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London Polytechnic
I'm not sure what was happening in England in the 1890's, but judging by the beginning of this article, it wasn't good. E.J. Meeker contributed to The Century Magazine – June, 1890.
"No American visitor who observes attentively the institutions and social life of the mother country can fail to be impressed with the marvelous tenacity and recuperative vigor of the English race in England. Such courage and virile buoyancy in the face of the gravest practical problems and in the certain prospect of a long period of turbulence, agitation, and social and political readjustment, the history of the world does not parallel.
The English people have taken the trouble to study the experience of the entire industrial world in the matter of practical education. It is not my purpose, however, to discuss the technical education movement, but rather to describe a particular phase of it in London. The name “polytechnic institute” implies a great school where many crafts and trades are taught. The Polytechnic is in Regent Street.
Machine Shop Religion and the three R’s are excellent things for poor boys and apprentices, in London and everywhere else, but they do not form a sufficient equipment. The boy has a body which needs development by proper physical training; his mind and character as well as his muscles need the valuable education that manly recreations give. Gymnasium His success requires instruction in the line of his calling acquired from day to day in the shop. The lads are given a varied course of general instruction, shop work, and laboratory work."
Chemical Laboratory |
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