The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-01-10

Irregular School Attendance

Irregular School Attendance
JIG. Collicott, state director of vocational edu-
cation, is authority for the statement that 2o0-
600 children of school age in Indiana not reg
ularly in school.
Why?
Mr. Collicott asserts because the courses Of
fered in the present system do not sufficiently
interest them His structure is severe enough to
warrant an investigation. If children really
abandon school because they and their parents
believe the system does not train them for their
iife's work, only one recourse is open-change
the system at once.
If boy of high school age wants to become
machinist or an iron worker, his four years in
high school should be primarily devoted to this
preparation. Why, pray tell, should he be forced
to waste precious hours-an economic waste
on subjects which will not make him an accom-
plished worker? He would gain time by quitting
the schoolroom and entering a shop And that,
sad to say is what 100000 boys or girls, under
the economic stress of making their living in the
industries, business and commerce, do. Whereas
by rights, they should be in school, acquiring not
only practical skill in handling tools, but also, and
what is infinitely more important, knowledge of
the theory of mechanics SO that their entrance
into the industrial sphere would find them train
ed in hand and mind.
Mr. Collicott is correct in his conclusion that
these 100000 children who leave school because
they fail to find therein an opportunity for their
own development, will constitute powerful and
dangerous element of the population of the state
The test of an educational system, as Mr.. Col
lcott puts it, is the type of man woman that is
produced. But you cannot produce high type
of man or woman unless you permit an educa-
tional development of the boy or girl along con-
genial lines and in conformity with their natural
talents and desires. Do you seriously believe
that boy desiring to become a physician would
be satisfied to spend four years at high school
studying mechanical drawing, mechanics, or shop
practice? Would he not quit in disgust?
And yet, our present school system condemns
boys who want to become mechanics, or are fore
ed into the industries because their parents can
not afford to give them college training, to
waste four years studying subjects that will not
prepare them adequately for the work which
they wish to do. Their high school diploma will
not entitle them to draw bigger wages than those
of other boys of their age.
The same diploma permits the boy to enter
college, showing that the diploma has cultural
value but no vocational advantage. Everything
in the school system seems to favor the boy who
wants to prepare for college to the disadvantage
of the lad who needs vocational education and
needs it badly.
Mr. Collicott's figures are a strong appeal
for the immediate introduction of vocational
courses and revampng of our public school
system to meet a pressing need
Such comprehensive change cannot be ac-
compshed over night It involves far-reaching
charges in school administration, the preparation
of instructors, the remodeling of buildings and
the construction of new ones but what is all this
in comparison with the vast good that will accrue
to the state from the number of satisfied and
truly educated men and that will be
claimed by the Hooser commonwealth.