enjoy more freedom in selecting and arranging
subjects and in introducing new things than they know how to make use
of. There is no one in high authority to check the reform spirit and
even local boards are often among the advocates of change. _In the
third place_, by multiplying studies, the common school course has
grown more complex and heterogeneous. The old reading, writing,
arithmetic, and grammar could not be shelved for the sake of the new
studies and the same amount of time must be divided now among many
branches. It is not to be wondered at if all the studies are treated
in a shallow and fragmentary way. Some of the new studies, especially,
are not well taught. There is less of unity in higher education now
than there was before the classical studies and "the three R's" lost
their supremacy. Our common school course has become a batch of
miscellanies. We are in danger of overloading pupils, as well as of
making a superficial hodge-podge of all branches. There is imperative
need for sifting the studies according to their value, as well as for
bringing them into right connection and dependence upon one another.
_Fourthly_, there is a large body of thoughtful and inquiring teachers
and principals who are working at a revision of the school course.
They seek something tangible, a working plan, which will help them in
their present perplexities and show them a wise use of drawing, natural
science, and literature, in harmony with the other studies. _Finally_,
since we are in the midst of such a breaking-up period, we need to take
our bearings. In order to avoid mistakes and excesses there is a call
for deep, impartial, and many-sided thinking on educational problems.
Supposing that we know what the controlling aim of education is, we are
next led to inquire about and to determine the relative value of
studies as tributary to this aim.

It is not however our purpose to give an original solution to this
problem and to those which follow it. We must decline to attempt a
philosophical inquiry into fundamental principles and their origin.
Ours is the humbler task of explaining and applying principles already
worked out by others; that is, to give the results of Herbartian
pedagogy as applied to our schools.

Instead of discussing the many branches of study one after another, it
will be well to make a broad division of them into three classes and
observe the marked features and value of each. First, _histor