THE HIGH SCHOOL: ITS RELATION TO SCHOOLS OF TECHNOLOGY.

BY PROF. C. O. THOMPSON, TERRE HAUTE, IND.

Two sorts of institutions are designated by the term Schools of Technology,-Schools of Engineering, and Industrial Schools. The latter are somewhat in danger of being confounded with reformatory establishments, and are seeking a distinctive name,-so far without success. If a definition of technology could be accepted, as it certainly will be in time, which would confine it to engineering, then the term Technical School might be applied to those institutions whose object is to stimulate a taste for manual labor in workshops and to prepare boys for workshop life; but, at present, the term Technology is applied to all forms of special training which tend to fit men for any kind of service in the productive or constructive arts.

By a distinctly recognized process of segmentations, the schools of technology are making a real and organic division of labor which is already in advance of set terms, and which must be recognized in any such discussion as is undertaken in this report. The Worcester Free Institute, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Sheffield Scientific School, The Stevens Institute of Technology, and some others, are schools of engineering, in each of which the same end is sought by different methods. It is of first importance to understand the relation of the high school to these schools of engineering. Nothing can be plainer than that any institution whose object is special, i. e., any professional school, must demand of candidates for admission ample, general preparation, in order to do its work to the best advantage, and to escape the perils which constantly beset it. The ideal preparation for an engineering course is "to fit for college.' It is perhaps an open question whether such knowledge of Greek as boys now get in fitting-schools is indispensable to success in engineering; but few professors of experience will hesitate to admit that a thorough training in Latin, history, English grammar, at least one natural history science, and the elementary mathematics, is the soundest foundation on which an engineering course can rest. In a body of students pursuing technological studies, it is easy to detect the advantage those have who were "fitted for college," as shown in power of concentrated attention, quickness and accuracy of appre

hension, dexterity in speech, and general command of themselves. Now, as the high school is specially the boon of the great producing and manufacturing class, and as technology draws its main support from the same class, it is reasonable that such a relation should exist between the two as should enable all boys to obtain the greatest pos sible advantage from both. The high school ought to fit boys for the school of engineering.

It may be best to concede something in the matter of time to the exigencies of the situation of the average boy who will not go to college, but will go to an institute of technology; but the boy must remember that the institute fits him for immediate entrance upon the active duties of his profession, while the college drops him three years short of that point. If, then, he will not go to college, he can at least afford to spend as much time in fitting for engineering as his neighbor who will go to college, for he will find his account in laying the broadest possible foundation before he begins to rear his superstructure. More and better foundation work is the demand of technology upon the high school. This proposition does not need any argument. The practical question is, What shall the high school do?

It is not practicable now to insist upon the ideal preparation in all cases, but every boy who aims at being an engineer ought to find in a high school such a course as this, extending, at least, over three years: In mathematics-Algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, followed by a review of arithmetic. In language-Latin, two years; *French, one year; English, three years. In history-general history. In natural-history science,-elementary botany, zoology, and mineralogy. The physical sciences can be studied to vastly better advantage in the Institute of Technology, and after a good preparatory training in the high school. But, when all the engineers are provided for, there remains a graver problem. Engineers are to design, direct, construct. They are to apply the canons of science to the industrial arts. Particularly are they to meet the new demand for machinery, by improving the old and producing the new. Every year puts some form of handicraft upon the retired list, and so increases the demand for engineering skill in the mechanic arts. Every new machine also increases the number of men who cease to be artisans in the old sense, and are occupied in building machines, in tending machines, or in finishing by simple hand-labor the products of machines. How shall the high school prepare boys for this new workshop-life? is a second question of greater importance than the first.

* It is desirable that beginners in an engineering course should be able to read easy French, so that they can devote their time to German and English.

