Norwich bulletin., 1916-10-13
Prof. Sykes on Vocational Education
President of Connecticut College Was Principal Speaker Business Mems Ltsncheon-Many Prominent Citizens Among Those Present Norwich Man Pledged $1 500 Towards College Dormitory Fund Joseph T. Crutten- den Made Admirable Postmaster

whitewashing the fence. The abstract studies that filled our curricula have emptied our schools. The time for realism in education has arrived.
 The evolution of Germany as an in- dustrial nation of the first rank has come about virtually in our own day and generation. What were the fac tcrs in this evolution The soil of Germany is not naturally rlch nor IS her coal of the best quality; but her technical schools are. In the mat ter of education for industrial purposes Germany has been able to think so cisllly and nationally.
 She learned industrial processes from Great Britain; she borrowed the ldea of technical schools from France and Switzerland. On the basis, first of even- ing drawing schools, she built up her education Of the artisan, NotAaban- doning the system of apprentleeship, she met new conditions by increasing the training offered by the state as the training offered in the trades de- creased. Today 1t may be said that throughout the length and breadth of the German empire the state offers all the technical instruction supplement- ary to the trade, needed in all Voca- tions-whethcr it is the design of the stained glass worker, the chemistry of the dyer, the bookkeeping (business practfce) of the shoemaker, the French of the hotel waiter. Every apprentice, boy or girl, from IA years of age, is in state directed schools for from six to eleven hours week throughout the years of his apprenticeship, and his certificates as journeyman and as master craftsman are issued according to state standards, by the state. A city system of industrial education such as Munich covers the courses suited to 67 trades, while that Of Der lin provides for 223 trades. And this education is not merely technical it includes the hygiene, the civics and law that concern every workman as a man and as a citizen.
 As the state looks after the artisan and housekeeper, so it provides for the master workman, the foreman, the manager, the contractor the builder, the expert techmician, the chemist, the designer, the draftsman, the salesman. Germany has state schools for the ceramic Industries; schools for the higher wood x orking industries; for the building trades; for the chemical in dustries; for the textile industries; for mechanical and engineering trades; for matchmaking, shipbUilding, soap, pa per- optical instruments, hotel keeping. automobiles, beer. They serve as day schools for experts and part-tirne or night or Sunday schools for the ap- prentices.
 Art Industrial Education.
 The provision for art industrial edu- cation is almost as marked as the pro vision for industrial education. There are 34 art-industrial schools of the first grade. These schools have size and equipment adequate to the inn mense field of art applied 10 industry. We have no building for rt-industrial education in all the United States to compare in beauty and extent with the Art-Industrial school of Berlin or of Dresden. The Academy of Graphic Arts of Leipzic eTn nbraces all the trades that center in the production of the printed paper and the book; 1t has the dignity the equipment and thor oughneSs of our best colleges and schools of engineering. The School of Photography of Munich (Lehr-und VersuchSanstalt fur Photographic, Chemigraphie: Lichtdruck and Ora Vure) rivals the Leipzic school in the thoroughgoing intelligence of it's or
 ganization and the completeness of vision and equipment of it's peculiar
 field.
 To supplement these schools with demonstration material they have in dustrial and art-industrial museums
 like the Deutsches Museum mad Ba-
 varian National Museum of Munich museums that every city seeks to pos
 sess and enrich, for which money and brains have been spent like water, that are revelations of beauty and interest the stimulus Of the students of the adjacent schools.
 The provision for commercial edu-
 cation is equally widespread and thor ough and equally well graded and or
 gaPized.
 And beyond these for the highest | training of the engineers and comn1er- cial experts are the technical univer- l sities (technische Hocnschulen) and commercial universities.
 In 40 years. virtually rha 0ario6 Ot developing technical education in Ger many, Germany has seen it's policy turn a poor country into a rich one 1 the most powerful of Europe. I asked a German agent for German manufac- lures in London: "To what do you at l tribute the tremendous industrial de- | velopment of Germany?' T admit" said, "the tenacity, the power of or ! ganization and cooperation of the l German race. What" I asked, t'is l there beyond that?" His reply was: l Technical education"
 1 I questioned here and there 1T i Switzerland, Holland and Belgium various men in industrial callings as | to the value they attached tc technica l instruction given to artisans as wei
 as to industrial experts. They hat | but one reply: Tt Is indispensa ble our condition without it is unthinlk. | able"
 | Would Start Continuation Schools. 1 Suppose a commission of German ol | Swiss or French or Dutch schoolmeI | were appointed to remodel the schoo
 system of this state with reference tt l industry. What would they do? First they would set up thousands of con tinuation schools for the boys an!
 girls who have left school young ant
 are in commerce and industry. Thes, | boys and girls need education at leas as much as high school boys and girls This education would be free, univer
 sal and compulsory on employer ant I employe. It would be an education specialized and varied to every basi trade, so as to produce, with the prac tice of the shops and factories, tn trained workman. But it would hav the elements of English and hygien i and civics and economies to train tn citizen. .-.F
 Second, they would set up school for workers of the highest skill, fo foremen, managers, for designers fo the various industries of the state
 This means schools of the special in dustries. Trade schools are not enougl even if you put the Bridgeport trad school, as we might well do, in I towns of Connecticut. Manual train ing high schools are not adequate
 even if we put, as we might well dc the New London Manual Trainin
 High school in 30 of the towns of Con
 necticut. They would have technica IL. Of %1,4