Maple Avenue Evening High School - Progress Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

Page 45 text:

Under this system those confronted with the necessity of earning some money and at the same time anxious to improve and advance in their chosen trade until they become a thoroughly rounded out mechanic before the best years of their lives have passed, attend school a certain number of hours each week on full pay. Courses of study are drawn up jointly by the three agencies. Theoretical, supplemental and some process work, the trade science, applied mathematics - in fact all the work pertaining to the trades of the students that cannot be readily obtained on the job, is taught in the school. No work is duplicated in the school that can be better learned in the atmosphere of the trade. The aim is not to do away with the apprentice- ship system but to shorten it and to give the learner a complete and scien- tific knowledge of the entire trade with specialization in some one line. The expense of equipment is borne by the industry while the sch-ool supplies a place to house the classes and pays the instructor, also sees to it that only those things essential to the trades are taught. Heretofore night schools have conducted various types of supplemental work in trade extension, such as drawing, blue prints and mathematics. Although good results have been obtained, this system has the serious drawback of working against the fatigue of the day and being aside and apart from the real trade atmosphere such as is found in the day trade extension school. EXCERPTS FROM SAMUEL GOMPERS' SPEECH ON AMERICAN SCHOOLS AND THE WORKING MAN In order to be consistent with democratic ideals, public schools must meet the needs of all. They must fit not only for the administrative, di- rective positions in life, but they also must meet the needs of those, who by their creative labor powers and the coordination of their minds and muscles give existence to the ideals and purposes that are in the minds of those who control industry and commerce . An appreciation of education has resulted in the demand for a wider use of the schools in order that fuller and better opportunities for learning, culture, and sociability may be brought into the common life. Education is an attitude toward life - an ability to see and understand problems and to utilize information -and forces for the best solution of these problems. Page Forty-one in

Page 44 text:

Types of Trade Schools HEN trade schools are mentioned the average person thinks of the trade school of a few years ago - 'a splendidly equipped institution where a man, in the course of three or four years, finished a scien- tific study of his complete trade, comprising all theoretical and supple- mental lines and also becoming skilled in mechanical processes and mani- pulation. - This type of school is still functioning in some of the eastern cities and turns out very excellent j ourneymen in the various trades. A course in one of those schools means, of course, a devotion of several years time and a considerable expenditure of money which at once eliminates the young person whom economic necessity compels to help provide a living for himself or family but who at the same time is ambitious to acquire a thor- ough knowledge of some chosen trade before he becomes advanced in years. Next in importance to this type is, perhaps, the corporation school. Practically all large corporations now conduct, as a part of their institu- tions, a system of instruction whereby their skilled employes may still further improve themselves and the unskilled ones become finished me- chanics. Then there is the vestibule school. In various industrial institutions, both large and small, the superintendents, foremen and maintenance men, conduct what are called Vestibule Schools , where one or more learners are taught the operation of one particular machine. Again, all large industrial plants employing the foreign element have regular classes for the teaching of English, writing and elemental mathe- matics. These schools are conducted and maintained at the expense of the em- ploying corporation. Trade Extension the Latest and Best Perhaps the newest feature in trade instruction is in the line of trade extension and is a cooperative system embracing the three agencies - employer, employe and the public school system. Page Forty

Page 46 text:

New information and a wider knowledge make possible the maintenance of this attitude as long as life shall last . ' 'Schools represent a public investment. It is common sense and national economy to secure the greatest amount of service from them . ' The Organized Labor movement makes this demand upon educational ideals: Give to the masses of the people, those who perform mechanical work, which of its very nature is monotonous and may become alsofstultify- ing, an imaginative understanding and such a wide comprehension of the wholeness of life that no vocation need be to them a rut. Enable each to see up and beyond with a vivifying mental grasp that shall interpret labor in values of human service, and to do the day's work with the joy of crea- tive labor . h LABOR FEDERATION JOINS EDUCATION FORWARD MOVEMENT The executive council of the American Federation of Labor has ap- proved the plan submitted by the American Federation of Labor committee on education, under instructions from the Cincinnati convention, whereby the Federation will be adequately and permanently represented in directing the activities of the Workers' Education Bureau, New York, N. Y., with which the Federation has hitherto co-operated under a temporary agree- ment. s Under the terms of this agreement, an executive committee of nine members was created to direct the policies and activity of the Bureau. The chairman of the Federation committee on education, Mr. Matthew Woll, has been elected chairman of the executive committee of the Work- ers? Education Bureau, and two other members of that committee, Mr. George W. Perkins a11d Mr. John P. Frey, have been elected members of the same executive committee. ' Writing to the various labor organizations on this subject, President Gompers of the Federation of Labor says: In accord with the convention instructions I wish to commend the work of this Bureau to you and your membership for the purpose of furthering adult workers' education. I earnestly urge all affiliated organizations to co-operate in this work through affiliation with the Bureau . Page Forty-two