Prevocational Training in Elementary Schools
NEWS AND COMMENT.
A pamphlet of eighty pages recently issued by the department of education of the city of New York, contains social and economic data whose importance it would be hard to exaggerate. It is a report on the organization and extension of prevocational training in elementary schools, prepared by Dr William L. Ettinger, associate city superintendent. It has seemed to him, he says, “of more value to make this report more in the nature of an historical sketch of what has been done, than to interpret any conclusions thereon, or to make recommendations as to the future.”
On January 22, 1914, the board of education adopted a recommendation to introduce differentiated experimental courses in the seventh and eighth years of Public School 62 Manhattan. Six courses were approved, three for boys and three for girls,?academic, commercial, and industrial. As industrial training for the boys, provision was made for woodwork, machine shop, electric wiring, and sheet metal work; for the girls, dressmaking, millinery, pasting and novelty work, and the use of power machines. At the beginning of 7 A grade the class of boys was divided into six sections, spending the afternoons in industrial work. Unusually marked aptitude was considered as establishing a choice of vocational training. Pupils showing marked deficiency were put back on academic work until their turn came to try another trade. The classes were organized in April, 1914.
On January 28, 1914, the board of education adopted a recommendation introducing an industrial course for girls in the seventh year of Public School 162 Brooklyn, in connection with the regular school work of that year, and classes were organized in February, 1914. Dr Ettinger supervised the work in both schools from the beginning. The experiment involved: (1) Trade preparatory work; (2) Vocational guidance; (3) No loss of essential academic work.
In June, 1914, Dr Ettinger was a member of a party which accompanied the Mayor and President of the Board on a visit to the schools of Chicago, Cincinnati, and Gary, Ind. Reporting to the president upon the results of this tour of inspection Dr Ettinger says, “as far as the discovery of anything new or valuable in relation to the development of vocational work along elementary lines, I saw nothing comparable either in scope or in application with the work of our vocational schools or of our prevocational experiment in elementary schools.” The now famous Emerson School of Gary, Ind., embodying the educational ideas of Superintendent William Wirt, he found “fruitful in valuable suggestions. It is a grade school, a work-shop, and a social center?all in one and under one management. It is truly a Communal School; it is a composite school with composite courses, and embraces all grades?kindergarten, elementary, and high school. It has an eight-hour school day?six hours of this time is taken up with the regular school program, including one hour for lunch? and the remaining two hours are spent by the child either in supervised play, supervised industrial occupations, supervised agricultural occupations, or supervised social activities… . The administration of the Emerson School embraces the widest use of the school plant. The school is never idle; it is working every day and every week during the year; it accommodates pupils to the extent of double the number of class sittings; it does this by the widest use of shop, auditorium, gymnasium, playgrounds, and gardens. Because of flexibility in grading and promotion, the child who is withdrawn from school for any reason, can resume work without danger of retardation. Vacation periods are not necessarily confined to the summer months. … In the Emerson School vocational guidance begins from the earliest period of school life.” To his appreciation Dr Ettinger is compelled to add a word of caution,?”In my opinion, vocational work in the Emerson School is not the best type of vocational training. The industrial occupations are all organized with a view to reducing the cost maintenance of the school, plant, and equipment. The work is therefore necessarily restricted to the particular articles required in the upkeep of the school. On this side there is a possibility of exploitation of the child without proper regard for higher development in vocational training.”
A conference was held in New York in July, 1914, at which Superintendent Wirt was present, and he later submitted a report recommending that six schools be remodeled with practical shops to be used as prevocational laboratories. The schools chosen by the committee were 64 and 65 Manhattan, 5 and 158 Brooklyn, and 85 Queens, together with one school in the Bronx and one in Richmond to be selected later. In September, 1914, Dr Ettinger conferred with the principals of these schools, and instructed them in the reorganization of their schedules in accordance with a program whose main features were: (1) To organize the schools on a two-unit plan, i. e. two duplicate schools in one building; (2) To provide for a wider use of gymnasium, auditorium, and playground; (3) To take advantage of public libraries, parks, and industries, and home co-operation.
A circular of information was given to all pupils in the classes concerned, and sent to their parents as well. It requested co-operation with the school, and contained among other things a strong economic argument for vocational training, drawing the following comparisons: “The unskilled laborer with little training, at the age of 22 earns $10 a week, and seldom earns a higher wage. Thus, assuming that he works 52 weeks a year for 20 years, his net earnings are $10,400. The trade worker with little schooling and shop instruction only, at 22 years of age, earns $13.25 a week; he may finally earn as much as $16 a week. His greatest net wages for 20 years will amount to $16,540.
“On the other hand, trade workers with a good elementary school education who enter trade schools and remain there until 18 or 19 years of age, earn $12 a week on their entrance into trades, and rapidly rise to $20 or $25 a week. The net income, as the result of this additional preparation, is $26,000 for the same period, or 2^ times greater than that earned by the unskilled learner. In other words, the net dividend on the education to be gained in the combined elementary and trade school would amount to $15,000.”
In October, 1914, the board of superintendents authorized the organization of the prevocational classes, and provided for the licensing and selection of teachers. The eight branches of industrial training already introduced into the schools were continued, and to them were added plumbing, printing, book binding, sign painting, garment design, trade drawing, and home making, the last named being not the least important for the future welfare of families to be raised in the crowded districts of New York.
How the program has worked out in detail during the year is very fully set forth by Dr Ettinger, with pictures of the classes at work. He gives an outline of the general course of study, and syllabi of the work in the several shops, together with lists of text-books and equipment. He leaves no point untouched, upon which information could be desired by any one, either within the system or from the outside. His pamphlet will be eagerly consulted by the many educators in this country who are giving serious consideration to the problem of preparing school children to become wage-earners.
