186 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
caliphs of Bagdad and Cordova contributed in no small measure to the 
remarkable success of the Mohammedan schools that flourished with such 
signal efficiency for five centuries. In the schools of Bagdad, Damascus, 
Cordova, Salamanca, and Toledo, grammar, chemistry, algebra, trigo- 
aometry, and astronomy were made to assume new forms, and made very 
great advances. 
Coming to more recent times, the history of education in France and 
Germany is largely the history of organized, systematized, supervised 
work. The French Convention of 1793 prepared the way for the ample 
eforms and systems inaugurated thirteen years later by Napoleon, and it 
.s worthy of note that the best impulses of reform in the French schools 
started from the lyceums, or secondary schools. I need not dwell on the 
fundamental characteristics of the German schools. Suffice it to say that 
we would almost accept the Army bill if thereby we could have the Ger- 
man gymnasia in our own land, or at least the capacity and efficiency of 
shese schools. Before completing our hurried glance at organized educa- 
sion, reflect for a moment upon the condition of the English schools. 
Here so much has been left to individual effort and denominational zeal 
shat the historian must record the verdict that education has made less 
progress in England than in any other European state. Her theory and 
practice closely resemble our own. In our country, may I not with all 
prudence say that our public school system, taken in its entirety—explain 
she fact as we may—is superior at every point to our haphazard, unsys- 
sematized private schools? This is not due, as often charged, to the 
inability of some private school pupils to meet the demands of the public 
schools, for the vast majority of our private school pupils have at no time 
been connected with public schools. It has ceased to be a question in 
shousands of American homes whether or no the children shall attend the 
public schools. They are foreordained to the all too tender mercies of the 
“¢gelect school.” 
If what I have been trying to say be admitted, it is idle to deprecate 
supervised schools because of the sure taint of politics. The genius and 
earnestness of our people may be trusted to stay the hand of this malign 
influence in the affairs of our schools. Enlarged responsibilities, includ- 
ng the care of the schools patronized by classes of citizens likely to be 
more exacting and more influential, would indeed induce a higher sense 
of duty and less meddlesome methods on the part of the custodians of our 
schools. It is quite germane to our subject, as it seems to me, to call 
attention to that other form of governmental control of our schools 
exemplified in the national academies at West Point and Annapolis. The 
director of the English Military School at Woolwich volunteered to me the 
statement that these two American schools were the best schools in the 
world. This I believe to be true as regards all matters of organization 
and method. Horace Mann’s predictions have not been fulfilled. A way 
87 ¢ 
was 1 
SeCTr¢ 
yet al 
best i 
privat 
and ¢ 
schoo 
temat 
the p. 
to a } 
have 
work. 
ing tl 
and § 
chose 
woul 
What 
limite 
regist 
burea 
cians’ 
[ 2 
threa 
of le: 
the w 
law. 
volca 
the 
long 
willl 
not 1 
repw 
of al 
powe 
defer 
worl 
prop 
sour 
healt 
mun 
I 
tion 
man 
and