education. They have grown up under the needs of separate localities, with local characteristics predominating. Among these there is no regular course of progression from elementary types to the more advanced. Each is complete within itself.

Moreover, through the effects of the new law extending the obligatory time, these schools will receive a large influx, probably as high as 90 per cent of the total number leaving the folk school. In the "open road for the gifted," educators have had in mind mainly the 10 per cent or less who proceed in the straight continuation toward the universities, not the 90 per cent who enter the callings and the trades. To provide the open road for the gifted has meant in the discussions those gifted with reference to university studies. But if each one is to be placed where his powers, inclinations, and ambitions have the best opportunities, the interests of those inclined toward the vocations must also be heeded. How the advancement of these is to be made till the completion of the eighteenth year so as to satisfy the new law constitutes an immediate problem, namely, to devise study programs that lead with satisfactory continuity from the vocational studies to advanced work in political science, languages, and aesthetics,

Closely bound up with reorganization under the recent continuation law is the "selection. and advance of gifted pupils." Since the war greater significance is attached to efforts of this kind than formerly. In the general discussions it is continually urged that the State make the fullest use of all gifted pupils in order to recover from the appalling losses of the war.

Among educators and patrons of education there is satisfactory agreement that neither social position nor lack of means must keep a talented pupil from the instruction that will most fully develop his talent. But beyond that the discussion tends back to fundamentals-how to recognize talent and when and where to make the selection. Thus far the ground gained appears to be that a selection along broad and general lines should be made in the folk school, with consequent slight differentiation of the curriculum for the resulting divisions; other classifications to be made at stated times during the continuation period with final selection before the portals of the university. To help in the selection of the gifted, which in many cases is tantamount to the choice of a calling, it is urged that the theory of vocational selection should be brought into the courses of study and that individual conferences with pupils should be held. It is pointed out that gifts in the sense of school requirements and life requirements are not the same, as the vast number of cases in which talent has manifested itself only after school days will testify. Whether the selection is to be determined by continued observation of the pupil's ambition, his achievement, or his intelligence, or by

all these modes, the total worth of the individual as to integrity, ambition, and capacity is to decide. In these segregations the German educators are not overlooking the moral and psychic damage that would be inflicted by officially pronouncing pupils as inferior, hence they are avoiding designations of this kind.

Practically the selection of the gifted means a separation into classes where division A is capable of more rapid advancement than division B. But if one division can do the same work in, say, half the time of the other, the division making the more rapid progress would reach the secondary schools before the age requirements would admit them to these; hence it is thought advisable to defer this classification till the last two years of the required period. On the other hand, it is pointed out that early graduation would not be objectionable in view of the lesser age of university students of former times, and, again, that early graduation would permit of earlier service to the State.

SCHOOL REFORMS IN SEVERAL GERMAN STATES.

Though the school reforms in Prussia were looked upon as indicating the general course that should be taken, independent movements uninfluenced by Prussia were started elsewhere. Some early regulations were evidently of a temporary character, issued under the pressure of popular demand and subject to ratification by the State Assembly. In Baden the minister of instruction summoned the entire body of teachers to cooperate with him through committees to reach arrangements in accord with the new outlook. Bavaria, in resuming work on the school laws after the war, found that the new order required her to proceed along altered principles.1 Some of these reforms were regarded with apprehension by the private schools. The extreme measures toward socialization of all educational institutions caused the supporters of the private schools to seek affiliations with the conservatives in politics. With private school educators the position taken by the Minister of Education Haenisch was more acceptable than that of Hoffman, in so far as the former appeared to institute reforms by building upon and improving what was already established. In expectation of what might come, the private schools began to publish exhaustive arguments in defense of their institutions.

The first move against them came in Saxony, where the people's representative for the department of education made public an order to take effect on January 1, 1919:

Supervision of schools by religious bodies is abolished. Schools that have no superintendent (direktor) are under the supervision of local school authorities.

