Much of the irksomeness of labor is the result of a belief that all work is drudgery, to be hastened thru with as soon as possible. As long as we attempt to separate work into drudgery now and enjoyment later we shall have people asking whether life is worth living. If we can arouse in our young people the instinct of workmanship thru our manual training and other constructive work; if we can make them feel that labor well done is noble, much of the irksomeness will disappear. If our young people can be made to feel the moral obligation upon every member of society to work-to produce something- they will be better citizens. If they can be made to feel the supreme necessity of becoming interested in their work, they may expect happiness. If our notion of leisure is that of the Greeks, that leisure is only time and opportunity to prepare for the doing of a higher grade of work, the world will be the better for it.

DISCUSSION

SUPERINTENDENT E. H. MARK, Louisville, Ky.-I am interested in this particular subject and very much in accord with the positions taken by the reader of the paper. I especially like that part which says this is a working world. I believe in work, and work in school. I believe in the kindergarten, but I do not believe in carrying kindergarten work into the eighth grade and the high school. We are not getting full results from the energy we expend, because of our failure rightly to appreciate a proper application of work. Only about 20 per cent. of the energy spent in school is effective. We must not make the mistake of bedizening in order to make it appear that we are really working. We attempt sometimes to go outside of the old-fashioned ways, and I am of the opinion that this is not always wise. I believe in the old-fashioned ways, and that some of the things we are now doing would be less objectionable if we had not deserted the old ways of performing them. Boys and girls need to learn to do a few things and to do them well. They should also learn that there is dignity and joy in work.

EDUCATION AT THE PARIS EXPOSITION

HOWARD J. ROGERS, DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL ECONOMY FOR THE COMMISSIONER-GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE PARIS EXPOSITION OF 1900

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:

One of the sad inflictions which follow in the wake of a great exposition is the individual who is always talking of it or lecturing on it. But, in spite of my desire to escape this fate, the invitation of your president was worded so graciously, and a public expression of the obligations of the United States commission for the loyal support of this association so manifestly due, that I felt constrained to accept.

I wanted also to retract, or modify, a statement made before this association two years ago at the Columbus meeting. In outlining the

plans for the United States exhibit I said that we had no national system of education; that we had forty-five systems, with a few territorial annexes thrown in. While in a strictly literal sense this is true, practically it is not. We have today in the United States a greater unity and similarity in courses of study and methods of administration than exist in any other country in the world with the exception of France. The result of the rigid system of uniformity which enabled the French minister of public instruction a number of years ago to boast that he could look at the clock at any hour of the day and tell what every school child of France was doing, is still in evidence. But the United States educational exhibit at Paris, if it served no other purpose, demonstrated beyond question that the only differences in our educational methods are those of local emphasis, which do not affect the general tendency and unity.

Had the labels over a portion of the work of Boston or New York been interchanged for those of Denver or St. Louis, no one not having a knowledge of its local touches and coloring could have detected the difference. The plan of our exhibit, which placed the work of similar grades side by side, irrespective of localities, brought out this similarity in a most convincing manner. It was the cause of much comment on the part of foreigners and of much surprise on the part of Americans. An impression, more or less well defined, has undoubtedly been in the minds of educational people that this similarity existed, but it had never before been so strikingly demonstrated. We attributed the cause, in our explanations, to two sources: first, to the United States Bureau of Education; its control over the states is purely advisory, but so wise has been its administration, so valuable the information which it has collected and distributed, and to such high renown has it attained under its present commissioner, that its influence as a harmonizing, directive, and unifying force is most powerful; and, secondly, to the National Educational Association, whose meetings are the great clearing-house for educational ideas in this country. There is no need to dwell before this audience upon the value of this association as a common ground for interchange of thought, comparison of methods, forming of acquaintanceships, and promotion of confidence. Yet the magnitude of the organization was puzzling to foreigners and its formation the subject of much inquiry.

The place of education at the Paris exposition was theoretically all that could be desired, but practically there was much that could have been improved. Not yet at an international exposition has a building adequate been devoted solely to education. In Paris, in the Palace of Education was joined the exhibit of the liberal arts, Group III. Space was granted to each nation for both groups together, and the division between the groups left to the commissioner-general of that nation. As a consequence, while most of the exhibits were in the gallery, many were

on the ground floor; the continuity was broken, and in some instances, notably Germany, the whole space in this building devoted to the commercial products included under Group III.

From the scientific point of view, however, both as regards the exhibit, classification, and official recognition, education was given the preced

This circumstance was particularly gratifying to the representatives of the United States, where the commercial spirit rules - dominates. The tendency of the French in this respect was particularly noticeable in the formation of the international juries. At least 50 per cent. of the membership of each class jury was French. The French representation in the six class juries of Group I, education, was concededly stronger than in any of the 121 classes. Men prominent in educational, literary, and scientific fields were eager to serve. Such names, well known in America, as Léon Bourgeois, former minister of public instruction, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and the most prominent member for France in the Peace Congress, president not only of Class I, but of the entire superior jury; Liard, of the university; Ferdinand Buisson, whose report on American education in 1876 is a classic; Camille Sée, and others, give evidence of the caliber of the jury. An award granted after due deliberation by such a body of men bears more than the ordinary significance attached to exposition awards.

The direct control of the educational sections was vested in the minister of public instruction, one of the three most powerful ministers in the French cabinet. He has under his authority not only all elementary and secondary instruction, but the universities, the beaux arts, the salons, the national theaters, and the opera. To the minister, M. Georges Leygues, and his directors the foreign educational representatives were indebted for many courtesies from an exhibit standpoint and in official life.

