France goes still further, and, because of unsatisfactory conditions in apprenticeship, attempts to eliminate it altogether, and to furnish the entire industrial training through continuation schools articulating with the elementary system. The pupils are admitted at thirteen to the continuation schools (see p. 383) and obtain practice in the school workshops for three years. Woodwork is generally taught to the boys, but the other courses vary with local needs. Girls learn to make dresses, corsets, millinery, artificial flowers, and other Early facilities in England. industrial products. In England, grants were first made to evening industrial schools and classes in 1851, but twenty years later regular schools of science were organized, which had both day and evening sessions. In addition to these continuation schools, there have now been established higher elementary schools, which afford a four-year course in practical and theoretical science arranged according to local needs.
Evening continuation schools in United States.
Industrial Training in the United States.—Industrial training first began to be offered in the United States during the latter half of the nineteenth century by means of a number of evening continuation schools. These were established through philanthropy in the larger cities, and included the Cooper Union and the Mechanics’ Institute in New York; the Franklin Union and the Spring Garden Institute in Philadelphia; the Ohio Mechanics’ Institute in Cincinnati; and the Virginia Mechanics’ Institute in Richmond. The public schools at length followed this example, and of late years have organized evening classes in drawing, mathematics, science, and technical subjects. Day instruction was long delayed. It began in 1881 Day schools, private with the foundation of the New York Trade School, but at the end of twenty years there were only two and public. others,—the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades near Philadelphia and the Baron de Hirsch Trade School in New York. Later the development was more rapid, and since 1906 several hundred day trade schools have been organized, mostly through public support, in Secondary schools. the larger cities of the country. These schools are mostly for youths between sixteen and twenty-five, but ‘preparatory trade schools’ for younger boys have also been started in New York, Massachusetts, and other states. Higher training to equip leaders for the industries has also come to be furnished through endowed secondary schools and technical high schools in a number of cities. ‘Part-time’ schools. A recent variety of vocational training is the ‘part-time’ plan, by which students are given some theoretical and formal training in a regular high school or college, while they are obtaining their practical experience. This alternation of practical and theoretical training is sometimes carried on in a single institution, or even within a commercial establishment itself.
Conditions requiring commercial education.
Commercial Education in Europe and America.—But the modern development of vocational training throughout the leading countries has not been confined to industrial lines. With the extension of the sphere of commerce and the development of its organization that have taken place in the nineteenth century, it has come to be recognized that preparation is essential for a business career. Only recently, however, has this training been felt to be a proper function of the schools, since for many years it was opposed by educators as sordid and commercializing, and by business men as unpractical and ineffective. Both classes have now been brought to realize the need of mutual support, and the rapid growth of commercial education indicates an appreciation of its usefulness.
In Germany many private continuation schools,
Germany is generally admitted to lead in commercial education. The growth of this training has taken place since 1887, but there is now offered under state control a unified and thorough preparation for any line of business. Besides private continuation schools, in which a course of three years in modern languages and elementary commercial studies can be obtained, there have grown and secondary and university courses, up both public secondary schools and university courses in which a thorough general education and theoretical work in commerce, as well as a practical and technical but England and France indifferent. training, are provided ([Fig. 55]). England and France have been rather indifferent to commercial education. In both countries until very recently schools have been few, and the number of pupils in each has been small. But now continuation schools, free evening courses, and private classes have sprung up, and in a few large cities commercial schools of secondary and even higher grade In the United States ‘business colleges,’ have been established. In the United States commercial training began by the middle of the nineteenth century through private enterprise with classes in bookkeeping, and later with ‘business colleges.’ Despite the name of the latter, the course is narrow and is generally shaped by and secondary and higher courses. pecuniary aims. During the last two decades of the nineteenth century high and normal schools began to offer commercial instruction, but until the twentieth century the courses were only tolerated as a necessary evil, and largely imitated those of the business colleges. Since then many cities have opened high schools of commerce, and university schools and colleges of commerce have arisen, and even a score of years before this development the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce was started at the University of Pennsylvania.
Agricultural instruction in the schools of France and Germany.
Recent Emphasis upon Agricultural Training.—A similar development has of late been taking place in agricultural education. France and Germany offer elementary instruction in agriculture, while the former has also introduced the subject into the normal schools, and the latter has established a secondary agricultural institution open to students at the close of their sixth year United States offers courses in all grades of education. in the Realschule. Through the feeling that the United States must become the great agricultural nation, and that the traditional methods of agriculture have been exceedingly wasteful, this country especially has been emphasizing that type of vocational education. The land grant colleges, first endowed by act of Congress in 1862, have greatly stimulated interest in the subject, and later Congress added other sources of revenue, and has recently furnished appropriations for instruction in the teaching of agriculture and for extension work in agriculture. Thus the way has been prepared for the introduction of the subject into the high school and grades. There are now at least one hundred agricultural high schools in the United States, and agriculture is taught as a branch of study in several thousand high and elementary school systems.
Social conditions demanding moral training.