Editorial and Official

Media

Part of Philippine Craftsman

Title: Editorial and Official
Language: English
Year: 1913
Rights
Fulltext: EDITORIAL AND OFFICIAL T HE demand for industrial training of a type to fit the boy or girl either for entering ~vocation, or for advancement in the vocation already entered upon, has become so insistent that all progressive educational systems have been making provisions to satisfy it. Attempts have been made to meet the demand in many different ways. The regular trade school, in which the pupil is given practical training which ~:~~:·~'ho~f will enable him to enter upon his vocation as a Work, journeyman, is one of the most efficient types of schools, but it is also one of the most expensive and moreover is frequently open to the criticism of not developing the ability and characteristics which an employer demands of his employees. The half.time school, in which a student spends half of his time at school and the other half in actual labor in the line of work which he expects to follow under the instruction of the employer himself, is being tried out in many places. In Germany the con· tinuation school has seemed to meet the requirement that people engaged in trades be trained to the highest point of efficiency in the most satisfactory manner. In these schools the pupils spend most of their time at actual work at their trades and a limited amount of time in school work such as language, mathe· matics, and drawing-all pertaining directly to the vocation in which the pupil is engaged. In this country, no attempt has as yet been made to introduce the half.school and half.shop practice. It is felt, however, that the time is now ripe for the trying out of such a system in con· nection with the Philippine School of Arts and Trades. Ar· rangements will be made by which manufacturers who desire to develop apprentices to the highest stage of efficiency will be given an opportunity to send them to the Philippine School of Arts and Trades for one half the day and keep them at work under competent instructors during the other half of the day in their own shops. In all cases where such arrangements are made the manufacturer will be required to outline clearly the nature of the course which he will give to his apprentices; to state definitely the opportunities which will be open to them upon the completion of their course; to report monthly upon their attendance and progress; and to allow the Director of Education or his duly 5·19 550 THE PHILIPPiNE CRAFTS.IIAN authorized representative access at all hours to the shops in which the apprentices are at work. He must also clearly stipulate whether or not the apprentices will receive any pay whatsoever for their services before the completion of the course. The total cost of all materials and supplies used by the apprentice and all expenses connected with the instruction in the practical workings of the trade, shall be borne by the manufacturer. The school authorities will see that' the apprentices are given instruction in English, mathematics, and drawing, correlating each one of these subjects so far as possible with the trade at which the apprentice is working. No apprentice will be accepted who has not completed the primary course of instruction, who is not sixteen years of age, who does not possess sufficient physical strength to warrant his taking up the trade desired, or who cannot present sufficient evidence of good character to satisfy both the school authorities and the employer. In most cases where such an arrangement is consummated, the apprentice will spend a full half day in the shop. This time will probably vary, in accordance with the customs of the particular branch of work, from three to five hours. He will also spend four hours at the school upon his academic subjects. The results of carrying out such plans cannot be definitely foretold. Similar plans have been worked out successfully in other places and there seems to be no reason why they will not be successful here. They should develop a class of intelligent artisans already accustomed to shop life and in close touch with their employers. A sympathetic relationship between the employer and his apprentices will be an essential for attaining the desired ends. Several employers have already expressed their interest in this plan and they desire to give it a fair trial, believing that it will eventually work out not only to the personal advantage of the apprentice but also to the ultimate financial advantage of the employer. The details of this plan cannot be given at the present time, inasmuch as the arrangements for the different trades will vary greatly and in each case a number of special details must be provided for in addition to following out the previous general outline. All employers desiring to institute such a system of apprenticeship or desiring to become better acquainted with this movement may do so by correspondence with the Director of Education.