Part 16 (1/2)
The struggle of Oyler is the story of a , enthusiastic school and a reborn neighborhood Many years ago--about twenty to be exact--a young man named Voorhes waso into school work he applied himself earnestly to his tasks, but unlikeother things he thought about the relation between the school and the co why the tere so completely divorced from one another Then the problem was focused on one concrete example--a boy naetting only as far as the eighth grade John, who had never taken kindly to language or gra pretty seriously toward the end of his last year in the graled, but the syntax was too much for him After all, it was not his fault, and he co down” for so was so inadequate that he was entirely unable to pass the high school examinations which, in those days, were like the laws of the Medes and the Persians
”I a that he did not know the difference between a verb and a preposition,” said Mr Voorhes, ”but during the gra of the face of the teacher that was in no sense a caricature This phase of his ability gaveboth the superintendent and the principal of the Technical School, I talked the situation over with the them, with all the persuasive power at s, andhis peculiar talents, which I felt sure were considerable alongJohn a place in the school, to which he walked three miles back and forth daily for three years Forplant of a large city, and his experience has always stood out before i but a sneer These facts took such a vital hold on ht that the industrial abilities which I had acquired back on the farm proved of incalculable value to me, that the resolution to promote industrial education became a fixed part of my educational creed The memory of that lesson in educational equity kept the need for industrial training constantly in ive it expression in the Oyler School”
John bespoke the needs of the community by which Oyler was surrounded
It was so different fro factory buildings, the miserable homes, their squalid tenants, and worst of all there were the rough, boisterous, over-age, uninterested, incorrigible boys and girls, who flitted froripped by the infirm hand of the law, in the form of a Juvenile Court probation officer, or a truant officer, they cain the cycle all over again
”As for discipline,” remarked one of the city school officials, ”the school hadn't known it for years, the probation officer couldn't keep the children in school and the Juvenile Court couldn't keep them out of jail Even the majesty of the law is lost on children, you know” The children taunted the police; the police hated the children; the horimly; child labor flourished, and the school despaired
II An Appeal for Applied Education
Such were the conditions when Mr Voorhes beca factories, wretched holect, educational impotence--few ht heart, but Mr Voorhes did
What, think you, was his first move? He addressed to the heads of all of the factories in the neighborhood a letter, suggesting the establishrade work of the Oyler School ”As I beco conditions in our school district,” he wrote, ”I a Departeneral welfare of the co looked upon to-day as necessary adjuncts todrained constantly of its life force by the adjacent factory demands, and if we could send pupils forth with trained hands as well as trained minds they could render a much more useful service, which, in time, would not only show itself in more profitable returns to eher standard of culture in the neighborhood, and a longer continuance in school by our pupils
”I know of no other section of the city where the actual need shouldyou inethe next few days es a was assured!
No! Not yet The Board of Education reached the conclusion that rades was undesirable ”With the exception of 85 which I was told to use as I saw fit the checks and pledges were alike returned to the donors That 85 gave a piano to our kindergarten”
That failure back in 1903 was the seed-ground of later success The community was interested to the extent of a thousand dollars at least
The manufacturers were not only interested in education, but illing to support it financially There was a change of administration
Mr F B Dyer became Superintendent of Schools and at oncecenter in the Oyler School
III Solving a Local Problem
The end was not yet, however The truant officers and the Juvenile Court were still busy keeping Oyler children out of mischief and in school
The conventional type of --one period per week in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades--was not holding the pupils
”The children were not getting enough manual work to establish either habit or efficiency,” Mr Voorhes corade At this tiirls below the fifth grade ere from two to five years behind their normal classes That is to say, they were--most of them--of that unfortunate class that has seen more trouble in a few years thanmyself: 'Where do these folks co to help their function in life?' 'Are we really of any assistance to them after all?' 'Is it worth their while to corowing, and I went at last in desperation to the superintendent with a plan for a revolution in the organization of my school, a revolution that I was sure would meet the needs of the co to stake my reputation if I had any”
At this point it is worth re, parenthetically, that Cincinnati schoolabout their school proble up the needs of the co i by presenting this idea to the school authorities and getting--within bounds--carte blanche to make their schools serve the locality in which they are situated
This was Mr Voorhes's experience He was told to go ahead and ood--a perly short space of ti a system of applied education, aimed to meet the needs of the children who attended the Oyler School
”There is a peculiar situation,” said Mr Dyer, ”and it needs peculiar handling You have only one probleo ahead with a plan under which all children in the sixth and seventh grades were given three periods a week in laboratories and shops Subnorrades were to have four and one-half hours (one school day) for applied work each week In order to give special help to backward pupils they were sent in srade teachers while their classes were doing applied work Below-grade children go to the eighth grade teacher for special work in arithlish and history In this way the backward children fro by the best equipped teachers in the school
The eighth grade pupils give one-fifth of their ti the year the boys have, in addition to the shop-work, twenty lessons in preparing and cooking plain, substantial meals To make this ”siss” work palatable to the sterner sexin tin cans and other handy home-made devices In a coard home work as menial, but where the absence of servants makes a ”lift”
from the husband or brother such a Godsend to the wife at odd ti can hardly be over-estimated
The boys also receive twenty lessons in the si on buttons At the saht the use of simple tools