III. THE SEPARATE OR INDEPENDENT INDUSTRIAL

SCHOOL

M. W. MURRAY

Director of Industrial Education, Newton, Mass.

The development of the independent industrial school is due to a broadening educational policy which recognizes the right of every pupil to the kind of training best suited to his individual needs. We have come to realize that a scheme of education which is intended primarily for the select few who enter the professions will not educate effectively all children, even if they were compelled to remain in school. These facts were forcibly brought to the attention of thinking people by the report of the Massachusetts Commission on Industrial Education published in 1906. The report showed clearly that the schools are not educating a large percentage of their young people, who are entering industrial life poorly equipped for their struggle. To add to their difficulties, industrial conditions are now so changed that it is no longer possible for them to receive the training necessary for their development and advancement. These two conditions form a common problem for which the industrial school must furnish the solution.

It is the intent of the Massachusetts law to promote by state aid the development of a new type of school which in fitting for wage-earning occupations shall be unhampered by the practices and methods of the regular public schools. To encourage the establishment of these schools, the state enters into an equal partnership with the local community and pays one-half of the running expenses of the school if its plant, teachers, courses of study, and methods of instruction meet with the approval of the State Board of Education. The law makes it possible for these schools to have their own governing boards, independent of the school committee, but co-operating with it. This, however, is not necessary, and where the city government desires, the school committee may be the governing board of the state-aided industrial school. To the end that these schools may have an opportunity to work out their own methods according to new ideals, they are separate from the regular schools, but

it is intended that they shall, so far as possible, work together. The same general problems are confronting all of the industrial schools which have been organized during the last three years, but the schools differ to such an extent that a general description is impossible; hence this paper will deal mainly with the Newton State-aided Day Industrial School for Boys.

Supervision and administration.-A feeling that all educational activities should be under one general control has led to the organization of a new Board of Education in Massachusetts, to take the place of both the Commission on Industrial Education and the old State Board of Education. This new board has one commissioner, with two deputies, one of whom has charge of all the industrial work in the state. In a like manner, the industrial schools are in charge of a specialist under the Superintendent of Schools. In the case of Rochester, N.Y., and Newton, Mass., the same person has charge of all the manual, industrial, and technical training throughout the public-school system, making it possible for the work of one school to supplement that of another. In four Massachusetts cities the industrial schools are operated under separate boards of trustees but to all intents and purposes they are a part of the school system and dependent upon it for their pupils. It seems probable that the new schools which are established will be directed by the school committees, with advisory boards composed of practical men, whose duty it shall be to act in an advisory capacity as to the courses of study, equipment of the school, and the guidance of pupils in selecting a vocation.

The independent industrial schools, as now conducted under the Massachusetts Board of Education, include day schools for boys and girls over fourteen years of age, evening trade-extension courses for men and women over seventeen years of age who are engaged in similar lines of work during the day, and part-time courses for those of both sexes between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five years who are employed.

Need of these schools in the public-school system. The need of a school of this type and the exact work which it should do vary with the industrial conditions of the city and with the educational opportunities already offered by existing schools. A school system which deals with the pupils as individuals and offers strong courses in manual training, drawing, cooking, and sewing will reach and hold more children than one

DESIGNER

ENGRAVER

ILLUSTRATOR
LITHOGRAPHER
SCULPTOR

SIGN PAINTER
CRAFTSWORK

SILVERSMITH

JEWELER

PRINTER

NURSERY ATTENDANT

PROFESSIONAL HOUSEKEEPER

CATERING

NURSING

COOKING

SEWING

MILLINERY

DRESSMAKING

SEAMSTRESS

which does not offer these courses. It is also true that the addition of commercial and manual-training courses, and the establishment of technical high schools, increase the holding power of the school system, yet even where these exist there is still a large group of boys and girls which the industrial school can reach.

Chart I shows graphically the present place of the industrial school in the Newton school system, which before the development shown on the right, held a larger number of pupils through the high school than any other city in the country. This development includes broad courses in manual training, cooking, and sewing, prevocational training in the grades, and the establishment of a $500,000 Technical High School with a special industrial course. If Newton, a residential city, with comparatively little manufacturing, needs such a school, the need in most other places must be indeed great.

Children who are reached.-These state-aided industrial schools receive pupils as soon as they can obtain age and schooling certificates,

TABLE I

ENROLLMENT OF THE NEWTON SCHOOL BY GRADES, SHOWING NUMBER OF PUPILS COMING FROM EACH GRADE AND THE PERCENTAGE OF Loss

NOTE.-Two pupils coming from the eighth grade went from the Industrial School to the Technical High School. This means a loss to the school system of only five boys from that grade, or 25 per cent, and a total loss of only 25, or 30.1 per cent.

In the Massachusetts schools as a whole, the majority of the pupils in the day industrial schools have completed the grammar-school course before entrance.

which in Massachusetts is at fourteen years of age, if they show that they are otherwise qualified to profit by the work which is offered. As shown by Table I, the majority of the pupils in the Newton School

Based on studies made by the writer during eight years' work in Springfield, Mass., with groups of boys who had four to six hours of manual training per week.