Chapter II: Part 2

The educational policy of Argentina thus returned to its traditional status; and secondary education still centers around the 37 colegios nacionales, institutions for boys of 10 to 14 years of age, which admit those with leaving certificates from the fifth and sixth grades of the higher primary schools, and by revisal of 1911 offer courses arranged by fourfold division of subjects into the physical-mathematical, the chemical-biological, the historical-geographical, and the literary-philosophical groups. A decree of the National Council dated February, 1916, made the certificate of sixth grade of the public school obligatory for admission to the colegio. This was regarded as going far toward settling two fundamental difficulties--the first, the long desired abolition of the entrance examination, as discredited by experience and prejudicial to secondary training, and the second, the official recognition of the compulsory attendance law for children of 6 to 14 years.

Among the new subjects assigned for the colegios is the study of Italian, now restored after being abolished by previous decree. In accordance with this requirement, a course in this language has been instituted in the normal schools for the preparation of teachers.

The close connection of the interests of the colegio nacionale with the university is brought out in the report of the rector of the National University of Buenos Aires for 1916. It is of significance as striking out new lines in what had always been a conservative division, and carried weight in the fluid state of public opinion on education which prevailed just at that time.

Taking up the instructional aspect of secondary education, and the claims put forward by zealous partisans of the opposing views that the colegios should prepare either for higher studies or for practical life, but not for both, he urged legal provisions for both forms of training to supply the demand felt in all modern states for men of thought as well as efficiency in action. In the light of this demand all wrangling as to programs of study could only be to the damage of the State. Since the Argentine colegios half a century ago were modeled after the French lycées, with their emphasis upon the cultural studies, the world had moved far, economically and socially, and sane modifications in secondary education now clamored for recognition.

On the side of administration the peculiar question for Argentina, the land of great distances and many climates and productions, was whether the best organization for secondary instruction was the concentration of power in the hands of a council or of the minister of public instruction, or more or less complete autonomy to be granted to the individual institution. In either case the fixed principle was to be accepted that the universities were directly concerned in the discipline and studies of the students they were to receive, and that they should therefore have the right of intervening in matters of organization and studies of the colegios.

A just decentralization of the colegios could be easily realized and would bring such beneficial results as: (1) More direct and immediate action of the authorities; (2) closer articulation of the colegios with the universities in the matter of studies for preparation for the latter; (3) formation of intellectual groups that would be encouraged to take root permanently in the Provinces, thus avoiding the wholesale migration of the directing classes to the capital; (4) ease of reform, as contrasted with the present system, wherein every change in the program of studies was a disturbance whose utility was not always certain; (5) the best selection, so far as possible, of the personal directive staff of the colegios, as the men in higher education would be familiar with the problems of secondary instruction; (6) economy of administrative expense; (7) the possibility of transforming certain of the colegios into schools of arts, trades, and industries in which general instruction, continuing the primary, might be combined with the special and technical preparation so much needed for the material well-being of the several regions of the Republic.

In the projected law of public instruction, introduced in August, 1918, it is provided that all matters relating to secondary education shall be under the authority of the national universities, with full power to regulate content of courses, curricula, etc. This is manifestly a step suggested by the traditional system of Spain, in which the standard secondary schools (_institutos_) are arranged according to university districts and are governed by university rector and council. Its wisdom and advisability for a country of the Western Hemisphere have been variously considered.

TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

By the projected law of August, 1918, a National Board of Technical Education is to be established to ascertain the progress of this branch of education in other countries, to adapt whatever may be possible to the conditions and needs of Argentina, to foster technical instruction in the national schools, and to keep in touch with its progress throughout the world.

NORMAL-SCHOOL TRAINING.

The sequence of studies prescribed for pupils of the normal school according to the decree of March, 1916, is also worthy of notice. Immediately following, and based upon the intermediate schools which, as described above, were discarded after trial, the normal school required four years for the teachers’ diploma, after which the student might proceed to higher studies for the degree of teacher of modern languages in two years or that of teacher of languages in normal school in three years, or that of teacher of philosophy in any institution in six years. A commendable gain of one year in each of these was effected, and this feature is to be embodied in the new provisions now under consideration. In addition, the new project of educational law outlines a teacher’s course of four years, clearly differentiating between the general or cultural and the pedagogical or professional courses. The former are assigned to the first three years as required; the latter are reserved for the last year, constituting an intensive curriculum of pedagogical history and methods and practice teaching in the required annexed practice school. The completion (1918) of the Normal School Sarmiento in Buenos Aires, named in honor of the founder of popular education in South America, is to be noted. This school, capable of accommodating 1,000 pupils and equipped with the most modern apparatus, is worthy of comparison with the finest schools in the other countries educationally most advanced.

HIGHER EDUCATION.

With the provision incorporated in the projected law, by which control of national secondary education is vested in the universities, the latter will touch national education much more intimately than ever before. The universities of Argentina are those of Buenos Aires, Cordoba, and La Plata, which are national, and those of Santa Fe and Tucuman, which are provincial but will soon be nationalized. In 1917 there was a growing feeling in university circles in favor of decentralization, with greater degree of autonomy for each university. The report of the rector of the university of Buenos Aires for 1917 was of interest as showing the effect of this upon the colegios as well as the universities. How far this has been checked by the projected provision to intrust secondary education to universities can not be learned.

