FRENCH SECONDARY SPECIAL SCHOOLS.

INTRODUCTION.

SECONDARY SCHOOLS, the oldest form of public instruction in France, and the main reliance of families for the liberal education of their sons before they pass into the Faculties of Superior Instruction, or the Special Schools of preparation for the civil and military service, or even into a commercial or manufacturing career, have been the field of much discussion and experimentation between the advocates of the old and the new studies. In 1833, M. Guizot aimed to relieve the pressure on these schools by instituting the Superior grade of Primary Schools, corresponding to our English High Schools.

In 1847, the Minister of Public Instruction (M. de Salvandy), divided the courses of the lycées, and other secondary schools, into three branches; to the classical and scientific studies he added a third branch, under a name till then quite new in the language of the University of France, namely, special instruction, reserved for pupils who were destined for commerce or manufactures. The studies embraced three years, and were divided as follows:

First year. Mathematics; natural philosophy and chemistry; physical geography; linear and ornamental drawing; Latin; history and geography; modern languages.

Second year. Mathematics; natural philosophy and chemistry; geometrical mechanics; natural history; Latin; French literature; history and geography; drawing; modern languages.

Third year. Mathematics; descriptive geography; natural philosophy and chemistry; machines; natural history; drawing; French rhetoric, comprising exercises in translation, analysis and composition in French; modern languages; practical lessons in accounts, commercial law, and agriculture.

In a circular addressed to the rectors, the minister remarked: "He wished the instruction solid, in order to render it efficacious. The object is not to offer a sort of asylum to children who have neither aptitude nor willingness for classical studies, but to develop faculties which the pure simple study of the ancient languages would leave inactive, and which need other aliment. The university does not intend to make a distinct, or an inferior college, within a normal one, but to organize for different characters and careers, two systems of lessons, which will lend each other mutual support. Both have an aim equally serious, equally elevated." On this plan special instruction was organized in several colleges, and in general with happy results.

In 1852, the minister (M. Fortoul), devised a new plan of studies, of

which the following are the principal features: According to their age and the degree of their knowledge, the pupils of the lyceums were to be divided into three divisions, the elementary, grammar, and superior.

The exercises of the elementary division comprised: reading and recitation, writing, orthography, French grammar, the first principles of Latin grammar, geography, sacred history, explanation of the epitome historia sacra, the rudiments of arithmetic, and linear, pencil, and pen drawing. After an examination on the elementary course, the pupils passed into the grammar division, which embraced the three years of the sixth, fifth, and fourth classes. Each of these years was devoted, under the direction of the same professor: (1,) to the grammatical study of the French, Latin, and Greek languages; (2,) to the study of the geography and history of France, and arithmetic. Before leaving the fourth class, the pupils underwent a special examination (examen de grammaire), the result of which, if successful, was stated in a special certificate, which was indispensable to admittance into the superior division.

The superior division consisted of two sections, one literary, the other scientific. The instruction of the former gave access to the faculties of letters and law. That of the second prepared for the commercial and industrial professions, for the special schools of government, and the faculties of the sciences and medicine. Each pupil entered one or the other section, according to his preparation, and the career to which he was destined, and this was called the system of Bifurcation, which was discontinued by minister (M. Duruy), September, 1863.

By the law of June 21, 1865, Secondary Special Instruction was instituted to comprise moral and religious studies, the French language and literature, history and geography, applied mathematics, physics, mechanics, chemistry, natural history and their applications to agriculture and manufactures, linear drawing, commercial forms, and book-keeping. It may include, also, one or more modern foreign languages, common principles of legislation, industrial and rural economy and hygiene, ornamental and geometrical drawing, vocal music, and gymnastics.

