Day Schools for Young Workers: The organization and management of part-time and continuation schools, by Franklin J. Keller, Ph.D. (HC, $6, which is 1/3 the internet price.)
Children in the early 1900s could leave school to work at age 14. Most of these jobs were temporary and low-paying. Such jobs left children without the training needed for skilled jobs or civic resposibilities. Originally part-time schooling was voluntary, available only in evenings and on Sunday afternoons. When this didn't work, states began to require mandatory education. Even in 1924 this applied mostly to town and city children, and to the larger school systems. In some states there was still only voluntary education. Even in some of the states with mandatory continuing education only 144 hours were required per year. Interestingly it was thought necessary to teach healthy leisure. This meant classes in music, literature, dance, and art along with hygiene and physical education. Part-time school was not expected to bring children up to the public school level, but to provide a bridge to a productive vocational, civic and personal life.
We are left to ponder how children did in the places where continuing education was not available. Look for this book on the new non-fiction table. (L-ed)
