TABLE 12.—­COURSES AND NUMBER ENROLLED IN THE TECHNICAL NIGHT SCHOOLS, JANUARY, 1915

         &nb
sp;                                            Number
    Course enrolled

Mechanical drawing                                   328
Machine shop                                         222
Electrical construction                              159
Sewing                                               103
Mathematics                                           89
Architectural drawing                                 83
Pattern making                                        73
Woodworking                                           67
Chemistry                                             59
Sheet metal drawing                                   52
Cooking                                               46
Foundry work                                          36
Agriculture                                           31
Printing                                              27
Sheet metal shop                                      23
Business English                                      20
Electric motors                                       19
Arts and crafts                                       18
Millinery                                             18
Electricity and magnetism                             16
------
Total                                           1,489

The policy of the schools is to form a class in any subject for which a sufficient number of students make application.  Only a small proportion of the pupils attend more than one year, and the mortality from term to term is very high, although the tuition fee plan insures fairly good attendance during the term.  The data collected by the survey indicate that the average length of attendance is approximately two terms—­the equivalent in student hours of less than three weeks in the ordinary day school.

Most of the men who enroll in night school classes need a course of at least two or three years.  All but a few, however, insist on having their supplementary training in small doses.  Frequently they want only specific instruction about a specific thing, such as how to lay out a certain piece of work or how to set up a particular machine tool.  They want to secure this knowledge in the shortest possible time, and very few want the same thing.  A course of two or three years does not appeal to them.  Another difficulty is that their previous educational equipment varies widely, and some are not capable of assimilating even the specialized bit of trade knowledge they need without a preliminary course in arithmetic.  As the personnel of the classes changes to a marked degree from term to term, the courses undergo frequent modifications.  Apparently the teachers and principals have made a sincere effort to adapt the instruction to the demands of the men who attend the schools, but the fact is that the difficulties inherent in such work make it impossible to organize the classes on any basis except that of subject matter, which means fitting students into courses, rather than adapting courses to the needs of particular groups of workers.