affairs, and other things, the work of the teacher loses itself in details, and its educative character is lost."

KESTERNICH (of the Center party) protested against the degradation of the elementary school into a preparatory school in a general system of obligatory continuation school instruction. Himself a teacher, he did not look upon examination as a reliable test of the work of the elementary school. The examination for admission to the continuation school, he held, should always be in the hands of teachers of the elementary school. "The layman is inclined to form an unjust judgment. He does not know how to think with the child; many of them forget that the knowledge they gained at school has been deepened by the experience of life; if they could see themselves again in the intellectual poverty of their childhood, they would feel inclined to revise their unfavorable judgment of the elementary school." Moreover, the influence of apprenticeship, under which the majority of the boys come, should not be overlooked; therefore the examination for admission should, in justice, be preceded by a review course extending over several months, as was the case even with lawyers, before they entered the state examination. "How can we expect the graduate of the elementary school," he added, "who deliberately forgets everything that reminds him of the work of the school, to be ready on the spur of the moment to serve as a test for the efficiency of the elementary school?"

After asserting that the school satisfactorily accomplishes its chief duty, that of providing good instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic, he admitted that there were also some defects. "Among these,” he continued, "is the excessive attention given to realistic studies and to exercises in gymnastics and drawing at the expense of the three principal branches. I would therefore request the minister of public instruction to limit, at least to a minimum, the instruction in geography, history, nature study, gymnastics, and drawing." Another obstacle to effective work he found in the hobbies with reference to methods, and requested the minister to consider, in the appointment of district inspectors, primarily the teachers of normal schools and not to confine himself to philologists (university graduates).

RZESNITZEK (of the Free Conservative party), after complimenting Prussia's interest in the development of the elementary school and its extensions, advocated further regulation of salaries and appointments; the requirement of university preparation for teachers in normal institutions and the establishment of scientific extension courses for those already appointed; provision for assistance in the support of the elementary school on the part of the State in case of

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need; statutory regulation of the size of classes, of the appointment of new teachers, and of the equipment of new class rooms.

He closed with words of approval of the efforts of the minister of instruction to meet the dearth of teachers, and with the request to obviate changes of teachers by uniformity in salaries and by doing away with the vacation periods in connection with such changes.

DOCTOR HOLLE, the minister of public instruction, expressed himself in favor of opportunities for promotion on the part of teachers of the elementary schools in addition to their prospect of advancement to positions in normal schools, and promised, amid great applause, their consideration as candidates for the district inspectorship (i. e., county superintendency). He admitted the desirability of regulating the salaries of teachers in preparatory schools and normal schools, so as to induce them to retain their positions, and promised consideration of this matter He announced the early promulgation of regulations for principals, granting teachers all possible freedom in their work, and closed with the following words:

It is constantly asserted, and justly so, that the condition of the teachers needs improvement and that all school questions are essentially teachers' questions. The work of the teachers determines the character of the work of the entire system of public instruction. I would, however, emphasize in this connection that the Prussian teachers of the lower schools have fully met every expectation of the school administration and that the teachers are to be credited with all that our schools have achieved.

EICKHOFF (of the Liberal People's party), approving the position of the minister, directed attention to the need of improvement of the inner organization of the people's schools, whose course of study, he claimed, must be modernized. He did not believe that other countries, e. g., France, had overtaken Prussia, but he agreed with Representative Schiffer in his demands for more object teaching, pointing to America as a possible model or example. He concluded:

Our fatherland is developing into an industrial country. Upon our world commerce rests the entire economic development of the country; the sons of our people in the lower, as well as in the higher strata, must be equipped with the means which will enable them to meet the competition that will decide the future of the nation. Therefore the methods of instruction must be reformed and adjusted to the change in economic conditions.

ERNST (of the Liberal Union party) emphasized the view that the defects of the elementary school were due, not to lack of diligence on the part of teachers, but to external conditions already enumerated. He criticised also the bureaucratic tendencies of some school inspectors, leading to the assumption "that in some parts of the country the center of gravity in the school lies no longer in the personality of the teacher, but in the office of the supervisor." His chief stress was upon the need of a revision of the course of study with a view to

relieving the elementary school of burdens, especially in the lower grades. He said:

us.

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It is to be regretted that the ideas of Fröbel are so little followed among The school can only proceed on the basis of what the child brings to it. Now, unfortunately, a great number of families lack the time, possibly also the desire, to occupy themselves with their children under school age. The child goes astray or remains stagnant in development; upon the State rests the responsibility of doing much more than it is doing.

After further complimenting the minister of instruction upon his attitude, he added a criticism of the despotic methods of some supervisors in examinations of children, and amid great applause expressed the hope that the labors of the house committee would lead to the establishment of a commission of reform for the lower schools.

DOCTOR HACKENBERG (of the National Liberal party) was not fully in accord with the critical remarks of his party colleague Schiffer, nor with the speakers who followed him. The purpose of the resolution, he held, was not definitely to criticise possible defects of the elementary school, but to ask for full information on the subject, and to assure the minister of the fullest sympathy in his efforts to obtain relief. He rejoiced in the promise of the minister to exert himself in the removal of external obstacles, but regretted that he had not expressed himself as to the general need of changes in the course of study and in the entire management of the schools, now regulated by statutes of more than thirty years' standing.