1 Schweizerische Lehrerzeitung, July 26, 1919.

From Easter on tuition at folk schools and continuation schools will be free and the entire folk-school system reorganized in accordance with the principles of the "Einheitsschule." Religious instruction will in the future be imparted in such a way that no religious organization will come to suffer thereby. Permission to establish private schools will no longer be granted. New elections conducted in accordance with democratic principles shall select school boards.1

This order brought out a protest from the supporters of private schools, in which, among other things, it was stated that the National Assembly of Saxony was the proper body to issue such regulations.

The new national constitution defines the position of private schools by stating that, as a substitute for public schools, they shall require the approval of the State, and that they shall be entirely under the control of the State.

Approval is to be granted when the private schools are equal to the public institutions with respect to their educational aims and arrangements as well as in the training and education of their teaching force, and provided, further, that they are so organized and managed that they do not cause a division of their pupils on the basis of the economic conditions of the parents.2 Approval is to be withheld when the economic and legal status of the teaching force is not satisfactory.

A report published in the Schweizerische Lehrerzeitung for June 14, 1919, states that on May 8 the minister of education made public the regulations for organizing teachers' councils in Bavaria, an announcement hailed by the teachers of Bavaria as a veritable decrce of their emancipation.

A series of teachers' organizations-community, district, and city, each a separate working unit-forms a national council of folk school teachers having the duty of cooperating with the Government school authorities. They will be expected to take the initiative toward furthering the interests of the schools and to guard the professional and social interests of the teachers. The announcement specifies the manner of electing the members of the district, city, and national councils, and the duties of each of these bodies. School inspectors are not eligible to membership. The city council is to provide teachers' representation at sessions of the community authorities. The district council represents the teachers when school questions, like school supervision, organization, and the appointment of inspectors, are to be decided. The authorities may also summon the council or any of its members for conference on school matters. The National Council (Landeslehrrat), elected by the entire number of folk school teachers, consists of 16 members and 8 alternates.

1 Zeitschrift für Kinderforschung, December-January.

The history and present status of the private schools seem to show that it is exceedingly difficult to conduct them without causing such division.

This council represents all the teachers in sessions with the minister of education where questions of a fundamental character affecting teachers and schools are taken up. In these matters the National Teachers' Council has the right of initiative. The ministry of education can summon the National Council or any of its members to a conference. Upon request of the National Council the ministry will send representatives to its sessions. The fact that the National Council represents folk school teachers only is open to criticism, but it is obviously only a first step which will lead to similar councils of all secondary schools and eventually to merging all these in one body fully representing the teaching forces of the country.

PART III.

ACTIVITIES OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION.

ITS PLACE IN THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.

The Bureau of Education is the principal educational agency of the United States Government. It is the one organization in the country whose outlook embraces the Nation, and whose scope includes every degree of the business of education. It performs no considerable executive function of its own. It tenders information, and it gives specific advice, when advice is asked, but neither the bureau as an entity nor its officers as individuals need concern themselves with the execution of plans proposed for the improvement of any educational condition. Its interests do not, therefore, encounter those of any other agency, and there can be no reason nor excuse for jealousy or hostility toward it.

The members of its staff are wholly free from local bias. They are in constant contact with the best educational practice throughout the country, and their understanding of educational movements comes not only from personal study but from frequent discussion with leaders in the several lines of education.

It is natural that the place of the Bureau of Education in the affairs of the Nation should become larger with each succeeding year. In its beginning, in 1867, its influence came in great measure from the personal prestige of the distinguished educator at the head of it, Henry Barnard; but each of the able men in the line of commissioners who followed him has done his part in strengthening the position and in extending the activities of the bureau. It is now approaching its full stature as an advisory organization. The value of its services is generally recognized, and the place of leadership is ungrudgingly conceded to it.

The experiences of the war gave convincing evidence of the usefulness of the bureau, and added greatly to its prestige. No important step involving education was taken without the participation of the bureau or of its officers. The Students' Army Training Corps was proposed by one of them, and he aided materially in its development, and in the development of the permanent training