Evening star., 1941-09-14
American Schools Now Stress
Glasses for National Defense
Vocational Training and Mechanical Arts
Added to Courses Throughout Nation

Francisco, Philadelphia and Detroit
and in many other places through
out the United States, through
earlier notifications in high school
curricula which have permitted the
choice of industrial and vocational
arts courses as electives, will fur
nish many women trained in techni-
cal skills to fill in the gaps now re-
quired by labor. Nor does DR..
Profit feel that industrial and voca-
tional arts courses are valuable alone
in this defense emergency.
For thousands of public school
pupils, in any period of our ma
tional life, such training courses
will provide an opportunity for de-
velopment and self-expression in
types of activity in which boys and
girls have natural interests.
Such opportunities" DR.. Profit
maintained, ARE a touchstone for
the value OF any curriculum activity.
Manufacturing interests will always
be important activities which make
for the material well-being of our
people and the general education Of
any public school cultural develop
ment is therefore incomplete with
out concepts, understandings and
appreciation regarding manuIac-
turing and its hosts of workers"
Worked at High Speed.
Our Washington public school
system has made gratifying strides
in placing additional emphasis upon
the industrial and vocational arts in
both its junior and senior high
schools, white and Negro alike.
In common with many communi-
ties across America, Mckinley High
School and Armstrong High School
operated at a sprinting speed of "a
hours a day last school session in
the defense program and will con-
tlnue this intensified program dur
ing 1912. Defense classes have
also functioned at the Abbot, Phelps
Dennison, Chamberlain and Wash
ington Vocational Schools, where the
programs will be intensified during
the school session which is ahead.
DR.. Chester w. Holmes is the as
sstant superintendent in charge Of
the white high schools. Lawson j.
Cantwell is the assistant superin-
tendent directly cooperating for the
District of Columbia white schools
with the national defense program
and William D. Wallace directs the
white national defense classes.
DR.. Garnet C. wilkinson is in
charge of the Negro secondary
schools and of their defense classes.
Statistics show that out of a total
Of 1908 pupils in the white junior
high schools of this city, 6,3l6 girls
and 4,8l3 boys were in classes in
industrial arts and vocational
groups, thus apparently sustaining
DR.. Profit and the Labor Supply
Committee, that women are to pre-
sent an untapped source of supply in
defense industries.
In the white senior high schools,
2,l95 pupils out of a total enrolment
of 1920 attended classes in such
fields as auto mechanics, cabinet
making, pattern-making. forging,
machine stamp work and mechani-
cal drawing. all essential to defense
projects. These were chiefly boys.
Operate Until 6 AM.
In the senior high schools for
Negro pupils, only 701 out of a total
of 4,154 pupils were registered in
similar courses, and In classes in
shoe repairing. auto and house
painting, masonry, and house con-
struction.
Negro Junior high school pupils
numbered 6,3O8, with 1886 boys and
3,412 girls in the industrial arts and
vocational courses, still a ratio IA
voring the interest of women in
these elective subjects.
On the 24-hour schedule. defense
classes in all schools alike start just
as soon after the classes for regular
day pupils as it is possible for the
janitorial forces to clean up the
buildings and get them ready for
this group. Then. they run until
6 o'clock the next morning, with the
period between dinner time and
breakfast probably the heaviest in
this new type of public school edu-
cation. 1t is in reality a colossal
school system in itself. Here, ma