THE WORLD'S EDUCATIONAL CONGRESS.

W. T. HARRIS, COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION, U. S.

IT has been well considered by the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, that side by side with the exhibit of the material resources of all nations there should be an exhibit of the spiritual achievements. To use the words of the announcement, "To provide for the proper presentation of the intellectual and moral progress of the world," there should be held "A series of World's Congresses with the assistance of the leaders in all the chief departments of human achievement."

Acting on this idea a programme has been mapped out which sets apart each of the six months of the exposition for some one class of these congresses. First the month of May, 1893, is set apart for art, literature, and music. It is very appropriate that the series should begin with a discussion of the spiritual activities which have for their object the artistic display of human nature-the manifestation of spirit in material forms because the whole exposition rests on this idea. Every international exposition is a revelation of the ideals and achievements of the peoples of the world.

For the second month it is proposed to hold the congresses and conventions that relate to religion and morals, including temperance, social reform, and the suppression of vice in all its shapes.

But

The third month, July, is set apart for education in its various forms. This is the special month which interests our National Association. not merely school education is provided for in congresses. Besides this there are all manner of learned societies devoted to science, philosophy, and invention, which are to meet in conference.

For August the congresses of jurists, the students of politics, the framers of laws, and the military; also the secret societies.

September is set apart for labor congresses and kindred movements; while October closes the series with congresses of agriculture, commerce, and finance.

The bare mention of these great spiritual interests impresses us with their vastness. In order to properly provide for such a series of congresses it became evident that a separately organized directory body had to be formed with nearly as much work on its hands as the business of the main exposition. The directory to whom is intrusted this series of congresses is called "The World's Congress Auxiliary," and it consists of local committees resident in Chicago and of advisory councils residing in vari

ous parts of the world. The committees resident in Chicago are charged with the management of the whole enterprise.

Returning to the educational congresses in which we are especially interested we note that local committees and advisory councils have been formed on the departments of higher education, public instruction, music, teaching, instruction of the unfortunates, and special education. The special committee of ten from the National Educational Association appointed on "The World's Congress of Educators" has been recognized and made an advisory council on public instruction. Inasmuch as the National Educational Association has nine departments and represents that number of educational interests, your committee have been at first somewhat embarrassed by seeming to find their functions limited to the office of making suggestions to the local committee in Chicago on the subject of public schools and excluding the topics of higher education, manual training, music, and the kindergarten. A correspondence with the President of the Auxiliary and a full and free conference with the local committee on public instruction have removed nearly all of our difficulties and the way seems now open for the following course of action. The committee will act in conjunction with the local committee as a joint committee, and adopting the action already taken by the latter, proceed to complete the organization of the several departments of the Congress by inviting distinguished educational specialists from the several States and from foreign nations in Europe and on this Continent to join in the work of the following named sections:

(a) The Kindergarten.

(6) Elementary Instruction.

(c) Secondary Instruction.

(d) Higher Instruction.

(e) Normal Instruction.

(f) The Superintendence of Schools.

(g) Industrial Education.

(h) Art Education.

(i) Musical Education.

(k) Educational Publications and School Journals.

These sections, omitting the last, cover exactly the scope of the National Educational Association, and if it is to move at all in this matter of an international congress it seems to your committee that it should undertake all these departments.

Let us suppose for one moment that the higher education were to be omitted from the programme as provided for in your committee. This would imply that the department of higher education in the National Educational Association is not a representative body of such dignity as to stand for higher education in this nation. It would mean such a slight to this department, that in future there would certainly be a decline of

the interest which has grown up in later years. What would be the effect of abolishing in the National Association the department of higher education? The educative influence that comes from association with the best educated teachers in the country would be all lost for the teachers and superintendents of the lower schools. We may add, too, that the managers of higher education would give up by the same act of withdrawal that inter-communication with elementary and secondary education which the National Educational Association has for a long time cultivated. This, too, would happen just at a time when important changes are proposed in the course of study of the common schools to effect an earlier preparation for college. There has never been before an epoch when elementary and secondary education seemed to be on the point of being enriched through the studies made upon it by the leaders of higher education. We especially in this department of superintendence have profited repeatedly from the sharp and wholesome criticisms of the President of Harvard University and the President of Clark University.

Just now, too, the management of the National Educational Association is reaching out wisely to add dignity and usefulness to its influence by applying a portion of the proceeds of its large and increasing endowment funds to publish and distribute full reports of its proceedings; to offer annual medals as a recognition of the most distinguished educational contributions of the year; to establish conferences for distinguished specialists at its annual gatherings, and by these to attract those rare minds engaged in original investigation to our annual meetings.

