individuals, religious societies and fraternal orders were spent in this direction. But the Act of the General Assembly of Tennessee of 1899, authorizing county courts to levy a special tax for high schools and appoint county boards of education for their control, was probably the first legislation looking to the maintenance of separate high schools as a part of the public school system of any state. At the beginning of this century there were very few rural public high schools in the South, probably less than a dozen, and the cities with well-equipped high schools of full four years were very few. To anyone who had suggested then the establishment of general systems of high schools, even in the meeting of any educational association in this section, the answer would have come, quick and decisive, that the time was not yet, that the people were not ready for it. But, in theory at least, the high school is now recognized everywhere as an essential and necessary part of the public school system. The Virginias, the Carolinas, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Tennessee all make special appropriations out of the treasury of the state to aid and encourage the establishment and maintenance of public high schools, and most of them give aid in such way as to encourage counties and local communities to give from two to ten times as much as they receive from the state. A recent Act of the General Assembly of Kentucky requires the county boards of education to establish and maintain at least one public high school in each county. Under the stimulus of these state subsidies and constant and vigorous agitation, several hundred rural high schools have been opened within the last four years. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent annually for maintenance, and millions have been

invested in buildings and equipment. In some states already there is an average of more than one rural high school to a county and, at the present rate of increase, this will soon be true of all these states. In the meantime city high schools have been housed in separate buildings, their courses of study have been lengthened and enriched, their equipment, laboratories and libraries have been enlarged. Few of the rural high schools are yet fully developed, but the purpose seems to be to make of them real high schools. The state subsidies and state supervision will help to this end. This whole movement has been stimulated and given intelligent guidance by the appointment of high school inspectors and professors of secondary education in the state universities, by the aid of the General Education Board.

As a result of this movement inefficient private and denominational academies, high schools and colleges are disappearing, the weaker ones by death and disintegration, the stronger ones by further strengthening themselves to do their legitimate work under the new conditions.

Better Support of State Colleges and Universities.

There is no state in this section that does not appropriate to institutions of higher learning this year more than twice as much as it appropriated six years ago, and some appropriate from three to four times as much. These appropriations go to state universities, agricultural and mechanical colleges, schools of technology and colleges for women. In some states these exist as separate institutions, while in others they are combined in one. With the more liberal support, more is required of these institution and most of them are rapidly making

the transition from the old-time aristocratic institutions for the literary education and polite culture of the few to modern democratic workshop for the advancement of all the interests of the state and for fitting men and women for intelligent and effective service in all departments of life. To this end courses of study have been multiplied and freedom of election extended. Much money has been spent on laboratories and libraries. The tendency is toward the elimination of tuition fees and the reduction of necessary expenses to the lowest possible minimum, so that none may be excluded because of unnecessary expense. In some states these colleges and universities are now an integral part of the free school system.

Correlation and Definite Standards.

As a result of this rapid and unequal development and the absence of competent supervision and planning, there have been much overlapping, inefficiency and waste of energy and means. There is a growing sense of need of system and fixed and recognized standards. Most of the state colleges and many of the denominational colleges have dropped their preparatory departments. Within the last twelve months the colleges and universities in the Association of Southern Colleges and Preparatory Schools have agreed to adopt the fourteen Carnegie units as the minimum requirement for admission to their literary and engineering departments. This is forcing the high schools to adopt courses of full four years, which, in turn, will pull up the elementary and grammar schools. In Tennessee, where the "secondary" schools, provided by an Act of the General Assembly of 1891, and the county high schools, provided by an Act of 1899, overlap, the

present tendency is to abolish the "secondary" schools, a kind of unorganized, low-grade high schools, or to absorb them into the elementary schools on the one side and the high schools on the other. This illustrates a universal tendency.

From the beginning, the city and town schools have been graded. In recent years there has been an attempt to grade rural schools and to establish some order in their studies. This is leading to consolidation of small schools with one teacher and few children into larger schools of two or more teachers. In some instances transportation is provided at public cost, and this tendency will increase. In several states the state superintendent of public instruction and the state board of education have recently published carefully prepared courses of study, with detailed suggestions as to their use.

Higher Standard of Qualification for Teachers.

There has been and is still great loss through inefficient teachers. The salaries have not been sufficient to keep men and women of ability in the schoolroom. Without public high schools, normal training schools, and adequate departments of education in colleges and universities and with meager attendance in all departments of these last, the supply of teachers with professional training, even with adequate academic education, has by no means been equal to the demand. Less than twenty per cent. of the teachers in the elementary schools of these states have had a good modern high school education, and less than five per cent. have had any adequate professional training. In the high schools and academies all too few have had the broad and liberal training of a first-class college, and fewer still have had thorough training in special subjects,

or know anything of the history, principles and methods of education. But ideals have changed and practice is changing. The feeling of the need for better teachers in elementary schools has been an important factor in creating a demand for public high schools. The acceptance of education as the means by which the state provides for itself better citizens and assures the development of its sources. of material wealth has brought us to regard teaching as a profession requiring special training This has led to the establishment of normal schools, the appropriations for the support of which are increasing rapidly from year to year. One now hears the unchallenged statement that all teachers should have at least a good high school education and a good amount of professional training. There is a similar demand for high school teachers with broad education and special preparation, including some knowledge of the history of education and methods of teaching. Colleges and state universities are beginning to respond to this demand with more fully equipped departments of education.

Adaptation of the Education of the Schools to Life.

In our first attempts at universal education we made the usual mistake of supposing the education of the schools to be something foreign in its nature, with little direct relation to the everyday life and interests of the masses of the people, the purpose of which is to lift children out of this life into a life more or less like that of the professional and leisure classes for whom the schools of former times existed and which we have fancied was in some way very superior to the life of the farmer, the mechanic and the tradesman. Hence we have put undue emphasis on language, literature, mathematics, and

Vol. 10-27