compulsory education law that fixes the termination of the age above twelve years, and does not provide for the physical needs of such children, may exact a hardship, if not an impossibility.

The child between the ages of six and twelve years can do little to aid in his support, and during this time should be in school whenever the public schools are in session. A less requirement as to number of weeks should be made for children between the ages of twelve and sixteen, say twelve to sixteen weeks per annum. In addition to the above, children between the ages of twelve and sixteen years should be required to attend school whenever not regularly employed.

REQUISITES TO THE ENFORCEMENT OF A COMPULSORY EDUCATION LAW.

To make the enforcement of a compulsory education law possible, the following must be provided:

1. A sufficient number of school buildings, school seatings, and teachers, a large increase over the present supply. Greater New York finds the lack of school room a great obstacle to the enforcement of the most excellent law for the State of New York.

2. Means for physical care during school age of children whose parents are not able properly to care for them,- an extension of the parental function of the State.

3. Laws prohibiting the employment of child-labor between certain ages and restricting it between other ages.

4. Ungraded schools, where pupils may be given more individual attention and be permitted to associate with other children of their own age. The boy of fifteen will not do good work in a second grade with children from seven to nine years of

age.

5. Truancy schools for the instruction of incorrigibles, children who are not submissive to proper authority.

6. Truancy officers, whose business is to see that all children between certain ages are in school.

7. Punishment for the parent, employer of child-labor, or truancy officer for each violation of the laws for compulsory education or the protection of child-labor.

CONCLUSIONS.

To sum up the foregoing discussion of remedies, the immediate remedies which are at present feasible, and which under present conditions would be the most effective if enacted, are the following:

1. A compulsory education law requiring attendance at school between the ages of six and twelve, and whenever not regularly employed between the ages of twelve and sixteen. Such a law would give the child who merely complied with its requirements all the work of the grammar grades instead of less than three years, as is now the case. Such a compulsory education law should be supplemented by child-labor laws, and laws for the physical support of children by the State, when necessary, during the period of compulsory school attendance, and laws for the provision of truancy and ungraded schools.

2. An increase in the number of public kindergartens, thus permitting many to begin their schooling two years earlier.

3. The establishment of public trade schools, where children may elect to spend their time of compulsory school attendance between the ages of twelve and sixteen years.

4. A pruning and remodeling of the course of study on such a basis as will make the sociological tests of the qualifications for good citizenship and the ability of the average child the guides in determining the studies to be taught, the time to be given to each, and the amount of work to be required in any given grade. A relaxing of the grade system, so that those of the lowest rank in abilities, though not able to do the work of all the other pupils, may have the advantages of such studies and discipline in the upper grades as are most suited to their genius.

THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE

POPULAR LECTURE.

BY HENRY M. LEIPZIGER, PH.D., OF NEW YORK.

[Read Tuesday morning, August 30.]

The century just closing can claim as its proudest achievement the spread of the belief in the value of education. When Napoleon denied himself to Pestalozzi on the ground that he had no time to bother with A, B, C, he little dreamt that because of the attention which his defeated foe paid to the " A, B, C," her day of triumph would come. Fichte, by his inspiring addresses on the value of education, aroused an interest that has made Germany's school system a model; and when, in 1871, Sedan avenged Jena, it was due to the trained man and the needle-gun.

In most of the countries of Western Europe the century has witnessed the growth of great public school systems, open to all,- schools not for the poor, but for the people, with the best equipment, the best buildings, the best teachers. As a logical development of this belief has come the establishment of the kindergarten at one end of the educational scale and the State university at the other. These institutions, if they may be so termed, are recognized parts of the educational system. Their establishment has given a broader meaning to the term "school" than we were once wont to admit. Shall the education furnished by the State end with the high school or the university, or shall the State furnish opportunity for a continuance of education to those whose school life has been limited or who acquire later in life some yearning for higher things? In other words, shall democracy accept the motto of the London Society for the University Extension Teaching,— Man needs knowledge, not as a means of livelihood, but as a means of life"?

