Whatever the reasons may be, the fact remains a stubborn one for those who decry the elective plan- they cannot agree. Added to all this we have the lessons of history. I shall not here attempt to epitomize the wearisome account of centuries of prescribed studies. Every age has had its ideal curriculum. We now see, or think we see, that for centuries these have all been wrong. No country at any time has ever devised a school programme which to us appears to have been perfectly adapted to the needs of all its people. Still there are men who, unmindful of the infinite diversity among individuals, oblivious of the fatal disagreements among themselves, and regardless of the plain lessons of history, are so presumptuous as fondly to imagine that at last to them to them alone has been revealed the one prescribed course which we can safely impose nay, which we must impose on all our children.

If at this point we take another look at our syllogism, we find that the combined testimony of both sides of the question overthrows the first premise: with it falls the syllogism. Still, not all the advocates of required studies will be satisfied with the foregoing argument. Here is a man who wishes to test the second premise; to inquire whether the studies most frequently urged as essential for all are not very largely neglected when prescription is removed. He acknowledges the wide disagreement as to what the fixed course should be, but he believes that his own ideas are right; he is sure that no study or group of studies can take the place of Latin; he is sure that, however widely and variously abnormal an individual may be, the one subject he must take is Latin or is it physiology? The opinion of such a man even though mere opinion - should not be lightly set aside. He has a right to ask whether students under the elective system will not avoid the studies which are closest to his own heart. And although the answer cannot affect the judgment of those who accept the preceding argument, the answer is at least interesting.

If students to any extent avoid the studies most commonly defended, surely investigation concerning the actual working of the elective system will show that result. Let us see. The High School in Galesburg, Illinois,' the first to make all studies elec

1 September, 1895.

tive, has now had nine years' experience with the elective system. The superintendent says: "There has been no disposition on the part of the pupils to omit the so-called disciplinary studies for those said to be easy; they have not been inclined to allow their own whims to govern them, nor, what is worse, to follow the whims of others." But is this the experience of the whole country? In answering this question, we may consider the reports of the United States commissioner of education as fairly accurate; at any rate, they are the best evidence available for the whole country, and, if they err at all, are as liable to favor one side as the other. The reports which concern us most closely are those from 1889-1890 to 1900-1901, during which time the elective principle made greatest progress in public high schools.

Now, although there are no subjects included in all prescribed curricula, there are several subjects more frequently insisted on than others, and of these most fear is expressed for Latin, geometry, and algebra. During the onward march of the new principle, what has been the fate of these subjects? Has the number of boys and girls studying these subjects decreased while the number enrolled in other subjects increased? The theorizing of our opponents leads us to think so. Yet the official reports of the United States commissioner of education for the ten years show that the number of students in Latin has increased 173 per cent; in history, 153 per cent; in geometry, 150 per cent; in algebra, 141 per cent. In no other subject (except English) has the gain in enrollment been so great.

This is significant. The studies about which there is most fear are the very studies which have actually progressed most, side by side with the elective system.

This is true for the whole country, but is it true for the largest cities where the freedom of choice has been greatest? The answer is given in the same reports. Compare the tables for the public high schools of the largest fifty cities in the United States with the tables for all other public high schools. The ratio of the number of students taking Latin to the whole number of students in the largest cities does not vary three tenths of one per cent from the similar ratio in the rest of the country.

But still the man of doubt may ask: What are the figures for the North Atlantic Division of the country where there has been widest acceptance of the system? Here in Table II are the results compiled from the report for 1899-1900 of the commissioner of education:

The table gives the percentage, in each subject, of the whole number of students enrolled in the public high schools the first row across for the United States, the second for the North Atlantic Division. Surely there is not here sufficient difference to cause the slightest alarm.

evidence

Table III gives further evidence on this question which may be misleading without a note of explanation. The table gives the number of elections in each of twenty-eight subjects for each of nine public high schools of the city of Boston. This material I have collected for the sake of its bearing on the question of elective studies. I have therefore omitted the Boston Latin School and the Girls' Latin School, in which only a part of the work is optional. The table shows that of the 5318 pupils enrolled in these nine high schools in the year 1903-1904, only 1154 elected Latin. This small proportion is due to the fact that

the majority of boys and girls in the city who desired classical courses elected one of the two schools which are not shown in the table. For the whole city the number of high-school students studying Latin is about one half the whole number enrolled, which is the proportion given by the commissioner of education for the entire country.

TABLE III

(Showing the Number of Elections in Each of Twenty-eight Subjects for Each of Nine Public High Schools of the City of Boston)

291 Brighton .

226 Charlestown 1078 Dorchester 424 East Boston 834 English High 898 Girls' High.. 533 South Boston 671 Roxbury

363 West Roxbury.

Total

5201 3194 222 232 36 1152 62 3121 945 122 1659 603 240 1129

291 Brighton. 226 Charlestown 1078 Dorchester 424 East Boston 834 English High

898 Girls' High. 533 South Boston 671 Roxbury

363 West Roxbury

Total

269 223 87

424 615 25 2065 2017 1502 83 3745 3353 1621 3112

.....

All this goes to prove that in the country as a whole, in the largest cities, in the North Atlantic Division, in the city of Boston everywhere in the United States the most rapid growth in the last ten years has been in classics, mathematics, history, and modern languages a fact which overthrows nine tenths of the theory regarding the probable fate of certain studies. Under the elective system, students have not to an alarming extent avoided these subjects.

Still we are not done with the first part of the issue; it is further held that pupils will choose foolishly, in that they will elect easy courses, or those for which they are not prepared, or