 fact that extraneous influences, such as the desire of every 
 parent to get his son a place under Government, have 
 powerfully aided and abetted ideals inherent in the original 
 constitution of the lycee. Yet another school of critics, 
 fastening on the overcrowded state of the liberal professions, 
 the comparative neglect of agriculture and commerce, the 
 growing number of declasses, and the need of settlers for the 
 new colonial empire, have blamed the schools for fostering 
 antiquated ideas and for lack of sympathy with the principal 
 wants of to-day. 
 
 Many have turned their eyes abroad to see if there was 
 anything to be learnt from foreign nations ; a few have 
 looked towards Germany, but the majority have turned 
 towards England. Each has found there the particular 
 remedy he desired. One might indeed say of many of them, 
 not on prend son hien ou on le trouve, but on trouve son hien 
 oil on veut le trouver. The critics of overwork find in the 
 EngHsh games an antidote and recreation ; the partisans 
 of colonization find in them an excellent means of making 
 men of muscle, strong and sturdy in the physical sense of 
 the word. The more educated see in them not merely an 
 instrument of physical education but also a moral instru- 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 147 
 
 ment of the first value. To some of these reformers 
 games would appear to be an all-sufficient panacea. 
 
 Others would go further, and break down the party wall 
 between education and instruction by interesting the pro- 
 viseur and professor in the larger sphere of these duties, and 
 by aboHshing the fatal distinction between repetiteur and 
 professor. At the same time they would reduce the hours 
 of work, and modernize the curricula. The more extreme 
 would revolutionize the programmes from top to bottom 
 and sweep away the -university in the process. The great 
 reform which has been accomplished in the Government 
 schools, and which has been treated of elsewhere, has mainly 
 dealt with the reform of the curricula ; moral education 
 and hygiene have not, as M. Duhamel says, been absolutely 
 sacrificed, but they occupy a comparatively minor position 
 in the Commission's recommendations. 
 
 At the side of and even in advance of this great official 
 reform a certain number of attempts have been made to 
 tackle the problem by members of the enseignement libre 
 and by private individuals anxious to put into practice 
 their theories of reform. One of the first and certainly 
 greatest reformers who submitted his theories to the test 
 of experience was the late Pere Didon, head ^ of the ficole 
 Albert le Grand at Arcueil, and founder of the schools of 
 Laplace and Lacordaire. 
 
 Pere Didon was not only an educational reformer, he was 
 also a personaHty in the reHgious world. The favourite 
 disciple of Lacordaire, he is admirably described in the words 
 that the latter appHed to himself as " a fervent Cathohc 
 and an impenitent Liberal." To his abihties as a thinker 
 and organizer he added the rare gift of being an orator 
 of the first rank. He was therefore able to give full value 
 and expression to his message. Unhappily cut off by a 
 sudden stroke while still in the fullest possession of all his 
 powers, he left behind him no regular treatise on education. 
 
 Fortunately he had pubHshed a year or two before a 
 collection of addresses, entitled L' Education presente, from 
 which we have already had occasion to quote, deUvered for 
 
 * He was prieiir. 
 
148 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 the most part at prize-givings, which were the occasions he 
 usually selected for the dissemination of his doctrines. 
 They have naturally no very close connection with one 
 another. It is possible their author was not altogether 
 displeased with the result. In his horror of the abuse of 
 systems in France he had, curiously enough, a somewhat 
 strange dislike of system. Yet these disjecta membra 
 contain enough and more than enough to show what an 
 admirable educator in the highest sense of the word was 
 lost to France by his premature death. 
 The preface to the book gives the keynote of his purpose. 
 
 " In the midst of the difi&culties and dangers in which the present 
 generation is living is it not one of our most imperative duties to go 
 to the young, to live with them, to instruct them, to make them moral 
 beings, to prepare them for their future place in the world, to inspire 
 them with the new spirit which desires to make itself master of their 
 souls as yet untouched, in order to make them the docile instruments 
 of its new creations ? " 
 
 Thence he passes straight away to the impeachment of 
 the actual system of education. 
 
 " Is French education in touch with the social, economic, political, 
 democratic, scientific, intellectual or religious world of to-day 
 {milieu), that is at present a prey to every form of struggle, every 
 form of activity, and condemned to a perpetual state of flux ? No. 
 
 " Does it aim at forming beings who are physically strong ? No. 
 
 " At forming determined and courageous characters, who are their 
 own masters and have no fear of compromising themselves ? No. 
 
 " At forming intelligent and cultivated characters ? Perhaps. 
 
 " At forming pUant and supple characters, consciences that are 
 weak and complacent ? I fear so, 
 
 " Well-balanced minds which see rightly and clearly ? No. 
 
 " Souls whose dauntless and well-reasoned faith is beyond the 
 reach of an unbelief that masquerades as the loftiest wisdom and 
 scientific infallibility ? No. 
 
 " Citizens whose valiant patriotism the soul of the country will find 
 ever ready to respond to her cry for assistance ? No, 
 
 " Men of action, in short, who know how to make up their minds 
 by themselves, how to decide for themselves, how to take action them- 
 selves, only count on themselves, convinced that after God the 
 victory in every conflict falls to the most enduring, to the most per- 
 sistent, that is to say the most worthy ? No." 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 149 
 
 He points out that 
 
 " The new spirit of the times enjoins work up to and including the 
 severest toil, demands a will capable of being its own master, full of 
 enterprise, trained for the conflict, strong even to the limits of en- 
 durance. It desires an upright and well-balanced intelligence. . . . 
 It requires a well-trained body ... an incorruptible conscience, a 
 dauntless character ; a heart passionately attached to justice ; a 
 nature enamourevi of all that is ideally beautiful, a patriotism that 
 hungers after the greatness, the expansion, the glory and prosperity 
 of the country." 
 
 What then is wanted to give free play to these principles ? 
 
 " A less restricted and passive regime, allowing room for the spon- 
 taneous action of character and temperament, multiplying the 
 occasions for initiative, and giving free play to the responsibilities 
 of each individual ; a manly regime which not only demands a passive 
 obedience under outward discipline, but a freedom of action and 
 unconstrained confidence in chiefs whose highest aim is to make 
 themselves beloved ; a regime adapted to the preparation for Hfe, 
 and to the proper use of liberty. , . . Such a regime seems desirous 
 of breaking with the ancient method of education in general." ^ 
 
 The year after the publication of V Education presente 
 Pere Didon came to England, and there he found in our 
 large pubUc schools the confirmation of what he was trying 
 to do in his own country, and the reahzation and completion 
 of many of his dreams. What struck him most was the 
 admirable system of self-government among the boys them- 
 
 ^ In justice to P^re Didon's Catholic predecessors in the same field, 
 one must mention the name of Dupanloup. Here is what Pecaut (a 
 witness certainly above suspicion) says of the seminary at Orleans : 
 "// n'y a pas la un systeme, des reglements : il y a mieux : c'est un 
 organisme vivant, une dme pariout repandue, et des organes appropries , 
 des nioyens reguliers d' action ; ily a une doctrine morale cachee, une vue 
 d'ensemble sur la nature humaine, sur sa valeur et sa destinee, sur la 
 direction a imprimer a la vie, etc. ; et, pour traduire et realiser cet esprit, 
 pour en f aire une habitude mentale des Aleves, il y a des institutions, des 
 riunions et des allocutions quotidiennes ou hehdomadaires. II y a, 
 en fin, dans cette vie de V internal, autre chose que des etudes, des lemons, 
 une discipline equitable, desjeux : ily a un rayon, ily a des evenements, 
 des emotions, des incitations, bref tout un regime de vie morale qui im- 
 prime une marque sur les caracteres, qui laisse de longs souvenirs, qui 
 contribue a determiner la direction definitive de la volonte de l' enfant en 
 mime temps qu'il lui adoucit les annees de cloture." (Revue peda- 
 gogique, July 1909 : " Les Lettres de Pecaut a Greard.") 
 
150 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 selves, coupled with the excellent relations that prevailed 
 between boys and masters. He was never tired of saying 
 that these schools were the finest possible nurseries for 
 future rulers and governors, and that he who learnt to rule 
 at school was fit to rule the Indies afterwards. Of the 
 many foreign visitors to English schools he was the first to 
 realize to the full what he, in fact, had already more or less 
 realized at home, the educational possibilities of athletics. 
 
 The immense power of tradition in moulding the life of 
 the school impressed him deeply ; the devotion of the staff 
 to the school, and the pride of the old boys for the ancient 
 and religious foundation in which they had been reared, 
 seemed to him very precious auxiliaries in knitting together 
 all who were or had been in contact with the schools. He 
 loved to trace the influence of the great religious founders 
 which still lingered round many of the schools and had 
 maintained those traditions of public spirit and of serving 
 the State which date back from the time when the great 
 Churchmen were also the leading Ministers of State. 
 
 More especially was he struck with the boundless influence 
 of the school milieu on the bringing up of the boys. He 
 dilated on the value of space, of light and air as essential 
 not only to health but also to the development of that un- 
 conscious sense of freedom and unconstraint which is the 
 best aid to fostering that inner freedom of self-control. He 
 dreamt of creating a school on some woody dechvity near 
 the banks of the Seine, a sort of combined Eton and Harrow 
 La Montague (as he loved to caU it), which should be the 
 very antithesis of the ordinary French school and should 
 be the reahzation of all he had thought out on the subject. 
 To him as to Thring " the mighty wall " had an irresistible 
 attraction. 
 
 Like Thring, he was above all the apostle of life. Any 
 idea of the mechanical in education was hateful to him. 
 He was never tired of inveighing against the breeding of 
 tame officials or the manufacture of machine-made human 
 automata. In one eloquent passage in U Education presente 
 he speaks of the garden nursery as the boarding house of 
 flowers, and of the boarding house as the garden nursery 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 151 
 
 of men. Above all he insisted on every boy selecting while 
 still at school a definite career.^ Thring declared that every 
 boy could be made to take an interest in something. Pere 
 Didon went still further, and in his horror of waste-products 
 determined that every pupil who left his school should leave 
 it not only fully armed for the battle of life but with a com- 
 mission in his pockets. At one of the prize-givings at 
 Albert le Grand he was able to make the proud boast that 
 of forty boys who were leaving at the end of the term there 
 was not one who had not got something definite to do. 
 
 Unhappily his sudden death shortly after his return from 
 England did not permit him to realize in bricks and mortar 
 the last great dream of his Hfe. But in Albert le Grand,^ at 
 Laplace and Lacordaire, he had already put his educational 
 theories to the test of practice with considerable success. 
 A certain autonomy reigned in the school which was not 
 noticeable elsewhere. One could not help being struck by 
 the greater manhness and independence of the boys — among 
 whom he had already introduced a certain amount of 
 independence, especially in connection with the management 
 of the games. Altogether the school was in an exceedingly 
 flourishing state, and there is no knowing to what a pitch 
 of success he would have brought it had his life been spared. 
 
 What the ultimate fate of the school may be one cannot 
 pretend to predict, but his influence, his written work must 
 remain to be read and digested even by those who were not 
 in all things in agreement with him. It is well known that 
 he took copious notes of his visit to EngHsh schools. It 
 would be worth while for the chiefs of his order, who in 
 these matters are his spiritual heirs, seriously to consider if 
 these impressions are not in a sufficiently advanced state 
 to be given to the world. Their publication would not 
 only give a fuller and finer idea of one who was a glory to 
 their order, and a notable figure in his own country, it 
 would also help to forward the cause of true education. 
 
 ^ See L' Education presents, p. 344. 
 
 *NoTE. — (1909.) The school has now passed into lay hands, at 
 least in name. But his doctrines of life being essentially active, 
 together with those of M. Bergson, are widely held by many young 
 men of to-day of 19-25. See Les jeiines Gens d'aujourd'hui passim. 
 
152 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 (ii) M. Demolins and his Imitators 
 
 In 1896 M. Demolins, a well-known French writer and 
 economist of the school of Leplay, attended the Edinburgh 
 summer meeting. He met there the principal of an English 
 private school in which a certain number of novel experi- 
 ments were being tried. The result of the acquaintance 
 was a volume on the causes of Anglo-Saxon superiority. 
 The book at once attracted a certain amount of attention 
 in France. An educational campaign was going on at the 
 time. The author was taken up by Jules Lemaltre and 
 others who were anxious to reform the existing regime. 
 From that moment the success of the book was assured. 
 M. Demolins became the man of the hour, and not only the 
 French but the European Press gave a wide pubhcity to 
 the real or supposed causes of Anglo-Saxon superiority. 
 
 Leaving out of account the philosophical theories on 
 which the book is based, and which happily need neither 
 confirmation nor refutation here, an analysis of its contents 
 reveals that, while it is full of a good many striking assertions 
 about English education which can only be classed as 
 doubtful, it nevertheless contains a certain amount of 
 verites a repandre, as the French say. The title of the first 
 chapter poses the main question straight away. " Does the 
 French system breed men ? " " Ask,'' says the author, 
 " any hundred young Frenchmen on leaving school for what 
 professions they are preparing ; three-fourths will reply to 
 you that they are candidates for official posts." This 
 excessive competition is the direct cause of the present 
 terrible overpressure in the schools and of the wrong bias 
 given to the education of the general run of boys, which is 
 certainly not the best for them, because an education that 
 trains officials "can train for little else and is especially ill- 
 adapted to form men." 
 
 After pointing out the weak spots in the German system, 
 that some reformers seem inclined to copy, M. Demolins 
 arrives at the English system. Here the principal of the 
 school which he describes in detail was careful to tell him 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 153 
 
 that the school is in many ways quite original, yet the 
 heading of the chapter runs, " Does the Enghsh System form 
 Men ? " In the next chapter M. Demolins asks, How do 
 these Enghsh people act towards their children ? The 
 following hst will show at once the shrewdness of the 
 author and the dangers of insufficient generahzation. 
 
 1. " The parents do not consider their children as belong- 
 
 ing to them, as a species of goods and chattels, as a 
 simple continuation of their own personality, as a 
 sort of survival of themselves. On the contrary, 
 they regard them as beings who ought soon to 
 become independent of them/' 
 
 Instead of coddling them they try to hasten on the neces- 
 sary emancipation. Which parent, the French or the 
 Enghsh, is the less selfish really ? 
 
 2. " The parents treat their offspring from the outset and 
 
 always as grown-up persons, as distinct personahties." 
 
 Here is the same truth as in i, but in an exaggerated form. 
 
 3. " The parents in education look to future needs, to 
 
 the new needs of life, and not to the conditions of a 
 past age." 
 
 Can we really say that English education is more up-to- 
 date than the French ? 
 
 4. " The parents have a sovereign regard not only as we 
 
 for health (and yet do we not sacrifice it to study, to 
 examinations, to living in towns, etc. ?), but they 
 have a sovereign regard for strength, for full develop- 
 ment, and also as far as possible for the development 
 of physical energy." 
 
 5. " The parents very early in life train their children in 
 
 the practice of everyday life. They let them go out 
 alone, send them on errands, etc." 
 
 6. " The parents generally have their children taught a 
 
 handicraft." 
 
 This is at least a great exaggeration, though the technical 
 schools have done something for the lower middle class. 
 But, then, have not the French technical schools ? 
 
154 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 7. " Parents anticipate their children in the knowledge 
 
 of all useful novelties." 
 
 True : we are certainly a fact-loving nation, as our news- 
 papers testify, but the parental Mr. Barlow who gets up 
 subjects for his children is a much rarer creature than 
 M. Demolins fancies. Again, as far as one's own experience 
 goes, the French home has certainly a far more civilizing 
 influence than the English, in which literature and art are 
 rarely discussed. 
 
 8. "In appearance they make little use of their authority 
 
 in dealing with their children." 
 
 This means they are less autocratic, which is probably true. 
 
 9. " The children are aware that their parents do not 
 
 undertake to find them a place." 
 
 This is, of course, largely true. 
 
 The typical young Englishmen are therefore " strong in 
 thew and sinew, habituated to reality, in contact with 
 material facts, always treated as men, trained to rely on 
 themselves, and, regarding life as a combat ^ (which is 
 eminently Christian), face the difficulties of hfe in all the 
 vigour of their superabundant youth." 
 
 According to M. Demolins, the moral action which implies 
 the sacrifice of self is insufficient to bring about social 
 improvement ; the moral action which is really efficacious 
 is that which consists in self-conquest, and this is best learnt 
 in a society in which man is obliged to rely on himself. 
 One sees that M. Demolins is an individualist, and his 
 gospel is the gospel of self-help. 
 
 By the phenomenal success of his book M. Demolins 
 suddenly found himself acclaimed as an educational expert. 
 He took up the role thus attributed to him seriously, and his 
 succeeding volume, U Education nouvelle, which is largely 
 based on a study of the system in vogue at Bedales, he 
 worked out as a complete theory of education. 
 
 Being a man of action, he did not let the matter rest, but, 
 encouraged by the crowd of letters which poured in to him 
 
 1 Cf. Le Pere Didon, L' Education presente, p. 25 : " Nous sommes 
 nes combatants." 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 155 
 
 from every quarter of France, concurrently with the writing 
 of his book he took steps to give a practical illustration of 
 his theories. He formed a company which purchased the 
 chateau of Les Roches, together with its domain of some 
 sixty acres, about two miles outside Verneuil, which is two 
 hours by train from Paris on the Granville line. L' Education 
 nouvelle was not merely an educational treatise, it was 
 meant to be above all a prospectus of the new school, ex- 
 plaining its raison d'etre, its aims, and the manner in which 
 they were to be realized. 
 
 M. DemoUns begins the volume by pointing out the lack 
 of friendly relations between the French pupil and those 
 in authority, whether professeurs or repetiteurs. He con- 
 demns the divorce made between the two functions of the 
 teacher, dilates on the general evil effects of the regime of 
 distrust which pervades the boarding school, criticizes 
 adversely the crowding together of vast masses of boys, and 
 deplores the mistaken policy of planting big boarding schools 
 in the middle of towns instead of in the middle of the 
 country. Having placed his son in an English school, M. 
 Demolins appreciates the value of the offices of professor 
 and repetiteur being held by one and the same person. 
 
 He dilates on the advantages of the life in common of 
 boys and masters, of small classes in which individual 
 attention is possible. He points out the bad side of the 
 specialist professor, his difficulty in coming down to the 
 level of the young, his lack of influence owing to his lack 
 of power to arouse interest. He praises the open-air life of 
 the English school, which renders thereby a love of nature 
 possible. In emphasizing the merits of the monitorial 
 system he relates how the thing that most struck his son 
 at the school was that one never lied. It was not necessary, 
 because one was not spied on. 
 
 He next passes to the programme he proposes for his new 
 school. Greek and Latin he gives up for the great majority 
 of the boys, only keeping them for those who take up a 
 literary career after the age of thirteen. On the contrary, 
 far greater prominence are given to Enghsh and German, 
 which have at the start eight hours a week instead of one 
 
156 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 and a half as in the old official programme. In postponing 
 classics M. Demolins may fairly boast of having anticipated 
 the new official programme. With the time thus saved 
 from classics, the mother tongue, history and geography, 
 and science and drawing come in for a larger share of 
 attention. 
 
 Up to thirteen the programme is the same for all boys ; 
 differentiation takes place at that age, and the programme 
 is divided up into four courses, letters, science, agriculture 
 and colonization, industry and commerce. The difficulties 
 of learning Latin late are to be got over by the free use of 
 translations. Modern languages are to be taught on the 
 direct method. All pupils have to spend at least three 
 months abroad, either in England or Germany, in certain 
 carefully selected schools. No doubt they will not only 
 acquire a good grip of the foreign language, but also a tinge 
 of that celebrated Anglo-Saxonism. 
 
 Mathematics are to be taught in a practical manner. The 
 mornings will be taken up with this head-work. In the 
 afternoons the pupils will have either games or practical 
 work. The latter will consist of gardening and agricultural 
 work, or wood and iron work, or visits to farms, factories, 
 natural history excursions, surveying and drawing out 
 plans. The evenings are devoted to artistic occupations or 
 social recreation. Each evening has its particular occupa- 
 tion ; beginning with Monday evening, there are readings 
 in the lives of great men, etc., recitations and acting, wood- 
 carving, modelling, dancing, concerts, music and singing, 
 lectures and magic-lantern shows. Sunday evening is 
 devoted to moral and social instruction, Sunday morning 
 to reUgious instruction and to attending church, an aumonier 
 and a pasteur being attached to the school. A short account 
 of the school shows that it is furnished and equipped 
 according to the latest requirements of hygiene. 
 
 The school appears to have been a success from the very 
 first. It opened in 1899 with eighty pupils, the maximum 
 it could take. A large number of these pupils had already 
 spent several months in England and Germany.- A visit 
 to the school towards the end of the first term proved a 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 157 
 
 very interesting experience. Thanks to their preliminary 
 sojourn in England, the great majority of the pupils had 
 already fallen into the ways of the English masters on the 
 staff, on whom the chief weight of running the school on 
 EngHsh lines naturally fell. A regular monitorial system 
 had been established, and a start had been made with the 
 manual and out-of-door work which was to be one of the 
 features of the new school. 
 
 The day of my visit the last school run of the term took 
 place. The pupils were each of them timed separately 
 with a view to improving each on his own time. The 
 course was some three miles in length, and many had 
 already succeeded in covering the entire distance without 
 stopping, a matter which had rather been an exception at 
 the outset, owing to the lack of endurance. The French 
 and EngHsh members of the staff were on good terms, 
 though it was clear that they belonged to very different 
 regimes. M. Demolins had very wisely placed his school 
 not merely outside Paris but also at some distance from it, 
 in order to prevent the school being overrun by the parents. 
 
 Unluckily he had reckoned without the telephone, and 
 anxious mothers, separated for the first time in their lives 
 from their offspring, were not slow to find out and appreciate 
 this useful method of communication. Conversation and 
 even weeping by telephone became so common that drastic 
 measures had to be taken and telephonic intercourse re- 
 stricted to certain definite days and hours. In a similar 
 fashion the visits of the parents to the school had to be 
 regulated. The school has rapidly been increasing in 
 numbers. House after house has been built, till the number 
 of houses amounts to six and the pupils number 180. To 
 judge by the pictures in the prospectus the school has put 
 into practice many of the interesting reforms sketched out 
 in L' Education nouvelle.^ 
 
 The hours of work, however, seem very short in com- 
 parison with those in the State schools, which may well be 
 excessive, but which are more or less necessary for the 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) M. Demolins died last year, but his school still 
 continues to flourish. — (1913.) It now contains 180 pupils. 
 
158 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 passing of the haccalaureat. If the school through superior 
 teaching is able to turn out the average number of bacheliers, 
 its success is secured. Otherwise, considering the fact that 
 the haccalaureat is the entrance to all professions and to the 
 Civil Service, the great majority of parents will send their 
 children elsewhere, preferring rather not to endanger their 
 future prospects in life, even if they possibly endanger 
 their health. 
 
 It seems all too possible that M. Demohns, in his move- 
 ment in favour of games and hygiene and in reaction against 
 excessive intellectualism, has gone too far. As long as the 
 entrance to a career depends on passing an examination, 
 the examination has got to be passed. Besides — as we 
 have seen in the English schools — one can easily lower the 
 intellectual side of the school below safety point. Again, 
 it is significant that the proportion of foreigners on the new 
 staff has greatly decreased, and that two EngHsh masters 
 who acted as pioneers in the new school have left and set 
 up a school for themselves at Liancourt, in Oise, of which 
 one hears excellent accounts. 
 
 This school, which is called " L'ficole de I'lle de France," 
 is about an hour by train from Paris. It occupies the former 
 Chateau of Liancourt, which is situated in the midst of a 
 magnificent park, surrounded by gardens, woods, and a 
 farm. The size of the property is about 600 acres. The 
 farm allows of pupils studying agriculture. Two foreign 
 languages are taught low down in the school, which also 
 prepares for the haccalaureat. Out of school hours the 
 greatest liberty is allowed to pupils. 
 
 The discipline is largely in the hands of the senior boys, 
 who act as captains. Religious instruction and rehgious 
 facilities of worship are provided for Catholic and Protestant. 
 Games and manual work are obligatory. Every day the 
 pupils have at least three hours in the open air. They are 
 " hardened " by the use of cold water and the practice of 
 open windows. A large lake provides the opportunity for 
 swimming and skating. Every pupil has to pass an ex- 
 amination on entrance. The examination is not only 
 intellectual but physical and moral. The pupils pass a 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 159 
 
 preparatory period in England or Germany from three 
 months to a year in duration. No exeats are allowed. 
 
 Among various points of interest in the prospectus, one 
 notes the wise decision to maintain the ordinary school 
 hours while lessening the amount of work to be done out of 
 school. The roles of professor and surveillant are exercised 
 by one and the same person. Several ladies on the staff 
 act as housekeepers and teach in the lower classes, and add 
 a family element to the establishment. Great efforts are 
 made to develop the will, initiative, the sentiment of inde- 
 pendence and of personal dignity in the pupils. These, it 
 is recognized, can only be obtained by the system of perfect 
 confidence between teachers and taught, who collaborate 
 themselves in the matter of keeping order. 
 
 Evidently the aim of the school is to impress on the head 
 boys the sense of responsibility. The confidence placed in 
 the pupils is not blind, hence the need of discipline combined 
 with ever-ready sympathy for the pupils. The true idea 
 of the school is that it is really and truly the apprenticeship 
 to society. The system of prizes is avoided as dangerous 
 and tending to undue individualism. The description of 
 subjects and the method of teaching contain many excellent 
 hints. Although the school is hardly two years old, it 
 contains already seventy-five pupils.^ ^ 
 
 (iii) M. DUHAMEL 
 
 The foundation of Les Roches was in part a protest against 
 the existing educational system, the opening of a mons sacer 
 
 ^ Note. — (1913.) It now contains 104 pupils. 
 
 2 Note. — (1909.) It is worth noting that a certain section of the 
 Protestant community are dissatisfied with the present state of 
 the primary schools, where in some cases the so-called neutrality of the 
 school has given way to a more militant attitude towards religion. 
 They are seriously talking of founding a certain number of schools of 
 their own, and particularly of enlarging a small secondary school in 
 the east of France which, attached to an elementary school, has 
 hitherto served as a source of recruitment for the pastorate. They 
 propose to use it for the training of future teachers, and also for the 
 education of ordinary pupils. 
 
i6o STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 which definitely broke with the CapitoHne University. The 
 third reformer, M. Duhamel, is less intransigeant. Here is 
 his profession of faith : 
 
 " The founders of the College de Normandie . . . are trying an 
 educational reform without any covert idea of hostility to the ofi&cial 
 education, but also with a frankly acknowledged desire to create in 
 the light of day a new school system which will show the elements of 
 decay in the old system and will gradually bring about its trans- 
 formation. They openly claim to pertain to the university through 
 its high standard of instruction and its literary and philosophical 
 spirit, they dissociate themselves from it in all matters concerning 
 the formation of the moral and physical man. . . . [The present 
 enterprise] is not a work of discord or faction, but a courteous and 
 unselfish struggle for the best in which all honest folk can take a 
 part." 1 
 
 He then passes to the question as to why a new type of 
 school is necessary. The report of the Parliamentary Com- 
 mission of Inquiry dealt too exclusively with pedagogical 
 and financial questions, to the comparative neglect of those 
 dealing with health and moral education. But while the 
 instructional side may be improved and modified, the edu- 
 cational needs practically to be recreated. The chief things 
 wanting to-day are men of will and sound physique as well 
 as of well-educated minds. 
 
 He next proceeds to a diagnosis of the actual results of 
 French education as it is. The general effects of a boarding- 
 school life are bad. The pupil 
 
 " has had an unhappy time. For years, one has glared upon him, 
 shut him up in a cloister, condemned him to silence, has only ap- 
 proached him with extreme reserve. He has only seen life from one 
 side, the saddest, that of the silent boarding-school system." 
 
 When liberty arrives, he abuses it. His will too is weak. 
 He has a great lack of energy. The seat of these evils lies 
 in the system itself, which is based on distrust or suspicion. 
 Hence a regime of incessant invigilation and close confine- 
 ment within four walls. This distrust to which he has been 
 subjected the pupil in his turn carries out with him into his 
 after-life. To remedy this evil, confidence should begin at 
 
 J Comment ilever nos Fits, p. v. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS i6i 
 
 school. It is in fact one of the four corner-stones of educa- 
 tion, the others being love of the pupil, patience with him 
 and the life in common with him. Liberal studies are not in 
 themselves a liberal education in the wide sense of the word. 
 The aim of the school is not merely to produce good 
 litterateurs and good officials, the supreme interest of France 
 is to breed a numerous and healthy race. The teaching 
 methods in France are good enough. There is no need of 
 going outside to seek others. What defects there are are 
 due to the overcrowded state of the programmes. In 
 matters of health it is otherwise. Not five per cent, of 
 boarding pupils could answer the following questions in the 
 affirmative : 
 
 1. Are the windows of your dormitory opened day and 
 night the whole year through ? 
 
 2. Do you exercise sufficiently every day the most 
 important muscles of your arm, your chest, your abdomen, 
 and your legs ? 
 
 3. Do you take a cold or tepid bath every day or even 
 three times a week ? 
 
 4. Are your clothes fairly loose at the neck, at the hips, 
 round the waist ? 
 
 5. Do you carefully clean your teeth, your nose, and your 
 ears ? 
 
 6. Have you an idea of the laws which govern the health 
 of your body and your physical well-being ? 
 
 The ordinary rule in most of the schools appears to be a 
 complete bath once a term and a footbath once a month. 
 The parents are in this matter far from being without blame. 
 They do not lift a finger to alter the present state of things, 
 and yet overwork (ten to twelve hours a day), badly venti- 
 lated rooms, overcrowding, insufficient food, and insufficient 
 sleep are playing havoc with the boys.^ The health statistics 
 prove it. The educated class, consisting of those who have 
 
 ^ Note. — (191 3.) For more recent improvements see Dr. Mathieu's 
 article in Hygiene scolaire (Oct. 191 1), summarized in notes on pages 
 27, 121. 
 
 B.E. L 
 
i62 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 taken a B.A., furnishes 11.5 per cent, less recruits than the 
 other classes (and yet these B.A.'s are almost exclusively 
 taken from the well-to-do classes). 
 
 Consumption is rampant in the schools. Of thirty-three 
 repetiteurs who have died during the last four years, sixteen, 
 or 49 per cent., were victims to consumption. Health is 
 therefore to be a strong point at the new school. There are, 
 according to M. Duhamel, two periods in the scholar's Hfe, 
 the one terminating roughly at thirteen, and the other 
 beginning about that date. Each period will receive the 
 teaching appropriate to it at the new school. 
 
 But the essential aim in education is the formation of 
 character.^ The means to this end are an apprenticeship 
 in the responsibility framed on the English monitorial 
 system and fortified by the discipline that comes from 
 games. To render the life in common real, there will be 
 in each house a house master who will share the life and 
 meals of the pupils. The principal of the new college will 
 be no mere administrator, he will be master, nay, headmaster 
 in the fullest English sense of the word. 
 
 Of the professors, some wiU become house masters and 
 receive a sort of capitation fee on the pupils in their houses, 
 in order to stimulate interest and emulation ; the others will 
 live either near or in the school itself, but all will take an 
 active interest in the school life. All will receive a living 
 wage and be able to qualify for pensions. Even the relations 
 between the principal and the professors are laid down. He 
 will supervise the teaching, but will not play the spy on 
 them. Masters' meetings will be frequent. Candidates 
 for the post of teacher will have to give evidence not only of 
 intellectual but of physical and moral quaUties. Some 
 knowledge of pedagogics will be expected. 
 
 An old chateau in Normandy, some 530 feet above the 
 sea, situated in a well-wooded park, and approached by a 
 magnificent avenue 500 yards in length, the whole property 
 amounting to nearly 300 acres, has been selected as the seat 
 of the school. The school has its own fruit, butter, and eggs. 
 
 ^ " Savoir est peu de chose ; vouloir, agir, voila ce qui importe." — 
 M. Hanotaux, Du Choix d'une Carriere, p. 6. 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 163 
 
 The situation near Cleres, the station where the lines of 
 Dieppe and Rouen and Havre and Amiens intercept one 
 another, places it in direct communication with all the prin- 
 cipal towns in the north of France. The chateau itself 
 forms the headmaster's house ; the class-rooms are attached ; 
 anything like a collection of barracks will be avoided. 
 The houses where the pupils live are scattered over the 
 park. These embody the latest improvements in school 
 construction and hygiene, as the detailed plans given in the 
 book show. 
 
 The religious teaching will be undenominational, the 
 ministers of the various religious denominations will have 
 free access to the school, and on Sunday the Cathohc boys 
 go to mass in the village chapel, and facilities for worship 
 will be found for the others. Every morning and evening 
 there will be a short moral reading by the headmaster or 
 house master. 
 
 The question of dress is next considered. Masters will 
 wear their gowns in school. Pupils will have a regular 
 dress but not a uniform, and mufti wiU be allowed in 
 the hoUdays. Prefects will have a badge, and each house 
 its own colour. 
 
 The school will begin with very few boys. It is all- 
 important to form a moral centre at the outset. New boys 
 are requested to make a preliminary stay in England. 
 Classics will be kept for an elite. In modern languages the 
 direct method is followed. A debating society will be 
 started, and the school wiU have its own songs. The 
 question of fresh air, ventilation, feeding and dress are care- 
 fully discussed. Every pupil wiU be weighed and measured 
 at the beginning and end of each term. The hours of work 
 and play are very carefuUy arranged. In addition to games 
 there wiU be Swedish exercises. Great stress is laid on 
 manual work as a means of discipline, of health and educa- 
 tion, as well as a valuable form of recreation. The vices 
 secrets wiU be carefully guarded against. Their physio- 
 logical causes will not be ignored any more than their 
 psychological. 
 
 The remainder of the book is given up to a comparison 
 
i64 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 between the methods of study and standard of attainment 
 in England and France, in which the palm is awarded to 
 France. Hence M. Duhamel concludes that there is no 
 good in rejecting what is good in French education, more 
 especially as the object in view is not to produce pale and 
 ineffectual imitations of English boys but strong and 
 energetic French men. As he well says : 
 
 " Our reform is essentially French. It is not a question of chang- 
 ing the national temperament of our children, nor, in a word, to make 
 English men of them, but to develop in them the national qualities 
 of their race, which are real and only require an appropriate 
 culture to spring into life. ' Frangais je suis ' is the motto we 
 have chosen." 
 
 Comment elever nos Fits appeared in 1901. In 1902 the 
 College de Normandie opened its doors to seven pupils, and 
 a much larger number had to be refused for lack of accom- 
 modation. A visit paid to the school in June, 1902, showed 
 that an excellent beginning had been made, and that the 
 extensive programme we have given above was being realized 
 in all its details. The governing body happened to be 
 giving a sort of informal house-warming on the day of my 
 arrival. Among the guests — a matter which will speak 
 volumes to the ordinary French mind — was no less a 
 person than the Director of Secondary Education, M. Rabier. 
 A long conversation with him showed how entirely in 
 sympathy he was with the aims of the school. 
 
 In September, 1903, the school contained forty pupils 
 with ten professors. A new house had just been opened 
 and another had just been projected. The principle of 
 gradually enlarging the school is being strictly adhered to. 
 A recent visit to the school produced a very pleasant im- 
 pression. The new buildings are excellent from every 
 point of view. The relations between the boys and masters 
 are very pleasant. There has been no attempt to Anglicize 
 the boys, but none the less there are abundant signs that 
 the ideals of manliness, frankness, and good-comradeship 
 are held high in honour in the school. The numerous 
 reforms outlined in Comment elever nos Fits have not been 
 allowed to remain as a mere profession of faith, but have 
 
FRENCH AND ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS 165 
 
 already been largely realized in practice. The standard 
 of work seems to be quite up to that of the lycee. Yet 
 in spite of the hard work the boys have a healthy look. 
 According to all appearances the school has a brilliant 
 prospect before it.^ 
 
 Some 200 years ago ^ the arrival in England of those early 
 emigres, the Huguenots, set up a strong reflex current in 
 EngUsh ideas which resulted in the influence of Locke 
 extending to France and materially aiding thereby in the 
 creation of a work which has had the most profound influence 
 on the minds of French educators — the Entile of Rousseau. 
 Within the last ten years a similar inflow of English educa- 
 tional ideas has been established, and he would be a bold 
 man who would dare to say that the work and writing of 
 the three reformers Didon, Demolins, and Duhamel may 
 not in their turn have as profound an effect on French 
 education. 
 
 It is to be hoped that this anxiety to learn and readiness 
 to adopt what is good elsewhere will not be confined to one 
 side of the Channel, and that we in England may exhibit 
 an increased willingness to imitate our French neighbours 
 in those matters in which we have no little to learn from 
 them, such as the proper study of the mother tongue and 
 the working out of proper curricula for our schools. As 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) A third house has now been built, and a fourth is 
 under way. There are now sixty- three boys [eighty-two — 191 3], and 
 a large crowd are awaiting admission. The school has done brilliantly 
 in the examinations, and all promises a fair future. No doubt this 
 school, as well as those of Liancourt and Les Roches, at present cater 
 only for a limited class of wealthy parents. But just as the public 
 schools of England have suggested the erection of less expensive 
 boarding schools, it does not seem beyond the reach of probability 
 that once these schools have justified their existence they should 
 give rise to the creation in their turn of boarding schools that should 
 suit parents of more moderate means — (1913.) A society has just 
 been formed under M. Paul Desjardins, Directeur de 1' Union pour 
 la Verite, to found a school or schools on the lines of the College de 
 Normandie, but with fees which are more within the reach of the 
 average bourgeois. 
 
