The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1915-01-09

solution Such national questions as
the dispute between labor and capital,
the high cost of living, public finance
and banking, commodity prices, inter.
national peace, social reimbursement,
should have a place in our secondary
educational institutions. Those ques-
tons can never be settled satisfactorily
until the masses of the people under
stand them.
THE WORK OF MODERN SOCIETY IS EXCEED
INGLY COMPLEX.
Since the work in modern society is
complex and specialized, the education
necessary to meet the demands of that
society must be as diversified and
specialized as is the work itself. Today
the eight grade graduate has before
him two alternatives; he may enter a
high school, or he may launch into the
Industrial world with the expectation of
making money. If he chooses the
former he is compelled to pursue col
lege or university preparatory course,
which is, in the main, dry and abstract
and usually proves disappointment. If
he elects to make money he is also dis
appointed for his schooling and exper-
fence up to this point are too limited.
Such a future to the ordinary boy or
girl does not look very bright. Our
high schools should be sufficiently demo-
cratic in their courses of study to pro-
vide place for each pupil coming from
the grades, and give him such teaching
as will prepare him for life. 1t is much
better to prepare for life than for the
university, but the well arranged curri-
culum will do both. provided the uni
versity is what it should be.) To sub
stantiate the statement that our high
schools are not serving the people, the
following excerpt from an eminent au-
thority may be cited:
"Only per cent of those who
enter school go farther than the
eighth grade, and only three in
every thousand graduate from the
high school; less than Is per cent of
the total enrolment enter. the high
school; less than z per cent of this
number graduate from the high
school; about two per cent of the
total enrolment of the high school
take college, university or profess
sional course in the higher institu-
tons of learning.
EDUCATION MUST BE DIFFERENTIATED.
Our schools need differentiated course
Of ctr h. lo4a hi,
elementary work. In the newer types
of commercial, business, industrial,
agricultural and household arts educa-
ton, it is not easy to determine the
needs of community. Any adequate
solution of the problem will necessitate
a careful survey of the entire field in
the largest possible way:
DIR. Scott Nearing of the Wharton
School Of commerce of the University
of Penn. says that education should be
differentiated in three ways:
1. Between city and country.
I-2. Between head and hand.
3. Between the various trades.
Since the great majority of boys anC
! girls reared and schooled in a giver
community settle down and to the work
of that community, it follows the schools
should prepare for that kind 6fWOrk
The country boy or girl demands train
ing adapted to the farm. AS the work
of the city is unlike the work of the
country, the city boys and girls should
have the training especially fitting them
for city work.
Since about four out of every five per
sons who go to school work with their
hands, it again follows that if an educa-
ton is to prepare for complete living, II
must provide a great amount of hand
work. This is true in both city and
country.
AS to the differentiation in trade
school Prof. Nearing says, 1.-THE ques-
ton of specialized training has nowhere
been more carefully worked out than in
Munich, Germany, whose Continuation
Schools each represent one of forty
leading industries Of the city. Regular
attendance at the common school is re-
quired until the boy is fourteen, at
WHICH, e$SsC AAO may SO 44ACO A4OASIIy y OOt
until his eighteenth year he is also re-
quired to spend from twelve to sixteen
hours per week at Continuation School
! If, for example, the boy is to become q
carpenter, he goes into carpenter shop
and learns the practical side Of carpen.
/ try; but at the same time he is taking
work in q Continuation Carpentry
School. Here he learns mathematics
drawing, and a group of other facts
which give him a theoretical ground
work for his practical mastery of the
trade. At the age of eighteen there
fore, he goes into the world carpenter
prepared with the practice of carpentr,
as well as with its theory, having hat
the experience in shop work on the on,
hand and the school training on the 9th
er, which go to make up q well rounded
thoroughly trained artisan.
COMMERCIAL EDUCATION.
1t was about the last decade of tn
last century that commercial education
was injected into the high schools o
this country PreviOuS fo that 4ir,-a r.,