year of the high-school course was opened in Ponce, two parallel high-school courses being provided, one given in Spanish, the other in English.

The legislature at its session of 1902 passed a bill providing for the establishment of industrial schools in the cities of San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez, the sum of $40,521 being made available for the maintenance of these schools.

In addition to the rural, agricultural, graded, and high schools, there were in operation a number of special schools, including night schools, with special instruction in typewriting and stenography in addition to arithmetic, reading, writing, etc. The experimental kindergartens had also done good work and had aroused much enthusiasm among the parents. The legislature also provided for the establishment of 3 schools for the training of nurses under the direction of an American trained nurse graduated from one of the best schools in Boston. The legislature during its session of 1901 passed a law providing for the establishment of scholarships in the United States, as follows: Twenty-five scholarships in colleges and universities of the United States, each beneficiary to receive $400 per annum during four years; and 20 scholarships in industrial and manual-training schools in the States, each beneficiary to receive $250 per annum for a term of four years. The former scholarships were open to young men only, the latter to both sexes. During the year 1902, 45 students were enjoying the benefits of these scholarships in the States.

The insular normal-school building was dedicated on May 30, 1902, with an attendance of over 125 pupils, and funds were allotted for the addition of a practice-school building.

During the session of the legislature in 1903, in addition to the law providing for the compiled school law, two important bills were passed, one providing for the establishment of the University of Porto Rico and the other creating 28 scholarships in the normal school, open to both sexes. The law providing for the establishment of the university provided also that the government of the university should be vested in a board of trustees appointed by the governor of Porto Rico. The law provided that the university should consist of several departments, first in order being the normal department, to be known as the insular normal school, and to be dedicated to the training of teachers.

During the summer of 1904 the department of education organized an eight weeks' trip to the States for Porto Rican teachers for the purpose of study at the summer schools of Harvard and Cornell universities. Five hundred and four teachers of Porto Rico went to these universities and received instruction during the summer. The department commenced its preparations for the proper carrying out of this excursion in the summer of 1903, and secured, first, an act of Congress authorizing the use of army transports.

After the securing of transportation it became necessary to devise some plan whereby the necessary funds for the expenses of the expedition could be secured. It was estimated that the cost per capita, including meals on transports, board, lodging, tuition at the summer school, and one week's travel, enabling the teachers to see the cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, would be $100. It was decided to ask the teachers themselves to contribute one month's salary. This they did, promptly and cheerfully, and their total contributions amounted to $21,175.57. Over $20,000 in addition were contributed by the people of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, half of this amount coming from Boston, due in a great measure to the interest and indorsement of President Eliot, of Harvard.

This excursion was a great success, and the teachers returned to Porto Rico on the 22d of August, delighted with their stay in the States and the experience acquired.

In September, 1904, Doctor Lindsay resigned the commissionership, and Dr. Roland P. Falkner was appointed by the President in place of Doctor Lindsay.

Doctor Falkner was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, having received the degree of Ph. B. He studied economics at Berlin, Leipzig, and Halle-on-Saale, Germany, being the recipient of the degree of Ph. D. at Halle. At the time of his appointment to the office of commissioner of education Doctor Falkner was Chief of the Division of Documents, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

During the year 1904-5 three high schools were in operation in the island, at San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez, with an average attendance in the high-school department of 106 pupils as compared with 78 the previous year. Industrial schools were also maintained in the cities of San Juan, Ponce, Mayaguez, and Arecibo under direct appropriation of the legislature, and under the general fund at the disposal of the department of education for the maintenance and establishment of industrial schools a school was also established at Guayama. Of the agricultural schools, 11 were conducted with an attendance of 506 pupils, as compared with 466 the year before, and 37 night schools were maintained, with an enrollment of 768.

Teachers' institutes were conducted during 1904-5, the same plan being followed as in former years.

In January, 1905, a revised course of study for the rural schools was issued, the department having under consideration during the summer of 1905 a new course of study for graded schools.

During the summer of 1905 special classes in English were held in the school districts of the island. These classes continued during a period of five weeks, with an enrollment of over 500 Porto Rican teachers. In order to assist the American teachers to acquire a working knowledge of the Spanish language, a course of study was suggested, and text-books for learning Spanish were supplied by the department to all who applied for them. Examinations in elementary and advanced Spanish were held by the department and certificates issued to those who successfully passed these examinations.

