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ship is awarded to the graduate. He is encouraged to remain in the employ of the company at fair wages, but if he desires to acquire some outside experience, he is not discouraged in his intentions. Experience has shown that most of those who, upon graduation, start on what used to be called in the old German guild system, "Die Wanderjahre," return after a short while to the Lynn works to their old friends and associates.

As previously stated, skill combined with intelligence must be the basis of all effective trade training. To give this intelligence, the General Electric Company has established a school in connection with the apprenticeship course, in which instruction of an eminently practical character is given for the purpose of supplementing and amplifying the practical work of the shop. Each apprentice is obliged to spend in the classroom six hours per week out of his regular time of employment, during which time he receives the same wages as if he were working at the bench or at the machine. This expenditure by the company, which has proved after all to be an excellent investment, removes the temptation from certain boys to sacrifice an education and the opportunity for future financial returns for the immediate small remuneration, minus a hopeful outlook. The teachers in the classroom who are selected from the staff of engineers, draftsmen, and foremen of the General Electric Company, and devote part of their time to the work of teaching, are men of good standing in their profession, who have natural ability for teaching. They are chosen in preference to professional educators on account of their practical and intimate knowledge of the needs of the factory and the industries in general. Their work covers instruction in that branch of mathematics, physics, engineering, and mechanical drawing which forms a necessary part of the equipment. of a skilled artisan. The theory of these sciences is taught in reference to the concrete problems of the factory, which makes the study not only interesting because real, but also more fruitful in that it initiates the apprentice into the technicalities of the business he is to follow later on. Mathematics covers instruction both in arithmetic and algebra, in the elementary processes of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division relative to whole numbers, decimals, and common fractions, percentage, ratio and proportion, square and cube root; it deals with that part of geometry which concerns the construction of geometrical figures and the calculation of their surfaces and cubical contents; and it gives such an insight into trigonometry as will enable one to understand the elements of the science as applied to the solution of practical problems based on the right and oblique triangle. Physics is taught largely along experimental lines so that the boys may deduce therefrom the laws governing the simple machines, the lever, the screw, the inclined plane, the pulley, the wheel and axle; instruction is also given in elementary magnetism and electricity. Under the heading "Engineering" are explained the different forms of power transmission, the characteristics of the important materials used in engineering construction, and the use of the formulae by which the proper distribution of material may be determined to suit different conditions,

the best forms of design of the principal machine parts, and finally the important general and electric machines. Great stress is, of course, laid upon the study of mechanical drawing, which is, however, not pursued as much with the object of making machine draftsmen of the apprentices as with the aim of enabling them to sketch the auxiliary tools, jigs, and fixtures needed in an economic manufacture on a large scale. Every skilled mechanic should have a knowledge of tool design; and the work of the draftsman and the engineer will prove to be of more practical value if he has this proficiency. All thru the course the boy is taught to express himself both orally and in writing. This work in English is found to be very essential in giving the boys that intelligence which should accompany skill.

In all this, personal instruction is emphasized. The needs of each apprentice are given special attention; no boy is rushed thru the program for the sake of covering the course. As in the practical so in the educational work, each apprentice must prove his efficiency in one process before he is advanced to the next. The four years' course of apprenticeship, therefore, gives each boy such manual and mental equipment as is proportional to his individual capacity.

Whether the manufacturer is to provide the supply of skilled mechanics thru the apprenticeship system in the factory, or the public-school system is ultimately to establish industrial schools for this purpose, there remains one fact highly essential in the consideration of industrial education—the boy must first of all have a respect for manual work, which may profitably be his life's occupation. The disinclination of the American youth to enter the mechanical trades is one of the great causes of the scarcity of skilled labor. To awaken in the boy a respect for, and an interest in, useful work is the great responsibility of the teacher. Genuine interest in the industrial activities of the community in which the school is located and co-operation with business men will greatly facilitate the teacher's efforts, as it will make him see clearly his duty toward the vast majority of boys who are going to earn their daily bread at the bench or at the machine. Every gathering of teachers should avail itself of the opportunity of listening to an address by a manufacturer or business man on what seems to him to be the defects of the school product; as there should be, in my opinion, an effort on the part of practical men to hear frequently from the teachers in regard to the aims of the schools and the help which the practical men may extend in achieving these aims. A visit, once or twice a year, of the graduating classes of the public schools to the workshops of the town or vicinity will awaken in many a boy a true desire for his future work; he will start out with a purpose in life and will therefore succeed better than the one who embarks upon the ocean of life's work without any definite aim other than that of making money. Let the teacher himself realize that the occupation of the skilled mechanic is indeed a dignified calling; and he will have then no difficulty in making the boys see it in the same light.

