tion possessed by the usual body of specialists in that subject. Moreover, the facts in the possession of these specialists as a result of their experience are not always of a sort available for use in definition-making, especially when this is of the administrative

sort.

The report of the Committee of Ten does not indicate that the conferences acting as subcommittees on the various subjects and subject-groups, with the exception of that dealing with history, civil government, and political economy, made investigations into the teaching of the work in their respective fields. It is probable that some such investigations were made. It is apparent from the report of this conference' that it had carried on, before making the report, a rather far-reaching investigation. We know from the various references in parts of its report that the Committee of Seven of the American Historical Association had made extended inquiry into the practices of the teaching of history. The Committee of Twelve of the American Philological Association3 had before it in framing definitions now no longer in use the facts of practice as to the teaching of Latin and Greek in the secondary schools of the United States. These are the only two committees which have had to do with efforts at definition-making for the College Entrance Examination Board concerning which we have direct evidence of the making of investigations. This, however, is not to deny that such investigations have been made by more committees than we have here indicated. We only point out that it was not the usual practice. There is no evidence that the committees framing the definitions for the North Central Association have had access to facts of practice brought out as a result of investigations. One of the recommendations made by the Committee on the Articulation of the High School and College (the predecessor of the Commission of the National Education Association on the Reorganization of Secondary Education), after first recommending the appointment of subcommittees of specialists,

* Report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary-School Studies, 1894, pp. 162–203. Report of the Committee of Seven of the American Historical Association, 1899.

2

• Proceedings of the Thirty-first Annual Session of the American Philological Association, 1899, Appendix, pp. xcvii ff.

was to the effect "that each committee collect from a limited number of well-organized, large, and small high schools in various parts of the United States material on its own subjects under the general headings: Survey of work now conducted, Recommendations for modification, Suggestions for experiments." The preliminary statement of the subcommittees, with the exception of the Committee on English, do not indicate that they were planning to carry on investigations into the status of the teaching of the subjects delegated to them. The Committee on English proposed "to make a fresh study of English in secondary schools" and did so.4 It goes without saying that the definitions appearing in university catalogues have not been made after investigations into the facts of practice.

Of course, as has already been said, one would not be warranted in coming to the sweeping conclusion that, because one finds no direct or indirect evidence that such investigations as we have in mind here have been carried on, they were, therefore, always absent. Definitions do not customarily make reference to such investigations, even when they have been undertaken and their results utilized. But, certainly, reports of committees would make reference to them, and the almost total absence of such references in the reading that the preparation for this study has necessitated warrants the conclusion that such preliminary investigations have been relatively infrequent.

4. Definition-making that neglects administrative aspects.-It would be but natural that definitions framed by specialists in the subjects defined and that conform in most cases to the syllabus type would neglect certain vital administrative aspects.

It was shown under 2, above, that the conferences co-operating with the Committee of Ten were asked to include in their reports, in addition to recommendations as to topics or subjects, recommendations as to places of appearance, time to be devoted to the

1 Proceedings of the National Education Association, 1912, p. 668.

U.S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1913, No. 41.

3 Ibid., p. 10.

4"Types of Organization of High-School English," English Journal, II (1913), 575-96.

work, relation of the work to college entrance, methods of teaching, and the "best modes of testing attainments." Some of these are seen to be in whole or in part administrative in character, and, in so far as they are, to free these conferences of the charge of having totally neglected administrative considerations.

We also saw that the syllabus method is so extensively used in the definitions of the College Entrance Examination Board that attention is given to little else: the definition in English contains only, besides the discussion of content, a brief statement of aims; the definitions in history list merely the fields to be covered; those in French and German add to the "work to be done" a statement of aims; the definitions in mathematics contain nothing in addition to syllabi; the definition in physics contains, in addition to the syllabus, a statement of the mode of class instruction. As these definitions were selected as being fairly representative, obviously we may conclude that they have had small regard for vital administrative considerations.

