the highest class
of the elementary school into the Gymnasium."

It is evident that year by year an increasingly large number of boys
discontinue their education at the close of the elementary school, for a
statement made by Mr. Michael N. Sadler, (Vol. III of Special Reports on
Educational Subjects, London), some years prior to the above writing,
would seem to indicate a lesser percentage of dropping out than that
proposed by Dr. Russell.

The desire then for more extended educational advantages must have been
early felt, and there sprang into existence what has since developed
into one of the most significant features and far-reaching factors in
the German scheme,--the continuation school. I quote from Mr. H. Bertram
who writes of the continuation schools in Berlin, December, 1899:

"Amid the development of civilization among the nations the idea of the
continuation school is making its way with increasing strength. Urgently
required by the conditions of social organization, and in its turn
acting on them, the new institution appears in many forms. It claims its
place side by side with the Church and the School.

"Among the great number of those who enter early upon the practical
business of life, to whom the primary school has offered a start there
awakens, sooner or later, the desire to share in the stores of
knowledge which human intelligence has won, in the insight into the
working of the forces of nature, which it has acquired and applied to
industry, in the arts which ennoble and support human action; in short
to participate in the spiritual treasures which are, as it were, the
birthright of those born under a luckier star. This desire, which opens
to the diligent the way to material prosperity and inner contentment,
seems for society as a whole an important incentive to industrial
progress, and turns the discontent of the slaves of machinery into
happiness of men conscious of their own success. The more the old order
changes which held the work people in the narrow bonds of tradition, the
more is customary prescription replaced by education and independent
judgment, by insight into existing conditions, by special excellence
within a particular sphere. For this reason, the elementary school,
however efficient and methodically correct its action may be, cannot
suffice for the happiness of the masses, nor for the preservation of
society. The instruction must come into close contact with the life of
the future