Completing the elementary education

The first class in the high schools is occupied with testing and, if necessary, completing the elementary education that the pupils have received in the elementary schools. The highest class embraces the study of chemistry, conic sections, the differential calculus, and political economy. There is no instruction given in dead or foreign languages. In the intermediate classes between the first and last, the pupils pass through the various stages of education in such studies as mathematics, history, geography, astronomy, and general science. Of course, when you have to communicate by the aid of an interpreter, it is not easy to ascertain what degree of learning the pupils have actually acquired. But, judging from the diagrams, maps, models, and text-books which I saw in use, the instruction imparted was certainly of a higher and more serious character than that given in any ordinary public school of our own country. The boys appeared to me to follow the explanations of their teachers with extreme attention and interest, and had none of the listless, bored look, which, if my recollection serves me rightly, used to be—and I dare say is—so characteristic of English school-boys in a class-room. The teachers seem to take great interest in their pupils, and were obviously most anxious to impress a stranger with the extent of their scholars* attainments. They all declared that the children, as a general rule, were anxious to learn, and quick at learning. Any religious difficulty is got over by allowing the children of different sects to receive religious instruction in separate class-rooms, imparted by ministers of their own creed.

Orthodox Greeks

As the building has any amount of space, and as there are only four important schismatic denominations — the Orthodox Greeks, the Catholics, the Mahommedans, and the Jews—there is no difficulty about finding separate accommodation for the purpose. The religious teaching is always given, either at the commencement or at the end of the day’s lessons, so as to leave the regular school work uninterrupted. From what I could learn, no very great importance is attached by the parents to religious instruction being given one way or the other, so long as no attempt at proselytizing is made or suspected of being made. The boys themselves, in common with all Bulgarian lads, were strong, stout-built fellows, not unintelligent in look, but with a sort of peasant aspect, which characterizes the whole race.