OUR PAST EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE.

The educational history of our country, viewed from the standpoint of this latest development, is of especial interest. In the earliest times, when our people lived in a small fringe of settlements along the Atlantic seaboard, before the public school as we at present know it was more than a mere thought in the minds of our wise colonial forefathers, the so-called Latin or Grammar schools were founded. Among the earliest of these were the Boys' Latin School (1635) and the Roxbury Latin School (1645), of Boston, and the Penn Charter School (1698), of Philadelphia. They were all what we of the present would call "private" day schools, being "public" only in the sense that any citizen might send his boys to them if he could and would pay the necessary cost of tuition.

The students spent the morning at the school, rushed home to a hasty lunch or dinner, then hurried back to the second session of the day, with the frequent accompaniment of unsatisfied appetite or harmed digestion, but they had the saving favor of broad, open streets or vacant lots to play upon after school hours were over, at 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon. The work done in these schools, though of a sort that to-day might be deemed narrow and oldfashioned, was sound, and to that fact we owe the foundation of most of the culture and education in America to-day.

As time went on the cities gradually built up, becoming larger and more crowded. There were fewer vacant lots for young America to play upon, and in still later days even cable and electric cars were powerless to make continually accessible the open places necessary for exercise and fresh air. So much time was taken up in going to and from the "athletic fields," which the schools must now provide, that little chance was left for the good, long, hard play that is so necessary for the proper development of a healthy boy. The gymnasium was a new advantage, it is true, but at best it merely gave opportunity for exercise indoors or in bad weather, which was more like work than the healthful outdoor sports and games and had the added disadvantage of making exercise a business.

The public schools, as we know them to-day, were later established, and from them the old-style schools and academies differed little except in size and sometimes in equipment, or in the "exclusiveness" or "selectness" that the payment of tuition was supposed to give. Thoughtful parents were beginning to see the necessity of finding some way to keep their boys off the streets, and perhaps away from the bad associates of the hours out of school, and the only way open to them was that afforded by the boarding schools now springing up all over the country, many of them under church direction or influence. These are the institutions that are still so prominent in the educational life of the present day.

Exeter, Andover, Lawrenceville, St. James (Maryland), St. Paul's, St. Mark's, and many others were founded years ago, several of them having rounded out to-day a full century of existence. Their original purpose was mainly that of supplying an education for the boys of the small towns or country districts, for whom the day schools and academies, of which I have been speaking, were not available, and for whom the efficient high school, as we know it now, was still a thing of the future. These schools offered an opportunity that soon was grasped by the parents of the city boys, with the result that the old institutions grew at a remarkable rate, and new schools were founded all over the country. Groton, Pomfret, Hotchkiss, Hill, Asheville, Tome-all are among those dating from the period under discussion. To go away to a large boarding school of this type became the established custom.

Furthermore, the number and the popularity of our colleges and universities were increasing at the same time, and these schools were looked upon as the best means of acquiring a proper preparation for the more advanced education, with the result that they progressed in character and extent of training to a grade that has not yet been attained by the general average of other types of schools to-day.

The present status of college entrance requirements was another result. In the East our largest universities, such as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, more often consult and adapt their entrance requirements to the wishes of these large boarding schools than to the desires of any other preparatory institutions. The reason is obvious. These schools not only supply a large percentage of the students entering college, but also by means of their excellent and thorough educational work have been a factor in raising the standard of preparation. Of course these conditions prevail to a less extent in the West, where the State universities dominate the educational field, and as heads of the public-school systems plan their requirements more nearly to meet the efforts of the high schools.

There is no question that a large boarding school offers great educational advantages to those boys whose fathers can afford to pay for them, through the excellence of its curriculum, the strength of its faculty (for it can afford to pay salaries high enough to attract some of the best teachers, who would otherwise be engaged in college work), its large and expensive equipment, and the facilities it offers for personal touch with the masters and a large and valuable acquaintance among boys from all over the country. But it has one serious drawback-it cuts off the boy from home when 12 or 15 years old, the very age of all others when he needs the influences centering around home and family, which are of greater importance than any other in the life of a normal, well-trained, healthy child. The in

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fluence of a teacher is tremendous, but at best it can only supplement and add to that of a conscientious father and tender mother. Realizing this difficulty, the country school was founded, and it bids fair to make on the educational history of our time a still greater mark than it has already made in the comparatively short time it has been in existence.

THE BALTIMORE EXPERIMENT.

The whole movement at Baltimore, Md., owes its beginning to Mrs. Francis K. Carey, wife of a prominent attorney of that city. Mrs. Carey, prompted by the wish for a proper school for her own child without separating him from the influences of home, worked out the idea of an all-day country school for city boys, perhaps combined with a boarding school, which would furnish the routine of an entire day in the country with study and sports alike under the teachers' direction. She discussed the matter with Mrs. William Cabell Bruce, and finally enlisted the interest of Dr. Daniel Coit Gilman, the lamented president of Johns Hopkins University, who together with Mr. Francis K. Carey, Mr. William Cabell Bruce, and the late Hon. William A. Fisher were so convinced of the advantages and sound common sense of the idea that they felt themselves justified in making a definite attempt to establish such a school.

In March, 1897, a commitee on organization was formed, which consisted of President Gilman and Prof. Herbert B. Adams, of Johns Hopkins University; Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Attorney General in President Roosevelt's Cabinet; Hon. William A. Fisher, Mr. William Cabell Bruce, Mr. William H. Buckler, and Mr. Francis K. Carey. This committee issued the following announcement:

It is proposed to establish a country boarding and day school for boys, designed for the education of those boys whose parents wish them to be trained from the beginning of their school education under the best methods approved by modern educators and with surroundings which will protect their health and character. As far as possible, the school will aim to furnish to Baltimore boys the advantages which are now offered at the well-known boarding schools of the country without separating the boys, more than may be indispensable, from their parents. The school buildings will be located at some point in the suburbs of Baltimore, easily accessible by electric cars or steam railway. They will be properly equipped and furnished and will be surrounded by ample grounds.

In acordance with these plans a board of trustees was selected and a corporation formed under the title "The Country School for Boys of Baltimore City," a name that was changed recently to that of the "Gilman Country School for Boys," thus doing honor to the one of its founders who, with few possible exceptions, influenced education for good in this country more than any other American of the nineteenth century.

As the result of active effort under the leadership of Mr. Carey, in which nearly 200 men were interviewed, a fund of $12,000 was