Modern education in Europe and the Orient

Front matter

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COEffilGHT DEPOSIT.

Preface

The purpose of this book, "Modern Education in Europe and the Orient," is to present to the Normal School and College student a simple, clear, and comprehensive statement of what the countries treated are doing through their educational systems to better society. The method of study surveys the practical workings of the several school systems rather than the scientific principles underlying particular phases of education. It accepts and apphes the familiar conclusions of the many writers who have treated extensively such topics as humanism, rationalism, realism, naturalism, individualism, etc., without making these theories prominent in the discussions. In other words, the text attempts to present each government and society at work, in the reconstruction of its passing school system to meet the changing demands of to-day and to-morrow. In this respect, the problem of each nation is shown to be the same. Out of this similarity of national conditions and the oneness of national purposes it is hoped that the student will find suggestions of things to do and not to do in the development of the educational system of his own country.

At no time in the history of society has the educational system occupied the central position in social institutions so completely as it has during the past fifty years. Each individual, each vocation, and each institution is looking to the educational system for strength and guidance.

vi Preface

The spirit of cooperation characterizes the work of all these nations. All institutions of society are working together for the individual and common good as never before known. Private initiative is welcomed and encouraged by the state. Through systems of state aid and standardization, private and denominational schools are coming into harmonious relations with the state systems. And by a broadening spirit of religious toleration, the state is being left free to foster phases of education that fit all types of individuals for social and economic efficiency.

Vocational education is everywhere winning its way into the curriculum to supply what the traditional subjects have never been able to give. Continuation classes and schools for adolescents and adults are multiplying in urban and rural districts. The application of science to the development of rural industries is helping to keep the rural population contented and happy and away from the city. Technical education, for the training of leaders in commercial and industrial pursuits, is stimulating the development of the resources of the nation. Closer political and commercial relations between the nations are driving them to study each other's means of training their citizens for rivalry in peaceful and martial pursuits. *

The higher technical training of teachers and the fuller recognition of teaching as one of the learned professions is drawing a higher type of men and women into the work of education. The compulsory school laws that protect children from industrial exploitation and society from an uneducated and inefficient citizenship are filling up the schools and calling for an enormous expenditure of public and private funds.

Preface vii

The state is modifying its government so as to make more efficient the local and state control of the organization and administration of education to guarantee the greatest social returns.

These, in brief, are the problems, the movements, the methods, and the social aims, to which this text is designed to direct the interest and attention of the student of modern education.

For information about these educational systems, the author acknowledges his indebtedness to the sources named in the bibliographies listed in the text, and also to many not listed. He is likewise indebted to many professors of education and history, with whom he has discussed freely the different phases of this book.

Another valuable aid to the author has been criticisms of the manuscripts on the different systems, by prominent foreigners from these different countries, whom he has met in educational work in the United States. A year and a half, spent by the author as inspector of schools in the Southern States for the General Education Board, and eight years as instructor of College classes in the History of Education, have been of value to him in drawing comparisons between the foreign systems and that of the United States, and in adapting the treatment to class use with college students.

For those engaged in the administration of county, state, and institutional systems of education, the book should have much of interest and value.

It is with pleasure and appreciation that the author acknowledges the assistance of Dr. Paul Monroe, with whom, for a year, he was a student in the History of Education.

viii Preface

While the merits of the book are due to many sources, its defects are due solely to the author.

Finally, if the reader finds the book of interest and value, he is indebted to my wife, whose intelligent criticism and constant encouragement have made the completion of the work possible.

