illed trades as to
educational training, but it was found that only eight per cent were
high school graduates. Six per cent had left school before reaching
the seventh grade, and 16 per cent before reaching the eighth grade.
The other departments of the printing industry made a much less
favorable showing.

An investigation conducted by the Survey in the spring of 1915,
covering 5,000 young people at work under 21 years of age, indicated
that only about 13 per cent of these young workers had received any
high school training and that less than four per cent had completed a
high school course. Over one-fifth reported the sixth grade as the
last completed before leaving school, and nearly half had dropped out
before completing the elementary course. Less than seven per cent of
the boys engaged in industrial pursuits had received any high school
training and only 42 per cent had got beyond the seventh grade. The
educational preparation of the boys engaged in commercial and
clerical occupations was somewhat better, nearly 22 per cent having
attended high school one year or more; about one-half had left school
after completing the eighth grade and nearly one-third had not
completed the elementary course.

These facts have a vital relation to the problem of vocational
training. If the great majority of the children who will later enter
wage-earning occupations do not remain in school beyond the end of the
compulsory attendance period, and in addition over half fail to
complete even the elementary course, vocational training, to reach
them at all, must begin not later than the seventh grade, and if
possible, before the pupils reach the age of 14.

CHAPTER V

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING FOR BOYS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

In Chapter III the distribution of the wage-earners of the city was
outlined, mainly for the purpose of establishing a basis on which to
make a forecast of the future occupations of the children in the
public schools. Such a forecast is essential as the preliminary step
in any plan of vocational training to be carried out during the school
period, for the reason that without it a clear understanding of the
principal factors of the problem is impossible. The kinds of
vocational training needed by children in school, and how and where
such training should be given, must always depend in the first
instance on what they are going to do when they grow up.

The average elementary school in Cleveland enrolls betw