The work of the school produces self-respect because the pupil makes himself the measure of his fellows, and grows to be equal to them spiritually by the mastery of their wisdom. Self-respect is the root of the virtues and the active cause of a career of growth in power to know and power to do. Webster called the free public schools "a wise and liberal system of police by which property and the peace of society are secured." He explained the effect of the school as exciting "a feeling of responsibility and a sense of character."

This, he saw, is the legitimate effect. For as the school causes its pupils to put on the forms of thought given them by the teacher and by the books they use; causes them to control their personal impulses and to act according to rules and regulations; causes them to behave so as to combine with others and get help from all while they in turn give help; as the school causes the pupil to put off his selfish promptings and to prefer the forms of action based on the consideration of the interests of othersit is seen that the entire discipline of the school is ethical. Each youth educated in the school has been submitted to a training in the habit of self-control and of obedi ence to social order. He has become to some extent conscious of two selves-the one his immediate animal impulse and the second his moral sense of conformity to the order necessary for the harmonious action of all.

Curious scholars have explored and recorded the methods of education of all peoples; for each people has some way of initiating its youth into the manners and customs and intellectual beliefs which constitute the warp and the woof of its civilization. The bulk of all education is performed by the family in all ages. The lessons in the care for the person; the conventional forms of eating and drinking; behavior toward strangers and toward one's relations; the mother tongue; the stock of beliefs and such habits of scientific observation as may exist in the community; the ideals of life; the duties of a citizen; the consciousness of nationality and the sentiment of patriotism that depends on it; the elementary arts and trades such as exist within the home; all these things are learned within the family. But letters and science are usually taught, if taught at all, by a teacher set apart for the work, and his department is called the school.

The school is the auxiliary institution founded for the purpose of reenforcing the education of the four fundamental institutions of civilization. These are the family, civil society (devoted to providing for the wants of food, clothing, and shelter), the state, and the church. The characteristic of the school is that it deals with the means necessary for the acquirement, preservation, and communication of intelligence— the mastery of letters and mathematical symbols; of the technical terms used in geography and grammar and the sciences; the conventional meaning of the lines used on maps to indicate water, mountains, towns, latitude, longitude, and the like. The school devotes itself to instructing the pupil in these dry details of arts that are used to record systematic knowledge. These conventionalities once learned, the youth has acquired the art of intellectual self-help; he can, of his own effort, open the door and enter the treasure house of literature and science. Whatever his fellowmen have done and recorded he can now learn by sufficient diligence of his own. The difference between the part of education.acquired within the family and that acquired in the school is immense, incalculable. The family arts and trades, manners and customs, habits and beliefs, have formed a sort of close-fitting spiritual vesture, a garment of the soul always worn and expressive of the native character, not so much of the individual as of his tribe or family or community. He, the individual, had from birth been shaped into these things as by a mold; all his thinking and willing and feeling have been molded into the form or type of humanity looked upon as the ideal by his parents and acquaintances.

This close-fitting garment of habit has given him direction, but not self-direction or freedom. He does what he does blindly, from the habit of following custom and doing as others do.

But the school gives a different sort of training; its discipline is for the freedom of the individual. The education of the family is in use and wont, and it trains rather than instructs. Its result is unconscious habit and ungrounded prejudice or inclination. Its likes and dislikes are not grounded in reason, but are unconscious results of early training. But the school lays all its stress on producing a consciousness of the grounds and reason for things. I should not say all its stress; for the school does in fact lay much stress on what is called discipline-on habits of alert and critical attention, on regularity and punctuality, on self-control and politeness. But the bare mention of these elements of discipline shows that they, too, are of a higher order than the habits of the family inasmuch as they all require the exertion of both will and intellect consciously in order to attain them. The discipline of the school forms a sort of conscious superstructure to the unconscious basis of habits which have been acquired in the family.

School instruction, on the other hand, is given to the acquirement of techniques; the technique of reading and writing, of mathematics, of grammar, geography, history, literature, and science in general.

One is astonished when he reflects upon it at first to see how much is meant by this word technique. All products of human reflection are defined and preserved by words used in a technical sense. The words are taken out of their colloquial sense, which is a loose one, except when employed as slang. For slang is a spontaneous effort in popular speech to form technical terms.

The technical or conventional use of signs and symbols enables us to write words and to record mathematical calculations; the technical use of words enables us to express clearly and definitely the ideas and relations of all science. Outside of technique all is vague hearsay. The fancy pours into the words it hears such meanings as its feelings prompt. Instead of science there is superstition.

The school deals with technique in this broad sense of the word. The mastery of this technique of reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history lifts the pupil on to a plane of freedom and self-help hitherto not known to him. He can now by his own effort master for himself the wisdom of the race.

By the aid of such instruments as the family education has given him he can not master the wisdom of the race but only pick up a few of its results, such as the customs of his community preserve. By the process of hearsay and oral inquiry it would take the individual a lifetime to acquire what he can get in six months by aid of the instruments which the school places in his hands. For the school gives the youth the tools of thought.

Looking for the application of this technique we see two worlds-nature and man. Nature contains, first, abstract or inorganic objects, matter, and motion, to which arithmetic, algebra, and higher mathematics relate; then, secondly, it contains organic objects, like plants, animals, and men. This phase of nature, including vegetable and animal growth and the requisite conditions of climate, land and water and air, are treated in geography.

Hence the child has two studies that give him an insight into nature as the support of his life and as the instrument for him to conquer and use in the shape of machinery, motive powers, food, clothing, and shelter.

With his first lesson in arithmetic he learns something fundamental about the conditions of existence in time and space. Matter and force not merely happen to obey mathematical laws, but they have to do so as a primordial necessity of their nature. Every lesson in geography from the first is of practical use in giving the child command over organic nature.

Taking the other side of school instruction we find a happy selection of what reveals man to himself. Man as an object is body and soul-the body is a physiological object like animals and plants; the soul is intellect, will, and feeling. The child does not study psychology as such, but something better for him than psychology, for he studies the products of man's intellect and will and feeling. He

studies the structure of language in grammar, and this reveals the structure of intellect. He studies in literature the revelation of the human heart-its feelings, emotions, and aspirations, good and bad. Literature portrays the rise of feelings and their conversion into actions and ideas by the will and intellect; it shows the collisions of evil feelings with good. History, again, shows the human will in its distinctive province, for the will of man is manifest not so much in individual adventures as in the formation of states and religious movements and social changes. This is collective will, the will of the nation or people, and it is manifest in wars or in great social movements, such as colonization, the building of cities, internal improvements, commerce, productive industry, etc.

History reveals man to himself by showing him his deeds. Literature reveals man to himself by showing him his character in its process of formation—the ultimate springs of action as they well up from the unconscious depths of the soul. Grammar, philology, and language studies reveal the essential structure of the soul, its logical constitution as a self-activity or self-consciousness.

There are no other phases of nature and man than these five which we see are contemplated by the five chief branches of study in the district schools.

Secondary education must go on in the same direction, opening windows of the soul in five directions so that the pupil gets a better insight into these cardinal provinces of nature and man.

Therefore the secondary pupil will continue his study of mathematics, taking up algebra and geometry; of language, studying the ancient languages from which civilization has been transmitted, and modern languages. He will continue the view of organic nature, given in geography, by studying the outlines and methods of such natural sciences as geology, astronomy, physiology, zoology, and botany; continue history by adding to the special study of the United States, begun in the elementary school, the study of general history; continue the study of literature, begun in the school readers, by systematic study of the greatest writers like Shakespeare, Milton, Spenser, and Chaucer, in selected complete works of art, together with a history of literature. Mathematics are reenforced by physics (called natural philosophy) treating of the mathematical laws of solids and fluids.

To these branches which the ideal course should contain there are certain incidental studies or arts of a useful character, such as vocal music, bookkeeping, calisthenics, shorthand writing, cooking, woodworking, etc., which are added, some of them, to the high school courses of study throughout the country. The modern languages taught are usually German and French. The ancient languages are Latin and Greek.

It must be noticed in studying the secondary education of the United States that it stands between two other self-regulated systems of schools-the elementary, whose course is determined by the school committees, and the higher, whose course is determined by college faculties and boards of trustees. These two independent directive powers do not act in perfect harmony. Hence the secondary school has a twofold course of study to provide for-that indicated by the elementary school and that required by the college for admission.

But the public high schools are under the control of the school committees elected by the people. This causes them to lay more stress on a continuation of the fivefold course of elementary schools than on the studies required for admission to college. On the other hand the private secondary schools lay the most stress on preparation for college. Here is one of the greatest defects in our system-or lack of system. The ideal course of study demands that five windows of the soul be kept open. The old preparatory school laid stress on Latin, Greek, and mathematics, neglecting all else. These three branches opened only two or three windows (to keep up our symbolism); mathematics gave the key to inorganic nature; Latin and Greek answered to grammar and literature, chiefly to grammar or the logical side of the soul, with a little touch of history and literature on the sides of the will and sensibility. Nature

was left out of sight, except as mathematics gave the general conditions of all nature-the structure of time and space.

The privato secondary school, therefore, in the last generation slighted history, modern literature, natural science, and sociology. The public high school undertook to develop these important sides of a rounded education and succeeded in a measure. But it was obliged to adopt another course of study for its pupils fitting for college. Hence there arose a general or English course, and a classical course.

I have compared the classical course of study to a palm tree which first builds a tall stem and then suddenly expands into foliage at the top. So the preparatory school and the college required six years (four in the preparatory and two in college) to be devoted almost exclusively to Latin, Greek, and mathematics, and then in the last two years of the college made a hasty survey of nature and modern literature and history, as a sort of finishing touch.