The unrest among the student bodies in the institutions of higher education has constituted perhaps the most remarkable feature of the educational history of the past year. In Buenos Aires reform was demanded in the statutes under which the university was governed, and the adoption of methods in conformity with new tendencies in university instruction. The students demanded especially the right to vote for the election of the authorities. Satisfactory agreement was reached, and the university, after several days of suspension of classes and demonstrations on the part of the student body, resumed instruction, which was uninterrupted for the rest of the year. At the University of Cordoba the conflict between the students and the authorities assumed more serious proportions. Regular work was suspended, the efforts of the mediator appointed by the National Government to hear the claims of the student body and to decide upon the just and practical course for the university authorities to adopt were unsatisfactory to the complainants, and the authority of the minister of public instruction was invoked. Upon investigation the latter official advocated in his report to the executive a complete reorganization of the university in its statutes, regulations, acts of discipline, and staff of professors. These changes were ratified by the executive and were practically embodied in the project of the law submitted to the Congress in those sections pertaining to university education. In the other three universities, those of La Plata, Tucuman, and Santa Fe, the disturbances which impeded the prosecution of the regular routine of studies were comparatively insignificant, though the spirit of unrest was marked and many of the reforms and changes secured in the two leading universities were readily accepted.

The growth of the so-called student centers (_centros estudiantiles_) has been a feature of higher education during the past two years. These organizations have come to be representative of student life and of the student point of view, and have therefore gained much importance in the eyes of the authorities. They are organized according to departments of studies, such as the centers of medical and dental students, of engineering students, of political science students, of students of architecture, and of law. Each numbers from 100 to 500 members. They are grouped as a whole into the University Federation of Buenos Aires, in which each is represented by delegates, and which is regarded as the mouthpiece of all university students in the metropolis.

Plans are already under way by the executive council of the University of Buenos Aires for the celebration of the first centenary of its foundation, which will occur in October, 1921. Invitations have been extended to the institutions of higher education in all countries of the world to designate and send representatives. Though the actual building of the ancient colegio nacional, in which the university began its operation, has been materially changed, yet the present building occupies the same site, and it has been decided to hold the centennial celebration in it.

Of interest is the projected foundation of a popular university at Buenos Aires, constituted along industrial lines and frankly designed to counteract the technical and industrial influence of North American universities in South American countries.

A survey of educational progress in Argentina may fittingly conclude with mention of the annual American Congress of Education and Commercial Extension, held in Montevideo in January, 1919, in which representatives of all the Latin-American countries participated, and those of Argentina, from her economic and educational leadership, were most prominent. The proceedings of the congress will be discussed in the chapter on Uruguay.

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN BRAZIL.

Educational activity in Brazil has been most marked in the field of vocational education. A special commission, appointed by the Director General of Public Instruction, consisting of five experienced teachers in subjects of this nature, was instructed to formulate courses for the State schools which were to be established by law in the Federal District. They were to serve as models for subsequent schools of the same character in the several States and Territories. The commission, of which Senhor Coryntho da Fonseca was the spokesman, after several months of conference and personal visits of inspection to the vocational schools already existent in the several centers, especially in Sao Paulo, and after hearing reports from active teachers in the subjects, presented its report in March, 1919. It was approved by the Vice President, serving ad interim for the President, and was recommended by him to be put into actual operation pending its formal enactment into law by the Congress.

The report as finally presented rested upon four main considerations:

1. The State, in the field of instruction, has primarily an educational function and only secondarily a vocational one. Courses in shop training, designed to awake and develop an aptitude in the pupil for a particular industry, must of course enter into any well-rounded scheme of education. This in turn must be designed to promote a general and not a specialized technical education which will introduce both sexes to industrial and commercial life. For practical reasons of expense, if for no other, the State should not be expected to prepare pupils for specialized vocations.

2. The task of the commission being to deal with the branches of vocational training best adapted to give the pupil a broad outlook upon general industrial activities, the commission judged it best to confine its recommendations to manual work of construction in wood, metal, and plastic material. In methods as well as content of instruction it is emphasized that such work must proceed along the lines of teaching by example. In such teaching much that is old and fundamental must be stressed by way of throwing light upon the elements of the training that are common to all branches of manual arts.

3. In its decision to urge a general attitude toward industrial training rather than specialized methods peculiar to one branch, the commission was confirmed by the testimony of all except one of the directors of the vocational institutions in Brazil. Only one advocated specialized instruction. Written representations of the faculties of the vocational schools Alvaro Baptista, and Souza Aguiar, in Rio, further confirmed this view.

4. The results of vocational instruction in Brazil as actually observed within the last few years convinced the commission--

(_a_) That unspecialized training best provided the foundations for good citizenship as well as industrial training.

