1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Technical Education
TECHNICAL EDUCATION. The term now generally adopted to designate the special training of persons in the arts and sciences that underlie the practice of some trade or profession, is called “technical education.” Schools in which this training is provided are known as technical schools. In its widest sense, technical education General theory.embraces all kinds of instruction that have direct reference to the career a person is following or preparing to follow; but it is usual and convenient to restrict the term to the special training which helps to qualify a person to engage in some branch of productive industry, and the instruction so provided is generally known as “technological instruction.” This specialized education may consist of the explanation of the processes concerned in production, or of instruction in art or science in its relation to industry, but it may also include the acquisition of the manual skill which production necessitates.
The terms “technical” and “technological” (Gr. τέχνη, art or craft) as applied to education, arose from the necessity of finding words to indicate the special training which was needed in consequence of the altered conditions of production during the 19th century. Whilst the changed conditions of production, consequent mainly on the application of steam power to machinery, demanded a special training for those who were to be engaged in productive industry, the prevalent system of education was not adapted to the requirements of these persons, and schools were wanted in which the necessary instruction could be obtained. Other circumstances resulting Changed conditions of production. mainly from the application of steam power to machinery rendered technical education necessary. Production on a large scale led to a great extension of the principle of the division of labour, in consequence of which it was found economical to keep a man constantly engaged at the same kind of work, since the more he practised it the quicker and more skilful he became. Thus employed, the workman learned little or nothing of the process of the manufacture at which he assisted, or of other departments of the work than the particular one in which he was engaged, and his only opportunity of acquiring such knowledge was outside the workshop or factory in a technical school. The economy effected by the division of labour led to the extension of the principle to other industries than those in which machinery is largely employed. There are many trades in which manual skill is as necessary now as ever, but even in these the methods of instruction prevailing under the old system of apprenticeship are now almost obsolete.
In many industries, including trades in which machinery is not as yet extensively employed, production on a large scale has increased the demand for unskilled labour, numbers of Apprenticeship.hands being required to prepare the work to be finished by a few skilled artisans. Rapidity of execution is attained by keeping a workman at the same work, which after a time he succeeds in mechanically performing and continues to do until some machine is invented to take his place. In most trades, as formerly practised, the master employed a few apprentices who assisted him in his work, and who learnt from him to understand the details of their craft, so that, when the term of their apprenticeship was over, they were competent to practise as journeymen. But now the master frequently has neither time nor opportunity to instruct young lads, and the old relation of master and apprentice is changed into that of manufacturer and workman. In consequence of these altered relations between employer and employed, there has arisen an acknowledged want of properly trained workmen in a number of trades in which skilful hand work is still needed; and in these trades a demand has arisen for technical schools, or some other substitute for what was formerly done by apprenticeship, as a means of suitably training workmen and foremen. The ever-increasing competition in production has led to the employment, in many trades, of children to do work of a mechanical kind requiring little skill; but, whilst thus employed, these young people have little opportunity of learning those parts of their trade in which skill and special knowledge are needed; and when they are grown up, and seek higher wages, they are dismissed to make room for other children. Numbers of young people are thus thrown upon the labour market, swelling the percentage of the unemployed, who are competent to do nothing more than children’s work, and to earn children’s wages, and who know no trade to which they can apply their hands. To remedy this, by creating some substitute for the old apprenticeship, is one of the objects of a system of technical education; though in suitable trades an independent movement for reviving apprenticeship (q.v.) under improved conditions has also made some way.
A complete system of technical education should provide the necessary instruction for the different classes of persons engaged in productive industry. It is usual to divide these persons into three classes:—(1) workmen or journeymen; (2) foremen or overseers; (3) managers or masters.
The industries in which they are employed may be grouped
under four heads:—(1) those involving the use of extensive
machinery, such as iron and steel manufacture,
Classes of
workers.
workers, machine-making, the textile industries, and some of
the chemical trades; (2) those which mainly require
the use of hand tools, as cabinet-making, brick-work,
plumbing, and tailoring; (3) those depending on artistic skill,
as wood and stone carving, metal-chasing, enamelling,
decorative work, and industrial designing generally; (4)
agriculture in all its branches, and forestry. These industries will
be referred to as manufactures, handicrafts, art industries
and agriculture. The foregoing classification comprises groups
which necessarily, to some extent, overlap one another. Every
factory contains a carpenter’s and smith’s shop, and
handicraftsmen of group (2) are required in every manufacturing
concern. Whilst the industries in which hand labour is
exclusively employed are becoming fewer and fewer, there are
many trades which, owing to the frequent invention of labour-saving
appliances, are passing gradually from the class of
handicrafts to that of manufactures. In these trades, of
which watch- and clock-making and boot- and shoe-making
may be taken as examples, there is still a demand for goods
largely if not entirely produced by hand work. In such trades,
owing to the absence of facilities for instruction in the ordinary
shops, there is a want of skilled hand labour which there is
an increasing difficulty in satisfying, and to supply this want
technical schools of different kinds have been established.
Then, again, there are many branches of manufacturing
industry which greatly depend for their success upon the
designer’s art, and it is necessary that the industrial designer
should possess a knowledge of the processes of the manufacture
in which his designs will be utilized, as well as of the properties
and capabilities of the material to which they will be applied.
Indeed, it is the possession of this knowledge which mainly
distinguishes the industrial designer from the ordinary artist.
To determine the best training for such designers is one of
the problems of technical education. There are many trades,
too, in which the handicraftsman and the designer should be
united. This is the case in such industries as silversmith’s
and goldsmith’s work. In these and other trades the true
artisan is the artist and handicraftsman combined.
In order to reconcile some of the different views which are
held as to the objects of technical education, it is necessary to
keep in mind the broad distinction, above referred to,
Manufactures
and handicrafts.
between the conditions of production on a large scale,
as in those industries in which goods are manufactured
by the use of extensive labour-saving machinery,
and in those trades in which hand work is chiefly employed.
Much of the diversity of opinion regarding the objects of technical
education is due to the difference of standpoint from which
the problem is regarded. The volume of the trade and commerce
of Britain depends mainly on the progress of its manufacturing
industries. It is these which chiefly affect the exports and
imports. The aim of manufacturers is to produce cheaper and
better goods than can be produced by other manufacturers at
home or abroad; and technical education is valuable to them, in
so far as it enables them to do so. It also helps to widen the
area of productive industry, and to encourage varieties of activity
which the free and unfettered conditions of competition tend
unduly to restrict. On the other hand, the artisan engaged in hand
industries looks to technical education for self-improvement,
and for the means of acquiring that general knowledge of the
principles and practice of his trade, which he is unable to obtain
in the commercial shop. Hence the artisan and the
manufacturer approach the consideration of the question from
different sides. To the spinner or weaver who almost
exclusively employs women to tend his machinery, or to the
manufacturing chemist whose workpeople are little more than
labourers employed in carrying to and fro materials, knowing
little or nothing of the scientific principles underlying the
complicated processes in which they are engaged, the technical
education of the workpeople may seem to be a matter of little
moment. What such manufacturers require are the services
of a few skilled engineers, artistic designers or scientific chemists.
From the manufacturer’s point of view, therefore, technical
instruction is not so much needed for the hands he employs in
his work as for the heads that direct it. But in trades in which
machinery plays a subsidiary part, technical teaching supplies
the place of that instruction which, in former times, the master
gave to his apprentice, and the workman is encouraged to
attend technical classes with a view to acquiring that knowledge
of the theory and practice of his trade, on the acquisition
of which his individual success greatly depends. In the former
class of industries, technical education is needed mainly for
the training of managers; in the latter, for the training of
workmen. Hence has arisen a double cry,—for the teaching
of art and of the higher branches of science, with a view to
their application to manufacturing industry, and for the
specialized instruction in drawing, and in the scientific facts
which help to explain the processes and methods connected
with the practice of different crafts and trades. This double
cry has led to the establishment of technical universities and
of trade schools.
Owing to the conditions under which manufacturing industry
is now carried on, it is difficult to select competent foremen
from the rank and file of the workmen. The ordinary
Foremen
and
managers.
hands gain a very limited and circumscribed
acquaintance with the details of the manufacture in which they are engaged, and have little opportunity of acquiring that general knowledge of various departments of work, and of the structure and uses of the machinery employed, which is essential to the foreman or overseer. It is in evening technical classes that this supplementary instruction, which it is the workman’s interest to acquire and the master’s to encourage, can be obtained; and it is from the more
intelligent workmen who attend these classes that masters and employers will select as foremen those students who are found to possess the essential qualifications. The history of invention shows how frequently important improvements in machinery are made by the workman or minder in charge of it, and adds
weight to the arguments already adduced for giving technical
instruction to persons of all grades employed in manufacturing
industry. To these advantages of technical education, as
affecting the workmen themselves as well as the progress of
the industry in which they are engaged, must be added the
general improvement in the character of the work produced,
resulting from the superior and better-trained intelligence of
those who have had the benefit of such instruction.
It will be seen from the foregoing that a complete system of technical education must make provision for the training of those who are to be occupied as journeymen or foremen in different branches of trade or industry, and also for those who aim at becoming managers or masters or heads of manufacturing firms, scientific advisers or professional engineers. As technical Professional and general education. education necessarily implies specialized teaching, the curriculum and methods of instruction adopted in the elementary and secondary schools, where students receive their preliminary training, are matters closely related to any scheme of technical instruction, and the trend of educational opinion is in favour of associating the general instruction given in those schools with the specialized teaching of the technical institutions. Indeed, it is daily becoming more difficult to draw any hard-and-fast line between professional and general education. It is now universally recognized that the foundations of technical instruction must be laid in the elementary and the secondary schools, and many of the changes which have been made in the organization of those schools had their origin in the requirements of technical institutions.
