Practical Education in Secondary Schools, Trade Schools, and Central Schools 1

Abstract

ONE of the most striking features of English education at the present time is the attempt which is being made to give a more practical or vocational bias to the training of boys and girls between the ages of twelve and sixteen years—that is, after the cfimpletion of the ordinary primary-school curriculum. So far as day work is concerned, this tendency is operating along two main lines, (a) the modification of the traditional secondary-school course by the introduction in some schools of elementary engineering, agriculture, shorthand, typewriting, or of subjects grouped under the general name of “educational handwork” (e.g. woodwork, metal-work, domestic subjects for girls); (b) the development of schools (central schools, junior technical schools, trade schools) with a pronounced vocational object.