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was to go hand in hand with the industrial instruction; third, that the boy was to be given a sense of pride and
responsibility in his work by being trained on articles which were to be used. He works on objects of
recognized industrial worth. The school is incorporated as a private school and is open to boys between the
ages of twelve and eighteen. It is organized on the basis of scholarships and each boy is awarded an annual
cash scholarship of four hundred dollars at his entrance. This is gradually increased to a maximum of six
hundred dollars if his record is satisfactory.
A record of the class and shop work is kept and also of the industry the boy displays in each. It is the marks in
industry which are used in making subsequent adjustments of his scholarship. In addition to his scholarship
each boy is given a small amount each month which must be deposited in his savings account. This thrift fund
must be left in the bank as long as the boy remains in the school unless he is given permission by the
authorities to use it for an emergency.
One by one the problems of managing the school are being solved and better ways of accomplishing its
objects are being discovered. At the beginning it was the custom to give the boy one third of the day in class
work and two thirds in shop work. This daily adjustment was found to be a hindrance to progress, and now the
boy takes his training in blocks of weeks--one week in the class and two weeks in the shop. Classes are
continuous, the various groups taking their weeks in turn.
The best instructors obtainable are on the staff, and the text-book is the Ford plant. It offers more resources for
practical education than most universities. The arithmetic lessons come in concrete shop problems. No longer
is the boy's mind tortured with the mysterious A who can row four miles while B is rowing two. The actual
processes and actual conditions are exhibited to him--he is taught to observe. Cities are no longer black specks
on maps and continents are not just pages of a book. The shop shipments to Singapore, the shop receipts of
material from Africa and South America are shown to him, and the world becomes an inhabited planet instead
of a coloured globe on the teacher's desk. In physics and chemistry the industrial plant provides a laboratory in
which theory becomes practice and the lesson becomes actual experience. Suppose the action of a pump is
being taught. The teacher explains the parts and their functions, answers questions, and then they all troop
away to the engine rooms to see a great pump. The school has a regular factory workshop with the finest
equipment. The boys work up from one machine to the next. They work solely on parts or articles needed by
the company, but our needs are so vast that this list comprehends nearly everything. The inspected work is
purchased by the Ford Motor Company, and, of course, the work that does not pass inspection is a loss to the
school.
The boys who have progressed furthest do fine micrometer work, and they do every operation with a clear
understanding of the purposes and principles involved. They repair their own machines; they learn how to
take care of themselves around machinery; they study pattern-making and in clean, well-lighted rooms with
their instructors they lay the foundation for successful careers.
CHAPTER XV 97
When they graduate, places are always open for them in the shops at good wages. The social and moral
well-being of the boys is given an unobtrusive care. The supervision is not of authority but of friendly interest.
The home conditions of every boy are pretty well known, and his tendencies are observed. And no attempt is
made to coddle him. No attempt is made to render him namby-pamby. One day when two boys came to the
point of a fight, they were not lectured on the wickedness of fighting. They were counseled to make up their
differences in a better way, but when, boy-like, they preferred the more primitive mode of settlement, they
were given gloves and made to fight it out in a corner of the shop. The only prohibition laid upon them was
that they were to finish it there, and not to be caught fighting outside the shop. The result was a short
encounter and--friendship.
They are handled as boys; their better boyish instincts are encouraged; and when one sees them in the shops
and classes one cannot easily miss the light of dawning mastery in their eyes. They have a sense of
"belonging." They feel they are doing something worth while. They learn readily and eagerly because they are
learning the things which every active boy wants to learn and about which he is constantly asking questions
that none of his home-folks can answer.
Beginning with six boys the school now has two hundred and is possessed of so practical a system that it may
expand to seven hundred. It began with a deficit, but as it is one of my basic ideas that anything worth while
in itself can be made self-sustaining, it has so developed its processes that it is now paying its way.
We have been able to let the boy have his boyhood. These boys learn to be workmen but they do not forget
how to be boys. That is of the first importance. They earn from 19 to 35 cents an hour--which is more than
they could earn as boys in the sort of job open to a youngster. They can better help support their families by
staying in school than by going out to work. When they are through, they have a good general education, the
beginning of a technical education, and they are so skilled as workmen that they can earn wages which will
give them the liberty to continue their education if they like. If they do not want more education, they have at
least the skill to command high wages anywhere. They do not have to go into our factories; most of them do
because they do not know where better jobs are to be had--we want all our jobs to be good for the men who
take them. But there is no string tied to the boys. They have earned their own way and are under obligations to
no one. There is no charity. The place pays for itself.
The Ford Hospital is being worked out on somewhat similar lines, but because of the interruption of the
war--when it was given to the Government and became General Hospital No. 36, housing some fifteen
hundred patients--the work has not yet advanced to the point of absolutely definite results. I did not
deliberately set out to build this hospital. It began in 1914 as the Detroit General Hospital and was designed to
be erected by popular subscription. With others, I made a subscription, and the building began. Long before
the first buildings were done, the funds became exhausted and I was asked to make another subscription. I
refused because I thought that the managers should have known how much the building was going to cost
before they started. And that sort of a beginning did not give great confidence as to how the place would be
managed after it was finished. However, I did offer to take the whole hospital, paying back all the
subscriptions that had been made. This was accomplished, and we were going forward with the work when,
on August 1, 1918, the whole institution was turned over to the Government. It was returned to us in October,
1919, and on the tenth day of November of the same year the first private patient was admitted.
The hospital is on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit and the plot embraces twenty acres, so that there will be
ample room for expansion. It is our thought to extend the facilities as they justify themselves. The original
design of the hospital has been quite abandoned and we have endeavoured to work out a new kind of hospital, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]