charged, are mostly of a severely scientific character; the public ones are free and of a more popular character, thus attracting students from other faculties. The private lectures-collegium is the students' expression-take up more time and are termed "lectures of four hours," when given four times a week for one hour. The honorarium is fixed and received by the respective privat docent or private lecturer. A movement is now on foot, however, to abolish the fees, and the Government is treating with the university respecting another method of regulating the emoluments of the professors. American onlookers should, above all, bear in mind that the official salaries are often small according to our ideas, but that this is partly compensated by pensions and provisions for widows and orphans. Besides the lectures in which only the professor speaks, there are in all departments opportunities for practical training. In law, theology, and philosophy there are so-called seminaries where intercourse is freer between professor and student. They read together, and give and receive a stimulus to individual research. Nevertheless the seminaries are kept somewhat apart from the general life of the university, the number of members being limited, and it being considered an advantage to be admitted. They are, in fact, institutions with special financial administration, special buildings, and usually possessing a valuable library. Of these seminaries there are in Bonn not fewer than ten. Corresponding to them in the natural science department there are institutes in the medical clinical hospitals. Of the former there are eleven, of the latter eight, most of them located in fine new buildings and supplied with excellent museums. There are institutes for anatomy, physiology, hygiene, chemistry; clinical hospitals for diseases of the skin, the eye, the ear, the internal organs, for women, and for mental Of course, these are not all in one building, but are dispersed over the town, some being as far away as Poppelsdorf.

cases.

We must not omit to mention the university library, one of the most important in the country; the botanical gardens, the observatory, and various museums. We thus see here in a small space, developed in the course of a century, an institution which, were it to be suddenly called into existence, would require an outlay of millions, but whose organization can only be understood as an historical growth.

REPORT ON PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN THE REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY.

Report of Consul ALBERT W. SWALM, of Montevideo, Uruguay.

The annual report of public instruction for the Republic of Uruguay has been issued, and the figures presented by Don Urbano Chucarro show a very commendable degree of progress and development. From the voluminous report I translate the material facts for the benefit of the American educational world. It should be borne in mind that Uruguay is one of the most progressive of South American States in educational matters, and from 1876, when education was first made a governmental matter in the way of support and official care, up to the present time there has been but one year in which there was no increase in public schools. (In a parenthetical way, it may be here stated that during the said period the country had to overcome the effects of three revolutions.) The total number of schools in the several departments, or counties, as they may be called, is 533, and they have an average term time of nine months. The cities and towns have 181 schools, the rural sections reporting 352, and the increase in recent years has been more largely in the latter class. The change is shown thus: In 1876, 68 per cent were city schools and 32 per cent country schools. In 1896 the country schools had 67 per cent and the city list stood at 33 per cent.

In grades they stands as follows: First grade, 53; second grade, 124; third grade, 4, and ungraded, 352. Classified by sex, there are 69 for boys (varones) exclu

sively, 47 for girls (niñas), and 417 mixed. These latter have proven very successful, notwithstanding that the idea clashed somewhat harshly with the old rule of absolute separation of the sexes in schools.

The attendance at the schools averages nearly 9 per cent of the population, and while that figure may appear low, it is very considerably the highest reported in South American States. It is also a matter of gratification that the educational men of Uruguay are very earnest and very sincere in their efforts to bring about a greater attendance, in which the interest of parents gives most helpful aid.

The number of teachers employed in 1896 was 1,990; of these, 1,041 were in the public schools and 949 in private schools, the teachers being all natives but 606. The male teachers numbered 601; the female 1,389. The number of children enrolled in the public schools was 51,312, and in the private schools 22,689.

These public schools, church and secular, are largely located in the cities, there being 289 in town to 90 in the country, a total of 379 for the whole State. This gives a total of 912 schools, public and private.

The total cost of the public schools per scholar was, for each scholar enrolled, $12.38; for each attendant the cost was $18.83, Uruguay money, the Uruguayan dollar being $1.035 of the money of the United States. The department has paid out $727,827.82 for the period reported, but the sum will be exceeded by the year 1897. Of the school buildings, 156 are owned by the department and 533 are rented, and the rent account foots up to $130,256.56, and the superintendent very wisely regrets that the rent takes out so much good money from the fund, when there is such great need for all and much more in more direct educational work. The average pay for the teachers is, for males, $36.65; females, $33.25, or a mean average of $35.50.

