Ithe teacher take the poor, begrimed Willie to superintend the washing of his face and the of his hair! I have seen her canvassing er rich acquaintances for a coat for Willie. I Willie creep out of his cocoon, a dear, sweet -shining shoes, clean waist, entire trousers, his wealth, proud of his cleanliness. Nay, I nmore, I have seen the teacher sending Tom, rious toes were peeping forth from their en8, to the nearest shoemaker, and footing the f. Great-hearted, noble-minded girl, who was deny herself the newest fashion of ribbon in materially show her sympathy. And oh, such o-be-forgotten example of a great heart! blimest creature on earth is an ideal teacher. een her. She has taught me. She has at to teach me how to teach. She stands before to-day as she stood personally before me some :-dignified, earnest, active, simple, yet eleress, noble in thought, refined in manner, great rich in sympathy-Charlotte S. Bergwall,inks she, so great, so noble, herself, is pointing o Him, the Great Teacher, who suffered the to come unto Him; and amidst the breaking e writ in letters of pure gold-"Lead, Kindly re can be no excuse for making things dull and hat may be made attractive and easy. Success onsist in finding the longest, or slowest, or hardThe natural interests of the child are the ides in instruction. common sense of the farm, store, street, shop, › is needed in the school-room. studies are very good for discipline that are not something else. The best discipline is found in nething worth doing and doing it well. d study has shown us that much greater freenovement and employment is needed than the school has hitherto provided. The Goal. I aims in education degrade the means. d study has given us a worthier goal for the development of the child himself. essential element in education is not knowltraining. Education consists chiefly in former than in informing the mind. "Train up a he way he should go," etc. Id study has come when most needed to direct to the paramount importance of the child 1 education. training for service in business affairs. Restricting the term "business man man" to side of the professions on the one hand and labor on the other he is still in the diversity cupations, duties, and responsibilities a high ized part of the complex affairs of modern in enterprise. Perhaps we had better recognize at the v ning the limitations which make it impossibl school devoted to business training to inst that enters into the equipment of a thorol business man. Many of these limitations ar Much that makes for success or failure is fo mental and physical temperament and nat ment of the individual. The controlling inc the effective exercise of his powers of discer crimination, application, integrity, and co effort do not become active until they are co the force of necessity in the solutions of th of a business experience after he leaves scho 1 Perhaps the most powerful of all incentive self interest which finds expression in the ho and the accumulation of those material thi contribute to one's self support, well being, a in society. The fear of loss and consequent hardly a less powerful incentive towards th ment of those qualifications which are essent cess. Except to a very limited extent these cannot be brought to the school-room, but are boundaries which mark the limitations wit the school must do its work. Again the diversity of business occupati great and the details as to commodities prices, and trade conditions are so highly diff teachings of observation and experience afte in most of them that they must be left larg vidual has made his choice of the special line which he shall follow. Within these limitations, however, there is that is common to all businesses pertaining general conduct in organization, exchanges, ties, economic controls, financial operations, ethical principles upon which our commercial trial enterprises are dependent for their integ may be properly brought within the sphere room instruction, and which opens up a vast tense educational interest. The general work of any office may be di two parts. That which has to do with the ge duct and management of a business in de its policy, in formulating its internal and e ganization, in fixing the limits of its operatio guarding its financial interests. This is the d of initiative and administration and is the so which must come the inspiration which shall determine what may be termed the individua business. To use a political term it is the d of "ways and means." It calls for the exer abilities of the mature business man who ha training of experience. The work of the other part is subordinate do with the promotion and carrying out of t and plans determined upon in the departmen tive and administration. This is the executi ment. It puts into active and final effect th and aims of the concern.. The work of this d may be and frequently is subdivided into its The title of this paper as read before the Dep Business Education, N. E. A., July 11, was "Wha Public Schools Do for the Commercial Student an determine the exthe other begins. te and administer, e, and while in the seldom extends beyet in the higher does extend into which we have sug mercial student, no is able to enter than a novice. It assigned him and So far as they come ut an accurate, inails of the ordinary business is indisbuild the hope for or administrative