CHAPTER XI. THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS OF MUNICH. Munich, the capital of the State of Bavaria (Bayern), is one of the most generally attractive cities of Germany. In 1905 its population was about 583,000. Brewing is its greatest industry, but many artistic handicrafts find here a home. Its chief industries include the manufacture of machinery, bronze, silver, and other metal ware, furniture, leather products and gloves, artificial flowers, printing and lithography, and glass staining. In Munich, as in south Germany generally, factories are less and handwork more prominent than in north Germany. There were formerly guild schools in the city, but there now (1911) exists but one, that for painters. The former guild schools have been absorbed into the city school system with the approval of the guilds. The masters prefer the city schools, since they save them all expense except the slight aid which they give the city schools. The Bavarian school law, under which the local ordinances of Munich have force, requires three years of attendance at Sunday school, immediately following the compulsory common school attendance, of all boys and girls not excused for adequate reason. The Sunday school provides a minimum of but two hours of instruction other than religious, and may be on Sunday or on week day. But the obligation to attend Sunday school may be fulfilled by attending an improvement school recognized by the district government as an adequate substitute, because it has not only special (trade) subjects, but enough of the general subjects characteristic of the Sunday school. The provisions of the National Industrial Law pertaining to compulsory improvement schools are explicitly accepted and the compulsion of employers of boys and girls to allow them to attend such schools where local ordinance requires is reiterated.2 1 Munich has had an industrial continuation school for apprentices and an industrial improvement school for journeymen since 1875. These schools were for years but little specialized, while the apprentice school gave no trade instruction at the start. The present organization of the schools has taken its stamp from the original and resourceful personality of Dr. Georg Kerschensteiner, since 1895 1 R. G. O., secs. 120, 139, 142. Cf. ch. 8, p. 81. Royal supreme law concerning school obligations, June 4, 1903; amended March 7, 1906. Text in Baar, pp. 19, 20. superintendent of Munich schools. In 1900 Dr. Kerschensteiner won the prize of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Erfurt for the best essay on the subject of the most desirable education for boys between the common-school and the military-service ages (from the fourteenth to the twentieth year). This essay, Staatsbürgerliche Erziehung der deutschen Jugend, has been widely read, and in 1910 was translated into English under the title "Education for Citizenship."1 In this book Dr. Kerschensteiner asks: "How must the modern constitutional State fulfill its functions?" The answer given is this: "By giving to everyone the most extensive education, one that insures (a) a knowledge of the functions of the State and (b) personal efficiency of the highest degree attainable." 2 His educational groundwork is stated elsewhere as follows: The final goal of all public schools which are supported by public funds is the training of the pupils to be useful citizens. A useful citizen is one who contributes by his work, directly or indirectly, to the attainment by the State of its goal as a legal and cultural community. The first task of the school is the promotion, so far as may be, of the skill as well as joy in work of the pupil. The second task is the early accustoming of the pupil to placing his joy and skill in work in the service of his companions and fellow men as well as of his own. The third task is the connecting of the so-built-up readiness for service, consideration, and ethical devotion, with an insight into the purpose of the State, so far as such an insight can be developed in the pupils, considering their position and degree of maturity.3 The relation of means to end in Dr. Kerschensteiner's mind is shown best by an extract from an interview when he was lecturing in this country. He says: The idea of industrial education is not the foundation of my work. The object of these schools is to train citizens. To train citizens it is necessary to enter into what is the daily life of 90 per cent of our people. Thus it becomes necessary to make the workshop the center of the school. Again, in his prize essay, he writes: As a means of insuring personal efficiency, and so of enabling a pupil to take that part in society which his capacities warrant, the first place must be assigned to a training in trade efficiency. This is the condition sine qua non of all civic education. In this trade training, the foundation for the civic virtues is laid in "conscientiousness, diligence, perseverence, self-restraint, and devotion to a strenuous life."5 The year after coming into office as superintendent of schools, Dr. Kerschensteiner called together the presidents of guilds, representing the local industries, and proposed to them that the city found a system of trade schools. They voted against him, but he finally won 1 Pressland, A. J., translator for the Commercial Club of Chicago, 1910. 2 Ibid., pp. 21, 23. Kerschensteiner, Dr. Georg. Organization und Lehrpläne der obligatorischen Fach- und fortbildungsschulen für Knaben in München, 1910. Einleitung, pp. 8, 9. N. Y. Times, Dec. 4, 1910. Education for citizenship, p. 24. 5 them over. In 1900 he persuaded the city to reorganize its school system by the introduction of an extensive system of trade schools. There were factory schools in existence at the time, but as Dr. Kerschensteiner says, they were inadequate, for they shaped the boy "for the factory, not for the boy." In this connection it may be well to quote Dr. Kerschensteiner's statement that "nowhere outside of Russia have I found such neglect of childhood as in England and America." To prevent such neglect in Munich, the industrial schools were established. Since the beginning of the school year 1906-7 they have been fully organized and in full operation. There were in 1910-11 in Munich 55 trade improvement schools, including 2 commercial schools, whose attendance is compulsory for apprentices. Ten compulsory district continuation schools meet the needs of the unskilled boy workers and of those in trades having too few apprentices to allow a separate school. One compulsory "helpschool" aids weak-minded pupils. Twenty-three of the apprentice trade improvement schools have voluntary courses for masters and journeymen in connection with them, and there are other independent courses and schools for the same