Educational Scries n m £QHiA KOREA SCHOOL AT CHONO-JU, KOREA (temporary quarters) Price, 3 cents; 30 cents a dozen. Women's Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church Room 8 1 8, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City 1908 SCHOOLS IN KOREA Under the care of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. Theological Seminary at Pyeng Yang. College at Pyeng Yang. Academies : For young men, at Seoul, Pyeng Yang, Whang Ju, Syen Chyun, Weju and Taiku. For young women, at Seoul, Pyeng Yang, Syen Chyun, Weju and Fusan. Medical College at Seoul. Student assistants are employed in hospi- tals at other stations. Nurses’ Training School at Seoul. Primary Schools. 457 under mission control, boys and girls being in separate schools. Comparative Educational Statistics showing increasing demand for education 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 rheological Seminary J No. of Schools . \ No. of Pupils . . I 7 1 20 I 43 1 75 1 98 College J No. of Schools . \ No. of Pupils . . 1 12 1 15 Academies .... f No. of Schools . \ No. of Pupils . . 4 184 5 269 7 380 9 717 1 1 7^1 Primary Schools . . f No. of Schools . \ No. of Pupils . . «3 1271 1 15 18 ?7 208 3911 344 6822 457 11.480 The statistical year closes June 30th. It has been impossible to get full and accurate statistics, but the above are approximately correct, and will serve to show the growth of the work. All the schools are Christian, and have been organized only when the Korean Christians have requested them. They are attended by but few from non-Christian homes. 2 Presbyterian Schools and Colleges in Korea. BV MRS. ERNEST FREEMAN HALL. K OREA has so long been called the “Hermit Kingdom,” so long been ignored and passed by, by the busy Western World, that it seems difficult to realize her as awake to the desire for a knowledge of the things that other nations know, and as reaching out for the treasures of learning which she has not possessed. Not, as some have supposed, sunk in apathy all these years, but sitting with her face turned from the turmoil and clash of nations without, she has remained lost in contemplation of the Golden Ages known when Japan was a nation of barbarians, and she herself at the feet of China drew knowledge and inspiration from that beneficent teacher. Rudely awakened from this dream of the past to the tarnished glories and failing powers of the present, the scholars among her older men are saying, “What shall we do? We must educate our sons and daugh- ters in the new learning and her young men, with their heritage also of minds trained through centuries in the Chinese language and Con- fucian thought, have sprung to the front, eagerly turning to the new, and ready to do anything in whatever way to attain. More than ten years ago the old Korean examination system was abolished, and within the last twenty years the first government school for young men, founded on Western ideas, with English and American as well as Korean instructors, was established by the Emperor. A year or two ago a still more radical move was made, in the establishment of a large girls' boarding school in Seoul, under the patronage of one of the court ladies and with the royal sanction ; this, although it has some Christian teachers, both native and foreign, is not, of course, a ( hristian school. Of the lower schools, up to the present the govern- ment primary, as well as the many private schools — for boys only — have been on the ancient Chinese model, while those recently established here and there by the Japanese with text-books and teaching in that language, are not likely to supply very rapidly the “Western learning” in the primary grades. Therefore, it is with peculiar interest that, turning to the educational work done by the various Protestant mis- 3 sions, we see its rapid advancement from small beginnings, and note how it strives with ever increasing success to fill the highest needs of those whose lives shall go to form the new Korea. Mr. Herbert Spencer, quoting from Lord Bacon, says that in education must first be made “a choice of knowledges,” and adds that its first aim is to teach “how to live;” and in Korea to-day the great majority of the thousands who are looking to the Missions for a modern training are choosing first the Bible as the foundation text- book, and are, therefore, asking for themselves or for their children that it be a Christian education. We are more nearly concerned in the limits of this leaflet with our own educational work — that of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and in this, as in other Missions, we find that it has not been necessary to plant schools in order to win the attention and interest of the heathen, but that, as it is one of America’s boasts that “the Constitution follows the flag,” so in the work in Korea — “the school follows the church.” “With the Missions in Korea,” says