Daily Arizona silver belt., 1908-11-07
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.
 Many of the best of our educational and 1t is due to Germanic influence largely that we are coming. as a pco- pie, to recognize that nation which has great industrial pretensions must, perforce, pay earnest attention to the question of industrial education.
 If we have not quite got to the point of realizing that our present education al system is all wrong, at least we ara beginning to realize that we have been wasting a good deal of effort and lot of money uselessly. We have prided ourselves, rather, on the fact that we have made provision for free education for every child in the United States, but we have not bothered any too much as to what sort of education it was tt be. In educational matters Wa have failed to take account of the fact that moro and more We arc coming into the age of specialization, and that while the curriculum of our public schools might be well fittsd for some young. sters 1t Is worse than useless for others So far as the "three R's' go, every one comedies that these are absolutely necessary; from that point on opinions vary as to the trend education should take, and 1t is only quite recently that ve have come to an understanding that as practically all of our public school students have to earn their own hvings by trads or industry, it would be well for their education to be directed to fitting them for their avocation.
 So it Is that little by little the idea of industrial education is spreading. Chicago is one of the latest cities to fall in line, and the superintendent of the schools Of that city urges the opening of commercial and industrial classes in the night schools, while the press of Chicago hopes that such classes will be- come 8 feature not only of the night schools but of the day schools as well.
 The project of the Chicago superin- tendent is sn adaptation of Germany's system of continuation schools" which in Germany ara intended for those scholars who have to go to work at an early age, or for thse older work CTS who desire to gain greater theoret- scal and practical knowledge of their trade, and thus put themselves in po- dtion to earn higher wage. When ever projects such as this have been preached in municipalities there has always arisen tho question as to whether the educational funds could be used for such purposes, but with the growth of right feeling in the matter We feel confident that these objections will die away and that taxpayers will realizs that their money is being put to the very best use when 1t is providing the youth of America with that prac- tical education that will result in high CT forms of efficiency in industry and commerce.
 We think thers is, perhaps, lesson on this subject to be learned from the fuskegee Institute of Booker T. Wash ington. This educational institution Is designed first of all to educate Its students to industrial independence, and as Mir. Washington says: "The great mass of our race for years to come will at least find industrial education the most important thing-for, as a rule, we must win our industrial independ- ence with the labor of our hands.'' What Is true of the negro is true of the great bulk of our population. Industrial independence is only to be won by la Dor, and that labor is the most likely quickly to win industrial independence that has been carefully trained in spe- cial branches and that has learned to make the brain work as hard as the hand.