OUR educational quest began in the city of New York, on May 29th, 1893.

Having interviewed the City Superintendent, Mr. J. Jasper, who gave valuable information as to what was most worth seeing in connection with the educational life of the city, we proceeded to the Normal College of the city of New York. The session was just closing, but we were able to see some classes in physical training and cookery, and to gain some insight into the methods employed in other subjects. Two or three days were most profitably spent at the Teachers’ Training College, a sketch of the work of which is given elsewhere. A hasty visit to Columbia College, with its annex for women,—Barnard College,—a still more cursory glance at the University of the city of New York (our information concerning which we were fortunately able to supplement at Chicago), with an afternoon spent at the Press Fair, was all we were able to accomplish at New York. The Press Fair proved to be a most interesting exhibit of specimens of the work in the public schools of New York. The methods of teaching various subjects were set forth, and we were especially struck, as again later at the education exhibit of the World’s Fair, by the apparatus and illustrations made by the children themselves.

The power of “making,” whether of maps (drawn, painted, modelled), models (in clay, putty, paper, wood), pictorial illustrations of lessons (history, geography, literature, natural science, and even mathematics) appears to be much more encouraged in America than in England. We made friends with several of the school children at the Press Fair, who proved most eager and interesting guides, naturally anxious to fully explain what had been sent from their own special schools.

Decoration Day (May 30th), on which New York had a holiday, we determined to spend at Vassar College. A pleasant railway journey up the banks of the Hudson River brought us to the little town of Poughkeepsie, two miles to the east of which is Vassar College. Here we were most cordially received, and spent the day in seeing over the various buildings connected with it, and hearing lectures. This college was founded in 1861 by Mr. Matthew Vassar, who provided the grounds and buildings, together with a sustentation fund of about £50,000. He desired, to use his own words, “to found and perpetuate an institution which should accomplish for young women what our colleges are accomplishing for young men.”

It led the way in opening the advantages of a liberal education to women, and holds a place in the first rank of women’s colleges in America. It is undenominational, but, according to the wish of its founder, daily prayers are held in the chapel, and all classes meet on Sunday for the study of the Scriptures. In order to emphasize the dignity of manual labour, each student is expected to undertake a small share in the household work of the College, at least, at some period of her college career. The ordinary course is for four years leading to the degree of A.B. These four years are known respectively as Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior. A further course of two years leads to the degree of A.M., and special courses are also provided. There are, moreover, in connection with the college, schools of music and painting, the latter possessing a very fine collection of casts. There is a uniform annual fee of £80 (400 dollars) for board and tuition. The students’ rooms are usually arranged in groups of three sleeping rooms opening on to a common study. Just before our visit the students had given a most successful performance of the “Antigone.”

From New York we went to Philadelphia, where the city superintendent, Dr. Edward Brooks, kindly explained the city system of education. He is keenly alive to the importance of the training of teachers, and ample provision for the same is made in the city. For the training of men teachers, a School of Pedagogy (the scheme for which was drawn up by Dr. Brooks) has lately been opened in connection with the Boys’ Central High School. The Girls’ Normal School has had to serve the double purpose of high school and place of training for women teachers, but Dr. Brooks has long urged the necessity of separating the two, and at this time the new building for the Girls’ High School is being erected. Kindergarten training is also not neglected, and on our first evening in Philadelphia we attended the commencement exercises of Mrs. van Kirk’s Kindergarten Training School, at which the graduates read essays on various educational topics, sang songs and acted a little scene, in which the virtues of the Kindergarten were set forth. The next day we were able to visit the school itself, and we found that, not content with providing the ordinary graduating course, Mrs. van Kirk has arranged for one that is post-graduate.

A delightful visit to the Drexel Institute, which provides for the technical instruction of the city, a glance at one of the largest Friends’ Schools, and an unavailing attempt to see over the James Forten Manual Training School, was all we had time for in Philadelphia.

Ten miles from Philadelphia, on the Pennsylvania railroad, one reaches the Old Welsh settlement of Bryn Mawr, with its college for women, which bears the same name. Several halls and laboratory buildings, standing in fifty acres of ground, make an imposing show. Of all the colleges that we visited, Bryn Mawr appeared the most English, and it needed the sight of a preserved specimen of a wicked-looking snake, which had been killed in the grounds, to convince us that we were really on American soil.

