tional treatises widely circulated. Their most renowned pupils were La Fontaine (1621-1695) and Pascal (1623-1662). Individual care of the pupil by the teacher was one of their distinguishing marks. To such an extreme was this carried that the child was never left free to himself, but was ever under the personal charge of his teacher. This practice grew out of the fundamental belief that the purpose of education was to shape the moral and religious character of the child; to mold his will by surrounding him with good influences. The motive of their work was the love of the child, enunciated now probably for the first time. Individual care of the pupil, their great prin ciple of method They held that children should be compelled to study only that which they could understand, and consequently that their Principle of education should begin with the vernacular instead of with interest Latin. They discarded the alphabetical method of teaching and invented a phonic method. After the vernacular was mastered, the child was introduced to classical literature through translations. When Latin was begun, it was taught with a minimum of grammar, chiefly through translation into the vernacular, followed by the reading of wide selections from the classics. The moral training through the use of the subjectmatter was to come from literature instead of from language." Hence this small group of men exerted a great influence on the development of French literature. Literature, history, mathematics, were to be used on account of their content value, but Influence on only so far as they could be used in shaping character. Their French lanthought was to lay the foundations of all schooling in a thorough literature mastery of the beginnings, but to make that mastery as attractive as possible to the pupil, by emphasizing content rather than Modern form, by building upon the understanding rather than upon the character memory, and by a greater use of the senses than had been the educational custom previously. Elementary Schools in Protestant Countries. The chief practical outgrowth of the Reformation was in the establishment of systems of schools controlled and partly supported by the state, founded on the principle that it was the duty of the guage and of their views VTANHUKO DE The Saxony school system, 1528 The Würtemberg school system, 1559 family, of the Church, and especially of the state to see that every child attended these schools and received at least an elementary education. The Public School Systems of the German States were the first of the modern type. Not until 1559 do we find a system of schools providing for all the people. In that year the Duke of Würtemberg adopted a plan, though it was not approved by the state until 1565. This system, an extension of the Saxony A GERMAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY plan, provided for elementary vernacular schools in every village, in which reading, writing, religion and sacred music were to be taught. The Latin schools in every town and city were expanded into six classes, instead of the three of MelanchThe Saxony thon's original plan for Saxony (p. 198). Above these were the cloisteral or higher Latin schools, which were later incorporated with the lower Latin schools into the gymnasien. Crowning it all system revised, 1580 was the university (Tübingen). In 1580 the Saxony plan was revised so as to incorporate the elementary vernacular schools of the Würtemberg system. This code, borrowed from the Würtemberg plan, remained without substantial revision until 1773. In Subsequent 1724 it had been provided that girls as well as boys should changes attend. In 1773 the compulsory provision extending from the fifth to the fourteenth year was made effective and the scope of the curriculum broadened. Meanwhile, during the early seventeenth century, Weimar, Hesse Darmstadt, Mecklenburg, Holstein and others German states adopted systems that in Other Gersome respects were in advance of the Würtemberg and Saxony school plans. The first state to adopt the principle of compulsory systems education for children of all classes was Weimar, in 1619. It provided that all children, girls as well as boys, should be kept man state Duke Ernst the Pious in school from the sixth to the twelfth year. Duke Ernst the Reforms of Pious of Gotha, more than any other ruler, deserves the credit for the founding of the modern system of German schools. In 1642 he adopted a comprehensive regulation for the schools of the duchy which was substantially the same as that of the German states at the present time. Attendance from the fifth year was required of every boy and girl in the province. The school year was to be ten months in length and the children were compelled to attend every week-day. The school day was to be from nine to twelve and from one to four every day in the week, except that Wednesday and Saturday afternoons were free. Parents were to be fined for non-attendance of children. The subjects of instruction were those of the Würtemberg plan with the addition of arithmetic. The grading of the schools, the details of the subjects of study and the methods of instruction were all provided for in the general law. Effect of the Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) had a disastrous effect upon the development of the school systems of all the German states, and it was not until the eighteenth century that school affairs begin to make continuous and rapid progress. Then sian school the Prussian school system, founded in 1648, rapidly forged to system P The Prus Elementary the front in all educational matters. By that time, however, it was political rather than religious considerations that were determinative in the control of the schools. (See p. 388.) No other people have even approximated the achievements of the German states in these respects. Until late into the nineteenth century, England left all educational effort either to the family or to the Church. The chief means were the great ry societies public schools and special religious-educational societies. Among haritable nd mission The school ystem of Scotland leveloped rom the these were the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (founded 1699), the British and Foreign School Society (founded 1805), the National Society (1811), and the Home and Colonial School Society (1836). In Scotland the early Reformation period witnessed many efforts toward the establishment of schools under the influence of the Church. But it was not until 1696 that an effective Reformation system was established through the coöperation of Church and state. At that time an act was passed requiring the landholders of each parish to provide a schoolhouse and to support a schoolmaster. In case the land-holders did not do this, the presbytery was authorized to apply to the commissioners of the shire, who were then to secure the enforcement of the act. The control of the teacher and the supervision of the schools were largely in the hands of the Church. Many of these schools offered secondary instruction as well as elementary, and sent boys directly to the university. Consequently the Scottish people had much better educational facilities and reached a higher common standard of intelligence than those of any No changes other portion of the British Empire. No changes of any importance were made in the system until the opening year of the nineteenth century. Provisions were then made for more than one school in the larger parishes, and for transferring the power of selecting teachers from the Church to the taxpayers. From this time on a system of education adequate for towns as well as for rural regions gradually grew up. .ntil the ineteenth entury In Holland a system of elementary schools was established Notwith- Develop ment of the school sys land out of the Refor under the auspices of the reformed churches. standing the cruelly oppressive Spanish wars of the sixteenth century, the synods of the Dutch Reformed Church made tem of Holprovision for the education of the youth. But it was not until the Synod of Dort (1618) that the Church undertook, in con- mation nection with the state, the establishment of a system of elementary schools in every parish. This system was as efficient as the chaotic condition of the times would permit. The earliest schools in the American colonies were established in accordance with the requirement of the Church-state of Holland that the respective trading companies should provide schools and churches for every one of their settlements. the New colonies grew out In America the earliest systems of schools, however, were Systems of in the Puritan colonies in New England. These were also schools in direct outgrowths of the Reformation spirit. The first general England law providing for schools was passed in 1647 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The oft-quoted preamble to that law indi- of the same cates the dominant motive. "It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as, in former times, keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these later times, by persuading them from the use Reformation influences |