Some results of specialization

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SOME RESULTS OF SPECIALIZATION. By Sydney 0. Dye. Division Industrial Supervisor, Leyte. The commercial world has come to recognize the fact that specialization along all lines increases the quantity and improves the quality of any given item produced by the manufacturing system. This was recognized only after centuries of wasteful production—waste in labor, waste in time, waste in ruined materials, waste in producing an inferior product, waste through general inefficiency. Through careful study of the situation, producers in general came to understand that an individual can learn to do a few things speedily and well while he is learning to do many things indifferently well. As manufacturers are interested in a large output of high-grade articles, this knowl edge has led more and more to specialization in the industrial world, until at the present time there is the system of piece work in most of the large producing concerns. The industrial department of the Bureau of Education, producing certain lines of handcraft, has adopted a policy of semispecialization. It would not be desirable to attempt special ization to the same extent as large commercial houses, but only to that extent that will enable a pupil to produce a completed article of some particular type. The effects of this special ization are evident on the pupil, the parent, the teacher, and in the quality, the quantity, and the commercial value of the output. On the pupil there has been an immediate and marked effect. Since pupils are no longer permitted to change their courses of study, once they have begun, but are required to continue along the same lines throughout their course, they become skilled* in a particular line of work, acquire speed, and produce good, salable articles. Any one of these factors is desirable but the three combined are necessary to produce lasting results. Both skill and speed come through careful repetition and, when ac quired, enable the worker to produce articles of commercial value. This has led to an increase in the amount of work accom plished at home. Since parents have come to realize that their children are doing something of real value in the schools, their attitude toward the industrial work has undergone a change. Most parents are more or less indifferent to the things their children are doing 212 RESULTS OF SPECIALIZATION 213 in school so long as the children do not object. In the Philippines the parents looked upon the industrial work in much the same manner as parents in the United States look upon the busy work of the lower grades. They did not considei’ it as a matter of real importance. Now, however, with the output showing a commercial value, the parents are becoming interested and by encouraging the children to greater effort, more and more work is being done after the industrial periods are over. This condi tion is a real stimulus to home industries. Wherever a plan of specialization is to be followed out, a com petent instructor is necessary and most careful attention to details is essential. Care should be taken to obtain only such teachers for the work as are proficient in their particular line. The teacher should have a definite plan for the work and have an outline with the details most carefully worked out. His being a specialist in his particular line of work will enable him to proceed in an intelligent, capable manner, confident of progress and ready to meet such conditions as may arise. The pupils must be started right and kept right until they have mastered the work. Where a pupil continues the same course from year to year the cost of industrial instruction is greatly reduced. Each pupil needs equipment for a single line of work, spends time in learn ing a single line of work, and becomes a producer during the period that would otherwise be spent in learning a second in dustry. By continuing the same course, the pupil becomes sufficiently skillful to perform the required work with little effort. When this condition has been reached the pupil has become a producing unit of commercial importance. In order to make the industries of the Philippines of com mercial value specialization and systematization are necessary. Without both it would be impossible to know where to look for particular types of work when wanted. With the work systematized, knowledge is at hand as to the quality of the product from any locality, the amount that may be expected, and the length of time required for its production. These con ditions simplify the marketing, make the placing of orders without delay possible, and at the same time give assurance that contracts can be carried out without hardship to any one concerned. With the introduction of specialization it is necessary to give more attention to technical details. Since it is the purpose of the courses to turn out workers capable of producing articles that will command a sufficient price to justify the time and labor

Date

1916

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In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

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