Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/759

* EDUCATION. 661 EDUCATION. injr its support from many prominent pulilic otiicials and business and i)rofessional nu'U of the I'nited States, maintains some 40 or .50 youths in American colleges, with the expecta- tion that they will return to advance the edu- cational interests of the island. In similar ways more than 1500 Cuban and I'orto Kican lioys are now being educated in the United .Stjites, all under obligation to return to their homes on completing their schooling. Another important phase of the work is the supply of school material and school buildings. There was not one building on the island at the American intervention that had been constructed for or was used for public .school purposes. There was little or no school furniture, and the books were of the most anti- quated character. The .Vnierican administration has devoted a great deal of effort and more than .$400,000 to secure inhabitable school buildings. More than 100,000 .school desks and other appliances in proportion were pur- chased and distributed throughout the island. Text-books of modern standards were prepared and published by order of the education de- partment of the Government, and supplied for the first four grades throughout the island. The changes thus made will have a marked effect upon the illiteracy of the population ; and an edu- cational system, modern in spirit and method, and almost universal in the opportunities it offers, was thus turned over to the Cuban people when they took charge of their own Government. Two conditions are apt to interfere to some e.v- tent with any great immediate development or even the maintenance of these standards. In the first place, all the American administrative func- tionaries, save one, have been withdrawn, and po- litical influence is apt to interfere to some extent. In the second place, the American administration devoted a larger proportion of the revenues of the Government than the native direction po.s- sibly can; and the necessities for school expendi- tures are apt to increase more rapidly than the general wealth of the island. The excellent re- sults so far produced may become permanent, however, if the efficiency of the schools is main- tained even though their number decrease. For the fuller treatment of the educational status of all these islands, consult Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1898-99. and 1899-1900. Consult, also, Special Report on Educational Subjects, vols. iv. and v.. issued by the British Board of Education (London, 1901). See Ci"B. ; H.^waii ; Philippines ; Porto Rico. EDUCATION, Commercial. Recent experi- ence and discussion are giving to commercial edu- cation a meaning as exact as are the terms 'classical' and 'technical' when applied to schemes of instruction. Confusion has arisen in dealing with this subject from the failure to distinguish hetween two different but perfectly legitimate senses in which the words are used. Commercial education niaj- mean general education along modern lines, with a minimum of technical in- struction, and, at the most, fairly preparing students for an intelligent apprenticeship in business pursuits. In this sense conuiiercial schools are to the business world what manual- training schools are to the industrial world. Public commercial high schools, as they are being established in the I'nited States, are in the main of this kind. .Such training conforms to the European use of the term in that they give "a general education of such a nature as shall best fit youths for conuiiercial ])ursuits." In another sense, conunercial education is applied to the training given in technical schools corre- sponding to trade schools or schools of technol- ogy. .Such institutions give a maximvim of tech- nical instruction: they are made familiar by the American business college, but are further repre- sented by higher schools ami universities of com- merce in botli this country and Europe. The latter schools build at least on the general edu- cation of the secondary school. Higher commer- cial education has probably been best defined by the authorities of the London School of Econom- ics: it is that "which stands in the same relation to the life and calling of the manufacturer, the merchant, and other men of business as the medical schools of the universities to that of the phj'sician — a system, that is, which provides a scientific training in the structure and organiza- tion of modern industry and commerce, and the general causes and criteria of prosperity." Commercial Education in Europe. Germany may well be termed the home of commercial edu- cation. Special instruction along commercial lines was provided in Saxony in the eighteenth century. Well-organized commercial schools be- came a feature of German education in the nine- teenth century; in 1898 a commercial university was established at Leipzig. The Superior School of Commerce at Paris was founded in 1820, and continued to have a precarious existence under private management until 18G9. when it was taken in charge by the Paris Chamber of Com- merce. Commercial academies and schools have long been established in several other Continental cities, among them being Vienna, Venice, and Antwerp. England has provided for higher com- mercial instruction at the London .School of Economics and Political Science, at Victoria Uni- versity and at Liverpool, and plans are now formed for an elaborate scheme of such education at the new Birmingham University. Both England and the Continental countries have established schools that give commercial work of an elementary and rather technical character. Commercial .schools in Europe are of three types: (1) Higher — e.g. at Leipzig, Frankfort, Cologne, Paris, Antwerp, London, etc. Colleges and universities of commerce now being estab- lished in the United States correspond fairly to these schools. (2) Middle schools, academies, and the like, having usually a scheme of studies for three years, though some have four-year and others only two-year courses. These schools take students at about the ages at which they enter American high schools, and give them an education more technical than is furnished in our high schools of ecmimerce. (3) Some form of day or evening continuation school for those who are already serving ap- prenticeships in business pursuits. Chambers of commerce and other organizations of business men have in some cases assumed entire charge of commercial schools in Europe; in other cases the control has been by public or private au- thority alone; but a more common procedure is for business men to exercise some influence by serAirig on boards of control, supervising exam- inations, meeting deficits, etc. Co.mmi:rcial P^oucatiox in the United .Statk.s. The first clcarlv defined form of com-