網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

of profit and loss. It is altogether wrong, although customary, to expect and demand of industrial schools that they should furnish men who are perfect in certain trades or arts, instead of men able to become masters of their particular branch in the future.

(d) Teachers: The teachers must be trade masters, or at least be in contact with master workmen; in the first case there is danger that the method of instruction will be anything but pedagogical, since men of that kind are apt to take for granted what must first be learned. Teachers should be and are often sent to other centers of industry for information.

(e) The material appliances of instruction should be objects of practical use; at any rate should be suitable for such use. Thus, for instance, actual models should be taken from workshops and museums of industry. In the selection of these appliances practical experts should be consulted.

(f) Supervision. Local supervision should be exercised by successful tradesmen who can aim at close connection between school and trade, raise the standing of technical instruction in the eyes of all concerned, and lend their influence toward regular attendance. These local supervisors should make frequent visits to the schools. It has been found that the chief supervision is best exercised by the state department of trade and commerce, and not by the department of public education. The ultimate aim of all industrial schools, the promotion of wealth, outweighs the means, promotion of education, in the community. As an exception to this are considered the technical universities or polytechnica, which are everywhere in central Europe placed under the supervision of the minister of education.

In Prussia industrial and technical schools have been transferred from one department of state to another. Many of them were placed under the supervision of the minister of education in 1877, but in 1885 they were, after rather unpleasant experiences, transferred again to the minister of industry and commerce. In Saxony the industrial, commercial, and agricultural schools have always been under the jurisdiction of the minister of the interior. In Würtemburg there has been in the department of education since 1858 a subordinate commission for industrial continuation schools formed of practical tradesmen and commercial men, also of members of the commission for secondary schools and higher institutions, as well as directors of the school of design. In Baden we find an anomaly in the fact that one industrial art school (Pforzheim) is supervised by the minister of education and another (Carlsruhe) by the minister of the interior. In Switzerland the constitution expressly enjoins upon the federal government to establish technical universities and schools that lead up to them. In Austria, since 1882, a combination of all industrial schools has been effected under the supervision of the minister of education, but the appropriations for these schools are managed by the minister of commerce. The

supervision is exercised by a central commission of industrial instruction, one-half of the members of which are appointed by each of the two ministers. An especial representative of the minister of commerce in this central commission has the privilege of objecting to any measure, and thus to retard and submit it to the decision of higher authority. The inspectors of industrial schools are appointed by both ministers.

(g) Workshops are often connected with trade or industrial schools. (See also No. 17.) It is often left out of consideration that public industrial education is not to be the root, but a blossom, if not a fruit of industry. Schools that are to create new industries are rarely successful.

(5) Frequent faults of industrial schools. (a) Organization: Some schools have aims which are too high. Objects of art industry are made in them instead of more common articles. Entire locomotives or engines are drafted by students insufficiently prepared. Drawings of details of machines would seem more appropriate; students of average talent can thus reach a moderate degree of proficiency where otherwise they would be discouraged in the face of unattainable results. Knowledge of the demands of practical life, constant consideration for the capacity of the student, a proper estimation of purposes, means, and persons, and of the fact that every human being may find a field of usefulness, however modest it may be, will safely guard against the most common fault of industrial schools. One fault frequently encountered is that the teachers do not limit themselves to that which is attainable by, and desirable for the average. However, this is an error often found in young educational institutions.

(b) School hours: Industrial education was at first, and still is, obliged to make use of the time not otherwise occupied by either day school or work in factories and at home, i. e., the time for recreation, evenings and Sundays. The oldest industrial schools were mostly Sunday schools. But any encroachment upon the time of recreation causes overwork, lassitude, repugnance for school, and neglect of religion by the pupils. The increasing estimation of industrial education caused an increase of the time devoted to it. In this regard the commercial schools are in the lead. Of thirty-two commercial schools in Saxony only one is a Sunday school. In the industrial continuation schools in Saxony 36 per cent of the time per week given to instruction falls upon Sundays, 39 per cent upon evenings and week days, and the remainder represents the proportion of time in day schools. In Switzerland 17 per cent of the time falls upon Sunday and 49 per cent upon evening schools. Overwork of pupils who come from factories and workshops is not so common as it is among students of secondary schools who take industrial instruction supplementary to their academic work. It is now considered unquestionable that day schools are far more suc

cessful than evening and Sunday schools. In most places the teachers of common schools teach in industrial continuation schools, and a special remuneration is given them. Opposition to industrial instruction in the daytime is frequently found among the masters of the workshops in which the apprentices are gaining their practical experience. But this opposition is not very formidable. The absence of suitable rooms and the lack of well-prepared teachers is everywhere deplored. Since Sunday afternoon has for ages been considered by law a proper time for this instruction, it is found difficult to convert the masses to the conviction that day schools should be established.

(c) Schoolrooms: The lower industrial schools, both continuation and trade schools, are nearly all suffering from want of suitable rooms, since, in the nature of the case, both tuition fees and public appropriations are frequently insufficient to meet even reasonable requirements. (d) Method of instruction: In this seems to be found the most prominent weakness of special schools. Insufficient consideration for the unequal and deficient preparation of the pupils; the fact that the teachers are not in living contact with practical life, and that they emphasize mere theories, hence false science, are the most glaring faults found. The following quotations are interesting:

In France they teach what is immediately necessary, with us, the ultimate cause of everything; we teach from the head into the hand; Frenchmen and Englishmen from the hand into the head; hence we pay for our thorough theoretical knowledge with decreased practical capacity. (Felisch.)

