Notes on the above.

1. The school day is divided into six periods.

2. Pupils electing Latin or German may drop Latin and take up French during the

fourth year.

3. As far as the daily programme will allow, pupils may be permitted to specialize in the last year of their course, preparatory to their proposed future.

4. During the third and fourth years individual instruction in composition and declamation is given.

5. Botany and zoology are arranged as to sequence, so that botany shall always be studied during the spring months.

6. A second language may be taken up during the last two years in the liberal course for four periods per week, as an option.

NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS (ÉCOLES NATIONALES PROFESSIONNELLES) OF FRANCE. In view of the growing importance of technical instruction for the masses, a commission was appointed in 1881 by the minister of public instruction, in agreement with the minister of commerce and industry, to examine the question of organizing a State school which should serve as a model to the communes and departments for the organization of apprenticeship schools authorized by the law of December 11, 1880. The commission expressed itself in favor of creating not merely an école d'apprentissage, but one which should combine "in' one and the same establishment a school for very young children (école maternelle), a primary and a higher elementary technical school." The commission was further of opinion that "all specialization in manual instruction should be avoided." Before the report of the commission was officially presented a decree of the 9th of July, 1881, issued at the instance of the two ministers, directed the creation at Vierzon of a "National school of higher elementary and technical instruction intended to serve in preparation for apprenticeship (école nationale d'enseignement primaire supérieur et d'enseignement professionnel préparatoire à l'apprentissage)." Two additional schools of the same kind were created at Armentières and Voiron by decrees of the 10th and 26th of July, 1882. The school at Voiron was not opened until 1886, those at Vierzon and Armentières in 1887, and a fourth school of the same general character has since been opened at Nantes. A report of M. Buisson, the former director of primary instruction, defines the purpose of these two schools as follows:

They are not in any sense special technical schools, more or less complete schools of engineering (écoles d'arts et métiers); they are associations of schools comprising an infant and a primary elementary school, and at each stage technical instruction which, commencing from the earliest age, when it is of little importance, continues up to the very end of the course when it becomes of the first moment. When he has arrived at this final stage the apprentice, who now only needs the practice of his trade to become a workman, leaves the national school and goes either into a workshop or into a technical school, in the proper sense of the term. Hence these establishments provide a general preparation for artisan and industrial life. They lead a youth right up to the threshold of the factory or the engineering school, armed with every kind of general and special knowledge, with the aptitudes and habits of work which will enable him either to select a particular calling, or if needs be, pass from one calling to the other, sure of being, after a few months of practice, a finished workman.

The programme of the elementary division of these schools corresponds very closely to that of the ordinary primary schools with more stress on manual training. The distinction becomes marked in the grade corresponding to the higher primary schools, as is indicated in the following time-table" in which the programme of one

a From report to the Science and Art Department, England. By Charles Copland Perry, M. A., New College, Oxford; Ph. D. Marburg (Prussia).

of the national technical schools is compared with the programme of the industrial section of the higher primary schools and also with the programme of the practical schools of industry.

COURSE OF STUDY FOR THE PRIMARY NORMAL SCHOOLS OF FRANCE, THAT IS, SCHOOLS FOR THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS FOR THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS.

Modified programme for the normal schools for women.

The programme for the women's normal schools is the same as regards the literary part; but the scientific part is reduced. On the other hand, they are instructed in domestic economy. The practical side of the curriculum includes, in addition to gardening, first aid to the wounded, sewing, and, in some cases, laundry work and cooking.

PROGRAMME OF FRENCH SECONDARY SCHOOLS (LYCÉES AND COMMUNAL COLLEGES). It is interesting to compare the programmes of the French primary schools (presented on pp. 609-611) with those of the secondary schools (lycées and communal colleges) which are intended for the higher classes, and which, until a recent period, were virtually closed to those of lowly station. Persistent efforts have been made to break down the barriers between the two classes of schools, and the latest programmes of the secondary schools are arranged in classical and nonclassical sections, the latter being, so far as regards studies, accessible to graduates from the primary schools. The full programme of the lycée (the typical secondary school) is as follows: Preparatory division (average ages 7 to 8 years), common to all pupils.

French

Latin

Greek

[Duration, three years; from the seconde to the class of philosophy and mathematics.]

a Four hours in the second language.

bTwelve lectures, of one hour each, for the four sections.

It will be seen by a comparison of the above programme with those of the French higher primary schools that the nonclassical course of the secondary schools is so assimilated to the course of study for the primary schools that pupils may pass from the latter to the former. Inducements in the way of scholarship funds are offered, both by the State and by local authorities, with a view to encouraging this interchange. Every year a small proportion of graduates from the higher primary schools (3.3 per cent in 1897) enter lycées or colleges, but the majority of primary school pupils who continue their studies do so in schools that prepare for a special vocation, i. e., normal or technical schools. Even with increased inducements, it is hardly to be expected that any marked change will take place in the proportion of youth from the industrial classes who will prolong the period of their general study. The statistics of students in courses of study above the grade of the elementary primary schools which are given below show that a very small proportion of pupils who frequent the primary schools enter even the higher primary schools (about 1 in 130). The following tabulation brings together schools that have only one thing in common, namely, they offer courses of study in advance of a course of elementary instruction.