that the widest range of discussion is permitted, and each one advocates or opposes whatever he pleases.

At the outset the writer, however, most earnestly objects to the insinuation recently made by a noted Harvard professor, "that a Round Table is a gathering of from ten to fifty persons in a small room firing squibs at one another." While this vicious definition be true at Harvard University, it hardly comports with the dignity of this honorable body, or any other similar organization in any state in the Union.

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The subject for discussion.—The subject for discussion is Janus-faced; or it is more properly an elementary course of study with a rider attached. On several occasions I have publicly maintained without any qualifications, as a fundamental proposition in elementary education, founded upon an experience now extending over almost thirty-three years, that children admitted to school when six years old or older, can complete reasonably well, as well at least as the children of any large or small system of city schools in the United States can complete, all there is of real value in an elementary course of study in seven years, and that they are just as well fitted for high-school work, or for business, as are those children who are kept sauntering through their elementary studies eight years. The experiment I have made is a good experiment. It gives information outside of mere detached facts, and it enables one to foresee results, or to generalize, which is the real test of any experiment. In fortifying the position I advocated, I submitted courses of study, the work done, as to quantity, quality, and time, and showed that under the conditions existing in the schools of Kansas City, more children entered high school, remained in as long or longer, and that a larger percentage graduated from the high schools, than in any other large city system in this country; furthermore, that 40 per cent. of those who enrolled in high school were boys and 40 per cent. of those who graduated each year were boys, and this has been true of all classes for more than twenty years, and the ratio remains unchanged between the sexes.

It is true that I have united these isolated facts from year to year in a continuous line from one city only, and I have for years challenged any other city of a hundred thousand or more inhabitants to show a higher record of high-school attendance, graduation of pupils, or a larger percentage of pupils in high school as compared with the total school enrollment, the voting population, or the population of the city. I attribute this condition of the high-school situation to the simple fact that Kansas City has always had a seven-year course below the high school, and not to the fact that people of Kansas City entertain a higher appreciation of high-school opportunities than the citizens of other cities. Moreover, from my observation in teaching children and in watching children in school work, I am thoroughly convinced that if a child of average ability is kept out of school till it is eight or nine years old and then entered, it will finish a solid elementary course of study in from three to five years, and will understand all the subjects as well as the pupil of the same ability who begins school at the age of five or six years, and continues in school regularly the full period assigned for elementary work. There is, I am satisfied, a sort of automatic movement of classes in some schools that is very detrimental to the progress of pupils.

The statistics I have collected show that where pupils are given the opportunity under an elastic system of promotions, as many pupils finish the elementary course in six years as those pupils who require eight years, while more than 80 per cent. complete it in seven years under the limitations I have given. With these well-established facts which I have verified time and again, I can see no valid reason for changing my views in reference to a seven-year course for elementary schools. For those wedded to an eight-year course, I will say frankly that I do not agree with them, and never have since I began an investigation of the subject.

Five years in high school.-As to a five-year course in high school, except for slow pupils, I take the negative. There are two valid reasons, in my opinion, why a five-year course, or any other number of years above that number, is unnecessary. The first is

the additional expense. High schools cost a great deal of money as now conducted on a four-year basis, and were they stretched out over a longer period they would be still more expensive. There is a limit to the tax-paying ability of every community in the United States beyond which it is dangerous to go. Many schoolmen seem never to learn this lesson. I need not discuss this phase of the question further.

The second objection that I urge is that an extension of time is unnecessary, and therefore it is undesirable. It would repel instead of attracting pupils. I will submit a few suggestions on the actual workings of the high schools as they are now organized and conducted.

