The German System of Industrial Schooling
48 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. :Author: Ralph C. Busser, LL.B.
Phila.: Public Education Assn., 1913 (Study No. 40). Pp. 64. “Have we not in America erred in turning out too many youths ‘educated’ just beyond the point where they are willing to work with their hands, and where they are inclined to prefer the ‘genteel’ clerkship to the better paid and more valuable labor of the trained mechanic or the farmer?”
It is with this significant remark that Mr. Ira Jewell Williams in a preface calls attention to the evident lack in present-day American education, and to the way out as shown by the Hon. Ralph C. Busser, Consul at Erfurt, Germany, in his careful analysis of “The German System of Industrial Schooling”. The question here propounded has divided the educational forces of the day into two camps. One group of the Old Guard, firmly entrenched behind the bulwark of “culture and discipline,” struggle for “things as they are”; on the other side a mixed band of scientific experts, progressive educators, and individual faddists raise the cry for “practical education to meet individual needs”. These progressives do not present a united front. Many vital problems have scarcely been clearly defined, much less have they been put in the way of solution.
Shall practical education or the new industrialism begin with the kindergarten and run through the high school, shall it be postponed until the high school period, or shall it be introduced in the seventh or eighth grade with a junior high school?
Is the purpose of industrial education that of training the brain or of giving skill to the hand?
Is it the province of the public school to supplant apprenticeship and develop journeymen?
Shall the school fit workmen for the industries as they are, or must it change industry to fit the child?
Shall the school provide equipment sufficiently broad to meet the needs of a multiform industry, or shall it retain its older function of giving the tools of learning and correlate part-time service with practical shop work? Is it just and right for adolescent manhood to add three hours of academic work to eight hours of toil?
Shall “practical education” be given as a definite part of the public school system or under an entirely separate management? Shall it be compulsory or elective? Are such schools to be established by federal aid or purely by local initiative?
These are questions which are agitating the minds of thoughtful educators to-day. Such questions show that the spirit of discontent has passed the point of random criticism of our schools and has begun to apply constructive scientific tests of method. It has passed the “what” and come to the “how”.
This spirit of educational unrest, of seeking for practical results, is at least a quarter of a century old in America. Early attempts to solve the problem led to manual training courses which proved to be only a “mustard relish” with which to administer the ancient educational pabulum. In Germany the same spirit of unrest, beginning a generation earlier than in our country, has produced proven results through a broadly developed system of industrial training. To this German system of practical training, of trade schools, continuation schools and technical schools, progressive thinkers turn for the materials from which to build a new American education. No foreign system can be adopted. It must be adapted to conditions which prevail only in an industrial democracy; but that it has pointed the way can be seen from recent developments in Massachusetts, Ohio, Wisconsin and other commonwealths. Mr. Busser brings to this subject the viewpoint of an American business man, a member of the Philadelphia bar, and presents in condensed form a definite analysis of the German system as a whole. From his close acquaintance with the business requirements of this country, as well as with the intimate workings of the German Government, Consul Busser has sources of information which but few have been able to reach, and his contribution is a valuable gift to the literature of the subject of industrial education.
Germany has realized that in order to meet the growing menace of foreign competition, especially in countries like the United States, she must rely not on her natural resources and the cheapness of labor, but upon the skill and technique of her workers. To accomplish this, as well as to meet the needs of the factory system, which substitutes machinery for hand labor, she has developed besides day schools, technical schools and universities, in nearly every city organized evening and Sunday classes for the training of artisans in the various trades practiced in the community.
This system Mr. Busser treats under the heads of general trade schools, special trade schools, engineering and scientific schools, and vocational schools for girls, and shows the relation of each of these schools to the development of the national industries.
Of the relation between these schools and the government, Mr. Busser says: “The industrial schools in most German cities and towns form part of the public school system, and as such are supported by the respective municipalities, usually receiving aid from the State, and sometimes from the manufacturers and trade guilds especially interested. The appropriations of the German state governments to the industrial continuation schools vary from one-third to two-thirds of the expenditures, not including the cost of rooms, heating, lighting, and janitor service, which is met by the local community. In Prussia the proportion contributed by the State depends largely upon the size and financial condition of the community?to the larger cities with more than 60,000 population not more than one-third and to the smaller cities from one-half to two-thirds of the total outlay exclusive of the buildings and their operating expenses. The total expenditures in Prussia for the industrial continuation schools amounted in 1911 to $2,304,792, of which 52 per cent was borne by the municipalities, 35 per cent by the State, 2 per cent by associations and guilds, and 11 per cent by employers’ contributions consisting of the tuition fees which they are bound to pay for their employes, together with the sum which some of them donate voluntarily.”