DAVID E. CLOYD

Des Moines College,

Des Moines, Iowa,

March lo, 1917,

Chapter I England Face

The Government — Transition from the Old Education to the New — Present English School System — Administration of Education — Pictogram of School System — Special Subjects — Secondary Education — " Great Public Schools " — The Training of Teachers — Examinations for Certificates — Teachers' Annuities — Technical Education — The English Universities — The Rhodes Scholarships — Rural Education — Religion and Education — Topics for Further Study — Special Bibliography i

CHAPTER n

The Government — Administration of Education — Special Features of the Old Scottish Schools — The Present Scottish System of Schools — Primary Education — Intermediate Schools — Supplementary Classes — Higher Grade Schools — Continuation Classes — Secondary Education — Types of Secondary Schools — Articulation with the Universities — School Statistics — General Welfare of Children — Training of Teachers — Technical Education — Scottish Universities — Women in the Universities — Carnegie Trust Grants — The Kirk and Education — Topics for Further Study — Bibliography 6i

CHAPTER HI

The Government — The Administration of Education — Specialization versus Centralization — Primary Education — Secondary Education — Types of Secondary Schools — The Baccalaureate — Girls'

Table of Contents

PAGE

Diplomas — Teachers in Secondary Schools — Trade and Technical Education — Agricultural Education — The Practical Schools of Commerce and Industry — Higher Education — The Universities — The Normal Schools — Pensions — Critical Condition Regarding Primary Teachers — Religious Education — Education in the French Colonies — Present Tendencies in French Education — Topics for Further Study — Special Bibliography 92

CHAPTER IV

The Government — The Empire — State Governments — Administration of Education — State Control of Education — Local Control of Education — Compulsory Education — Kindergarten and Bewahranstalten — The Volksschule — Problem of Overcrowded Classes — Whe Mittelschule — Gymnasium — Other Types of Secondary Schools — The Lyzeum — StUdienanstalt — The Reifepriifung — The Training of Teachers — Elementary Teachers — Lehrerseminar

— For Vocational Schools — Secondary Teachers — Gymnasial Seminars — The Oberlehrer — Industrial Education — Continuation Schools — Special Trade Schools — Engineering and Scientific Schools — German Universities — The Culture Caste — The Student and His Life — New University at Frankfort — Recognition of American Bachelor Degree — Women in the Universities ,

— Religious and Moral Instruction — Critical Conditions in German Education — War and Education — German Influence on American Education — Topics for Further Study — Special Bibliography 129

CHAPTER V

History — The Government — Plan of School Administration — National Ideals Influencing Education — Pictograms of Swiss School System

— Educational Statistics — • Elementary Schools — Secondary Schools

— Commercial Education — Agricultural Education — Training of Teachers — Universities and Polytechnic Institute — Compulsory Education for Apprentices — Religious Education — Topics for Further Study — Special Bibliography 169

Table of Conitnts xi

CHAPTER VI HOLLAND

PAOK

The Government. — Geography and Population — Administration of Education — Elementary Education — Secondary Schools — Higher Education — The Normal Schools — Control of Religious Education — Support of Education — Holland's Colonial Policy

— Education in Netherlands-India — Types of Dutch Schools

— Infant Schools — Primary Schools — Continuation Schools — Intermediate Schools — Elementary and Secondary School Statistics

— Higher Education — The Gymnasia — The Dutch Universities

— Technical Education — Trade Schools — Industrial Schools for Girls — Schools of Commerce — Polytechnic Schools — Agricultural Education — Itinerary Classes for Rural Industrial Education — Religious Education — The Training of Teachers — Salaries and Pensions — Topics for Further Study — Special Bibliography . . 193

CHAPTER VII DENMARK

Introduction — Geography and Population — History and Government

— Industries — The Danish People — General Plan of School Organizations — Coordination of Parts of the System — Pictogram of the Danish School System, 1914 — The Primary School (Folkeskole)

— Secondary Schools — Historic Development — The Middle School (Mellemskole) — Gymnasium — Relation to Higher Schools — The People's High School (Folkehojskoler) — The School Year — Compulsory' Attendance — Prominence Given to Music — Physical Training of Teachers — Teachers' Pensions — The Problem of Coeducation

— Religion and Religious Instruction — Provision for the Defective

— Polytechnic and Professional Schools — The University of Copenhagen — Topics for Further Study — Special Bibliography . .227