Perhaps the fact that the Professor of Mathematics, Miss Scott, and three of the Fellows have come there from Girton helped to build up the illusion.

It is a college without rules; even attendance at lectures is not compulsory, but as failure to pass at the yearly examinations brings with it a request to withdraw from the college, there is every inducement to attend regularly. The same freedom is extended to the choice of studies. Instead of the four years’ course with the more or less definitely prescribed work for each class which we found at Vassar, Bryn Mawr has adopted the newer plan of the group system, which allows more opportunity for specialization. A distinctive feature of the college is the attention paid to post-graduate work, original research being especially encouraged. The students have adopted caps and gowns, which, however, are only worn within college precincts.

Acting on the suggestion of Dr. Brooks, we determined to visit the two chief normal schools of the state of Pennsylvania—West Chester and Millersville. The little tree-shaded town of West Chester was a pleasant change from the heat of Philadelphia. It is a most distinctively Quaker settlement; even the landlord of the little inn at which we stayed was a Friend, and wished to know if “thee was travelling all by theeself.” The normal school is a little way out, but easily reached by means of the electric cars, which are to be found in even the smallest American towns.

It was interesting to us as the first co-educational normal school that we had seen. The dining and lecture rooms are used in common, but the dormitory accommodation is in two separate wings.

From West Chester we went to the normal school at Millersville, near Lancaster. Returning north through New York, we first stopped at New Haven, Connecticut, a most picturesque place, famous as being the location of Yale College.

Superintendent Curtis most kindly supplied us with information about the State of Connecticut and its normal schools. He also took us to see the Welch Training School in New Haven, which, however, is elsewhere described.

From New Haven we went to Hartford (visiting the normal school of New Britain on the way), and from thence to Willimantic, South Manchester, and Springfield, Massachusetts. At Springfield the Training School, and an interview with Superintendent Balliet, gave ample material for thought. The work carried on by Mr. Balliet in the city strikingly exemplifies what a superintendent may do for the cause of education. Not only does he give weekly lectures on applied psychology and kindred subjects, but he has paid special attention to the elaborating of methods of teaching such subjects as arithmetic and geometry, geography, English language, etc., on which he has published pamphlets, setting forth the results of his thought and experience. It should be noted that, as in America schools when inspected are not judged by results, but by the methods used, and the general teaching efficiency, it comes about that the question of methods holds a more important place in educational thought than in England. More time, therefore, is devoted to their study in normal and training schools, and a superintendent has a wide field of influence in the matter of methods in the city or district over which he presides.

From Springfield the normal school at Westfield was visited, and from thence we went on to Albany to see the State Normal College and City Training School.

Boston offered a wide choice in matters of educational interest.

The Perkins Institute and Kindergarten for the blind well repaid a visit. The former, associated with the name of Laura Bridgman, has now in Helen Keller and Annie Thomas two wonderful examples of what education may do even for those who lack what at first may seem the necessary basis for all instruction—the senses of sight and hearing. Helen Keller was not there at the time of our visit, but we just saw her later at Chicago. When she entered the Institute she, being blind, deaf, and consequently speechless, lived in a state of almost complete isolation, but now, through the careful training of her marvellously acute sense of touch, she can take a very full share in the life of the world. She moves about quite fearlessly, recognising people by a touch of the hand, speaking easily (even sometimes in public), although, of course, those speaking to her must use the hand-language,[1] or let her put her fingers on their lips. She is acquainted with a good deal of the best in literature, and writes most poetically. Indeed, from her letters it is difficult to suppose that she has never seen or heard anything. Her life seems a very happy one in spite of all, and she makes friends everywhere. Annie Thomas was at the Institute, however, at the time of our visit. She, like Helen Keller, has only the sense of touch by means of which to gain knowledge of the world, but she too has learned to talk, write, sew, etc. She acted as guide to us over the building, leading us from room to room, and drawing our attention to various things, including specimens of her own work. Younger than Helen Keller, she is very fond of dressing dolls, and felt our dresses all over, to try to get new ideas in dressmaking. She appears to have a good memory, and can recognise people after a long lapse of time by just touching their hands. We asked her through her teacher if she remembered the visit of an Englishman, who some years before had been there and had given her a little ring; she remembered at once, and talked about him. In the Kindergarten we saw two other such children—Willie Robin and Tommy Stringer. The first, a little girl, is a pretty child, and seemingly very intelligent. It was wonderful to see all the little blind children playing Kindergarten games, but when this child came forward and joined in playing cat and mouse, with an evident keen sense of the fun, and even sang the songs with the others, finding out what was being sung by touching the throat of the child next to her, we realized what education had done for her. The little boy, Tommy Stringer (who was admitted mainly through the efforts of Helen Keller, who, having heard of him, did not rest until she had secured his admission), is only at the beginning of his training, and cannot yet do much. Of course the first work of establishing a system of communication with these children is the most arduous, and patient indeed must be the teachers who devote themselves to it.