(_b_) That by this training the latent technical aptitudes of the student were more effectively revealed and developed, as shown by steady increase in salaries of the graduates, than was the case with the apprentices who had been trained exclusively in one line.

(_c_) That the superior adaptation of the graduates of the general vocational school had been shown by tables giving information as to their progress in skill and value to their employers. These tables were naturally incomplete, but their general drift was undeniable.

(_d_) That the chief cause of the poor attendance upon the vocational instruction for boys is the prevalent idea that the vocational school is an index of lower social standing, enrolling only those boys that can not obtain any other means of education. Thus the vocational school is sharply differentiated socially from other types of schools. It suffers from being regarded as preeminently the school to train workmen. The commission had in mind the purpose of preparing public sentiment for the passing of this traditional prejudice when it attempted to inspire a just estimate of manual work in the public mind and to organize such courses as would adequately carry out this idea.

(_e_) That the vocational school must be established as a direct continuation of the primary school, ministering to the innate tendency in the child to realize things with his own hands; that thus the traditional and depressing prejudice mentioned would be counteracted, as time would not be given for it to intervene in the child’s mind. The workshop, thus articulated with general training, would come to be the fulfillment of an aspiration, inculcating as well the love of work and respect for it.

(_f_) That the success of the projected schools depends largely upon the cooperation of the industrial firms of Brazil, which should be appealed to for their sympathy and for the encouragement of their adolescent employees to attend these schools; that the granting of daylight hours to employees to attend such schools, as has been done in England and France, with the consequent improvement in the physical and mental condition of the pupils, is a step to be commended to all employers as patriotic citizens.

The salient provisions of the report of the commission are as follows:

ARTICLE 1. The technical and vocational instruction maintained by the prefecture of the Federal District has for its aim to complete the primary elementary instruction by means of a general technical education leading the youth of both sexes preferably to industrial and commercial activities.

ART. 2. Technical and vocational instruction shall be given in the following types of schools:

(_a_) Primary vocational schools.

(_b_) Secondary vocational institutes.

(_c_) Secondary agricultural schools.

(_d_) Vocational finishing courses.

(_e_) Normal school of arts and crafts.

Types (_a_), (_d_), and (_e_) shall be day schools exclusively; types (_b_) and (_c_) shall offer boarding accommodations for pupils from distance.

ART. 3. In schools of types (_a_) and (_d_) instruction shall be imparted predominantly in the recitation rooms.

ART. 4. The courses of the primary vocational school for boys shall include the following subjects:

(_a_) The usual subjects of the complementary course of the primary schools, with fuller development of the studies of physics, chemistry, natural history, hygiene, and mathematics.

(_b_) Modeling and free-hand and mechanical drawing.

ART. 5. The courses of the primary vocational school for girls shall include:

(_a_) The usual subjects of the complementary course of the primary schools, with fuller development of the studies of hygiene and domestic economy.

(_b_) Modeling and free-hand drawing.

ART. 6. The subjects of the vocational finishing courses shall include:

(_a_) In the commercial course, Portuguese and civic instruction, commercial geography, French and one other modern language, English or German, to be chosen by the pupil, commercial correspondence and accounting, typewriting, stenography, and arithmetic.

(_b_) In the industrial course, Portuguese and civic instruction, arithmetic, and geography, elements of applied physics, chemistry, and natural history, accounting as related to the particular vocation selected by the pupil, free-hand and mechanical drawing.

ART. 7. The vocational finishing courses are designed primarily for young men already employed in industry and commerce, who seek to improve their vocational knowledge.

ART. 8. The two types of vocational finishing schools may be taught conjointly in the same building.

ART. 9. Teachers and assistants imparting instruction shall be appointed as follows:

(_a_) There shall be a teacher and so many assistants for each branch as shall be made necessary by the attendance.

(_b_) For the instruction in technical accounting related to each vocation there shall be employed special teachers only where 15 or more students are enrolled for each course, and they shall receive salaries only when actually teaching. The same teachers shall be in charge of the various related branches of technical instruction in the shops.

ART. 10. The courses in the secondary vocational institutes for boys shall include--

(_a_) The elementary and middle instruction for pupils who have not had them.

(_b_) Physical exercises and military drill.

(_c_) Vocal and instrumental music.

ART. 11. The courses in the vocational institutes for girls shall include--

(_a_) Primary instruction for such pupils as have not had it.

(_b_) Vocational drawing and modeling.

In the vocational institutes the elementary primary instruction shall be followed by an intensive course in manual arts, such as sloyd, wood carving, and weaving in straw, vine, and bamboo.

ART. 12. The primary vocational schools shall also offer a commercial course consisting of the following subjects:

(_a_) Commercial correspondence and accounting.

(_b_) Typewriting and stenography.

(_c_) French and one other modern language, English or German.

ART. 13. Instruction in the workshops of vocational schools for boys shall be given first in a general compulsory course of three years, during which the pupil shall in turn be trained in the workshops in cold and molten metals, including foundry work and wrought-iron work. The pupil shall then be allowed to specialize in any workshop or section at his choice. The pupils of the vocational institutes for boys shall likewise take a compulsory course in horticulture and kindred subjects.

