TABLE II.-Number of pupils and students of all grades in both public and private schools and colleges, 1901-2. NOTE.-The classification of States made use of in the following table is the same as that adopted by the United States census, and is as follows: North Atlantic Division: vol. 2. There are, in addition to this number, 29,065 students taking normal courses in universities, colleges, and public and private high schools. (See Chap. XXXVIII, Summary of pupils by grade. Summary according to control. TABLE II.-Number of pupils and students of all grades in both public and private schools and colleges, 1901-2-Continued. Division. In Table II the pupils are enumerated according to their grades of work, as elementary including the first eight years of the course of study, secondary including the ninth to the twelfth year's work of the course of study, and higher education including all higher instruction, which in colleges goes on from the thirteenth to the sixteenth year's work of the course of study, and in medical schools, divinity schools, and law schools for the most part including the thirteenth to the fifteenth year's work of the course of study. The tendency is to require a bachelor's degree for entrance upon the work of the professional school, but this tendency has not yet come to prevail extensively. The enrollment in normal schools, which is counted in higher education, because of the severity of its methods of work rather than for the advanced grade of its topics, is shown separately in columns 12, 13, and 14 in Table II. In pursuing a branch of study in the normal school, the pupil is required to study it in the light of other related branches and to note especially the method of instruction in the branch. This general practice in normal schools requires more maturity than the grade of work done on the secondary course of study in high schools. The number of secondary pupils enrolled in public high schools and other public institutions the past year is given at 566,124, an increase of about 8,000 over the previous year. The number of pupils of secondary rank in private academies and higher institutions was 168,636, the same being a decrease of nearly 9,000, so that the total number of secondary pupils has slightly decreased during the past year from the year previous. The following table shows the movement of secondary students in public and private institutions in the past ten years; also the same figures reduced to per cent of population: The number of secondary students in public and private high schools alone the past ten years is shown in the following table: The enormous increase of secondary instruction in public high schools in recent years is due to the policy adopted by large villages and counties to provide for free secondary instruction from public taxation. The number of public high schools increased from 2,526 in 1890 to 6,005 in 1900, and to 6,292 in 1902. The number of students in universities and colleges the past year was 119,496, the same being an increase of 4,225 over the previous year. This number includes students in scientific schools. The number reported in the regular professional schools, of medicine, law, and theology, has reached 61,499. Adding together these, with the number in normal schools, the grand total in higher education of all sorts amounts to 246,063 students, of whom 99,616 are in institutions supported by public taxes and 146,447 in institutions supported by private corporations. In the following table (IIIa) the variation of increase of the school system in the United States for the past twelve years is shown. In my Report of last year I have discussed these variations and endeavored to account for irregularities from year to year. I pointed out, for instance, the waves of increase of productive industry in the country. During the rising tide of these waves there is a movement of the population from farming to industries connected with manufacturing, transportation, and commerce. In the ebb tide there is a cessation and sometimes an actual return wave from manufacturing and commerce to agriculture. The commencement of the ebb tide, therefore, shows an actual increase of pupils enrolled in the elementary and secondary schools because the loss of remunerative employment is accompanied by an attempt to make the days and months of idleness remunerative in the shape of increased education. The increase in secondary and higher education has taken the form of an ascending wave, which reaches its maximum when the majority of the community begin to find themselves burdened with debt and with high taxes, and therefore elect school committees who reverse the policy of school expenditure. The reversal sometimes continues for several years. TABLE IIIa.-Increase in twelve years of the total number of persons receiving education and of the total population. TABLE III.-Per cent of the population receiving education of different grades. THE AVERAGE AMOUNT OF SCHOOLING PER INHABITANT. In Table IV a the average number of years of schooling measured according to the city session of schools of 200 days each is given. The scale gradually ascends from 1870 to 1902, having for the past six years exceeded five years of 200 days each as the average education given to each member of the population. The maximum was reached in 1900, when about five years and a quarter of 200 days each, that is to say, 1,046 days, would have been given to each individual in the country at the rate of public instruction for that year. The following year (in 1901) the rate decreased to 1,028 days, and the rate of the |
