WHERE LITTLE MARY WENT

Henry Ford has opened his school at Sudbury. It seems that his aim is much more serious than merely to provide the famous lamb with another opportunity for a whack at higher education. The school is to be an example to all of New England. By its methods and training it will show the great need of manual labor, if Mr. Ford's expectations are fulfilled.

Education, he believes, should be on a paying basis. That the theory is practical has been proven by the Ford School in Detroit. The students are paid to study. While at school they make tools for the Ford company. That the academic side is not wholly neglected is demonstrated by the fact that boys finishing a four year course there are credited with three years in other high schools. Most of the graduates become mechanics or draughtsmen. Though the pupils are thus taught to earn their own living by their hands, specialization at such an early age seems highly dangerous. The ideal of a general education is admittedly a secondary consideration. The institution is little more than a training school for the Ford factory. That children should be taught a certain amount of manual training is a very good thing as there are few better ways to teach good physical coordination. However, that children should spend their school days with a factory ever looming in the background will seem open to question. If New England follows the lead of her auto educator she will develop an educational system much like the one existing on the continent of Europe at the present time. A boy at fourteen will have to decide forever his future field of activity. The evils of the scheme are well known. A dwarfed perspective and ill adjustment are too often the results. The American schools are asked to choose between carburetors and the classics. Fortunately New England is conservative.