ONTARIO EDUCATION FOR INDUSTRIAL PURPOSES A REPORT BY JOHN SEATH Superintendent of Education STANFORD LIBRARY PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO TORONTO: Printed and Published by L. K. CAMERON, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty PREFATORY LETTER To the Honourable R. A. Pyne, M.D., LL.D., Minister of Education for Ontario, Toronto. Sir,-In accordance with your instructions of August, 1909, to report upon a desirable and practicable elementary system of technical education in Ontario, after inquiry into those already existing in some of the countries of Europe and the States of the Union, I visited in September and October of that year a number of elementary and intermediate technical schools in England, Scotland, France, Germany, and Switzerland; and in May of 1910 a number of others in the State of Massachusetts and the City of New York. In December, 1909, I also attended the Annual Convention of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, held at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and embraced the opportunity of visiting the Trade School of that city. This branch of education is, of course, not a new freld for educationists, and I have accordingly been able to avail myself of the fairly extensive literature on the subject. I have, also, as occasion offered, discussed the problem under consideration with employers and employees; and I have made special visits to most of the centres in Ontario that may be expected to take the initiative in providing suitable schools. A good deal of the information contained in this report I owe, I may add, to an extensive correspondence I have also carried on with Ontario manufacturers and other employers of labour and with educationists in the various countries I visited during my tour. Having in 1900 visited the New England States and the State of New York, to report upon their Manual Training and Trade Schools, I was fortunately able to approach the subject of my present report with some knowledge of the question. As, however, I had only two months for my visit to Europe, on my arrival in London I obtained from the English Board of Education (which corresponds to our Department of Education) a list of representative schools of different types in England and Scotland, as well as in France, Switzerland, and Germany. These schools are situated in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paris, Bern, Bienne, Zurich, Munich, Cologne, and Aix-la-Chapelle. To the favour of the foregoing list the Board added letters of introduction to the educationists who were best able to aid me in my investigation. The list of schools and the letters of introduction I found to be of great service; for they enabled me to utilize to the best advantage the short time I had at my disposal. In this connection I must acknowledge in particular the assistance I received from Dr. Jamieson, of the English Board of Education, who, having been a "colonial" himself (he |