Chapter CXI: Section 2 (16)

For this notable educational work begun in Prussia in 1809,
and which gave a new character to the nation, "the
Providential man appeared in Humboldt, as great a master of
the science and art of education as Scharnhorst was a master
of the organisation of war. Not only was he himself, as a
scholar and an investigator, on a level with the very first of
his age, not only had he lived with precisely those masters of
literature, Schiller and Goethe, who were most deliberate in
their self-culture, and have therefore left behind most
instruction on the higher parts of education, but he had been
specially intimate with F. A. Wolf. It is not generally known
in England that Wolf was not merely the greatest philologer
but also the greatest teacher and educationist of his time.
… Formed by such teachers, and supported by a more intense
belief in culture than almost any man of his time, Humboldt
began his work in April, 1809.
{720}
In primary education Fichte had already pointed
to Pestalozzi as the best guide. One of that reformer's
disciples, C. A. Zeller, was summoned to Königsberg to found a
normal school, while the reformer himself, in his weekly
educational journal, cheered fallen Prussia by his panegyric,
and wrote enthusiastically to Nicolovius pronouncing him and
his friends the salt and leaven of the earth that would soon
leaven the whole mass. It is related that in the many
difficulties which Zeller not unnaturally had to contend with,
the King's genuine benevolence, interest in practical
improvement, and strong family feeling, were of decisive use.
… The reform of the Gymnasia was also highly successful.
Süvern here was among the most active of those who worked
under Humboldt's direction. In deference to the authority of
Wolf the classics preserved their traditional position of
honour, and particular importance was attached to Greek. …
But it was on the highest department of education that
Humboldt left his mark most visibly. He founded the University
of Berlin; he gave to Europe a new seat of learning, which has
ever since stood on an equality with the very greatest of
those of which Europe boasted before. We are not indeed to
suppose that the idea of such a University sprang up for the
first time at this moment, or in the brain of Humboldt. Among
all the losses which befell Prussia by the Peace of Tilsit
none was felt more bitterly than the loss of the University of
Halle, where Wolf himself had made his fame. Immediately after
the blow fell, two of the Professors of Halle made their way
to Memel and laid before the King a proposal to establish a
High School at Berlin. This was on August 22nd, 1807. … On
September 4th came an Order of Cabinet, in which it was
declared to be one of the most important objects to compensate
the loss of Halle. It was added that neither of the two
Universities which remained to Prussia, those of Königsberg
and Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, could be made to supply the place
of Halle, Königsberg being too remote from the seat of
Government and Frankfurt not sufficiently provided with means.
At Berlin a University could best, and at least expense, be
established. Accordingly all funds which had hitherto gone to
Halle were to go for the future to Berlin, and assurances were
to be given to the expelled Professors which might prevent
their talents being lost to the country. A University is not
founded in a day, and accordingly while Stein held office the
design did not pass beyond the stage of discussion. …
Humboldt sent in his Report on May 12, 1809, and on August
16th followed the Order of Cabinet assigning to the new
University, along with the Academies of Science and Art, an
annual dotation of 150,000 thalers, and the Palace of Prince
Henry as its residence. During the rest of his term of office
Humboldt was occupied in negotiations with eminent men of
science all over Germany, whose services he hoped to procure.
He was certainly not unsuccessful. He secured Fichte for
Philosophy; Schleiermacher, De Wette, and Marheineke for
Theology; Savigny and Schmalz for Jurisprudence; Friedländer,
Kohlrausch, Hufeland, and Reil for Medicine; Wolf, Buttmann,
Böckh, Heindorf, and Spalding for the Study of Antiquity;
Niebuhr and Rühs for History; Tralles for Mathematics (Gauss
refused the invitation). The University was opened at
Michaelmas of 1810, and as the first result of it the first
volume of Niebuhr's Roman History, opening so vast a field of
historical speculation, was published in 1811. … Altogether
in that period of German history the relations of literature,
or rather culture in general, to politics are remarkable and
exceptional. There had been a most extraordinary intellectual
movement, a great outpouring of genius, and yet this had taken
place not, as according to some current theories it ought to
have done, in the bosom of political liberty, but in a country
where liberty was unknown. And as it was not the effect, so
the new literature did not seem disposed to become the cause,
of liberty. Not only was it careless of internal liberty, but
it was actually indifferent to national independence. The
golden age of German literature is the very period when
Germany was conquered by France. … So far literature and
culture seemed a doubtful benefit, and might almost be
compared to some pernicious drug, which should have the power
to make men forget their country and their duties. Not
unreasonably did Friedrich Perthes console himself for the
disasters of Germany by reflecting that at least they had
brought to an end 'the paper time,' the fool's paradise of a
life made up of nothing more substantial than literature. In
Humboldt's reform we have the compensation for all this. Here
while on the one hand we see the grand spectacle of a nation
in the last extremity refusing to part with the treasures of
its higher life, on the other hand that higher life is no
longer unnaturally divorced from political life. It is prized
as one of the bulwarks of the State, as a kind of spiritual
weapon by which the enemy may be resisted. And in the new and
public-spirited generation of thinkers, of which Fichte and
Sehleiermacher were the principal representatives, culture
returns to politics the honour that has been done to it. …
In Humboldt and his great achievements of 1809, 1810, meet and
are reconciled the two views of life which found their most
extreme representatives in Goethe and Stein."

