Mr. BROWN, speaking to the statement by Mr. Hinsdale, that it was proper to speak of knowledge knowing itself, said: "Knowing is a form of mind-activity of which one is conscious. We call it idea, or conception; which conception must be true to the reality existing, independent of the mind, to be knowledge. If not true to this reality, it may be belief or opinion, but it is not knowing. Knowledge, considered as a product, is simply the power or capability that the mind acquires by repetition of an act of knowing to perform that act again, at will or on slight suggestion. One's knowledge is much broader than the conscious knowing of any particular moment. Knowing is, then, the mind in a state of conscious intellectual activity. It is not an untrue conception, therefore, to think of knowledge knowing itself, though perhaps not the best form of statement. It is but saying that the mind is self-conscious in all of its states of intellectual activity."

Mr. HAILMAN suggested that the report be modified by closing the sentence on this second point, as follows: "Education means, primarily, training for life." Mr. HINSDALE spoke on the definition of knowledge, and asked whether it was an act.

Mr. Coy asked if knowledge was entirely subjective?

Mr. HANCOCK asked: What kind of knowledge is it that "knows itself"? Mr. BOYDEN replied that the use of the word in the report referred to knowledge at first hand, as acquired from "the object of thought."

Mr. BROWN asked what the committee meant by knowledge at second hand. Mr. BOYDEN replied that such knowledge comes to the mind of the child from outside sources.

Mr. HINSDALE said, "When a pupil comes for the first time to the school, he puts himself in a position to gain knowledge at second hand. The school, sooner or later, trains by the use of the book, by graphic illustration, etc., and by the exercise of the senses."

Mr. HANCOCK-"First hand" knowledge is very important, but mainly as a means of acquiring “second hand” knowledge.

Mr. BROWN—The amount of knowledge acquired at second hand largely exceeds that acquired at first hand.

Mr. BOYDEN reported back the following change in the report, which was accepted. "By knowledge is meant, primarily, knowledge at first hand, which is acquired from the object of thought," omitting the phrase, "not mere information." On the last point of the report, Mr. Hancock saw no objection to the proper use of books, or even to the use of the exact language of a book. The question of vital importance is, of course, that the pupil should clearly understand the thought. Mr. GOVE asked Mr. Hancock if he would advise using the exact language of an author?

Mr. HANCOCK replied, that the sublime thoughts of Emerson could only be properly expressed by the use of his own words.

Mr. BROWN Could not go quite so far as the report. He thought that ideas and thoughts that were most worthy to be acquired by the pupil, must be, at first, but vaguely comprehended. When the child learns a form of statement which he only vaguely comprehends, he is impelled, if well taught, to seek to fill these comparatively empty forms and make them significant. The law of acquisition of knowledge is from the vague to the definite; but if no form of statement is learned, then there is nothing for the learner to come back to,—nothing to prompt to fuller and clearer knowledge. Pupils must learn the statement of many things they do not comprehend. The caution is, to avoid teaching such statements as are not accompanied with even vague knowledge of their significance.

Mr. HANCOCK thought pupils often came gradually into the light of truth expressed in words.

The proper use of books was discussed by Messrs. Gove, Coy, Hailman, Richards, and Brown.

Mr. RICHARDS asked if problems in arithmetic should be first given to young children in the primary schools.

Mr. BOYDEN - Certainly.

Mr. PICKARD - When should children first be allowed to use books?

Mr. BOYDEN-Books should be used in the first year of the pupil's life,-as soon as he acquires the power to use the book properly.

II.-REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON CITY

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SCHOOL SYSTEMS.

PUPILS, CLASSIFICATION, EXAMINATION, AND PROMOTION.

[Presented by H. S. Jones.]

The topic" Pupils,-Classification, Examination, and Promotion"-is the central and vital one of the schedule list outlined under the head of " City School Systems."

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It concerns the material upon which the school works:-the building of brains. The ruler of the individual and the world is brains; and the problem which educators are called upon to solve is, how to build the best brains out of the material placed in their hands.

It is said that outsiders often see deeper into a game than those who take part in it. Strong cultured minds, rich in observation and power of critical discrimination, not engaged in educational work, have expressed themselves as seeing tendencies and results in public school systems that are far from being truly educative.