There was one exception to the general control exercised by the minister of public instruction, viz., Class VI, industrial and commercial education. By a special law, passed a few years ago after considerable struggle, all industrial and technical schools were placed under the jurisdiction of the minister of commerce and industries. Inasmuch as the general management of the exposition fell under the latter ministry, the industrial schools demanded and received a separate building for their exhibit. This building was a small annex to the main Palace of Education, and contained only the work of French schools.

Five nations besides France took a leading part in the educational exhibit the United States, Great Britain, Russia, Hungary, and Japan. A number of other nations, notably Sweden, Italy, and Spain, played lesser rôles.

To an American the most interesting phases of the exhibit were the expectant attitude of England, the awakening of Russia, the development of Japan, and the industrial training of Hungary and France.

England for the first time was represented at an international exposition. The exhibit of the great public schools of Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and Winchester was historic and highly attractive to Americans; the exhibit of Oxford and Cambridge was scientific and exhaustive; but the real interest lay in the efforts of the adherents to the education act of 1870 to push to its logical results the provisions of that act, and the eagerness of the progressive wing of the education office to adapt American ideas to English conditions. The figures published last year showed that for the first time the attendance on the board schools exceeded the attendance on the free denominational schools, and that the territory occupied by the latter is being rapidly absorbed. The next decade will see rapid advances in educational methods. The younger and more progressive elements are strong advocates of the prominent features of the system of the United States, and expect much from the influence which may be exerted, or rather the discussions and agitation which may arise, from the presence of the United States educational exhibit now in Manchester, England.

A word on the latter point may be in order now. Among the experts and delegates from other countries who examined our exhibit critically last summer, none were more sincere in their praise than the English. Their sincerity was best proven by their actions. The idea grew that many of the best features of American education, in spite of the fact that they were the product of a younger civilization and developed from totally different conditions, could be grafted into the English system. The problem was how best to enlist the attention of the British public. At this juncture Mr. John H. Reynolds, principal of the Municipal Technical School, Manchester, England, came forward with a proposition to transport the United States exhibit complete from Paris to Manchester, and set it up for exhibition in precisely the same form as at Paris. He submitted the plan to the Manchester municipal authorities, and, after sending a committee to investigate, they reported favorably. The director of education for the United States in the meantime had secured the consent of all the principal exhibitors to the transfer of the exhibit to Manchester, and the consequent delay in its return home. The Manchester authorities assumed the entire cost of packing and shipping the exhibit from Paris, its installation at Manchester, and its reshipment to New York. The exhibit was opened to the public in the latter part of January, and will remain until March. Concerning it one or two extracts from the English press are of interest:

No member of a technical instruction committee or of a school board, no governor or manager of a school, no teacher, whether in a primary or secondary school or university, can afford to miss such a rare opportunity, provided in so public-spirited a fashion. They will come, not from Manchester alone, but from all the country round. The general public also will find in it abundant interest and entertainment. The productions of the American art schools and the superb collection of photographs of school and college life

are in themselves worth going a long way to see. But the amount of pleasure and profit to be derived from a visit will depend largely upon the intelligence with which the visitor follows the scheme upon which the exhibit is displayed. . . . . It is delightful to see so much care and pains bestowed on instruction in history in the primary and secondary schools, though one could wish that young Americans were not taught so sedulously to regard Britons as the enemies of the republic. At every turn one is struck with the extreme dexterity with which statistics are set out in graphic forms, sometimes in curves, sometimes in colored squares or columns, the relative size of which indicates ratios of figures.

In this connection it is striking to observe in the kindergarten and primary sections the admirable educational skill with which taste and constructive power are developed and exercised in young children by the system of "free drawing" and brushwork, which is so infinitely more stimulating to the childish mind than the dry and abstract type of art work instituted by our South Kensington department. There are any number of other points which call for notice in this wonderful exhibition, but we can only advise everybody to go and see it for themselves.

Well, I need not pause to observe that in this particular section of the Paris exhibition there was no finer display than that made by the United States. It gives a bird'seye view, as it were, of education as it exists in the States today. Its purpose is to represent the best work and the ripest methods, no matter whence their source within the limit of the United States. The field covered by the exhibit is so full, varied, and interesting that no outline can possibly do it justice; but, within the space at my disposal, if I can convey to the public an impression of what this exhibit is, I shall not be altogether dissatisfied.

We sincerely trust that some of the expectations of the promoters of the plan may be realized. It is a small seed, and a foreign public is a stony soil, but there may take root some features of American education which will prove of great benefit to popular education in England. That there will be any quickly apparent effect no one dreams. Evolution is a slow process; evolution in education one of its tardiest forms. But there exists no system of public education in any country which cannot be improved by the introduction of some of the best features from another country, and from this object-lesson planted in the center of the great industrial and manufacturing district of England, where the free and intelligent development of youth is a vital problem, and where admiration for American methods and American virility runs highest, much good may reasonably be expected.

The English educational exhibit showed strength and a rugged determination to work out a solution adapted to the great variety of conditions bequeathed from former generations; but a stronger and more hopeful sign was the intense earnestness of the younger, progressive schoolmen to find this proper adjustment of the ideal with the actual, and to determine. just how much of improved methods can safely be introduced without. clogging the machinery. It is a good sign, when men are dissatisfied with present conditions, to find them acting conservatively; keen for improvement, but with patience to wait. There will be fewer back-tracks to cover in the future.

In the Russian educational exhibit there was also an awakening to be