Among the improvements in the system may be named a normal school for teachers, for males only, there being in successful operation one for females already. In these schools the modern methods of fitting men and women for their work are used, so far as may be possible under the changed conditions, as understood in comparison between this country and the United States. There is not such a thing as a high-school system as known in the United States, but there is a university, with public support and under governmental control. Dr. Alfredo Vazquez Acevedo is the rector or president of the board. The university has law, medical, engineering, and collegiate departments, and also a preparatory department in connection with the collegiate department. The attendance is very flattering, and the work done commends itself to the student of any nation for its thoroughness.

The grading of the public schools is apparently on about the same level as the American grade for the first grade, but the second and third grades are more comprehensive than the American grade of same number, and these should properly be classed as second to fifth, and fifth to eighth grades, American classification. The attendance in the public and private schools is reported as follows:

In the city private schools there are 6,398 ungraded, 3,734 on collegiate studies, and 8,994 in church schools--or for these a total of 19,126 scholars. In the country private schools, there are 2,459 ungraded, 405 on collegiate lines, and 699 in church care. The average general attendance was 74 per cent of the enrollment. This report and personal observation proves that the administrative powers of Uruguay are deeply interested in public and general education for the masses, and that, so far as their finances will permit, all possible aid will be given to the upbuilding of a system that shall be a model one in every respect.

There has been gathered here, in connection with the National Museum, a very complete collection of pedagogical equipment, in which many appliances are seen and many have been adopted and are in daily use in the schools. But things distinctively local merit the highest praise and show best of skill in manufacture and wisdom in application.

CHAPTER XXXII.

MISCELLANEOUS EDUCATIONAL TOPICS.

CONTENTS-I. Several problems in graded-school management.-II. Education in Hawaii.-III. The Indian problem from an Indian's standpoint.

I. SEVERAL PROBLEMS IN GRADED-SCHOOL MANAGEMENT.1 There is a growing conviction among the more intelligent observers of our graded system of schools, that there are serious defects either in the system itself or in its administration. This conviction is the strongest where the schools have reached the highest degree of system and uniformity-where, in other words, the system, as a system, has attained the highest perfection.

That we may better consider these defects, let us glance at the mechanical features of a system of graded schools-not a real system as actually administered anywhere, but a system ideally perfect as a mechanism.

In the first place, it maps out and prescribes a definite and detailed course of study and instruction, the best that is practicable if not the best theoretically possible. This course is subdivided, and the time for the mastery of each part, as well as the whole, is definitely fixed. The pupils are next divided into grades or classes, corresponding to the subdivisions of the course, and all the pupils of each grade or class are required to pursue the same studies, to the same extent, in the same order, and with the same rate of progress. In other words, the mechanism of the graded system demands absolute uniformity in each grade, and the more nearly this essential condition is realized the more nearly perfect is its mechanical operation.

This view discloses the difficulties which attend the administration of the system. As a mechanism, it demands that pupils of the same grade attend school with regularity, and that they possess equal attainments, equal mental capacity, equal physical vigor, equal home assistance and opportunity, and that they be instructed by teachers possessing equal ability and skill. But this uniformity does not exist. Teachers possess unequal skill and power. Pupils do not enter school at the same age; some attend only a portion of each year; others attend irregularly, and the members of the same class possess unequal ability and have unequal assistance and opportunity. This want of uniformity in conditions makes the mechanical operation of the system imperfect, and hence its tendency is to force uniformity, thus sacrificing its true function as a means of education to its perfect action as a mechanism. This is the inherent tendency of the system. when operated as a machine, and hence the great difficulty in administering it is to control this procrustean tendency and secure a necessary degree of uniformity without ignoring or forcibly reducing differences in pupils and teachers.

The foregoing remarks prepare the way for an intelligent consideration of several problems in the management of graded schools.

1 A paper read before the elementary department of the National Educational Association in Detroit, August 4, 1874, by E. E. White, A. M.