COMMUNICATIONS
VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS
To the Editor:
Recently the writer noticed several communications in The Survey, in reference to the proposition of establishing a separate system of vocational schools, distinct from the existing traditional public school system.
As a reason for the establishment of this so-called “dual” system of vocational education the claim is advanced that, since manual training had been emasculated by being in contact with the public school, so likewise would vocational and industrial education be emasculated if these forms of education were to be carried on side by side with the other schools under the old organization.
The writer having seen the retarding effects of such a “dual” system in one of our larger industrial cities, and Massachusetts having tried and abandoned it, and since the writer is firmly convinced that such a divided system of education will, before long, react injuriously upon the social and ethical life of a state and her communities, and will plague the industries with its uneconomic and unsocial consequences, he is decidedly opposed to such a separated system of vocational schools.
It is a shrewd move to get entire control of the education of the masses of industrial workers, a mentally narrowing, mind killing education which, in its effects, would pull the intelligence of a community down to a lower level, being re-enforced by the ossifying influences of extreme specialization, which are noticeable in shop, store and office in all our industrial centers even now.
Manufacturers and business men do not take kindly to the idea that they should be made responsible for the mental, moral and aesthetic development of their employes and under these circumstances industrial education would soon degenerate into a feudal appendage of our industrial system. Manufacturers, corporations and business men are certainly entitled to a share in the management of our educational system and industrial schools and it is highly desirable that they should claim their share.