For the second class:

(a) Boys: The most general elements of the natural sciences, of geography, and national history, as well as the elements of geometry and linear drawing should be added.

For the second class:

(b) Girls: Instruction in needle-work, knitting, &c. School hours, for both boys and girls, eight to twelve, and two to four, daily.

Time distribution - Boys' School

First class, 6-10 years of age.

3 hours for religious instruction (principally narratives from the Bible).

12 hours for the German language, pronunciation, reading, orthography, &c.

5 hours for arithmetic; 3 for the slate as far as division, and 2 for mental arithmetic.

4 hours for writing.

2 hours for singing (without counting the verses sung at the beginning and end of each day).

26 hours per week.

Second class, 10-14 years of age.

6 hours for religion, instruction in the Bible and Catechism.

10 hours for the German language, reading, grammar, intellectual exercises.

5 hours for arithmetic, on the slate and in the head.

4 hours for writing.

2 hours for geometry, and linear drawing.

3 hours for natural philosophy, geography, and history, &c.

2 hours for singing (not including the verses sung morning and evening).

32 hours per week

Time Distribution Girls' School

First class, 6-10 years of age.

3 hours for religion (narratives from the Bible).

7 hours for the German language.

3 hours for arithmetic, on the slate and mentally.

3 hours for writing.

2 hours for singing.

8 hours for needle-work, &c.

Second class, 10-14 years of age.

6 hours for religion.

8 hours for the German language.

4 hours for arithmetic.

3 hours for writing.

3 hours for singing.

8 hours for needle-work, &c. (in the afternoon).

32 hours per week.

354. Grading the Schools of Providence

(Regulations of the School Committee, 1800, 1827, 1828, and Ordinance of the City Council of Providence, Rhode Island, of April 9, 1838; in Centennial Report School Committee, 1899-1900, pp. 49, 51-52, 58, 72)

In 1799 the "Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers" petitioned the Legislature to "establish free schools throughout the State." In response a law was passed under which Providence began schools, in 1800.

The original course of study for the schools, adopted at the time of their origin, is reproduced below. It is noteworthy for its brevity and simplicity, and reveals an ungraded, individualinstruction school. It reads:

The principal part of the Instruction will consist in teaching Spelling, Accenting and Reading both Prose and Verse with propriety and accuracy, and a general knowledge of English Grammar and Composition: Also writing a good hand according to the most approved Rules, and Arithmetic through all the previous Rules, and Vulgar and Decimal Fractions, including Tare and Tret, Fellowship, Exchange, Interest, &c.

The books to be used in carrying on the above Instruction are Alden's Spelling Book, 1st and 2d part, the Young Ladies' Accidence, by Caleb Bingham, The American Preceptor, Morse's Geography, abridged, the Holy Bible in select portions and such other Books as shall hereafter be adopted and appointed by the Committee. The Book for teaching Arithmetic shall be agreed on by the Masters.

In 1827 Primary Schools were added below, to the ungraded schools organized in 1800, and the course of study was changed to read as follows:

2d. The branches taught in the Primary Schools shall be reading and spelling; and the books used for instruction therein shall be the following and no other: viz. the New York Primer; Alden's Spelling Book, first and second parts; Easy Lessons and the New Testament,

3d. Children of both sexes of the age of four years and upwards may attend the primary schools in their respective districts and no other until they are transferred to the writing schools as is herein after prescribed.

4th. The branches taught in the writing schools shall be spelling, reading, the use of capital letters and punctuation, writing, arithmetic, the rudiments of book keeping, English grammar, geography and epistolary composition; and the books used shall be the following and no other, viz. Alden's Spelling Book, second part, the new Testament, the American Preceptor, the Brief Remarker, Murray's Sequel to the English reader, Smith's Arithmetic, Murray's Abridgement of English grammar and Woodbridge's small Geography.

