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THE COURSE OF STUDY IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 195 
sourses, with a limited teaching force and equipment, usually fail to do as 
ood work as the special school that confines itself to one set purpose. 
Their college preparatory work is apt to be inferior to that of the academy 
that fits for college, their scientific course inferior to the manual-train= 
ing or technical high-school, and their commercial course inferior to the 
usiness school. The pupil on entering the school faces the necessity 
of making a choice of courses, which means as much as selecting the 
kind of special school which he shall attend. The provision for several 
sourses is right in the assumption that there is a difference in what is 
suited to pupils, but it makes the false assumption that pupils on enter- 
‘ng the school know just what is best for them, and may be grouped 
;0 correspond with the previously arranged courses of study with all of 
their imposed limitations and restrictions. Such a school should break 
down the artificial barriers between the several courses, and make as 
many combinations as there are pupils, if this becomes necessary in 
i the thorough exploration of all its pupils’ capacities,” to use another 
of President Eliot’s expressive phrases. 
A school should know and acknowledge its limitations, and undertake 
to do no more than it can do, and do well. The distinctive character 
of a secondary school should depend on its equipment, the number of 
its pupils, and its location and constituency. All that can reasonably 
oe expected in the way of uniformity, all that should be attempted, is 
that the common ground, the minimum requirement of all secondary 
schools, be made to include as much as possible, and be insisted on in 
all secondary schools. Every such school should do whatever 1s de- 
cided upon as a uniform minimum ; if it can do no more, let it stop there. 
A special secondary school should do the minimum, and so much more 
as is necessary for it to accomplish its set purpose. A complete second- 
ary school should do the minimum, and in addition offer anything that 
can be profitably undertaken by a pupil between the ages of fourteen 
and eighteen years, whatever his subsequent career may be. Thus we 
should have three classes of secondary schools, each class doing the 
same work, so far as the minimum is concerned, and distinctive by 
reason of the nature and quantity of the additional work offered. 
The question of what may reasonably be required as a minimum in 
every secondary school is a most important one for the consideration of 
“hose in charge of secondary and higher education. I submit the fol- 
lowing : Three years’ work in a foreign language, preferably Latin ; two 
years in mathematics (algebra and geometry), and one year in science, 
oreferably physics; two years in English (reading selections, and compo- 
sition), and one year in general history. 
A complete secondary school should offer the following : Eleven 
years’ work in foreign languages (four in Latin, three in Greek, two in 
German. and two in French); three years in mathematics (algebra, geom-