Examples of industrial education

Preface

It is not to be doubted that we are in the midst of a complex and gigantic movement, somewhat indefinite and indistinct as to its direction and its ultimate results, but certainly involving great social and industrial changes and promising universal betterment. The forces which are bringing about these changes seem to be dominated by the desire to secure for the less prosperous members of society a larger measure of comfort and happiness and a more abundant life.

There is probably no single agency which has had so many demands made upon it to help in the solution of the problems which this great movement is presenting as has the public school, and the response which it has made to the demands should be a matter of pride to those who believe in the great mission of this most important of democratic institutions.

It must be admitted, however, that, in the securing of a fair opportunity for all to attain reasonable happiness ; in the necessary reduction of poverty, unemployment, and delinquency ; and in the promotion of individual efficiency and social solidarity, the schools have only a fractional part of the responsibility. To reach the results for which the promoters of industrial education are so enthusiastically working, society must cooperate in securing the enactment and the adequate enforcement of wise childlabor and school-attendance laws, and the improvement of working conditions in general.

Though this volume deals with only a fractional part of the whole problem, the author believes it to be a most important iv PREFACE

part. The educators of the country wield an immense influence, and this influence will be increased rather than diminished when, by dealing successfully with a practical problem closely related to the lives of the people, they convince the public that they are not dominated alone by their interest in scholarship and disinterested truth and knowledge, but by a desire to advance in every way possible the social and moral welfare of every child committed to their care.

It is hoped that by bringing together the accounts of several examples of public industrial schools and classes, — the visible and tangible proofs that educators are applying themselves to the solution of the problems to which we have alluded, — this volume will serve to stimulate other and even more successful efforts to advance the movement for popular and universal education.

The author makes no apology for drawing so liberally on the utterances of others, but rather takes this opportunity of acknowledging his indebtedness to the many friends who have allowed him to use their valuable material. Whatever may be the reader's attitude toward the opinions and theories expressed by the author, he is urged to examine this material with care and to attempt to interpret for himself the several examples of industrial education which it describes.

t^RANK MITCHELL LEAVITT

Contents

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CHAPTER I. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENT FOR INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION i

Industrial education a subdivision of vocational education. Its nature and the place which it occupies in the general educational plan. The reality of the problem. Its complexity. Lack of harmony between social and economic conditions and the ideals of the public schools.

Chapter II. Manual Training And Industrial Education 9

The vocational idea in education. Early history of the manual-training movement (1876-1894). Its original coincidence with industrial education. Its gradual abandonment of the vocational purpose. Manual training and the new psychology. Establishment of its claim to a cultural value. The renewed demand for industrial education.

Chapter III. The Demand — An Analysis . . 19

The demand of the manufacturers. Changed and changing industrial conditions. The present industrial position of the United States. The need of a new form of apprenticeship. Industrial training an effective defense against the encroachments of labor unions.

Chapter IV. The Demand Of Organized Labor 26

Lack of unity in labor's attitude. An official statement of its position. Its fundamental suspicion and some reasons for it. The need of industrial education from labor's standpoint. Mistakes made by organized labor in its opposition to industrial education. Indication of better things to come. Labor's interest in general as contrasted with specialized education.

Chapter V. The Demand Of Educators . . 37

Implied criticisms of the public schools. The educator's ideal. His demand for industrial education held to be consistent with this ideal. His interest awakened by the elimination of pupils. The marked hostility on the part of some conservative educators. The educator indispensable in the solution of the problem.

vi EXAMPLES OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION

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CHAPTER VI. THE DEMAND OF SOCIAL WORKERS . 44 Their fundamental purpose. Their study of conditions. Their discovery of the need for industrial education. Opinions of prison and reform-school officials. Schools established by philanthropy. The social factor in industrial education.

CHAPTER VII. THE REVISION OF EDUCATIONAL IDEALS INVOLVED IN THE MOVEMENT FOR IN- DUSTRIAL TRAINING 52

The present movement with past history of educational advance. More careful adjustment to individual needs. These revealed by elimination of pupils from school. The importance of the elementary school. More flexible system needed. Earlier differentiation of purpose. Seeking cultural value in work. Advisory committees. New requirements for teachers. Necessary experimentation. Cooperation of parents, teachers, and employers.

