school commission at Vechta. According to the bill, the use of new text or school books for religious education shall be permitted only if these two authorities sanction their introduction. The local administration of elementary schools is given over to the local boards, which consist of the mayor, the parish pastor, the school principal, and from two to four elected citizens serving for six years.

Direct professional supervision is provided for, but the religious instruction is supervised by the parish pastor or priest, and the maximum number of pupils allowed is 70 to a teacher. This does not prescribe that there shall be 70 pupils in each class room, but it means that if the number of children enrolled in any district exceeds 70, there shall be made provision for an additional schoolroom at once. The bill provides for better salaries for teachersi. e., from $300 to $600 for principals, with a suitable dwelling and garden land, or indemnity for rent amounting to about 20 per cent of the salary, and a local addition of $40 per year for a number of years. For class teachers the salary is fixed at from $250 to $540, plus 20 per cent rent indemnity and a certain number of annual increases of $35 each.

All ancient, private, and semiprivate endowments are definitely handed over to the civil community, which takes upon itself the maintenance of the schools in connection with the state government, which latter derives its moral and legal right to supervision and direction through its quota to the school support. Local school supervision by religious bodies, through clergymen, is done away with, except so far as lessons in denominational religion in preparation for church confirmation are concerned. This division of the duties of school supervision and general management seems to be the final solution. in German States of the vexing question whether school supervision shall be conducted by the clergy or by professional teachers.

The State of Wurttemberg (population 2,302,179) also is preparing a new school law. So far as religion is concerned, the legislature follows the principle for which all German States, including Prussia, have declared, namely, that of separate schools for Catholics and Protestants, as well as for Jews in cities where enough Jewish children are found to open a separate school. The subjects of the course of study for elementary schools (so-called Volksschulen) are determined by the bill. History, geography, nature study, and gymnastics for boys, branches which hitherto rested on ministerial decrees only, now receive statutory sanction as obligatory subjects; elementary geography, drawing, and handiwork for girls also become obligatory. As optional studies are named manual training for boys, accompanied by "working drawings," and gym

nastics and domestic economy (housekeeping, including cooking) for girls.

From this it is apparent that the course is being enriched. The bill recognizes intermediate schools (Mittelschulen), the characteristic of which is instruction in a modern foreign language, and auxiliary schools (Hilfsschulen) for abnormal or weak-minded children. It is left to the authorities of the school districts to establish such schools or not, and it is left to the parents to decide whether they will make use of them for their children. Another paragraph of the bill is significant. It bestows upon the communities the right to extend the compulsory attendance act to the beginning of the sixteenth year of life. This is done to keep boys and girls under observation in vocational schools during the age of adolescence and apprenticeship.

Like Oldenburg, the State of Wurttemberg reduces the maximum number of pupils per teacher. It was formerly 90; it will be 70 if the bill becomes a law. Imperial statistics for 1906 show that in Prussia the average number of pupils per teacher was 60, in Bavaria 58, in Saxony 61, in Wurttemberg 57, in Baden 64, in Hesse 57.

The minister of public instruction of Wurttemberg submitted to the legislature also another school bill, which deals with the reform of the professional training of teachers. The normal-school course is prolonged to six years, and the instruction given is to be greatly improved and deepened. It is proposed to devote the sixth year to more language and literature, to a more extensive study of pedagogy through practice in the model school, and to the study of methods of child study and self-activity. The normal-school course will thereby receive an extension, such as can be found in Saxony, in the three free cities, and in the western provinces of Prussia.

The Kingdom of Saxony (population 4,508,601) also contemplates a revision of its school law, and a bill is being prepared by the government to be laid before the legislature early in 1909. Smaller states, like Saxe-Weimar (population 388,095) and others, have already revised their school laws, and everywhere in Germany, either by statute or by decree, changes are made which are intended to improve the education of the people, though these changes involve heavier burdens of expenditure for communities and the State.

In Switzerland (which is mentioned in this connection merely to indicate that the democratic form of government succeeds in solving school problems in a more radical way) the question of sectarian instruction in school has been settled by the constitution, namely: Each child, as it enters school, brings a statement signed by father or guardian, which determines whether or not the child is to receive religious instruction; if so, whether Catholic or Protestant. At stated hours during the week the parish pastor or priest comes to

the school and gives the lessons, while the teacher is freed from teaching religion. In all other branches the schools are common schools, pupils of all denominations sitting side by side. The Swiss seem to be very well satisfied with this solution; at any rate clergymen of all denominations meet on common ground, and difficulties arising from lack of harmony between teachers and clergymen have entirely ceased to agitate the communities.

TEACHERS' SALARIES IN PRUSSIA.

The final result of the deliberations in the lower house of the Prussian legislature, concerning the remuneration of teachers in the lower schools, though it does not come up to the expectations of the teachers, is after all quite a step forward. The minimum salary for men class teachers (that is, at the beginning of their careers) is to be 1,400 marks (about $333), for women class teachers 1,200 marks ($286). There are two annual increases of 200 marks, then two of 250 marks, and after that five of 200 marks, making a total increase of 1,900 marks ($452), and a total salary of 3,300 marks ($785.50) for men after nine years of service; the increases for women make a total salary of 2,450 marks ($582).

