180 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
regard to the second source of our industrial life. What is the tend- 
ency to skill and the opportunity to acquire it among our own children 
who must soon enter industry? It is impossible to state this problem 
in a statistical fashion; but a fair idea may be obtained from a study 
of the industrial situation. Skill may be gained through two, and only 
two, methods. It must come either in connection with industry itself 
or in some way of preparation outside it; either through a system of 
apprenticeship or by way of vocational schools or school studies. In 
the older state of industry, the apprentice system of the guilds con- 
stituted a logical and efficient method of training. Boys became skilled 
workers under direction of a master and in the actual work of produc- 
tion. The apprentice system was the great industrial school of the past, 
and not only because it led to industrial skill, but also because it gave 
at least something of that mental discipline and power which we asso- 
ciate with the idea of a school. 
This system, as is well known, is largely a thing of the past. It is 
true that apprentices are now received in some industrial plants, but 
the number so received is entirely inadequate to furnish a supply of 
skilled labor for the many lines of trade and industry. It is enough 
to say that the modern factory with its great specialization, is not as 
a rule, willing to train its skilled workers. It wishes its workers to 
come to it already skilled. 
If training can not be gained as a part of the actual productive 
process, may it be acquired outside that process? Or, to state it dif- 
ferently, does our school system give the members of the growing gen- 
eration a training which fits them to enter the industrial life as skilled 
workers? 
We have in this country a considerable and growing number of 
trade schools and technical schools. We also find evening schools where 
vocational training may be obtained; and there are other opportunities 
of a similar sort. But it is not necessary to prove that there is but a 
scant beginning in this direction, as this is admitted by all students of 
the subject. It is clear that our present means of training for trade 
and industry through special schools is entirely inadequate, and it is 
equally well admitted that our common school system does not meet the 
need in this direction. Its curriculum has been determined by other 
interests than the economic needs of a constantly increasing industrial 
population. 
In the excellent study by Professor Thorndike, based upon returns 
from schools of twenty-three cities having a population of 25,000 or 
more, it is demonstrated beyond a doubt that the lack of opportunity 
for vocational training is a great cause of that heavy dropping out of 
school in early grades which thereby closes school education to a large 
1« The Elimination of Pupils from School,” p. 118 ff. 
