Roanoke Rapids herald., 1923-09-21
SCHOOL ACTIVITIES GETTING
UNDER WAY FOR 1923 "a
Industrial Arts Department Greatly Enlarged and Ex
tended Constructive Ideas Developed Through Con
tact With Different Materials and Processes Sell Pro-
ducts to Deray Cost of Materials.
PATRONS INVITED TO VISIT SCHOOLS

is suitable to direct the atten-
j ton Of the public to the activi-
ties of the newly, organized In
dustrM Arts Department, and
give a brief outline of the pur-
poses of the work and the meth
DDS of conducting it.
This department Of the school
has been operated one year, the
work being at first conducted
with only one room assigned for
the purpose, This year the
scope of the work is extended
and will be carried on in three
separate rooms, these being the
bench-wood working machine
and mechanical drawing rooms.
Even with this available space
the fifth and sixth grades will
be deprived of the opportunity
of this work on account of lack
of room and time.
The activities to be carried on
in this department during the
present school year will be, ele-
mentary bench-Woodwork, ad-
Vanced woodwork and cabinet
work, concrete work, and me-
chanical drawing. 1t is planned
! if possible to arrange for six
weeks course in fibre weaving
in connection with the elemen-
tary woodwork.
Relative to the purposes of
this type of work as conducted
in the public schools, there seems
to be rather prevalent idea in
most communities that the In
dustrial Arts Courses are con-
Quoted with the purpose of
teaching boys some specific
trade or vocation. This is not
the case. 1t would be impossi-
ble for any school to attempt
this except those which are es-
pecially equipped for the teach
ing of a trade, which is not the
case with most of our schools,
these being equipped for gener-
al Industrial courses instead of
special courses. In the average
high school this objective would
not do even if the equipment
were on hand, for the work
would thus benefit only few,
those who We're planning to fol-
low such a trade.
The Industrial Arts work as
conducted in our public schools
must benefit all of the boys who
can avail themselves of the op-
portunity presented and to be
effective and worth while should
have the following purposes in
view:
l. To teach the boys to think
in a constructive way and then
give them the opportunity to
carry their thinking to a con-
structive end. This type of
thinking is that which keeps the
world moving and makes for
progress.
2. To bring the boy into con
tact with as many industrial
materials and processes as is
possible, so that he may become
familiar with the methods and
materials employed by industry
In the constructive work so nee
essary in the world today.
For this reason every school
should present to the boy types
of work which make use of sew
eral different materials and as
many of the methods and pro-
cesses used in industry as can be
done with the facilities at nand.
3. To teach the boy some de-
gree of skill in the use of tools
and, through care and attention
to them, to teach habits of order
accuracy, and neatness. These
habits can be developed quite
largely by proper organization
IN the Industrial Arts shops
both cf materials and shop
10 attain the first objective
the boy is required first to learn
something Of the principals of
drawing or mechanical repre-
sentation Of the object which
they are about to make in the
shop. In the making draw
ing he learns to read it. With
this ability of reading the draw
ing, he is in position to carry out
his ideas developed in the draw
ing into the actual construction
Of the project.
The shop and drafting rooms
are so organized as to operate
as nearly as possible on CONNER
cial lines. The same method of
taking care of tools and equip
ment is used in the industrial
shop and attention is paid to the
avoidance of waste boob in time
and material. Neatness and or
der are required in the care of
the shop and the benches. The
care of the shop is left very
much to the students and as a
rule, they handle this in a very