The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-30
William Allen White in the August Amer
ican Magazine.

N s conditions now exist there coiiies (BH into the life of the average boy . or girl four or five waste years the years between 13 and IS. These waste wears hold in them the real dangers or our democracy. For out of school the boy at least is worthless. Says Charles H. Morse, executive officer of the Massichu- setts commission on industrial education
 'If the boy goes out to attempt to learn A. trade at 14 years of age the manufae- turer says: I do not want you in my fac- tory,' and the manufacturer will not em- ploy the boy except as an errand poy You ask me how I know this. Agents or the Massachusetts commission on indus trial education canvassed the state recent ly. interviewing some 1000 men who em- ployed thousands upon thousands or men, and there were only few who did not say: We do not want the 14-year-old boy; he is in our way. He gets on our nerves
 And yet 100000 of 14-year-old boys and their sisters-who are really worth ! something-are out of school in Amerlca today. Partly they are out for economic reasons; the family needs their support, b,1t the state needs a clear mind in the ballot booth seven years later, worse than the family needs support, and might well afford to pay the family the errand boys meager wages. But apart from economic forces which keep the boy out of school during the waste years of his life, there are social reasons why he is not in school. | And those social reasons are his studies and his teachers, and at the bottom of all, the selfishness of the taxpayers.
 For when child is not doing well' in school the parents find it easy to put him to work outside And thus of the 15,oO0,- GOO of children who leave school before they reach the high school, probably b. OoOOoO leave not because they have to leave to support the family. but because the parents feel that the boys at least are 1 better off working out of school than | idling and wrangling with their teachers 1 in school. Generally speaking, the fault is with the school rather than with the l boy Certainly the fact that b,00O,OOO of boys in their early teens do leave school 1 unnecessarily Is a fact worth considering in making up curriculum. And if the 1 fads and isms are driving the boy from l 1 the instinct of the boy for physical educa- ton as well as for mental training should be needed. The boy longs for manly things. He craves the company of men and their roughness. He desires to do something-to see something growing | under his hand. It is instinctive, and the most hopeful thing in our democracy is not the growth of the secret ballot, the | cleansed party, the direct nomination and direct legislation, but the vague and def-
 nitely growing recognition that the boys instinct for practical education in his school is to be trusted. The almost uni
 versal intrqduction of manual training in l some form into the lower grades of American schools-giving the boy oppor-
 tunity to work with his hands-is one of the most important symptoms of social health in our political organization.
 The extent of the growth of manual training in the country is surprising.
 Within 10 years-coincident with the other big democratic movements-manua
 training has spread to the schools of al- most every American state. Typically manual training begins in the sixth grade,
 when the pupils are coming into their teens. It continues through the eighth grade, and there in the larger of our American cities manual training is d. verted into a separate building from the regular high school building. This is known as the manual training school.
 There boys are taught to use their hands in woodwork, stonework, brickworlS, iron work, clay work of various kinds, and girls are taught domestic science. But these schools must not be confused with the grade trades schools that are being | established In the cities of the land and in | the manufacturing districts. The manual training schools do not teach them to use | their hands, so that when they go into ' trades they will learn easily. The trade