Our Schools in War Time—and After

by Arthur D. Dean

In working out plans for reëducation in the United States we must have in mind certain principles. There is the necessity of making our training thorough. Our problem will be not to find employment for the period of the war, during which there is a constant demand for workers, but to train the disabled for an occupation in which they can hold a place after the temporary shortage of labor created by the war conditions is over. It is obvious that if the men are incompetent and ill-prepared for their work, they will be weeded out as soon as skilled men are available. Their work is barred from that demanding manual strength; nor can it hope to belong to that highly specialized kind which would demand an arduous and elaborate training. But there is a wide range of semiskilled occupations where a handicapped man can earn more than if he should enter after a long course of training the highly skilled trade where he would meet the competition of the physically normal.

There are at least three kinds of disabilities our schools will have to deal with. First, there is the man who has lost his right arm. This man must, whenever possible, be taught to use his left hand in his trade, although it is sometimes easier to learn a new process than to change right-hand to left-hand methods in the old operation. In carpentry, turning, and machine trades, however, the one-armed man may continue to be employed, and our vocational schools should incorporate courses in left-hand training. Here also we find another need: there must be built for the disabled left-hand machines.

Next there is the case of the man who must be instructed in an allied trade because his former one is pronounced by medical examination and the tests of mechanotherapy to be impossible. And last there is the case of the man whose injury makes necessary the fitting of delicately adjusted prosthesis and a course of expert training before he can become a wage earner.

Our chief difficulty in our work of reëducation will be to secure the right kind of teaching force, and it is clear that our government must establish schools to train our technical instructors how to adapt their knowledge of trade teaching to the kind of work demanded in giving instruction to the physically disabled. The selection of the proper type of teacher is vital to the success of any scheme of reëducation. The ideal instructor must not only know his trade but be able to suit his methods to the individual case so as to get the best response from each man under his direction. At present it seems as if there would be no way of training instructors except by sending chosen trade teachers to St. Maurice to study the French methods, that they may return to this country properly equipped to select and instruct others, until such time as a government school of the right type is well established in this country.

As for the schools themselves, they must be undertaken by the government, even if additional hospitals and laboratories for research are maintained by private benevolence and bequest, for there should be no limit to the funds available for carrying on this work of the economic rehabilitation of the men injured in the service of the country, and it must keep pace with the progressive work in France and elsewhere. Branch schools in municipalities may be organized under government control and subsidized by federal money. Some of our trade and vocational schools and their equipment may be taken over by the government for this purpose. Our trade and technical schools must also include courses in training teachers for this special work, the course to be supplemented by a special preparation prescribed by the government.

In Canada the Military Hospitals Commission has made a careful study of the French and Anglo-Belgian treatment in the restoration of disabled soldiers, and has equipped the Central Military Convalescent Hospital at Toronto with the mechano-apparatus similar to that used in France by Dr. Amar and Dr. Bourillon. Profiting by their observation of the foreign hospital schools, they have determined to consider the men in training as still in hospital and under military rule, for in Europe there is absolute unanimity of opinion that the influence of convalescent homes and benevolent support is bad, conducive to lax discipline and idleness. Canada has agreed that the earning power subsequently acquired by a pensioner in training will not lessen his pension. To pass upon the cases eligible for reëducation, Canada has a board of three: a member of the Provincial Advisory Committee, a vocational officer, and a medical man, thus combining with technical and medical aid advice in the industrial choice and placement of the man pupil.

Realizing that reëducation is a new idea to most soldiers and, indeed, to the public generally, Canada has put forth a propaganda of making popular the training courses. A bulletin has been posted conspicuously in public buildings and a printed card circulated bearing the same information, "What Every Disabled Soldier Should Know." Aside from encouragement and directions of where to obtain help, etc., we find the following:

That his strength and earning capacity will be restored in the highest degree possible.

That if his disability prevents him from returning to his old work, he will receive free training for a new occupation.

That full consideration is given to his own capacity and desires when a new occupation has to be chosen.

That neither his treatment nor his training nor his transportation will cost him a cent.

That his maintenance and his family's will be paid for during his training and for a month after.

That his home province has a special commission to assist him in finding employment on discharge.

To further the publicity of the work in Canada, moving-picture films have been prepared, systematically illustrating the treatment and reëducation of wounded soldiers in England, France, and Canada, and showing their progress up to the stage of final recovery. These films have been shown in hundreds of theaters throughout the Dominion.

It is encouraging that occasionally in France and Canada the vocational training in connection with hospitals places a man in a better position financially than before. The following examples are given out by the Canadian Military Hospitals Commission and are testimonials of the possibilities of rehabilitation.