Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-07-04
Industrial Schools In place of the
Old Apprentice system.

An effort is making in Boston to
establish school for industrial edu.
cation, and the city has been asked
to make an appropriation for the
purpose. 1t seems strange at first
that philanthropists are actively in.
terested in trying to establish schools
70 teach boys the trades that were
learned OF master mechanics gen.
Grafton ago, The decay of the old
apprentice system, under which boys
we're bound out for seven, and af-
forwards for four years, has had a
decidedly bad effect on the quality
OF work done by our mechanics. and
on their general condition. The
community is full of unskiled labor.
and the workmen eat each other up.
1t is perhaps too late now to go
back to the old system. still in vogue
in England and Germany. The
practical question is what to put in
in its place. The best answer that
has been found to the problem is in
dustrial schools.
The training of men TO work well,
to do the best work, is the surest
preventive of pauperism. One of
the Boston speakers said that city is
expanding annually half million of
dollars for tho relief of pauperism,
and much If not most, of it is caused
by want of trained capacity to do
anything we'll. One of the Commit
tee said that of the forty foremen in
the mills with which he is connected
not more than five are Americans.
We are not so sure of the indus.
trial school plan as of the necessity
of some plan to meet a growing evil
OF the country. Education has three
provinces. The education of char
acter is tho work of home and the
church I; the education of the intel
lect is the work Of the public schools;
the education of tho faculties TO
practical ends. is virtually unprovid-
ed for. Our youth have fine senti.
ments and fund of knowledge, but
lack the ability TO apply either to
the practical ends of life. They
want working skill, and there is no
way open for any large number of
them to gain it. 1t sometimes seems
that the modern school, with all it's
costliness and elegance, with it's fine
apparatus aud beautiful books and
accomplished teachers,is not so good
as tho old school. which with rude
instruments and clumsy methods,
drilled its pupils very thoroughly in
good, essential branches. The mod
ern school teaches too many things
specifically, and nothing thoroughly.
1t teaches, but does not train. The
wise proverb does not say teach, but
"Irdin the child in the way he shall
60" The great labor difficulty that
rolls in such threatening waves all
over the country, has its chief scat
in the poverty of people who not on
~ have nothing to do, but really
know not how to do anything well.
Wendell Phillips gave an incident
which strikingly illustrates this point
lie SAID a young lady who had grad
uated from Boston school came to
him for employment He asked her
what she could do /; if she could cook
or sow, or iron, or keep accounts. To
each inquiry she answered, "No,'
He then asked her If she could read
aloud to his SICK vito, and she could
not even do that. And strange to
say. few American girls know how
to read aloud; good readers are
mostly English or Canadians. The
only thing she thought she could do
was TO mako change behind a coun
ter. With finished education, she
could not do anything to earn butter
for her bread or salt for her butter.
There is no use in telling men to ego
West" who do not know plow
from corn sheller,a and would starve
IN ten acre lot. Something must
be done to give our people the prac.
tical education they cannot get in
the present schools, or anywhere
else to-day.-Nev York Evangelist.