mental council, the power to close a practicing school; this was decisively rejected.

The discussion then began to trench on the third resolution as to the type of the school and led to some contradictory voting. After several amendments had been rejected the general assembly accepted by a large majority the wording of the section as above.

The form of the third sectional resolution was: The practicing school ought to be of the same type as the majority of the schools of the district, a school with a single master and three grades. This was amended by M. Lenient, and accepted after another long discussion by the general assembly as follows:

III. The practicing school ought to be of the same type as the majority of the primary schools to which the students will be sent on their leaving the training college.

The appointment of the head master was warmly, not to say fiercely, debated. Inspectors and teachers were manifestly on opposite sides. The bone of contention was the class of teachers from which he was to be taken and the time of service before he could become eligible. Ten amendments were sent in; the majority, coming from the teachers, tended to exclude the professors in a training college. M. Jacoulet, a general inspector and the head of the well-known college at Saint Cloud, protested against the injustice of keeping out the very élite of their profession; the training college was as much an integral part of primary education as the school. The final form of the resolution was:

IV. The head master of the practicing school should be chosen from among those members of public primary instruction who have served for five years at least and have shown pedagogic aptitude.

The fifth sectional resolution, containing three paragraphs, dealing with the time to be allotted to general education and to technical training was rejected piecemeal by the general assembly.

As M. Lenient pointed out, the students would hardly pay any serious attention to work lying outside of their preparation for the higher certificate. Since, too, the latest official programme dated only from January 10, 1889, it was too early to talk of lightening it. After the rejection of another string of amendments, the assembly refused to settle any date for the examination and contented itself with formulating as a final resolution:

V. In classifying the pupil teachers on their leaving, a special statement should be made of the marks obtained in the practicing school.

M. Gréard's Report to the Minister of Education.-The final general assembly took place on August 16, under the presidency of the minister. An account of the Congress was submitted to him by M. Gréard and ran as follows:

Our labors are now over. Since you opened the Congress we have met either in section or general assembly once and sometimes twice a day. You were desirous that our discussions as far as concerned the questions submitted to us should be

free and sincere. I think I can assure you that every variety of opinion has been able to find expression and that in the resolutions we have arrived at the exact expression of the opinions of the whole Congress or at least of an indisputable majority of its members. Our first question was on the professional teaching of agriculture, commerce, and industry. At first we tried to define the phrase "profes. sional teaching;" we had to give up the attempt. A definition can hardly be made among two thousand persons. The commission at the Académie Française charged with the study of the dictionary consists of only three members, and they do not always agree at first. The place, however, of professional teaching in primary education was clear enough. Obviously it is neither apprenticeship schools, with their own methods and establishments, nor technical teaching, which necessarily connotes a special and direct application to trade, to industry, and to commerce. In primary teaching, the aim of which is a general education of the faculties of the child, professional teaching can only be a remote preparation for the exercise of an occupation, a foretaste, a bait, a means of showing the child the application of the general principles he has learned, the profit he can win from them, and the credit attaching to them. The resolutions of the Congress have been drawn up from this point of view. It is of opinion that professional training properly so called-naturally I except handicraft, which is nothing but a gymnastic of the hand and eye-ought not to be introduced into the primary school.

It is of opinion that agricultural instruction may be given both in the clementary and in the higher primary school; in the former by a suitable choice of readers and lessons; in the latter in the form of an experimental course; in both of coure with a proper regard to the age and conditions under which the children have to work and to the actual needs of the district. It is also of opinion that, although commercial education ought only to be treated in the elementary primary school as a complement to the rudiments of the first stage in education, it might with advantage be developed in the higher primary school, taking due account of the relative importance and varying wants of local necessities. In the training colleges the pupil teachers may, we think with advantage, be initiated into the elements of agricultural and commercial instruction so far as may be necessary for the establishments to which they will afterwards be sent. The question of industrial teaching was not examined so completely; one thing, however, was clear, a belief that, except for what are called in France the higher primary schools, the introduction of industrial teaching was incompatible with the programme of the elementary schools as well as with that of training colleges. All these problems are intimately bound up with social questions; they are not pedagogic pure and simple; it is to the credit of the congress that they have been treated with a just sense of the actual condition of affairs.