It is assumed to be the function of the high school to do this. If any one doubts it, and would have distinct manual training enter into school-life at an earlier period, he may consult the objections to such a plan recited in the Forty-third Annual Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education, which seem to me unanswerable. The average pupil of our modern public schools receives, below the high school, 166 weeks of instruction of 30 hours each. This is not too much for the legitimate work of the lower schools; and it cannot be shown that any form of manual training introduced below the high school would tend to increase the time of school-life. All the facts and analogies of boy-life are against such an expectation. If, however, a definite provision is made for technical training, with a definite aim and a promise of occupation for the graduates, at a point just beyond the lower grades, it is very likely to increase the attendance in those grades. The plan now submitted seems to me reasonable and practicable:

Provide a course of two years, of forty-two weeks each, using ten hours a day for five days a week. Take boys from the grammar school, who prove the propriety of giving them a trial by seeking admission, from twelve to fourteen years of age. Divide each class into two equal sections. Provide a workshop of sufficient capacity for one-half of these boys, i. e., one section of each class at a time, and let the sections of each class alternate by half-days in using the shop. Provide a school-room in which precisely the same arrangement is made for instruction, except that attendance shall be required for three terms,-two hours being spent in study at home or in drawing. The result will be that each boy will receive 2,100 hours of shop-drill, and will spend 2,100 hours in school in the two years; the superintendent of the shop will be on duty ten hours a day, and the teachers in the school six hours a day. The workshop must be equipped with tools and machinery, and the boys taught construction in wood and iron, with as great variety and definiteness as possible. In the school-room they may study algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and arithmetic, in order,-twelve hours a week; drawing, six hours; science, six hours; English, one hour,-in all, twenty-five hours a week. At the end of this time, the experience of thirteen years in the Worcester School warrants me in saying that these boys will have no trouble in finding situations in workshops; or, if they find it possible and desirable, they can enter a school of technology and become engineers.

The cost of such a school will depend on the size of it. Build ings, engine, and boilers being given, I find that an expense of

$10,000 a year for five years will provide tools and pay for instruction for eighty boys, leaving the equipment good at the end of that time, to go on for an indefinite period at a much reduced annual expenditure. The plan adopted in the State of New Jersey seems to me the true one. The State promises $5,000 a year for five years to any town that will raise an equal amount for an experimental technical school. This plan gives the aid of the State through a special grant, and throws the responsibility of successful management upon those who are interested in the scheme in any given locality. If the experiment succeeds, there will be no lack of support from the classes directly interested in its results; and it is clear that the form of practice can be determined by the prevailing industries in any town.

A single fact shows the importance of giving immediate attention to this matter of the training of boys for technical pursuits: the dispersion of the manual trades has killed the apprentice system, and no manufacturer who is competent to train boys can afford to do it. What the master-mechanic has abandoned, the school must do; for whatever a boy can learn by direct inculcation, the school ought to teach him.

EDUCATIONAL UNITY.

THE HARMONIZING OF ELEMENTARY, SECONDARY, AND COLLEGIATE SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION.

The Committee to whom was referred the Harmonizing of Primary (or Elementary), Secondary, and Collegiate Systems of Education, present the following report:

The three systems here mentioned embrace the entire course of general education. They cover the whole of the school period, and they include all classes of institutions in which the educational work is carried forward. Those here called primary, or elementary, may be public or private, may be supported by taxation and directly controlled by public authority, or may charge tuition fees and be independent of the State. So the secondary schools may be public high schools; academies,-endowed, or the property of private persons,or preparatory departments of colleges. And the collegiate system includes all institutions giving a liberal education, whether called colleges or universities, whether endowed by private munificence or supported by public funds. This system is not understood to include professional schools, or post-graduate courses.

These three systems are not parallel, but successive. They are not alternative or competitive. They are strictly parts of one continuous system; three stages of the educational process, succeeding each other in the order named. The education of the pupil is supposed to begin in the elementary, through which he passes into the secondary, and thence into the collegiate, where the work under teachers is completed. The time usually spent in the elementary department is six or eight years; in the secondary, three or four; and in the college, four.

These are the existing systems of general education. They are not now to be created, to be called into being; they already exist, and are doing, and have been for many years doing, their work. The youth who is so fortunate as to enjoy the best educational advantages begins with the elementary school and ends with the college. If here and there one receives private instruction for parts of the course, whether in its earlier or later stages, the case is exceptional. The vast majority who are educated are educated in these three systems of schools. Everywhere in the civilized world this general process