Under college and university pressure, a most baneful influence has fallen upon secondary or high-school education in our country. Ever since the college and universities began tinkering with high-school courses of study, under the cloak of "college requirements," the standard of scholarship has steadily fallen. The wide acreage allowed under the head of optional courses that the pupils may choose from, and the scraps and carvedout pieces of subjects, thrown out of their proper relations, to be learned and assimilated to satisfy the whims or fancies of a set of college professors, is a very poor way to fashion a course of study. Instead of shaping the course to the pupil, the pupil is compressed into the course. This deadly blight has fallen on our public high schools like a mediaeval plague. Everywhere among high-school teachers is a rush and scramble to comply with the "requirements." Everything is prescribed by piece and hour, and there is no time left for teachers to do real educational building, either in scholarship or character development. All is summed up in the one word, "Prescription."

Under the old régime, which was certainly not the best, a pupil was kept at some few things till he learned them fairly well, and he had acquired some power to do many other things. There is now no going through a thing. It is working with some of the pieces of a piece. It is also a continuous and continual flitting from one thing to another, so that the learner has no time to strengthen himself well in any subject. The entire highschool machinery should be reversed and run by another set of engineers and firemen. The high-school principals and teachers should make their own courses of study, adapted to the wants of their several localities, patterned in general on a broad and liberal course, and the colleges and universities should adjust their work to the high-school studies. I do not know how these "requirements" are worked out in detail, but I can imagine! From some of the outlines I have examined and the numerous references interlarded to help the poor overloaded teachers, the tremendous amount of study not put on the courses so minutely analyzed, I discern through the murky intellectual atmosphere spheres of influence of a straddling nature to balance diverse interests.

It is a firm conviction in many minds that owing to the detached and dissipating processes now operating in the high schools of the cities, the classes are not so strong in real scholarship as they were before all these distracting and scattering influences came trooping into the recitation rooms. The pupils can dip into more things, but they learn less of everything they are supposed to study. The teachers, too, formerly had some latitude, some freedom, some judgment as to what they had to do, some initiative. Now they have an incubus hanging over them all the time. Formerly they taught―not scattering topics. The pupils were then kept on a subject long enough to know something about it, and to get its bearings with other subjects. Now all the work is prescribed, outlined, gibbeted, sandwiched, and it is exceedingly superficial. Knowledge requires time to soak into the learner's mind, to become seasoned and ready for use.

A few things a high-school graduate should know.-A high-school pupil in four years should be well grounded in the elements, at least, of one or two languages outside of his own tongue; he should have read some few good books in English to give him a little insight into literature, and he ought to be strong in English grammar and rhetoric; he should have a good knowledge of elementary physics and chemistry and some knowledge of his own body; a fair survey of ancient and modern history, reaching down through

European history into the history of this country; he ought to have picked up some general facts belonging to the earth, the air, the ocean; and if he has wandered off into space, so much the better. In mathematics he should have leisurely made his way, at least, through plane trigonometry. Above all, he should have learned how to study, and how to help himself. A few subjects studied well and mastered so far as they are studied, is better for any boy or girl than three times the number leisurely gazed at in passing along.

A weak spot. Another very weak spot in our high schools, in a majority of cities, is that the pupils about one o'clock each day are sent home that they may prepare their lessons for the next day. As a result of this freedom, many of these boys and girls wander about through town aimlessly of afternoons, and contract the bad habit of putting their lessons off till the very last minute. This is not the worst feature, however, in those cities and towns in which poolrooms and other dens of iniquity are tolerated, no inconsiderable number of these boys drift into crimes, or into habits that lead directly to criminality. High schools, academies, and seminaries used to have all-day sessions-sessions that began at 8:30 A. M. or 9:00 A. M., with an intermission at noon of an hour, or an hour and a half, closing the school day at 4:00 P. M. or 4:30 P. M. Instead of turning the boys and girls loose at one o'clock, or thereabouts, to gad around on the streets the session should not close in the afternoon till the regular time for dismissal. The best place for a boy or a girl to prepare a lesson is in the schoolroom, or study-hall, under the eye of the teacher. Nearly all the lessons should be prepared at school and where the teacher can render some assistance when it is needed.

