Read Ebook: Essays in Literature and History by Froude James Anthony Belloc Hilaire Commentator

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.--Central America: Practical education; Guatemala; Salvador; Honduras; Costa Rica; Nicaragua; Panama--British Guiana: New school regulation--Argentina: Preliminary; illiteracy; report of National Council of Education; progress of education in the Provinces; changes under the projected law of 1918; secondary education; technical education; normal-school training; higher education--Brazil: Vocational education--Chile: Preliminary; illiteracy; primary education; secondary education; training of teachers; technical education--Uruguay: General introduction; primary education, public and private; rural schools; medical inspection of schools; secondary education; commercial education; training of teachers; higher education--Venezuela.

PRACTICAL EDUCATION IN CENTRAL AMERICA.

One of the most interesting aspects of the school situation in Central America and Panama is the important position occupied by commercial and industrial education in the courses of study of many institutions. Public men and teachers in Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama have taken into account the need of offering to the new generation an education which shall be completely practical, with the purpose of turning the thoughts and energies of all the youth to fruitful service of their country.

The teaching of arts and crafts, as well as that of commerce and agriculture, was formerly not begun, as in the United States, upon the student's entering the secondary school, though there has for some time been a movement to make such instruction a part of the work of the advanced classes in the primary schools, to be continued in the liceo and the normal schools.

This universal interest in practical lines of education is a striking indication of the influences and tendencies now at work in Central America. In the different countries included under this designation there are schools and academies, workshops and laboratories, intended for the practical education of the student body. When it is remembered that the introduction of practical and industrial education in the school r?gime of Central America is a matter of the past few years, the progress realized is regarded as highly satisfactory. The rapid increase of the commerce of Central America, the improvement in the means of intercommunication, the travels of its people abroad, the influence of foreign elements in its territory, and the various interests thus awakened have aroused in the interior of the Republics composing it the belief that national greatness in modern times must rest upon economic and industrial foundations. The influx of foreign capital and the consequent establishment of powerful industrial enterprises have likewise emphasized the necessity of training men for work in such enterprises. The introduction of modern machinery, the increase of the different forms of the application of steam, the adoption of the inventions intended to gather up the results of labor, and numerous similar influences have given rise to a tremendous demand in this part of the continent for skilled and reliable mechanics. Central America has thus addressed itself with enthusiasm to the task of training the children of its schools for the activities of the present day.

The capitals, other important cities, and even many small towns have schools devoted to practical education, generally provided with buildings and equipment well adapted to this end. Honduras, for example, has founded a school for scientific instruction in the cultivation and preparation of tobacco and for the manufacture of cigars and cigarettes in the tobacco district around Danli. In several Provinces of the same Republic, and in Panama, where agriculture is subordinate, the Governments have founded schools for training pupils to weave hats and other objects.

The more generalized industrial schools are those of arts and crafts and the so-called practical schools for boys. Their organization presents marked differences. In some of the countries named there exist schools that receive pupils either as full or half time boarders, and offer night courses as the situation demands. In all these instruction is free. The Government generally offers a certain number of scholarships in the boarding schools for pupils approved by the different Departments or Provinces of the country. Tools, instruments, and supplies used in the schools are provided by the Government. In return the school exacts of such students certain services and thereby carries out certain work that represents a partial reimbursement for the amount spent upon their maintenance. This is the case with the schools of arts and crafts in Honduras and Panama. Some small schools of this class are maintained by means of the labor they carry on for private individuals and by the sale of the products they turn out.

These industrial schools are generally of two kinds: Those in which the training in commercial subjects and in arts and crafts constitutes part of the regular course of study and those devoted exclusively to the teaching of arts and crafts.

In those of the first class the pupils study the ordinary subjects prescribed by the department of public instruction and devote only several hours weekly to arts and crafts. This class in its turn includes two groups of institutions. To be admitted to those of the first group the pupils must know how to read and write and apply the elementary rules of arithmetic. During the entire school year instruction is given in Spanish, geography, history, and arithmetic. The practical schools for girls and boys are generally of this kind, being especially numerous in Guatemala and Honduras. The schools conducted by the Christian Brothers in Nicaragua are also of this type. The duration of studies is from three to five years, a half day being devoted to the classes in the ordinary subjects of primary education and the other half to practical work. In the second group are comprised various institutions which require certificates from the higher elementary schools, such as the liceo and the higher colegio for women in Costa Rica, the National Institute in Salvador, the Central National Institute for Boys in Guatemala, and the normal schools in these countries and in Honduras.