Dr. L'nderwood, “the aim of their schools has not been so much to use them as evangelistic agencies, but rather to provide a Christian educa- tion for the children of Christians.” With this aim in mind, let us look over the work which we, of the Church at home and abroad, have been doing to help a nation toward the light. SCHOOLS FOR YOUNG MEN AND BOYS September, 1907, saw the culmination of the Presbyterian Theological first years of theological work in Korea, Seminary of Korea. when the first class, numbering seven, was Pyeng Yang. graduated, after completing a five years’ course. During this time these men had studied at Pyeng Yang three months of every year, spending the other nine in practical work as helpers under the direction of the missionary pastors in all parts of the country, the Seminary being the product not only of one branch of the Presbyterian Church, but of the four Pres- byterian Missions working in Korea — the Australian, Canadian, Pres- byterian Church South, and our own, the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. These four Missions have been from the beginning united in the Council of Presbyterian Missions in Korea, and the graduation and ordination of these seven men was followed 4 by the formation of the Korean Presbyterian Church. Of the newly ordained men, one has gone out as the first missionary of the Korean Presbyterian Church to the Christless island of Quelpart in the South, and the others are pastors or co-pastors of churches or in charge of large country districts, proving themselves as workmen who need not to be ashamed. There was no graduating class in 1908, but of the ninety-eight students in the Seminary one has written, “A fine body of earnest and capable men.” Here are gathered the flower of the Korean Church — the men who shall one day go out to be the strength of the nation in its new exaltation in righteousness. The College in Korea may be said to be still in the College, elemental stage, although college work has been carried Pyeng Yang, on for some years in connection with the academies in both Pyeng Yang and Seoul. May, 1908, saw the first college graduating exercises held in Pyeng Yang, when Dr. Baird preached the baccalaureate sermon as the crown of his years of work, and after a masterly address by Dr. Gale of Seoul, two young men, wearing the caps and gowns which stand for Western learning, received diplomas. This work and that of the Academy are carried on jointly by the Presbyterian and Methodist Missions North, and at the end of the year fifteen young men were in the College Department. This College reports organization in 1901, but the Severance Hospital organization was but a phase in the development Medical College, of a work which has occupied the time and thought Seoul. of Dr. Avison for many years, as he planned for “the instruction of Korean Christian young men in medical science, with a view to raising up those who should, in the future, carry on the work which the missionaries could no more than begin.” Dr. Avison first took up work in the old Government Hospital, which had been given by the King to Dr. Allen. Later it was thought best to remove the medical work entirely from government control and support, and to place it under the direction of the Board and Mission, and in 1904 it was housed in a commodious building given for that purpose by Mr. L. H. Severance, of Cleveland, Ohio. In June, 1908, the first class, numbering seven, was graduated, with the title of Doctor of Medicine and Surgery. There were present representatives of the Korean Government and of the royal family; Prince Ito, the Japanese Resident-General, and members of his staff; the foreign diplomats and many guests. Dr. Gale presided, and Prince Ito presented the diplomas 5 to the graduates, who wore the regulation cap and gown over their own native costume. Dr. Avison invested them with the hood, and on the following day the Korean Government granted them medical certifi- cates, the first ever given in the Empire. These graduates are especially fine young men, and this occasion means much for the future alleviation of suffering in Korea. From very early in the history of the Station, John D. Wells Training educational work has been carried on in School for Christian Seoul, and at one time there was a boys’ Workers, Seoul. boarding school, the predecessor of this, which in its present form was organized in 1901, with four boys in attendance, the number increasing to six during the first year. It has had a steady growth since the beginning, and in 1906 the completion of the much-needed new building, a memorial to Rev. John D. Wells, D.D., for nearly fifty years a mem- ber of the Board of Foreign Missions, gave the long-desired opportunity for expan- sion. The enrollment for 1907-1908 was 126, with five graduates. Mr. E. H. Miller, the Principal, writes : : ‘Much progress has been made toward self support, every