The general trade schools, the author says, “embrace the industrial continuation schools or part-time schools for young people between the ages of fourteen and seventeen who have finished their general education in the common schools and are employed in the industries as apprentices, helpers, or other manual workers; the mechanics’ schools, with Sunday morning and week-day evening classes for the technical and theoretical instruction of journeymen; and the industrial art schools for the better education of artisans and mechanics in the theory, art and technique of their respective crafts.
“The course in the common schools of Prussia covers eight years, upon the completion of which the compulsory period of full-lime schooling ends. As a rule however compulsory education does not then entirely cease, for in most cities and towns German boys are required to attend the continuation school for six or seven hours per week during three years, that is usually between the ages of fourteen and seventeen. The boys who have entered as store or office employes upon a business career, attend the commercial continuation school; those who have taken up an industrial vocation as trade apprentices, factory workers or otherwise, attend the industrial continuation school. Naturally, the industrial continuation school can reach its full development only in the large cities, where a special organization in ascending single-trade classes is possible. However in the smaller cities and towns good results are also being accomplished when, as is now almost everywhere the case, related trades (for example, the apprentices of the various building trades) are grouped together in classes.
“In selecting the subjects of instruction the aim is to serve the civic, vocational and economic interests of the apprentices and cultivate in them the technical knowledge, artistic sense and idealism that with the necessary mechanical skill and practical experience go to make the master craftsman.”
The most difficult task of the German industrial continuation schools has been the planning of the instruction for the unskilled workers. In the selection of studies for this class of boys, the chief aim is to enable them to learn the principles governing their industrial environment and the means by which they may advance themselves economically, and at the same time to broaden their general education. The boy is taught to understand his position in the working community and the general facts about the workshop, the care of his health and the proper use of his spare time. Simple courses in domestic and industrial bookkeeping and other business studies suited to his position in life are given, so that the student may become a good citizen as well as an expert worker. Besides these general schools for unskilled workers, there are various grades of schools for different types of skilled workmen. In many cities, the industrial art schools, which are virtually higher trade schools for master workmen, foremen and managers, give more technical courses. “Here the aspiring artisan or mechanic can study the scientific principles and art rules of the industry which he has entered and cultivate ideas of grace and beauty which can be combined with utility, so that his work may be scientifically planned, expertly designed, economically and skillfully executed. This instruction in technics and applied art provided for the craftsmen in practically every German city of industrial importance has exercised great influence not only in increasing the efficiency of the skilled workers but in stimulating their inventive faculties. This is demonstrated by the lavish display of countless beautiful conceptions of industrial art in store windows everywhere in Germany; and thousands of wholesale buyers from other parts of Europe and from America come here every year to lay in a, stock of artistic wares and latest holiday goods of German manufacture.” These schools give both day and evening courses. A student may take a year or two off when he can afford to give his whole time to study, or he may take partial courses either in the day time or at night. The evening classes constitute the mechanics’ school, the object of which is to provide practical courses for skilled workers who require advanced technical instruction not given either in the industrial continuation school (which they attended during their apprecticeship) or in the industries where they are employed.
The program of studies in these mechanics’ schools relates especially to the distinctive industries of each particular locality. For example, the Mechanics and Industrial Art School in Barmen pays particular attention to cabinetmaking and the lithographic industries; the school in Elberfeld to metal-working and bookbinding; the one in Diisseldorf to the building trades and landscapegardening; in Erfurt to shoemaking, printing, lithography, bookbinding and cabinetmaking.
“Special schools exist in Germany for alnlost every trade known to the industrial world, and they have in no small degree aided in the thorough equipment of German workmen for their respective trades, to which is so largely due the marvelous development of the country’s industries, and the consequent rapid spread of material prosperity and well-being, in spite of the heavy burden of state and local taxation.”
Prominent among them are those connected with the textile industry, where the necessity for special technical kuowledge and the acquisition of high skill in hand work, as well as in the operation of the complicated machinery of the trades, led to the establishment of special schools for spinning, weaving, knitting, rope making, dyeing, finishing, ribbon and lace making, embroidering, etc.
Other important institutions which substitute school for apprenticeship in whole or in part, are the special schools for the metal trades, clock and watch making, basket making, straw plaiting, pottery, woodworking, etc.
