Greek and Latin classics. From the foreign modern tongues German may be chosen because of its valuable literature, its contributions to science, its dignity, and its relation to the Anglo-Saxon element of our own language.

We have endeavored to show that the choice of studies is not a matter of indifference, that mathematics, science, history, the English language and literature, foreign language, and art and ethics all belong to the period of secondary education, and we have tried to suggest the inference that all should be employed. The relative importance of each can not be exactly measured, but experience and reason must guide us.

ORGANIZATION OF COURSES.

Granting that these are the subjects to be used in making secondary school programmes, we must consider the time element the most difficult problem of all. But we must grapple with it calmly and firmly, as did each of the conferences in their recommendations, and correlate, in the light of history and reason, the data given by the conference. We must grant the possibility of certain differentiations at some points in the high school courses. For instance, pupils choosing the classical course must depart in a measure from the normal modern programme.

I have placed at the end of this discussion for comparison tables which group subjects under the four heads named in the analysis-mathematics, science, history and English, and foreign language.

Table of subjects as assigned by the committee.-The first table shows, classified, the nine divisions of subjects, as assigned to the nine conferences, respectively.

Table showing recommendations of the conferences.-The second table shows the recommendations of the conferences classified in the same way as above. Since the conferences worked separately this table shows at almost every point need of adjustment. For the first year an aggregrate of 22 periods per week is recommended, for the second 374, for the third 35, for the fourth 374. The programme maker must either choose a few subjects, omitting other essential ones, or must adjust the time and order relations of the table. The latter appears to be the preferable alternative.

Table showing proposed arrangement of courses.-I would base the whole subject of programme making upon the relations of the child to the world of knowledge; would make mathematics, science, history, and literature the foundation, and provide for the foreign languages by additions or by modification and substitution. I would adopt the present standard for mathematics, and would limit the number of sciences recommended by the conferences. Arranging for convenience the studies in four parallel lines, under the heads of mathematics, science, history and English, and foreign language, I would give to history and English the time of one of the four divisions. English is the native tongue and is already familiar, and English literature will be read voluntarily through life if the taste for it and the power to understand it are acquired in the schools. History, if the right method of study be imparted and the interest be cultivated, will also be pursued voluntarily. We may allow for Latin about the usual time, and in the classical course we may substitute Greek for some of the sciences and mathematics. In case an additional foreign language is taken it must be an extra, or the time of each line of work must be shortened or further substitutions must be made as wisely as possible.

The table showing the proposed arrangement of courses is not worked out in detail. It suggests that approximately one-fourth of the time be given to each columu; that in other courses than the classical, if a second foreign language be taken, it should be regarded as an extra if possible; that Greek, if taken, be substituted for the science of the last two years and the mathematics of the last year. This combines simplicity of plan, identity of instruction in the same subject for all courses, and continuous and adequate work with the necessary differentiation.

Tables showing the courses as arranged by the committee, the subjects being reclassified for comparison.--In view of this discussion I would offer the following criticisms of the four model courses presented by the committee:

(1) While there is much to be said in favor of the courses as they stand, I think they lack more or less in simplicity of arrangement, in proper classification, in proportion, in continuity and adequateness of time for some of the subjects, in economy to a slight degree, and in failure to properly limit the number of studies.

(2) Taking 80 as the aggregate number for each of the four courses the proportionate number of each group is as follows:

Except in the English course, foreign language appears to have more than its just proportion, and history and English claim a very large share in the course with one foreign language.

(3) It is doubtful whether higher algebra belongs to a high school course, although it is inserted in my own scheme.

(4) The scheme for science violates the principle so strongly urged of adequate time for each subject. Too many science subjects are inserted. It is better to pursuc four sciences, each one year, than to take twice the number with half a year for each. If we select as the most important high school sciences, for instance, physical geography, physics, chemistry, and biology, we shall see that the committee have added (1) botany or zoology, (2) astronomy; (3) meteorology, (4) geology or physiog raphy, (5) physiology. In the second and fourth years two sciences are presented side by side. Moreover, physics, the generic science, is given only three hours, no more than is given botany or zoology.

(5) In two of the courses besides the classical no history appears in the second and fourth years, except as an option in the fourth.

(6) Since in small high schools pupils in all courses should be taught the same subject in one class, there appears to be a mistake in that in a few instances divisions are made necessary.

FINAL STATEMENT.

The criticisms of the report of the committee of ten which I would emphasize most are these: The lack of a bold and clear analysis of the value of subjects before correlating the recommendations of the conferences; the implications that the committee favored an extreme theory of equivalence of studies; practical details in the organization of the model courses.

I do not know how far other members of the committee may agree with me in any of these adverse views, nor what stand may be taken by the council, and I feel a diffidence in taking exceptions to any parts of results the most of which can but be heartily approved. If the committee consent and the council wish it, it would seem very desirable that these points be given further consideration. It would be easy to obtain by correspondence the views of a few of the most intelligent programme makers in the country, and the committee could hold another meeting at some convenient time. We must remember that a large percentage of the schools will look chiefly at the practical and formal results of the investigation, hence the importance to be attached to the model courses. May I add that the recommendations of the conferences to introduce certain subjects in the elementary school period are worthy of the most careful and extended consideration at no remote date by a competent committee.

In closing I wish to express my most hearty appreciation of the work done by the other members of the committee, and especially by the chairman, who took the greater share of the burden as well as faith in the general results which should be but the beginning of a much needed work in this country.

Proposed arrangement of courses (not marked out in detail, intended to be merely suggestive).

[An average of 4 periods per week to be given to each column.]

* German, if taken, to be an extra, giving the pupil 20 hours instead of 16.

Greek, if taken, to be substituted for science for last two years and mathematics of last year.

THE REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH.'

By A. F. NIGHTINGALE,

Superintendent of high schools, Chicago.

The committee of ten, clothed with the authority of the National Educational Association to appoint nine other committees of ten cach, men of the largest experience and the widest repute, who should consult concerning the application of proper remedies to cure the evils which make the secondary schools (God save the mark!) "the most defective part of the education of this country," have published their report.

No such educational movement, whether considered in the light of its conception or in the light of its denouement, was ever before attempted.

The report is by far the best contribution to educational theory of the century, whether we consider the range of subjects discussed, the exhaustive treatment of each, the high character, scholarly ability, and rich and varied experience of the contributors, or the widely divergent opinions to which the report has given rise among the rank and file of those who are largely responsible for this "most defective part of our education."

The committee was nationally appointed for a national purpose, and it was fair to presume that the results of their deliberations were published for no other reason than to receive the commendation, the criticism, or the condemnation of the freethinking, individual-minded educators of this country.

We have been surprised therefore to note the attempts in the "I am holier than thou spirit" to smother freedom of speech and freedom of opinion on the dogmatic statements and wiso suggestions of this great educational pronunciamento. Personally I have had no words but those of exalted praise for this marvelous report, issued with such marvelous unanimity in such a marvelously short time, but there are those who, out of their largo experience and with the independence of the American spirit, have dared to place some strictures upon the conclusions reached. They are men whose experience entitles them to be heard with candor, whose opinions I respect, and whose judgment on educational matters, if I disagreed, would lead me to review my own.

I protest, therefore, in the name of untrammeled opinion against the anathema maranatha which has been pronounced upon them, and against the dictum of Holy Writ, slightly changed, which has been used to silence adverse opinions, "For I testify unto every man that readeth the words of this book, if any man shall add unto these things [the committee] shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book."

Wendell Phillips once said, "If the Alps, piled in cold and still sublimity, be the emblem of despotism, then the ever-restless ocean is ours, which, girt within the eternal laws of gravitation, is pure only because never still." So it seems to me that the far-reaching and long-abiding benefits of this report are to be secured, not from an idolatrous adoption of its every tenet, but through the ceaseless agitation in every educational circle of the ideas propounded, so that out of the revolution that has been inaugurated may come reformation, progress, advancement. Less than one hundred years ago a young girl in Hatfield, Mass., was in the habit of going to the schoolhouse and sitting on the doorstep, that she might listen to the recitations of the boys in a building across whose threshold no girl might cross as a pupil. Less than four score years ago Emma Willard, of sainted memory, gave the first examination in this country to a young lady in geometry, and about the same time she introduced into her little school in Middlebury, Vt., the study of physiology, and so great was the innovation, that at the examination the entire audience, shocked at the indelicacy of teaching such a subject to girls, rose and left the room, and they were not Christian scientists either. These instances with which our own fathers

Read before the National Educational Association, at Asbury Park, N. J., July, 1894.