There is no doubt that the high school course laid out by the school committees is more rational than the secondary course of the private preparatory schools, prescribed for them by the colleges. And yet the college course was the conscious product of the highest educated minds of the community. The unconscious evolution by "natural selection" in the minds of school committees elected by the people was wiser on the whole. Individual members of city school boards are always found who oppose classical studies altogether. But the pressure of popular demand always prevails to secure in the public schools what is needed.

The difficulty in this case is that the high school pupil taking up all the five branches-mathematics, natural science, history, modern literature, Latin and Greek— in his four years, is not so far advanced in the classic languages as the special preparatory school, and does not compete with it on an equal footing. Special classical courses in the public high school are a costly experiment wherever carried on.

This produces what we may call a national disaster in our education, namely, the discouragement of pupils in high schools from taking up higher education. The public high schools, in proportion to their enrollment, send comparatively few to the colleges.

The disadvantages of this to the nation are great, for higher education even with a "palm-tree" course of study educates the majority of the real leaders of society. It might be supposed that those best versed in natural science would have this prestige, and doubtless natural science counts for much. But the classically educated man has advantages over all others. That this should be so may be seen by a brief consideration of the rationale of its course of study.

We have seen that there are needed five windows in the soul to see the five classes of objects in nature and humanity. Natural science relates chiefly to the organic and inorganic phases of nature but gives little insight into human nature. On the other hand language study, and especially literature, leads directly toward this knowledge of man that is essential to large directive power.

As to the dead languages, Latin and Greek, they are the tongues spoken by the two people who invented the two threads united in our modern civilization. The study of Greek puts one into the atmosphere of art, literature, and science, in which the people of Athens lived. This is the effect of Greek literature; it is also the effect of the mere language in its idioms and in its grammatical structure.

The study of Latin puts one similarly into the stern, self-sacrificing, political atmosphere of Rome. The Romans invented laws for the protection of life and private property, and also the forms of combination into corporations and city governments. To study Latin makes the pupil more attentive to, and conscious of, the side of his civilization that deals with combinations of men into social organizations.

No other ancient or modern language gives us anything of equal value for gaining an insight into the institutions under which we live, except the study of the Bible. The Hebrew thread of our civilization is still more important, because while the Roman secures civil freedom, and the Greek intellectual freedom and artistic taste,

the Hebrew oracles give us the revelation of the personality of God, the fountain of all freedom. For unless the absolute is a free personality, man's freedom must be all a temporary and abnormal affair; the iron fate which pantheism sees as the first principle will get the advantage after all.

We may see that the colleges ought to continue to lay chief stress on Latin, Greek, and mathematics as the studies that foster directive power, but they ought to add also the three moderns, natural science, modern literature, and history, incorporating them into the course thronghout, so that the oak rather than the palm tree becomes the symbol of the curriculum.

This

By "directive power" is meant the influence that molds the actions of men. may be exercised not only by the military, political, or the industrial leader, but by the lone scholar who publishes great discoveries to the world; by the editors of periodicals, by the orators, preachers, and teachers, and especially by the poets and literary men.

There has been a process of adjustment going on in higher education in several directions, especially since 1870. First, an elevation of the standard of admission took place, chiefly brought about by the action of Harvard College. Secondly, an extension of the scope of elective studies as a consequence of the raised standard which now brought the freshmen class nearly up to where the junior class had been. Thirdly, the requirements for admission began to be more varied and to require something of English literature and a modern language, with some natural science and history; but much more Latin and Greek.

Had the Latin and Greek requirements remained the same, the new standard of admission would have fitted the course of study of the public high school, and the problem would have been solved. As it is now, the situation of the high school as a feeder for the college is worse than before 1870. Then the classical requirements for graduation at the high school would admit the students to college, while the collateral branches of history, science, and English literature that he had begun in the high school gave him greater apperceptive power, or greater ability to grasp the practical application of what he had learned.

Is it not a mistake that higher education has made in trying to lengthen the school life of youth by increasing the length of the secondary school course? Is it not far better to take the student into college at 16 or 18 years of age, and after the course of study that leads him to see the unity of human learning take him into a postgraduate course that teaches him how to specialize and pursue lines of original investigation in the laboratory or seminary?

This radical question is now in a fair way to be answered rationally; for this report of the committee of ten will lead to such investigations of the educational value of secondary branches and methods of instruction as will put us in possess on of accurate knowledge in regard to the nature and limits of elementary, secondary, and higher education. We shall learn the fitting age for each and not, as heretofore, esteem it an advantage to hold back the pupil as long as possible in the elementary and secondary courses under plea of securing greater thoroughness. We shall understand that the elementary methods are of necessity too mechanical to be used to advantage beyond the fourteenth year, while the secondary methods consist too much of copying styles and classic forms, in aping modes of work and habits of thinking, to be continued to advantage beyond the eighteenth year. We shall know better than we do now what is fitting for each age and period. With this we shall enter on a new and more scientific epoch of educational theory and practice.