Of the special institutions which constitute the second category, there are to be noted two prominent instances in the schools of arts and crafts in Panama and in Honduras. In organization and purposes they are schools of mechanical arts, and not schools of manual training. Their workshops have not been established to impart general notions of manual arts or a general apprenticeship, but to train the pupils from entrance upon the line of education chosen by themselves. In these schools are taught carpentry, tanning, shoemaking, blacksmithing, cabinetmaking, electricity, installation and management of machinery, mechanics, printing and bookbinding, telegraphy, etc. All workshops in such schools are well equipped with machinery and tools.

All that has been said in regard to modern educational tendencies and influences to which boys are subject in the countries mentioned can be extended, though in less degree, to the girls and young women. Within the past few years women's sphere of action has steadily been enlarged, and has come to include not only teaching but various employments in shops and mercantile establishments. Within the next few years their instruction must be taken into account in schools of domestic training, vocational schools, practical schools, and the technical colegios. The organization and range of these institutions does not differ materially from those for boys. The vocational school for girls is essentially a school of arts and crafts in which the pupils devote themselves from entrance to the study of a special line, such as dressmaking, embroidery, millinery, and, in certain schools, cooking, washing and ironing, etc. A certificate of proficiency is granted them upon the completion of certain assigned courses. The other schools for girls before mentioned combine general subjects with the special apprenticeship in crafts upon which they enter as soon as they reach the higher classes of the primary school and which they continue into the high school and the normal school.

GUATEMALA.

The type of industrial education that prevails in Guatemala is the combination of general studies with special instruction in the arts and trades given in the practical schools for girls and for boys. There also exists in the capital a school of arts and crafts for women where instruction is given at the same time in the subjects of ordinary instruction. In the departments of manual arts which are largely, but not exclusively, attended by boys, are taught theoretical and practical blacksmithing, carpentry, printing, bookbinding and weaving, besides geography, history, botany, chemistry, zoology, geology, drawing, and Spanish language and literature. In the schools of Guatemala much attention is given subjects of a practical nature, with the purpose of training competent workmen and artisans. There also exist in this country a National School of Commerce, situated in the capital, and a Practical School of Commerce, at Quetzaltenango. In both cities there are schools of agriculture which admit to their first-year courses the pupils of the first year of the central normal schools. The capital possesses also a school of telegraphy, recently founded with the view to installing in it a special wireless station.

SALVADOR.

Arts and crafts for women, commercial subjects and mechanical arts, are generally taught in Salvador in the public schools, though their incorporation in the courses of instruction is comparatively recent. Many prominent teachers of the country have taken the pains to spread abroad the appreciation of the necessity of "enlarging the educational sphere of the State, and opening to the youth and to workmen schools where they may acquire practical knowledge of the sciences and the arts and by these means may contribute to the advancement of general intelligence in the country." In compliance with these ideas the Government has founded in Salvador a National School of Graphic Arts aiming "to aid the youth of Salvador to the acquisition of knowledge of a practical nature, and to put it in a position to be successful in the economic struggles which are the most important signs of the modern age." In this school the preference is given to the teaching of physics, mechanics, drawing, printing, lithographing, carving, bookbinding, and technical telegraphy and telephoning. Night courses are also given in this school.

In consequence of the public sentiment above mentioned, there has been opened in the National Institute of Salvador a course in commercial and economic subjects lasting three years. This course comprises the study of various modern languages, commercial law, political economy, industrial chemistry, commercial geography, bookkeeping, stenography and typewriting. The pupils in this school are required to work several hours daily for a period in the different ministerial departments before graduation. Salvador also established in 1913 a school of agriculture, with a department of animal husbandry. Two years later there was established the Technical-Practical Colegio for Girls, in which instruction in crafts for women is combined with that in general subjects.

