784 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 779 



VOCATIONAL SUBJECTS IN THE PUBLIC 

 SCHOOLS 



This means that vocational subjects must 

 be introduced into the courses of study in 

 the grades and in the high schools, as well 

 as in the colleges and in the universities. 

 So rapidly and so fully has instruction in 

 vocational branches been developed, that 

 the best and cheapest places to learn farm- 

 ing or stock raising or dairying is now, not 

 on the farm, but in a college. The horse 

 doctor has been displaced by the college- 

 trained veterinarian. The place to learn 

 to sew and to cook and to build and man- 

 age a home is, not in the home, but in a 

 college. The period of apprenticeship of 

 the machinist has been supplanted by a 

 course at college, and the employers of 

 engineers no longer look elsewhere than to 

 the colleges for this training. But grati- 

 fying as all this is to us, we must realize 

 that at best the problem of bringing indus- 

 trial education within the reach of the 

 masses, and this is the great problem, is 

 very far from being solved. In the nature 

 of the case, but a small proportion of the 

 people can attend college. It has already 

 been pointed out that less than a dozen of 

 every thousand pupils in the graded 

 schools' go to college. When we consider 

 that these twelve are divided among the 

 various courses offered by our colleges and 

 universities, such as academic theology, 

 law, medicine, teaching, journalism, agri- 

 culture, engineering, etc., we realize how 

 small a proportion of the boys and girls of 

 the country really come under the influence 

 of' this sort of instruction when it is con- 

 fined to the college. To reach the masses 

 with this work, it will be necessary to in- 

 troduce it into the high schools and grades 

 the country over. In the city schools, home 

 economics and manual training, with agri- 

 culture optional, and in the country 

 schools, home economics and agriculture, 

 with manual training optional. 



To the objection that these subjects, es- 

 pecially home economics and agriculture, 

 of a character suited to the grades and 

 high schools, are not yet teachable, I urge 

 that they are far more teachable than were 

 these same subjects of college grade twenty 

 years ago, and that if we will apply our- 

 selves to the problem of reducing them to 

 pedagogical form with the same zeal and 

 determination that characterized the ef- 

 forts of the college teacher, equally satis- 

 factory results will be forthcoming. 



To the objection that the teachers are 

 not prepared, I answer that the demand 

 for teachers so prepared is all that is 

 necessary to fully meet this diificulty. 



INDUSTRIAL SUBJECTS IN HIGH SCHOOLS 

 FIRST 



Success will come first in the high school, 

 and next in the grades, for the same reason 

 that it came first in the college. The high 

 school to-day must be something more than 

 a mere connecting link between the graded 

 school and the college or university. It is 

 more than the successor to the academy 

 with the burden of support laid upon the 

 public. It is in the strictest sense the peo- 

 ple's college, and affords the highest edu- 

 cation that the majority who go beyond 

 the grades will ever get. It should do 

 something more than merely fit for college 

 the great masses who will never attend col- 

 lege ; it should fit for the duties of life. 



Already the city high schools have 

 reached a fair degree of development in 

 this direction, and the trend towards the 

 industrial and vocational has been as rapid 

 as could be expected or as is perhaps de- 

 sirable. Their courses of study are already 

 reasonably well adapted to the needs of 

 the people who live in the city. It is a 

 serious mistake, however, to pattern too 

 closely after these city high schools in 

 planning to meet the needs of those who 

 live in the country. Careful consideration 



