INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTHIICOLLEGE OF INDUSTRIAL ARTS, DENTON, TEXASBy Lillian Kendrick Byrn

By Lillian Kendrick Byrn

SPECIMENS IN DRAWING AND DESIGN

The history of a nation is determined by the home life of its people. Just as the prosperity of the individual home depends upon the efficiency and care of the partners in its making, so does the welfare of a nation hang on the ability and earnestness of the individual citizens. The rise of our own nation is due to the determination of our forefathers to found a government which, from the national down through the state, county and city forms, should be based upon the simple principles of upright family life. Our ideas of social life and social equality could not have been conceived under the influence of European institutions. Here, where those in the humblest walks of life may be the nobility, and where honor is conferred for merit alone, we have developed social customs to correspond with our American spirit, and, proceeding on independent and original lines, we have made our industrial and commercial system to control the busiest marts, to break the records of history, to fairly alarm the world.

The chief element of the American spirit is the appreciation of high ideals, not only in the national life, but in the education, the culture and the industrial life of the individual. When we see new openings on already established lines, it is characteristic of us as a people to pursue these openings, even though they lead in directions directly opposed to those which we have hitherto followed. Thoroughness and earnestness are the keynotes of American progress, and these are the characteristics which to-day give us our commanding position among the nations.

Is it not fitting and necessary that a nation of such religious, social, political and commercial originality and progress should develop co-ordinate with these a system of education? The free public school system is among the purest and most effectual of our democratic institutions. It has fostered the Americanspirit, it has laid the foundation for an American culture; it has, in large part, made possible the present success in American industrial life.

Although it is many years since the doctrine of learning through doing was first promulgated, it has remained for the present generation to make the general application. Educators have been slowly, but surely, arriving at the conclusion that the university ideals of Europe, which naturally dominated our higher educational institution during the first century of our history, and which still hold sway in certain of our colleges, are not sufficient for our needs. Present-day conditions demand an education which will afford culture and practical preparation for the common duties at the same time. There is a loud and emphatic call for our schools to cultivate the executive quality in our young men and women and to prepare them for immediate, well-directed action in the affairs of life. Many of our states have answered nobly the call for schools where boys can be trained along practical lines which make for success and usefulness. Nearly every state has its Agricultural and Mechanical College. This is all very well for the boys, but how about the girls?

In past years institutions which were organized primarily to meet the needs of men for their professional or business training have, largely from a spirit of chivalry and esteem, been opened to women. Also, largely from a spirit of social concern, some of the best friends of womankind have, in a degree, popularized the typical woman’s college. In both cases much good has been accomplished, but in neither case have the needs of the education of women been fully met. Men’s colleges that have been opened to women have given them the same training as is provided for men, and the majority of the women’s colleges have patterned their curricula after the same assumption. This theory leads women to contemplate man’s occupations and professions as their only field of action, and, while it may be the best in many individual cases, it does not provide for the mass of women the kind of higher education mostly needed. From a social standpoint, I believe in the co-education of the sexes, for education is but a preparation for life, and it seems the plain plan of creation for men and women to mingle, but from a practical standpoint co-education is not always advantageous, resulting too frequently, as stated, in making woman the competitor of man, instead of fitting her to work on her own peculiar lines.

BASKETRY WORK BY STUDENTS

The young woman whose education has been based upon efficient scholarship, together with domestic and industrial training of a practical type, brings into the marriage relation a comradeship which grows out of her ability to sustain her part of the partnership. It is a womanly instinct to want to enter her legitimate realm—the home. Equipped with the training which gives her a righteous sovereignty, the integrity of that home is assured. Is it not worth our while to promote as many such homes as possible?

What is a rational education for the home-maker? If the ideal mother must have, in addition to a literary education, a knowledge of kindergarten, general needlework, including dressmaking, art in at least its elementary forms, bookkeeping, the chemistry of foods and practical cooking, house cleaning, first aid to theinjured and nursing, and yet have the time and strength to be a comfort and companion to her husband and a teacher to her children, is it not asking too much of women?

The answer is plain. While many of our household industries must necessarily be placed in outside hands, the power controlling these industries must remain in the hands of the home-makers.These demands are not more than a woman can meet, for the same training that enables her to know all this teaches her the laws governing her physical self, how to control and conserve her energies so that they may be expended to the best advantage. It prepares her for making and maintaining a good home, the highest and best profession that a woman can enter; and the mother in the home, teaching, as she does, by precept as well as by example, during the greater part of the twenty-four hours, has need of a scientific training for her lifelong occupation.

There are many women who do not surround themselves with the security of home, there to peacefully work out life’s problems. Many find it necessary to enter the industrial and commercial fields, and a preparation which commands for these a living salary is imperative.

Texas, one of the youngest states, but already outstripping many of her elders in the spirit of progressiveness, has taken up the question of the industrial training of her girls with characteristic vigor. With a system of state public schools provided for by the allotment of public lands, whose revenues furnish a magnificent school fund, with a State University in the first rank among its kind, with State Normal Schools in every district whose population warrants it, with an Agricultural and Mechanical College second to none, and with manual training in practice in city schools all over the state, she established, by an act of the Legislature in 1901, the school known as the College of Industrial Arts. Denton, situated about midway between Dallas and Fort Worth and somewhat north of them, was selected as the site of the school. The idea met with hearty support all over the state, and it opened in September, 1903, with one hundred and eighty-six students, representing eighty-eight out of the two hundred and thirty-four counties of the state.

