Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 November 1908 — OUR BOYS AND GIRLS [ARTICLE]

OUR BOYS AND GIRLS

Their Industrial Education th« Topic Discussed by the Industrial Education Society, IT MEETS TODAY AT ATLANTA " f ■ Object Is to Prevent Waste of Valuable “Raw Material” Speaker Declares We "faare Been Guilty of Extravagance in That Regard Carroll D. Wright Presides. Atlanta, Ga., Nov. 20.—0 f great national Interest and Importance is the second annual convention of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, which begins its first business session here today. Many of the most prominent educators of the United States are gathered here to discuss the question of fitting the boys and girls of the country for the pursuit of their future vocations. \ Objects of the Society. The objects of the society are to bring to public attention the importance of industrial education as a factor in the industrial and educational develoment of the United States, to provide opportunities for the study and discussion of the various phases of the problem, to make available the results of experience In the field of Industrial education both in this country and abroad and to promote the establishment of institutions for Industrial training. Carrol D. Wright Is President. The officers of the society are: President, Carroll D. Wright, president of Clark college and former United States commissioner of laibor; vice president, Magnus W. Alexander, of Lynn. Mass.; treasurer, Frederic B. Pratt, of the Pratt institute, Brooklyn; secretary, James P. Haney, of New York. In speaking of the importance of the convention Walter G. Cooper, secretary of the Atlanta chamber of commerce and the man who has been in charge of all the details of the convention, said: Waste of Raw Material. “In this country, and particularly In the south, we have been guilty of fearful waste in the employment of the most valuable raw material we have—the boys and the girls. By training them along industrial lines, by giving them the advantages of technical schools such as Germany supports, we will soon rival Germany in the perfection of her industrial output. Last year In Chicago Dr. Pritcbet stated that in Germany 56 per cent of boys between the ages of fourteen and sixteen who had left the grammar schools were engaged in some kind of industrial schools, preparing for their life work. He showed that less than 1 per cent of the boys of similar age in Chicago were similarly employed or had similar advantages. But we have shown a marked interest In technical schools, and it promises much.”