Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-09-19
SCHOOLS IN TANGLE
Red Tape Delays Hiring of
''VocationaI' Principals.
ABOUT READY TO OPEN
Designed to Afford Opportunity for
Practical Training.
ANXIOUS TO LEARN TRADES
Course to Be Voluntary and Elective
With Students-Total First
Days Enrolment.

d.
an intricate school law which loses the
investigator in its mazes is the prob
lem in its simplest form as 1t is eN-
pressed to Supt. Davidson today.
The two schools are the Cardozo Man
ual Training School and the High Street
Manual Training School. on Wisconsin
avenue northwest This latter school
will be ready for occupancy September
IS. it has been promised by the Com
missioners. although the sporting ,ele-
ment of the Districts educational sys
tenn is betting that the date will be
changed to a later one. The Cardozo
School is due for it's opening November
4. This one is d colored school.
Law Presents Obstacles.
The reason there are no principals for
these schools is in the school law.
Without attempting to point out the
why's and wherefores. it has been
found that no teacher can be trans
ferred from the high schools to take
care of these important new school
That is, the salaries can
not be transferred.
The last appropriation act provided for
two teachers to act as principals for these
schools at 81. 900 year, but now it turns
out that any teacher taking the position
of principal of either of these schools
will perhaps be no longer in the running
with those who get a hundred dollars in
longevity pay added each year. etc. So
there are no principals in sight. A. {.
Newman of the Armstrong Manual Train
ing School, who, with Mr.. Bruce. assist
ant superintendent of schools. did so
much work in planning the details of the
course of the Cardozo School, was slated
for the position at Cardozo, but as his
salary is much more at Armstrong it is
natural to believe he will turn that Car
dozo opportunity down. To get prin-
cipal for this school. however. will be
an easier matter than for the other
There is no principal in sight for the
High Street School. but the school will
open, SO promises DR.. Davidson. A prin-
cipal will come from somewhere.
German idea Copied.
These two vocational schools mark
new era in public education in this city.
The idea is pet one with former
Supt A. T. Stuart. who had SO much
to say about them a year ago. They are
not the manual training centers. which
the girls called cooking schools and
which are a regular part of the course.
They are nearer to the trade school idea
of Germany. They are put here to entice
the sixth grade boy and girl not to leave
school and get "a job but to stay a
while longer and fit the hand and eye to
some style of skill, by competent train
ing.
They are for the boys and girls from
the sixth to the eighth grades, inclusive,
and are elective.
so many boys and girls leave school in
the fifth grade said Mr.. Stuart today.
mot because they have to. but because
they see nothing in academic education
ftnir rnr,tc
to let them out of school. These voca
tional schools are intended to offer some
thing for this class
DIR. Davidson is taking keen interest
in the vocational idea. He has left much
of the details to John A. Chamberlain,
supervisor Of manual training. and it is
Mr.. Chamberlain's hard task to get these
two schools provided with principals.
Trades They Prefer.
just what sorts of trades Washington
boys and girls think they want to follow
are shown in the figures compiled for Mr.
Stuart last year. The children sent in
replies to queries showing that they had
wide range of ambitions. from archi-
lecture to Woodworking Two hundred
and fortyseven girls wanted to be dress
makers, and one hundred and eighty-one
wanted to be mlliners. One boy in this
entire National Capital wants to be a
baker: and. strange to say. that only one
boy said he wanted to be a boOkbinder.
despite the fact that there are many ia
theirs in that trade in the fifth and sixth
divisions of the school system here For
ty-one boys who live near the navy yard
expressed desire to be machinists out
of total of one hundred and fifty-nine.
Ninety-siX boys want to be carpenters.
Things were still going smoothly in the
school world today.
First Days Enrolment.
Dr. Davidson's latest figures showed a
first day enrolment of 5000 children. as
against 1910 last year. The children are
divided throughout the District as fol-
lows:
For the white schools:
Normal School. No. 1. 176; Business
High School, s65. Central High School.
go: Eastern High School, 1853: Western
High School. J31: Mckinley Manual Train
ing School. 10: total. :'.3G5 Graded
schools-First division, :. 10: second divi-
sion. -ssJ: third division. 1861. fourth
division. ..o4i: fifth division. 3.3''; sixth
division, 2,I9: seventh division :.,es'i;
eighth division. 2.E'l: ninth division,
2SJs: total. 2I.Ol5.
For the colored schools:
Normal School No. >, 13;: NJ Street
High School. I43: Armstrong Manual
Training School. go: total. 1.426.
Graded Division 10, 2.672: Di-
vision II. 3.ao2: Division l., 2,6}4; Divi-
sion t., 2,SS5: total. 1lt2f3.
Classrooms Congested.
The Columbia Heights schools are Civ
ing the most trouble just now because
Of the congestion in some of the class
rooms. The Joseph Rodman West School.
In Saurs Addition. lith and Earragut
streets, will be ready October TO- The
new twelve-room building at sth and I
streets unnamed as yet viii be ready
actually before time. and will be great
relief to congested conditions I'm that
section. The Phelps school, near the
new school, will probably be given over
to high school work, and many young
sters In that section are trying to get
into the Phelps, because they know that
in few days they will all have the
great privilege OF being transferred TO d
grand new building.
The matter of Tully X. Holmes. the
substitute teacher who has done eight
hundred dollars worth of teaching and
who has not received n cent, was given
to the auditor for the District today
II is expected that Mr.. Holmes eight
hundr ed dollar check viii be sent To
him within "a few days.
The school year of Normal School No
IL began yesterday with appropriate
exercises \ graphophonc concer,
opened the day. after which Rev
Frank X. Gri,nke made an address
Dr. Lucy r. Moten. principal of the