CHAPTER VIII. A PLAN FOR IMMEDIATE REORGAN- IZATION 63

Reduction of retardation. Chart showing various types of vocational schools. Similar subdivision needed in limited industrial education as is found in extensive liberal and professional education. Other features of the plan. The possibility of early choice between various types of schools. A preliminary investigation.

CHAPTER IX. EXAMPLES OF MORE FUNDAMENTAL

REORGANIZATION 75

Dissatisfaction with present systems of grading and promotions. Retardation. Special classes. Traditional plan of promotion. Some departures from this rigid system. Cambridge. St. Louis. The reorganized school system of Portland, Oregon. Menomonie, Wisconsin. Cleveland's new quarterly plan. Chicago's review schools. Elementary, lower high, and upper high schools of Berkeley, California. The three-group system of Concord, New Hampshire. The Gary, Indiana, school system.

CHAPTER X. PREVOCATIONAL WORK IN GRADES 6-8 95 The double purpose of prevocational work. Boston's early experiment. Effect on prolonging school life of pupils. The Cleveland Elementary Industrial School. The selection of pupils. The plan of organization and courses of study. The results. Outline of other experiments of this type — Indianapolis, Newark, St. Paul, Springfield (Illinois), Evanston, Fitchburg, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Summary of characteristics of prevocational work.

CONTENTS vii

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CHAPTER XI. THE INTERMEDIATE OR SEPARATE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL . 129

Its position defined. The Rochester Shop School: its history and organization ; cabinetmaking department ; electrical department ; plumbing department ; carpentry department ; cost of the school and receipts from the "product system." Newton Independent Industrial School; organization, course of study, and product ; certificates and diplomas. The Manhattan Trade School. The Secondary Industrial School of Columbus, Georgia. Other schools of this type.

CHAPTER XII. VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOLS . . 154 Place and variety of vocational high schools. The Albert G. Lane Technical High School, Chicago : under conservative conditions has achieved success as a progressive and " vocational " school ; its physical equipment ; the two-year course in electricity, with notes ; efficiency test of pattern-making class. Value of real work.

CHAPTER XIII. THE TRADE SCHOOL . . . .175 The trade school a finishing school. Its singleness of purpose. Milwaukee's public trade schools : courses for pattern makers, machinists and toolmakers, plumbers, dressmakers, and milliners. Trade-training problems different for the boy and the girl. David Ranken, Jr., School of Mechanical Trades : an endowed school ; purpose as shown in foundation deed ; courses in carpentry, pattern making, bricklaying, plumbing, painting, and steam engineering. Worcester Trade School : emphasis placed on a commercial product ; the possibility of securing it for pupils in carpentry, pattern making, cabinetmaking, and machine work.

CHAPTER XIV. PART-TIME COOPERATIVE SCHOOLS 201 First organized in the United States at the University of Cincinnati. The plan applied to high schools and to a separate industrial school. Fitchburg plan and course of study for machine-shop industries. The Beverly Industrial School : agreement between city of Beverly and the United Shoe Machinery Company ; the machinist instructors and the high-school staff. Summary of important features of the part-time plan.

CHAPTER XV. THE CONTINUATION SCHOOL . . 223 Continuation schools dependent on the cooperation of employers and the school authorities : a strong leading spirit essential to their success. Cincinnati's experience : the night school ; the young apprentice needs daytime instruction ; day continuation school for machine-shop apprentices ; the course of study, enrollment, and cost ; compulsory attendance under sixteen years of age. Cleveland's continuation schools. Boston's day continuation classes in dry goods, salesmanship, shoe and leather, banking, and household arts.

viii EXAMPLES OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION

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CHAPTER XVI. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE . . .235 Initial steps taken at Boston. The Boston plan described by former Superintendent Brooks : vocational placement distinguished from vocational guidance ; the revision of educational methods ; earlier choice of vocation becomes desirable ; conflict between specialized and cultural motives ; industrial education a supplement to, not a substitute for, general education ; the Vocation Bureau and the school committee ; other agencies ; vocational counselors and vocational assistants ; guidance within the school system ; placement and subsequent encouragement ; the school's duty. The Grand Rapids plan : study of conditions ; guidance in the high school ; record charts ; school counselors ; literature and vocational guidance ; the plan in detail and the cooperation of the Grand Rapids Public Library. New York City and Cincinnati.