 2 See /.-/. Rousseau and the Cosmopolitan Spirit in Literature, by 
 M. J Texte (translated by W. Mathews ; London, Duckworth). 
 
i66 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 the French have shown signs of desiring to learn something 
 of the moral ideas in English education, we shall be equally 
 well advised to inquire into what they have to teach us in 
 those intellectual aims which are and have ever been the 
 vivida vis of the French system.^ 
 
 1 Note. — (1909.) Cf. M. Jules Gautier, the Director of Secondary 
 Education in France, in a remarkable address delivered at the Franco- 
 British Exhibition, October 22nd, 1908: " Je crois, Mesdames et 
 Messieurs, que deux pays comme la France et I'Angleterre peuvent 
 singuliirement s' aider dans une ceuvre de ce genre, si elles veulent unir 
 leurs efforts, et si elles veulent prendre chacune chez I' autre ce qu'ily a de 
 grand et de bon pour I'appliquer a I' education de la jeunesse et a V ame- 
 lioration de I'humanite. Nous vous avons deja emprunte beaucoup de 
 choses, notamment tout ce qui concerne le diveloppement de I' education 
 physique, car vous avez su avant nous accorder au corps I' attention qu'il 
 merite, parce que ce n'est que dans le corps solide qu'existe un esprit sain. 
 Dans le domaine de V education intellectuelle et morale je suis venu id 
 vous exposer que nous avons fait, afin que, s'il y a quelque chose de bon 
 vous puissiez en profiler, I'adapter a voire gSnie national." [The 
 Progress of Secondary Education in France. A lecture by M. Jules 
 Gautier. London : Routledge.) 
 
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 Benson (A. C.) The Schoolmaster. London. Murray. 1902. 
 
 CooKSON (Christopher) — Essays in Secondary Education. By various 
 Contributors. Edited by Christopher Cookson. 
 
 Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1898. 
 
 FiNDLAY (J. J.) — Principles of Class Teaching. 
 
 London. Macmillan. 1902. 
 
 London County Council. Report of a Conference on the Teaching 
 of English in London Elementary Schools. 
 
 London. P. S. King. 1909. 
 
 Ogle (John J.) — Special Report on the Connection between the 
 PubUc Library and the Public Elementary School. (Board of 
 Education Soecial Reports on Educational Subjects. Vol. 2, 
 No. 15.) (Cd. 8943-) 
 
 London. Wyman & Sons. 1898, (Also issued as a 
 separate reprint.) 
 
 Royal Geographical Society. Syllabuses of Instruction in Geo- 
 graphy. I. In Elementary Schools. II. In Higher Schools. 
 London. Royal Geographical Society, i Saville Row, W. 
 1903. 
 
 Welton (J.) — The Logical Bases of Education. 
 
 London. Macmillan. 1899. 
 
 Fitch (Sir Joshua) — Thomas and Matthew Arnold and their Influence 
 on English Education. (The Great Educators.) 
 
 London. Heinemann, 1897. 
 
 Haig Brown (Harold E.) — Wilham Haig Brown of Charterhouse. 
 A short Biographical Memoir written by some of his pupils, and 
 edited by his son, Harold E. Haig Brown. 
 
 London. Macmillan. 1908. 
 
 Hughes (Tom) — Tom Brown's School-days. 
 
 London. Macmillan. 1856. 
 
 MacCunn (John) — The Making of Character. 
 
 Cambridge. University Press. 1900. 
 
 Parkin (George R.) — Edward Thring, Headmaster of Uppingham 
 School. Life, Diary, and Letters. 
 
 London. Macmillan. 1898. 
 
 Skrine (J. H.) — A Memory of Edward Thring. 
 
 London. Macmillan. 1889. 
 
172 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 Skrine (J. H.) — Pastor Agnorum : A Schoolmaster's After- thoughts. 
 
 London. Longmans. 1902. 
 
 Stanley (A. P.) — The Life and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold. 
 2 Vols. London. T. Fellowes. 1868. 
 
 Storr (F.) — Life and Remains of Rev. R. H. Quick. Edited by 
 F. Storr. Cambridge. University Press. 1899. 
 
 BouTMY (fimile) — Essai d'un Psych9logie politique du Peuple 
 anglais au XIX^™^ Si^cle. Par Emile Boutmy, Membre de 
 ITnstitut. Paris. Armand Colin. 1901. 
 
 Creighton (M.) — Thoughts on Education, Speeches and Sermons. 
 Edited by Louise Creighton. London. Longmans. 1902. 
 
 Darroch (A.) — Herbart and the Herbartian Theory of Education. 
 A Criticism. London. Longmans. 1903. 
 
 Laurie (S. S.) — Studies in the History of Educational Opinion from 
 the Renaissance. Cambridge. University Press. 1903. 
 
 National Educational Association (U.S.A.) — Journal of Proceed- 
 ings and Addresses of the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the 
 National Educational Association, held at Detroit, Michigan, 
 July 8th to 12th, 1901. (Paper by W. T. Harris, on Isolation 
 in the School — How it helps and how it hinders.) 
 
 [Winona, Minn. Published by the Association.] 1901. 
 
 Spencer (Herbert) — Education : Intellectual, Moral, and Physical. 
 
 London. Williams & Norgate. 1861. 
 
 Woods (Alice) — Co-Education. A Series of Essays by various 
 authors. Edited by Alice Woods. 
 
 London. Longmans. 1903. 
 
 Royal Commission on Physical Training (Scotland), Report of 
 the. 2 vols. (Cd. 1507 and 1508.) 
 
 Edinburgh : Oliver & Boyd. London : Wyman & Sons. 
 1903. 
 
 Brath (S. de) and F. Beatty. Over-pressure. 
 
 London. G. Philip & Son. 1899 
 
 Dukes (Clement) — The Essentials of School Diet. 
 
 London. Rivingtons. 1899. 
 
 Schmidt (F. A.) and Eustace H. Miles. The Training of the Body 
 for Games, Athletics, and other Forms of Exercise, and for 
 Health, Growth, and Development. 
 
 London. Swan Sonnenschein. 1901. 
 
 The Journal OF Education. October, 1903 ; February, December, 
 1908. London. W. Rice. 
 
 Modern Language Teaching. February, March, and April, 1909. 
 
 London, A. & C. Black. 
 
 The Practical Teacher. December, 1902. 
 
 London. Nelson & Sons. 
 
 School, January-May, 1904 ; February and March, 1906. 
 
 London. Murray. 
 
 The School World. November, 1903. London. Macmillan. 
 
THIRTY YEARS OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 
 
 IN FRANCE 
 
 The modern conception of a university in France dates 
 from the Revolution. In place of the old Sorbonne, verit- 
 able Bastille of scholasticism, the new University was 
 conceived as a kind of laboratory and clearing-house in 
 which every form of knowledge was to be pursued or dis- 
 pensed. Yet in spite of the multiplicity of the subjects, 
 unity was to be secured by the natural connection between 
 the different branches and the common aims and ideals of 
 the teachers themselves. Unfortunately the Revolution 
 failed to reaHze the grandiose ideas of Talleyrand and Con- 
 dorcet. With the exception of the Institute, the only estab- 
 lishments it created were the so-called "special schools," 
 limited to the study of a single science or group of subjects, 
 such as, for instance, the school of mathematics, the school 
 of medicine, the school of Oriental languages, etc. To these 
 the Consulate added the schools of law and altered the title 
 of many of these schools into that of " faculties." It 
 further increased the number of faculties by adding those 
 of letters and of science. 
 
 The research side of university work was ignored, the 
 faculties were mere examination machines for turning out 
 professional men. The only university was the University 
 of France, which, though made a corporate body by 
 Napoleon, was above all things an institution for the 
 propagation of an official education most favourable to 
 Imperialism. To this university all the different faculties 
 in the different towns were subordinated. But here all 
 connection ended. Although often existing three and four 
 together in the same town, they were completely strangers 
 
174 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 to one another, having no unity or even relationship with 
 one another, almost entirely devoid of the necessary re- 
 sources, not merely for original investigation, but also for 
 their ordinary work. 
 
 The evils arising from such an excessive centralization 
 combined with the practical isolation of the local faculties 
 were certain to make themselves felt in the long run. 
 " Paris," wrote Guizot in his Memoir es, " morally attracts 
 and absorbs France." For this, in his eyes, the only remedy 
 was the creation of a few large provincial universities. Re- 
 cognizing the impossibility of creating seventeen complete 
 and fully equipped universities, he proposed to limit their 
 number to four. Unhappily he was in advance of his time. 
 The second Republic reduced the status of the university 
 itself from that of a corporation to a mere branch of the 
 central Government. 
 
 The most enlightened Education Minister of the Empire, 
 Victor Duruy, seeing the impossibility of reforming the 
 faculties, determined to establish alongside of them a 
 scientific institution called the ficole des Hautes fitudes, 
 which reminds one, though its scope was wider, of the Royal 
 College of Science, inasmuch as the savants who formed the 
 personnel were chosen on their merits alone, and no question 
 was made as to whether they were members or not of the 
 university. The school had no fixed quarters, but any 
 professor of ability in the Sorbonne, the College de France, 
 the Museum of Natural History, or in any laboratory, was 
 pressed into the service of this new corps of learned and 
 scientific teachers. The effect of the opening of this 
 " opposition shop " was most beneficial on higher education 
 throughout the whole of the country. 
 
 Nevertheless the general condition of higher education 
 was, in the words of M. Liard, " very lamentable, and what 
 was most lamentable of all was not the insufiiciency of the 
 buildings, the poverty-stricken state of the laboratories, 
 collections and libraries, or the dearth of resources, but the 
 almost absolute misconception of their real functions by 
 the professors of those faculties which ought to have been 
 above all the instruments of scientific progress and of the 
 
UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN FRANCE 175 
 
 propagation of scientific methods. With a few exceptions, 
 in the faculty of letters the teaching was above all rhetorical 
 and fashionable, in that of science it was nearly everywhere 
 limited to the mere popularization of discoveries. The 
 highest work of university education, the training and for- 
 mation of the man of science, was almost unknown. The 
 admirable savants of the time were self-taught persons 
 without a university degree." 
 
 Such was the state of things when the disaster of 1870 
 occurred. With the conclusion of peace, savants and 
 patriots joined forces in favour of a radical reform of the 
 university system. It was felt that inefficiency in higher 
 education had been one of the causes of national defeat. 
 
 The most competent judges were agreed that the essential 
 defect in university education was the multipHcity and 
 isolation of the faculties. The remedy in their eyes was 
 the concentration of the faculties of the different orders into 
 a limited number of " powerful centres of study, science and 
 intellectual progress." Jules Simon affirmed the necessity 
 of " having a certain number of intellectual capitals in 
 which are to be found united all the necessary resources for 
 the complete development of the young." Again, according 
 to M. Laboulaye, universities were the one thing needful. 
 " Let them cease to scatter over the surface of France 
 faculties the isolation of which condemned them to steriUty." 
 
 Some of the strongest arguments in favour of reform came 
 from the men of science of the day. It was pointed out that 
 the duty of the universities was not merely to distribute 
 the existing stores of knowledge, but also to lead in the van 
 of discovery. " Close the laboratories and libraries," said 
 Bertholet, " stop original investigation, and we shall return 
 to scholasticism." Insistence was also laid on the extreme 
 value of scientific discovery as a factor in the industrial 
 struggle between the different nations, while at the same 
 time the importance of introducing the scientific spirit into 
 the mental hfe of a people only too often swayed by sudden 
 emotions was strongly emphasized. 
 
 But the advocates of university reform had a very serious 
 difficulty to encounter at the outset. Alongside of the 
 
176 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 faculties there already existed the big scientific establish- 
 ments like the College de France, the Museum of Natural 
 History, and the professional schools, such as the ficole 
 Polytechnique and the ficole Normale, in which the flower 
 of miUtary engineers and university professors were being 
 trained. All these bodies were bitterly hostile to incor- 
 poration. Fortunately they were all situated in Paris, 
 where in reality there was room both for themselves and 
 the university. The main problem after all was the 
 creation of provincial universities. 
 
 Here the difficulties were far more real and pressing. To 
 begin with, many of the existing professors in the faculties 
 were by no means in sympathy with the reformers. For 
 them the function of the faculties was to turn out lawyers, 
 magistrates, doctors, pharmaceutical chemists (the calling 
 of chemist in France ranks as a liberal profession), not to 
 conduct original research. Did not the College de France 
 and the Museum of Natural History exist specially for these 
 purposes ? The answer was one, which has since been given 
 in higher technical education in England and elsewhere, 
 that science should be the centre of professional training. 
 Practice without science was pure empiricism, and em- 
 piricism was out of date. 
 
 Claude Bernard had already converted medicine into 
 an experimental science, and the historical method had 
 wrought a similar transformation in the study of law. 
 Whether the faculties remained isolated or not, they would 
 henceforth have to adopt scientific methods. Naturally 
 every student could not be turned into a man of science, but 
 every one had a right to know the scientific truths on which 
 his professional education was based, while the small elite 
 of the really talented students should have the opportunity 
 of engaging in scientific investigation. In the case of these 
 exceptional students the method of working in common 
 with their masters had hitherto been largely neglected. 
 Yet its importance in working out a discovery to its fullest 
 extent is not only beneficial to all parties, but often of the 
 highest importance to the country at large. 
 
 Another objection urged by the opponents of reform was 
 
UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN FRANCE 177 
 
 that a university by definition implies the concentration of 
 subjects, whereas modern science on the contrary is fissi- 
 parous by nature, ever spHtting up into new branches and 
 speciaHties. To this it was easily answered that one of the 
 chief dangers of the day was excessive speciahzation, and 
 that the university is therefore the best antidote, as its 
 chief function is to co-ordinate knowledge and make it 
 a general object of culture. Warned by the excessive 
 specialism that is rampant in German universities, the 
 French have taken for their motto, " Specialization sub- 
 ordinated to a general culture." 
 
 In 1883 Jules Ferry brought the question within the 
 sphere of practical politics by a circular addressed to the 
 faculties ; after speaking of the efforts he had made to 
 develop in higher education the sentiment of responsi- 
 bility and the habit of self-government, he went on to 
 say: 
 
 " We shall have obtained a great result if we are able to 
 constitute one day universities uniting within themselves 
 the most varied kinds of teaching, in order mutually to 
 assist one another, managing their own affairs, convinced 
 of their duties and of their merits, inspiring themselves 
 with ideas suitable to each part of France, with such variety 
 as the unity of the country allows, rivals of adjoining uni- 
 versities, associating in these rivalries the interest of their 
 own prosperity with the desire of the big towns to excel 
 their neighbours and to acquire particular merit and 
 distinction." 
 
 In conclusion he invited the faculties to give their opinions 
 on his suggestion. These were, in the main, favourable. 
 It was left, however, to his successor, M. Rene Goblet, to 
 take the first official steps. It was evident to all that the 
 new universities could not be constituted after some ideal 
 plan, but would naturally have to be built up out of the 
 existing faculties. To group the latter in collective wholes, 
 effacing all distinction between them, would have proved 
 too drastic a measure. The best way of building up a 
 university was to begin by strengthening and not by weaken- 
 ing the faculties. This was done by restoring to them the 
 
 B.E, M 
 
178 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 personnalite civile which had lapsed, and recognizing their 
 capabiHty to receive and hold property. 
 
 At the same time another decree, without giving them the 
 absolute right to frame a budget, allowed them the right to 
 expend all subventions, to which no conditions had been 
 attached by the parties making them, whether departments, 
 communes, or private individuals, on the creation of new 
 courses of instruction, on laboratories and Hbraries, and on 
 scholarships. To regulate this expenditure a council was 
 created called the Conseil General des Facultes. This 
 council, estabhshed for purely financial reasons, was destined 
 to become the real nucleus in the development of the uni- 
 versities. 
 
 As M. Liard has well said, " the decree of 28th December, 
 1885, was truly the provisional charter of the universities 
 before the universities." Linking together the faculties of 
 a single town, the Council not only dealt with the functions 
 for which it was first created ; it was soon allowed, under 
 certain conditions, to draw up the programmes of courses 
 and lectures, to exercise certain disciplinary powers, to 
 make financial proposals to the Minister, and to engage in 
 a multipHcity of tasks which fall to the lot of an ordinary 
 university to perform. In 1889 the separate faculties re- 
 ceived the right to frame budgets of their own. At the 
 same time those grants were directly paid to them which the 
 Ministry previously had itself expended on buildings and 
 equipment. So far the Government had only proceeded 
 by way of decrees, a method which is not unknown in 
 England, and corresponds roughly to an Order in Council, 
 but in 1890 the moment seemed to have come for legal 
 enactment, and M. Leon Bourgeois, the then Minister of 
 Public Instruction, brought forward a Bill to settle the 
 whole subject once for all. 
 
 Nothing gives a better idea of the enormous sacrifices 
 made by the RepubHc for the sake of higher education than 
 the preamble of the Bill, which ran as follows : 
 
 " The RepubHc has understood that university education 
 is in the highest degree necessary ; that if primary educa- 
 tion is, according to the phrase of one of our predecessors, 
 
UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN FRANCE 179 
 
 the canalization by which knowledge is distributed to the 
 very lowest strata of democracy, university education is 
 the source where it collects and whence it flows. It has 
 understood that a particular dignity and utility are attached 
 to this grade of education, that in it especially are formed 
 and trained the men who are capable of conceiving general 
 ideas, by the power and novelty of which the real influence 
 of nations is measured to-day. Therefore it has liberally 
 given to it the necessary millions which had been per- 
 sistently refused by former administrations. 
 
 " In the last 15 years it has renewed the buildings of the 
 faculties. 
 
 " It has supplied almost entirely their equipment, their 
 laboratories, their libraries. 
 
 " It has enlarged and increased the scope and range of 
 their teaching. 
 
 " It has more than doubled their budget. 
 
 " It has improved the position of the personnel and en- 
 dowed their teaching with the requisite resources. 
 
 " It has created two categories of student, formerly un- 
 known in France, students in science and in letters. 
 
 " It has introduced more science into those courses in 
 which the preoccupations of professional studies predomi- 
 nated, and it has imposed a professional task on those orders 
 of faculties which were without it. 
 
 " It has restored to the faculties the personnalite civile, a 
 right which a suspicious regime had denied they possessed. 
 
 " It has rendered relationship possible between them by 
 giving them a common function to fulfil. 
 
 " It has given full liberty to science and theory. 
 
 " It has favoured the coming together of students as well 
 as that of teachers. 
 
 " In conclusion it has seen the number of its students rise 
 from 9,000 to more than 16,000, foreigners returning to its 
 schools, and frequenting them in greater numbers than in 
 any other country in Europe." 
 
 The Bill itself proposed to create universities in the fullest 
 sense of the word out of the existing groups of faculties in 
 the seven largest towns. Unfortunately local influences 
 
i8o STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 proved too strong ; the other ten towns possessing two 
 or more faculties demanded equahty of treatment. The 
 former adversaries of the project joined forces with them, 
 and in the end the Government was obHged to withdraw 
 the Bill. 
 
 Beaten on the question of estabHshing local universities 
 of the fully equipped type, the reformers took once more 
 the line of least resistance, and in 1893 an Act was passed 
 investing with the personnalite civile the groups of faculties 
 formed by the union of several faculties and represented 
 by the Conseil General. This was followed in 1896 by an 
 Act introduced by M. Poincare, which converted these groups 
 of faculties into universities. The idea of full and complete 
 universities, which had been the underlying conception of 
 the Bill of 1890, was abandoned, and wherever an academy 
 existed, even if it had but two faculties, its place was taken 
 by a university. As M. Liard well says, " it was a choice 
 between having too many universities or of having none." 
 To provide funds, the tuition fees, which had hitherto gone 
 to the Treasury, were handed over to the new bodies. The 
 examination fees, however, were still retained by the 
 Treasury. 
 
 The law contained but four clauses. The first decided 
 that the groups of faculties should take the name of uni- 
 versities. The second decided that the Conseil General 
 should receive the title of University Council. The third 
 enlarged the disciplinary powers of the new council. The 
 fourth dealt with the financial arrangement mentioned 
 above, the new funds provided being " earmarked " for 
 certain definite purposes, such as expenditure on labora- 
 tories, etc. Certain other financial rearrangements were 
 made, with the result that the extra cost to the State came 
 to about ;fi5,ooo a year. The existing personnel was 
 paid, as before, by the State, and the regular grant, variable 
 year by year, for buildings and equipment was likewise 
 continued. By the law of 1899 the universities were allowed 
 to establish " degrees of a purely scientific kind." This 
 was largely done to encourage the attendance of foreigners, 
 while the proviso that thej^ conferred no rights or privileges 
 
UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN FRANCE i8i 
 
 safeguarded the State from incurring any responsibilities 
 vis-a-vis their recipients. 
 
 The preamble of the Bill of 1890, quoted above, gives 
 an adequate summary of the progress made from 1870 up to 
 the university year 1888-89. More detailed information 
 of the progress since that date is to be found in the Statistique 
 de V Enseignement superieur, which brings up the record to 
 the university year 1897-98 (the last year available). The 
 following are some of the principal items of interest. Though 
 the French universities have not, with very rare exceptions, 
 found any benefactors on the scale of the Rockefellers and 
 Carnegies, the hst of benefactions published in full shows 
 that the power of the new universities, revived in 1875, 
 to receive donations and legacies has not remained un- 
 appreciated. 
 
 The University of Paris has received such lump sums as 
 £210,000, MontpeUier such as £60,000, while several have 
 received donations of £4,000 or less. In 1889 the annual 
 grant from the State amounted to about £456,284. In 1898 
 it was more than £523,640, showing an increase of £67,000 
 odd over the grant of ten years before, which itself was more 
 than double the grant under the Empire. Though the 
 universities received the above sums in hard cash, the actual 
 cost to the State was less, as one must deduct from it the 
 fees for degrees, which, as has been already stated, go into 
 the coffers of the State. These amounted to 5,135,162 
 francs in 1898, or, roughly, £205,406. The net expenditure, 
 therefore, of the State was about £318,000. 
 
 The departments and municipalities make contributions 
 to nearly all the universities, their contributions being 
 " earmarked,'' as a rule, for specific purposes. They 
 practically support all the medical schools, whether situate 
 at the seat of the university itself or within its area of con- 
 trol, the only exceptions being Paris and Bordeaux, which 
 also receive a State subvention. The contributions of the 
 departments and municipahties to the budgets of the uni- 
 versity and faculties amount to about 68,000 francs and 
 132,000 francs respectively ; their contributions to the 
 medical schools unsupported by the Government, and to 
 
i82 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 the so-called preparatory classes in letters and science, 
 amount to about 135,500 francs and 882,000 francs re- 
 spectively. 
 
 The total income of the universities, including these 
 medical schools, but excluding the College de France, the 
 Museum, and the various special schools, amounts to about 
 14,142,000 francs for the universities, and 1,582,858 francs 
 for the medical and preparatory schools, in all a grand total 
 of about 15,725,000 francs. Towards this total the State 
 contributes 13,096,664 francs, the departments about 
 203,000 francs, and the municipalities about 1,014,000 
 francs ; the rest is made up of students' fees, legacies, and 
 contributions by societies and private persons. As, how- 
 ever, the towns receive from university sources the sum of 
 421,837 francs, their net contribution is only about 593,000 
 francs, or roughly about £23,720. 
 
 Since 1888-89 the number of students has risen in a re- 
 markable fashion, though no doubt this increase is due in 
 part to the law which grants two years' exemption from 
 military service to those who have passed certain examina- 
 tions. In 1888-89, the number of students was about 
 16,000, in 1898 the total had risen to 28,782, of whom 871 
 were women, and no less than 1,784 of foreign nationality. 
 All the faculties show an increase in the number of students 
 during the same period, but those in science (a school which 
 did not exist before the Republic) show the greatest increase. 
 Their numbers have risen in the last ten years from 1,187 
 to 3,424. 
 
 The haccalaureat shows the same remarkable increase. 
 Certain changes in the examination do not permit of a com- 
 parison being drawn with any year earlier than 1892-93. 
 In that year there were 25,612 candidates for the different 
 sections of the examination, of whom 11,518 passed. In 
 1897-98 there were 36,922 candidates, of whom 16,688 
 passed. The other estabHshments of university rank, the 
 College de France, the Museum of Natural History, the ficole 
 Normale Superieure, the ]£cole Pratique des Hautes £tudes, 
 etc., all received an increased grant in 1898 in comparison 
 with the last decennial account. 
 
UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN FRANCE 183 
 
 The College de France, which is entirely devoted to re- 
 search work, contains no less than forty-two chairs, and 
 receives from the State nearly £21,000 a year. The Museum 
 of Natural History, equally devoted to research, has a 
 budget of more than £38,000. The school of Oriental lan- 
 guages, which has no counterpart in England, though we 
 have a far greater need of one, receives more than £6,000 
 a year. The ficole des Chartes receives more than £3,000. 
 The Ecole Pratique des Hautes fitudes receives more than 
 £12,500, as well as more than £1,500 a year from the city 
 of Paris. The majority of these institutions have enor- 
 mously developed, if they have not been actually created, 
 under the Repubhcan regime. 
 
 One word must be said in conclusion for the free univer- 
 sities founded in 1875, when the university monopoly in 
 higher education was aboHshed. At first permitted to 
 grant degrees similar in name to those of the official world, 
 they have since lost the right. In spite of this they have 
 none the less continued to increase. In 1888-89 their 
 students numbered 726, in 1897-98 they had increased to 
 1,407. It is difficult to say what wiU be their fate under 
 the present campaign to re-estabhsh the monopoly of the 
 State in education. 
 
 The higher schools of art and technology being under 
 more or less separate authorities do not figure here in the 
 list of higher education. ^ The present regime has been 
 equally liberal and equally successful in dealing with these 
 important branches of national education. Whatever may 
 be the final verdict of history on the Republic, its bitterest 
 critics will never be able to contest the fact that only Prussia 
 after Jena can compare in any way with the thoroughness 
 and success with which it has reformed and revivified every 
 branch of higher education. 
 
 Principal works consulted : Ministere de ITnstruction 
 PubHque et des Beaux- Arts : (i) Statistique de VEnseigne- 
 ment superieur ; (2) Introduction a la Statistique de I'Enseigne- 
 
 ^The schools of art are under a separate department in the 
 Ministry of Public Instruction and Art. The higher schools of 
 commerce and technology are under the Ministry of Commerce. 
 
i84 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 ment superieur, par M. L. Liard, Directeur de rEnseignement 
 Superieur. (Paris : Imprimerie Nationale, 1900.) (3) Legis- 
 lation et Jurisprudence de V Instruction puhlique. Extrait 
 du Repertoire du Droit administratif. Premiere partie, 
 " Historique et Organisation generale " ; Deuxieme partie, 
 " Enseignement superieur '' ; Sixieme partie, " Ecoles ne 
 relevant du Ministere de Tlnstruction Publique." (Paris : 
 P. Dupont, 1903.) 
 
FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION i 
 
 In order to understand the problems of the French rural 
 school, it would seem essentially necessary to look at tkem 
 from the French point of view, especially if we are to 
 appreciate the value of the solutions adopted. Now, to the 
 French mind, a part of any system only finds its full and 
 complete explanation in its relation to the whole. It is in 
 harmony with this theory that the whole educational or- 
 ganization of the country has been built up. Even when 
 a new subject has been introduced into the time-table of 
 the primary school so apparently unconnected with the rest 
 as the enseignement agricole (agricultural instruction), it has 
 never been allowed to remain long in its isolation, but has 
 been speedily woven into the fabric of the school curriculum. 
 Or, to use another figure, if each new subject represents a 
 new force, all the subjects are so converged that though the 
 direction of the resultant or aim may be altered, the aim 
 itself remains unimpaired. 
 
 Hence, to hmit one's survey of rural education to what 
 passes within the four walls of the village school, would 
 seem to be as instructive as to present one's audience with 
 an elephant's tooth, and leave them to imagine the jaw that 
 suppUed it with driving power, not to mention the animal 
 itself and its habits which have evolved it into its present 
 condition. French primary education, in fact, is so highly 
 centralized, so much of the energy manifest in the schools 
 appears to come from the central power station, that it 
 seems needful for anyone who wishes to comprehend any 
 large section of it, to obtain a bird's-eye view of the whole 
 machinery. 
 
 1 Published in the Journal of the Society of Arts, Dec. 12th, 1902. 
 
i86 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 Yet at the outset a word of warning is requisite. This 
 centraHzation, however uniform it may appear in Blue- 
 books and Government pubUcations, depends for its ad- 
 ministration on the character of the personnel who run the 
 machine — the officials, the inspectors, and the teachers ; and 
 how these naturally differ in energy, views, and aims need 
 not be dilated on here. The mere fact of whether stress is 
 laid on one part of the programme or another is bound to 
 produce a certain decentralization that itself is aided by 
 the nature of the programme, which is not so inelastic as 
 is popularly supposed. 
 
 Another element of differentiation is introduced by the 
 racial differences between the inhabitants in the various 
 departments. Education in the Nord, with its affinities with 
 Belgium, and education in Alpes-Maritimes, with its strong 
 Italian proclivities, are evidently working on very different 
 materials. One must, therefore, not only enter a caveat 
 against taking too uniform a view of French education, but 
 one must also be careful oneself to guard against making 
 too sweeping generalizations. 
 
 The territorial character of the population, to which 
 allusion has just been made, is, however, not merely an 
 element in promoting decentralization, it is also an item to 
 be taken into account when appraising the success or 
 failure of the rural school. Who speaks of character, speaks 
 of home, the religious influence, the social milieu — three 
 powerful factors that can do much to help or hinder the 
 school's endeavours. The two first-named forces reveal 
 themselves in such questions as — Is the school popular with 
 the parents ? and How does it shelve, solve, or sever the 
 rehgious difficulty ? 
 
 As for the influences that the social milieu exerts, their 
 name is legion, for their area of recruitment is world-wide. 
 Everywhere the centripetal force of the towns is growing. 
 Which way, we ask, is the rural school pulling ? Then 
 comes a whole plexus of problems. Is there a rural exodus, 
 and, if so, are the causes higher wages in the towns, con- 
 scription, the laws of inheritance, or alcohoHsm ? So that 
 the last question we have to ask is this : In the midst of 
 
FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION 187 
 
 the general rural decay is the school a centre and a rallying 
 point of all social reform, or is it merely content to interpret 
 its duties in the narrow sense of instruction pure and simple ? 
 
 The problem is a big one, but it has got to be faced if it 
 is to be properly stated. After all it is surely better to 
 state factors imperfectly and superficially than conveniently 
 to ignore them and set the school thereby in a false per- 
 spective. The aim of the present paper therefore will be 
 twofold : after a rapid sketch of the general machinery 
 as far as it has reference to the rural school, to present as 
 complete a view as time permits of the rural school itself, 
 and, secondly, to give a rough idea of the conditions pre- 
 vailing in those parts of rural France with which the speaker 
 is personally acquainted, in order to indicate the problems 
 to which the rural school can even under the most favourable 
 circumstances offer only a partial solution. 
 
 En passant one hopes to bring out such points in French 
 methods as seem worthy of imitation. But the two systems, 
 French and English, are so difterent, there is nothing we 
 can copy wholesale except it be the spirit of thoroughness 
 which has animated French reformers. 
 
 To understand the present highly developed condition of 
 French primary education, a rapid sketch of its past history 
 seems necessary. The only name that needs to be cited 
 before the Revolution is that of Jean Baptiste de la Salle, 
 the founder of the Christian Brothers, who in any history 
 of the early beginnings of popular education must find a 
 foremost place. Thanks to his teachings the monitorial 
 system never took abiding root in France, being soon ousted 
 by the so-called simultaneous methods of his followers. 
 The Revolution did little else than express a pious resolution 
 in favour of a complete .system of free, popular, and com- 
 pulsory education. The three great names after the 
 Revolution are Guizot, Duruy, and Jules Ferry. 
 
 Guizot, who must be looked on as the founder of the 
 system, began his reforms by a survey of the educational 
 plant on the ground, a proceeding that might well be copied, 
 especially as regards secondary education, by those who 
 will have to carry out the provisions of the present Bill 
 
i88 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 before Parliament. Compulsory education was not estab- 
 lished by him, but each commune had to build a school 
 and pay the teacher. He started also the building of girls* 
 schools and normal schools, and the creation of an inspec- 
 torate. The Loi Falloux, in 1850, divided primary schools 
 into State and private schools, and recognized both. 
 
 The regime of Duruy is remarkable for the great extension 
 given to evening classes, and to the founding of girls' 
 schools, as well as the establishment of the caisses des ecoles 
 for helping the children of the poor who frequent the 
 schools. 
 
 The Third Republic began setting its educational 
 house in order by a vast building and furnishing scheme. 
 Every commune was obliged to provide itself with or share 
 in a State school ; every department was compelled to 
 possess a couple of normal schools. State aid was freely 
 given, and in all £34,000,000 were spent by central and 
 local authorities, 35,145 schools were built or acquired, the 
 total of normal schools was brought up to 163, and two 
 higher normal schools for providing these schools with 
 teachers were founded. Having put the buildings on a 
 sound footing, the teaching profession was next raised to 
 the level of a skilled calling by compelling all teachers in 
 religious or lay schools to hold a certificat de capacite (or 
 attainments certificate), while the State teachers were 
 further obliged to possess a certificate of training (certificat 
 d' aptitude pedagogique). 
 
 Then came the triple reform of free, compulsory, and 
 secularized education, with which the name of Jules Ferry 
 will ever be connected. The latter cut the painter once for 
 all between the public and private school, between the State 
 and the different cults. The teaching of la morale was 
 substituted for denominational teaching, and in the State 
 schools the religious teachers were either immediately or 
 gradually replaced by laymen. The reUgious schools were 
 left entirely free, the State only exercising a certain super- 
 vision over the sanitation and text-books and professional 
 status of the teachers. 
 
 The result is that in 1897 the total number of children 
 
FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION 189 
 
 still under religious instruction was 1,603,451, of whom 
 405,825 were still in State schools not yet laicized, against 
 3,823,760 in the lay schools. This does not include the 
 maternal schools. If these are reckoned in the figures are 
 1,955,199, against 4,175,656. The great majority of the 
 pupils over 6 in the religious schools are girls ; there are in 
 all only 436,726 boys in these schools. Of the Association 
 laws it is impossible to speak here, as it is at present doubtful 
 as to what their precise effect on primary education will be. 
 
 These reforms necessitated certain financial readjust- 
 ments, the most important of which was the transference 
 of the payment of the teacher from the locaHty to the State. 
 In thus abolishing the payment of salaries by localities the 
 Republic seems to have solved a large number of grievances. 
 Henceforth the teachers were grouped in classes in which 
 promotion depends on merit and seniority. It is probable 
 that our County Councils will, sooner or later, have to for- 
 mulate a similar scheme. Now that the raison d'etre of 
 inequalities in salaries has gone, the inequalities will have 
 to go. 
 
 The Republic has also to its credit the re-estabhshment 
 of the higher primary schools, which have been an immense 
 benefit to town and country ; and lastly, the most recent 
 improvement is the revival and enormous extension of even- 
 ing classes. This has been largely a teachers' movement, 
 and is an admirable instance of the striking enthusiasm 
 and devotion that pervades their ranks. One might almost 
 call them the Knights Templars of republican defence and 
 popular education. The beneficial effect of these drastic and 
 thoroughgoing reforms on rural education is obvious, if 
 we put on one side the vexed reUgious question. The 
 country school buildings are not allowed to fall below a 
 certain minimum of requirements. Salaries not being a 
 matter of locality, the tiniest hamlet may, and often does, 
 possess one of the best teachers of the department. 
 
 And now to come to the actual machinery. We find the 
 Minister has cognizance of all schools as far as the sanitation 
 and staffing are concerned. There is in fact no free trade 
 in teaching, nor can a school label itself with any high- 
 
190 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 sounding title it pleases ; all schools, public or private, 
 must have the Government hall-mark. The fraudulent 
 private school is an impossibiUty in France. Yet this does 
 not mean that the neutral private school is disliked. On 
 the contrary, the most thoughtful of French reformers are 
 highly anxious to encourage private initiative in this 
 direction — a matter our new authorities may well lay to 
 heart. 
 
 The Ministry itself is divided up into three sections — 
 University, Secondary, and Primary. The latter has the 
 joint supervision of a few quasi-technical schools, but 
 technology proper and commercial education are under the 
 Ministry of Commerce. Agricultural schools are under the 
 Ministry of Agriculture. Attached to the Ministry is a 
 consultative committee ; six of its 57 members are elected 
 by Primary officials and teachers. The Primary section of 
 the Ministry keeps itself in touch with the actual state of 
 education by means of eleven general inspectors. They 
 act not only as the eyes and ears of the central authority, 
 but also as its mouthpiece. Thus a year or two back it 
 was decided to reorganize agricultural education, and one 
 of the inspectors made a tour of all the training colleges 
 in order to give the right trend and direction to the teaching 
 of the subject. 
 
 Coming to the local authorities, the rector of the local 
 university looks after the normal colleges in his district as 
 well as the education side of the primary schools. In fact, 
 one may look on him as a sort of lay bishop whose seminaries 
 are the normal colleges, and who supervises the articles of 
 faith and rehgion represented by the education taught in 
 the primary schools. But his second in command, the 
 academy inspector, being the man on the spot (there is one 
 for each department), possesses really more effective power. 
 In administrative matters and in the selection of the 
 personnel he is independent. While directly appointing 
 the probationers, he also nominates the full teachers, while 
 the prefect appoints them. Situated midway between the 
 central authority and the schools, yet near enough to be in 
 touch \\dth both, he is evidently the pivot of the whole 
 
FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION 191 
 
 system ; not only does the efficiency of the schools depend 
 largely on him, but scarcely less important are his diplo- 
 matic duties in keeping the school in good odour with the 
 local authorities, and getting them to help education over 
 and above the legal minimum. 
 
 The prefect, like the minister, has to assist him an ad- 
 visory council of experts, called the conseil departemental. 
 The educational element is in an immense majority on it. 
 In fact, it is practically an education committee with no 
 direct financial powers, the money being raised by the 
 conseil du departement (or county council), which has repre- 
 sentatives on it. A comparison between the education 
 committee under the Bill, and these bodies would be very 
 instructive but would take us too far. 
 