HONDURAS.

Industrial instruction has attained great importance in Honduras. The School of Arts and Crafts of Tegucigalpa concerns itself chiefly with products in wood and the metals and is steadily training artisans and mechanics. There likewise exists in this city the national automobile school managed by the Government. For some years there has been in operation in Siguatepeque a school of English and of arts and crafts, in which are taught fiber weaving, carpentry, dressmaking, and embroidery. In the normal schools and in the two colegios students may choose between the commercial courses and those relating to arts and crafts. In 1915 was established a technical practical school for girls, where courses in science and in crafts for women are offered parallel with the subjects belonging to the primary schools.

COSTA RICA.

Costa Rica is another of the Central American countries where practical instruction is combined with general. Five institutions of higher grade and the vocational schools for women have well-equipped workshops, laboratories, kitchens, and laundries. Of all Central American States, Costa Rica gives perhaps most attention to this special branch of instruction. It is noteworthy that manual arts and domestic science are uniformly taught in the secondary schools conjointly with the literary and purely scientific subjects.

NICARAGUA.

In Nicaragua manual arts form part of the general instruction, as has been seen in the case of the normal schools conducted by the Christian Brothers. Girls receive practical instruction in the normal schools. Some years ago there was established a special school for the training of telegraph and telephone operators.

PANAMA.

Like Guatemala and Honduras, Panama has devoted special attention to industrial training. The School of Arts and Crafts of the City of Panama is one of the largest and best equipped of its kind. It is essentially a school for artisans and possesses sections of electricity, carpentry, cabinetmaking, printing and bookbinding, carving, foundry work, etc., its principal object being to train men for the separate industrial branches.

Panama also has a vocational school for girls in which a year's instruction is given in telegraphy, one in laundry work, two in dressmaking and embroidery, two in shorthand, two in cooking, two in millinery and flower work.

It has likewise a school of agriculture, in which is given a three years' course, for which the Government offers 30 scholarships to youths approved by local authorities. The Government has also founded from time to time specialized schools in the interior, with the object of encouraging agriculture or some other industry, such as that of the manufacture of Panama hats. Like Honduras, Panama devotes the greatest attention to special industrial schools.

For the furtherance of commercial education in Central and South America a Pan American College of Commerce, to be located at the City of Panama, is projected, under the joint auspices of the Southern Commercial Congress of the United States and the Government of the Republic of Panama. The active support of the countries of the two Americas is to be sought, and it is hoped that it may be opened on January 1, 1921, the quadricentennial year of the City of Panama, the first city to be founded by Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. The college is designed to train the youth of the two continents in practical courses of commerce, shipping, banking, and international trade relations generally.

NEW SCHOOL REGULATIONS IN BRITISH GUIANA.

The last report of the director of primary instruction in British Guiana outlines a new regulation for the common schools. In many of its parts it includes novel measures of school organization which are of interest as suggestions to other South American States for similar action. The regulations relate to the classification of schools, the minimum period of attendance, the age limit of pupils, the occupations of pupils after leaving school, school gardens, etc. As an instance of its stringent character, the regulation decrees that when any school ceases to conform to certain conditions with regard to building, installation, equipment, and health conditions, it shall be classified in B category; and if within 6 months it has not satisfied the requirements of the regulation, the authorities shall suspend the Government aid hitherto granted. It is to be noted that the primary schools of British Guiana are not directly administered by the authorities.

The school also loses its governmental aid if within two consecutive years it does not maintain a fixed minimum attendance, which varies according to the population of the locality in which it is situated. In return special aids are offered for schools that teach gardening for boys and the care of smaller children for girls from 12 to 14 years.

The greatest educational need of the colony is the establishment of technical primary schools for the instruction of boys and girls from 11 to 15 years. It is projected to establish two such schools in Georgetown in which there shall be taught, in addition to manual arts and other craft, drawing in all its branches, arithmetic and geography as related to commerce, the rudiments of experimental science, shorthand, and business correspondence. Criticism has been directed against the omission of instruction in agriculture, which is admitted to be the most necessary branch in the colony. It is, however, intended to impart agricultural instruction in special schools to be established.