A. T. An Exhibition of Children’s Pet Animals. One of the objects of the Children’s Pets Exhibition to be held at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, December 2d and 3d, is to encourage children to study strange insects or animals instead of killing them. In regard to this Professor William E. Ritter, of the Scripps Institution for Biological Research of the University of California, says:
“I would like to see all children so surrounded and so instructed with reference to animal and plant life about them that they would have a kindly interest and regard for all creatures, and reach such a rational attitude toward them that only those who are definitely proved to be injurious in one way or another should be dreaded and marked as objects of destruction. There should be nothing in the way of hatred or fear,?excepting legitimate fear, that is, fear based on knowledge of injurious properties,?for any creature or plant. And on the positive side, while certain few animals, as some of the domestic varieties, might properly enough be made pets of, that is, may become companions of children, there should always be a predisposition to be kind to all living things, this predisposition serving to determine action until positive evidence prove the organism undeserving.”
The superintendent of the exhibition considers the comradeship of pets a most valuable factor in the making of men of the future. He has firm faith that boys who are rightly interested in animals will grow into men interested in humanity; and he has found by past experience in local exhibitions of children’s pets that what interests the children will eventually interest their parents. Full information and entry blanks for the Children’s Pets Exhibition (for which there are no expenses), may be obtained by writing to D. O. Lively, Chief of Department of Live Stock, P. P. I. E., San Francisco, California.
Essay Contest on Thrift.
At the Oakland meeting of the National Education Association, Mr. S. W. Straus, of Chicago, President of the American Society for Thrift, made a proposition to the Association in which he offered to finance the expenses of a committee if one should be appointed to study the methods by which instruction in thrift might be introduced into the public schools. He also offered to furnish funds which could be used for prize-essay contests on the subject of thrift. This offer was accepted by the Association and a committee was authorized to be appointed by the president of the National Council of Education.
In discussing the question of the essay contests with Mr. Straus, it was decided to conduct two, one of which should be open to school children and one to adults. The contest for adults will be managed entirely from the office of the Association, but it was thought best to manage the contest for children under the following conditions.
Each county superintendent will be asked to endeavor to secure a contest in each school within the county outside of cities of four thousand population. That figure was chosen because of the fact that it is the basis for the directory issued by the United States Commissioner of Education. It is planned to have each school select the three best essays that are presented, using any system in the selection which the teacher desires. The three best essays from each school will be sent to the county school commissioner, who in turn will, by any method he sees fit, select the five best essays from the schools of the county and send them to the state superintendent. At the same time there would be conducted in each city system of four thousand population or more a similar contest under the direction of the superintendent of schools. Superintendents of cities of less than ten thousand population will send one essay to the state superintendent; superintendents of cities with a population between ten and fifty thousand will send two essays to the state superintendent; superintendents of cities of from fifty to one hundred thousand population will send three essays to the state superintendent; superintendents of cities of over one hundred thousand population will send four essays and one additional essay for each additional one hundred thousand population.
The state superintendent will use any method he desires in determining the best essays from his state, and will send the ten best essays from his state to the office of the Association, which in turn will have these essays rated and the prizes awarded accordingly.
These essays are to be on the general subject of Thrift, the idea being to draw out the children’s ideas on the subject without any suggestion as to methods by which the same should be treated. Essays will be limited to one thousand words. All essays sent to the state superintendent must be in sets of three each and typewritten. To the writer of the best essay a prize of one hundred dollars will be awarded; to the writer of the second best, a prize of fifty dollars; to the writers of the third and fourth best, prizes of twenty-five dollars each; to the writers of the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth best, ten dollars each. The contest will close, so far as the writing of essays is concerned, December 1st. The county and city superintendents should fix a time for receiving the essays from the several teachers. It might be well to allow the month of December for that portion of the work. The month of January can be given to the county and city superintendents for their work, all essays to be in the hands of the state superintendents the first of February. The month of February will be given to the state superintendents for their examination, the essays from each state to be sent to the office of the Association by the first of March. The month of March will be used by this office for its work, so that announcement concerning the prize winners can be made before the close of any schools. In addition to the contest for school children, prizes are offered for the three best essays presented by adults on the subject of Thrift?with an Outline of a Method by which the Principles of Thrift may be Taught in our Public Schools. The first prize will be $750, the second prize $250, and the third prize $100. Persons intending to compete for these prizes should notify the Secretary of the National Education Association of their intention not later than December 1, 1915. The essays must be in the possession of the Secretary not later than March 1, 1916. The essays must not exceed five thousand words and six typewritten copies must be presented. Further details will be sent to those indicating their intention to take part in the contest.
President Robert J. Aley, of the National Council of Education, has appointed the following Committee on Thrift Education: Arthur H. Chamberlain, secretary, California Council of Education, San Francisco, Cal.
Robert H. Wilson, state superintendent of public instruction, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
J. A. Bexall, dean, School of Commerce, Oregon Agricultural College, Corvallis, Oregon. John D. Shoop, assistant superintendent of schools, Chicago, 111. S. W. Straus, president, American Society for Thrift, Chicago, 111. Henry R. Daniel, secretary, American Society for Thrift, Chicago, 111. Milo H. Stuart, principal, Manual Training High School, Indianapolis, Ind. Kate Devereux Blake, principal, Public School No. 6, Manhattan, N. Y. C. H. Dempsey, superintendent of schools, Haverhill, Mass.
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