The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-06-14
TRADE SCHOOLS
SOLVE PROBLEM
NEW SYSTEM OF EDUCATION
GROWS IN POPULARITY.
Ernest A. Batchelder Tells How Boys
Of Today Acquire Skill and Training
in Crafts, Thoroly Learning Every
Process Scheme Develops Both Hand
and Brain.

The technical trade or Industrial
school, place where boys can learn to
make an article from the first design to
the last polish, will do much toward
solving the present industrial problem,
according to Ernest A. Batchelder of
Pasadena, CAL, and Mr.. Batchelder has
studied boys and conditions enough to
give weight to his opinion. s
. Under the present system,o ex-
planned Mr.. Batchelder, "a boy who
begins work, for instance, in metal
factory is advanced from running err
rands to soldering. He never gets any
farther. He may become foreman,
but If he does he is foreman of the
soldering room. He will never see the
teapot on which he has soldered a spout
after the spout is put on. The same is
true in the stained-glass factory. One
er legs. None Of them sees the com
pleted window. The work occupies
their hand and eye but not their brains
1t is purely mechanical, monotonously
mechanical.
lin trade school, boy learns to
make an article from beginning to end,
and then when he enters factory he
is prepared not only to solder, but to
design or manufacture. He is master
of his trade. A boy used to learn this
under the apprenticeship system, but
the unions did away with apprentices. -
Studies in Europe.
Mr.. Batchelder is director of the
Throop polytechnic school in Pasadena,
and has just returned from a years
leave Of absence, which he spent in Eu-
rope. He left Minneapolis at the close
OF the handicraft guild summer school
OF design and has returned to take his
classes at the school this season. He
spent several months in Campden with
the English handiclaft guild, where
every man has his dMkn job, beginning
and finishing a-certain piece Of work
for which he receives credit or blame,
and later went to Birmingham, to the
great technical schools there. Every
where he went he found this interest
in technical education growing.
1T will probably result in the foun:
dation Of a number Of Industrial
schools" he said. "Indeed, Boston is
considering something Of the sort, and
l understand there has already been
some talk Of such plan for Mime
eepoliis; t R9 the printers have asked
ated for such school. It is in the
middle west, far enough from Chicago
not to conflict with what might be es-
tablished there. Your school should
follow the lines Of your industries. You
have stained glass and metal work, and
doubtless other enterprises along which
the students should be trained.
|. r.. Meets Want of Boys.
"The plan is logical outgrowth of
the manual training schools Too many
boys; leave the high school in the first
year unless they intend to go to col
lege. An industrial school would sup
plement the manual training, keep the
boys in school and give them prac-
tical education that would make them
of immediate value in the industrial
world. The art work in the Minneapo-
lis public schools has been splendidly
developed, and naturally leads the pu-
Pill to an interest in technical educa-
ton. "a $50 a5! = =
This great interest in the work Of
hand and brain may almost be regarded
as a result Of the Chicago Columbian
exposition. At that time there was
department, but the directors of the
St. Louis exposition, few years later,
were flooded with craft work. More
and more artists and workmen are