ART. 14. The agricultural schools and the vocational institutes shall require attendance on the courses of civil training and agronomy, with optional specialization in any line selected when the general course is completed.

ART. 15. In the vocational schools and institutes for girls there shall be a compulsory general course upon the following practical subjects: Cooking, laundering, ironing and starching, housekeeping, sewing and dressmaking. Along with this general course the pupils shall attend certain vocational courses chosen by themselves from sewing, lace making, and embroidery, artificial-flower work, etc.

ART. 16. For admission to the schools of vocational instruction the following shall be the legal requirements as to age:

(_a_) For vocational and agricultural schools, minimum age 13, maximum 21.

(_b_) For the vocational institutes for boys, minimum age 10, maximum 13.

(_c_) For the vocational institutes for girls, minimum age 7, maximum 13.

(_d_) For the normal school of arts and trades, minimum age 14, maximum 25.

(_e_) For the vocational finishing courses, minimum age 13.

ART. 17. For matriculation in the vocational and agricultural schools and the finishing courses the candidates shall submit to an examination upon the subjects taught in the middle course of the primary school. In the commercial courses of the finishing schools, in the girls’ schools, and in the normal school of arts and trades, the entrance examination shall be upon the subjects of the final examination of the primary schools.

ART. 18. The school year in the entire system of vocational instruction, with the exception of agricultural schools, shall begin March 1 and close November 30. The period from December 1 to December 24 shall be devoted to examinations and to school exhibitions. In the agricultural schools, because of their nature, the pupils shall have 60 days of annual vacation granted to them in groups by the director in accordance with the demands of the agricultural seasons and labors.

ART. 19. The courses of the primary vocational schools, of the institutes, and of the finishing courses shall be divided into periods of 4 to 5 years; the finishing courses into periods of three years; and the commercial course of the schools for girls into a period of two years.

ART. 24. The officials of inspection of technical and vocational instruction shall draw up annual statistics of attendance and of the results of the vocational instruction upon the bases of data furnished by the directors of the several schools and, so far as possible, by employers and by the former pupils who have themselves left the schools. These statistics shall relate to the following topics:

(_a_) Number of pupils placed, with indication of the establishments where they are employed.

(_b_) Initial salary obtained by them as related to the period of schooling.

(_c_) Technical aptitude revealed by former pupils and their capacity of adaptation to the various industrial works.

(_d_) Progress of increase in salary of former pupils.

(_e_) All available information as to individual former pupils with regard to the advantages or disadvantages of their schooling in the decision of economic life, and their success in it.

ART. 25. All posts of assistants and substitutes in the vocational system shall be filled by competitive examinations.

(_a_) For the assistant in drawing in the vocational schools in institutes for boys, the examination shall be tests in drawing, in artistic training, and in pedagogical fitness.

(_b_) For the filling of the same post in the vocational schools and institutes for girls the examination shall be tests in writing at dictation, in decorative composition, in embroidery and lacework, and in pedagogical fitness.

(_c_) The competitive test for filling the post of substitutes in shopwork shall be upon vocational design of an assigned theme for shopwork and the execution of the same.

ART. 26. The teachers in vocational instruction shall be named by means of promotion of the assistants and substitutes.

ART. 27. There shall be a substitute for every group of 20 pupils in shopwork, and an assistant for every class of 30 pupils.

ART. 28. When any primary school is transformed into a vocational school there shall be annexed the elementary primary course in which shall be taught intensively the manual arts prescribed for the elementary instruction of the institutes, but the pupils shall attend the shopwork of the vocational courses only when they have completed the work of the middle course and attained the age of 13 years.

EDUCATION IN CHILE.

PRELIMINARY.

The last two years have seen in Chile a distinct gathering up of the threads of educational purpose. The feeling of dissatisfaction with the primary school system, for many years inarticulate, has found a voice, and all signs point to Chile’s finally securing a modernized system of public instruction. The head and front of the indictment drawn by national students of education has been the complete Germanization of the system through the employment of a considerable number of German educational experts during the decade from 1904 to 1914. The climax came in the revelations of the propagandist activities of the German educators brought out at the meeting of the National Educational Association in 1917.

Financial support of public instruction in Chile has never been stinted, so far as its existent state was concerned. As merely one item may be adduced the fact that in March, 1916, the Congress authorized the President to devote to public instruction for specific aims such as the building and remodeling of schoolhouses, $4,000,000 annually for 10 years, through the medium of the Central Council of Education, in which was vested the discretion as to methods and objects of the expenditure. In 1918 the budget was voted by the Congress of $35,450,000 for public instruction, as against that of $32,373,404 for 1917. So that the authorities of the Government must justly be credited with a practical interest in education which encourages teachers and other active workers in their efforts toward greater efficiency.

In 1917 there had been increased discussion of matters educational; and in June of that year President Sanfuentes in his message showed that the time had come to impress on the national system of public instruction a more practical stamp, making it adequate to the needs of everyday life and the special conditions of the country. Along with this he urged the specialization of secondary education as, just then, the urgent and opportune point of attack for the development of Chile’s scientific and industrial possibilities.

