PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 699 



Similarly for girls" subjects, sewing and cookery ; the sewing 

 class is purely domestic in its aim, it can make no preparation 

 for vocational efficiency in " gentlemen's vests " or " ladies' 

 coats,'' or even in dressmaking, where both stitch and method 

 are dififerent to those used in the home-life. Cookery, too, is 

 tied by the " budget " of the home the girl may reasonably be 

 expected to have ; it can make the pupil a more economical con- 

 sumer and raise her ideal regarding simple dishes and the treat- 

 ment of food for the sick, but it cannot provide that vocational 

 efficiency expected in the woman chef. 



Thus, manual training (for either sex), and vocational edu- 

 cation — in the sense of training for a particular vocation — have 

 dififerent aims, and are controlled by largely different purposes ; 

 each, however, contributes in some sort to the purposes of the 

 other. Manual training, designed to give breadth to Hmited 

 experience, to evoke interests and to stimulate a keen ap])reciation, 

 cannot be identified with the intensive pttrpose and specialised 

 nature of vocational education. Manual training is a part of 

 general education, and as such must adhere closely to the con- 

 temporary life of the pupil ; vocational education mtist be given 

 under workshop conditions. 



From the evidence of an increasingly complex social order, 

 of the increasing competition between nations, and of the fact 

 that a general education must necessarily concern itself with 

 abstract studies illustrated only by concrete examples to main- 

 tain the interest and make the application clear — we are forced 

 to the conclusion that \'ocational education must be given in a 

 new system of schools specially devoted to this end. The evi- 

 dence that the older agencies of vocational education — the home, 

 the workshop, the free intercourse betw^een son and father, as 

 a means of participation in productive industry — arc no longer 

 sufficient, that modern apprenticeship, wdiere it exists, no longer 

 gives the comfortable assurance of a complete all-round trade 

 training, could be multiplied. It is one of the certain social facts 

 of the age we live in. There can be no doubt that the time has 

 arrived when vocational education, as well as general education, 

 must be provided for the greater mass in special institutions care- 

 fully organised for the purpose, deliberately selecting their 

 courses and teaching staff, and shaping their methods to the end 

 in view — the best type of worker and citizen. Many of the 

 higher vocations have long been acquired under school condi- 

 tions and often at public expense. The early universities had 

 their schools of literature, law, medicine, and theology, each 

 giving its own specialised vocational education for those seek- 

 ing to enter one or other of the professions ; to these have since 

 been added professional schools for architects, chemists, and 

 engineers. Of these, the training of teachers and of soldiers — - 

 both rank and file — is given almost, if not entirely, at the expense 

 of the public exchequer. To train the leaders and not the ranks 

 is suicidal, and the time is now come when it is necessary to 



