2. The task of the commission being to deal with the branches of vocational training best adapted to give the pupil a broad outlook upon general industrial activities, the commission judged it best to confine its recommendations to manual work of construction in wood, metal, and plastic material. In methods as well as content of instruction it is emphasized that such work must proceed along the lines of teaching by example. In such teaching much that is old and fundamental must be stressed by way of throwing light upon the elements of the training that are common to all branches of manual arts.
3. In its decision to urge a general attitude toward industrial training rather than specialized methods peculiar to one branch, the commission was confirmed by the testimony of all except one of the directors of the vocational institutions in Brazil. Only one advocated specialized instruction. Written representations of the faculties of the vocational schools Alvaro Baptista, and Souza Aguiar, in Rio, further confirmed this view.
4. The results of vocational instruction in Brazil as actually observed within the last few years convinced the commission—
(a) That unspecialized training best provided the foundations for good citizenship as well as industrial training.
(b) That by this training the latent technical aptitudes of the student were more effectively revealed and developed, as shown by steady increase in salaries of the graduates, than was the case with the apprentices who had been trained exclusively in one line.
(c) That the superior adaptation of the graduates of the general vocational school had been shown by tables giving information as to their progress in skill and value to their employers. These tables were naturally incomplete, but their general drift was undeniable.
(d) That the chief cause of the poor attendance upon the vocational instruction for boys is the prevalent idea that the vocational school is an index of lower social standing, enrolling only those boys that can not obtain any other means of education. Thus the vocational school is sharply differentiated socially from other types of schools. It suffers from being regarded as preeminently the school to train workmen. The commission had in mind the purpose of preparing public sentiment for the passing of this traditional prejudice when it attempted to inspire a just estimate of manual work in the public mind and to organize such courses as would adequately carry out this idea.
(e) That the vocational school must be established as a direct continuation of the primary school, ministering to the innate tendency in the child to realize things with his own hands; that thus the traditional and depressing prejudice mentioned would be counteracted, as time would not be given for it to intervene in the child’s mind. The workshop, thus articulated with general training, would come to be the fulfillment of an aspiration, inculcating as well the love of work and respect for it.
(f) That the success of the projected schools depends largely upon the cooperation of the industrial firms of Brazil, which should be appealed to for their sympathy and for the encouragement of their adolescent employees to attend these schools; that the granting of daylight hours to employees to attend such schools, as has been done in England and France, with the consequent improvement in the physical and mental condition of the pupils, is a step to be commended to all employers as patriotic citizens.
The salient provisions of the report of the commission are as follows: