New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-10-12
THE WORK OF PREPARATORY SCHOOLS.

cussion Of the sphere and work OF secondary
schools was presented last week by the Hon
Charles J. Bonaparte in his address on Found
prs' Day at Tome Institute. Port Deposit Md,
of which an abstract was printed In our columns
on Saturday We call 1t novel, because Mr..
Bonaparte emphasized in detail phase OF the
subject which is TOO often lightly passed over.
to wit the Importance of the secondary school
ms a finishing school, or ar "all around" institu-
ton of learning, both apart from and together
with its function as a feeder to the college.
The secondary school has been too much re-
garded merely as a stepping stone to the college.
Indeed, it is most generally known as pre-
paratory" school. And from this misapprehen-
sion of it's mission has arisen the serious abuse
Of combining its curriculum too largely to the
studies in which the student expects TO be
examined on entrance to college. The school
has prided itself upon the completeness and
infallbility of the preparation for college which
it affords and has measured its success by the
number of its students who each year enter
college and by the ease with which they pass
their entrance examinations. And the heads of
such schools have come together in convention
to discuss not the general efficiency of their
various institutions and the means of increasing
it, but the terms upon which their students may
be got into college, adjusting the curriculum of
entrance examination. Yet perhaps not more
than 10 per cent of the students enter or mean
to enter college, and thus to the supposed in
terests Of such small minority the interests of
the 90 per cent majority are sacrificed. That
consideration should alone be sufficient to con-
denim the narrow, college preparatory cOncep
ton Of the secondary school. But. as Mr.. Bona
parte aptly reminds us, it IS by no means the
only one.
We speak advsedly of the supposed" in
terests of the intending collegians, for the ex-
clusively preparatory" course is really as in
adequate to the needs of those who go as of
those who do not go to college. The scope of
hiSher-that is. coIlegiate-education has in
cent years been vastly amplifled that
hope to cover it all in ordinary
college course Every college student must in
measure be a specialist. Hence has arisen the
imperative demand for an elective system
under which the college student may choose
from the multitudinous array of the studium
generate the particular studies or class of
studies he is to pursue But such choice to be
profitably made must be intelligently made, and
the latter is impossible unless in the second
airy school the student has been instructed in
more than the few standard branches of the
traditional preparatory course" The widest
possible scheme Of instruction in the secondary
school is necessary in order that the student
may reap the full benefit of the elective system
in college. Nor Is that all. Election contra
implies exclusion. In deciding to pursue certain
studies the college student decides not to pursue
certain others. Yet if he is to have that rounded
and completed education which alone is worthy
TO be called liberal culture he should have at
least some knowledge of those other studies,
and that knowledge, rudimentary but accurate
nd For 6O
gained, and in the great majority Of cases only
10 be gained, in the secondary school.
The true conception of the secondary school,
then Is that Of All institution of the completest
possible culture within itself, with curriculum
of the widest range and well balanced in all its
parts. And all its students. whether they are
going on to college or whether they are to end
their schooling with the secondary school, are
to pursue this liberal and comprehensive scheme
of study. The result will be that those who
go college will be enabled to make their
election of higher courses intellgently and
proftably and with the advantage of some
preparation in all the courses. whatever they
may be. and will, moreover have some desir-
able knowledge even of the courses which they
must in college perforce neglect; while those of
the majority. who do not go to college, will
leave the secondary school with educations per-
fectly rounded and balanced and complete so
far as they go Thus the secondary school is
to be, before and above all else a secondary
school, and only incidentally or secondarily a
college preparatory school, and in so being il
will actually be a better feeder to the college
than if it were primarily and essentially a pre-
paratOry school. For the school that gives a
thorough and comprehensive secondary educa-
ton must of necessity afford good preparation
for college. while one may be nominalIy good
preparatory schOol-that is 70 say, it may sue
cesSfully take its students through so many
books of Caesar and the Anabass and geom-
etry-withOut being of much value as a true
secondary school.
1t will be obvious to all that this conception
greatly eXalts and magnifes the mission of the
secondary school, and it is well that 1t does
There is probably no department of education
in the United States that has been more neg
lccted than this We have colleges and uniyer-
sites enough and to spare, and many of them
are generously endowed, At the other end of
the line are the primary schools for which the
State makes provision. Between the two is the
zone OF secondary schools, at once important
and neglected. Comparatively few persons think
of endowing secondary school, as the Tome
Institute. for example, has been endowed vet
the need Of doing so is probably far greater to-
day than that of college endOwments Few
educators think of spending their lives as
teachers in secondary schools The salaries are
too small, so they regard them as mere step-
ping stones to places III college faculties Yet
the need OF experienced teachers Of highest
qualifications and of permanent faculties is as
great in the secondary schools as in the col
leges. Yes and the teacher In the secondary
school fills as useful and as honorable n nloca