Right habits of study need to be taught as well as the branches the pupils pursue. Short high-school daily sessions weaken high-school work and induce a species of dissipation that lowers preparation, prevents the cultivation of systematic habits of work, and diminishes the appreciation of high-school opportunities. Short high-school sessions affect injuriously the home life of the pupil, and pave the way for evening parties and other forms of dissipation that are detrimental to close persistent application to studies and besides oftentimes undermine health. There is undoubtedly a close and an intimate relation existing between these two conditions. The argument frequently advanced that high-school teachers, in general, have so much more heavy work to do than the grade teachers, and consequently require shorter hours, is not borne out by the facts. While a grade teacher hears a recitation, she is keeping another class at work preparing the next lesson, and she does this all day long. The softest position in public-school work is in high school. I speak from an experience in class work myself, and also of recitations with higher-grade pupils. Teaching such pupils is not such hard work as teaching in the grades. There are also other distractions and extravagances that exert considerable influence on the progress or non-progress of pupils, which will readily suggest themselves to those familiar with high-school work.

A word on diplomas.-A high-school diploma should show in quantity, quality,and time, what a student has done in certain branches of study. The last spurt in getting ready-dressing up for the final display-should be abolished. A great deal of time is wasted in preparation for graduation. Besides our schools are democratic institutions, and dress-suits and other toggery ill become boys who have to go out and make their own living in the world. Oftentimes such extravagance is a great hardship on parents. Plain dressing and high thoughts would be more in keeping with common-sense.

Back to the subject. Finally, I see no objection to arranging a five-year course of study for those pupils that are physically, mentally, or otherwise unable to complete an average course of study in four years. Such pupils, and there are probably from 10 to 15 per cent. of them in every school, should not be crowded. For such the course should be lengthened out, but for no others, and on no other condition.

In conclusion, I favor an eleven-year course for elementary and high schools, beginning with pupils at and above the ages I have mentioned; but I am firmly opposed to an eightyear course for elementary schools, or a five-year course for the high-school pupils. The

number twelve is not a magical number in my arithmetical vocabulary when applied to the education of boys and girls.

DISCUSSION

J. H. PHILLIPS, Superintendent of schools, Birmingham, Alabama.—Inasmuch as I heartily indorse nearly all the positions taken by Superintendent Greenwood upon this subject, I shall have very little to add. I have had an experience of ten years with the seven-year plan in the elementary schools, and I have found some very definite advantages in it. The most manifest benefit of this plan is the large increase of pupils entering the high school. Usually the great majority of boys withdraw in the fifth or sixth year of school in order to go to work, or, in some instances, because they become tired of the monotonous stretch of uninspiring work running through eight years of the elementary course. Local conditions of course affect the question. In an industrial community, the temptations to withdraw from school are more alluring, and the nearer the high school can be brought to the boy the more likely will he be to resist these temptations in order to enter. For the past two years, practically all the eligible pupils of the seventh year of our elementary schools have entered the high school. This, I must confess, is due in part to an attractive high-school building, with manual-training and domestic-science facilities, a spacious gymnasium, and a swimming pool. When the boy gets in sight of this high school, he is not satisfied until he gets inside.

Another reason for the adoption of this plan with us is the fact that the legal age for entering the public schools of our state is seven. The pupil is more mature and is able to do stronger work from the start than those who enter at five or six. I contend that a pupil entering at seven can accomplish more in seven years than a pupil entering at five can in eight years.

Another advantage of this plan, I think, is the fact that teachers are compelled to reduce the amount of the formal and mechanical work required, and to give the pupil at an earlier period work of richer content. I am of the opinion that the chief weakness of the elementary schools of the country is the stress that is laid upon the formal and mechanical elements of school work. Much matter is presented to the child whose content involves facts beyond the scope of his experience, and a degree of reasoning power in advance of his maturity. By shortening the time of the elementary course, and introducing a brief review of advanced arithmetic, formal grammar, mathematical geography, and United States history during the last two years of the high-school course, far better results can be obtained.

