7o6 I'RACTKAI, l':nuCATI()N. 



actual!)- working in ihcni as a probationer before a tinal choice 

 is made. In all these points the young person requires the 

 guidance and advice of a s])ecialist, who is acquainted with the 

 general abilities of the pupil before the choice is ratified by the 

 parents. The first stej) will be taken on the advice of the child's 

 teacher at the end of the ])rimary or ordinary school course; that 

 guidance will be limited, naturally, to the divisions of labour in 

 which the child as a future worker may be fairly expected to 

 reach the maximum expression of its final development ; that is, 

 whether the aim should be to the professional, the commercial, 

 or the industrial division. The natural avenue to the {profes- 

 sions is through the secondary or high school, and thence thnnigh 

 a universitv college; to commercial life, through the commercial 

 school; and to industrialism, through a suitable trades school. 

 The next step will come as to the particular branch of the divi- 

 sion chosen, that will be taken on the advice of the principal 

 of the vocatiiHial institution the pupil is then attending. 



In the trades school the ])Upil should be actually engaged 

 in the workshop, workroom, field or garden where the simpler 

 stages of productive work are begun, but under the conditions of 

 actual production. The phase of the training should be such as 

 to recjuire trade clothing, trade hours, trade standards of pro- 

 duction, trade associations as far as possible, knowledge of the 

 trade cost of the production, and, ])ossibly, a sharing of the 

 value of his (or her) output. 



Being thus in contact with actual reality, some part of the 

 time should be set aside for the study of the technical and more 

 theoretical side of the trade now being followed. Here, how- 

 ever, it is essential thai such necessar)' subjects as mathematics, 

 applied science, art, history and civics for citizenship, should 

 not recjuire such a style of presentation as to detach them from 

 the pupil's experience. This has undoubtedly been a serious 

 mistake in many schools and continuation classes for supple- 

 mental education. There has been too great a gulf between the 

 experience of the pupil and the school studies — too few points 

 of contact for real vocational efficiency. The curriculum of the 

 trades school must give the })upil manual dexterity with a know- 

 ledge of tools, processes and materials gained through actual 

 practical work carried out under trade conditions as nearly as 

 possible — one of such conditi(»ns being that the instructor must 

 be a (jualified tradesman with a certain amount of teaching 

 abilitv. b^rom the class-room instruction a further knowledge 

 of materials, methods, trade calculations and trade drawing must 

 be obtainable. Other class-room subjects would be technical 

 mathematics, to the extent recjuired in the industry in which a 

 beginning as a worker is being made, and the applied science 

 upon which the princij^les of the trade depend. Added to these 

 would be such general subjects as office practice, geography of 

 the world mainly as regards the production and transportation 

 of raw materials, history and civics as a guide to citizenship. 



