higher schools. The first study was of some 25,000 pupils in the schools of New York City in 1908. The second included all the eighth grade (graduating) pupils of New York in 1909, some 16,000 in all. The third was a study of the entire membership of eighth grades (graduating) of 29 cities and was made at the close of the school year 1910-11. The results of these investigations, Doctor Ayres claims, expose the fallacy of the common assertion that the child entering late easily catches up with the one who begins early"; although he admits that the per cent of slow (retarded) pupils is greatest among those entering at a relatively low age and the most rapid progress is among those entering at advanced ages. His claim, however, is that from his present viewpoint "the best entering age is the one that results in a large proportion of normal pupils, combined with the most equal balance between the rapid and the slow groups." His statistics show the best results in these respects from those entering at six, as 52 per cent of such pupils made normal progress, 27 per cent rapid progress, and 21 per cent slow progress.

Keeping in mind the fact that these investigations considered only the time element under our more or less arbitrary systems of promotion, and did not enter into the question of what might be true if the child's progress were dependent only upon his capacity, the following conclusions throw considerable light upon the relation between entering age and subsequent progress under existing systems and conditions: 1. Children entering at advanced ages subsequently make more rapid progress than those who enter younger, but this greater progress is not sufficient to enable them to overtake those who entered younger. 2. The entering age of 6 is the one resulting in the largest proportion of pupils making normal progress and finishing at normal age; and it is also the entering age that preserves the best balance between the rapid and slow groups of the school. 3. It is also the age that preserves the most homogeneous group judged on the basis of subsequent progress.

SCHOOL ALL-THE-YEAR.-The movement for keeping schools open during the entire year is beginning to take a firm hold, especially in the higher institutions. According to Education for November, the Harvard Engineering

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School has recently decided to have no summer vacation. The students work from 8 to 10 hours a day, and the total vacations in a year amount to about four weeks, the time being chiefly at Christmas and in the spring. The summer term begins June 22 and closes September 22. A number of other universities follow a somewhat similar plan. The University of Chicago has for some years maintained a summer term having equal weight with the three other quarters of the year. Even in the elementary school the plan has made some headway, particularly in the large cities. Cleveland, Ohio, formerly had an all-year schedule which included the summer term as one of four quarters, and a modified form of the Cleveland plan is in use in Newark, N. J., where it is being gradually extended from year to year. In the New York City schools, where the problem of sufficient school accommodations is a serious one, the authorities recently had under consideration an all-year plan which will, it is claimed, take care of practically all the children without recourse to part time. An interesting indication of the attitude of students themselves toward the all-year plan is afforded by the new Central Commercial and Manual Training High School at Newark. Thirty per cent of the pupils of this school voted in favor of continuing the school throughout the summer."

Among the advantages claimed for the all-year plan for public schools are: (a) The children are healthier and happier in school than on the streets. (b) The children obliged to leave school as soon as possible can by this means advance farther than at present. (c) Backward pupils are given an opportunity to make up back work. (d) In higher institutions it helps to meet the nation-wide demand for efficiency, not only on the part of those who must get such efficiency through continuation school work but also on the part of those who are competent to make more than ordinary preparation for their life work.

COURSES OF STUDY.-The Commissioner of Education for the State of New York, the late Doctor Andrew S. Draper, in a recent address took the broad ground that the schools must give the public what it wants and needs, regardless of the views of doctrinaires. Because of his extended public service, the words of Doctor Draper deserve

the careful consideration of all interested in the satisfactory administration of our schools. He said, in part, "The hand of all authority in America is heavy or light to the extent that it is supported by public sentiment. The hand of educational leaders is heavy or light to the extent that it is upheld by educational opinion. There is no opinion so unfettered as educational opinion. It is so jealous of its freedom that it sometimes goes astray. But it never supports authority that does not seek aid from all the learning of the world. It resents any exclusion of any knowledge. It would ridicule any pretended educational authority that did not recognize the influence of the ancient tongues upon modern speech, and that did not lay hold of whatever there was in ancient civilization that may enrich the civilizations that are or are to be. But it would better be said, and with all plainness, that our civilization is no longer in Greece, or Rome, or Gaul, or even Britain; that we are not living in the first, the tenth, or the eighteenth century; that the streams of learning are now gathering in many high places, trickling down many mountain sides, making mighty rivers and boundless seas, and sending back their distilled dews to irrigate and fructify the intelligence of the world. We are in a free country where men and women have everything to study and are going to study what they please. It is the business of State educational authorities to try to provide them with whatever branches of study they will accept and with the educational helps that will illuminate the vocations which they are to follow. The State may aid but not force their choice."

