The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1909-06-26
INDUSTRIAL WORK.
why It should be Established in The Dom
aldsonvine High schoo1-Its Moral
and Physical Value-Cost of Pro-
posed Equipment.
b supt. g. ]. Brown.


BY supt. c. j. Brown.
The equipment for the Industrial
work as proposed for The Donaldson
vile high school would consist of
fifteen or twenty desks for mechanical
drawing, each furnished with the
necessary tools and material for
practice; also the same number OF
work benches, each with its full kit OF
tools, and the necessary raw material
for practice n this work. This is in
addition to the splendid apparatus on
hand for the teaching OF physics,
actual models tratipg the princi
pies OF machines, electricity, etc.
The Donaldsonville high school
could then offer a course that would
give splendid foundation for almost
any kind OF mechanical or industrial
pursuits. At present the course leads
through literary subjects only to the
professions and tends to educate the
boys away from everything else.
1 4AO poSu AuIQtC0 col . VI lCSS LAG
marked a gre alter advance along me-
chanical and industrial lines than
did the previous two thousand years
One hundred years ago we had nc
such things as eultivators, disc har.
rows, moving machines, seed planters
Of various kinds, grain reapers,
engines, stationary aud locomotive,
railroads with their hundreds of diff
ferent mechanical contrivances, steel
suspension bridges, electric lines,
cars, automobiles, motors of various
kinds, telephone, telegraph, GRAPHIC
phone, electric street lights, and
hundreds OF other machines and de
vices tended to save and facilitate la
Dor. For more than two thousand
years before this time the world had
gone along with practically the same
implements and tools from gener alton
to generation. This great fed now
requires hundreds of thousands OF
new men each year, while formerly
the chief pursuits open were the pro-
LESSONS and agriculture. This great
| Industrial age is not at its greatest
height as yet, but year after year
requires a greater number of msn who
must understand something of
mechanics. While professions, with
the exception OF teaching, perhaps,
are overcrowded, Industrial men of
traj'aies Il :: sit5 are eagerly sought
for.
There are other reasons than those
of monetary consideration for the es-
Establishment of an Industrial course.
Everyone has observed the muscular
activity OF boys nearly grown; how
they delight in boxing, wrestling,
running, climbing, etc, We know
from experience, also, that boys Of
that age often dislike to sit at a desk
day after day. They want to do some
thing that appeals to them as worth
while. This tendency is the more
marked in some boys who may be
bright and Efficient in working with
machines, or tools yet are dull in a
literary way. The present sehoo.
course offers little inducement to boys
OF this class, who are often in the
majority or should be, and they go
through the school as billiards, after
wards to develop into highly success
full men along mechanical lines. Is it
not as fair TO provide course suit
able TO them as to those Of a literary
turn? The Donaldsonville h g b
school has body of alumni consisting
of fifty or more; among them there has
been but seven boys. And yet the
boys who drop out when they reach
the higher grades are as often capable
as those who remain, but the school
course does not appeal to them. As
a rule, they were boys who wanted to
do something with their muscles.
The proportion of those who enter
either business or the pref ssions
must always be less than those who
work with hands as well as head. We
provide no means whereby this larger
class can become particularly efficient.
There is moral value in shop work
for the boy. As he must plan and
draw accurately or have his work a
failure, 60 must be act in his relations
to others. He will knew the true dig
aitp ~ Ia hoY. WHOM ha ia lxas off his
coat, rolls up his sleeves, and when,
as Longfellow says, His brow is wet
with honest sweat - We want our
boys to feel the hand worker is as
honorable as any other.
Industrial work, while compare
lively new in Louisiana, is a part OF
nearly every high school of the north
and east. In New Orleans, with az
entire public school system open free
TO all, the Isadore Newman Manual
Training School has raised its tuition
free from seventy.fye to one hundred
and later to one hundred and twenty
Eve dollars, in order that they might
DOT have to turn away SO many APP
plieants for entrance. With qualified
teachers in charge, it is always pop
ular course.
Any scheme of education that does
not look ahead of today and IN
measure provide for ten or twenty
wears IN advance is inadequate.
Louisiana and the south is just