CHAPTER XVIL STATE LEGISLATION . . . .267 Theoretically an expression of public opinion. Examination of laws relating directly to industrial education in public schools. Connecticut. Indiana. Kansas. Maine. Summary of Massachusetts legislation prior to 191 1 : revised laws ; definitions, state administration and supervision, types of schools, local administration and control. Michigan. New Jersey. New York: extract from Education Law, 1910; what schools may be established ; advisory boards ; authority of local boards of education and of the state commissioner of education. Ohio. Oklahoma. Oregon. Pennsylvania. Wisconsin : the most complete state law relating to education, school attendance, child labor, and apprenticeship. Combined agriculture, manual training, and home economics in states where agriculture, rather than manufacture, is the most important interest : Minnesota ; North Dakota ; Vermont.

CHAPTER XVIII. CONCERNING AGRICULTURAL EDU- CATION 299

Education for the Iowa Farm Boy, a paper by IL C. Wallace. The new conditions confronting the farmer; The resultant interest in agriculture shown by the whole people. The necessity for systematic and scientific training. The German educational system and the German teachers. The French system. The English system. The American system : its gradual evolution ; tardy recognition of the educational needs of the farmer ; the wall around the agricultural college. Agricultural teaching in foreign countries. Secondary agricultural education in the United States ; the conditions in Iowa. Need of training in reach of the average boy on the farm. Some suggestions.

Chapter I Significance Of The Movement For Industrial Education

The movement for industrial education is a part of a great educational advance which extends over the whole civilized world. It results from the attempt to bring about universal and appropriate education. It frankly recognizes that all cannot have and do not need the same education. It takes cognizance of the enormous increase in the sum total of human knowledge and art which the last century has brought, and the ever-increasing gap which separates this sum total from the capacity of the most receptive and most assiduous student. It is strongly influenced by the principle that, in making the selection of the knowledge and art which any individual or group of individuals should acquire, the vocational purpose should be second only to the moral and social purposes, with which, in fact, it is rarely in opposition. Thus vocational education is the larger term and includes professional, commercial, and agricultural education, education in domestic arts and sciences, and industrial education. It is to the consideration of this latter phase of modern educational advance that our discussions are to be specifically directed.

Industrial education means the complete and appropriate education of industrial workers of whatever grade. It therefore means much more than the introduction of shopwork into the present curriculum, — the addition of another subject, however important that subject may be. It means a thorough revision of our school system with the purpose of furnishing for the working classes an education which bears somewhat the same relation to their prospective life work as does the college education to the future work of the professional and managerial classes. It means that, at whatever grade it may be introduced, it will be a type of secondary education, and will presuppose a basis of general cultural training and provide for considerable variety in both the length and the breadth of the special superstructure. It means reality. The word "reality" is used here in contradistinction to artificiality. Industrial education, therefore, provides participation in, rather than fancied preparation for, some activity. It means practice in real work for real people as an effective medium of education. It means, in the final analysis, the fitting of a particular boy for a particular job, and it is therefore strongly individualistic.

For the student of education it means the study of real conditions, — not alone the conditions of children in the schools, but also, and perhaps primarily, the conditions of children who, in the past, have benefited the least from formal education. He must be interested to study the children who lag as well as those who progress, those who can spend little as well as those who can spend much time in school training, those aiming toward the market, the shop, or the farm as well as those preparing for college. He must inquire at what ages children leave school and for what reasons ; what they do after leaving, and with what profit or success. He must make a study of industrial methods and developments, and of the industrial and social opportunities open to the rising generation.

