EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XVII. May, L906. No. 9. 



An important report upon the need of elementary training for the 

 great productive industries has been presented to the Massachusetts 



legislature by a special commission, headed by President Can-oil I). 

 Wright as chairman. Agriculture is included among these indus- 

 tries, and definite provision is made for it in the general scheme by 

 which the public-school system is to he enriched and expanded along 

 industrial and vocational line-. 



The commission has been engaged for some time in an investiga- 

 tion of the relation of the public schools to the various industries of 

 the State, the preparation which the schools afford for the life work 

 of the pupils, and the economic aspects of the question. It finds that 

 the productive industries, including agriculture, manufacture-, and 

 building, depend mainly upon chance for recruiting their service. 

 These industries are only touched educationally in their most ad- 

 vanced and scientific forms. No instruction whatever is furnished at 

 public expense in the theory and practice of these occupations, and 

 while agriculture is recognized by the State in its aid to the agricul- 

 tural college, there is no preparatory work leading up to it in the 

 same way that the high schools lead up to the other colleges. The 

 same is true to a large extent of the schools of technology. 



The children who leave school to enter employments at the age of 

 14 or 1.") have had no training to develop their actual productive 

 value or efficiency, and this is largely true of those who remain in 

 school until 16 or is. The added years, it is pointed out. are to a con- 

 siderable extent lost time, so far as developing efficiency in productive 

 employment- i- concerned. In the case of both classes of children 

 the employment upon which they enter after leaving school is deter- 

 mined by chance 



These conditions, the commission holds, have an important eco- 

 nomic bearing, for they tend to increase the cost of production, to 

 limit the output in quantity, and to lower the grade in quality. 



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