years many of the people of the rural districts have wished that their children might have the same kind of opportunity to attend high schools as the children of the cities have. This has been brought about in many cases by establishing county and township high schools, attendance at which is free to any pupil residing in the county or township, and by providing for the free attendance of country pupils at the high schools of neighboring cities and villages, the school-districts from which the pupils came paying the cost of tuition. A few states have already established county-schools of agriculture and domestic science for those boys and girls who have completed the work of the ordinary district-school. This movement to give a high-school education to country pupils is one of the most important reforms of the present time. So important, in fact, is it that a plan to have the national government make special appropriations for the support of these schools has been prepared and considered by Congress.
Educational Extension. In addition to the efforts to improve and enlarge the opportunity for the education of the pupils of rural communities in schools, numerous other plans have been put into operation to give all the people of these communities, men and women as well as children, a better chance to become educated. In this connection may be mentioned the placing of libraries in the rural schools; the establishment of the system of traveling libraries; the holding of farmers' institutes; and the forming of farm-clubs, including not only the pupils of the schools but those older boys and girls who have left school for any reason, in order to create a lively interest in the betterment of the crops of the farm. When all these things happen to the rural schools, it may be truthfully said that every American country-boy and girl has the best educational privileges of any boy or girl in the world, and life on the farm will be better than any other life. But not until then.
Bibliography. Of recent years there has appeared in various educational publications and reports and in periodical literature a large amount of material on rural schools. The following brief list gives the latest and best publications upon the rural schools accessible to the ordinary reader: National Educational Association's Report of the Committee of Twelve on Rural Schools (1895); Report of the Committee on Industrial Education in Schools for Rural Communities (1905); Kern's Among Country Schools (1906); Johnson's The Country Schools (1907); and Corbett's Free High Schools for Rural Pupils (Report U. S. Com. of Ed. 1899-1900, pp. 643-662).
Schools, Secondary, of to-day may be said to have originated from the Renaissance. At that time there developed in the aristocracy of Europe an interest in polite social life that found satisfaction in a study of the culture of Greece and Rome and especially of classic literature. The secondary schools sprang into existence, having for their aim liberal culture, or culture in the humanities, as distinguished from the religious or spiritual instruction given in the middle ages. They may be typified by the gymnasia of Germany; by the so-called “public” schools and the grammar-schools of England, most of which are endowed; by private institutions like that of Vittorino do Feltre in Italy; and by the great system of colleges established by the Jesuits all over Europe. In general they gave a course of from eight to ten years devoted almost entirely to the Latin and Greek languages and literatures. Hebrew was occasionally given, and also a little history, with possibly mathematics, logic and ethics, but these subjects were learned almost entirely through classical texts. The development of modern literature and the disappearance of Latin as the language of science and learning rendered this program somewhat antiquated, but it has to a great extent been retained in the classical secondary schools on the ground of the discipline it is supposed to furnish. (See Mental Discipline.) On the other hand, other types of secondary schools have sprung up, laying stress on modern languages, history and science. In Germany the secondary system of to-day comprises the classical school or gymnasium, giving a nine years' course, the scientific school or realschule, the course of which is the same in length or shorter, and various intermediate types. The curriculum of the gymnasium includes religion, German, Latin, Greek, French, history, geography, mathematics, natural history, physics, writing and drawing. The realschulen leave out the classical languages and emphasize science and mathematics. In France the colleges of the Jesuits disappeared because of the suppression of the order in 1764. In their place lycées and communal colleges have been established. They offer a nine years' course, the early part of which is like that in the German gymnasium, but during the last three years the pupil can elect to specialize either in classics, modern languages or science. In England the endowed schools were subjected to a careful state investigation about the middle of the 19th century. The result was the disappearance of many abuses, somewhat better organization and a few steps toward modernizing the curriculum. They, however, remain to-day almost entirely devoted to the classics. Mathematics, history and science are taught, but the historical and scientific instruction is very meager. On the other hand, the