_J. R. Seeley,
Life and Times of Stein,
part 6, chapter 3 (volume 2)._

EDUCATION: Prussia: A. D. 1874.
The Educational Administration.

"There is no organic school-law in Prussia, … though
sketches and projects of such a law have more than once been
prepared. But at present the public control of the higher
schools is exercised through administrative orders and
instructions, like the minutes of our Committee of Council on
Education. But the administrative authority has in Prussia a
very different basis for its operations from that which it has
in England, and a much firmer one. It has for its basis these
articles of the Allgemeine Landrecht, or common law of
Prussia, which was drawn up in writing in Frederick the
Great's reign, and promulgated in 1794, in the reign of his
successor:—'Schools and universities are State institutions,
having for their object the instruction of youth in useful and
scientific knowledge. Such establishments are to be instituted
only with the State's previous knowledge and consent. All
public schools and public establishments of education are
under the State's supervision, and must at all times submit
themselves to its examinations and inspections.
{721}
Whenever the appointment of teachers is not by virtue of the
foundation or of a special privilege vested in certain persons
or corporations, it belongs to the State. Even where the
immediate supervision of such schools and the appointment of
their teachers is committed to certain private persons or
corporations, new teachers cannot be appointed, and important
changes in the constitution and teaching of the school cannot
be adopted without the previous knowledge or consent of the
provincial school authorities. The teachers in the gymnasiums
and other higher schools have the character of State
functionaries.' … It would be a mistake to suppose that the
State in Prussia shows a grasping and centralising spirit in
dealing with education; on the contrary, it makes the
administration of it as local as it possibly can; but it takes
care that education shall not be left to the chapter of
accidents. … Prussia is now divided into eight provinces,
and these eight provinces are again divided into twenty-six
governmental districts, or Regierungen. There is a Provincial
School Board (Provinzial-Schulcollegium) in the chief town of
each of the eight provinces, and a Governmental District Board
in that of each of the twenty-six Regierungen. In general, the
State's relations with the higher class of secondary schools
are exercised through the Provincial Board; its relations with
the lower class of them, and with the primary schools, through
the District Board. In Berlin, the relations with these also
are managed by the Provincial Board. A
Provinzial-Schulcollegium has for its president the High
President of the province; for its director the vice-president
of that governmental district which happens to have for its
centre the provincial capital. The Board has two or three
other members, of whom, in general, one is a Catholic and one
is a Protestant; and one is always a man practically
conversant with school matters. The District Board has in the
provincial capitals the same president and director as the
Provincial Board; in the other centres of Regierungen it has
for its president the President of the Regierung, and three or
four members selected on the same principle as the members of
the Provincial Board. The provincial State authority,
therefore, is, in general, for gymnasiums, the larger
progymnasiums, and Realschulen of the first rank, the
Provincial School Board; for the smaller progymnasiums,
Realschulen of the second rank, the higher Burgher Schools,
and the primary schools of all kinds, the Governmental
District Board. Both boards are in continual communication
with the Educational Minister at Berlin. … Besides the
central and provincial administration there is a local or
municipal administration for schools that are not Crown
patronage schools. … In most towns the local authority for
schools of municipal patronage is the town magistracy,
assisted by a Stadtschulrath; sometimes the local authority is
a Curntorium or Schulcommission."

_M. Arnold,
Higher Schools and Universities in Germany,
chapter 3._

"The secondary school differs from the elementary schools by a
course of instruction going beyond the immediate demands of
every-day life; from the special school, by the more general
character of the courses of instruction; from the university,
by its preparatory character. It has the special aim to give
that sound basis of scientific and literary education which
enables a man to participate in solving the higher problems of
life in church, state, and society, In accordance with their
historical development, two directions can be clearly traced,
viz., the gymnasium and the real-school: the former comprising
gymnasia and pro-gymnasia; and the latter real-schools of the
first class, real-schools of the second class, and higher
burgher-schools."

_History of Secondary Instruction in Germany
(U. S. Bureau of Education, Circulars of Information,
1874, number 3), page 41._

"The name gymnasium came into use as early as the sixteenth
century. The ministerial decree of the 12th of November, 1812,
ordered that all learned school institutions, such as lyceums,
pedagogiums, collegiums, Latin schools, etc., should bear the
name gymnasium. A gymnasium is and has long been a classical
school."

_U. S. Commissioner of Education, Report, 1889-90, page 318._

ALSO IN: _V. Cousin, Report on the state of
public instruction in Prussia._

EDUCATION: Prussia: A. D. 1885-1889.
The Elementary School-System.

"The New Yorker, anxious for a high degree of perfection in
the elementary schools of his State, must be struck forcibly
by the following merits of the Elementary School System of
Prussia. …

1. Compulsory education laws, necessitating a full and regular
attendance of the children of school age.

2. Official courses of study fixing the work to be
accomplished in each of the different grades of schools.
Uniformity is thus secured in the work done in all schools of
the same class.