A short survey of the methods adopted in different countries to provide the specialized teaching applicable to different pursuits, and of its relation to the general school system of those countries, will serve as a fitting introduction to the consideration of the legislative and other changes which have Study of foreign systems. gradually been made in the British school system with a view to modern industrial conditions. The study of foreign systems of education is serviceable, as showing the relation of such systems to the industrial needs of each country and to the genius and character of the people. In the organization of technical education in England, full advantage has been taken of foreign experience, although no attempt has been made to imitate too closely foreign methods. Detailed information as to what has been done abroad is found in the published reports of the several English commissions which have been appointed to inquire into the subject, and in the valuable series of special reports issued from the Board of Education. From these reports, which show how varied have been the attempts to adapt school training to modern industrial requirements, certain general principles may be inferred, which are equally applicable to the conditions under which the trade and commerce of different countries is now carried on.
These general principles may be briefly enunciated as follows:—
1. The education of all persons who may expect to be occupied General principles. in some form of productive industry may be considered as consisting of two parts, (a) general, (b) special.
2. The general education is the preliminary training provided in elementary and secondary schools, and the curriculum of those schools should be varied so as to have some reference to the future pursuits of the pupils.
3. The special or supplementary instruction should be adapted to the requirements of different grades and classes of workers, and to different trades or occupations as practised in different localities.
A complete system of technical education would afford facilities of training adapted to every kind and grade of industry; but, owing to the complexity of the problem, such a system is nowhere to be found. In every country the scheme of education and method of instruction have varied from time to time, as the conditions regulating trade and industry have changed. But recently in all civilized countries, the effort has been made to provide a general and specialized education adapted to different pursuits for each of these great classes of workers: (1) operatives, (2) foremen and overseers, (3) masters and managers.
1. Workmen.—Many attempts have been made to provide a substitute for apprenticeship, but hitherto with no great success. Two classes of workpeople have to be considered — (1) those engaged in manufacturing industries, and (2) those engaged in handicraft industries. The education of all classes of workpeople begins in the public elementary schools; and, in view of the future occupation of the children, it may be taken for granted that primary instruction should be practical, and should include drawing and elementary science. It should indeed be closely associated with manual training, consisting of workshop exercises and field work in the case of boys in urban and rural schools respectively, and of instruction in the domestic arts in the case of girls. The lessons in drawing and in Elementary education. elementary science should form part of the manual training, and the school curriculum should be unified so that all the subjects of instruction should be grouped together as parts of an organized system. The desired diversity should be found in the different kinds and grades of manual work. Reading, writing and arithmetic would be taught incidentally in close connexion with the practical exercises. In nearly every country of Europe, and in the United States, the trend of education practice is in this direction. In France, Belgium, Holland and Sweden handicraft instruction is generally included in the curriculum of elementary schools. Rudimentary science is also taught in nearly all the primary schools of Europe. Modelling is taught both to boys and girls in many Continental schools; and in Sweden “sloyd” (Sw. stöjd, manual dexterity, cf. Eng. “sleight”), a system of manual training, in which simple and useful articles, especially of wood, are constructed with the fewest possible tools, is taught with considerable success to children of both sexes.
In Germany and Switzerland, there exists an excellent system of evening continuation schools, known as Fortbildungs- or Ergänzungs-Schulen, in which the instruction of the children who leave school before fourteen, and of those who leave at that age, is continued. In all these schools drawing is taught with special reference to local industries. In England great progress has been made in recent years in developing evening classes in which the pupils' Continuation schools. elementary instruction is continued with a view to the specialized teaching provided in the technical school. The teaching in these continuation schools is generally varied according as the pupil is occupied in trade or office work, and the practice is becoming general of requiring him to pass a qualifying examination to secure admission to classes in technology. It will be seen, therefore, that the training of most workpeople, and of nearly all those who are engaged in manufacturing industry, consists of: — (1) primary teaching in elementary schools; (2) practice in the factory or shop, supplemented by further elementary teaching; (3) evening instruction in technology.
In all the principal towns throughout Europe evening classes have been established for teaching drawing, painting and designing, and the elements of science in their application to special industries. The instruction, however, is less practical than that provided in the corresponding schools in England. The classes abroad are mainly supported by the municipalities, by the chambers of commerce, by industrial or trade societies, by county boards, and in some cases by the fees of the pupils. They receive little or no support from the state. They are well attended by workpeople of all grades, who are encouraged by their employers to profit by these opportunities of instruction. In England evening technical instruction is more systematically organized than in any other country. It is under the general direction of the Board of Education, and of the City and Guilds of London Institute.
The Board of Education prescribe the conditions under which grants are paid to schools providing technical instruction. In former years these grants were paid on the results of the examination Evening technical classes. of individual students; but this method of apportioning state aid has been almost entirely abandoned. The Board still hold annual examinations in science and art and in certain branches of applied science; but the more specialized examinations in technology and trade subjects are held annually by the City and Guilds of London Institute, through its department of technology. These latter examinations are utilized by the Board, and the certificates granted on the results are recognized in the appointment of teachers. The technical schools in which these classes are held are under the direct control of the local educational authorities, and are largely supported by grants from local rates. Year by year a larger share of responsibility is being thrown upon the local authorities, with a view to encouraging greater variety of instruction and further adaptation of the teaching to local needs. The Board continue, however, to indicate the range of subjects to be taught in preparation for their annual examinations, and the City and Guilds of London Institute issues each year a programme containing suggested courses of training in nearly a hundred trade subjects.
In the evening classes in science, art and technology, which have been established throughout the United Kingdom, the workman or foreman engaged in any manufacturing industry has the opportunity, by payment of a very small fee, of studying art in all its branches, science theoretically and practically, and the technology of any particular industry. Provided his early education enables him to take advantage of this instruction, no better system has been suggested of enabling workmen, whilst earning wages at an early age, to acquire manual skill by continuous practice, and at the same time to gain a knowledge of the principles of science connected with their work and explanatory of the processes of the manufacture in which they are engaged.
For those engaged in handicraft trades this evening instruction is equally valuable, and not only in England, but equally in other parts of Europe, there exist evening trade schools in which the workman is able to supplement the “sectional” practice he acquires in the shop by more general practice in other branches of his trade. In Vienna, for example, and elsewhere in Austria, there are found practical evening classes for carpenters, turners, joiners, metalworkers and others. Throughout Europe schools for weaving, with practical work at the loom and pattern-designing, have existed for many years.
To provide a training more like the old system of apprenticeship, schools have been established in many parts of Europe and Trade schools. in the United States which are known as professional, trade or apprenticeship schools (écoles professionelles, écoles des apprentis, Fachschulen). The object is to train workmen; and the pupils, after completing their course of instruction in such a school, are supposed to have learnt a trade. The school is the substitute for the shop. In such a school the pupils have the advantage of being taught their trade systematically and leisurely, and production is made subsidiary to instruction. Under such an artificial system of production, the pupil is less likely to acquire excellence of workmanship and smartness of habit than in the mercantile shop, under the strain of severe competition. Moreover, the cost of maintenance of these schools renders it impossible to look to them as a general substitute for apprenticeship. By sending into the labour market, however, a few highly trained workmen, who are absorbed in various works and exert a beneficial influence on other workmen, these schools serve a useful purpose. Schools of this kind have been tried with more or less success in different countries. In Paris there is the well-known École Diderot for the training of mechanics, fitters, smiths, &c.; and similar schools have been established in other parts of France. For many years a society of Christian Brethren has directed a large school situated in the Rue Vaugirard, Paris, in which different trades are taught. All the secular and general instruction is given gratuitously by the brothers, and in the several shops attached to the school skilled workmen are employed, who instruct the pupil apprentices, and utilize their labour. This system combines many of the advantages of shop work and school work, but it depends financially for its success upon the religious spirit which actuates its promoters and supporters. The Artane school, near Dublin, is conducted on somewhat similar principles, but is intended for a lower class of children. In Austria, particularly in the rural districts, there are numerous day schools for the training of carpenters, joiners, turners, cabinetmakers, workers in stone and marble, in silver and other metals, &c. Schools of the same class are found in Germany, Italy and Holland, and schools very similar in character have been organized to a limited extent in England. The demand that called them into existence in other parts of Europe and in America has been felt in the United Kingdom. The difficulty of securing for apprentices in a commercial shop systematic training in handicraft has led to the establishment of a few trade schools which receive children from the elementary school about the age of thirteen for a three years' course of instruction. In these schools the time is about equally divided between ordinary school subjects and the practice of some handicraft, such as cabinet-making, upholstery, waistcoat-making, millinery. Parents are encouraged to allow their children to receive this further education by the offer of free teaching and maintenance grants. Such schools, however, must be regarded as educational experiments, to be superseded if found necessary by reason of changes in the conditions under which the trade is practised. Any system of technical education, however, should be sufficiently elastic to permit of such experiments and of the introduction of types of instruction to meet special and even temporary needs. It is only in certain cases that apprenticeship schools can be said to answer satisfactorily the purpose for which they have been established. Where a new industry, especially in rural districts, has to be created; where decaying industries need to be revived; where machinery is superseding hand work, and, owing to the demands for ordinary hands, there is a dearth of skilled workmen; where through the effects of competition and other causes the trade is carried on under conditions in which competent workmen cannot be properly trained in the ordinary shop, — in these cases, and in various art industries, an apprenticeship school may prove to be the best means of training workmen and of advancing particular trades. Generally, an apprenticeship school should be looked upon as a temporary expedient, as a form of relief applied at the birth of a new industry or to meet some special conditions under which a trade is practised. The proper training school for workmen is the factory or shop.