This message was followed by action of the Congress which clearly showed the traditional line of cleavage long prevailing in Chile’s social and political system. The demand for some form of modernized public instruction could no longer be repressed; and a conservative deputy introduced the project of a law to insert in the constitution a provision for compulsory primary schooling and compulsory religious instruction, the only modification of the latter being the concession to the parent to choose the forms and means of such instruction. The radical party was not slow in countering with a project adopting the feature of compulsory attendance but decentralizing and completely secularizing the existing system. The latter proposal, now made for the first time in the history of Chilean legislation, was especially bold, as Chile has never done away with the essentially religious tone of her education. She retains representatives of the State church on her National Council of Education, freely recognizes parochial primary schools, and has her secondary schools largely managed by religious instructors and under distinctively religious auspices.

The compromise bill formulated by a specially appointed commission of the Congress sought to satisfy both extremes. It vested supreme administrative authority in educational matters in a council of 18, sitting in Santiago, presided over by the Minister of Justice and Instruction; but it allowed 11 of the members to be named by the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies, and the President of the Republic. This feature was severely criticized by the liberals and by the National Educational Association as still keeping educational authority in the hands of politicians, not intrusting it to men really interested in education, and making it possible to block all educational progress whenever desired.

The bill made four years’ attendance in primary schools, private or public, compulsory for all children between 7 and 13, and required all reaching the latter age without completing the prescribed course to continue until 15. Poverty could not be pleaded in excuse, as grants by the State were specified and graduated in amounts according to need. Exemption from religious instruction was allowed upon written application of the parent or upon certification of the local junta, another feature opposed by the National Educational Association on the ground that the junta’s powers could never be so amplified legally. Programs of study and schedules should be under the authority of the inspector general of primary instruction. Primary instruction was to be imparted to complete illiterates in schools called supplementary, managed independently of existing primary schools, and to partial illiterates in schools called complementary, conducted in conjunction with existent primary schools.

The bill, as outlined above, encountered opposition from many sources, and still remains unenacted. Pending its passage, the Minister of Public Instruction, by virtue of the power vested in him, issued in 1918 a decree organizing primary education in three grades of two years each, continued by one grade of vocational education of from one to three years. Attendance is not specifically compulsory, though the local junta has power so to declare it in the schools of its jurisdiction. The requirements as to qualifications of a primary teacher are made more rigorous; he must be a citizen of Chile, of good character, not less than 18 nor more than 40 years of age at the time of appointment, and a graduate of a Government normal school, or holding a degree of a Chilean or recognized foreign institution.

ILLITERACY.

The problem of illiteracy in Chile is a serious one, the estimated figures for 1917 showing 959,061 illiterates out of a total population of 3,249,279. Since the year 1900 the struggle against it has grown in vigor. The National Educational Association has shown especial efficiency, and has worked through committees having the following phases in charge: Compulsory school attendance, the legal requirements, condition of the schools and the teaching force, school revenues, school buildings and sanitation, and special education.

This steady pressure prepared public sentiment for the leadership of the most influential agency ever invoked in the fight against illiteracy, viz. the conferences organized by the powerful newspaper El Mercurio. Under its auspices these conferences were held in a 3-days’ series in July, 1917, and were attended and participated in by men and women identified with every phase of national education. The following topics were the salient ones of those discussed:

1. Comparative study of illiteracy statistics in various countries.

2. Means of combating illiteracy in leading nations.

3. Practicable means of action in Chile.

4. Means of contribution, and proportion in which the State, the municipal authorities, and the Provinces may contribute to the budget necessary.

5. Cooperation of private initiative.

6. Means of making school attendance compulsory.

7. Regulation of child labor.

8. Reforms necessary in actual plans of study and in classification of schools.

9. Necessity and practical means of giving the schools a more Nationalistic character.

10. Minimum of knowledge to be required by compulsory attendance law.

11. Place of night schools, Sunday schools, and traveling schools, in the struggle against illiteracy.

While no action of a legal character resulted from these conferences, yet the impetus given to the cause was powerful, and had weight in bringing about the decree and the projected law already outlined. Such a move, combining at once social and economic as well as educational characteristics, seeking to bring public opinion to bear on the solution of a problem underlying the life of a nation, and launched by a newspaper, is unique in the history of education.

The Territory of Magellanes has shown itself remarkably efficient in handling the problem of illiteracy. It is the southernmost area of the country, and little favored by nature, being a long strip of barren and rocky coast, with a climate singularly bleak and uninviting. Its industries are based exclusively upon its mineral resources; and its population, though intelligent, is very sparse. By the census of 1917, its percentage of illiteracy was 20; according to the estimate of the author of a study of the Territory, published in the Anales de la Universidad, April, 1918, this has been reduced to 7 per cent. Credit is largely due the Society of Popular Instruction, a private organization, established in 1911, which offers free instruction to pupils of all ages. In spite of the prevailing inclemency of the climate, the sessions of its day and night schools are excellently attended. The system is centralized in Punta Arenas.