3. Definite qualifications and experience in teaching for
eligibility to the office of school commissioner.

4. Provisions elevating teaching to the dignity of a
profession and making the tenure of office secure.

5. Trained teachers in rural as well as city districts and a
school year of at least forty weeks.

6. General supervision of instruction for children of school
age in private schools and families, including the
qualifications of instructors. …

Every Prussian child between the ages of 6 and 14 must, except
in cases of severe illness or other extraordinary cause, be
present at every session of the school he attends. The lists
of the children of school age, in charge of the local police
(in rural districts the Burgermeister), are kept so carefully
that it is impossible to escape the provisions of the
compulsory education laws, as much so as it is to evade the
military service. Dispensations amounting to more than four
weeks in the school year are never given to children under 12
years of age, and to them only when sickness in the family or
other unusual cause make it advisable. … In order to
understand the qualifications required of school commissioners
(Kreisschulinspektoren) in Prussia, let us review briefly the
requirements of male teachers.

1. Elementary schools. It may be stated at the outset that
almost all the male elementary school teachers are normal
school graduates. To insure similarity in training and a
thorough knowledge of character, few foreigners and few beside
normal school (Schullehrer-Seminar) graduates are admitted to
the male teaching force. From 6 to 14 the would-be teacher has
attended, let us suppose, an elementary school. He must then
absolve the three years' course laid down for the preparatory
schools. … He is now ready for the normal school. At the
close of a three years' course at the normal school he is
admitted to the first teachers' examination. If successful, he
must next practice as candidate or assistant teacher not less
than two years and not more than five years before his
admission to the final test. … If a teacher fails to pass
the examination within five years, he is dropped.

{722}

2. Middle schools. For teachers of lower classes the same
requirements with the addition of ability to teach a foreign
tongue, or natural history in its broadest sense, and the
attainment of the mark 'good' in all subjects at the final
examination. … For higher classes, a special examination
provided for middle school teachers. … There is really no
gradation between elementary and middle schools. The latter
merely go on somewhat further with elementary school work,
introducing French, Latin and English.

3. High schools (Realschulen, Realgymnasien, Progymnasien and
Gymnasien). All high school teachers, except those engaged in
technical departments, must first absolve the nine years'
gymnasial course, which commences at the close of the third
school year.

Next comes the university course of three or four years. The
candidate is now ready for the State examination. The subjects
for this State examination … are divided into four classes:

1. The ancient languages and German;
2. Mathematics and natural sciences;
3. History and geography;
4. Religion and Hebrew.

At the close of one year's practice to test teaching capacity
he receives a second certificate and is thereupon engaged
provisionally. … The school commissioners … are either
former regular high school teachers, general doctors of
philosophy or more rarely theologians, or former normal school
teachers. All must have had practical experience in teaching.
… The work to be accomplished in each Prussian elementary
school is definitely laid down by law. Each school is not a
law unto itself as to what shall be done and when and how this
is to be done. I have learned by practical experience that the
work in ungraded schools compares most favorably with that of
graded schools."

_J. R. Parsons, Jr.,
Prussian Schools through American eyes,
chapter 1, sections 5-10._

Prussian elementary schools are now free. "In this respect
Prussia has passed through three stages. Under the first
elementary schools were entirely self-supporting; under the
second they received State aid, but were still largely
self-supporting; under the third, Laws of 1888 and 1889,
elementary schools were made free and the State pays a larger
proportion of the cost of maintenance. Districts must pay for
repairs, new buildings and cost of heating. If unwilling to
provide proper accommodations for the children of school age,
they can be forced by the government to do so. Poor districts
may receive special government aid to meet such expenses. …
The direct aim of the laws of June 14, 1888, and March 31,
1889, was to lighten the burden of local taxation for schools
for children of school age. These laws have had a beneficial
effect in increasing slightly the wages of teachers. Teachers'
salaries are still quite small in Prussia, particularly in the
case of females. Allowances are generally made for house-rent
and fuel. Teachers in rural districts are provided with a
house and garden. Their salaries are often not much more than
half those paid city teachers of the same grade, and yet, as
regards professional training and character of work, they are
fully equal to city teachers. … The average annual salary
received by teachers in Prussia in 1886 was $267.50. The
average for the same year in New York was $409.27. The
Prussian teacher, however, received fuel and dwelling free, in
addition to his regular salary. … In 1885 the population of
Prussia was 28,318,470, and the total cost of public education
per caput was $1,7717. Drs. Schneider and Petersilie of
Berlin, in 'Preussische Statistik 101,' published in 1889,
reckon the total cost for 1888, excluding army and navy
schools, at $50,192,857. … In Prussia, elementary
instruction is the first consideration. The resolution adopted
by the national assembly (Landtag) December 22, 1870, is a
good illustration of this. It was at the very crisis of the
Franco-German war, yet the Landtag called on the government to
increase the number of normal schools and the capacity of
those already existing, and 'thus to put an end to the
practice of filling up teachers' vacancies by appointing
unqualified individuals.'"

_J. R. Parsons, Jr.,
Prussian Schools through American eyes,
chapter 1, sections 15-17._

