Editorial and Official

Media

Part of Philippine Craftsman

Title: Editorial and Official
Language: English
Rights
Fulltext: EDITORIAL AND OFFICIAL. THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN, with this issue, enters the field of industriul education. It is to be the chief agency employed by the Bureau of Education in promoting its program of industrial instruction throughout the Philippine school system. This Bureau has been passing through a period of experimentation. The administration has not professed to be endowed with omniscience with respect to Philippine indusTh;,::~~~~:~ne trial teaching. lt has, however, been thoroughly convinced of the necessity for the extensive development of a practical scheme of manual instruction, and has devoted ever~' resource to the framing and promotion of acceptable plans of work. By means of official bulletins and circulars, conferences of supervising and industrial teachers, conventions of superintendents, supervision of inspectors and special instJ•uctors, and chiefly through the agency of industrial exhibitions, the cause of manual instruction has been effectually promoted. Teachers and supervisors have been encouraged by all possible means to formulate and give expression to their theories. Every legitimate incentive has been offered to the exercise of originality and initiative, and, particularly in the past year, innumerable suggestions with respect to the organization. procedure, and standards have been put to test and proved in the schools throughout the Islands. The progress has been substantial. We are convinced that the aims and methods of the established system are approximately correct, and we have observed with much satisfaction the increasing efficiency of the large corps of industrial supervisors and teachers. There has been developed a program of industrial education which may be definitely adopted and, with minor modifications, pursued for some years to come. The time has now arrived when some systemntic means must be employed by the Bureau of Education to convey to its entire personnel information regarding its latest achievements and instruction as to approved standards. Through THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN the forty division superintendents of schools. the four hundred supervising teachers, and the nearly nine thousand Mi 66 1'1/E,' /'H/UPP!NfJ CI?Af'TSMAN other members of the Bw·eau's tenching force will be promplly informed of the methods employed and the results secured in every industrial experiment which is carried to successful issue in any public school. By this means, new industrial processes will be advertised and introduced throughout the school system, and the industrial program of the Bureau wit! be emiched and strengthened. The columns of THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN will be open to extended discussions upon special lines of work, notes upon experiments which by reason of their success or failure are of general interest, statistical tables, reviews of industrial books and maga· ~dnes, articles relating to the general subject of manual instruction, and statements with reference to Philippine economic conditions and industrial activities generally. The school year 1912-13 opens with every prospect of its being the banner industrial year of the Bureau of Education. It seems certain that greater advance will be made during the coming twelve months than in any previous The ~ew &:honl similar period in the Bureau's history. er.r. The Bureau has been giving much attention to the gathering of data upon industrial conditions throughout the Islands. Approximately 150 teachers have devoted a considerable portion of their time in recent months to this important matter. Their reports have all been received and are now being reviewed. digested and compiled. As a result the Bureau of Education has in the General Office a mass of information in accessible form upon present Philippine economic conditions such as has never been previously accumulated by any other agency. A portion of this material is to be arranged for publication in textbook form for high-school use. lt will serve an even larger purpose, however, as a source of reliable information upon which the proper trend of the program of industrial education may be determined. 1 n connection with the above the Bureau has been concerned in the building up of a museum of industrial instruction, in which botanical specimens of all serviceable industrial materials ;ue gathered and carefully prepared for use and file. In this museum are also installed samples of the best articles produced-. in each line of endeavor, and these are of inestimable value as a meHns of comparing the work of the different divisions and advising teachers and superintendents with reference to imPI'Ovements which should be made. b'/)J'/'OH.IAL .IN!) Of:.'f'/CIAI~ 67 Many teachers have acquired a high degree of efficiency in their specialties, supervisors are qualified as never before to give advice and instruction in their respective fields, and the General Office feels itself prepared to give intelligent direction as to industrial methods and processes which have heretofore been largely experimental. Much attention has been given recently to the organization of the woodworking shops of trade and manual training schools, and these institutions now handle their work upon a business basis and turn out a large and creditable product. School gardening has been definitely incorporated into the school program and is now generally introduced into all primary schools throughout the Islands. There is ample evidence that substantial 1·esults have been secured, not only