pupil paying a matriculation fee and a small tuition.” This school, occupying as it does an important strategic position in the capital, must of necessity be of large influence, and the present equip- ment is rapidly becoming wholly inade- quate. The following incident, quoted by Mr. F. S. Miller, illustrates the kind of material found among Korean students. “About 1905,” he writes, “a boy came to me in Seoul, and asked to be allowed to enter our boarding school. He was very ignorant,, and had done nothing but cut grass and weed fields all his life up to his fourteenth year. Funds were short, and I told him we could not take him in, that he was too ignorant for his age to enter. He said, ‘If I study the Thousand Character Classic before next fall, will you enter me?’ I said ‘Yes,’ thinking it would at least be a good test, one he would not stand, for he was not promising. A year after, he returned, and had committed the whole thousand characters to memory. He 6 TRAINING SCHOOL, SEOUL entered the school and studied faithfully until the school was closed several years later. There being no school for the smaller boys to attend, he organized the West Gate Day School and taught it, making his living as janitor of the church. In the meantime, he continued his studies, and married a bright little woman, whom he educated after they were married. Then he became Dr. Underwood’s helper, and is now Elder Song, soon to be ordained to the ministry, after complet- ing a full course in the Theological Seminary — a ‘wood boy’ made into an educated minister of the Gospel. That is the object — one object^- of our schools.” This school, from its modest beginning in the Academy for Boys, few boys who came to Dr. Baird to be taught Pyeng Yang. more than ten years ago, has had a constant growth in usefulness and influence, and from the ancient capital of Pyeng Yang its power is felt not only through the northern provinces, but to the southward as well, wherever its pupils have gone out to give of what they have received to the many who need. The present building was completed in 1901, and the first class was graduated in 1904. This building, long outgrown and crowded to the fullest capacity, has seen successive and successful years of a Chris- tian education that fulfills the aim of the institution, as written by Dr. Baird in 1904: “If the most of our Christian youth can be retained and molded into efficient workers, we cannot hope for a more powerful right arm of Christian usefulness.” Throughout this time the board- ing pupils have been nearly all professing Christians, or have become Christians after entering the school. There has been carried on also a manual training department, which enables about half of the students to support themselves in school. This department, however, is unable to receive all who wish to enter, and many poor boys are disappointed. Of one of these, Mrs. Bern- heisel writes: “A young man from Mr. Bernheisel’s country work came in last spring. He did not have the money to pay his expenses, and could not be admitted to the work department. He came to consult his pastor. There seemed to be nothing for him to do but to go home. He is a big, tall fellow, but the tears could not but come as he thought of not being able to study. Then the pastor thought he might make straw rope, to be used in the mud walls of the new house. Some money was ad- vanced to buy the straw, and so he started in business, and by making straw rope and hauling mud from the river, he was able to make enough to help himself through the school term. He is only one of many who are eager for an education.” 7 The union with the Methodist Academy, begun in the year 1905- 1906, has been successful, and the building of the Methodist Science Hall has been a help in the congested condition of the school, where the Principal sometimes entered his class room to find not only all available space filled, but “the space about the windows on the roof outside occupied with the overflow.” The Korean churches aid the Academy materially by substantial contributions, increasing year by year as the need grows. With the beginning of college work, a reorganization was effected, and the gradu- ating class of the Academy became the sophomore class of the college. The school in Weju, at the extreme north of Korea, Weju Academy on the Yalu River, has from the first been full of for Boys. interest. It grew out of the demand of the nearly five thousand Christians of the district for an academy for their sons. Throughout this northern country are enterprising peo- ple, who travel widely. They knew of higher schools and academies in other places, and desired for their children like advantages. The Mission reluctantly told the eager seekers that there were not funds available for such a school. Undaunted, the prosperous Christian busi- ness men provided an academy building, with money for its