"Throughout Prussia there is now one school-room and one
teacher to 446 inhabitants and 78.8 children actually
attending school. This shows that there are far too few
teachers. But the government and the cities have recently
devoted considerable sums to the establishment of new places
for teachers, so that, in the year 1881, there were 10,000
more teachers working in the public schools than in 1873. The
salaries of the teachers were also raised. The average payment
in the country is 954 marks, in the cities 1,430 marks. …
The expense of maintaining the Prussian national schools
amounts annually to about 102,000,000 of marks, 43,000,000 of
which are paid by the cities. One hundred and ten colleges for
the training of teachers are now engaged in the education of
male and female instructors, with an attendance of 9,892
pupils; that is, there is one pupil to every 2,758
inhabitants. In the case of the female teachers only, a
considerable degree of assistance is rendered by private
institutions. … The intermediary schools established in
1872, and recently converted into the higher citizen schools,
form a transition from the national schools to the higher
schools. These teach religion, German, French, English,
history and geography, arithmetic and mathematics, natural
history and physics, writing, drawing, singing, and
gymnastics. The course embraces six years without Latin, with
the privilege of one year's service in the army instead of
three. Complementary to the national school is the finishing
school. There are a large number in Prussia, namely, 1,261
with 68,766 pupils: 617 with 10,395 in the country, and 644
with 58,371 in the cities. Of these 644,342 are obligatory by
local statutes, 302 are optional. Since the law of 1878
special care has been devoted to the compulsory education of
orphaned children. … The preparatory instruction of female
teachers leaves much to be desired."

_F. Kirchner,
Contemporary Educational Thought in Prussia
(Educational Review, May, 1891)._

"About 25 per cent. of all the teachers in public middle
schools are women, hence … women hold positions in these
schools more frequently than in the lower, the purely
elementary, schools of the kingdom. The greatest ratio of
women teachers in Prussia is found in private middle schools,
where 2,422 of 3,126 (or nearly 80 percent.) are women. … In
all the public schools of Prussia (elementary, middle, and
secondary) only 10,600 women teachers were employed [1887], or
14¼ per cent. of all the teachers in the kingdom. … Before
the public schools of the kingdom had the care and close
supervision on the part of the state which they have now, many
more private schools were in existence than at present. During
the last 25 years the private schools have not increased in
numbers, but perceptibly decreased."

_United States Commissioner of Education, Report, 1889-90,
pages 287-289._

{723}

EDUCATION:
Russia.

"After serfdom had been abolished, the Emperor Alexander II.
saw that the indispensable consequence of this great reform
must be a thorough reorganization of public instruction. In
1861 a committee was appointed to draw up the plan of a law.
In 1862 M. Taneef submitted to the Emperor a 'General plan for
the organization of popular education,' which contained some
very excellent points. The result was the General Regulations
of 1864, which are still in force. … The difficulties which
a complete reorganization of popular education meets in Russia
are enormous. They are principally caused by the manner in
which the inhabitants live, scattered over a large extent of
country, and by their extreme poverty. … The density of
population is so small that there are only 13.6 inhabitants to
one square kilometer (2.6 square kilometers to 1 square mile),
instead of 69 as in France. Under these circumstances only the
children from the center hamlet and those living-nearest to it
could attend school regularly, especially during the
winter-months. The remainder of the inhabitants would pay
their dues without having any benefit, which would necessarily
foster discontent. As Prince Gagarin says, 'It has, therefore,
not been possible to make education in Russia compulsory, as
in Germany, nor even to enforce the establishment of a school
in each community.' It is doubtless impossible at present to
introduce into Russia the educational systems of the western
countries."

_E. de Laveleye,
Progress of Education in Russia
(United States Bureau of Education,
Circulars of Information, 1875, number 3), pages 31-32._

EDUCATION:
Scotland.

"The existing system of education in Scotland is an outcome of
causes deeply involved in the political and religious history
of the country. … This system was preceded by a complicated
variety of educational agencies, of which the chief were
parish schools, founded upon a statute of 1646, which was
revived and made operative in 1696. Parish and burgh schools,
supported by local funds and by tuition fees, made up the
public provision for education. In addition there were schools
partly maintained by parliamentary grants, mission and
sessional schools maintained by the Established Church and the
Free Church, and other parochial and private schools. Parish
and burgh schools carried instruction to the level of the
universities, which were easily accessible to all classes. The
date of the passage of the 'Scotch Education Act' (1872) was
opportune for the organization of these various agencies into
a system maintained by the combined action of the Government
and local authorities. In framing the Scotch act care was
taken, as in framing the English act two years before, to
guard the rights of the Government with respect to funds
appropriated from the public treasury. At the same time equal
care was shown for the preservation of the Scotch ideal. This
was a broad and comprehensive ideal, embracing the different
grades of scholastic work. … This ideal differentiates the
Scotch act from the English act passed two years before. The
latter related to elementary schools exclusively; the former
has a wider scope, providing the foundations of a system of
graded schools correlated to the universities which lie beyond
its province. With respect to the interests of the Government,
the two acts are substantially the same. … For the general
direction of the system a Scotch educational department was
created, composed, like the English department, of lords of
the privy council, and having the same president. … The act
ordered every parent to secure the instruction of his children
between the ages of 5 and 13, or until a certificate of
exemption should be secured. Parents failing in this
obligation are subject to prosecution and penalty by fine or
imprisonment. The compulsory provision extends to blind
children. Parochial or burghal authorities were authorized to
pay the tuition fees of those children whose parents could not
meet the expenditure, a provision rendered unnecessary by the
recent remission of all fees. The Scotch act, by a sweeping
clause, made compulsory attendance universal; the English act
left the matter of compulsion to local managers. A subsequent
act (1878) fixed the standard of exemption in Scotland at the
fifth [grade, or year of study], which pupils should pass at
11 years of age. In 1883, the upper limit of compulsory
attendance in Scotland was raised to 14 years. … The
universities of Scotland have been more intimately related to
the life of the common people than those of any other country.
In this respect, even more if possible than in their
constitution, they present a marked contrast to the English
universities. To their democratic spirit may be traced many of
the characteristics which differentiate the Scotch people and
policies from those of England. To their widespread influence,
to the ambitions which they awakened, and the opportunities
which they brought within the reach of the whole body of
Scottish youth is due, in large measure, the independent and
honorable part that Scotland has played in the history of the
United Kingdom. This popular character of the universities has
been fostered by the curriculum of the common schools, by the
easy passage from the schools to the higher institutions; by
the inexpensive mode of student life in the university towns,
and by the great number of scholarship funds available for the
poor. These conditions, however, have not been without their
disadvantages. Of these, the chief are the low entrance
standards and the consequent forcing of preparatory
instruction upon the university professors. … As a result of
long-continued efforts a Scotch universities act was passed in
1889. This act provided for the reorganization of the four
universities; for the elevation of their standards; the
enrichment of their curricula, and the increase of their
resources. … The Scotch universities have taken part in the
popular movements of the last decade. They maintain local
examinations for secondary schools and students. St. Andrews
has been particularly active in promoting the higher education
of women, having instituted the special degree of L. L. A.
(lady literate in arts). Edinburgh also grants a certificate
in arts to women. Aberdeen has recently appointed a lecturer
on education, following thus the precedent set by Edinburgh
and St. Andrews. The four universities are united in a scheme
of university extension."