CHAPTER VIII

History — Her Government — The People and Their Language — Plan of School Control — Pictogram of School System — The Primary Schools — Rural and City — The Middle Schools — The Gymnaxii Table of Contents

PAGE

sium — The University — The'Training of Teachers — Agricultural Education — Rural Education for Adults — Folk High School

— Workingmen's Colleges — Technical Education — Continuation Schools of Secondary Rank — The Problem of Coeducation — Moral and Religious Education — Private Initiative in Norwegian Education — Topics for Further Study — Special Bibliography . . 260

CHAPTER IX

Geography and Industries — Historic Sketch — The Government — Organization of Education — Pictogram of the Swedish School System

— Administration of Education — The Elementary Schools — Secondary Education — People's High Schools — Teachers' Training Schools — The Higher Institutions — Schools for Abnormals — Popular Education — Course of Study — Continuation Schools — Proposed Reorganization of Elementary Education — Genesis of the Secondary Schools — Girls' Secondary Schools — Boys' Secondary Schools — Higher Education — Number and Character of Institutions — Upsala — Degrees — Faculty and Students — Technical Education — Special Types of School Work — For Crippled Children — Workshops for Children — School Gardens — Swedish Gymnastics — Sloyd — Domestic Economy — Vacation Colonies — Neglected Children — Temperance Education — People's High Schools — Religious Education — Topics for Further Study — Special Bibliography 296

CHAPTER X

Her History — Geography and Industries — Her Government — The Ancient System of Education — Education under the Early Feudal Regime — Education under Buddhist Domination — Education under Military Control ^ Transition to Modern Education — Pictogram of Japanese School System — Modern Education — The Administration of Education — The Kindergarten — Elementary Education — Special Features of Elementary School Work — The Middle School — Higher Schools — The Imperial Universities — Girls' High Schools — The Training of Teachers — Of Elementary

Table of Contents xiii

PAOE

Teachers — Of Secondary Teachers — Technical Education — Special Features in Japanese Education — Position of Japanese Women

— University of Waseda and Pri\ate Initiative — Moral Education

— Religious Education — Limitations of Japan's Religions — The Caste System and Education — Textbook Regulations — Medical Education — Topics for Further Study — Special Bibliography . 336

CHAPTER XI

Her History — Her Industries — The Recent Republic — The Old Education — Transition to Modern Education — The First Period of Modern Education — Pictogram of the Chinese School System from 1905 to 191 2 — Pictogram of the Chinese School System from 191 2 to 1916 — The Present School System — The Universities and Colleges

— The Tsing Hua College — The Canton Christian College — Agricultural and other Technical Colleges — Medical Education — China's Educational Problems — Financing Education — The Need of Modern Teachers — The Language Problem — New Content and New Methods in Education — An Emancipated Womanhood — The Problem of a New Philosophy — Moral and Religious Education — The Government's Program — Topics for Further Study — Special Bibliography 391

MAPS

Political Map of Europe i

Political Map of Asia 384

ENGLAND CHAPTER I

General Character. — The government of England is very complex in character. In theory, it is an absolute monarchy with a king who makes the laws, enforces them, declares war, makes peace, acts as the fountain of justice, and the head of the church. In form, the government is a hmited monarchy in which ParHament, and not the king, makes the laws, and the Cabinet, not the king, administers them. In fact, the EngHsh government is a democracy, doing the will of the people as no other government, at least in its promptness of response.

The Will of the People. — Democracy was established as a fact in four distinct acts of ParHament that stand out in great prominence in English Constitutional history, (i) John Russell's reform act of 1832 enfranchised the middle class, the farmers, and shopkeepers. (2) Disraeh's reform act of 1867 gave the workingmen the franchise. (3) Gladstone's reform measure of 1884 added to the voting body nearly two million persons, mainly rural laborers. (4) Finally, the Parliament Act of 191 1 reduced the Lords to a subordinate house

2 Modern Education in Europe mid the Orient

by a provision that enables the House to pass bills over the veto of the Lords.

