All these arguments combine to reinforce the need for the institution of continuation schools. It is not the aim of these schools to prepare their pupils for work in special branches of industry, but their spirit is a much more practical one than that of the elementary schools. Almost without exception, they are purely secular, and give no religious instruction. They must lay great emphasis upon the need that the children should be habituated to care regularly for their bodies and their health. In addition to the general continuation schools, there exist industrial continuation schools or schools of apprenticeship. The former are mostly in the hands of the education authorities, whilst the latter are controlled by the boards supervising commerce and industry (_Gewerbebehörden_). In agricultural districts, schools of this latter order take the form of schools of agriculture. The advocates of the emancipation of women demand the institution of continuation schools for girls in especial. Such schools must naturally give the first place to the teaching of domestic economy; but many consider that they should also give instruction in the main principles of education, and especially regarding the care of infants. (Special schools of domestic economy and of cooking already, of course, exist.) Many demand that these subjects should receive special attention in the public elementary schools; but it should suffice here if in the teaching of other subjects the bearing of these upon domestic economy and the conduct of life is explained, in so far as this comports with the main object of the course of instruction. Objections have been raised by many to the effect that the girls are too young to be taught domestic economy to any good purpose. But experience teaches the contrary. The results of teaching domestic economy have been so satisfactory that it is proposed to make it an essential part of the curriculum. Continuation schools are not regarded with universal favour. In fact, their existence offers a certain hindrance to the exploitation of the working powers of the young, and this is disagreeable, not only to factory owners and manual workers, but for the time being is distasteful to many proletarian parents. These schools turn out workers who can compete successfully with the older generation of unskilled labourers. In spite of these objections, continuation schools become ever more important and more widely diffused, tending more and more to become an invariable supplement to the public elementary school. Of late years, in many countries, attendance at continuation schools has been made compulsory, especially attendance at schools of apprenticeship in the case of children who fail to attend the middle schools. To make attendance at a continuation school obligatory is an unmistakable tendency of evolution.