Secondary School Education.

Dr. William T. Harris, U. S. Commissioner of Education, lectured last evening in Sever 11 upon "The report of the Committee of Fifteen." Dr. Harris was introduced by Professor Hanus, and spoke as follows:

The Committee of Ten was appointed for the investigation of secondary schools by the national Educational Association in 1892. President Eliot was chosen chairman of this committee.

After a thorough investigation a report was completed and published in the spring of 1894. No other educational document published in this country has been more widely read or has caused more discussion. The committee found that the defect in the secondary school lay in the course of study rather than in the teaching, and was caused by continuing the study of elementary subjects too long.

Before this committee had completed its work, another committee of fifteen educators was appointed in February, 1893 to inquire into elementary schools. Three divisions of this committee were made, one to report on the training of teachers, one upon the correlation of studies, and another on the organization of schools.

The report of this second committee was published in 1894. The members of the committee emphasized the value of class-recitations in education. They asserted that the entire upward movement in the elementary schools has been caused by the employment of professionally educated teachers, and that one-fourth of all the teachers in the country are now thus educated.

The report of the division upon the correlation of studies, is meant to show what is best in the old system and what improvements may be safely added from the new. The report discusses the educational value of the five factors of study, namely: grammar, literature, mathematics, geography and history. These five branches cover the two worlds of human institutions and nature.

The report of the committee makes frequent appeals to a better knowledge of psychology and child-culture, points out the need of leaving a study when the educational value is got out of it, and recommends the earlier introduction of secondary studies. The committee strongly urge the advisability of beginning Latin one year earlier and algebra two years earlier.