The Condition and Tendencies of Technical Education in Germany

by Arthur Henry Chamberlain

“The elementary and secondary schools are quite independent of each other—not one boy in ten thousand finds his way from the highest class of the elementary school into the Gymnasium.”

It is evident that year by year an increasingly large number of boys discontinue their education at the close of the elementary school, for a statement made by Mr. Michael N. Sadler, (Vol. III of Special Reports on Educational Subjects, London), some years prior to the above writing, would seem to indicate a lesser percentage of dropping out than that proposed by Dr. Russell.

The desire then for more extended educational advantages must have been early felt, and there sprang into existence what has since developed into one of the most significant features and far-reaching factors in the German scheme,—the continuation school. I quote from Mr. H. Bertram who writes of the continuation schools in Berlin, December, 1899:

“Amid the development of civilization among the nations the idea of the continuation school is making its way with increasing strength. Urgently required by the conditions of social organization, and in its turn acting on them, the new institution appears in many forms. It claims its place side by side with the Church and the School.

“Among the great number of those who enter early upon the practical business of life, to whom the primary school has offered a start there awakens, sooner or later, the desire to share in the stores of knowledge which human intelligence has won, in the insight into the working of the forces of nature, which it has acquired and applied to industry, in the arts which ennoble and support human action; in short to participate in the spiritual treasures which are, as it were, the birthright of those born under a luckier star. This desire, which opens to the diligent the way to material prosperity and inner contentment, seems for society as a whole an important incentive to industrial progress, and turns the discontent of the slaves of machinery into happiness of men conscious of their own success. The more the old order changes which held the work people in the narrow bonds of tradition, the more is customary prescription replaced by education and independent judgment, by insight into existing conditions, by special excellence within a particular sphere. For this reason, the elementary school, however efficient and methodically correct its action may be, cannot suffice for the happiness of the masses, nor for the preservation of society. The instruction must come into close contact with the life of the future citizen, and must be at the command of everyone desirous to learn, as long as he seeks it. But the seeker, born amid such conditions as these, needs guidance. Public libraries, newspapers, magazines help him the more he pushes forward, but without expert assistance he hardly finds the beginning of the path.

“This is the object of the Continuation School.”

It is somewhat difficult to define the limits and scope of the continuation or Fortbildungsschulen. Conditions vary in the different German states and especially do they vary in the various kinds of continuation schools. Definition is made even more doubtful when we find that the limits of certain schools overlap. It may be said that students are regularly admitted from fourteen to sixteen years of age. Not infrequently however, boys and men of more mature years take advantage of the courses offered. Instruction is carried on during the week-day evenings from six to eight o’clock and on Sunday mornings.

Prussia leads the other states in the number and character of her supplementary schools, the system having its fullest expression in Berlin. The fact became early apparent that preparation, whatever line the boy was to follow, was necessary, and this thought is confirmed in the many skilled laborers in Germany to-day. In Prussia, as elsewhere, it was found that boys many times left the common school before they became proficient in any line of book work. The causes were various; poverty, indifference, sickness, overcrowding, poor enforcement of the compulsory attendance laws,—all these conspired to make supplementary schools necessary. In the older provinces very little attention was given the continuation school prior to 1875, and almost as much could be said of those provinces which were acquired in 1866. In 1844 a report issued by the Department of Public Instruction makes mention of the usefulness of such schools, while two years later a second report has only slightly more to say on the subject. This lack of interest may be attributed in large measure to the non-financial support of these schools by the government.

Several problems had to be faced in working out the scheme. Certain definite relations between the primary and continuation schools must be observed; those coming into the latter with an inadequate underschool knowledge must be looked after; provision must be made for students of lesser as well as of more mature years; all classes of occupation must be given attention; these and many other difficult questions were to be met and overcome.

“Three principles,” says Mr. Bertram, “have contributed to the solution of this problem—free choices between the courses provided, free enjoyment of the preparatory courses without fee, and the selection of the teachers according to their attainments in a particular branch and their ability to adapt their instruction to the needs of the pupils or participants in the course.”