Several times we crossed the river Charles to Cambridge, for no visit to America would have been complete without some time spent in seeing the leading University of the country. It seemed curious to find that women were still excluded from the lectures, although in the Women’s Annex they are allowed to work as if for a degree. It seemed strange that such a state of things could exist in a land which boasts itself of freedom and of the position given to women. Indeed, it really appears that the eastern States of America are behind England in the matter of offering equal educational advantages to men and women. There are, of course, the great Women’s Colleges of Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, Vassar and Smith, which offer splendid opportunities for work, but their courses lead to degrees which are for women only, and which will, for that reason alone, never be considered as of such importance as those which are also granted to men.

The Harvard Annex for Women has been opened at Fay House, Cambridge. Professors and lecturers from the University give their lectures over again at the Annex for the benefit of the women students, who can thus go through the course for a degree, which, however, they may not receive, having to be content with a certificate. We were able to be there on Class Day, on which the students invite their friends to an “at home” in honour of the women graduates. At first all assembled in the library to listen to appropriate speeches, then they dispersed into the lecture rooms to talk to their friends, an arrangement which gave the English visitors opportunity to meet the various professors and lecturers. The women’s Class Day, however, fades into insignificance by the side of the men’s, which is the gala day of Cambridge. The morning is devoted to speeches by the students and professors, and in the afternoon and evening the seniors (those who graduate) have the opportunity of giving teas and “spreads,” to which they invite their friends. On the Tree of Liberty is hung the famous wreath, the flowers of which are scrambled for at a given signal, and dancing and other entertainments bring the day to a close. Commencement Day, at which the actual degrees are conferred, is held some days later.

From Boston we visited another famous college for women—Wellesley, which takes rank and is conducted on similar lines to those of Vassar and Bryn Mawr. It is quite out in the country, and has beautiful buildings and grounds of its own.

The Institute of Technology well repaid a visit. It is a most imposing institution, every opportunity being afforded in it for work of all kinds, chiefly, it is true, for scientific work (the laboratories and various departments being most splendidly equipped with apparatus), but almost any subject can be studied there. There are special courses arranged for those who are actually engaged in teaching. We also visited the Boston Normal and Rice Training School, Normal Art School, and the Latin High School. From Boston, we went to see the State Normal Schools at Framingham, Bridgewater Providence (Rhode Island), and the other Training Schools at Fall River and Pawtucket.

The fame of the Quincy Schools, near Boston, attracted us thither, and we spent a delightful morning listening to lessons in the primary and grammar grades of one of the best. It was of course a mixed school, and every class had a large room to itself with a continuous blackboard, all round the walls, of which constant use was made either by teacher or scholars. These blackboards are an essential part of school-room furniture in America, and without them a great deal of the teaching could not be carried on. The teacher begins at one end of the board facing the class, and can work right along the side of the room, thus being able to leave all her drawings, etc., unerased during the lesson. She can also send any or all of the children to the blackboard at once to work sums, write or draw. It was at Quincy that Colonel Parker (now at Cook County Normal School) began his work as school superintendent, and through him the Quincy methods of teaching attained an almost world-wide fame.

The little town of Milton, a few miles out of Boston, among the Blue Mountains, was also a place of interest. We there visited the Milton Academy, an endowed school, chartered as far back as 1798, and opened in 1807. It is a school for boys and girls, although there is only a boarding-house for boys. The Academy much resembles an English High School, in that it provides education for children between the ages of eight and eighteen, and has an upper and lower school. It is really a preparatory school for Harvard, the courses in the upper school being determined by the requirements for the Harvard entrance examination.