PRIMARY EDUCATION.

Unlike Argentina and Brazil, primary public education has always been left in the hands of the central national government, the individual Province having control of financial outlay and the construction of school buildings, and this only when requirements of the national law are fulfilled. Uniform programs of study and schedules of hours are enforced throughout the nation. But conditions of scarcity of materials and labor render it impossible to keep many of the old buildings in repair. The tendency long criticized by the Association of Teachers, to cram school buildings into the half dozen larger centers, seems in a fair way to be checked.[1]

[1] Criticism has been freely expressed in the public press of the use of a disproportionately large part of the primary school fund voted by the Congress for the use of the executive.

This new order of things is most plainly seen in the attention paid to rural schools, which have predominated in the number built since 1916. The Government has instructed the committee on public works and the department of primary instruction to develop a plan of building uniform types of rural school. The expenses are to be borne out of the fund just mentioned. Three types are contemplated, with a capacity of 80, 160, and 400 pupils respectively, solidly constructed, conforming strictly to all modern demands of sanitation, lighting, and heating. In many places the North American principle of consolidation of schools has been applied, to the distinct improvement of attendance and instruction, 200 small and struggling schools having been abolished and 100 annexed to others more centrally situated. With these gains, however, the crying need in Chile is acknowledged to be more schools. It is estimated that 10,000 elementary schools are yet needed for her approximately 750,000 children, of whom slightly less than 400,000 are in the schools of this grade, and 50,000 in private parochial schools. All educational thinkers are agreed that the situation calls for legal compulsory attendance on primary instruction, rigidly enforced.

SECONDARY EDUCATION.

Secondary education in Chile is organized in three grades: (1) National high schools; (2) liceos of the second class, and (3) complete liceos of the first class.

(1) The high schools are a development of the last few years, and are situated only in the larger centers. They number 30 for boys and 12 for girls, enrolling less than 12,000 pupils, and are generally little more than higher elementary schools. They are almost exclusively technical, and do not prepare the pupil for advanced study.

(2) The liceos of the second class (sometimes called colegios), of which about 100 exist in the Provinces and Territories, offer courses covering three years in the elementary subjects of instruction common to scientific and literary groups.

(3) The liceos of the first class, numbering 40 for boys and 31 for girls, and offering the full course of six years, are representative of the best in secondary education in Latin-America. Those for boys, following the tradition of the Spanish system for corresponding schools, are administered by the University of Chile; those for girls, by the Minister of Public Instruction and the National Council. The practical and scientific wave which swept over this division of education in 1915 caused the reinforcement of physical and chemical teaching. Spanish, history and geography, religion (optional), French, mathematics, natural sciences, gymnastics and singing, and manual training run through all six years of the course; English (or German or Italian), philosophy, civics, penmanship and drawing, mechanical drawing (optional), extend through varying numbers of years. Students of secondary education are struck with the excessive number of hours required weekly, the minimum being 29 for the first year and the maximum 33 for each of the last three years.

The essential purpose of the liceo of the first class is to prepare for the university, or for the professions; and national scholarships are granted, including maintenance at the hostels, or annexed boarding halls which were established five years ago.

The system of secondary education has long been criticized by Chilean educational thinkers as being too largely mental and literary, and as paying little, if any, attention to the physical and moral. The attempt to organize sports and physical exercises in secondary education has met far less encouragement than in other South American countries.

By decree of May, 1917, classes for illiterate girls over 7 years old were annexed to liceos for girls, the ministry basing the number to be admitted upon the attendance of the year previous. This was stoutly opposed by the National Educational Association as being a confusion of classification, a violation of the continuity of the educational system, and an evasion of the palpable duty of the school authorities, which should press the Government to establish fitting and proper schools for such illiterate girls.

The Government has appointed a commission of prominent men for the study of reforms necessary and advisable for programs of secondary education for girls. As matters stand, the same programs of study are set for both boys and girls, a traditional arrangement the disadvantages of which are coming fully to be recognized.

Despite unfavorable and antiquated programs of studies, the Province of Nuble has made noteworthy progress in female secondary education. In Chillan, its capital, are conducted four liceos, three of which are for girls. Ambitious courses in the classics, social sciences, and rudimentary science are offered. One of them, the Instituto Pedagogico, founded in 1912, exercises far-reaching influence over the social, moral, and artistic conditions of the Province. The American Liceo, a private institution, conducted by teachers from the United States, devotes especial attention to the teaching of English, colloquial and literary, and also gives instruction generally along thoroughly modern high-school lines.

TRAINING OF TEACHERS.

Chile’s system of training teachers is distinctively eclectic, borrowing, as it has done, from France, Sweden, Germany, and the United States. Before 1870 French influence predominated, the great Argentine educator, Sarmiento, himself a pupil of the school of Saint-Simon, having founded the first normal school in 1842 while in exile from the tyranny of the dictator Rosas. German influence became pronounced about 1880, when that nation began to supply men and women teachers in the normals and as instructors in all grades of education. Since 25 years ago the tide began to turn toward North American influence, especially of the type of education developed in the Northwestern States. The Chilean ideal is a judicious combination of (1) an institution for the training of teachers for public schools who shall have adequate culture, specialized training, manual skill, and theoretical and practical knowledge of modern subjects, and (2) an institution for training in social relations and habits, exercising steady influence on the social environment of the school by means of popular courses and conferences, and participation in popular movements.

