7l6 PRACTICAL EDUCATION. 



connection. There is the difficulty of providing for the variety 

 of calhngs as has been mentioned ; in addition, there is another — 

 that of adapting the courses, in degree as w^ell as in aim, to the 

 different capacities and needs of those desiring vocational train- 

 ing; this means many changes in initial ideas regarding the or- 

 ganisation of the courses of instruction, length of training, etc. 

 The necessities disclosed by experience must be considered and 

 provided for. Yet another difficulty is the want of adequate 

 text-books and other guides to instruction ; it is likely that each 

 school, to a considerable extent, may have to work out special 

 syllabuses suited to local conditions, and draft a system of notes 

 for the pupils, which may, after the test of time, become the 

 printed text-book. 



Lastly, there is another market that the trades school pro- 

 ducts might disturb, the labour market ; in nearly every trade 

 the organisations of the adult workers has succeeded in estab- 

 lishing certain standards of remuneration, and this wages level 

 appears to be greatly dependent upon a certain limitation in the 

 supply of qualified workers. It is conceivable that trades schools 

 might co-operate to swamp the labour market in one particular 

 trade, although to do so would be likely to inflict serious injustice 

 upon its own pupils ; the solution of this difficulty undoubtedly 

 lies in the careful consideration of supply and demand, as it will 

 afifect the future of the pupil on leaving the school. If, there- 

 fore, the future conditions in any trade are considered with a 

 view to the prevention of undue hardship upon the young worker, 

 that consideration is likely to serve equally the interest of the 

 adult worker in competition with younger ones. In this con- 

 nection the example of Holland should again Ije followed by 

 making the school committees equally representative of employers 

 and employes. It must be remembered that the ol:)ject of voca- 

 tional schools Htust be to provide vocational training for as many 

 boys and girls as possible, in the conviction that the presence 

 in the community of a large number of unemployables, from 

 insufficient training, or of unemployed — through overstocking 

 the market — is highly injurious to society ; all that can be said 

 is that what is likely to be the larger social need at the time of 

 leaving school must control the administration. 



The expansion of vocational education must be constantly 

 interpreted as a productive and justifiable form of social in- 

 vestment to increase human power ; it involves protection of 

 labour heretofore largely exploited, and nothing more important 

 in this direction has been undertaken since elementary or ordin- 

 ary education was made compulsory. The educational policy of 

 all civilised countries has been distinctly opposed to the principle 

 of individualism as inefficient and otherwise undesirable ; elemen- 

 tary, secondary, and — to some extent — higher liberal education 

 has been made freely available to the youth of the community, 

 and it has pursued this policy partly out of regard for the in- 