To these sums must be added 700 marks ($166.60) for rectors or principals of fully graded schools, 200 marks ($47.60) for principals of schools of four to five grades, and 100 marks ($23.80) for teachers of ungraded schools. There should be added, also, reimbursements for rent in cases where the schoolhouse contains no suitable dwelling accommodations for the teachers. This indemnity amounts to 800 marks ($190.40) in cities of the first class, 650 marks ($154.70) in cities of the second class, 540 marks ($128.50) in cities of the third class, 450 marks ($107.10) in cities of the fourth class, and 330 marks ($78.50) in cities of the fifth class.

A man teacher may therefore get $785.50, plus $166.60, plus $190.40, or a total of $1,142.50 a year, during the last five, ten, or fifteen years of his service, and retire as principal on a pension of 75 per cent of his last year's salary, which is $856.80. In Germany, where the purchasing power of money is far greater than here, these sums are considered not only a great improvement over salaries and pensions of former years, but quite an adequate income.

The teachers are gratified to hear that a paragraph in the new law specifically states that in computing a teacher's pension these rent indemnities shall be considered integral parts of the salaries, which in many cases was not done formerly. This, of course, increases the pensions considerably, and since the State alone pays the pensions, the increases are secure from local favor or disfavor.

Teachers all over Germany look hopefully toward Prussia, as a law of this kind will act as an example for other States of the Empire. That this is desirable may be seen from the following comparative table, which gives the salaries for elementary school teachers in the four largest States of Germany. The salaries mentioned do not include indemnity for rent, nor extra pay for principals; they include only the cash pay of class teachers.

Salaries paid elementary teachers (men) in certain States of Germany.

The sums in italics are the highest salaries obtainable by class teachers.

The House of Lords in Prussia has adopted the schedule of the lower house with slight amendments.

NEW MINISTERIAL REGULATIONS CONCERNING INSTRUCTION IN

PRUSSIAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.

The Prussian minister of public instruction, Doctor Holle, issued in 1908 new regulations concerning the manner in which elementary instruction is to be given. They are based on the course of study adopted in 1872, do not go into the minutiæ, demand nothing new, but in a general way point out in what way time and labor may be saved, and they infuse, so to speak, a new spirit into matter and method of the schools. Since the regulations are addressed to the supervisory authorities, it stands to reason that they will urge the teachers to change their customary methods to conform their work to the minister's order.

The old maxim, "Through self-activity to self-dependence," is especially emphasized by the minister. He orders more attention to be paid to self-activity on the part of the pupils, independent action in form of reciting, measuring, computing, framing rules of their own, and choosing their own mode in writing down what has been learned. Everywhere through the new regulations is observable the strong desire to kill mechanism, routine, and Procrustean procedure of any kind. Hitherto, says the order, the teachers used the Socratic

method of questioning and answering orally too exclusively. They guided the children too much, and thus prevented spontaneity.

He wants the teachers to let the pupils have more liberty to use their own words, orally and in writing. This has been the weakest point in German schools. The method in use creates cognitions well enough, transmits knowledge, but it fails to awaken spontaneity and clear judgment, nor does it set in action the child's individual powers. By giving the pupils much freedom to select their own form of expression, they will acquire the power to apply in practice whatever knowledge they have gained. Doctor Kuypers, in his comparison of German and American school methods, touches upon the fact that in American schools less guidance and more self-action is found. This produces the power to help one's self and to judge for one's self. The new order also urges the teachers to make their pupils acquainted with home and its environments; plants, animals, minerals of the neighborhood should be learned by bringing the natural objects into class or by taking the class on little excursions into the country. Lessons in the open air are recommended, in school gardens and during walks through the parks and the woods. Again, selfactivity is urged by advising the beginning of collections of natural objects brought to school by the pupils.

With reference to the criticism that the schools had too great a variety of subjects and that too much matter was prescribed to be memorized, as, for instance, a large number of hymns, Bible verses, and the whole of the catechism, the new order relieves the school by restricting the amount; and, as to grammatical matter, the minister seems to think that the lower schools have hitherto tried in vain to stem the tide of dialectic speech, and hence he suggests less dry grammar and more live speech.

For arithmetic he orders that the excessive work in common fractions be curtailed as "unnecessary." The practical demands of life should determine the matter to be gone over in arithmetic, and in calling the pupils to frame and solve problems consideration should be paid to actual conditions of life. In the upper grades the chief object in arithmetic is to make children solve problems by means of their own methods, not merely by conventional methods; furthermore, rules should not be dictated, but discovered. Self-thinking, self-acting are recommended by the minister for no branch more than for arithmetic and mensuration. He suggests to save time by dropping the senseless practice of dealing mechanically with large sums, with arbitrary measures, and especially the practice of juggling with large common fractions.

History, which has always been an important branch in the lower schools of Germany, both native and foreign, is curtailed in the following words: "In lessons in history presentations from ancient