expenses, and asked tor a missionary to be appointed as teacher and superin- tendent of the plant. The Mission being unable to grant this request, a graduate of the Pyeng Yang Academy was secured in 1906 to start a school of the same pattern in Weju, and began it with two other graduates as assistants and an instructor in Japanese. In 1908 this Academy is reported as having made steady and satisfactory progress and having an attendance of fifty. Another academy has been started by Korean Christians at Whang Ju with sixty pupils, and two others in nearby places are to be begun this fall (1908). This school closed its fifth year of Christlike School for the Blind, work in 1908. with seven pupils. In 1907, the Pyeng Yang. hymn book and the New Testament in the point system were completed, and will bring light to many darkened hearts. The main study is the New Testament. This Academy was opened in the fall of 1906, and Boys’ Academy, has had two prosperous years, in 1907 reporting an Syen Chyun. attendance of forty to fifty; in 1908, eighty students, who have done good work. The spirit of “liberty” so-called, which is awakening throughout the North, caused a disturb- 8 ance when the boys found they were not allowed to choose their own curriculum, but the removal of a few leaders made them pause to con- sider, and the year was brought to a successful close. Although the Koreans through the North — The Hugh O’Neill, Jr., generally speaking, a more thrifty and well- Boys’ Industrial to-do class than those in the South — are able School and Farm, to finance their own educational work, and have Syen Chyun. proved over and over again their willingness to do so, yet, as a missionary in the North has written : “A school run by Mission money and controlled by the Mis- sion is necessarv r : first, in order to keep a better grip on the educational situation ; secondly, because there are hosts of poor boys, the best material for strong church workers, who cannot get an education unless some system of furnishing work whereby they can earn money enough to live and study is provided.” Such an industrial school has been made possible in Syen Chyun by the generous gift of Mrs. O’Neill, of New York, and it is hoped to have it in operation in the fall of 1908. In the large southern city of Taiku was felt, as Boys’ Academy, elsewhere, the need of school work for the older boys Taiku. and young men, “the most promising material in the bounds of the Church, the future hope of its strong and enduring establishment,” and in May, 1906, an academy was organ- ized with twenty-seven young men in attendance, who supported them- selves during the ten weeks of the first term. The following fall it was re-opened with an enrollment of forty-eight, and ran through eight months of the year. In the fall of 1908, the best year yet is reported, fifty-two young men being on the roll, all Christians and recommended by the missionary pastors of the various districts connected with the station. The students were all self-supporting, work being provided for a few to help them eabn their tuition. The large proportion of these students are from the poorer classes, and all are anxious to be- come useful men. The much-needed new academy building was com- pleted this fall (1908), and the future of education in this city is very bright. 9 SCHOOLS EOR YOUNG WOMEN AND GIRLS. This school, organized in 1906 in connection with Training School for the Severance Hospital, Seoul, in 1908 graduated Nurses, Seoul. five nurses, who received caps in token of ability in their profession. Under the superintendence of Miss Esther L. Shields, this school is growing in usefulness and efficiency, and is destined to fill a great need among the Koreans, igno- rant as they are of the laws of health and hygiene and of proper care for the suffering. This school is one of the oldest in Korea, having Yun-Mot-Kol been organized in 1888, under the care of Miss Women’s Academy, Doty, with but a few pupils. It was hampered Seoul. for years b) T insufficient accommodations, but not- withstanding has progressed and wielded a wide influence among the girls of the Christian homes in and around Seoul, and of those who came not already church members, many have been baptized. The curriculum has included Bible study, English, Korean and church history, astronomy, arithmetic, geography, physiology, read- ing and Chinese; also such useful branches as sewing, knitting and embroidery. During the years many of the pupils have married Chris- tian young men, and have gone out to make homes of their own, which are as lights in their communities, and some of the advanced pupils have been used as teachers of the lower classes. Three girls were graduated in 1907 and five in 1908. The old industrial department has now been dropped, and a charge is made for board and tuition, and there are none of the pupils whose parents or friends do not gladly