We asked the head-master as to the practical working of co-education in a school of that kind. He appeared to believe in it, and gave us an excellent opportunity of learning how the boys and girls themselves regarded it. The upper school had to write for ten minutes on some given subject, and on this morning the one announced was “co-education.” We were afterwards allowed to look at the papers, and were very much interested by them. About half the pupils expressed no definite opinion at all—many saying that as they had never been to a school on any other plan, they could not judge of the relative merits of mixed or separate schools. The rest, however, had fully made up their minds, some for and some against. Those who defended the system did so on the grounds of the higher standard of work resulting from the rivalry between the boys and girls, and of the good influence each had on the other—the girls making the boys gentler, while the boys’ admiration of courage tended to render the girls braver. The objections brought against it were, however, almost more interesting. Several boys objected, because they said they had to work harder than in schools for boys only, while some of the girls who did not want to take the Harvard entrance examination disliked the course of study rendered necessary by it, and would have preferred to take other subjects. According to one boy, “girls have so much more time than boys (not playing so many games), and therefore can easily get their lessons perfect”; and another bewailed the fact that when optional extra work was given out by the teacher, “the girls always did it, and so got more marks.” A more valid objection, perhaps, was that the school had no reputation for athletics, or outdoor games, as the girls took no interest in them. How far this was really true in this particular case, we could not judge; but wherever we went, we were struck with the fact that American girls do not play or get enough exercise in the open air. This dislike to outdoor exercise and fondness for hot rooms (their rooms are kept ten to fifteen degrees higher in temperature than we consider healthy in England) are probably the chief causes of the delicacy and excitability of American women.

One day was spent at Concord, so long the home of Emerson, Hawthorne and Thoreau, where one realized as never before what their lives and writings have meant as educating influences in America. The life of Concord seems to be in the past, and it appears as if quietly awaiting the return of those great presences which made it famous. The house once occupied by the Alcotts is now in the possession of Commissioner Harris, of Washington (Head of the Bureau of Education), who spends a part of each year there. The Concord schools are good, and a new scheme, by which all children within a radius of ten miles are collected in conveyances and brought in to school, has just been adopted. This plan does away with the necessity for district schools, which are rarely efficient.

From Boston we started westward, and first stopped at Syracuse. This is the seat of a Co-educational University, placed on the top of the highest hill, the view from which is very fine. Besides the ordinary departments, it has one for music and one for painting, which have both been carefully organized. There is also an observatory.

By way of Oswego, Niagara and Detroit, we reached Ann Arbor, the seat of the Michigan State University, which is the centre of the life of the town. It is co-educational and non-residential, the students boarding with the people of the place. It appeared that nearly every house took in students, usually only to lodge, but other houses opened their doors at meal times, and it was a curious sight to see students and others wending their ways three times a day to certain houses where they had arranged for meals.

The University has many departments, including those of law, medicine and dentistry. Two graduates of the last were Englishwomen, who are now practising in Chicago.

We were fortunate enough to arrive there in time for Commencement Day, when we saw several hundred students receive degrees. They went up on to the platform in batches of twenty or thirty at a time, and were then handed their diplomas. Neither the graduates nor the professors wore any academic dress. Just below the platform, tables were arranged which were covered with bunches and baskets of flowers and presents. These were placed there by the friends of the students, and each bore the name of the one for whom it was intended. At one point in the ceremony these were handed round. An address is usually given by some well-known speaker—this year by Dr. Charles Warner.

This University is the crown of the Michigan State system of education, and its advantages are equally open to men and to women. All connected with it seemed to approve of its being co-educational. Great freedom is allowed to all students, but he or she who will not work, and wastes time and opportunities, has to leave. Graduation time is also that chosen for the meeting together of old students of the University. The students who graduate together are known as the “class” of the year in which they take their degrees—such as the “class of 1870,” or of “1890.” The members of the various classes try to keep in touch with each other all their lives, and like to meet at the University at Commencement time. Several classes, in some of which the members were all grey-headed, had thus met together to talk over old times.

