Louisiana Polytechnic Institute - Lagniappe Yearbook (Ruston, LA)

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The Louisiana Industrial Institute The school was established under authority of Act 68 of the General Assem¬ bly of 1894. The act provides for an institute “for the education of the white children of Louisiana in the arts and sciences, at which such children may acquire a thorough academic and literary education, together with the knowledge of kindergarten instruction, telegraphy, stenography and photography; of drawing, painting, designing and engraving, in their industrial applications; also a knowl¬ edge of fancy, practical and general needlework; also a knowledge of book¬ keeping and of agricultural and mechanical art, together with such other practical industries as from time to time may be suggested by experience, or such as will tend to promote the general object of said institute, to-wit: fitting and preparing such children, male and female, for the practical industries of the age.” While the school aims to train the mind through the hand to skilful partici¬ pation in the work of the world, thus making more efficient members of society, the students are given through head, hand and heart a clear vision of the larger meanings of life to the end that they may work with a mind in intelligent sympathy with their environment. The complete courses in academic studies presented and related to the industrial courses give to the graduates of the school the increasing earning capacity and the preparation for social efficiency which all public education should provide. This school differs from the ordinary college in that it aims to give an edu¬ cation with a vocational aim and purpose without ignoring nor in any sense dis¬ paraging the value of a general education. This school goes further than manual training—abstracting the principles of trades and teaching them—it teaches the processes of a given vocation from the ' first attack on the raw material to the last touches of the finished product, together with the theoretical foundations of the vocation. Hence it gives the worker a technical knowledge of the vocation and begins the development of skill in the practice of it. This school undertakes to teach not alone the fundamental pro¬ cesses of a vocation but its technique. It therefore lays chief emphasis upon giving to its students such practice as may bring them up to the point of expert¬ ness. It seeks to reproduce as nearly as possible the conditions of actual practice. In stressing industrial education we do not abandon the discipline of the mind, but appreciate that the real craftsman is more than his craft, and the true citizen is larger than the place he fills in the industrial life of his community. Hence academic courses are required with parallel industrial courses. 8

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(i) MECHANICS BUILDING. (2) MAIN BUILDING.

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% All white boys and girls of the state are eligible to admission, provided the boys are sixteen and the girls fifteen years of age, and prepared to begin the work of one of the courses. There are five distinct courses of study, and their scope is wide. All are planned to meet a definite need. All the courses combine good general education, good technical education, and good education in the rights and duties of citizen¬ ship to the end that a graduate in any one of the courses is equipped for “self- support and the means of progressive efficiency and responsibility.” Briefly the courses are as follows: The Mechanical Course includes exercises in carpentry, general con¬ struction work, joinery, wood-turning, pattern-making, forging, foundry, machine work, firing boilers, tending engine, electrical engineering, mechanical and free¬ hand drawing, and the making of iron and steel tools. Also, complete and related courses in grammar, composition, rhetoric, literature, arithmetic, algebra, plane, solid and analytic geometry, trigonometry, calculus, U. S. and general history, ethics, civics, physics, chemistry, physiology, vocal music, machine design, elec¬ tricity, hydraulics, material of construction, kinematics of machinery, graphic statics and applied mechanics. The Business Course includes work in bookkeeping, stenography and type¬ writing, telegraphy and typewriting, and printing. Also, complete and related courses in grammar, composition, rhetoric, literature, arithmetic, algebra, plane, solid and analytic geometry, trigonometry, U. S. History, civics, general history, English history, ethics, sociology, political economy, physics, chemistry, phy¬ siology, zoology, geology, botany, freehand drawing, commercial arithmetic, English usage, commerce, commercial law, constitutional history, and vocal music. The Domestic Science Course includes practical and scientific work in sewing, millinery, dressmaking, embroidery, basketry, weaving and cooking. Also, complete and related courses in food analysis, household economy, vegetable botany, bacteriology, grammar, composition, rhetoric, literature, arithmetic, algebra, plane, solid and analytic geometry, trigonometry, U. S. history, civics, constitutional history, general history, English history, ethics, sociology, political economy, physiology, geology, botany, zoology, chemistry, physics, freehand drawing, chemistry of foods, and vocal music. The Industrial Art Course ofifers work in freehand drawing, composition, designing, historical ornament, metal work, tooled leather work, water color and pastel or oil. Also all of the complete and related courses in grammar, rhetoric, composition, literature, Latin, U. S. history, general history, English history, constitutional history, sociology, political economy, ethics, arithmetic, algebra, 9