y as possible to anubject we shall encial student ought should know when à in his office, and hat he should know e to positions of inally he shall have the business which = potential element lly consists of the al assistants down s man wants help ons. position requiring It includes the O subordinute posisubdivided, such as and it is in one of n school will most n? Letters are to out, invoices to be d and extended, reare to be acknowlare to be issued and o be entered in the s are to be posted, e to be sent out, all the work that the business office Any course of study that will supply this training requires at least one year of instruction in penmanship, one year in commercial arithmetic, and one-half year in higher commercial calculations, three full years in English, including grammar and composition and business correspondence, three full years in bookkeeping, which should include in addition to a training in the various systems practiced in the leading lines of business, a thoro knowledge of business papers, forms and methods, and one year in commercial law, with a sufficient drill and training in all the mechanical features of the work of these branches so that it can be executed with accuracy and rapidity. a good plain busiE commercial comcompose a good ry thoroly the genhave the ability to not have advanced laws of contracts, ad in fact all the ommercial law will ry. The preparation of the stenographer requires two years' training in shorthand and typewriting, one year's training in bookkeeping and the same amount of work as that required in the other branches named in the preceding paragraph. The allotments of time are based upon the supposition that the student is to carry the other branches which are necessary in rounding out a full four years' commercial course of training. t letters are to be and sometimes amruction to be corills are to be made verified, contracts owledge are to be and other advertis We must not delude ourselves by any lack of appreciation of the importance of this initiatory training into thinking that a less amount of attention to these subjects will do. Much is expected in these days of the young recruit who engages his services in the countingroom and expects to be paid for them, and no amount of training in any school will fit him except in rare instances for more than a subordinate position. While the apprenticeship system never became strongly entrenched in this country in the sense in which it obtains in the older countries, in a modified form and under a different name the essential elements of that system largely control in determining advancements and promotions. Business men believe in the merit system. They practically follow civil service rules in filling the higher positions in all departments of their business. However broadly the young recruit may have been educated in general or special lines for work inside or outside the office, experience has shown that he must begin at the bottom and depend for his advancement upon the thoroness with which he performs the simpler duties assigned him and the aptness and ability he may show for more responsible positions. Effective service in the lower order of duties is the only recognized claim for advancement to higher duties, and the young man who does not show proficiency in the less important "small things" of his calling is lost. There is nothing ahead for him. It is evident, therefore, that the commercial student must enter the office as a beginner, and that his employment will probably be in connection with the simplest duties of the counting-room. The ability to hold any position in commercial life, either in its higher executive or its administrative departments, presumes the ability to do the work of any minor position. If the public school shall do this much well for the commercial student and for the business man wanting help in his office it will have discharged its greatest responsibility. Whatever it shall do in addition to this will be mainly to give him such a broad general education, discipline, and fund of information as will enable the service it the business of t If the instruction a be effective it mu that will be demand ment, and the you must go to exactly to do the same wo private business sch It is true that the may do so with the keeper or stenograp those who attend s ject in view, except positions open oppc the youth attend a 80 with the purpose keeper or stenograp tion as will best fi either case if he ask in a large majority a that the business c do. In our argument we have already disc Again our gro fere pertaining to his business, vo gave me no ce it renders to the public. If the school can in addition to the fundamentals the individual at comes from a trained mind, and so equip him rn language, science, economics, mathematics, ry, that he can extend his business interests lely into domestic and foreign markets so much y will the school have discharged its obligathe community and to society. ot agree with those who contend that it is not less of the commercial high school to train ers and stenographers or that commercial eduthe public high school should not be specific nical as well as general and liberal. It may be eable to reason that the work and purpose of ic high school are entirely different and dis; such a conclusion is based upon false premfar as the