Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/329

LEFT TECHNICAL EDUCATION 277 TECHNICAL EDUCATION provided covering two or three years and leading to higher specialized degrees as C.E., M.E., E.E., etc. An interesting experiment in technical education is the co-operative plan of work introduced in the University of Cincinnati in 1906. By this plan prac- tical work is united with theoretical throughout the whole course. This plan is described in a Bulletin of the U. S. Bureau of Education (1916), No. 37, "The Co-operative System of Education," by C, W. Park. A thorough study of engineering education was made by Prof. C, R. Mann and published in 1918 by the Carnegie Foundation as a special bulletin under the auspices not only of the Carnegie Foundation but of a joint committee on engineering education of the National Engineering Societies. Technical education is a new form of professional training. It is the direct out- growth of the deeper and more general knowledge of the forces of nature — a knowledge which has come forth largely within the last seventy years. Techni- cal education is most directly studied in, and functions through, the schools of engineering, although there have devel- oped many schools whose teaching is limited to special subjects. The schools of engineering have grown up co-ordinate with the college of liberal learning. Students enter them directly from the high school. They have not yet become co-ordinate with the professional schools of medicine or of law or of the- ology. The present movement, however, is toward making the engineering co-or- dinate vnth the other professional schools — its course being subsequent to the college of liberal learning. Such an advancement in technical edu- cation is the special purpose of many of its supporters. Engineering schools include several types. Among them are civil, sanitary, mechanical, electrical, and mining engi- neering. The tendency of recent years has been to split up these different courses into finer differentiations. The teaching given in schools of engi- neering is largely through laboratories which are, as a rule, well equipped and well administered. Each department us- ually is organized with a head and sev- eral subordinates. These departments are in most schools co-ordinate with each other — their relationships heading up in a general faculty and a president. Although the teaching in schools of en- gineering is largely technical, yet it is commonly recognized that success in the vocation of the engineer depends quite as largely upon general qualities as upon professional. Answers made by some several thousand engineers in response to a circular sent out by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, of New York, respecting the comparative worth of personal attributes and of technical abilities, showed that three-fourths of all those who replied, believe that the general qualities were of higher value than the special. Char- acter, a sense of responsibility, integrity, common sense, judgment, initiative, effi- ciency, thoroughness, industry and un- derstanding of men, were declared to have a weight of seventy-five per cent, in any determination of vocational success. Personal character was, in a word, the most comprehensive value. The course of study usually covers four years and is quite as arduous as the study of medicine or of law. The stu- dent begins his day in the laboratory early in the morning and continues until late afternoon. The year usually covers thirty-six weeks, and a summer school also invites his attendance. In certain cases, through attendance of the summer sessions, he is able to abbreviate some- what his period of residence. The expense of the student in the engi- neering schools is perhaps the heaviest, with the possible exception of the medi- cal, of any professional college. The laboratory fees are many. Little time is allowed for his self-support, in case he should desire to earn his way. In certain schools is found a co-operative method by which the student spends one-half of his time in receiving instruction and the other half in practicing or working in in- dustrial plants. The University of Cin- cinnati is the most outstanding example of such co-operation. Two groups of students are made, which alternate with each other in bi-weekly periods. The University is thus able to use its full equipment with a full quota of students, and also to take advantage of the shop. The course at Cincinnati is finished in five years of eleven months each. This method is regarded by some as the best. It is also regarded by others as at the present time, of doubtful value. Students of engineering schools on graduation enter factories and offices of a type for which their preceding studies have fitted them. The stipend which they receive in their first year is usually small — about $125.00 per month would perhaps be the average; but for the abler men the progress is rapid toward large incomes. Schools of engineering have played a large part in the development of the civ- ilization of the United States. They are of special worth in a country whose ma- terial resources are yet to be developed. In the development of such resources,