The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-06-13
A Duty to Children

The Introduction of vocational training
is suggested, and should receive your favor
able consideration. Hundreds Of boys OF
tender age. ignorant mentally and man.
ually, leave our schools each year to be
buffeted by the waves OF chance while in
search of "a lob" They take the first thing
offered, without regard to capacity or adap-
liability. and enter upon the lost and bit
ter course OF the exachng school OF ex-
perience. There can be no two competent
opinions upon the value Of vocational train
ing, and 1t should receive our liberal sup
port.
The above paragraph from the annual mes
sage of Mayor Ainslie. OF Richmond. to the
two branches and the administrative board OF
that city. In connection with that paragraph,
we quote two others.
One Is regarding vacation schools. and is as
follows:
The establishment of vacation tsummer)
schools is especially to be commended, since
it obviously possesses the double advan-
tage OF saving money for the city and
time for the child. The first school was
attended by 255 children who failed of
promotion the previous June. OF this num-
Der 143 were promote to their proper
grades in September. Those promoted thus
gained at an average per capita cost con-
sfderably less than the average per capita
cost for a half session.
Another is relative TO city night schools,
which says:
A wise and most important educational
step was the opening OIL n1gnL SCHOOLS, which
are now in their third session. The atten-
dance increased from 684, for the session
of 1910-11, to 1.404 for the session of
of 1911-12. Courses were given in general
academic work, in bookkeeping and stenog-
raphy, and in household arts Cooking, plain
sewing. dressmakfng and millinery. a
These three quotations are enough to indi-
cate the new spirit of the Richmond public
schools. In addition to the instruction in the
regular day schools, as contained in the ordi-
nary curriculum, the Richmond school system,
II 1t adopts the suggestion of the mayor (and
he is merely expressing a sentiment that appears
to be growing in the State capital), proposes
to benefit not only those children whose parents
recognize the value of an education by send
ing their sons and daughters to school, but also
those out of the schools who must work or who
ought to work.
This conception embodies the idea that the
public schools. of a city have a responsibility
more far-reaehing than merely that OF afford
ing cultural instruction to those who will APP
preciate it in varying degrees. 1t embodies
the realization of a duty to the hundreds OF
children whose parents are unable to allow them
to attend school regularly and undertakes to fit
forced to leave school in order to make their
living; to the hundreds OF children who do not
appreciate a cultural education, and undertakes
to provide them with an education in the voca-
tons in which there is a real demand for work
ers in the community; to the many who are
unable to keep up with the standard OF the
average pupil in the regular schools, and UNDER
takes to provide them WIN auditionat facilities
during the summer for making up their work
in which they have fallen behind. NJ
II strikes US that these are directions in which