Wage Earning and Education Part 2

TABLE 6.--EDUCATIONAL EQUIPMENT OF THE CHILDREN WHO DROP OUT OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS EACH YEAR, AS INDICATED BY THE GRADES FROM WHICH THEY LEAVE

--------------+--------------------- Grade Number leaving --------------+--------------------- 4 70 5 440 6 960 7 1260 8 1630 I 890 II 590 III 150 IV 1410 --------------+--------------------- Total 7400 --------------+---------------------

Slightly less than one-fifth finish the high school course. Nearly three-fifths drop out before entering the high school, and approximately three-eighths before reaching the eighth grade.

Under the present compulsory attendance law a boy who enters school at the age of six and afterwards advances at the rate of one grade per year until the end of the compulsory attendance period should cover nine grades--eight in the elementary school and one in high school--by the time he is 15 years old. In actual fact, however, only about two-fifths get any high school training. Nearly all of the rest take the eight to nine years' attendance required by law to complete eight, seven, six, or even a smaller number of grades.

It is from this body of pupils that most of the wage-earners are recruited. In the course of the survey several investigations were made for the purpose of finding out what educational preparation workers in various industries had received. One of the most extensive of these was conducted in connection with the study of the printing industry. Educationally the printing trades rank higher than most other factory occupations, yet the average journeyman printer possesses less than a complete elementary education. Composing-room employees, such as compositors, linotypers, stonemen, proof-readers, etc., undoubtedly stand at the head of the skilled trades as to educational training, but it was found that only eight per cent were high school graduates. Six per cent had left school before reaching the seventh grade, and 16 per cent before reaching the eighth grade.

The other departments of the printing industry made a much less favorable showing.

An investigation conducted by the Survey in the spring of 1915, covering 5,000 young people at work under 21 years of age, indicated that only about 13 per cent of these young workers had received any high school training and that less than four per cent had completed a high school course. Over one-fifth reported the sixth grade as the last completed before leaving school, and nearly half had dropped out before completing the elementary course. Less than seven per cent of the boys engaged in industrial pursuits had received any high school training and only 42 per cent had got beyond the seventh grade. The educational preparation of the boys engaged in commercial and clerical occupations was somewhat better, nearly 22 per cent having attended high school one year or more; about one-half had left school after completing the eighth grade and nearly one-third had not completed the elementary course.

These facts have a vital relation to the problem of vocational training. If the great majority of the children who will later enter wage-earning occupations do not remain in school beyond the end of the compulsory attendance period, and in addition over half fail to complete even the elementary course, vocational training, to reach them at all, must begin not later than the seventh grade, and if possible, before the pupils reach the age of 14.

CHAPTER V

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING FOR BOYS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

In Chapter III the distribution of the wage-earners of the city was outlined, mainly for the purpose of establis.h.i.+ng a basis on which to make a forecast of the future occupations of the children in the public schools. Such a forecast is essential as the preliminary step in any plan of vocational training to be carried out during the school period, for the reason that without it a clear understanding of the princ.i.p.al factors of the problem is impossible. The kinds of vocational training needed by children in school, and how and where such training should be given, must always depend in the first instance on what they are going to do when they grow up.

The average elementary school in Cleveland enrolls between 350 and 400 boys. When they leave school these boys will scatter into many different kinds of work. With respect to the future vocations of the pupils, the average school represents in a sense a cross section of the occupational activities of the city. It contains a certain number of recruits for each of the princ.i.p.al types of wage-earning pursuits.

A few of the boys will later enter professional life; many will take up some sort of clerical work; a still larger number will be employed in commercial occupations; and the largest group of all will become wage-earners in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits.

The future occupation cannot be foretold accurately with respect to any particular boy, but we do know that, whatever their individual tastes and abilities, the boys must finally engage in activities similar to those in which the adult born native male population is engaged, and in approximately the same proportions. We do not know, for example, whether Johnny Jones will become a doctor or a carpenter, but we do know that of each 1,000 boys in the public schools about seven will become doctors and about 25 will become carpenters, because for many years about those proportions of the boys of native birth in Cleveland have become doctors and carpenters.

