Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-28

INA ~M tecnnicAi COllSBd LOr POST
llszzz.l graduate work for university
students. The system is mod
eled upon that prevailing In the United
States, and the expense is borne partly
by the nation, partly by the prefecture
ana partly by the municipality or ois-
triot. But the entire Japanese school
system costs only $25,0O0000 a year,
less than the annual public schooI APP
preparation for the city of New YORK.
Nevertheless it is fact that ninety
five per cent OF all the children OF
school age in Japan are actually re-
ceiving instruction In the schools, q
record which cannot be approached IN
America and which will be equaled IN
very few individual states or cities.
Japan has over seven million children
in school and not quite four hundred
thousand out of school. Even these
must give a good excuse, for the IN
tensely paternal Japanese government
requires its subjects to be educated ana
the compulsory law is enforced with
sreat vlgor.
1t is utterly unfair to judge the jap
anese schools by the amount OF money
spent on them, because, as in almost
everything else, the great difference III
cost of living comes in again. !op-
anese school teacher will work whole
year for a salary of $40 and feel all
right about 1t. This scale OF wages
seems pitifuliy parsimonious when
compared with that in America, yet
everyone knows that teachers in the
United States are underpaid. IL Is
commentary, however, upon American
standards that the $40-a-year teacLer
| Is not left to starve in old age or SICK
ness, his salary goes on under q teach
| ers' pension arrangement when ne De-
comes incapacitated for work.
Again, it is possible for a young man
| to study two years In preparatory
school and then take a full four years
course in a university for 1850, or $50
year. Not only is It possible, put
! thousands of young men are doing IL.
| One great private university In TOXIC
| has 5000 students, and the whole pouy
does not spend as much In q year TOT
| board, tuition, books and inctdental ex-
| penses as an equal number OF Aneri-
| can university students Will spend eacn
year on the Yale-Harvard football
game. The government has estimated
| the expense of education to q, nicely
and it assures parents that they can
educate their children from the ele-
mentary course to the highest degree
| for a total cost of $500. This includes
tuition board, medical attendance and
books for six years in the elementary
stage, five years in the intermediate
stage and five years in the university
| In tie higher institutions of learning
| care is taken that the estimate or cost
| is not exceeded. At the central uni
versities each prefecture maintains It's
own dormitory. in which are housed
the students from that prefecture
| The parents pay a lump sum to the
manager which is to include every ex-
pense. IL the expense exceeds the es-
| innate the deficit is paid by the pre-
fectural treasury in the form of sub
sidy. At one of these dormitories q
i hundred boys will live in quarters
which would not suffice ten Ameri-
1 cans, and the expense viii rarely DC
greater than $3.50 a month for eacf
boarder. The food is rice and fish, oi
course. except that the cheaper millel
/ and beans are sometimes substituted
for the rice.
The only weak point about the Jap
i anese school system. so far as the
Japanese are concerned, Is that the
higher institutions can by no means
accommodate the students who apply
for admission. The Higher CONNER
cial school of Toxic is a school COM
parable to the large business colleges
of the United States. The annual tut
ton is $12.50. Last year there were
1900 applications for admission, bu
the DullulnBS dTe So Siildll anu AiiC q Y
preparation so limited that only 37I
could be admitted. There is a three
year course and the total enrollmen
is 1900, although the plant was de-
signed to accommodate but 500. Th'
same condition obtains in every higheI
school in the country. although th'
greater number of applicants arr
turned down by the technical schools
:. Five hundred applicants desired to en-
roll themselves as students in th'
school of electricity, but only 1O'
could be received. These technica
schools embrace every branch of in
dustrial and engineering study ant
every one is full to overfiowing. Th,
agricultural and forestry colleges shov
the same inability to take care of thos
, who come to study.
The Toxic Fine Art school has classes
in Japanese painting, European paint
ing, designing, sculpture, craving OF
metals and lacquer work, and in thi
institution but few more than hal
of the applicants were admitted las
year. Then there is the Academy o
: Music. a school which seems strangel,
out of place in the government edu
cational system of a country which
to Occidental ears, knows nothing
y Nhatever of music or melody. Blu
the figures show that the Japanes
bows and girls are willing to learn, TO
there were a thousand new pupil
! knocking at the door of the freshman