at Sköfde, in 1866, by Miss Emanuella Carlbeck. At the present time there are 36 institutions (all homes)-some of them schools (for children capable of instruction), others working homes (for pupils who have left school), and others, again, asylums (for those incapable of instruction). These institutions are supported by societies, county councils, and private people; moreover, the State grants $67 for every teachable idiot in the schools, and $270 for each pupil at the working homes. The whole number in charge at the above institutions amounts to 889; small institutions of this kind being preferred, none of them contains more than about 80 pupils. The majority of such institutions are managed by women, and these do all the teaching, except in gymnastics and wood carving, because women, owing to their gentler and more patient temperament, are considered best fitted for instructing idiots, which occupation tries these qualities.

Working homes were erected when it was found that pupils who had left the schools could not stand the humiliation of associating with workmen normally gifted. Working homes for male idiots are usually located in the country, and there the patients are employed with great success in agriculture and gardening. Under able superintendence they prove in a perfectly satisfactory way their ability to perform the rougher labors of farming and cattle tending. Homes for female idiots are generally located in towns, and the wards contribute toward their own support by weaving (in which art many attain a considerable skill), knitting, sewing, and lace making, etc.

There is an asylum on a small scale attached to nearly every school. Up to the present time, though, very little has been done in Sweden for this department of idiot management.

For providing an efficient staff of teachers for idiots a training college has been conducted in Stockholm since 1878 at the School for Feeble-minded Children, with accommodation at the present time for 8 pupils, who undergo a two years' theoretical and practical course of training. The training college is supported by the State at an annual cost of $3,200.

The total number of idiots in Sweden, according to the census of 1890, amounted to 7,619, or 159 per each 100,000 of the population. Probably this figure is a trifle too high though. For times gone by the reports show a much smaller proportion, but they may underrate real conditions. The number of idiots of school age is about 2,000.

Working schools for disabled people.-In Gottenborg there was organized, as early as 1885, an "Association for Assistance to Disabled People." Means were collected and the school was opened on October 5 the same year. The number of pupils has, from the beginning of the school till the end of the year 1902, amounted to 195. Of these, 23 were entirely in waut of one arm, 27 paralyzed in one arm in consequence of disease, the others had different bodily defects, which made it difficult for them to be engaged in any trade. The school makes a point of giving the disabled people an industrial education. Instruction is given in joinery, turning, shoemaking, basket making, brush making, and wood carving for the male pupils; linen sewing and art needlework, lettering, weaving, and stockinet knitting for the female pupils. As soon as the work is salable the pupil has hitherto received full wages; the school has only taken pay for the material and run the risk of the work not being sold. Destitute pupils are given free dinner at the school. Free baths are given, and an opportunity is afforded to the most sickly to spend six weeks in the country in summer. In Karlskrona, on the initiative of a private person, a little school for disabled people was opened in 1886. In 1887 the Association for Assistance to Disabled People in Skane was organized, and a working school was opened in Helsingborg. In 1890 a home, intended to hold 40 pupils, was built, but this number has never as

yet been received, owing to the lack of sufficient means. In 1891 the "Society in Aid of the Deformed and Infirm" was established in Stockholm. In 1892 its working school was opened; now also a "home" for part of the pupils is connected with the same. The pupils who need orthopedic treatment receive it at the general orthopedic clinic of Stockholm.

Nothing has yet been done on the part of the State to facilitate the instruction and care of disabled people, so it is almost entirely from the neighborhood in the immediate vicinity of the schools that pupils can be received.

PEOPLE'S HIGH SCHOOLS-WORK MEN'S INSTITUTES—UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. During the last decades, numerous efforts have been made in Sweden for the promotion of knowledge also among the adult population of the lower classes of the community, or among others who either through their trade or profession are prevented from attending the regular schools. These efforts have taken form, partly in the so-called "People's High Schools" and in the kindred "Workmen's Institutes," both of which institutions have originated on Scandinavian or Swedish ground, and partly in the so-called "University extension" movement, according to a pattern received from England. To this has of late years been added a great activity in popular public lecturing, which is being embraced with a steadily growing interest, and is arranged for by associations specially formed for the purpose.

People's high schools (Folkhögskolor) are institutions which only exist in the three kingdoms of Scandinavia and also in Finland. Their purpose is to furnish adult members, especially of the peasantry, with an education at once civil, patriotic, and practical. There are now 30 of these schools.

