[1] In a report on requirements for admission to college, made to the
National Council of Education in 1891, the following recommendation
appeared:
“That a committee be appointed by this Council to select a dozen
universities and colleges and a dozen high and preparatory schools, to
be represented in a convention to consider the problems of secondary
and higher education.”
In accordance with the recommendation, the committee making the
report, of which the writer was chairman, was authorized to call a
meeting of representatives of leading educational institutions, at
Saratoga in 1892. Invitations were issued and some thirty delegates
responded. After a three days’ session a plan was formulated, which
was adopted by the National Council. The Committee of Ten, thus
appointed and charged with the duty of conducting an investigation
of secondary-school studies, held its first meeting in New York City
in November, 1892, with President Eliot of Harvard University as
chairman. The committee arranged for nine subcommittees or conferences,
each to consider a principal subject of high-school courses, and
submitted to them definite inquiries. Each conference was composed
of prominent instructors in the particular subject assigned. The
inquiries covered such points as place of beginning the study, time to
be given, selection of topics, advisability of difference in treatment
for pupils going to college and for those who finish with the high
school, methods, etc. The reports of these conferences in printed form,
together with a summary of the recommendations, were in the hands of
the Committee of Ten at their second meeting in New York, November,
1893. The report of the Committee of Ten, including the conference
reports, through the good offices of the Commissioner of Education, was
published by the Government.
As a member of the Committee of Ten, the author was invited to review
the Report before the Council of Education, at a meeting held in Asbury
Park, July, 1894.