Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

At Budapesth, for example, the organization of manual training schools was effected in 1886. The new system has already almost entirely superseded the repetition schools (Wiederholungsschulen) which were formerly so common.

The reasons for the change are given by Herr Josef Körösi, director of the bureau of communal statistics. He says that parents often objected to their children attending the evening school (Wiederholungsschule) after working through the day; and, as attendance was optional, the classes were apt to dwindle to very small proportions. At the close of the year only two or three, often only one pupil, would remain in attendance; that is, on paper, while in fact the class had become extinct.

To counteract this evil schools of manual training were instituted, and the attendance of apprentices at these schools was made obligatory. The fact that these schools are properly classified as manual training schools is evident from the description of their function, for they serve to supply apprentices with the theoretical and practical knowledge (of drawing and modelling) which is necessary for admission to a trade school, where they may continue their studies with success. There are also preparatory classes for pupils not sufficiently advanced to pursue the regular course with profit.

The plan of studies in the new schools requires a three years' course. In the preparatory class, six hours a week are occupied with theoretical studies, and four hours with drawing. In the regular course, during the first year, ten hours a week are allotted to the following subjects: Accounts, literature, geometry, free-hand drawing, and modelling. The second and third years carry forward these studies, and physics is added to the curriculum.

Only ten hours a week are devoted in the aggregate to school work during any year of the course; and drawing and modelling include all there is of manual training at Budapesth, for no attempt is made to familiarize students with wood turning or iron working tools.

Under the municipal statute every district must maintain at least one manual training school, and, as a matter of fact, each district has one such school; districts 5 and 6 have two each, and districts 7 and 8 three each-sixteen in all.

The whole number of pupils enrolled in the sixteen schools, for the year 1888-'89, was 7,357. Of this number 5,499 belonged to the schools at the close of the year, and of those belonging there were—preparatory class, 1,808; first year course, 2,195; second year course, 1,120; third year course, 376. Pupils are admitted to the preparatory classes at the age of 9 years and upward, but the average age is from 13 to 17 years. The larger part of the pupils become apprentices of locksmiths, masons, carpenters, tailors, and printers.

At the beginning of the period covered by the report (1885-1889) there were six schools of industrial drawing in the city. In 1889 all but one of them had been discontinued. The attendance at the remain

ing school has steadily declined from 1,714 in the year 1885 to 986 in 1888-89. The principal reason for this falling off in numbers is to be found in the fact that the majority of the pupils attend the manual training schools, in which drawing forms a required study.

Another typical Austrian school of manual training is described in the second annual report of the State Imperial School for Artisans at Klagenfurth. We glean from the pages of this report all that is pertinent to our purpose.

The Kaiserlich-Königliche Staats-Handwerkerschule in Klagenfurth is essentially a manual training school, since its object is by means of theoretical instruction and practical exercises to impart the knowledge and skill which are desirable as a preparation for learning an industrial occupation, especially a manual trade. The teaching force consists of the director and 9 teachers, and 2 master workmen (1 for wood and 1 for metal work) give practical instruction in the shops.

Architectural, free-hand, geometrical, industrial, and technical drawing, technology, commercial arithmetic and commercial bookkeeping, natural science, a knowledge of materials, religious instruction, geog. raphy, business customs, the German language, manual training, and shop work are the subjects taught. The term of study and practice in this school lasts ten months in each year. The number of pupils for the year 1890-'91 was 41. The course requires two years work for its completion.

In connection with the manual training school are two other departments-the public drawing class (in which the instruction lasts seven months, with thirty hours practice each week), and the industrial continuation school, which also gives a seven months' course, with nine hours instruction each week.

During the school year 27 pupils were enrolled in the drawing class, and 147 in the two continuation classes. For admission to the first class of the manual training school, the pupil must be twelve years old. There is no age limit for entrance into the other departments. The school is yet only three years old.

It is unnecessary to attempt making a full enumeration of the Aus trian manual training schools, and the only remaining institution of this class to which we shall now direct attention is the Pädagogium of Vienna. This is described as "unique of its kind, not only in Austria, but perhaps in the whole of Europe," since it gives "attention to every side of the teachers' training," including in its course exercises in turning and sewing.

It is a normal school organized on a peculiar plan. It was opened in the autumn of 1868, under the directorship of Dr. Frederick Dittes, with a three year's course of instruction. Dr. Emil Hannak, speaking of the school at that period, says: "The Pädagogium soon won for itself a reputation reaching far beyond the boundaries of Austria, and was frequently sought by teachers from southeastern Europe."

In 1881 the Pädagogium was reorganized. As Dr. Dittes had resigned, Dr. Emil Hannak, director of the seminary established at WienerNeustadt, and previously engaged under Dr. Dittes at the Pädagogium, was called to the head of the institution, and entrusted with the management of the same.

This institution had its origin in the conviction that the well-being of the public schools depends upon the careful training of the teachers in all that pertains to the acquisition of knowledge, the art of imparting it, and the best methods of instruction, supplemented by experimental practice in teaching under competent supervision.

CONTINUATION AND TRADE SCHOOLS.

Continuation schools (Fortbildungsschulen) in the smaller cities assume general character. Apprentices and young workingmen of all trades are assembled indiscriminately in the same school rooms; and while general subjects of education are imparted to all alike, special theoretical instruction pertaining to the trade of the individual pupil is given to him. For instance, the shoemaker is instructed in the anatomy of the foot, and his drawing models are feet, boots, shoes, etc. The tailor is instructed in the general anatomy of the human body and must draw patterns of clothing according to certain measurements, and so on for all the other trades where feasible. But no practical instruction is given, no actual tuition in the use of tools.