_United States Commissioner of Education, Report, 1889-90,
volume 1, pages 188-207._

{724}

EDUCATION:
Sweden.

"Sweden has two ancient and famous universities—Upsala and
Lund. That of Lund is in the south part of the kingdom, and
when founded was on Danish territory. The income from its
estates is about 176,000 rix-dollars ($46,315) per annum. It
also receives yearly aid from the state. In 1867 it had 75
professors and tutors, and 400 students. Upsala is the larger
university, located at the old town of that name—the ancient
capital of Sweden—an hour and a half by rail north of
Stockholm. It has 100 professors and tutors, and 1,449
students, an increase of 131 over the year 1869. … This
university had its beginning as an institution of learning as
far back as 1250. In 1438 it had one academic professorship,
and was dedicated as an university in 1477. Its principal
endowment was by Gustavus Adolphus in 1624, when he donated to
it all of the estate in lands that he possessed, amounting in
all to 300 farms."

_C. C. Andrews,
Report on the Educational System of Sweden
(United States Bureau of Education, Circulars
of Information, July, 1871)._

EDUCATION:
Switzerland.

"The influence of the Reformation, and, in the following age,
of the Jesuit reaction, gave to Switzerland, as to Germany,
its original and fundamental means and agencies of national
education, and impressed also upon the population a habit of
dutiful regard for schools and learning. It was not, however,
till forty years ago that the modern education of Switzerland
was organized. 'The great development of public education in
Switzerland,' to quote Mr. Kay, 'dates from 1832, after the
overthrow of the old oligarchical forms of cantonal government
and the establishment of the present democratic forms.'
Zürich, Lausanne, and Geneva take the lead in Switzerland as
centres of educational influence. The canton in which the work
of educational reform began was Zürich. … The instrument of
the reform, rather the revolution, was Scherr, a trained
school-teacher from Würtemberg, a teacher, in particular, of
deaf mutes to speak articulately. This man initiated in Zürich
the new scheme and work of education, and founded the first
Training College. He was looked upon by the oligarchs, partly
feudalists, and partly manufacturers, as a dangerous
revolutionist, and was exiled from Zürich. But now a monument
to his memory adorns the city. The work which he began could
not be suppressed or arrested. Zürich has ever since taken the
lead in education among the cantons of Switzerland. Derived
originally from Germany, the system is substantially identical
with that of Germany. … The principles and methods are
substantially alike throughout. There are, first, the communal
schools—these of course in largest number—one to every
village, even for every small hamlet, provided and maintained,
wholly or chiefly, by the commune; there are burgher schools
in towns, including elementary, real, and superior schools,
supported by the towns; there are cantonal schools—gymnasia
and industrial or technical schools—supported by the State,
that is, by the canton. There is often a Cantonal University.
There is of course a Cantonal Training School or College, and
there are institutes of various kinds. The Cantonal
Universities, however, are on a small and economical scale; as
yet there is no Federal University. School life in Switzerland
is very long, from six to fourteen or fifteen, and for all who
are to follow a profession, from fifteen to twenty-two."

_J. H. Rigg,
National Education,
chapter 4._

EDUCATION: Modern: Asiatic Countries.
China.