One of the most impressive facts which comes to light in the study of occupational statistics is the constancy in these proportions. The business of any community requires certain kinds of work to be performed and the relative amount of work required and consequently the relative number of workers vary but slightly over a long period of time. This principle is ill.u.s.trated in a striking way by the list of occupations selected at random presented in Table 7, showing the number of persons engaged in the occupations specified among each 100 male workers at two successive census years.

TABLE 7--PER CENT OF TOTAL MALE WORKING POPULATION ENGAGED IN SPECIFIED OCCUPATIONS, 1900 AND 1910

----------------------------+--------------------- Per cent of total Occupation working population +----------+---------- 1900 1910 ----------------------------+----------+---------- Machinists 4.7 5.8 Saloon keepers 1.1 .7 Tailors 2.1 1.7 Commercial travelers .8 1.1 Lawyers .5 .4 Barbers .8 .7 Bakers .6 .5 Physicians .6 .5 Carpenters 3.4 3.3 Cabinet makers .5 .4 Plumbers .9 .9 Stenographers and typists .3 .3 ----------------------------+----------+----------

With the exception of plumbers and stenographers there was either an increase or a decrease from 1900 to 1910 in the relative number employed in each of these occupations. In only one occupation, however, that of machinist, did the change amount to as much as one per cent. In all the others the s.h.i.+ft during the decade was less than one-half of one per cent, and in more than three-fifths of them it did not exceed one-tenth of one per cent of the total number of male workers.

WHAT THE BOYS IN SCHOOL WILL DO

The figures in this table, presented for ill.u.s.trative purposes, do not accurately represent the proportions of boys now attending the public schools who are likely to enter the occupations named, because they do not take into account the fact that a considerable number of the workers in Cleveland came to this country after they reached adult manhood and that a disproportionate number of these foreign born workers enter the industrial occupations. For this reason the total adult working population is not strictly comparable with the school enrollment, which is approximately nine-tenths native born. When the boys in the public schools grow up they will be distributed among the different trades, professions, and industries in about the same proportions as are the American born men in the city at the present time. This distribution is shown for the different occupational groups in Table 8.

TABLE 8.--DISTRIBUTION OF NATIVE BORN MEN BETWEEN THE AGES OF 21 AND 45 IN THE PRINc.i.p.aL OCCUPATIONAL GROUPS

Approximate Occupational group per cent

Manufacturing and mechanical occupations 44 Commercial occupations 20 Clerical occupations 16 Transportation occupations 11 Domestic and personal service occupations 5 Professional occupations 3 Public service occupations 1 ---- Total 100

The figures in the column at the right of the table represent the number of native born men between the ages of 21 and 45 among each hundred native born male inhabitants engaged in the occupations comprehended in the various groups. In the case of the industrial group the figure is too high, as the census data relative to the distribution of foreign and native born include all ages, and there is a smaller proportion of American born adult men employed in industry than is found in the lower age groups. Extensive computations have shown, however, that the inaccuracies due to this cause are not serious enough to affect the use of the figures for our purpose.

Let us now consider what these proportions mean in establis.h.i.+ng vocational courses to prepare boys for wage-earning pursuits. The future expectations of the boys in a large elementary school enrolling say 1,000 pupils of both s.e.xes would be about as follows:

_Number of boys who will enter_ Manufacturing and mechanical occupations 220 Commercial occupations 100 Clerical occupations 80 Transportation occupations 55 Domestic and personal service occupations 25 Professional occupations 15 Public service occupations 5 ---- Total 500

This distribution includes all pupils, from the beginners in the first grade to the older boys in the seventh and eighth grades. It is certain, however, that differentiated instruction for vocational purposes is not possible or advisable for the younger children.

According to the commonly accepted view among educators, vocational training should not be undertaken before the age of 12 years, and many believe that this is too early. In an elementary school of 1,000 pupils there would be about 80 boys 12 years old and over. Applying to this number the ratios given in the previous table we obtain the following:

_Number of boys who will enter_ Manufacturing and mechanical occupations 35 Commercial occupations 16 Clerical occupations 13 Transportation occupations 9 Domestic and personal service occupations 4 Professional occupations 2 Public service occupations 1 --- Total 80

The industrial group includes all of the skilled trades and most of the semi-skilled and unskilled manual occupations. The skilled trades are usually grouped in four main cla.s.sifications: metal trades, building trades, printing trades, and "other" trades, these last comprising a number of small trades in each of which relatively few men are employed. With respect to their future occupations the 35 boys in the industrial group are likely to be distributed about as follows:

_Number of boys who will enter_ Metal trades 8 Building trades 7 Printing trades 1 Other trades 2 Semi-skilled and unskilled industrial occupations 17 --- 35

The a.n.a.lysis can be carried still further, for these trade groups are by no means h.o.m.ogeneous. The building trades, for example, include over 20 distinct trades, a number of which have little in common with the others as to methods of work and technical content.