During the school year 1905-6 the department of education employed 158 American teachers, 127 serving as teachers of English.

Industrial schools were originally established in San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez, and later other schools were opened in Guayama and Arecibo. Opposition to these schools had been growing since the time of their establishment, and in the legislative session of 1905 a strong effort was made to overthrow them. A compromise was, however, effected by which the schools of San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez were maintained, but those of Guayama and Arecibo abandoned. In the year 1905-6 the position of supervising principal of industrial schools was abolished, and grading in academic work was made entirely different from grading in the shopwork. Notwithstanding these and other changes, it appeared that public opinion was opposed to the work of these schools, and in the legislature of 1906 appropriations for these schools were stricken out of the budget by the house of delegates and a law passed abolishing the industrial schools as constituted, but merging their material and equipment with one of the boys' and girls' charity schools into a new organization to be known as a "School of arts and trades." This bill, however, did not reach the executive council until too late, and was therefore not considered.

The legislature of 1907 also established 50 scholarships in the high schools of the island, to be assigned to the most promising graduates of the eighth grade

throughout the island. The appropriation for salaries of the common schools was increased to $500,000, and by a special act a large and adequate piece of public land was donated to the school board of San Juan for the erection of a school building. Perhaps the most important act of the legislature of 1907 was the establishment of a school-building fund. The law provides that school boards who apply for assistance from the fund shall furnish the necessary sites and agree to repay, in a period not exceeding ten years, one-half the cost of erecting the buildings.

Teachers' institutes were held under the supervision of the department in all the districts of the island, and in the budget of 1907 an appropriation was secured for the maintenance of summer schools.

These were in charge of an American teacher as director, assisted by one or more Porto Rican teachers. In all these instruction in English was the common feature.

COURSE OF STUDY.

In consonance with the demands of progress several revisions of the course of study have become necessary during the decade. The first was made eight years ago by Commissioner Martin G. Brumbaugh, when the insular board of education turned over the school system established under the military government. The course which he presented in his report for the year 1900-1901 was based upon the best and most fruitful experience in American schools, and by its form of presentation emphasized those elements most necessary to a wellbalanced training.

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In the report for 1906 Commissioner Falkner said: "The course of study for the graded schools of the island was prepared some years ago, and was based largely upon the experience of American schools. Local needs had not then been sufficiently felt to exercise much influence in shaping the course. To-day these needs are better, if not wholly, understood. The old course was based upon the supposition that the instruction was to be given in Spanish, with the teaching of English as a special subject only. It has already been noted how this condition is gradually passing away, and it can readily be inferred that the former course of study was thereby rendered useless."

In mentioning the course of study prepared for that year Doctor Falkner emphasized the following points: "The work to be covered in the eight grades is the same, whatever the language employed in the school, but it will be differently distributed, according as English or Spanish is the predominant medium of instruction. As in our several districts we have all possible combinations in this respect, the preparation of a new course of study immediately applicable everywhere was out of the question. Accordingly it was assumed that instruction in the first grade should be given in Spanish, and from the second grade upward in English."

The principal changes effected are such as to provide for more instruction in the use of English.

During the coming year (1908-9) all tests and examinations on English suggested by the department will be based upon the language books. Meanwhile the course in reading is being strengthened, and in Ponce, where for the first time the first-grade work is to be done wholly in English, a test of new methods in the teaching of reading will be inaugurated. It is the intention that in the reading, as well as in the language work, interest shall be stimulated by putting a book hitherto unknown to him into the hands of each pupil upon his advancement to a higher grade.

SECONDARY EDUCATION.

While the record of the development of primary education is a most interesting chapter in the history of the past decade in Porto Rico, no less significant is the story of the establishment and quiet growth of secondary instruction.

Upon the disappearance of those institutions which afforded opportunity for higher education prior to the inauguration of the American system of public schools, the necessity for replacing them with schools more in keeping with the new order of things became at once imperative. Perforce, the first attempt at meeting the need was tentative; for the problems peculiar to this phase of the task to which the educational authorities had set themselves were quite different in certain essentials from such as had been met and answered in the establishment of similar institutions in the United States. In other words, those in charge of public instruction in Porto Rico were without adequate precedents. Among the difficulties, there was the question of language whether instruction should be given in Spanish or in English; there was also a lack of an efficient corps of teachers for the work of the primary grades; and, finally, there existed a certain obligation to furnish instruction in pharmacy to a body of students whose training had been interrupted by the disappearance of the schools first mentioned.