The programmes of this new instruction were prepared with the greatest minuteness, by the minister (M. Duruy), after consultation with the most experienced and thoughtful educators. They were accompanied by precise indications of the method suited to each study. The entire course lasts four years. The subjects are so grouped and divided, that at the end of each year the pupil finds himself possessed of valuable knowledge, answering, in some degree, to the many careers of practical life, and enabling him to enter, with special preparation, the one which he has chosen. These programmes are not inflexible and absolute, but can be developed and restricted, according to the needs of the localities. In the agricultural departments, greater prominence can and should be given to the portions which bear upon that pursuit, and in the manufacturing districts the scientific principles, suited to the industry of those cities, should receive most attention.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS OF SECONDARY SPECIAL INSTRUCTION.

PRIMARY INSTRUCTION in France embraces moral and religious instruction, reading, writing, the elements of the French language, the four fundamental rules of arithmetic, and system of weights and measures. Some schools add to these elements a little geography, sacred history, and the measurement of the simplest plane figures, but these schools are in very small number, and the supplementary instruction which they impart is taken in by a few select pupils only. A child would, therefore, run the risk of not being able to follow with profit the new course of instruction, if, on leaving the primary school, he were at once to enter the first year's course in the special school. It will, therefore, be proper to institute, wherever there is such a school, a preparatory section, in which, in addition to having the instruction received in the primary school more firmly impressed on the mind, the children shall study one modern language, a little geometry, and linear drawing, which is in reality the practical carrying out of the course of geometry. During this year, the pupils, whithersoever they may come, who will form the preparatory section, will be fused into a homogeneous whole, because they will acquire knowledge almost uniform, and good scholars will be secured to the first normal course of special instruction.

PREPARATORY SECTION.

SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION.

French dictation and reading..

Modern languages....

History of France, (simple narratives).

Geography: tracing of the map of the Department, and summary
study of France...

Mathematics: exercises in calculation and commencement of plane
geometry..

Natural Instory, (preliminary notions)..

Dictation and Reading.-The instruction in French grammar should be limited to repeating the paradigms, the declinations, and the conjugations. As to the syntax, that is to say the synthetical laws which rule the language, the master should merely point out the practical rules each time an opportunity occurs, avoiding all abstract formulas, which children have great difficulty in retaining, which they understand imperfectly, and which they forget speedily. At the age of twelve or thirteen the child has already mastered, by use, the natural grammar of the rules of which he is ignorant, though, without knowing it, he daily applies the most important of them. In order to enable him to make enlightened practical use of the language, it will be sufficient to draw out, as it were, this natural grammar, and to engrave insensibly and without effort on the mind of the pupil, principles and rules, which he will more readily retain, because he has in a manner found them for himself, and understood them by himself.

The principal exercises will be dictations and reading. Select passages from history, ethics, mythology, natural history, should be dictated to the pupils, and

explained by the master, with reference to the meaning of the contents and of the words. These passages should be short, simple, and consisting of ideas clearly defined and circumscribed within the limits of one or two lines. Immediately after the dictation the pupils should exchange their copy-books, and after having reciprocally corrected them, they should deliver them to the master, who should return them the next day, after having noted in the margin the errors committed by the pupil who has written the copy, as well as by the one who has corrected it.

The dictations should occupy the first part of the lesson, the second part should be devoted to reading, which is an important study, inasmuch as only that which is well understood can be well read; it is besides very useful in the ordinary course of life to be able to read aloud intelligently, distinctly, and with taste. Besides, in special instruction the reading of a French passage is to hold the same place, and is to be of the same service, as the expounding of a Latin or Greek passage in the classical schools.

The professor should himself read out aloud a well-chosen extract, should explain it so as to make the pupils well understand the ideas of the author and their sequence; should point out the most important passages, and the most striking expressions, and should deduct from them the principles of orthography, and some grammatical rules. At the conclusion the pupils should be made sometimes to read the same passages, sometimes to repeat from memory the principal thoughts contained in them, as also of the commentaries on them made by the master.

he task to be prepared for the next lesson should be the reproduction in writing, and always from memory, of the passages that have been read and explained, to which the pupils must endeavor to add, unaided, the thoughts to which the extract would naturally give rise. The length of this task should be in proportion to the amount of time at disposal, in order that it may be, not only an exercise in composition, but also in orthography and in caligraphy.

