Philip Magnus

“ Indeed, it is the possession of this knowledge which mainly distinguishes the industrial designer from the ordinary artist. To determine the best training for such designers is one of the problems of technical education. There are many trades, too, in which the handicraftsman and the designer should be united. This is the case in such industries as silversmith’s and goldsmith’s work. In these and other trades the true artisan is the artist and handicraftsman combined. ”

“ The widespread appreciation of the advantages of the higher education among all classes of the American people, and the general recognition among manufacturers, engineers and employers of labour, of the value to them, in their own work, of the services of college-trained men, has largely helped to increase the number of students in attendance at the universities and technical institutions, and to encourage in every state the foundation of schools for advanced professional training. ”

“ To the spinner or weaver who almost exclusively employs women to tend his machinery, or to the manufacturing chemist whose workpeople are little more than labourers employed in carrying to and fro materials, knowing little or nothing of the scientific principles underlying the complicated processes in which they are engaged, the technical education of the workpeople may seem to be a matter of little moment. ”

“ With the general cessation of apprenticeship, as formerly understood, it is only in the school workshop that the young artisan has any opportunity of learning the use, and the principles underlying the use, of the instruments and appliances connected with his trade; and in those industries in which automatic machinery is gradually displacing hand labour he is altogether dependent upon school teaching for any knowledge he may wish to acquire of the processes involved in the particular manufacture, in some small section of which he is exclusively engaged. ”

“ It will be seen, therefore, that in nearly all European countries, instruction in engineering in all its branches and in chemical technology has become a recognized part of a university course, and that the faculty of applied science has been so enlarged as to provide technical education of the highest grade.
Some of the best schools for the higher technical instruction—for the training of masters and of those who are to occupy the position of managers in engineering; and industrial works — are found in the United States. ”

“ The teaching of technology is distinct from trade teaching. In all the technical institutes of London, and in most of those of other towns, none but persons actually engaged in the industry, the technology of which they are desirous of studying, are admitted to the workshop classes. The instruction given in such classes is very different as regards method, and also in its aims and objects, from the training of apprentices in the factory or trade shop. ”

“ In the teaching of science there has been a marked change in method. Formerly the usefulness of the knowledge to be derived from the study of nature gave to physical science its chief claim to a place in the school curriculum, but it is now held that the real value of the study consists in the opportunities it affords of exercising the pupil in accurate observation, and of developing resourcefulness and powers of independent thought and reasoning. ”

“ Indeed, it is daily becoming more difficult to draw any hard-and-fast line between professional and general education. It is now universally recognized that the foundations of technical instruction must be laid in the elementary and the secondary schools, and many of the changes which have been made in the organization of those schools had their origin in the requirements of technical institutions. ”

“ There are some institutions devoted almost exclusively to professional training; whilst in others the engineering faculty exists side by side with other faculties of university rank. The general interest in higher education which is shown by the desire of students of all classes to obtain it, in many cases at considerable individual sacrifice, and by the value which masters and employers attach to a college-trained youth, is partly due to the large proportion of pupils from the ordinary schools who proceed to the secondary or high schools. ”

“ The movement in favour of manual training in the United States is general and extends even to the private schools where youths are prepared for the university. At the same time, the purely practical teaching is invariably combined with scientific and literary instruction. In these, as in other schools, the principle is fully recognized that the primary aim of education is to make citizens and not tradesmen. It is difficult to take any one manual training school as typical of others, seeing how the curriculum varies in different states. ”

“ Numbers of young people are thus thrown upon the labour market, swelling the percentage of the unemployed, who are competent to do nothing more than children’s work, and to earn children’s wages, and who know no trade to which they can apply their hands. ”

“ The difficulty of securing for apprentices in a commercial shop systematic training in handicraft has led to the establishment of a few trade schools which receive children from the elementary school about the age of thirteen for a three years' course of instruction. In these schools the time is about equally divided between ordinary school subjects and the practice of some handicraft, such as cabinet-making, upholstery, waistcoat-making, millinery. Parents are encouraged to allow their children to receive this further education by the offer of free teaching and maintenance grants. ”

“ The École Centrale of Paris, in which the majority of French engineers who are not employed in the government service are trained, is a rare instance of an institution for higher technical instruction which is self-supporting and independent of government aid. Other special institutions in Paris, some of which are associated with the university of Paris, are the École des Mines, the École des Ponts et Chaussées, and the Collège de France, an old foundation in which facilities are afforded for the highest scientific research. ”

“ The school, in many branches of industry, is accepted as a substitute for the shop, and the lad is so trained that he acquires in the school not only a knowledge of the principles of the trade, but sufficient dexterity and skill to enable him, on leaving school, to take his place among wage-earning operatives. ”

“ The demand for technical education, which originally led to the formation of the City and Guilds of London Institute, directed attention to the methods of teaching science, drawing and other subjects, and to the necessity of including science in the curriculum of all grades of schools. The methods of science teaching have been greatly improved. Experimental work has become essential, and methods of investigation and research have been applied to the teaching of a number of subjects to which formerly they would have seemed inapplicable. ”

“ Any system of technical education, however, should be sufficiently elastic to permit of such experiments and of the introduction of types of instruction to meet special and even temporary needs. It is only in certain cases that apprenticeship schools can be said to answer satisfactorily the purpose for which they have been established. Where a new industry, especially in rural districts, has to be created; where decaying industries need to be revived; where machinery is superseding hand work, and, owing to the demands for ordinary hands, there is a dearth of skilled workmen ”

