ABSTRACT
“He who does not teach his son a trade teaches him to be a thief,” says the Jewish proverb, and the neglect of this axiom in our own country, if it has not taught dishonesty, has resulted in a terrible number of “unemployed,” unskilled labourers who crowd the lower ranks of labour; and clerks in the middle ranks, whose chief qualification is writing a fair hand, and who are set aside for the better trained German with his commercial knowledge and acquaintance with modern languages. How many young men there are who have emigrated to the Colonies or the United States only to swell, for months, the army of the unemployed there, because they have not learned a handicraft. And how many complaints do we hear that the foreign workman, with his technical training, is causing permanent injury to English trades and handicrafts. The evil is no new one, and for many years praiseworthy efforts have been made to remedy it, by the establishment throughout the country of classes, schools, polytechnics, and colleges, for both men and women, by private individuals 218and local bodies of different descriptions. Many of these have done excellent work, and have resulted in permanent benefit to the localities in which they have been established; but many have been hampered by want of funds; by the low standard of knowledge among the artisans, who, leaving school early, often did not acquire the education requisite to profit by the classes opened for them; and by the want of capable teachers, who were not to be picked up on every hedgeside, for educated brains are often united with incapable hands; while men with capable hands were frequently unable to teach. In spite of disadvantages, however, splendid results were attained, and the way was prepared for a more extensive scheme. In 1890 it was decided in Parliament to adopt Mr. Acland’s proposal, and to give to the County Councils the power to devote their respective shares of the duties under the Local Taxation Act to technical education. This action has resulted in an organised system of technical instruction which is spreading rapidly over the face of the whole country. We find everywhere: (1) Evening continuation classes to enable the less educated to profit by (2) Technical classes; (3) Special classes to prepare elementary teachers for giving instruction in technical subjects; (4) Technical schools for advanced instruction; and (5) A system of scholarships by which the most promising pupils can be passed into the technical classes, and again into schools and colleges. These scholarships or exhibitions, some of which are very valuable, can be held at the great technical colleges, such as the Yorkshire College, Leeds; or the Worleston Dairy Institute, Cheshire; or at endowed schools in certain counties, where special arrangements have been made for suitable instruction.
