time earn as much as he could get from the ordinary employment in stores and offices. For those parents who can not afford under ordinary conditions to keep their children in school this furnishes a means by which the boy contributes to the family's support and thereby gives him the opportunity to continue his education. When there is vacation for a week in school, work is provided in the shops for those who wish to work and their earnings are correspondingly increased. Since the plan has been in operation the employers have shown great willingness to take the boys during school vacations, and no boy has yet been obliged to be idle if his ambition is to work and earn. The trial period of two months during the first summer for those electing the industrial course occupies the months of July and August. If the pupil likes the work and shows an aptitude for the trade, he continues with the course; otherwise he is tried in some other line, or, if he chooses, takes up some other course in the high school. The opportunity to find himself is thus given to each boy, and the choice of his vocation is worked out largely by the individual under the trained eye of shop foreman, with the kindly advice and timely suggestions of the director.

RELATION OF THE INDUSTRIAL PUPILS TO THE OTHER PUPILS.

It might be thought too great a physical strain for young boys to work steadily for a week at a time with regular shop hours-for the boys in this course have no special privileges in the shops; they are subject to all the shop rules and must abide by them in the same manner as any journeyman or regular apprentice. Such is not the case. Those in charge have not received a single complaint that the work is too hard or that the hours are too long. The physical development of the boys is much more pronounced than that of their associates in other courses. Of the boys in the various athletic teams, a large proportion are connected with the cooperative industrial course. They constitute the major portion of the football, basket ball, and . baseball teams of the Fitchburg High School.

The social standing of the boys in this course is fully as high as the standing of those in the other courses offered by the high school. The cooperative industrial course is distinctive, yet not segregative. The pupils in it bear the same relation to the school, its traditions, history, and life as the pupils associated with the college preparatory, the technology preparatory, or the general course. They are housed under the same roof, have the same periods for class and recreation, use the same classrooms for recitation and study, associate with others in the various courses as freely and unrestrainedly as any pupils of the high school. Much stress is placed upon this close association with pupils in other courses, and it is the intention

of the school authorities of Fitchburg to continue those relations even when the numbers are far greater. In this city there is but one high-school building, with an enrollment of about 900 pupils. When the time comes for new buildings it is not the intention to erect one for the sole use of pupils of the cooperative industrial course. Intimacy and contiguity with other pupils is of decided advantage in perpetuating the school spirit and in fostering the inclination to continue in school life. The boys of the cooperative course hold office in their class organizations and are evidently very popular among their classmates.

SCHOOL COURSE NOT CONTROLLED BY THE EMPLOYERS.

An objection to the entire scheme has been raised by persons who fear that the employers will eventually assume full control of the course and will then use it for their own selfish gain. Investigation, however, does not show any real danger of this. The manufacturers and employers are hiring the boys and have a right to expect an adequate return for the wages paid. It is not entirely philanthropic on their part, but the boy and his parent know what they are undertaking, and if they in turn get what is contracted for, there can be no reason to assume that they are not treated fairly. The employers do not interfere in the management of the cooperative plan, but insist that the course be practical and that a practical shopman be the director. Each year there are many social functions, fostered largely by the manufacturers, to which the boys are invited, and in each of the past three years the graduating class and alumni have been entertained by the employers at an outing in which both the old and young entered with unrestricted spirit.

COURSE OF STUDY: SHOP COURSE WITH CORRELATED SCHOOL STUDIES.

As an illustration of the sort of work given the boys, the shop course of six of the trades, together with a suggestion of the school work correlated, is given below:

MACHINIST TRADE.

Shop work. Starting, running, cutting-off machines; chipping or roughfiling castings; tapping, hand reaming, and burring; rough lathe work, turning stock oversize for finisher or grinder, boring, polishing, and hand milling; lathe practice with increased accuracy, using micrometers, taper turning, thread cutting; drill press, laying out holes, use of jigs, tapping, reaming, lapping; planer or shaper-methods of strapping work to table, rough planing, finishing, taper work; grinding of tools-planer, lathe, drill-both by hand and machine; grinding machine operation, external and internal work, wet and dry, use of magnetic chuck; setting up, floor work, fitting parts, fitting keys;

milling machines-plain milling, form cutters, indexing, iron and steel parts, jigs, and fixtures; boring mill, drafting room. In shop work us blue prints for directions.

Correlated school work.-Complete analysis of shop tools and operations; freehand sketching with dimensions from machine parts, followed by mechanical drafting of same, throughout the four years of the course; shop figuring, gearing, screw cutting, speeds, feeds, belting, chain drive, etc.; properties and chemistry of metals; steam engines; physics, elementary applied mechanics; electrical drive and apparatus; English, description of shop processes and machinery; precision measurements and instruments; geometry and trigonometry used in shop work.

DRAFTSMAN.

Shop work. Tracing, blue printing, lettering, detailing, simple design from foreman's sketches, changes, measuring shop tools for alterations, jig design. Correlated school work.-Drawing and freehand sketching, drawing room procedure; methods of representation, strength of materials, properties and chemistry of metals; English, descriptive of work and processes; analysis of shop tools; pattern making; chemistry and physics same as machinist; geometry and trigonometry to solve gearing and stress problems.

MOLDING TRADE,

Shop work.-Mixing sand; core making, heat ovens; helping floor molders, ramming molds, pouring light parts, molding simple pieces, increasing in complexity.