 Under the academy inspector come the inspectors who 
 have each a district to look after. We should regard them 
 rather as sub-inspectors. Originally largely recruited from 
 among the teachers, they are now, owing to the increased 
 severity of the examination, practically taken from the ranks 
 of the professors in normal schools, the heads of which are 
 also recruited by the same examination. The examination 
 itself is extremely stiff, especially the practical portion, and 
 no one who is not a past-master in pedagogics and practical 
 knowledge of school work has a chance of passing. 
 
 The mayor of the commune has various rights, including 
 that of visiting all the schools in his commune. He is also 
 supposed to summon the school attendance committees. 
 The cantonal delegates are apparently meant to represent 
 the popular and parental element. They may inspect the 
 building, supervise the children's behaviour, but if present 
 at the lessons given may not meddle with the teaching. The 
 French have little belief in the educational judgment of the 
 local butcher, baker, and candlestick-maker. These " lay 
 figures " in more senses than one have even less authority 
 than Mr. Balfour's managers. In fact, they have so Httle 
 that one inspector described them to me as the fifth wheel 
 in the coach. 
 
 The two principal things to note, as regards this appa- 
 rently complicated machinery, are the smoothness with 
 
192 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 which it works — due to the clearness with which the 
 function of each official is defined — and the enormous pre- 
 ponderance given to expert as compared with popular 
 management. What we have to learn from France, as far 
 as one can judge, is not to destroy our capacity for self- 
 government, but to strengthen it by fortifying it on the 
 expert side. 
 
 Clearness in function has led to clearness in finance. At 
 present the State is the largest contributor ; the income and 
 expenditure of certain taxes formerly handled by the depart- 
 ment and commune are now part of the central budget. At 
 present the State pays the teachers' salaries, the county 
 council pays for the upkeep of the normal schools, and the 
 parish pays for the cost and upkeep of the school buildings. 
 
 A few figures may prove of interest. In 1897 the State 
 spent about 5f million pounds, and the communes over 
 2| millions. The normal schools have cost over 2 millions. 
 The percentage of the cost of building and furnishing has 
 been 40 per cent, for the State, 4 per cent, for the depart- 
 ment, and 56 per cent, for the commune. The English 
 parish has, therefore, had more to pay than the French com- 
 mune. The cost of a place in the State schools has been 
 £12, against £14 12s. 8Jd. in English board schools. The 
 total cost of education in France a year, including lay and 
 religious schools, is put at 11 J millions, or, reckoning in 
 interest on loans, 14 millions. 
 
 The efficiency of the French State teacher may be judged 
 by the following figures. Less than i-5th per cent, of the 
 male teachers do not possess the brevet, and only 4J per cent, 
 of the female teachers are without it ; 45 per cent, possess 
 further the certificat d' aptitude. This can only be acquired 
 after two years' work in the schools. The difficulty of 
 winning it may be gauged by the fact that it generally takes 
 teachers much longer to obtain it. I myself came across a 
 teacher who had taken eight years. 
 
 Between 6- and 7-ioths of the present staff have passed 
 through a training college. As regards the position of the 
 State teacher in a village, it has, in some instances, been 
 scarcely a bed of roses in places where a laicization has taken 
 
FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION 193 
 
 place. Cases are not unknown where teachers have been 
 stoned and boycotted, while jehads against the lay school 
 have been preached by the local clergy. Happily this phase 
 seems to be passing away, and any attack on the State school 
 even in a catholic district would probably be mal vu. 
 Otherwise the rural teacher's position is probably from a 
 social standpoint more comfortable than with us. To begin 
 with he possesses that indefinite prestige that attaches to all 
 Government officials. 
 
 Again the contour lines of the local society are less abrupt 
 in France. They do not rise in the terrace-like fashion as 
 they do in England, with the labourers, farmers, parson, 
 and squire, all more or less at different altitudes and eleva- 
 tions, with no definite ledge for the unfortunate school- 
 master to settle down on. At the present time there seems 
 to be a growing shortage of teachers, as with us. This is 
 being happily met in some departments by giving bonuses to 
 those teachers who prepare pupils for the normal school 
 examination. An idea has got abroad which, rightly or 
 wrongly, asserts that the teachers are turning the children 
 against the profession, though, curiously enough, they con- 
 tinue to send in their own. 
 
 The vast majority of normal students come from the 
 primary schools. They are practically recruited from the 
 department in which the college is situate. When they 
 leave the college they desire to settle in their own depart- 
 ment, and look on being sent to a neighbouring department 
 as a sort of exile. 
 
 One often hears the departments spoken of as merely geo- 
 graphical expressions, yet it is evident that this homing 
 instinct of the teacher is gradually giving each department 
 its own educational physiognomy, and thus it is reserved for 
 the primary teachers, whom an impartial philosopher might 
 call the real children of the Revolution, to give life and 
 personaHty to the administrative entities, into which their 
 spiritual forefathers re-divided France more than a century 
 ago. Curiously enough, while the teachers remain station- 
 ary it is the inspectors who move from department to depart- 
 ment in France. This is the exact contrary to us, where 
 
 B.E. N 
 
194 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 inspectors are more or less stationary and teachers more or 
 less on the move. This no doubt is largely due to the 
 inequalities in local salaries. 
 
 From a financial point of view the French teacher does 
 not seem to be so well off as the EngHsh, though some of the 
 English are worse paid than some of the French. The 
 English certified master obtains on an average £127 2s. yd. 
 The best French male teacher only receives in the country 
 £80 a year ; in the town he receives various extra allow- 
 ances. On the other hand, he is always housed free of 
 expense, which is not the case with his English confrere. 
 Again, he can add to his income by being secretary to the 
 parish council, or by running evening classes. Living is 
 probably as dear in France as in England, but the style of 
 living is distinctly more economical, as a comparison be- 
 tween the salaries of French and English civil servants of 
 the same grade would show. After 25 years' service the 
 French teacher receives a pension, provided he is 55 years 
 of age. 
 
 The housing question does not appear to be a burning 
 question in the country as far as the head teacher is con- 
 cerned. The chief grievance seems to centre round a matter 
 that has lately been agitating Parliament, the matter of 
 whitewashing. Members of the parish council, who only 
 whitewash their own premises once in ten years, cannot be 
 got to understand the necessity of such proceedings every 
 other year for the school buildings. Assistant teachers, 
 according to the law, have adequate accommodation, but in 
 reality the two or three rooms they ought to have often 
 shrink to a single room, and that sometimes without a fire- 
 place. Ninety-five per cent, of the rural schools have 
 gardens, not, as has been rashly asserted, for experimental 
 purposes, but for the private use of the teachers. 
 
 In the old days the teacher was the priest's man, and was 
 obliged to sing, himself and his Httle ones, in the choir. 
 To-day he is nominally his own master, but owing to his 
 secretarial duties and his evening classes, he is probably as 
 hard-worked as any man in the world. Yet the amount of 
 grumbling one heard was very smaU. One comes across 
 
FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION 195 
 
 everywhere signs of the missionary spirit which the desire to 
 raise the country after 1870, and the militant reforms of 
 Jules Ferry, have produced. A National Union of Teachers 
 has just been started, and the late Minister of Public Instruc- 
 tion, who rightly recognized in the teachers a sort of repub- 
 lican army of occupation, gave it a hearty send-off. 
 
 Other functionaries may change their political colours, 
 but it will take many years to make the vast army of 
 teachers untrue to their salt. They are to my mind the 
 sheet-anchor of the Republic, and the chief visible, definite, 
 concrete expression of the nobler side of the Revolution's 
 aspirations. Their relations with the inspectors are gene- 
 rally excellent. Their relations with the other grades of 
 education are singularly distant. Still this has not been a 
 defect in the past. It has enabled them to cut themselves 
 adrift from a vast amount of scholasticism which pervades 
 French secondary education, while social education and 
 culture have penetrated so far into lower strata of French 
 life, that the primary teacher has not suffered as might be 
 expected from his isolation from secondary education. 
 Lately the need of closing up the republican ranks has been 
 felt, and a teachers' guild, to include teachers of every grade, 
 has been started. 
 
 After the teacher, the school. Allusion has already been 
 made to the law that every commune must have, or share 
 in, a school of its own. So strong is local feeling that the 
 united district comparatively common in England is rare 
 in France. Only 2 per cent, of the communes have a 
 school in common. One pig-headed commune with a school 
 population of 5 insisted on building itself a school that cost 
 £800. Such cases of obstinacy would be unheard of in 
 England. The country is now covered with a complete net- 
 work of State public schools. Out of 36,174 communes only 
 47 have no school at all. Communes over 500 are legally 
 obliged to have a separate school for girls, and even this 
 provision has been very thoroughly carried out. The 
 buildings generally are in a good state of repair. Of course, 
 those built 70 or 80 years ago are less suitable than those 
 erected 20 years ago. 
 
196 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 The school furniture is less satisfactory, but here improve- 
 ments are being gradually made. An excellent idea is the 
 distribution of large coloured illustrations by the Ministry, 
 which are really views of French scenery procured from the 
 railway companies, with, of course, the time-table part 
 suppressed. These sheets add a certain amount of attrac- 
 tiveness to walls that are otherwise bare, for pictures to the 
 country lad are as fascinating as flowers to the town child. 
 We might almost look on them as the flowers of the town, 
 fit subjects of barter for our rustic primroses and daffodils. 
 
 The only piece of school furniture which need detain us is 
 the musee scolaire, or school museum. One finds it every- 
 where. Its use has been admirably defined as the indis- 
 pensable auxiliary of the real object-lesson. It must not, 
 however, resemble a curiosity shop, for collections formed 
 at hazard, and with no definite plan, are of no utility. The 
 museum must be appropriate to the teaching, not the teach- 
 ing to the museum. The use of the museum will be well 
 seen when we come to the agricultural teaching. Unfor- 
 tunately, in a good many cases, it evidently was not utilized 
 as it ought to be. Not a few that one saw resembled too 
 much the collection at a marine store dealer's. 
 
 And now for the children. They were, for the most part, 
 neat and tidy in their dress. Their hands especially were 
 clean. The copy-books, which are usually a fair test in 
 these matters, were singularly free from " tell-tale " finger- 
 marks. Their behaviour, on the whole, was excellent. 
 In the classes of one or two younger teachers one saw a 
 certain amount of by-play going on, but that is the teachers' 
 fault. This good conduct is the more surprising, as corporal 
 punishment has been abolished in French schools, much to 
 the dislike, it must be admitted, of the older teachers. But 
 the younger generation seem to get on very well without 
 it — in theory. In practice I should be inclined to take the 
 word of a teacher, who said, " There is not a good master 
 going who has not given a ' sound smack ' to some child in 
 his life." 
 
 How do the children attend ? Well, that is a problem 
 which would take up too much room to discuss fully. One 
 
FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION 197 
 
 can only give conclusions. To begin with, the attempt to 
 make the duty of compelHng attendance a local matter has 
 been a failure. According to the law, the mayor of the 
 commune was to summon the attendance committee and, 
 if necessary, set the law in motion. A good many mayors 
 did, with the result that they and sundry other zealous 
 parish councillors lost their seats at the next election. Their 
 fate has made the law practically a dead letter in the 
 country. One of the chief sources of irregular attendance 
 in the north-western departments is the departure of the 
 children in the spring for the grazing districts, where they 
 guard the cattle. These little pdtours, as they are called, 
 often take six months' French leave at a time. Haysel and 
 harvest, apple-picking and grape-gathering also produce 
 irregular attendance. 
 
 Several remedies have been proposed. Some have sug- 
 gested that the teacher should be armed with the power of 
 putting the law in motion — an evident mistake, as it would 
 bring him in direct collision with the parents. A better idea 
 is that of vesting these powers in the inspector, who is 
 sufficiently highly placed to be beyond the reach of local 
 vengeance. But while those in authority with whom one 
 conversed, agreed that the law should be made more effec- 
 tive, they most of them deprecated any wholesale setting in 
 motion of the legal machinery as likely to do more harm 
 than good in the country districts, where the peasantry are 
 by nature highly conservative, and local customs and pre- 
 judices are strong. 
 
 One inspector, in particular, told me he had made a 
 thorough trial of the legal remedies. It had been a com- 
 plete failure. Then he had turned round and experimented 
 with the system of allowing the teachers to inform the 
 parents that the inspector would alwaj'S favourably enter- 
 tain a request for leave of absence if the work was specified. 
 Eighteen years' experience had proved the system worked 
 extremely well. Another way of keeping on the children 
 was to discourage them from presenting themselves for the 
 leaving certificate before they were twelve. Much good is 
 also done by those teachers who make personal inquiries of 
 
igS STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 the parents whenever a pupil is absent. To render the 
 system official, as some propose, would just destroy the 
 whole value of it. It is appreciated, just because the 
 teachers' act is voluntary. 
 
 In some departments, the method is being tried of giving 
 bonuses to those teachers who improve their attendance 
 average, and also of taking the fact into account in regard 
 to promotion. The practice has been followed by excellent 
 results, and is one we might well copy. It is suggested, too, 
 that the little pdlours who are miserably paid, might be kept 
 on at school, if the caisses des ecoles were sufficiently well 
 organized to give the poorer parents an indemnity equivalent 
 to the wretched pittance these children earn, but what the 
 big graziers would say who live in districts where there are 
 no hedgerows, must be left to the imagination. Speaking 
 generally, though the attendance is likely to improve in the 
 near future, it is clear that the French problem will need 
 delicate handling for long to come, and that the method of 
 adaptation to local needs, whether by the half-time system 
 or by allowing the parents the use of their children's services 
 at certain times of the year, will be the policy pursued. 
 
 Coming to the organization of the schools, we find them 
 officially divided into three cours or grades, the higher for 
 children from 13-11, the middle for those from 11-9, and the 
 elementary for those from 9-6. The higher cours are 
 generally a blank in rural schools, as the children in the 
 cours moyen leave en masse after taking the leaving certifi- 
 cate ; while it has been found necessary in practice to inter- 
 calate a cours preparatoire between the cours elementaire and 
 the classe enfaniine for children under six where it exists. 
 Classes over fifty have a right to an additional teacher, but 
 the regulation is broken in 8,422 schools. 
 
 Morning school starts at 8.25 as a rule and finishes at 
 11.30. Afternoon school (or evening as it is called), a 
 reminiscence of the time when people dined at 10 a.m. in 
 the morning, begins at 12.55 and l^-sts till 4 p.m. There are 
 intervals for recreation in the middle of both schools. 
 Thursday is a whole holiday. Monitors are not officially 
 recognized, but one found them in about three-quarters of 
 
FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION 199 
 
 the sixty schools one visited. In the mixed schools it would 
 seem quite impossible to do without them. They are not, 
 however, paid, but the top pupils in the highest class are 
 put on for the day or the week to do the work. 
 
 The curriculum includes moral and civic instruction, 
 which thus head the list, reading and writing, arithmetic and 
 metric system, the French language, history and geography, 
 both mainly French ; object-lessons, elementary scientific 
 notions, the elements of drawing, singing and manual train- 
 ing, principally in their application to agriculture ; miUtary 
 and gymnastic exercises. Each cours or grade is supposed 
 to be a stepping-stone to the next, but the programme 
 except in history and in geography is concentric, not suc- 
 cessive — that is, the pupil is introduced to all the subjects 
 at once, but every year the circle of his knowledge in each 
 is widened. The elementary grade is pre-eminently that of 
 initiation, and includes the acquisition of the technique or 
 tools of knowledge — reading and writing. 
 
 The aim of the middle grade is the foundation of the 
 scientific basis of knowledge, and in the higher cours the 
 objective is the development of the logical faculty. The 
 time-table is arranged on the system of putting the harder 
 subjects in the morning. Teachers may vary the order of 
 subjects in the time-table, but the hours assigned to the 
 principal subjects are largely the same in all schools. It is 
 only in such subjects as manual training and singing that 
 some option is exercised. The school work is plotted out 
 with a definite quantum for each month ; the last month, 
 July, being devoted to revision. This " time-schedule " is 
 rather intended to indicate the rate of speed than to tie 
 down the master to the exact points to be taught. The aim 
 of the whole programme is to teach thoroughly, not to teach 
 a good deal superficially, and to cultivate the imagination 
 rather than to overload the memory. 
 
 The latter is still the besetting sin of the religious schools, 
 but the State schools have certainly broken away to a large 
 extent from the catechismal method of set question and 
 answer, and the learning of neat and, often to the child, 
 meaningless formulae by heart. Yet there is still a tendency 
 
200 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 to turn out intelligence on a general pattern, rather than to 
 develop the individual intellect or to let it grow as it will 
 according to the pedagogy at present in vogue in America. 
 Still here a foreigner must be cautious of judging, remem- 
 bering that the French mind takes to logic as a duck 
 to water. 
 
 To discuss adequately the teaching of la morale would 
 require a separate paper. Here again an Englishman who 
 is mainly swayed by his feelings or by facts cannot easily 
 understand the force of an ethical system which grounds 
 itself largely on an appeal to reason. In France, the belief 
 in reason is part of and parcel of French civilization. As an 
 Englishman appeals to experience, a Frenchman appeals to 
 reason. It is to him a cult, a dogma, a religion. None the 
 less for children of tender years it needs a large admixture of 
 the emotions. One thing is certain. Where the teacher is 
 a strong believer in what he teaches, there he finds apt dis- 
 ciples. Whether the French were right to break thus 
 definitely with the past by deliberately excluding all 
 religious teaching is not for a foreigner to decide lightly. 
 One cannot help thinking that they might at least have 
 first tried the system of allowing the priest access to the 
 schools during certain hours. 
 
 The writing appeared to me unusually good. The teach- 
 ing of arithmetic is excellent. The method employed 
 throughout is that of making the child explain at the side 
 every step he takes. The inspectors are dead against what 
 I would call the cookery book system of working out an 
 example on the board by way of recipe and the setting the 
 children down to do others like it. Again, all sums have to 
 be concrete ; either about the number of cows in a yard, or 
 the cost of a pound of butter, etc. There is no juggling with 
 abstract figures. But the chief advantage of all is that the 
 pupil works with the metric system. Thanks to the latter 
 every pupil obtains a definite notion of superficies and 
 volume, which our unfortunate children can never get from 
 our kaleidoscopic weights and measures, in which gills are 
 metamorphosed into pints, pints into quarts, quarts into 
 gallons, at which point a new bifurcation comes on for wet 
 
I 
 
 FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION 261 
 
 and dry measure. The result is that the EngHsh child never 
 realizes that there is any such thing as a scientific unit of 
 dimension, but vaguely imagines that measures are a mere 
 affair of pots for wet things and pans for dry. 
 
 Composition is better taught in the French rural school 
 than with us, as more stress is laid on making the essay a 
 whole in itself. Still it has suffered in the past, and still 
 suffers, from excessive attention being paid to minutiae in 
 spelling in spite of the recent reforms. Geography begins 
 with elementary notions of the world, and of the meaning of 
 a map. It then comes back to the starting point in English 
 and German schools, the school-house and its environment. 
 An excellent practice obtains in some schools of hanging up 
 maps made by the teachers of the department or commune, 
 either geographical or agronomic. History is too much of 
 the blood-and-thunder tj^pe which breeds young fire-eaters, 
 though the social and economic side is being gradually 
 developed. 
 
 Manual training is practically a dead letter in the country. 
 In one village I went into it had been suddenly dropped. 
 The local authorities, who were dehghted by the great pro- 
 gress shown by the children at their home work, discovered 
 that the village carpenter was making a handsome thing 
 out of doing their work for them. Mihtary exercises have 
 caught on but httle in the country ; singing in the depart- 
 ments I visited was much neglected. In domestic economy 
 the French have nothing to teach us. They have not yet 
 determined its place in the curriculum. The sewing is 
 probably their strongest point. I only saw one cookery 
 lesson, and that was given out of a book. The teacher 
 described the roasting of a fowl to the class. A series of 
 questions that followed showed the children had only re- 
 tained half the directions. It is to be hoped for the peace 
 of the future households over which they will have to 
 preside that they have already forgotten the other half. 
 
 And now we come to the subject which, perhaps, is of 
 most interest to us here in England to-day, the so-called 
 teaching of agriculture. Before, however, discussing the 
 French solution, it should be remembered that the rural 
 
202 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 problem in France and that in England differ in certain 
 radical particulars. Hence, what may suit France need not 
 necessarily suit England, and vice-versa. To begin with, it 
 must be remembered that the rural population in France 
 outnumbers the urban, whereas in England it is just the 
 other way. Accordingly country interests in France have 
 had a greater chance of making their wants heard and 
 getting them attended to than with us. The French rural 
 problem has therefore been tackled at least ten years earlier. 
 
 Again, England is rather a country of large farms, France 
 of small holdings. In England the bulk of the village com- 
 munity are landless men, save the squire, parson and 
 farmers, whose children do not frequent the village school. 
 In France, in some communes, one person in every four is a 
 proprietor, and therefore the pick of the village scholars are 
 the sons of peasants who have been helping their fathers on 
 their small holdings from their earliest years. Hence, while 
 the problem in England seems to be to stimulate observation 
 and dexterity, to provide at most an eye and hand training 
 in order to improve the future labourer's efficiency, in 
 France, rightly or wrongly, the aim has been to give the 
 pupil some grasp of the principles underlying the science of 
 agriculture. 
 
 The first attempt to develop popular agricultural teach- 
 ing in the primary school goes back to 1866, but nothing was 
 really done till the law of 1879, which started agricultural 
 teaching in the normal schools and made it compulsory after 
 three years in the elementary schools, each departmental 
 education committee being left to draw up its own agri- 
 cultural programme. 
 
 Unfortunately this local option in programme-making 
 seems to have produced more harm than good, for the 
 reason that the aim and first principles of the subject had 
 not been thought out. A visitor to France in 1891 found no 
 less than six conceptions of agricultural teaching in exist- 
 ence. The first consisted of stray notions on the subject 
 being given by the teacher, often out of a book, supple- 
 mented by passages for dictation culled out of the agri- 
 cultural journals. The basis of the second was the learning 
 
FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION 203 
 
 by heart of little agricultural catechisms, in which the horse 
 was defined as a four-legged animal, and the obvious and 
 the abstruse were delightfully jumbled together. The 
 others were variations of the gardening method, the fullest 
 being that in which each child had a plot, and cultivated 
 another in partnership with his fellows, under the eye of 
 the teacher. 
 
 In 1895 the Ministry took the matter in hand, and order 
 was evolved out of chaos by the celebrated scheme of 
 January, 1897, " On the Teaching of Elementary Notions 
 of Agriculture in Rural Schools." The method was to be 
 notions of science applied to agriculture, and the procedure 
 was to be above all practical. The aim was to inspire 
 children with a love of the country life, and convince them 
 of the superiority of an agricultural occupation for those 
 who practise it with industry, intelligence, and enlighten- 
 ment. Teachers were advised to give the whole curriculum 
 an agricultural tinge, and to make their lessons in agri- 
 cultural teaching coincide with the seasons. Inflated pro- 
 grammes were deprecated, and suggestions for a course 
 offered. In the elementary grade only simple objects 
 should be given. For the middle grade there should be 
 more object-lessons, together with reading lessons and 
 school walks. 
 
 Simple experiments in the three states of matter, the study 
 of useful and noxious plants, of combustion, of composition 
 of soils, etc., should be included, as well as experiments with 
 different manures, including the five-fold experiment with 
 the different chemicals necessary for the support of plant life, 
 potash, super-phosphate, and nitrate. The need of champs 
 d' experience, or trial fields, is also insisted on. An inspection 
 of the present departmental programme reveals that they 
 are all maxima programmes. In fact the teacher is not so 
 much supposed to follow them implicitly, but rather to pick 
 and choose those portions which best suit his own district, be 
 it a grazing or arable country, a wine or a cider district. 
 Another point which an inspection of the programmes 
 brings out is, that though the majority of them are far more 
 practicable than the old programmes, there is still doubt 
 
204 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 whether the scientific and general side, or the agricultural 
 side, should predominate. 
 
 These programmes are meant for boys, but girls are also 
 taught horticulture, a matter the French peasant largely 
 leaves to his womankind. They are also given some 
 instruction in poultry-keeping and dairy work. 
 
 As regards text-books their employment is well defined 
 in the Calvados programme. " Books will be useless in the 
 cours elementaire preparatoire ; optional in the cours moyen ; 
 indispensable in the cours superieur." The work placed in 
 the hands of the pupils will only serve for reference. In no 
 case will it take the place of oral teaching. Of those who 
 would do entirely without books, one is compelled to ask. 
 What is the use then of hbraries ? Pictures, diagrams, and 
 the musee scolaire are all useful adjuncts to the teaching of 
 the subject. 
 
 But, as the Ministry have recognized, the chief value of 
 the subject lies on its experimental and practical side. The 
 experiment in pots is pretty, but insufficient ; more fruitful 
 have been the outdoor experiments in the teachers' gardens, 
 or in the champs d' experience. In two directions the school 
 has been able to render valuable service to the cause of agri- 
 culture. One is the teaching of grafting in the vine dis- 
 tricts, where the reconstruction of the vineyards is of 
 capital importance, owing to the devastation of the phyl- 
 loxera ; and the other is the wider and more intelligent use 
 of natural and especially artificial manures. The employ- 
 ment of the latter is especially needful in a country where 
 the head of stock kept by the peasant is comparatively 
 small. 
 
 The agricultural education of the department outside the 
 primary school is one of the many functions that concern 
 the professor of agriculture, but, in looking after the " trial 
 fields," the teachers often prove to be his most valuable 
 henchman. In some departments these champs d' experience 
 are quite insufficient. In Calvados, for example, there are 
 only some 20 or 30 in 763 communes. In Sarthe, on the 
 other hand, with 386 communes, they numbered 167 in 
 1898-9, of which some 80 were looked after by the teachers. 
 
FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION 205 
 
 A further aid to the outside work of the school is the 
 school journey, during which the children take notes, and 
 occasionally botanize. 
 
 To sum up, while the older teachers seem generally in- 
 different, there are many among the younger generation 
 who, thanks to the teaching in the normal schools, take a 
 keen interest in the subject. The chief desideratum seems 
 to be the establishment everywhere of a small garden. This 
 is so strongly felt by the Ministry that at the Exhibition of 
 1900 there was a small model garden which, although it 
 occupied only some 75 square yards, allowed room for a 
 largish number of experiments. Most of the plants it con- 
 tained came originally from school gardens. The botanical 
 bed in the middle was composed of field flowers. It 
 sufficed, as the ofiicial report says, for the study of the 
 principal families, and was none the worse for being orna- 
 mental. 
 
 In the foreground was a narrow bed containing the 
 principal leguminous and gramineous plants that every 
 cultivator ought to know. To the left, five little squares 
 were sown with mixtures of these plants in order to form 
 specimen meadow plots. Behind them were four quad- 
 rangular plots sown with maize, potatoes, tomatoes, etc., 
 each being treated either with no manure, or with different 
 dressings to show the effect of proper manuring. Against 
 the wall at the side were climbing plants, vines, and fruit 
 trees. In spite of the torrid heat and the attentions of the 
 Paris sparrows, the garden looked very well, and the experi- 
 ments were most satisfactory. Some English critics, no 
 doubt, will not be able to completely approve of the French 
 solution, though experiments on more or less similar lines 
 have been carried out with much success in this country, 
 notably by the Surrey County Council, in Norfolk, and the 
 Isle of Wight. 
 
 It is possible that the advocates of nature-study would 
 insist on the superior educational value of an education 
 whose first principles are rather based on training the 
 observation and the imagination. The French system bears 
 on the face of it a practical and utiUtarian aim. Yet any 
 
2o6 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 judgment passed upon it must take into consideration the 
 requirements of the French rural problem. 
 
 To encourage the teaching of the subject in the rural 
 schools, examinations written and oral are held, and prizes 
 awarded by the different departments. . The examination 
 papers include questions framed on the missing word prin- 
 ciple, questions demanding an answer of two or three lines, 
 agricultural book-keeping, which is really a short problem 
 in arithmetic, an essay, and a simple design from memory. 
 In Sarthe, there are not only school examinations but school 
 exhibitions, which are apparently very successful. Prizes 
 are given by the local agricultural societies — a point that 
 might well be copied in England. 
 
 The French programme, as the examination paper just 
 quoted shows, attempts as far as possible to dovetail the 
 subjects into one another. As was indicated at the outset, 
 a subject is not so much squeezed into the curriculum 
 because it " pays " or because it is a fad. To gain entry it 
 has to prove that it will better the all-round efficiency of the 
 pupil. None the less there is a general feeling that the 
 curriculum is overloaded, which is plain, when, as we have 
 seen, the school working- week is 30 hours, and the number of 
 hours required by the subjects is 34. French teachers are 
 already asking whether the wisest thing would not be to 
 have the main programme the same for town and country, 
 with certain optional subjects for urban or rural children. 
 The teachers themselves favour some such form of decentral- 
 ization, and probably some sort of restricted local option 
 will be possible in the near future. 
 
 As a sanction to all these studies, the French have created 
 a merit or leaving certificate called the certificat d' etudes. It 
 has its drawbacks, the principal one being the premature 
 age at which the pupils take it, with the result that it leads 
 to cramming. Yet, on the other hand, it is held in high 
 esteem by parents and by the business world. It also gives 
 the State a valuable means of audit, all the more valuable 
 because part of it is oral. Happily, in France, the fetish of 
 paper-work has not reached the dimensions it has with us. 
 The French have all along seen that viva-voce is an indis- 
 
FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION 207 
 
 pensable supplement to a written examination, because it 
 tests qualities which are of real worth in daily life, presence 
 of mind, power to mobilize one's knowledge and intelHgence 
 at a minute's notice, and to think out a problem quickly. 
 
 Paper-work is a good test for the closet student, the 
 recluse, but oral examination brings out as no other test the 
 strong points of the business man who has got to keep his 
 head and to come to a sound decision — more speedily than 
 his fellow competitors. In any case, the advantages of the 
 examination appear even in the teachers' eyes to outweigh 
 the disadvantages. For those who would learn more of its 
 working I must refer to an excellent monograph on the sub- 
 ject by Sir Joshua Fitch. If such an examination were 
 adopted in England it would probably be best to entrust 
 it to a board, consisting of the inspectors, with representa- 
 tives from primary, secondary, and technical schools and 
 committees. Were the examination conducted by districts 
 in the counties and by group centres in the large boroughs, 
 the whole examination could be got through generally in a 
 single day, provided the examining board were big enough. 
 
 Most of the foregoing remarks refer to the State lay 
 schools, as the religious schools in the country are compara- 
 tively few. Their strength lies strangely enough in the 
 towns where they can charge fees. In teaching methods 
 they are and have been generally inferior, but this is scarcely 
 surprising when one realizes that they are entirely self- 
 supporting. The " intolerable strain " with them is not some 
 20 per cent, of the maintenance, but 100 per cent. Under 
 these circumstances one can only admire the spirit of self- 
 devotion that keeps them alive. Many will probably go 
 under owing to the financial strain, quite apart from^ any 
 alterations that may be made in the new law on the right 
 to teach. 
 
 The agricultural training given in the normal schools is 
 naturally of vital importance to the rural school. While it 
 appears to be sound upon its theoretical side, it probably still 
 requires a good deal of attention to make its practical side 
 as effective as it might be. The truth is in many cases the 
 agricultural professors are so hard- worked they have not the 
 
2o8 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 time to pay the requisite attention to their outdoor courses 
 at the normal colleges, and, on the other hand, there is not 
 always that close correlation that ought to exist between the 
 teaching of the agricultural professor and his confrere the 
 professor of science. Agricultural teaching in the training 
 colleges for women largely consists of horticulture. 
 
 The chief lesson to be learnt from the French training 
 colleges is that we must copy them in immensely increasing 
 our faculties for training, while we must avoid their mistake 
 of setting up a brace of normal schools for each county or 
 department. What our authorities should rather do is to 
 group their schools round the universities or existing train- 
 ing colleges, or perhaps in the case of some of the rural 
 counties build small hostels round some of the agricultural 
 colleges, which the students could attend for certain courses ; 
 while in other respects they would receive a literary training. 
 In any case, we want on the one hand to centralize the 
 training centres, and on the other to encourage the counties 
 to go shares as much as possible in the building of new 
 schools, or at least, to place their hostels alongside one 
 another round a nucleus of class-rooms and school buildings 
 to be used in common. 
 
 The opportunities for agricultural education in secondary 
 French schools are so insignificant they need not be 
 mentioned. The local grammar schools are far more out of 
 touch with the localities than with us. Far more promising 
 is the creation of ex-standard classes and higher primary 
 schools in the country districts with a view to catering for 
 rural needs. This is a species of school which it ought to be 
 easy for the rural counties in England to erect in the near 
 future. Only the authorities must steadily bear in mind 
 what sort of pupil they mean to produce, and to be certain 
 to produce one who will not be a declasse. But the rural 
 problem in France is complicated as in England by class 
 distinctions. Parents will still go on sending their boys to 
 the religious high school or the college because it is the 
 fashion. 
 
 The remedy in both countries, therefore, seems to be to 
 modernize the college course and make it give, as the 
 
FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION 209 
 
 great majority of country grammar schools should give, a 
 thoroughly modern education. The scholarship system 
 properly arranged should provide for moving on a clever 
 lad to some central county school which prepared for the 
 universities on classical lines. If a classical side exists 
 in such schools, it should really be a side and not the main 
 aim of the schools. These schools had a regular raison 
 d'etre for being classical schools in the days when the local 
 upper ten frequented them. But with the revolution of 
 transport, their clientele has greatly changed, and the educa- 
 tion they give should follow suit. 
 
 Of the extraordinary ardour with which the French 
 teachers have thrown themselves into the extraneous work 
 connected with the school, a few words must be said. Many 
 of these works of supererogation are performed by the 
 English teacher, but nothing like to the same extent. One 
 thing we might copy is the mutualite scolaire, or the system 
 of old age pensions, which starts in the elementary school. 
 Had the children's fees in English schools been devoted to 
 this purpose instead of being aboHshed, we might have 
 created with a stroke of the pen a complete system of 
 old age pensions. 
 
 Allusion has been already made to the evening classes 
 and lectures carried on by teachers in connection or not with 
 old boys' clubs. Some idea of the magnitude of the work 
 may be gathered from the fact that in 1900 the number of 
 people attending these lectures amounted to 3! millions. 
 It is not necessary to dilate on the value of these good works 
 in bringing together parents and teachers in the rural 
 districts, in brightening village life, and in stimulating and 
 consolidating village interests. Let it suffice to say that in 
 many places it is helping the schoolmaster to become the 
 " lay rector " of the parish. 
 
 Such then is the sketch of the French school, and especially 
 of the French rural school, I have to offer you. Incomplete 
 and superficial as it is it may nevertheless perhaps produce 
 on you some faint impression of the effect it produced on me 
 by the thoroughness of the organization, by the capability 
 of the expert element in supervision and guidance, by the 
 
 B.E. o 
 
210 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 rare enthusiasm and self-devotion of the teachers, and by 
 the correlation of subjects and the coherence of aim that 
 distinguish the curriculum of the primary school. 
 
 Of course there are blots : in some places the supervision is 
 too drastic, the intrusion of politics too obvious, the teach- 
 ing is lukewarm, and part of the programme remains un- 
 realized. But judged en bloc — and I think my opinion will 
 be endorsed by my colleague, Mr. Medd, of whose com- 
 petence I do not need to speak here — the general efficiency 
 of the school is certainly remarkable. Mr. Medd and myself 
 wrote entirely independent reports, yet anyone must notice 
 that on all great questions we somewhat arrived at practi- 
 cally identical conclusions. 
 
 And this brings me to the last and most difficult part of 
 the problem. How does the school stand in relation to 
 the rural problem ? Is it a power for good, or does it merely 
 help to accentuate the rural crisis ? Judging by what I saw 
 and heard, the French school is not out of sympathy with 
 the home. At the time of my visit its struggle with the 
 Church was distinctly on the wane, while the school is 
 certainly in good odour among the vast majority of country 
 folk. The great mass of those one interviewed assuredly 
 did not look on it as an engine for setting boys against the 
 land or increasing the longing for town life. 
 
 Yet so much has been said, often unfairly, against the 
 English rural school, such extravagant ideas have been 
 advanced about the extent of its evil influence, that a state- 
 ment of the French rural problem may help to open the 
 eyes of those people who apparently think that a few changes 
 in the school curriculum would prove a "cure-all" for every 
 ill the countryside is heir to. Let us first consider, very 
 briefly, the French rural problem, and then we shall be able 
 to see whether and to what extent the school exercises an 
 alleviating or an aggravating influence. 
 
 Here again, of course, one can only speak of the five depart- 
 ments which one visited ; yet lying as they did on the 
 borderland between north and south they are probably 
 typical of a great many other departments. 
 
 Speaking broadly, then, local industries except when 
 
FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION 211 
 
 grouped round centres like Flers and Lisieux seem to be 
 declining. The village industries, once such a feature of 
 these parts, are practically extinct. Agriculture while not 
 the prosperous thing it was under the Empire (a matter that 
 still makes the older peasant a Bonapartist at heart) has 
 certainly improved during the last ten years, though land 
 has fallen one-third in value. In many places the yield per 
 acre of corn has doubled, thanks to the use of artificial 
 manures. Dairy-farming and cattle-breeding are flourish- 
 ing, except where the foot-and-mouth disease is prevalent ; 
 but the great change from arable to pasture has had a bad 
 effect on the peasant. It has made him more lazy than he 
 was. Horse-breeding, especially for the remounts (the 
 French prefer encouraging home industries to buying 
 " screws " in Hungary), is a paying business, and hundreds 
 of thousands of fowls and millions of eggs are sent from these 
 districts to Leadenhall Market. 
 
