204 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



there are a group of technical schools intended for those whose primary 

 education is not yet, or only just completed, and in which not only 

 theoretical technical instruction is given, but where systematic instruc- 

 tion in some useful handicraft forms a necessary feature. From among 

 these diverse types we select four, for each one of which its promoters 

 claim that its practical success solves the knotty problem of the day. 

 These four schools are the lcole Gommiinale, in the Rue Tournefort ; 

 the Institution de Saint Nicolas, in the Rue de Vaugirard ; the ^cole 

 Professionelle, established by MM. Chaix et Cie. in their printing es- 

 tablishment in the Rue Bergere ; and the cole MunicipaU d^ Apprentis, 

 in the Boulevard de la Villette. 



The first two of these may be said to exemplify, though Avith strik- 

 ing diversity of method, Vatelier dans V'ecole, the workshop in the 

 school ; the third is an excellent instance of the school in the work- 

 shop ; while the fourth belongs strictly to neither type. 



The cole Communale, situated in the Rue Tournefort, a crooked 

 back slum behind the Pantheon, is the most recent of the group which 

 we have selected. Founded in November, 1873, at the instance of M. 

 Salicis, and with the coSjoeration of M. Greard, the energetic Director 

 of Primary Education for the Department of the Seine, it is intended 

 rather to prepare for than to supplant apprenticeships of a more rigor- 

 ous type. The pupils of this school ai'e not apprenticed at all in the 

 ordinary sense ; there is no contract, and they earn nothing. Most of 

 them are very young even as young as eight or nine years nor have 

 they yet completed their elementary education. If they stay out the 

 prescribed three years' course, they not only get as good a schooling as 

 in any of the ordinary elementary schools, but they will also have seen 

 something of constructive industry. During the first two years they 

 are sent to work /or a day at a time, in rotation, in one or other of the 

 occupations of the workshop. An " apprentice " will thus have one 

 day in the carpentei-'s shop at the bench or the lathe ; the next he will 

 be learning how to forge a bolt ; the next he will devote to metal- 

 turning all his exercises being directed by practical workmen in charge 

 of the shops. During the third year he will settle down to some one 

 pursuit. The hours of actual labor are short, for the chief part of the 

 day is devoted to lessons, only an hour and a half each morning and 

 afternoon being given to manual labor. All learn drawing and model- 

 ing. Every pupil works from drawings which he has previously made 

 to scale : no matter what he does, whether he is making a mortice- 

 joint, rabbeting a window-frame, or filing down an iron nut, it is always 

 done according to a careful sketch made beforehand. No articles 

 whatever are made for sale ; indeed, all commercial elements are scru- 

 pulously avoided, and the objects given as exercises are hardly such as 

 would serve a useful purpose : little joints of wood accurately squared ; 

 little cones or cylinders turned with perfect truth of line. Here and 

 there a more valuable article, a model of a crane in metal, or a model 