How it Functions. — The House which controls legislature is elected by an almost universal manhood suffrage. The Cabinet, which is the actual executive department, also has the initiative power in appropriating money. The members are selected from the two houses of Parhament and must be of the same pohtical opinions as the majority of the House and must be the recognized leaders of that majority. If a lack of harmony arises between the Cabinet and the majority of the House, either the Ministry must resign, or the Parhament must be dissolved and an appeal be made to the people through a general election. This, in brief, is the democratic procedure of the EngHsh government. Added to this is the striking fact that no British court can set aside an act of Parhament as unconstitutional. Furthermore, the Eng- Hsh Constitution is not a written one and any act of Parhament is law. And, finally, the king's veto has not been used for more than two hundred years. In fact England is a democracy.

Why a Monarchy. — The title to the Enghsh throne is decided by an act of Parliament and has been so since 1688. The Act of Settlement, passed in 1701, fixed the succession to the throne, and this has remained unchanged, though Parhament could change it at any session. His rights are merely advisory, and his advice has only the influence that an intelhgent personahty in an honored position gives it. The essential reasons for the retention of monarchy are : (i) It is a time-honored institution of an extremely conservative people ; (2) it serves a social, moral, and ceremonial purpose as a visible symbol of the unity of the nation ; (3) a parhamentary system of government needs at least a figurehead for its successful workings ; (4) kingship has been found to be not incompatible with democracy.

The Limiting Constitution. — The Constitution of England which hmits the so-called monarchy is not a written document in the sense that the Constitution of the United States is such. It consists of customs^ laws, precedents, treaties, charters, bills of rights, acts of Parliament, court decisions, etc., which stretch out through several centuries. These are both written and unwritten. This Constitution can be changed in the same way that it has become what it is. An act of Parhament is both law and constitution. It is the most flexible and at the same time the most permanent constitution in existence. An insight into this characteristic of the EngHsh government will aid one in his appreciation of the typical system of education that has grown up under it.

Parliament. — The British Parhament consists of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. It is the absolute authority of the nation, subject only to the will of the people.

For election to the House of Commons any male British subject who is of age is eligible, unless he belongs to one of the few debarred groups. The distribution of seats in the House is on a population basis similar to that of the House of Representatives in the United States. This is strictly a democratic House.

The House of Lords consists of six distinct groups of members, sitting by various rights, as follows : (i) Princes of the royal blood, (2) peers with hereditary seats, the number of which may be increased at the will of the crown for the purpose of honoring men or for the purpose of changing the political balance in the House, (3) the representative peers of Scotland, chosen by the whole body of Scottish peers, (4) the representative Irish peers, chosen by the whole body of Irish peers, (5) the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, who serve as the highest national court of appeal, and (6) the " lords spiritual," or ecclesiastical members, restricted to the English church.

At present there are 620 members in the House of Lords.

House of Lords Inharmonious with Nation. — The House of Lords has lost the confidence of the nation, and the power of the government has passed into the hands of the Commons. This transition in the Parliament is simply the reflection of the tremendous social, economic, rehgious, and educational evolution that has occurred in English society. The people and the interests to be represented in Parliament to-day are vastly different from the people and the interests represented there in the days when the Lords were in public favor. Landed property, hereditary nobility, and the Anglican Church are no longer the pillars of the British state. The ParHament Act of 191 1 subordinated the House of Lords to the House of Commons and left it with only the power of a suspensive veto in legislation.

Local Government. — The central government exercises a form of local control through five central ministerial departments, chiefly by the promulgation of regulations and the giving or withholding approval of the actions of local bodies. One of these five departments is the Board of Education which directs and supervises education relative to government aid.

For local administrative purposes the entire kingdom is divided into counties and county boroughs ; and the counties are subdivided into rural and urban districts, and boroughs ; and London is a unit by itself. Each of these units has an elective council. The term '' borough " is appUed to any non-rural area under a charter granting the right of local self-government. The Councils in these administrative units, in addition to the ordinary civil duties, direct the educational work in their areas, under the rule and regulations of the central Board of Education.