Some attempt at the grading of the Writing or Grammar Schools was introduced at about this same time, by a resolution of July 23, 1827, which read:

RESOLVED that it be recommended to the Committee of the Council appointed to set off a portion of the 4th District School for a female School, and to make enquiry whether a sufficient attention be paid to ⚫ the study of Arithmetic in said School.

RESOLVED that it be recommended by this Committee that no male pupil in the public schools shall commence the study of Geography until he shall have pursued the Study of Arithmetic as far as practice, nor shall any female pupil study Geography until she shall have pursued the Study of Arithmetic as far as Compound Division.

In 1838 a higher school was voted, and organized in 1843, to complete the system upward, and a City Superintendent of Schools was ordered employed. At this time the City Council fixed the scope of the school system by an ordinance providing for one High School, six Grammar or Writing Schools, and ten Primary Schools, and made the following provisions concerning them:

Sec. 2. That each Primary School shall be under the care of a principal and one assistant teacher and the rudiments of an English education shall be taught therein. That each Grammar and Writing School shall be under the care of a Master and at least two female assistant teachers, or one male assistant teacher, at the discretion of the school committee; and the ordinary branches of an English education shall be taught therein. That the High School shall be under the care of a Preceptor and one or more Assistant teachers, and thorough instruction shall be given therein in all the branches of a good English education; and instruction shall also be given therein, to all the pupils whose parents or guardians may desire it, in all the preparatory branches of a classical education.

Sec. 3. The High School shall not at any time contain more than two hundred pupils, of which number not more than one hundred shall be females, except when the number of male pupils shall be less than one hundred; in which case, an additional number of females may be admitted, until the School shall be filled, under such conditions as the School Committee may

prescribe.

SCHOOL

This was the typical grammar-school building of about 1840. Each floor seated 228 pupils, and was conducted as a separate school. Boys and girls were here seated on opposite sides of the central aisle, though the usual plan was to give one floor to each sex. In Boston the upper floor was used by the writing school and the lower floor by the reading school. Two small recitation rooms are shown leading off the main room, for the use of the assistant teachers

Sec. 5. That the School Committee be and they are hereby authorized and requested to appoint annually a Superintendent of the Public Schools, who shall perform such duties in relation to the public schools as said Committee may from time to time prescribe, said Superintendent to be subject to removal at any time by the School Committee in case of inability or mismanagement.

By 1844 the schools were re-divided into Primary, Intermediate, Grammar, and High Schools, and then the yearly grading was further applied to perfect the system.

355. Herbart's Educational Ideas

(Felkin, Henry M. and Emmie. Translator's "Introduction" to Herbart's Science of Education. London, 1891)

The following extracts from a long Introduction to an English translation of Herbart's "The Esthetic Revelation of the World" and his "General Principles of the Science of Education," give a fairly good idea as to the philosophy and principles worked out by Herbart, and the relation of his psychology to that of his prede

cessors.

The significance of Herbart's life and work for the teacher arises from the fact that education with him was the starting point and end of all his investigations. He was the only modern thinker who has not treated education casually in his works, or looked at it, as Fichte did, mainly from a political standpoint, but has allowed the whole weight of his philosophy and ethics to operate on it, and construct it into a scientific system. He not only sought, found, and explained its psychological basis, but he did this in the light of his larger philosophy. "I for my part," he writes, "have for twenty years called to my aid metaphysics and mathematics, besides self-observation, experience, and experiments, in order only to find the foundation of true psychologic knowledge."

Philosophers before Herbart (Wolff, Kant, and his disciples) adhered to Aristotle's principle, but slightly modified, that the soul is the dwelling-place of higher and lower capacities, entirely separate from each other. According to this theory, mental processes lying open to the observation of experience were classified into smaller and larger divisions, according to their similitude. All phenomena of one kind were regarded as effects of a single capacity, originally inherent in the soul. Three chief capacities were assumed knowledge, feeling, and will, each of which was again separated into its sub-capacities, the result being a system which was nothing more than a classification of socalled capacities. Given these as the material for their work, the old