In the United States there are only a few schools which have been specially organized with a view to the training of workmen for special trades. The line between technical and general education is not very clearly defined in any of the states' schools. It is also difficult to give any such general review of the system of education in America as can be presented in connexion with France or Germany or Italy, owing to the fact that each separate state has its own organization, over which the Federal government exercises no direct control. In none of the states is technical education differentiated by class distinctions to the same extent as in continental countries. The ambition of every workman is to become a master, and this general ambition gives rise to an enthusiasm for education among all classes, which does not exist to the same extent in any other country. In the United States are found evening technical schools and schools of design for those who have passed from the common schools into commercial work; but the desire for further instruction is so marked that many of those who have received only an elementary education endeavour, by working during the vacations, or by other means, to save enough money to attend the higher technical schools, and so acquire the necessary skill and knowledge to improve their position in the factory or workshop.
2. Foremen. — The foreman must be familiar with the various branches of work he is to overlook; and the training which the Training of foremen. workman receives in the factory or shop affords him but scanty opportunities of obtaining this general knowledge. The foreman needs also a generally superior education. How then are foremen to be trained? The problem is somewhat easier than that of training workmen, because the number required is fewer. The variety of schools in Europe devoted to this purpose is very great. There are three distinct ways in which foremen are being trained.
(a) The evening technical classes in Britain and on the continent offer to ambitious workmen an opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of other departments of the trade than those in which they are engaged, as well as of the scientific principles underlying their work. These classes serve the double purpose of improving the workpeople and of affording a means of discovering those who are best fitted to occupy higher posts.
(b) Special schools have been established for the training of foremen. There are many schools of this kind in which selected boys are received after leaving the higher elementary or secondary school. The best known are those at Chalons, Aix, Nevers, Angers and Lille in France. These schools are intended for the training of foremen in engineering trades. They are state institutions, in which practical mechanical work in the shops is supplemented by theoretical instruction. The first of these schools was founded in 1803. The course lasts three years, and the students spend from six to seven hours a day in the workshop, and are trained as fitters, founders, smiths and pattern-makers. As in all such schools, saleable goods are produced, but, as production is subordinated to instruction, the school does not bind itself to deliver work at a given date, and therefore does not compete with any manufacturing establishment. The students on leaving these schools are competent at once to undertake the duties of foremen and draughtsmen. At Komotau, Steyr, Klagenfurt, Ferlach and many other places schools have been established on somewhat similar principles. In Germany there are special schools for the training of foremen in the building trade, which are chiefly frequented in the winter, and numerous schools are found in all parts of the continent for the training of weavers. At Winterthur in Switzerland a school has been established the main purpose of which is the training of foremen. In Italy there are numerous technical institutes, the object of which is to train young men for intermediate posts in industrial works. In London, the Finsbury technical college of the City and Guilds of London Institute has a day department, the main purpose of which is the training of youths as foremen, works managers, &c. ; but in this school the character of the instruction deviates considerably from that given in French schools, and aims rather at preparing youths to learn, than at teaching them their trade.
(c) A third method adopted for the training of foremen is by encouraging selected children of the ordinary elementary schools to continue their education in schools of a higher grade of a technical character. It is thought that, by developing to a higher degree the intelligence and skill of those children who show aptitude for scientific and practical work, they will be able, when they enter the shop, to learn their trade more quickly and more thoroughly, and to acquire that general knowledge of their work, and to exhibit those special aptitudes, which may qualify them for the position of foreman or overseer. The education given in these schools, although having some bias towards the future career of the pupil, is disciplinary in character, and consists of the subjects of primary instruction further pursued, — of drawing, modelling, science, mathematics and manual exercises. The curriculum is varied according to local requirements, the technology of the staple industries forming in many cases part of the instruction. Such schools, under varied forms, have been established in most European countries, some of the best examples of them being found in Paris, Lyons, Reims, Rouen, and in other towns of France. One of the oldest of these schools is the École Martinière at Lyons. The school was founded in 1820 by a bequest from Major-General Martin, who had fought against the English under Tippoo Sahib. In this school, in which the education is gratuitous, as in nearly all the higher elementary schools of France, instruction is given in drawing, modelling, chemistry, mechanics and physics, in the working of wood and iron, and in German and English in addition to the subjects of an ordinary school education. Surveying is also taught to some of the pupils, and the instruction generally is of a very practical character. The students visit factories under the guidance of the masters, and on their return write out full descriptions of their visits. The school hours are from seven till eleven in the morning and from one till seven in the afternoon. The boys from this school rapidly obtain places in the commercial and industrial houses of Lyons, and many of them, after a time, succeed in obtaining high positions. A very similar school, on more modern lines, has been established at Reims, and is accommodated in a building especially adapted to the purpose. In this school instruction is directed towards the staple industries of the district, namely, weaving, dyeing and engineering. There are many other similar schools in France, the object of which is to give the children of artisans and small shopkeepers a higher practical education in order to fit them to occupy the posts of foremen, overseers and superior clerks in manufacturing and commercial firms. In Germany the real schools, in which Latin is not taught, known as Ohnelatein Realschulen, have very nearly the same objects as the higher elementary schools of France. The instruction in these German schools is not so practical as in the schools of France. Drawing is always well taught, and the schools generally contain good chemical laboratories, as well as collections of physical apparatus and museums. From the pupils of these schools the ranks of foremen are largely recruited. They receive no special trade instruction, but the general training is so arranged as to qualify them for higher posts in industrial works. The cost of this higher education seldom exceeds £3 per annum. In Bavaria there is found a type of school called Industrie-Schule, which serves very well for the training of engineers and industrial chemists, who aim at occupying intermediate posts, and desire to enter upon commercial work at an earlier age than students attending a university or technical college. The instruction in these Industrieschulen is largely practical, but is combined with some amount of literary and linguistic training. Some of the students proceed to the technical university, but the majority find posts as foremen or overseers soon after completing their school course. In most of these schools, as well as in the chief intermediate commercial schools, the exit certificate exempts a lad from two of the three years’ compulsory military service, and this regulation, to which nothing corresponds in England, is an incentive to parents to allow their children to receive higher instruction, which operates very forcibly in largely increasing the number of well-educated youths in Germany.
A special feature of the education provided in the United States is what is known as the “manual training” school. This is a school admirably adapted for the training of foremen, although not especially intended for any particular industrial class. The manual training school is a secondary school in which Manual training schools in U.S. a large part of the time is given to workshop exercises. The whole subject of manual training is more scientifically developed in some of the states of America than in any European country. The school is pervaded by the kindergarten spirit, and leads up, without break of continuity, to courses of instruction given in the higher technical colleges. The movement in favour of manual training in the United States is general and extends even to the private schools where youths are prepared for the university. At the same time, the purely practical teaching is invariably combined with scientific and literary instruction. In these, as in other schools, the principle is fully recognized that the primary aim of education is to make citizens and not tradesmen. It is difficult to take any one manual training school as typical of others, seeing how the curriculum varies in different states. The practical work includes exercises in carpentry, joinery, wood-turning, wood-carving, forging, foundry-work, machine fitting, stone-work, and weaving and appropriate exercises for girls. The general idea underlying the scheme of instruction in these schools is that the teaching must be educative till the age of fifteen, and should then, and only then, develop into specialized and professional training.
3. Masters.—Some of the best schools for the training of future masters, managers, engineers, manufacturers and industrial chemists are found in Germany and Switzerland, and are known as technical high schools. Schools of a similar character are found in other Training of managers and masters.countries.
In Germany the technische Hochschule or Polytechnicum is an institution of university type in which the education has special reference to industrial purposes. In many respects the teaching coincides with that given in the universities. The chief distinction consists in the arrangement of courses of instruction in the several departments, in the admission of students having a non-classical preliminary training, and in the absence of certain faculties found in the university and the addition of others. It is not correct to say that the technical high school is a professional school as distinguished from the university; for the faculties of law, medicine and theology give to the university as distinctly a professional character as the faculty of engineering gives to the technical high school. Nor can it be said that the scientific studies at the universities are less practical than at the technical high school. For, whilst workshops for instruction in the use of tools are found in very few of the German high schools, the laboratories for the practical study of chemistry and physics are as well equipped at some of the German universities as at the technical high schools. At the same time, engineers of every description, architects and builders, besides a great number of manufacturing chemists, find in the technical nigh school the scientific and special training which the future lawyer or physician, and in many cases the industrial chemist, seeks in the university.
In some of the large cities—in Berlin, Vienna and Munich, for instance—the two institutions co-exist; and in certain cases, in which a very special training is required to fit a youth for his career, the German student, after spending three or four years at a technical high school, passes on to German universities and technical high schools. another institution, such as a dyeing school, in which his studies are further specialized with a view to his future work.