pay the full amount charged. Of the opening in the fall of 1908, Mrs. E. H. Miller writes: “The Women’s Academy opened the first day with every room full, and the number exceeded the whole enrollment of last year. We have had to refuse entrance to a large number of girls for lack of room. The tuition has been raised from three to four ven ($1.50 to $2.00) a month.” “There are so many fine bright girls among the new arrivals this year, and everything has started off well.” The aim of the school, like other mission schools in Korea, is “to train Christian teachers, Bible women and home-keepers.” Speaking of this school and the Wells Training School, Mrs. Miller says: “In both schools all are Christians. We cannot take in all the Christian boys and girls who are able and glad to pay all we ask.” 10 PUPILS OF WOMEN’S ACADEMY, SEOUL This long-desired school, under the name, Seminary for Women, '‘Advanced School for Girls and Women,” Pyeng Yang. opened November, 1903, with twenty-three from the country and twenty from the city in attend- ance, including both boarding and day pupils. These were to be, as the announcement sent to the country churches stated, from sixteen to thirty-five years of age, “would be expected to furnish their own food, bedding, clothing and books, and to pay a small tuition fee,” and the term was for three months. Those who came were mainly church members, and the rest from Christian homes, most of the girls being brought by their fathers, who had been asking that their daughters might have such an opportunity — showing the revolution already worked in Korean thought by Christianity. The young girls w r ere placed in the boarding department, under a Korean matron, the young 11 married women and widows, one of whom was fifty years of age, in another house, where they planned among themselves for boarding and housekeeping, the idea in the missionaries’ minds being “not so much to give them ‘book-learning,’ but to teach them to be better home- makers.” However, the curriculum included the Bible, Christian tracts, arithmetic, geography, physiology, hygiene, composition and singing for the advanced classes, and some of the Gospels, geography, reading, writing, arithmetic, composition and singing for the rest. Since this encouraging beginning, the school has shown a steady growth in spite of the lack of adequate buildings and equipment. In the fall of 1906, a union with the Methodists was begun, which “resulted in additional teaching by missionaries and a sharing of expenses, much to the ad- vantage of the work.” The Presbyterian boarding department has now become “a model Korean home, where the girls are taught by the Korean matron that even mud walls and floors can be kept clean, and their food prepared in a sanitary way.” “The purpose is not to for- eignize the students, but to improve their environment.” In 1908, the first class, numbering five, was graduated, a great event in the evolu- tion of women in Korea. This school for women “past school-age,” or who School for Women, cannot be spared from home for daily study, has Pyeng Yang. been carried on for a number of years; it meets twice a week from October to May, studying geography, arithmetic and Bible. During the past year (1907-1908) forty-eight students were enrolled, embracing with much joy this cov- eted opportunity. This institution is yet young, having been opened in Girls’ Academy, the fall of 1907, after being long looked forward to Syen Chyun. by the j'oung women of the province. In 1908, it closed a successful five months of study, with forty enrolled, ranging in age “from women thirty-five 3 r ears old to little girls just graduated from the primary schools.” This school has iust closed its second year. It Girls’ Academy, is maintained and taught by Koreans, with Weju. some help from the Syen Chyun missionaries. The enrollment was thirty, and the missionaries report “splendid progress.” 1 2 September, 1908, saw the beginning of this Girls’ Boarding School, inuch-needed school, which, although seem- Fusan. ingly a new institution, is really the culmina- tion of years of work and planning. In 1896, Mrs. Irvin began a night school with eleven little girls, who waited one evening after prayer meeting and asked if they might learn to read the Bible. From homes where all day they were busy they came with unflagging interest, little untrained, unkempt girls at first, some not even Christians, learning to read and sew and to study the Bible, and gradually there was a change, as the teacher wrote, in “lives, faces and actions.” From that time this quiet, unheralded work has been carried on two or three evenings a week, a steady foundation-building class, with at times an attendance of forty, whose influence cannot be mea- sured. “Whole families," writes the faithful teacher, “have come in through the influence of the little girls in the night school. I might mention Pobai, who is now one of my teachers. She prayed for years for 'Ouri Pumo' (my parents'), and at last, when she could have been made a full member of the church, said she wanted to wait for them, firmly believing that her prayers would be answered. 