Columbian Exposition at Chicago, in 1893," there is a noticeable feminine tone, and special stress is laid upon the woman's side of the educational question, the training of girls, etc.

To promote education it is stated that larger amounts "are expended in Sweden than in other European countries in proportion to the insignificant national property of the country." Instruction in the State or national schools is mainly gratuitous and scholarships are bestowed annually. Admission to Government offices requires a high standard of knowledge, and hence the school standard is kept up proportionally. Education in the national or common schools is similar for both sexes, but secondary education for boys is differently organized from that for girls. The boys are educated by the State free of cost, while the higher education for girls is "an entirely private undertaking." Private schools sometimes obtain State and municipal grants; boarding schools are not found in Sweden. There are none for boys and only one of special importance for girls.

The object of the national schools is to give to the rising generation of Sweden the first elements of education. Thus they correspond to the Volks or Elementarschulen of Germany, the Écoles primaires of France, and the board schools of England.

The establishment of such schools goes as far back as the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century.

According to the ecclesiastical law of 1686 nobody could get married without knowing Luther's catechism,' and the rector of each parish, moreover, was to take special care that the young people of his district learned to read "out of a book." The duty of teaching this subject devolved upon the chaplain and the sacristan.

By means of voluntary contributions from private people as well as from parishes, several national schools were established by degrees; but as late as 1840 more than half of the parishes in the Kingdom had no such schools. Many children, however, learned to read at home.

By the ordinance of June 18, 1842, it was settled that in each parish there should be at least one school (stationary if possible) with a duly approved teacher, and that the attendance should be compulsory, with an exception only for those children who obtained corresponding instruction at home or at another school.

The school expenditures were then defrayed by the parishes; a poor parish could, however, obtain a grant from the State for the teacher's salary.

Since 1875 the State has paid amounted to 700 crowns ($187). parish expenses for the national 19.1 per cent of the sum total.

two-thirds of a teacher's salary, which The rest is paid by the parish. The schools amounted in the year 1890 to The State allows the parishes more

A short elementary summary of Christian religious doctrine, in the form of questions and answers.

2 A Swedish crown is equivalent to 27 cents, computed at 26.8.

In the same year the expenses of the parishes for ecclesiastical purposes amounted to 15.6 per cent and for the poor to 15.7 per cent of the whole sum.

than 4,500,000 crowns ($1,206,000), that is, 8 per cent of the whole budget. In 1891 the expenses for the national schools amounted to 13,566,825 crowns ($3,635,915).

In the same year the pupils were 692,093 of both sexes, the whole population amounting to 4,774,409 persons.

The instruction is free and equal for boys and girls.

Coeducation is everywhere prevalent up to 10 years of age; in the rural schools it is generally carried on throughout the school period. The cost of schoolhouses and apparatus is paid by the parish, and both are-particularly in the large towns-of superior quality. New schoolhouses are built every year, but nevertheless, the classes in town generally have 30 to 40 children each.

The school age is from 7 to 14. In the "Normal plan for instruction in national and infant schools" of 1878, the course of study in a stationary infant school was fixed for two years and that of a stationary national school-being a continuation of the former-for four years or six years.

Within each school district containing a parish, the board-chosen by the voting members of the parish-exercises an immediate influence. over the instruction of the people. Above this board is the bishop and the chapter of each diocese. The supreme direction remains with the Government through the medium of the department of instruction, which since 1861 has appointed inspectors, who visit the schools on its behalf.

The national schools are of several kinds:

(1) Infant schools (småskolor) were established in 1858. The object of the infant school is to teach the children the elements of reading, writing, religion, arithmetic, and (in the towns) needlework according to new, practical methods. Sometimes these schools are connected with the national schools. In Stockholm there exist no separate infant schools.

