she is distinctly placed at a disadvantage compared with men, by having no degree. To impose on such students the conditions required from men for the degree would be worse than useless pedantry.

"The position, therefore, of the Oxford students differs in important respects from that of the Cambridge colleges. At Cambridge the university expressly recognizes the two colleges, and admits none but their students to the triposes. At Oxford all students, resident or not, are admitted to the honor schools, but the students' Halls have no official recognition of any kind. What advantage, then, it may be asked, do the resi dents gain from living in Oxford? The answer is obvious; they get the teaching. To provide this, and to be the channel of all dealings with the university and college authorities, an organization was formed in 1879, called the Association for the Education of Women in Oxford. Of this all the principal supporters of women's education in Oxford are members; and the students are registered as belonging to it, and appear in its annual calendar. The Halls are represented on its executive committee, of which the principals are ex-officio members. All the educational arrangements with professors, lecturers, and tutors are made by the principals of the Halls and two secretaries of the association, acting together as a sub-committee of the latter body. The Halls also provide directly for some part of the teaching of their own students by appointing resident tutors, frequently former students, who live in the Halls and help in the superintendence and direction of the studies. The lecturers are partly provided directly by the association and partly by the admission of students to the university and college lecture rooms. The association lecturers are mainly, but not entirely, university men; in the last report we find two of the courses given by ladies. On the other hand, the readiness with which women are admitted to the ordinary university teaching is shown by the fact, stated in the same report, that last year no less than sixty-one professors and college lecturers had association students attending their courses.

"Besides the above advantages which the university, collectively and individually, offers to women, two more should be mentioned from which men are excluded. These are the honor examinations in English language and literature, and in modern languages. For these a full course of instruction is

provided by the association; and last year no less than fourteen courses of lectures were attended by students in these branches. Cambridge has a tripos for modern languages, including English; Victoria University offers an excellent school of English literature and language; but in Oxford, though systematic honor courses in English and modern languages exist, they exist only for women. A striking example of the advantage which women thus possess occurred in Oxford during the present year. The association had to appoint a lecturer in Anglo-Saxon; and they were advised by experts whom they consulted that the best qualified person to appoint was one of their own former students, who had obtained the highest honors in English, and had been trained at Oxford. An educational reformer has been heard to remark that one of the things which Oxford most needs now, is to get the women's honor schools of English and modern languages opened to men.

"The advantages of a body like the association are obvious. Without in any way interfering with the natural development of the existing Halls, or the establishment under suitable conditions of new ones, it unites in one organization all those who are working in Oxford in the interests of women's education. It engages lecturers, deals with the individual college teachers, makes all arrangements for the attendance of the students at the university lectures, enacts the needful regulations for home students who live in Oxford, but are not members of the Halls, and is the recognized channel through which all suggestions of reform are conveyed to the delegates who manage the women's examinations. As including within it the three Halls, it has more weight than any one would have; and its existence is a guarantee against divided counsels or any chaos or confusion in the arrangements. The rapid disappearance in Oxford of the prejudice or misgivings which were widely felt ten years ago in regard to women's higher education, may be partly traced to the confidence which this association has inspired. If, in the future, the university should admit women as members of its body, and consequently take over the charge of the resident students, it would at once appoint a delegacy for the purpose. Such a delegacy must necessarily include women, as all practical persons will understand."

X.

REVIEWS.

Wash

Promotions and Examinations in Graded Schools. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information No. 7, 1891.-By EMERSON E. WHITE, LL. D. ington: Government Printing Office, 1891, pp. 64.

By the preparation of this pamphlet Dr. White has done good service to the cause of education. Organization, examinations, and promotions are matters that concern the very life of the public school system and the welfare of every pupil. It is one of the surest indications of progress that these subjects are now discussed with earnestness, intelligence, and an evident desire to find the better way. The chief value of Dr. White's contribution to this discussion is not his collection of facts and statistics, valuable as these are, nor his presentation of arguments, forcible as this always is, but the fact that he seeks to determine every moot question by reference to one guiding principle-the greatest good of the pupils. There are those, perhaps, who will wonder why any praise should be given for pursuing a path that is so clearly the path of right. But if they were familiar with a large city system of schools and knew of the many pretexts for the promotion or non-promotion of children that have no reference whatever to their immediate welfare-"the strengthening of a school at a certain point," "lack of room," filling empty seats, or perhaps the obtaining an attendance that will warrant an increase of a master's salary-they would see the timeliness of erecting this sound and humane principle into a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night for the guidance of the teacher. That Dr. White is invariably right, however, in his deductions, I am not ready either to claim or to admit. Indeed, he too often assumes the rôle of the advocate rather than that of the judge; but the central idea of the book is sound to the core.