 The cider districts are the most prosperous in France. If 
 the apple crop is a failure owing to the wet, the hay crop 
 grown under the trees is usually heavy : if the season is too 
 dry for hay, the apple crop is a bumper one. The vine 
 districts seem to have turned the corner, and nearly every- 
 where vine-growers are making money. The new method 
 of replanting and grafting have robbed the phylloxera of its 
 worst terrors. Agriculture has been immensely aided by 
 the establishment of agricultural professors, who not only 
 conduct local experiments but analyse soils, suggest the 
 proper manures, and encourage co-operative purchase on a 
 large scale. Much again has been done by the construction 
 of light railways, the foundation of agricultural shows, the 
 creation of syndicates among the farmers for buying 
 manures, implements, and pedigree bulls. Some of these 
 societies run into thousands of members. 
 
 Mutual assurances against loss of crops or cattle are very 
 widely practised, although co-operative selling is in its 
 infancy. But le manque de bras c'est la plaie du pays. 
 Labour is getting ever scarcer. The harvests would stand 
 rotting in the fields if the foreigners did not arrive in shoals 
 to reap them or the Ministry of War did not allow the 
 
212 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 soldiers to go and lend a hand. Still the sons of the land- 
 owning class no longer flock to Paris as they did. But the 
 landless men still go. The attractions are higher wages, 
 the glamour of town life and conscription. Half the 
 rural conscripts, says one authority, never come back 
 to till the soil. Those interested in preserving our village 
 life had better note this when they hear conscription 
 mooted in England. 
 
 Another cause of the depopulation is the low birth-rate. 
 This is due in part to the love of comfort which restricts the 
 number of children in the family, and to the absurd system 
 of inheritance. ** The English system of primogeniture,** 
 says a witty Frenchman, " confines the number of fools to 
 one per family ; we French have found a method for render- 
 ing the whole family imbeciles." Certainly the division of 
 property in assuring to each child a pittance, is a great 
 incentive to slackness and lack of enterprise. But the chief 
 cause of depopulation is alcoholism. Fifty years ago France 
 was probably the most temperate country in the world. 
 Now it is by far the greatest consumer of alcohol. Accord- 
 ing to statistics France consumes annually 14 litres of pure 
 alcohol at 100 per cent, per head. We only come a bad 
 sixth in the list with 9.23 litres, but even our record looks 
 black beside Canada's figure of 2.63 litres per head. 
 
 The cause of all this paradoxically was the phylloxera, 
 which, by making wine comparatively dear, drove the 
 people to beetroot spirit, absinthe, and other deadly poisons. 
 The effects have been appalling. In Rouen a workman's 
 morning breakfast often consists of sUces of bread served in 
 a soup tureen containing a litre or half a litre of spirit ; the 
 coffee even is left out. The same soup is not infrequently 
 served at the evening meal, and this is the fare the children 
 are brought up on. The whole race seems threatened. 
 In the fourteen years between 1874-1888 the number of 
 recruits in the northern departments unfit for service had 
 increased sixfold, and in the district of Domfront there are 
 some cantons in which, owing to the prevalence of alcohol- 
 ism, the recruiting of young conscripts is becoming almost 
 impossible. The asylums are filled up with these alcoholics. 
 
FRENCH RURAL EDUCATION 213 
 
 In that of Alengon 60 per cent, of the males and 70 per cent, 
 of the women belong to this category. 
 
 In the light of the above facts it is clear that the higher 
 primary school may do something for industry ; the agri- 
 cultural education given in the primary and higher schools 
 should make the pupils they turn out more anxious to follow 
 the profession of their fathers and to profit by the services 
 of the agricultural professor. But the other problems are 
 clearly beyond the competence of the school to solve, except 
 that of alcoholism, and here the teachers, though rather in 
 the towns, have already started a vigorous campaign to 
 rouse the younger generation to its dangers. 
 
 So much then for the school and its services to the 
 locality. But the French, while not unheedful of local 
 needs, none the less recognize that the school has also a 
 national and a world-wide aim. They do not forget that 
 it is the nursery of the citizen of to-morrow, and true to the 
 teaching of the French Revolution they are far from neglect- 
 ing the claims of humanity. While the French secondary 
 school represents in some ways the quintessence of the cul- 
 ture of the past, the French primary school embodies to a 
 certain extent some of the newest and most modern ideals 
 in education. 
 
 Their ways are probably not altogether our ways. Their 
 aims may differ, but the principles they have set before 
 them seem well worthy of our consideration and imitation. 
 They desire to give the pupil a practical education, to render 
 him as much as possible in sympathy with his present and 
 with his future surroundings ; but they none the less desire 
 to keep his education general. They do not degrade the 
 literary side of the curriculum, but transform it by choosing 
 more suitable subjects. They try, in a word, to combine 
 the education of the enlightened worker with that of the 
 enlightened citizen. 
 
THE TRUE INWARDNESS OF MORAL 
 INSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 
 
 The teaching of la morale in France is far from being 
 perfect, but that is a disabihty it largely shares with other 
 subjects. Further, owing to its comparatively recent intro- 
 duction into the curriculum, it has, like every other new 
 subject, laboured under the disadvantage of having to de- 
 fine its content and evolve its methods. At the outset it 
 undoubtedly aimed too high, but every year efforts are 
 being made to bring it down to the children's level. Again, 
 it started by being too individualistic, but this mistake is 
 now being rectified by the greater prominence given to the 
 doctrines of solidarity. It has even developed in certain 
 individuals sundry heretical tendencies, but that is a feature 
 that is also common to all known religions. 
 
 We must also make allowance for the fact that the 
 organization of moral instruction has taken place " under 
 lire " from one of the most powerful religious bodies in the 
 world, whose teachers have been evicted wholesale from the 
 schools. Personally, one may deplore that it has broken so 
 completely with what I would call by a paradox the meta- 
 physics of the unknown and the unseen, though I am not 
 so sure whether, in having practically excluded the religious 
 element, it will not the more readily bring to light in the 
 end certain elemental needs that appear to be latent in 
 every human soul and thereby ensure their recognition. I 
 do not mean that this will necessarily produce a general 
 return to Catholicism, but I think it has yet to be proved 
 that Positivism in its narrower sense will ever content the 
 mass of mankind. 
 
 But this line of thought is likely to carry us too far afield. 
 
MORAL INSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 215 
 
 What I want, if possible, to explain and illustrate here is the 
 true inwardness, as I conceive it, of French moral instruc- 
 tion, because it seems to be perpetually overlooked, ignored, 
 or underrated by the majority of foreign observers, who, 
 forgetting the golden rule not to chercher midi a quatorze 
 heures, allow full play to their preconceptions of education 
 and moral instruction. They not unnaturally fail to find in 
 the French system the strong points of their own, much less 
 a recognition of the postulates on which their own is based. 
 Accordingly, on their return home, they say they have 
 nothing to learn from French education, which is only true 
 as far as they themselves are concerned, and that the 
 French system of teaching morals is more or less a sterile 
 system of phrases and formulae, as often as not above the 
 pupil's head, incapable of touching his feelings and emotions, 
 with no effect whatever on the training of his will — in a 
 word, a sort of juvenile scholasticism. I venture to think 
 that their error is profound. Of course, I freely grant that 
 the French system of moral instruction is not made for 
 export — it would probably be worthless if it were — yet if 
 it can be shown that it is a natural outcome of the French 
 system of education, it seems to me quite another matter to 
 say that it is practically sterile or unsuitable for the French 
 character, unless our critic is prepared to go the whole hog 
 and condemn outright the whole of French education. 
 
 To my mind, there are three possible ways of teaching 
 morality, as, in fact, of teaching any other subject. You 
 may teach the theory first, as is done still in most of the 
 churches, who begin with a catechism — a sort of pocket 
 atlas of Life and Eternity — which the small child of nine is 
 supposed to master mainly for future use ; or you may 
 teach theory and practice side by side ; or you may rely on 
 the influence of the milieu and make practice, to all intents 
 and purposes, your instrument. The last method is very 
 successfully followed by the big public schools, in which we 
 are told by certain critics that, in spite of chapel and 
 Scripture lessons, the boys remain largely unconscious 
 pagans. Personally I have a preference for the middle 
 system, in which theory and practice go hand in hand. 
 
2i6 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 To propose gravely, as some do, to keep the child from 
 all direct moral teaching until he is fourteen or fifteen is 
 really nothing more nor less than modified Rousseauism, 
 the " Vicaire Savoyard " being brought in three or four 
 years earlier than in the eighteenth-century programme. I 
 freely admit that the amount of theory should vary accord- 
 ing to the environment of the child ; more prophylactic is 
 necessary for the slum child than for the boy in a well- 
 ordered home. But to refuse to help the child to codify his 
 moral experiences as he goes along seems to me as unsound 
 as the doctrine of the early modern language reformers, who 
 would, if they could, have burnt all grammars. Imagine 
 the prohibition of all English grammars to children under 
 fourteen, and the absurdity of the position becomes patent. 
 Besides, a purely instinctive morality at its best is about as 
 meritorious as that of the well broken-in horse or thoroughly 
 trained sheep-dog. 
 
 Now it seems to me that the French system is faulty 
 because it unduly exalts the theoretical side. Where, how- 
 ever, its critics usually go wrong is that they condemn root 
 and branch the theory itself. They don't, apparently, 
 grasp the fact that the theory is so clear, so well put, so full 
 of meaning to the French child that it makes a definite 
 appeal to his emotions. On the other hand, the distinctively 
 English fashion of making morality mainly consist of right 
 habits seems to me to rely too much on the practical side. 
 But vis consili expers mole ruit sua. It would seem, there- 
 fore, that an ideal education in conduct should be one 
 which, while taking full cognizance of national idiosyn- 
 crasies, should appeal alike to the reason, as in France, and 
 to the will, as in England. 
 
 No doubt the average Englishman will declare with indig- 
 nation that I have taken an extreme case, and that the 
 training of the will in England does, as a rule, include an 
 appeal to the reason as well. I concede that we have some 
 intellectual training, but its inadequacy is shown by the 
 widespread discontent with existing methods. But, in 
 return, I ask him to concede — what the majority of critics 
 of the French system have hitherto refused to concede — 
 
MORAL INSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 217 
 
 that, granted that the French system does appeal too 
 exclusively to the rational faculties, it does also appeal to 
 the emotions, which are the raw material of the will ; and I 
 will try to prove, or at least to indicate, that my contention 
 is well grounded. 
 
 If English education is based on the belief of the eihcacy 
 of an appeal to the will of the child, French education is 
 based on a similar belief in the efficacy of an appeal to his 
 reason. This appeal is not confined to the school : it begins 
 within the family itself. The little child of two or three, 
 when appealed to by its mother, is not told to be good or not 
 to be naughty ; but the exact words used are " Sois sage ! " 
 or " Sois raisonnable ! " To tell an English child to be 
 reasonable would be an absurdity. It is the ordinary term 
 of the nursery (if I may use the word) in France. 
 
 Of course, I do not mean to imply that the small child of 
 two or three understands all that is meant by the word sage 
 or raisonnable. The point is that his ideas of conduct grow 
 up and associate themselves around such words as sage and 
 raisonnable. He is, in fact, brought up under the regime of 
 reason, and his rules for conduct are couched in rational 
 formulae. The psychology on which the theory of education 
 is based is undoubtedly too exclusively intellectual, but is not 
 the current underlying the psychology of the English nursery 
 equally incomplete in what it lacks in the opposite direction? 
 
 I do not know whether the French system of education is 
 the cause of the precocity of French children, which is not 
 the precocity of the street arab, but a real intellectual pre- 
 cocity. Maybe it is due to race or climate, but the fact re- 
 mains that the young French boy of twelve or thirteen is as 
 intellectually mature in some ways as the English boy of 
 fifteen or sixteen. This is a fact constantly lost sight of by 
 foreign critics when they condemn the programme as too 
 abstract in form. Not only is the whole school curriculum 
 permeated by the logical idea, but the very hterature on 
 which the pupil is nurtured presupposes a sort of tacit belief 
 in the raison suffisante. 
 
 The whole of French literature since the seventeenth 
 century is, with certain exceptions, saturated with the belief 
 
2i8 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 in reason, as set forth in the doctrines of Descartes, the 
 encyclopaedists, or the dogmas of the French Revolution. 
 Boileau made reason the soul of poetry, and he was merely 
 the representative of his age, which was, according to 
 Nisard, with the exception of Moliere, almost entirely Car- 
 tesian. For Voltaire and the encyclopaedists reason was the 
 one bulwark of the human race against authority ; Robes- 
 pierre's Feast of Reason was but the logical outcome of the 
 eighteenth-century teaching. The great majority of nine- 
 teenth-century literature is profoundly affected by the politi- 
 cal and social struggles that have agitated France for the 
 past hundred years. But whether the struggle has been for 
 political power or social justice both parties have had to use 
 the same weapon — the logical appeal to the national sense of 
 right and wrong. It is therefore clear, I think, that the 
 atmosphere inside and outside the schools, in which the 
 French child grows up, is essentially a logical one. 
 
 But to say that French education is merely logic seems 
 to me to be stating a half-truth. I would rather define it as 
 logic touched with emotion. Abstract reasoning, no doubt, 
 leaves everyone cold, but reason that appeals to motives is 
 like a lever that at once sets the emotions in motion. And 
 this is what actually occurs in French education. The 
 language of reason, being applied to control emotional 
 crises, even if they be only nursery tears, speedily assumes 
 an emotional cast ; and this is only natural, for the emotions 
 are there, and if they are prevented by educational tradition 
 from developing their own vocabulary, they must inevitably 
 tinge, if not entirely colour, expressions that originally were 
 purely intellectual — let alone the fact that the average man 
 does not keep his intelligence in one compartment, his 
 morals in another, and his emotions in another, however 
 much he may isolate and insulate, or partly disconnect, his 
 conscience from large tracts of his daily life. 
 
 This overlapping tendency may be well illustrated by the 
 analysis of the word raison, of which the uses are far wider 
 than the corresponding English word. They intrude, in 
 fact, into the moral domain and even into the sphere of 
 action. It is probable that some of these more varied uses 
 
MORAL INSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 219 
 
 are reminiscences of the original meanings of ratio ; but if 
 this is the case, it is French exigencies which have kept these 
 meanings aHve in the French when they have died out or 
 never taken root in English. Note, for instance, the moral 
 nuances existing in the uses of avoir raison (to be in the 
 right), donner raison a quelqu'un (own that some one is in 
 the right), dire avec raison (rightly, justly, equitably), en- 
 tendre raison (to comply with something just), comme de 
 raison (as is just), pour valoir ce que de raison (in equity), 
 entrer en raison avec quelqu'un (to remonstrate, reason 
 together — as to rights and wrongs), lui demander raison de 
 quelque chose (ask him to justify himself), rendre raison de 
 quelque chose (justify), point de raison/ (no justification). 
 
 Note, again, the nuance of action implied in the phrases 
 avoir raison de ses vices (get the better of his vices), demander 
 raison au tyran (challenge, attack), faire raison {render 
 justice), conter ses raisons (business). But the full 
 strength of the word raison is best seen or felt in such 
 phrases as raison suffisante (sovereign reason) or raison d'etre 
 or raison d'etat. How much more fundamental is raison 
 d'etat (suggesting, if necessary, the life and death of the 
 State being at stake) than " reasons of State " — the very 
 plural in EngUsh showing how far weaker the meaning of the 
 English word is, though how typical of the English mind, 
 with its greater sensitiveness to the number of factors to be 
 considered ! 
 
 If the above considerations are well founded, it is prob- 
 able that much that seems to the bulk of foreign observers 
 either wooden or sterile is usually as full of meaning and 
 significance to the pupil as, say, the whole gamut of the 
 theological vocabulary is to an intelligent young Calvinist 
 brought up in a strictly pious English family, like the author 
 of Father and Son. What, in fact, to the English observer 
 appear to be mere sterile symbols are to the French child not 
 merely intelligible, but fraught with meaning and sugges- 
 tion, because they are largely the language of everyday life 
 and Hterature. There is in France no separate philo- 
 sophical or theological phraseology to darken counsel in the 
 child's mind. 
 
220 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 No doubt there is a certain gain in the double vocabulary 
 as far as theology is concerned ; but it is dearly purchased 
 in the case of those who think they can worship in one lan- 
 guage on Sunday and outwit their neighbour in another for 
 the rest of the week, as Herbert Spencer pointed out. What 
 I want to insist on here is not merely the value, but the 
 vitality, the vivida vis, of intelligible symbols. Foreign 
 observers seem to condemn all symbols which are unfamiliar 
 to the children of their own people, forgetting that even the 
 common folk have been ready to slay and be slain for such 
 an abstract thing as the omission of an iota when they 
 grasped its tremendous importance. 
 
 But I would push the analysis, if possible, yet one step 
 further. Not only do I think the real raison d'etre of the 
 logical education is that it seems to the French mind the 
 most intelligible way of reaching the child's emotions 
 through the disciplinary categories of reason, but its ulti- 
 mate sanction appears to me to rest on something even 
 deeper than the ideal that man should be a creature of 
 thought, as well as of action. It is based, consciously or 
 unconsciously, on the sentiment of personality, the adytum 
 of our being, the last solid foundation, ere we descend into 
 the vast and endless catacombs of the subconscious and the 
 unknown. 
 
 I venture to think that the craving for the unification of 
 one's personality — the instinct for physical, mental, and 
 moral self-unity — is quite as fundamental and primordial 
 as the instinct for action. Both are, in fact, but different 
 facets of the same desire for self-realization, which, whether 
 it postulates a soul or not, recognizes in the individual the 
 necessary unit in any system calling itself a cosmos. I do not 
 say, for one moment, we should at once attempt consciously 
 to individualize the child. The result, if successful, could 
 only be something miserably stunted and stereotyped, but 
 surely we should prepare for its gradual realization, as I 
 hope, in conclusion, to show. 
 
 The truth is, the moment that children begin to reflect — 
 and they do so at a very early age — they want to inquire 
 into the why and wherefore of conduct just as much as into 
 
MORAL INSTRUCTION IN FRANCE 221 
 
 the why and wherefore of anything else. Nurses and 
 parents do their best to stifle this spirit of free inquiry by 
 discouraging questions. They thus maintain an environ- 
 ment more or less hostile to the legitimate development of 
 curiosity. The public schools are generally equally success- 
 ful in damping down the remains of these searchings of 
 heart by speedily impressing on each newcomer that what- 
 ever is, is right in their particular milieu, Happy the small 
 boy who does not lose his sense of wonder and curiosity in 
 intellectual matters as well ! 
 
 But even the boy who lives in a definite and regulated 
 atmosphere at home or at school reaches a time when, if he 
 is not a mere drifter intellectually and morally, he asks him- 
 self : " Why am I here ? what am I to live for ? what is 
 my hereafter ? " and a hundred other questions about 
 conduct besides. He reahzes that he must have definite 
 standards to live by, and becomes aware of the discrepancies 
 of the various codes under which he has hitherto been 
 living in blissful unconsciousness. He sees, in a word, the 
 need of an ideal to live for. A conscious or unconscious ideal 
 is, in fact, a sine qua non of life. It may be merely the work- 
 ing hypothesis of getting all the pleasure one can out of Hfe. 
 It may, in fact, be something infinitely degrading. But it 
 is no paradox to say that it is better not to have enough 
 to live on than to have nothing to live for. Millionaires 
 commit suicide because that one essential is lacking, and the 
 chief thing that keeps the dram and drug drinkers, apart 
 from the fear of death, from ending their miserable lives is 
 the prospective joys of intoxication or oblivion. 
 
 If this is true, then surely the province of moral teaching 
 is to provide humanity — directly or indirectly — with the 
 highest ideals it can reasonably attain or assimilate. This 
 involves not merely the formation of right habits, but also 
 of right thinking — not merely of right-mindedness. Socrates 
 declared that virtue could be taught, and Tennyson has said 
 the same thing when he declared, " we needs must love the 
 highest when we see it " — an application of the Cartesian 
 theory that an idea may be so clear as to become irresistible. 
 We in England have clung too exclusively to the opposite 
 
222 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 theory of training. I fully believe that, being English and 
 not French, we have been essentially right in the main, but 
 I as fully believe that if more will-training would be good in 
 France, a certain amount of carefully administered theory 
 would not be amiss in the teaching of morality in England 
 in the form either of definite moral instruction or of ampli- 
 fied and modernized religious teaching. In a word, virtue 
 must be taught as well as practised.^ 
 
 1 Note. — (1913.) The aesthetic and emotional factors in French 
 education are well illustrated by a delicate piece of analysis by that 
 well-known cosmopolitan writer Claire de Pratz, who in her book 
 France from Within points out that a French mother will say to a 
 child who is doing wrong, " Ce que tu fais n'est pas beau " {beautiful /), 
 and if this does not avail she adds, " Tu fais de la peine a ta mere " 
 (appeal to the emotions). Compare with this our normal English 
 discipline — "Won't you be good ? " possibly followed by an appeal 
 to physical force — a quaint illustration of doing evil that good may 
 come. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN FRANCE 
 
 A Monograph included in the Report of the Royal 
 Commission on Physical Training (Scotland) 
 
 The Beginnings of Physical Education. The necessity 
 of building up the nation after the war of 1870 induced the 
 French statesmen of the day to pay increased attention to 
 education of all kinds, including physical. Jules Simon, in 
 his book on the reform of secondary education, declared that 
 the scholastic contempt for health and hygiene had been a 
 potent factor in the disasters that had befallen the nation. 
 The reforms in physical education took the shape of gym- 
 nastics and military exercises, the chief aim in view being 
 the preparation of the rising generation for their future 
 share in the national defence. The hands of those who 
 took this patriotic view of physical education were greatly 
 strengthened by the growing danger of a fresh invasion 
 towards 1876. 
 
 Gymnastics with apparatus were everywhere rendered 
 obligatory, and the movement in favour of military drill 
 culminated in the creation of regular cadet corps in the 
 schools, both primary and secondary. These cadet corps 
 were known by the name of hataillons scolaires. As these 
 cadet corps, after a brilliant debut, fell into discredit, 
 and later on into complete ridicule, it is probably worth 
 while giving a fairly full view of the causes of their inception, 
 and particularly of their failure, since there is often as much 
 to be learnt from experiments which have failed as from 
 those which have been successful. Besides, the subject has 
 some interest for us in this country, as there is to-day a 
 distinct movement in favour of establishing some form or 
 another of military drill in all the schools. 
 
224 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 The Cadet Corps. The chief cause of the foundation 
 of these corps was the desire to make the school a sort of 
 nursery for the future defenders of the country. The idea 
 was naturally most widely adopted in the large centres of 
 population, and especially at Paris. The children were 
 armed with wooden swords and muskets, and provided with 
 special uniforms. There were fifes, trumpets, and drums. 
 Some of the children were appointed non-commissioned 
 officers. The higher posts were filled by the sergeant- 
 instructors, aided by several officiers de reserve, who 
 were only too glad to air their uniform. Regular parades 
 and reviews were held in the Garden of the Tuileries and 
 elsewhere. Those whom I consulted on the subject ad- 
 mitted that the object in view of accustoming the child 
 from its earliest years to consider itself the natural defender 
 of its country was an excellent one, but they, one and all, 
 declared the movement in France had been a complete fiasco. 
 
 Causes of Failure. A good many reasons were given. 
 The cost to the town was altogether out of proportion to 
 the results obtained, and the results themselves were un- 
 satisfactory rather than satisfactory. The children, espe- 
 cially those who were made non-commissioned officers, 
 affected the manners and language of the drill sergeants, 
 who imported into the playground the phraseology of the 
 barracks. The teachers began to take alarm at their 
 children, who swore and expectorated after the most 
 approved military fashion. Then, again, the children who 
 had been made corporals and sergeants tyrannized over the 
 others. The discipline was often very slack. One witness 
 told me of a case in which he saw a real colonel surrounded 
 by his youthful recruits, who kept him a virtual prisoner 
 by crowding round him, while those in his rear decorated his 
 uniform with elaborate designs in chalk. 
 
 But the teachers were not the only opponents of the move- 
 ment ; the regular officers were also hostile. Experience 
 showed that the children who had left the school at thirteen 
 or fourteen had mostly forgotten what they had learnt when 
 they became soldiers at nineteen and twenty. This was not, 
 however, an unmitigated loss, as it was generally admitted 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN FRANCE 225 
 
 that the young people who had taken part in these exercises 
 had, as a rule, a good deal more to unlearn than those who 
 came to the barracks without any preliminary training. 
 Started in 1873, the last of the hataillons scolaires were 
 suppressed in 1890. The moral of the whole experiment 
 was summed up to me by one witness in the following 
 words : " It is just as necessary to give the body a general 
 training as it is to give the mind. SpeciaHzation must come 
 later. To expect to make a soldier of a boy of ten is as 
 sensible as to try to make a boy of the same age into a 
 dentist." 1 
 
 Gymnastics. This does not imply that the French 
 have given up all idea of utilizing the school as a prepara- 
 tion for the regiment. On the contrary, the gymnastics, 
 with or without apparatus, were until recently far too much 
 of a military type. While the hataillons scolaires have 
 fallen out altogether, the societies of gymnastics still exist, 
 though their career has been rather a chequered one. Up 
 to 1887 the number of the private societies, recruited mainly 
 from the primary schools, increased. Their numbers then 
 remained stationary for several years, and have since de- 
 clined. The reasons for this falling off are several. Their 
 most severe critics have been those who have made a study 
 of physical education on scientific lines. 
 
 Objections to the French Gymnastics. It has been 
 shown that the exercises with apparatus are often injurious 
 to those who are weakly constituted. Besides, the whole 
 aim of such a system is to form rather acrobats than well- 
 developed and well-proportioned individuals. Instead of 
 seeking to increase the respiratory powers, its chief object 
 is the formation of muscle. During the last year or 
 two, however, a great effort has been made to introduce 
 the Swedish exercises, or at least the principles under- 
 lying them. The opposition has been very bitter on the 
 
 1 Note. — (1913.) The Boy Scouts movement has just been intro- 
 duced into France with apparently good results. The inevitable 
 religious difficulty has, however, arisen, owing to the question of the 
 scouts swearing allegiance to the Divinity, and two rival societies 
 have been formed, Les ficlaireurs de France and Les ficlaireurs 
 fran9ais. 
 
 B.E. P 
 
226 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 part of the military instructors brought up under the old 
 regime. 
 
 All sorts of reasons have been advanced, not forgetting 
 the patriotic. But, as one critic has pointed out, the so- 
 called French system is really German, having been adopted 
 in France after passing by Spain. Still the theories of which 
 M. Demeny of Paris, and M. Tissie of Bordeaux, are advo- 
 cates, appear to be getting the upper hand to-day, so much 
 so that at the mihtary school of Joinville le Pont, at which 
 the mihtary instructors for the army are formed, M. Demeny 
 has now a class of his own. As these instructors become 
 later on professors of gymnastics in the lycees and primary 
 schools, it is evident that the gymnastique raisonnee, as 
 it is called, is sure of success in the long run. 
 
 Gymnastics in the Primary Schools. An important 
 Commission in 1887 was nominated to revise the pro- 
 gramme of gymnastics. Their new programme, issued in 
 1890, was followed by an official manual on gymnastic 
 exercises and school games. This, however, was merely a 
 book in which the teacher could pick and choose, and no 
 indication was given as to how the teacher should form for 
 himself a scientific course of instruction for his pupils. This 
 gap was filled in 1899 by the publication of a volume by M. 
 Demeny, entitled, L'Exercice a I'Ecole, in which a number 
 of graduated courses were suggested. 
 
 French v. Swedish. Meanwhile the old battle between 
 the so-called ^ French methods and the Swedish had been 
 gradually fought out in the schools. The chief argu- 
 ment of the opponents of the Swedish system was that the 
 spirit of the training given on the Swedish system was not 
 in sympathy with the temperament of the French child, 
 who has the greatest difficulty in remaining still or con- 
 centrating his attention for any length of time. 
 
 The Swedish method triumphed nevertheless, and to-day, 
 although the new exercises ^ have only been introduced into 
 
 1 French here means the old gymnastic methods, 
 
 2 The thoroughness and scientific nature of these exercises may be 
 judged by the fact that before they were adopted in the schools they 
 were submitted to the Faculty of Medicine, who approved of them 
 unanimously. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN FRANCE 227 
 
 the Paris schools since October, 1901, the children have made 
 excellent progress, thanks to the twenty-five teachers that 
 M. le Colonel Derue, inspector of gymnastics to the city of 
 Paris, has been able to gather round him and train. Part 
 of his success, no doubt, is due to the fact that the professors, 
 though appointed by the town, are selected by himself. 
 
 Description of a Girls' School. I saw several large 
 classes of girls, one amounting to ninety pupils, under- 
 going a course of Swedish drill at the command of a lady 
 instructor. There was very little shirking, the precision 
 was very fair, and the discipline unimpeachable. The 
 directress of the school, who was present, told me she had 
 already remarked a distinct improvement in the deportment 
 of the girls. The exercises were interspersed with short 
 marching exercises, concluding with a pas-de-quatre step. 
 
 During these exercises the children sang various rounds 
 and ballads. The younger ones also sang while playing at 
 catch-ball — a game at which some of them were not very 
 expert. The practice of singing was much criticized at the 
 International Congress of 1900, but provided it is restricted 
 to marching exercises it has certainly a good effect on the 
 pupils. There are no pianos in the schools ; the cost of 
 supplying them seems to be too great. The exercises took 
 place in the covered playground, and it was somewhat re- 
 markable not to see a single window open. In fine weather 
 they take place in the open playground. 
 
 Description of a Boys' School. In the boys' schools, in 
 addition to these exercises, the pupils are taught a certain 
 amount of military drill, including la hoxe, which is roughly 
 an exercise of arms and legs without apparatus. In one 
 school I visited the military instructor took up a position at 
 the side of the open playground and blew his whistle. In- 
 stantly the boys, who had not been warned, came tumbling 
 out of the class-rooms, and in one minute forty seconds 
 the whole 800 children had taken up their position in the 
 playground in regular lines, with the masters beside them. 
 They then proceeded to perform with precision several 
 simple military exercises, after which the instructor dis- 
 missed them, and kept back one class which he put through 
 
228 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 various military exercises, such as forming fours, etc. In 
 this case the drill took place in the open playground, but 
 although in the open air the smell of the latrines was 
 unpleasantly obvious. 
 
 In all these cases the exercises are more or less the same 
 for all classes, and no initiative is left at all to the instructor. 
 There seems, therefore, a possible danger that teachers and 
 taught may find them in the long run monotonous, though 
 at present I did not see any sign of this. 
 
 The instruction given by the official instructor only 
 amounts to half an hour per week for each class, an amount 
 that the inspector himself regards as woefully inadequate. 
 
 The R6le of Teacher. This is indeed supplemented by 
 another half-hour in which the exercises are repeated by 
 the teacher of the class, but the time is sometimes split 
 into two quarters, which renders it thereby insufficient. 
 Moreover, the teacher, so I was told in more than one 
 quarter, is not always equal to the task. Unfortunately 
 the teaching given in many of the normal schools is not at 
 present adapted to enable the teachers to give the right 
 sort of training in the primary schools, though teachers are 
 encouraged to obtain at the school a gymnastic certificate, 
 with a view to earning the prize given by the city of Paris 
 to those who possess it. 
 
 Still the Administration is anxious to see the instruction 
 largely given by the teachers. M. Bayet, the Director of 
 Primary Instruction, told me that in Switzerland the physi- 
 cal education is given by the ordinary teachers in the normal 
 schools, or, in fact, as it is often given in our London 
 schools, only instead of the teacher receiving additional 
 pay, the hours he puts in in teaching gymnastics count 
 the same as the hours devoted to teaching French or 
 mathematics in the total number of hours he is supposed 
 to work per week. 
 
 Gymnastics in Country Schools. Gymnastics and mili- 
 tary drill in country schools are largely regarded as an 
 optional subject. In some sixty schools that I visited two 
 years ago, in North-west France, I only came across a few 
 instances in which they were taught. As one teacher 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN FRANCE 229 
 
 pointed out to me, the children got, as a rale, enough 
 exercise by trudging to school and playing among them- 
 selves. What is often wanted in the country, however, is 
 not the cultivation of muscle, but the cultivation of adroit- 
 ness and agility and handiness ; in fact, the problem in the 
 country is exactly the reverse of that in the towns, where 
 the children are nimble-fingered enough, but lack the 
 physique of the rural lad. It is curious to note that in 
 some programmes of school work the " school walk " is 
 ranked under the heading of gymnastics. 
 
 Kindergarten. In the kindergarten the gymnastics 
 are naturally confined to singing, games, and simple 
 manoeuvres. I visited one school in which the children 
 sang and performed some of the simple movements ; they 
 were rather listless, but it is only fair to state it was near 
 the end of the afternoon. 
 
 Higher Primary Schools. I was told there was not 
 much to be learnt in the Paris higher primary schools for 
 boys distinct from what is done in the elementary and 
 secondary schools. The head of one of the two higher 
 primary schools for girls informed me that the gymnastic 
 programme of the school was taken out of the general pro- 
 gramme, the selection being made by the teacher of gym- 
 nastics and herself. Very httle use is made of apparatus. 
 They had given up the employment of staves from lack of 
 space. The exercises took place either out of doors or in 
 the covered playground. An attempt has been made to get 
 the teaching given by the ordinary teachers attached to the 
 school, a plan the directress preferred in the abstract, but 
 it had not been successful. 
 
 Continuation Classes. There are no official evening 
 classes in France for those who have left the primary 
 schools, though much has been done by private societies 
 and teachers in creating patronages and associations d'anciens 
 eleves. In many cases the school is used as the meeting- 
 place, and a certain amount of gymnastics and dancing goes 
 on, but as the associations are under no control there is no 
 unity of method in the gymnastics as practised in these 
 establishments. 
 
230 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 Normal Schools. In the normal schools a consider- 
 able amount of time is given to gymnastics, but, as has 
 been already stated, it is not always of the kind calculated 
 to make the teacher an instructor in simple gymnastics for 
 the school. Thus in comparatively few normal schools for 
 women are Swedish exercises taught. Still the time given 
 to the subject — three hours a week — permits both the men 
 and women in the different normal schools to gain a 
 certificate in the subject. At Auteuil I saw a certain 
 amount of driUing out of doors, combined with military 
 exercises of the foot and hand {la boxe). Several exercises 
 on the horizontal bar were very well done. The professor 
 told me that he every year " created " fresh movements, 
 in order to prevent monotony. 
 
 The gymnasium had the advantage of having one side 
 completely open to the air. Like all the others that I saw, 
 the floor was covered with sawdust. According to the pro- 
 fessor, the pupils learn all the more common mihtary 
 manoeuvres, and they dance also among themselves twice 
 a week. The gymnasium also is always open, so they can 
 practise whenever they like. In addition, they teach gym- 
 nastics in the practising schools, so that when they leave 
 they are efficient in every way. I was told that in all 
 schools the use of the musket had been suppressed. I 
 came across one school, however, in the country in which 
 it is still retained. In the other schools the pupils now use 
 staves in their place in the gymnastic portion of their drill. 
 
 Fire Brigade. In one school in the country that I 
 visited I saw the pupils of the first year had been formed 
 into a fire brigade. I saw them at practice, and they 
 certainly worked with a will. They had already received 
 their baptism of fire at a conflagration in the neighbourhood. 
 The practice might certainly be extended to other schools 
 with advantage. 
 
 Secondary Education. As for the gymnastics in the 
 lycee, they have never been really obligatory, except for 
 the boarders. The day boys take an interest more or less 
 in them. Thus of some thousand day pupils at College 
 RoUin, about 400 attend the gymnastic classes. A few 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN FRANCE 231 
 
 years ago, so I was informed, the subject was so unpopular 
 with the boys in some lycees that the winner of the prize 
 for gymnastics did not dare to go up for his prize for fear 
 of being jeered at by his fellows. This spirit cannot, how- 
 ever, extend to all the schools, as at the College Chaptal, 
 which is in part a secondary school, there are supplementary 
 classes for those who care to pay for them, and they are 
 well attended. 
 
 In these schools, as elsewhere, the instruction is given by 
 anciens sous-officiers, who are often also employed in the 
 primary schools. The exercises themselves are largely 
 taken out of the big manual published by the Ministry. 
 Nominally there is a general inspector, but as he never 
 appears in the schools, each teacher makes up his own pro- 
 gramme. The time given to the subject seems to vary. 
 At the CoUege Rollin the pupils have three half-hours a 
 week. 
 
 I saw several classes at exercise in this school. The 
 dumb-bells in use for boys of sixteen and seventeen seemed 
 far too heavy, weighing something like 13 pounds ; the 
 smaller boys had also dumb-bells weighing from 4J to 9 
 pounds. The exercises consisted of various dumb-beU 
 movements, varied with practice on the horizontal bar, 
 which was a mere bar of iron uncased with wood, or else 
 consisted of rope and ladder climbing. The professors had 
 sixteen hours' work a week. 
 
 At Chaptal, which is partly a higher primary and partly 
 a secondary school, gymnastics are obligatory. The number 
 of hours per week is two. Here each lesson consists of 
 twenty minutes of Swedish exercises, followed by forty 
 minutes of military exercises with dumb-bells or other 
 apparatus. I was present at a supplementary class. One 
 squad practised on the horizontal bar, the other took 
 a turn at jumping off a spring-board, and then had a lesson 
 in rope-climbing. In the latter the teacher rightly laid 
 stress on the climbing being done hand over hand, in order 
 to develop each arm evenly. 
 
 Competition between the Schools in Gymnastics. Every 
 year there is at Paris a general competition in gym- 
 
232 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 nasties for the seeondary and normal sehools, in which 
 the schools compete against one another either by single 
 champions or by groups. Each school goes through, among 
 other things, a selection of the exercises it has practised 
 during the year, and this helps to keep the teaching in the 
 different establishments more or less together. It was at 
 the general competition of last year that the normal school 
 of Auteuil, mentioned above, won the first prize. 
 