in the teaching of a valuable lesson of industry but in the betterment of the diet of the people in many communities. Advanced agricultural instruction, which has heretofore been the subject of extended experiment, is assuming acceptable form. Several school farms have been in satisfactory operation during the past year and others are being established. Various minor industries have passed beyond the experimental stage and are now ready for general introduction upon prescribed standards and in accordance with methods and models which have proved satisfactory. The system of industrial superYisors is a most effective means of advising the Director of conditions existing in the field and of informing the supervising and teaching force of the details of the Bureau's indust1·ial program. Several new supervisors are being selected from among the most successful provincial teachers and they will be sent out from the General Office on special inspection work during the coming year. Tn pursuance of the same general plan a local industrial supervisor is being selected in each of the larger provinces who will assist the division superintendent in standardizing the industrial work of the division in the capacity of traveling teacher and supervisor. Through the establishment of carefully organized courses in the Philippine Normal School and the Philippine School of Arts and Trades, and through instruction in the annual provincial institutes, a very large number of Filipino teachers are receiving thorough training in various school industries. A recent important department has been established in the organization of The School of Household Industries, where several hundred women, selected from all provinces in the THE: 1'/1/UI'I'/Nf: CR.-11-'TS.IIAN Islands, are to receive instruction in embroidery, lace making .and other arts, with the expectation that they will return to their .homes to establish local centers of industry. It is confidently anticipated that this enteq)rise will result in the general establishment throughout the Islands of minor industries which will in course of time bring large revenues to the people of the Islands. Several important industrial publications have been issued dur ing recent months and others are now in process of preparation for the printer. These are of infinite value as a means of establishing and advertising approved industrial standards. It is believed that THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN will be perhaps the most valuable of all the Bureau's publications. As stated above, it seems certain that the results of the year upon which the Bureau is now enter ing will be substantial. Reference has been made elsewhere 'in this issue to the value of industrial exhibitions as a means of promoting the Bureau of Education's program of manual instruction. Chief among these ha\·e been the so-called Carnival exhibits Ez~!:;~:::~\he which have occurred annually in the city of Bureau or :\lanila for some years past. In 1912 the pupils of the Philippine School of Arts and Trades constructed the Bureau of Education building for the Philippine Exposition. It had 18,000 square feet of floor space and in it were displayed approximately 16,000 articles, representing eYery school division in the Islands except one. The exhibit was visited by probably more than 100,000 persons, very many of whom examined the display with great attention and interest. The public purchased tt25,777.08 worth of articles, most of the sales being made during the first two or three days. The valuation of the articles sold was 75 per cent of the total v.alue of the exhibit. The standard of workm:m ship in this exhibit was high in all its \'arious departments of furniture construction, iron working, basketry, slipper making, lace making, cookery, hat making, mat weaving, and wheelwrighting. The exhibit was officially visited and critically examined by all division superintendents of schools, by approximately 80 industrial teachers nnd supervisors, and by several thousand other teachers, and every one of these men and women carried back to his station definite and correct ideas as to approved models and methods in the vRI'ious industries represented. E:DI1'0RIA/, AN/J 01-'f'IC/AI. 69 The Government does not have funds available for a Philip~ pine Exposition in 1913. The annual exhibit has come to be an essential feature, however, of the industrial program of the Bureau of Education. The Bureau cannot afford to skip d year in the series of its expositions. 1t is fully determined th<tt, regardless of the plans of the general Government, a school exhibit will be held as heretofore at or near the end of the school year. In this connection it should be said that the Bureau of Edu~ ..:ation is much concerned with the proposed representation of the Philippine Islands at the Panama~Pacific Exposition which is to occur at San Francisco in 1915. It seems perfeclly feasible to send to San Francisco a well~organized and thoroughly up-todate exhibit of articles manufactured in the public schools, which will be representative of industrial instruction in these Islands. This collection should have n value of -1"'100,000 or pe1·haps even 1"'-200,000, and will be fully up to the highest commercial standards of workmanship. The subject of distinctive Filipino designs for many of the articles now being made in industrial classes is a most attractive yet to date singularly undeveloped one. Consider the amount and variety of pieces, such as fine sewing. coil Flllplno Dul~rn•. baskets, mats, etc .. now being made in all our schools, and one is surprised at the Jack of applied design typical in any way of the country wherein the