for various trades and business occupations can be secured, also, in certain localities among the German States, through "continuation" schools, which, though independent of both the elementary schools and the schools of secondary grade, seek to build on the foundation laid in the former.

If, on the other hand, the parent desires his child to prepare for a professional career, either among the learned professions or among those requiring technical preparation, he fits him to enter some school of secondary grade (Gymnasium, Realgymnasium, or Oberrealschule) by procuring private instruction or by sending him to the Vorschule for a preparatory course of three years. When, at 9 or 10, the child is ready to enter a secondary school, to begin there a nine-year period of study, the parent must define still more narrowly the future of his child. If he decides upon the Gymnasium, the child's course will be a classical one, in which the study of Latin and Greek predominates; if the Realgymnasium, Greek will be replaced by the study of modern languages, supplemented by mathematics and science; and if the Oberrealschule be selected, French will be substituted for Latin, and only modern subjects taught, the main object being to prepare the pupil for doing original work in mathematics and the natural sciences. Having chosen among schools, the option is ended, for the curriculum in each is so heavy that the pupil never attempts to take studies outside the prescribed course. For parents who live in localities where but one kind of school is to be found there is really no choice.

In France also the universities and secondary schools are closely related, the two orders of institutions forming a continuous and complete system of liberal and professional education, in which the secondary schools embrace two cycles of work-one of four years, beginning at 11 years of age; the other of three, terminating with the granting of the bachelor's degree—and the whole being the necessary preliminary for admission to the specialized course of the universities and the great technical schools. The elementary division, on the other hand, comprises the primary schools, covering the ages from 6 to 12, which terminate with an examination entitling the successful candidate to a certificate of primary studies that exempts the holder from the obligation to attend school. Beyond these primary schools lie the higher primary schools (12 to 16), with a course

1 It should be noted that a relatively small number leave the elementary schools each year at 9 or 10 years of age to enter the various secondary schools. In 1908-9, of an enrollment in the elementary schools of 228,455 in Berlin, 2,234 made such change. See Rep. of U. S. Com. Ed. (1910), vol. 1, p. 469.

2 See Rep. of U. S. Com. Ed. (1902), vol. 1, p. 686; also ch. 15 for a detailed account of the reforms of 1902 in secondary education; also Compayre, in Educational Review, Feb.,

covering three years, to which a fourth may be added, open to candidates above 13 years of age, for pupils who have secured the certificate of primary studies or who can pass an examination. The only point of contact between the elementary division and that of the secondary school is that pupils from the higher primary schools can enter the section of the first cycle of secondary work (section B), in which neither Latin nor Greek is taught.

Inasmuch, however, as the secondary schools are not free schools and as the certificate of primary studies, originally granted to stimulate interest in the primary schools, is secured by many at the minimum age of 11, and as, furthermore, the compulsory education period does not extend beyond 13 and is not rigidly enforced, the masses drop out of school in great numbers, few availing themselves of the coordination of the two divisions. Recently, however, through the articulation of the higher primary schools and the colleges that are of secondary rank, but established by local authorities and maintained in part by the State, a gradual approach of the primary and secondary divisions is observable. Although these colleges follow the same official programs as the lycées (the typical secondary schools of France), few of them offer the full course of instruction, so that they have formed a sort of inferior order of secondary schools, or a preparatory stage to the upper cycle (or section) of the lycées.1

Secondary education in Italy also is lacking in coordination with that of the elementary division. It comprises two main subdivisions: First, those schools wherein education of a technical character is given; second, the classical schools (gymnasia), that articulate with the universities. Pupils enter the latter at 8 or 9 years of age. After a course lasting five years they are prepared for the lycée, which is simply a school in which the classical studies begun in the gymnasium can be continued for three years more, thus preparing the pupil for the university. Pupils enter the gymnasien with the equivalent of the first three years of work given in the elementary schools. This preparation is secured from private tutors or in private schools, as they rarely enter from the public elementary school itself. While elementary schooling in Italy is secular, obligatory, and gratuitous from the sixth to the ninth year, yet the apathy among the masses is so great that but a small percentage of those who complete the compulsory three-year period finish the sixth school year, which is the highest in the elementary schools.2

In England there are no free secondary schools, and but few where the charges are within the reach of any but well-to-do people. There

1 See Current Tendencies in Secondary and Higher Education in France, in Rep. of U.S. Com. Ed. (1910), vol. 1, pp. 413-417.

2 In 1906 only a trifle over 7 per cent, according to Monroe in Rep. of U. S. Com. Ed. (1906), vol. 1, p. 77.

is no English counterpart to the free public high school of America. In consequence a secondary education is beyond the reach of the great proportion of the poorer people. A small proportion of ambitious children from the public elementary schools, however, are enabled to secure secondary schooling in favored localities through a system of free scholarships obtained by competitive examination. However, the endowments which produce these scholarships are scattered over England capriciously, as the accident of the residence of ancient donors or the appreciation of landed property may have determined. Moreover, the scholarships are often competed for and obtained by the rich and liberally taught children, who look upon the scholarship as an honor, and thus the poorer and less fortunate children are crowded out. Some school boards appropriate a sum of money sufficient to secure attendance of their brightest pupils at endowed schools, but this again is appropriated on competitive examination. So difficult is it for the poor boy to secure such education that the number to be found in the two great English universities-Oxford and Cambridge-who have secured their elementary preparation in these State-aided schools is but 1 per cent of the total university enrollment, and yet 85 per cent of the entire population depends upon these elementary schools for education. In other words, the 15 per cent of population that are financially able to dispense with State-aid schools contribute 99 per cent of the university enrollment.2

The intermediate (secondary) schools of Ireland, like the secondary schools of England, do not form a link between the public elementary and higher institutions. In both countries they offer distinct courses, parallel in a sense to the elementary school, but extending beyond it. Again, it is difficult for the children of poor parents in each to avail themselves of its advantages.

