New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-09-26
Scheme Which Uses All Availab
of Comparative Cheapness.

,ers adaptation Of the Gary plan was insti-
tuted This naturally delayed the inception
Of Mr. Wrt's own experiment and allowed
only extremely limited facilities in his two
schools. 10 would therefore seem all the
more remarkable that such q commendaoe
showing has been made under such adverse
circumstances. When the new shops and
other facilities are furnished, for which
funds we're granted by the Board Of Educa-
ton only last June, it is most likely that an
even greater degree Of effectiveness viii be
displayed Sufficient results have already
been obtained, however, to Justify the BELIEF
that the Writ plan can work in New York
and will become increasingly effective as the
essential equipment is installed. II should
not be forgotten that this plan is not new. II
has been in operation for fifteen years IN
Gary and elsewhere and has already passed
the purely experimental stage.
Il is true that additional shop teachers will
be required to care for the new facilities In
Public School IS, The Bronx These teachers
will be needed because there will then he
eightv-eight classes, instead OF seYenty-siX,
as at present. The important point, however,
is that the total number of teachers required
will not exceed the number heretofore needed
for regular academic classes under the old
tyne of organization. The completion o. the
new facilities will therefore have no effect on
the per capita cost for instruction, unless IT
be slightly to reduce it.
It is asserted that erred in stating that
29i. instead of 381, pupils were afforded pre-
vocational work in Public School 3d. Manhat-
tan. Ny statement was based upon oihcisi
reports submitted by the principal Of that
school to the City Superintendent, and the
figures quoted are apparently confirmed IN
the printed estimate for 1915 just issued by
the Board of Education. II is there specf-
caly stated, in Document A, ", page o. that
there were POI pupils in pre-vocational
classes in Public School 81, Manhattan. ANY
inaccuracy has evidently been due, therefore,
to discrepancy between the facts officially
reported and those otherwise available for
other purposes.
However, this item Is not of prime impor-
lance to the main point of per capita cost in
the two schools compared which was based
on the total register in the respective schools,
and therefore included all children, however
classified. The quotation Of 29l pupils and II
teachers taken from the official records was
intended simply as an illustration of the fact,
which is admitted by the advocates Of the
Ettinger plan, that additional teachers are re-
CURED by pre-vocatonal classes. Further in
teresting light is thrown on this important
point moreover, by additional official data in
the printed estimate above referred to, which
were not available when my former letter was
prepared. II is there stated that 1919 teachers
were required for the 2,076 recorded pupils
in the sxty-two pre-vocational classes in the
seven Ettinger schools. This would mean an
average of sixteen pupils to a teacher which
would compare very favorably with my state
ment of eighteen pupils to a teacher in the
pre-vocational classes of Public School "a.
The questions at issue from the purely
educational point of view are the relative
value of the types of educational opportuni-
ties offered and the effectiveness Of the pro-
grammes for making them available to all
children, rather than the personnel or the
efficiency of the teaching corps in any par
ticular school.
1t is a choice between a plan that Is pri-
marily intended to afford specific voca
tional education to a small selected group of
children in the upper grades and only Sec
ondarily concerned with providing wider OPP
portunities for children outside of that group,
and plan which assumes that the normal
education of every child comprehends equal
opportunity for work, study and play through
out school life from the earliest years. One
is device for securing pre-vocational train
ing for older pupils; the other is complete
reorganization of elementary school life.
In the Ettinger schools several short trade
courses are concentrated in the seventh and
eighth grades, which are open to pupils who
have decided, after six years of academic
training whether or not they want to con-
tinue such work exclusively or take voca-
tional courses in the shops. 1t is understood
that this work is now made available to
limited number of average pupils in other
grades who have found it difficult to pursue
the regular academic work BY rotating from
shop to shop at stated intervals until some
line of work is discovered in which the child
is interested, it is planned to offer a concrete
basis for the choice of vocation and to offer
a certain amount of pre-vocational training
There are thus created in the upper grades
two distinct schools-one purely academic