Correlated school work.-Chemistry of iron; chemistry of sands; physics; shop tools and operations; core ovens and making, venting, etc.; gases; mathematics.

PATTERN-MAKING TRADE.

Shop work.-Kinds of stock; use of saws, planers, sanding, gearing, lathes, etc.; turning, chuck work; solid work; built up patterns; loose pieces, core prints and boxes, pulleys and gears; working from blue prints.

Correlated school work.-Drafting; gearing; mathematics; machine shop and molding processes; cutting tools, saws, planers, etc.; properties of wood, "draft," fillets, etc.; chemistry of iron, glue, etc.; physics, same as machinist.

SAWMAKING TRADE.

Shop work.-Gauging stock; punching and reaming arbor holes; grinding to thickness and clearance; hammering to clear lumps and straighten stock; hammering after hardening for tension according to use of saw; blocking or final finish.

Correlated school studies.-Properties of steel; chemistry and physics as for machinists; hardening and tempering processes; precision measurements.

SHEET-METAL TRADE.

Shop work. Helping journeyman; cutting off stock; bending and crimping; soldering and hammering; sheet iron, steel, copper work; making ventilators, cornice work, and odd jobs; laying out sketch as design of ventilators.

Correlated school studies.—Sheet-metal drafting; iron and steel properties; chemistry of metals, solders, gas appliances; physics, mechanics, etc.; practical geometry; heating and ventilating; cutting tools.

ACADEMIC SUBJECTS STUDIED BY INDUSTRIAL STUDENTS. Of the 40 weeks in the school year, 20 are taken up with actual work outside the classroom and school building, while the remaining 20 are devoted to the academic work of the course in the school. It is evident that only such subjects as are of practical value to the student in the pursuit of his trade, looking always to advancement, can be included. From the first the employers who offered their assistance insisted that the course be such as to make those going into it better mechanics, capable of advancing to the highest possibilities in the trade. The prescribed studies of the ordinary courses that were included in the cooperative industrial course were, as a rule, changed in form and structure. Many of the time-honored subjects were carefully shelved, and such subjects were selected as would fit the students to be intelligent mechanics and thoughtful artisans. The course of study in operation in connection with the cooperative course is not as well defined as the ordinary courses of the high school, nor can it be, because of the nature of the training. Great care has been taken in the selection of textbooks, and the most practical ones have been chosen, yet the demands upon the course are so engrossing that the books very often play but a small part.

Schedule of studies for the Fitchburg cooperative course.

First year (all work in school):

English and current events.

Arithmetic, tables, and simple shop problems__

Algebra

Freehand and mechanical drawing and bench work__

Second year (school and shop work alternately):

English

Shop mathematics, algebra, and geometry.

Physics

Civics

Mechanism of machines___

Freehand and mechanical drawing.

Third year (school and shop work alternately):

English

Shop mathematics_.

Periods per week.

5

5

5

Chemistry

Physics

Mechanism of machines

First aid to injured___

Freehand and mechanical drawing

Fourth year (school and shop work alternately):
English

Commercial geography and business methods__
Shop mathematics____.

Mechanism of machines.

Physics, electricity, and heat_.

Chemistry

Freehand and mechanical drawing

5

5

4

4

1

6

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The details of several of the courses are as follows:

Mathematics.-Arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry all have their place in the course, including simple propositions in mensuration, fractions, metric system, and circular measure; general shop mathematics dealing with problems of cutting speeds and feeds; belting, gearing, strength of materials, and general cost figuring. The aim in the mathematics course is to train the student to use figures that his trade and everyday experience demand. To this end those elements that are in general use are emphasized rather than the theory of mathematics. For example, in trigonometry “functions" are omitted and the solution of right and oblique triangles is emphasized. During the freshman year tables of angles, measures, etc., are reviewed and the metric system is studied, because American manufacturers are engaged in foreign trade, and a knowledge of metric measurements is demanded of the mechanic. As the mechanic has to use formulæ from handbooks to solve many shop problems, it is essential that he have a good knowledge of algebra; to that end a rather complete course is necessary and is not unlike that outlined by the ordinary first-year algebra books.

First year:

Arithmetic-Textbook, Stone & Mill's Secondary Arithmetic; tables, metric 'system; shop or concrete examples, pulleys, etc., mensuration.

Algebra-Textbook, Stone & Mill's First Year Algebra; fundamental operations; manipulation of formulæ ; quadratics.

Second year:

Arithmetic-Review mensuration from International Correspondence School Handbook; problems on sizes and speeds of pulleys.

Algebra-Manipulation of formulæ from practical shop problems.

Geometry-Textbook, Stone & Mill's Plane Geometry; textbook is sufficient to take up the practical features of shop geometry.

Trigonometry-Angular measure, degrees, radians, ratio of sides, sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent, solution of right triangle with logarithms and without; solution of oblique triangle; law of sines, tangents; logarithms; cologarithms, use of tables.

Third year:

Applied mechanics-Textbook, Morley & Inchley's Elementary Applied Mechanics.

Trigonometry-Review of logarithms.

Fourth year:

Applied mechanics-Steam engines.

Algebra-Review with application to formulæ.

Physics. Physics is taught in the second year of the school course. The year is devoted to a general introduction to the various phases of the subject, and is followed in the third and fourth years by applied mechanics and electricity.