Excerpt from Our Children, Our Schools, and Our Industries: Commissioner's Special Theme Annual Report 1908
It is putting it not a whit too strongly to say that it is quite apparent to all who think about it that we must have much more accurate and up-to-date vital statistics; that we must have public records of what children there are among us, and their ages; that all children of school age must be more completely accounted for in the schools; that the compulsory school age must at least be extended to the completion of the elementary schools; that provision must be made for public vocation or trades schools, and also for schools of a general character which meet the continuing needs of young people in the stores and shops and factories; that these schools for the industrial masses must operate at times which will allow pupils to engage in regular employment, but employers must plan for the regular attendance of young employees upon the schools at certain hours; that the schools must keep hold of all pupils until they have received a training which will fit them for some definite employment; and that the different parts of a more extended school system must balance each other more exactly and support the industrial as well as the professional activities of the country.
The recognition of the need of all this grows out of manifest moral, industrial, and economic conditions that are widely prevalent among us, and out of a growing knowledge of what other peoples, harder pressed and more painstaking than we, have done to meet the conditions which are now asserting themselves here. It grows out of our clearing vision that simple and balanced justice, as well as the progress and happiness of the people, and the strength and poise of the nation, alike make it necessary to give to the wage earning masses, and to the common industries, such equivalent as we can for what the present schools are doing for the wealthier classes and for the professional and managing vocations.
The recognition of the need is opening the door to a decisive educational advance in America; and the time seems ripe for a review of the reasons for it and for a serious discussion of the plans and arrangements for it.
Looking backward
In the beginning there was no thought that the common schools should do more than teach the "three R's," the mere elements, which would enable one to gain the knowledge vital to citizenship. Farming was the very general employment.
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