Daily Kennebec journal., 1910-07-07
Problems That Confront Educators.

i
| At the meeting of the manual train
| in section of the National Education
Association in Boston, Tuesday, pleas
were made for a more coordinate sys-
TEN of industrial education.
1t is a phase in which serious prob
lens confront the educator. 1t is
foreseen that as natural resources
diminish the hand of man must be
trained to produce wealth. The pub
! lie school is the place for such train
| ing, for preparing the pupil for prac-
tical life. The labor power of the
new born hands must be educated to
create the necessities of increasing
millions The vast natural resources
must be commanded and cajoled into
full exploitation, at the same time
they are replenished and extended by
hand and by brain to their utmost
capacity. Existing public school sys-
tens were shaped to meet the need OF
an earlier time. They are the out
growth OF conditions that existed
then. Industry was formerly centred
in the home, where they used to grow
their own food, spin and weave theif
own cloth, make their soap. dlp
candles; the father, if he happened 10
he a cabinet maker or blacksmith.
shaped his wood and forged his metal
near his home. within sight of his chill
dren: each child was called upon While
still Young to share the parents ac-
tivity, said one of the speakers, Tues
| day. 1t gained not only an insight
into the industrial processes but it ac-
anired habits of work and training Tor
its future occupation. Then. the
school was properly place to when
children were sent for a few hours
every day, to pick up the essentials oi
reading, writing and spelling, ana
little information about ge"grap ply
and history.
Now industry has passed from the
home into the factory system
Sciences, like physics and chemistry,
have become the vital factors in the
productive processes. Skill and ac-
curate knowledge are needed more
than ever before The school must
assume the function once provided by
the home.
The same speaker Mr.. Edward A.
Rumely of Indiana, said: In pioneer
davs. to break the virgin prairies, fell
the forest, and build the railroads,
called for brawn-the muscles of mil
lions of arms and hands. AS mod
ern manufacturing nation, American
supremacy must rest upon superior
factory organization and vast numbers
of efficient workers for every branch
of industry, willing to put in a full
DAYS work for a reasonable wage, men
whose habits and training from child
hood up have given them interest and
genuine pleasure in their work.
"Immigration from England, Nor
merly brought great numbers of SUCH
Today the tide is sweeping from
Southern Europe hordes of Latins and
Slavs, without schooling. culture and
without training or skill at any trade
To them we cannot look for our skilled
factory workers, and perhaps it is well
that we should not. What would 9TH
erwise become of our own boys and
girls? Surely they all could not hnd
places as clerks in stores, banks and
offices, as doctors and lawyers. And
yet for this our public school system
attempts to train them all.
"Of one hundred and twenty seven
who enter, one reaches college, and
for him the entire course of studies is
sha ped, leaving the other one hundred
and twenty-six, who drop out on the
way without any specific training to
fit them for their life's work as ma
chinists, carpenters, printers, teleg-
ra piers. And the right kind or
school could give each of them, in ad-
dition to the Three RS and book
knowledge, thorough training for his
| work."
These are indeed problems for the
educators in any capacity before the
public, and behind them must be the
support of the people. 1t is matter
for yollr consideration. Mr. Reader.