"THE WILL TO LOAF"

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 89, 14 April 1923, Page 12

"THE WILL TO LOAF"

SAID TO. BE TAUGHT IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS, v

A "will to loaf" is being developed in the minds of the American school children by lax methods of teaching, according to Dwight T. Farnham, Consulting Industrial Engineer of New.. York City,: who.spoke before the Bureau" of Education recently. • '■

He compared the conditions existing in the industrial schools of Germany and France with those in the United States, states the "New York Timeß." The "will to work," he said, was instilled in the German almost from the time he is born. . .

"The German boy is carefully watched," said Mr. Farnham. "He is given psycho-technical tests. If it is evident that his mentality fits him to be a he^wer of wood or a' drawer of wrfer his education is confined to such subjects as will increase his manual dexterity. If he showfe sigtjs of intelligence he is ■transferred to classes which will, fit him for a forem'anship or clerical position. If he then displays special "ability he is sent to a technical school 'and trained to become a staff specialist or. manager. . France is doing the same thin'gl ; .

"In America we train our' youngsters to be ladies and gentlemen and instil the 'will to loaf in them by sending them ,to the movies to see a. Hollywood screen star's conception of 'This is the life !' America is a rich country,.and as. long as we can afford to bring them up that way let's give them all we";can — Lord bless 'em! But some day we will have to educate children in such a way that their training will fit them directly for their life work, or we will have to follow the Ford plan of breaking down j all work into such simple elements that untrained ' fanner boys and the 1 gay youth of our cities can do the work of skilled mechanics. "I am a great believer in general education. It adds to the breadth of our to our pleasure in life, and to our success if we pass above a certain, rank in the industrial organisation which ■we call modern civilisation. It is doubtful if we will have to adopt the expedj- j ehcy of France and Germany in this j generation. But.it iff well to examine j the competition we. face—to-think'ahead | —and to adopt whatever we can withoutj detriment to the souls or bodies of our race." . ■ W. H. Leffingwell, President of the Leffingwell-Ream Company, . commented in an address during the afternoon session upon the general lack of intelligence, and interest of automatic, unthinking labour, ;and; suggested) the plan of scientific management which contemplates and involves a general rise in the intelligence of all members of; a business, organisation. •• :, „ . "There is no reason," said Mr."Leffingweli, "why an office boy should not understand the general principles of business, as well as the manager. No reason why a typist should be mentally limited to pounding- the'keys, no reason why a clerkv.should' be. a mere, auto-matonT-a human adding machine—no "reason why a single member of any organisation should not see what the uni-. versal purpose of the business is and how its parts work harmoniously' : together. "Getting this broad, general view of the process even without mastery of any of the details would prevent that sense of bewilderment that soon develops into, automatic, unthinking, mechanical' effort on the part of our young people who are hustled into offices utterly untrained- in any general perception of what business fundamentally is, and with nothing more than a mechanical education, such as exercising a typewriter."- '