The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-09-03
NEW ON
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Adaptation to Need for Vocational
Training Without Cultural Loss a
Serious Problem.
(NeT York Evening Post.)

New York Evening Post.)
The tasks Of the public schools. both
here and abroad, have Increased enoI-
mousiy within recent decades. Ohe
by one. additional burdens have Deen
added to those with which they start
ed, until it would seem that the mere
suggestion of anOther is cruelty. Inc
mass of the people OF this country
can remember a simple time When
school was merely the place where
one went to study and recite ones
LESSONS. Gradually this primitive state
gave way TO the condition IN WnIch
we find ourselves now when the
school, instead Of supplementinS the
home, has in sheer Self-defence Ia
ken over most Of its functions. A
child must begin his schooling as early
as possible nowadays in order that
he shall not have too much to un-
learn. Not only his English. but his
eyes. his health, and his habits are
the peculiar care, not OF his parents,
but of his teachers. Who, then, Will
be so old as to indicate a new fe!d
Of responsibility for these hard
worked caretakerS of our children:
Strange as it may appear, II cry Tor
more work comes from their own
ranks. 1t is no callous outsider, but
the superintendent Of the Milwaukee
schools and a former president OF the
National Education Association, Mr..
Carroll G.. Pearse, who makes the de-
cided assertion: THE school Will not
have done its duty until it provides
a way for the pupil who has finished
the elementary school TO lit hlmSelI
for a vocation And his words are
echoed and re-echoed from one n
of the nation to the other.
Tha we have begun vocational
TO hafnrA nnpntp~ vHnnYa1O 20
any conclusions in regard to it is char
acteristic Of a people hat regularly
prefers to confront q condition rather
than a theory. "Perhaps," remarks
one Of the leaders in the innovation,
the only plan Of campaign which
would meet with universal appro-
val, IS the general one OF obtaining
more information" Nevertheless, Ger
tain principles are emerging from the
work Of Investigators on the n hand,
II from hat Of vocational instruc-
tors On the other. THE chief Of these
is well stated by Edwin G. Cooley,
former superintendent Of the Chicago
schools, in the report which he has
just made to the Commercial Club Of
t~hat%Sity, after q ear spent in study
OF the vocational schools of Europe.
He says: "The period OF childhood
between the years of six and fourteen
hCpA' NC "a SNoSAN ~ ~ = ia u
tural education. with adequate atten-
ton TO the training Of eye and hand
Nc system Of vocational schools
should be instituted that will hurry
boys and girls out Of the elementary
school into the vocational schools
The same warning note is sounded by
Alice Prentice Barrows, director OF
the vocational guidance survey of this
city. when she speaks Of the danger
thar Hos in the onCnIr9 omnnf nj
short cuts in industrial education
such as training for specific trades
at the age of twelve, or ShOrt-time
trade courses because the child has te
go to work. And she points this
statement with the following bit o:
educational history:
"Some years ago business descended
upon the schools and captured com
mercial education. Since that time
we have been trying to undo the eff
fectS Of that assault. The market ha
been flooded with Inefficient worker
to the evaporation Of employers, tn
despair Of teachers, and the misery Q
the children. The reason for the Is
sault was natural. The schools Wer
said not to be practical They di
not prepare for life, which wa
spelled business But the attemp
to give the children a narrow con
ALCII q Al liGA ASl
Jobs was probably the most inprac
teal thing ever done by business
In SO far as this principle is Oh
Served, vocational training, instead 9
being an encroachment upon genera
education. Is an addition to it. TIL
boy or girl does not go without a pa!
of his or her other education fo
the sake Of learning a trade Or
process. He merely steps from tn
elementary school into the vocations
school. True. in this way he doe
not go TO the literary high school, bu
the presumption is that he would nc
have gone there anyway-mOst chi.
dren do nOt-and thus would hav
taken up the task of earning a Twin
tho the special preparation thu
he has now begun to get. At the sam
time. it is not to be overlooked ths
this is a somewhat rosy view Of tn
actual possibilities. 1t presumes
compulsory education law, adeQuatel
enforced, that shall hold the pupil
school until the age Of fourteen.