by Regulations

Schools;

inspector. Provision was also made for the attendance of children who had to herd cattle or were too poor to pay the school fees. Sunday continuation schools were to be established for young people beyond the school age. Teachers must have attended Hecker's seminary and had to be examined and licensed by the inspector. This decree was two years later supplemented with supplemented similar Regulations for the Catholic Schools in Silesia, for Catholic drawn up by Abbot Felbiger. The carrying out of the decree was, however, stubbornly opposed by many teachers, who could not meet the new requirements; by farmers, who objected to the loss of their children's time; and by the nobles, who feared the discontent and uprising of the peasants, in case they were educated. The execution of the regulation was still in the power of the clergy, and for some time it proved but little more than a pious wish. But Frederick strove hard to have it enforced, and it became the foundation for the more effective laws that have since become embodied in the Prussian school system.

(3) Establishment of Cen

tral Board of Administra

Educational Influence of Zedlitz.-After 1771 the educational work of Frederick was substantially aided by the appointment of Baron von Zedlitz as head of the Department of the Lutheran Church and School Affairs. This great minister had been much impressed by Basedow's principles and experiments and by Rochow's application of the 'naturalistic' training, and through him village schools were greatly strengthened and enriched, a regular normal school was opened at Halberstadt, and the humanistic ideal of secondary education revived. A year after Frederick's death Zedlitz succeeded, even under the reactionary monarch, Frederick William II,

Frederick Wil

1787;

in further developing the nationalization of education. tion under In 1787 an Oberschulcollegium, or central board of school liam II in administration, was appointed instead of the former church consistories. However, while the organization was supposed to be made up of educational experts, and Zedlitz was actually made chairman, the membership was mostly filled from the clergy, and the king refused to extend its jurisdiction to the higher schools.

Despite the reactionary policy of the sovereign, the culmination of the attempts to establish a national nonsectarian system of education occurred during this reign.

of General Code

In 1794 there was published the General Code, in which (4) Publication the chapter upon education declared unequivocally that in 1794; "all schools and universities are under the supervision of the state, and are at all times subject to its examination and inspection." Teachers were, therefore, not to be chosen without the consent of the state, and where their appointment was not vested in particular persons, it was to belong to the state. Teachers of all secondary schools were to be regarded as state officials. No child was to be excluded from the schools because of his religion, nor compelled to stay for religious instruction when it differed from the belief in which he had been brought up.

Foundation of the Ministry of Education and Further Progress. While this comprehensive code met with much opposition from the clergy and the ignorant masses, and the next king, Frederick William III, weakly yielded at first, the humiliation of Prussia by Napoleon (1803) brought the country to a realization of the need of a centralized organization of the school system. The Oberschulcollegium was abolished, to get rid of the clerical

a Bureau of

separate Min

istry and then

was further organized.

(5) Creation of domination that had crept in, and a Bureau of EducaEducation in tion was created as a section of the Department of the In1807, which later became a terior in 1807. The Bureau was within a decade erected into a separate Department or Ministry of Education. Eight years later (1825) the state was divided into educational provinces; and a Schulcollegium, or administrative board, with considerable independence, but subject to the minister, was established over each province. Since then there have been many further developments, and provinces themselves are now divided into 'governments,' each of which has a 'school commission' over it, and every government is divided into 'districts,' whose chief officer is a 'school inspector.' Under the district inspector are local inspectors, and each separate school also has a local board, to take charge of repairs, supplies, and other external matters.

Thus the supreme management of the schools has been gradually coming into the hands of the state for nearly two centuries. The decrees of 1717 and 1763, the establishment of the Oberschulcollegium in 1787, the General Code promulgated in 1794, the foundation of a distinct civic administration of education in 1807, are the milestones that mark the way to state control. But, while the influence of the church has been constantly diminishing, many of the board members are ministers or priests and the inspectors come mostly from the clergy. Moreover, religious instruction forms part of the course in every school, although it is given at such an hour that any pupil may withdraw if the teaching is contrary to the faith in which he has been reared. The secondary schools are largely interdenominational, but in elementary education there are separate schools

for Catholics and Protestants, alike supported by the state.

The Elementary System.-Prussia, like most of the principal states of Europe, as a result of their educational history, has its elementary and secondary systems quite separate and distinct from each other (Fig. 48). The universities continue the work of the gymnasiums and real-schools, but these two latter institutions parallel the work of the Volksschulen (people's schools), rather than Volksschulen, supplement it. The course of the secondary school ordinarily occupies the pupil from nine to eighteen years of age, while that of the elementary school carries him from six to fourteen, and after the first three years it is practically impossible to transfer from the elementary to the secondary system. A pupil cannot enter a gymnasium or real-school after completing the people's school, and the only further training he can obtain is that of the Fortbildungschulen, or 'continuation schools,' which supple- 'Continuation ment the system (see p. 420). The people's schools are gratuitous and are attended mostly by the children of the lower classes, while the gymnasiums charge a tuition fee and are patronized by the professional classes and aristocracy. Hence the line between elementary and secondary education in Prussia is longitudinal and not latitudinal, as it is in the United States; the distinction is one of wealth and social status rather than of educational grade and advancement. There are also some Mittelschulen (middle schools) for the middle and Mittelclasses of people, who cannot send their children to the secondary schools, and yet can afford some exclusiveness. They have one more class than the people's schools, include a foreign language during

schools,'

schulen.

Realschulen;

the last three years, and require teachers with a better training.

The Secondary System.-The main types of secondary Gymnasien and schools in Prussia are the Gymnasien (see p. 114), with the classic languages as the main feature of their course, and the Realschulen, or real-schools (see p. 176), characterized by larger amounts of the modern languages, mathematics, and the natural sciences. For more than a century after the first real-school was opened in Berlin by Hecker (1747), this type of institution had only six years in its course, and was considered inferior to the gymnasium. By the ministerial decree of 1859, however, two classes of real-schools were recognized, and those of the first class had a course of nine years, and included Latin, but not Greek. They were given full standing as secondary schools, and graduates were granted admission to the universities, except for the study of theology, medicine, or law. The course of the second class of these institutions contained no Latin, and was but six years in length. In 1882 the compromise character of the course of the first class of institutions led to their being designated as Realgymnasien, while the second class in some instances had their work extended to nine years and became known as Oberrealschulen. The graduates were then allowed the privilege of studying at the universities in mathematics and the natural sciences. Since 1901 the university courses have been thrown open to graduates of any of the three types of secondary schools, except that, to be eligible for theology, one must have completed the course of a gymnasium, and for medicine, the course of a real-gymnasium at least. Besides these schools that have been mentioned, in rural

Realgymnasien and Oberrealschulen;