The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-07-23 00:00:00

TECHNICAL EDUCATION,

The National Association for the Promotion of
Technical Education has (remarks the London Daily
Yews), very wisely determined to devote itself rathe-
to the perfecting of existing school systems than to
the establishment of novel institutions. The Execur
tive Committee, of which Lord Hartington is chair-
man, and Sir Henry Roscoe and Mr. Arthur Ackland
are secretaries, has published a short statement of
the objects of the association, in which are indicated
with sufficient precision the purpose to be attained and
the methods by which that end is to be furthered. A
central consultative body, it will give opportunities
for conference between persons of various classes and
different localities, and it will collect and disse-
minate information for the guidance of all con-
cerned. The association will address itself to
the task of placing the higher technical instruc-
tion given in our colleges upon a better footing,
as well as to the promotion in our primary schools
of a better training of hand and eye. Upon the im-
portance of this movement and of its urgency there
is no need to enlarge. All the Royal Commissions
which directly or indirectly have had the subject
brought under their notice have agreed in enforcing
the vital need of something being done without delay
to supply the lamentable deficiencies to the conscious-
ness of which we are slowly awakening. But it has
been well said that there is some danger of the
popular mind being led to adopt the cry of Technical
Educatian as a remedy for commercial depression
much ES it has done that of Fair Trade, equally
withori clearly comprehending the nature or probable
effect of attaining what is asked for.
Happily it may now be taken for granted that
consequent on the remarkable progress in elementary
education which has been made since 1870, there has
been attained a general increase of intelligence in the
population, not only valuable in itself but of infinite
practical importance as a preliminary to any wise
form of special training. In these Jubilee days it is
noteworthy that 50 years have passed since a Com-
mittee of the Hoase of Commons reported in favour
of Sta're aid towards the establishment of schools of
design. Subsequently came the formation of the
Department of Science and Art, and the establishment
and development of the South Kensington Museum
and of the provincial schools and museums ramify-
ing and pulsating from South Kensington. We
have undoubtedly much to learn from other countries,
but it must not be overlooked that no other lava
enjoys so complete a system for the end contemplated
as that which we possess. But it has hitherto been
held that instruction, the cost of which is met from
funds to which all contribute, must equitably follow
certain lines equally applicable to the requirements
and beneficial to the interests of all clioses. Hence
the training of teachers by whom alone grants can be
earned. The nature of the examples towards which
grants in aid are given and the conditions under which
exam nations are conducted are so far uniform that it
is difficult to perceive any important difference distin-
guishing an art school in a textile, metal working, or
pottery district. Ihe organisation known as the " City
and Guilds of London Institute" in effect takes up
the work of technical training where the functions of
the State cease. Its mission is to teach the " tech-
nology "of all important manufactures. Its opera-
tions have profitably occupied a space which before
was vacant, and it will probably soon relieve us from
the reproach of having to send our young people to
seek, as so many have hitherto had to do, their higher
professional training in the technical schools of
Swi zerland and Germany. The instruction imparted
is intended to help those who are employed either as
masters, foremen, or workers, who are thus enabled
to supplement and vivify the experience of the work-
shop by a study of the artistic, economic, and
scientific principles upon which practical work should
be conducted. Tho applied teaching provided by the
City Institution given in many places conjointly with
that taught in classes aided by the Department of
pcience and Art has been found to attain excellent
results.

There is, however, a serious danger in all systems
of "payment by results" in the temptations they
offer to teachers and managers to adapt their work
not so much to the needs of their pupils, or to the
wants of the locality, as to he earning of ttie largest
money grants from central funds. It has been every-
where lamented that the leaders of commercial and
industrial enterprise, whose influence should correct
this tendency, are not found taking so active a part
as they ought in work the importance of which is so
readily conceded. In no particular will the new asso-
ciation be more usefully employed than in enforcing
the obligation which rests upon those whose large
interests are so much at stake to give personal
supervision and guidance, so that instrir-
tion given in every grade of school shall
be practically directed to thc, most desir-
able and profitable end. In what has been
so far said, reference has been chiefly to education as
applied to industrial and manufacturing needs. But
the association recognises as not less important the
necessity for commercial and agricultural instruction.
How lamentably we are behind in the first is being
made patent by the reports from our diplomatic and
consular agents published from time to time. How
much we are in need of agricultural schools as evi-
dent from the tables of our enormous imports of fruit,
poultry, and dairy produce from countries where, as
in Denmark and Italy particularly, public funds have
been wisely lavished on specially applied education
with remarkable results. The experiences of Ciren-
cester and of the excellent Dairy School at Cork justify
the conviction that equally satisfactory results are
attainable at home if corresponding exertions are
made.

Meritorious efforts are being made in particular
localities for the encouragement of domestic in-
dustries. The need of some kind of remunerative
employment which will supplement the earnings of
those who have been wholly dependent upon agricul-
ture has been long apparent. Nowhere is the want so
conspicuous as in Ireland. The enterprise of Mrs.
Ernest Hart has shown what can be done by well-
directed zeal. The Report of the Royal Commission
on Technical Instruction contains much helpful infor
mation as to what hasbeen at tained by the establishment
of village schools for teaching such simple trades in
Austria, the Tyrol, and Switzerland, where the
physical conditions are in many particulars similar to
those of the sister island. It may be that cottage in-
dustries are only possible up to the stage at which it
becomes worth while to establish a factory. But it is
no small good gained when the habit and faculty of
industry have been called into play, since they are
certain to find channels for their employment.
The subject is so wide and so diversiled that what
has been here said can only be regarded as sketchily
indicating some few of the many possibilities before
us. Bradford and smaller Yorkshire towns like
Keighley have shown what can be done when the
public spirit of the locality is properly excited. But
it must be admitted that a lethargic spirit still too
widely prevails. It will need all the exertions of
Lord Hartington and Sir Henry Roscoe to stimulate
an improved tone of public sentiment which will make
such educational achievements as those of which
Zurich and Strasburg are examples possible in
England. The association is the outward and visible
expression of convictions that are steadily growing
in force. And with proper light and leading we may
hope to recover some lost ground, and to maintain
the supremacy which has of late been so rudely
challenged.