Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-04-01
OUR YOUNG MEN AND LOCAL INDUSTRY
TECHNOLOGY, &C.
No. g..
IFor the SPECTATOR

It may be desirable to state in this arti
Gle, also, the design of the school of Tech
nology. In the language of another: ss1t
offers good education-based on the
mathematics, living languages, physical
sciences, ana drawing, and sufficient prac-
tical familiarity with some branch of ap-
Piled science, to secure to the graduates a
livelihood. 1t is especially designed to
meet the wants of those who wish to be
prepared as mechanics, civil engineers,
chemists, or designers, for the duties of
their respective professions The educa-
ton here proposed is suited to boys who
wish to be business men in the broadest
and most practical sense. Their time is
not consumed in the study of the dead Ian
guages and effete heathen mythology, but
their minds are developed fully as well in
| the solution of the practical problems of
! the current fsss age, in which they must
te promiseH.s actors. it is well settled,
| sthat the connection of academic culture
and the practical application of science is ad-
vantageous to both, in school where these
objects are started together and carried on
with harmony and equal prominence. 1t
is equally agreed, that young man in
training for an engineer should acquire fa-
miliarity with the practical side of his pro-
fessioD, and SO with regard to any other
profession taught, it is essential that the
student should practice under conditions as
similar as possible to those which he will
meet in life. The impression now obtains
that theory and practice should go hand in
hand.
| These schools are on the plan of the
Polytechnic schools of Europe, with such
notifications as are necessary, giving spe-
cial prominence to the element of practice.
The Prussian maxim, that "whatever you
would have appear in the nations life you
must put into the public schools" may be
equally applied to the boys of Virginia.
Whatever we would have our young men
be, must be put in them by practical appli-
| cation in their training. Some parents act
| as if their sons would be business men by
intuition, but the trained boys always win.
| In the training of mechanical engineer.
says an author, 'the capital fact which un-
dtrlies any sound scheme for school-shops
is that machinery is to have a constantly
increasing share in the conversion of mat
ter into useful forms. The educated me-
chanlc must understand the practical linn
its of mechanical production and all the
possible ways in which those limits can be
extended. He must know by practic- how
to design, construct, and assemble the parts
Of machine as well as how to flush its
prodnct by skillful handicraft," sc.
The student is required to be engaged in
the practical department a certain number
of hours each week for the whole course of
three years, if he wishes to graduate; at
which time he is as skillful a mechanic as
an ordinary apprentice who has served
three years in a shop; in addition, the ad-
vantage of solid education. The school
of Technology is designed to qualify it's
students for all of the higher departments
of business requiring education, training,
and skill, keeping them fully up with the
rapid progress of this inventive age.
| Indeed, it is this class of men who occu-
| pies the front rank in pressing forward the
| wonderful development of the times, almost
| giving intelligence and life to inanimate
materials. Ninety per cent. of the WOr-
cester graduates occupy high and lucrative
po>itions The United States Patent Office
records show. thar the ratio of useful in
| venri..us which have peen made in Worces-
'e cuniy, to the whole number in the
country, is double the ratio of its popula-
| Jion.
| From this energetic hive there has
swarmed busy workers, entering almost
cVcrg Otdto anu IeTrltOry, SOHle VI bne
islands of the sea and distant China. One
of these useful men is now at the head of
the mechanical department of the Miller
Industrial School in Albemarle county.
Another Massachusetts, engineer is now en-
gagged at the State University on coDstruc-
tion work Here are instances in point of
the working of practical system of edu-
| cation. Where were our highly educated
theorists, who have come from the classic
halls of our great University for the last
sixty years, that one could not be found to
do this Virginia work? Echo even fails to
respond to the enquiry. ''Tell it not in
Gath, publish it not in the streets of Asca-
lon." Is it not time that we wake up from
our wasting slumber and address ourselves
as live men to preparing our dear boys for
the work of their native State, rather than
continue their drift to the plains of the
Western frontier to play the part Of cow
boys-lost to the State, and, in many in
stances, lost to society and their own best
interest. When shall we see Alright?
PROGRESS.
ITO be Continued.