(2) National schools proper (egentliga folkskolor), which must be provided with teachers examined at the training colleges. These schools impart instruction in plain and fluent reading of the Swedish language, printed in Roman as well as black-letter type, generally acquired by the phonetic method; in religion and Bible history, up to the standard required by the clergy for being allowed to attend a confirmation class; in church singing, with exception for those who have no ear for music; in writing, and the four rules of arithmetic. The result gained is that all read well (in Sweden there exist, according to the statistics furnished at the enrollment of conscripts in 1890, only 0.5 per cent of analphabets and among the emigrants to America there are no illiterates); that the majority write a good hand (for good handwriting the national schools of Stockholm carried the first prize at the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876); and they spell fairly well. Beyond this compulsory minimum

The term training college is used for normal school throughout this article.

course, instruction is imparted in geography, Swedish and general history; arithmetic, to and including double rule of three in whole numbers and fractions; geometry, geometrical drawing, and natural history. In the national schools gymnastics and military drill are also taught, and in some of them gardening and manual work. A special grant for manual work (sloyd) for boys was not given until 1878. Needlework is learned in school in towns by the girls and in some of the schools in the country-in all about one-third of the schools. There is a movement to to bring it into every school. In the upper classes for girls cookery has begun to be introduced since 1889, and has led to good results.' These schools, however, do not prepare for the higher schools, though there are always pupils passing from the one to the other.

(3) Minor schools (mindre folkskolor), which are to be found in the provinces, and are but few in number, can be said as a rule to extend their instruction only to the minimum course. The teachers in them are not required to pass the national teachers' examination, and have generally a lower salary.

(4) Besides, there are so-called continuation schools (fortsättningsskolor), the object of which is to give in one or two years further instruction to those pupils who, with good testimonials, have passed through the national school and wish to increase their knowledge for practical purposes.

(5) Higher national schools (högre folkskolor) are schools possessed in common by several parishes in the country and arranged with the purpose of giving an opportunity to the children of the working classes to attain a higher standard of learning, while at the same time the pupils may continue their manual labor. These schools are open but twenty-four weeks a year. Only those pupils who have gone through the national schools are admitted. The subjects are the same as in the schools before named, except that a foreign language is sometimes taught. The teachers must have studied at the university. These schools are not many in number, and should not be confounded with the people's high schools (folkhögskolor) or the burgher schools (borgarskolor) in the towns. About half of these schools are mixed. The others are for boys. If a school claims a State grant for the teacher's salary the annual time of instruction must extend over eight months in a year at least. The daily hours of attendance in the national school ought not to exceed six and in the infant school not more than five. As a rule, the instruction at almost all of the infant schools has been kept up by women teachers, and for that reason the appointment of women as teachers in national schools may be counted from the time these schools were established (in 1858). Before that time female school teachers were only few in number. At the national school proper the employment of female teachers in ordinary was sanctioned by the stat

In Germany it began in 1890. Cooking schools will be mentioned farther on. In 1890 in Stockholm, and a year later in Göteborg, warm and cold baths were arranged for the pupils of the national schools, and these baths have exercised a salutary influence both morally and physically.

ute of October 21, 1859, which fixed at the same time the establishment of female training colleges. In 1868 the number of female teachers amounted to 29.6 per cent, compared to that of males. To what extent female teachers have been further employed at the schools appears from the synopsis below:

Out of the whole number of female teachers in 1885, no less than 4,624 were employed in the infant schools and 850 at minor schools, while only 1,280 served in the national schools proper. Of the last group, 776 were teachers in ordinary, viz, in the country 368 and in towns 408 (in Stockholm alone, 184). Reviewing the state of things in the whole country, such as they presented themselves in 1890, we find 60.3 per cent of the teachers to be women and 39.7 per cent men. Thus, during each of the last twenty-four years, the number of female teachers has on the average risen more than 1 per cent. In the country the salary for male and female teachers is the same; in Stockholm a female teacher receives about two-thirds as much.