'Hananim dut tairo’ (according to the will of God) — they were answered, and father, mother and sister made with her a happy quartette on a Christmas morning when admitted to the church.” From this school some have gone out to make Christian homes, and from among those who remain three have been selected for a special training as teachers of other Korean girls who have not had their years of opportunity. Beginning in the fall of 1907, they have undertaken a three years’ normal course, spending every day from half-past eight until five or six in study, under the direct supervision of the teacher, living together, with the mother of one as matron, and are full of enthusiasm, working hard over their advanced course. During the first year of this training they have carried on a successful kindergarten on Sunday mornings, while Mrs. Irvin was teaching the mothers. This normal work has been continued for a year, since the gift of Mr. L. H. Severance has made it possible for Mrs. Irvin at last to have a home for her school, completed this fall and destined to become a centre of influence for the whole Southern Province. One of the aims of this school will be the training of Christian teachers for the ever-increasing church schools throughout this part of the country and in the nearby towns, as well 13 as to make it possible for the girls, hitherto bound, even more than in the North, by relentless custom, to ignorance, to have a new outlook, and even in the midst of the trammels of old ideas to grow into a beau- tiful Christian womanhood. COUNTRY SCHOOL NEAR SEOUL COMING TO GREET PASTOR AND HIS WIFE PRIMARY SCHOOLS. In the small space at command, it is impossible to do more than briefly to touch upon the subject of our Presbyterian Primary Schools, which have spread into eleven of the thirteen provinces of Korea, and which now number over 450, including more than 11,000 pupils, all but a few being entirely self-supporting. Very early in the history of the Mission, primary teaching was begun and carried on with constant advance in numbers, but the more rapid growth has been in recent years, as will be seen by a glance at the table of statistics. In the past, the organizing of most of these schools, especially in the country places, has been exceedingly simple— the Christians of a country group or church, deciding that they must have a school — or two schools — that their boys and perhaps the girls 14 as well may be taught, subscribe what they can, find a place, often part of the church building itself, secure the best teacher possible, and the school begins. The difficulty has lain, and still lies, in the scarcity of suitable teachers, which need the various academies and normal classes are striving to fill as rapidly as possible, but which they are still far from able to meet. Already, especially in the North, the situation is changing, and the need for trained and consecrated men and women greater than ever; not only with the spread of the Gospel and its over- turning power, and because of the political troubles, but also with the coming in of new ideas and the beginnings of the dawn of an outside world upon heathen communities comes an agitation, an unrest in the very air, which brings up new problems for the Christian schools to face, a testing of their principles such as has not been known hitherto. In the more conservative South this is, as yet, not so much the case. A rapid survey of the schools in the various districts will suffice to show the present situation (1908). The Church Primary Schools are ever increasing, but with Fusan. so few workers as are at present at this station there can be no proper supervision. The people are vety poor, and there are few Christian teachers. There are many of the old heathen schools throughout the district, which exercise a decided unchristian influence; some, however, that desire to understand and model their heathen schools after the Christian pattern. A missionary writes: “They are sending in from all quarters, asking for teachers to come and teach the Christian children. Heathen schools also want Christian teachers.” In this conservative city the missionaries are glad to report Taiku. that “about one-third of all the Korean school children in this whole city” are gathered in the Church Primary Schools, and that throughout the province are some sixty-five schools, all self- supporting. The latter, however, are very primitive, with few compe- tent teachers, the Christians everywhere “doing the best they can.” Educational work was begun in the Chong Ju district in Chong Ju. 1904. but the station is as yet so new that no systematic oversight has been possible. The