The question of "practicing schools" is not a new one, and I can hardly say that it has been definitely treated. The difficulties of organization are the same to-day as yesterday. The debate, however, has brought into light the principles for a possible solution of the question. We agreed as to the need of a practicing school; to the need of attaching it to the training college; to the choice of the masters-primary teachers or professors of the training college-to whom the direction ought to be confided. From both we demand at least five years of actual experience and a well-recognizedpedagogie ability. We were agreed, too, on the necessity of recognizing, independently of the other examinations, the professional work done in the practicing school.

These conclusions, however, were not arrived at without debate. Indeed it sometimes happened that the resolutions of the section, although carried after considerable discussion, were completely modified in the general assembly. But these changes of opinion served only to bring into relief the fundamental points of the controversy. Whether the practicing school be made independent of the training college or not, whether the teaching be modeled on one type-the school with a

single master and three grades-or whether the organization be varied with the district, the one important point recognized was this, that it was the duty of the training college not to train for an examination, but to make future educators, men, that is to say, capable of bringing their knowledge under discipline, of adapting a lesson for a class, of teaching the same subject in a different way according to the age, the knowledge, and the ability of their small audience; capable, above all, of watching a child's character, of keeping his good and bad sides distinct, of teaching him to get control over his inclinations, of habituating him to enter into the possession of himself; in short of bringing to bear upon his mind and his character a genuine influence. Such is the real object of the apprenticeship in the practicing school. Happy are we if we can devote time enough to this professional training!

In mentioning the place of women in education you have, sir, pointed out how France stands midway between those countries, such as America, where all educational functions are open to them and those where everything is closed. Indeed, the French law gives women an exclusive right to some posts, such, for instance, as the direction of maternal schools, which I remember I have seen, less than twenty years ago, in the hands of men. There is an inclination to admit women to the like rights for mixed schools, nor is the power to enjoy the highest functions of inspection of all kinds refused; if the barriers have not been removed, they have at least been lowered. I must, however, as a faithful reporter, confess that the congress has not been so liberal as the law. It was only after a prolonged struggle that the right to share in the direction of mixed schools was admitted; except in the case of maternal schools, the congress was of opinion that the cares and fatigues of inspection should be spared women as much for their sake as for that of the public. I am not aware if these reasons have convinced these interested. Some of them disdained any ambition for delicate and lofty reasons. On the whole, they were jealous of the authority which the congress was not inclined to grant them. For my part I should take the side of the minority. As I have ventured to state my opinion, permit me to justify it. The sole point to make me pause in making men and women inspectors would be the dual powers and the possibility of a conflict in the management of schools; conflicts are always undesirable, more especially when authority needs to be exercised with sequence and harmony. As to the capacity of women for wielding control, I have more confidence than they have themselves in their quickened sympathy, their gentle and firm reason, their habits of self-denial. Education and all connected with it demand self-sacrifice. And where can we find this self-sacrifice more complete than in women? Feminine pedagogy as a whole is founded on this principle or sentiment. I do not intend to claim this virtue specially for the French school. The woman who gives herself up to others belongs to every country.

You see, sir, the three questions have been discussed, as they deserve to be, with interest and animation and, I may add, at times with passion. We do not complain. It was Montesquieu who said: "Passion alone illuminates"

We owe much to our foreign delegates. We feel touched and honored by their presence. They have helped to give an elevated turn to our discussions. We have been fortunate in listening to M. Lyulph Stanley, one of the most eminent members of the London school board; M. Gavard, head of the department of public education in the canton of Geneva; M. van Meenen and M. Houzeau de Lahaie, of Belgium; Miss Beale, the head of Cheltenham Ladies' College; M. Pizzurno, the delegate of the Argentine Republic; and many others who have lent us the aid of their experience and authority. I am sure that I carry the feelings of the congress with me in thanking them for their presence.

The foreign members returned thanks in speeches that were warmly applauded.

The minister then invited the three sectional reporters, MM. Martel,

Delapierre, and Quenardel, to read the final resolutions. In closing the congress the minister gracefully thanked the foreign representatives, together with M. Gréard and M. Buisson. Ministers change, he continued, but thanks to the perseverance and the genius of the men who remained, the great movement of education had been made possible and carried out. As M. Stanley had said, it seemed formerly as if the three degrees of education had nothing to do with one another, each following its own aim in its own way. But to-day they formed a trinity whose unity was recognized.

