Technical education

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ With the exception of mining, the courses of training in these sections are very much the same, and consist of a technical course in a college or a university, followed by a practical training as a pupil in a works. The prior technical education is now being insisted upon by most of the large engineering firms, and, in many of the best works, special courses of instruction are given to apprentices as part of their training by the most experienced engineers of the company. ”

“ The professional or trade teaching, which is supplementary to primary or secondary education, is more practical and less easily distinguishable by the ordinary observer from the training of the factory or workshop. This tendency is shown in all grades of technical education. The technical institutes established in London and in the large English manufacturing towns, attended mainly by evening students, are provided not only with expensive laboratory apparatus for the teaching of applied science, but also with tools and machines for the teaching of technology ”

“ There are many instances in which technical education may justly be claimed to be a necessity, and naturally, in those professions which demand a knowledge or a character of schooling, that can be more thoroughly conveyed by means of that which instructs in the theories of a craft or art, as distinct from its practice. ”

“ In the minds of many, a panacea for all their difficulties was to be found in the technical education of the working classes. But this is unquestionably a mistake. Until there is a love of science for its own sake and an appreciation of the value of scientific methods among the leaders of chemical industry, the fruits of technical education can not be reaped. ”

“ They are seldom if ever called upon to exert their own wits and industry to obtain the requisites for their instruction. A great deal is now said about technical education; but how little there is of technical handiness or head work! Everything is bought ready-made to their hands; and hence there is no call for individual ingenuity. ”

“ Therefore, ‘technical education’ is a suitable and proper designation of the training which is given to apprentices, &c., in the strictly technical details of their trades, arts, or professions—i.e. in the skilful moving of things. ”

“ We are only just discovering that the much-lauded technical education will not make him an engineer or a shipbuilder or an architect. You may give him the tools and the elementary rules, but the rest he must do himself. ”

“ The object is not always to teach the “technic” of an industry, because that can be done only in the workshop, but it may be to teach the science and art upon which all technics are really based. Manual training is of course training to manual labor, which has been called the “study of the external world.” While in all technical education the sciences and arts must be illustrated by practical examples, the main object is to so instruct masters and workmen that they can pursue their craft with [Pg 283] dignity and intelligence, without professing to teach the craft itself. ”

“ Our industrial development depends largely upon technical education, including in this term all industrial education, from that which fits a man to be a good mechanic, a good carpenter, or blacksmith, to that which fits a man to do the greatest engineering feat. The skilled mechanic, the skilled workman, can best become such by technical industrial education. ”

“ Again, the stimulus which has been recently given to the cause of technical education in England has no doubt been very greatly due to the City and Guilds of London Technical Institute, so ably directed by Sir Philip Magnus. The Commissioners on Technical Instruction, in their interesting report on technical education, have given endless cases showing the great importance of technical instruction, and I can not help thinking that much more technical education might be introduced even into elementary schools. ”

“ Whilst the changed conditions of production, consequent mainly on the application of steam power to machinery, demanded a special training for those who were to be engaged in productive industry, the prevalent system of education was not adapted to the requirements of these persons, and schools were wanted in which the necessary instruction could be obtained. Other circumstances resulting mainly from the application of steam power to machinery have rendered technical education necessary. ”

“ Exact knowledge, which in a manner of speaking is synonymous with the engineer, is needed in high places in our nation. Men of technical education and training have demonstrated their fitness as servants of the people in the few instances where such men have taken over the reins of administration in certain specified branches of our government. ”

“ On leaving the secondary school, the American Higher technical training in United States. student may go at once into business: or he may proceed with a four years' course of general instruction; or he may enter a professional or technical school. Some students prolong their education by taking the general course before proceeding to the technical institution. As in the lower, so in the higher grades of instruction, the distinction between general and technical education is not very clearly defined. ”

“ Each school would have a workshop where boys could repair their bikes or make kites and arrows, but there would not be any formal instruction in woodwork or engineering. Technical education would begin at the age of sixteen. ”

“ As the Mayor has said, I do take a sincere interest in all that concerns technical instruction, because I feel convinced that, in a vast country like ours, where so many trades and different manufactures exist, nothing is of such great importance to the well-being of its manufactures and trades as a good sound technical education. We cannot erect too many schools or institutions of the kind in the various parts of the country. ”

