Increasing Efficiency In Business by Walter Dill Scott (desktop ebook reader .txt) 📕

short, the

traditional apprenticeship system is unable to

give either the general comprehension of the

industry or the skill in the specialized processes.

 

III. Theoretical-practical Experience

 

In contrast with the two methods discussed

above (Haphazard Experience and

Apprenticeship Experience) schools must be

considered as a method of providing experiences

preparatory to industrial life. The first

two methods secure skill, but the schools secure

learning. The first two might be said to

educate the hands and the latter the head.

The comparative advantages of these contrasted

systems is the theme of unceasing

debate. The man skilled in one thing can at

least do that one thing well. The man who is

learned but not skilled in any activity of his

chosen occupation is unable to compete with

the boys who at the expense of schooling,

“went to work” in that particular occupation.

<p 264>

 

An advanced general school education has

very distinct advantages. But skill in reading

Latin does not greatly increase one’s ability

to read instruments of precision. Skill in

applying mathematical formul<ae> will not greatly

assist in estimating the value of merchandise.

A knowledge of general psychology will not

insure ability in selecting employees. Even

great proficiency in discoursing upon ethical

theories does not protect one from the temptation

to be dishonest in business.

 

Skill in one thing does not insure skill in

other and even in similar things. Learning

in one field is not incompatible with gross

ignorance in other and related fields. We

have discovered that skill and learning are

largely specialized, and accordingly we see the

necessity of acquiring skill and learning in the

particular fields in which the skill and learning

are desired. To meet these demands

various modifications in our schools have been

made. To meet the needs of training for the

industries we have the manual training schools,

industrial schools, trade schools, continuation

<p 265>

schools, correspondence schools, night schools,

technological schools, etc. To provide the

appropriate experiences for commercial life

we have commercial schools, business colleges,

store schools, schools of commerce, etc.

 

These schools have rendered invaluable

service and are rapidly increasing in number,

yet they do not provide either the skill or the

learning which should be possessed by the

employee.

 

IV. Practical-theoretical Experience

 

The weakness of the Haphazard and Apprenticeship

methods of securing experience

is twofold: (1) They cease too early. So soon

as the man really enters into his occupation his

education ceases. (2) They are too narrow,

they fail to provide experiences that give proper

perspective; they do not give adequate

theoretical comprehension of the work being

accomplished from day to day; they do not

develop the judgment.

 

The weakness with the Theoretical-practical

method of providing experience resembles

<p 266>

the weakness of the Haphazard and the Apprenticeship

methods in that it ceases too

early. It ceases *before the individual begins

his life work. It may have the special weakness

of not being closely organized with the

vocation for which it is assumed to be a preparation,

hence of being impracticable.

 

The Practical-theoretical form of providing

experience is based on two assumptions: The

first assumption is that the practical and the

theoretical should be equally emphasized;

that they should be closely organized; and

that the theory should be deduced from the

practice. The second assumption is that the

educative processes should continue so long

as the man is engaged in his occupation.

 

A concrete illustration will make clear the

difference between the four different methods of

acquiring experience as given above.

 

During the present summer vacation I have

been spending a few weeks in a boarding house.

Some previous boarder had bequeathed to the

house an intricate Chinese block puzzle.

During this summer one lad in the house spent

<p 267>

eight hours in solving the puzzle. He worked

by the Haphazard method, trying blindly, till

he just happened to get it right. The next

attempt did not take so long, but it was many

days before he could solve the problem rapidly.

 

As soon as the lad had learned to solve the

puzzle, my son watched him solve it many

times, and kept trying to do it as he saw it

done. My son learned to solve the puzzle in

perhaps two hours by thus watching another

and then trying it himself. He was employing

the Apprenticeship method, and his education

was accomplished in one fourth the time required

by the Haphazard method.

 

In the boarding house was an expert mechanical

engineer. He took up the task of

solving the problem and was most scientific

in his procedure. He figured out the principles

that he thought might be involved,

tried them, and immediately abandoned methods

that proved unsuccessful. He was able

to solve the puzzle in a half hour. Later trials

were all successful and rapid. He knew just

how he had solved the puzzle, and therefore

<p 268>

did not have to experiment or take chances on

later trials. This engineer employed the

Theoretical-practical method of learning.

 

The engineer volunteered to instruct me in

the problem. I took up the blocks and began

trying to unite them. As one difficulty after

another arose, I was given instruction in the

principle for overcoming it. No principle

was presented to me till I had faced a situation

demanding that particular principle. The

practice and the theory went together, and so

far as the instruction was concerned the practice

preceded the theory step by step. I was

therefore employing the Practical-theoretical

method. As a result I was enabled to solve

the problem in fifteen minutes. Furthermore

I knew just how I had done it and could do it

again and could apply the same principles

to other puzzles.

 

A comparison of these results is most instructive.