technical branches are concerned. struction and training of the high school are to ive it must prepare its pupils to do the work be demanded of them when they seek employd the young graduate from the high school to exactly the same employer and be prepared e same work as the young graduate from the usiness school. ue that the youth who enters a business college o with the purpose of making himself a bookstenographer. I know, however, that many of o attend such schools do not have such an obew, except, perhaps, to the extent that these open opportunities to something better. If 1 attend a commercial high school he may do he purpose of making himself either a bookstenographer, or he may desire such an educavill best fit him for a business career, but in se if he ask for employment in a business office, majority of cases he must begin with the work business college student has been prepared to argument so far we have endeavored to ese major importance of instruction in that group es which are sometimes classed under the business technique" and relate to office trainfor which the most part are included in the m of the high grade business college. y now properly give attention to instruction in - or secondary branches which have for their cultural, scholastic, and liberal training of the distinction from the special or technical which lready discussed. The term secondary is used from the standpoint of practical utility. anches already referred to will require at least of one period per day, and if stenography and ng are included, ten years or two and one-half er day thruout a four years' course. This our disposal two and one-half periods per day y be devoted to such other branches as we may adapted to prepare our pupils for general al life or will most likely be of the greatest im in advancing from his clerical position up grades of employment in the higher departbusiness. e of pupils going to the public high school avm fourteen to sixteen years, which is considrt of the age of mental or physical maturity. limit to some extent the amount of advanced n we might deem profitable for more mature ur great business enterprises are so vastly difheir nature that it is apparent that an ideal anu ne materiais an agents entering tion of the various iron manufactures, while manufacturer would find an acquaintance w ganic materials and fibers which enter into product to be especially helpful, and so on th rious lines of business activity. Such a hig ized course, however, is not possible for t high school, but must be left to the few hi ized schools which will doubtless be founded few of our large commercial and industrial ce It is evident that the ordinary commercial course must be organized along general lines to supplying the wants of the average pupil. What is the best use of the two hours and day of time for four years which we have re our disposal? Local conditions should be The course of study suited to the needs of a land manufacturing town would hardly be best course for a Western mining town. Nei a course adapted to the wants of a great iron Pittsburg be likely to be desirable for the cit more or Philadelphia. In a general way it is safe to assume tha should be divided among the subjects of ma science, economics, modern languages, an In mathematics, elementary algebra, and ge least should be completed and something may elementary trigonometry. In science, chemi ics, and commercial geography should be g attention. If proper laboratory facilities ar instruction in the elements of mineralogy, ology, industrial chemistry, and biology may made very effective. A thoro course in industrial economics an science I deem to be of paramount importanc as to a study of local economic controls, tran and public administration, particularly as it city and local governments. One or two years may be profitably devo localities to modern languages and, of cou ancient and modern, and especially as it relat merce and industry, should have attention. Just what proportion of time should be dev various groups of subjects is also a matter th determined to some extent, at least, by the roundings of the school. I have purposely touched upon these subj because they properly belong to the discu sented in other papers in this program. Do final report of the Committee of Nine will specific information in this direction. The time has arrived when the public must provide a course of study that will pre men and women for an immediate engagem ness life. If our arguments are sound and sions correct the commercial course must attention to the fundamentals. They must extensively taught, but they must be thorol competent instructors supplied with prope and equipments. and equipments. A well organized comme maintained on an equality with other cours is the preferable course for a large majori men and women. Such a course to succeed the best class of students must have the sa financial, educational, and moral, as is giv lish, classical, or any other course. The b desiring help in his office does not want t come from a school in which the commerc so inferior to other courses that it attra dullards and slow boys. advantage of omen and women who with the community schools: therefore, the experiment of certificate is tried under the most disadvantageous possible circumstances. When it was first introduced into this country an argument