The Report of the Committee of Seven gives a lengthy statement of the importance of the study of history and its place in the curriculum. After an elaborate investigation of the subject the committee found that twenty-two states had uniform courses in history, and four had such courses in preparation, while nineteen were found to be without any systematic courses. This committee recommends a four years' course in history, arranged as follows: 1. Ancient History to 800; 2. Mediæval and Modern History from 800 to present time; 3. English History; 4. American History and Civics.

In case only three years can be given to history, English history should be combined either with American history or with mediæval and modern history. The committee also recommends the introduction in a simple form of stories from ancient and modern history in the intermediate and grammar grades.

The question of the study of psychology is still an open one in the high school, but many educators, of which Professor Dewey is the most distinguished exponent, make an eloquent and sensible plea for its introduction in the high school course. The experiment wherever tried seems to have proved satisfactory.

The subject of electives is still a perplexing one, and we find much said both pro and con so that one scarcely knows which horn of the dilemma to take. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler favors limited options or electives in the high school and advocates increasing the number of recitations to twenty-five periods per week. Charles H. Thurber considers them desirable and practicable, but wants them carefully guarded to prevent a scrappy, unsymmetrical course. Münsterberg in his article on electives published in the Chicago School Review writes as follows: "Are elective studies really elected at all, do they really represent the desires and demands of the individual, or do they simply express the cumulation of a hundred influences? Election is more than a chance grasping, and presupposes first of all acquaintance with the object of our choice. Even in colleges two thirds of the elections are hap-hazard and controlled by accidental motives. A helter-skelter chase of the unknown.

is no election.

If a man who does not know French goes into a French restaurant where the bill of fare is given in French and he points to one line and then another not knowing whether his order was fish, roast beef, or pudding, the waiter will bring him a meal, but we cannot say that he has elected his courses." Supt. E. G. Cooley, of the Chicago schools, favors limited electives and says: "If a pupil chooses his own studies he will work with a livelier sense of responsibility, and with a more fixed purpose in view. Under the elective system the pupil will be interested in a subject as a subject, and will not take it merely as a study because others take it."

Other authorities could be quoted on either side, but our limited space precludes a further consideration of their ideas at this point. However, it is sufficient to add that electives have been tried in many schools, and in general have proved satis- T factory when placed under proper limitations and restrictions.

At Galesburg, Ill., the elective system has been used to a greater extent, perhaps, than in any other place of the United States, and her citizens are quite loud and enthusiastic in their words of praise for the innovation. The city has a population of eighteen thousand, according to the report of the last census, and it is situated in a rich and prosperous agricultural region. Besides the public schools, the city has two good colleges, a business school, and a kindergarten normal.

In 1895 all studies in the high school were made elective, and have remained so to this date. No restrictions or limitations of any kind are imposed upon the pupils in the selection of their studies, and every subject is regarded as being of equal value with any other subject. Previous to 1895 there were two high school courses, and only a few remained in school to complete them. Those who did not finish the course failed either in Latin or algebra, and so left school when there was no hope of finishing. Under the present system conditions have changed vastly for the better and large classes graduate every year.

The method in brief is as follows: The pupil, by the advice of parents and teachers, chooses the studies he is to pursue, and twenty-four subjects are taught in the course which give one hundred and eighty-three credits. A credit is one month's

work recited daily and pursued to completion. Thus algebra studied for a school year nine months gives nine credits, but if carried only eight months no credit is given. The high school course is three years in length, and one hundred credits are required for graduation. Under the elective system the high school in five years grew from an enrollment of two hundred and thirty-four to five hundred, while the city only increased in population from seventeen thousand to eighteen thousand. The number of graduates each year is seldom less than one hundred.

Evansville, Ind., offers limited electives in the third and fourth years of the high school, and requires vocal music for all courses. Postgraduate instruction is offered in French, German, drawing, Greek, psychology, and mathematics. The superintendent states that granting eighth grade diplomas keeps pupils from dropping out in the seventh grade, and causes many of them to enter the high school who would not otherwise do so. A commercial course is offered and thirty per cent of the entire school take it.

In Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle a large number of electives under limitations are offered, and fifteen credits are required for graduation. A credit in this case means the work of any class with five periods per week for a year of eight or nine months.

Leadville, Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Louisville have limited electives, while Minneapolis and many other towns, instead of offering electives, offer a large number of prescribed high school courses.

Throughout the East we find electives offered under limitation in nearly every prominent high school. As an example of the manner in which these electives are offered the following sample course from the High School of Fall River, Mass., may be noted briefly. First year, required studies: English, ancient history, and algebra, and one elective to be chosen from Latin, bookkeeping, physiology, mathematics, and mechanical drawing. Second year, required studies: English, mediæval and modern history, plane geometry, and one elective to be chosen from Latin, German, French, bookkeeping, physiology, mathematics, or mechanical drawing. Third year,

required studies: English, physics, or botany, and two electives to be chosen from Greek, Latin, German, French, American history, mathematics, and mechanical drawing. Fourth year: English, chemistry, or zoology, and two electives to be taken from Greek, Latin, German, French, economics, solid geometry, trigonometry, astronomy, reviews in mathematics, and mechanical drawing. The electives must be approved in each case by the principal of the high school, but the pupil is allowed to select any elective study in which he is prepared to do the work..

The Missouri College Association takes the position that the function of the high school is not to prepare students for college, but to fit them for life, and proposes four courses in the high school of four years each with one elective in each year as shown in Exhibit A:

In small high schools having only one teacher, the Association recommends that only the first and second years of the English course be attempted. Schools with two teachers should not try to complete more than the first three years of the same course. Not less than three teachers are required for the whole course, while four teachers are necessary to carry two courses. Five or six teachers are needed for all four courses. Not more than seven periods of forty or fortyfive minutes each should be assigned any teacher, and the number of pupils in any class should not exceed thirty.

Under Exhibit B will be found the model high school courses proposed by the Committee of Ten. The chief objection I have to urge against its plan is the illogical arrangement of the sciences and the large number of courses. with four periods a week, which causes a very uneven distribution of work. The result is that on three or four days of the week the pupil is worked nearly to death and on one or two days of the week he has scarcely anything to do.

In the classical course there is not enough instruction given in Greek and too much in science.