32 
Girls’ Schools. 
to the Peace of Westphalia, special stress being laid on what refers 
to intellectual matters, and to the manner of life of women in Ger- 
many. In class I: continuation of German history, from the Peace of 
Westphalia down to modern times, with increased attention to 
Brandenburg-Prussian history (Frederick William I, the time of 
Frederick the Great, the period of the French Revolution, of Na- 
poleonic rule, of the Wars of Liberation, the struggles of 1864, 1866, 
{870—71, the unification of Germany, the new Empire and its devel- 
opment). Short views of the history of England, France, Italy, Austria. 
and the United States. 
For the two foreign languages the aims in view are as follows. 
The immediate object of the teaching of the foreign languages 
is that of enabling the pupil to understand an easier French or Eng- 
lish writer, to grasp readily the meaning when English and French 
are spoken, and to use the foreign language with some facility, both 
orally and in writing, when applied to the simple forms of everyday 
ntercourse. The more indirect aim of the teaching is that of intro- 
ducing the pupils to an appreciation, as far as possible, of the mental 
and material development, and of the manners and customs, of the 
:wo foreign nations. 
Reading occupies a central position during the whole course. 
Grammar is not taught systematically from the beginning, but is 
deduced from the reading, and gradually built up from concrete ob- 
servations. Practice in speaking plays a great part from the outset. 
The whole method presupposes in the teacher both perfect facility in 
the handling of the language, and a certain amount of phonetic 
schooling, together with the ability of deriving practical help in the 
teaching from the results of historical linguistic study. The extent of 
a pupil’s acquirements is estimated very much less by the greater or 
slighter facility in translating a German text into the foreign language, 
than by the ease and rapiditv with which the meaning of a foreign 
rext is orasped. 
The male teachers in the Higher Girls’ Schools are partly 
academically trained senior masters (Oberlehrer), with qualification to 
teach in secondary schools, partly taken from among the elementary 
teachers, but in that case they must have passed the examination for 
the intermediate schools. But in the majority of the institutions, 
especially in the private ones, female teachers are employed. Also 
for the latter examinations are prescribed, for which the necessary