Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-11-19
Virginia High School Students
Learn New Skills at Manassas
By James Birchfeld

out at Manassas, Vlrgln1aS nrSt ex-
pertinent in vocational training for high
school students is proving success. At
the vocational training school there the
first of a number projected for various
sections of the State, $50 Northern Vir-
ginia boys and girls already have been
trained in skills that will fit them for
war jobs and peacetime occupations, and
more than 100 others are following them
through the schools assembly lines"
The Manassas School, operated by the
Prince William School Board, is prod
uct of a depression and a war. Estab-
lished first by the National Youth Ad-
ministration, it was next used to fill the
gap in training war workers when the
war came along.
Located on the grounds OF the, old
SWavely Preparatory School, which was
purchased by the Prince William School
depression, the vocational school was
operated by the School Board last sum-
mer as an experiment. 1t has proven
so successful that it is being continued
as a regional center under the Federal
war training program, with $4,000
grant from the State to renovate and
repair the grounds and buildings.
Here, for the first time in Virginias
educational history, youths from many
places are being taught skills which will
enable those who do not wish a college
education to fit themselves for a gainful
said several years ago by DR.. B. H.
Van Oot State director of vocational
education that boy must be sent to
the penitentiary before he can be given
vocational training in his own State.
For "Mechanized Civilization"
Richard C. Hayden, superintendent of
Prince William County schools. who has
overall supervision of the training school,
explained that although the training
now offered is directed toward further
ing the war effort, the school neverthe-
less has tremendous possibilities AS a
future training ground for boys and girls.
who, as citizens must be responsible for
a mechanical civilization
He pointed out that while classes in
machine shop, drafting, welding, cleo
trical motors, radio, woodwork, metal
work and automotive engineering, fit
students primarily for war jobs, this
training also will help them find oc-
equations when peace comes He added
that Virginia in the past has had to
draw from other States for her skilled
workers and as industry gains in the
future must have source Of home sup
ply If she is to do right by her native
sons and daughters
The Manassas school, under the di-
rect supervision of r. Worth Peters.
former principal of the Manassas High
School, has a present enrolment of 100
students, 80 of them girls. About 80
boarding students are housed in the
school inflrmary and are given meals
a. private boarding houses in town. but
when the Swavely buildings are rem
ovated the school will have a boarding
capacity of 300 students.
Mr.. Hayden explained that most of
the students come from Prince William
and the other Northern Virginia coun-
ties. Special bus routes bring those from
Arlington, Fairfax and Alexandria,
while others from as far distant as Gull
pepper have formed car pools to solve
the transportation problem The most
distant student is from Floyd County
in Southwest Virginia.
From All Counties
Under the plan being tried at Manas-
sas students from any county in Vir-
glnia may enter the training school
and have their work credits transferred
to their home schools. In this way STU
dents are never really lost by their high
schools. which receive monthly reports
on their progress. 1t is merely a means
by which the vocational resources of
the State are pooled to provide the best
equipment possible for vocational work.
While Manassas now has the only
school, it has been recommended to the
Denny School Study Commission that
six vocational training schools be To-
Gated throughout the State. In addition
to Manassas. which would serve Prince
William, Fairfax, Arlington, Loudoun,
Fauquier Culpeper and Stafford Coun-
ties and the cities of Alexandria and
Fredericksburg. the other five schools
would be located in the southern south
western, western, central and east Sec
tions of Virginia.
For its teaching personnel the Manas-
sas school has reached far and Mr. Hay
don believes has assembled highly ex-
pert staff
In the drafting department, for