Evening star., 1915-12-25
THE NEW EDUCATION.
By Frederic J. Haskin.

III By Frederic J. Haskin. Il
The bureau of education is investi-
eating the experiences OF a large num-
ber of young men and women who have
left school for business in the last five
years. A set of questions has been sent
to city and county school superin-
tendents in a dozen states. The Of
icials will collect answers from the
former pupils. showing what line OF
work each took up on leaving school,
the changes made. the wages received
and the chances for advancement.
This investigation by the government
is only one detail in a nation-wide
movement toward a far closer relation
between school and business life.
courses in high schools and grammar
schools was step in the right direc-
tion. Much of the instruction. how
ever. has proved to be superficial when
highly specialized. To have shops fit
ted up for cabinetmaking and electrical
fitting when most boys start in gem
eral business of some kind as Office boy
or clerk is bad investment. To teach
a class of girls fine needlework when
many of them will stand behind a
counter all day and be too tired at
night to darn their own stockings is
wasted effort.
1t is well enough to teach cabinet
making to future cabinetmakers, and
plumbing to fu-
Neither Trade ture p u m b Q s,
Nor Profession. jority Of young
people enter neither a trade nor a pro-
fession, but simply one of the innu-
merable commercial establishments that
are Jumped, under the general head of
business. What they need, and what
up to now they could not get outside
of special school, is business
education.
The new system. which is being put
into operation in New York. Boston,
Der OF smaller cities, keeps the en-
ployer's point of view in mind through
out the course. Business houses of all
sorts are cooperating with the schools
Students are given a chance to practice
their future work in some store while
they go to school. and working boys
and girls are given chance to go to
school while they work. The result is
q grammar or high school graduate
who cin step into life and earn his
salary from the first week.
Boston was the first city to establish
cooperative educational work. Girls
employed in certain stores were given
a chance to attend classes in the pub
lie schools. Now director of prac-
tical salesmanship has been appointed.
She has co-ordinated the commercial
courses of hve high schools with the
work Of seven big department stores
She Is familiar both with the conditions
in each of these stores and with the
talents and training of all her stu
h~
are assigned weekly practice periods
in salesmanship, during which they
go into one of the big stores and do
the actual work of a clerk. This sys-
and the store. The novices have theo-
retical drill in salesmanship which
many old clerks lack. The store gets
the benefit of their knowledge free;
the student has both theory and ex-
perience.
Los Angeles is doing much the same
thing in her cooperative plan. The
Los Angeles mer-
Cooperative Plan chants send the
In Los Angeles. ferent denart-
ments over to the school building,
where they give lectures on practical
salesmanship. The advice given to the
students is prepared with great care
to be lucid and definite. moving
picture to accompany each talk points
out In detail the exact differences be-
tween good and bad salesmanship.
Besides these lectures the merchants
take limited number of young men
and women into their stores for short
periods of practice in real business.I
In Philadelphia nine big department
establishing and maintaining schools
at their own expense in their own
buildings. They have entered into an
agreement to this effect with the SUI
perintendent OF public schools. and
ly as possible to that of the regular
school system. All children between
the ages of fourteen and sixteen will
be given chance to go on with their
school This scheme will benefit about
1900 working children. In some of
the establishments it is already in op-
GRAFTON; the others will begin it as
soon as possible after January l.
New York already has vocational
work introduced into it's schools on
fairly wide scale An arrangement by
cal account is just being put on a
working basis. however. School en-
pioyment agencies represent New
Yorks solution of the problem OF plac-
their training will do most good. The
employment agencies are the link be-
tween school and business. They
place the boy who has learned plumb
ing with plumber instead of letting
him drift into the first opening that
offers: the girl who made good marks
In sewing is put with a dressmaker
instead Of going behind the counter.
The cooperative idea is spreading all
over the country. In Kearney. y. J..
the business men
Changes Made complained that the
school training was
not sufficiently
practical. The school superintendent
replied by sending q set of questions
to the business men Of Kearney. ask
ing them to be specific. They were re-
Quested to show definitely at just what
points the school system was not prac-
tical. and to make suggestions for
temedying the faults. The suggestions