Miscellaneous. 



424 



[Nov. 190(5. 



children who leave school to enter employments at the age of 14 or 15 have had 

 no training to develop their actual productive value or efficiency, and this is largely 

 true of those who remain in school until 16 or 18. The added years, it is pointed 

 out, are to a considerable extent lost time, so far as developing efficiency in 

 productive employments is concerned. In the case of both classes of children the 

 employment upon which they enter after leaving school is determined by chauce. 



These conditions, the commission holds, have an important economic bearing, 

 for they tend to increase the costof producti on, to limit the output in quantity, 

 and to lower the grade in quality. I ndustries so recruited cannot long compete 

 with similar industries recruited from the ranks of technically trained persons. 



The commission concludes that the elements of industrial training, agri- 

 culture, domestic and mechanical sciences should be taught in the public schools, 

 and it presents a strong argument in support of this conclusion. " The State needs 

 a wider diffusion of industrial intelligence as a foxmdation for the highest technical 

 success, and this can only be acquired in connection with the general system of 

 education into which it should enter as an integral part from the beginning. The 

 latest philosophy of education reinforces the demands of productive industry by 

 showing that that which fits a child best for his place in the world as a producer 

 tends to his own highest development physically, intellectually, and morally." 



Two lines are suggested in which industrial education may be developed — 

 through the existing public-school system and through independent industrial schools. 

 It is recommended that cities and towns so modify the work in the elementary 

 schools as to include instruction and practice in the elements of productive industry, 

 as applied to agriculture and the mechanic and domestic arts, and "that this 

 instruction be of such a character as to secure from it the highest cultural as well 

 as the highest industrial value." It is also urged that the work in the high schools 

 be modified " that the instructions in mathematics, the sciences, and drawing shall 

 show the application and use of these subjects in industrial life, with special 



reference to local industries : that is, Algebra and Geometry should be so 



taught in the public schools as to show their relations to construction, botany to 

 horticulture, chemistry to agriculture, manufactures, and domestic science, and 

 drawing to every form of industry." 



In addition to these modifications the commission recommends that towns 

 and cities provide new elective industrial courses in high schools for instruction in 

 the principles of agriculture and the domestic and mechanic arts, with both 

 day and evening courses, so as to accommodate persons already employed in trades . 

 and furthermore, that part-time day courses be provided for children between the 

 ages of 14 and 18 years who are employed during the remainder of the day, so 

 that instruction in the principles and the practice of the arts may go on together. 



The above relates entirely to the existing public school system, whose 

 integrity the scheme proposes to preserve. For the more technical and advanced 

 work the commission believes that distinctive industrial schools, separated entirely 

 from the public school system, should be maintained. This departure is held to be 

 entirely in accord with the policy to which the State is already fully committed, 

 through its support of normal schools, art schools, institutes of technology, and 

 the agricultural college. In order to secure proper instruction for teachers in the 

 elements of agriculture, it is suggested that a normal department be established 

 in the State agricultural college, instead of attempting to introduce the subject 

 into normal schools or establish a separate school for that purpose. 



The recommendations of the commission are embodied in a bill submitted 

 to the legislature, which provides for the appointment of a commission on industrial 

 education to promote this work, and proposes State aid to towns and cities for 

 maintenance of distinctive schools for industrial training, or of industrial courses 