ORGANIZATION AND COSTS

At this point it becomes necessary to take cognizance of certain administrative factors which have a marked bearing on the problem.

They relate to the organization of cla.s.ses in elementary schools and the cost of teaching. In a school of 1,000 pupils there would be at least five separate cla.s.ses for the seventh and eighth grades. The 35 boys who need industrial training are not all found in a single cla.s.s, but are distributed more or less evenly throughout the five cla.s.srooms, that is, there are approximately seven in each cla.s.s. A differentiated course under these conditions is difficult if not impossible. In a few of the Cleveland elementary schools the departmental system of teaching is in use. Under this plan something might be done, were it not that the total number of pupils requiring instruction relating specifically to the industrial trades is too small to justify the expense necessary for equipment, material, and special instruction required for such training. This is true as regards even an industrial course of the most general kind, while provision for particular trades is entirely out of the question. The machinist's trade employs more men than any other occupation in the city, yet the number of seventh and eighth grade boys in the average elementary school who will probably become machinists does not exceed five or six. Not over two boys are likely to enter employment in the printing industry. The smaller trades, such as pattern making, cabinet making, molding, and blacksmithing are represented by not more than one boy each.

A possible alternative is the plan now followed in the teaching of manual training whereby the boys of the upper grades in various elementary schools are sent to one centrally located for a short period of instruction each week. The princ.i.p.al objection to this plan is that the amount of time now given is insufficient to accomplish much in an industrial course, nor can it be materially increased without seriously interfering with the work in other subjects.

The first condition for successful industrial training is the concentration of a large number of pupils old enough to benefit by such training in a single school plant. Only in this way is it possible to bring the cost of teaching, equipment, and material within reasonable limits and provide facilities for differentiating the work on the basis of the vocational needs of the pupils. The fact that this condition cannot be met in elementary schools is one of the strongest arguments in favor of conducting the seventh and eighth grade work under the junior high school form of organization.

WHAT THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS CAN DO

The most important contribution to vocational education the elementary school can make consists in getting the children through the lower grades fast enough so that they will reach the junior high school by the time they are 13 years old, in order that before the end of the compulsory attendance period they may spend at least two years in a school where some kind of industrial training is possible. That this is not being done at the present time the data presented in Chapter IV amply demonstrate. In recent years there has been a tendency to regard vocational training as a remedy for r.e.t.a.r.dation. The fact is that the cure of r.e.t.a.r.dation is not a subsequent but a preliminary condition to successful training for wage-earning. Vocational training is not a means for the prevention of r.e.t.a.r.dation, but r.e.t.a.r.dation is a most effective means for the prevention of vocational training.

CHAPTER VI

THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

In 1915 the Board of Education authorized the establishment of a system of junior high schools in the city, and at the beginning of the school year of 1915-16 the new plan was inaugurated in two schools.

The Empire Junior High School, situated in the eastern part of the city, had an enrollment of about 700 children made up of seventh and eighth grade pupils formerly accommodated in the elementary schools of that section. The Detroit Junior High School on the west side had an enrollment of about 400 pupils. No decision has yet been reached as to whether the course shall include only two years' work, or three years, as in other cities of the country where the junior high school plan has been adopted.

A comparison of the course with that for corresponding grades of the elementary schools shows some marked differences. Less time is devoted to English in the junior high school and considerably more to arithmetic, geography, and history. Mechanical drawing, not taught in the elementary schools except incidentally in the manual training cla.s.ses, is given an hour each week. All boys receive one hour of manual training a week against slightly less than one and one-half hours in the seventh and eighth elementary grades, but they may elect an additional two and one-half hours a week in this subject, together with applied arithmetic during the first year, or with bookkeeping during the second. Girls may elect an additional two and one-half hours a week of domestic science, with bookkeeping. The manual training for boys comprises woodwork and bookbinding.

SPECIALIZED TRAINING NOT PRACTICABLE