Taking the technical high school of Munich as a type of other similar institutions, we find that it consists of seven departments:—(1) the general; (2) the civil engineering; (3) the building; (4) the mechanical engineering; (5) the industrial chemical; (6) the agricultural, and (7) electrical technology. In other institutions there are architectural, pharmaceutical and mining schools. The programme of the Munich school gives a list of about 200 different courses of instruction distributed over the several departments. A separate professor is engaged to lecture on that particular subject with which he is specially conversant, and the number of such professors attached to a technical high school is very large. In the engineering department there are several distinct courses of lectures under the direction of professors who are experts in their special subject. The largest of all these institutions is that of Berlin, which was completed in 1884 at a cost of about £450,000. It is situated in what was a suburb of Berlin, and is generally known as the Charlottenburg Institution. It includes departments for the highest specialized instruction in nearly all branches of technology. Other schools in Germany are less complete, but most of them have one or more departments which are specially organized with a view to the highest grade of technical instruction. Both in the universities and in the technical high schools facilities for scientific research are provided, and the students are encouraged to undertake original investigations. The technical high schools are now placed on the same educational platform as the universities and have the power to confer the degree of Doctor of Engineering on students fulfilling the required conditions.
In France, the institutions in which the highest technical instruction is given are concentrated in the capital. There are a large number of provincial colleges such as the École Centrale at Lyons, the École des Mineurs at St Étienne and the Institut du Nord at Lille, where the education is somewhat Higher technical training in France. more practical, but where the mathematical and scientific teaching is not carried to so high a point. Several of the French provincial colleges in which the higher forms of technical instruction are well developed became in 1898, under the law of 1896, separate universities. The École Centrale of Paris, in which the majority of French engineers who are not employed in the government service are trained, is a rare instance of an institution for higher technical instruction which is self-supporting and independent of government aid. Other special institutions in Paris, some of which are associated with the university of Paris, are the École des Mines, the École des Ponts et Chaussées, and the Collège de France, an old foundation in which facilities are afforded for the highest scientific research.
In Switzerland the federal polytechnic of Zurich is in many ways similar to the schools of Germany and Austria. Italy has three
superior technical institutes—one at Milan, one at Turin
and one at Naples, in which technical education is given on the same lines as in German polytechnic schools. In Switzerland
and elsewhere.Holland has an excellent institution at Delft, which was opened in 1864. In each of the state universities of Belgium there is a faculty of applied science, and degrees are granted on a course of training in science and technology; and in Russia the imperial technical school at Moscow is a high-class engineering school in which the theoretical studies are supplemented, to a greater extent than in the German schools, by workshop practice. It will be seen, therefore, that in nearly all European countries, instruction in engineering in all its branches and in chemical technology has become a recognized part of a university course, and that the faculty of applied science has been so enlarged as to provide technical education of the highest grade.
Some of the best schools for the higher technical instruction—for the training of masters and of those who are to occupy the position of managers in engineering; and industrial works — are found in the United States. On leaving the secondary school, the American Higher technical training in United States. student may go at once into business: or he may proceed with a four years' course of general instruction; or he may enter a professional or technical school. Some students prolong their education by taking the general course before proceeding to the technical institution. As in the lower, so in the higher grades of instruction, the distinction between general and technical education is not very clearly defined. There are some institutions devoted almost exclusively to professional training; whilst in others the engineering faculty exists side by side with other faculties of university rank. The general interest in higher education which is shown by the desire of students of all classes to obtain it, in many cases at considerable individual sacrifice, and by the value which masters and employers attach to a college-trained youth, is partly due to the large proportion of pupils from the ordinary schools who proceed to the secondary or high schools. It is estimated that the pupils between the ages of fourteen and eighteen in attendance at these schools constitute at least one per cent, of the entire population of the United States. In several of the American institutions known as colleges, but not easily distinguishable from the universities, courses of general or technical instruction are provided of all intermediate grades, but above that given in the high schools. In addition to these there are some well-known institutions which provide courses of professional and general instruction of the highest grade under professors of eminence and distinction, and facilities for research which are not surpassed in any German university or technical high school. To the foundation and maintenance of these schools wealthy citizens have given or bequeathed enormous sums of money, and they further enjoy the proceeds of the sale of lands which were set apart under the Morrill Act of 1862 to give assistance to institutions providing instruction in agriculture and the mechanical arts. Several colleges whose work was mainly literary took advantage of this act to establish scientific and technical courses in order to secure the income to be obtained by compliance with its provisions.
Without entering into great detail, it may be said that the schools providing advanced technical instruction may be grouped under three headings: (1) those which are free from state or government control and are maintained from funds arising out of endowments and students' fees, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken; (2) schools which form part of, or are affiliated to, the universities, which are equally independent of public control, such as Columbia University, New York, and the Sibley College of Mechanical Arts, Cornell University; (3) schools and colleges attached to state universities, receiving grants from the state, such as the universities of Illinois and Michigan.
Contributions from private sources towards the establishment and equipment of these institutions are far in excess of those in any other part of the world. Between the years 1890 and 1901 these contributions amounted to about £23,000,000.
The American universities, with which the technical institutions are in many cases closely associated, differ from those in the United Kingdom in their examinations for degrees. In this respect they have adopted the practice of the German and other continental universities. The examinations are almost uniformly conducted by the teachers. The external examiner is practically unknown. This system allows considerable freedom to the teacher, and is said by competent judges to be attended with excellent results. In many of the states, particularly in the east, even the matriculation, or entrance examination, is being superseded by a system known as the “accrediting” system of the secondary or high schools, where the students receive their general education. According to this system, the schools are inspected by the professors of the university, and those in which the equipment, the courses of instruction, and the method of teaching are found to be satisfactory, are included in a list of “accredited” or approved schools, and the pupils of such schools, who produce a certificate of having satisfactorily attended the prescribed course of study, are admitted to the university without passing any entrance examination. An advantage of this system is that it brings the professors of the university into direct relationship with the schools in which the students receive their preliminary training, and closely connects the instruction provided in the school with the higher and more specialized teaching of the university.
The widespread appreciation of the advantages of the higher education among all classes of the American people, and the general recognition among manufacturers, engineers and employers of labour, of the value to them, in their own work, of the services of college-trained men, has largely helped to increase the number of students in attendance at the universities and technical institutions, and to encourage in every state the foundation of schools for advanced professional training.
The institutions in which the highest technical instruction is provided are those devoted to the teaching of engineering in all its branches, including mining engineering, and of chemistry in its application to manufacturing industry; besides schools of agriculture and forestry and schools of design.
Of these the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston is the most typical. It was founded in 1859 with a view to supplying a complete system of industrial education, supplementary to the general training of other institutions. In 1861 an act was passed incorporating a body of persons for the purpose, inter alia, of aiding in the advancement of science in its application to the arts, agriculture, manufactures and commerce. The institute offers thirteen distinct courses. Of these, eight are devoted to engineering, including naval architecture; four to chemistry, physics, biology and geology, and one to preparation for professional teaching. In 1904 there were 183 instructors on the permanent staff of this institution. As indicating the practical character of the teaching in this and in other similar schools, it should be noted that the railway companies co-operate in making provision for tests on a large scale, and in permitting the use of locomotives on their line for the purpose of giving practical training to the students.
At Columbia University, New York, the school of applied science was established in 1864, and consists of a fairly complete school of technology with a four years' course of instruction. An interesting department at Columbia is the professorial school for the study of education and the training of teachers. The importance of manual training is recognized by the fact that the professor of this subject has a seat in the faculty of applied science. Two schools of observation and practice are maintained — the Horace Mann School and the Experimental School. The former comprises three departments, a kindergarten, an elementary and a high school. The experimental school is under the immediate direction of the professor of the theory and practice of teaching. The facilities provided for the professorial and technical training of teachers are one of the most valuable features in the educational system of the United States.
In England there is a growing tendency to associate technical with secondary education. The central technical college of the City Higher technical instruction in Britain. and Guilds of London Institute, was an institution established exclusively for the purpose of providing the highest grade of engineering education. In this respect it compared more nearly than any other institution with the technical high schools of Germany. The Royal School of Mines, connected with the Royal College of Science, was a similar institution, providing the highest teaching for mining engineers. In Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield, schools of applied science were established under the names respectively of the Mason College, the Yorkshire College of Science, and Firth College, which gradually developed into technical colleges to which a literary side was attached with provision for advanced humanistic studies. The oldest of these colleges was the Owens College, Manchester, which combined the curriculum of a university with that of a technical high school. Its school of applied chemistry was, for many years, one of the most flourishing in the country. In 1882 a somewhat similar school was founded in Liverpool as a university college, and the Yorkshire College of Science similarly widened its curriculum. To this college, a textile school, including a department for dyeing and design for textiles, was added by the munificence of the Cloth-workers' Company of London. This department soon developed into one of the best-equipped institutions in the country for the study of the technology of textile manufacture. The three colleges at Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds were incorporated in the year 1885 into the federal Victoria University. Other textile schools for day students, providing a full course of advanced instruction, were founded at Bradford, Huddersfield, Halifax, Bolton, and in other parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire. In 1903 University College, Manchester, received a royal charter as the Victoria University of Manchester, and the University College of Liverpool became a separate university. In the following year the Yorkshire College received a charter of incorporation as the University of Leeds. These three universities provide full courses of instruction in engineering and in the industrial applications of science. Charters of incorporation as universities were also granted to the colleges at Birmingham and Sheffield. The Birmingham University, covering an area of over twenty-five acres, contains blocks of buildings devoted to the teaching of mining and engineering, and at Sheffield there is a special school dealing with the metallurgy of iron and steel.
