The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-07
SCHOOLING IN GERMANY.
Why the German Boys are Three Years
 Ahead of the American.

! Why the German Boys are Three Years l Ahead of the American.
 know it would be wrong to explain
 our being three years ahead of New preparation of our teachers. A second factor, which is hardly less important,
 stands clear before my mind, too; the help which the school found in our
 homes. I do not mean that we were
 helped in our work, but the teachers
 were silently helped by the spirit which prevailed in our homes with regard to the. school work The school had the right of way; our parents reinforced our 1 belief in the work and our respect for
 the teachers; a reprimand in the school was a shadow on our home life; a word
 of praise in the school was ray of sun
 shine for the household The excellent
 ool-books, the wise plans for the up-
 building of the ten-years course, the
 hygienic care, the external stimulations,
 have all, of course, helped toward the
 result; and yet l am convinced that
 their effect was entirely secondary com
 pared with those two features the
 scholarly enthusiasm of our teachers
 and the respect for the school on the
 part of our parents.
 I reached at the end of my school
 time, as a pupil of average standing,
 the scholarly level of an average college
 graduate in this country. l was then
 eighteen years of age; the average
 bachelor of arts is at least three years older. How did that difference come
 about? She natural explanation of the case is tha4 we poor boys were over burdened, systematically tortured, by cruel system of overwork, which ab sorbed all our energies for the one goal, the passing of the examination. l do not dare to contradict. But the one scheme of overlooking is the wonderful skill with which the school administra- ton was able to hide these evident facts so fully from our eyes that neither I nor my classmates, nor our parents, nor our teachers themselves ever perceived the slightest trace of them. The facts were so shamelessly concealed from us that we poor deceived boys thought those ten years long that the work was a pleasure that we had leisure for eve- rything, and that we were through all our school-time as happy as fish in water.
 l think that I spent during all those ten years, about three hours a day in the fresh air, walking and playing, swimming and skating; yet l found time from my ninth year to practice the violoncello one hour every day, and the novels which I wrote may have lacked everything else, but they never lacked aength. Besides such private schemes to fill our vacant time, we co-operated for that purpose in clubs, from the low we played instructive games, at twelve years we read classical dramas with di- Vlded roles, at fifteen We read papers on art and literature, and at seventeen we had a regular debating club. And all the time, at every stage, private thcat- ricals and excursions into the country, and dancing lessons, and horseback rid ing, and co-education; for the poor over burdened girls helped us to bear the load by suffering in common
 The college man. who specialies in po- titical economy or philosophy or chemis- try from his freshman year knows, in his special field, far more than any one of us knew; but if we take a composite picture of all eniors, the boy who leaves the gymnasium is not at dis in the comparison of intellec- tual physiognomy, while he Is of course far less mature according to his much 1