first teacher, 800 thalers; the remainder are paid at the rate of 100 thalers for each four hours of weekly service. Bremen possesses also twenty-four country and village schools, some of which are very much over-crowded. Religious instruction is given by the pastor from 8 A. M. till 2 P. M. on Monday and Thursday, from 10 A. M. till 2 P. M. on Tuesday and Friday, and from 6 till 11 A. M. on Wednesday-which leaves little time for any other instruction, Through the great want of teachers, boys scarcely grown are engaged in some of these schools as assistant teachers.* All these schools are under the supervision of the "scholarchates," who are senators; there are also a parish school council and board of deputies for the several schools. 3. Hamburg. The Gymnasial Academy at Hamburg, (created in 1613, with five professors of philology, philosophy, and Biblical philology, mathematics and physics, history, and natural philosophy,) has a position between the gymnasium and the university, and is designed to afford a general scientific training. Our information respecting its condition is imperfect. The gymnasium Johanneum has six classes, sixteen teachers, and 136 pupils. The real school, attached to it, has seven classes, nineteen teachers, seven assistants, and 352 pupils. In this gymnasium is located the public library, with its 5,000 MSS, and 200,000 volumes. The burgher, female, and public schools are in much the same condition as those of Bremen, except that little has been done towards the training of teachers. The best and most flourishing schools for burgher instruction are for the most part wholly private institutions, (among them, Busch's School of Commerce, founded in 1767,) while there are numerous very inferior private schools. The number of scholars in the poor schools in 1857 was 4,360; the seven Infant schools (called "Belfry Schools,") number 848 children; Kindergartens are received with favor; and at Horn, three miles from the city, is located the famous Rauhe Haus" of Wichern, founded in 1533 for depraved and abandoned children. 4. Lübeck. At the head of the Lübeck school system stands the Catharineum, a gymnasium and real school under the same director. This school numbers five gymnasial classes with 128 pupils, four real classes with 111 pupils, and three preparatory classes with 82 pupils, and a total of nineteen teachers. In marked contrast to this noted institution, which has been presided over by such scientific and learned men as Weber, Jacob, and Classen, stands the burgher and public school system, distinguished by its irregularities and ill-timed peculiarities arising from local differ In 1861 a Course of Study for the Country Schools was prepared by the director of the Teachers' Seminary and submitted to the Senate Committee, which, if carried out, will effect a great reform in these schools. ences and usages. In 1810 the school administration was committed to the "school college," consisting of sixteen members, (the syndics, the president of the council, the protonotary, ecclesiastical and civil deputies of the parish, and the director of the Catharineum,) who made report to the senate every 2-3 years. At the same time the immediate oversight of the several schools was with the clergy, and the care of their external affairs with the burgher inspectors. But this ordinance fails of enforcement, inasmuch as the preparatory city school is under the provincial court, the poor school under the Institution for the Poor, the Society for the promotion of Popular Enterprise has the charge of its own schools, some endowed schools have their special superintendents, and some private schools are directly under the senate. Of the 469 teachers reported in 1845 as giving instruction to the 4,500 school children of Lübeck, no less than 116 are represented as holding "independent positions," a fact which alone sufficiently shows the great disintegration which exists in the school system. The poor school is the only one that is wholly sustained by the city. 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 cooperation, 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 im mediately 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. |