The University of Manchester soon after its incorporation entered into arrangements with the municipal school of technology in that city, by which the faculty of technology was in part carried on in the well-equipped buildings of the municipal school, the largest institution of the kind in Great Britain. It was publicly opened in the year 1902. In these new universities ample provision is made for the teaching of electrical engineering and electro-technics generally, and the laboratories provided for this purpose are well equipped with machinery and apparatus, and compare not unfavourably with some of the most recently erected in Germany. Schools for mining engineers have been established at Wigan and Camborne and Redruth. In Wales, at different times, local colleges of university rank were opened in Cardiff, Bangor and Aberystwith, and those three colleges were subsequently united in the University of Wales. In all these local universities the technical instruction forms part of the ordinary university courses in which degrees are granted.
Other colleges outside London, besides those named, which participate in the government grant allocated to universities and colleges, giving higher grade instruction of a technical character, are University College, Bristol; Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne; and the university colleges at Nottingham, Reading and Southampton.
The University of Cambridge has a school of engineering with well-equipped laboratories for the teaching of pure and applied sciences. The universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow recognized at an early date, as part of a university course, the teaching of science in its application to engineering; and at University College, Dundee, there is a good school for the teaching of the technology of spinning and weaving, more particularly with reference to the manufacture of jute and linen.
In London, University College and King's College fulfilled for many years the function of a university and technical high school. Soon The University of London. after the reorganization of the University of London in 1901, by which that institution was changed from an examining body into a teaching university, University College and King's College, which were named in the charter as schools of the university, transferred their funds, buildings, &c., to the university and became incorporated therein. The East London College, originally founded as a technical school in connexion with the People's Palace at Mile End, was admitted in 1907 as a school of the university, and under the statutes of the university certain teachers in the Polytechnic institutes became recognized teachers, and their students were admitted to graduation as internal students. Most of the students so admitted graduate in the faculty of engineering. For several years it was apparent that the work of the City Guilds Central College and that of the Royal College of Science and School of Mines overlapped to some extent, and that the teaching in each separate institution was incomplete and needed to be supplemented by that provided in the others. A departmental committee was accordingly appointed by the president of the Board of Education in the year 1904 to consider the working of the government College of Science and the School of Mines and their relation to other similar schools, and as a result of the report of that committee, published in 1906, a charter of incorporation was granted in 1907 to a new institution under the name of the Imperial College of Science and Technology, in which the teaching given in the three schools would be co-ordinated under a new governing body, consisting of members appointed by the Crown, the Board of Education, the City and Guilds of London Institute, the University of London and the principal engineering societies, with power to negotiate with the university for the transfer to the new institution of the engineering departments of University College and of King's College. The Exhibition Commissioners of 1851 agreed to grant unoccupied sites of land at South Kensington for the extension of, and the addition of new departments to, the existing colleges, and large annual endowments were promised by the government and the London County Council in addition to sums of money from private sources. The new Imperial College of Science and Technology is constituted by charter a school of the university, and is intended to provide the highest instruction in engineering and applied science, with facilities for advanced research work. The scheme was intended, when complete, to supply the metropolis with a technical school of the highest grade, similar to some extent to the well-known institutions in Berlin (Charlottenburg) and Massachusetts, but adapted to the special industrial needs of the British empire.
Legislative Enactments.— The state organization of technical education in the United Kingdom is mainly the result of enactments State organization of technical education in United Kingdom. passed in and after the year 1890. Before that date, however, as early as 1877, the Livery Companies of London, with a view to fulfilling the purposes for which by charter they were originally incorporated, began to consider how best they could initiate a national scheme of technical education, for which, owing to the depression of trade and the changed conditions under which British industries were conducted, a strong demand had arisen. They consulted leading manufacturers and some of the best-known scientific authorities, and in 1880 an association was formed of the City corporation and some of the wealthier City companies under the name of the City and Guilds of London Institute for the advancement of technical education. The scheme of the institute was to establish a central institution at South Kensington, somewhat on the lines of the high schools of Germany, and one or more technical schools of intermediate grade in London, and to encourage by means of grants of money and by examinations for certificates technical classes and trade schools in different parts of the United Kingdom. In March 1880, an organizing director and secretary was appointed to develop and give effect to the scheme. As indicating the importance of the movement King Edward VII., then prince of Wales, accepted the office of president of the institute, which thus led the way to the establishment, under the direction of the government and under the control of local authorities, of a national system Action of Livery Companies of London. of technical education. The successive steps by which the system was evolved, and how it was gradually incorporated into the general scheme of education, are matters of interest in the history of education. A definition of “technical instruction” applicable to the varied teaching of the United Kingdom was, in the first instance, fixed by act of parliament. The term included instruction in science, art, and technology, and also in manual training; and by “technology” was understood the practical application of different kinds of knowledge to a particular trade, or industry, or employment.
The progress of technical education was very much helped by the formation of the “National Association for the Promotion The National Association. of Technical Education,” which was inaugurated at a meeting held on the 1st of July 1887 and dissolved The when its objects had been fulfilled, in June 1907, after twenty years of useful work. The general objects of the association were to promote and watch legislation, to spread information, and to discuss and assist in giving effect to the recommendations of royal commissions appointed to inquire into educational methods and organization. To its activity the development of technical education in England had been largely due. The first legislative effort to give effect to the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Technical Instruction, whose report was published in 1884, was a bill introduced into parliament in July 1887. The purpose of this bill was to enable school boards and local authorities to provide out of the rates technical schools, or to contribute to their support. A special provision of the bill was that a poll might be demanded by fifty ratepayers before any action could be taken under the powers it conferred. Technical instruction was so defined as to include subjects aided or sanctioned by the Science and Art Department. The bill was read a second time on 9th of August 1887, but never reached the committee stage. In the following March a new bill was introduced on behalf of the “National Association.” It empowered school boards to provide technical instruction in schools under their management, and to contribute to the maintenance of higher technical institutes. The definition of technical instruction was widened so as to include the use of tools, commercial subjects, modern languages, and any subjects sanctioned jointly by the Education Department at Whitehall and the Science and Art Department at South Kensington, which at that time were practically separate government departments. The bill gave very extensive powers to school boards. It was withdrawn without a second reading, in view of the avowed intention of the government to deal with the subject. On the 17th of May 1888 the government bill was introduced. It contained several new features which pointed in the direction of subsequent legislation. Whilst school boards were again Bill of 1888. empowered to provide technical instruction in their own schools, they were also required, under certain conditions, to aid in the supply of technical and manual training in voluntary schools. At the same time the local control of secondary technical instruction was placed in the hands of a separate authority, viz., the “authority empowered to carry out the Public Libraries Acts.” Additional rates, limited in each case to 1d. in the £, might be levied. The bill bristled with difficulties. It aimed at placing the voluntary schools, as regards technical instruction, under the control of school boards, but set up a new authority for the control of technical instruction higher than elementary. There was a growing belief, however, that school boards were not the most suitable bodies for the direction or control of technical education. This belief arose from the difficulty of devising means for securing equal advantages to both classes of elementary schools, and from the general unwillingness to extend school board authority beyond the limits of elementary instruction.
No reference was made to technical education in the Queen's Speech in opening the parliamentary session of 1889, but the subject had been fully discussed during the recess. The difficulties in the way of legislation on the lines previously attempted were now clearly understood, and it was recognized that separate and distinct measures would have to be adopted for providing technical instruction in elementary schools and in schools of a higher grade. During the year 1889 three bills were introduced by private members. Two only of these bills were considered: the one dealing with elementary education, and enabling school boards to give technical teaching in schools under their management; the other enabling local authorities to establish or contribute to technical schools and classes. The former bill was fully discussed, but in the absence of any practical settlement of the voluntary school difficulty the government withdrew its support, and the bill was dropped. About this time the passing of another legislative measure helped very considerably towards the solution of the difficulty. The Local Government bill, which became law in 1888, enacted that “a council shall be established in every administrative county . . . and be entrusted with the management of the administrative and financial business of that county.” A number of new representative bodies Local Government Act, 1888. known as county councils were thus created, with powers similar in character to those possessed by the old boroughs. To these newly constituted bodies were transferred all business previously conducted by the quarter sessions. The act conferred similar powers on certain boroughs, according to their population, which were known as county boroughs. By utilizing these county municipal bodies for educational purposes the necessity of entrusting technical instruction to school boards was avoided; and accordingly, on the 24th of July 1889, the government introduced into the House of Commons a bill conferring upon county and county borough councils, and also upon urban sanitary authorities, the power to levy a rate not exceeding 1d. in the £ for the purpose of promoting technical and manual instruction in their district. This bill met with serious opposition from school board authorities and their friends, who resented the limitations it imposed on their educational aspirations; but the government was resolved to pass it, and after much obstruction it became law on the 19th of August 1889, having passed through all its stages in the House of Lords in a single sitting. The bill marked an epoch in the history of education, being the first legislative enactment dealing with technical instruction in England.
The act (Technical Instruction Act, 1889) provided that:
The expression “technical instruction” shall mean instruction in the principles of science and art applicable to industries, and in the application of special branches of science and art to specific industries or employments. It shall not include teaching the practice of any trade or industry or employment, but, save as aforesaid, shall include instruction in the branches of science and art with respect to which grants are for the time being made by the Department of Science and Art, and any other form of instruction (including modern languages and commercial and agricultural subjects), which may for the time being be sanctioned by that department by a minute laid before parliament, and made on the representation of a local authority that such a form of instruction is required by the circumstances of its district.
