704 PRACTICAL KDUCATION. 



actual vocational trade practice. We. therefore, arrive at the 

 conclusion that a complete system of vocational education must 

 provide training both in the practical and in the theoretic or 

 text-book preparation ; these theoretics may themselves be 

 divided into two groups : those subjects which are essential in 

 vocational education, and those which are not actually essential 

 but are very desirable ; the first group may be considered as 

 containing technical subjects proper, and the second those of 

 general vocational utility. See diagram on page 705. 



In (jreat Britain, particularly, there has been established a 

 wide range of technical scho(^ls in which the instruction given 

 is almost wholly in theoretics, such workshops as there may be 

 being merely for simple handicraft work in wood and metal for, 

 at most, two hours a week. Institutions of this type have been 

 so multiplied and copied that educationists and parents think not 

 infrequently of vocational education solely in terms of the tech- 

 nical studies involved. Doul)tless this notion has arisen largely 

 because the higher levels of all technological callings require so 

 much book and class-room study as to make it ai)pear that 

 abstract study is the essential factor. This, of course, is not 

 actually so ; .such courses are always accompanied by very long 

 and heavy courses of practical work in laboratories. Abstract 

 studies, in fact, when divorced from concrete practice fail to 

 produce the efficiency necessary. What is true in the training 

 of the future leaders is more than true in the training of the 

 future workers. Certain abstract studies are necessary, but 

 they must accompany a consideral)le amount of actual i)roduc- 

 tive work. I have already indicated why manual training can- 

 not be considered as satisfying the needs of vocational educa- 

 tion; with that 1 include those modified forms of practical work 

 given in some sch«x)ls as suitable for commercial employment, 

 and in others as suitable for domestic life. The reasons lie in 

 the want of correlation with the necessary technical subjects and 

 in their remoteness from the i)ractice adopted in actual produc- 

 tion. It is, moreover, a matter of common experience now that 

 technical stibjects. such as mathematics, science, drawing as an 

 art, and so on, ])roduce the best results only when they are 

 acquired in conjunction with the practical i:)rocesses calling for 

 their acquaintance. It is also known that the study of such sub- 

 jects, in close relation with the productive processes referred to, 

 helps to expand rapidly the capacity of the worker. It is, 

 therefore, clear that when, in the ()])ini(Mi of the ])arents. the 

 time has arrived for the child to consider what he (or she) is 

 " gt)ing to 1)e "' — it is necessary to provide contact with reality 

 not only as regards what may be termed the external characteris- 

 tics of the vocation chosen, possibly provisionally chosen, but 

 also as regards the amount of study necessary and education 

 required, the social circumstances or status attaching to it, the 

 market \ alue it will give him as an employe, and so on. He 

 (or she) needs to see dift'erent trades in actual operation; 