The full course in the 16 training colleges for teachers covers five years, of which the first three are devoted to general education and the last two to professional training. The course for the fifth year is essentially professional, consisting of pedagogy (history, methodology, and practice teaching), 17 hours weekly; Spanish, 1 hour; English or French or German, 4 hours; civics and economics, 2 hours; hygiene, 2 hours; horticulture or metallography, 2 hours; drawing, 1 hour; manual arts, 2 hours; music, 1 hour; physical education, 3 hours. All expenses are defrayed, in return for which the pupil is pledged to teach for seven years in the national schools.

The actual method of instruction is along German lines. Object lessons, those in natural history and history and geography have all impressed recent foreign visitors as essentially Herbartian. Perhaps in no other country of the world, since the well-drilled German schools fell into chaos, is the influence of the normal schools upon the system and method of public instruction more powerful than in Chile. Indeed, this potent influence has overleaped the boundaries of Chile proper and affected every country of Latin America. A supreme example is the influence of the Instituto Pedagogico, the best known of Chilean normal schools, founded in 1909, with predominatingly German faculty, which has developed into a type of higher normal school with a colegio annexed, emphasizing practice teaching with subsequent criticism and courses of general pedagogy and methodology in every subject. Its certificates rank highest in the secondary and normal education of the capital city; students are attracted to it from the other Latin-American States, and return home to reorganize education there along its lines. Its boast is that it inspired the establishment of the Instituto Nacional at Buenos Aires.

Scandinavian and Belgian influences are at work in the Instituto de Profesores Especiales. Established in 1906, it was definitely reorganized in 1910 and installed in the building especially constructed for it. Of its 300 pupils 200 are women, and the majority of both men and women are active teachers in the schools of the capital. It offers courses common to all the specialized sections, such as psychology, French, pedagogy, civics, and school legislation, and includes five sections, fundamental to its organization: Physical education, manual arts, drawing and penmanship, domestic economy, and vocal music. For the convenience of teachers, instruction is given from 7 to 9 a.m. and from 4 to 8 p.m.

The last few years have seen wide extension of the demand for rural normal schools, and many critics of the existent schools have urged that they follow those of the State of Wisconsin as a model. The essential solidarity of educational aims of the South American republics is shown by the fact that Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia during the same period drew their inspiration from the same North American source.

The decree already mentioned under the head of primary education emphasizes the duty of the normal schools to prepare free of all expense primary teachers for any of the three grades of instruction. Each normal school is also required to have annexed such specially organized practice schools as shall be necessary. At the discretion of the President of the Republic, the normal schools shall offer special courses for those students who have passed the examinations of the fifth year of the colegios, with the aim of attracting such students into the field of teaching. That the need of wider training of the teachers is a pressing one in Chile is shown by the fact that, in 1915, of 3,000 rural teachers, only 350, and of 6,240 primary teachers of the nation at large, only 2,435, had normal school training. The service had to be recruited by 2,000 graduates of primary schools who passed examinations, and by 1,850 applicants who held no certificate and were allowed to serve as temporary substitutes.

Of special interest is the annual reciprocity of teachers between the Government of Chile and the Universities of the States of California and Washington, arranged in 1918. Each party is to send four. For the present the Chilean commission has expressed predominant interest in secondary education, and has called for one university professor, one normal-school teacher, one teacher of technical subjects, and one teacher (preferably a woman) in secondary education. The universities mentioned will act as the agents in the selection of the instructors.

Interchange of university professors has also been arranged with Uruguay, which is for the present confined to medical instruction.

The National Educational Association has at many meetings pressed for the scientific and practical training of the teachers of Chile in vocational studies; and for the appropriation by the Congress of a definite sum for sending normal teachers abroad for study in the modern practical and sociological subjects.

TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

For this branch of education the National Educational Association in 1917 recommended that there be established by law a Council of Industrial Education composed of a director and 12 members, four of whom shall be professors of the fundamental technical branches, one a woman inspector of vocational schools for women, one an inspector general of primary education, one the director general of railroads, and one a director and inspector of army munitions. Their duties should be to exercise superintendency over the entire system of technical and industrial education to be organized in the Republic, over the national school of arts and trades, and over such industrial schools for girls and women as might be established. On this board should be likewise all inspectors and officials of such branches as might be later established. A bill embodying these provisions was introduced in the Congress but has not as yet been acted upon.

Steady progress in all branches of technical education has been shown. The schools of higher primary grade offering technical courses number 288, with physical training and gymnastics compulsory in all grades. There were also in operation 29 technical colegios for women; 6 agricultural colegios; 10 commercial schools, controlled by the commission upon commercial education; and 3 schools of mines.

