Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-09-12
ONE WEEK FROM TO-DAY
0ne-sixth of Washington's Population
Will Begin School.
A Talk with Superintendent Powell
on the Prospects for the Coming
Year Manual Training.

'One-Sixth or the population or Washing
ton will start to school one week from to-
day. 1t is a great army, greater in it's pro-
portions than the school army of any other
city in the county,
Mr.. VIM. b. Powell. the superintendent
of public schools. glowed with pride as he
said these words last evening at his home
while taking with Star reporter about the
prospects of the schools this year. He had
but Just returned from his vacation, brown
and eager for the strife against ignorance.
There will be about 1900 pupils in at
tendance upon the schools this year." con-
tinued Superintendent Powell. This rep
resents our regular yearly increase Of be-
tween LOO and 1900. which has continued
for the past eight or ten years. The most
remarkable fact about the advance of the
schools of Washington is that the increases
are always regular and normal. There are
no sudden jumps. Now this autumn we
start with forty-seven more teachers than
last year. making 9i5. The usual increase
is between forty-five and fifty. We have
Just completed our one hundredth school
building owned by the District government.
This Is the Fillmore building at the corner
of 35th and V streets.
Since / have been connected with the
schools the buildings owned by the District
have just doubled, and the structures We
are now putting up are good, healthy. we'll
planned buildings that lead the world for
serviceability without extravaganza"
School Hoard Meeting Today.
There will be meeting of the school
board this afternoon that will doubtless
prove of great interest to both pupils and
teachers For some time there has been a
question as to the method of admitting can
didates to the Normal School from the var
ious High Schools of the city. The ques-
IL ~ ltCtr hut len
the limited places and a general scheme of
marking that would admit from the High
Schools. irrespective of their location. This
question will in all probability be settled
this afternoon by the adoption of q general
regulation governing the matter for all the
future granting each branch of the High
School its proper share of the vacancies,
but admitting this year two or three OF the
young ladies from the Georgetown School,
whose marks in the final examination last
June were above those of some of the girls
admitted from the Capitol Hill School.
Another question that may may not be
brought up at this meeting must be faced
sooner or later, though il is now out of sea-
son for the coming school year. This is the
extension of the manual training system of
the schools In the direction of trade train
ing and apprentice establishments. There
has been made a proposition to esta biiSn a
school of printing that would do the typo
graphical work for the District government
that has attracted some little attention.
When his matter comes up for final con-
sideration in the board some rather inter-
esting revelations may be made.
Trade Unions May object.
So far the trades unions of the District
have been generally favorable to the es-
Establishment of the manual training schools.
The labor leaders of the city have felt that
these institutions have done much to pep
ularize trade. and to ultimately attract into
the ranks of labor a great many young men
who otherwise might be debarred from IL.
An amateur printing office would hardly
be regarded with this complacency by these
leaders, who would see from 5000 to $4,000
annually taken from the pockets Of the
regular members of the trade. and the es-
dangerous precedent that might lead up to
the organization of other schools that
would eat up great share of the profits of
adult Labor
The idea that has always prevailed in the
organization and development of the man
ual training schools Of the District has been
that ii is and should be kept a distinctive
feature of the educational work of the
schools, and not in any sense an apprentice
factory. If this plan should be carried out
the next logical step in the development of
the system will be the organization Of a
Manual Training High School, which will
include in it's curriculum designing, me-
chanical drawing, metal working. color har-
mony and just enough of the more literary
branches of study, such as mathematics, to
ill out the time proftably. In such a school
instead of two or three hours of instruction
in the use of physical objects week the
student would have that many hours a day.
This school would be open to those students
who do not care to go through the High
School. with it's full literary course Of
study, and would be to that institution
what the present Business High School is
the parent institution.