The burgher's school (borgarskola) of Stockholm is thus described: The origin of the high, or burgher's, school for the working and middle classes in Stockholm was a Sunday and evening school for men, founded in 1836 by a private society. In 1882 the school was thoroughly reorganized, and advanced classes were established by the side of the lower ones existing before. In 1880-81 female pupils were admitted and at the same time female teachers were appointed. The school is supported by the annual fees of the society members, an appropriation from the city council, the artisan union, etc., and the school fees of the pupils. These, however, are excessively low, 2 crowns (53 cents) a term for twelve hours a week. The national school buildings are thrown open to the free use of the burgher school, the hours of attendance being Sundays 8.30 to 10.30 a. m. and 2.30 to 6.30 p. m.; week days 5 to 9.30 p.m. The subjects of instruction are, in the lower division, Swedish, arithmetic, writing, geometry, free-hand and geometrical drawing; in the higher division (where the subjects are optional), the same, with the addition of bookkeeping and the German and English languages. Lectures are held upon history and geography, history of Swedish literature, politics and national economy, hygiene (with ambulance), chemistry, physics, astronomy, and other natural sciences, out of which four to six are to be found on each year's reading plan. A circulating library is open to the pupils free of cost. The school is managed by a head master with eight male teachers in ordinary and thirty-two assistant teachers, of whom ten are women. In 1890-91 the number of

pupils in nine parallel classes was 1,352, 410 of whom were females. These attend the lectures and the language classes simultaneously with the male pupils. Their age ranged from 14 to 30 or above.

SECONDARY EDUCATION.

The secondary schools include the "högre allmånna å Latinlinien. fullständige läroverken" and the "högre realläroverken"—that is, classical and modern schools. They were 75 in number in 1892-93, with 14,608 students. It is stated that only about 30 of them fulfill requirements leading to the universities. The cost of instruction amounts to from $8 to $10 for each student. In 1891 there were 650 students (15 women) who passed the required examination for admittance to the universities. Expenditures for secondary education amount to about $1,000,000 annually. These schools are described by Dr. N. G. W. Lagerstedt as follows:

The secondary schools "do not form a direct continuation of the primary schools as in the United States," although they are preparatory to university education. They are all complete in their organization, although usually considered to be of two kinds, the higher or complete schools with nine classes, and the lower or incomplete schools with two, three, or five classes. Yet "the teaching in these classes agrees precisely with that of the corresponding classes of the complete secondary schools." The secondary schools consist of the classical and "modern" (Real) schools. The curriculum comprises nine years and the boys (girls are not admitted to these schools) must be 9 years of age before entering. The plan of instruction is the same for the first three years; during that period German is the only foreign language taught. Then a bifurcation takes place, some pursuing the Latin (classical) course, others the English (modern) course. Still, in all subjects other than Latin and English, instruction is as a rule the same for the two following years. French is taken up in the fifth year, both in the modern and the classical side. The last four years, the sixth to the ninth, the pupils of the modern and classical lines are separated, and at the same period-the sixth year-a new division takes place on the classical side. Greek is taken up by some, English by others-that is, there is "a full classical section and a half classical section." At the close of the secondary course the maturity, or graduation, examination takes place; the diploma attained, the student may then pass to the university, to military or forestry schools, or to low-grade positions in the Government service. This maturity examination is quite a severe one, and the boys of the modern (Real) side, not having studied Latin, must give special ovidence of greater knowledge in mathematics, natural sciences, and modern languages than the boys on the classical side.

According to reports of discussions, the intention is to bring the elementary and secondary grades more nearly together by "eliminating one or more of the lower classes of the secondary schools and by making the elementary directly preparatory to the secondary school."

THE TEACHING FORCE.1

When the infant schools were established in 1858 it was resolved that female teachers should be employed in them, and that a pupil who had passed the two lower classes of a training college for national schools

1 Résumé of article on Training Colleges for National School Teachers in "Reports from the Swedish Ladies' Committee to the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, 1803," pp. 25-30.