Reports on the Philadelphia International Exhibition of 1876.

Date:
1877-1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports on the Philadelphia International Exhibition of 1876. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    402/446 page 302
    :$02 The Argentine Republic. Canada. Technical Education. and treatises on teaching, based on the best experience of more civilized countries; nay it even issues to the teachers papers on education containing articles translated from foreign journals. Though the system of mixed schools lias not been adopted, girls are treated as on an equality with boys and entitled to the same care; the Empress recently showed her interest in female education yr£01I¥f m l3erson to °Pen the fil'st normal school for girls at Tokio Ihe Japanese building was rich in books of elementary science, maps and plans ot schools, chairs and tables, almanacs, histories and newspapers but the pictures illustrated as well as anything the present system of instruction In contrast with the old schools, where master and pupils assumed the most indolent attitudes, we see classes in large and airy rooms, each pupil with a slate before him on which is reproduced the lesson of the day. Teaching by the eye is a strong point with the Japanese ; the scenes of rural and domestic life are portrayed with a vividness that draws from Dr. Saffray the exclamation : , a!*this there is nothing pedantic or artificial; these are scenes taken from life, in which one may discover the touch of humour, whereby the attention (t of children is so surely obtained. Who will execute for our schools '( a. senes of joyous designs like these which are put before the eyes of the ' little Japanese? The mechanical powers are illustrated in the same graphic way, and moral lessons are conveyed far more effectively than by mere oral teaching, Here is a horse tied to a tree; while its master is away, one child tickles it with a switch, while another pulls hairs out of its tail. Here is a blind man on the point of being knocked down by a vehicle, when a child runs up to him and leads him to a place of safety. With regard to the school material shewn by Japan, it may be enough to say that the desks were of a size to accommodate two or three pupils, constructed on the London model, with seats independent, and fitted with backs. The Argentine Republic made a creditable appearance, exhibitors from the Provinces of Buenos Ayres, Entre Rios, Santa Fe, and Tucumen sending statistics and memoirs of their schools and libraries, while other provinces were represented by maps and legal or educational works. Canada would not have been conspicuous but for the excellent show made by the Education Department for the Province of Ontario, to which, in the Special Canadian Competition, a Gold Medal was awarded by the British judges. While the country schools are as a rule poor, the upper and primary schools in the cities, as in Toronto and Hamilton, are as advanced as in the United States, and the methods in some cases superior. From an able paper prepared by the Hon. Adam Crook, LL.D., Minister of Education, it appears that Ontario had in 1874 as many as 4,758 schools open, with 5,736 teachers, and 192,898 children in average daily attendance, though 443,099 were at school, out of a school population of 511,603. The sum raised in the same year for the support of these schools was 647,O0OZ. The high schools were 108 in number, with 7>871 pupils, and an expenditure of 57,O0OZ., while two normal schools were established, one at Toronto and the other at Ottawa. These general observations would be incomplete without some reference to the increasingly important subject of technical education in its most practical form. The Industrial Schools of America are formed on the Continental rather than the English model. Following the example of Hamburg, the Americans are now busy establishing such institutions, with school-shops in which boys and girls are taught various trades. The exhibits in this special department were inspected and reported upon with great care by the State Superintendents. The most important examples may here be noted with a view to promote a similar display on the part of England at the forthcoming Paris Exhibition. The Schools of Building in Leipzig, Dresden, &c. are designed to prepare the pupils for mechanical, chemical and manufacturing industries. Wurtemberg reports 50 such schools, Bavaria 150, eight being models devoted to special industries, such as building, machine-making, cabinet-making, or sculpture. The Polytechnic Association of the circle of Wurzburg has lately established 111 schools for apprentices, employing no fewer than 315 professors, whose teaching has special reference to design, hygiene, and political economy. Though Austria followed Germany at a distance of eight years she has fairly outstript her teacher; her Realschulen for the burgher class at Vienna, Reichenberg and
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