needs of their objects, etc., funds and property were gathered to the amount of £3,000,000 ($14,599,500), affording an income of some £100,000 ($486,650) per annum, about one-third of which is available for the purposes named in the act. As the result of their investigations the board concluded to assist technical education by methods best adapted to aid the lower classes, and determined that they could best accomplish this by night schools for apprentices and young people engaged in daily work; by supplementing rather than by supplanting the shop with the technical school; by confining their efforts to youths rather than including those of mixed ages; by improving the physical status of the workingman; and, lastly, by giving him these advantages at minimum cost rather than gratis, thereby developing in him the invaluable element of self help. It is through the agency of the charity commissioners alone that the government becomes a disburser (and, singularly enough, a disburser only) to the several institutions engaged in manual and technical training approved by the board. For it is worthy of note that the means thus furnished are not a charge upon the government itself, but that, having taken into its possession (and very wisely) the funds originally bestowed by individuals upon other non-necessitous objects, it simply reassigns them, through its charity board, to newer, more virile, and more worthy recipients. This fact but emphasizes the point, already noted, that by itself the government of Great Britain has as yet done but little outside its science and art department to forward the acquisition of industrial and technical knowledge, and little in that department to meet the needs of those who require it most. The great impetus that has been given to improvement in the handicrafts and in technical acquirement on, the part of the masses was, due primarily (and is chiefly maintained in Great Britain today) to the persistent and remarkably intelligent zeal of a comparatively few individuals for the welfare of their less fortunate neighbors. This has been excellently supplemented by the equally intelligent action of certain of the great manufacturing and commercial guilds for which London is especially famed, having, it is true, something of self interest to prompt them, yet actuated withal by much of the same broad purpose which stimulated their forerunners. Yet, thanks to the happily available funds at the disposal of the charity commissioners and the good management and disposition of the latter, nearly all of the best schools of technology in Great Britain, particularly those of the metropolis, are now of our second class, being recipients of material aid from the government through the hands of the charity board, their efficiency being thus largely increased. Both the curricula and the arrangement of classes thereunder in not a few of the schools of the second class are established with reference to the requirements of two very important central organizations which grant subsidies where certain conditions imposed by them are complied with. These are the department of science and art and the City and Guilds of London Institute. The methods employed by the first of these have been noted and its aid, oftener in the form of scholarships, prizes, etc., than of large subsidies, is extended to many institutions not founded by it, nor under its control further than its determination of certain courses of instruction is concerned. It is probably true that the prizes, scholarships, certificates, and conditional grants of the science and art department are greater aids and incentives than they would be in the United States. The City and Guilds of London Institute for the Advancement of Technical Education makes grants for successful instruction in technical subjects. It also restricts classes which receive its encouragement to young men actually engaged in cognate trades and requires evening instruction. Its scheme of technical study is well defined and its functions as an examining body are intelligently exercised. It is, however, as such, rather than as an instructive agent, that it is preëminent, though its great corporate powers, material wealth, and moral status have enabled it to accomplish great good throughout the kingdom. This organization (constituted 1878) comprises in its membership nearly, if not quite, all of the principal manufacturing and mercantile guilds (the Drapers' Company excepted) of the city of London, some of them, e. g., the Steelyards Merchants, and the Saddlers, dating from the tenth century. Its original act empowers it to promote the application of science and art to productive industry; to found, establish, endow, maintain, and conduct a central institute, in or near the city of London, and trade schools in London or provincial towns, and by means of lectures, classes, and examinations held thereat, or by such other means as may be deemed proper, to train teachers, and provide for the technical instruction of persons of both sexes engaged in the industries and manufactures in such sciences and arts as are auxilary to those industries and manufactures, or any of them; to form, endow, and maintain such museums and collections of the products of science and art in their application to industries and manufactures, and to provide such libraries, laboratories, and workshops as may be decined expedient; to accept gifts, endowments, and bequests of money for the purposes of the institute. Other bodies having similar objects may be affiliated. The third class of technical schools, viz., those which have been created and maintained by individual or associated guilds, or by other organizations, etc., does not include any considerable number. Like the department of science and art the City and Guilds of London Institute, while giving support and assistance to a large number of technical institutions both in and beyond the metropolis, has established and itself maintained three such schools which it directly controls, and which, as representing the more advanced instruction and the training school element, may take priority in their class. These schools are the South London School of Technical Art, the Central Institute, and the Finsbury Technical College. These are non-recipients of government aid, so far as appears, save possibly as candidates for prizes, etc. It is not to be understood, however, that they may not be eligible to any such subsidies as either of the governmental departments concede. They were chiefly projected before the principal governmental aids were so available as now, and by those abundantly able to maintain them and assist others. It is noteworthy that the greater number of the institutions in Great Britain today (especially in London), which give industrial and technical instruction, owe their existence to the .efforts made by philanthropic individuals or associations to ameliorate the social condition of the humbler classes. Some of the schools established by institutions of learning as part of their educational system, or by individuals or industrial associations to advance particular interests, are as follows: Technical School, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland county, England. Owens College, Manchester, Lancaster county, England. Yorkshire College, Leeds, York county, England. Mason Science College, Birmingham, Warwick county, England. University College, Bristol, Gloucester county, England. University College, Nottingham, Nottingham county, England. University College, Liverpool, Lancaster county, England. University College, Dundee, Forfar county, Scotland. Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, Glasgow, Lanark county, University College, Cardiff, Glamorgan county, Wales. Sheffield Technical College, Saint George Square, Sheffield, York county, Among schools established to advance local industries may be included the Manchester Technical School, Huddersfield Technical School, and Leicester Technical School. There are a large number of technical schools with social features, the Regent street Polytechnic being the most notable example. There are several which are still incomplete, but which are doing excellent work. Among these latter are the Finsbury Polytechnic Institute, the South Lambeth Institute, the Albert Youth's Institute, and the Woolwich Polytechnic. The last two are offshoots of the Regent street Polytechnic, and aim to reach particular classes, the Woolwich school recruiting its membership principally from the Woolwich arsenal and dockyard. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION. Among the most active and efficient agencies in furthering the cause of technical education is to be reckoned the National Association for the Promotion of Technical Education, of which the Marquis of Hartington, M. P., is president; Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M. P., is treasurer; whose secretaries are Sir Henry E. Roscoe, M. P., and Mr. Arthur H. D. Acland, M. P.; and whose assistant secretary is Mr. H. Llewellyn Smith, B. A., B. Sc. The object of this association is not to interfere with the teaching of trades in workshops, or with industrial and commercial training in the manufactory and in the warehouse. It desires to develop increased general dexterity of hand and eye among the young, which may be especially useful to those who earn their own livelihood, and at the same time improve rather than hinder their general education; to bring about more independent and thorough knowledge of those principles of art and science which underlie much of the industrial work of the nation; and to encourage better secondary instruction generally, which will include a more effective teaching of foreign languages and science, for those who have to guide commercial relations abroad, and to develop industries at home. Here are plainly defined the purposes and the limitations of the effort which the association proposes to itself. Some of the difficulties encountered in reducing to practical effect the provisions of the technical instruction act, and some of the partial success achieved under it, are set forth in a report, made by the secretaries and assistant secretary of the National Association, and published in London in 1889, under the title, Technical Education in England and Wales. ELEMENTARY MANUAL INSTRUCTION. To begin with the elementary instruction in the lowest grade of schools we quote the remarks of the committee on this subject: The kindergarten exercises, object lessons, etc., for the infant schools and lower standards, that come under the general title of hand and eye training, form a very desirable introduction to more advanced technical instruction. * But above the infant school nothing of the kind is done, as a rule, in primary schools; and it is much to be regretted that no provision is introduced into the new code making object lessons a necessary subject at least in the lower standards. It is no doubt easy to say that a special syllabus, comprising a series of graduated object lessons, may be drawn up for the approval of the inspector. But, as a matter of fact, object lessons will never generally become part of the curriculum until they are insisted on; and as their educational value in brightening and stimulating the intelligence of the children is admitted by all good teachers, it is most desirable that means should be taken to ensure their general adoption in elementary schools. There are several forms which hand and eye training may take in schools. It may be conveyed by means of drawing, modelling, workshop instruction, or other manual exercises, such as sloid. The only one of these forms of manual training which receives a grant is drawing. Grants may now be proposed for manual instruction, modelling, wood work, etc., under the new technical instruction act. Concerning the plan of teaching by object lessons the report says: The London school board, 15 years or more ago, adopted a graduated series of object lessons to be used throughout its schools. "This scheme of elementary science lessons," says Mr. Sharpe in his report for 1887, "framed with the most intelligent care, has remained almost a dead letter for 15 years to the present time." In 1887 the Drapers' Company placed £1,000 ($4,866.50) at the disposal of the City and Guilds of London Institute for the promotion of manual training. Through the efforts of the guilds the school board established wood work training in six centres in various parts of London for selected children from the board schools. The training began in January 1888. The pupils attended once a week for a whole morning or afternoon, thus giving up one school attendance per week for the manual training. The six centres thus provided for the instruction of 584 children. The classes are under the control of instructors and assistant instructors, the latter being practical joiners. The instruction is designed to give the pupils an intelligent knowledge of the principles which underlie their work. Working drawings to scale are made for every exercise. All bench work is done to exact measurement, and every piece of wood is correctly lined before being cut or planed. The experiment of the work has proved so successful that since 1890the government has carried on the work in board and lower grade schools in London and the provinces. A small class for sloid was held as an experiment for three months in the autumn of 1887, but, to quote the report of the school board, "The decision of the local government board in regard to the surcharge for instruction in manual training prevented the board from incurring any expenditure in connection with the class." The class would, therefore, have been discontinued, had not a member of the board defrayed the cost of the instructor's salary. The report on this point concludes: Manual instruction is given in a few other elementary day schools in London. Twenty to thirty selected scholars from Saint Jude's National School, Whitechapel, and as many more from the Castle Street Board School in the same district, receive instruction in wood work from workmen of the Guild of Handicraft in Commercial street. There are also S. Ex. 65-25 |