44'^ TI-:C(I XUAl, EDUfATlUN. 



system in which the same or similar conditiinis have nut ob- 

 tained. The system for this conntry is that which begins in 

 the workshop with trade practice in tools and materials, together 

 with some edncation at the classroom desk in drawing, theoretics, 

 and the sul)jects of a general edncation — all closely related to 

 industry and suited to the advancement of the pupil. F.\idencc 

 is not wantinu' cif the insufficiency of the system which places 

 desk instruction in theoretics in the forefront with some prac- 

 tical workshop instruction, explicit or assumed, in the nebulous 

 i)ackground. Here is what the sub-committee of engineers, 

 appointed by the Transvaal Chamber of Alines to consider the 

 training of apprentices, have to say : — 



Technical education during apprenUccsliip . . • Xu lixcd curriculum 

 for class work to be set. but eacb boy to be treated according to iiis 

 requirements and capacity for absorljing knowledge. Tbe classes to ])e 

 made more attractive and more suitalile for tbe trades the apprentices are 

 learning. . . . The princi])al point we wish to emphasize is that, in our 

 opinion, the afternoon and evening classes are conducted on a scale vvJiicb 

 is generall}- far above the intelligent appreciation of the apprentice. We 

 would prefer to see a ditferent series of lectures arranged for the aii])ren- 

 lice more applicable to his general training. 



In our opinion much more .l ood would he <]ii!H' b\ appealing to a 

 ooy's intelligence through his eyes rather than through bis ears, and to 

 drum into a boy higher mathematics and ilu' theory of heal, and similar 

 ^ui»jects. is only to make him tired lo death of the continuation classes. 

 If he takes no interest in them it is no use holding them, and we vveiuld 

 propose . . . laying out a mori_' attraclivt- scheme of . . . class work. 



It is not only in this countr}' that com])laint is made of the 

 clas.^room instruction in technical theoretics; thus the Man- 

 chester Engineers' Club, when considering the best means of 

 organizing the British engineering industry, formulated this 

 resolution, among others: — 



That the instruction of apprentices in part-tinie classes be reformed, 

 so as to relate it more closeU to the apprentices' ev-'ry-da^ work. 



Similar (ptotations could be gi\en from tlie Annual ke])ort 

 for 1915 of the Department of Agriculture and Technical In- 

 struction in Ireland. What these extracts indicate is that 

 technical instruction at the desk is useless for its purpcjse when 

 divorced from the practice iii the industry to which it relates; 

 once it has become abstract it is " above the heads" of the ap- 

 prentices. The system of technical education which will cor- 

 rect this is that in wdiich the practice of the industry comes first 

 and the discussion, calculation and deduction of the underlying 

 principles comes second. For this to be possible there mu.st be 

 the closest correlation betw^eeti the practical or worksho]) in- 

 .sitruction in the industry and the classroom instruction in 

 theoretical subjects. It is impossible to correlate the work of an 

 apprentice in the connnercial btisiness with the theoretical in- 

 struction; it is also impossible to retard the instruction in 

 theoretics to suit the nature and amount of the commercial out- 

 put in the business. It is in the first two or three >ears of the 

 apprenticeship that these difficulties of correlation occur; later, 

 ^liere is little difficttltv in suitinu- the instruction in theoretics to 