MODERN LANGUAGES.

The study of languages ought to commence early, because the memory of children retains words with great facility. The method to be followed is the maternal method, which is practiced with so much success in Germany, and in Switzerland, and which is being introduced in the lycées; little or no grammar, except perhaps the paradigms, but a great deal of oral practice; after this, sentences dictated by the master, and written on a blackboard by a pupil, who should at the same time translate them; further on, anecdotes should be learnt by heart, and repeated aloud, a few passages should be read aloud by one pupil, and immediately translated into French by his fellow-pupils; subjects should be given in French, and be treated in the language which is being learnt; finally, when the pupils are sufficiently advanced, they should converse in that language with the master, being strictly forbidden to use one word of French.

During the very first lessons the pupils may become possessed of elements sufficient to form short sentences. With the two articles, the two verbs "to be" and "to have," some nouns and adjectives, the number of which would increase with each lesson, the practice of the foreign language may commence.

The professor ought never to forget that he may also extend the knowledge of the children, and contribute to develop their faculties by the selection of

thoughts and facts which he may combine with the study of a language. From the very commencement he ought to introduce into conversation (which is to be the usual form of his lessons) details borrowed from history, commerce, geography, industry, sciences, natural history, etc. The study of a language becomes thus not only a study of words, but a study of things; and the words penetrate into the mind of the pupil with the facts calculated to awaken his interest, and to furnish an incitement to his curiosity. The memory is not alone called into play, as would be the case by the abstract study of grammar, which is not suited to children, whose intelligence ought to be stimulated by a first sight of things belonging to the outward world, and whose nascent powers of thought ought to be fortified by concrete notions, the causes of which they will afterwards seek for with eager curiosity.

HISTORY OF FRANCE.

Simple Narratives.-Everybody knows how fond children are of listening to narratives, to the accounts of hunting or traveling adventures, of storms and battles. They wish them to be repeated; they follow the story with inexhaustible interest, and if the narrator forgets the smallest incident, they at once call him back to the accuracy of the first narration. Availing himself of this natural curiosity to develop at one and the same time the moral and the intellectual capacities of his pupils, a skillful teacher well knows how, by means of the study of history, to exercise a most salutary influence on their intellect and their heart, at an age when the agitating events of life have not yet disturbed the calm transparency of the soul. But, if this double result is to be obtained, the study must be made interesting, pleasant, animated, and consequently the system of textual rehearsals must be abandoned. A course of history for children of the age referred to, is not to be a critical course. It should consist of isolated facts and detached biographies, which the master should narrate with simplicity, but with art, taking care to give great prominence to the noble qualities of the celebrated characters, and to leave in the shade their faults and their vices. He should not fear to enter into minute details, for these interest children; but he should dwell on the grand traits that will strike their imaginations, and leave a deep impression; finally, he should wind up with some good thoughts, which will by degrees form in the hearts of the pupils a fund, as it were, of practical morality.

In order to accustom the pupils to connect their thoughts, and to speak fluently, the master should, during the lesson, make them repeat his narrative aloud; in order to accustom them to express themselves in writing, he should request them to write a short abstract of the narrative, in which they ought not to omit the observations to which it has given rise. This abstract should, as has already been mentioned, serve at one and the same time as a writing copy, and as an exercise in spelling.

GEOGRAPHY.

Tracing of the map of the department, and summary of the Geography of France. Instead of beginning with definitions and general considerations of the form of the earth, and the divisions of the globe, the pupils should in this, as in the grammar lesson, proceed from the known to the unknown, from the simple to the complex; should start from their village in order to arrive at a knowledge of the entire globe, studying first the geography of the canton, the