ALFRED GUILLOU, Throop Polytechnic Institute Pasadena, Cal.-During the last five years it has been my privilege to have been closely in touch with a high school and with an elementary school, both of which made the effort to carry on, and to a large extent succeeded in maintaining, courses of study which very closely approximated the ideals that have been discussed this morning. My three children have attended these schools and as I have had no connection with them beyond this fact and my interest in their methods, I feel that I have been a fairly disinterested critic. I refer to Throop Institute, at Pasadena, which besides the old-fashioned title of institute retains for its high school, the equally old-fashioned name, "academy."

But both the elementary school and the academy are anything but old-fashioned in practice. The academy it is true, fits young people for college and is accredited—faults which are at least excusable-but, besides the ordinary academic subjects, it offers its students on the vocational side the following: drawing, free hand and mechanical, especially working drawings, design, wood-carving, clay-modeling, cooking, sewing, woodshop, blacksmithing, pattern-making, and machine shop; on the scientific side it offers biology, zoology, botany, physiography, physics, and chemistry. Certain academic subjects are required if the student elects to take a diploma; if, however, as is the case with one of my boys, he is indifferent to the glamours of graduation, the student has free election of any subject in the curriculum, the only limitation being a maximum of three book subjects a day.

In the elementary school the right of election begins not in the sixth grade as suggested by Dr. Burks, but in the first grade. My little girl of eight years in her second grade enjoys the right of election equally with her brother of seventeen in the fourth year of the academy. The elementary school offers this election as to all the ordinary school subjects, also as to these vocational subjects: cooking, sewing, woodworking, paper-box making, wood carving, clay modeling, design, freehand and working drawing, and as to scientific work in elementary physics and chemistry. There is no restriction as to grades, for elementaryschool children can elect academy subjects and grades to which they show themselves equal.

I have stated these facts thus fully to show you how nearly this school comes to the ideals of Mr. Johnson and Dr. Burks; and I may add that having in mind my own five years practical experience with my own children and other children under this régime, I have followed with both interest and amusement the theoretical hopes and fears that have manifested themselves this morning. First of all let me assure you that your fears are groundless. I have never met and never heard of any serious mistake arising from the practice of giving the elective right to elementary children. Per contra, I have seen very great good come from this method. My own children have exercised the right without restriction either at school or at home; and they have never made a mistake, altho I will confess that their parents have twice given them very bad advice, which fortunately was followed only in one instance. There can be no question that my children's election of subjects is on the whole wiser than are my tentative selections for them.

Secondly, let me dampen your hopes. Election is not the cure-all that some of you seem to hope. While the eighth grade is the largest at Throop, and the seventh is larger than the sixth, many children drop out and go to work; it is the accretions that swell the upper grades. I am satisfied that election as to vocational subjects is not in itself a satisfactory preventive of children leaving school. I do not believe that any choice or arrangement of the subject-matter of the curriculum is enough in itself. This statement brings me to my third and last point.

My experience with my own and other children under the elective system convinces me that under that system quite as much as under the hard and fast system, the element of first importance is the personality of the teacher. Again and again I have known children to elect a subject because of their eagerness for it, and before their selection was made final by announcement, throw the subject overboard, because of the teacher assigned to the particular class. I have known children who had taken a subject for a year and were

anxious to continue it, decide not to do so, because of the personality of the teacher. This is, of course, a large.subject. Nor is it a very cheerful subject, but none the less it is true and it is vital. I will only say that I think the views of this morning have shared to some extent the current fault of much of our modern work-an overvaluing of subjectmatter and a forgetting of the tremendous influence of personality. My boy of fourteen assures me confidently, “A great many more kids leave school because the teachers are cranky and no good, than because they sour on the things that are taught." May not this be deep wisdom from the mouth of a modern babe ?