country schools are six, with sixty pupils. The school work in Chong Ju City, when just well started, was much hindered by the political troubles, when the insur- gents, having seized the school building, the self-supporting school, which had been taught during the summer by a graduate of the Wells Training School in Seoul, was disbanded, and its group of bright young 15 PUPILS AT CHONG JU men scattered. In the spring of 1908, however, the school work took a new lease of life, the Koreans increased their subscriptions, and an excellent Christian teacher was secured, who was formerly an official and speaks Japanese fluently. The village also deeded a tiled building to the school, so that it is now in a flourishing condition. An interesting incident connected with the city school work here was the voluntary organization, by the boys of the Christian school, of summer night schools for the “wood-boys,” little lads who spend their days going out to gather fire wood. The pupils paid the expenses, and were taught reading, writing, arithmetic and singing. On Wednesday and Sunday evenings the students were marched in good order to the prayer meeting and taught reverent behavior. By this means about thirty boys were brought under the influence of the Gospel. The primary schools in and around Seoul station, opened in Seoul, the early days of the Mission, were established on the present plan in 1900. There are now thirty-three schools in this dis- trict, with nearly one thousand pupils — all self-supporting, and con- 16 nected with the various churches. There were formerly several, under one church, which were partially supported by Mission funds. In 1906 these funds became low. and the missionary pastor told the church that the aid must gradually decrease until it ceased entirely. The school committee, of young men, got together and said if it must stop, let it he ended at once — that they could and would care for their own schools. They took up a new subscription in the church, to which all, even out of poverty, responded gladly, arranged a new and better course of study, and took a pride in becoming self-supporting, and successfully so — showing the spirit that animates the Korean Christian. As we go farther North, we meet more problems in the Chai Ryong. primary school work. In the somewhat newly organized work in Chai Ryong, the year 1907-1908 is reported as a “year of crisis” in educational affairs. There being some doubt about the authorized course of study, and some confusion having been caused by unbelievers coming into the schools and desiring certain things taught, it was decided that the authority of the Presbyterial Committee must be used, and that this committee must control the Church schools, and a provisional curriculum was adopted, awaiting the adoption of one bv Presbytery. The following were decided upon as the “essentials of a Christian school,” showing the stand taken by Korean Christians : “i. The local School Committee, approved by pastor and session, or elected by the church, with consent of the pastor and session, is to be composed of baptized Christians. “2. The teacher must be approved by the pastor and session or by the helper. “3. Schools must have' daily prayers. “4. The official curriculum must be followed.” Pyeng Yang reports this year (1908) a complete re- Pyeng Yang, organization of the city Primary and Grammar Schools, which had been studying in buildings connected with the five churches in the city, the boys’ preparatory and first-grades to have two buildings for study, each of the other primary grades to have one building, and the grammar grades to use a new building near the Cen- tral Church. A superintendent (a missionary) and an assistant super- intendent (an elder in the Central Church) have been appointed, and twelve teachers elected, graduates of the Academy, the Night School or the Normal Class. The final authority is with the School Board, which is elected or appointed by the various church sessions. Last 1 7 year twenty-eight boys were graduated, and this fall there will be over six hundred pupils. The girls'’ schools are under a similar arrangement. Mr. McCune writes : “We are hoping by this effort in the unification of our schools to increase their efficiency many fold, and to turn out a product that the whole Church and nation will be proud of.” These have all been self-supporlmg schools for three or four years, and have been sending their graduates to the Academy for about seven years. Throughout the country districts about Pyeng Yang the primary schools have become so many that they could have no proper oversight, and many new problems have sprung up. The Church schools are superior to all others, and “exceedingly popular with the general public.” In one school, the heathen patrons tried to make it a centre of political agitation, and the authority of the Christian School Committee had to be