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not get along without his earnings, etc. With yet others plain laziness and loafing, confessed with boyish ingeniousness, made them shirk, and they quit school as soon as possible. "If my daddy (pare) had only given me a sound licking and marched me off to school" was the most common lament, voiced in all the dialects of Italy.

In point of intelligence, pure and simple, the child has an undoubted advantage over the adult. His mind is fresh, open, ready to receive the stamp upon the proverbial wax. The adult is what he is. We can make him better; we can change the directions of his thoughts and ideas; but mold him as we will-no.

In application, of course, the adult has the indisputable advantage. He knows the hours for lessons are limited. He is determined to get the very most out of them. His attention is seldom distracted. Even distinguished visitorsso eagerly welcomed by children-can not break the severe and imperturbable calm of these soldier pupils. Visitors pass from bench to bench, smiling, enthusiastic, patronizing. These model pupils look up, answer respectfully, smile from the depths of those inscrutable eyes-and even before the disturbing element is well out of the room have plunged again into their tasks.

As regards the will, this is the wedge for the adult. By dint of patience, of study, of determination, they do the impossible. The will, too, acts powerfully on their physical condition. Men, wounded in the right hand, grasped the pen and guiding the wounded member with the sound one, day by day by desperate efforts gained freedom of movement. Men with head wounds suffered terribly under certain atmospheric conditions, but they never missed school.

In experience of life and stock of ideas no comparison is possible. Other considerations apart, an enormous saving of time and energy was found in not having to explain the ordinary phenomena of life to the adult, as has to be done with the child. The adult applies everything as he progresses. In point of stock of words, however, the child does not differ so markedly from the illiterate adult. The Italian peasant, no matter of what dialect, has an extremely limited vocabulary. So has the child. But the child is always, consciously and unconsciously, enlarging his stock of words; the adult is content with what he has.

Coming now to the application of these diverse mental aptitudes to the acquisition of school subjects, less difficulty in direction was encountered by the child than by the adult. The child has a tabula rasa of a mind. He hears a sound clear and distinct. He does not confuse it with other sounds. It does not start in him a train of kindred concepts. He puts down what he hears. The adult, on the other hand, hears a sound; it awakens innumerable dormant associations. His dialect is another ever-present obstacle. The struggle to cut these away is unceasingly hard. Repetition, untiring repetition by teacher and pupil, is indispensable.

On the subject of composition for literary form the child's composition is better; for subject matter, the adults. A soldier had for some time been in an agony of suspense at not hearing from home. One day he had assigned to him as a theme to write a letter home asking some favor. He fell to work and wrote desperately, the teacher watching him. The letter was full of ardent affection, of deep grief, of hope, of encouragement to his dear ones, but on the theme assigned nothing. He protested with emotion that he could not write to ask a favor of poor folk who had hardly a roof over their heads.

In arithmetic and calculation, as is to be expected, the adult far outstrips the child. No time is wasted on the tables with soldiers-that inexhaustible fountainhead of wasted time for children. The man does the problem, does it

correctly, verifies it, out of some incident in his old trade or calling and goes on acquiring new facility.

In penmanshp and drawing, as between the man and the child, the adult has a hardness of muscle, the child a weakness of hand. The man has the better trained eye and sense of proportion, the child a singleness of vision and an ability to isolate the object.

In reading, the adult has advantages of application that enable him to do in two or three months what it takes the child a year to do. The intensive drill upon individual letters is feasible and fruitful with adults, being a drill soldier pupils enjoy and continue after hours.

As regards the explanation of passages read, adults make a better showing than children. The quicker witted and more attentive the child is, the more does he tend to repeat the words of the original. The adult, on the contrary, changes, adapts, discourses on it, if he is talkative, brings it to the touchstone of his own experience, approves or rebukes, in brief, incorporates it into his mental life.

So with grammar, with history, with geography, with oral arithmetic, with the elements of physical sciences, each one chronicles a series of victories for the adult over the child. Take the field of history. The child thinks the reign of Servius Tullius the least interesting of all; the adult, though a peasant, grasps the force of its economic and social changes. The child will glibly tell of the exile of Charles Albert, adding pathetic personal touches; the man will tell of the importance of his connection with the constitution of 1848.

Now, what are the net results of this teaching of adult soldier-pupils? Illiterates, or practically such, in less than one year passed the examination di compimento (admission to the fifth grade). At the Ospedale della Guastalla, an illiterate Sicilian lad, with a severe wound in his head, from which the fragment of shell could not be extracted, and with his left side completely paralyzed, passed the examination with the following marks on a basis of 10; 8 in dictation, grammar, oral and written arithmetic; 7 in explanation of passages read; 6 in penmanship, composition, and reading.

Rather industrial than instructional in scope, but closely related is the work of the National Association for Artistic and Industrial Assistance to the Wounded and the Invalided, organized in July, 1917, and counting among its membership thousands of eminent men and women in all parts of Italy. Its aims are to forward the artistic and industrial progress of soldier pupils by governmental and local encouragement, to assist former pupils in the establishment of business, to assist in the disposal of their products for them by the establishment of provincial and urban magazines, to enlist the active cooperation of eminent artists in all parts of Italy, and to organize committees in every part of Italy. The work of the association has been of great value in spreading an interest in matters artistic among the masses of the people, and in showing them the means of developing latent talent.

(h) PROJECTED PLANS FOR SCHOOLS AFTER THE War.

