The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-12-20
LABOR SCHOOLS.
Tho subject of Industrial Education as
Viewed from nn English Standpoint.

bridge, England, on the subject OF
industrial education, from which we
make the following interesting extracts !:
Promising that since workingmen can
not come to the university, it is the
university's duty to go to them,
it proposes to open course of
specific training, not for the so-called
liberal professions, or for middlemen of
any kind, but for the veritable producers
in other words, for the working class.
Since the decay of the old apprentice
system very little has been done for the
education of labor. 1t is plain that the
establishments known under the name
of ragged schools scarcely belong to the
class of industrial seminaries. AS their
title indicates, these industrial institu-
tions receive the children of poor
parents, or orphans, afford them lodging
and nourishment, and employ them in
various trades. The extreme youth of
these children-they graduate, as rule,
at the age of tifteen-prevents them from
receiving a substantial technical train
ing. On the other hand considerable
progress has been made in this
direction by certain countries on the
continent, and some examples especially
worthy of imitation are pointed out in
this report.
Industrial schools seem to be quite
numerous in the German Empire and
Austria, in Denmark, Sweden, Holland
and Belgium. They are generally known
as apprentices workshops" but they
combine theoretical with practical in
struction, and presuppose graduation
from primary schools. In Belgium
pupils are admitted from the age of
twelve, OF even earlier, if they can show
the requisite measure Of elementary
knowledge.
In Holland the most important tech
nical academies for producers are those
of Amsterdam. The school for boys,
founded in 1861 by the "Society of the
Working Glasses, was designed to train
workmen for those trades which are con-
nected with architecture and ship
building. The course of instruction
lasts three years, and includes-besides
certain studies supplementary of pri-
mary acquirements-the elements of
metrics, of mechanics and natural his
tory, the art of drawing, the study of
tools and materials, carpentry, masonry,
the use of the lathe and the forge. The
pupils must be at least thirteen years of
age, and have received good elementary
education. They are required to pay an
annual fee, which does not exceed, how
ever, thirteen dollars. There is likewise
training school for girls in Amsterdam,
whose management has been attended
with good results, because it has avoided
the common error of wasting time on
lady-like accomplishments.
La Scandinavia and the German en-
pire, the apprentice schools differ only
in some details of small importance from
those above described. We merely note
that they are government institutions,
whereas in Vienna, Prague, and through
out Austria, the industrial academies
We're created by private enterprise, al
though they receive O subsidy from the
State. Passing to other countries, we
find the idea of technical training for
the working classes has borne but meagre
fruit in Switzerland, although the system
OF rudimentary instruction is singularly
efficient.
Notwithstanding the many projects
brought forward at the epochs of its
various revolutions, France, as q nation,
has done almost nothing in the way of
providing a substitute for the old sys-
tenn of apprenticeship, which passed
away with the ancient regime. She
seems to have taken thought for every.
thing except skilled labor. Her unri-
vailed assemblage of art, scientific and
professional schools is supplemented by
q score of special institutions, whose
graduates are qualified to direct every
species Of industrial and agricultural en-.
terprise, and by number of business
colleges, framed ON the model of the
Eoole Turgot. whose pupils are fitted fol
the several branches Of foreign and
domestic trade. But of schools for work
men the state has none, if we except the
establishment founded by the Sandman
government and transferred to France
upon the annexation of Savoy and Nice
1t is true that few municipalities have
created apprentice schools, but then
number is extremely limited. Paris has
only one institution of the kind-the ap'
prentice school of the Boulevard de Ia
Villette. This, however, merits special
attention, because, according to Professor
Stuart, of Cambridge University, it pres,
ents the most perfect type of an indus.
trial academy. We may add that at his
suggestion fac-simile of it is about to be
organized in England.
The single object of this school, first
opened in 1873, is to produce intelligent
and skilful workmen. The specific call
ings for which its pupils are trained are
those of workers in iron and workers ii
wood. Boys are admitted between the
ages of thirteen and sixteen, after an ex'
animation which has regard to orthogra
ply, arithmetic and the metric system
Not only is tuition gratuitous, but deserv
ing students receive once fortnight {
certain compensation for their labor
varying from forty cents to dollar. Th'
period of apprenticeship is three years
During the first two years days labol
includes six hours in the workshop ant
Ave in the class, while for the last yeal
it means eight hours of practice with
tools and three hours of study.
! During the first twelve month thepupi
passes one or two months alternately il
each of the specialties taught, SO that ht
can determine which suits his taste
while the directors can observe his apti
tnde. Only at the beginning of the sec
ond year does the apprentice, with th'
advice of his parents and teachers, decide
upon given trade, to which thencefor
ward he devotes himself exclusively. Th'
creation of this school would have beer
ilnpracticable during the second empire
and under the existing regime it has en-
countered many obstacles. Yet its pro
gress has been remarkable. The numbe
of apprentices, which four years ago wai
seventeen, is now nearly two hundred.