“ To these advantages of technical education, as affecting the workmen themselves as well as the progress of the industry in which they are engaged, must be added the general improvement in the character of the work produced, resulting from the superior and better-trained intelligence of those who have had the benefit of such instruction. ”

“ The education of all classes of workpeople begins in the public elementary schools; and, in view of the future occupation of the children, it may be taken for granted that primary instruction should be practical, and should include drawing and elementary science. It should indeed be closely associated with manual training, consisting of workshop exercises and field work in the case of boys in urban and rural schools respectively, and of instruction in the domestic arts in the case of girls. ”

“ The classes abroad are mainly supported by the municipalities, by the chambers of commerce, by industrial or trade societies, by county boards, and in some cases by the fees of the pupils. They receive little or no support from the state. They are well attended by workpeople of all grades, who are encouraged by their employers to profit by these opportunities of instruction. In England evening technical instruction is more systematically organized than in any other country. It is under the general direction of the Board of Education, and of the City and Guilds of London Institute. ”

“ In this school, in which the education is gratuitous, as in nearly all the higher elementary schools of France, instruction is given in drawing, modelling, chemistry, mechanics and physics, in the working of wood and iron, and in German and English in addition to the subjects of an ordinary school education. Surveying is also taught to some of the pupils, and the instruction generally is of a very practical character. The students visit factories under the guidance of the masters, and on their return write out full descriptions of their visits. ”

“ In several of the American institutions known as colleges, but not easily distinguishable from the universities, courses of general or technical instruction are provided of all intermediate grades, but above that given in the high schools. In addition to these there are some well-known institutions which provide courses of professional and general instruction of the highest grade under professors of eminence and distinction, and facilities for research which are not surpassed in any German university or technical high school. ”

“ The establishment, however, of local universities and the schemes for the award of scholarships adopted by local education authorities, will tend year by year to lessen this disparity. Meanwhile, Germany has relaxed none of her former efforts, but is steadily occupied in the enlargement and improvement of her educational institutions. New schools have been erected, wherever and for whatever purpose they are needed, equipped with every modern appliance for scientific investigation and research. Each professional career has its corresponding high school or university department. ”

“ Whilst the opinion in favour of postponing as long as circumstances permit all specialized instruction has become of late years more pronounced, there has been a growing tendency, not only in England but also on the Continent and in the United States, to associate technical teaching more closely with workshop practice. ”

“ The chief distinction consists in the arrangement of courses of instruction in the several departments, in the admission of students having a non-classical preliminary training, and in the absence of certain faculties found in the university and the addition of others. It is not correct to say that the technical high school is a professional school as distinguished from the university; for the faculties of law, medicine and theology give to the university as distinctly a professional character as the faculty of engineering gives to the technical high school. ”

“ Practical instruction in engineering, weaving, printing, photography, plumbing, carpentry, brickwork, bookbinding and other subjects was encouraged by the City and Guilds Institute, acting as a central authority for education of a distinctly technological character; but notwithstanding the continued increase in the number of practical classes in different branches of technology, the teaching of technology as distinct from that of science and art received at this time no direct support by means of grants in aid from the state. ”

“ The volume of the trade and commerce of Britain depends mainly on the progress of its manufacturing industries. It is these which chiefly affect the exports and imports. The aim of manufacturers is to produce cheaper and better goods than can be produced by other manufacturers at home or abroad; and technical education is valuable to them, in so far as it enables them to do so. ”

“ The study of foreign systems of education is serviceable, as showing the relation of such systems to the industrial needs of each country and to the genius and character of the people. In the organization of technical education in England, full advantage has been taken of foreign experience, although no attempt has been made to imitate too closely foreign methods. ”

“ It is also difficult to give any such general review of the system of education in America as can be presented in connexion with France or Germany or Italy, owing to the fact that each separate state has its own organization, over which the Federal government exercises no direct control. In none of the states is technical education differentiated by class distinctions to the same extent as in continental countries. ”

“ In Bavaria there is found a type of school called Industrie-Schule, which serves very well for the training of engineers and industrial chemists, who aim at occupying intermediate posts, and desire to enter upon commercial work at an earlier age than students attending a university or technical college. The instruction in these Industrieschulen is largely practical, but is combined with some amount of literary and linguistic training. ”

“ In the evening classes in science, art and technology, which have been established throughout the United Kingdom, the workman or foreman engaged in any manufacturing industry has the opportunity, by payment of a very small fee, of studying art in all its branches, science theoretically and practically, and the technology of any particular industry. ”

“ Nearly every county has its scheme of scholarships, providing facilities for the further education of children who show special abilities and aptitudes. These scholarships are awarded under conditions which differ very widely in different localities. Pupils from the higher-grade schools enter industrial life at a later age than those from the elementary schools, and, by reason of the more advanced instruction they have received, are at once qualified to enter classes in technology. ”

“ In consequence of these altered relations between employer and employed, there has arisen an acknowledged want of properly trained workmen in a number of trades in which skilful hand work is still needed; and in these trades a demand has arisen for technical schools, or some other substitute for what was formerly done by apprenticeship, as a means of suitably training workmen and foremen. The ever-increasing competition in production has led to the employment, in many trades, of children to do work of a mechanical kind requiring little skill ”

“ It is thought that, by developing to a higher degree the intelligence and skill of those children who show aptitude for scientific and practical work, they will be able, when they enter the shop, to learn their trade more quickly and more thoroughly, and to acquire that general knowledge of their work, and to exhibit those special aptitudes, which may qualify them for the position of foreman or overseer. ”