"Every step in the process of teaching is fixed by unalterable
usage. So much is this the case, that in describing one school
I describe all, and in tracing the steps of one student I
point out the course of all; for in China there are no new
methods or short roads. In other countries, a teacher, even in
the primary course, finds room for tact and originality. In
those who dislike study, a love of it is to be inspired by
making 'knowledge pleasant to the taste'; and the dull
apprehension is to be awakened by striking and apt
illustrations. … In China there is nothing of this. The land
of uniformity, all processes in arts and letters are as much
fixed by universal custom as is the cut of their garments or
the mode of wearing their hair. The pupils all tread the path
trodden by their ancestors of a thousand years ago, nor has it
grown smoother by the attrition of so many feet. The
undergraduate course may be divided into three stages, in each
of which there are two leading studies: In the first the
occupations of the student are committing to memory (not
reading) the canonical books and writing an infinitude of
diversely formed characters, as a manual exercise. In the
second, they are the translation of his text books (i. e.,
reading), and lessons in composition. In the third, they are
belles lettres and the composition of essays. Nothing could be
more dreary than the labors of the first stage. … Even the
stimulus of companionship in study is usually denied, the
advantages resulting from the formation of classes being as
little appreciated as those of other labor saving machinery.
Each pupil reads and writes alone, the penalty for failure
being so many blows with the ferule or kneeling for so many
minutes on the rough brick pavement which serves for a floor.
At this period fear is the strongest motive addressed to the
mind of the scholar. … This arctic winter of monotonous toil
once passed, a more auspicious season dawns on the youthful
understanding. The key of the cabala which he has been so long
and so blindly acquiring is put into his hands. He is
initiated in the translation and exposition of those sacred
books which he had previously stored away in his memory. …
The light however is let in but sparingly, as it were, through
chinks and rifts in the long dark passage. A simple character
here and there is explained, and then, it may be after the
lapse of a year or two, the teacher proceeds to the
explication of entire sentences. Now for the first time the
mind of the student begins to take in the thoughts of those he
has been taught to regard as the oracles of wisdom. … The
value of this exercise can hardly be overestimated. When
judiciously employed it does for the Chinese what translation
into and out of the dead languages of the west does for us. It
calls into play memory, judgment, taste, and gives him a
command of his own vernacular which, it is safe to assert, he
would never acquire in any other way. … The first step in
composition is the yoking together of double characters.
{725}
The second is the reduplication of these binary compounds and the
construction of parallels—an idea which runs so completely through
the whole of Chinese literature that the mind of the student
requires to be imbued with it at the very outset. This is the
way he begins: The teacher writes, 'wind blows,' the pupil
adds, 'rain falls'; the teacher writes, 'rivers are long,' the
pupil adds, 'seas are deep,' or 'mountains are high,' &c. From
the simple subject and predicate, which in their rude grammar
they describe as 'dead' and' living' characters, the teacher
conducts his pupil to more complex forms, in which qualifying
words and phrases are introduced. He gives as a model some
such phrase as 'The Emperor's grace is vast as heaven and
earth,' and the lad matches it by 'The Sovereign's favor is
profound as lake and sea.' These couplets often contain two
propositions in each member, accompanied by all the usual
modifying terms; and so exact is the symmetry required by the
rules of the art that not only must noun, verb, adjective, and
particle respond to each other with scrupulous exactness, but
the very tones of the characters are adjusted to each other
with the precision of music. Begun with the first strokes of
his untaught pencil, the student, whatever his proficiency,
never gets beyond the construction of parallels. When he
becomes a member of the institute or a minister of the
imperial cabinet, at classic festivals and social
entertainments, the composition of impromptu couplets, formed
on the old model, constitutes a favorite pastime. Reflecting a
poetic image from every syllable, or concealing the keen point
of a cutting epigram, they afford a fine vehicle for sallies
of wit; and poetical contests such as that of Melibœus and
Menalcas are in China matters of daily occurrence. If a
present is to be given, on the occasion of a marriage, a
birth-day, or any other remarkable occasion, nothing is deemed
so elegant or acceptable as a pair of scrolls inscribed with a
complimentary distich. When the novice is sufficiently
exercised in the 'parallels' for the idea of symmetry to have
become an instinct, he is permitted to advance to other
species of composition which afford freer scope for his
faculties. Such are the 'shotiah,' in which a single thought
is expanded in simple language, the 'lun,' the formal
discussion of a subject more or less extended, and epistles
addressed to imaginary persons and adapted to all conceivable
circumstances. In these last, the forms of the 'complete
letter writer' are copied with too much servility; but in the
other two, substance being deemed of more consequence than
form, the new fledged thought is permitted to essay its powers
and to expatiate with but little restraint. In the third
stage, composition is the leading object, reading being wholly
subsidiary. It takes for the most part the artificial form of
verse, and of a kind of prose called 'wen-chang,' which is, if
possible, still more artificial. The reading required embraces
mainly rhetorical models and sundry anthologies. History is
studied, but only that of China, and that only in compends;
not for its lessons of wisdom, but for the sake of the
allusions with which it enables a writer to embellish classic
essays. The same may be said of other studies; knowledge and
mental discipline are at a discount and style at a premium.
The goal of the long course, the flower and fruit of the whole
system, is the 'wen-chang '; for this alone can insure success
in the pubic examinations for the civil service, in which
students begin to adventure soon after entering on the third
stage of their preparatory course. … We hear it asserted
that 'education is universal in China; even coolies are taught
to read and write.' In one sense this is true, but not as we
understand the terms 'reading and writing.' In the
alphabetical vernaculars of the west, the ability to read and
write implies the ability to express one's thoughts by the pen
and to grasp the thoughts of others when so expressed. In
Chinese, and especially in the classical or book language, it
implies nothing of the sort. A shopkeeper may be able to write
the numbers and keep accounts without being able to write
anything else; and a lad who has attended school for several
years will pronounce the characters of an ordinary book with
faultless precision, yet not comprehend the meaning of a
single sentence. Of those who can read understandingly (and
nothing else ought to be called reading), the proportion is
greater in towns than in rural districts. But striking an
average, it does not, according to my observation, exceed one
in twenty for the male sex and one in ten thousand for the
female." The literary examinations, "coming down from the
past, with the accretions of many centuries, … have expanded
into a system whose machinery is as complex as its proportions
are enormous. Its ramifications extend to every district of
the empire; and it commands the services of district
magistrates, prefects, and other civil functionaries up to
governors and viceroys. These are all auxiliary to the regular
officers of the literary corporation. In each district there
are two resident examiners, with the title of professor, whose
duty it is to keep a register of all competing students and to
exercise them from time to time in order to stimulate their
efforts and keep them in preparation for the higher
examinations in which degrees are conferred. In each province
there is one chancellor or superintendent of instruction, who
holds office for three years, and is required to visit every
district and hold the customary examinations within that time,
conferring the first degree on a certain percentage of the
candidates. There are, moreover, two special examiners for
each province, generally members of the Hanlin, deputed from
the capital to conduct the great triennial examination and
confer the second degree. The regular degrees are three:
1st. 'Siu-tsai' or 'Budding talent.'
2d. 'Ku-jin' or 'Deserving of promotion.'
3d. 'Tsin-shi' or 'Fit for office.'
To which may be added, as a fourth degree, the Hanlin, or
member of the 'Forest of Pencils.' … The first degree only
is conferred by the provincial chancellor, and the happy
recipients, fifteen or twenty in each department, or 1 per
cent. of the candidates, are decorated with the insignia of
rank and admitted to the ground floor of the nine storied
pagoda. The trial for the second degree is held in the capital
of each province, by special commissioners, once in three years.
It consists of three sessions of three days each, making nine
days of almost continuous exertion—a strain to the mental and
physical powers, to which the infirm and aged frequently
succumb. In addition to composition in prose and verse, the
candidate is required to show his acquaintance with history,
(the history of China;) philosophy, criticism, and various
branches of archæology. Again 1 per cent. is decorated; but it
is not until the more fortunate among them succeed in passing
the metropolitan triennial that the meed of civil office is
certainly bestowed.
{726}
They are not, however, assigned to their respective offices
until they have gone through two special examinations within
the palace and in the presence of the emperor. On this
occasion the highest on the list is honored with the title of
'chuang yuen' or 'laureate,' a distinction so great that in
the last reign it was not thought unbefitting the daughter of
a 'chuang yuen' to be raised to the position of consort of
the Son of Heaven. A score of the best are admitted to
membership in the Academy, two or three score are attached to
it as pupils or probationers, and the rest drafted off to
official posts in the capital or in the provinces, the
humblest of which is supposed to compensate the occupant for
a life of penury and toil."