 Athletics. There is, no doubt, a certain discipline at- 
 tached to the practice of gymnastics, but as a means for 
 developing the character and individuality of the pupil they 
 are obviously insufficient. Hence the necessity of combin- 
 ing them, as far as possible, with the numerous games and 
 sports, either individualistic or collective. This combina- 
 tion found recognition in France in the composition of the 
 official manual on physical exercises already alluded to. It 
 also formed one of the chief subjects set down for discussion 
 at the International Congress of 1900. 
 
 This belief in the need of outdoor athletics was largely 
 strengthened by the overwork in secondary schools that 
 resulted from the alterations in the official programmes in 
 1885. The Baron de Coubertin, to mention only one of the 
 numerous reformers, came to England, saw and was con- 
 quered by the system of education which obtains in our big 
 public schools. 
 
 (i) Recreative Side. Some of these reformers, it is true, 
 only saw in the English system an excellent means of recrea- 
 tion, supplying the requisite antidote to the over-pressure 
 from which the French schools were suffering. Others, on 
 the contrary, regarded the English games as a capital device 
 for keeping their pupils out of mischief — the French boy, 
 in the eyes of the majority of the teachers, is, to parody the 
 words of Rousseau, born fundamentally wicked, 
 
 (2) Pastimes. Here, however, the creators of new schools 
 on the English model, such as MM. Demolins and Duhamel, 
 have seen that for filUng up a boy's spare time carpentry 
 and other forms of manual work are distinctly preferable. 
 
 (3) Discipline of Games. There remains, then, the third 
 conception of outdoor games as a school for the will. The 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN FRANCE 233 
 
 necessity for self-improvement in the case of anyone who 
 desires to excel in games is in itself a liberal education, 
 while the games in concert, such as football and rowing, 
 provide an admirable field for the cultivation of social and 
 public spirit. So truly is the British pubHc school a minia- 
 ture republic, a training ground for civic Hfe on a larger 
 scale, where the pupils learn ahke to obey and to lead, that 
 the celebrated French educator, the Pere Didon, after 
 visiting Eton, said the boys who learn to command in the 
 games there are learning to command the Indies. 
 
 The First Phase of the Athletic Movement in France. The 
 movement in favour of outdoor games and athletics in 
 France took, however, at first a distinctly individuaUstic 
 turn. The Lendit, as the annual championship founded by 
 M. Grousset was called, was practically confined to competi- 
 tions between the best individuals in each branch of ath- 
 letics. This led in not a few cases to physical over-training, 
 and had the unfortunate effect of reveaUng to French parents 
 and school authorities the bad side of outdoor sports with- 
 out bringing home to them the moral benefits derived 
 therefrom. 
 
 In fact, the great obstacle to the development of athletics 
 in France has been the opposition offered by parents and 
 school authorities. Though much has been done for the 
 education of these persons, much remains to be accom- 
 phshed. Blind by education to the advantages of games, 
 both parties alike dread them as a possible source of dis- 
 traction to their boys. In the present fierce competition to 
 enter the pubhc service, every hour given to exercise is apt 
 to be regarded as an hour lost to work. 
 
 The fear, again, of accidents is a potent factor with the 
 French mother, and in the majority of cases the French 
 mother is the business head of the family, as far as the 
 education of the children is concerned. The question is 
 evidently bound up with the future education of French 
 women. 
 
 As for the teachers, the fear of accidents is also an 
 important cause of their hostility, though the actual reason 
 itself is different. Until recently they were held pecuniarily 
 
234 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 responsible for any accident to life or limb of the scholars 
 under their charge. No matter however morally innocent 
 the teacher was, he was legally liable. The classic instance 
 — so M. Rabier, the Director of Secondary Education, told 
 me — was that of a teacher who was condemned to pay for 
 an injury which happened to one of his scholars in a fight 
 with another, 300 yards from the school. Lately the law 
 has been changed, and the State now assumes responsibility, 
 reserving, however, to itself the right of making the teacher 
 responsible if it thinks fit. Naturally, the average teacher 
 still considers it is better to avoid accidents at any price, 
 and therefore looks coldly on any form of exercise which 
 may occasion them. 
 
 None the less, the school athletic associations, which 
 started in 1890, have managed to interest a certain number 
 of secondary pupils in games, and a still larger number of 
 associations have been founded by pupils from the primary 
 schools. A good instance of the progress is the Union of 
 French Athletic Societies, which embraces some 340 societies 
 and contains some 16,000 active members. 
 
 Hindrances. The movement in the schools has, how- 
 ever, not only suffered from the opposition of parents and 
 professors ; it has also been undermined by those who ought 
 to have served as its best friends. 
 
 The larger athletic clubs for adults, such as the Racing 
 Club, the Stade Fran9aise, etc., in their desire to augment 
 their members and prestige, have treated the school associa- 
 tions as a happy hunting-ground for providing members for 
 their football and athletic teams. They have thereby 
 greatly increased. The Racing Club has over 1000 mem- 
 bers, but the effect on the school associations has been 
 deplorable. The average boy of fifteen or sixteen cannot 
 be expected to resist the blandishments which membership 
 of a well-known club offers, more especially when he is 
 expressly invited to join by the committee. 
 
 The results have, however, been disastrous in the long run. 
 Perpetually drained of their best blood, many of the school 
 associations have either dwindled away or remained station- 
 ary. Lacking the prestige that numbers alone can give, 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN FRANCE 235 
 
 they fail to attract into their ranks more than a tithe of 
 the pupils of the school. 
 
 The evil does not end here. The vast majority of French 
 students not having belonged to their school association, 
 naturally fall into the idle and inactive ways of the Quartier 
 Latin. To profit from the physical, and, above all, the 
 moral advantages of athleticism, one must be caught 
 young. 
 
 Athletics in Primary Schools. As regards the pupils and 
 former pupils of the primary schools, the most striking 
 feature has been the enormous number who play at Associa- 
 tion football every Sunday in the Bois or the Fortifications. 
 According to a competent authority they number thousands. 
 
 Bicycling. The bicycle may also be mentioned here, 
 not so much for its influence on the education of character, 
 but for the immense impetus it has given to the French 
 people generally to take exercise and live more out of doors. 
 This is especially true of the female sex. 
 
 Swimming. The number of scholars who take up 
 swimming is likewise growing. Some of the primary 
 school teachers take their pupils to the baths, and this 
 custom also obtains in many of the religious private schools. 
 
 Shooting. As regards shooting there exist a few school 
 ranges at Paris, from thirteen to sixteen yards long. There 
 are also six or seven targets at the municipal gymnasium 
 in the Rue d'Allemagne. The children in the neighbouring 
 primary schools who are nominated by their teachers for 
 meritorious work go there and shoot. The range is also 
 open to adults. The weapon generally employed is the 
 small French carbine. The associations of former pupils 
 also practise at the Stande Militaire at the Point du Jour 
 near Auteuil, and use the Lebel rifle with a reduced charge. 
 There is no long range in the immediate neighbourhood of 
 Paris. There are a certain number of tir scolaire in the 
 country ; I met with one or two when inspecting the 
 schools, but they did not appear very numerous. In the 
 same year there was a tir scolaire at Rouen for the whole of 
 Normandy, but only fifteen schools competed. In two 
 schools I found the teachers allowed certain of the elder 
 
236 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 pupils to fair e un carton (fire a set of rounds) once a week as 
 a reward for good work. 
 
 Medical Inspection. The French schools, both primary 
 and secondary, are subject to medical inspection. 
 
 (i) Primary Schools. In the towns, according to Dr. 
 Philipp, the school doctors go round the primary schools 
 twice a month. They inspect the buildings and sanitary 
 arrangements, and the teachers point out to them any of 
 the pupils who seem to need attention. In some schools 
 they also examine in detail the teeth, eyes and ears of 
 the scholars. In case of any epidemic the teacher is 
 required to call in the doctor. Those children whom the 
 doctor considers unfit to attend school are either sent home 
 or to the hospital. In the former case they are attached as 
 out-patients to a free dispensary, of which there are three or 
 four in each arrondissement of Paris. The pay of a school 
 doctor at Paris is £32 a year, and he has five groups of 
 schools to look after. 
 
 (2) In Secondary Boarding Schools. In secondary board- 
 ing schools belonging to the State, the doctor generally pays 
 a daily visit. A league founded by Dr. Mathieu to look 
 after the lycees has done a great deal of good ; great improve- 
 ments have been made in the quality and variety of the food 
 supplied in the State boarding schools owing to the efforts 
 of the league. 
 
 Absence of Statistics. I was unable to obtain statistics 
 on physical education in France, and no one I consulted 
 seemed to know whether any were procurable, but some 
 might probably be obtained at the physical laboratory of 
 the College de France. The only school I am aware of 
 where statistics are kept of the growth and weight of the 
 pupils is the newly founded College de Normandie, which is 
 largely run on British lines. 
 
 A Book of Health. A few doctors of Paris, however, 
 have started a movement which may have, later on, far- 
 reaching consequences. At the lying-in clinic of Dr. 
 Budier the mothers are given a livret de sante of their 
 children, and encouraged to bring them every three months 
 to the clinic. At first they could not understand the good 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN FRANCE 237 
 
 of bringing their children when they were weU. But now 
 they have reaHzed that there is also a preventive side to 
 medicine, and they are only too willing to bring their 
 children, and listen to the doctor's advice on their bringing 
 up. A similar livret de sante has been established at the 
 school of Rambouillet, attended by the children of those 
 soldiers who are too poor to bring them up. A similar 
 system is about to be started at the establishment for re- 
 cruits who have been rejected for some physical defect from 
 the army. The difficulty against extending such a system 
 lies in the material opposition of the parents, as a rule, 
 to any detailed inquiry into the state, of their own health. 
 
 Physical Degeneration in the Towns. Two schemes for 
 combating the general degeneration of urban populations 
 are sufficiently important to be mentioned here. One is the 
 system of planting out in the country the enfants moralement 
 abandonnes, or pauper children, and the other is the colonic 
 scolaire, or the sending into the country for a time ailing or 
 sickly children in the towns. 
 
 (i) Les Enfants Moralement Abandonnes. In the former 
 case, the town of Paris has rescued some 50,000 children from 
 certain ruin and degradation, and settled them out in the 
 country with foster-parents. The latter are carefully 
 watched, while the education of the children is safeguarded 
 by the teachers under whom they are placed being remune- 
 rated in such cases as when their pupils obtain the school 
 certificate. To prevent any distinction between these and 
 the other children of the village they are provided with the 
 ordinary costume of the children of the peasants. I was 
 assured by the municipal councillor who superintended the 
 scheme about four years ago that 80 per cent, of these 
 children remain in the country. 10 per cent, have the love 
 of a city life too strong in their veins. They return to Paris, 
 the city finds them situations, and they settle down. The 
 remaining 10 per cent, are lost sight of, but this does not 
 necessarily imply they have lapsed into a life of mendicity 
 or crime. 
 
 (2) Colonies Scolaires. The school colonies take two 
 forms. In the one case the arrondissement hires or borrows 
 
238 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 a boarding school in the country during the summer holi- 
 days, to which it sends several hundred children. In the 
 other case, it acquires a former chateau in the country, to 
 which it despatches relays of children during the year. The 
 ordinary duration of stay is three weeks. In the majority 
 of cases the locality is an inland one. The children are 
 selected by the head teachers ; the very poor and ailing are 
 taken by preference. Each child must be at least ten years 
 old. In a school of 800, the headmistress told me she was 
 requested last year to select not less than eight or more 
 than ten. 
 
 School Kitchen. In connection with this, allusion may 
 be made, perhaps, to the cantine scolaire, or school kitchen, 
 by which free meals are provided in each arrondissement 
 for the children of the indigent, while those who desire can 
 share in the meal for about three-halfpence a day. The cost 
 is partially borne by the school fund which is raised to aid 
 poor children ; but, as there is always a large deficit, the 
 great proportion of the cost falls on the city of Paris itself. 
 
 Authorities Consulted. In conclusion, I should hke to 
 say that, whatever merits this imperfect sketch of physical 
 education in France possesses, they are largely due to those 
 whom I consulted on the subject. Among those to whom 
 I am particularly indebted I should like to mention M. 
 Rabier, the Director of Secondary Education ; M. Bayet, 
 the Director of Primary Instruction ; M. le Colonel Derue, 
 Inspecteur de la Gymnastique dans les ficoles de la ViUe 
 de Paris ; M. Flamand, Inspecteur Primaire ; M. Demeny, 
 Rapporteur de la Commission Superieure de 1' Education 
 Physique au Ministere de ITnstruction Publique, and Sec- 
 retaire General du Congres International de I'Education 
 Physique ; M. le Docteur Philipp ; and M. J. Manchon, 
 Professeur au College de Normandie, as well as the various 
 heads of schools and teachers of gymnastics that I met. 
 
 Note (1913). — The actual system of physical exercises in 
 the schools of France in 1913 appears to be roughly as 
 follows : 
 
 Swedish exercises of a kind are practised in the primary 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN FRANCE 239 
 
 schools of Paris, though they do not seem to have gained 
 much ground elsewhere. The state of physical exercises in 
 the rest of France may be roughly judged by the fact that 
 there is no definite inspection for the subject. In the secon- 
 dary schools the system most in vogue is not the Swedish but 
 the French. The creation and adoption of a definite French 
 system has been very largely due to the efforts and propa- 
 ganda of M. Demeny, who at present is Director of Physical 
 Exercises in Secondary Schools. In spite of very grave diffi- 
 culties he has been able to train on his own lines a large 
 number of teachers, who now amount to more than half the 
 personnel in secondary schools. It is urged on many grounds 
 that the French system is superior to the Swedish, though 
 the latter, no doubt, marked an advance on the older system 
 of unscientific gymnastics. Thus while, apart from health, 
 the Swedish is fundamentally anatomical and physiological, 
 the French is psychical as well as physiological. To judge by 
 French criticisms the Swedish system, in its most orthodox 
 form, attempts to train the body by taking as its initial data 
 in practice certain artificial simplified concepts, i.e. certain 
 artificially detached movements, many of which occur com- 
 paratively infrequently in an isolated form in real life, such 
 as arch-flexions, shoulder-blade movements, etc. The 
 French system, on the other hand, directly springs out of 
 certain fundamental purposeful natural actions, such as 
 walking, running, etc., and the exercises are such that they 
 are applicable from the very first. The Swedish exercises 
 are too often meaningless as far as such ordinary purposeful 
 actions are concerned, though they may possess scientific 
 or partially scientific explanations in terms of health or 
 physical activity. They represent in such cases analysis 
 pushed to such a point of simplification as to become mean- 
 ingless to the average pupil, whereas the French never lose 
 sight of the synthesis of some natural action or other to 
 which any particular action is directly applicable. The 
 Swedish exercises appear in many cases to bear the same 
 relation to actual normal actions as the definitions of Euclid 
 to real life. Speaking generally, the Swedes would seem to 
 have taken unconsciously for their ideal that of the statue in 
 
240 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 repose of a muscular-looking individual, which they attempt 
 to build up piece by piece, whereas the French ideal appears 
 to be that of a living being in movement, whose development 
 takes place not by excessive attention first to this part and 
 then to that part, but to a large extent synthetically and 
 harmoniously. Physical education, apart from the question 
 of health, is not the production of brawn for the sake of 
 brawn, but the development of muscle through useful and 
 graceful movements, and above all for the sake of useful 
 and graceful movements. In a word, it deals essentially 
 with the art and science of human movements. M. Demeny 
 notes the lack of grace that is apparent and inherent in the 
 stiff, jerky, military, over-precise movements of the Swedish 
 system, which are the antipodes of the movements of the 
 most graceful animals in the world, the cat and the tiger, 
 which represent the quintessence of litheness and supple- 
 ness. This lack of grace has been pointed out by several 
 critics in reference to the ordinary gait and bearing of those 
 trained on the Swedish system, when not corrected by games 
 or dancing. 
 
 More serious is the criticism that persons trained on 
 Swedish lines are unable to vary freely the tempo of their 
 movements, a grave defect, since in real life this is per- 
 petually necessary. This is no doubt largely due to the 
 staccato method (orders given in the " one- two " form) in 
 which the pupils are trained, which is the antithesis of the 
 truly rhythmical, in which one phase in a movement uncon- 
 sciously passes without a break into another. Again it has 
 been observed that the abstract, isolated and incomplete 
 training given to the different groups of muscles under the 
 Swedish system does not necessarily make for endurance in 
 such an exercise as mountaineering, for instance, probably 
 owing to the lack of practice in making the necessary cor- 
 related movements common to ordinary natural actions. 
 Another alleged grave defect is that the jerky movements 
 as practised by Swedish exponents are the most fatiguing 
 and least satisfactory form of exercise. It seems probable 
 that the dislike of music shown by some of the straiter 
 sectarians of the Swedish doctrines is due to the fundamental 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN FRANCE 241 
 
 antithesis between these staccato exercises and the more 
 subtle musical rhythms — any Bergsonian will appreciate 
 the difference. Yet if we are to follow the line of least 
 resistance which is the normal tradition that governs all our 
 actions, that is to say, if we are to get the maximum of effect 
 with the minimum of effort, we must avoid anything of the 
 nature of a jerk, and instead of making a fetish of rigidity 
 we must cultivate the greatest possible litheness and supple- 
 ness compatible with the attitude necessary to assume for 
 the performance of the action we are attempting. No one 
 knows this fundamental truth better than the golfer, to whom 
 anything in the nature of a jerk in his play is disastrous, while 
 all unnecessary rigidity is equally harmful. Our ideal must 
 be to cultivate as far as possible a voluntary relaxation of 
 the body, which alone can produce the maximum of supple- 
 ness and litheness, and to ensure this our movements must 
 be complete, continuous, and rhythmical. In this way only 
 can we secure that grace of movement so often wanting in 
 Swedish exercises. In fact, based as they are largely on 
 antagonizing or stiffening certain muscles, they not only 
 cannot produce it, but actually prove a hindrance to its 
 acquisition. When grace has been acquired, it has been in 
 spite of, and not by reason of, the exercises, which are 
 geometrical rather than harmonious. Still more serious is 
 the criticism that in not a few cases the pupil is compelled 
 to assume an attitude which in itself involves very severe 
 strain, and in addition is set to perform an exercise which 
 further demands a most severe effort, with the result that 
 neither the attitude nor the execution of the exercise is 
 satisfactory. 
 
 Perhaps it would be fair to say that Swedish exercises are 
 largely a collection of remedial exercises expanded into a 
 system of general physical culture, and as such they bear 
 the marks of their origin, in the shape of an excessive cult 
 of the part, which necessarily arises from looking at the 
 curing of a specific defect here or a specific defect there, 
 whereas the French ideal appears to aim as far as is practic- 
 able at the harmonious development of the body as a whole, 
 through the natural actions that centuries of evolution have 
 
 B.E. Q 
 
242 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 produced or by exercises arising directly out of these actions. 
 In so far as the Swedish is truly remedial, it is probably of 
 value, but those who value grace, and the creative spirit in 
 education, cannot fail to see the mechanical defects, or 
 rather Hmitations, of this system, which through its own 
 insistence on precision and formality is the negation of the 
 artistic and creative spirit, which is essentially individual. 
 There can rarely be scope for any great volume of self- 
 expression when the form of expression is so rigidly pre- 
 scribed. The one is, in fact, practically exclusive of the 
 other. Yet self-expression, whether it take the form of 
 composition, speech, acting, dancing, or graceful gesture, is 
 at bottom one of the most potent means of developing 
 personality. So that it is no exaggeration to say that 
 physical culture, if rightly directed, is one of the best ways 
 of enabling the predominantly artistic child to " find itself." 
 Speaking generally, it is obvious that what is most wanting 
 in English education to-day is not moral or intellectual 
 stimulus, but the encouragement of the aesthetic and 
 creative faculty in our children. 
 
 And, lastly, there is the moral or educational effect of 
 these exercises to be considered. We are beginning to 
 recognize in all subjects the need of initiating the pupil into 
 the purposefulness of the particular task he is attempting. 
 The Swedish exercises being largely too disconnected and 
 abstract in themselves and only leading indirectly to the 
 actual fundamental movements of the body, tend to become 
 mechanical and distasteful, especially to the average boy.^ 
 They are, in fact, like the abstract rules of a grammar of 
 which he does not see any immediate application. As M. 
 Demeny says, " the teaching should be varied, attractive, 
 and full of practical interest." " The choice of movement 
 should manifest at the outset a frankly utiHtarian tendency." 
 The pupils should be able to see " what it is all driving at." 
 One cannot deny to the Swedish exercises a certain pleasure 
 
 1 Their inherent dullness is revealed by the fact that in over 190 
 evening classes in London in which the attendance is voluntary 
 not a single Swedish class has been able to establish itself perman- 
 ently, though introduced under the most favourable conditions. 
 
PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN FRANCE 243 
 
 that comes from stretching one's Hmbs, or that pleasure 
 that comes after mastering a certain technique, Hke, say, 
 the multipHcation table. But such pleasures are but pale, 
 ineffectual and uncertain in comparison with the joy that 
 accompanies the acquisition of intelligible dexterity. 
 
 Again, by largely eliminating the competitive and feat- 
 performing element the Swedish system deprives itself of the 
 power of appealing to that sense of daring and adventure 
 which is, or ought to be, the bottom instinct or at least the 
 heritage of every normal boy. We do not want him to 
 break his neck, but we do not want either to deprive him of 
 the possibility of trying his hand at feats that are calculated 
 to develop his pluck, self-reliance, and endurance. All that 
 is necessary is to see that such feats are properly graded and 
 under due control. 
 
 Of course in not a few English schools the Swedish system 
 has only been adopted in a more or less modified form. Some 
 such modification seems to be almost inevitable in the case 
 of very young children. They are unable alike to give that 
 concentration of attention that the exercises are supposed 
 to require, or to attain the degree of precision that is de- 
 manded, without seriously over-taxing their energies. 
 Music, dancing, and games appear in such a case more or 
 less an absolute necessity, and even with the older pupils a 
 large amount of the time set apart for physical exercises is 
 devoted to games or gymnastics with apparatus. Such 
 modifications, however, are a clear indication and admission 
 of the incompleteness and deficiencies of the Swedish exer- 
 cises in themselves, apart from the defects indicated by 
 French and other critics. 
 
 It is to be hoped that those who read this note will make 
 further inquiries into the respective merits of the Swedish 
 and French systems. The way in which the former has been 
 dumped down on this country is not particularly creditable 
 to our national intelligence. On the other hand, it might 
 not be advisable or even possible to adopt here en bloc the 
 French system, and as nothing is perfect here below it is 
 quite likely it has also its defects. What is wanted is the 
 development of a really English system, of which there are 
 
244 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 here and there promising signs, really scientific in principles 
 and in harmony with the needs of EngHsh psychology and 
 character. Those who desire to get a still more detailed 
 idea of the comparative merits of the two systems should 
 consult the following works of M. Demeny : Evolution de 
 V Education physique — I'Ecole frangaise (La Librairie Mili- 
 taire Universelle, L. Fournier, Paris). Education physique 
 de la Jeune Fille, Education et Harmonic des Mouvements 
 (Paris, Librairie des Annales ; translation rights acquired 
 by Messrs. Gill & Sons, London). Troisieme Congres Inter- 
 national de r Education Physique de la Jeunesse, Bruxelles, 
 1910, Sixieme Question : Erreurs de la Methode rationnelle 
 en Education physique ; Rapport presente par M. Georges 
 Demeny. Institut General Psychologique, Section de 
 Psychologic individuelle : Nos Mouvements — comment ils se 
 font, comment nous devons les apprendre ; Conference par M. 
 Georges Demeny, Directeur du Cours superieur d' ]£ducation 
 physique de TUniversite (Extrait du Bulletin, 1912). 
 
 One other system of physical education should be men- 
 tioned here, which again is based on natural actions, swim- 
 ming, climbing, etc., and not on artificially detached 
 exercises of groups of muscles, namely, that of Lieutenant 
 Hebert. It is interesting to note that the Government 
 have recently created a school for marines, midshipmen, 
 and naval cadets, in which Lieutenant Hebert's so-called 
 " natural method " is carried out under his direction. 
 
THE INFANT SCHOOLS OF FRANCE 
 
 Children are certainly not neglected in democratic France. 
 Public education may be said to start from the cradle, if not 
 earlier, for even antecedent to the creches for babies come the 
 couveuses (incubators) for those born out of due time. After 
 the creches come the ecoles maternelles, or baby-schools, 
 which were established in 1887. They receive children of 
 both sexes from two years old and upwards, who can remain 
 till the age of six, when they pass into the infant classes, 
 that are attached sometimes to a primary school, and some- 
 times to an ecole maternelle, and form a sort of transition 
 class between the two. No child is admitted to these schools 
 without a hillet signed by the mayor of the arrondisse- 
 ment, or vestry, and a doctor's certificate to state it has been 
 vaccinated. 
 
 There is no compulsory vaccination in France, but the 
 government encourages it indirectly by every means in its 
 power. The work in the baby-schools and the infant 
 classes includes, among other things, games and graduated 
 movements accompanied with singing, manual exercises, 
 the first notions of morality, a knowledge of the facts of 
 everyday life, exercise in speaking, recitations and stories, 
 and the elements of drawing, reading, reckoning, and 
 writing. 
 
 The sanitary and hygienic rules of these establishments 
 are subject to special ministerial supervision. All head- 
 mistresses (or directrices, as they are called) are obUged to 
 possess the certificate of efficiency in teaching. They must, 
 further, be twenty-eight years of age at least, and have had 
 two years' experience in an ecole maternelle. The children 
 are divided into two sections, and if over fifty in number, 
 
246 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 a second teacher is added. A charwoman is attached to 
 every school, the commune being responsible for her wages. 
 Apart from the oversight exercised by the inspector, one or 
 more local committees of lady-patronesses are nominated 
 by the inspecteur d' academic to supervise the carrying out 
 of health rules and other important matters. 
 
 The schools are open from the first of March to the first 
 of November from seven in the morning to seven at night, 
 and for four months from eight to six. The holidays are 
 neither long nor numerous. Besides Sundays, there are 
 seven or eight public holidays, and a week at Easter. Only 
 children over four years of age are allowed to go home alone, 
 and the headmistresses are forbidden to ask parents to call 
 for their children earlier than the appointed time. 
 
 On the arrival of the children in the morning, the direc- 
 trice assures herself of the health and cleanliness of each 
 pupil, and also of the quantity and quality of the food that 
 is brought. There is a cantine attached to the school, and 
 free meals are given to those who are really in need of 
 assistance. Each child is furthermore required to bring a 
 fork and spoon and a pocket-handkerchief. The health of 
 the school is further looked after by a doctor, who inspects 
 the school from time to time. Strict rules are enjoined in 
 regard to keeping the premises clean and well ventilated. 
 No pets or animals of any sort are permitted in the class- 
 rooms. 
 
 Marks are given to the children as rewards, and at the end 
 of the month these can be exchanged for toys or useful 
 objects. The only punishments allowed are exclusion from 
 the class-room or playground for a very brief interval, or the 
 taking away of marks already earned. 
 
 Lessons last from 9.15 till 11.30, and from 1.15 tiU 4. 
 Each period is cut in two by a break for recreation. If the 
 weather is bad, the children have ten minutes' exercise in 
 marching round the schoolroom. No books other than 
 those of the school are allowed in the building. No collec- 
 tions, raffles, or subscriptions are permitted in the school. 
 
 The children are never left alone. No teaching out of 
 doors in the playground is allowed without special per- 
 
THE INFANT SCHOOLS OF FRANCE 247 
 
 mission. It is forbidden to overburden the memory of the 
 children with learning by heart. There is likewise no home- 
 work. No " horrible tales " are to be told to the children. 
 The teacher may neither work nor read when with the 
 children, but must devote herself entirely to them. 
 
 The following is a sketch of the daily programme : From 
 9 to 9.15 the children are inspected and their various wants 
 attended to ; from 9.15 to 10.15, exercises in reading, 
 writing, and speaking. Then comes half an hour for play, 
 school games, or gymnastic exercises. From 10.45 to 11.30, 
 object-lessons or story-telling ; 11.30, lunch and play-time ; 
 I to 1. 15, conduite aux lavahos ; 1.15 to 1.45, exercise in 
 reading and speaking ; 1.45 to 2.30, reckoning ; 2.30 to 3, 
 play ; 3 to 3.30, drawing and moral instruction ; 3.30 to 4, 
 manual work. 
 
 The object of the ecole maternelle is to commence the 
 physical, intellectual, and moral education of the children. 
 It is not, however, a school in the strict sense of the word, 
 but is meant to form a transition between the family and the 
 school proper. It attempts to preserve the kind and indul- 
 gent gentleness of the family at the same time that it intro- 
 duces the child to the ideas of work and regularity. Its 
 success is not to be judged by the standard of knowledge 
 attained by the pupils, but rather by the sum-total of good 
 influences to which the child is exposed, by the pleasure it 
 takes in the school, by the habits of order, cleanliness, 
 politeness, attention, obedience, and intellectual activity it 
 has unconsciously acquired there. 
 
 In a word, the idea is to develop the faculties rather than 
 to furnish and stock the mind. First in importance comes 
 health ; then the education of the senses ; then a few 
 notions on the commonest things ; the formation of school 
 habits ; the taste for gymnastics, singing, dancing, etc. ; 
 eagerness to hsten and question, to see, to observe ; an 
 aptitude for attention, that the loving care of the teacher 
 has formed and fostered ; an awakened intelligence ; a soul 
 open to aU good impressions. Such, in the words of their 
 founders, ought to be the ideal aimed at and attained in the 
 maternity schools. 
 
248 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 The method proposed is equally admirable — a harmonious 
 development of all the faculties, in which one does not 
 gain at the expense of another. The manual work consists 
 of things as simple as folding a sheet of paper in various 
 shapes, working up to the making of veritable articles de 
 Paris ; the skill with which these are made betrays the 
 essentially artistic nature of the race even in these children 
 of tender years. Sewing and other monotonous work are 
 forbidden. No dogmatic teaching is allowed, though insist- 
 ence is laid on the ideas of God and duty, and naturally 
 patriotism is a class subject. 
 
 A good idea is the co-ordination of the lessons, as far as 
 possible, with the time of year. Thus, in October object- 
 lessons are given on the vine and wines, bottles and barrels, 
 hops and beer. Drawings are made of bunches of grapes, 
 glasses, etc., the easier designs being copied by the children. 
 As poetry, L'Automne of Delbruch is learned. In December, 
 again, cold, snow, ice, avalanches, Switzerland, the Alps, 
 skates and sledges, stoves, chimneys, coal, wood, matches, 
 chilblains and colds, the hearth, the family, are among the 
 subjects treated ; such of these as lend themselves to design 
 are drawn on the blackboard, and an appropriate piece of 
 poerty is also learned. 
 
 I have visited several of these schools. The hygienic 
 appliances are of the very latest and best ; everything has 
 been studied and brought up to date ; benches, light, light- 
 ing, ventilation, sanitation, seem perfect. One of the 
 inspectors remarked, " We are not yet content with the 
 results of our schools " ; but as far as one could judge, he 
 seemed somewhat difficult to please. So much the better 
 for the system, as such discontent is the true spur of pro- 
 gress. The different classes visited were exceedingly well 
 organized. The teachers appeared to maintain without 
 difficulty the attention of the children, which is so butterfly- 
 like at that age, flitting incessantly from object to object, 
 and never remaining long fixed on any one point. The 
 children, though poor, were clean and neat. These schools 
 seem to have indirectly a great effect on the national cleanli- 
 ness. A good many of the children were questioned on the 
 
THE INFANT SCHOOLS OF FRANCE 249 
 
 subjects they were learning, which seemed to interest them 
 deeply, although it was the afternoon, and they had already 
 had several lessons. 
 
 One of the schools visited will long remain implanted in 
 our memory, for it stands facing the terrible fortress-like 
 prison of Mazas, that has long been the Newgate of Paris, 
 and is now on the point of being pulled down. It seemed on 
 looking at these two buildings — this grim, frowning Bastille, 
 with its gloomy dungeons, already doomed to demolition, 
 and this smiling children's palace, all light and air, but 
 scarcely out of the masons' hands — we were regarding the 
 embodiment of the two ideas of justice : the justice 
 vindictive, that is passing away ; and the justice of pre- 
 vention, that is taking its place. For the modern state has 
 seen at last the folly of its ways in spending all its time 
 and money on jailers, turnkeys, and poUcemen ; and, no 
 longer content with merely trying to repress crime, has gone 
 a step further back in attempting to prevent it altogether, 
 by watching over the education of its future citizens from 
 their very earliest years. 
 
THE PARIS INTERNATIONAL GUILD 
 
 The Franco-English Guild, which has lately changed its 
 name to the International Guild, has grown out of aU know- 
 ledge during the last few years. Yet its commencement 
 was on the most modest scale. In the autumn of 1891 its 
 foundress. Miss Williams, held a drawing-room meeting of 
 some dozen ladies with a view to founding an English library. 
 The idea was favourably received, and the society started 
 with ten members. Every month a Uterary soiree was held. 
 New recruits were constantly joining, and Miss Williams's 
 drawing-room soon became too small to accommodate the 
 association. At this moment the Ministry of PubHc Instruc- 
 tion came to the rescue, and lent the society first one and 
 then two rooms at the Musee Pedagogique. The soirees 
 grew in importance, and in some cases blossomed out into 
 regular courses of lectures. 
 
 The English and American Embassies warmly supported 
 the movement. Lord Dufferin and the American Ambassador 
 each dehvered several addresses, and since then the Guild 
 has been lectured to by a large number of distinguished 
 English educationists, such as the Bishop of Ripon, Miss 
 Hughes, Mrs. Sidgwick, Mr. P. A. Barnett, etc. The 
 number of adherents has been constantly increasing. From 
 ten in 1891 they rose to seventy-nine in 1894, and at the 
 time of writing are nearer four hundred than three hundred. 
 The library has grown in the same rapid fashion. During 
 the last two years the Guild has again shifted its quarters, 
 and is now housed in No. 6 Rue de la Sorbonne, alongside 
 the University itself. 
 
 With ample space at its disposal, it has been able to 
 add to its attractions a reading-room and rooms for tea and 
 
THE PARIS INTERNATIONAL GUILD 251 
 
 lunch, as well as an " exchange-room/' in which English- 
 speaking students may exchange lessons and converse with 
 French members of the Guild. Those who are attempting 
 to learn, or have learnt, a foreign language will appreciate 
 this new departure. One of the chief obstacles in master- 
 ing a foreign language is to find sufficient opportunities for 
 practice in speaking. This system of exchange-lessons in 
 the two languages, further, gets over the financial difficulty 
 entailed by the cost of having to pay a retaining fee to 
 some unfortunate person for the right of inflicting one's 
 conversation on him, while the mere exercise of teaching 
 one's own language is by no means to be regarded as a pure 
 loss of time, affording as it does a valuable insight into the 
 language, thought-forms, and racial idiosyncrasies of the 
 learner. On the social value of such mutual arrangements 
 it is unnecessary to dilate here. 
 
 Another useful side of the Guild's work is the keeping of a 
 register of French homes and boarding houses, which, being 
 under the direct control of the Guild, offer guarantees that 
 are lacking in the ordinary pension, in which far too often 
 the foreign boarder is fleeced or neglected. But all these 
 advantages are merely subsidiary to the main object of the 
 Guild, which is to provide a full course of instruction in the 
 French language, literature, and history, by professors of the 
 highest university standing. Composition, both free and 
 from the English, is taught by Mile. Clanet, an agregee 
 d' anglais. Other subjects in the course are modern and 
 historical French grammar, French Hterature and history, 
 and contemporary life in France. 
 
 A special feature is made of pronunciation and phonetics, 
 instruction being given by Mile. Roussey, pupil of the 
 celebrated Abbe Rousselot, Director of the Phonetic Labora- 
 tory at the College de France, who himself examines the 
 students at the end of each term. The courses of the 
 Guild are specially directed towards obtaining the certificat 
 d' etudes frangaises. The examination is conducted by 
 M. Ernest Dupuy, Inspecteur-General, and two professors 
 of the Sorbonne. This diploma is granted to students 
 who are found capable of teaching French in Enghsh 
 
252 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 speaking countries. The terms of membership are extremely 
 moderate. The yearly subscription for use of rooms 
 amounts to lo f . ; for Ubrary, monthly meetings, and general 
 lectures, 20 f . ; while the fees for all the classes amount 
 to about 225 f., or £9 a year for a session of thirty weeks. 
 
 Originally confined to women, the Guild was induced a 
 year ago to throw open its doors to men, with the happiest 
 results ; while the large number of German and Russian 
 students who have since been enrolled has made it change 
 its title to " International." Lately the Registration 
 Council has recognized the Guild as a " foreign college " at 
 which teachers who want to be registered may finish their 
 university course, and more recently still the University of 
 Chicago has declared the Guild " to be in co-operation with 
 the University of Chicago," which means that the time spent 
 in attending the Guild's regular course of lectures may count 
 as a means of qualifying for the University degrees. 
 
 Those who have realized the superiority of well-arranged 
 holiday courses over the solitary pension life en famille will 
 readily recognize the corresponding superiority of the advan- 
 tages offered by the above institution over those of the 
 holiday courses. It provides by means of its system of 
 exchange-lessons the one factor in which the holiday course, 
 owing to no fault of its organizers, is generally the least 
 satisfactory. Its lectures, being spHt up into classes for 
 easy or advanced work, should appeal to students of every 
 kind. Not only the tyro in French, but even those who have 
 obtained a modern language degree in England, may greatly 
 profit from them. The latter will find in the really modern 
 and literary teaching of the Guild a valuable supplement to 
 the somewhat excessively academic and philological training 
 they have received in England. ^ 
 
 1 Note. — (1913.) The Guild has recently opened a branch in 
 London (Gordon House, Gordon Square, W.C.), which besides 
 catering for French students in England prepares English students 
 for the certificate in French lately established by the Universities 
 of London and Cambridge. It also maintains an information bureau. 
 
