The Washington herald., 1921-03-24
Thoughts are mightier than strength of hand.
Naval Ship School.

ThE most ideally equipped schoolhouse in the
world is the modern naval ship 1t is also
the most perfectly organized in its per.
sonnet their daily routine and activities for regular
school instruction More than this the ships of the
American navy being made into more effective
hghting engines by using them also as schools.
When one stops to think of it, this is a per
fectly natural succession from the modern develop
ment of educational methods, centered around
learning by doing" and shop extension courses
where this is sort of reversed to doing by learn
ing" = In schools the workshop is used to demon
strate what is learned from text books; in the
workshop is hepractical application of rules thco-
ries and whatnot of the classroom.
IN the ship it starts the other way and the
men learn the rule, theories and the rest which
apply,to what they doing. No school can have
such Equipment for this, including every skilled vo-
cation as naval ship has. There are steam oil
gas and electric engines varied electrical appliances
a complete machine shop, charting and mechanical
drawing, navigation and nautical astronomy book
keeping, woodworking, various sciences, and even
domestic science.
There, too, is the immediate, practical incentive
Tor men to study promotion, better pay and higher
rank IS assured through rating in efficiency. So it
has been almost inevitable that all this should
sooner later be made available to the enlisted
sonnel and it has been. The only remaining ques-
tion IS to convince Congress, the naval officers
and authorities have already been convinced of its
Importance.
II has wisely. 1t is under naval control
as itashould be- The only civilians used are in a
small staff of three trained educators, whose ex-
periences have been in vocational education They
frame the courses applied to regular ship voca-
tiQns. They provide the text books and Just there
$shown appreciation of human nature. These text
books are small If subject requires several sew
eral provided to it, and the sailor is not
awed and discouraged by a ponderous, closely
printed volume.
Each is required to do an hours study
each day. Over each group is ship officer, who
passes upon the work and invariably helps the boy
who needs it. There class recitations 1t is
all written work 1t, as a whole, fills that place
assigned ashore to the junior high schools as it
helps the sailor boys to find themselves discover
their talents, the vocation for which they are best
fitted by natural gifts and inclination
It discovers to the officers how to place them
the best advantage for efficiency and balanced
1t helps discipline, increases contentmen de-
velops ambition and offers purpose, objective and
reward. Instead of largely wasting the enlistment
period, these young men among the best in the
world. end it far better equipped for service on
shore or sea than probably they would have been
had they passed it in land school. Learning is
easer and faster on the job than by only playing
at the job.
Practically the only cost to the government of
all these floating schools is for rotating supply of
text books. The supervision by the officers costs
r.nothing and they willing to do it for the re-
<s5ifs hey see in those under them. With such a
navy the government well afford to it to
its full requirement and get profit.