Sometimes the criticisms are pronounced in mild form, but often they are so positive as not easily to be misunderstood, and take the shape of charges. Some of the most emphatic are: "The system magnifies the importance of the routine operations of the school.” "It mistakes means for ends." "It is absorbed in non-essentials." "It insists too rigidly upon uniformity in methods and results." "It treats pupils en masse, and ignores individuality."

The educator has no higher duty than that which directs him to scan, measure, and weigh the tendencies of the system he is administering; and he should have an open ear to all cries, whether disparaging or encouraging, and should rejoice in the helpful observations and candid criticisms of non-experts.

I. Purpose of the Common School.

It is not the purpose of the common school to serve as a human sifting-machine, by which a certain kind of brain can be discovered and retained.

The common school is an institution that is to receive and hold as long as possible, children differing more or less widely in race, heredity, surroundings, strength, health, and the faculty of learning.

The school of the people should be organized and managed no more for the talented and the evenly-balanced of fair ability in many directions, than for the weak, the crippled, and those whose brains possess considerable vigor, but are unmistakably lop-sided.

II. Classification.

The day is not far distant when classification, even in large schools, was hardly known. Individual study and individual instruction held

sway.

The classification that existed was of the most elastic type; a pupil joined a class or not, according to his liking; or drifted in and out; to-day a member-to-morrow, absent, absorbed in some independent work that held him prisoner.

This "go as you please" style of school, this total lack of system, in which the teacher guided and ruled so little and so loosely, is in marked contrast with the "model school" of later days, strong in systematic details, and in that close classification which does not allow a pupil to move, unless "under orders."

The old-time school with next to no organization, may be put down as a miserable failure-a factory of wasted efforts; but, nevertheless, it produced educational fruit of which we have no just reason to be ashamed.

The older we grow, the more easy we find it to respect methods and notions that once we stood ready to condemn or to laugh at.

The classification of a school is the placing of its pupils in sections or grades in accord with the course of study, based on the capacity of the pupils to do fairly the work of the grade to which they are assigned.

III. Benefits of Classification.

1. Classification in the management of schools possesses the valuable merit of economy. It sprang from the constantly recurring problem in industrial pursuits-How to make labor as productive as possible.

In gaining an elementary knowledge of conventional facts, such as signs-written and spoken-word-forms, arbitrary tables, dates, processes, second-hand knowledge, etc., a large number of pupils can be instructed by a single teacher, quite as well, if not better, as one or a very few.

As the sort of learning referred to must necessarily consume a large part of the time devoted to the education of the young, classification, if used judiciously, is unquestionably economical.

2. It serves as a healthful, social, and intellectual stimulus, softening and cheering such as are suffering from isolation in its various forms, strengthening and refining the social faculties, developing spirit of friendly co-operation and arousing and quickening the listless and lethargic.

3. It encourages true emulation-the ambition to do what our leaders do-and to do it as well. Emulation, although easily transformed into the anti-social feelings-rivalry, envy, and hatred-is an educational instrument far too powerful and beneficial to be dispensed with.

IV. Classification, Close or Educational.

Classification may be said to be close or educational.

Close classification is military in spirit; it links pupil to pupil by an inelastic chain, and "keeping step" is the chief business when the command, "Forward, march," is given. Its aim is fusion and uniformity.

It tempts the weaker teacher to the worship of such technicalities as are easily worked up into "splendid class recitations." It places in the back-ground true teaching, and brings to the forefront chatty class lecturing.

The instruction given takes one of two forms-it adapts itself to the weak minority so as to hold the class together in funereal step, or it takes pride in "double-quick" thoroughness and burdensome exactions that can be borne only by the few.

The first is best illustrated in the workings of the Board Schools of England, where size of salary depends considerably on the number of pupils passed by the inspector. It is not an uncommon sight in that country to see a large majority of a class like overflowing pitchers at a fountain, while the teacher is struggling to adapt his instruction to the small mental throats of the laggards.

The latter is shown in strong light in a recent report of a metropolitan school of 1141 students, which dwindled down to 717 in five months, and to 652 at the end of the school year—a shrinkage of over 57 per cent. Ten hundred and forty-eight knocked at the door for admission, and 40 per cent. were rejected; and judging from the past, the 60 per cent. admitted will, in a few short months, be cut down 50 per cent.

Such management distinguishes the "survival of the fittest." Ma terial that will not fuse to the exact form desired, is rejected as slag.

In the Report, the Board of Education are congratulated on the "general prosperity" of the school.