A LOOK ROUND GERMAN SCHOOLS 
 
 The German secondary school is really one of the most 
 effective factories in the educational world. The raw 
 material is sent to it at nine years of age — or even earlier, if 
 there is a preparatory annexe. At sixteen over 60 per cent, 
 of the same raw material obtain the Government stamp of 
 efficiency, and at nineteen 20 per cent, receive the hall-mark 
 that admits the polished article to be finally worked up into a 
 university or professional product. Add the fact that the 
 waste products which fail to qualify for the Government 
 label are probably far more valuable than the residuals of 
 other systems, and it will have, I think, to be admitted 
 that, output for output, the German educational mill is 
 the most efficient that exists. Whether its products are 
 really the very finest on the market is, of course, another 
 question. 
 
 The results are all the more surprising as German schools 
 are not nearly so well staffed in respect to the proportion of 
 teachers to the number of pupils as one has been led to sup- 
 pose, especially in the middle and lower parts of schools in 
 the large towns. Here are some figures, with, roughly, the 
 average age of the class : 37 (thirteen), 37 (fifteen), 41 (six- 
 teen), 36 (seventeen), 33 (fifteen). Such classes appear to be 
 quite as much the rule as the exception. All the greater, 
 then, our admiration for those teachers who with such large 
 classes obtain such surprising results. One does not see, as 
 in some French schools, a certain number of front-bench 
 boys bearing the brunt of the debate between teacher and 
 taught. 
 
 Moreover, the front bench in German schools is very 
 often composed of the weakest or most backward members 
 
254 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 of the class — the short-sighted, hard of hearing, and the 
 mentally deficient, who are thus placed in the very fore- 
 front of the battle in order to be well within the teacher's 
 range. The latter combines lecturing with a running com- 
 mentary of questions. These are so skilfully distributed 
 that every boy in the class comes under fire. You soon 
 realize that there are no idlers in the form, and that the 
 would-be shuffler has such short shrift meted out to him 
 that he speedily finds that the " ca' canny " policy is not a 
 paying one, and does a full day's work with the rest. 
 
 The discipline may be strict — probably is too strict. 
 Even youths of eighteen and nineteen in the highest class 
 are obliged to stand up whenever their master speaks to 
 them ; but, with this exception, the evidence of it is more 
 in the tone and gesture of the teacher and the attitude of 
 the taught. The Roman centurion — who gave his orders 
 without explanations — is the archetype of the Teutonic 
 dominie. The German boy is so well broken in that what 
 little whispering and by-play do go on go on with much 
 fear and trembling. The best discipline, however, is only 
 negative in its results. It keeps the ring clear from inter- 
 ruption. Something more than mere strictness is needed to 
 fill the vacuum. One finds no vacuum in German classes : 
 there is nearly always a steady pressure of attention ; some- 
 times somewhat stolid, not infrequently keen and living — 
 the " forty feeding like one," with healthy appetites that 
 never seem to fail. 
 
 And how conscientious the teacher is ! There is no " go 
 easy " about his teaching. There is no uncertainty or 
 " fluffiness " about it either. He is thorough master of his 
 subject : he knows exactly what he is going to say. He 
 possesses the sure confidence that many years of successful 
 teaching have engendered. Everything is peptonized to 
 the level of the class ; with the healthy appetites the pupils 
 possess, assimilation cannot fail to follow. We begin to 
 understand how, in some schools, 78 per cent, of the pupils 
 get promoted from year to year ; how there is never a 
 large untaught residuum and sediment drifting about the 
 bottom of every form — as is too often the case with us — 
 
A LOOK ROUND GERMAN SCHOOLS 255 
 
 which is gradually hoisted up the school by a series of 
 unjustifiable promotions due to seniority alone. 
 
 Even in the highest classes the teacher remains the chief 
 channel of grace, the main source of information. Of him 
 one can truly say, " a Jove principium." Whether it is 
 advisable to water exclusively the oldest of the flock at 
 what is, after all, only a conduit of knowledge, rather than 
 at the original source, is a debatable point. But the truth 
 is, the pupil rarely drinks at the Pierian spring by himself. 
 As for the manuals so largely in use, they have as much 
 relation to the original founts of knowledge as a bottle of 
 soda-water to a chalybeate well. Even when the teacher 
 discusses with the pupils the books which have been set for 
 home reading, he is not so anxious to find out how this or 
 that passage may have struck them as to be certain it has 
 struck them in the correct fashion ; much less is he desirous 
 of finding out whether they are able to throw any original 
 light on it. 
 
 His purpose is to suggest to them the guiding thought, to 
 inspire them with the line of ideas to be followed, the correct 
 version, to be sure that they have properly absorbed and 
 acquired the faith, the doctrine he has to deliver to them. 
 Are they masters of the authorized text, are they also 
 masters of the authorized commentary ? — that is the chief 
 question. If this has been accomplished, the teacher's task 
 has been accomplished. The final examination will prove 
 that the finished product is up to pattern and sample. 
 
 Such thoroughgoing teachers are not made in a day. 
 They are all highly educated men. Their excellence lies in 
 the fact that they are only allowed to teach what they really 
 know. If their main subject be Greek and their subsidiary 
 subject Latin, they may only teach Latin in the lower forms. 
 Their pedagogical training is no less carefully looked after. 
 Those who do not go to training colleges become " student- 
 teachers " in the bigger schools. These student-teachers 
 receive every attention : they are placed under the direct 
 supervision of the director, or other picked teachers, accord- 
 ing to their subjects. 
 
 The training is alike theoretical and practical. Once a 
 
256 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 week each of the probationers in turn writes a long composi- 
 tion on some pedagogical subject, which is afterwards read 
 aloud in the presence of the director and the other proba- 
 tioners. I was present at one of these conferences. The 
 question set was, whether the study of French could give 
 the same logical training as Latin. After the reading of the 
 paper a discussion followed, the director working in the main 
 conclusions. At another conference a certain number of 
 practical hints were given to the probationers, and points of 
 everyday discipline and teaching were discussed. The whole 
 was eminently business-like. 
 
 Wiser than the French, the Germans have always realized 
 the need of providing a place of assembly for the whole 
 school, and of maintaining in the hands of a single person 
 the dual functions of teaching and discipline. The Aula 
 serves as a sort of combined big school and chapel. From 
 time to time — generally on the occasion of national holiday 
 — the whole school are gathered together in the Aula, and 
 a discourse, religious or patriotic, is read or delivered by one 
 of the staff. The Aula also serves for school entertain- 
 ments. A visit to the Aula is practically obligatory on all 
 visitors — a pleasing indication of its importance in the eyes 
 of the director. 
 
 The class teacher (Ordinarius) acts as a court of first 
 instance and settles any difficulties that may arise in school 
 matters between the home and the school. In this way only 
 the more serious questions are brought for consideration 
 before the director — an important consideration in schools 
 which number over eight hundred pupils. The demeanour 
 of the parents in the teacher's presence clearly shows which 
 is the more important person in the discussion. One 
 suddenly remembers from the deference paid to him that 
 the teacher is a State official. A very interesting book has 
 lately appeared in Germany, entitled How shall we bring 
 up our Son Benjamin? Not the least interesting feature 
 about the book is the ingenious fashion in which the author, 
 a high official in the Ministry, assumes throughout that the 
 school is never to blame for any shortcomings in the boy's 
 education. 
 
A LOOK ROUND GERMAN SCHOOLS 257 
 
 The Germans are thorough believers in leaving nothing 
 to chance. The class-rooms bear ample testimony to the 
 thought expended on the health of the pupils. The floor is 
 often oiled to prevent dust ; the desks are placed astride of 
 a small sort of Suakim-Berber railway to allow them to be 
 shifted backward and forward for cleaning purposes ; a 
 thermometer is set in a hole in the wall adjoining the 
 window, so that a check may be kept on the temperature 
 by the school janitor or the director as well as by the master 
 inside ; the amount of cubic space per pupil, and even of 
 light, is strictly regulated. The waste-paper basket is no 
 idle ornament — a scrap of paper on the floor is a rare sight. 
 The supply of blackboards is rather " skimpy " ; but maps 
 and movable pictures abound. A coloured metrical measure, 
 carefully marked to scale, is often to be seen fixed against 
 the wall and running from floor to ceiUng. 
 
 Though the movement in favour of school decoration has 
 not made so much progress as in some of our schools, yet 
 pictures, prints and photos are by no means lacking, and 
 there are the inevitable portraits or prints of members of 
 the reigning house. Everywhere, in fact, the view of the 
 Prussian boy is obsessed by these imagines. Naturally the 
 hours are regulated. Some of the upper classes have often 
 five lessons running, and a few of the teachers have also, 
 which is still worse. There are, however, an abundance of 
 breaks, which amount to no less than fifty minutes. These 
 occur after every lesson, and the two larger ones consist of 
 twenty and fifteen minutes respectively. 
 
 When the breaks are only five minutes in duration the 
 pupils do not descend to the playground, but parade in the 
 corridors, which thus subserve a twofold purpose, as they 
 also provide ample means of egress in case of fire — not that 
 the fire danger is much to be feared in buildings which are 
 almost entirely constructed of brick and stone. Such classes 
 as take place in the afternoon are generally devoted to 
 " gym " or singing, and, in some schools, to manual work, 
 which is optional. I came across the latter in one Gym- 
 nasium. The number of courses was four and the number 
 of pupils 117. In the upper courses the pupils paid for the 
 
 B.E. R 
 
258 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 wood and were allowed to take their work home. Manual 
 work is apparently looking up. The partisans of the idea 
 held a meeting last year at Leipzig, at which the subject of 
 making it obligatory was discussed. 
 
 One of the most difficult subjects to teach is admittedly 
 what is known as religious instruction. The higher criti- 
 cism has not been without its effects on the German 
 teachers ; though the fact that the Bible is only read in 
 selections in school does not render the problem quite so 
 difficult. A certain number of teachers, either from con- 
 viction or from less worthy reasons, still teach on the old 
 orthodox lines, that the world was made in six days, etc. 
 "It is safer," as one teacher remarked, and, " besides, it 
 takes less trouble." He himself was a Liberal, or, as we 
 should say, a Broad Churchman, a type which appears to be 
 the most growing section in the Lutheran Church. 
 
 The lesson he gave was on the subject of David, as con- 
 solidator of the Jewish kingdom. He made the lesson very 
 real to the pupils by comparing the Jewish king with Otto I, 
 the Egbert of Germany ; while the difficulties in the way 
 of union were shown by an allusion to the long struggle 
 which led up to the establishment of the German Empire 
 in 1871. Certain Psalms which had been learnt by heart 
 were utilized to illustrate the lesson. The teacher showed 
 the trend of his opinions by speaking of the Psalms as 
 attributed to David. His method, as he explained after- 
 wards, was prophylactic — to indicate to the upper classes 
 the current forms of attack on Christianity and suggest the 
 common lines of defence. 
 
 In modern languages there appear to be three main 
 streams. Many, especially in the Gymnasium, hold fast to 
 the ancient Ploetz ; others go in for more modern teaching, 
 using books of the type of Hausknecht's English Student; 
 and, lastly, there are the direct Methodists of the extreme 
 type, who are by no means so numerous as one would 
 imagine. Much attention is paid to pronunciation even in 
 the classical schools. A reader is used right from the 
 beginning ; but, apparently, in many schools a regular 
 author is not read till after three years — at least, in French. 
 
A LOOK ROUND GERMAN SCHOOLS 259 
 
 Grammar is not neglected. It is particularly studied in 
 those classes, in the so-called Reform schools, in which 
 French is used as a stepping-stone to Latin. Neglect of 
 French grammar has been found to be a serious hindrance 
 to the acquisition of Latin grammar. In those schools 
 where the direct method is combined with what is good in 
 the old, the pupils seem to make very rapid progress, and 
 their powers of conversation are often very remarkable. In 
 the higher classes the lesson is not infrequently conducted 
 almost exclusively in the foreign tongue : pupils are able to 
 give connected accounts in the foreign medium, and the 
 literatures of France and England are studied in a really 
 critical fashion. 
 
 In the lower classes a good deal of poetry is read and 
 analysed with a view to ensuring that the pupils have under- 
 stood the grammar and the sense. Pictures, of which the 
 schools often possess a large stock, are brought in to illus- 
 trate the persons and places. The poetry is often recited 
 with plenty of spirit. Books without notes are the rule. 
 The attention of the pupil is therefore not incessantly dis- 
 tracted from the poem as a whole by a succession of notes 
 — a very great gain. We in England are suffering from a 
 plethora, not to say plague, of annotated editions. There 
 is hardly a text, classical, French, or English, which is read 
 in school that has not been treated as a sort of grammatical 
 truffle-bed for scholastical swine to uproot. 
 
 Many of the texts used in the upper classes are also free 
 from these parasitical growths, though there is a good deal 
 more reason for annotated editions in such forms, in which 
 the critical faculty of the pupil is coming to life. The teach- 
 ing throughout is distinctly literary. Even when such 
 mediaeval authors as Walther von der Vogelweide are read 
 the greater part of the time of the class is not spent in root- 
 grubbing or philology, though the latter is not neglected, 
 but in turning the text into modern German and in com- 
 menting on its contents. 
 
 I was present at some excellent lessons on Julius Ccesar, 
 Wallensteins Tod, and Emilia Galotti. The pupils had only 
 the bare text, of which, in several instances, they had learnt 
 
26o STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 a certain amount by heart with a view to illustrating the 
 principal characters or characteristics of the play. The 
 greater part of the lesson was occupied in giving a detailed 
 analysis of the play or of different scenes in it, in discussing 
 the why and wherefore of its construction, and in critically 
 examining the characters of the principal personages. When 
 any passages were read they were neither drawled nor 
 gabbled, but given with the proper emphasis and intona- 
 tion. The weak side of these lessons, as has already been 
 said, is that they are too much dominated by the personality 
 of the teacher. 
 
 The German method of teaching history by selecting only 
 the most striking of events of each epoch has certainly an 
 advantage over our wearisome method of teaching the early 
 history of England by reigns. It must be admitted that, to 
 begin with, the Prussian teacher's task is far easier : his 
 history proper only goes back some three hundred years, 
 and Prussia before Frederick the Great was of very minor 
 importance ; he has, therefore, a great deal more time for 
 working through a well-considered scheme of world history. 
 English history suffers from an emharras de richesse. We 
 shall have to make jettison of a good deal to bring it 
 reaUy within tractable limits and give proper emphasis to 
 the more important facts. The German boy, thanks to the 
 systematic method adopted, leaves school with a pretty clear 
 conspectus of what he has learnt. The English boy's histori- 
 cal knowledge resembles a railway in which some sections are 
 excellently laid, others are left unfinished, or barely laid at all. 
 
 The teaching of history in the lower classes in German 
 schools is remarkably sound and thorough of its kind. The 
 pupil has certainly a knack of memorizing the teacher's 
 remarks. The history itself rather reminds one at times of 
 an orange that has too many pips — it is so full of dates. Yet 
 in no subject does the weak side of German education show 
 more clearly. The chief value of history is to form the judg- 
 ment ; yet here the judgment is rather formed by the 
 teacher. The subject is peptonized and prepared by the 
 latter right to the end. In some schools the pupils are never 
 introduced to the original authorities at all. 
 
A LOOK ROUND GERMAN SCHOOLS 261 
 
 Even their private reading is controlled in such a fashion 
 that the teacher reads into it the desired meaning. The 
 teacher himself, unless he is a good story-teller, or possesses 
 the art of exposition, is apt to become openly objective and 
 even annalistic. The philosophical side of history suffers 
 accordingly. In the teaching of no other subject does one 
 see so clearly the advantage of the English system of giving 
 a boy a text-book, and letting him find his way about it. 
 No doubt we err on the side of giving too little aid, but, 
 when successful, we breed a certain independence of thought 
 and the pupil himself learns the difficult art of finding his 
 way about in a book. Apart from these criticisms, we may 
 unreservedly admire the results obtained, which are remark- 
 able of their kind, and we might well copy on a large scale 
 the excellent use made of pictures in teaching history, and 
 the employment of historical atlases, which are often lacking 
 or unutilized in Enghsh schools. 
 
 The teaching in geography is frequently given by teachers 
 who have been specially trained on modern lines. Many of 
 the teachers have, in fact, studied under a professor of 
 geology. It is interesting to note that Berlin is a bad geo- 
 logical centre, owing to the overwhelmingly sandy nature 
 of the district. Students, therefore, often go for a term to 
 other universities which are better situated for geological 
 study. While the few lessons one saw were satisfactory, 
 they were no better and scarcely so good as some one had 
 seen in England. In one or two cases sufficient stress was 
 not laid on the intimate connection between physical and 
 political geography, or, rather, the latter was not logically 
 evolved out of the former. One realized, however, one 
 thing — what an extremely difficult country Germany is to 
 teach on a detailed scale. 
 
 All education in its final analysis must stand or fall by the 
 teacher. One cannot help feeling when one considers the 
 German teacher what a thorough professional he is (in the 
 good sense of the word), and how much of the amateur there 
 is about ourselves, due in part to our undue disbehef in 
 method, due also, no doubt, to an unexpressed desire to safe- 
 guard the personality of the teacher. The German teacher 
 
262 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 is pre-eminently a teacher, keenly interested in the current 
 problems of his profession, and penetrated and imbued with 
 the spirit of his calHng and profoundly impressed with the 
 dignity of the cloth. 
 
 Like the German officer, one can hardly imagine what he 
 is like in mufti. He seems to have few or no doubts. All 
 the main articles of his pedagogical faith and religion have 
 been settled for him. He is like a minister fully convinced 
 of the gospel he has to deliver and bothered at most by 
 minor questions of ritual. The truth is, he feels that first 
 principles are largely outside his province. The State has 
 settled his first principles, and he has merely to sit down and 
 apply them. Such a position is, in many ways, a great 
 source of strength ; but it has also its weaknesses and its 
 dangers. The strength of the phalanx in the last resort 
 depends on the direction it receives from those who control 
 its movements. 
 
THE NEW WAY OF TEACHING CLASSICS 
 
 IN GERMANY 
 
 The two burning questions of the day in secondary educa- 
 tion are the adequate supply of properly qualified and 
 properly paid assistant-teachers and the thinking out of 
 suitable courses of study. Local authorities all over the 
 country are being called on to decide on the particular type 
 or types of school most appropriate to the needs of their 
 district. Generally speaking, the wind is in favour of 
 modernizing the curricula. The advocates of little Latin 
 and less Greek are more unlikely than ever to obtain a 
 respectful hearing before the newly appointed representa- 
 tives of Demos. But does this imply that Greek and even 
 Latin are practically to be expelled from our smaller secon- 
 dary schools ? 
 
 No doubt the old dull gerund-grinding methods of teach- 
 ing classics to a majority of boys who would never reach the 
 higher work has much to answer for, but are we then blindly 
 to condemn the subject because the methods of teaching 
 it were unsuitable ? Certainly such a wholesale condemna- 
 tion of classics, or, at least, of Latin, finds little sympathy 
 among the mass of experts in France and Germany. They 
 have indeed recognized that a first-rate education can be 
 given on wholly modern lines. Thus, in Germany, the 
 Realschule and Oberrealschule, though still unpossessed of 
 some of the privileges attached to the older schools, have 
 definitely become part and parcel of the Prussian educa- 
 tional system. 
 
 The French, indeed, have gone still further, and have 
 accorded to the new course they have just framed in modern 
 languages and science absolutely the same privileges as are 
 
264 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 attached to the other three courses. Yet in neither country 
 have the just claims of classics been sacrificed. In fact, 
 their position, at least so far as France is concerned, has been 
 placed on a more rational basis by giving parents a choice 
 between a purely classical course and courses composed of 
 Latin with science or of Latin with modern languages, in 
 addition to the purely modern course mentioned above, and, 
 what is still more important, the choice of a course, whether 
 purely classical or otherwise, is postponed to a later date 
 than has hitherto been the case, with the result that pupils 
 of every category receive identically the same education up 
 to the age of eleven or twelve instead of being compelled to 
 specialize at the age of nine as heretofore. 
 
 The later age at which classics or Latin are begun is com- 
 pensated for by a preliminary grounding in modern lan- 
 guages and by an intensive study of Latin and Greek once 
 they are commenced. Unfortunately the experiment is as 
 yet too recent to furnish us with any definite results, but 
 it is highly significant that the French have such a belief 
 in its efficacy that they have not hesitated to apply it to 
 the whole country. 
 
 The authorities in Germany have been experimenting in 
 a somewhat similar direction for a number of years. The 
 first experiment was at Altona, where, as far back as 1878, 
 a Realgymnasium was established in connection with a Real- 
 schule. A Realgymnasium is practically a Latin modern 
 school which keeps boys till nineteen, and a Realschule is a 
 modern school with no Latin whose pupils leave at sixteen. 
 The three lower classes are common to the two schools. As 
 in France, the study of modem languages in these classes 
 serves as a stepping-stone to the study of Latin for those who 
 enter the Realgymnasium. The pupils are thus enabled to 
 postpone their choice between a Latin or entirely modern 
 education till the age of twelve, whereas in the case of the 
 old-fashioned Realgymnasium the decision has to be made 
 when the pupil is nine. 
 
 Again, as in France, leeway is made up by an intensive 
 study of Latin once it is taken up. Several towns copied 
 the example of Altona, and the celebrated conference on 
 
TEACHING CLASSICS IN GERMANY 265 
 
 secondary education in 1890 in Berlin approved of a trial of 
 the system where local needs rendered it desirable. The 
 Altona experiment, however, dealt only with the postpone- 
 ment of Latin. A further experiment was made in 1892 in 
 Frankfort-on-Main, when the Gymnasium (or full classi- 
 cal school) had its curriculum so recast that its three lowest 
 classes (or years) serve as a common basis for a classical 
 course or for a modern one in the Realschule, which in this 
 case is not in the same building. 
 
 At the same time two Realgymnasien in the town had the 
 work in their three lower classes rearranged to bring them 
 into line with those of the local Gymnasium and the Real- 
 schule. In the case of the Gymnasium the experiment 
 affected not merely the teaching of Latin, but also of Greek. 
 In Gymnasien of the old style Greek is begun at the age of 
 twelve, in Frankfort it is begun at the age of fourteen. The 
 Frankfort scheme differs to some extent from that of Altona. 
 There is a smaller number of Latin hours in the Frankfort 
 Realgymnasium, and the time given to mathematics is less. 
 
 The chief complaint against the Frankfort plan is that the 
 bulk of the science is postponed till too late, while the 
 Altona system is reproached with beginning English too 
 early. The Frankfort scheme has been adopted by a still 
 larger number of schools. A great impetus was given to the 
 movement by the favourable notice taken of it in the royal 
 decree of 1900. The desire was expressed that the experi- 
 ment might be tried on a still larger scale, owing to its 
 success in meeting the needs of the locahty in which it had 
 been tried. 
 
 Schools with sides had hitherto been unknown in 
 Germany, so that till recently a poor district had to choose 
 between two types of school when it really required both. 
 The economy of combining two schools in one has, no doubt, 
 appealed powerfully to some localities. On October i6th, 
 1 901 (the latest date for which statistics are available), the 
 number of schools either existing or in process of construc- 
 tion were 44 in Prussia and 18 in the rest of Germany, or a 
 grand total of 62 ! Of these 51 are more or less on the 
 Frankfort plan, and 11 (formerly 14) on the Altona system. 
 
266 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 The Prussian Ministry have been very chary of allowing 
 variations of the two curricula, holding, as they do, that 
 while the experiment has proved of value, it is as yet too 
 early to experiment with the experiment. 
 
 An examination of the total number of hours for the 
 whole course shows that the chief difference between the 
 old and new methods is that in the old-fashioned Gjnn- 
 nasien 68 hours are devoted to Latin, 36 to Greek, and 20 
 to French ; whereas, in the new, the hours are 51, 32, and 
 31-34 respectively. In the old-fashioned Realgymnasien 
 43 hours are given to Latin and 31 to French, against 37-39 
 and 36-40 respectively. 
 
 During a recent visit to Germany to study the teaching 
 of history for the Board of Education, the writer came across 
 a couple of Gymnasien in which the new experiment is 
 being conducted, and through the kindness of the head- 
 master was able to be present at several lessons. He then 
 visited one or two Gymnasien of the older type, in order to 
 institute, as far as possible, a comparison between the 
 standards attained, and also to try to obtain some idea of 
 the scope and aim of classical teaching in Germany, which, 
 it is hardly necessary to say, is not quite the same as that in 
 England. 
 
 Accurate scholarship and linguistic taste may probably 
 be regarded as the chief aim of classical teaching in English 
 schools. We therefore find much attention paid to niceties 
 of scholarship, and a good deal of time devoted to the prac- 
 tice of composition. In Germany the chief aim seems to be 
 mastery of the language with a view to make the language 
 itself an element of general culture. Hence, while the pupils 
 are thoroughly well grounded in the grammar and syntax 
 of the language, the amount of composition appears to be 
 considerably less. 
 
 Thus, in one of the Gymnasien of the old type, the state- 
 ment was made that the pupils in the highest class only do 
 two Greek compositions a term. Again, the greater part of 
 the composition work consists of re-translation, more or 
 less direct, into the Latin or Greek. Very seldom does the 
 teacher set passages out of German authors for re-transla- 
 
TEACHING CLASSICS IN GERxMANY 267 
 
 tion. In fact, in Greek this was only again allowed in the 
 new programme of 1902. Verse composition is extinct, 
 though in one or two universities the professor makes the 
 students turn Juvenal into Greek verse, or Greek poetry 
 into Latin verse, and in others the study of metric, such as 
 that of Plautus, is carried to a high pitch. 
 
 The absence of verse composition probably leads to less 
 stress being laid on the correct learning of quantities, which 
 are mainly taught to the pupils incidentally. The writer 
 was told by one of the professors that Williamovitz-Mollen- 
 dorf, the celebrated Greek scholar, would ignore the teach- 
 ing of Greek accents. Whether true or not, it is an indication 
 of the smaller importance attached to such things than one 
 finds in England. The stress laid on the mastery of a certain 
 number of authors naturally gives prominence to the trans- 
 lation side. All language teaching apparently begins with 
 a reader or text-book. These are generally without those 
 stumbling-stones to knowledge, footnotes, and often with- 
 out vocabularies, except in the beginners' classes. While 
 cribs are forbidden, standard translations of poetic and 
 dramatic authors are sometimes recommended in the highest 
 classes. 
 
 The following is a brief account of one or two classes 
 visited in the Reform schools : 
 
 Ohertertia (average age about 13 J), 28 pupils, 10 hours a 
 week (5 devoted to Lektiire, 3 to grammar, i to written 
 exercises). The class had been doing Latin for a year and 
 two terms, and had already read the first three books of 
 Caesar. They began by construing a difficult passage in 
 oratio ohliqua out of the first book, which they had not seen 
 for a considerable time. The translation was accurate and 
 fluent. Then, at my request, they took the first chapter 
 of Book IV unseen. Five pupils in all were put on from 
 different parts of the class. 
 
 The modus operandi was as follows : The pupil read a few 
 lines in a clear and distinct voice, and then started trans- 
 lating literally with little or no hesitation. There was no 
 guessing at the general meaning, but the translation through- 
 out showed that the pupil had a sure grasp of the structure 
 
268 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 of the language. Only once did the teacher suggest what 
 word should be taken. One has Httle doubt that the in- 
 volutions and inversions of the German language rob the 
 synthetic style of Latin of some of its difficulties for German 
 boys. Yet the performance was certainly remarkable. The 
 pupils' range of vocabulary, both in Latin and German, was 
 equally striking. 
 
 One boy translated straight off the reel the phrase " ratio 
 et usus belli " as " Theorie und Praxis des Krieges." There 
 was, in fact, only one word (invicem) which they did not 
 seem to have encountered before. Words like " venationi- 
 bus " they at once derived from simpler forms they had 
 already met with. The few grammar questions asked by 
 the teacher were correctly answered. The class readily 
 picked out and named a concessive ablative absolute, and 
 after building up verbs like " ventito " out of " venio," 
 described their function. Grammar, even in the grammar 
 lessons, is taught as far as possible inductively. But the 
 teacher is no slave to the system, and makes no bones of 
 giving an explanation straight away when he sees there is 
 any danger of wasting too much time beating about the 
 bush, or that the class cannot hit off the scent. A map of 
 Gallia was hanging up in the class-room, and the geographical 
 references in the lesson were located on it. 
 
 When the passage had been construed over, the pupils 
 closed their books and the teacher proceeded to discuss the 
 subject-matter of the passage, making a running analysis of 
 the contents, and asking for Latin quotations, which were 
 readily given, such as " privati ac separati agri apud eos 
 nihil est," together with such questions as to why there 
 was no fixed land tenure among the Suebi. One boy evoked 
 much amusement by giving as a reason that the people 
 wanted to know the neighbourhood, and therefore did not 
 wish to stay in one place. An allusion to hunting led to a 
 question on the fauna of Europe at the time. Finally the 
 piece was done over by a pupil into good German. The 
 liveliness, keenness, and attentiveness of the class were 
 beyond all praise. 
 
 Obertertia (second year in Latin). Thirty- three pupils. 
 
TEACHING CLASSICS IN GERMANY 269 
 
 The class were doing a lesson in Ovid. In this case the 
 teacher first translated, and the class did it over again. The 
 Caesar, however, is prepared at home. The special text- 
 books in this and. classics of the same standing elsewhere 
 are furnished with vocabularies. There is also a special 
 grammar. In order to help the pupils over the ground the 
 grarTi'mars are made as short and concise as possible. Here 
 agnin the translation was first literal and then idiomatic. 
 Tc)ward the end of the lesson the class recited and trans- 
 lated from memory the story of Cadmus. 
 
 The following rough notes of the top class in Latin in two 
 Gymnasien (old style) will show the aim is much the same. 
 
 Oberprima (eleven pupils). The lesson for the day was an 
 analysis of a certain number of Horace's odes, with dis- 
 cussions on the personages mentioned, illustrated by quota- 
 tions from other parts of Horace's works. The teacher's 
 method the first time over is to go through the ode with the 
 class, explaining the main difficulties. The pupils then 
 prepare the ode at home. The same practice is adopted 
 with the Germania, which the teacher considered very 
 difficult, apparently owing to its allusions. A chapter of 
 the Germania thus gone over in school takes the pupils 
 about a quarter of an hour to prepare at home. The analy- 
 sis was very clear, and the pupils showed a good knowledge 
 of Horace. They had got a large number of the odes by 
 heart. They not only analysed the ode, but also recited it 
 with becoming effect. Gabbling is not tolerated. 
 
 Oberprima. Several odes of Horace were read and trans- 
 lated. The ode was either analysed by the pupil or the 
 teacher talked it over with the class. The method of trans- 
 lation adopted was that of giving several strophes to a 
 pupil to read over and translate. An improved translation 
 would then be given by another pupil. Much time was spent 
 on commenting on the contents. The teacher stated his 
 chief purpose was to treat the odes as an illustration of the 
 life and times of the ancients. 
 
 Here are the notes of two classes in Greek, the first in 
 a Reform school and the second in an old-fashioned 
 Gymnasium. 
 
270 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 Unier-secunda (seventeen boys). The lesson for the day 
 was a translation lesson in Xenophon which had been pre- 
 pared at home. One pupil read the passage through, some 
 twenty lines of the Anabasis, not in a perfunctory fashion, 
 but with due emphasis, as if he understood it. Then short 
 portions were fluently translated by various boys. The 
 teacher next asked certain questions in accidence and 
 grammar arising out of the text. The answers were gcod, 
 extraordinarily good when one reflects that the class lad 
 only been doing Greek for two-thirds of a year. 
 
 It seemed all the more wonderful when one learnt that 
 the grammar is mainly studied incidentally at first, onl}^ 
 those portions being learnt which bear on some point 
 which occurs in the text. In some schools the class begins 
 with a reader, but in this class the pupils had started straight 
 away with Xenophon. The teacher began by reading and 
 translating to them the opening sentences, and they had a 
 vocabulary to help them to make out the sense. The chief 
 aim, as the teacher explained, is to lead the pupils, as soon 
 as possible, to an intelligent reading of an author. He 
 held, with the editor of the text in use, that the boys who 
 begin Greek at an older age than the boy in the ordinary 
 Gymnasium, needed a different treatment from the latter, 
 and, above all, required a more substantial fare than is pro- 
 vided by detached sentences, or even detached pieces. As 
 for grammar, that can be largely learnt out of the Xeno- 
 phon as one goes along. The editor of the text-book in 
 question gives an excellent scheme of how such an idea may 
 be carried out in practice. The composition in the class 
 partly consists in the writing out of accidence and very 
 simple re-translation, which is gradually varied. The ex- 
 treme liveliness of the class, and the obvious interest they 
 took in the work, were not the least striking features in a 
 remarkable lesson. 
 
 Oberprima (eleven pupils). The author under study was 
 Homer. The lesson began with an analysis by one of the 
 pupils of the passage translated at the preceding lesson. 
 Portions of the passage for the day were then read with 
 becoming feeling and translated by other members of the 
 
TEACHING CLASSICS IN GERMANY 271 
 
 class. The translation was fluent and good. There was a 
 certain amount of literary comment, which was mainly con- 
 cerned with the subject-matter of the passage and the 
 characters introduced. Grammar appeared to be mainly 
 studied with a view to a just understanding of the 
 language. 
 
 With such comparatively limited experiences one would 
 hesitate, in spite of the very large schools in which they 
 occurred, to put them forward as samples of what is gene- 
 rally the case, were it not for the fact that the standard of 
 average attainment in the larger German schools is far higher 
 than with us, and were they not, what is much more impor- 
 tant, largely borne out by statements made at a meeting of 
 the partisans of the Reform schools held at Cassel in 
 October, 1901, which was attended not only by the heads 
 of schools, but by inspectors and representatives of the 
 Ministry. Many of the questions which must naturally 
 have occurred to those who have read thus far through the 
 present article were raised at the meeting, and in nearly all 
 cases a favourable answer was given. The obvious advan- 
 tages attached to starting Latin at twelve and Greek still 
 later were but little alluded to. Much more was made of the 
 fact that the later age at which they were begun was far more 
 in keeping with the pupils' maturity of spirit. What were 
 difficulties to a boy of nine did not exist for a boy of twelve, 
 thanks no doubt also in part to the preliminary three years' 
 grounding in French. Teachers who had taught in both 
 styles were unanimous in testifying to the rapid progress 
 made by the pupils, which they attributed partly to the 
 intensive method (several declared that eight hours a week 
 for a year were better than four hours a week for a period of 
 two years), and partly to the far greater interest shown by 
 the pupils. This keenness on the subject and anxiety to get 
 on were stated to be due to the fact that the pupils " have 
 clearly the feeling that they are constantly growing and are 
 being carried along quickly in contrast to the slow progress 
 which they formerly made." The majority declared that 
 over-pressure was no worse under the new system than under 
 the old, though most admitted that in most cases it was a 
 
272 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 serious problem. The least contented seemed to be the 
 teachers in modern languages and the professors of science 
 and mathematics. The former appeared to consider they 
 laboured in order that the classical teachers might enter into 
 their labours, and, together with the science and mathe- 
 matical professors, complained of the short time allotted to 
 them in the upper classes. All were convinced of the need 
 of grammar drill. The influence of the direct method in 
 modern languages showed itself in the advocacy of some in 
 favour of the spoken word in Latin. The questions of the 
 inadequate time devoted to ancient history in the Gym- 
 nasium and of an insufficiency of proper text-books for the 
 new method were also raised. Most interesting was the 
 verdict of the inspector who had examined the first batch 
 of Frankfort boys for the leaving certificates. The Greek 
 results were quite satisfactory. The Latin, while satisfac- 
 tory, showed that the grammar required a little more 
 attention. 
 
 There are still, no doubt, other questions which have not 
 been touched on in this short analysis. Two may be 
 mentioned here. What do the older schools think of the 
 reform, and what do the universities think of it ? The 
 Ministry, as we have seen, is extremely favourable ; so far 
 as one could learn, in the other schools there seems to be 
 an opinion that the reforms may lead to over-pressure and 
 that the weaker boys are drafted at times in a somewhat 
 compulsory fashion into the Latinless department. Both 
 these contentions are hotly denied by the partisans of the 
 reforms. Even if the latter allegation be true, it would 
 seem to be a step in the right direction. The Universities 
 have had several years' experience of students coming from 
 the Reform Realgymnasium. For the last three years 
 students have been coming in from the Reform Gymnasium 
 too. Lack of time, unfortunately, prevented an inquiry 
 into the opinion of the Universities on its new recruits. The 
 subject is such an important one it seems worth the Board 
 of Education's while to send to Germany some distinguished 
 scholar well acquainted with the teaching of classics in 
 England to make a thorough investigation into the whole 
 
TEACHING CLASSICS IN GERMANY 273 
 
 matter. 1 Doubtless we should not care to copy in all 
 respects the German methods of teaching classics, yet it is 
 quite possible we might with advantage enlarge our own 
 methods of teaching. But the important question is, can 
 we venture to defer, as the Germans have done, the teaching 
 of classics to a later date ? If so, judging by the German 
 example, not only education, but classics also, will be the 
 gainers. The classical side is less likely to be overweighted 
 with an unnecessary ballast of non-linguistic pupils, while 
 those who start the subject at the later date should bring to 
 it an eagerness to learn and an interest in their own progress 
 which are the very vivida vis of all true education, and are, 
 unhappily, all too uncommon among the bulk of English 
 classical pupils. 
 