The Republic had the honor of bringing primary instruction into this fruitful and vivifying union. By a lucky coincidence the centenary of the French Revolution has seen the realization by law of one of the highest inspirations of the revolution: primary instruction given by the state and become the leading public service. From the debates he hoped to get, in the phrase of Rabelais, "the substantific marrow." However much was done in primary education there was still always something to do. The legislators made the laws, but the teachers had to apply them; it was for them to show that, in the new and delicate. parts of these laws still new to many, the government of the republic had worked for peace no less than for emancipation. The women teachers had nothing in common with the blue stockings, turned into ridicule by Molière; in girls' schools they had a no less important task than the men in boys' schools; the democracy needed women, educated, strong, and virtuous. Both men and women were conscious of their duty; they had to form men for France and citizens for the Republic. An anonymous donor had given 900 francs to be shared among the writers of the best memoirs sent into the congress. In all ranks of society there are men who do good silently. Democracy, in spite of its adversaries, is not made to abase, but to elevate.

SECTION IV.-THE CONGRESS ON SECONDARY AND HIGHER EDUCATION.

Although not honored with the presence of the minister nor attended by so many members, the proceedings in the secondary congress lacked neither animation nor importance. Indeed, when over it seemed all too short.

There were 422 members, of whom 121 were foreigners, and of these 12 were Americans. The English head masters were conspicuous by their absence. The attendance at the general assemblies varied from 60 to 80; a striking contrast to the primary congress.

At the first general assembly, on August 6, under the presidency of M. Gréard, the bureau of the committee of management was confirmed and nineteen visitors were invited to join it, among them being Mr. Clarke and Dr. Harris.

The vice-presidents were MM. Bréal, De Lapparent, and Morel; the general secretaries were MM. Dreyfus-Brisac and Perrier.

Agreeably to the regulations the general assembly split up into two sections. M. Bufnoir was elected president for the section on higher and M. Morel for the one on secondary education.

As we have already mentioned, the five questions settled on beforehand had been treated by various hands and their articles published by the minister of commerce, industry, and the colonies. They were: 1. Extent and sanction of secondary studies (matriculation, leaving certificates). M. H. Pigeonneau.

2. The international equivalence of studies and degrees. MM. Bufnoir and Th. Cart.

3. The various types of secondary education; what relative weight ought to be ascribed to the classics, to modern languages, and to science. M. A. Croiset.

4. By what methods ought secondary instruction in modern languages and science to be given to girls? MM. Bossert, Darboux, E. Perrier.

5. On the place of economic and social science in higher education. M. E. Boutmy.

Extent and sanction of secondary studies.

The first question was both international and specifically French. It may not perhaps be superfluous to state that a bachelor in France stands at the beginning of his university career, in England at the end. The article of M. H. Pigeonneau, after mentioning the official inquiry of 1885 and the report of M. Gréard,* finds three essential points in the question proposed: (1) Is a sanction for secondary studies advantageous? (2) What are the advantages and disadvantages of the various systems at present in vogue?

Simply to abolish the baccalaureate would lead to chaos in the schools and the intellectual disorganization of the country; besides, Belgium tried the experiment in 1854 and 1876, the baccalaureate was postponed to the end of the first year at the university, but made the final school examination again in 1861 and 1888.

There are four principal ways in which a certificate can be given at the end of the school career: (1) With or without a special examination by the members of the establishment in which the child had been educated, without the intervention of any outside body. (2) A university examination before professors or a special body of examiners and simply conferring the right to matriculate. (3) An examination in the school by the teachers, but before representatives of the state, who have the power to confer certain rights, such as entrance to the university. (4) An examination outside the school by the State, on a programme more or less like the one used in the school.

After characterizing shortly the type of examination in England, America, Prussia, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, and Norway, M. Pigeonneau considers the German the most satisfactory. The pupil's school life is taken into account; he does not feel out of his element (il ne le dépayse pas), as the examination takes place in his own school, * Revue Internationale, September, 1886.

ED 90

-5