is given by Mr. Charles T. Woodbury, the principal of the high school, and Mr. Joseph C. Edgerly, superintendent of schools of the city of Fitchburg. Mr. Woodbury says: Among cooperative industrial students we have some excellent students, some average, some who do barely passing work, and a few failures. I see little difference in academic standing of pupils of the industrial course as compared with pupils of other courses. Some pupils who have done fair or poor work in other courses have done good or excellent work in the industrial. Some who have been failures in the other courses, or who have dropped out of school, have done fair work in the industrial. Mr. Edgerly's evidence is as follows: The boys have maintained good standing in their classes at school. In July of last year I attended a convention at Castine, Me., of high-school principals and school superintendents of that State. I addressed the convention with reference to the work of this course in the Fitchburg High School. I read papers that had been prepared by members of the senior class. The papers or the essays which were selected were read verbatim as the boys had prepared them. They prepare such papers regularly each week. These essays were upon subjects connected with the shopwork of the boys. Many of those who listened to the reading said that such essays would have done credit to a class of seniors in any college. The training in English is practical, for the boys write upon topics which appeal to them. It is extremely doubtful if 10 per cent of the members of these classes would be in school if this course had not been established. WHAT THE BOYS THINK OF THE PLAN. The opinion of pupils who have undertaken the work of the course is of considerable value. Certain questions were asked of boys in the school; a few of the replies are given. Following are three replies in answer to the inquiry, What induced you to select this course? (1) "I selected this course as an advantage for future life. This course is instructive and profitable. The reasons in general are as follows: Because after I have graduated from the Fitchburg high school I will not be a loafer in the world. I will have a trade to fall back on." (2) "I took this course because I always did like the machinist's trade and thought it a good chance to learn it and get an education at the same time.” (3) "I selected this course because I thought it would be of greater use to me than any other course in the high school." Four of the replies in answer to the request, Please state in what particulars you are profited by the course, were: (1) "It gives me money and helps me to be self-supporting. It gives us high-school boys a chance to show that we are not afraid of soiling our hands. It also gives us a liberal education." (2) "I am profited by the course financially and have learned more in this course while I have been in it than all I learned in three years of regular highschool work." (3) "If I had simply been apprenticed at a shop I might become a good machinist, but with our school work behind us I am sure we would have a great advantage over the plain machinist." (4) "Through my association with practical men, thereby gaining practical knowledge along with the theoretical side at school." Three boys thus answer the question, What do you intend to do after completing the course? (1) "To follow it up and understand a little of the large study of mechanics." (2) "When I have completed this course, I expect to go out as a draftsman, machinist, or boss machinist." (3) "I intend to keep on with the trade that I shall have learned by that time." At a meeting of the Merchants' Association of Fitchburg two of the boys of last year's graduating class made the following remarks about their course. One boy said: I think at the present time not more than one-half to one-third of the students of the high school of this or any other city know what they are going to do when their school days are over. The other half either have to learn a trade or go into some store and there work some time before they can earn any sort of wages. Now, with the industrial cooperative course there is a way in which a student may learn a trade which will give him a living if he wishes to follow it. This course is so arranged that if the student wishes to go away to some higher school he may do so and he has only to take up a foreign language outside. I think that this course is about the best thing for a boy, as it gives him the knowledge that he should have, also the shop practice that, even though he does not follow the trade, will come in useful to him in after life. I have heard many men say that if they had had the chance that we are having they would not be where they are now. Another boy said: When the manual training course in the high school was dropped it became necessary for me to elect a new course, and I elected the technical, not because I wished to, but merely as a poor substitute for what I had been taking. However, it was my good fortune not to have to start in that course, as the industrial course was started in this city at that time, and I elected it. Immediately upon starting my work in the shop I felt the pleasure of really making something that was of commercial value. My work in the shop has consisted of drawing and tracing various parts of engine lathes, planers, driving-wheel lathes, steel tire turning borers, axle lathes, car-wheel borers, and hydrostatic wheel presses. I have been also figuring out trains of gearing to be used in connection with belt drives and various motor drives to give the desired feeds and speeds, and also the width of face and pitch of gears to use to transmit a given amount of horsepower. At school we talk over the problems of the previous week which have come to each individual in the various shops. We receive instruction in mechanical drawing, including machine design, gearing, cams, etc., mathematics, including algebra, geometry, applied mechanics and trigonometry, chemistry. physics, English, business methods, commercial geography, and mechanism of machines. Taking the theoretical side of problems which we are taught in school, to gether with the practical side which we receive in the shops, I believe any scholar completing the industrial course is better equipped to earn his living than any other high-school graduate. STATISTICS. The cooperative industrial course of Fitchburg, now so co. monly known as "the Fitchburg plan," in the five years of its operation has graduated three classes, with a total of 49 boys. It has enrolled in the five years 134 pupils. The yearly classes, with their enrollment, have been as follows: 1908-9, 34; 1909-10, 15; 1910-11, 30; 1911-12, 25; 1912-13, 30; total, 134. In September, 1913, approximately 56 boys are taking this course. The graduates for the three years were as follows: In June, 1911, 20; 1912, 10; 1913, 19; total, 49. The occupations to which the boys have been assigned during the five years were as follows: Drafting, 8; iron molding, 4; machinist, 86; office work, 6; pattern making, 6; printing, 2; saw making, 10; textile work, 8; tinsmithing, 4; total, 134. Those who have received diplomas are now employed to a great extent in the occupation elected by them during their school period or have gone to higher institutions to fit for teaching. The following table indicates their present employment: The average wage of the graduates has not been determined, but no graduate is now working for less than $2 a day, and one is employed at his trade at a salary of $40 a week. They measure up well with their fellow workman, and from conversations with super intendents and foremen, the future of the boys now out in the world seems very promising. о ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS READ AT A PUBLIC CON- |