-W. W. M. The complaint is often made by employers of labor that the EDITORIAl~ .'I.ND OFFICIAL 551 pupils turned out by the schools are "failures." This is partir the fault of the employer, who may expect too much, but more Rte~:t~~bltcet:;,~en ~~t:;h;~~ t~:~~ti~~. certain things that are lacking the School Shop. When a boy leaves school with a high standing and a diploma, he naturally feels pride in the fact that he has done better than some of his companions. He has been accustomed to kindly treatment, patience with his mistakes, and praise when he has excelled in his work. He goes to work for a business man who expects continuous perfect work, and who considers anything less than one hundred percent, a failure. The things which earned him praise while in school are taken as a matter of course by his employer, who expects to get full value for his money. In many cases the change is more than the boy can bear and he either quits his job or is discharged. Much can be done by the schools to remedy this condition, perhaps more by the school shops than by any other department. One of the weak features of any school system is its short hours. The pupils in the school shops are not learning to do a full day's work, from the standpoint of the business man. The pupil who does perhaps three hours easy work a day in the school shop for five days of the week, is to become the workman who must do eight or nine hours' work a day for six days in the week just as soon as he leaves school. Since it is apparently impossible to change the business man's requirements, we should, at least, in some way prepare the pupil for future conditions by demanding of him all that he can do while in the shop. Promptness must be considered above all things. Tardiness and absence should not be excused except in case of actual sickness. An employer does not pay for work that is not done, and there should be a penalty in the school for needless loss of time or for inexcusable mistakes. The penalty should be severe enough so that a pupil will consider well before he stays out of school and will continually be on his guard against mistakes. We must also insist on every pupil's working his full time in the shop. There must be a fixed time for starting and stopping work. The work should be planned so that a boy may always have something new to commence when he finishes one job, even though he finishes within five minutes of the end of his period. Laziness and indifference are two things that a teacher has to contend with. There are always, in every school, pupils who do not expect to work for a living after finishing their education. 552 THE PHILIPPINE CRAF1'SMAN These pupils are the chief cause of failure in shop discipline, for they set an example that the rest of the class is bound to follow to some extent. The course, however, requires that they take shop work, and the teacher must receive them into his class. Fortunately for the public schools, most of these boys are dis~ couraged at the prospect of continuous hard work and find a place where the requirements are not so strenuous. The shop teacher must enforce his rules upon all of his pupils alike. If they do not like it, let them quit-that is what they will have to do in the business world. To quote an old saying: "Attention, application, accuracy, method, punctuality, and dispatch are the principal qualities required for the efficient conduct of business of any sort." With this aphorism as a basis, we may state some of the requirements of an ordinary employee in any of the common lines of trade or business. (1) Getting to work on time and working full time every work day in the week. (2) Doing his work thoroughly and well. (3) Giving strict attention to business. (4) Doing exactly whatever he is told to do. (5) Dressing to suit his work. (6) Never being tard}' or absent without a very good reason. (7) Knowing how to do the work he has been hired to do. (8) Being respectful and obedient at all times, even though he thinks that his employer is unjust. (9) Working overtime without complaint, if ordered to do so. These things should be required in the school shop to the fullest possible extent. An employer may excuse, but he will not pay for labor unperformed, and he will not excuse the same offense many times. While we cannot take the same attitude toward our pupils that an employer takes toward his men, we must go as far as possible by making rules as above and enforcing them. It may seem unjust to require the same work of a boy who is physically unfitted for shop work that we require of a boy who is strong and healthy, yet it is equally unjust to give him the same rating as his companions who are able to do hard work. Discipline is the most important factor, and the only one that can be kept up to standard in a school. We cannot get perfect work, perfect attendance, or full value for our time, but we can get perfect obedience, and we can send out our pupils trained to obey orders. This should be the aim of every industrial teacher.