THE AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL.
The American High School. By John Franklin Brown, Ph.D. (Macmillan and Co. 6s. net.)—We have, of course, in this country schools that resemble the American high school, but we have not got anything that resembles their system. Continuation schools, grammar schools, and private schools fulfil, more or less, the same function; but the organisation which systematises their activities is wanting. Our kinsmen on "the other side" have had the advantage of starting on an unoccupied field. Whetherwe shall ever have what Dr. Brown here describes we know not; but it is certainly profitable to read what he says. It is full of suggestion. In some respects we have an advantage. More men, for instance, are available for filling up the ranks of the teachers. On one important matter we differ very considerably. In America co-education is almost universal in the high school. Dr. Brown accepts it as a fact, but is not enthusiastic. In physical educa- tion we are better off. Tho English love of "leisurely sport" has not acclimatised itself on "the other side." The loss of pupils not proceeding to higher grades seems very large. Those who do not proceed from the "grammar grade" of the elementary school (equivalent to our higher standards) to high schools number 32.5 per cent. ; 37 per cont. do not continue beyond their first year, 294 per cent, do not go from the second to the third, and 33 per cent. leave between the third and fourth. . Of two hundred pupils who are qualified for the grammar grade, only some hundred and thirty-five proceed to it, and of these a few more than forty persist to the end of the fourth year.
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