It cannot be maintained, however, up to the present that our experience has been large enough to afford any accurate indication of what the ultimate form or purpose of such instruction shall be. We have as yet established no independent college of commerce in the United States upon an adequate foundation. We have not even established any institution which may be fairly called a commercial high school, that is, a school with an adequate equipment, with a differentiated curriculum and with an opportunity under favorable conditions to show what it can accomplish in an educational and a technical way. None of our colleges and universities have as yet been willing to give such departments a fair opportunity to show what they might accomplish in the same directions. But with every passing year the demand for better facilities on the part of young people who desire to prepare themselves for business careers will force our commercial colleges to improve their work; will force those who have charge of public education to give a larger space in our secondary schools to this branch of work; will lead the managers of our private secondary schools to offer better facilities, and will finally compel our colleges and universities to do something for the education of the future business man which may be compared with what they are doing for the future engineer, or lawyer, or physician, so far as the peculiarities of a business career may render such a scheme feasible. APPENDIX STATISTICS OF COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS SCHOOLS Bureau of education report, 1896–97 In the 341 business schools represented in this report there were 1,764 instructors and 77,746 students. The total number of graduates in the commercial course was 11,728, and in the amanuensis course 8,862. The number of students in the day course was 63,481, or 82 per cent of the whole number, and the number in the evening course was 14,265, or 19 per cent of the whole number. It will be seen by the above figures that the day school contains more than four times the number of students that are reported in the evening schools. The number of students in the various courses of study was as follows: The total number of students in the commercial and business courses of universities and colleges, normal schools, private high schools and academies, and public high schools was 56,002, and in the commercial course of business schools was 37,929, making a total of commercial students in all the schools in the United States. as reported to this bureau of 93,931. |