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