One of the first subjects discussed is the length of the term and the frequency of promotions. He arrives at the conclusion that semi-annual or even quarterly promotions are best for primary grades, and annual promotions for the upper grammar grades and the high school. He signally fails, however, to

make clear how the transition is to be made from one plan to the other. Obviously, the matter is not clear in his own mind, as he tells of putting the question as to how it was accomplished to a leading city superintendent, who answered that he had never observed any trouble and that his attention had not been invited to the subject by any of his principals! The fact remains, however, that at whatever point in the graded system, as it is found nearly everywhere in America to-day, the transition is made from semi-annual to annual promotions, a child who fails to get promoted from the first class, in which the term lasts a year, must remain either a year and a half or two years in that grade. Such detention of pupils is an unmitigated evil, and any system of promotion that permits it stands self-condemned.

Of the stated or periodical examination for promotion Dr. White is merciless in denunciation. With what he says of the stated monthly and term examinations that still, in many schools, vex the souls of teachers and make school life one long, hideous nightmare to nervous children, I am in entire accord. But I cannot think, on the other hand, that he strengthens his position by omitting all discussion of the "comprehensive examination "-that examination, at the conclusion of a subject, which tests the pupil's knowledge not of minute details but of broad elementary principles and of the relations of the parts to the whole and to one another—for which President Hyde of Bowdoin has so happily and, as it seems to me, so conclusively, argued. The retention of such an examination strengthens the argument against the dreadful term, and the still more terrible monthly, examination.

The pamphlet contains a very full and lucid statement of the "estimate" plan of promotion which Dr. White introduced into the Cincinnati schools when he was their superintendent. One of the strongest arguments in favor of the scheme is the constantly increasing extent to which other large cities have followed the lead of Cincinnati in its adoption. While the exposition here given of its merits is entirely satisfactory, I must confess to feeling a shade of disappointment that the author has not stated clearly the difficulties that experience has disclosed in its workings, and that he has not suggested the necessary remedies. The most ardent advocate of the "estimate" scheme cannot fail to see that some teachers estimate their pupils too low and others too high, that some have ex

perience and others have not, that some have good judgment and others have poor judgment. These varying conditions lead to a vast variety of estimates, and present the chief stumbling-block to the complete success of the scheme. All would have been glad, and none more so than the advocates of the estimate system, to see in this pamphlet a full and frank statement and discussion of the defects and difficulties that trial has disclosed.

In one respect, Dr. White is scarcely fair to the Brooklyn schools. He assumes, because the school authorities report that there is but one class in a room, that a class is never taught in two sections. As a matter of fact the conclusion is erroneous. When the class is large-and large classes are unfortunately the rule rather than the exception-it is customary to adopt the plan he so strongly recommends, namely, "in onehalf or more of the branches" to teach the pupils" in two sections or classes." This custom, however, has not been made a law. The matter is left largely to the judgment of principals and teachers.

Upon the whole, I am inclined to regard as the most valuable part of Dr. White's brochure, the pages in which he lays down the distinctions between an examination for promotion and an examination employed as "an element in teaching." The differences in purpose, in character, and in effect, are stated lucidly and forcibly. Were they clearly apprehended by all who are charged with the management of schools, we should hear less of the evils wrought by examination.

The circular, embodying as it does the results of Dr. White's ripe experience and couched in his clear and nervous style, will amply repay perusal.

W. H. M.

Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea in the United States. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information No. 8, 1891.-By J. P. GORDY. Washington Government Printing Office, 1891, pp. 195.

No phase of the educational history of the United States is more attractive to the student, and certainly none will better repay careful study, than that which Professor Gordy, of Ohio University, has aimed to elucidate in this monograph.

According to Professor Gordy, the normal school idea first appeared in the conviction that the teacher needed some extra preparation not required for business or the professions.