Laggards in Our Schools; a Study of Retardation and Elimination in City School Systems, by Leonard P. Ayres, A.M., New York, Charities Publication Committee (Russell Sage Foundation), pp. 252. We should welcome every genuine test of efficiency which can be applied to our schools, and particularly in respect to their serving the wants of the majority of the pupils. There are other indications of efficiency in the common schools besides the superior quality of instruction or administration, a large enrollment of pupils and good reputation of the graduates. All these indications might be present in a given school, and yet its success would not be assured. An important item might be easily overlooked, as, for example, how well the school is fulfilling its mission to give an elementary education to all the children it receives. Mr. Ayres has undertaken in his work to test the efficiency of city school systems in this respect, by studying the problems connected with the backward and retarded children, those who are behind their normal grades or classes, and with the eliminated, those who leave school before completing the course. He informs us that the general tendency in American school systems is to keep all of the children for the fifth grade, to drop half by the eighth, and to carry one in ten to the high school. The public schools are supplying an education not to all the children they receive, but to about one-half of them; while all are compelled by law to attend school, and the course prescribed covers a period of eight years, the great majority of pupils attend for five or six years, and do not complete the course. He examines the causes of retardation and elimination, and finds that although the prevalence of these two processes is a great menace to school systems in many parts of the country, their most important causes can be removed when intelligently combatted. Owing to the unsatisfactory condition of the statistics available for this study many of the calculations are based on hypotheses and supposititious cases, and while some of the computations have been questioned in regard to the extent of retardation and elimination in various cities, the lessons they give are indeed very instructive, and have been productive of a movement to get at the facts regarding the double question under consideration. The leading causes of both evils which are found to be much the same everywhere are worthy of study by all engaged in school work, and although the present investigation has been made in reference to public schools, it can be recommended as most enlightening for the interpretation of facts in regard to our Catholic institutions. The money cost of the repeater is estimated by Mr. Ayres for fifty-five cities at the "astounding sum of thirteen and a half million dollars. If the school systems of these cities are fairly representative of American city school systems, then we are spending each year about twentyseven millions of dollars in the wasteful process of repetition in our cities alone." We have to wrestle with many of these same problems in our schools, as, for instance, that of promotions, and of over-age children, which are factors working towards retardation and elimination. Their treatment here in a scientific and readable manner, enhanced by remedies sug gested to overcome the evils, will aid considerably in determining methods for increasing the efficiency of our elementary schools. PATRICK J. MCCORMICK. Seventh Annual Report of the Superintendents of Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of New York, Year of 1910. The Reverend Superintendents of Schools in the Archdiocese of New York published in April their report covering the calendar year of 1910. Their supervision extends over the schools in the boroughs of Manhattan, Bronx, and Richmond in the City of New York, over those in the City of Yonkers, and indirectly over the remaining schools of the Archdiocese which are inspected by the members of the School Board. They report a constant growth of schools and expansion of the diocesan system. Going back a few years to the installation of the present head of the Archdiocese, Most Rev. John M. Farley, D. D., it is shown that the number of schools has almost doubled-in eight years they have increased from 59 to 105, a gain of 46 schools. There are now 156 schools in the Archdiocese, representing a property valuation of $13,186,000, whose cost of maintenance in 1910 was estimated at $891,705. The pupils number 77,363, the teachers, 1,723, of whom 1,069 are religious, 476 lay, and 178 are classified as special. The report offers in general a most optimistic and gratifying ac count of the present condition of this great educational system. A considerable portion of the report is devoted to the recommendations of the superintendents. We note that New York needs a Central Catholic High School. The present number of high schools is inadequate for the demands of secondary education. Of the 1,878 graduates in 1910, 54 entered Catholic and 508 public high schools, and one of the Catholic institu tions was obliged to receive pupils from 39 different parishes. It is to be hoped that this very important plea of the superintendents for a necessary addition to their school system will soon be productive of the desired results. The question of the Regents' Examinations is a very pertinent one with the New York schools. Over six thousand children underwent