TRANSITION FROM THE OLD EDUCATION TO THE NEW

The Evolution of Educational Theories. — Education in England, during the past several centuries, cannot be better described than by the simple statement of the philosophical doctrine of Herachtus : " Change, movement, is Lord of the Universe. Everything is in a state of becoming, of continual flux." It has been well said that, " Few nations show the influence of so many different forces in their educational history as may be recognized in England : the church, the state, economic conditions, private enterprise, philanthropic endeavor, educational theories — all have contributed some tradition to what is gradually developing into a well-defined system." And with England, time is what Kant conceived it to be, " only a subjective way in which we cognize reaHties which in themselves are non-spatial and non-temporal." So, what matter when a thing is done, just so it's in the doing? The Medieval period shows strikingly the influence of the church in the many forms of schools with church names, such as cathedral, cloister, convent, monastic. The pohtical influence is found in the Anglo- Saxon and Norman elements of dialect, language, laws, and the social classes, and feudal customs. The theories of the scholastics are found in their school curricula and their philosophy. All were mighty forces in their day, and each has transmitted a vital inheritance to the present. The sixteenth century renaissance and reformation mingled the theory and practice of education, the theory of church and state, the doctrine of the worth and right of the individual, around the dawning of the thought of a state system of education for the masses. The history of these movements is volumes in the Uves of men and institutions familiar already to the scholar. They too have left their imprint upon the present as theories and institutions cherished through tradition and belief.

The sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries were illumined with struggles of political, religious, and economic theories of freedom, all of which found their way into the changing schools of the day to linger on till now. The interest in nature and the new philosophy of experience as the basis of knowledge won the mind away from humanism and reUgious dogmas and shook the traditions of the school and the church.

Thus, the new world sHpped away from old England and she, like an individual in loss, turned consciousness inward and set about a reconstruction of self for adaptation to a new environment which she through her own inherent attributes had helped to produce.

Nineteenth Century Reconstruction. — The practical, utilitarian social philosophy of such writers as Rousseau, Adam Smith, Bentham, and Robert Owen, together with the wars with America and Napoleon, brought such intellectual, social, and political changes in England at the close of the eighteenth and the opening of the nineteenth centuries that society turned from the church to the state for reUef .

Education of Factory Children. — The impoverished and embittered poor found strength in the new class of political theorists, and encouragement and assurance in the theories of the social economists. The result was the clause in the Factory Act of 1802 that required the master of the apprentice to provide for his education. Less fortunate was the bill of 1807 which proposed, in opposition to the will of the clergy, the establishment of schools for the poor, by the civil officials of any town or parish. Again, in 181 5 and 1820, similar bills were doomed in the stubborn contention of the church against the beginnings of a national system of education. But out of these attempts at legislation came commissions of inquiry into the conditions of popular education and endowed schools that furnished a great amount of the information that was used for the promotion of the cause of free education.

National Aid and Child Welfare. — Then came John Russell's great reform bill in 1832, that took away representation from the dead bones of old England and gave it to the living energy and industry of the new England.

The large increase of the suffrage through this reform bill stimulated interest in the necessity of education for the masses. The result was the first Parliamentary grant of £20,000 in aid of elementary education. It is interesting to observe in this connection that the same spirit and powers that worked for education of the masses likewise worked for humanity. In the same year Parliament abolished slavery and appropriated £20,000,000 to pay for emancipation. And another act by this same Parliament prohibited the employment of children under nine years of age, limited to nine hours a day the labor of those between nine and thirteen, and to twelve hours those between thirteen and eighteen. Education and freedom without bloodshed was the glory of England in 1833. A noble beginning of a national system of education ! The appropriation for education was distributed through the National and the British and Foreign School Societies, a compromise method that has always marked England's progress. This money was used to supplement private subscriptions in the building of schoolhouses.

