October 21, 1915] 



NATURE 



215 



old. Where a suitable senior technical school exists, 

 they will do well to receive in it the specific training 

 which should occupy the last two years before their 

 entry into industrial life. The very important place 

 which a senior technical school should fill in the 

 educational system of an industrial district is, as yet, 

 hardly realised. 



The future member of class C should be transferred 

 from the public elementary school to the junior tech- 

 nical school when other children are transferred to the 

 lower secondary school. The junior technical school 

 should prepare him for entering one of a group of 

 allied trades at or about the age of fifteen. It is not, 

 however, the function of the junior technical school 

 to teach him a trade, but rather to develop his manual 

 skill in work that is closely related to that of the 

 trade to which he is looking forward, and to extend 

 the great interest which he cannot help feeling in 

 such work so as also to include so-called "general" 

 subjects. Experience has shown that he will thus 

 make more progress in these "general" subjects than 

 if he were studying them in a school which has no 

 specific aim. 



When the future members of classes A, B, and C 

 have been transferred from the public elementary 

 schools at the age of twelve, the work of the future 

 members of class D who are left behind should differ ^^ 

 somewhat from the general work done by all children 

 below the age of twelve. It might well be centred 

 in (but not, of course, be confined to) handwork dur- 

 ing these last two years, and so have much in 

 common with the training of Boy Scouts. 



Even when the last two years of whole-time educa- 

 tion have been admirably adapted to prepare the 

 educand for his imminent vocation, some educational 

 discontinuity must always occur as he leaves whole- 

 time school or college to continue his education in 

 industrial life. Part-time classes afford the best 

 means of reducing this discontinuity to a minimum. 

 Accordingly, every boy or man, as he first enters 

 upon industrial work, should attend suitable part-time 

 classes. No feature of English education is mor,e 

 striking to the foreign observer than the system of 

 part-time courses in all our great centres of industry. 

 At the present time most part-time courses involve 

 attendance on three evenings a week for several suc- 

 cessive years. Although they cannot cover the whole 

 ground of university courses, they aim (for the most 

 part) at affording an alternative means of training 

 men to occupy positions of responsibility in industrial 

 affairs. 



While, however, our part-time classes are thus 

 training technical men, they are neglecting manual 

 workers. Instead of attending these technical classes, 

 the boy who enters works at fourteen or fifteen years 

 of age requires (at least until he is seventeen years 

 old) a special type of part-time course, to which the 

 name "minor course" has lately been given. One of 

 the principal objects of such a course is to provide 

 instruction in those matters which the trade apprentice 

 in bygone days learned by close association with a 

 master craftsman, and which are commonlv lost to 

 him under modern industrial conditions. The minor 

 course will therefore "have as its central subject the 

 trade processes or craft in which the students are 

 engaged."^* But so-called "citizenship" subjects- 

 such as history and economics, the study of which will 

 make for a better understanding of problems concern- 

 ing wages and hours of labour — also form an essential 

 part of a minor course. It remains to add that the 

 need for minor courses is not yet sufficiently appre- 



1' The difference is marked by the dotted line at y in the diagr.Tm. 

 '* Board of Education Circular 894. 



ciated, with the result that a great opportunity of 

 educating during the critical years of adolescence the 

 numerous members of class C and class D is being 

 neglected. 



V. 

 The system of education, the outline of which I 

 have thus described, is represented on paper in the 

 diagram. Its realisation in any English industrial 

 district — say, Manchester — would need some, but not 

 much, co-ordination ; for the diagram represents 

 neither what is nor what might be under ideal con- 

 ditions, but what could be made out of what is with 

 the maximum of advantage in proportion to the effort 

 spent in making the change. The co-operation of local 

 education authorities, universities, the Government, 

 employers, and parents would be required in order 

 to complete this change. 



But already there are signs that all the necessary 

 co-operation is forthcoming. Many striking instance's 

 might be cited in support of this statement did time 

 permit. I must, however, be content to mention only 

 two : Mr. Henderson's new scheme for the organisa- 

 tion and development of industrial research, and a 

 similar scheme recently prepared by a committee of 

 the Manchester Engineers' Club. This latter scheme 

 provides for organised co-operation betweerf schools, 

 colleges, and engineering firms in the education of 

 engineers and for the encouragement of research in 

 the following, among other ways : — 



By developing co-operation between engineering 

 firms on the one hand and universities and tech- 

 nical colleges on the other, so as to establish such 

 " schools of thought " as exist in the research de- 

 partments of great Continental and American en- 

 gineering firms, but cannot be fostered in the 

 comparatively small establishments (and smaller 

 research departments) of most British engineer- 

 ing firms. 



VI. 



The co-ordinated system of schools, colleges, and 

 works represented in the diagram will not be satis- 

 factory unless it is thoroughly democratic. It is true 

 that innate differences between individuals cannot well 

 be distinguished from differences produced by home 

 surroundings. But whoever is best fitted by nature 

 and nurture for any particular class of occupation 

 should be selected to receive, if necessary at the 

 State's expense, the training which will best prepare 

 him for it. Education authorities should see that the 

 number of persons so selected is sufficient — but not 

 much more than sufficient — to supply whatever demand 

 is also a need. 



VII. 



At present the supply of men for the highest classes 

 of work falls very far short of the demand. Every 

 year the number of appointments offered to School of 

 Technology graduates greatly exceeds the number of 

 these graduates. Not only is this true of posts in 

 chemical works, but also of electrical and other 

 engineering appointments. Although the number of 

 undergraduates in the School of Technology (Faculty 

 of Technology in Manchester Univ^ersity) increased by 

 50 per cent, in the two years before the war, the 

 demand for their services after graduation increased 

 in a still larger proportion. 



Such facts need to be realised by boys and by their 

 parents. But it is even more important that they 

 should realise that the highest kind of technological 

 work is noble work, worthy of a lifetime's duration. 

 The profession of applying science to industry is rich 

 in opportunities for helping to bring about the ideal 



NO. 2399. VOL. 96] 