We are far from asking again and again for new experiments for the lower schools, and it may be possible to pass over certain defects in the regulations and courses of study, since ultimately the essential is not the written statute, but the personalities of the teachers and of the supervising officials.

He did not go into details except on one point, as follows:

It is possible also to economize energy, especially in small schools of one room. Too much is prescribed in the course of study for the children and for the teacher in the lower grades. The necessary consequence must be that these youngest pupils, who need constant supervision and guidance, are trained in indolence, carelessness, and slipshod ways, because the teacher is absolutely unable to give them the necessary attention.

He rejected the suspicion that the movers of the resolution contemplated the overburdening of the school with matter of instruction. Overburdening does not depend on the number of subjects of instruction; to obviate it, reliance should be placed on the skill of the inspectors in giving directions, and, above all, on the freedom allowed the teacher in the selection of details.

With reference to the criticism of the scanty equipment of the people's school on the part of his party colleague, Schiffer, he inferred that the latter had taken his illustrations from sections of the country which were far in arrear in these matters; he himself,

interested for thirty years in schools, had found no instances that bore out these strictures. He summed up:

The liveliest interest for the elementary school, for its work and its success, induces me to put this motion, and induces the house, as I rejoice to say again, to concur in its principle. I have not the least doubt that the representatives of the minister will furnish us, from the experiences in the several provinces with their varying school organizations, sufficient material to enable us to examine what defects exist; if we should find here or there some things good which elsewhere are defective, we shall heartily rejoice; but if we find things that call for improvement we shall, as far as possible, enact the needed measures; for what we do for our Volksschule we do for our people and for its future welfare.

HECKENROTH (of the Conservative party) expressed sympathy with the motion in the name of the Conservatives, and also the hope that the committee submit definite proposals. After reviewing in some detail the external and internal difficulties mentioned by the minister, he recommended especially, "in order to secure better cooperation on the part of the family, the emphatic support of kindergartens by the State, and criticizes the tendency of school inspectors to interfere excessively with the management of the schools." He, too, promised the support of his party in all that concerned the improvement of the elementary schools.

The motion was then referred to the committee on public instruction.

GYMNASTICS IN GERMAN SCHOOLS.

Physical exercises in German lower schools, which used to have a regular place on the daily time table, seem to be in danger of extinction, since women teachers gradually increase in number, and men are lured away from the profession of teaching into channels of commerce, industry, agriculture, and mining, into the learned professions and technological pursuits, in all of which better incomes are offered than in the service of education. The "Statistik des deutschen Schulturnens" reports:

Of the 30,000 people's schools of Prussia, already 400 have no gymnastics for girls at all, owing to the lack of men teachers, and in many others the branch, physical exercises, is slighted. Conforming to the course of study decreed by Minister Falk in 1872, physical exercises on apparatus (horizontal bar, parallel bars, ladder, rope, horse, springboard, etc.), either in gymnastic halls built for the purpose or in the open air, were for several decades as regularly conducted as exercises in arithmetic, but the statistics of 1904 show that of the 30,000 schools only 1,800, or 6 per cent, have kept up this practice faithfully; 94 per cent have begun to slight gymnastics more or less, either in the lower grades or in all the grades.

Since 1904, when that report went through the press, the state, provincial, and city school authorities have awakened to the necessity

of doing something to counteract physical degeneration. New regulations and rigorous supervision have put new life into this branch of the curriculum, but since the true cause, lack of male teachers, is operative in an ever-increasing degree, it is expected that gymnastics will go down, as they have had a tendency to do in every country where women teachers predominate.

In the Prussian Diet the danger was discussed recently and the gradual disappearance of gymnastics in rural schools was lamented, though some members indicated that the pupils of rural schools perhaps needed gymnastics less than city children, since the former enjoyed fresh air, had more exercise in walking, and a good deal of muscular exercise in working in gardens, dairies, and in the fields and woods. It is the city children who lose the great benefit of muscular exertion, unless the recent movement in behalf of playgrounds can counteract the loss indicated.

Several ministers of education in Germany have recently ordered that women teachers undergo regular instruction in gymnastics, and pass an examination to enable them to train their girl pupils properly indoors and outdoors.

COEDUCATION IN THE PULIC SCHOOLS OF PRUSSIA.

While in the German press the idea of coeducation of the sexes seems to gain ground, and while in secondary schools and in higher institutions women students are admitted, the practice loses ground in the lower schools. The number of classes or schoolrooms increases rapidly, even in small towns and villages, which reduces the number of pupils to the teacher, but the separation of the sexes increases. In 1886 there were in Prussia 4,838,247 children in elementary schools; of these three-fourths were taught in mixed classes. Twenty years. later, in 1906, the number of coeducational classes was only twothirds of the whole number; that is to say, the number of classes in rural and other small school districts in which the sexes were separated has risen from 4,206 in 1886 to 9,180 in 1906. Coeducational classes are found chiefly in small towns where grading is difficult, and in rural districts which maintain ungraded schools.

CHILDREN'S MEMORY AND THEIR CAPACITY TO LEARN.

Since time immemorial the view has been entertained that in childhood the capacity to learn new things, and to keep in memory things learned, is strongest. This opinion, though not materially shaken, needs a slight modification, as Professor Groos, of the Giessen Uni