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PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN GERMANY.

GENERAL SUMMARY AND STATISTICS.

ORGANIZATION OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

In every German State, the supervision, and in most States the direction of all institutions of an educational character, is exercised by the Government, generally through a responsible Minister-acting with the cooperation of a central council, and a provincial corps of inspectors. In every State there are, at least, three degrees of instruction, provided for by special legislation and aided by governmental appropriations.

I. ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION.

THE system of public elementary instruction in Germany did not originate in any one State, and is not the growth of any one period. In its primitive form, it is as old as the Christian Church, whose officers are still recognized in the administration of the public school in nearly every German State, although the present movement everywhere is to separate the school from all ex-officio ecclesiastical authority. The cardinal features of the system are:

First. The right and duty of the State, through municipal and parental coöperation, to establish at least one elementary school within walking distance of every child of the legal school age, and to authorize and aid educational institutions of a higher and special character, adapted to the wishes and wants of different localities.

Second. The recognition and enforcement of the obligation, on the part of parents, to secure the regular elementary instruction of every child between the ages of 6 and 14 years, in some school, public or private.

Third. The special preparation of teachers, as far as practicable, for each grade of school, with opportunities for professional improvement and promotion, and the guaranty of a living salary, including pecuniary aid when sick, infirm, or aged, and for their families in case of death.

Fourth. Subjects of instruction, selected in reference to their being immediately and permanently useful as knowledge, and so arranged as to aid the natural development of the faculties.

Fifth. A system of inspection, variously organized, but intelligent, frequent, constant and responsible, reaching every school and every teacher, and pervading the whole system, by which parents and the government are assured that the aim of the law is realized in respect to the qualifications of teachers, and the health and profitable labor of the pupils. With this system of universal, scientific and thorough elementary instruction, carried on sufficiently long to have molded the habits of families and communities, the following statistics, studied in connection with the subjects and methods of education, are significant.

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN GERMANY.

'TABLE I.—Elementary Schools in Germany as constituted in 1865.

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V. SUBJECTS AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION

IN

THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF PRUSSIA.

BEFORE presenting an outline of the course of instruction pursued in the common schools of Prussia, gathered from the observations of distinguished educators in their visits to a large number of schools of different grades, as well as from published accounts of the organization and studies of particular schools, we will introduce a brief view* of the general objects and different degrees of primary education, and of the manner in which the schools are established and conducted.

Two degrees of primary instruction are distinguished by the law; the elementary schools and the burgher schools. The elementary schools propose the development of the human faculties, through an instruction in those common branches of knowledge which are indispensable to every person, both of town and country. The burgher schools (Beurgerschulen Stadtschulen†) carry on the child until he is capable of manifesting his inclination for a classical education, or for this or that particular profession. The gymnasia continue this education until the youth is prepared, either to commence his practical studies in common life, or his higher and special scientific studies in the university.

These different gradations coincide in forming, so to speak, a great establishment of national education, one in system, and of which the parts, though each accomplishing a special end, are all mutually correlative. The primary education of which we speak, though divided into two degrees, has its peculiar unity and general laws; it admits of accommodation, however, to the sex, language, religion, and future destination of the pupils. 1. Separate establishments for girls should be formed, wherever possible, corresponding to the elementary and larger schools for boys. 2. In those provinces of the monarchy (as the Polish) where a foreign language is spoken, besides lessons in the native idiom, the children shall receive complete instruction in German, which is also to be employed as the, ordinary language of the school. 3. Difference of religion in Christian schools necessarily determines differences in religious instruction. This instruction shall always be accommodated to the spirit and doctrines of the persuasion to which the school belongs. But, as in every school of a christian state, the dominant spirit (common to all creeds) should be piety, and a profound reverence of the Deity, every Christian school may receive the children of every sect. The

* Mainly in the language of the law and ordinance, as translated and condensed by Sir William Hamilton, in an article in the Edinburgh Review.

↑ Called likewise Mittelschulen, middle schools, and Realschulen, real schools; the last, because they are less occupied with the study of language (Verbalia) than with the knowledge of things, (Realia.)

masters and superintendents ought to avoid, with scrupulous care, every shadow of religious constraint or annoyance. No schools should be abused to any purposes of proselytism; and the children of a worship different from that of the school, shall not be obliged, contrary to the wish of their parents or their own, to attend its religious instruction and exercises. Special masters of their own persuasion shall have the care of their religious education; and should it be impossible to have as many masters as confessions, the parents should endeavor, with so much the greater solicitude, to discharge this duty themselves, if disinclined to allow their children to attend the religious lessons of the school. The primitive destination of every school, says the law, is so to train youth that, with a knowledge of the relations of man to God, it may foster in them the desire of ruling their life by the spirit and principles of Christianity. The school shall, therefore, betimes second and complete the first domestic training of the child to piety. Prayer and edifying reflections shall commence and terminate the day; and the master must beware that this moral exercise do never degenerate into a matter of routine. Obedience to the laws, loyalty, and patriotism, to be inculcated. No humiliating or indecent castigation allowed; and corporal punishment, in general, to be applied only in cases of necessity. Scholars found wholly incorrigible, in order to obviate bad example, to be at length dismissed. The pupils, as they advance in age, to be employed in the maintenance of good order in the school, and thus betimes habituated to regard themselves as active and useful members of society.

The primary education has for its scope the development of the different faculties, intellectual and moral, mental and bodily. Every complete elementary school necessarily embraces the nine following branches: 1. Religion-morality established on the positive truths of Christianity; 2. The German tongue, and in the Polish provinces, the vernacular language; 3. The elements of geometry and general principles of drawing; 4. Calculation and applied arithmetic; 5. The elements of physics, of general history, and of the history of Prussia; 6. Singing; 7. Writing; 8. Gymnastic exercises; 9. The more simple manual labors, and some instruction in the relative country occupations.

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Every burgher school must teach the ten following branches: 1. Religion and morals. 2. The German language, and the vernacular idiom of the province, reading, composition, exercises of style, exercises of talent, and the study of the national classics. In the countries of the German tongue, the modern foreign languages are the objects of an accessory study. 3. Latin to a certain extent. (This, we believe, is not universally enforced.) 4. The elements of mathematics, and in particular a thorough knowledge of practical arithmetic. 5. Physics, and natural history to explain the more important phenomena of nature. 6. Geography, and general history combined; Prussia, its history, laws, and constitution. form the object of a particular study. 7. The principles of design; to be taught with the instruction given in physics, natural history, and geometry. 8. The penmanship should be watched.

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