TABLE 9.—DISTRIBUTION OF THIRD AND FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS IN TRADE COURSES
IN THE CLEVELAND TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOLS, FIRST SEMESTER, 1915-1916[TableList]
| Trade courses | Students |
| Electrical construction | 68 |
| Machine work | 52 |
| Printing | 28 |
| Cabinet making | 22 |
| Pattern making | 12 |
| Foundry work | 1 |
| ——— | |
| Total | 183 |
That relatively few of these students will ultimately become journeymen workmen is shown by the records of the boys graduated in the past. The principal of the East Technical High School recently sent a questionnaire to all the students graduated up to 1915, asking for information as to their present occupations and their earnings during the first four years after graduation. Of those who replied, over 60 per cent either were attending college, or employed as draftsmen or chemists. About 28 per cent were employed in the skilled trades. The distribution in detail is shown in Table 10.
The data furnished by graduates as to their earnings during successive years after leaving school supply still more convincing evidence to the effect that the technical school graduate seldom remains in manual work more than two or three years. The complete course gives them an equipment of practical and theoretical knowledge that speedily takes them out of the handwork class. The technical high schools are primarily training schools for future civil, electrical, and mechanical engineers. To the student who cannot afford a college course they offer excellent preparation for rapid advancement to supervisory and executive industrial positions, and for drafting and office work in manufacturing plants.
TABLE 10.—DISTRIBUTION BY OCCUPATION OF CLEVELAND TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES[TableList]
| Occupation | Number |
| Attending college | 111 |
| Draftsmen | 51 |
| Electricians | 33 |
| Machinists | 32 |
| Chemists | 8 |
| Pattern makers | 7 |
| Cabinet makers | 6 |
| Printers | 3 |
| Foundrymen | 1 |
| Unclassified | 32 |
| ——— | |
| Total | 284 |
The output of the schools falls into two main divisions: those who leave at the end of the second year or earlier, and those who graduate. The records show that most of the pupils who reach the third year complete the course, but nearly half drop out during the first and second years. The benefit they obtain from these two years' attendance is problematical. The course was designed on the basis of four years' attendance, and the work of the first two years is to a considerable degree a preparation for that of the last two.
The principals of both schools are fully alive to the disadvantages of the course for the large number of pupils who drop out within a year or two, and admit that such students would derive greater benefit from more practical instruction aimed directly toward preparation for the industrial trades. Both believe that the only practicable solution is a two-year trade course in a separate school, covering a much wider range of shop activities than the present high school course.