Ix DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 



I believe it to be impossible by the mercantile method, and with the purpose 

 strong to make the shop to any great extent self-supporting, to arrange the exer- 

 cises so as to give to all pupils so even and uniform and general and well graded 

 a course of instruction as by the other method. A shop superintendent who is 

 required to show as large an income as possible from the sales of the products of 

 his shop, and whose success is measured by this standard, will almost unavoid- 

 ably be tempted to keep pupils at those kinds of work which pay best regardless 

 of their progress. This is, indeed, the very objection brought against the present 

 system of apprenticeship, under which the apprentice is kept at work at what- 

 ever he happens first to learn to do well, and by which not finished workmen 

 but very narrow specialists are turned out. 



These opinions are the more confidently expressed because they are the opin- 

 ions of the greater number, as, I believe, of the best industrial and technical 

 school men of the country. Dr. C. M. Woodward, Director of the St. Louis 

 Manual Training School, one of the oldest and ablest advocates of industrial 

 education in this country, is very strongly of the opinion that every attempt to 

 make merchantable articles in the school shop will result in injury to the 

 instruction. The authorities at the Naval Academy, at the Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute and at the Stevens Institute were found to be equally strong in this opinion. 

 It is possible that these two parties, driven apart in the spirited discussion, have 

 drifted each into extremes, and that a golden mean lies somewhere between 

 them- 



In our own case, 1 think it wise to feel our way carefully, not undertaking 

 to construct articles for sale in the markets, but only so far as can be safely 

 done for the further furnishing of our own shops. Even in attempting this, 

 the observation of the past year teaches me that there is great danger that in 

 our anxiety to finish a tool or a machine, all our pupils will not be given 

 equally wide ranges of practice, or that some will be kept unduly long on 

 work simply because they can do it well ; and this danger is likely to increase as 

 our numbers increase beyond the reach of the foreman's personal oversight 

 and attention. Grading and classification are just as important helps in shop 

 instruction as in any other, and these cannot be had when each different stu- 

 dent is engaged upon a different kind of work. 



Then, too, in a State school, especially, we should avoid anything that looks 

 like competition with our private industries. Still, it is possible that with 

 larger experience, and with time to systematize our work more completely, we 

 may find branches of industry, not practiced in Michigan, which we can profit- 

 ably engage in to a limited extent, without detriment to the instructional value 

 o our shop practice, and by means of which the cost of raw material con- 

 sumed may be, in part, covered. 



I noticed in some of the shops I visited twenty or thirty lathes of the same 

 size and pattern. I believe it is much better, as giving a wider range of 

 experience, to have as great a variety of pattern as possible represented in the 

 tools and machines of the shop. In this respect I think we have started right. 

 Neither would I recommend the purchase of large machines, nor the under- 

 taking of heavy work. Our pupils are young, and lack the physical strength 

 necessary to handle heavy pieces: besides, all operations can be taught on 

 small articles as well as on large ones. Every possible precaution, too, must be 

 taken against the possibility of maiming or injury to students in the shops; 

 especially is there need of this in the use of wood cutting machinery. 



On the whole, the results of my trip of observation gave me encouragement 

 10 believe that we have made a good beginning. The equipment of our shops 



