daily for the gratuitous examination as to the bodily infirmities of children brought before it. The plan of the society is not to give instruction to such children, but to place them in private institutions, among children of a normal growth, the expenditures for such instruetion being defrayed by the city of Copenhagen from the budget for elementary instruction. In a professional school the girls, deprived perhaps of an arm or hand, are taught to sew, mend, embroider, crochet, and knit; the boys make rugs, mattresses, shoes, woven slippers, children's toys, brushes, and baskets. A few draw, engrave, paint upon porcelain, do watchmaking, and in other ways prepare themselves to earn a livelihood. Some of the girls obtain positions as cashiers. Twice a day women from outside come in and give instructive and amusing lectures which are listened to attentively by the unfortunates. This professional school is subsidized by the ministry of public instruction, and is reported to have been of great help to the class of children who were unfortunately deformed from birth or were suffering from injury received at an early period of their existence. SUMMARIZATION AND FUTURE POSSIBILITIES. A general survey of the school system of Denmark clearly shows that the people of that kingdom are cognizant of the best methods of thoroughly training both body and mind, for they do not limit themselves to the theoretical, but take a foremost rank on the practical side of a rational education. Of late years they have studied the subject of coeducation, as well as the more thorough education of women for teachers' positions, but as yet little progress has been made in these particulars. As in Sweden and Norway the subject of school reform in the various grades is under discussion, and a writer in the pedagogical journal, Vor Ungdom, earnestly urges a revision of the elementary school plan, so as to have the children attend regularly all' day schools in rural districts, rather than the half-day or every-other-day schools now found in many places. Coeducation is also advocated, as is also the introduction of drawing, physics, mathematics, and English in three class elementary schools which are to take the place of the two class schools now found in rural districts; an important part of his plan is, however, not the development of intellectual instruction in elementary schools, but the addition of a higher and more practical division to this proposed elementary school. He would have the children enter this higher division at 14 years of age, and there follow a two-years' curriculum. The practical instruction would consist of farming and the tending of domestic animals, a farm with a model garden and beehives being attached to each school, so that all children should receive instruction in gardening and in bee culture. Natural history is to be taught in the lower division of the school by means of plants and insects of the adjoining fields. The writer's idea is that interest in hor ticulture, a taste for orderly homes, and a development of the artistic sense will be the natural result of this plan, nor would he neglect prac tical instruction in Slöjd or other domestic industries, for he would have the children taught to make rakes, wheelbarrows, benches, stools, portable steps, hencoops, and beehives, and the use of various tools, etc. He also urges the need of more instruction in domestic industries in rural schools rather than so much teaching of pedagogical Slöjd. This he advocates from an economic standpoint. Bookkeeping is another subject to be introduced, and the school farm is also to be a model farm. For some time the tendency in the Scandinavian countries has been to increase and extend the intellectual subjects in elementary grades, and to model those grades on the secondary schools, without taking into consideration the various positions which the children will occupy in after life, consequently the writer hopes that these suggestions come at an apropos time. At the present time the association of private secondary teachers in Copenhagen is engaged in facilitating the passing of private teachers from private into public schools. This association considers that many of the best teachers begin their school career in private schools in Copenhagen, where the salary on which they start is higher, and where more private lessons out of school are to be obtained than in the small provincial towns, where most of the public governmental state schools are located. The association has forwarded an address to the Government and the Rigsdag, proposing that teachers of ten years' service at private schools on obtaining a teachership at governmental schools shall at once be entitled to the same privileges and to the same salary as public school teachers after four years' service. AUTHORITIES CONSULTED. Foreløbig Opgjørelse af Hovedresultaterne af Folketaellingen i Danmark den 1st Februar, 1890. P. iv. Aarbog for Kjöbenhavns Universitet, den polytekniske Laereanstalt og Kommunitetet, aar 1880-'81. Sammendrag af Statistiske Oplysninger angaaende Kongeriget, Danmark, 1889. Beretning om den polytekniske Laereanstalt i Undervisningsaaret, 1890–91. Slöjdsagen i Danmark, 1886-1890: Aarsberetningen 1-5. Beretning om Studentersamfundets