In Scotland, on the other hand, the secondary school, as a rule. may be said to be continuous with the elementary school, connecting the latter with the university, somewhat after the arrangement in America, though unlike in that children attending such schools are obliged to pay fees. It should be said, however, that there is no country in the world that is so well provided as Scotland with scholarships, or bursaries, as they are called, to enable the poor students to attend universities and secondary schools.

The only system in Europe which is at all comparable to the American system, in respect to the important place granted to the primary school, is that which has been developed among the Cantons

1 Sharpless, English Education, p. 78.

2 Ibid., pp. 80, 81.

3 Rep. of U. S. Com. Ed. (1910), vol. 1, pp. 535-537; gives an account also of the reform in the bursary system.

of Switzerland. As in America, the primary school, which every Swiss child must attend for from 6 to 8 or 9 years, is the common trunk from which all other schools branch. Like the American system, again, nowhere are found preparatory grades connected directly with secondary institutions. As a consequence, the child of the wealthy parent and the child of the parent who is poor attend the same school and mingle freely, without regard to pecuniary condition or social rank.

With the possible exception of Switzerland, the school systems of Europe1 are broken into two great divisions, one comprising the elementary schools, the other the secondary schools and the universities. Both divisions reach down to the age of school commencement, and, within the scope common to both, are parallel to each other; yet, in respect to relationship, they remain practically separate and distinct. By their origin and history the universities and secondary schools of these systems are closely related, the two institutions forming a continuous and complete system of liberal and professional education. In these systems the secondary division of education is not regarded as a second stage in a continuous process, as with us, but rather as an order of education which, coupled with the university, is superior in rank to that embraced in schools of elementary grade. This distinction arises from the belief that those who are destined for professional careers and for leadership in the State should be educated from their earliest years in a different manner and in a different class of subjects from the laboring masses. Under such systems, moreover, the entire future of the the child must be determined at an age when little can be known of his tastes and aptitudes and long before he himself is competent to form a judgment. He is thus completely at the mercy of others, and in the event a mistake is made is without recourse.

The trend of education in America during the colonial period, and well down to the middle of the next century, was in the same direction. There were many indications that as school practices crystallized into organized systems in America the same lines of demarcation would be drawn. The relatively unimportant place held during these periods by the elementary school, the fact that education was looked upon as affecting the individual rather than as a matter of concern to the State, the length of time required to develop a feeling of nationality, the dominance of the university and its demand for institutions preparatory in character, the influence of European models and precedents-all tended to make America slavish in its imita

1 For administrative purposes there are three divisions: Elementary, secondary, and higher, or superior education.

tion of the school systems of the Old World. Fortunately, however, opposing influences were at work which culminated about the middle of the last century in a sharp but victorious struggle, out of which has come a public-school system completely democratized in respect to providing a direct connection between its two poles for every child who wills it, whether rich or poor.

Despite the fact, however, that America has developed a straight path between the elementary school and the university, recent studies of school attendance show that very few of those who enter the primary grades ever reach the university. The first serious study of school elimination, made in accordance with modern statistical methods, was that by Prof. Edward L. Thorndike, of Columbia University, in 1907.1 This bulletin started a discussion which led to a number of important investigations in the same field, the two most valuable being that by Dr. Leonard P. Ayres, of the Russell Sage Foundation, published in 1909,2 and that by Prof. George Drayton Strayer, of Columbia University, published in 1911.3

In attempting to determine what proportion of the children who enter our schools drop out before completing the course, and the points in our system where this elimination is greatest, a different method of estimating the number of pupils annually entering school was used in each of these three studies. Thorndike assumed that the average enrollment of pupils in the first three grades would approximate the number of pupils entering the first grade in a given year. Ayres held that the number beginning school each year is approximately equal to the "average of the generations of the ages 7 to 12" in the school membership of the system under consideration. Strayer, on the other hand, built up his investigation on the assertion that

the generation of children entering school in any one year is best represented by the largest age group, which is precisely a generation of children, and since it is the largest, it probably approximates more closely than any other that generation which has entered the schools during the current year.5

In trying to determine the general tendency of the American public-school system respecting elimination, it will be instructive to compare the conclusions reached by these investigators. By way of explanation, it should be noted that Ayres and Strayer have not corrected for pupils who are repeating their work; further, that where the numbers exceed 100 in each case the presence of repeaters is

1 Thorndike, The Elimination of Pupils from School, Bu. of Ed., Bul. No. 4, 1907.

2 Ayres, Laggards in Our Schools.

3 Strayer, Age and Grade Census of Schools and Colleges, Bu. of Ed., Bul. No. 5, 1911. Ayres, Laggards in Our Schools, p. 52.

5 Strayer, Age and Grade Census of Schools and Colleges, p. 12.