A Great Educational Institution

Camp News, Volume 3, Issue 154, 23 December 1942, Page 2

A Great Educational Institution

Published by arrangement in the hope that someone may benefit.

The story of the origin and growth of the International Correspondence School— to many hundreds of 1 thousands as “The I.C.S.”— like a romance. About 60 years ago one Thomas J. Foster was editor of a small newspaper in the Pennsylvania U.S.A, anthracite area. Mine disasters were frequent, and Foster thought that in many cases they were due to plain ignorance. Having decided that something must be done about it, he started a question-and-answer column in his newspaper. The questions were about the elementary facts of engineering, mine gases, and precautions for safety. The huge volume of correspondence showed Foster the thirst for knowledge amongst the miners, and he decided to organise it separately. There were many difficulties to overcome — at that time “teaching by correspondence” was simply not thought of. In October, 1891, Foster enrolled his first student, Thomas Coates, a miner. It was an auspicious beginning; Coates rose to become superintendent of the mine. Within nine years Foster’s students numbered 251,310, he having in the interval arranged for many other technical subjects in addition to mining. Now, over 50 years after the founding of the 1.C.5., there are more than 5,000,000 men and women throughout the world who have taken

up courses of instruction with the I.C.S.truly the largest educational institution in the world.

One day the instructors received a letter from a man in Central America who explained that his lessons might be somewhat late in arriving, as he spoke Spanish with the aid of a diespoke Spanish but he had no knowledge of English. Therefore when studying his Mechanical Engineering Course he had not only to follow the technical part but he had to trans- , ± ■ 4 j. 4* ™ v r k 4. a • , ... ate it from English to Spanish with the aid of a dictionary. He was learning English at the same time as he was studying mechanical engineering problems! The' directors of the I.C.S. felt that there was a great need in the Argentine for technical knowledge, and the courses were translated into Spanish. Now, there are ahnixf 1 tin non T r Q tneie are about 150,000 I.C.S. students in the South American countries. There are instruction centres throughout the world, these including Scranton (U.S.A.), Canada, London, South Africa, India, Spain, Argentina,

Sydney (Aust.), Wellington (N.Z.). The effect of modern war on corre-spondence-school business is shown by the civil war in Spain. Soon after it ; broke out, the Loyalists moved into ' the Madrid office of the 1.C.5., collared the manager and shot him. Several former Army engineers, technical members of the staff, were also liquidated. The woman secretary was imprisoned, tortured. When her case came up, this courageous senora argued that the common people were ground under the heel of Facism, had little opportunity for education, none lof the better things of life. And | wasn’t that what they were fighting I for ? She pointed out that few soldiers | could read orders, understand maps, | forecast weather, repair truck enI gines and airplanes, things that her

school could teach them. So why not ! use the staff and its texts? She was released, told to cary on. Executions ■ of staff members ceased. Hundreds of ■ army personnel were enrolled. I.C.S. enrolments in Spain in the last two years have numbered over 5,000. War brought the same experience to the English offices. Enrolment began to soar immediately after Dunkirk. In 1941, it was 50 per cent, greater than in 1940, and it is now at a new peak of 30,000 active students and 850,000 alumni in the British Empire and Far East. This is largely due to the normal demand for training in subjects related to the war, such as aeronautical engineering, munitions production, etc. There are exceptions, of course, to I.C.S. war booms. The branch offices in Shanghai and Manila have had to close. And the I.C.S. broke relations with Japan long before the British Empire or U.S.A, did. It discovered that the Japanese were buying the texts and examinations for every course, coyping them, and then setting up their own schools. Administrative troubles that war causes are illustrated by the case of a Chinese youth. His first lesson in building a house described how to make the excavation; the second, how to put in the foundation; the third, how to construct the house itself. But . ■> - -

5 the second lesson went to the bottom - of the Pacific, and the Chinese, after weeks of puzzling over Lessons 1 and 1 3, asked Scranton plaintively: “How 1 you build house on hole in ground?” ' I.C.S. activities in Latin America 1 have increased greatly in the past two or three years. In certain countries German engineers who were supervising the construction of roads, air ports, and other public works, walked off their jobs at the declaration of war, in the haughty confidence that the work would never be finished without them. But young Latins who had been quietly learning engineering from the I.C.S. stepped into the breach, and these vital war projects are being completed on schedule. The Lockheed Aircraft Corporation was surprised to learn that many of its engineers were I.C.S. graduates. When the National Association of Manufacturers recently awarded Modern Pioneer medals to some 500 men who had made outstanding contributions to society in the last twenty-five years, it discovered that sixty of

them had received their trainingby mail from the I.C.S. Numbered amongst I.C.S. students are such men as Guy Vaughan, president of Curtiss-Wright; J. G. Vincent and E. J. Hall, who, in the midst of the last World War, offered their services to the Government, and brought out their famous Liberty motor. J. J. Tynan, who entered the shipbuilding industry as a labourer, took his course on the advice of an I.C.S. man, and became vice-president of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation. Other I.C.S. students are John G. Garand, inventor of the Garand semiautomatic rifle; Clyde C. Farmer, director of engineering at Westinghouse : air brake. Eddie Rickenbacker, and the late Walter-Chrysler took I.C.S. ' courses. In Australia and New Zea- : land more familiar names are Hinck- i

ler, the avaitor, and D. 0. Haskell, engineer-in-charge of the Mohaka viaduct. One testimonial has become part of the lore of the school. It came from a student in Tennessee. He had been paying his tuition fee and returning his papers promtply for correction, when silence suddenly swallowed him. I intend to resume my studies,” he wrote months later, “as soon as my personal liberty is restored. Unfortunately, I am confined to jail at the present time. During the trial, my still was brought into court as evidence. The judge, the jury and the spectators were unanimous in the opinion that it was the finest piece of coppersmithing ever seen in Tennessee. I owe it all to the I.C.S. sheetmetal course.”