Evening star., 1911-08-25

1.sC0 year with an allowance Of $500
additional for typewriter instruction and
signed. with the necessary tools, costs
81 which is less than the price of
set of good maps. The students them
selves would pay for the wood used In
making their lessons, each of which
! would be an article of some practical
| value on the farm. The director would
visit each school once week and much
| of the instruction would consist of type
written problems which the students
could work out. According to this plan,
which has been very successfully demon
strated, the cost of this addition to the
ordinary school will be about 10 per cent,
so that the farmer who Is now paying
$40 per year school tax can by the in
vestment of an additional dollar secure
for his son instructions in the principles
OF practical carpentry.
| The opposition of the labor organiza-
! tions to the establishment of trade in
struction in the public
! Opposition schools was because of
~ Tohor the fear that these
schools would endeavor
to graduate full-hedged tradesmen. 1t
has now been proved that this is not the
case The students will have a training
that fits them for intelligent apprentice
work. Public School No. 100 In New
York is one of the latest fully equipped
large industrial schools opened last year.
1t provides instruction in carpentry, join
ing, patternmaking and the manipulation
of milling machinery. In metals the
students learn forge work, sheet metal
and a full line of machine shop work
There are also courses in plumbing. print
ing and architectural and mechanical
n
from 3 to and as nearly as possible
the atmosphere will be that of the shop
rather than of the school. 1t Is intended
to find some means by which boys al
ready employed between the ages of four
| teen and sixteen years may be enabled to
spend a certain part of their working
day in this school. This school will not
fit boys for finished tradesmen Of any
kind, but. with the help of his instructors.
each boy will be able to decide which
| trade he is best fitted for.
Owing to modern Industrial develop
ments. 1t is growing each year harder for
boys to learn trade In the regular man.
,, ufacturing establishments The work
| men have neither the time nor the in
clination to bother with teaching a boy
the use of tools; consequently, 1t is diff
cult for an apprentice to acquire any
skill unless he secures some preliminary
| instruction before entering the shops.
Teaching the fundamental principles of
a trade is all that the public school aims
to do. That 1t should teach this much,
| thoroughly and well. Is now regarded as
| unquestioned There Is difficulty In
securing competent instructors for the
technical work of the public school, In
Gary. Ind, where unusual advance in
vocational education has been made dur
| Ing the past two years, the instructor in
! each branch of trade taught in the
| schools is a qualified member of a trade
union.
| A close cooperation between manufac-
turers and the technical schools must be
secured before the system of vocational
education can be complete In several
cities arrangements have already been
made by which students spending part
(, of their time in school will be permitted
| to work a certain number Of hours in
| regular factories. receiving for their serv-
| ice proper remuneration, generally rang
| ing from 10 cents an hour up according
| to the advancement the student makes in
skill.