San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-13

go to school. He flunks in every sub
iect-the teachers are always calling
you in for n conference. You get so
discouraged you could just GIVE VI,
don't you?
But wait a minute Pal-don't throw
up the Job yet. Maybe Eddie isn't
such flat tire after all. Perhaps
he's Just as bright or even brighter
than Tommy and Esther and little
Bert. Only it's another kind of bright
ness-a kind of brightness neither yOu
nor the schools have been prepared
to cope with.
Maybe Eddie is "HAND-MINDED"
instead of "BOOK-MINDED."
Never heard that expression before.
did you? It's n new expression and
new idea in educational circles.
Education hasn't had much to dc
in the past with "hand-minded" poo
plc-thosc practical souls who must
find expression through their fingers
There were technical courses in the
universities for those of engineering
bent. if that bent survived the dry
classical drilling of the grades and
the high schools. But for the boy
or the girl who wanted to "mcss with
machinery work in wood, learn
plumbing, weave. carve. run print
ing prcss-no provision was made.
Such work was for ARTISANS, not
for scholars.
The schools were primarily intend
cd for SCHOLARS. This was the
outgrowth of those carly days when
learning was only for the rich-for
the man who need never use his hands.
That was the school plan of the OLD
World where the caste system gave
one man a life of ease and another
life of toll. That was the school
plan We transplantcd to America. al
though We had presumably discarded
the caste system.
Naturally, that transplanted school
plan didn't fit very well. How are
you going to train young humans t.
live the lives of scholarly gentlemen
in country that doesn't provide g
caste of scrfS to wait upon said gen
tlemen? And what are YOU going
to do with that vast majority OF
Youngsters who wouldn't be sO-callec
gentlemen" on bet, but greatl'
prefer to be plumbers or bricklayers
or linotype operators with nice, fat
Jobs and a swell little car in the
garage?
At last we're beginning to adapt
education to the need of that major
ity. We're framing courses and buy
ing school equipment for "hand-mind
cd" Eddies of America. And thu
plan is going over BIG.
They have new Junior High
School in San Francisco in which
they're installing $4,000 worth q
equipment to be used by such young
sters. There will be courses in WOOD
work, cabinet making. sheet meta
work. electrical devices, automobile
designing and facilities for makinI
tools of all sorts. With such equip
ment a boy may find himself" an,
determine for what work he is bcs
fitted instead of cutting away from
all of the educational life. rs so man!
, youngsters have been doing. or drift
ing aimlessly through to u meaning
less graduation.
Expensive?
Yes. but not a thousandth part al
expensive as the human misfits whicl
antiauated methods Of education pro
duced.
So don't get discouraged abou
Eddie. Pal, just because he doesn'
show the marks of an embryo Bern
ard Shaw or Rockefeller or
Mayo. He may yet be the world
best auto mechanic if you'll give hin
chance and a lot more useful =
his immediate community than
dozen geniusCe.
] Copyright, 1925, klnz Feature syn, In