SCHOOL FRATERNITIES.-The movement against school and college fraternities received marked impulse during the year through the publishing of Owen Johnson's "Stover at Yale"; because of the number of prominent educators who denounced them as undemocratic and therefore as un-American; and on account of the increasing number of restrictions placed upon them, especially in schools under State and municipal control. Authorities seem to be convinced that such organizations are so contrary to the spirit of our entire educational ideal that they must not be countenanced in institutions supported by the public, and that they are also apt to interfere seriously with the rights of

many who pay for the privileges and benefits of private educational institutions.

The whole effort of instruction in a democracy should be toward destroying, rather than encouraging, distinctions based on class and condition. Every student is supposed to be on an equal footing with every other student in any 'American school, at least in so far as his opportunities for development and standing along educational and social lines are concerned. While naturally those interested in certain studies or other lines of interest will group more or less together, it should be in organizations open to all who are in good repute and should have none of the dangerous and damaging character of the secret-fraternity idea. Although many such school and college fraternities have undoubtedly been of a high character, the tendency when they are removed from close surveillance is toward idleness, dissipation, and a thoroughly undemocratic snobbishness. They have also been the source of bitter discouragements and heart-burnings to many worthy persons who have felt humiliation at being shut out from the full companionship of those with whom they associated in the regular work of the school.

The Bureau of Education at Washington reports a number of judicial decisions upholding the action of school boards in various places in their efforts to suppress or control secret organizations among the pupils of their schools. Two typical decisions are quoted:

"Wayland vs. Board of School Directors of District No. 1 of Seattle, et al. . . . Held, that a rule of the board of school directors providing that any student who becomes a member of, or in any way pledges himself to join, any high-school fraternity or secret society, or initiates or pledges any other student, or in any way encourages or fosters the fraternity spirit in the high school, shall be denied all the privileges of the school except those of the class-room, was reasonable, and that said board had authority to make such rule. . . 86, 86, p. 642."

State ex rel. Dresser vs. Board of Education of St. Croix Falls (Wisconsin). . . . The school authorities may suspend a pupil for an offence committed outside of school hours, and not in the presence of the teacher, which has a

direct and immediate tendency to influence the conduct of other pupils while in the school-room, to set at naught the proper discipline of the school, to impair the authority of the teachers and to bring them into ridicule and contempt." Same . . ." The discretion of school authorities in government and discipline of the pupils is very broad, and the courts will not interfere with the exercise of such authority except when illegally or unreasonably exercised. 116 N. W. 232."

A large number of cities and many of the States now have rules or laws prohibiting pupils of public schools from organizing or belonging to secret societies composed of pupils of such schools, or from soliciting other pupils to join such societies, and either withdrawing all but class-room privileges from those who so offend or suspending them from school or from the privileges of graduation, after due notice, until they withdraw from membership.

Doctor Kerschensteiner's Opinion of American Schools.

As revealing the impressions of an experienced foreign educator, the two articles on the People's Schools of the United States, contributed by Doctor Kerschensteiner to a South German journal, are of interest. His observations covered a period of two months spent in visiting schools in a number of cities of the East and the Middle West. These observations, of course, naturally interpreted themselves to him on the basis of his home conditions, but they are clear and show a perspective that is the result of broad pedagogical training and experience.

1. He notes the lack of organic unity in the school systems of various places due to there being no national centralization of the system of popular education. This is in marked contrast to German conditions, where the people in general accept the system provided by the central government. In the United States each State, and to a large degree each city, has the kind of school that best fits into the general conditions of its population. While this has its advantages, it also has its disadvantages; for, where for any reason the cultural conditions of the community are low, the school system is apt to be poor and sometimes even