Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/515

Rh Instruction, states "that the half-time children of the town of Keighley, numbering from fifteen hundred to two thousand, although they receive less than fourteen hours of instruction per week, and are required to attend the factory for twenty-eight hours per week in addition, yet obtain at the examinations a higher percentage of passes than the average of children throughout the whole country receiving double the amount of schooling." This answers the objection so often raised, that the curriculum of elementary schools is already overcrowded. Possibly it may be with literary studies, but not with practical work, and the combination of the two will go far to correct the tendency to over-pressure inherent in our system of payment by results.

As a general rule, children should be required to have passed the fifth standard before being admitted into the shop. They should receive two lessons a week, and each lesson should be of about two hours'duration. No fixed rule can at present be given as to the number of children who can be taught by one instructor. For convenience of supervision the shop should be fitted for the accommodation of not more than twenty-five children. On starting a class, each pupil requires more individual attention than later on. A class of beginners, therefore, should not consist of the full complement of children. Where the same shop is used for bench-work and lathe-work, it will be found that a double lathe will occupy four pupils, that eighteen can be accommodated at three carpenters' benches, each of not less than fourteen feet six inches in length, while two may be engaged in sawing. Besides the benches and lathes, the school should contain a large blackboard, a cupboard, which is better than boxes for holding tools, and a grindstone.

In estimating the expense of adding this subject to our elementary school course, we have to consider the cost first, of equipping the workshops; second, of the material used; third, of the teaching.

Supposing a shed or some other room to be found, which can be used as a workshop, the cost of equipping the shop with benches and with the necessary tools need not exceed thirty shilling for each pupil's place, and the workshop can be used by different sets of pupils at different times. Moreover, a shop need not be fitted at once with the full complement of benches; for, after a time, the more advanced pupils may be employed in making some of the additional fittings required.

The cost of material is inconsiderable. The children soon learn to construct various articles for their own homes, which, on payment of the cost of the material consumed, become the property of their parents. Some, too, might be employed in making models and other objects, including certain workshop-fittings, which might be purchased for the use of other schools. At the same time, care must be taken that the work is always subordinated to the educational purpose of the instruction.

Of the actual cost of the teaching no very exact estimate can as