these tests last year. The direction of the Superintendents on this point appeals to us as most prudent and timely. After discussing the character of the preparation advisable for the examinations, they say: "While deeply sensitive of the standardizing effect of the Regents' Examinations, we are opposed to making them or any other test the absolute requisite for our pupils' graduation. We have a strong, concordant, perfectly organized school system, and we have, or should have, our own criteria for graduation." There is here a consciousness of the danger of accepting from without the standards for our schools, and permitting them to lose their characteristics as Catholic and separate institutions. On the questions of promotions, retardation and elimination of pupils, the teaching of religion and other topics, their counsel is admirable and ought to produce fine results in the system under their care. PATRICK J. MCCORMICK. The Chief Ideas of the Baltimore Catechism, by Rev. John E. Mullett. New York, Benziger Bros., 1911, pp. 96. Pastors and catechists will welcome the appearance of this new work, which combines all the essential elements of the Baltimore Catechism, with some timely additions, put in the form of simple questions and answers. This catechism has all the advantages of the older ones hitherto in use, and possesses in addition a simplicity and directness of presentation which greatly facilitates the labor of the teacher by enabling the child-mind easily to grasp and retain the matter proposed. The success of the method of catechetical instruction introduced by Father John Furniss, C. S. S. R., has long been recognized and appreciated; and it has been the aim of the author of the present new catechism to arrange his work along the same lines. This little book, therefore, is highly worthy of recommendation. CHAS. J. CALLAN. The Story of the Mountain; begun by Mary M. Maline and continued by Rev. Edw. F. X. McSweeny, S. T. D.; Vol. I, Emmitsburg, Md. The Weekly Chronicle, 1911; pp. XV, 555. As Cardinal Gibbons says in the introduction, "the History of Mt. St. Mary's College and Seminary should be welcomed with pleasure by all who are interested in the educational institutions of the United States. It will make a special appeal to the clergy, since, for upwards of a hundred years, this venerable seat of piety and learning has been at once the nursery and sanctuary in which many priestly vocations were carefully fostered, and even more carefully developed. Indeed, she has sent out so many and so distinguished priests and prelates that she is proudly called the Mother of Bishops." The publication of this work is a fitting sequel to the Centenary of Mt. St. Mary's which was observed in 1908, and to the dedication of the new church which took place in October, 1910. On both these occasions, the Alumni of the Mountain reviewed its century of achievement, presenting as it were loose pages from its history. It must therefore be the more gratifying to them that a complete and connected account is now available and that it has been prepared by competent hands. This first volume covers the period from the foundation of the College in 1808 to the semi-centennial in 1858. The chapters follow year by year the development of the work through its pioneer stage and through the vicissitudes of trial and success that marked its later growth. The book contains page after page of incident and reminiscence that give life and color to the whole narrative; but it also abounds in extracts from the College records, from diaries, letters and other documents that make it a source of information regarding many distinguished graduates. No one can read without interest an account which brings forward the names of Dubois, Bruté, Hughes, Purcell, McCloskey, Elder and Corrigan, and tells of their student experience. Nor is it surprising that the College should have come safely through days of storm and stress when one considers the earnest endeavors of its presidents and professors. To the labors of these men not only Mt. St. Mary's and its alumni, but all who have at heart the furthering of Catholic education, are deeply indebted. How well they did their work is evident from the careers of those whom they prepared for service either in the Church or in the various departments of public and professional life. Laymen and ecclesiastics educated side by side at the Mountain have writ ten out in their lives and achievements the best tribute that could be paid to their Alma Mater; and it is instructive to study in these pages the influences by which they were trained both in the methods of right thinking and in the practice of right doing. Mt. St. Mary's has had its reverses; but it has not wavered in respect of its chief purpose, the making of men. To the many who read this volume it will be matter for sincere regret that Dr. McSweeny did not live to complete what was evidently a labor of love. In the more recent development of the College he was an important factor, and it is to be hoped that this History may be brought to completion with the same spirit of loyalty that prompted its undertaking and with the fullness of knowledge which its execution thus far reveals. The Eucharistic Liturgy in the Roman EDWARD A. PACE. Rite. Its History Italian of Rev. GioNew York, F. Pustet The work before us is an adaptation rather than a translation. It departs in many respects from the original, but these |