North Central definitions have had more regard for such considerations, but attention to them has been inconstant and scattering. The definition in English is identical with that used by the College Entrance Examination Board, as has already been said; the definitions in mathematics have been seen to include reference to aims and method, both of some administrative significance; likewise the definitions in history have been seen to give some attention to the questions of method, preparation of the teacher, collateral reading, and classroom equipment, most of these aspects being clearly of an administrative nature; definitions in Latin and Greek omit all reference to anything but content. The definition in zoology, although given over largely to the problem of content, does touch upon aims, method, and equipment; and so on with other definitions, which those referred to may be understood to typify.

To what aspects of definitions the subcommittees of the Commission of the National Education Association on the Reorganization of Secondary Education have turned their attention may be inferred from what has been said of the hope it entertains that these subcommittees would "formulate statements of valid aims,

efficient methods, and kinds of material whereby each subject may best serve the needs of high-school pupils." These subcommittees have thus had pointed out to them the desirability of including statements concerning at least two matters of administrative importance, but the writer cannot concede that these are adequate for purposes of definition.

Descriptions of courses to be accepted for admission credit, as these descriptions appear in university catalogues, also have been neglectful of administrative characteristics. The Harvard statement concerning English has been seen to coincide with that recommended by the National Conference on Uniform Entrance Requirements in English, and thus contains, in addition to the discussion of content, a very brief statement of aims. The statement concerning the nature of the entrance examination in Greek is followed, as has already been pointed out, by an additional statement as to the amount of class and reading work that is presupposed by the examination, as well as a brief description of the methods of teaching recommended. Both of these additional aspects may be seen to have administrative significance. The statements as to other subjects in the Harvard catalogue contain nothing of greater administrative importance than these and more commonly do not contain as much. As the descriptions of units of other universities have been found to vary in no great extent from the simple statement of content, it will not be necessary here to illustrate them to prove that they have given scant attention to administrative characteristics of the subjects.

STATE STANDARDIZING AUTHORITIES

Because of the limited area over which they are operative, little reference need here be made to efforts at definition-making by state authorities. Here may be included state adoptions of textbooks, since, if schools may use no other texts than those authorized, the content of the course is determined by the text adopted. More clearly in line with the work of definition-making are the syllabi of courses prepared by some state authorities and imposed by them more or less imperatively upon the public high schools of the commonwealth. An illustration of this manner of describing

courses may be seen in the Regents' requirements in New York as published in the "Syllabus for Secondary Schools," 1910. The manner of course description is here, as is implied in the title, largely that of outlining the content, although other matters, particularly those concerning methods, come in for attention. Thus, the descriptions of courses in Mathematics are nothing if not mere syllabi. After brief reference to method covering a half page the description of the course in Physics3 names topics and describes experiments through 24 pages. The description of the course in Chemistry is similarly constituted. An examination of the statements in this manual of 492 pages concerning other subjects will be found with few exceptions to conform to those already referred to.

THE CARNEGIE FOUNDATION UNIT

One other effort at defining the unit merits attention here, namely, that of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. It is as follows:5

A unit represents a year's study in any subject in a secondary school, constituting approximately a quarter of a full year's work.

(This statement is designed to afford a standard of measurement for the work done in secondary schools. It takes the four-year high-school course as a basis and assumes that the length of the school year is from thirty-six to forty weeks, that a period is from forty to sixty minutes in length, and that the study is pursued for four or five periods a week; but, under ordinary circumstances, a satisfactory year's work in any subject cannot be accomplished in less than one hundred and twenty sixty-minute hours, or their equivalent. Schools organized on a different basis can nevertheless estimate their work in terms of this unit.)

This definition was proposed at a conference of representatives of the National Conference Committee on Standards of Colleges and Secondary Schools with the officers of the Carnegie Foundation.

1 University of the State of New York Bulletin, No. 607 (January 15, 1916).

2 Ibid., pp. 63-89.

3 Ibid., pp. 91-115.

4 Ibid., pp. 116–39.

5 Fourth Annual Report of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1909, pp. 132-33.