He should endeavor to make careful and specific adjustment of educational principles and practices to these conditions, and to work out in detail courses of study suitable for typical cases.

MOVEMENT FOR INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION ^3

While industrial education is specific rather than general, it is desirable to examine some general principles in order to establish a basis for comparison and standards of measurement.

The problem which confronts us is a social problem. It involves the study of the evolution of industry, —a knowledge of the varying conditions under which people have lived and worked, and especially their chances for safety, comfort, and progress. This will lead the student of education to the consideration of the present status of the industrial worker, of industrial systems, and of organizations of capital and labor. It will show him that the movement for industrial education is itself evolving, and that therefore we should not seek finality but rather should try to discover the nature of the present need, the kind of training required to meet it, and the agencies which can best furnish this training.

In the restricted meaning of the word " education " this is also an educational problem, that is to say, a problem for the schools. It is therefore important to determine to what extent it is a problem of general education and to what extent a problem of special education. In other words, it should be decided to what extent it may be afforded by our existing types of schools, and to what extent special institutions must be provided. It will thus involve at least a superficial study of the history of American education in order that the trend of the people's schools may be seen and appreciated.

At the outset the real problem which the mere name of our subject indicates should be frankly admitted.

Industry is concerned primarily with material production.

Education is concerned primarily with the unfolding of human powers.

The mainspring of industrial development has been the desire to produce more and better goods at a decreased cost. While this effort has resulted in commendable expenditure of energy, ingenious invention, and the beneficial economy of marvelous organization, frequently it has led to systematic exploitation, — the exploitation of our soil, our forests, our mines, our rivers, and, lastly, our children.

With all the errors which organized education has ever made, its ideal has been the unfolding and perfecting of all that is best and highest in human nature. Its mainspring has been the belief that the conservation of the child's best powers and resources was to be attained by submission to a constantly increasing period of school attendance.

So industry, at its worst, stands for exploitation, while education, at its best, means conservation. Thus there is here a genuine problem, according to Dr. Dewey, who says that "a problem is genuine just because the elements^ taken as they stand, are conflicting."

It is fundamentally important to discover where these two are consistent and where antagonistic, and when this is done the duty of the educator will be quite clear. It is safe to say that his ideal, as stated above, will need no modification, but his judgment regarding educational values and his ideas regarding educational methods will doubtless undergo some modification.

In addition to recognizing the genuine conflict between the primary incentive of industry and the final end of education, it is also essential that the extreme complication of the problem be constantly kept in mind. It is obviously impossible to attack the problem from all sides at once, yet conclusions regarding any one phase of the question may be subject to modification when examined from another viewpoint. The complexity will be apparent if one reflects on the following questions, which indicate points of view from which the subject might be approached.

Can the principle of the elimination of waste, which has been so productive of advance in the industrial world, be applied with equally good results to educational activities .-*

MOVEMENT FOR INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION 5

What interests have capital and labor in the movement for industrial education ? To what extent are they identical, and in what respects are they antagonistic ?

What has been the traditional attitude of wealth toward popular education ?

Have we classes in American society? Admitting the possibility afforded the individual of passing from one class to another, what are the probabilities that any considerable proportion of wage earners can ever change their status to that of employers ?

What relation, if any, exists between industrial progress and the evolution of the school system ?

What part have the schools taken in the application of art and science to modern industry ?

To what extent is our present division of elementary and secondary education fortuitous, and to what extent the result of purposeful planning ?

What is demanded of education in a democracy ?

What educational practices of to-day most clearly indicate the trend of popular education ?

Are the present standards of the schools in keeping with existing social and industrial conditions ?

If these and similar questions were pondered by all educators, there would be such a revision of educational ideals and methods as the country has never yet witnessed. In fact, the present movement for vocational education is the best indication that these questions are now engaging the serious consideration of the thinking educational world.

It is not the purpose of this volume to discuss specifically each of the questions suggested above. It is believed, however, that one who finds his major interest in any one of these questions will discover in the following pages something vitally related to it.