was made in favor of it from the German practice, secondary schools in Germany giving an outgoing certificate valid at the university. A fatal defect in the argument was that the German secondary schools are ion of the School supervised by competent government educational authorities-ours by none. In New England we have nothing ? * more than an occasional friendly visit to some schools Education, University by some college officer. That is an extremely weak and imperfect method, tho perhaps better than nothing." ce: Eion in the animal variation that an andfather was-no O show divergencies rue of the organic lly so in the instieducational. The the result of the plicity of variations nd its advancement pendent upon the ving in an era of a fact, and a fact ions will have reaon if we have not. ow's certainty, and hildren will be the tional problems of have made their to the university. as demanded more em. The problems ual promotions, of ool course, of the ntrance to college nination of the puradical departures ncluded within the hese variations we f any a priori conor badness of eduthat not all revoand goodness are r. equally true that from being equivat simply because it The only valid idging the fitness, or survival, is the mands made upon 1. me for discussion, ge by means of the t for admission, by his examination to the fitness of the llege by candidates ination, but solely pleted a course of ch school has been the college, and its here call attention hat of the relative and the certificate Education, N. E. A., Do not, then, confuse our problem with that of examination versus certificate as its solution has been attempted in New England, since we include another factor of no small pedagogical and administrative importance, namely this very examination of the school, the absence of which there President Eliot so much deplores. The question of the superiority of either one of the two plans for the best co-ordination of secondary with college work must be settled by the criterion of pedagical fitness. Institutions of learning are for the youth and not the youth for the institution of learning, in spite of what may seem to be evidences to the contrary in the minds of some. We may, however, for purposes of analysis perhaps be justified in assuming that two criterions are subsumed by that given above, viz., the pedagogical criterion, and the administrative criterion. Theoretically the former should always be supreme, yet not infrequently the exigencies of our educational conditions are such that, temporarily at least, in the process of feeling one's way it must be made subservient to the latter. Let us then apply to the two methods of entrance to college covered by our subject, each of these criteria in turn and see what the effect of each is upon the pupil, the secondary school, and the college. This comparison can perhaps best be brought out by means of the direct question. First. What is the pedagogical effect of the college entrance examination, as at present administered, upon the pupil? Let me at this point ask you to distinguish carefully between this, i. e., the entrance examination, and the examination as an occasional test of power and proficiency in regular school work. Whatever may be my own opinion with regard to the former, I am in hearty accord with much that President Hadley has recently written on the question of the latter. The two are, however, radically different in these two respects-the college examination is set by those who know nothing of the personal peculiarities of the applicant and can make no legitimate allowance for such peculiarities, while the other is not; and second, in it the student knows that previous school successes except as they are indicated by the present test count for nought. Both of these peculiarities make the college entrance examination open to criticism from the standpoint of our present criterion. My objection on the ground of the first is that the ordinary college entrance examination presents conditions to the youth, the like of which he will seldom or never meet in after life and to which we have no right to subject him. The aim of our education is the adaption of the individual to an environment in which he is likely to find himself, and I would confidently assert that not one person in one hundred will in his whole after life find himself in a situation, the outcome of which he can predict with so little certainty as the one in which he faces his examiner. Pedagogically this is wrong. The youth is not stronger than the man and no part of our educational machinery has a right to low. Proficiency one in a million, others. On the upon the entranc fail, the cram syst of college entrance data presented. The answer to question: "Do yo with the headmaste for determining the was thirteen "yes" masters, and four tors. That somebo by the fact that a g examination candid candidates in me strength?" receive "Examinations bett To the chairman of teen colleges "Exa better five." Some after the physical an candidate between t college. Such a su however, from the say's report comes nations upon the s much has already be of the question that men of experience in they have at times m of an examiner who i with the more advan that to do justice to to the trial by questi small technicalities a subject and his ideals integrity of course a 66 ory window into a net held on the sidewalk beoficiency in this feat might come in handy to million, but what of the nervous strain on the On the second ground, that too much depends entrance examination I would base the argut it is conducive to cramming. At whatever the educational career it is understood by the t promotion depends solely and entirely upon n passing a given test, at that stage you will pernicious form of so-called study. 