If the last two quotations are stripped of their decorations, they reveal a demand for a distinct class system of education. Broad education is for the few. Specialized education is another matter,—let it be developed for the masses.
Public Demand for a New Curriculum
It is interesting to note that the masses, so far as they can express themselves, are asking for a change in the traditional curriculum and are likely to get it. The masses are expressing their demands through the courses sought by their children.
Our problem will perhaps be clearer if we turn from the writings of those who discuss these matters to the changes which are actually going on in the schools of the country.
Commercial Courses in High Schools
High schools in all parts of the country are giving commercial courses in increasing degree. The first type of industrial education to be extensively cultivated in the United States was commercial education. This consisted in training for clerical positions and was carried on for the most part in private “business colleges.” The reason for the early demand for this particular kind of training is to be sought in the fact that America has for years been a country devoted on a vast scale to exporting raw materials. Commercial training, which has to do with the shipping of goods, was accordingly the first to grow here. The extent of the demand for commercial training is vividly set forth in a report of the City Club of Chicago published in 1912, which contains the following chart:
ENROLLMENT IN PRIVATE VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS AND IN PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS OF CHICAGO[45]
| There are at least | There are only | |
| 19,000 STUDENTS | 17,781 STUDENTS | |
| in | in all | |
| Private Commercial Schools | Public High Schools | |
| and 800 in | ||
| Private Industrial Schools | in Chicago | |
| in Chicago, and at least | and only | |
| $1,485,000 | $1,114,526 | |
| is paid for | is expended for | |
| TUITION | MAINTENANCE |
Fig. 12
The high schools of the country entered into competition with the private commercial schools, and for some years the competition has been running high. The private schools solicit and get a large patronage on the ground that they do not teach anything that is useless. They give short, compact courses fitted to pupils’ needs. The high schools point out that the short courses leave the stenographer with a meager vocabulary and the clerk with no outlook on life.