The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1911-05-12
TRAINING CHAUFFEURS IN
BAY STATE SCHOOL.
John Hays Hammond's Expert
ment of Adding Practical Edu-
cational Course Proves Sue
c0SSful

! mttee, offered to maintain, for wear at
least, class of high school boys IN auto
| mobile instruction.
| His idea was that as there are large
number of summer residents from all sec
tons of the country who make Cape Ann
their summer home, the openings for
| positions as chauffeurs to Young men of
good education and address and well
| qualified as chauffeurS would be such as
to give them good employment at fair
salaries In any event the Young men
would come out of the high school well
! qualified to earn a livelihood.
he offer was accepted and twelve of
the students, mostly officers of the high
school battalion, selected because of their
aptitude for mechanics and other qualifi-
cations, were designated as the class.
Arrangements were made with Perkins
& Corllss. who maintain large garage,
and the class was put under the lmmedi-
ate instruction of their chief mechanician,
Emery Hodgkins, Jr., who has made a
most efficient instructor.
1t is believed that this is the first in
stance of a high school in the country
where class for chaufleurs has been
maintained.
Under the terms of the contract the
boys were to be given 30 lessons at the
rate OF two lessons week in the machine
shop. But Mr.. Perkins and Mr.. Hodg-
kins, becoming enthusiastic over the idea,
have heightened this out TO so lessons at
shop work, and for further good measure
Mr.. Hodgkins has given, gratis, 40 even
ing lessons at the high school on the
theory of construction and management
of gas engines. Thus it is believed that
| the course has been thorough from the
theoretical and PRACTICAL standpoint.
The first lesson at the garage consisted
in leading the class to an automobile,
directing them to dismantle it and reas-
semble it, care being taken to tell them
to acquaint themselves with the function
of every piece ofmetal which was handled.
| The test in this was to ascertain at the
very first if the boys had the mechanical
knack and observation SO necessary in
matters of this kind
They did this and after dismantling
the engine put it together, making but
one mistake, and that not a vital one.
After thorough grounding in the con-
structicn and use of all parts of a motor
and ignition apparatus, its care repairs,
the causes of trouble, tires, and other
essential matters connected with an auto
mobile the boys were given instruction In
driving on the road, this under the drec
ton of a professional chauffeur, Walter
Gerry
The course has covered nearly seven
months, and the aim has been to equip
the class with a thorough knowledge of
an automobile and how to cope with any
emergency which may arise.
Mr.. Hodgkins believes that this has
been done and that these Young men will
give good account of themselves He
says that the class, as whole, is better
equipped for its work than many profess
sional chaulfeurs. While some showed
more of an aptitude to grasp the instruc-
ton more readily than others, as would
be natural in any class, Mr.. Hodg kins
says all have made good.
The design of Mr. Hammond is to
acquaint the summer colony by advertise
ments and cards of this class of chauffeurs,
and he believes that the demand will be
greater than the supply
Thus the higher education" tends to
disarm the criticism of a generation or
more ago that high school education
spoiled boy who ended his school days
on his graduation for the mechanical pur-
suits.
The Gloucester high school met this
in a measure by introducing some fifteen
years ago the commercial and high school
course, which has equipped many for a
livelihood as stenographers and book
keepers, but this class instituted by Mr..
Hammond, if it shall become permanent,
will go step further, and turn out young
men who. in their special branch OF busi-
ness, are skilled mechanics and not above
overalls and hands and arms soiled with
OIL
While country high schools or high
schools in small cities have not generally
adopted the mechanic arts idea, branches
of study such as this automobile class are
long step in that direction and show
the tendency to correct what might have
been defect Of education in DETECTING a
boy away from practical trade.
The advocates of the purely academic
in high school instruction looked upon
the introduction of the commercial course
also has not exactly met their approba-
ton. Nevertheless the popularity of the
new departure is attested by the fact that
one-tenth of the whole number in the
public schools is enrolled in the high
SChOol, WHICH HluSt Dc ellldISS 10 dCSONu-
modate those who desire to enter. II
results count this 'commercializing" of
the school course has amply justified
itself
AT the same time the reputation of the
school as one Of the best college prepara-
tory institutions in New England has in
creased. as the large number of its grad
yates in the colleges and universities
attest.