State Supervision of Education Begun. — Six years later the grant was increased to £30,000 to be used in any desirable way to aid elementary education, but administered now by a separate committee of the Privy Council, and under government inspection and supervision. This was a very important advance by the state and a distinct lessening of the church control.

Public School Associations Organized. — Important pubUc school associations and leagues were organized in the leading manufacturing centers, such as Manchester and Birmingham, for the propagation of the theories and activities of public education on a broad basis. In 1847, as a result of this more tolerant spirit, the Roman Catholic and Wesleyan Associations were admitted on an equality with the estabUshed church to the benefit of the education grants.

State Control of Funds Established. — The state control of education through the Committee of the Privy Council was further extended in 1856 by the appointment of a Vice President of the Committee, who, as Chairman, was directly responsible to the House of Commons for the use of the funds voted for education purposes.

Payment by Results. — The growing interest in all kinds of social reform, that led to the adoption of free trade in 1846, turned educationally to the investigation of the state of popu-

England g

lar education, by a Royal Commission, appointed for that purpose in 1858. The report was full of stimulating recommendations and resulted in the Act of 1861, that established the system of "payment by results." The success of both the teacher and the school, by this method of government aid, was made dependent upon the number of pupils who could pass the government's examinations. This was a very narrow system of state aid to private or church schools and was soon seen to be evil in its consequences, as narrowness in teaching and unfairness in the distribution of the funds were inevitable. Even the supplementing of the system by the employment of inspectors to pass opinion upon the schools applying for aid did not materially improve the condition.

Board Schools and School Taxes. — The state turned from the principle of state aid to voluntary educational agencies, in 1870, to the new principle of local pubUc control and taxation. But the victory for the secular school advocates was only a partial one. The voluntary schools (church schools) with their sectarian instruction, though optional to scholars, were still permitted to share in the government aid.

The secular principles firmly established by this bill are : (i) a compulsory local tax, (2) a representative local school official, (3) compulsory school attendance, and (4) the right of the school to earn the government grant without requiring the pupils to receive religious instruction. This dual system of Board Schools and voluntary schools has continued until the present day, though several times modified, and always in the direction of free secular universal education understate control. The government grant to support the Act of 1870 was $2,810,000, which was thought to be sufficient to meet one-half of the expense of the public elementary schools. All- schools lo Modern Education in Europe and the Orient

were permitted to charge fees, but only Board Schools were allowed to share in the local tax. Important acts were soon passed to meet these two conditions. In 1 891, an extra grant was appropriated to take the place of local fees, and by the Act of 1902 the voluntary schools were admitted to a share in the local rates.

Central Board of Education and Coordination. — The coordination of all the educational activities came in the Act of 1899 which created a Central Board of Education to which were transferred the functions of all other existing education bodies. To this Board was given the power and duty to extend education to the secondary field as well as to the elementary.

Local Boards Supplanted by Councils. — This change in the administration of education was followed in 1902 with a still more radical and sweeping one in the abolishment of the local boards and the substitution of the local councils for them. During these transition days public education had made such great strides that in 1902, when the present system went into effect, 93% of the elementary schools were free, and approximately 50% of the children were in Board Schools.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM

Conditioned by Private and Sectarian Schools. — The

present system of educational administration in England, as has been traced, is the outgrowth of private and sectarian control of education during the past several centuries. The state has endeavored to preserve all of the valuable features of the old system and to create a new system that would continue to foster local freedom and at the same time establish the principle of aid and control by the central government.

The government has not sought, however, to create a strongly centralized and bureaucratic system, such as is found in France and Germany and in the newer system in Japan. The control of education in the English system is largely through its plan of financial assistance, guided by the advisory and supervisory function of the education department. This method of control is somewhat slow and compromising in its results, but it is in keeping with the English political theory of slow and well-measured progress. This policy of regard and caution, since the establishment of public education in 1870, has almost completely overcome the threatening influences of political, religious, and social interests. The most stubborn of these three interests has been the social one, which, because of its financial independence, continues to maintain a number of institutions separate from state aid and control.