-F. W. C. EDITORIAL AND OFFICIAL 553 ln several recent numbers of THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN we have indicated, by reference to articles in both educational and lay magazines, the trend of educational thought in the United States as compared with that in the Philippines, pointing out the pertinent fact that, particularly in the matter of vocational training, we seem to have good reason for feeling that the Philippine Bureau of Education is accomplishing something worthy of more than mere passing mention. Jt is not often that we are made the subject of such gratifying reference as that contained in the Annual Report for 1912 of the Honorable, the Secretary of War. The following quotation is taken verbatim from this report; and considering the dignity of the source of this reference, we feel justified in setting it down here, for the benefit and encouragement of all concerned, as the last word on the education situation in the Philippines. "ln the last decade opportunities for education have been extended ove1· the entire Philippine Archipelago. Where before the advent of the AmeJ·ieans there were only 700 public schools, there are now nearly 5,000 with an enrollment of nearly 700,000 Filipino pupils. Where there was then no attempt at vocational training, there is now an enrollment of over 400,000 pupils in industrial courses, while better opportunities are afforded in this respect by the public school.s of the Philippine Islands than by the public schools of any State in the Union. (NOTE: The foregoing is not italicized in the report.-Editor.) In the spread of English, we are actually giving to the Filipino peoples for the first time a common language. Besides Spanish, there were 24 distinct languages or dialects spoken in the Islands, while the variations in the dialects were almost innumerable. Today more Filipinos speak and write some English than speak and write at all in any other language. Whatever the future state of the Philip. pines politically, the establishment of a common language must do more for the advancement of their people toward nationality than any other one thing, and the establishment of English as this common tongue must do more for them than any other language that it would be possible to establish, since this is the most common international language of social and commercial intercourse in the Orient among people outside of the Philippine Archipelago." -T.D.D. Manual training in some form is here to stay. The teacher needs it in teaching not one subject, but most subjects; the public demands it because it offers the most obvious means of beginning the training for vocational life.-Selected. Labor is discovered to be the grand conqueror, enriching and building up nations more surely than the proudest battles.WM. ELLERY CHANNING. 554 THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN The public school must teach that which all should know. This is the ideal of the elementary school. Joined with the humanities and the sciences, a study of the industries rounds out the education of the citizen and equips him to begin his vocational training-Selected. The latest number of the Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, published by the British Government, contains an excellent article on Recent Agricultural Development in Uganda by P. H. Lamb, chief agricultural officer in Uganda. From the part of the article discussing the development of the cotton industry in Uganda the following excerpt is made: The Department, while these experiments were in progress, lost no time in correcting obvious cultural errors, and instructing the natives in the elementary ideas underlying successful cotton cultivation. With this end in view a system of native cotton instructors was inaugurated, and has proved an unqualified success. The European staff, whose time is principally spent in touring the Protectorate with a view to instilling sound agricultural principles into the native mind, soon realized that an enormous amount of their energy was being wasted in laborious detail which could be equally well accomplished by a staff of carefully trained natives, thus enabling the European to cover more ground on inspection duty, and that far more efficiently. These paid instructors rapidly acquire the essential principles of cotton cultivation, and are then sent throughout their respective districts to give practical demonstrations in every village. Such a system reaches the individual peasant, no matter how illiterate he may be, and whereas when an officer attempts to undertake this work himself, any good impression that may be created is almost certain to be quite obliterated before his next visit, the local instructor, on the other hand, is able to pay frequent visits, and has time to see that his instructions are carried out. It should be added that such men are almost invariably nominated by the local chief, and work with his hearty co-operation. The very marked imprO\'ement in all districts where native cotton-instructors have been at work speaks for itself, and has always been a ~ource of the greatest satisfaction to all who have been in a position to judge of it. ln the same article in the discussion of the coffee industry the following statement is made: But of all planter's crops in Uganda none has proved itself to be more desirable than coffee. The variety under general cultivation is coffee arabica, and the J'esults so far obtained are highly satisfactory, a yield of 1,000 pounds of dry beans per acre being commonly obtained ft·.om trees after the third year. Numerous plantations, both European and native, have recently sprung into existence, power factories are being set up, and great activity is in evidence on every hand. There can be little doubt that the next five years will see an export trade in this commodity built up which will rival that of cotton in importance.