The tendency to theorizing is already so preponderant among the Germans over the practically productive activity that one is apt to perceive in our workshops the ancient proverbial school atmosphere which promotes neither pleasure in practical labor nor skill in execution. This atmosphere is not noticed in workshops of countries that have reached a higher industrial level than Germany. (Von Steinbeis.)

Other errors seem to be found in gaps in the courses of study; for instance, the absence of projective drawing before constructive drawing is taken up, and instrumental drawing before projective drawing is commenced. At times proper consideration of artistic taste beside technique is lacking, and at times undue consideration of taste over technique is found. In some schools simple time-saving methods of procedure are neglected; for instance, very carefully executed paintings in water colors absorb valuable time, when simple sketches with lead or color pencil would suffice.

(e) Supervision: This is one of the weakest points of industrial edu cation, as is also irregular attendance of the pupils.

(f) Absence of proper appliances of instruction: For instance, no specimens of projective drawing, no models in plaster, etc. All these faults are obstructing the progress which industrial schools might make. (See Roscher, in article referred to.)

(6) Compulsory attendance.-For general continuation schools compulsory-attendance laws have proved beneficial (in Würtemberg since 1836, in Gotha since 1872, in Saxony since 1873, in Baden, Hessia, Wei

mar, Coburg since 1874, in other Thuringian principalities since 1876). But for industrial continuation schools compulsion is recommended only where the system of schools is not sufficiently developed or where the schools possess little attraction.

Voluntary attendance in industrial schools separates the chaff from the wheat, prevents thrashing of empty straw, and a sheer waste of valuable time on the part of the teacher and pupil. (Von Steinbeis.)

Discipline and progress commonly improve when compulsion ceases. In Würtemberg those continuation schools in which the Government decreed compulsory attendance exhibited very mediocre results. It is a general experience all over the Empire that information through the press, encouragement, excellent results exhibited by some schools, and especially the desire for higher and better paying education in technical and art pursuits, have made compulsory-attendance laws unneces: sary. When there was. no such law for commercial continuation schools in Germany seventy-nine such schools were established, but during the time in which municipal authorities decreed compulsory attendance only thirty-five were established. The new imperial law for the regulation of industry gives municipal authorities the right to decree compulsory attendance at continuation schools for all juvenile laborers between 14 and 18 years of age. This, however, has only significance for Prussia, where a general law to that effect does not exist.

While compulsion is not found directly advantageous for industrial schools, it proves to be so indirectly, if applied to general continuation schools, that is, post-graduate courses of elementary schools. Young laborers, knowing that they are obliged to attend that kind of school until 17 years of age, or go to an industrial school, prefer the latter, the practical utility of which is very apparent. More than one-half of the 200 schools of Saxony have been established since 1873, the date of the introduction of compulsory attendance for general continuation schools. In communities where this compulsion is exercised the industrial schools attract the more skillful and aspiring boys.

(7) Sources of revenue of industrial schools.-(a) Tuition fees: Charg ing a tuition fee works advantageously, because it makes the student and his family esteem the value of the instruction; it promotes also regularity of attendance and the diligence of the student; it induces poor families to save their pennies, and elevates their self-confidence and self-esteem. Industrial instruction for which fees are charged is attended more regularly and willingly than if it is gratuitous, as the experience in Würtemberg plainly showed when a fee was charged in 1853. Previous to that date pupils thought to confer a favor upon a teacher by being present. Indigent pupils can be, and are, released from paying. Sometimes the fees are graded for residents and nonresidents, citizens and foreigners.

(b) State subsidies, communal taxes, and other sources. It is always

most desirable that the various trades should subsidize and aid industrial schools, but the entire support seems too heavy a tax upon them, hence city, province, and state governments are called upon for aid. It has been found that the maintenance of an industrial school is an inspiring object for trade unions. There is a causal nexus between the school and the standing of the particular trade it represents or chiefly promotes.

The principle formerly adhered to in Prussia, that the community should furnish the building and furniture as well as material, and should pay one-half of the cost not covered by tuition or private bequests, if the state should pay the other half and furnish industrial drawing schools with the necessary models, was not applicable in every case. It did not consider the means of the locality, the extent of the school and its significance for larger or smaller industries. Hence the Prussian government has of late considerably increased its appropriations for such schools. In Saxony no such scheme has been adopted. But when a community or those most directly interested furnish a specified sum for the establishment and maintenance of an industrial school, the minister aids it to an extent decided by himself. No state in Germany has so many industrial schools supported chiefly by representatives of industry. In 1889 there was expended in Saxony $24,000 for 28 industrial continuation schools, $28,320 for 29 weaving schools, $36,720 for 36 other trade schools, and $87,360 for commercial schools.

The following figures will show the proportions of tuition fees and and other revenues:

[blocks in formation]

It seems comparatively easy to support commercial schools by means of tuition fees. In Würtemberg the fee is required by law to cover the cost of heating and lighting. The community is obliged to furnish the buildings, but the state usually aids in the erection of buildings by a special subsidy. The remainder of the costs are borne in equal share by community and state. In 1868-69 the state's share amounted to $13,812, in 1888-89 to $39,360. In Austria the generosity of philanthropists and those interested in industry has not been called upon, hence the essential expenditures of lower industrial schools have been defrayed by the state exclusively. The 29 schools for the textile industry in Saxony are all established and chiefly maintained by communities, societies, and trade unions, while of the 29 Austrian schools

« 上一頁繼續 »