The schools for builders (for the education of architects, masons, and carpenters) were the earliest developed of the German special trade schools. They were first organized as departments of drawing schools, industrial art and continuation schools, but with the growing complexity of the building trades and the progress in technical knowledge, it was found necessary to erect separate buildings and to establish more elaborate curriculums, and to develop masterbuilders and master-masons as well as to prepare artisans. The highest class of technical instruction is given in the technical high schools, the schools of technology, and the mechanical engineering schools, and it is from these schools that Germany draws her constructing and supervising engineers in the larger machine shops, and her foremen, superintendents and managers in the foundries and factories. Contrary to our American nomenclature, the most advanced grade of technical instruction is given in the Hochschule or Technical High School. The special trade schools have their own entrance requirements, according to conditions in the respective industries. If the school aims to take the place of apprenticeship in whole or in part, the only condition is usually the com52 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. pletion of the eight years course in the common schools (Volksschulen). But if it be an advanced trade school, designed to supplement the learning of the trade under the apprenticeship system, then one or two years practical experience is required. The Prussian Minister of Commerce and Industry issued a decree in 1912 recommending that in future the industrial art and mechanics’ schools should as a rule admit as full students only such young people as have had as a foundation at least two years practice in the particular industry. Previous to this, the completion of an actual apprenticeship had already been established by many schools as a condition precedent to entering as a full course student, and in some as much as three years actual employment in the trade is required.
Thus the German continuation schools are distinctly for Germans. The skilled mechanic intends to keep his skill for himself and his fellow workmen. He leaves the unskilled work for the immigrant, and docs not intend that the foreigner from America or elsewhere shall come in and secure training in his specialty, except under rare and difficult conditions. The annual tuition fees range from $7 to $47 for Germans, but foreigners must pay as high as $250 per term. In some districts this distinction is even carried so far as to discriminate against workmen from other parts of the German Empire, and some schools exclude foreigners entirely. German education is distinctly “made in Germany” for Germans.
It is generally understood that German women do not receive the same consideration from men that is accorded their American sisters. Naturally their educational progress is far behind that of the men. Indeed it has only been within the last half century that the German women have had any considerable opportunity for training in skilled trades or in the broader duties of the home. Since 1860 schools have been established for the special training of women. At first these schools gave courses only in sewing, cooking, and serving, but more recently the wider fields of household economy and management have been introduced. Today there are special trade schools for milliners, dressmakers, hairdressers, art embroiderers, lace makers and other textile handworkers. Of these special trade institutions the most important are the textile schools, because the corresponding industries employ a large number of women, who work alongside of the men in the making of suits, underwear, gloves, lace, trimmings, and other textile goods.
Many of the continuation and trade schools hold interesting local or provincial exhibitions several times a year, and there are also in different parts of the Empire workmasters’ courses and experimental shops which supplement the system of industrial education. Other features such as concerts, lectures, games, classes of various kinds, and excursions to places of industrial and historic interest make of the continuation school a valuable social institution, extending its influence, both in working and recreation hours, practically to the end of the formative period of the boy’s life.
Private industrial schools, organized and managed for profit, are comparatively rare in Germany. The continuation schools, mechanics’ and industrial art schools are usually conducted by the local authorities, the State having certain rights of supervision and control when it shares with the municipality the expenses of operation. The special trade schools are conducted by the municipality or else by the guilds or other industrial associations concerned with the particular trade taught. These latter schools frequently receive appropriations from local or state government after complying with certain requirements. As a result of these unifying influences there is now systematic relation in entrance requirements, courses of instruction, etc., in German industrial schools of the same kind, and students in one state can be admitted to equivalent schools in other states of the Empire.
The special trade schools are generally located in the localities where the corresponding branches of industry flourish. The institution is thus made conveniently accessible to the workers and can avail itself of the services of experts direct from the appropriate factory or workshop. On the other hand the industry is constantly reinforced by trained recruits, bringing new methods and processes. The relation between the school and the factory is a reciprocal one, with distinct benefit to both.
Thus Germany has organized a most full and complete system of training for her artisans. Practically every skilled trade throughout the Empire can count upon thoroughly trained recruits to fill the places of those who drop out, and to add for future growth. By this means the industries of the nation are fostered and as they believe, the industrial supremacy of the nation is assured. There still remains one question to be answered: Is the independence and the future development of the individual members of the State as carefully sought and as efficiently safeguarded as that of the industries and of the Empire? The American school system stands for independence and for the initiative of the individual. To carry every man and woman, not as dependents but through the free cooperative activity of each with all, on towards personal independence and social and industrial efficiency, is a far more difficult task than to enforce success through military standards of discipline. This is the problem which American education must face.
And yet we may look to Germany,?to Bismarck?for the watchword of the day,?”The nation that has the schools has the future.” James S. Hiatt, Secretary Public Education Association
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.