There is no need, so far as I can see, for a six-year high-school course. I regret the fact that the high school at present is suffering from the dictation of the colleges. Just as our elementary schools today are determining the conditions of high-school entrance, the high schools of the state should determine the conditions of college entrance. It is high time for us to realize that the "chief end" of the public high school is not preparation for college. The "college trust" which now arbitrarily dictates courses of study for our high schools should be superseded by an association of all the high schools in the state, which should determine substantially the conditions for entrance upon a college course. The greatest need of the American high school is a 'declaration of independence" from college requirements, which will enable it to accomplish the work needed in sound preparation for citizenship and for life.

R. B. D. SIMONSON, Superintendent of schools, Hannibal, Mo.-Because of the brief time allotted me, I shall present few arguments. I must be content, for the most part, with offering statements based upon an observation and experience short and confined to the school system of which I have the honor to be the head. I am not unaware of the danger of founding conclusions on too few data and of the unsoundness of failing to recognize dissimilar conditions existing in different school communities.

As preliminary to the direct discussion of this topic, permit me to say that I do not regard as sacred the quadrennial stages into which it is customary to divide elementary, secondary, and higher education. I have not found in the physical, mental, or spiritual nature of the child any satisfactory reasons for such a division. Perhaps some of you have. If so, I should like to be enlightened.

Again, I believe that all our courses of study should be so arranged as to allow each child to progress as rapidly in each study as his ability and proficiency may warrant and that promotions should be by subjects rather than by classes. Nevertheless, there should be, in my opinion, a limit, somewhat definite, fixed for the completion of what is known as the elementary course; but this limit should not be so fixed and rigid as to produce between this and the secondary course a chasm which requires that skilful bridge building of which we have all heard so much. I further believe that a period of seven years of nine months each is, under effective teaching, a sufficient time for the completion by the average pupil of an elementary course, and that the eighth year of school life should be spent, if possible, in the high school, in intensifying under special teachers, or rather, under the departmental system, the work of the elementary period, and in preparing for the standard secondary course. I have been led to this conclusion by no experience or arguments of others, but by the results of my own observation and experience during the past two years.

Not for the purpose of advertising or even of commending our school system in Hannibal, but because I seem forced to it by the exigencies of the case, I make the following statements:

At the end of our seven years' work, the Fifth Reader and two or more classics selected for literary study have been completed. English grammar has been carried through analysis of sentences, a moderately full treatment of the parts of speech, parsing, and considerable composition. A well-sustained and correlated course in nature-study, including plant-study, animal-study, earth-study, weather-study, together with the elements of physiology, physics, and chemistry, has been concluded. Biography, elementary United States history and English history, and finally United States history by topics, have been pursued for three years. The spelling-book has been finished. All the arithmetic necessary for an elementary course and a portion of an advanced text has been taught. A course in general geography extending from home geography, beginning systematically at the opening of the third year to the completion of an advanced textbook, has been pursued.

The course in our eighth year, the first in the high school, consists of English, embr cing grammar, composition, and literature: mythology-Guerber's Myths of Greece and Rome; arithmetic-including more difficult work in interest and the other applications of percentage, proportion, square root, and its applications, more difficult problems in mensuration, longitude, and time, the metric system, and a general review of the subject; elementary civil government of the United States and the history and civil government of Missouri; drawing-free hand and mechanical.

Our regular high-school curriculum ranks with those of similar institutions in cities of our class.

The teachers in charge of the eighth-year studies are the assistants to the heads of departments; two of the three were promoted from the elementary schools after several years of successful experience therein, two are college graduates and one lacks but a few points of the requisite number to secure a degree from the Chicago University.

With these preliminary statements, I proceed to name as briefly as possible what I conceive to be the advantages of this arrangement.

First, it has secured a large increase both in absolute and relative high-school enrolment. Our city has become during the past two or three years a manufacturing center of some pretensions. The establishment of factories employing child labor tends to decrease high-school enrollment. During the fourteen years from 1892 to 1905, both inclusive,