The department of industrial promotion has urged upon the Congress the establishment of a chain of industrial and agricultural schools.

With the establishment by law of the Industrial University of Valparaiso there will be completed the full cycle of industrial education in Chile, consisting of: (1) Elementary industrial training in two schools already established and in six more to be established; (2) secondary industrial training in the School of Arts and Crafts; and (3) higher industrial training in the Technical School of Valparaiso.

In November, 1918, met the first National Congress of Dairying, organized under the auspices of the Agronomic Society of Chile. It urged the legal organization of instruction in this branch in (1) special schools of dairying in northern and central Chile; (2) courses annexed to already established schools of agriculture; (3) in establishments of secondary education for youths of both sexes in popular meetings and public traveling courses; (4) in rural primary schools for illiterate adults.

It is appropriate to mention just here the comprehensive project of the board of missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States for the establishment of an agricultural and industrial system of education in southern Chile. It has been approved by the Government of Chile as a potent aid in the uplift of the peon class. A ranch of nearly 4,000 acres has been purchased along the Malleco River, on which it is purposed to train the native population in the rudimentary subjects of instruction, and especially in modern agricultural methods. The management will employ the best available experts in horticulture, agriculture, and domestic arts to be found in the South American countries who may be acquainted with the needs of Chilean rural life.

THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHILE.

This body plays a larger part in educational thought and leadership than the corresponding body in any other Latin American State. Its activities are planned for close articulation of the social and educational needs of the nation. One of the furthest reaching is the public-extension work in subjects of university and secondary instruction. In 1917, its eleventh year of operation, it held 14 conferences at the University of Chile, with an attendance of 15,000, an increase of 50 per cent over the previous year. The subjects treated were patriotic, historical, literary, artistic, sociological, commercial, and medico-therapeutic.

In secondary extension during 1917 there were held in provincial capitals 19 conferences on subjects more popular and more exclusively educational and sociological.

The department of university extension has also for three years devoted itself to collecting international data upon immigration and naturalization laws, and has cooperated with all the labor organizations of the Republic to hinder the passage of premature and unscientific laws in this field.

The activities of the association cover a wide range. In his report for the year 1917 the president reviewed the activities of the body and examined the most important problems to which it had addressed itself during the period. They were:

1. The establishment of a rural normal school, a project not yet realized.

2. Democratic education by the progressive elimination of primary courses of education in secondary institutions.

3. Obligatory primary instruction, sought by a law passed by the Chamber of Deputies in 1917, but as yet not acted upon by the Senate.

4. Nationalization of the Chilean system of education, a question which needs to be presented still more in detail to the nation and the Congress.

Like Argentina, Chile has a grave problem in the assimilation of alien elements, and her nationalism is alarmed at the activity of the school organizations of diverse races existent on her soil. French students of education are intensely interested in this development as a vindication of their prophecies, for they have long been pointing out the Germanization of Chilean education.

The association has vigorously urged legislation requiring the close and systematic inspection of all nongovernmental schools, especially those of secondary grade in north Chile, where German propaganda has for years been an open secret, carried on, as was well known, by a German-Chilean Union of Teachers, and where German liceos exist in full operation. The association urged the requirement in secondary schools of essentially national subjects, such as Spanish and the history, geography, and civics of Chile, taught by Chileans and descendants of Chileans.

In the field of physical education, the activities of the association have been specially directed to securing proper playgrounds for schools and to arousing practical interest in this field among philanthropists and the public at large. The association has taken strong ground for antialcoholic instruction in primary and secondary schools, urging that such be incorporated in the textbooks in the study of physiology, hygiene, and temperance, and in independent courses in public schools and State colegios. The project encountered opposition in the National Congress. The association has also grappled with the problem of immorality, issuing in May, 1917, appeals to families on sexual ethics and the systematic inculcation of ethical ideas of sex by educational and therapeutic measures. During 1917, fraternal relations were established with Brazil and Bolivia, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Higher Normal Institute.

EDUCATION IN URUGUAY.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

The marked educational awakening of Uruguay during the last biennium has been only one phase of the universal demand of the nation for a new social and economic adjustment. Perhaps the chief manifestation of this has been the adoption of the new constitution in place of the old, which had been in force exactly 90 years. At a plebiscite of November, 1917, the constitution as formulated was submitted to the people and adopted by a vote of 85,000 to 4,000; and it became the fundamental law of the land on March 1, 1919. As regards its bearings upon educational administration, the most noteworthy change--and perhaps that around which centered most opposition during its consideration--was the provision which divides the executive power between a President and a National Council of Administration.

The latter body, composed of nine members elected for six years directly by the people, and absolutely independent of the President, has charge of all matters relating to public instruction, public works, labor, industries, public charities, health, and the preparation of the annual national budget. The administrative officers of public instruction of all grades, including the minister, are appointed by the National Council and are subject to its authority according to such particular laws and regulations as the Congress may enact. This substitution of a composite board for an individual as the fountainhead of educational authority is an experiment whose operations will be observed with much interest in a country of South America habituated by tradition to authority concentrated in an individual.

ILLITERACY.