_Reverend W. A. P. Martin,
Report on the System of Public Instruction in China
(United States Bureau of Education,
Circulars of Information, 1877, number 1)._

ALSO IN:
_W. A. P. Martin,
The Chinese: their Education, &C._

EDUCATION:
Japan.

From the fourth to the eighth centuries of the Christian era,
"after the conquest of Corea by the Japanese emperor Jigo
Kogo, came letters, writing, books, literature, religion,
ethics, politics, medicine, arts, science, agriculture,
manufactures, and the varied appliances of civilization; and
with these entered thousands of immigrants from Corea and
China. Under the intellectual influence of Buddhism—the
powerful and aggressive faith that had already led captive the
half of Asia—of the Confucian ethics and philosophy, and
Chinese literature, the horizon of the Japanese mind was
immensely broadened. … In the time of the European 'dark
ages' the Japanese were enjoying what, in comparison, was a
high state of civilization. … Under the old regime of the
Sho-guns, all foreign ideas and influences were systematically
excluded, and the isolation of Japan from the rest of the
world was made the supreme policy of the government. Profound
peace lasted from the beginning of the seventeenth century to
1868. During this time, schools and colleges, literature and
learning, flourished. It was the period of scholastic, not of
creative, intellectual activity. The basis of education was
Chinese. What we consider the means of education, reading and
writing, were to them the ends. Of classified science there
was little or none. Mathematics was considered as fit only for
merchants and shop-keepers. No foreign languages were studied,
and their acquisition was forbidden. … There was no
department of education, though universities were established
at Kioto and Yedo, large schools in the daimio's capitals, and
innumerable private schools all over the country. Nine-tenths
of the people could read and write. Books were very numerous
and cheap. Circulating libraries existed in every city and
town. Literary clubs and associations for mutual improvement
were common even in country villages. Nevertheless, in
comparison with the ideal systems and practice of the
progressive men of New Japan, the old style was as different
from the present as the training of an English youth in
mediæval times is from that of a London or Oxford student of
the present day. Although an attempt to meet some of the
educational necessities arising from the altered conditions of
the national life were made under the Sho-gun's regime, yet
the first attempt at systematic work in the large cities was
made under the Mikado's government, and the idea of a new
national plan of education is theirs only. In 1871 the Mom Bu
Sho, or department of education, was formed, of which the high
counselor Oki, a man of indomitable vigor and perseverance,
was made head. … According to the scheme of national
education promulgated in 1872, the empire is divided into
eight Dai Gaku Ku, (Daigakku,) or great educational divisions.
In each of' these there is to be a university, normal school,
schools of foreign languages, high schools, and primary
schools. The total number of schools will number, it is
expected, over 55,000. Only in the higher schools is a foreign
language to be taught. In the lower schools the Japanese
learning and elementary science translated or adopted from
European or American text-books are to be taught. The general
system of instruction, methods, discipline, school-aids,
furniture, architecture, are to be largely adopted from
foreign models, and are now to a great extent in vogue
throughout the country."