TYPEWRITING.

These girls come from the country, town and city; from the homes of bankers, lawyers, real estate men, mechanics, contractors, stockmen, teachers, druggists, farmers, ministers, merchants and physicians. Some are the daughters of widows and some are orphan girls. Some have earned, in whole or in part, the means by which they maintain themselves, while some are contributing to their own support by working while in school. Some of them entered on teachers’ certificates, some on high school diplomas, but the great majority entered on examination.

The student body is not only thoroughly democratic, but it is composed of earnest, conscientious, hard-working students, who appreciate their opportunity of obtaining a thorough, practical education.

The college is situated on the outskirts of Denton, in a campus of seventy acres of rising ground overlooking the city and surrounding country. It is well supplied with large,shady trees, and is covered with Bermuda grass. In the rear is a fine grove of oaks, where it is proposed to erect additional dormitories and class-rooms when the financial growth of the school admits of it. At present only the main building has been finished.

GARDENING.

In the basement of this is found the creamery, equipped with churns, separators, cream ripeners, butter workers, cream testers, bottling apparatus and scales. All is deliciously clean and dainty, and visitors are allowed to enjoy the products as they are finished. Here the girls are given a scientific, practical knowledge of butter and cheese-making and the care and handling of dairy products for the market, including pasteurization and sterilization; the use of hand and power separators and testers, acid testing and churning, beside instruction in dairy bacteriology and the composition and good value of milk, butter and cream.

In another well-lighted apartment, with cement floor, is the laundry, with complete outfits for hand and machine work. Here again the practice is supplemented with lectures showing reasons for washing—sanitary and aesthetic; study of fibres and how to cleanse each, illustrated by practical work in cotton, linen and silk; the effect of soft and hard water and how to treat them; the preparation and use of different cleansing agents.

The basement also contains the manual training rooms, where woodcarving, wrought-iron work and modeling are taught. In a broad sense, all of the manual and laboratory work in the curriculum is in the nature of manual training, but especial attention is given to the branches mentioned and to weaving and basketry and other work which prepares students for positions as manual training teachers in the public schools.

On the first floor are the President’s, Secretary’s and other offices, and the art room. This department provides technical courses in drawing, applied design and painting. The work is designed to develop the imaginative and creative faculty from the first, and to give thorough training along industrial lines. Lecture rooms and the library occupy the rest of the first floor, while the second is devoted to the chemical and photographic laboratories and the commercial school.

CLASS IN BEE CULTURE

This department is always well attended, and the course is exceptionally interesting, including, as it does, a study of the routes and growth of commerce, the production centers and markets of the world, the relative value and importance of staple articles and where they are obtained; bookkeeping, including household accounts; business correspondence; penmanship; filing and other clerical work; reporting; stenography. It is intended to meet the demand for more broadly intelligent and more accurate office workers in commercial lines.

On the third floor are the cooking and sewing schools. An electric program clock in the main office automatically calls off the time for changes of classes in the corridors on all the floors.

One of the most thorough departments, and one which opens up new avenues for woman’s work, is that of the Rural Arts. The spring term of the first year is devoted to a study of the principles of fruit, flower and vegetable growing. Each student has a garden for practice, and the care of the products until maturity and their packing for shipment are shown. Bee culture is another branch of this department. The students set up hives, examine bees, select queens and learn how to manipulate swarms and take the honey. Poultry keeping belongs to the list of popular studies. Nearly every woman has a natural interest in the care of chickens. The class has incubators and brooders, and looks after the houses and runs, feeding and improvement of stock and preparation for cooking or market.

In all of the courses literary work has a prominent place. Industrial training is most valuable, but, taken by itself, it is not sufficient. The work at the College of Industrial Arts is arranged in proper proportions for the best, all-round, practical training for life’s work. In the early part of the course the literary feature naturally receives emphasis, connecting with school work previously done by the students, and preparing them for the deeper appreciation of the scientific features of the industrial courses.

Nor are the lighter arts neglected. Vocal music, physical culture, expression and modern languages—all find a place in the curriculum.

The health of the girls is a first consideration. The college physician teaches physiology and hygiene, and renders his services to the sick. With pure water from a deep artesian well and the delicious home products of the school, however, combined with the exercise and regular life of the students, there is a minimum of sickness.

Tennis and basketball seem to be the most popular games. A student Glee Club furnishes a social feature, while there are several literary societies and a flourishing Young Women’s Christian Association.

Who may attend the college? All white girls of good morals who have attained the age of sixteen years, who have a fair knowledge of the common school subjects, who wish to continue their education, including a thorough, practical training, and who come to the college with the clear and earnest purpose of doing their best work.

The living expenses are small, there being a number of co-operative clubs in the town, and all expenses being reasonable. The college has no appropriation for paying the way of pupils without means, but there are a number of ways by which the cost of living may be reduced or made by extra work.

President Work thus summarizes the mission of this institution: “We want to meet the need of our times in training women who will be competent, intelligent and refined; well fitted for self-support, if this should be necessary; thoroughly prepared for woman’s work in the industrial and commercial world, if they so choose to labor; well trained for companionship with worthy manhood and for motherhood.”

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