128 



NATURE 



[April 17, 19 19 



directors of vocational education, and all moneys 

 in aid of the training of teachers and directors, 

 must be matched by an equal sum on the part 

 of the State Boards, upon which bodies will 

 fall all the initial and annual expense of buildings, 

 equipment, and administration. The purposes of 

 the Act are rigidly defined. They are to fit young 

 persons for useful employment, the teaching is 

 to be less than college grade, and is to meet the 

 needs of persons of more than fourteen years of 

 age engaged in agricultural, commercial, and in- 

 dustrial pursuits and in home economics. The 

 Federal Board is to inquire and to report annually 

 to Congress as to the administration of the Act 

 throughout the States, and as to the expenditure, 

 and to include therein the reports of the several 

 State Boards. 



This important Act of Congress, whilst 

 it has many commendable features, does not 

 require compulsory attendance on the part of 

 young people engaged in employment at continua- 

 tion or part-time schools. This is regarded as 

 vital to the efficiency of the Act in a bulletin 

 issued by the Federal Board for Vocational 

 Education, in which it is stated that the initiative 

 not only for establishing such schools, but also 

 for compelling the attendance of those for whom 

 the instruction is provided, must be taken by the 

 States, and that it is not probable that State 

 schemes for part-time education will develop 

 materially until after the passage of legislation 

 authorising and directing the establishment of 

 such schools, providing State funds for their 

 equipment and support, and compelling the 

 attendance of the young people for whom they 

 are designed within the ordinary working hours. 

 It is officially stated in the bulletin referred to 

 that out of a total population, male and female, 

 between fourteen and eighteen years of age, of 

 10,250,000, 5,000,000 have ceased school attend- 

 ance altogether. The only State of the Union 

 which has adopted a real measure of compulsion 

 for pupils between fourteen and sixteen years of 

 age having work permits is Pennsylvania, under 

 a law enacted in 191 5, and already there are 100 

 school districts with 36,000 pupils in attendance 

 at part-time continiiation schools ; but the move- 

 ment is growing, and already there appears in 

 Bulletin 19 a draft of a suggested new State law 

 providing for compulsory part-time education and 

 part-time employment for children between four- 

 teen and sixteen. 



The total day-school enrolment of the States 

 in 191 5 was 21,958,836, of which number 91 per 

 cent, were in the elementary schools, 7*13 per 

 cent., or nearly 1,566,000, in high schools, aca- 

 demies, and secondary schools, and i"84 per cent., 

 or about 404,000, in higher institutions — suffici- 

 ently significant figures when compared with 

 those of the United Kingdom. The Federal 

 Board sets forth in a most useful and illuminating 

 bulletin six types of continuation schools : (a) The 

 unit-trade school, which deals solely with the 

 needs of a single trade, and into which, having 

 settled upon his future employment, a young 

 NO. 2581, VOL. 103] 



person can enter after fourteen years of age for 

 a period of whole-time training of not less than 

 thirty hours per week for not less than thirty-six 

 weeks of the year, half the time to be given to 

 practical work on a useful or productive basis» 

 and the other half to related and non-vocational 

 subjects ; (b) the whole-time general industrial 

 school for towns of fewer than 25,000 inhabitants 

 on the same basis as the unit-trade school ; (c) the 

 part-time trade extension school within working 

 hours for persons more than fourteen years of age 

 already engaged in a trade occupation ; (d) a part- 

 time trade preparatory school for persons already 

 in employment, but desirous of changing it; 

 (e) a general continuation part-time school where 

 opportunity would be given for the study of 

 English, civics, home economics, and commercial 

 subjects ; (/) evening schools or classes for special 

 trades and industries supplemental to day employ- 

 ment for persons above sixteen years of age. 



The Federal Board has issued upwards of 

 twenty important bulletins dealing with general 

 policies and methods, agriculture and special 

 trades and industries, different types of schools 

 to suit differing localities and circumstances, 

 measures for emergency training in various indus- 

 tries, training of vocational teachers, rehabilita- 

 tion and re-education of disabled soldiers and sea- 

 men, and, finally, with buildings and the equip- 

 ment necessary to give full effect to the Act. This 

 series of publications is deserving of the closest 

 study, as the principles and practice they embody 

 are of general application. They should be con- 

 sulted by every director of education, and be 

 accessible in every refeience library of the king- 

 dom. The movements abroad in Germany and 

 the United Kingdom are keenly watched by the 

 executive of the Federal Board, and significant 

 reference is made in the bulletins to recent legis- 

 lation making compulsory complete attendance af 

 school until fourteen years of age, extending 

 elementary education by means of central schools, 

 and establishing compulsory attendance at con- 

 tinuation part-time schools from fourteen to 

 eighteen throughout Great Britain. A marked 

 feature of the policy of the Federal Board is the 

 insistence upon the avoidance of all vocational 

 instruction in the elementary and secondary 

 schools of the States. 



THE FUTURE OF SCIENTIFIC 

 INDUSTRIES. 



THE report of the Engineering Trades (New 

 Industries) Committee has recently been 

 issued by H.M. Stationery Office (Cd. 9226, price 

 6d. net). The Committee was appointed, with the 

 Hon. H. D. McLaren as chairman, to compile a 

 list of articles either not made in the United King- 

 dom before the war, or made in insufficient 

 quantities. A series of fifteen branch committees, 

 consisting of producers and merchants, was 

 arranged to give detailed consideration to groups 

 of manufactured articles. They were required to 

 make recommendations as to the prospect of set- 