Although at first received with no great favour, the act proved useful, and is important as representing the outcome of a number of abortive attempts at legislation, occupying three years, and intended to give practical effect to some of the recommendations of the Royal Commission of 1884. The act definitely settled the question as to the local authority for technical instruction, and decided it against the school board. It contained no provision, however, for the supply of technical instruction to children in either voluntary or board schools, and even expressly excluded from any share in its benefits all scholars receiving instruction in the obligatory or standard subjects. A way was soon found, however, of providing for technical instruction in elementary schools without any fresh act of parliament, and the difficulty of reconciling the interests of voluntary and board schools, which had impeded previous attempts at legislation, was thus avoided.
Early in 1886 the School Board for London, finding that it was unable to expend on technical instruction any part of the London School Board Joint Committee. school board rate, applied to the City and Guilds of London Institute for financial help. The application was favourably received, and in the following year a joint-committee was formed, consisting of representatives of the Board, of the Institute and of the Drapers' Company. With the funds supplied by the Company and the Institute the committee were enabled to try some interesting educational experiments. Six centres for workshop instruction were equipped, and children were received into the classes from voluntary and board school. A scheme of instruction was prepared with the object of bringing into prominence the disciplinary character of the teaching, and of distinguishing it from the rule-of-thumb methods adopted in the workshop of commerce; and the experience of foreign schools, especially those in France, was utilized. The fears of trade unions lest the action of the school board would have the effect of increasing the number of trade carpenters were minimized, and the real value of manual training as a part of general education was for the first time illustrated. The experiment proved so successful that H.M. inspectors reported most favourably on the usefulness of the teaching, and on the value of the instruction in improving the general intelligence of the pupils, and particularly in rendering them more skilful and observant. Indeed, it was found that their progress in ordinary school studies was quickened by the practical training of the shop. As the result of these experiments the “use of tools” was recognized in the government code of 1890 as a subject of school instruction on which grants were to be paid, and towards the cost of which the school board rate was applicable. Later, following further experiments by the joint-committee, laundry-work and housewifery were included in the curriculum, and the problem of introducing so-called technical teaching into elementary schools was solved without any special legislation. Since 1890 manual training has formed a part of the elementary school system. The instruction includes the use of wood-working and metal-working tools, but stops short of teaching any particular trade, and is thus differentiated from the teaching given in the municipal schools of Paris. The new code also provided for a more rational system of object-lessons and of rudimentary science teaching, encouraging practical exercises and experiments to be worked by the pupils themselves. The joint-committee having completed its work, ceased to exist in 1900.
The act of 1889 and the code of 1890 enabled local authorities and school boards to provide out of the rates technical instruction for the working classes. The rate available under the act was limited to one penny in the pound, and very gradually, and with some hesitation, certain local authorities put the act in force. The motive power required for promoting technical instruction, other than that in elementary schools, was, however, still wanting, and might have remained so for some time longer if it had not been for the accident that in the following year, during the discussion in parliament of the question of compensation relating to public-houses, the residue of the beer and spirit duty was found to be unappropriated, and was allocated to county and county borough councils and made available for the purposes of technical education. The Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act, which became law on the Local Taxation Act, 1890. 18th of August 1890, was “an act for the distribution and application of certain duties of customs and excise,” and it provided that the residue of the English share of these duties should be distributed between county and county borough funds, and made applicable “for the purposes of technical education within the meaning of the Technical Instruction Act, 1889.” By the express terms of this act this disposition of the residue, which then amounted to £743,000 for England and Wales, was revocable by parliament, and the allocation of the fund to education was left to the discretion of the local authorities. The grant accordingly was not generally regarded as permanent, and local authorities hesitated to commit themselves to any definite educational schemes. Indeed, it was seriously doubted whether such a windfall was likely to be made a permanent annual contribution from the state to the purposes of technical education. But gradually small sums were provisionally voted in aid of existing schools; and when the then Chancellor of the Exchequer declared that, if the “whisky” money (as it was commonly called) were found to be well and carefully expended, no future Chancellor would be able to divert it to any other purpose, local authorities began to consider how the money that had fallen into their hands might be best employed to meet local educational needs. Special committees were accordingly formed, consisting in many cases not only of members of the county or county borough council, but also of other persons Technical instruction committees. versed in educational matters, to whom the preparation of schemes of instruction suitable to the several districts was referred. The committees so constituted, known as technical instruction committees, were established in different parts of the country, and to these bodies was delegated, subject to periodic reports to the council, the responsibility of dealing with the moneys at their disposal. The technical instruction committees proceeded in nearly all cases to elect as secretary a gentleman of scholarly attainments and educational experience, capable of advising as to the organization of schools and classes in accordance with the terms of the act and the special requirements of the district. As a result of the acts of 1889 and 1890 local educational authorities altogether distinct from school boards came into existence, each with an organizing secretary acting as educational officer for the district. The creation of these educational authorities, with functions, however, limited to technical instruction, marks the most important step in the organization of education since the establishment of school boards.
By special minutes of the Science and Art Department new subjects were from time to time included under the term Curriculum. “technical,” and the definition of technical education was gradually widened. Among the subjects first added to the list were those included in the “programme of technological examinations” of the City and Guilds of London Institute, and the teaching of technology, as distinct from science, was thus for the first time officially recognized and aided by grants from public funds. Later, commercial subjects and modern languages, the theory and practice of agriculture, and the arts and crafts underlying various cottage industries were accepted as branches of technical instruction; and whilst, on the one hand, the definition was so widened as to include nearly all that is comprised in the curriculum of a secondary school, the teaching of certain technological subjects approached so near to trade teaching that the provision excluding “the practice of any trade or industry or employment” from the teaching sanctioned by the act appeared likely to be overlooked. Practical instruction in engineering, weaving, printing, photography, plumbing, carpentry, brickwork, bookbinding and other subjects was encouraged by the City and Guilds Institute, acting as a central authority for education of a distinctly technological character; but notwithstanding the continued increase in the number of practical classes in different branches of technology, the teaching of technology as distinct from that of science and art received at this time no direct support by means of grants in aid from the state. Under the new conditions, however, of assessing the government grant, introduced into the Directory of 1901-02, instruction in technology received some form of recognition.
The county of London remained for some time behind other counties in utilizing the provisions to the Technical Instruction Schemes for London. Act of 1889, by devoting to educational purposes the funds placed at its disposal by the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act, 1890. The funds applicable to London, which in the first instance amounted to about £163,000, but soon reached a total of about £200,000, were wholly employed for a period of two years in relief of the rates. The wants of London were not at first understood; and it was thought that sufficient funds for educational purposes might be obtained from other sources. A scheme for the utilization of a fairly large income arising from the City parochial charities had been under the consideration of the Charity Commissioners. It was first published in 1888, and, after some discussion and modification, was sanctioned by parliament. According to that scheme a capital sum of about £150,000, supplemented by a like amount obtained from the City companies and other sources, was made available for the building of technical and recreative institutions for the poorer classes of the working population of London, similar to the Polytechnic in Regent Street and the People's Palace in Mile End Road. The scheme created a central governing body for the general supervision of these institutions, and placed at its disposal an income of about £50,000 available for educational purposes, which, with the falling-in of leases, was certain to increase. Provision for the endowment of eight polytechnics and of other educational institutions was made in the scheme, and the Goldsmiths' Company undertook to erect and maintain from its corporate funds a ninth, which has since been presented by the Company to the University of London, and under the name of the Goldsmiths' College is used mainly as a school for the training of teachers. Since then other similar but somewhat smaller institutions have been established.
Before the erection of these new institutions was completed it was ascertained that the annual income at the disposal of the trustees for the purposes of maintenance and equipment was altogether inadequate; and a committee of inquiry having been appointed by the London County Council, an exhaustive report on the educational needs of the metropolis was prepared, which led to the formation of a Technical Education Board for London, consisting of members of the County Council, who formed the majority of the board, and also of representatives of the City Parochial Trustees, of the City and Guilds Institute, of the School Board, and of other bodies; and to the board so constituted the council entrusted the spending of the funds available under the Local Taxation Act, 1890. The board held its first meeting on the 28th of April 1893, but ceased to have a separate existence in 1903 on the passing of the London Education Work of the Technical Education Board, London. Bill. During those eleven years the board, with the assistance of its organizing secretary, succeeded in arranging a comprehensive and varied scheme of scholarships, which, among other benefits, enabled children from the elementary schools to continue their education in intermediate schools, and to pass on to the higher technical institutes and universities. It supplemented by large grants the income of the polytechnic institutions; it established or assisted in establishing new trade schools; it provided laboratories, and aided in the teaching of practical science in a large number of secondary schools; it encouraged the teaching of modern languages and commercial subjects; it assisted in founding a school of economics, which has become a constituent part of the new University of London, and utilized in nearly all instances with the best possible results the large annual income allocated by the County Council to technical education.