Because of the fact that the majority of the pupils leave school before reaching 12 years, it is not possible to put into practice suggested plans of giving them preoccupational instruction in which they might be making a start before the end of their primary-school studies. On the other hand the traditional primary school is not adequate to give direction toward a vocational subject. Hence, to the regret of the authorities, attempts to link the primary school with the occupation of the pupil have been abandoned.

Much interest has been developed in school gardening; and about 100 gardens are annexed to primary schools, affording practical instruction to pupils in agriculture and horticulture. The Government has also established 8 model gardens, where instruction is given the pupils of neighboring schools.

ARGENTINA.

PRELIMINARY.

Two well-defined stages have marked the progress of national education in Argentina since 1916. The first began with the reorganization of primary instruction by act of the Federal Congress early in that year, which came about largely through the initiative and efforts of the minister of public instruction. It had long been felt that the legal system in force since 1882 was unsatisfactory, especially on the point of articulation of secondary education with the higher elementary on the one hand and with the universities on the other. Argentine educational thinkers asserted that secondary education prepared neither for practical life nor for entrance to the technical schools and the universities, inasmuch as it had remained unchanged for more than a generation, in the face of the social, economic, scientific, and ethnical changes through which the country had passed.

ILLITERACY.

On a basis of population estimated at slightly more than eight millions, 725,000 were estimated to be illiterate, about 42 per cent of the school population. Illiteracy is most rife in remote Provinces of the Andes and in the Territories, sparsely settled and inhabited by people of roving habits and poorly developed industrially. Under the lead of the director general of the schools of the Province of Mendoza, a systematic campaign to eliminate illiteracy was begun in 1916. It was recognized that financial considerations made it impossible to establish the number of primary schools which would be demanded, certainly not for the many remote points where only the legal minimum of 15 or 20 illiterates were to be found. Home schools were therefore established, officially ranking as auxiliary to the already existent schools, for illiterates of 8 to 20 years, and offering as a minimum curriculum reading, writing, the four fundamental operations of arithmetic, the duties of the Argentine citizen, elements of ethics, and personal hygiene. Such schools may begin any day of the year, and with a minimum of five pupils. Any person desiring to open such a school must fulfill the following conditions:

He must be at least 20 years of age, of good moral reputation, certified by the chief civil official of his residence.

He must speak the national language correctly and be able to give instruction in it.

Such schools shall not be established at less distance than 5 kilometers from an established primary school supported by national, provincial, or local funds, but if the school be intended exclusively for boys from 15 to 20 years old it may be located at any point. Such schools are to be visited freely by school and civil authorities, and by persons designated by the provincial general inspectors.

Most novel of all undertakings for the wiping out of illiteracy are the traveling schools . Provided for by the original organic school law of 1884, these schools were not, because of lack of funds, put into operation until 1914. Up to that time there was a conviction that their need was insignificant by contrast with the greater problem of illiteracy in the cities, and that to scatter funds available for combating illiteracy was not prudent. How serious this mistake was appeared in 1914 when it was ascertained by systematic count that of nearly 35,000 children of the Territories not in school only 6,000 lived in towns.

Located first in Province of Catamarca, and in the mountain regions of Rio Negro and the Chubut, these schools are built of materials easily transportable, and accommodate an average of 25 pupils. Sites are selected for them which are most accessible to the largest number of children in the district. Teachers traverse such regions on foot or muleback, carrying necessary equipment for instruction, and remain four and one-half months at each place, giving instruction in reading, writing, elements of arithmetic, and hygiene. A decided advantage is found in this succinct curriculum, the average of successful study by the pupils of these schools being, it is claimed, fully on a par with that of the pupils of the nine months' primary schools, who are required to take the standard number of subjects.

Within their first two years of existence, 20 of these schools were established, as reported by the National Council of Education in December, 1916; and 12 were added in 1917. The report of the inspector general of the Province of Mendoza concluded as follows:

This new type of school must exist for many years in Argentina to answer the needs of the actual distribution of the population, the lack of adequate means of communication, and the impossibility of maintaining fixed schools in the greater part of the zones engaged in agriculture and cattle raising. It behooves the authorities, therefore, to continue the improvement of the system in such manner that its efficiency shall be steadily greater, and that results shall amply compensate for their maintenance.

