The Washington herald., 1913-10-13
CHILBS TRAINING
BEINGDISCUSSED
Course Of Definite 0ccupa-
tions for Pupils Recon-
mended.
PRESENT SYSTEM POOR
Home and School Association Would
Make Drastic Changes in Methods
Of Education.
PRESENT SYSTEM POOR


apprentice system to make possible the
training of school children for some
definite occupation before leaving the
public schools and, at the same time,
SO adapt these industrial courses that
the elements of broad, general culture
shall be sown In the mind of each child,
thus guarding against the development
Of an unintelligent mechanic caste, is
the subject of a series Of recommenda-
tions made to the Home and School As
sociation of Eastern High School by one
of its committees, that would completely
make-over the public school system from
the seventh grade.
Organization of the present seventh and
eighth grades into a Junior high school.
offering to the pupils the option of
studies to be followed, and providing as
two of the courses a boys and a girls
industrial course, and a business course
for boys and girls, is the method of re-
form suggested in the report. In order
to make the training offered under such
a system more effective. the committee
would have the compulsory age limit
for school attendance raised from four
teen to sixteen years.
Present Method Condemned.
The present method of trying to ft
all children by force to the same pat
tern up to fourteen years of age Is con-
demned by the committee, and the opin-
ion is advanced that the children should
be given the opportunity to differentiate
their lines of educational requirement
at or before the beginning of the period
of adolescence.
Under the present system, the commit
tee judge, the children are overburdened
with much that is useless to them after
passing their school examination. The
method Of teaching grade children the
abstruse principles of grammar, giving
them intricate and impractical problems
in mathematics and overwhelming them
with crowded curriculum is, according
to the report, a way to develop idlers
and loafers.
The report goes on TO point out that
elementary training should serve the
two purposes of preparing the children
for the practical work that they must
undertake upon leaving their schools for
their support and advancement in econo-
mic life and that Of producing a future
intelligent citizenship, the individuals of
which shall have interests beyond their
trade or occupation and a general cul-
ture that shall tend to diminish the
presence of caste.
That the present system serves neither
the one purpose nor the other is the i'm
plication of the report For, by neglect
AhB " Sdlcly lIG HccuS OI Ine
mechanic and housewife, II finally leaves
its pupils to the affairs of life still in the
need of serving their apprenticeships;
and, by forcing the incipient mechanic
and housewife to conform to a curri-
culum designed for girls and boys des-
tined for the professions. 1t stultifies their
interest, rather than enlivens it.
Assets OF Country.
School children Of today are the assets
Of the country on the morrow, the COM
nittee explains, and they should be given |
the fullest power to develop into the |
greatest usefulness to themselves and |
to their fellow-countrymen. Our present |
system of education is rejected by the |
committee as serving no practical pur-
pose and as being a survival of condi- |
lions long since passed. 1t is explained |
that our entire present system of train |
ing children is based upon the training |
Of youth for professional lives as adopt |
ed centuries ago.
1t also is pointed out that in the times |
Of the inception of the present system 1
here was an apprentice system in vogue |
Tor the training of sons of mechanics to |
succeed their fathers in the business Of |
earning a livelihood and contributing /
heir share to the work of the world
! The need Of our day is described by
he report as fusion of the two sys-
ems. Neither the development of me-
,hanics nor the sole development OF ap-
orentices to professional education is
wanted. What is wanted, the report
POINTS out, is the graduation from our
schools of pupils fitted to take their
places in industry. and at once to go ON
ldding to their cultural attainments.
The report of the committee is signed
,y H. F. Lowe, H. A. Hesse, ]. Dies
.rud. Richard c. Lapp!n, Miss L. Amelia
Dalton, and John ]. Rothermel.