The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-07-12

Bethlehem NH. July II, 1884, After
the various excursions sthe mem ers OF
the American Institute of Instruction
gathered at the Casino this evening to
listen to discussion of the famous re-
port Of the Committee of Ten.
Frank A. Hill, secretary of the Massa-
chusetts Board of Education, spoke in
substance as follows:
In the absence of central control in
education we welcome central advice.
The report of the committee of ten, if
not backed by the authority of the
national government, has behind it the
authority of teachera of national reputa-
tion. | do not hesitate to urge that
courses of study everywhere shall be
framed, SO far as practicable, in harmony
with it's recommendations. 1t will be
glad day when the energies now ex-
pended in programme making shall be
cent cred in executing programmes.
The high schools in their general
courses reflect modern spirit; the col
lege admission requirements have not
yet fully emerged from a medieval
spirit. Hence gap between the vast
majority of high school pupils and the
colleges above them.
Now the report would bridge this
abyss, and that, too, without warping
the high schools from their main courses.
The high schools have thus far tried to
meet the colleges through IA slender Greek
course that has absorbed much energy,
but reached few pupils; now it is pro-
posed that the colleges shall try to con-
meet with the high schools squarcly in
all their courses. The only condition is
that these courses shall be sufficiently
serious and this sensible condition
should be met for the sake of the pupils
whether they go to college or not. In
deed, if good solid work should be
done by one more than by another, it
should be done by him who does not go
beyond the high school.
While approving in the main the
recommendations of the report about its
courses of study, wish to point out a
few conditions, favorable and adverse,
that have to be thought of in my at
tions. They are Massachusetts conditions,
but they may be taken as type of high
school conditions in general.
/ have recently examined the courses
of study of the Massachusetts, high
schools. A few of these courses are SO
meager that it is almost guess work to
tell what the schools are trying to do.
The majority of them are modest and
sufficiently reserved. There is very little
trumpet blowing about them, very little
to suggest that more energy is expended
on the scheme than ON the school itself.
Two bundled and twentyfour of these
schools are on a basis of about fifteen
exercises week. The number rises
little on account of such subjects as
music, drawing and what not; and &C.
casionally, for college pupils, in times of
pressure, as just before the preliminary
examinations for admissions. In twenty
three schools only is the number placed
at twenty, and this number. as in Bos-
ton includes generally from two to i've
exercises a week in drawing. drill and
the like The report of the committee
recommends twenty per week, of which
five are to unprepared, and naively leaves
it TO the local authorities. without sug
gestions from the committee, how to add
music, drawing ard the rest to the
twenty. Further the report recon-
mends-a desirable thing in itself-dou BILE
periods for laboratory work. For the
Boston school to retain their special
single period studies and the same time,
to conform to the committees recon-
mendations, twenty-eight exercises a
week would be needed most of tue time
I have not found single public high
school squarely on the commuters basis
of twenty exercises exclusive of the
usual miscellaneous studies, although
two or three schools are struggling to
place themselves there.
Fl ere, then, is the first significant fact.
in the nature of serious obstacle. that
comes ont of these courses of study. The
report calls for one-third more work
than tine schools now provide for. 1t
must not be forgotten that the demands
of the separate conferences rose in the
total, as high as thirty-eight exercises
a week, and that the committee felt COM
PEELED to reduce this number par ticalIy
to one-half. Planning is indeed nimble
and unhampered, but poor doing, what
a hating thing it is at the best?
Of the two hundred and forty seven
high schools in Massachusetts, one hun
bred and three offer, at least three par
alIel courses of study, andlTsome of the
four or five, by a system OF electives,
many more. Eighty-eight offer but two
courses, forty-fve but one, while eleven
deal with high school subjects in SO
scanty and disconnected way that they
cannot be said to offer courses at all.
Here, there are one hundred and
ninety-one schools with two or more
courses of study. Such schools, without
serious added cost, can adopt anyone of
the four programmes recommended by
the committee. That is, they can-offer