h so-called manual training or
handwork of the elementary schools. In our present study however, we
shall find that while in the main we are dealing with the technical
training of boys from fourteen to eighteen years of age,--comparable in
a measure to our high or secondary school courses, we shall also include
the industrial, vocational, or trade training of men and boys alike, as
well as work in the more simplified forms of handicraft, as carried on
in the lower or elementary school. Reference will also be made to the
instruction of a higher order,--such for example as makes for engineers.
These facts will be illuminated as the study proceeds.

In reading into these schools their real significance, several points
must be kept constantly in mind. At an early age the German youth is
supposed to have solved the problem of his likes and dislikes, his
abilities and shortcomings; to have gained such a perspective of his
probable chances for future success, as to choose the line of work or
occupation he shall follow. It is only fair to state, however, that
circumstances have much to do with such decision, viz,--the occupation
of the father, the financial outlook of the family, the industrial
demands of the locality, the particular educational opportunities
offered,--these and like problems entering in as vital elements.

Then too, the founding and sustaining of a technical school is a matter
to be noted. This may be in the hands of the general government, of the
state, of the municipality, or may be looked after by private
enterprise. The Guilds, Vereins or Associations may organize, equip and
foster schools of such character as train directly for their particular
lines of work. It must be stated however in this connection, that there
seems to be a strong tendency at the present time toward the
centralizing of control in the states. This has been brought about in
large measure through the ever-increasing willingness on the part of the
state to give financial backing to the schools, and thus has quite
naturally arisen the desire and necessity on the part of the state, that
it have a controlling voice in the school administration. Herein lies
one of the main differences between such education in Germany and that
of our own country.

Conrad's Handwoerterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, 1900, in an article
entitled "Gewerblicher Unterricht", gives the following table on state
expenditure for trade and technical instruction in re