RATIONAL ART AND MANUAL TRAINING IN RURAL
SCHOOLS

ELBERT H. EASTMOND, INSTRUCTOR IN INDUSTRIAL ARTS, BRIGHAM
YOUNG UNIVERSITY, PROVO, UTAH

Let us first consider mechanism from an evolutionary and psychological standpoint to justify the correlation of art-study and manual-training work.

The conceptive in mechanism.-To strengthen and cultivate the powers of the brain of man is rightfully our greatest aim in education. Tho our ideas and methods change, we still hold that education means, first, mental development, whose produce is culture and aptitude, that give men and women the most joy and power in life. Many enthusiasts of manual expression are eager for the training of the hand and believe that the brain thru this activity will receive its greatest strength. Others hold that the greatest good will result from the mind receiving the first stimulus. To the second class I belong. I desire the pupil or student under my direction to receive, first of all, training that will tend to create conceptive centers in the brain. Such mental activities as the child in the kindergarten exhibits can be fostered and cultivated by well-directed industrial work. I use the word "industrial" advisedly, because I believe that industrial training should precede the manual training that promotes skill of hand. I desire that the word "industry" shall suggest love for work. I believe in the muscles being in the service of the brain, and not the brain subordinate to the manual activities. I believe that all organized matter is conceived mentally before it is wrought out in material form. In all events, with the development of the child, attention should be given to the conceptive faculties, for the benefit of the imaginary and subjective possibilities.

Production thru necessity.-We all agree that necessity is the parent of industrial activity and that especially in structural science do food, shelter, and clothing generate the idea of the cup and transportation vessel, as well as the hut, home, temple; the coat of skin and rich mantle. Necessity will present the purpose for a thing; all else is left to the brain, and its agencies of innate power, influence, and adaptation.

External influence and creative processes.-It seems that as the brain develops, it becomes sensitive to outer impressions--to external impulses and centers of interest. The sun has in all ages caught the interest of world children insomuch that they have worshiped, because it is the great dispenser of heat and light. I believe that objective form in the world promotes the subjective

creation of form. All the beauties of this wondrous earth, in flower and leaf, form and color, in crystal and atom, have proportion and unity. Thus the objective world becomes a stimulus for concepts and the pattern for material structure. Then we have the dreamer-builder man, who, whether conscious or unconscious of this objective agent, and naturally sensitive to all around him, works in accordance with the structural universe. We take it for granted that all the objective beautiful in the world is classified for educational purposes under nature-study. I have come to the conclusion, that, from a psychological point of view, worthy, clean production evolves when the cell of the brain has first been exposed, as it, were, to art environment, to nature influences. Art-study and art-influence are especially adapted for good-taste promotion in regard to creative form. The sacred lotus of the Nile influenced, not only the ornament of Egypt, but the form of the structure, especially in detailed parts. The cave, seen by primitive man, has suggested the room. The mountain stream with unseen chisel has shaped out the glen, and has said to the sculptor, in the words of the great Master, "Go thou and do likewise," and he has responded to the command. Most of the world's sculptors have lived the better part of their productive lives in mountain regions. Artists paint pictures because God has tinted beauty in the sky, and in the distance and in the river. I feel that educationally we can well afford to give some attention with the child to art-study and nature-study, at the same time when nerve cells are in the process of formation-not to the extent of creating any special aptitude, but merely to refine.

Formation and its adaptation to conditions.-Then constructional art derives its form from two sources, geometry and nature, or nature and geometry. Thru the evolutionary methods of construction in the world, the forms of nature that have fitted man's structural ways, have become typed and fixed— geometric-until a basis has been formed for a means of building.

I feel that thru inheritance a child is endowed mentally with, at least, embryonic knowledge of geometric form, insomuch that type forms are unconsciously produced by him before he can possibly receive external or geometric influence.

Animate forms continually change because of their station influence. Building in the world has been greatly influenced by religion. Altitudes and temperatures affect it.

The adaptation of energies in the scientific field continually changes the original form. Compare the locomotive or steamboat with their crude originals. It becomes at once apparent that innumerable changes have been made for more perfect manifestation.

All the fine lines of constructional art have derived their form decidedly from nature. A vase of clay may take the conventional or abstract shape of the lotus lily or sego lily, and be good art, inasmuch as there is consistency of purpose. The basket may evolve from a fruit form, the dish from the lake, thus giving abundant opportunity for correlation of subjects.

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