LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, SIR: The new interest which the people of the United States are taking in the countries of Central and South America calls for information not only in regard to their industrial and commercial development, but in regard to their social, civic, and political life, and also information in regard to their schools and their agencies of education, on which all else depends. A knowledge of the means by which these countries are trying to meet the need for education in modern democratic society can not fail to be helpful to us in our efforts to readjust our schools to constantly changing conditions; all problems in education have become in a very real sense international. I therefore recommend that the accompanying manuscript on the Scholastic scope and standards of secondary schools in the States of Central America, South America, and the West Indies be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education. This manuscript has been prepared by Miss Anna Tolman Smith, the bureau's specialist in foreign educational systems. Respectfully submitted. The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. P. P. CLAXTON, Commissioner. 5 SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE STATES OF CENTRAL AMERICA, SOUTH AMERICA, AND THE WEST INDIES-SCHOLASTIC SCOPE AND STANDARDS. INTRODUCTORY SURVEY. The States of Central America and South America are in the midst of an industrial development which imparts new impulses to their educational activities. There is at once an awakened sense of the economic bearings of elementary or popular education and of the need of a readjustment of the work of the long-established secondary schools. Efforts in the latter direction are of special interest to other nations, as it is in the secondary schools that the directive classes are educated. Schools of this order determine in great measure the opinions and purposes of the men who control public affairs and promote international sympathies and interests. Educational reports and periodicals published in the States referred to abound in discussions of the changes that are required to meet the new demands. Many of these discussions reveal merely conscious needs for which as yet no adequate provision can be made. But in a few States the problems are clearly defined and, in particular, definite plans have been adopted for the reform or development of the courses of study in secondary schools. The official programs afford a clearer idea of the subject, both in the States that have lately revised their courses of secondary instruction and in those which have made no changes, than any general discussions. These programs, it should be said, are not announcements of ambitious institutions, but the expression of matured plans adopted by the educational authorities in full view of public resources and social demands either at the present time or at an earlier period. By reference to the several programs presented below it will be seen that the idea of education as a culture process has not been sacrificed in those of recent date. For a better understanding of the scholastic work of the schools considered, it is desirable to have in mind certain features of their organization which may properly be called common to the different States. In all the States secondary education is the preparatory stage to higher institutions and in several instances forms a department 96905°-15-2 7 |