The close connexion between technical and secondary education was clearly indicated in the comprehensive definition of the former Connexion with secondary education. term given in the act. But it soon became manifest that no great progress could be made in technical education unless further provision were made for secondary education and unless some improvement could be effected in the methods adopted in secondary schools. The cry of Matthew Arnold for the better organization of secondary education had, so far, met with no adequate response. There was still an insufficient supply of secondary schools, and a complete absence of advice or control by any central authority. The urgency of this need was recognized by the “National Association for the Promotion of Technical Education,” which at a meeting held in July 1889 resolved to alter its title by the addition of the words “and Secondary” after “Technical.” This verbal alteration represented a widespread conviction that technical and secondary education are of necessity closely associated, and that future efforts should be directed towards the improvement and organization of secondary education and the union of different grades and branches of education under a single government department. That the Technical Instruction Act would need to be followed by a Secondary Education Act was generally recognized. Accordingly, after much discussion, the government in the year 1896 introduced into parliament a comprehensive measure dealing with education as a whole and embodying the principal recommendation of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education. The bill was well received, and, if the government had persevered with it, would have passed into law, and the question would have been settled for a generation. It was wrecked owing to the difficulty of satisfying the aspirations of the smaller boroughs to be constituted as local education authorities. No further action was taken till 1898, when a new bill was introduced by the government, creating a Board of Education, and combining under one department the functions of the Education Creation of Board of Education. Department at Whitehall and of the Science and Art Department at South Kensington, with certain powers relating to the educational work of the Charity Commissioners. The bill was fully discussed during the recess, and in a slightly altered form it became law in the early part of the year 1899, and came into operation in April 1900. The Board of Education called into existence by the act thus became the central authority for elementary, secondary and technological instruction. Provision was made in the act for the creation of a consultative committee of educational experts to be appointed by the president, whose special duty was to prepare and keep a register of all qualified teachers. As then constituted, the board consisted of the secretary, responsible to the president for the administration of both primary and secondary education, of two principal assistant secretaries, and of subordinate officers. An assistant secretary for secondary and another for technological instruction were appointed, both under the direction of the principal assistant secretary at the South Kensington branch. With a view to co-ordinating the technological instruction to be carried on by the board with that undertaken by the City and Guilds of London Institute and other bodies, a departmental committee was appointed in November 1900 on which those bodies were represented. As a result of the recommendations of that committee arrangements were made for co-ordinating to some extent the work of the City and Guilds Institute with that of the Board of Education. In the regulations issued in 1902 for assessing the amount of state aid to be given by way of grants to technical schools it was provided that the whole instruction given in any school, in technology as well as in science and art, should be considered; formal recognition was given to the certificates issued by the Institute, and the Examination Board of the Technological Department of the Institute was strengthened by the addition of four members nominated by the Board of Education. The teaching of science and art, as applied to specific trades and industries, was thus brought under the direct supervision of the central educational authority.
It was, however, the Education Act of 1902 which freed technical education from the restriction which had prevented its natural development. For some time the opinion had been gaining strength that all grades of education should be controlled by the same local Unification of education under Act of 1902. authorities. The distinction between elementary and secondary education had been bridged over by various hig ner grade schools, and the difficulty of assigning to school boards the control of elementary schools, and to municipal bodies, also popularly elected, the control of education other than elementary, was found to be almost insuperable. A comprehensive measure of reform was regarded as indispensable. This necessity was emphasized by the fact that the managers of many voluntary schools, notwithstanding the state aid which they received as government grants, found the strain almost intolerable of meeting the ever-increasing requirements of the government as regards elementary education by means of private subscriptions. The new Education Act transferred to the local authorities, acting through education committees to be constituted by schemes to be approved by the authorities at Whitehall, the functions and duties of school boards, the separate existence of which, after a life of thirty-two years, was thus terminated. The same act threw upon the rates the burden of contributing to the support of voluntary schools, which, under certain conditions of management, were placed, as regards secular instruction, entirely under the control of the local authorities. School education of all grades was thus brought under the control of the same bodies, both as regards central and local administration, and the government and local authorities were free, under certain limitations imposed by the act, to prepare schemes for elementary, secondary and technical instruction, and for the award of scholarships enabling children to proceed from the elementary schools to the universities. By this act a national and unified system of education was effected for England and Wales.
In accordance with the act, which did not apply to London, municipal bodies were expected to appoint education committees from among their members and to co-opt a certain number of persons, including some women, versed in educational matters or representing educational interest. The London County Council, which had not regarded with favour the abolition of the school boards, showed no disposition to accept the aid of persons from outside who were not directly elected to represent the ratepayers, and although in 1903 an act was passed for the direction of education in London, the Board of Education reluctantly assented to a scheme prepared by the London County Council which vested The London Act of 1903. the control of education in the hands of a committee consisting exclusively of members of the council with the addition of some women. At the municipal elections of 1907 the Progressives, who had hitherto formed the majority of the council, were defeated, and the Municipal Reformers reversed in this respect the policy of the previous council.
The Act of 1902 was strongly opposed by Nonconformists and by the Liberal party generally, and at the general election of 1906 a parliament was returned pledged to effect such changes in it as The Bill of 1906. would give to the local authorities a more direct control over voluntary schools. Accordingly, one of the first measures introduced was a new Education Bill, which, after a protracted discussion, was passed by the House of Commons and amended in several particulars by the Upper Chamber. The amendments of the Lords were rejected en bloc and the bill was withdrawn. In the following year some of the less contentious clauses were embodied in the Education (Administrative Provisions) Bill, which received the royal assent, and among its clauses was one which widened the definition of education, so as to include any kind of training which might be pronounced by the board to be The Act of 1907. educational in character. By an administrative act of the board, a new department under a separate secretary, but responsible to the Minister of Education, was created for Wales, which thus, without any act of parliament, practically acquired independent control of its educational machinery.
The foregoing statements refer more particularly to England and Wales, to which prior to 1907 all acts of parliament dealing with education subjects were generally applicable. In Scotland and in Scotland. Ireland the organization of technical instruction proceeded on different lines. A Technical Schools Act, applicable to Scotland only, was passed in 1887. This act enabled school boards by means of the school funds to provide and maintain technical schools. The act has proved to be practically inoperative. In Scotland, however, school boards have been entrusted with much larger powers, and possess greater influence, than in England. Many of the secondary schools of Scotland are under the direction and control of school board authorities. The residue of the beer and spirit duties under the Local Taxation Act applicable to Scotland was much less, even relatively to the population, than in England, and was, moreover, divided directly among so many different authorities as to be in most cases of little or no real value for educational purposes. Recently attempts have been made to combine the funds distributed among different neighbouring authorities, so as to bring them under the control of a single body for the benefit of a larger area. In the year 1896-97 the Education Department of Scotland was entirely separated from that of England, and there was a consequent transfer of functions and grants from the latter to the former. By the passing of the Local Taxation (Scotland) Act, 1898, the residue grant was relieved of certain charges, and additional funds thus became available for technical education. No grants for science or art instruction are made to Scottish schools from the English Board of Education; but several of the technical schools avail themselves of the examinations of the board, and also of those of the City and Guilds of London Institute. Among the equipped technical colleges in Scotland may be mentioned the Heriot-Watt College of Edinburgh, the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, Glasgow, the Robert Gordon College, Aberdeen, and the Technical College, Dundee. These do not differ in any essential points from corresponding schools in England. The system of instruction is very similar, and among the subjects taught will be found most of those included in the Regulations of the Board of Education and in the programme of the City and Guilds of London Institute. Special attention is given in some of these schools to the teaching of the principles and practice of the different branches of textile manufacture. Manual training forms an important part of the curriculum of primary and secondary schools, and the instructions to inspectors on science teaching issued by the Scottish Education Department show a just recognition by the department of the proper methods to be adopted in the teaching of science as a part of general education. Under the Scottish system leaving certificates are awarded on the results of examinations held at the close of the ordinary school course. These examinations cause the minimum of interference with the ordinary school work. At the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen the higher technical instruction in such subjects as engineering and naval architecture is well developed.
Ireland remained behind Great Britain as regards facilities for technical education. Although the Technical Instruction Act (1889) Ireland. applied to Ireland as well as to England and Wales, very little use was at first made of its provisions. Moreover, the Irish share of the funds available under the Local Taxation Act is definitely allocated to intermediate education. A committee known as the Recess Committee published in 1896 some valuable and important recommendations, which led to the passing of the Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act of 1899. The reports of two commissions, one on manual and practical instruction in primary schools, and the other on intermediate education, contained suggestions which gave encouragement to the practical teaching of technology and helped to promote a better system of instruction in Irish schools.
The work was successfully commenced under the direction of the newly constituted Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, consisting of an Agricultural Board, a Board of Technical Instruction, a Council of Agriculture, and a Consultative Committee of Education. The department had an endowment of £166,000 a year, which was distributed among the several branches. It took over the duties of several other administrative bodies, and the grant for science and art for Ireland, and the grant in aid of technical instruction in Ireland as defined by the Technical Instruction Act of 1889, previously administered from South Kensington, was transferred to the new department. Among the industries for which the department is now occupied in organizing courses of instruction are engineering, textiles (particularly linen manufacture), shipbuilding, agriculture and the fisheries. The operations of the department extend to all grades of schools, from the Royal College of Science, Dublin, organized as a Central Technical College, to the elementary and secondary schools which the department enters for the administration of the science and art grants to the evening technical classes conducted by local authorities. The first annual report of the department, published November 1901, showed that successful efforts had been made to improve science teaching as a part of general education, and to develop on correct lines manual training and technological instruction. The municipal school of technology at Belfast, opened in 1907, is an institution similar in many respects to those of Manchester and Birmingham, and providing technical instruction in connexion with a great variety of industries. There is also a large school at Dublin, and schools have been established in Cork, Limerick and elsewhere.