It is from a study of such questions that one becomes convinced that radical educational reform is imminent and inevitable. It is evident that our present school systems are out of harmony with social and industrial organization.

Some of the more pertinent facts relating to the social organization may well be briefly considered. First of all will be found the wage system itself. As we know, the system places upon the individual the responsibility for his own and for his family's support. It is individualistic, not socialistic. It works well for the fortunate, but for many unfortunate it has worked such evil that it is frequently referred to as " wage slavery." At all events, it has produced two distinct classes with interests apparently widely divergent, if not diametrically opposed, — the employers and the employed. We find also that it has led to an exceedingly unequal distribution not only of wealth but also of opportunity for securing personal happiness, comfort, and satisfaction in the fundamental experiences of life.

Dr. I.yman Abbott, in an article in The Outlook of August 6, 19 lo, says: " In the second place, this wage system inevitably creates a concentration of wealth. It creates a small class of more or less, and generally increasingly, wealthy men, and a large class of more or less dependent men. The startling facts are thus given in Charles B. Spahr's book on 'The Present Distribution of Wealth,' the best book, I think, on the subject in the English language : ' To sum up the whole situation, therefore, it appears that the general distribution of incomes in the United States is wider and better than in most of the countries of western Europe. Despite this fact, however, one eighth of the families in America receive more than half of the aggregate income, and the richest one per cent receives a larger income than the poorest fifty per cent. In fact this small class of wealthy property owners receives from property alone as large an income as half our people receive from property and labor.' "

MOVEMENT FOR INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION 7

Another series of pertinent facts are those relating to the minute subdivision of labor which is characteristic of modern manufacture. These are set forth with great clearness in Bulletin No. 8 of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education. The following quotation from page 21 is illustrative :

" Let us compare some interesting figures relative to the saving in time and labor in shoes made by machines over those made by hand. Comparison is made in number of workmen employed, operations performed, hours of labor and cost of labor, in manufacturing 100 pairs of men's medium-grade calf, welt, lace shoes, single soles and soft box toes, in 1863 and in 1895. In 1863 manufacturing these 100 pairs by hand necessitated 73 operations by one workman, with approximately 1831 hours of work, at a labor cost of about $458. To make the same number of shoes of similar grade in 1895 by machine, there were 173 operations, 371 workmen, the time being approximately 234 hours, and the cost of labor ^60. In manufacturing cheaper shoes the saving in time and labor in the machine product is even more striking."

From the foregoing it becomes evident that the determining factor in industrial control is the ownership of the tools or machines, and that, as this ownership is in the hands of the comparatively few, the status of the mass of the wage earners is relatively permanent.

If, with these social and economic conditions in mind, we examine our public-school systems, we are led to conclude that the ideals and machinery of a '' leisure-class " education still persist to a very considerable degree. Particularly convincing are those facts relating to the retardation of pupils in the public schools, and the final elimination of a very considerable proportion of them without any adequate education whatsoever. A publication of the Charities Publication Committee, New York, entitled "' Laggards m our Schools," by Leonard P, Ayres, contains an enlightening exposition of this subject. It shows the difficulty of making any unqualified statement regarding retardation and elimination, but it forces the conviction that our present methods are failing with half of the children confided to the care of the public schools.

It is therefore to the problem of providing an adequate and appropriate education for the industrial workers that the following chapters are specifically addressed.

Other studies relating to the subsequent vocational experiences of these ""laggards" lead to the conclusion that the schools have not only failed to awaken in large numbers of their pupils an interest in study but have engendered a distaste for work of any kind, particularly for manual work. These young people seem to have received no training in the schools which helps them to cope with the peculiar difficulties of their social and economic environment, but, on the contrary, it appears that the attempts to "'educate" them have actually contributed to their failure in the industrial world.

Chapter II Manual Training And Industrial Education

From the foregoing chapter it will readily appear that the movement for industrial education is so vast, and its ramifications so numerous, that confusion and misunderstandings are inevitable.

One factor which has contributed to this confusion has been the indiscriminate use of the two terms "' marmal training " and "industrial training." A very considerable number of school men to-day employ these terms as if they were synonymous.