 ^ This suggestion has since been adopted. See vol. 20 of Board 
 of Education Special Reports on Educational Subjects {The Teaching 
 of Classics in Secondary Schools in Germany) , 1909. 
 
 6.E. 
 
TOWARD FRANCE OR GERMANY? ENGLISH 
 EDUCATION AT THE CROSSWAYS 
 
 Several very sweeping reforms have recently taken place 
 in English education. One of the most important is the 
 delegation by the Ministry to the counties and county- 
 boroughs of a large portion of the administration of finances 
 and especially of secondary education. The new local 
 authorities have in many places already begun to tackle 
 the gigantic task of rearranging the work of the existing 
 schools and of creating new institutions to meet the more 
 urgent needs of their several areas. Incidentally they are 
 now settling, for a generation at least, our educational 
 methods and ideals, which, in plain English, means they are 
 deciding not only what the rank and file but also what the 
 leaders of the nation will be in the next twenty years. It 
 is in every way imperative that they should realize their 
 enormous responsibilities and carefully weigh every change 
 and innovation. There is so much that is excellent in 
 English education that we cannot but trust they will not 
 only conserve but widely extend all that is worthy of reten- 
 tion. Again, it is to be hoped that the great principle 
 inaugurated by the late Act, which entrusts to, and, indeed, 
 enjoins on, the new authorities the duty of making the schools 
 conform to local needs, will not be lost sight of. A blind 
 imitation of Continental systems, with their excessive 
 centralization and uniformity, would be little short of 
 disastrous ; yet, in the sphere of the proper treatment of 
 subjects and of their due ordering and arrangement in com- 
 plete courses of study, we are bound to look for information 
 and guidance to our more highly organized neighbours 
 abroad. Until recently our educational leaders have rather 
 
TOWARD FRANCE OR GERMANY? 275 
 
 turned their eyes towards Germany, and certainly the 
 German system is, at first sight, most impressive. One can- 
 not but admire the care and intelHgence that have been 
 lavished on the framing of curricula, and the way in which 
 the teaching in each subject has been thought out in every 
 detail. Above all, one wonders at the all-round equipment 
 of the teacher, at his professional keenness, at the thorough- 
 ness of his methods, and the high standard of attainment 
 he reaches within the sphere in which he works. One's 
 admiration grows as one examines the component parts of 
 the system and sees how carefully everything is made to 
 dovetail and interlock. 
 
 It is only when we carry our investigations still further 
 and attempt to gauge the underlying spirit which keeps the 
 whole machinery in motion that we begin to doubt whether 
 we can copy so many of the features we formerly admired, 
 or would wish to copy them if we could. At bottom educa- 
 tion has a dual aim : the training of character and the 
 development of the intelligence. In the training of character 
 we have little to learn from the Germans. Indeed, there 
 seems to be a certain danger that in our desire to emulate 
 the success they obtain in the way of developing the intelli- 
 gence we may unconsciously be tempted to copy the military 
 modes of discipline to which the success itself is partially 
 due. To guard against such a danger we must attempt to 
 get to the bottom of the problem, and not only scrutinize 
 the quantity but the quality of the intellectual output. Its 
 very evenness furnishes a clue to its nature. To put it in 
 a nutshell, the teacher appears to aim at turning out intelli- 
 gences of a certain specific pattern and type rather than 
 self-sufficing, independent-minded individuals. But the 
 dangers of such an aim, especially in the hands of an 
 ignorant imitator, are very great, because there must always 
 be an inevitable tendency for such a training to become not 
 so much a development as a dressage of the intelligence. 
 
 The contributory causes to such a dressage are manifold. 
 One, which is frequently met with in the big towns, is the 
 abnormally large size of the lower and middle classes. 
 Classes of over forty are not unknown, and those over 
 
276 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 thirty are comparatively common. In fact, the German 
 schools in the big towns are probably considerably more 
 understaffed than the corresponding English schools. In 
 such cases it is obvious that the teaching must be, to some 
 extent, mechanical ; there is but little scope for individual 
 attention. But the dressage is also due to far deeper reasons, 
 deeper even than the laudable desire to drag, by hook or by 
 crook, every pupil through the mill. The whole teaching is 
 essentially a gymnastic, a mental Turnen, at its worst an 
 acrohatie. It bears to the proper development of the indi- 
 vidual the same relation as an elaborate system of carefully 
 thought-out army gymnastics bears to a really scientific, 
 hygienic system of physical exercises. In the one case an 
 effort, more or less skilful, is made to develop certain parts, 
 because they have been so developed from time immemorial, 
 but the development of these to the instructor is an end in 
 itself. In the other case an effort is made to develop the 
 whole individual, and the development is only regarded as 
 a means. In the first instance, the theory rests on premises 
 that are never called in question ; in the second, the theory 
 is based on reason, and a conscious effort is made to adapt 
 the means to nature. In a word, the first system inevitably 
 tends to produce specific rather than original forms of mind, 
 types rather than individuals. 
 
 Hence even in the highest forms one has always the 
 sensation that the class are like a flock of sheep in a pen. 
 An English class is often less together. They do not give 
 one the same sensation of forty feeding hke one, but there 
 is more browsing. The flock may be a trifle scattered, 
 partly, maybe, because the shepherd is not always master of 
 his craft, partly because they are each seeking to a certain 
 extent his own pasture. There is no unfenced grazing- 
 ground in German schools. From the bottom to the top the 
 pupils in each form are folded off and penned into compart- 
 ments much in the same way as a flock of sheep is folded 
 over a field of turnips. When they have consumed all the 
 rich crop within the four corners of their pen, another pen 
 is opened to which they are admitted. One cannot help 
 admiring the skill of the shepherd and the clever way in 
 
TOWARD FRANCE OR GERMANY? 277 
 
 which he mixes the food and tends the flock, but the sheep 
 strike one as somewhat too domesticated. One cannot help 
 feeUng that hke all domestic animals they are being reared 
 not so much for their own sake as for the sake of certain 
 superior beings. The school is, in fact, one of the principal 
 raising and breeding branches in that large State farm 
 known in ordinary parlance as Germany, or, in other words, 
 its principal function is to produce submissive supporters of 
 the throne and altar. 
 
 Hence one of the lacuncB in the higher classes of German 
 schools is the absence of philosophic training which more 
 than anything else tends to develop the individual into a 
 conscious and coherent being. Coming at a period of storm 
 and stress during which the youth is putting away childish 
 things and becoming a man, it serves, if properly utilized, 
 not merely as the very crown of school studies but also as 
 an initiation into the problems of life and conduct. The 
 authorities themselves have lately become alarmed at the 
 absence of such a training, and the subject was the principal 
 one selected for discussion at the Headmasters' Conference 
 for 1902, which in that year was held in the province of 
 Saxony. The thoroughness of the proceedings may be 
 gathered from the fact that the whole question is first 
 thrashed out by the teachers in the several schools, their 
 conclusions are then embodied in a report, and from these 
 reports a general report is put together which is submitted 
 to the whole assembly for debate. It is significant that the 
 conference not only reported in favour of definite philo- 
 sophical training but also of giving the whole of the teach- 
 ing in the higher classes a more philosophical cast. In no 
 subject is the lack of such a colouring more noticeable than 
 in the teaching of history, which is taught in the upper 
 classes on lines which are admirably adapted to the lower 
 forms, but out of place with pupils of eighteen and nineteen. 
 The teacher gives his own particular version, which hence- 
 forth becomes the " Evangehum " of the class, to be supple- 
 mented by one of several carefully authorized text-books 
 which are purely objective, or, at their worst, baldly annaUs- 
 tic. What little home reading is done is bolted through the 
 
278 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 teacher's sieve by means of a careful catechism on the sahent 
 points to be brought out. But httle ieffort is made to eHcit 
 the pupil's own personal impressions as such, much less to 
 encourage originahty. The aim of the teacher begins and 
 ends with the assurance that the pupil has made the right 
 deductions. The study of original authorities appears to be 
 almost unknown. Hence the twofold value of history as 
 one of the best instruments for forming the judgment and 
 for initiating the pupil into the art of original research is 
 ignored. The ideal pupil would appear to be the beloved 
 disciple who says most frequently amen to his master or is 
 the greatest adept at reproducing his formularies. 
 
 The same lack of any encouragement of originality is also 
 observable in the teaching of literature, though it must, to 
 some extent, be freely admitted that within certain limits 
 the teaching is often excellent and presents points of interest 
 that we may well imitate. Granted that the instruction 
 specially aims at imbuing the pupils with certain definite 
 ideas, the methods adopted are often preferable to our own. 
 Those stumbling-blocks to the study of literature, anno- 
 tated editions, are comparatively rare. The German pupil's 
 attention is not incessantly distracted by the marginalia of 
 scholiasts, often more anxious to air their own knowledge 
 than to contribute to his enlightenment. Poems are not 
 studied piecemeal but as continuous wholes. The text is 
 not dug over for the grammatical roots it may contain, but 
 rather treated as a flower-bed whose artistic arrangement is 
 admired, and whose fragrance and beauty are judged as a 
 whole. The Germans do not believe that an elaborate know- 
 ledge of verbal botany is a necessary introduction to an 
 appreciation of literature. They recognize that culture, like 
 gardening, deals far more with the living thing than with 
 the dead anatomy. A knowledge of mathematics or science 
 certainly adds to an appreciation of art, but it is not the 
 one thing necessary by any manner of means. Yet even 
 while one admires German methods of teaching literature, 
 one feels their limitations. One cannot help thinking that 
 the teacher's enthusiasm for hterature, sincere as most of 
 it is, bears the same relation to the real, native, spontaneous 
 
TOWARD FRANCE OR GERMANY? 279 
 
 love of literature as the somewhat loud and noisy talk about 
 German patriotism bears to our deep, inborn conception of 
 patriotism. To say it is the difference between the acquired 
 and the indigenous is too strong a contrast. Yet if one com- 
 pares the German love of the higher forms of Uterature with 
 the true, unforced, genuine love of the French, one instinc- 
 tively thinks of the parallel between the man who at a great 
 price obtained his freedom and the other who was born to it. 
 Perhaps a still closer comparison would be that between 
 official and natural Christianity. The love of German litera- 
 ture, as inculcated in the schools, is part of the official cult 
 of the State rehgion by law established — an excellent thing, 
 no doubt, but with a slight smack of compulsion about it. 
 In fact, as we hope to show when we come to discuss 
 French education, while we can learn something from the 
 teaching of the mother tongue and of literature in Germany, 
 we may learn the same and still more from France. From 
 Germany we can in fact pick up a certain amount, mainly 
 in the mechanics of teaching. But here the matter ends. 
 For inspiration and for the strengthening of certain national 
 weaknesses we must rather look to France. 
 
 Of course, here again we must choose and discriminate. 
 In the training of character we have very little to learn from 
 our friends across the Channel, although the modern theories 
 of freedom and individuality are undoubtedly having an 
 effect on the hitherto somewhat military regime of the 
 schools, which is clearly shown by the most recent pro- 
 grammes in history-teaching. In fact, it is fair to state 
 that, while Germany is undoubtedly more and more approxi- 
 mating her schools to military ideas, the French are steadily 
 moving in the opposite direction, towards the encourage- 
 ment of freedom, responsibility, and personal initiative. 
 Again, while we may well copy the high pitch of efficiency 
 to which the French have brought the teaching profession 
 and the honourable status to which they have raised it, we 
 must steadily avoid any movement that tends to make our 
 teachers mere purveyors of knowledge and divorce them 
 from active participation in the larger Ufe of the school. 
 But when we come to the development of the intelH- 
 
28o STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 gence we may find much that we can freely admire and 
 imitate. 
 
 French education may be roughly divided into two parts, 
 one of which ends with the first part of the haccalaureat, 
 formerly called la rhetorique, the other ending with the part 
 still known as la philosophie. Both these parts explain 
 pretty well the aims of either course of study. The former 
 is a training in taste and in the art of expression. As in 
 Germany, the mother tongue and the native literature are 
 put in the forefront of the programme, but, as has been 
 already hinted, the manner in which they are taught in 
 France is distinctly superior. Thanks to his prodigious 
 appetite for knowledge, the German, who in this as in other 
 matters is a veritable gourmand, is acquainted with what is 
 considered to be the best that has been said on a subject, 
 and has more or less formed for himself a palate. The 
 Frenchman, on the other hand, is a born gourmet. Instinc- 
 tively he picks out, selects and arranges what is de hon gout. 
 Even when he deals with platitudes, he manages to " ear- 
 mark " them with a touch of his own individuality. In 
 fact, he is past-master in the difficult art, according to 
 Horace, of " communia proprie dicer e." This artistic indi- 
 vidualism pervades the whole nation ; one sees it even in 
 so common a matter as dress, in which the women, while 
 careful to follow the fashion, each modify it to suit their 
 own particular style of beauty. Teachers and taught thus 
 bring to the study of literature and the mother tongue an 
 aptitude not to be met with elsewhere. In no branch of the 
 subject does the superiority of the French come out more 
 plainly than in the teaching and practice of essay-writing, 
 which is still regarded as one of the most important items 
 in the school time-table. Free composition begins in fact 
 in the lowest classes with oral narration in its simplest form 
 — the mere re-telling of some story which has been already 
 related by the teacher. The hien dire and hien ecrire are 
 thus taught from the very outset. The practice prevails to 
 a certain extent in German schools, but where the French 
 excel is in the far greater attention given to the composi- 
 tion itself of the essay. Their language serves as an admir- 
 
TOWARD FRANCE OR GERMANY? 281 
 
 able medium. It is the true heir of the best traditions of 
 the ancient rhetors, handed down through an uninterrupted 
 apostohc succession through the schools of Lyons, Bordeaux 
 and Paris. It is the finished product which has been worked 
 up by generations of native Longinuses and Quintilians. It 
 is the only modern language that has evolved a distinctively 
 national prose style. Thanks to its ancient traditions, the 
 French have never lost sight, as we in England, of the true 
 meaning of the word composition. With us it too often 
 means reproduction in a foreign medium of some passage 
 in English, a matter of clever phrasing, or matching nuances 
 of thought in the two languages concerned, of reproducing 
 in (say) a Latin mosaic a design already given in English. 
 It retains in French its fuller, truer and really classical 
 meaning of composing, of putting together, of construction. 
 It implies the employment not merely of the talents of the 
 mosaic-layer, but of the original designer, the master- 
 builder, the architect. In a word, the French writer is not 
 merely the framer of happy phrases. His chief glory con- 
 sists in his skill to build up phrases into paragraphs, and 
 paragraphs into one single, harmonious, architectural whole. 
 And herein lies for us one of the great benefits to be derived 
 from a study of French methods. Just as our artists go to 
 Paris to learn technique, so our teachers might well go to 
 France to study the teaching of composition on French lines, 
 in place of the happy-go-lucky, laissez-faire methods of 
 letting pupils " muddle through " what they wish to say. 
 We do not want to create in our schools a pseudo-French 
 style. There is, indeed, but little danger of such an even- 
 tuality. We have too much of what may be called nation- 
 ality, of racial mother-stuff, ever to capitulate to that 
 danger, whereas our greater affinity to Germany renders 
 us all the more likely to exaggerate the defects of what we 
 learn from that country. 
 
 But the art of clear and artistic expression demands more 
 than a purely literary education if it is not to suffer from 
 the dangers of superficiality. This corrective is supplied by 
 the training the French pupil receives in the last year of his 
 school career under the rubric of Philosophy. While the 
 
282 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 German pupil is laboriously filling in or widening the circle 
 of his hard-acquired knowledge, the French pupil is under- 
 pinning the whole structure of his previous education. 
 Curiously enough the word that each would apply to his 
 education at this stage has ostensibly the same meaning. 
 The German would say that he was studying his subjects 
 grundlich, and the French that he was pushing his education 
 au fond. Yet the first only means he is filling in the blanks 
 in the cyclus of his knowledge, the other that he is going 
 down to the root of what he has learnt. No year is more 
 important from the pupil's point of view. A purely rhetori- 
 cal education has great dangers. It leaves one more or less 
 at the mercy of words. It is true that a philosophical educa- 
 tion puts us at times at the mercy of ideas, but such a 
 predicament is the less perilous of the two. A rhetorical 
 education gives us, as it were, the colour of things, the 
 philosophical adds the sense of form ; the one trains the 
 emotions, the other moulds the logical shape that they take. 
 Such a philosophical education as is given in the French 
 lycees is not merely a resume of the past, a co-ordination and 
 explanation of all previous studies, it also furnishes a base 
 and a groundwork for the future life of the pupil, providing, 
 as it were, the cadres round which he may classify his subse- 
 quent experiences, and by which he may direct his conduct. 
 The practice of teaching the pupil to examine and catalogue 
 his ideas is of the highest educational value. Individuality 
 and the unification of ideas are very closely connected. If 
 we English could have a little more appreciation and respect 
 for general ideas, which are often after all but the intellectual 
 names of great moral principles, we should certainly be able 
 to reason out many of our social and political difficulties 
 more readily, and be less slaves to the gross sophisms which 
 obtain currency from the neglect of the ordinary cultivated 
 man to examine the exact meaning of the terms he uses. 
 Again, French philosophy enjoys the advantage of wearing 
 the least forbidding aspect of all the philosophies. It may 
 not attain the depth of German philosophy — in some ways 
 it may only be a sort of glorified common sense — but in its 
 lucidity and its close attachment to the problems of daily 
 
TOWARD FRANCE OR GERMANY ? 283 
 
 life it finds at once its strength and its weakness. Nor is it 
 by any means as shallow as foreigners often think. The 
 depth is there, but it is so easily seen, because the medium, 
 the language in which it is conveyed, is so transparent. In 
 France, the French do not forget that philosophy is a branch 
 of literature, and the whole attitude of the best French 
 writer is not to pose as an unfolder of mysteries, explaining 
 the obscurum per obscurius, but rather to show, with the 
 greatest suppression of self, how after all the thing is not so 
 difficult. 
 
 Nothing gives a clearer notion of the French aim in 
 education than their conception of examinations. Our 
 literary examinations are, above all, an audit of knowledge, 
 and at their worst a mere audit of fact. The whole competi- 
 tion is a match against time ; the pupil who can disgorge 
 the greatest amount of knowledge in a given time comes out 
 top. A certain level of spelling, punctuation, and grammar 
 is demanded, but style in the French sense of the word 
 rarely counterbalances quantity in the examiner's eyes. 
 The entire examination is very largely a matter of memory, 
 either in the actual reproduction of what has been learnt, or 
 the reproduction of something similar to what one has been 
 taught ; the whole thing is too exclusively a matter of en- 
 lightened imitation. Originality is too rarely sought for or 
 desired. The arts of exposition, of development, of com- 
 position proper are comparatively neglected. When a 
 French university professor is shown an Enghsh paper with 
 ten or twelve questions (say in history) he is lost in astonish- 
 ment at the number of questions ; but when he is told they 
 are all to be answered in three hours he is dumbfoundered. 
 The number of questions to be attempted in the lycee for 
 a three hours' composition, or in the university for a six 
 hours' paper, would be one or two. One can only explain 
 to him that the English method treats intelligences much 
 as sponges. It attempts to discover those which can return 
 the greatest quantity of the facts or theories they have 
 absorbed. To which our Frenchman rejoins : But where 
 does the composition come in, the act of presenting one's 
 subject in the clearest form, and in the most suitable 
 
284 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 language ? One can only point out the fact that it doesn't 
 come in except in a subordinate way, for the simple reason 
 that the English examinee writes from the point of view of 
 one who writes for a critic who knows already what he 
 ought to say and only wants to verify his remarks, whereas 
 the French candidate writes from the point of view of one 
 who wants to explain to the ordinary person what he has 
 to say, and so naturally puts his case with the utmost care. 
 The Frenchman will probably remark that, as far as prac- 
 tical value goes, in fact as a preparation for everyday life, 
 his method of examination is more useful, as it allows the 
 pupil to explain his views to any one of a certain calibre. 
 Reply on this point seems difficult, for have we not here the 
 main reason of the chronic inability of the English boy to 
 explain himself and his ideas in a coherent fashion ? No 
 doubt this cult of form when pushed to extremes may lead 
 to undue disregard for the subject-matter. Every virtue 
 when pushed to extremes becomes a vice. But inasmuch as 
 we and the French have got hold of opposite ends of the 
 truth, this is certainly a point where we have much to learn 
 from them if we wish to encourage the productive rather 
 than the mere reproductive faculties of our pupils. 
 
 It would be interesting to enlarge on the superiority of 
 French over English examinations in their invariable in- 
 clusion in every examination of a viva-voce which tests some 
 of the most valuable quahties of everyday hfe which are 
 practically untouched by the written work. Let it suffice to 
 say that there is very urgent need for us in England to 
 revive at once this type of intellectual assaying, or largely 
 to extend its range wherever it already exists. It is only 
 fair to German educationists to say that their examinations, 
 both written and oral, are conducted on somewhat similar 
 lines. But for reasons already given above, the French 
 would appear, in this respect also, more Ukely to repay 
 judicious study and imitation on our part. Again, while 
 English, and especially English literary, examinations are 
 in the main an audit of knowledge, yet it is true that in some 
 schools and in the later stages of education at the uni- 
 versities, and more particularly at Oxford, stress is laid on 
 
TOWARD FRANCE OR GERMANY? 285 
 
 the value of those quahties by which the French set such 
 store. What we want is a much wider diffusion of these 
 ideals. Perhaps the best way to promote them would be 
 to encourage a far closer intercourse between Oxford and 
 Paris, which, in their conception of culture, have so many 
 points of resemblance. Could the authorities of the two 
 universities only come to know one another better, they 
 would be astonished and cheered to find how many ideals 
 they shelter in common. 
 
 The danger of turning to Germany rather than to France 
 does not end here. There are a certain number of persons 
 to-day in England who are demanding we should begin the 
 study of languages with German rather than French, which 
 has hitherto always had the pre-eminence. They urge with 
 much plausibility that the accent is easier, and that the 
 problem of learning a new vocabulary is, lessened by the 
 fact that the commoner words in English and German are 
 more like one another than the commoner words in French 
 and English. German, no doubt, is easier of pronunciation 
 than French, though the question of accent for young 
 children, with their very flexible organs of speech and great 
 power of imitation, is of much less importance than with 
 older pupils. The argument from vocabulary seems less 
 serious. Even the pupil of nine or ten, if he has not learnt 
 Latin, has already become acquainted with a large number 
 of English words of Latin origin. Again, as the Anglo- 
 Saxon words in his own language present to the small boy 
 no difficulty, the fact that many words in English and 
 German are alike is only helpful in learning the German 
 vocabulary, whereas when French is learnt, the acquisition 
 of French and the acquisition of English words derived 
 from the Romance languages are mutually helpful. The 
 English is perpetually throwing light on the French word, 
 and the French on the English. Finally, the difficulties of 
 German grammar and German construction with the un- 
 usual order of words is certainly greater for pupils of this 
 age than French grammar and construction in the opening 
 stages. The same advocates urge that German at a later 
 stage is very necessary for all who wish to do research work 
 
286 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 in history, economics, or science, and also insist on its com- 
 mercial value. The bulk of original investigations published 
 in Germany is in the majority of subjects the greatest in 
 the world ; but the amount in France is by no means 
 insignificant, is often indispensable, and where it does exist, 
 is generally served up in a much more available form. At 
 the same time, too much stress must not be laid on the argu- 
 ment itself. The mere grammatical knowledge requisite 
 to read a work of research is easy of acquirement. The 
 main difficulty hes in the technical vocabulary, which has 
 to be mastered after the pupil has left school. This advan- 
 tage, such as it is, is discounted by the greater commercial 
 value that is attached to a knowledge of French. Nearly 
 all Germans engaged in trade or commerce are sufficiently 
 masters of English to be able to do business in our language, 
 but, while our trade with France and French colonies is 
 practically as big as our trade with Germany and her 
 dependencies, the same facility of intercourse by no means 
 exists between French merchants and shippers and ourselves. 
 The utilitarian value of French for trade purposes is therefore 
 considerably greater than the utilitarian value of German, 
 although there is a strong current of public opinion to the 
 contrary. But, granting once more for the sake of argument 
 that the Teutophiles have so far made out the better case, 
 there are still two very potent reasons for beginning with 
 French, the last of which seems well-nigh unanswerable. 
 A large percentage of small boys who are going to receive 
 a secondary education are destined to take up Latin. As a 
 preparation for the study of Latin, there can be no compari- 
 son between German and French. The Germans have 
 recognized this in all their so-called Reform schools, in which 
 the study of a modern language is made the stepping-stone 
 to the study of Latin, though had they adopted the argu- 
 ment of the Philoteutons over here, they would not have 
 hesitated to select English, as the connection between Ger- 
 man and French is far more remote than between English 
 and French. French is also the one modern language that 
 is obligatory in their " unreformed " classical schools. 
 Again, in their non-classical schools they begin with French 
 
TOWARD FRANCE OR GERMANY? 287 
 
 and not with English. The truth is they reahze that 
 French is really an indispensable factor in general culture. 
 That is really the chief argument of all. The question of 
 Which language shall we begin with ? is not a mere academic 
 one. It really goes to the heart of national education. 
 Everything hinges on it. Analyse it out, and we see it is 
 only another way of asking, On which language shall we 
 lay the greater stress ; which language shall we, in fact, 
 place first ? In the case of many boys only one modern 
 language will be taken up. The question, therefore, is all 
 the more important as to which they shall take. Expressed 
 in other words it means, Which culture do we desire to copy 
 on a large scale — that of Germany or that of France ? Put 
 in that fashion, can there be any doubt ? Do we not want 
 rather to reinforce the Norman than the Anglo-Saxon side 
 of our character ? 
 
 If the position of classics is going to be weakened in 
 England, are we not likely to find more or less compensation 
 for the change in a more extensive study of French, which is 
 in so many ways the universal legatee of Greek and Roman 
 traditions ? Can Germany offer us anything similar ? 
 
 To sum up. Is not the balance largely in favour of 
 generally, though not exclusively, following French models 
 rather than German in school matters ? One must lay stress 
 on the word " school," for all are willing to testify to the 
 extraordinary love of learning to be found in German uni- 
 versities, to their untiring energy in research, and to their 
 freedom of opinion, although the latter quality has been 
 sadly curtailed of recent years. In their schools we can 
 again gladly bear witness to the high qualifications of the 
 teaching profession, to their strenuous, if somewhat narrow, 
 conception of duty, and to the various strong points in the 
 teaching of certain subjects. But, as we have seen, these 
 strong points are as well and often better represented in 
 French schools ; while certain weaknesses we have noted in 
 German education — the increasing military spirit, the re- 
 actionary tendencies and the lack of the philosophic training 
 — are less pronounced or entirely absent from French educa- 
 tion, We have further seen how, in the teaching of the 
 
288 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 mother tongue, in the proper conception of examinations 
 and in the addition of a philosophical crown to its education, 
 France has for us, if we are willing to learn, things which 
 are in every way worthy of our consideration. We stand at 
 the very parting of the ways. Are we to copy from a 
 national system which every year seems to grow more out 
 of sympathy with the majority of the nation, deliberately 
 constituted to serve as a buttress to the political status quo, 
 or another which under a more modern regime is striving to 
 adapt itself to the conditions of the times ? What is frankly 
 the main ideal of German education ? Erudition. What is 
 the main ideal of French ? Culture. Which ideal is more 
 wanted in England at the present time ? Which language 
 is likely to afford the better linguistic, logical, aesthetic, and 
 literary training ? Is it German, with its glorious lyrical 
 poetry, its almost boundless vocabulary, its Gothic-like 
 architecture, with cathedral-like sentences branching into 
 a mass of clauses, a veritable cluster of side-chapels, recalling 
 at once the might, majesty and awe of its archetype the 
 primeval Hercynian forest, forest that, alas, the ordinary 
 student does not see because of the trees, as he struggles 
 with its sesquipedalian compounds and its apparently inter- 
 minable sentences, its involved and complicated style, that 
 happily shows signs of a movement towards a greater 
 simplification of expression, yet still involved in the toils 
 of its own verbosity ? Or is it not rather French with its 
 poetry, in which the overwhelming sense of form almost 
 cramps and stunts the emotions, with its far less copious 
 vocabulary which is yet one of the most effective arsenals of 
 expression because of the admirable way in which its 
 contents have been catalogued and cross-referenced, with 
 a prose style that combines the classical architecture of pure 
 line with the warm colouring of modern sentiment, recalUng 
 in its directness and solidity the road- and bridge-building 
 talents of the Romans, while its good taste, moderation and 
 refinement represent a genuine infiltration from the best 
 epochs of Greek culture. Lucid and logical, appealing alike 
 to the aesthetic and literary sense, what finer instrument 
 of mental discipline is there outside the classical world ? 
 
TOWARD FRANCE OR GERMANY? 289 
 
 English we must at any price remain, but certainly neither 
 insular nor ultra-protectionist. The most valuable free 
 imports we can make are such methods and ideals as we 
 can copy from our neighbours. We want, in fact, to send 
 abroad a sort of second Mosely Commission composed of 
 educationists, but taken from those engaged not on the 
 administrative, but on the pedagogical side — inspectors, 
 headmasters, and the like, with a sprinkling of county 
 education secretaries — persons of wide experience and ac- 
 quainted not merely with the strength but the weaknesses 
 of English education. They would not only have to consider 
 the points raised above, but many others. To mention only 
 a few, the position of science and of mathematics in the 
 different courses of study, the age at which Latin should 
 be begun, the systematic teaching of history and geography. 
 When the educational scouts had reported we should be in 
 a position to know how far we might venture on the German, 
 and how far on the French road, without losing touch with 
 the English highway. 
 
 I am happy to say that recently there has been a con- 
 siderable change in English opinion as regards the com- 
 parative merits of French and German education. While 
 fully recognizing the undoubted strong points in German 
 schools our leaders of public opinion are gradually becoming 
 better acquainted with French educational ideas and 
 realizing that while Germans can teach us many useful 
 wrinkles and tricks of the trade we must in matters of art 
 and culture rather seek inspiration from France. No doubt 
 the factors which have contributed to this welcome change 
 are many in number. There are two which appear to me 
 sufficiently important to mention here. One has been the 
 visits of M. Hovelaque, the Inspector-General of Modern 
 Languages, to England. He at least has done much to 
 convince University authorities of the need of organizing 
 the teaching of French on a really adequate scale with 
 really adequate professors. 
 
 French culture can never obtain the appreciation it merits 
 in England till its exponents are really and truly repre- 
 sentative. 
 
 B.E. T 
 
290 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 The other factor in the change has been the work of the 
 International Guild. It is already making itself a name in 
 England through the large number of students it is sending 
 us, and by its latest achievement, the bringing together of 
 the modern language associations in the two countries, it 
 has given a decided impetus to the all too limited interest 
 in France that our teachers have hitherto taken, the results 
 of which cannot fail to have an excellent effect on the 
 younger generation who are at present passing through our 
 schools. 
 
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF AMERICAN 
 
 EDUCATION 
 
 Any survey of American education, however summary, 
 must recognize the fact that in education as in other matters 
 the United States must be considered to consist territorially 
 of at least three different divisions, each possessing certain 
 salient characteristics which mark it off from the other two. 
 There is the section of the Eastern States, in which educa- 
 tion has long been established, with the result that a certain 
 fixity and finality has been reached in organization and 
 teaching methods. Against this must be set the West with 
 its exuberant energy, its feverish hankering after novelty, 
 its passion for experiment which at times amounts to rash- 
 ness, yet has in the main a most stimulating effect on 
 education. Every new idea has a chance of actual trial, 
 even if it is not sufficiently experimented upon before it is 
 cast aside in favour of some fresh novelty. And lastly 
 comes the South, the stagnant South one might almost say, 
 in comparison with the two other divisions, though even 
 here things are in progress. But the actual rate of advance 
 is slower. A rough indication of the difference is afforded 
 by the amount of voluntary contributions last year for 
 educational purposes. Of some 28,000,000 dollars thus 
 given according to one authority, only 1,000,000 was sub- 
 scribed south of the Mason and Dixie line that forms the 
 boundary between North and South. 
 
 Within these rough divisions of East, West, and South 
 there further exists the most amazing variety in the systems 
 of local control, and the methods of teaching and organiza- 
 tion. It must be always remembered that in education each 
 state is a law unto itself ; there is no such thing as federal 
 
292 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 oversight or jurisdiction, the Bureau of Education being 
 merely a clearing-house for the collection of statistics and 
 the dissemination of information. This variety is specially 
 observable in the spirit in which school reform is under- 
 taken by the different states. In Massachusetts the legis- 
 lative power is only invoked to confer the sanction of the 
 law on any scheme of school reform, when the reform itself 
 has already been virtually carried out by private initiative, 
 and merely awaits rounding off and ratification. One of 
 the most typical instances of this is the recent substitution 
 of the larger area of the township for the small district 
 authority, which was only legally adopted when all the 
 numerous districts save four had voluntarily surrendered 
 their autonomy. In New York and Pennsylvania the belief 
 in the virtues of parliamentary enactment is stronger, and 
 educational laws have been passed in the hope of giving a 
 lead to popular opinion by attaching the prestige of public 
 sanction to reforms which have not always sufficiently 
 entered into the manners and customs of the people, with 
 the result that the laws in question have not always been 
 a complete success. It is probable that the difference in 
 this case is due to the native genius of the different peoples. 
 Massachusetts is Independent in origin and traditions ; 
 New York is largely German and Celtic. The one naturally 
 lays more stress on the efficacy of private initiative, and 
 prefers the looser forms of authority, the other believes in 
 the puissance of the state and the blessings of a more 
 centralized form of government. 
 
 Yet in spite of the extensive diversity in the form and 
 spirit of educational effort in the different states, there is, 
 none the less, one common trait which makes the whole 
 school-world in America kin. It is the fervent belief of 
 American democracy in its schools, which is only to be 
 matched by that of the schools in American democracy. 
 This action and reaction of the school and the community 
 on one another is one of the greatest levers towards progress 
 imaginable. The bodily shape that this belief takes is that 
 of having a common form of graduated schools which, while 
 they naturally vary in standard according to the locality, 
 
A VIEW OF AMERICAN EDUCATION 293 
 
 lead up regularly one into another from the kindergarten 
 (where it exists) to the primary school, from the primary 
 school to the high school, from the high school to the college, 
 and thence to the University. Elementary and secondary 
 instruction alike are free in accordance with the democratic 
 creed that, given equaUty of opportunity, the man who is 
 worth his salt is certain to come to the front. This poHcy of 
 the open door in education, through which the able children 
 of the poorer classes have risen and can rise to positions of 
 wealth, has, no doubt, greatly contributed to the expansion 
 of the United States. But most thoughtful persons will also 
 admit it has been largely conditioned by it. In European 
 countries where the rate of expansion is far slower, notably 
 in France, and even in such a quick-developing country as 
 Germany, we see the State obHged to organize the selection 
 of careers in order to prevent or diminish overcrowding in 
 the liberal professions. Democratic France has deliberately 
 technicalized her higher primary schools, while the State in 
 Germany, in establishing a scholastic monopoly, has adopted 
 the most drastic measures for the elimination of the unfit. 
 Now, even if the United States continues to expand materi- 
 ally as quickly as heretofore, there are not wanting many 
 competent judges who believe that the opportunity for 
 getting on is not nearly so great as it was thirty years ago. 
 Of what avail is it to keep the school door wide open, if the 
 door out into the world is closing ? However efficient the 
 school may be, it cannot make chances, it can only prepare 
 its alumni to take them when offered. One cannot bring 
 off a catch unless the ball comes one's way. Should America, 
 therefore, persist in her splendid endeavour to give each 
 child that stays on in her schools a general education, the 
 question naturally arises, is she not in the long run hkely 
 to raise up that undesirable hybrid that other nations have 
 produced — a literary proletariat. 
 
 For the present, it must be admitted, there do not appear 
 to be any very disquieting signs. The introduction of 
 manual training into the schools looks like safeguarding the 
 pupils against any excessive appreciation of the merely 
 literary studies. One important factor that profoundly 
 
294 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 modifies the American problem is that commerce is not 
 generally looked down on socially as it is in most European 
 countries. There is Httle of the cant of soiHng one's hands 
 with trade, which, on the contrary, is rather regarded as 
 one of the chief avenues to success. Again, the American 
 pupil, thanks either to the school or society, is highly adapt- 
 able. One is constantly meeting men in America who have 
 studied for one career, and taken up another. The highest 
 University honours will not prevent the most brilliant 
 American scholar from entering commerce, perhaps because 
 the biggest prizes are to be found in it. The classic instance 
 is that of Mr. Pierpont Morgan, whose attainments in mathe- 
 matics were such as to induce the authorities at Gottingen 
 to offer him a University lectureship. As long, then, as 
 the clever American is wilHng to turn his hand to what 
 pays best, the natural selection will be made separately by 
 each individual, and there will be no need for the State to 
 intervene. 
 
 One of the most remarkable proofs of the belief of the 
 whole nation in its schools is, that the fact of their being 
 open to the lower orders does not prevent their being patron- 
 ized by the better classes, who freely send their children to 
 these schools. Private schools naturally exist in America, 
 and have undoubtedly increased during the last decade. 
 Yet, according to the latest figures published by the Bureau 
 of Education, the high schools have increased in far greater 
 proportion, which shows that the Separatist tendency is not 
 growing at anything like the same rate as the general desire 
 for higher education. 
 
