committee that meets once a week, and upon which devolves the chief
management of educational affairs. This committee is answerable to the
general board, to which it renders an annual report. Men of the highest
character and intelligence constitute this board.

The whole of France is divided into seventeen parts called _academies_.
These divisions do not coincide with the political divisions, but are
made merely for convenience in school administration. Each _academie_
has a school board to which is committed the general oversight of all
educational interests within its territory, and particularly the care of
the higher schools.

A narrower division is into _departements_. There are ninety of these in
France and Algiers. Each is governed by an educational council which has
charge of the elementary schools. The principal officer of a
_departement_ is a school inspector, a trained educator who devotes all
his time to the schools. In each _departement_ there is a normal school
for each sex, though in a few instances two _departements_ combine to
maintain one normal school.

The _departement_ is subdivided into _arrondissements_. Each has an
executive officer and a council in close touch with the schools. Lastly
there are the _cantons_, whose school board has direct control of each
individual school.

In this manner from the highest to the lowest division there are
executive officers with well-defined duties--all working together in
perfect harmony and with great efficiency. Trained teachers often sit in
these councils as members and advisers. Thus the highest pedagogical
training of the republic is utilized to obtain the best administration
of the school interests.

=School Attendance.=--School attendance is compulsory upon children from
six to thirteen years of age for every school day. As in Germany, the
child is not compelled to attend the public school, but must receive
instruction for the required time and in a manner approved by the State.
It is the right of the child to be educated, and the State asserts its
prerogative to secure that right to the child, whatever be the attitude
of the parent. But the manner of securing it is left to the parent if
he chooses to exercise that privilege. Although France has had
compulsory education only since 1882, the law is effective, and grows
more so each year. In 1895, 91 per cent of all the children of school
age attended school regularly.

=The Schools.=--In the arrang