'As long adent is practically told: no matter whether vious work has been good or bad, no matter how prepared yourself for this examination, if you hese questions you succeed, if you don't you cram system with all its evils is destined to reEdgar H. Nichols, Ed. Rev., May, 1900). Is it ? President Butler, in an address before the on not many years ago said, "It is bad psyand bad education to suppose there is an obthe pupil's sixteenth year which can only be ed by an examination. I am sure that this done away with." the next question: What is the effect of the examination upon the secondary school? Here ind a more marked difference of opinion than - just discussed, or perhaps, if we may judge data presented by Principal Ramsay, of Fall nuch greater difficulty in having any opinion Time prevents my making any considerable to his extensive report which contains a tabuanswers to twelve questions bearing upon the merits of the examination and certificate plans entrance, from twenty-nine head masters of schools and the corps of college preparatory n one public high school. Mr. Ramsay's conare adverse to the certificate plan, altho it me those conclusions are not supported by the ented. 66 swer to what may be considered the crucial "Do you on the whole think it wise to vest eadmaster and his assistants the responsibility mining the fitness of pupils to enter college?" en "yes" to thirteen "no" on the part of the and four "yes" to three "no" by the instrucat somebody's judgment, too, was bad is shown t that a given question, viz., "How do your en candidates compare with your certificate 3 in mental ability, physical health and receives the answer from the masters, tions better eight. Certificates better one." airman of the admission committees of seven-ges Examination better one. Certificate e." Some one should be appointed to look physical and mental health of the examination between the time he leaves school and enters Such a sudden decline is dangerous. Aside, from the questions discussed in Mr. Ramrt comes that of the effect of the examipon the secondary school curriculum. already been said and written upon this phase stion that I need only mention it here. Few perience in preparatory work can deny that at times made sacrifice to the personal whims niner who is mainly interested in, and familiar more advanced stages of his subject. He feels justice to the pupil who is looking forward l by questions he must keep him primed on nicalities as well as forge him ahead in his his ideals are in danger of being upset; the So certificates lead in matter of scholarship thr of general mental ability three to one, and performance of college duties three to one. tion of this, to him unwelcome disclosur "When a college admits on certificate, all b poorest pupils in the school from which cer accepted will accept those certificates." argues that the comparison is not valid. Is ever, also true that the most brilliant and be pupils from those schools, led on by the h trance honors, prizes, and scholarship will re tificate thus equalizing matters at least part respect? An attempt on my part to ascertain the re standing of the freshman entering by the ty the large Eastern colleges was not eminently because of the labor involved by officers of th tions in securing the data, but the following perhaps the largest institutions offering bo interesting and to the point: Per cent. conditioned Number uncondi tioned Per cent. unconditioned West Failed Algebra Failed Algebra 26 per cent. These Western institutions covered stand the educational world as do the Eastern, b cannot be sure of their criteria we can no base upon the figures an argument in favor tificated freshman. They are, however, very From the standpoint of administration th examination is not open to very wide criticis on the part of the higher institution. It is i except to the pupil who has to make a journ examining center, and it works, on the whole little friction. In fact on this score, and or only, does it show any points of advantage some money to examine the schools properly, perhaps be shown by the next speaker on th the expense may be reduced to a minimum th tion. (To be continued.) If you feel too tired for work or pleasure, take Hood's it cures that tired feeling. THE SCHOOL JOURNAL NEW YORK, CHICAGO, and BOSTO (Established 1870), published weekly at $2.00 per year, educational progress for superintendents, principals, teachers, and others who desire to have a complete acco great movements in education. We also publish THE 3TITUTE, THE PRIMARY SCHOOL, EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIO $1 a year; OUR TIMES (Current Events), semi-monthly, 5 Also a large list of Books and Aids for teachers, of w and catalogs are sent free. E. L. KELLOGG & CO., 61 E. New York, 266 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, and 116 St Boston. 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