An interesting phase of social conscience is shown in the generous offer of the women pupils of the third and fourth years of the normal school at Santa Fe to instruct illiterates afternoons and nights in reading, writing, the elements of arithmetic, national language and history, and practical personal and school hygiene. This offer has been highly commended both by Argentine and foreign educators as a step toward solving the problem of illiteracy, worthy of imitation nationally and locally.

The struggle against illiteracy has been the subject of serious consideration by the executive, the chief school authorities, and the Congress. The executive has constantly urged the National Council of Education to intensify its campaigns and has cooperated by all means in his power in the steady diffusion of education. The Houses of Congress have also busied themselves especially with this grave problem. These efforts have borne fruit which, if not visible at the present time, is certainly destined to raise the level of popular education within the next few years. The authorities have judged that what is needed is the patient labor which does not require an immediate and striking solution of a most difficult problem, but is willing to continue to exercise an ever-increasing influence upon the rising generation, confident of the spread of education and enlightenment with the increase of population and the improvement in means of communication; and that it is not wise to sow schools broadcast throughout the Republic merely for the pleasure of doing something and of doing it rapidly. The success of the struggle against illiteracy, certain as it is, has its roots not in merely spending much money, but in spending money well.

REPORT OF NATIONAL COUNCIL OF EDUCATION.

As a substitute for the abortive intermediate schools established in 1916, which soon proved unsatisfactory, the council decided later in that year to establish, parallel and auxiliary to the higher primary schools, one of practical arts and crafts for each sex in every district of Buenos Aires. Such schools approximated 100 in number. This type of school was designed for boys and girls not intending to proceed to higher studies, and was later to be extended to the nation at large. Its purpose and program of studies was two-fold--to complete the theoretical and higher courses of the higher primary schools with vocational, technical, and manual training, based upon and making use of the materials which were peculiarly Argentine and local in industries, commerce, art, and economics; and to lay stress throughout on nationalistic and patriotic aims. An interesting feature, common to these new schools and the continuation schools now arising in England and France, is the provision by which they operate 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon or night, and are to admit pupils from the fourth to the sixth grade of the primary schools, who have reached the age of 12 years. Statistics as to the success of these schools are not as yet available.

In the matter of building primary schools proper, the report of the council shows progress throughout the four years covered. A total of 62 schools, with 426 teachers and 19,563 pupils, was added to the system. Because of national economic and financial conditions prevailing half a century ago, the great majority of the primary schools began operation in private buildings, which did not conform to pedagogical or even sanitary requirements. For many years excessive rents were often paid by the State, but upon the revaluation of property in many Provinces in 1915, an economy in rents was effected, and the funds thus saved were devoted to new schools. Despite high prices of material and difficulties of labor, in December, 1916, eleven school buildings were in process of erection, at an estimated cost of 0,000, with a capacity of 22,000 pupils. According to the report of the council: "The construction of properly equipped Government primary school buildings has constituted one of the most serious problems and, therefore, one of the chief occupations of the council." It was frankly admitted, however, that, with all the efforts of the council, accommodations for children in the primary schools were still far from adequate, it being estimated on that date that 4,000 additional schools of this grade were needed for the more than 600,000 children in the capital and the Territories who, for one reason or another, were not in school.

The activity of the council continued to be marked in 1917. In April of that year, 143 new schools were decreed, 39 for the Federal Capital, 18 for the Provinces under the legal national subvention, and 86 for the Territories , the Congress voting two millions in the national budget for the execution of this decree. The centralizing tendencies of South American countries in general, and the overwhelming dominance of the capital, secured for it so generous a share of this that it is estimated that in the Federal capital there will be for the first time room for all children of school age. For the poorer Provinces, and the Territories, which by the Tainez law of 1886 are absolutely dependent upon the central authority of the National Council, 250 schools of one and two rooms were assigned, but on an estimate about one-third of the children were still left unprovided with school facilities. Attention was repeatedly called to the need of a uniform and rigorously applied national law for compulsory school attendance.

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