A summer school established in San Juan, July, 1899, with an enrollment of 76, of which number a majority were teachers taking a normal course, marks the beginning of the new secondary education. At the opening of the school year of 1899-1900, the school was continued in the same edifice, the diputacion building, under the name of the "normal and training school." The enrollment increased to 238, of this number 49 being enrolled in the high-school department. At the same time a high school with an enrollment of 50 was established in the city of Ponce. In January, 1900, the school in San Juan was moved to a new frame building erected by the military authorities near Fort San Cristobal. This structure was destroyed by fire one week after the close of the school year. A fact worth recording at this point is this, that instruction in the high schools during this period was wholly in English.

The experience of the first year called for modifications in the original plan. It was seen that to proceed on an English basis alone was premature, and would continue to be impracticable until pupils were prepared to enter upon their secondary education with a thorough working knowledge of the English language. Owing to the large number of pupils in San Juan who were unable to pursue their studies in English, it was decided to establish a Spanish high school and an English high school, joining the graded department to the latter. So, at the beginning of the school year 1900-1901, the normal and training school was discontinued, and its high-school department was reorganized under the name of the "high and graded school." In Ponce the same plan was adopted, but it did not go into effect until the year 1902-3, when a class of 15 pupils were admitted from the graded department to the work of the ninth grade. With the close of the year 1904 the Spanish high school disappeared in San Juan, so that both San Juan and Ponce began the next year with high and graded schools in which the instruction was given in English.

Such changes as have occurred since 1905 have been made largely on account of the more general use of English throughout the whole system of schools. The number of Porto Ricans able to conduct classes in English had increased to such proportions by 1905-6 that it was decided to employ as many of them as should successfully pass a test prepared for the purpose to teach grades in

English. Enough were found to take charge of nearly all of the first, second, third, and fourth grades in the schools of Ponce and San Juan. It was therefore decided to retain only the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades with the high schools. Thus, in 1905-6 the secondary institutions came to be known popularly as the “high and grammar schools," under which name they continued up to the end of the decade.

A high school was established in Mayaguez in 1903-4, from which two classes have already graduated. At Fajardo, where it was expected that a high school could be developed, the conditions have not been favorable to its organization.

UNIVERSITY OF PORTO RICO.

The University of Porto Rico was established by an act of the insular legislature approved March 12, 1903, as an organization for the gradual development of facilities for higher education in Porto Rico. This law vested the government of the new institution in a corporation known as the board of trustees of the University of Porto Rico, of which the governor of Porto Rico is honorary president and the commissioner of education is president ex officio. It provided the board with an income from the insular revenues and authorized the solicitation of federal and private aid. It established a normal department by transferring the insular normal school with its grounds, buildings, equipment, and current appropriation from the department of education to the board of trustees of the university. It provided the basis of an agricultural and mechanical department by transferring to the board of trustees a farm of 100 acres in Rio Piedras, previously purchased by the commissioner of education at a cost of $9,700 out of the general school extension fund-a fund constituted from customs on Porto Rican importations collected before 1901 and refunded by the Federal Government on the institution of free trade. And it authorized the organization of the following additional departments, in the order given, as soon as the necessary funds should be available: A department of the natural sciences and engineering, a department of liberal arts, a department of medicine, a department of laws, a department of pharmacy, a department of architecture, and a university hospital.

The normal department was organized on July 1, 1903. A department of agriculture was established in October, 1904. Plans for the opening of a mechanical department during the coming school year, to be attached either to the normal department or the agricultural department, are now under consideration. Appropriation was made by the legislature of 1908 for a new college of agriculture and mechanic arts, the erection of which will be begun this autumn. No other departments have been actually attempted. The hope of the founders that private donations would be forthcoming has never been realized, and their hope of federal aid was not realized until May, 1908, when an allotment under the Morrill Act was received; and the income accruing from insular revenues has not been great enough to permit further extension.

NORMAL DEPARTMENT.

The normal department is situated on a tract of 23 acres lying along the military road at a distance of 7 miles from the capital. Its three buildings, the normal school, the practice school, and the principal's dwelling, are valued at $33,500, and its other property as follows: Land, $6,500; apparatus, $800; library, $1,655; other equipment, $2,800.

This department offers to graduates of the eighth grade of the public schools a two-year and a four-year course in normal training. At the end of the two