Washington sentinel., 1901-06-01

| clique of landowners who are fanaticaI
Protectionists and enemies OF progress
in almost every shape and form--very
much as England was ia the days before
1892.
Compulsory Education In COpen-
hagen.
Pilot.
The School Director OF Copenhagen
was asked one dav what percentage of
the children. tor whose training he is
responsible, succeed in eyading the
compulsory education law. His reply
was a look of blank amazement; evi.
IDENTIFY it had never occurred to him that
any of his charges could be so demoral-
lied as even to wish to evade the said
law With one solitary exception, every
child in the city who was physically and
mentally in a state to be taught, was
being taught he declared. Nor did he
speak at random; he had proof at hand
for what he said. AS for the poor little
little solitary exceptional strolling
PAA4NA . AduE ld- VI AEl udNlUk
escaped his notice for a whole year
seemed to trouble him sorely. Yet
here, In London, we have no fewer than
a hundred thousand children who hardly
by any chance cross the threshold of
school.
Special interest is attached to the
educational system in force in Denmark
owing to the fact that, in no other coun.
try, do the people start life so well
equipped for their work. Go where
you will in Denmark, the great majority
Of the working men and women you
meet have keen wits, sharp eyes. and
deft fingers Physically they are robust!
mentally they are alert-"cute" as the
veriest Yankee. They can drive a
plough as well as they can read lacto-
meter, and hsave heavy weights with as
cousummate skill as they can argue
That nature has done much for the
Danes must be admitted, tor they are
both thrifty and hardworkipg by instinct.
Still, it is undoubtedly to the education
they receive that they owe in a great
measure their position as the richest
nation in the world, per head Of the
population, excepting the English.
For generations education has been
compulsory in Denmark. Every child,
unless it belong to the invalid" or the
"private education" class, must GO to
school when it is seven years old, and It
may, il its parents chose, 60 when 1t is
SIX; and there it must remain until
within one term of its fifteenth birthday.
With this arrangement even captious
parents seem to be quite fairly content,
thanks to the trouble that is taken by
the school authorities to show Difference
to their preiudIces, as well as consult
| their convenience. For instance, in
almost every quarter in Copenhagen
there are two board schools, organized
and managed by the city authorities on
precisely the same lines The only
difference between the two is that one
is a Betallngsskole and the other a
Friskole-the children who 60 TO the
one paw a krone a month for the educa
| tion they receive; whereas they who go
| to the other pay nothing at all. These
Betalingsskole are a most popular insti-
| tuition, for there are class distinctions
among the poor as among the rich; and
careful parents pay the fees gladly,
delighted to be able to keep their BOYS
and girls "select" at so small a cost.
OIt of the 57,4s2 children whose names
were on the Copenhagen school list on
| January I, 1899, no fewer than 1856
were attending the Betalingsskole.