INDUSTRIAL TRAINING FOR BOYS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
In Chapter III the distribution of the wage-earners of the city was
outlined, mainly for the purpose of establishing a basis on which to
make a forecast of the future occupations of the children in the
public schools. Such a forecast is essential as the preliminary step
in any plan of vocational training to be carried out during the school
period, for the reason that without it a clear understanding of the
principal factors of the problem is impossible. The kinds of
vocational training needed by children in school, and how and where
such training should be given, must always depend in the first
instance on what they are going to do when they grow up.
The average elementary school in Cleveland enrolls between 350 and 400
boys. When they leave school these boys will scatter into many
different kinds of work. With respect to the future vocations of the
pupils, the average school represents in a sense a cross section of
the occupational activities of the city. It contains a certain number
of recruits for each of the principal types of wage-earning pursuits.
A few of the boys will later enter professional life; many will take
up some sort of clerical work; a still larger number will be employed
in commercial occupations; and the largest group of all will become
wage-earners in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits.
The future occupation cannot be foretold accurately with respect to
any particular boy, but we do know that, whatever their individual
tastes and abilities, the boys must finally engage in activities
similar to those in which the adult born native male population is
engaged, and in approximately the same proportions. We do not know,
for example, whether Johnny Jones will become a doctor or a carpenter,
but we do know that of each 1,000 boys in the public schools about
seven will become doctors and about 25 will become carpenters, because
for many years about those proportions of the boys of native birth in
Cleveland have become doctors and carpenters.
One of the most impressive facts which comes to light in the study of
occupational statistics is the constancy in these proportions. The
business of any community requires certain kinds of work to be
performed and the relative amount of work required and consequently
the relative number of workers vary but slightly over a long period of
time. This principle is illustrated in a striking way by the list of
occupations selected at random presented in Table 7, showing the
number of persons engaged in the occupations specified among each 100
male workers at two successive census years.
TABLE 7--PER CENT OF TOTAL MALE WORKING POPULATION ENGAGED IN
SPECIFIED OCCUPATIONS, 1900 AND 1910
----------------------------+---------------------
| Per cent of total
Occupation | working population
+----------+----------
| 1900 | 1910
----------------------------+----------+----------
Machinists | 4.7 | 5.8
Saloon keepers | 1.1 | .7
Tailors | 2.1 | 1.7
Commercial travelers | .8 | 1.1
Lawyers | .5 | .4
Barbers | .8 | .7
Bakers | .6 | .5
Physicians | .6 | .5
Carpenters | 3.4 | 3.3
Cabinet makers | .5 | .4
Plumbers | .9 | .9
Stenographers and typists | .3 | .3
----------------------------+----------+----------
With the exception of plumbers and stenographers there was either an
increase or a decrease from 1900 to 1910 in the relative number
employed in each of these occupations. In only one occupation,
however, that of machinist, did the change amount to as much as one
per cent. In all the others the shift during the decade was less than
one-half of one per cent, and in more than three-fifths of them it did
not exceed one-tenth of one per cent of the total number of male
workers.
WHAT THE BOYS IN SCHOOL WILL DO
The figures in this table, presented for illustrative purposes, do not
accurately represent the proportions of boys now attending the public
schools who are likely to enter the occupations named, because they
do not take into account the fact that a considerable number of the
workers in Cleveland came to this country after they reached adult
manhood and that a disproportionate number of these foreign born
workers enter the industrial occupations. For this reason the total
adult working population is not strictly comparable with the school
enrollment, which is approximately nine-tenths native born. When the
boys in the public schools grow up they will be distributed among the
different trades, professions, and industries in about the same
proportions as are the American born men in the city at the present
time. This distribution is shown for the different occupational groups
in Table 8.
TABLE 8.--DISTRIBUTION OF NATIVE BORN MEN BETWEEN THE AGES OF 21 AND
45 IN THE PRINCIPAL OCCUPATIONAL GROUPS
Approximate
Occupational group per cent
Manufacturing and mechanical occupations 44
Commercial occupations 20
Clerical occupations 16
Transportation occupations 11
Domestic and personal service occupations 5
Professional occupations 3
Public service occupations 1
----
Total 100
The figures in the column at the right of the table represent the
number of native born men between the ages of 21 and 45 among each
hundred native born male inhabitants engaged in the occupations
comprehended in the various groups. In the case of the industrial
group the figure is too high, as the census data relative to the
distribution of foreign and native born include all ages, and there is
a smaller proportion of American born adult men employed in industry
than is found in the lower age groups. Extensive computations have
shown, however, that the inaccuracies due to this cause are not
serious enough to affect the use of the figures for our purpose.