_W. E. Griffis,
Education in Japan
(United States Bureau of Education,
Circulars of Information, 1875, number 2)._

EDUCATION: Modern: America. A. D. 1619-1819.
Virginia.
College of William and Mary.

"In 1619—one year before the Pilgrim Fathers came to the land
named New England by Captain John Smith—Sir Edwin Sandys,
president of the Virginia Company in old England, moved the
grant of ten thousand acres of land for the establishment of a
university at Henrico. The proposed grant, which was duly
made, included one thousand acres for an Indian college; the
remainder was to be 'the foundation of a seminary of learning
for the English.' The very same year the bishops of England,
at the suggestion of the King, raised the sum of fifteen
hundred pounds for the encouragement of Indian Education. …
Tenants were sent over to occupy the university lands, and Mr.
George Thorpe, a gentleman of His Majesty's Privy Chamber,
came over to be the superintendent of the university itself.
This first beginning of philanthropy toward the Indians and of
educational foundations for the Indians in America was
suspended by reason of the Indian massacre, in the spring of
1622, when Mr. Thorpe and three hundred and forty settlers,
including tenants of the university, were cut off by an
insurrection of savages. It was only two years after this
terrible catastrophe that the idea of a university in Virginia
was revived. Experience with treacherous Indians suggested
that the institution should be erected upon a secluded
sheltered site—an island in the Susquehanna River. … The
plan was broken off by the death of its chief advocate and
promoter, Mr. Edward Palmer. But the idea of a university for
Virginia was not lost. … In 1660, the colonial Assembly of
Virginia took into their own hands the project of founding
educational institutions within their borders. The motive of
the Virginians was precisely the same as that of the great and
general Court of Massachusetts, when it established Harvard
College, and grammar schools to fit youth 'for ye university.'
The Virginians voted 'that for the advance of learning,
education of youth, supply of the ministry, and promotion of
piety, there be land taken upon purchases for a college and
free schoole, and that there be, with as much speede as may be
convenient, housing erected thereon for entertainment of
students and schollers.'
{727}
It was also voted in 1660 that the various commissioners of
county courts take subscriptions on court days for the benefit
of the college, and that the commissioners send orders
throughout their respective counties to the vestrymen of all
the parishes for the purpose of raising money from such
inhabitants as 'have not already subscribed.' It appears from
the record of this legislation in Hening's Statutes of
Virginia that already in 1660, 'His Majestie's Governour,
Council of State, and Burgesses of the present grand Assembly
have severally subscribed severall considerable sumes of money
and quantityes of tobacco,' to be paid upon demand after a
place had been provided and built upon for educational
purposes. A petition was also recommended to Sir William
Berkeley, then governor of Virginia, that the King be
petitioned for letters patent authorizing collections from
'well disposed people in England for the erecting of colledges
and schooles in this countrye.' This action of the Virginians
in 1660 ought to be taken as much better evidence of an early
regard for education in that colony than the well-known saying
of Governor Berkeley would seem to indicate. In reply to an
inquiry by the lords commissioners of trades and plantations
respecting the progress of learning in the colony of Virginia,
Berkeley said, 'I thank God there are no free schools nor
printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years.'
This answer by a crusty old governor has been quoted perhaps
too often as an index of the real sentiments of colonial
Virginia toward the cause of education. Not only is the tone
of popular legislation entirely opposed to the current view,
but Berkeley's own acts should modify our judgment of his
words. He actually subscribed, with other gentlemen of the
colony, for 'a Colledge of students of the liberal arts and
sciences.' Undoubtedly Sir William did not believe in popular
education as it is now understood. If he had done so, he would
have been much in advance of his time. … Some writers would
have us believe that the college was actually planted as early
as 1661, but this is highly improbable. Early educational
enactments in Virginia were like many of those early towns—on
paper only. And yet the Virginians really meant to have both
towns and a college. In 1688-'89, twenty-five hundred pounds
were subscribed by a few wealthy gentlemen in the colony and
by their merchant friends in England toward the endowment of
the higher education. In 1691 the colonial Assembly sent the
Reverend James Blair, the commissary or representative of the
Bishop of London, back to England to secure a charter for the
proposed college. Virginia's agent went straight to Queen Mary
and explained the educational ambition of her colony in
America. The Queen favored the idea of a college, and William
wisely concurred. The royal pair agreed to allow two thousand
pounds out of the quit-rents of Virginia toward building the
college. … The English Government concluded to give not only
£2,000 in money, but also 20,000 acres of land, with a tax of
one penny on every pound of tobacco exported from Maryland and
Virginia, together with all fees and profits arising from the
office of surveyor-general, which were to be controlled by the
president and faculty of the college. They were authorized to
appoint special surveyors for the counties whenever the
governor and his council thought it necessary. These
privileges, granted by charter in 1693, were of great
significance in the economic history of Virginia. They brought
the entire land system of the colony into the hands of a
collegiate land office. Even after the Revolution, one-sixth
of the fees to all public surveyors continued to be paid into
the college treasury down to the year 1819, when this custom
was abolished."

_H. B. Adams,
The College of William and Mary
(Circulars of Information of the Bureau of Education,
1887, number 1)._

EDUCATION: Modern: America: A. D. 1635.
Massachusetts.
Boston Latin School.