articles are made. Pieces like those mentioned above, for their most artistic appearance and fullest intrinsic merit, require the elaboration of designs in a characteristic way that typify the country of origin and the artistic symbols and aspirations of the maker. Our work in this particular has been, to date, a rather slavish patterning after occidental forms and designs, accepting with litile modification or change that which comes to us from America or Europe. Something national, f<'ilipino, is wanted, to give much of our handicraft work that distinctive mark and characteristic that typifies the best artistic productions. This quality is unmistak. able in all handicraft art of Japan, India, Persia, and many European countries. The teachers and pupils who shall evolve and create pleasing, artistic, and distinctive designs for much of our handwork will render a signal and timely service. Existing conditions, if the signs be not misread, speak with significant meaning to those of us who have a professional mission to fulfill. 70 THE NIIU/'l~JNE CRAFTS.ll.-1.\' There is not a Jack of material for this nascent sentiment of Filipino design. The amount of flora, distinctly tropical or F'ilipino, details of natural features. customs, dress, articles of use, etc., that could be used for the purpose, is considerable. When shall we ha\'e this needed imprO\'ement, this "renascence" of Filipino design that the times insistently call for? Jt will come, undoubtedly, sooner or later--certainly "sooner" if those who have the intelligence and training to work up the subject address themselves resolutely to it. The following procedure for the sale and distrilmtion of THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN has been decided upon: The selling price has been fixed at 1'0.60 per copy, or 1' 3 per \'car for the nine numbers which will be issued during the ~chool year, postage prepaid in the Philippines and United States, and other countries which come under the same postal regulalions; to other places the rates will be 1'0.70 per copy and 1'-4 per year. The distribution of the offici.al copies of the CRAFTSMAN will be arranged br this office, and division superintendents and teachers will be advised of it. Personal subscriptions should be arranged by writing to the Director of Education through the division superintendent of schools, inclosing the amount of the subscription. Accounts for sut·scriptions will be jmndled officially by the accounting division of the General Office. Teachers whose work is in any measure industrial in character will be held o!licially responsible for famili.arity with the material embodied in this maga:dne. 1t is anticipated that the ma.iority of the supenising, industrial, and class-room teachers will wish to take out subscriptions to the CRAFTSMAN at their own expense, in order that they may retain permanent files of the magazine. Copies supplied upon this ba!'is will, of course, be personal property. The United States Bureau of Education is doing a notable work for education through the numerous bulletins which it is issuing from time to time. These bulletins have to do with every phase of educational activity and serve to keep those interested in our schools in touch with the latest results of both investigation and experiment. They are issued for free distribution and may be obtained upon request to the Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. BRb'\'ITJES 71 "The territory known as Cochin China has six 'professional' schools, one in Saigon with 60 scholars, one each in Thudaumol, Bienhoa, Sadec, Hatien, and Cantho. The teachers, at least in the professional school at Saigon, come from the School of Arts and Trades of France. Instruction is given in iron and wood working, embroidery, incrustation on wood, jewelry, and work in tortoise shell. The woodworking includes carpentry, cabinetwork, sculpture, and carriage making. The students in these schools are all foundation scholars, supported by the Government." From this statement, which was contained in a paper prepared for this office by the American Consul at Saigon, it would appear that these schools ure organized somewhat on the plan of the Philippine School of Arts and Trades or one of the larger provincial trade schools. There would seem to be no industrial training preparatory to these "professional" courses, nor any industrial program for the common schools. There is no place in the modern world for the unskilled; no one can hope for any genuine success who fails to give himself the most thorough technical preparation, the most complete special education. Good intentions go for nothing, and industry is thrown away if one cannot infuse a high degree of skill into his work. The man of medium skill depends upon fortunate conditions for success ; he cannot command it nor can he keep it. The trained man has all the advantages on his side; the untrained man invites all the tragic possibilities of failure.-H. W. MABIE. "A Handbook on the Sugar Industry of the Philippine Islands," by G. E. Nesom, 1-1. S. Walker, and others, containing much valuable information on that important industry, has been published by the Bureau of Agriculture and may be purchased, in either English or Spanish, for ·1"'4 per copy. A smaller book on the same subject, "The Sugar Industry of the Philippine Islands," is published in English and sold for i"'l.50. Orders ~hould be addressed to the Director of Agriculture, Mnnila. Local industries constitute an important topic for study. A consideration of them puts the child in touch with his surroundings and furnishes a good basis on which to build a knowledge of broader industrial questions. (Selected.)