The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1919-02-22
VALUE OF PRINTING
IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
T. George Middleton Tells Interesting
ly of Good to Be Accomplished by
Its Teaching.
LOCAL PRINTING lNsTRUc- OR.

~ iINo y n Ohs
Miss Tolbert, principal of the leas-
antville High School, has adoptk the
plan of having addresses delivered
from time to time to the pupils by
business men upon topics of business.
Accordingly, on Monday morning last
the subject of Printing was presented
by Mr.. t. George Middleton, instruc-
tor of this art in our public schools.
Mr.. Middleton handled the subject in
a mastery manner, addressing his
audience as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen: 1t is a
pleasant duty to address you this NOR
ming on Printing. 1t is not worth
while to bring to you a large amount
of statistics or historical dates. you
may find these, if you are interested
in them, in government reports, or
school reports, in most any city Ii
brary.
The relation of Printing to our ed
ucational work today is of so much i'm
portance that school authorities in the
various states are eager to establish
a printing plant within the school
house for the use of the pupils.
iihtlhS Ill IAC PQD1lC OCnOOl 10 HUI
a new idea for instruction of pupils.
1t is simply n that has been over
looked in the past. One that had not
been recognized. And yet, what is
more simple than to teach children to
spell by the handling of properly form
ed models of letters? What is more
necessary to teach the making of sen
fences than placing the words in a
straight line in a printers stick? What
better way to prove the ability of a
pupil than to let him show you a
proof of his work in type? He does
not need to await the teachers report
of her inspection-he can see his own
errors staring him in the face from
the type proof. The wonder is that
printing had not been adopted by the
school authorities long, long ago.
My purpose, you will observe, is not
to present printing as a business prop
o~sition, or as a money-making scheme
for pupils or for the purpose of turning
out cheap labor for the local printers.
1t is as a purely educational process
that we discuss printing this morning.
1t requires no great effort on your
part to properly value the products of
the printers art, and yet how few of
us give a thought as to how such
works of art are producedi Do you
not see the waste of opportunity? The
waste of valuable information? The
waste of one of the best processes for
teaching the English language? The
waste of information about that art
which binds business together around
the world, that expresses our joy, u
sorrow, our courtesy, our hatred, our
love? That art which binds us to the
future as strongly as the past is bound
to us?
What could you know about Moses
and the Law, about ancient history,
about science, about astronomy, about
poetry, if you did not have the printed
page before you? The old masters in
art, science, and literature are today
our close companions through the art
of Printing.
My work in Pleasantville schools
has been with the boys of the 9Th, 18th
and 8th grades. This has been largely
individual instruction because of the
short time the course has been in ope-
ration. When you learn that a print
er's apprentice requires some four
years of daily instruction and practice
to learn the trade, you can readily see
that it is impossible to turn out a fin
ished printer from a school printing
office. And yet, the boy who is bright
in the school plant is on a fair way to
a good position in a commercial office
when he leaves school. He has a
claim for attention from his employer
that no green" boy can expect.
It makes no difference what a boy
expects to do when he leaves school,
whether he becomes a mechanic, a
storekeeper, a professional man, or
anything else of value to the commu-
nifty, his value to such community will
depend largely upon his acquaintance
with the printer His use of printed
matter of some kind. By this we
notwithstanding in a proper style.
Printing in the public school ena-
bles a boy to see clearly that accuracy
is a virtue he must cultivate. Neat
ness, also, must be strictly adhered to
at all times. Correct understanding
of grammar, spelling, punctuation, cap
italization, etc, are demanded of him..
After a pupil has acquired these es-
sential qualifications, he may use his
knowledge of mathematics in calculat-
ing the space required for printing an
article submitted in manuscript, or
for the laying out of a table of Stats
tics, or for the number of pages of a
certain size required for a given man
uscript. He learns the various sizes
and qualities of paper, cardboard, etc,
and has to calculate the cuts neces-
sary for a particular size from the
whole sheet.
Again, the boy may use his know
ledge of mensuration in laying out job
work of various kinds. He may study
drawing and the art of hand-lettering,
design carving and illustration.
Presswork may be confined to the
simple proving of his work in type or
illustration, or to a study of art in
colors of printers ink.
Our printing office is now situated
in School No. 2, West Park Avenue,
this being the only available place.
This location is not convenient for pu-
pills from other sections of our city.
The plant should be centrally located