Industrial Education in Public Schools. 



Address delivered Feb. 13, 7884, before the Society. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : — 



In selecting the above subject on which to prepare a pa- 

 per for the York Institute I feel there is no necessity for 

 making any apology, as the purpose and aims of this So- 

 ciety embrace, among other things, all schemes for the 

 promotion of educational interests. The present aspect 

 of public school education is attracting more and more the 

 attention of all classes, both in this country and in Eu- 

 rope, and great improvements have either been adopted or 

 suggested for greater efficiency in our school system with- 

 in the past few years. 



It has been said by some educators, only recently, that 

 the public school instruction is for the few rather than for 

 the many, and that its methods are designed more for the 

 well-to-do classes than for the poor. The general impres- 

 sion has got abroad that the instruction commonly given 

 in our high schools fits a youth for a clerk-ship in a store 

 rather than for the technical work of a trade. 



However that may be, an effort has been made by 

 influential persons in some of our larger cities to sup- 

 plement the ordinary instruction given in the common 

 schools by a certain amount of mental and physical train- 

 ing in the different branches of industry. 



One very successful enterprise has been started in Bos- 

 ton by benevolent and philanthropic ladies, which has for 

 its main object the furnishing free of cost to all poor girls 



