THE DANGER OF UN SKILL 181 



proportion of our children. Dr. Thorndike finds that only twenty- 

 seven per cent, of those entering the first grade of the common school 

 continue into the first year of the high school; and of these, thirty- 

 seven per cent, drop out by the end of the first high-school year. The 

 main cause of this enormous elimination from the high school has to 

 do with the nature of the high-school course of study. Evidently a 

 considerable number begin the high school at the age of fourteen or 

 fifteen, an age at which little skill has been gained, yet which is favor- 

 able to its acquisition, but are discouraged by the lack of opportunity 

 in this direction and so leave school altogether. 



As is well known, it was found by the Massachusetts Commission 

 on Industrial and Technical Education that " 25,000 children between 

 fourteen and sixteen years of age are at work or idle," that is, not in 

 school; and the result of this careful investigation was to make entirely 

 certain that these children had dropped out of school because they did 

 not find there any possibility for training along lines which would 

 prepare for the making of a livelihood. 



We must conclude, therefore, that neither within the organization 

 of industry itself, nor outside of it, in schools of any type, is there 

 opportunity for the stream of growing boys and girls to gain in an 

 economic manner that degree of vocational training which the con- 

 ditions of modern industry demand. 



What then is the situation which we face? First, the demand of 

 our specialized commercial and industrial life for a larger and larger 

 percentage of skilled workers. Secondly, a stream of foreign immi- 

 gration pouring upon our shores an unskilled population much of which 

 could not acquire skill readily, even if opportunity were presented, and 

 which must inevitably supply largely the demand for unskilled labor. 

 Third, a stream of growing boys and girls who must earn their living 

 through our present complex and specialized forms of industry. Fourth, 

 a comparatively slight chance of their gaining skill after they enter the 

 industrial life, and no adequate opportunity to gain skill through the 

 school before entering upon this work. What is the result ? A demand 

 for trained men and women, on the one hand, and on the other a vain 

 beating against the bars which defend the skilled positions, by a mass 

 of desponding, dissatisfied unskilled workers, with only the most ven- 

 turesome and aggressive pushing through into skilled positions in a 

 manner harmful and exhausting to themselves and weakening to the 

 nation. 



It is at this point that the real menace of unskill becomes clear. 

 Much has been written and spoken about the retarding effect of unskill 

 upon our national production, and this is indeed serious. But the real 

 danger is more fundamental. Of greater importance than the product 

 of labor is the worker himself. The effect upon our people of such a 