From Ann Arbor we went to see a Summer School, at Benton Harbour, a watering-place on Lake Michigan. The school was mostly attended by teachers from the country, who wished to use part of their holidays in preparing for one of the Teachers’ State Examinations.

Here we spent the “glorious fourth,” being roused by fireworks at three in the morning, and obliged to tread the streets most carefully by day to avoid stepping on the fire-crackers which lay about everywhere.

Crossing the lake by steamer (a three or four hours’ passage, in which we were quite out of sight of land), we reached Chicago. There we stayed at the new University, which, of course, was not then in session. The dormitories were let out to those who came for the Educational Congresses. Our first sight of it was not inspiriting, for we arrived at night, and the half-finished buildings, placed at intervals on what must at no distant date have been a swamp, looked cheerless and forlorn. Things looked better in the morning sunshine; and we then found that there was every promise of its being a large and handsome University. It is co-educational, like Michigan, and has, moreover, three women on the staff—one as Dean, one as Assistant-Professor of English, and one as Lecturer in Spanish. It is residential, some of the dormitories being built for women and some for men.

The World’s Fair was held in the parks adjoining the University. It would take too long to describe, but one building must be mentioned—that of the Liberal Arts, the top floor of which was entirely given up to educational exhibits. Nearly every country was represented, from Japan—which really appears to be far advanced in the making of teaching apparatus—to the exhibit of our own London School Board, which was exceedingly well arranged, and attracted much attention. The United States had naturally the lion’s share of the space—each State having a section allotted to it. In each section places were given to the Universities, Normal Schools, Public and Private Schools, and other Institutions. Specimens of work, exercise books, apparatus, were all shown. Several States had taken great pains to make the exhibit complete. Some had collected valuable statistics and placed them on revolving screens, some had published pamphlets describing certain branches of educational work in the State; and some greatly heightened the value of the exhibits by placing some one in charge who was competent to explain them. Some exhibits were, of course, much more valuable than others—the States of Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New York appeared perhaps the most complete.

From these exhibits, and especially from those in charge of them, we learned much, and were able to supplement the knowledge we had gained by visiting the various schools.

Two Educational Congresses were held, the first under the Women’s Branch of the World Congress Auxiliary, began on July 17th, and the other, held under the charge of the National Educational Association, began on July 23rd.

Under each there were many sections, those for the first being Higher Education, University Extension, College and University Students, College Fraternities, Kindergarten Manual and Art Education, Social Settlements, Chautauquean Education, Stenography, Teaching of the Deaf and of the Blind.

For the second: Higher, Secondary, Elementary and Kindergarten Education, School Supervision, Training of Teachers’ Art, Vocal Music, Technological, Industrial and Manual Business and Physical Education, Rational Psychology and Experimental Psychology in Education. On the whole the Congresses were disappointing, with perhaps the exception of that on Experimental Psychology; but the people we met there were so interesting as to quite make up for any loss in the Congresses themselves.

All our spare time we spent at the Cook County Normal Summer School, Colonel Parker having given us free passes to all lectures. There we met teachers from all parts of the States and from Canada.

We also visited the University Settlement in one of the poorest parts of Chicago. It is known as Hull House, and is conducted on much the same lines as Toynbee Hall.

From Chicago we went to Chautauqua, the huge encampment by the side of Lake Chautauqua, in New York State. Here for several months in the year people gather (no longer in log huts, but in hotels and boarding-houses erected for the purpose) to attend the summer school, or the religious meetings, or simply to enjoy the social life and popular lectures, concerts, etc., which make the time pass quickly for them. Not only, however, in the summer does Chautauqua exercise its influence. An elaborate system of reading circles and education by correspondence has been established, and connects one summer meeting with another. It does educational work among those who are reached in no other way, and its influence is felt not only throughout the States and America generally, but even in Europe and far Japan.

We returned to New York through Ithaca, where we stopped to see Cornell University. A University Summer School was being held, and we were able to attend some lectures, and interviewed one or two professors.

A breakdown of the train by which we were to leave Ithaca delayed our journey, so we arrived in New York too late to see any more institutions, and sailed from thence feeling sad at the thought that such a delightful tour was ended; but glad, too, at the remembrance of the many friends we had made, and feeling that America would be no more to us a land of strangers.

Millicent Hughes.