In the large cities like Vienna, for example, every prominent trade. has its own Fortbildungsschule, supported by the guilds composed of the owners of trade establishments. Thus there are schools for carpenters, joiners, turners, painters, printers, confectioners, watch: makers, locksmiths, etc.

This tendency to establish special schools is seen in Vienna in a Fortbildungsschule for restaurant waiters. In this school instruction is given in French, in deportment, in the first principles of calisthenics, and in rapid commercial calculation. The school is supported by hotel keepers and restaurant owners, who send there, for a few hours each day, boys that wish to become expert waiters.

Gewerbeschulen are true trade schools of a high grade. A pupil entering one of these becomes a full-fledged workman at graduation. All Gewerbeschulen in Austria are conducted in strict accordance with one model-the Gewerbe-Museum in Vienna, which exercises a general supervision over that class of schools. All the drawing and clay models are the same throughout the empire, and it may be safely asserted that when one has seen one school he has virtually seen all of them.

These schools are scattered over the whole of Austria, and they are located mainly with a view to supply the wants and necessities of the geographical position. The schools for weaving and knitting and the manufacture of textiles in general are nearly all located in Bohemia,

Moravia, and Silesia, the inhabitants of the provinces named having pursued these industries from time immemorial.

The schools of artistic wood carving are found for the most part in the Tyrol and in Styria and Carinthia, whose inhabitants are apparently endowed by nature with a special talent for this class of work.

Schools for the building trades, etc., may be found everywhere, while schools for special trades are located in certain isolated spots where it is deemed necessary by the government to create or foster home industries.

All recognized trades and branches thereof are represented by schools, for example, of the art trades, building trades, machine industry, chemical industry, textile industry, lace making, every species of wood working, stone and marble cutting, willow working, pottery, brass working, glass industry, gunsmithing, locksmithing, watchmaking, iron and steel industry, musical instrument making, of jewel manufacturing, and of leather working.

In order to exemplify the methods of instruction pursued in the Austrian trade schools and to convey to the mind of the reader a distinct idea of the variety of branches taught and the results attained in the Fachschulen, we select a few of the establishments of this character for detailed description, beginning with the school of the wood working industry at Bruck.

The school year 1890-'91, which the present report covers, is the tenth of the existence of the Royal School of the Wood Working Industry (Kaiserlich-Königliche Fachschule für Holzindustrie) at Bruck on the Mur. The school year began September 15, 1890, and closed July 31, 1891. During the year 34 regular trade pupils (Fachschüler) were enrolled, of whom 26 were in the division for joiners and furniture makers, 7 in the carpentry division, and 1 in the turning department. Six of the number were new members, and 28 were hold-overs from the preceding year. Of the whole number 2 are dead, 2 left the school in the course of the year and chose a different calling, and 30 remained to the close of the year.

In addition there were 17 young people in attendance as extraordinary pupils, 11 of whom were unemployed laborers, who desired to improve their education during the winter season. All of these were day school pupils, but, besides, instruction was given in two classes of the industrial continuation school (Fortbildungsschule) connected with the Fachschule. These classes were held in the evenings and on Sundays, and boys only were received as pupils.

The term began October 15, 1890, and closed May 15, 1891. In the first year's course 52 apprentices were enrolled; in the second, 15. The teaching staff of this wood working school consists of the director and 5 assistants, 4 of whom are master workmen. Four additional teachers are employed as helpers, though not on the regular force. The subjects. taught are special and industrial drawing for builders and cabinet

makers, free-hand drawing, shades and projections, architectural drawing, wood turning, religion, geography, correspondence, business forms, arithmetic, bookkeeping, shop practice, etc.

Following are the statistical data of the first decade of the Bruck Fachschule:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

In the continuation classes of this school there were, besides, 101 pupils during the year 1890-'91.

Grätz is the seat of a flourishing state industrial school (KaiserlichKönigliche Staats-Gewerbeschule). Herr Karl Laužil is director. With him are associated 13 professors, many of whom are eminent men. In the supplementary list are the names of 29 additional instructors, 4 of whom are female specialists in the art of embroidery.

There are four divisions of the school: A, the division of the building trades; B, the industrial art division; C, the public drawing and modelling school (for pupils of either sex); D, the industrial continuation school (for apprentices and helpers in the building, machinist, and other industries).

During the school year 1890-'91 there were in all 812 pupils enrolled in this school, distributed as follows: Division A, 202; division B, 111; division C, 81; division D, 418.

The length of the course varies for the several specialties. In division A, for example, five winter sessions are requisite for completing the course for masons, practical builders, etc. For joiners and locksmiths the course in this division is of three years' duration. In division B the course for modellers is of four years' extent; for ceramic painting, three years; for the wood and metal industries, four years each; for white embroidery, two years; for color embroidery, three years. division C there is no fixed term of study. In division D the course is for three years.

The course of instruction in the classes of division A for builders and masons lasts five years, and embraces the following studies: First year, German language, geography, accounts, geometry, geometrical drawing, elements of free-hand drawing, calligraphy; second year, German, business forms, accounts, natural science, geometry, projections, free

« AnteriorContinuar »