Let us now consider what these proportions mean in establishing
vocational courses to prepare boys for wage-earning pursuits. The
future expectations of the boys in a large elementary school enrolling
say 1,000 pupils of both sexes would be about as follows:
_Number of boys who will enter_
Manufacturing and mechanical occupations 220
Commercial occupations 100
Clerical occupations 80
Transportation occupations 55
Domestic and personal service occupations 25
Professional occupations 15
Public service occupations 5
----
Total 500
This distribution includes all pupils, from the beginners in the first
grade to the older boys in the seventh and eighth grades. It is
certain, however, that differentiated instruction for vocational
purposes is not possible or advisable for the younger children.
According to the commonly accepted view among educators, vocational
training should not be undertaken before the age of 12 years, and many
believe that this is too early. In an elementary school of 1,000
pupils there would be about 80 boys 12 years old and over. Applying
to this number the ratios given in the previous table we obtain the
following:
_Number of boys who will enter_
Manufacturing and mechanical occupations 35
Commercial occupations 16
Clerical occupations 13
Transportation occupations 9
Domestic and personal service occupations 4
Professional occupations 2
Public service occupations 1
---
Total 80
The industrial group includes all of the skilled trades and most of
the semi-skilled and unskilled manual occupations. The skilled trades
are usually grouped in four main classifications: metal trades,
building trades, printing trades, and "other" trades, these last
comprising a number of small trades in each of which relatively few
men are employed. With respect to their future occupations the 35 boys
in the industrial group are likely to be distributed about as follows:
_Number of boys who will enter_
Metal trades 8
Building trades 7
Printing trades 1
Other trades 2
Semi-skilled and unskilled industrial occupations 17
---
35
The analysis can be carried still further, for these trade groups are
by no means homogeneous. The building trades, for example, include
over 20 distinct trades, a number of which have little in common with
the others as to methods of work and technical content.
ORGANIZATION AND COSTS
At this point it becomes necessary to take cognizance of certain
administrative factors which have a marked bearing on the problem.
They relate to the organization of classes in elementary schools and
the cost of teaching. In a school of 1,000 pupils there would be at
least five separate classes for the seventh and eighth grades. The 35
boys who need industrial training are not all found in a single class,
but are distributed more or less evenly throughout the five
classrooms, that is, there are approximately seven in each class. A
differentiated course under these conditions is difficult if not
impossible. In a few of the Cleveland elementary schools the
departmental system of teaching is in use. Under this plan something
might be done, were it not that the total number of pupils requiring
instruction relating specifically to the industrial trades is too
small to justify the expense necessary for equipment, material, and
special instruction required for such training. This is true as
regards even an industrial course of the most general kind, while
provision for particular trades is entirely out of the question. The
machinist's trade employs more men than any other occupation in the
city, yet the number of seventh and eighth grade boys in the average
elementary school who will probably become machinists does not exceed
five or six. Not over two boys are likely to enter employment in the
printing industry. The smaller trades, such as pattern making, cabinet
making, molding, and blacksmithing are represented by not more than
one boy each.
A possible alternative is the plan now followed in the teaching of
manual training whereby the boys of the upper grades in various
elementary schools are sent to one centrally located for a short
period of instruction each week. The principal objection to this plan
is that the amount of time now given is insufficient to accomplish
much in an industrial course, nor can it be materially increased
without seriously interfering with the work in other subjects.
The first condition for successful industrial training is the
concentration of a large number of pupils old enough to benefit by
such training in a single school plant. Only in this way is it
possible to bring the cost of teaching, equipment, and material within
reasonable limits and provide facilities for differentiating the work
on the basis of the vocational needs of the pupils. The fact that this
condition cannot be met in elementary schools is one of the strongest
arguments in favor of conducting the seventh and eighth grade work
under the junior high school form of organization.
WHAT THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS CAN DO
The most important contribution to vocational education the elementary
school can make consists in getting the children through the lower
grades fast enough so that they will reach the junior high school by
the time they are 13 years old, in order that before the end of the
compulsory attendance period they may spend at least two years in a
school where some kind of industrial training is possible. That this
is not being done at the present time the data presented in Chapter IV
amply demonstrate. In recent years there has been a tendency to regard
vocational training as a remedy for retardation. The fact is that the
cure of retardation is not a subsequent but a preliminary condition to
successful training for wage-earning. Vocational training is not a
means for the prevention of retardation, but retardation is a most
effective means for the prevention of vocational training.