Excerpt from Industrial Conference
Ladies and Gentlemen: In opening this conference my function is a simple one - to announce the purpose of the meeting, to extend on behalf of the Board of Education a welcome to the distinguished speakers and the no less distinguished audience, and to introduce to you the eminent official who has consented to preside.
Vocational instruction is the most ancient form of education. The first naked savage who guided the trembling hand of his offspring to bend the bow was conducting a system of industrial instruction, admirably adapted to the child"s own future calling. Every time and every nation has thus evoked its own system of instructing its youth to find their place in the life of the time; a place where they might render service and earn that reward that would keep mind and body fit for further service.
Civilization and letters have preserved for us the splendid heritage of the past, but they have preserved with it something of tradition that belongs to the past. What may have been useful in one age may yet survive long after its usefulness has ended.
If, then, we seek a fuller recognition of the needs of the practical life, it is only that the schools may continue their world-age function of preparing for that life. Education, it is true, must include the knowledge of the past; not less truly must it recognize the needs of the present.
In a democracy like ours, education cannot be dominated by an ideal that considers only the limited number that need not work with the labor of their hands or the sweat of their brow. In making provision for the extension of vocational education, therefore, we are but bringing back our educational forces to the exercise of their normal function.
As to how this may best be done the Board of Education seeks to learn from all men and from every place. It wants light, more light, and it is for this reason that it has asked for information and for counsel from all who may give it.
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