The purpose of the general industrial course is to afford to boys who
wish to enter industrial occupations the opportunity to secure
knowledge and training that will be of direct or indirect value to
them in industrial employment. It is not expected that by this means
they can be given much practical training in hand work for any
particular trade. The most the school can do for the boy at this
period is to bridge over for him the gap that exists between the
knowledge he obtains from books and the rôle which this knowledge
plays in the working world. It must not be assumed that the transition
can be effected merely by the introduction of shop work, even if it
were possible to provide the wide variety of manual training necessary
to make up a fair representation of the principal occupations into
which the boys will enter when they leave school. It is doubtful
whether, so far as its vocational value is concerned, shop work
isolated from other subjects of the curriculum is worth any more per
unit of time devoted to it than several of the so-called academic
subjects. This is particularly true of the two most common types of
manual training--cabinet making and forge work. Both represent dying
trades. During the decade 1900-1910 the increase in the number of
cabinet makers in Cleveland fell far below the general increase in
population. The blacksmiths made a still poorer showing. Both trades
are recruited mainly from abroad and the relative number of Americans
employed in them is steadily declining.

In the opinion of the Survey Staff a general industrial course should
cover instruction in at least the following five subjects: Industrial
mathematics, mechanical drawing, industrial science, shop work, and
the study of economic and working conditions in wage earning pursuits.
These may be offered as independent electives or they may be required
of all pupils who elect the industrial course. The details of