“ Until recent days the great universities of such important manufacturing countries as England, Germany and France were almost exclusively devoted to the teaching of philosophy, history, Greek and Latin, mathematics and pure or natural science. The older universities of the United States, too, were for a long time reluctant to recognize the growing importance of technical education, and the necessity, apart from technical education, of giving the general student some knowledge of mechanics. ”

“ We are very prone to think, however, that the technical school is a modern idea. We assume that it owes its origin to the development of mankind in the process of evolution to a point where the recognition of the value of handiwork and craftsmanship has at length arisen. ”

“ Executive heads are demanded who have technical training. This has resulted in the establishment of special technical colleges, and compelled a place for engineering in the great universities. The high intelligence demanded by the vocation itself, and the revolution in training caused by the strengthening of its foundations in general education, has finally, beyond all question, raised the work of application of science to industry to the dignity of a profession on a par with the law, medicine, and science. ”

“ If the demand for technical instruction is to be fully satisfied, a great part of our existing system of education must be reconstructed, and the training provided in our several schools must be made a more fitting preparation for industrial work than it is at present.
Schools in which the course of instruction is not specialized with a view to any particular industry, but is so arranged as to form a general preparation for manufacturing or other trade pursuits, are often spoken of as professional, technical, or trade schools ”

“ The only collegiate training one of the most distinguished American engineers of the last generation had was a general literary course followed by a law course. Further, [Pg 510] a considerable number have successfully practiced engineering, after only a general college education, and this in recent years when engineering curricula have become widely differentiated. Examples in other lines of business could be cited to show that a knowledge of technical details is not the most important element in a preparation for a profession or for business. ”

“ As formal teaching and training grow in extent, there is the danger of creating an undesirable split between the experience gained in more direct associations and what is acquired in school. This danger was never greater than at the present time, on account of the rapid growth in the last few centuries of knowledge and technical modes of skill. ”

“ There is, moreover, a domain in which special technical training is proper. It is the domain of the industrial school, for giving a certain theoretical knowledge of persons who will be engaged for life in the mechanic arts. ”

“ It passed into an exact science under the guidance of a small number of men trained at first in the scientific and technical schools of Europe, and, after about 1820, in the few institutions then established in America that offered technical instruction. ”

“ The innumerable applications of scientific discovery to practical engineering, and especially the rapid growth of Electrical Engineering, have made it absolutely necessary that a modern engineer worthy of the name should have some knowledge of science. The older method of training for the young engineer was that he should be articled to an engineer in practice, and, apart from the training he received in office and works, he got no scientific training unless he were enthusiastic enough to attend evening classes in some technical institution. ”

“ So rapid has been the development that, out of the earlier comprehensive type of engineering, to-day dozens of specialized types of engineering education and specialization have been evolved, covering such related fields as civil, mechanical, mining, metallurgical, electrical, architectural, chemical, electro-chemical, marine, naval, sanitary, biological, and public-health engineering. ”

“ In the field of salesmanship, engineering training is growing in importance. In short, the highly organized state of modern production and the tremendous part played by engineering in modern industry indicate the need for a close coördination of business and engineering education.
In conclusion we may say that business education is now at the stage where it has its own technology, is in close touch with other fields of technology, and is making its contribution to the general fund of modern culture. ”

“ Reynolds, of Owens College, Manchester, in an address on "Engineering as a Profession," proposes the following course of preparation for the student who aims to be an engineer: Up to the age of sixteen or seventeen he should devote himself to acquiring a "general education." ”

“ It is that the University School should itself be a centre of inspiration for the engineering profession; that it should be a place where original experimental work is always being carried on, where inventions are tried out, and where engineering firms may come for help in carrying out tests and experiments to advance technical knowledge, and particularly to assist in the solution of engineering problems of special importance to the State.
All the large modern engineering and manufacturing corporations have realized the value of scientific research. ”

“ The all-important thing is that the engineering student shall acquire the power to observe closely, to reason correctly, to state clearly, that he shall be able to extract information from books certainly and rapidly, and that he shall cultivate his judgment, initiative, and self-reliance. A student may have any amount of technical information, but if he seriously lacks any of the qualities just enumerated, he cannot attain to any considerable professional success. ”

“ The technical college will, moreover, be compelled to employ instructors who can so teach the technical subject that it shall not only give the knowledge and training desired, but shall also yield sound culture, become truly liberalizing and vision-giving. ”

“ It undoubtedly is better for the High School boy to go to a technical school for his course in civil engineering; yet with a foundation of mathematics and a sufficient amount of determination, the High School boy may go direct to the engineer's office and pick up his profession. ”

“ 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. ”