The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1916-03-10
Finds That IN Several Departments
keosus Schools FoIio1 Cgf II.
idea Ct Vocational
Training
VISIT SCHOOLS AT GARY
Plenty 70 Criticize in the Famous In
diana System, Although Il Nay
Se Best for That
Town.

The school board last night heard
SUpt- Willtsm AIdrEch make his re-
port Of his trip 10 Detroit 10 attend
the national conference OF superfnts1d-
snts- M AIdrtch finds that In ssv-
e-sl departments CT our schools here.
the vocational idea Is being carried
out There were several features OF
the Detroit TtstG. especially the school
that Henry Ford has established and
a high school with an enrolment Of g.
s0lst, that we're snughtsning 10 the Eeo-
/ xxx board There was plenty TO cr.tt-
c!ze In the Gar! system although Ii
/ z manufacturing town OF $500 where
/ there il such large Der cent Of to--
| signsrs
Following is the report O. Mr.. Aid
rich:
/ left Eeokuk Friday night, Feb.
IS. IN order 10 be able TO spend the
day. Saturday. with the Chicago Prin-
/ ctpaPs club. The Iowa delegation met
With them il the forenoon IN their
Michigan avenUe. The business OF
the meeting was the receiving Of a
report Of delegation that had been
sent 10 a meeting Of the National So
cisty OF Vocational Education, recent
I ~ held at Minneapolis. These dele
gates all returned thoroughly tmbued
with the feeling that something would
develop along this line in the tmue-
date future because the spirit OF the
convention had ceased TO be one Of
hostility between the advocates Of
dual system and the opponents to
such a systsm.
In the past there has beer a great
deal Of conflict between two factions.
one claiming that vocational educa-
ton should be feature OF our regu
larry organized public schools. while
the other claims that It should be a
distinctly separate institution, under
its own direction, receiving its share
Of public money. This subject Is Of
course one that win affect Chicago in
a very much larger way than it can
affect Keokuk: but the feeling Ia be-
coming very strong that vocational
education is matter that win have
10 be given careful thought and an
increasing consideration in the small
er cities as well az the large manu-
featuring centers.
/ believe that our comm erctal de-
partment, our domestic science de-
partment and our normal training
department are. at the present time,
10 a certain extent, truly vocational:
while If our manual training depart
ment is not so much vocational 1t
certainly cannot help being Of value
from a standpoint of vocational guild
ance, helping our pupils to get some
ideas OF adaptability in taste in vari-
GUS directions.
The Chicago Principals club saw
thai we had opportunities Ior yalu-
able use Of our afternoon in Chicago
and at 5 O'Clock in the evening they
bandueted Us.
High Schools Divided.
We arrived in Detroit in time to
be ready Monday morning to visit
schools and see things worth while
in Detroit We first visited the ZEN
trail high school where we found three
thousand students enrolled. There
was about twenty-seven hundred in
actual attendance. I had been some
what curious to see how they would
handle such an immense high school
body az that, but was somewhat sur
prised to find that instead of having
one immense high school they prac-
tically had eight small high schools
The three thousand students were
divided into eight groups; four groups
Of boys and four groups of girls
Each group had its own assembly
room or house as it was called. Each
group Of boys had man in charge
and each group of girls a lady in
charge, whose sole business was the
looking after the interests of the
pupils under his charge. These per-
sons had no teaching whatever to do,
but took the same position towards
those under their charge that the
deans do in the colleges. Each Of
called, is named after some person
whose characteristics are made the !
ideal of that group Of students. One !
group belong to what was known as I!
the Abraham Lincoln house. They !
chose Abraham Lincoln as the name !
of their house because they felt that |
Abraham Lincoln stood for the things /
which they wanted 20 emulate. Each |
year when the group Of pupils in any
house have attained to standard OF !
conduct which is reasonably close to |
the ideal of their leader. their house !
is dedicated; after which time they
are supposed to live UP to the ideal
of their house without having to be
constantly reminded of their duties.
After spending a large portion of
the half day in this nigh school, l
went away feeling that there were
ideal conditions existing in that high
school as a whole, due to the high
ideals of the eight groups which
formed the high school.
Visit Ford Factory.
Our party next made a visit to the
Ford factory. There we saw lathes
and drills and stamping machines in
such endless varieties that we came
away with a confused idea Of the
factory. The one thing that left a
definite impression was the depart
ment where the parts were assem-
bled. The axles and coupling rods
were placed on two parallel rails be-
tween which was an endless chain
to which they were attached Work