The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-10-13

As TO the first class, the object Of any
school work is simply TO help them grow
fit as soon as possible. Training for. civil
ian life is incidental, though these pa
tients are sometimes allowed to have some
of it to buck their spirits up out Of the
doldrums and get them interested, OF to
supple the joints and muscles that re-
quire it.
The future limited service man is also
viewed as an army asset, but in his case
vocational training may be the very thing
TO qualify him TO meet pressing need, as;
for instance, if he masters stenOgraphy
and typewriting or telegraphy while IN
hospital He thus kills two birds with
one stone, the first for Uncle Sam and the
second for himself; his accomplishment
will serve him in the years to come, when
its over over there.
Problem of the S. c. D. Man:
The S. c. D. man is the fellow in whom
the army is professionally least and the
Government humanitarian most interested.
He will neither fight any more Huns nor
wear khaki any more behind the lines. He
can't go back to a job like his old one,
having developed defective heart or lost
hand, and he has living to make. What
can he do most happily and successfully,
with the resources he has left and the grit
which it is the schools business to restore
to him, if lost?
They fEd out, and they qualify him.
The school can give him sort of diploma
which ought to turn the trick with any
employer who is a white man. 1t can't
of itself place him when he goes forth;
a Federal board is organizing to attend to
that. But the services of this board will
not be needed in every case.
There was a sturdy buck private from
Mizzourah, sch. He had been farmers
hired man and general jack of all trades.
His common schoolin' had stopped at the
third year and when the French climate
put him permanently out Of business with
lumbago he was in fair way to go back
to Mizzourah a sort Of county charge.
His outlook on life was a dull blush
drab, streaked with Mississippi mud, as
he lay grunting and cussing In the ward.
When he heard about the educational
department he took pad and sucked
pencil and wrote a wondrous letter to
the Major, confessing a smothered ambi-
ton to be mechanic. 1t doesn't dovetail
with lumbago and in addition he lacked
what very young educators are wisely
calling background; but they interested
him in eobbling, led him by easy stages
through the first principles of hand work
to modern shoe repair maehinery-and
the day he was S. C. D.'d that man limped
down town into Lakewood and got job
on his own hook.
Now, he says, as soon as he has some
experience with women's and children's
shoes he'll come to New York and some
day have a repair shop of his own. And
they back him TO do it.; He acquired a
bit Of book larnn' incidentally.
How the Work L. Divided.
The department divides its curriculum
into occupational beside work and
academic, commercial, industrial, agricul-
tural, physical training and music sub
departments; the last named has a band
and teaches any brass instrument to a
fellow with an ear and the appropriate
ambition. The occupational beside work
is leather work and tooling, toy and nov
city making, basketry and Gaming, cord
work, hand and frame knitting and weav-
ing. These crafts are taught by three
women reconstruction aids, uniformed
like nurses One Of them, by the way, is
q playwright in private life.
Nobody expects-here that original
Colonel NJ. d. made his fundamental mis-
take-that the soldier when discharged
will make bill books or weave baskets or
tie worsted mats for q living, although
it is conceivable that he might, and might
get away with it. This occupationaf work