At first
they proceeded on the presumption that one could obtain a classical
education while learning a trade and at the same time earn sufficient
to support himself at school. Some of the managers of industrial
schools have not yet learned that students cannot produce articles for
market. The best we can expect from an industrial school to-day is a
good apprentice.
Another handicap was that at that time conditions were seldom
sufficiently favorable to enable the employer to derive profit enough
from students' work to compensate for the maintenance of the youth
at a manual labor school. Besides, such a school could not be
far-reaching in its results because it could not be so conducted as to
accommodate a large number of students. With a slight change in its
aims the manual labor schools might have been more successful in
the large urban communities, but the aim of their advocates was to
establish them in the country where sufficient land for agricultural
training could be had, and where students would not be corrupted by
the vices of the city.
It was equally unfortunate that the teachers who were chosen to carry
out this educational policy lacked the preparation adequate to
their task.
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