Aftenundervisnings for Arbejdere, May, 1881— May, 1889. De gaeldende Retsregler for det höjere skolevaesen i Danmark, ved A. P. Weis og H. Hage. Vor Ungdom. Haeft II, 1891; Haeft I, 1892. Buisson: Dictionnaire de Pédagogie et d'Instruction primaire. V. I. Pt. I. La femme au point de vue du droit public, par M. Ostrogorski. Exposition de la Société Danoise du Travail Domestique. Rapport de Mlle. Matrat sur les Écoles Scandinaves. Hippeau: Instruction publique dans les Etats du Nord. Suède, Norwége, Danemark. Almanac de Gotha, 1891, 1892. Revue Pédagogique, Janvier-Juin, 1889. Allgemeine Deutschę Lehrerzeitung, February 9, 1890. Zeitung für das höhere Unterrichtswesen, January 17, 1890. Freie Pädagogische Blätter, October 13, 1888, February 9, 1889, October 4, 1890. Statesman's Year Book, 1891. CHAPTER XVI. EDUCATION IN EUROPE AND AMERICA,1 Showing (a) what portion of the population is enrolled in school; (b) the expenditures per capita for elementary instruction; (c) whether elementary instruction is gratuitous or not. INTRODUCTION. The accompanying charts and diagrams are a continuation of a systematic comparison, commenced in the Annual Report of 1888-89, Part I, pages 75–78, showing the sum total of educational efforts in Europe and Pan-America between kindergarten and university. Various lines of inquiry were pointed out last year as standards of comparison, but for reasons then stated only one was applied, i. e., "What portion of the population of each nation in Europe and America is under school influence?" This year the inquiry is extended to two other questions, i. e., "What is the cost of elementary instruction per capita of the population?" and "Is elementary instruction gratuitous, or is a tuition fee charged?" It will be seen that while most of the blanks which appeared in last year's tables are filled this year, new blanks occur in the new columns. It is to be hoped that they will disappear as quickly as those of last year. While the diagrams illustrating the tables last year, by representing the population of each country by means of a square, were welcomed by those who evinced an interest in comparative statistics, it is confidently hoped that the new diagrams, in which the bar is employed, will be considered an improvement. This mode of presentation requires the eye to measure only one dimension (length), and hence will be preferable to the square, which necessitates the eye to measure both length and breadth. The diagrams are duplicated, No. I showing a bar of 100 per cent, representing the entire population, within which bar the ratio of children enrolled in school is shaded; while in No. II a bar of only 30 per cent is given, representing the ideal ratio of youth of school age (or very nearly so) and the portion of those actually enrolled, thereby revealing the two facts, i. e., the number of youth who are under school influence as well as the number of those who ought to be. Prepared by L. R. KLEMM, specialist in foreign school systems. In the result of this inquiry we have systematically excluded from the count all institutions such as "infant schools" and "kindergartens," because they represent the prescholastic age. Also excluded are all professional schools, such as universities, polytechnical, medical, pharmaceutical, and art schools, conservatories of music, in fact, all special schools except normal schools, not because the latter are not special and professional schools, for they are, and needs must be, but because they are not sufficiently designated as special schools in the statistical material at hand. This then brings the age, commonly called "school age," within the years 6 and 18 (or 20). These limits are not in all cases and in all nations the same, which may account for a small percentage of difference in the number of enrolled children. Again, the sum total stated for Great Britain and Ireland does not contain the number of secondary students, while they are included in nearly all other countries. Secondary instruction being entirely left to private enterprise in England, it is not possible to obtain reliable statistics concerning it. It would be but just to add from 1 to 2 per cent to the ratio given in order to place Great Britain and Ireland on a similar basis with European continental countries. But aside from little unavoidable discrepancies and possible errors, these tables and diagrams reveal facts which invite the most earnest attention. With regard to the new columns: (a) Cost per capita, and (b) Tuition fee paid or not? it is regretted that the officials of some countries do not report the amount of expenditures by provincial and local authorities, and only state the amount paid by the central governments. These items were inserted rather than leave blanks. But they are marked thus (*), which means from state only. The tables are printed in triplicate by arranging the countries (a) according to the alphabet; (b) according to the population; (e) according to the ratio. This is done to facilitate comparison. This Bureau will be grateful if errors of omission or commission are pointed out in the accompanying tables, and enlists the aid of all who are interested in comparative statistics of this kind in completing and perfecting the tables. |