Whatever injury would come to the National Educational Association if the department of higher education were to be withdrawn or even slighted, would happen in a less degree if any other one of its nine departments were thus removed. I think that it is clear that we must insist on the representation of all our sections in the National Congress.

But on the other hand we see the necessity of the local executive committees at Chicago, and must not propose to them any abdication of their rights of final adjudication in this matter. Although our committee. desires to act, it must act subject to the approval of the local committees of the Auxiliary.

What shall be the scope of the World's Congress? The programme must be skillfully prepared, and distributed throughout this country and Europe before the coming summer. The questions must be of international interest and not mere local questions.

The following list has been prepared and printed by President Bonney of the Auxiliary, and we can all see that it touches live questions in our education systems:

(a) The rational limits of education for children under five years of age, and the like limits for children of ten, fifteen, and twenty years of age, respectively.

(b) The rational limits and practical utility of recitations and examinations.

(c) The rational methods of control and discipline.

(d) The essential principles and proper place of kindergarten education. (e) The essential principles and proper place of manual training and art education.

(†) The proper office and use of music in the public schools.

(g) How far agricultural chemistry, economic geometry, economic entomology, and the like branches, should be made a part of the course of instruction in the common schools of agricultural districts.

(h) How far the use of tools, and the sciences applicable to the mechanical arts should be made a part of the course of instruction in schools in villages and cities.

(i) How far the laws of life and health, and the use of remedies in case of accident or other emergency should be made a part of the course of instruction in the common schools.

(j) How far the subjects of civil government, embracing the holding of public meetings, the conduct of public business, and a knowledge of the laws involved in the every-day proceedings of common life, should be taught in the common schools.

(k) How far the universal principles of morals and religion should be taught in such schools.

(7) The extension of higher education among the masses of the people. (m) The school library as a means of education.

(n) What reforms in the architecture of modern school buildings and in school furniture and apparatus should be recommended.

(0) Whether the existing educational systems may be best adapted to the recent enormous increase in all departments of knowledge by dividing the educational term into three periods, during the first of which the scholar should be taught the merest rudiments of the largest practicable number of branches of knowledge, but the details of none except his own language and matters necessarily incident thereto; and during the second of which periods he should be taught the exact details of a special course of instruction, selected with reference to his future calling in life; and during the last of which he shall be taught the practical application of technical knowledge to the subjects involved in his proposed life-work.

(p) How far uniformity of scholastic attainments should be required, and how far prescribed courses of study should be adapted to the intellectual characteristics of individual students.

(g) Whether the manual of arms and the simplest principles of tactics should be taught in the common schools, as involving all the substantial benefits now derived from what is known as calisthenics, and giving the students in addition thereto the benefits of superior discipline and decorum, and providing, for the sake of the State, the rudiments of the knowl

edge necessary to convert the citizen into a soldier for the defense of his country.

(r) The importance of a national civil service academy, in which students selected from each representative district throughout the whole country shall be educated and trained for the civil service as such students are now educated for the military and naval service in the military and naval schools.

(s) The importance of a scientific education for common soldiers and marines, to the end that when not engaged in military operations they may be employed in scientific observations and explorations under the direction of qualified officers, and to the further end that such soldiers and marines may be saved from the habits of dissipation and vice engendered in idleness. (t) The history, influence, results, condition, and prospects of education in different countries."

We must compare these questions with the existing live questions in Europe, and strike the common ground so that the debates may interest alike the delegates from all nations.

It has been the custom in international educational congresses to publish in advance the questions, and invite written theses to be sent in to the executive committee. From these theses are selected such as are found most suitable to be read and debated at the several sessions of the congress. There are three great questions, the pivots as it were of all our educational management, and if we can bring out these in our international conference we shall accomplish the best results. These pivotal questions relate to the course of study, the methods of instruction, and moral training or discipline. These are quite properly placed in the foreground in President Bonney's scheme above. The course of study question, for example, involves these practical issues of shortening and enriching the programmes of our common schools: Can we flank a certain amount of higher arithmetic by placing algebra and geometry in our elementary schools? Can we change the work of the college so as to require the study of general history and the rudiments of natural science such as are given in the so-called "natural philosophy" and "physical geography" text-books used in our high schools? Ought the colleges to lower their standards of admission so as to diminish the dangerous hold which secondary schools are getting to have in our national education?

The old question of religious education in connection with the public school is alive yet in this country, and it is very important just now in Germany, where there is a reactionary school law proposed, and in France, where the State is endeavoring to completely secularize the schools; and finally in England, where the parochial schools are strongly contesting the rising influence of the non-sectarian education.

Finally, the general objects of the international congresses are so well set forth by the World's Congress Auxiliary at Chicago that I read from