The lad who went at it blindly by

the Haphazard method required eight hours

and even then did not analyze out the principles

that would help him solve later prob-

<p 269>

lems. My son, who employed the Apprenticeship

method, accomplished his task in two

hours but discovered no principles. His work

was blindly mechanical. The engineer worked

according to the Theoretical-practical method,

completed his task in thirty minutes, and understood

perfectly what he had done. By employing

the Practical-theoretical method I was

enabled to accomplish the task in fifteen

minutes and to understand also how it was

done.

 

Whether I have in mind my own development

or that of my employees, if I am seeking

to utilize the Practical-theoretical method of

capitalizing experience, I am confronted with

two problems: (1) How shall I secure or

provide the requisite practical experiences?

(2) How shall I secure or provide the appropriate

theoretical interpretation of such experiences?

 

During recent years in the educational,

industrial, and commercial world serious attempts

have been made to answer these two

questions, and the results are most significant.

<p 270>

 

The College of Engineering of the University

of Cincinnati believes that it has solved

the problem for certain fields of activity by

“co<o:>perative courses.” In these courses the

students spend one week in some manufacturing

plant and the next week in the college.

This weekly alternation of practical and theoretical

is kept up for six years. The number

of students in the college and the number of

workers in the manufacturing plant is kept

constant by dividing each group of students

into two sections which alternate with each

other, so that when one section is at the college

the other is at the shop. The college teaches

the principles that are necessary for understanding

and solving the problems arising

from week to week in the shop. As the Dean

of the college expresses it, “It aims to teach

the theory underlying the work, to teach the

intent of the work, to give such cultural subjects

as will tend to make him a more intelligent

civic unit.” It is thought that such

co<o:>perative courses could be arranged by

schools of different ranks of advancement and

<p 271>

that the students could spend their alternate

weeks in almost any class of industrial or commercial

institution of importance.

 

One of the most conspicuous attempts to

provide Practical-theoretical experiences of an

educative sort is that of the General Electric

Company of West Lynn, Massachusetts. This

institution has provided a corps of instructors

and rooms devoted exclusively to instruction

within the plant itself. The theoretical instruction

is assumed to be perfectly co<o:>rdinated

with the practical. In fact the young

apprentice spends much of his time almost

daily in constructing commercial articles and

under the same conditions that will confront

him in later years. His theoretical instruction

is thus planned to help him to accomplish

his practical task more quickly, perfectly, and

with more perfect understanding. The training

is so broad that the graduate is prepared to

become an industrial foreman in any mechanical

establishment.

 

The John Wanamaker Commercial Institute

of Philadelphia is a school conducted

<p 272>

within the store and for the benefit of the

employees of the store. In this school theoretical

instruction is given that is designed to

give the principles underlying commercial

life. The results are said to be most gratifying

both to the employer and the employees.

 

The Practical-theoretical form of education

is not limited to the apprentice or to the new

employee but is equally valuable to the expert,

the oldest employees, and the employer.

This fact is taken advantage of most wisely

by the National Cash Register Company.

This company provides instruction suited to

the needs of all its salesmen, whether they are

new and inexperienced or whether they are the

oldest, most efficient salesmen. By means of

letters, books, demonstrations, and conventions

the salesmen are constantly provided with

educative experiences and are kept from the

narrowness and lack of progress so characteristic

of men in the commercial life after they

have become thoroughly established and relatively

efficient in their work.

 

In keeping with this modern tendency to

<p 273>

supplement practical experience with theoretical

interpretation, we find a very pronounced

increase in the utilization of all agencies that

interpret and enrich the daily toil. Men who

are fully employed (e.g. journeymen and salesmen)

have realized the necessity of some form

of theoretical instruction to enable them to

profit by their daily practical experience.

This fact is almost pathetically demonstrated

by the multitudes who are seeking for such

instruction through correspondence and evening

schools. Every progressive engineer,

teacher, physician, and lawyer keeps abreast

of the best thought of the day by means of

frequent conventions, conferences, books, and

periodicals. The experience secured from such

agencies is essential to progress; only by such

agencies can he learn the latest and most perfect

interpretation of the experience of his

professional life. Likewise the non-professional

man engaged in commerce or industry

finds the modern world to be so complex that

mere practical experience is no longer adequate

to enable him to meet the demands made

<p 274>

upon him. The theoretical training of his

youth (even though it include the college and

the technical school) is totally inadequate to

interpret for him the new relationships which

arise from day to day. He needs a theory

that grows out of his practical experience and

that enables him to understand and to improve

upon his practical work. The most common

means for providing him with such experience

he finds in his conventions and informal conferences

with his peers and in his trade

journals and technical books.

 

There is no warfare between theory and

practice. The most valuable experience demands

both, and the methods of procuring

the most valuable experience in business and

industry demand that the theory should supplement

the practice and not precede it.

The environment most conducive to securing

and utilizing the most valuable experience is

in the work-a-day world. But this is the very

environment in which men become engulfed

in