Results of Experience.—Experience has helped to establish certain principles as applicable to technical education. It is Changes in the conception of what technical education should be. now generally admitted that whilst the age at which the ordinary school training should cease, and technical or professional education should commence, must vary for different classes of workers, the teaching special to any industry or employment should supplement, and not form part of, general education. The subjects entering into the school curriculum may be, and in certain cases should be, selected with reference to their applicability to certain callings, but they should be so taught as to become instrumental in the formation of mental habits and the development of character, the mere knowledge or skill acquired being of secondary importance. In the teaching of science there has been a marked change in method. Formerly the usefulness of the knowledge to be derived from the study of nature gave to physical science its chief claim to a place in the school curriculum, but it is now held that the real value of the study consists in the opportunities it affords of exercising the pupil in accurate observation, and of developing resourcefulness and powers of independent thought and reasoning. Whilst the opinion in favour of postponing as long as circumstances permit all specialized instruction has become of late years more pronounced, there has been a growing tendency, not only in England but also on the Continent and in the United States, to associate technical teaching more closely with workshop practice. The professional or trade teaching, which is supplementary to primary or secondary education, is more practical and less easily distinguishable by the ordinary observer from the training of the factory or workshop. This tendency is shown in all grades of technical education. The technical institutes established in London and in the large English manufacturing towns, attended mainly by evening students, are provided not only with expensive laboratory apparatus for the teaching of applied science, but also with tools and machines for the teaching of technology; and some of the departments of these schools are equipped so as to resemble a small factory. This is the case in the departments devoted to the teaching of mechanical and electrical engineering, weaving, and spinning, watch- and clock-making, boot and shoe manufacture, and the different branches of the building and printing trades.
So far, however, no attempt has been made, except in very special cases, to teach the practice of any special trade. The teaching of technology is distinct from trade teaching. In all the technical institutes of London, and in most of those of other towns, none but persons actually engaged in the industry, the technology of which they are desirous of studying, are admitted to the workshop classes. The instruction given in such classes is very different as regards method, and also in its aims and objects, from the training of apprentices in the factory or trade shop. The tools and appliances are the same, but they are used rather as a help to the teachers in illustrating principles than as a means of enabling the student to acquire that dexterity and skill which constant practice can alone secure. With the general cessation of apprenticeship, as formerly understood, it is only in the school workshop that the young artisan has any opportunity of learning the use, and the principles underlying the use, of the instruments and appliances connected with his trade; and in those industries in which automatic machinery is gradually displacing hand labour he is altogether dependent upon school teaching for any knowledge he may wish to acquire of the processes involved in the particular manufacture, in some small section of which he is exclusively engaged. Modern technological teaching is essentially practical, but it is nevertheless different in kind from the mechanical and sectional practice of the factory of commerce; and except Relation with practical trade. in some few, mainly artistic, crafts, there is no entrance to a trade through the door of the school workshop. In other countries, particularly in France, the case is different. The school, in many branches of industry, is accepted as a substitute for the shop, and the lad is so trained that he acquires in the school not only a knowledge of the principles of the trade, but sufficient dexterity and skill to enable him, on leaving school, to take his place among wage-earning operatives. It is only in day schools, in which the pupils spend the greater part of their time in workshop exercises, that trade teaching can be so developed. There are schools in England in which manual training in wood and metal work is carried beyond the limits of mere educational discipline; but even in those schools no special trades are taught, and the experience of recent years has only tended to emphasize the principle, that the education given in the ordinary day schools, whether primary or secondary, should be formative and general, rather than technical or professional.
Owing partly to climatic conditions, and partly to the fact that the hours of labour are somewhat shorter in England than abroad, evening schools of technology are likely to occupy a permanent place in the English system of technical education. In these schools all grades of workmen will continue to receive their special supplementary instruction; and it is from among the workmen so trained that foremen and works managers will generally be selected. Some intermediate teaching, however, is necessary between that of the elementary school and the technical class as a preparation for technological instruction. A knowledge of workshop arithmetic and geometrical drawing is indispensable, and it is in the evening continuation classes that such knowledge may be best acquired. These classes supply the teaching which may be regarded as the connecting link between elementary and technological instruction, and attendance at such classes will gradually become a necessary condition of entry to a technological course.
By means of scholarships a large number of children from the elementary schools are now enabled to continue and complete their general education in day schools of a higher grade. Nearly every county has its scheme of scholarships, providing facilities for the further education of children who show special abilities and aptitudes. These scholarships are awarded under conditions which differ very widely in different localities. Pupils from the higher-grade schools enter industrial life at a later age than those from the elementary schools, and, by reason of the more advanced instruction they have received, are at once qualified to enter classes in technology. In these schools practical teaching is further developed, both in the laboratory and workshop, but as a part only of the ordinary school course; and it would be incorrect to describe such schools as technical in the strict sense of the term. The position of these higher-grade schools in the general educational scheme was the subject of an important action (Rex v. Cockerton, 1901) in which it was decided by the law courts that the school boards were unable to apply the rates to the support of such schools. They were accordingly withdrawn from the sphere of elementary education, and have since been treated as schools of a secondary type. The judgment on appeal was conclusive, that the school board rates could be employed only for the provision of elementary education for children, whether in the day or evening, and this decision paved the way for the dissolution of school boards, and to the transfer of their duties and functions to the county and borough councils under the Act of 1902.
As regards secondary schools proper, in their relation to technical education, it is important that the curriculum of Types of secondary schools. such schools should be sufficiently varied to afford a sound liberal and preparatory training for the different branches of professional work. It is generally admitted that at least three types or departments of schools are needed — (a) the classical, (b) the mathematical, and (c) the modern language type; and that each of these divisions should contain sub-departments. The first of these varieties would be available for the general training of students wishing to enter the legal, theological or literary professions; the second for those preparing for engineering, manufacturing or agricultural pursuits; and the third would be found best fitted as a preparation for a commercial calling. These schools would correspond to some extent to the three kinds of secondary schools found in Germany, and would be available for students preparing to enter one or other of the faculties of a modern university. The organization of different types of secondary schools, and the curriculum appropriate to each, are matters which continue to occupy the attention of educational experts. In accordance with the regulations for secondary schools issued by the Board of Education in 1907, substantial grants were made to secondary schools which conformed to certain conditions as regards local control and undenominational religious instruction, or the directive influence of the board as regards curriculum and management over all such schools was strengthened. At the same time, manual training and domestic science were made essential parts of the curriculum in boys' and girls' schools respectively.
The demand for technical education, which originally led to the formation of the City and Guilds of London Institute, directed attention to the methods of teaching science, drawing and other subjects, and to the necessity of including science in the curriculum of all grades of schools. The methods of science teaching have been greatly improved. Experimental work has become essential, and methods of investigation and research have been applied to the teaching of a number of subjects to which formerly they would have seemed inapplicable. A close connexion has thus been established between the workshop and the classroom, and practical instruction is now regarded as a necessary part of general education both elementary and secondary, and as no less disciplinary than the merely literary and oral teaching it has partly superseded. This change in the school curriculum and in the methods of instruction has narrowed the true significance of the term “technical” as applied to education. By the term “technical” as commonly used is now understood “technological” or “professional,” and whilst technological instruction may supplement either primary or secondary education, it is necessarily distinct from either.
The conviction has been steadily gaining ground that success in manufacturing industry, in the higher walks of commerce, and in every pursuit requiring technical knowledge, depends very largely upon the thorough and complete training of those who are charged with the control of the different kinds of work in which the army of operatives are engaged. Intelligent and highly skilled workers are indispensable; but unless they are properly directed by efficient and expert officers they can effect but little. It is undoubtedly due to the careful training of German example. the masters and leaders of industry that the Germans have achieved so large a measure of success in different technical pursuits. The recognition of this fact is slowly but surely influencing educational thought and action in Great Britain; but Germany is still ahead in the facilities afforded for higher education, and in the advantage taken of the facilities that exist. The number of students in her universities and technical high schools is still in excess of those receiving a similar training in Great Britain. The establishment, however, of local universities and the schemes for the award of scholarships adopted by local education authorities, will tend year by year to lessen this disparity. Meanwhile, Germany has relaxed none of her former efforts, but is steadily occupied in the enlargement and improvement of her educational institutions. New schools have been erected, wherever and for whatever purpose they are needed, equipped with every modern appliance for scientific investigation and research. Each professional career has its corresponding high school or university department. The economy of a wise and liberal expenditure on higher education is a recognized fact in German statecraft.
For those who are intended to occupy the highest posts in industrial life, a sound secondary education, supplemented by appropriate university training, is the best preparation. It is only in the university or tertiary grade of education that specialized or technological training for the higher industrial posts should commence. At this stage of education, general and professional teaching are more closely associated, and the names of the faculties of the new universities in the United Kingdom will in future indicate the several branches of professional work to which the different courses of university study are intended to lead. Of late there has been a marked development of distinctly technical instruction in connexion with the colleges of university rank. The error of restricting university studies to a certain limited range of subjects, which led in Germany to the establishment of technical high schools as institutions distinct from the universities, has been avoided. Engineering, in the broadest sense of the term, has been recognized as a branch of university education of the same order as medicine or law. Laboratories and workshops have for many years formed part of the equipment of the principal university colleges. In the statutes of the university of London a separate faculty is assigned to engineering, and part of the work of the polytechnic institutes is correlated with that of the reconstituted university. A survey of the field of education shows that whilst the difference between technical and general education is well marked in the primary and secondary stages, it is the function of the university to liberalize professional teaching, and to afford opportunities for specialized study and research in the higher branches of knowledge applicable to the practical work of industrial life.
Authorities. — See Sir Philip Magnus, Industrial Education, 1888, and presidential address to education section of British Association, 1907; Schönhof, Industrial Education in France, 1888; Holzapfel, Die technischen Schulen, &c. (1897); Report of British Royal Commission on Technical Instruction, 1884, and later special reports issued by the Board of Education; annual Reports of the United States Commissioner of Education and of the United States Commissioner of Labour; Report of English Departmental Committee on the Royal College of Science and School of Mines.
(P. M.*)