The largest of these educational schools is the International Correspondence Schools at Scranton, Pa. This institution is representa tive of the class of schools operated as com mercial ventures by stock companies. A daily paper published in Shenandoah, in the coal mining district of eastern Pennsylvania, had in the early 80's a department devoted to the edu cation of miners in the principles of mining and from this beginning has grown the present great organization. These schools offer over 200 standard courses and an indefinite number of special and combination courses covering many branches of technical education. There are nearly 2,000 persons employed in the various aepartments of the schools in America alone and hundreds in other countries of the world. The schools have enrolled more than 1,850,000 persons, approximately 100,000 new students being enrolled each year. More than 500 ex perts, instructors and assistants, are occupied in writing and revising the International Correspondence Schools textbooks and in ex amining and correcting the work of students. To teach successfully by correspondence re quires an entirely different kind of textbook from that used in the class-room and the In ternational Correspondence Schools textbooks constitute the foundation of this system.
In regard to achievements of such institutions as the University of Chicago, Pennsylvania State College, University of Wisconsin and others of a siniilar type nothing but good may be said. They have carried the higher educa tion to thousands to whom college walls were but a dream. From the University of Chicago correspondence study reaches literally every part of the world. Through the Correspond ence Study Department the university offers a large number of the courses given in the class rooms of its different divisions, and all non resident work for credit is conducted through this department. Each course is designed to be equivalent to the corresponding residence course and calls for an equal amount of work. No preliminary examination or proof of previous work is required of applicants for correspondence work. At the Pennsylvania State College correspondence courses are of fered in agriculture, home economics and in dustrial education, free of charge to any citizen of the State. Students at the summer session are permitted to complete their work in cer tain subjects by correspondence at a nominal cost. At the University of Wisconsin 300 single courses are offered in 28 departmental lines and 70 of these courses are in engineering subjects. Each course is divided into units designated as assignments and each assignment represents six to eight hours of work. The in struction is carried on in three ways; by special lesson sheets, by correction of the exercises submitted, and by personal letters and other as sistance where special needs are not otherwise met.
Education of Adults in Other Countries. —Schools for the education of adults originated in England through the Sunday School move ment during the 18th century. The first adult school was opened in Nottingham in 1798 and has continued to the present day. The move ment soon spread to other parts of the country and though providing secular instruction it was religious in its association. Parallel with these schools were classes in scientific and civic subjects. In 1851 the English government first made pecuniary grants to evening schools. At the beginning of the 20th century out of every 1,000 of the population of England and Wales about 23 persons voluntarily attended some form of evening class on week days.
Several agencies have been influential in the development of this movement — namely the University Extension system, the National Home Reading Union, the Y. M. C. A., the Recreation Evening Schools Association and the Worker's Educational Association.
England had in 1918 a new education bill which provides for national oversight, national direction and compulsory attendance of chil dren from five to 14 years of age, for part time continuation schools for those between the ages of 14 and 18, for medical inspection, physi cal training and more than 30 other incidental aids to democratic education — this bill will revolutionize education in England.
University extension as a means of carry ing higher education to adults has had an un paralleled success in England and the progress of the movement has been remarkable. Insti tuted by the University of Cambridge in 1873, adopted by Oxford in 1878, with the work of the London Society for the Extension of Uni versity Teaching, which was founded in 1876, taken over by the reconstituted University of London in 1900— these three universities are the world-wide acknowledged leaders of the movement. The original form of university extension teaching has not declined in England as it has in the United States. The character istic features of the lecture system at local centres, with a class following the lecture and a final examination, have been maintained. Taking Oxford alone some 500,000 persons have attended the courses given in nearly 40,000 lectures by over 200 lecturers and nearly 30,000 students have been examined.
One of the most far reaching educational results of the war of 1870, with its great lesson of the importance of national educa tion, was the law of 1873 passed in Saxony making attendance at continuation schools com pulsory for three years (that is up to 17 years of age) in that kingdom. The Saxon law ap pears to have been justified by the experience of a generation. There is no doubt that in this matter of continuation schools, as in so many other fields of social organization, the adoption of compulsion has been facilitated by the habituation of the working classes to compul sory military service.
Adult education forms an important part of the educational work of Denmark also. Chil dren of ability who can pass the required ex aminations are sent on from the communal schools to the middle school, gymnasium and university at State expense. Most other chil dren go to work after five years at school but a fair percentage of them go to evening classes not only for technical training but also for higher education generally, and many attend University Extension lectures regularly for years after they leave school. "A great social educational movement was started in Denmark in the late 80's. The primary object of this movement which was organized and is still worked by students of the Copenhagen Univer sity, with the cordial help of the professors, is to draw together the diverse sections of the community, to weave bonds of friendly sym pathy between them and to spread the light among even the lowest sections. Students hold night schools in the Copenhagen communal day schools and give lessons there gratis to all the working men and women who care to go. There are more than 100 teachers and more than 2,000 are taught. On Sunday night there are free popular lectures by students and pro fessors to which the working classes flock in thousands. The Danes boast that in their coun try there is no 'unenlightened class' and they do so with good