People's high schools are all located in the country. Most of them now have buildings of their own, with residences for the teachers and a certain number of pupils, the rest of the pupils living in adjacent houses. Gymnastic halls are provided in some schools, and are also used by the people of the neighborhood for meetings.

Most of the schools were originally private enterprises, but nearly always supported by grants from the county councils and agricultural societies, as well as the State. No special courses of instruction are fixed, and there is no examination on leaving.

Youths of 18-the average age is from 20 to 22—having passed through the national school and bringing a certificate of good conduct are received as pupils. There is no entrance examination. In 1900 the total number of pupils was 774.

The instruction given covers a period of one or two years, the first and second of which, however, greatly differ in character, so that the majority of students only go through the first course. According to the average of certain larger and olderestablished schools, the following subjects were studied as a first year's course during the session from November, 1897, to April, 1898, viz: Swedish language 186 hours, history 80, geography 57, politics and municipal law 56, rural economy 22, natural science and hygiene 120, arithmetic 85, geometry, land surveying, and leveling 45, bookkeeping 47, architectural drawing and drawing tools 68, writing 46, singing 46, and gymnastics 69 hours, to which may be added reading aloud literary works, discussions, assemblies, and, in some schools, sloyd.

The second year's course, which has more of a professional stamp, embraces, in addition, farming, rearing of domestic animals, and forestry. At 12 schools the second year's course is arranged on the lines of a thorough school of agriculture, with a special State grant toward defraying the costs of instruction.

The State has made grants to people's high schools since 1872. The total amount

was raised by the Riksdag of 1900 from $15,000 to $32,000.

As

At the present time there are also people's high school courses for women. already mentioned, the courses for men are held in the winter session from Novem

ber to April. It naturally occurred to the authorities to fix on the summer for women's classes. A beginning was made at the people's high school at Hvilan in 1873, and the plan has since been more and more generally adopted. As a rule, these courses are directed by the manager of the men's school and his wife, with the assistance of the necessary number of the other teachers and of specially appointed female teachers.

The total number of female scholars in 1900 was 614. The age is generally between 18 and 20. Instruction is given in the Swedish language, history, geography, natural science, hygiene, and domestic economy, arithmetic, bookkeeping, writing, singing, and several kinds of needlework and weaving.

Workmen's institutes, located in the towns, offer to the working classes there popular lectures and opportunities for instructive reading. The first institute of the kind was established in 1880, in Stockholm by A. Nyström, M. D. The lectures at it have chiefly pertained to history and natural science. After the pattern of the Stockholm institute, others of the same kind have been organized in several other towns.

Lecture courses. Of late years an important and steadily increasing activity has been exercised in Sweden by a great number of lecture associations of various kinds. The work has in some cases been entered upon by societies founded for other purposes, as workingmen's associations, trade unions, temperance societies, et cet.; but generally special associations have been founded for the purpose of arranging popular scientific lectures. In a marked degree this movement has of late years been promoted by the establishing of central offices procuring lecturers; by means of these offices a considerable unity and a better organization have been brought into the work. The oldest of these central offices is the one for southern Sweden at Lund (since 1898), from which in the year 1902 more than 900 lectures were ordered to be delivered by about 50 different lecturers at 75 places.

The costs for these lectures were at first defrayed by the fees of the society members and by subventions from the respective communities and county councils, but nowadays to a considerable degree also by State grants. For 1902 the Government thus disbursed a total of $17,000 to 123 different lecture institutions, but as petitions for subvention were sent in by no less than 56 other recent associations, which, however, had to be refused for want of sufficient disposable means, the Government presented a proposal to the Riksdag to increase the annual supply to $27,000, which also was granted. For State subventions to be granted it is enjoined that the respective associations provide as large an amount as the State, and that political and religious controversies or debates be excluded from the lectures. The interest in these lectures has been constantly increasing, but of course it is as yet manifesting itself very differently in different parts. In the thinly populated country districts there are many difficulties to be overcome.

Summer courses at the universities.-After the model of the English "university extension" movement, there has annually, since 1893, during the latter half of August, been given a course of lectures of a fortnight's duration at Upsala and Lund alternately, for people who are not able to profit regularly by academical instruction. The number of partakers has in Upsala averaged nearly 400, of whom about two-thirds were male and female common school teachers.

2. SECONDARY EDUCATION.

Under this head come the public schools for boys supported by the State, as well as the private schools of the same standing, and also the higher schools for girls, which in range of instruction closely approach the former.

PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS FOR BOYS.

Aim and number of the public secondary schools for boys.-According to the public school act of November 1, 1878, still in force, it is the object of the secondary schools to give a civic education beyond that imparted by the common schools, and also to impart that scientific knowledge which is to be further developed at the university or the higher special schools.

During the school year 1902-3 the entire number of public secondary schools as supported by the State amounted to 82. Those containing nine classes are called higher or complete secondary schools; those containing five or three classes, lower secondary schools, and those containing less than three classes, pedagogies.

During the school year 1900-1901, 36 schools had nine classes, 1 six classes, 38 five classes, I four classes, 2 three classes, and 1 two classes.

Of the 36 schools, 25 have both the lines, classical and modern, complete; 7 only the classical line (3 having a modern line in the sixth class), and 4 only the modern line. All, with four exceptions, have both lines in the fourth and fifth classes.

The number of students in a section of the five lower classes must not exceed 40. But as parallel sections often occur in the same class, there are higher schools with 600 or 700 students, and lower schools with 300 or 400.

All the public secondary schools are located in towns and cities.

Administration.--The public secondary schools, like most of the educational institutions of the country, come under the ecclesiastical department. Within each diocese the bishop is the superintendent (eforus) of its public schools; for schools not located in the cathedral city he appoints as his representative an inspector.

At the head of every public school there is a principal (rector), who is appointed by the Government from among the applicants for a definite term of years-usually five. Besides his duties as head of the school the principal has a certain amount of teaching to do and is responsible for the school finances.

The principal is assisted in the performance of his duties by the faculty (lärarekollegiet), consisting of the teachers of the school, presided over by the "eforus” or inspector, if he is present, otherwise by the principal. The faculty determines upon questions of teaching, school discipline, finances, etc.

Instruction.—The school year begins at the close of August and extends over 36 weeks, with a week of Easter and half a week of Whitsuntide vacation. The actual number of school weeks is thus 344. Hence the school year is in Sweden considerably shorter than in most other European countries. Thus it is in Denmark 43, in Prussia and Austria 42, in France 41, and in Norway 38 weeks.

A complete school course is calculated for nine years of work, distributed over seven classes, of which the two highest (VI and VII) cover each two years. The first class is the lowest. The four highest classes are called, respectively, the lower sixth (VI: 1), the upper sixth (VI: 2), the lower seventh (VII: 1), and the upper seventh (VII: 2).

TABLE 4.-Time schedule for the public secondary schools,a

a Roman numbers denote classes. Ca classical line A (with Greek); Cb-classical line B (without Greek); M=modern line (the classical and modern lines do not diverge till in the fourth class; and the division of the classical line takes place in Class VI: 1).

b Special hours are given to geography in Classes I-IV, resp. 2, 2, 3, 1, and 1.

e Psychology and logic.

dZoology (I-IV); botany (II-V): physics, astronomy (IV); chemistry, geology (V).

e Swedish composition in the class.

In Classes I-III all the students have the same courses. With Class IV the school branches into two lines: The classical line (Latinlinien) with Latin, and the modern line (Reallinien) without that language. In Classes IV and V, however, the difference in the curriculum of the two lines only touches a few subjects, inasmuch as the seven hours Latin and the one hour drawing on the classical line correspond to six hours English and two hours drawing on the other; the courses in history are, moreover, somewhat different, so that the two lines can not be taught together in that subject. In Class VI: 1 greater differences appear in the two curricula, and at the same time the classical line is subdivided into two sections-Section A, with Greek, and Section B, without Greek.

The teaching extends over five to six hours daily. Instruction in singing, drilling and gymnastics, military drill (obligatory), and also instruction in English (voluntary) for students in the A section of the two highest classes, and in drawing and instrumental music for boys who desire to learn them, takes place at times outside the regular curriculum, often in the afternoons. Instruction in singing, obligatory

to all students with ear and taste for music, in the lower five classes, but optional in the higher classes, must not occupy over two hours a week. Gymnastics is taught in all classes half an hour every day, or, if this is not feasible, at least in such a way that not less than three hours of instruction in the week is given to every division in gymnastics. Sometimes pedagogical gymnastics are replaced by running games conducted under the teacher's supervision and guidance, preferably in the open air. Military drill, replacing gymnastics, for the boys in Classes VI and VII, extends over five weeks at most at the beginning of the autumn term, for altogether sixty hours; during this period the principal may arrange with the teachers for a diminution in