PREFACE CHAPTER CONTENTS PAGE vii APPENDIX A. STATISTICS OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. APPENDIX B. RECENT SCHOOL CURRICULUMS APPENDIX C. BIBLIOGRAPHY NOTE The following abbreviations are employed in foot-notes and bibliography: Am. Ed. Hist. for Contributions to American Educational History, edited by Herbert B. Adams. Am. Inst. Instr. for The Papers Read before the American Institute of Instruction, with the Journal of Proceedings. Am. Journ. Ed. for [Barnard's] The American Journal of Education. Circ. Inf. for Circular of Information of the United States Bureau of Education. Col. Univ. Contribs. for Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology, and Education. Ed. Rev. for Educational Review. N. A. Rev. for The North American Review. Proc. N. E. A. for The Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the National Educational Association. Rept. Comr. Ed. for report of the [United States] Commissioner of Education. THE MAKING OF OUR MIDDLE SCHOOLS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION AMERICAN institutions are an expression of American character. The making of that character and the making of those institutions can hardly be thought of as distinct processes. They are different aspects of one process, and neither of them can be understood apart from the other. We are to look into this twofold development as it appears in the records of American education. The schools, in general, have occupied an intermediate position between church and state, responding always to influences from both sides, but affected chiefly in earlier times by ecclesiastical considerations and in later times chiefly by considerations of a political character; and at all times they have been open to influences of a more diffusive sort, economic, literary, and, broadly speaking, social. Of the schools, too, the secondary schools occupy an intermediate position they have been influenced by educational institutions and educational processes both above them and below. This fact adds much to the difficulty of the present inquiry, but in adding to its difficulty adds also to its interest. It is, perhaps, sufficient for our purpose to define secondary education roughly as education of a higher stage than that of the elementary school and lower than that of institutions authorized to give academic degrees. This definition gives |