Page:Essays on the Higher Education.djvu/70

54 education." Under this pressure these schools have largely changed the nature, increased the amount, and developed in variety the studies of their curricula. But the signs are only too plainly manifest that similar demands will be made upon the schools which lie lower down in the stratum of the secondary education.

Indeed, as it seems to me, upon no other stage of education is the burden of making all things "new" destined to fall more heavily than upon the fitting-schools of the country. By "fitting-schools" I mean such as fit pupils for the colleges and first-class scientific schools; and any educational institution or more private enterprise, in so far as it undertakes such preparatory work, is entitled to be called by this name. The intermediate position which every such school is, by its very nature, compelled to occupy cannot fail to confront it in the near future with a number of most serious problems. Back of the fitting-school, or rather at its base, lies the primary education, with all its many flaws, accumulated follies, and marked deficiencies. In this earlier stage we can expect little yielding to the pressure of the new ideas of compass, variety, and choice in education. The limits of change possible in such matters for the primary schools of the country will remain comparatively small. No variety of elective courses, and very little attempt at increased breadth, can