Fifth, trade training is provided not merely for those in the trades but also for those who are preparing to enter them. Trade schools are sometimes supported out of the public purse, sometimes by private endowments. The method of instruction is that of requiring the learner to go through a definite series of exercises which will give him skill in the trade. The strictly technical training is usually supplemented by some “general” training.
The following quotation gives a brief summary by one specialist in vocational education of the writings of another specialist in the same field:
THE MANHATTAN TRADE SCHOOL, NEW YORK CITY
This trade school for girls is now a part of the public-school system of New York City. Its early history as a privately supported institution is of absorbing interest, and has been tersely written by Mrs. Mary Schenck Woolman, in her book entitled “The Making of a Trade School.” In this volume she gives an interesting account of the first experiment in the United States to deal in an adequate way with the problem of furnishing vocational training and guidance to children destined to enter industrial life, otherwise wholly unprepared, at the earliest possible age.
The aim of the school is frankly stated to be the giving of help to the youngest wage earners, but its ideals are of considerable breadth. They are to demonstrate to the community what education is needed for “the lowest rank of women workers” in order that a girl may become self-supporting and adaptable, “understand her relation to her employer, to her fellow workers, and to her product,” and value health and moral and intellectual development.
The necessity for this effort was found in the unfortunate social and economic conditions, and especially in the lack of opportunity for progressive work. “After several years spent in the market” the girl was found to be little better off than on her entrance into industrial life.
After investigation, trades were selected in which are used the sewing machine (foot and electric power), the paint brush, paste brush, and needle. In organizing instruction all unnecessary waste was eliminated; short, intensive courses were planned to give knowledge and skill in the technical aspects of the selected trade, and to develop mental alertness on the part of the worker. It has been observed that “the academic dullness which is shown at entrance comes frequently from lack of motive in former studies.” The fundamental importance of health and the value of trade art as a help to progress are given special emphasis.
The supreme value of the school’s trade-order business, as an educational asset, is shown in the following quotation:
It provides the student with adequate experience on classes of material used in the best workrooms; these girls could not purchase such materials and the school could not afford to buy them for practice. The ordinary conditions in both the wholesale and the custom trade are thus made a fundamental part of instruction. Reality of this kind helps the supervisor to judge the product from its trade value, and the teaching from the kind of workers turned out. Through the business relation the student quickly feels the necessity of good finish, rapid work, and responsibility to deliver on time. The businesslike appearance of the shop at work on the orders, and the experience trade has had with the product, have increased the confidence of employers of labor in the ability of the school to train practical workers for the trades.... The business organization and management required in the adequate conduct of a large order department can itself be utilized for educational purposes.
A chapter devoted to representative problems makes an illuminating analysis of the difficulties which must be met and solved by those organizing schools for workers in the lower grades of industry. While the instruction must be direct and specific, some preliminary general training is needed, and work intended to awaken vocational interests should also be provided. Mrs. Woolman believes that all this might and should be given in the public elementary school. Other difficulties are the keeping of the school organization flexible and sensitive to ever-changing trade conditions, and in “close contact with industrial and social organizations of workers in settlements, clubs, societies, and unions, that all phases of the wage earner’s life—pleasures, aims, and needs—may be appreciated.” There is the difficulty of securing suitable teachers, and of working in harmony with the ideals of organized labor.[46]
It provides the student with adequate experience on classes of material used in the best workrooms; these girls could not purchase such materials and the school could not afford to buy them for practice. The ordinary conditions in both the wholesale and the custom trade are thus made a fundamental part of instruction. Reality of this kind helps the supervisor to judge the product from its trade value, and the teaching from the kind of workers turned out. Through the business relation the student quickly feels the necessity of good finish, rapid work, and responsibility to deliver on time. The businesslike appearance of the shop at work on the orders, and the experience trade has had with the product, have increased the confidence of employers of labor in the ability of the school to train practical workers for the trades.... The business organization and management required in the adequate conduct of a large order department can itself be utilized for educational purposes.
Practical Applications as Parts of Academic Courses
The effect of these experiments in vocational education is clearly discernible in the traditional courses. Reading books are beginning to include extracts which deal with practical matters. Mathematics textbooks are presenting more than ever before practical problems drawn from commercial, trade, and agricultural life. Science, both in elementary and advanced forms, is turning to practical applications. In short, there is going on a kind of intellectual compromise which will eventually make training in skill an accepted part of a general training.
General training has until recently been so proud of itself that it has not willingly accepted association with courses designed to cultivate skill. The result is that the common man has gained the impression that there is a wide gulf fixed between general education and practical life. One hopeful symptom of the present situation is that discussions of general education are becoming very much more democratic. To be sure, there are examples of the proud exclusiveness of former days still to be found in the writings of those who do not understand the reach of modern reforms in the curriculum, but these cases are likely to become fewer as the years pass. In the meantime the practical world is making long strides in the direction of an appreciation of the value of a general education. The shop mechanic should read. He should be independent in his cultivation of contact with the most recent movements in his trade. The teacher who teaches reading is coming to recognize this as clearly as does the employer, and very shortly the idea that reading is an artificial somewhat, cultivated exclusively for purely intellectual reasons, will give way to the broader view that even the artisan gains in efficiency by reading.
When that time comes there will be no room for the theory that there should be a different school for the tradesman and the professional class. There will be differentiation within the courses. There will be an elective opportunity for each pupil which will adapt the curriculum to his special needs, but there will be no industrial school on the other side of the street, with a separate course, a different kind of teacher, and a different governing board. Such a cleavage of social interests would be disastrous to the academic subjects quite as much as to the practical subjects. Academic life cannot bury itself in the past; it must make its contribution to the activities of the present.