departmental system of teaching is in use. Under this plan something
might be done, were it not that the total number of pupils requiring
instruction relating specifically to the industrial trades is too
small to justify the expense necessary for equipment, material, and
special instruction required for such training. This is true as
regards even an industrial course of the most general kind, while
provision for particular trades is entirely out of the question. The
machinist's trade employs more men than any other occupation in the
city, yet the number of seventh and eighth grade boys in the average
elementary school who will probably become machinists does not exceed
five or six. Not over two boys are likely to enter employment in the
printing industry. The smaller trades, such as pattern making, cabinet
making, molding, and blacksmithing are represented by not more than
one boy each.

A possible alternative is the plan now followed in the teaching of
manual training whereby the boys of the upper grades in various
elementary schools are sent to one centrally located for a short
period of instruction each week. The principal objection to this plan
is that the amount of time now given is insufficient to accomplish
much in an industrial course, nor can it be materially increased
without seriously interfering with the work in other subjects.

The first condition for successful industrial training is the
concentration of a large number of pupils old enough to benefit by
such training in a single school plant. Only in this way is it
possible to bring the cost of teaching, equipment, and material within
reasonable limits and provide facilities for differentiating the work
on the basis of the vocational needs of the pupils. The fact that this
condition cannot be met in elementary schools is one of the strongest