 This interest of the wealthier classes in education does not 
 end here. Nothing is more noteworthy than the way in 
 which there has been a positive stampede among million- 
 aires to devote a liberal share of their immense fortunes to 
 the cause of education. It seems as if, as an American has 
 remarked, it will soon be considered a crime for a man to die 
 rich. Certainly one must go back to the benefactors of the 
 Middle Ages to find such a constant flow of munificent en- 
 dowments. Mr. Carnegie's princely liberaHty is known in 
 the two hemispheres. Only this year the President at Har- 
 
A VIEW OF AMERICAN EDUCATION 295 
 
 vard read out at Commencement a list of donations to the 
 University of over a million and a half dollars, and the same 
 day at Yale the President of the college announced the com- 
 pletion of their two-million-dollar fund. How small in 
 comparison with this is the 60,000 odd pounds collected for 
 Cambridge University ! Some unkind persons have sug- 
 gested that this outburst of generosity on the part of Ameri- 
 can millionaires is due to the desire to obtain a lien on the 
 teaching of the Universities. It is impossible to read the 
 hearts of men, but it may, at least, be stated that in many 
 cases the money has been given for objects into which the 
 teaching of such debatable subjects as political economy or 
 social science do not enter at all. On the other hand, this 
 close connection between the schools and the leaders of 
 commerce is an object-lesson to many other countries, in 
 which the teachers and merchants, instead of laying their 
 heads together and finding the necessary compromise be- 
 tween the apparently conflicting claims of a hberal and 
 business education, spend most of their time in mutual 
 recrimination. 
 
 The belief of the schools in American Democracy is best 
 illustrated by the thorough fashion with which the American 
 school takes the child of the stranger within her gates 
 whether German or Hungarian, Norwegian or Italian, and 
 transforms him heart and soul into a real American citizen. 
 While nearly all European states are troubled by racial 
 difficulties and dissensions, the common school has saved 
 and is saving the United States from one of the thorniest of 
 problems in the Old World. 
 
 The principal characteristic which marks off American 
 from European schools is the presence of the female sex in 
 their midst, both as pupils and teachers. Co-education is 
 the rule, except in the New England States, where it is not 
 universal. The great mass of independent witness seems to 
 be in its favour, though there is not wanting a certain type 
 of critic, who urges that after all if the school is a prepara- 
 tion for life, the life that the majority of girl pupils will have 
 to lead is that of the wife and the mother, and that the 
 training for this state of life should not be completely sacri- 
 
296 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 ficed in the higher classes by giving the girls identical 
 courses of study with those of the boys. Be that as it may, 
 it is probably certain that co-education renders women more 
 self-possessed and self-reliant, while the higher instruction 
 they receive makes them the equal, if not, as some assert, 
 the superior of the male sex. Certainly, owing to their 
 greater freedom from work, they are far more able to con- 
 tinue their artistic and literary education in after-life than 
 the American man. To take a single instance, it is estimated 
 that SS per cent, of the patrons of American theatres are 
 women. There seems, in fact, some show of danger, that if 
 the American woman continues to enjoy this preferential 
 treatment, she may, by virtue of her intellectual and artistic 
 superiority, end by substituting for the existing ideals in 
 American life, which are naturally preponderatingly mascu- 
 line, those to which her own sex attach the greater import- 
 ance, with the result that the American nation may one day 
 see itself converted into one of what Bismarck used to call 
 the feminine nations. In this trans valuation of values the 
 American woman is likely to be unconsciously aided and 
 abetted by the female teachers who, apparently for econo- 
 mic reasons, have largely ousted the male element from the 
 teaching profession. It must be clear to everyone that a 
 woman's method of managing a class, even in so simple a 
 matter as keeping order, must from the mere force of things 
 be radically different from that of a man, especially in the 
 older classes. The power behind the female teacher's desk 
 lies in an appeal to the boys to respect her sex, if she does 
 not still further rely on her natural attractions as a woman ; 
 whereas the male teacher in the government of his class 
 rather sets before them the necessity of obedience for the 
 sake of obedience, of loyalty to an ideal and not to a sex, 
 of reverence for the strong rather than a respect for the 
 weak, and in his manners and conduct, his obiter dicta, his 
 general criticisms, his passing judgments on men and 
 matters, he insensibly moulds his class to look at things in a 
 certain masculine fashion, which a woman does not possess. 
 It is just perhaps in this question of judgment that the 
 difference goes as deep as anywhere. The mind of the male 
 
A VIEW OF AMERICAN EDUCATION 297 
 
 teacher is essentially arranged on a logical plan ; women, 
 on the other hand, however gifted, are rather intuitive 
 than severely rational. Hence the boy pupil, who comes too 
 exclusively under female teaching, will probably in some 
 things be more sensitive to influence and suggestion than 
 his harder-headed brother, but, on the other hand, he will 
 be more deficient in mental balance and logical power. 
 There appear to be already signs of this deficiency showing 
 in the American schools in those classes where the pupil is 
 passing from the receptive age to the age of reason. The 
 American teaching, admirable as it is, in rendering the child 
 sensitive to externals, and aiding his senses to store up 
 abundantly a mass of mental impressions, seems halting and 
 inconclusive just at the point where the transition has to be 
 made in the pupil from the state of sensuous to that of 
 logical knowledge, which means the setting in order and 
 arranging the previously gathered stores of facts and deduc- 
 ing from them the truths contained in their newly framed 
 formulae. 
 
 One of the most difficult problems in the States is the 
 negro question. In the North the problem is not so acute. 
 The whites are everywhere in a majority, and the coloured 
 people, if not admitted to the best hotels, are allowed to 
 enter the pubhc conveyances and the public schools without 
 being segregated into separate compartments and class- 
 rooms. But south of the old slave line the whole racial 
 question, according to many competent judges, is as strong 
 as ever. Its sundering effects are seen in every domain of 
 Ufe, not excepting education. Not only the negroes, but 
 all who possess the faintest suspicion of black blood in their 
 veins, are obhged to go to separate schools, if there are 
 separate schools to go to, and any attempt at co-educating 
 the two races is looked on as impossible. The idea of ulti- 
 mate fusion between the two races would be scouted even 
 by the most ardent aboHtionists, many of whom would 
 never give their own children in marriage to a person of 
 colour, and indeed in some states marriages between white 
 and black are punishable by law. Nor does the idea of 
 equahty between the two races seem aught but a distant 
 
298 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 dream. The very political equality that the negroes possess 
 according to the constitution is one of the most formid- 
 able bars to finding a satisfactory modus vivendi with the 
 Southern whites, who will never recognize this equality in 
 fact, and are at present actively engaged in trying to discover 
 some way of legalizing the disfranchisement of the black 
 voter which has hitherto been largely effected by intimida- 
 tion. So hopeless does the outlook seem to many that they 
 fall back on saying, the problem being a Southern one, the 
 South as being best acquainted with all its bearings must 
 work out the solution for itself. The only chance of im- 
 provement appears to lie in raising the moral and mental 
 condition of the negro. The chief obstacle to this is the 
 high percentage of illiteracy among them, and their com- 
 parative lack of energy and enterprise. It is only fair to 
 add that they are debarred from the exercise of many 
 callings through the refusal of the majority of trade unions 
 to admit men of colour as members, which naturally pre- 
 vents them working on any job on which union men are 
 engaged. One of the most promising movements for the 
 regeneration of the negro is the great educational work with 
 which the name of Booker T. Washington, who is himself 
 a negro, is identified. He frankly admits that for the 
 present, at any rate, the negro had better resign his claims 
 to exercise the franchise, or at least leave them in abeyance. 
 Let the negro show he can be a useful member of society, 
 and society will find a place for him. With this idea in view 
 he advocates the establishment throughout the South of 
 industrial schools for coloured children, while to raise the 
 moral status of the negro a great effort is being made to 
 improve the standard of the Afro-American preachers, who, 
 as Mr. Booker T. Washington says, exercise a tremendous 
 influence over the masses of their race. 
 
 It is curious to note that while we in England are attempt- 
 ing to-day to bring the local authorities into closer touch 
 with the schools, the tendency in the States seems to be in 
 the direction of placing the school outside politics. Not the 
 least interesting chapter in American education is that 
 which deals with the long and victorious struggle by which 
 
A VIEW OF AMERICAN EDUCATION 299 
 
 American democracy, in order to safeguard itself against 
 itself, has been driven to call in the aid of the expert. In a 
 recent official publication a writer on educational organiza- 
 tion wrote as follows : "In the City of Buffalo, New York 
 State, the school affairs are managed by a committee 
 appointed by the city council, but happily the case stands 
 by itself, and the evil consequences possible under such a 
 scheme have been much ameliorated ... by a most ex- 
 cellent superintendent." Probably both America and 
 England have adopted the right course in each case. The 
 Americans having harnessed the Niagara of popular enthu- 
 siasm to these schools, have less need of these local stimuli ; 
 while, owing to the lack of any strong national movement 
 in favour of education, we are now attempting to hitch the 
 schools on to the forces that He at the back of local patriot- 
 ism. This should not, however, confirm us in our disbelief 
 in the expert, who both locally and centrally is indispensable. 
 If we compare the attitude to-day of the parent in every 
 country towards the school with what it was fifty years ago, 
 we shall be at once struck with the great and increasing 
 claims made on the school. On the one hand we have the 
 ever-growing demand to bring the school into touch with 
 the future Uvelihood of the child, and on the other, with the 
 loosening of home discipline and the weakening of dogmatic 
 belief, the role of the school as the chief factor in education 
 is being augmented at an alarming rate. To take the latter 
 side of the school's work first. It is probable in the near 
 future that the undenominational school in every country 
 will be compelled willy-nilly to give a more distinct and 
 definite ethical cast to its instruction. Under the stress of 
 modern competition the American father is often unable to 
 exercise effective oversight over his child's bringing up. 
 Early away in the morning, late home at night, he frequently 
 passes the whole day without seeing his child except for a 
 few moments. The women again are often absorbed in 
 other pursuits. In this case the school becomes more and 
 more the sponsor for the child's upbringing and education. 
 In the long run the teaching of civics and morality will 
 probably form as large a part of the American school's 
 
( 
 
 ( 
 
 300 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 curriculum as it does in France. Already there is a strong 
 forward movement towards the definite teaching of patriot- 
 ism and the introduction of military drill, in order that, as 
 Mr. Rogers has picturesquely said, the future citizen may 
 know how to fight, either with ballot-boxes or bullets. 
 Whether American education, with its passion for text- 
 books, will ultimately evolve a regular series of lay cate- 
 chisms on morality as France has done is yet to be seen, but 
 unless Roman Catholicism, like a troisieme larron, steps in 
 to profit by the decay of the Protestant sects in the States, 
 the American teacher of the future seems likely to be 
 entrusted, whether he will or no, with the spiritual ministra- 
 tion of the souls committed to his charge. One thing is 
 certainly true. The murder of President McKinley has 
 immensely strengthened the hands of those who desire to 
 increase the moral influence and authority of the school. 
 
 As regards the growing demand for bringing the school 
 into closer touch with the after-career of the pupil, the 
 American schools so far have sturdily maintained the para- 
 mount necessity of laying a firm basis of general education, 
 and refused to sacrifice the education of the citizen to the 
 training of the worker. This has not prevented them, in 
 technical education, from introducing specialization and 
 ^that of a very high order, but they have carefully kept it 
 till the end of the pupil's career ; there is none of the 
 smattering of technical instruction in immature pupils 
 which has had such an unhappy vogue in England. In 
 commercial education they have strangely enough done less 
 than what has been effected in some European states. 
 The reason for this is, that hitherto they have been content 
 to secure for themselves the home market. With the present 
 growth of their foreign trade they will soon feel the need of 
 raising a special army of well-trained commercial travellers, 
 thoroughly versed in modern languages, while their future 
 captains of industry will also require to be more highly 
 educated not in the practice but in the theory of business, 
 or economics as it is called. Most of the so-called business 
 colleges are rather devoted to the teaching of actual practice 
 and the lower arts of commerce, but once the Americans 
 
A VIEW OF AMERICAN EDUCATION 301 
 
 realize the need for a greater number of higher institutions 
 they are sure to speedily supply the missing article. In no 
 country is the distance between cup and lip shorter than in 
 America. The difference between the average Englishman 
 of to-day and the typical American seems to be that the 
 Englishman has to grumble over a deficiency till he has 
 talked himself over into supplying it. With the American 
 a want has often only to be noticed to be at once met and 
 remedied. 
 
 American education, as we have already seen, varies 
 greatly. It possesses, no doubt, a " certain tail." A school 
 in the backwoods cannot obviously compare with one of the 
 latest scholastic palaces erected by the city of New York. 
 Like every other nation America has its educational prob- 
 lems, of which a few have here been noticed, yet the com- 
 parative youth of the country has not allowed any of them, 
 with the exception of the negro question, to become either 
 acute or chronic as is the case with those in older lands. 
 There are three things which are essential not only to the 
 military but also to the educational forces of a country : 
 money, men who are ready to go anywhere and do anything, 
 and an experienced leader. The educational forces of 
 America are fully equipped in this respect. They can count 
 on being fully supplied with the sinews of war, their per- 
 sonnel is singularly enterprising and enthusiastic, and in 
 the present head of their Education Bureau they possess 
 one who may well be described as the Nestor of education- 
 ists. The reverse of a roi faineant, who rules but does not 
 govern. Dr. Harris governs because he does not rule. His 
 writ " runs in no state," yet is read in all. His direct 
 jurisdiction over American education is nil, yet, unoffi- 
 cially, he exercises over the minds and souls of the teachers 
 all the spiritual suzerainty of an educational pontiff. Year 
 by year he has been inculcating the deepest philosophical 
 principles into the thousands who have sat at his feet at 
 the great annual conventions, or have eagerly devoured the 
 educational encyclicals which have issued in such profusion 
 from the Bureau at Washington. No one can estimate, yet 
 the most superficial observer can discern, the enormous 
 
302 STUDIES IN FOREIGN EDUCATION 
 
 effect such a course of informal philosophy has had on the 
 present generation of American teachers. It has acted as 
 a sort of gigantic conservation of spiritual forces, giving to 
 the American teacher a kind of philosophic balance which, 
 while it does not shut his mind against new experiments, 
 prevents him from being too easily led away by the craving 
 for novelty. 1 
 
 ^ Note. — (1913.) The suggestion that the Americans in the 
 changing conditions at home and abroad might find it necessary to 
 modify their theories as to the sufficiency of a general education has 
 been and is being verified in a remarkable fashion. When the writer, 
 after an absence of seven years, again visited the country, he found 
 nearly all the leading authorities won over to the general principles 
 of the vocational education he had come over to advocate. There 
 seemed to be a strong consensus of opinion that education must 
 henceforth prepare for liveUhood as well as for life, or, in other words, 
 we must train the average man to be a producer as well as a citizen. 
 Two other important impressions of the author's visit were the 
 training of the American boy in the art of self-expression, with special 
 reference to the mother-tongue, and the kindred fact that the 
 American school seeks to develop an individual, while we are too 
 often concerned with turning out examination products whose 
 learning, alas! speedily evaporates after leaving school. 
 
 GLASGOW : PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD. 
 
A Selection 
 
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 including 
 
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 This course is in accord with the methods now advocated 
 by leading educationists, and it is found to give results 
 impossible under any other system. It is recommended by 
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 Part I. — The Sentence and the Parts of Speech. 
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 most skilful and original teacher would find it an admirable 
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 3 
 
 BUSINESS ENGLISH AND OFFICE 
 
 ROUTINE 
 
 By A. Mercer. Crown 8vo, 200 pages, with Index, is. 6d. net. 
 
 This book has been specially prepared for use in Evening and Commercial Schools. 
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 Accidence, and the examples and exercises are nearly all culled from recent examina- 
 tion papers. It is hoped thus, that it will supply a long-felt want in the teaching of 
 this subject in evening schools. 
 
 It will be found to meet the requirements of the syllabuses in English of the National 
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 This book is intended for those who have received the usual elementary grounding in 
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 ent judgment on the part of the pupil. 
 
 PRINCIPAL CONTENTS 
 
 I. Origin of Eng-lish. 
 II. Native and Foreign Words. 
 III. The Celts and the Scandians. 
 
 iV. The Influence of Latin: (i) The Roman Occupation; (2) 
 Introduction of Christianity ; (3) Early Literature ; (4) The 
 Norman Conquest ; (5) The Revival of Learning-. 
 V. How iEnglisc became English. 
 
 VI. The Influence of various Languages : (i) Upon English 
 Literature ; (2) Upon the English Vocabulary. 
 VII. The Influence of the French Revolution. 
 VIII. The Spread of English to other Lands: The Field of 
 English Literature. 
 
 The poems introduced for study range from Chaucer to Swinburne. They are 
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 Chapter T. — Some Ways of Studying Literature. Chapter IL — 
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 — The Study of Criticism and the Valuation of Literature. 
 
 "It forms an interesting and stimulating companion and supplement to the ordinary 
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 5 
 
 HEATH'S ENGLISH CLASSICS 
 
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 
 
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 2s. 6d. net. 
 The Spanish Gipsie and All's Lost by Lust E. C. Morris, 
 
 M.A. 2s. 6d. net. 
 D'Avenant's Love and Honor and The Siege of Rhodes. J. W. 
 
 TuppER, Ph.D. 2s. 6d. net. 
 Shelley's The Cenci. Prof. G. E. Woodberry. 2s. 6d. net. 
 The Knight of the Burning Pestle and A King and No King. 
 
 Prof. R. M. Alden. 2s. 6d. net. 
 Dryden's All for Love and The Spanish Fryar. Prof. Wm. 
 
 Strunk. 2s. 6d. net. 
 Sejanus and Catiline. By Ben Jonson. Edited, with Intro- 
 duction, etc., by W. D. Briggs, Ph.D. 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 Section IV. — Literary Criticism and Critical Theory 
 
 Gray's Essays and Criticisms. Edited by C. S. Northup, Ph.D. 
 
 2s. 6d. net. 
 Shelley's Defence of Poetry and Browning's Essay on Shelley. 
 
 Edited by L. Winstanley. 2s. net. 
 
 Section VI.— Nineteenth Century Poets 
 
 Select Poems of Percy Bysshe Shellev. Prof. G. E. Wood- 
 berry. 2s. 6d. net. 
 
HARRAP'S LIST OF BOOKS ON THE 
 
 An Entirely New Series. Just Ready 
 
 To Meet the requirements of the Board of Education 
 
 Extract from the Official Circular No. 753 ^« " The Teaching 
 
 of English " : 
 
 '* In every class repetition from memory should form an essential part 
 of the instruction in Literature. There is no reason for restricting learn- 
 ing by heart to poetry, as is commonly done ; passages of good prose should 
 be learnt by heart also. Nor need all the pupils in a class invariably learn 
 the same piece." 
 
 A TREASURY OF PROSE 
 AND POETRY 
 
 For Learning by Heart 
 
 In six Graded Parts. 
 Compiled by Amy Barter. 
 
 Part I., 64 pages. Stiff paper, 46., limp cloth, 5d. 
 
 Parts II to v., 96 pages each. Stiff paper, 5d., limp cloth, 6d. 
 
 Part VI., 128 pages. Stiff paper, 6d., limp cloth, 8d. 
 
 A Special Prospectus of this New Series will be sent post free 
 
 on application 
 
 From the Compiler's Foreword. — Youth is the time in which to 
 store the memory with treasures which shall serve for delight and refresh- 
 ment in later years. In youth the tablets of the memory are of soft wax, 
 and all that is written thereon goes deep. Every noble passage we learn 
 in our youth becomes a permanent possession adding to our riches 
 throughout our lives. The more good books we read, the more of these 
 noble passages we shall find. In youth we often fail to realise the import- 
 ance of reading the great works which contain these treasures, and boys 
 and girls are often content to store their minds with material which, 
 though good in itself, is not worthy of its place as part of their mental 
 equipment as long as their lives shall last. It is to help them in this 
 matter that these little books have been compiled. 
 
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 9 
 
 " The ' Treasury of Verse ^ is excellent. I have 
 never seen so inieresting a collection. The 
 ' Treasury of Ballads,'' too, is admirably chosen." 
 — M. L. Banks, M.A,, Malvern College. 
 
 A TREASURY OF VERSE FOR 
 SCHOOL AND HOME 
 
 Edited by M. G. Edgar, M.A. 
 
 In Six Parts. 
 
 Part I., 128 pages, sewed, 6d., or cloth boards, 8d. ; 
 Part II., 128 pages, sewed, 6d., or cloth boards, 8d. ; 
 Part III., 160 pages, cloth boards, lod. ; 
 Part IV., 192 pages, cloth boards, is. ; 
 
 Part v.. Ballads, 192 pages, new edition, cloth boards, is. ; 
 Part VI.. Elizabethan Lyrics, 144 pages, cloth boards, is. 
 (Edited by A. Barter.) 
 
 This course of school poetry can be unreservedly recommended as the 
 best series which has yet appeared. It has secured enthusiastic appre- 
 ciation for its freshness and width of range. As regards the former, no 
 expense or trouble has been spared to make the series adequately repre- 
 sentative of the best copyright verse, and among the many living authors 
 whose poetry has been included are the following : — 
 
 Oliver Herford, Gabriel Setoun, Norman Gale, Judge Parry, F. D. 
 Sherman, W. Canton, Fred. E. VVeatherly, J. J. Bell, Will. H. Ogilvie, 
 G. F. Bradby, Rudyard Kipling, Alfred Noyes, Gerald Gould, Henry 
 Newbolt, W. B. Yeats, Austin Dobson, Alfred Austin, Arthur 
 O'Shaiighnessy, R. C. Lehmann, Walter C. Smith, etc., etc. 
 
 The School World says: — "Remarkable for pieces which are not 
 usually met with. . . . We should have liked still more of the unknown 
 work ; for as it is, it reads like a new book." 
 
 "The compilation is excellently done, and should meet with a good 
 reception. . . . Part One should be of real value in suggesting early to 
 the infant mind a taste for what is good in verse. . . . There is always 
 a fascination in a collection of ballads, and to this rule M. G. Edgar's is 
 no exception." — Athenceum. 
 
 "The style of the verse selected is just the thing for active-limbed 
 and active-minded boys and girls. The tone is healthy, the sentiment 
 cheerful. We prefer these selections to any we have seen. Each volume 
 is large enough to serve for a session." — The Secomiary School Journal. 
 
 A Prospectus containing- Lists of the Poems, Specimen 
 Pages, etc., will be sent post free upon application. 
 
lo HARRAP'S LIST OF BOOKS ON THE 
 
 THE RIVERSIDE LITERATURE 
 
 SERIES 
 
 With Introduction, Notes , etc. Crown %vo. 
 
 Chaucer; Prologue, The Knight's Tale, and 
 
 The Nun's Priest's Tale 
 
 Edited by Prof. F. J. Mather, Ph.D. is. 6d. 
 **It is, we think, the best edition extant for the beginner." — Modem 
 Language Review. 
 
 Chaucer : Prologue 
 
 From the above, is, 
 Spenser ; The Faerie Queene, Book I. 
 
 Edited by M. H. Shackford, Ph.D. is. 6d. 
 Beowulf and the Finnesburh Fragment 
 
 Translated, with an Introductory Sketch and Notes, by Prof. C. G. 
 Child, is. 
 
 The Song of Roland 
 
 Translated into English Prose by Isabel Butler. With Appendices 
 and Notes. Crown 8vo. is. 6d. 
 
 Malory's The Book of Merlin and 
 The Book of Sir Balin 
 
 With Caxton's Preface. Edited by Prof. C. G. Child. Crown 8vo. is. 
 
 Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha 
 
 With Notes, Vocabulary, and an Account of a Visit to Hiawatha's 
 People, by Alice M. Longfellow. Illustrated by Frederick 
 Remington. Crown 8vo. is. 6d. 
 * ^* This edition of Longfellow's Hiawatha is the authorised edition 
 published by arrangement with the Author's family. 
 
 Popular Ballads : English and Scottish 
 
 Selected and Edited by R. A. Witham, with a Preface by Prof. W. 
 A. Neilson, Harvard University. With Introduction, Glossary, 
 and Notes. xlii+ 1 88 pages. Crown 8vo. is. 3d. 
 
 Shelley's Poems 
 
 Selected and Edited by Prof. G. IL Clarke, M.A. With Intro- 
 duction, Notes, and Bibliography, lxxii + 266 pages. Crown 8vo. 
 IS. 6d. 
 
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE ii 
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY 
 
 SERIES 
 
 By Katharine Elizabeth Dopp, Ph.D. 
 Announcement 
 
 The purpose of this series is to render available for general use, the subject-matter 
 which readily lends itself to those forms of practical activity which are seeking ex- 
 pression in the child, and which at the same time represents social experience of a 
 fundamental character. This subject-matter, which includes the most significant steps 
 in the early development of our industrial and social institutions, is not only so closely 
 related to the child's experience as to be readily appreciated and controlled by him, 
 but it is of profound significance as a means of interpreting the complex life of the 
 present. 
 
 I. The Tree- Dwellers The Age of Fear 
 
 Illustrated with a map, 15 full-page and 60 text drawings in balf-tone 
 by Howard V. Brown. Limp cloth, large crown 8vo, 128 pages. 
 
 IS. 
 
 This volume makes clear to the child how people lived before they had fire, ho\y and 
 why they conquered it, and the changes wrought in society by its use. The simple 
 activities of gathering food, of weaving, building, taming fire, making use of the body 
 for tools and weapons and wearing trophies, are here shown to be the simple forms of 
 processes which still minister to our daily needs. 
 
 II. The Early Cave- Men The Age of Combat 
 
 Illustrated with 75 drawings in half-tone by Howard V. Brown. 
 
 Limp cloth, large crown Svo, 160 pages, is. 3d. 
 
 In this volume the child is helped to realise that it is not only necessary to know how 
 to use fire, but to know how to make it. Protection from the cold winters, which char- 
 acterise the age described, is sought first in caves ; but fire is a necessary means of 
 defending the caves. 
 
 III. The Later Cave-Men The Age of the Chase 
 
 Illustrated with no drawings in half-tone by Howard V. Brown. 
 
 Limp cloth, large crown Svo, 180 pages, is. 3d. 
 
 Here is portrayed the influence of man's presence upon wild animals. Man's fear 
 which, with the conquest of fire, gave way to courage, has resulted in his mastery of 
 many mechanical appliances and in the development of social' co-operation, which so 
 increases his power as to make him an object of fear to the animals. Since the wild 
 animals now try to escape from man's presence, there is a greater demand made upon 
 man's ingenuity than ever before in supplying his daily food. 
 
 Suggestions to Teachers 
 
 Upon the Use of the three Books in the Industrial and Social 
 History Series. Crown Svo, 128 pages. Price is. 6d. net. 
 
t2 HARRAP'S LIST OF BOOKS ON THE 
 
 HARRAP'S DRAMATIC HISTORY 
 
 READERS 
 
 (IN FIVE BOOKS) 
 Edited by Fred E. Melton. Fully Illustrated 
 
 This Series is designed to make English History a living thing, and to utilise the 
 dramatic instinct which all children possess. The author is an enthusiastic teacher, 
 and the scenes in these volumes have all been tested in the class-room. 
 
 NOW READY 
 
 Book I. — The Tree People to the end of the Roman Occupation. 128 
 pages. Illustrated, cloth limp, 6cl. 
 
 Book II. — The Coming of the Saxons to Ilereward the Wake. 128 
 pages. Illustrated, cloth limp, 6d. 
 
 Book III. — The Reign of William the Conqueror to the Decay of 
 Feudalism (Crecy). 160 pages. Illustrated, cloth limp, lod. 
 
 Book IV. — Edward III. to the end of the Tudors. 224 pages. Illus- 
 trated, cloth boards, is. 3d. 
 
 Book V. — James I. to the Reign of Queen Victoria. 224 pages. 
 Illustrated, cloth boards, is. 3d. 
 
 In Preparation. — A Teachers' Guide to Dramatic History. 
 
 A Special Prospectus, including Specimen Pages, etc., of the above, will 
 
 be sent to any address. 
 
 BIOGRAPHY 
 
 In Tudor Times 
 
 By Edith L. Eli as, M.A. With 16 Full-page Portraits. 256 
 pp. with Index, is. 6d. Prize Edition, 2s. 6d. net. 
 A Series of short biographies containing graphic sketches of the leading characters of 
 
 the Tudor period. The book is divided into five phases — (i) The Kingship ; (2) The 
 
 Church ; (3) The Sea; (4) The Court ; (5) The Renaissance. 
 
 In Stewart Times 
 
 By Edith L. Elias, M.A. With i6 Full-page Portraits. 260 
 pages, with Index, is. 6d. Prize Edition, 2s. 6d. net. 
 The book is divided into five phases — (i) The Kingship and the Protectorate; (a) 
 The State ; (3) The Army ; (4) The Church ; (5) Science and the Fine Arts. 
 
 In Georgian Times 
 
 By Edith L. "'Elias, M.A. Uniform with the above in style and 
 price. 
 
 Ancient Peoples and their Heroes 
 Modern Nations and their Famous Men 
 
 By H. B. NiVER. Each volume uniform in style and price. Fully 
 Illustrated. 192 pages each volume. Crown 8vn, cloih boards, is. 
 each. Prize Edition, is. 6d. net each. 
 
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 13 
 
 TOLD THROUGH THE AGES 
 
 Large Crown %vo. 256//. 16 Plates. Cloth^ \s. bd. 
 
 A series of books of entrancing interest for young readers which has 
 become thoroughly established in favour. Designed to include those 
 epics and stories of the past which have survived the chances of time, 
 reflecting as they do, the genius of the nations which gave them birth. 
 
 The illustrations include reproductions from the best works of famous 
 English and Continental artists. 
 
 LIST OF SERIES 
 
 1. Legends of Greece and Rome 
 
 2. Favourite Greek Myths 
 
 3. Stories of Robin Hood and his Merry Outlaws 
 
 4. Stories of King Arthur and his Knights 
 
 5. Stories from Herodotus 
 
 6. Stories from Wagner 
 
 7. Britain Long Ago. Stories from Old English and Celtic 
 
 Sources 
 
 8. Stories from Scottish History. Retold from Tales of a 
 
 Grandfather. 
 
 9. Stories from Greek Tragedy 
 
 0. Stories from Dickens 
 
 1. Stories from the Earthly Paradise 
 
 2. Stories from the i^neid. Retold from Virgil 
 
 3. The Book of Rustem. Stories of Persian Heroes 
 
 4. Stories from Chaucer 
 
 5. Stories from the Old Testament 
 
 6. Stories from the Odyssey 
 
 7. Stories from the Iliad 
 
 8. Told by the Northmen. From the Eddas and Sagas. 
 
 9. Stories from Don Quixote 
 
 20. The Story of Roland and the Peers of Charlemagne 
 
 21. Stories from Thucydides 
 
 22. The Story of Hereward 
 
 23. Stories from the Faerie Queene 
 
 24. Cuchulain : The Hound of Ulster 
 
 25. Stories from Xenophori 
 
 26. Old Greek Nature Stories 
 
 27. Stories from Shakespeare 
 
 28. Stories from Dante 
 
 29. Famous Voyages of the Great Discoverers 
 
 30. The Story of Napoleon 
 
 31. Stories of Pendennis and the Charterhouse. Selected from 
 Thackeray. 
 
 32. Sir Guy of Warwick 
 
 33. Heroes of the Middle Ages. Alaric to Columbus. 
 
 34. The Story of the Crusades 
 
14 HARRAP'S LIST OF BOOKS ON THE 
 
 ALL-TIME TALES 
 
 A new Series of Supplementary Readers on the lines of the Suggestions 
 from the English and Scottish Education Departments. 
 
 Each Reader contains at least eight Full-page Illustrations. The type 
 chosen is clear and pleasing. The binding is limp cloth strengthened 
 with tapes. The size is full crown 8vo, 7 J x 5 inches. 
 
 N.B.— A Prize Edition of this Series is issued uniform in size and thickness. 
 Cloth boards, grilt, with Frontispiece in colour, is. net. 
 
 1. Old Celtic Tales. 128 pages, 6d. 
 
 2. Northland Heroes. 128 pages, 6d. 
 
 3. The Story of Siegfried. 128 pages, 6d. 
 
 4. Tales from the Eddas. 160 pages, gd. 
 
 5. Tales from Chaucer. 160 pages, gd. 
 
 6. Tales of Early England. 160 pages, gd. 
 
 7. Fables and Nursery Tales. 176 pages, 9d. 
 
 8. A Book of Nature Myths. 160 pages, gd. 
 
 9. The Wonderful Voyages of Gulliver. 160 pages, gd. 
 
 10. The Adventures of the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid. 
 
 160 pages, gd. 
 
 11. The Adventures of Deerslayer. 160 pages, gd. 
 
 12. Gisli the Outlaw. 160 pages, gd. 
 
 13. Old Greek Folk Stories. 160 pages, gd. 
 
 14. The Argonauts. 128 pages, 6d. 
 
 15. Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare, Book One. 
 
 1 28 pages, 6d. 
 
 16. Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare, Book Twa 
 
 128 pages, 6d. 
 
 17. Tales from Dickens. 128 pages, 6d. 
 
 18. Tales from William Morris. 160 pages, gd. 
 ig. Tales of Wallace and Bruce. 128 pages, 6d. 
 
 20. Tales from Malory. 128 pages, 6d. 
 
 21. Northland Sagas. 160 pages, 6d. 
 
 22. Heroes of Old Britain. 128 pages, 6d. 
 
 23. Tales from the Kalevala. 160 pages, gd. 
 
 24. Fairy Tales and Story Poems. 160 pages, gd. 
 
 25. The Last of the Mohicans. 160 pages, gd. 
 
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 15 
 
 NATURE STUDY 
 
 The Hiawatha Primer 
 
 By Florence Holbrook. With 8 Full-page Illustrations in Colour 
 and many in Black and White, Appendix containing Suggestions to 
 Teachers, and Vocabulary, 8x5! in., is. 6d. Prize Edition, 
 Picture Cover, 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 " Many teachers will be glad to see this well-known book with an English publisher's 
 name below, and to know that it can now be obtained without the delay of ordering 
 from America. We cannot too highly praise the selection, the arrangement, the script 
 sentences, and the charming illustrations." — Child Life. 
 
 " The ' Hiawatha Primer ' tells the story of Hiawatha in very simple prose for young 
 childien; they are giyen just a taste of the poetry in an occasional extract. The 
 pictures are charming." — School World. 
 
 With Nature's Children 
 
 By Lilian Gask, Author of " In Nature's School." With Illustra- 
 tions by Dorothy Hardy. Crown 8vo, 208 pages, is. Prize 
 Edition, is. 6d. net. 
 
 This reader gives in a pleasant narrative form a good deal of information as to the 
 habits and modes of life of English birds and animals. The hero of the book is a boy 
 who, in company with a brother and an elderly companion who is versed in woodcraft, 
 spends a long holiday in the open air. The little party sleep in tent and caravan, and 
 as they journey from place to place they meet in turn most of the wild denizens of the 
 English woodst 
 
 The Children's Robinson Crusoe 
 
 Retold by EuiTH L. Elias, Author of, "In Tudor Times," etc. 
 With 32 Full-page Illustrations by Stephen Reid. Crown Svo. 
 192 pages. IS. 
 
 This delightful book will be found very suitable as a lower school reader. The 
 author has chosen those episodes which are likely to arouse the intelligence of young 
 children, and the artist has succeeded in making his pictures elucidative of the text. 
 
 Plant Life 
 
 Nature Stories for Young Readers. By Florence Bass. Profusely 
 Illustrated. Crown Svo, is. 3d. 
 
 Tiicse stories are mo>t inspiring. It is impossible for children to read them without 
 acquiring a keen desire to know more about the "fairy life" of nature, and teachers 
 who wish to provide further nature lessons will find these extremely suggestive. 
 
 Animal Life 
 
 Nature Stories for Young Readers. By Florence Bass. 
 Profusely Illustrated. Crown Svo, is. 6d. 
 
 ••This will be a delightful book to young children. The authoress seems a born writer 
 for juveniles. We like her introduction, we like her descriptive letterpress more. The 
 original style, the large, clear print, and the good illustrations, make this a very 
 attractive volume." — Schoolmaster. 
 
i6 HARRAP'S LIST OF BOOKS 
 
 NEW HISTORICAL READERS 
 
 The Dawn of British History (B.C. 300- A. D. 450) 
 
 By Alice Corkran. With many Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 256 
 pages, IS. 6d. Prize Edition, 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 This book begins with the journey of Pytheas (4th century B.C.), and his adventures 
 are set forth in a romantic style. The Druids and Stonehenge. the myths and legends 
 of the British, are treated, as also the manner of life of the early inhabitants of Britain 
 and the lack of union amongst the tribes. The topography of the country and its 
 zoology are sketched, also the beginning of London. 
 
 The Birth of England (A.D. 450-1066) 
 
 By EsTELLE Ross. With many Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 256 
 pages, IS. 6d. Prize Edition, 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 This book begins with the departure of the Romans and ends with the coming of the 
 Normans. It gives a view of England in those wild days when the materials from which 
 a nation was to evolve were seething in the cauldron. 
 
 From Conquest to Charter (1066-1215) 
 
 By EsTELLE Ross. Uniform with the above volume. With nearly 
 200 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 288 pages, is. 6d. Prize Edition, 
 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 Barons a nd Kings (1216-1488) 
 
 By EsTELLE Ross. Uniform with the author's earlier books. With 
 nearly 200 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 390 pages, 2s. Prize Edition, 
 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 The Struggle with the Crown (1603-1714) 
 
 By E. M. WiLMOT-BuxTON, F.R.Hist.S. With 150 Illustrations, 
 224 pages, IS. 6d. Prize Edition, 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 The Story of the Greek People 
 
 By E. M. Tappan, Ph.D. With more than 100 Illustrations. 
 272 pages, Is. 6d. Prize Edition, 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 This volume tells the fascinating story of the Ancient Greeks in a simple yet interesting 
 manner, which will appeal to young readers. The life of the people is fully portrayed, 
 and the abundant illustrations help to give a vivid picture of the age. 
 
 The Stor y of the Roman People 
 
 By E. M. Tappan, Ph.D. With more than 100 Illustrations. 
 256 pages, IS. 6d. Prize Edition, 2s. 6d. net. 
 
 This volume is uniform with the author's book about the Greeks, and Is written in 
 the same simple yet interesting manner. 
 
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