is likely to be extended by a couple of years in the near future. We offer him extensive opportunity beyond this period. The practical question which concerns us all is, what is the purpose of education during the compulsory period. Making Mr. Spencer's definition more specific, we may reply that it is preparation for useful and happy life, as citizen, producer, and consumer. Life, in order to be worth anything to anybody, must be useful and happy. We are all at the same time citizens, producers, and consumers. What exactly is needed to produce this result? First, the development of the power to observe, the power to make use of the results of observation, that is to say, to think, and the power to express the results of our thinking. Second, and incidental to the development of these powers, the acquisition of necessary and useful information and the awakening of those intellectual interests and curiosities which may lead to the use of this power for the acquisition of added power and enlarged information. The material for the accomplishment of these ends may be found in wise and careful use of the fundamentals of a simple curriculum thoroughly understood. Accurate observation lies at the basis of all intellectual acquisition and technical skill. All the elements of the curriculum may be made to contribute to it. The power to think, through the intelligent com parison and use of the results of observation, is indispensable to any initiative, to any useful participation in human affairs, or to the development of any sort of craftsman's skill. This power also may be derived from the intelligent use of the elements of a simple curriculum. The power of expression takes a wide range. It includes not only the use of language in both spoken and written form, but also the use of the pencil in pictorial representation and the use of tools in the manipulation of material. The materials for the development of this power must be found largely in drawing and manual work. The intellectual value of these subjects, quite apart from their immediate vocational bearing, can hardly be overestimated. We may reasonably expect that with the completion of the elementary school course, which occurs normally at fourteen, these powers shall have been acquired in some reasonable degree, together with the by-product of information which goes along with their acquisition. We have a right to insist that this shall be accomplished and a foundation thus laid for whatever development, educational or industrial, may occur in the succeeding years. We have a right to insist that the schools shall not allow themselves to be diverted from the attainment of this plain goal by any attractiveness of side issues or specious demands for the enrichment of the curriculum. This simple, per fectly definite bit of accomplishment is the task of the public school in the elementary grades. If this piece of work is thoroughly well done, it will fully occupy the years of compulsory education. The course up to the point of graduation from the grammar school, ought to be uniform for all pupils. The tendency to drive the separation of courses and the development of vocational instruction below this point in the pupil's development ought to be strenuously resisted. These are the powers which every youth ought to possess and the information acquired in developing them ought to be the common stock of every man. It makes no difference whether the boy is to be plumber or professor, tinker or theologian, this is the solid, comprehensive and yet simple foundation upon which his intellecual and productive life ought to be built. If this foundation is well and solidly laid before the law frees him to follow his own inclinations, all has been done that the schools can be reasonably expected to do and no more than they should be required to do. HIS thorough grounding in fundamentals THIS is the most important contribution which the schools can make to the preparation of young people for the industries. Unless this foundation is laid in childhood, the superstructure of good craftsmanship cannot be built. It will be plenty of time to build that structure after the foundation has been thoroughly put in and settled down at the age of fourteen or even sixteen. If the additional two years could be given to the broadening and strengthening of this same foundation it would be still a contribution to the industrial efficiency of the individual, as measured by his position at the end of ten years in the industry. AY we reasonably look to the schools for training in the industries? The answer to that is a decided negative. The school should train for the industries but should not train in the industries. The willingness of the average man to let somebody else do his particular piece of work and the willingness of the schools to undertake all manner of work which is not theirs reminds one of the story of the New England farmer who said he had the most willing pair of horses he had ever seen. One was willing to do all the work and the other was willing to let him. The result however, was not very successful in moving a load. It is the business of the craft to teach the craft. It is the business of the school to teach the craftsmen. This is the method which has been so successfully employed by the Germans, whose system has been so greatly praised and so little understood by Americans. The German system of training mechanics is based on the apprentice system, which has never been allowed to die out among them and is now being developed more and more. The apprentice learns the hand-craft and technical skill of his trade in the shop where such teaching belongs and where only it can be carried on with complete success. He learns the science of his trade the contributory knowledge which is so important and so indispensable to his entire success but which he cannot learn in the shopin the school through a carefully arranged curriculum adjusted to his particular needs. We may not reasonably expect the school to teach trades. We may reasonably expect it to carry on the education of the craftsman. We may insist that the school make provision for this further education of the craftsman, and we may even back up that provision by legal requirement of its use as do the Germans. When the employer gives utterance to the complaint, which is daily gowing louder, that he cannot get skilled workmen for his factory, it is proper to reply, "My friend, the provision of those workmen is your job - go to it." "YOUR EARNING POWER DEPENDS, IN A MEASURE, THE HE kind of education that a boy needs on entering the printing trades is the kind that some schools think he does not need. |