that the quality of the higher female education will be equal to that provided in most of the Northern States.

But it must not be judged from the above that North Carolina has no good female schools, nor that they are managed wholly on selfish principles. The principals of these schools are men of liberal culture, devoted to their profession, and with the means at their disposal they deserve great credit for having placed the standard of instruction as high as it is.

A well known professor in one of the leading female schools says that "the higher female education in North Carolina is not high." But while the courses of study in the female schools are not very extended, yet the instruction given, as far as it goes, is thorough. Most of these institutions give from three to five years' courses in Latin, French, German, history, English language and literature, the natural sciences, and mathematics as far as and including trigonometry.

The following schedule of classes and studies required at Peace Institute will give a fair and comprehensive view of the extent and character of the subjects taught in the collegiate departments of the leading female schools in the State, for in the main their curricula are about the same:

*All pupils are required to take these schools; the rest elective.

+ Spelling and dictation exercises through second year.

In lieu of these, book-keeping and advanced arithmetic can be taken.

The charges for board and tuition in the regular course as represented above, in the leading female schools of the State, amount to about $250 per annum.

Nearly all the institutions of which accounts have been given provide good courses in vocal and instrumental music, in pastel, charcoal, and crayon drawing, and in oil and water color painting, for which extra charges are made. One criticism of the higher education provided for young ladies in North Carolina is that more attention is given to the attainment of these accomplishments than to the acquirement of a substantial education. A professor in one of these schools writes: "It seems to me that the more cultured (?) of our people care less for a substantial education for their girls than the masses do. Poverty and necessity are driving us from the heathenish notion that all the preparation a woman needs for the battle of life is a delicate body, a pretty face, and a musical voice."

The leading institutions have libraries varying from five hundred to two thousand volumes. As a rule their stock of scientific apparatus is small and insufficient. The great need of all these schools is funds.

The cheapest and best way to educate the next generation is to educate every girl of the present one. The mother gives more education that is of practical effect in life than all the teachers. It has been well said that "the physical, mental, and moral muscles of a child are beginning to harden before he ever gets into the hands of a teacher." A better and more healthful sentiment in regard to the education of women is growing up in the Old North State, which, it is hoped, will soon develop itself in a practical way.

CHAPTER VI.

SECONDARY INSTRUCTION.

GENERAL CRITICAL SURVEY.

Schools for secondary instruction are numerous, but it is impossible to collect full and reliable statistics concerning them. The State superintendent of public instruction informs the writer that he does not know the number of private schools in the State, and that no provision is made for collecting information concerning them. The reports which they make to the United States Commissioner of Education are meagre and unsatisfactory, and private individual effort to reach them has proved unsuccessful.

A stranger reading their catalogues and announcements might be led to suppose that many of them offer advantages for study superior to those of Phillips Exeter, and other excellent fitting schools in the East, but to one who has had an insight into their management and is acquainted with their workings such a supposition is impossible.

The first criticism that the writer would urge is that they undertake too much. Some of these schools endeavor to offer the advantages of a college, while many of the so-called colleges are in reality secondary schools, but in attempting to place themselves on a higher plane than they are fitted to occupy they lose in thoroughness and efficiency.

As a rule, no well ordered system of study and student advancement are provided in these schools, though there are several notable excep tions to which reference will be made. The most noticeable defect in the educational system (if system it may be called) is in the primary training of the pupil. Proper attention is not given to the groundwork of his education. He is advanced from the primary to the preparatory department before the essential rudiments of an education have been mastered. The charge for annual tuition is determined by the stu dent's grade; the schools are private property; the teachers are am bitious; the result is that it is not infrequent that the child is assigned work beyond his capacity. Parents as well as teachers are to be blamed for this. Many regard their children as intellectual prodigies and are dissatisfied if they are not rapidly promoted in school. In their eyes he is the best teacher who advances (?) his pupils fastest. If he attempts to hold the child to primary work longer than the parents think necessary, they withdraw their patronage and send to one who will gratify their vanity. It is pleasing to the pupil to be advanced rapidly from class to class. He is not yet old enough to realize the ad

vantage of a thorough preparation. It is patent, therefore, that the selfinterest of the teacher, the vanity of the parents, and the whim of the child, as represented above, tend to superficiality.

After the student has been advanced from the primary to the preparatory department, the object in most cases is to get him in college as soon as possible, or if he is not fitting for college, to silver-plate him with a business course (?) which he is assured will answer his purposes in practical life without the necessity of submitting to college drill and discipline for four years.

Instead of providing a broad and liberal course of study, the object of most of these schools is to give the student enough Latin, Greek, and mathematics to enable him to enter college with credit, and in but few instances is this result attained. Only the outlines of history are taught, and this in a superficial way; political economy is hardly ever included in the curriculum; the courses in political and physical geography are short and unsatisfactory; botany, geology, physiology, zoölogy, and natural philosophy are barely touched upon; the modern languages are hardly ever taught; and the student is given such a meagre course in his own language and literature that in after life as a writer and speaker he is often made to feel the deficiencies of his early training.

From the preparatory school the student goes to college, passes the entrance examination in Latin, Greek, and mathematics, enters upon advanced studies, and, at the end of four years is presented to the world as a graduate; but in few cases can he be said to be educated, in the full sense of what that word implies; for the defects of preliminary training are too often manifest.

For the more than one hundred secondary schools reporting from North Carolina, excepting only a few institutions, the above is true; and not only is it true for this State, but for many others of the Union, es pecially in the South.

GRADED SCHOOLS.

The public graded schools in the larger towns, the first being estab lished at Greensborough in 1875, are exerting a good influence in systematizing and making more thorough primary and preparatory instruction throughout the State. Maj. S. M. Finger, superintendent of public instruction, in his report for 1885-86, says: "These schools have done a great deal of good, not only in the communities in which they are located, but to the whole State. They are examples of the possible efficiency, popularity, and cheapness of education at public expense.

"They are becoming so efficient as to command respect and patronage of all classes of our people. I wish that every citizen of the State could spend a day in one of these well managed schools, because I think he would go away with a higher appreciation of the safety and practicability of public schools."

By special acts of the Legislature, towns are permitted to vote upon 17037-No. 2-9