Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-02-04
SUPT, KINNEYS REPORT SHOWS
GREAT PROGRESS IN SCHOOLS

the boys who desired carpentry do this
outside OF school hours as volunteers.
In the beginning results fully justi-
fled this theory, as in many cases the
shop facilities were swamped by vol-
GnteeTs. In the long run. however,
the experiment was a failure. Many
OF the hcys who wanted to work and
who should have had it. could not take
il because their parents required them
to come home and do work for them.
Baseball games and other amusen ents
sometimes proved too much for the
good resolutions OF the volunteers, and
at times the classes dwindled down to
only two or three pupils. 1t is plain
that the vocational work should be
placed under our law of compulsory
attendance. However, il will be de-
cidedly detrimental to the schools II
the four hours and fifteen minutes al
lowed each day for academic work is
reduced. As It is, this period is
shorter than that required in most
places on. the mainland, and we can
not provide the improvement in pub
lie school education If the time al
lowed for academic work is cut down.
The only solution seems to be that
the department be authorized by law
to require, in the case OF schools
where vocational instruction IS provid-
ed, that children above a certain age,
say IL, or above a certain grades say
the fifth or sixth, must remain in the
school not more than four or, five
hours extra each week. ..r
This phase brings up the PROPOSE
ton of releasing from ord mary school
attendance children who have finished
! certain school work In other words,
will it be advantageous to allow child.
rem, who have finished, say, the fifth
grade, to finish their attendance, il
they wish it. thus making the amount
of education absorbed, rather than a
certain age, the governing factor for
: the release of pupils? The adoption
of some such plan may encourage pu-
pills to work harder in the lower
grades, In case such a plan should
/ be adopted, the question arises whe-
! Their children thus released should not
/. be required to take the vocational in.
struction wherever this is available.
/ The, appended table of statistics show
ing the attendance and age of pupils
j in the various grades Is Illuminating.
The great difficulty now encounter.
| ed in the problems of extending the vo-
cational instruction in the schools is
/, the lack of instructors. The present
!, system of having an itinerant voea.
/ tional instructor on each island. cover
ing as much ground as physical limi.
! taticns allow, has been valuable, but
only as start towards the solution
1 of the problem. If vocational instruc.
ton is to amount to anything really
valuable, 1t must be handled in a
i mere comprehensive manner in the
4 future. To secure more teachers in
the vocational branches from the main,
land is out of the question, partly be
tcalIse 0fsthe trelaena deus expense this
would inyolyessand partly because
even on the mainland the demand fol
such instructors is greater than the
supply. As matter of fact, it is faI
more economical and far more desir
able to train our own Normal students
4 who furnish material for capable and
satisfactory vocational instructors A
: start has already been made In this
respect by selecting number of pu
pills from the present senior class d
the Normal school to qualify for yo
cational work in addition to their OF
binary qualifications as instructors
Far more pupils volunteered for tn,
work than could be used, and the re
!. sponse has been very encouraging.
In the past the Normal student
were given Instruction in cooking, car
q pentry, millinery, sewing, ETC., but ow
!, ing to lack of practical experience the.
!, feared to take up their work in tn,
schools While they were skille,
cooks, carpenters. milliners. ETC., the,
{ did not have confidence in themselve
! when it came to buying supplies an,
making their departments selfsuppori
ing in the school. To meet this diff
! Guilty the volunteers mentioned ar
being sent daily, one to each of tn
large schools in Honolulu, where the
are given charge each of a cookin
or carpentry department under tn
, general supervision of the vocationa
| instructors in these branches. The
Il o.D 6hCH u CUT Ioi thlo WOTh do pray
tise teaching, and 1t is expected tina
after they have actually handled sue
departments in the larger school
they will, when they graduate fror
the Normal School, be competent +
handle such departments in tn
schools to which they are assigned
. If this system is followed out for
few years Hawaii will soon have
corps of well-trained vocational In
structors, who will be able to cop
with local conditions far better tina
1t would be possible for even the mos
thoroughly trained malihini to do.