exercised. “This illustrates,” as a missionary writes, “a danger rather than a condition. At the leaders’ class, a determination was made to have the schools wholly under the control of the Church.” At Syen Chyun, with the changes that are in the air, Syen Chyun. there is this year (1908) an epidemic of primary schools — what one missionary has called an “educational revo- lution.” “Schools spring up in a night,” he writes, “heathen and Chris- tian. The Governor starts schools, the Magistrates start schools, the township officials start schools, and the villages start schools. Seven School Boards lay hold of the flowing coat-tails of one poor teacher, salaries have gone up, and the Pyeng Yang graduate is the man of the hour.” Here at Syen Chyun, as in the Pyeng Yang district, the many coun- try churches have self supporting Christian primary schools, and even as far North as Kang Kai there are ten boys’ schools and three girls’ schools — the desire for education spreading everywhere. NORMAL CLASSES. In the limits of this leaflet, we can but touch upon this important phase of our Korean work, which has made it possible to carry on schools where otherwise there could have been none. These classes are held annually or semi-annually, usually in the station centres, and to them come up the Christian teachers from the Church schools all over the country, who, many of them far from j'oung, and yet with a great desire to know, and to impart their knowledge to the youth of 18 their villages, have given themselves to what to a less consecrated de- termination would seem a hopeless task. Men to whom the intricate Chinese characters are as an open page, plod patiently over simple ex- amples in arithmetic, or sit spell-bound before the first revelations of geography — to come out in triumph at last with the subject mastered. As a pupil of the Pyeng Yang Academy, who had been helping in country school work during the summer vacation, wrote to his teacher: “Amid many things to be thankful to God for is this fact especially, that the teacher here, though an old man, and one who might be sup- posed to have passed the age for learning easily, yet in the midst of many labors in behalf of his pupils, has studied well, and mastered arithmetic as far as the subject of fractions. And whereas, during the last year’s vacation, I taught the pupils here in arithmetic, yet now I can learn much from him. How shall we not thank God for this help of His Spirit? When I saw what he had done, I knew that, however old one should be, and however difficult the study, yet if he should study energetically in order to be helpful to other persons, he would receive help from God, and there would be nothing that he cannot do.” During 1908, normal classes were held at Seoul, Pyeng Yang (union class with the Methodists), Taiku, Chai -Ryong, Weju (conducted by Koreans), and Syen Chyun. In the last-named place, also, a group of teachers from nearby schools followed a weekly normal course, coming to Syen Chyun every Monday evening for instruction ; while in Fusan, Mrs. Irvin has conducted the daily normal class already referred to. These teachers of the country schools in Korea, who have had so little opportunity, are willing to work for years to obtain the certificates given at the completion of the course, and, as one missionary writes, “realize that it is a struggle for the survival of the fittest, and are determined to survive.” OTHER CLASSES There can be but a word as to the various other educational instrumentalities in Korea — the large training classes for leaders and helpers, and for Bible women, which are so potent a factor in the Church’s life; and especially the Bible Institutes, held annually in all the station centres, and also at selected places throughout the country churches, to which the Christians throng in thousands, to spend from ten days to two weeks at their own charges, in study of the Word of J9 God. All these classes, while perhaps coming properly under the evan- gelistic work, are surely educational in the highest sense. As Dr. Mof- fett says : “The whole Church is made to feel the results of these classes, and from them the men go forth with an enthusiasm and an evangel- istic zeal, coupled with a knowledge of the Scriptures, which enables them to become intelligent as well as zealous heralds of the Gospel message.” Such is, in brief, the story of Christian education in Korea to-day, and may we not say of it all, founded as it is on the study of God’s Word, as Dr. Gale, at the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Mission, in 1904, said of the Korean and the Bible: “Let not the political situation daunt us; all things are possible; let not the conser- vatism of the nation, let not its ancient hopeless pedigree, stand in the way; there will new days come with the universal reading of the Bible, and the decayed heart will find a cure, and the eyes will see.”