Recent attempts have been made, notably by the Committee of Ten of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, to formulate such definitions as would serve to completely differentiate the terms, but the results have not been wholly successful. It is not our purpose to fix definite limitations, but rather to sketch the development of the general movement which includes both manual training and industrial education. It should be possible to determine in which portion of the educational field each is most effective, and which portions they occupy in common.

At the very inception of the manual-training movement will be found the vocational idea. Speaking quite generally, this is also true of all types of American schools. Our existing high or secondary schools, so-called, were originally established with a vocational purpose clearly stated or implied. For example, let us note the development of the high schools in Boston, since the oldest free public school in the United States, and one in which traditional education holds full sway, is included in that system. The Boston Latin School was, and is, a vocational school, more lO EXAMPLES OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION

truly vocational than many of the manual-training and industrial schools throughout the country. It was founded as a preparatory school for Harvard College, which, in its turn, was established to train men for the ministry, in order that the colony might not have an illiterate clergy. Naturally many changes in the public-school system have come about since the establishment of this school (April, 1635), and it should be noted that these changes have been demanded by the public, and usually have been enforced by legislative enactment. To the Latin School there have been added the English High School, originally planned to fit for nonprofessional life ; the Mechanic Arts High School, originally planned to. fit for the industries; the Commercial High School for Boys; and the Practical Arts High School for Girls, whose names clearly reflect their purposes.

Returning specifically to the introduction of manual training, it is important to note that not only was the vocational idea prominent in the establishment of the Mechanic Arts High School in Boston, but that the same was true of the manual-training high schools in St. Louis, Chicago, Toledo, Cleveland, and Philadelphia, which preceded it.

The immediate impulse for this movement may possibly have been found in the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876. Here was shown the laboratory method applied to the teaching of the mechanic arts, as employed in the Imperial Technical School at Moscow, Russia. Two of the pioneers of manual training in this country, Professor John D. Runkel, at that time president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technolog}^ and Professor Calvin M. Woodward, of the Engineering Department of the Washington LIniversity at St. Louis, saw this exhibit and made such recommendations as resulted in definite action by these two institutions. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology established on August 17, 1876, a department known as the School of Mechanic Arts. This was opened to boys of high-school age,

MANUAL TRAINING II

and was continued for several years, finally being abandoned when the Mechanic Arts High School was about to be established by the school board as a part of the public-school system of the city of Boston.

The Manual Training School at St. Louis was established on June 6, 1879. From the first it has received boys of high-school age, preparing its pupils not only for higher technical schools but also for commercial and industrial pursuits.

In January, 1884, the Commercial Club of Chicago established and endowed the Chicago Manual Training School. In 1884 courses in manual training were organized for the high-school pupils of Cleveland.. This was done under private initiative, and the work was continued until 1892, when the city established manual training as a part of the free public-school system. In the same year Toledo established courses of manual training to be given in connection with the public high school, using for this purpose a certain trust fund. In this year, also, Baltimore established a similar school.

By 1893 manual training had been introduced into the high-school curricula, instruction being given either in separate schools or in the existing schools, in many cities, notably, in addition to those already mentioned, Cambridge, Fall River, Springfield (Massachusetts), Boston, New Orleans, Wilmington, Providence, New York, Albany, Omaha, Carson City, Washington, Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Paul, and Minneapolis.

Not only was manual training established in high schools, but efforts were made very early to secure its introduction into the elementary schools. One of the most far-reaching influences of the Swedish sloyd system is to be found in the insistence of its early advocates that handwork was an essential in the education of young children.

Here, too, private munificence and enterprise were important factors. As early as 1882 classes were established in the public schools of Boston, supported by the generosity of Mrs. Ouincy A. Shaw, and a Manual Training Committee was appointed by the school board in 1884. Within ten years manual training, in the form of woodworking, had been introduced into the elementary schools of many cities. Among them may be mentioned Washington, New Haven, St. Paul, Montclair, New York, Jamestown, Cleveland, Boston, Brookline, Springfield (Massachusetts), Chicago, Waltham, and Salem.