TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 723 
closely into line with the requirements of the trade teacher. No doubt in most 
schools one such man, with his energies devoted altogether in the direction indi- 
cated, would find his time fully and profitably occupied, and have on the trade 
teaching a beneficial effect where such influence is most wanted, 
3. Problems of Trade Education considered in relation to owr School 
System. By C. T. Mruiuis, M.L. Mech. £. 
The object of this paper is to point out the several problems connected with 
the continuance of education beyond the elementary school stage in the direction 
of technical or trade education, and to make suggestions that may be useful in 
deciding whether the higher elementary school or some other type of school is the 
best suited for the purpose. There is a general consensus of opinion that some 
reforms are needed in our elementary school education to make it an effective 
preparation for the battle of life, especially for those children who will take up 
industrial work. The time is ripe for the discussion of the question, seeing that 
there is an increasing number of persons who feel that elementary education has 
hitherto given too much attention to the requirements of those going into clerical 
occupations and practically none to those of the children going into trades. The 
education has been too bookish, has tended to increase the taste for mere clerical 
work, and has not impressed children with ideas of the dignity of labour. The 
bright children wishing to enter the office or the Civil Service, or to become 
teachers, have had opportunities of entering secondary schools by means of scholar- 
ships, whilst, broadly speaking, there have been no schools of a practical character 
for children to enter who are going into trade, or scholarships provided which 
would assist them. 
There is a great tendency to regard the effort to make good workmen as utili- 
tarian and to a certain extent as derogatory compared with the humane side of 
education, though this side is often quite as utilitarian, in that it is given asa 
means of piling up marks and securing coveted positions in the professional world. 
The humane and utilitarian subjects of education are not mutually exclusive; 
each has power to make noble characters with high ideals for work, and education 
has no other object. The inference which seems to lie at the root of popular 
notions of culture, that the more useful a subject is the less is its culture value, 
is wrong. 
New conditions in our industrial system, owing to the introduction of machinery 
and subdivision of labour, combined with decline in apprenticeship, make it 
necessary to provide a broad basal training in our educational system for those 
who are to become skilled workmen, which will discourage young workmen from 
being content with a knowledge of one or at the most two branches of whatever 
trade it may be, and will render them more efficient all-round men, able to cope 
with the ever-varying conditions of manufacturing industries. The absence of 
such knowledge tends to increase the number of unemployed. The importance of 
the subject is recognised by the formation of Apprenticeship Committees, Reports 
of Education Committees, Mr. Edric Bayley’s pamphlet on ‘ Industrial Training 
in Elementary Schools,’ and Circular 604 issued by the Board of Education. All 
these, as well as the establishment of several types of trade and technical schools, 
notably in London, are evidences of a feeling of unrest. 
The types of schools may be considered under three heads :—(a) Trade schools 
for girls; (4) technical (specialised) trade schools for boys for particular trades ; 
and (c) technical or preparatory trade schools, 
Schools of Type (a).—Highly specialised training schools for girls, between 
fourteen and sixteen years of age, in needlework trades, as dressmaking, ladies’ 
tailoring, waistcoat-making, upholstery, &c., modelled on Parisian schools, These 
take the place of apprenticeship up to the ‘improver’ or assistant stage, but would 
be more valuable if preliminary training were possible for one year between 
elementary and trade schools. 
Schools of Type (6).—For boys, between fourteen and sixteen years of age 
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