It is the belief that the term "school," as hitherto generally understood, is still too narrow in its acceptation, that it has led to the establishment of the movement known as "University Extension." Its objects have been stated to be "the extension of knowl

edge among people too old to go to school, and unable to give their entire time to study, the cultivating of habits of useful reading, of correct thinking and right conduct, the awakening and stimulating of intellectual life,—all for the purpose of making better citizens, widening social progress, and rendering the conditions of society at large more interesting and enjoyable to its members." It offers :

1. Education, by means of systematic courses of lectures.

2. Illustrated lectures, in literature, art, and science, with the purpose of teaching the appreciation of the beautiful and rendering life more enjoyable.

3. Lectures on history, civics, and economics, with the purpose of aiding the citizen to study the problems of government.

It will be seen that the chief factor in this movement is the lecture, and the question may be asked whether satisfactory results can be obtained through this medium.

The history of this country shows that the lyceum system in the past supplemented our imperfect schools. It was by means of these lyceum lectures that the great leaders of the abolition movement reached the hearts of the people. It is through the speaker and the orator that the people are still roused to action.

The lecture of to-day, and to which I refer, is, however, a lecture not given necessarily by an orator, but by a teacher, whose purpose is not to sway, but to instruct, not to persuade, but to inform. That the lecture is a popular form of instruction may be gathered from the fact that through the Brooklyn Institute, the extension of the University of Chicago, the American Society for University Extension, and the Free Lectures of New York City, during the past season, at least a million auditors were reached. This certainly shows that popular lectures appeal to large classes of people; and the growth in attendance proves, further, that the value of the popular lectures as an educational force is on the increase.

The University Extension movement has, however, in the main, been applied to villages and small cities. It has not taken deep root in larger cities. Its methods were, perhaps, too formal. To adapt it to the conditions of a great city like New York, and achieve success, is quite a victory for the cause of the people's education.

The brief story of the New York course will therefore at once fortify the faith in the belief in the lecture as an educator for adults, and stimulate similar movements in other cities.

The University Extension movement begun in England has been the inspiration for the Free Lecture movement of New York City. Begun in 1889 with many misgivings, its growth and success have exceeded the most sanguine expectations of its supporters; and the natural result of its existence is a larger intercourse with books and wider diffusion of reading.

The lecture course of New York City had its origin in the firm faith in the value of the widest and most broadly diffused popular education, in the belief that this republic of ours can endure only if the men and women who control it are cultured and intelligent, who appreciate the fact that in this nineteenth century it is enlightened public opinion that guides the destiny of nations, and that to help in the making of the wisest, sanest, broadest, and humanest public opinion is the noblest use to which men can put their knowledge and inspiration.

How does the work of the Free Lectures serve the end of which we speak? By creating missionaries of light and truth. By establishing intellectual power-houses, whose light becomes eternal, that is given freely to all, that illumines with its radiance the home of the poorest as well as the richest, that gives a new trend to many a human being, and brings a new hope to many a soul.

The movement of which the free lecture course is a part is sometimes known as University Extension. In many of the reports of the movement in other parts of the country and in other countries, I find it stated that the working people do not attend in as large numbers as they should. I am happy to state that our audiences are almost all composed of "working people." Our lecture halls are near their homes. These lecture halls being generally the school-houses, the school by its use for this purpose becomes an educational centre in a broad sense, and by use in this manner is paving the way for the time when in each Assembly District of our city there shall be a municipal meeting-house, with its library, reading-room, and assembly hall, where citizens can meet to discuss those broad non-partisan questions which affect their general well-being.

Lectures were given in forty-one different places during the past year (1897-98), distributed over what is now known as the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. In all, 1,595 different lectures were given. About 175 lecturers participated, and the total attendance reached 509,000. These figures, however, do not convey the real significance of the movement. The continuity of in