Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-03-06
bLACkMAR TELLS
Of CONVENTION.
Talks Of Trip to Cincinnati
at Meeting of Teachers
in Adams School
VOCATIONAL WORK
NOT YET SUCCESS
City Superintendent States
What Is Being Done in
These Lines Today

|
| vocational training, school surveys
and the recent convention of the de.
partment Of superintendent of the
National Education association at
Cincinnati, Ohio, were the subjects
discussed by Superintendent H. 81.
Blackmar at a meeting with the teach
ers OF the city held at the Adams
school Thursday afternoon.
From what we learn, the results
of vocational training in the schools
is disappointing, the efforts in that
line are not as successful as we had
hoped they would be, but l am con-
fident that somebody will make a.
crowning success of them before
long" said Mr. Blackmar In COM
pairing the work along this line. as 1t
| mas progressed In America with the
headway made in Germany, the speak
er stated that it was his belief that q
comparison between these two c0liia-.
tries was scarcely fair as the view
points which the two nationalities OF
children acquire are entirely different
The American children are not oblig-
ed to begin earning living as early
as the others and very often the little
people across the water follow the oc-
cupation Of the father and In this way
1t is much easier to decide on the
life work. But" the speaker declar-
ed, lit is mighty hard thing some
times for the teacher to decide to try
and place child in certain lines OF
work; the parents usually have some
thing to say about that and very OF
ten 1t is hard thing for the child HIM.
self to decide"
Discusses New Methods.
Mr.. Blackmar outlined very fully
the new scheme which has been ad-
vanced in the forwarding of the voca.
tional school plan. This is, to have
just six years of preparatory work In
the grades, then three years called
junior high school and three senior
high school, finishing the course in
twelve years the same as is done now.
This follows along the line of work
outlined in the theory known as "the
six and six plan" This is built on the
assumption that the pupil is simply
/ marking time in the seventh and
eighth grades; that when he finishes
#, #, tllC SlAIu duc lS lS IlIcu VI JIIS WOlh
/ that he has been doing and wants to
change the methods and materials
| This plan provides for the beginning
of elective work in the seventh grade
/ Here he may take some foreign Ian.
guage. algebra, science and European
| history. The teachers and the super
intendent are then to decide which
students are most likely to 60 on with
- luo ctu u1v xuh{o
/ tined to take up the activities of life
at the end of his ninth year. and SO
govern their work accordingly. The
schools expressed himself as being o1
the opinion that this was pushing th,
child out into the world too early and
letting him choose his work too soon
Visits Cincinnati Schools.
/ The superintendent dwelt at somt
length upon the grade schools Of Gin
cinnati, which he visited while away
and in expressing his idea of them
said: "In the new things they rank
among the very best, but in the things
that are to me emphatically funda.
mental they are very SLOW"
Among the various phases of this
educational problem that are handled
by the schools In that city are classes
for agriculture, apprenticeship, art
savings banks, baths, blind, truant
boys, incorrigible children, choruses.
college for teachers, commercial work.
colored children, cooperative work,
deaf, defective, dental clinics, domes-
tic science, drawing. language for for.
eigners. gardening, German in the
grades, physical culture, library train.
ing teaching the girls how to care
for babies and classes for the poor
women of the neighborhood to give in,
struction in food preparation and sani-
tation, household economics, dress
making and millinery. Others includ-
ed normal training work, open air
classes, those for oral instructions, or
chestra work. physiology, playground
work. work for stammerers, the psy-A
Geological clinics and instruction for
salesmanship.
| Special mention was made OF those
classes which are held in an open air
room, with the children and teachers
bundled up from head to foot, paying
individual attention to tuberculosis
treatment. In the one grade school
which Mr.. Blackmar visited there
were nine young dentists who held
free clinics for the children in that
building. Application for treatment
by them and by the school physicians
were made by the children to the
school nurse or her assistants and II
found in need of such services were
sent to the clinics for it and received
| it as long as they neadAA t absolutely
l free Of charge.