class of workers. Compulsory improvement schools are also provided for girls. The boys' improvement schools and the journeyman and master courses are housed in seven large buildings erected for the purpose in different parts of the city. Some of the improvement school classes overflow into the common school buildings. The trade improvement schools are grouped in buildings according to related trades, though some trades are represented by several schools in different buildings. The school authorities profess themselves willing to organize a trade school for each trade having 25 or more apprentices. The most important trades have four schools, most have only one, while a few petty trades have no separate school, and their apprentices attend a school in common. The trade schools, with their groupings in the several buildings, are as follows: I. Liebherrstrasse Industrial School: (1) Turners, brush makers, and related industries; (2) druggists, and dealers in dye and other materials; (3) leather dressers and hand shoemakers; (4) wood and ivory carvers; (5) chimney sweeps; (6) coachmen; (7) saddlers and trunk makers; (8) coopers; (9) ironworkers (building and fine work); (10) smiths; (11) joiners and cabinetmakers; (12) shoemakers; (13) tapestrers, decorators, lace makers; (14) oven makers and setters; (15) watchmakers; (16) wagon builders. II. Pranckhstrasse School: (17) Fine machinists, opticians, and instrument makers; (18) machine builders; (19) mechan 5 1 N. Y. Tribune, Dec. 4, 1910. Fünfter Yahresbericht der männlichen Fortbildungs- und Gewerbeschulen Münchens. 1910-11. p. 19. Yahresbericht, 1910-11, pp. 5-8. The school that I visited. ics, electricians, and gunmakers; (20) ironworkers (second department); (21) joiners (second department); (22) tinners, installers, fitters' helpers, and metal stampers; (23) bookbinders; (24) book printers; (25) lithographers and stone printers; (26) photographers and chemists; (27) metal casters, brass founders, and chasers; (28) tin casters. III. Elisabethplatz School: (29) Coppersmiths; (30) machine builders (second department); (31) mechanics, etc. (same as 19, second department); (32) ironworkers (third department); (33) tailors; (34) joiners (third department). IV. Gotzingerplatz School: (35) Machine builders (third department); (36) mechanics, etc. (third department); (37) ironworkers (fourth department); (38) joiners (fourth department). V. Single scattered schools: (39) Bath assistants, hairdressers, and wigmakers; (40 and 41) hotel keepers (2 departments); (42) gardeners; (45) confectioners and pastry cooks; (46) butchers (at the city slaughterhouse); (47) musicians and music pupils. VI. Louisenstrasse School: Journeymen's and master's courses chiefly; also (48) masons, stone masons, and plasterers; (49) dentists; (50) jewelers, gold and silver workers; (51) stuccoworkers and sculptors. VII. Westenriederstrasse School: Journeymen's and masters' courses chiefly; also (52) decorative painters, lacquerers, gilders, and cask painters; (53) glaziers, glass, enamel, and porcelain painters. VIII. The Commercial Improvement School, embracing schools for (54) those in commerce; (55) clerks and Government officials. All boys in Bavaria may leave the common school when they are 14 years old and girls when 13, unless they have completed it before. About three-fifths in Munich complete the course without repeating a year. They are then usually 14 or 15 years old. Of those who do not go to a higher education, about four-fifths enter industry or commerce as apprentices or clerks, and one-fifth become unskilled or juvenile workers. Every boy in Munich who need no longer attend the common school must attend a trade improvement (or continuation) school for at least three years immediately following the common school attendance, and generally, if an apprentice, throughout his apprenticeship. Under the National Industrial Law this obligation can not last beyond the eighteenth year. Girls must attend improvement school for three years or at least until they are 16 years old. Compulsory attendance for girls has been found as necessary as for boys, to prevent employers wishing cheap labor from employing girls to the displacement of boys. Boys unusually well prepared may, on evidence of their proficiency, be advanced on entering a trade school a term, a year, or even two years. Those who have 1 R. G. O., sec. 120. * Kerschensteiner: Fach u. Fortbildungsschulen Münchens, pp. 5, 11; also: Satzungen für die Fortbil dungsschulen der K. Haupt- und Residenzstadt München, 1995, sec. 20-21, p. 8. Satzungen, secs. 20. 2, 3. p. 8. satisfied the nominal obligation to attendance, but who have not reached the proper proficiency, may be required to attend longer, but not longer than the completion of their eighteenth year.1 The hours of instruction in the trade (including the commercial) improvement schools range from 7 to 11 per week, in most cases 8 to 10 hours, varying between the different schools. By municipal ordinance, none of the compulsory instruction is given after 7 p. m., though some voluntary classes even for apprentices are held later. There are almost no classes on Sunday. Most of the schools have classes from 4 to 6 hours consecutively, usually in the afternoon and early evening, though sometimes in the morning. The apprentices thus attend either about 2 half days or about 1 full day. The abolition from among the compulsory classes of late evening instruction improves the quality of the work done by the pupils. The school year is about 10 months. The curriculum and general plan of the trade (improvement) school for fine mechanics is typical of these schools. In this school opticians' and instrument makers' apprentices study 9 to 9 hours 1 day of each week, closing at 7, for 4 years (in most of the schools for but 3 years). The subjects taught are as follows: 3 Curriculum of the trade improvement school for fine mechanics. Religious instruction imparted by a priest or teacher, Roman Catholic or Protestant, appointed by the religious authorities, is given in all the trade improvement schools. The business composition aims to give familiarity with business forms and practice in writing business letters. The reading is so selected as to have an ethical value and tempt the pupils to acquire the taste for good reading. The industrial arithmetic and bookkeeping is concerned with practical problems of computation of solids, keeping personal and business accounts, making business estimates and the like. The 1 Satzungen, secs. 20, 2, 3. p. 8. 2 A complete account of the curricula of several other of the Munich trade improvement schools can be found in Bulletin No. 14 Nat. Soc. Promot. Indus. Educ.: "The trade continuation schools of Munich." Yahresbericht, 1910-11, pp. 120, 121. |