Since early in the war steadily increasing attention has been devoted to the subjects and methods of public instruction adapted to post-war conditions. This took definite shape in the appointment

in June, 1918, by royal decree, of a commission, headed by the Minister of Public Instruction and composed of members of the Consiglio Superiore and persons eminent in the educational life of Italy, to study and report upon the subjects and form of education adapted to the solution of the most urgent problems that will then confront the nation. The scope of this commission as a whole is practically unlimited, comprising, as it does, all forms of national, social, and educational activity. It will work by sections, one of which will have under its especial charge the study of national culture, educational and instructional. The tentative outline of the activities of the commission indicates that it will study not merely the transitory and superficial measures necessitated by disarmament, but the graver problems consequent thereon. The commission is instructed to take a historical survey of Italian school life under all its phases and to avail itself of all social and educational investigations undertaken by official and private organizations. The appointment of the commission has been received with enthusiasm by Italian teachers of all grades, who indicate an ardent wish to cooperate in all its labors.

By an interesting coincidence the composite report of the commission appeared the same week as the signing of the armistice. The plan of the several educational reforms, unanimously approved and recommended for immediate action, fell under the following heads:

1. The thorough execution of all school laws and the overhauling of the national financial system to this end.

2. The organic inclusion, within the national system of education, of kindergartens and nursery schools by means of the subsidizing or nationalizing of existing ones, and the establishment of many others.

3. The continuous construction, within the period of five years, of all school buildings lacking to the needs of population and the legal announcement of compulsory attendance upon them.

4. The establishment of at least one compulsory school of four grades in each commune.

5. The establishment of especially adapted secondary schools for the preliminary professional training of teachers.

6. The raising of the minimum salary of teachers to 8,000 lire ($600) and the investing of the teaching profession with enhanced moral and social prestige.

7. The lengthening of the school year and the requirement of the teacher to take part in civic and communal tasks.

8. The fixing of the final leaving age of pupils at 18 years.

9. The establishment of compulsory schools for illiterate adults up to 45 years.

10. The establishment, on the application of communal authorities, of popular courses, schools of hygiene and sanitation, languages, etc.

11. The subordination of the national budget to the needs of popular education, and not vice versa.

12. The paying of greater attention to woman's place in the national life, with especial regard to the needs of peasant and laboring women.

To students of education the striking feature of this move is the proof it affords that Italy conceives of no renewal of her economic life without the accompanying reform in her educational system.

III. MIDDLE SCHOOLS.

In the Italian scheme of education the scuole medie are held to include industrial and commercial schools, the istituti tecnici, the normal schools, the ginnasi and the licei.

(a) INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL SCHOOLS.

The exigencies of the war have brought out clearly the need of reform in the general group of industrial schools, occupying as these do so important a place in the practical training of the nation's youth. Especial attention began to center two years ago upon the industrial and commercial divisions, and early in 1917, by ministerial decree, the few schools of this type already in existence were developed, their numbers largely increased, and their relations with the elementary schools below and with the istituti tecnici above were clearly defined.

The industrial schools thus enlarged are denominated Royal Industrial Schools of the Second Grade. They are 103 in number, situated in the populous centers, and designed to offer in a four-years1 course the theoretical and practical knowledge necessary for the future heads of artistic and industrial manufacturing establishments. To the first class of these schools are admitted pupils having either (a) a certificate of promotion from the vocational schools of the 1st grade, or (b) the leaving certificate from the higher elementary schools, or (c) in the discretion of the director, those 12 years of age and presenting an examination upon selected subjects comprised in the programs of the higher elementary course. Continuous progress in the industrial school group was further sought in the new rules for the admission of pupils from the industrial schools of the 2nd grade to the more highly specialized schools of the 3d grade. For this was accepted, (a) the leaving certificates of the technical or

complementary school, royal or private, or (b) the certificate of promotion from the second to the third communal course of the Royal Institute of Fine Arts, or (c) certificate of promotion examination, or (d) the leaving certificate of a royal commercial school of the second grade with special examination on selected subjects. The 19 royal industrial or vocational schools of the third grade offer specialized courses in weaving and dyeing, silk industry, working on hides and skins, mechanics, paper industry, forestry, typography, electric engineering, and radio-telegraphy. Admission of pupils of the second grade to them also requires the certificate specifying the specialty in which the pupil has worked, or the leaving certificate of the commercial school embracing subjects continued in the royal vocational schools.

Similarly the 27 royal commercial schools of the second grade hold the same rank as the industrial, affording instruction for managers and employees of commercial pursuits, and offering a course covering four years, or, in the case of schools annexed to a royal commercial school of the third grade or advanced grade, three years. Admission to the first class of the commercial schools of the second grade is (a) upon completion of 10 years of age and the certificate of the maturitá examination from the higher elementary schools, or (b) the leaving certificates of the royal commercial school, or (c) certified three years' attendance thereon, or (d) in the discretion of the director, completion of 12 years of age and the passing of examination upon selected subjects of the course of the commercial school. The 11 royal commercial schools of the third grade, located in the large cities, admit only complete graduates of schools of the second grade.

By the regulation, especial attention is paid to the professional qualifications of the directors of these respective schools. The director of the industrial school shall be in immediate charge of instruction in the technical subjects and the related applied sciences. If in a women's school, the directress shall be in immediate charge of the subjects of a domestic or graphic nature, or those constituting the basis of the school's existence. Similarly, in the royal commercial school the director shall be in immediate supervision of instruction in the subjects of international commerce and trade, physical, political and commercial geography, and legal and economic subjects.

(b) TECHNICAL SCHOOLS.

Ranking immediately above the industrial and commercial schools of the second grade are the technical schools intermediate between the higher elementary schools and the istituti tecnici, admitting pupils upon the completion of the higher elementary courses, and upon special examination in Italian, mathematics, and the elements

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