INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 809 



from observations made on minerals, and it is in the study of the min- 

 eral kingdom that the laws of isomorphism and dimorphism find abun- 

 dant demonstration. From the further investigation of the chemical 

 nature of minerals we may hope for new light on the molecular consti- 

 tution of substances which as yet the chemist has been unable to repro- 

 duce. We have already indicated the interdependence of geology and 

 mineralogy. May we not claim the same interdependence of miner- 

 alogy, physics, and chemistry, letting each go on in its own sphere, 

 contributing to the general progress, sure that every new fact observed 

 and every new law discovered will be for the common advancement 

 of all ? 







INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION EST THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS * 



By Professor H. H. STRAIGHT. 



THERE is a growing feeling among the students of industrial 

 problems that our whole conception of education in general, and 

 of industrial training in particular, needs revision and enlargement. 

 This feeling is based upon such easily observed facts as the follow- 

 ing : 



1. Paupers are on the increase. 



2. Our schools too often educate their pupils out of harmony with 

 their environment, thus justifying the charge that education (falsely 

 so called) unfits its possessors for useful industry. 



3. The simpler and less important positions in the world's work- 

 shop are as a rule greatly overcrowded, while in the upper stories 

 there is a vast amount of unoccupied space. 



4. The work done in the lower stories is often exceedingly shabby. 



5. Many who aspire to the upper stories fail to enter or, if they 

 apparently enter, soon end in failure. 



6. The chosen few who truly enter, and build up magnificent in- 

 dustrial fabrics, with the splendid fortunes which such fabrics imply, 

 fail to educate their children to carry on their good work, or to do 

 work of similar value in some other department of useful industry. 



7. A whole community of prosperous workmen may be well-nigh 

 reduced to beggary by the incoming of some new invention, or by 

 change in the fortunes or tastes of consumers. 



8.' When old industries are swept away, and new ones established 

 on the wrecks, there is usually little power on the part of workmen to 

 adapt themselves to the new conditions. 



9. The relentless law of the survival of the shrewdest and most un- 

 scrupulous, instead of the Christian law of mutual consideration and 



* Read before the New York State Teachers' Association, Yonkers, New York, July 6, 



1882. 



