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Author Considers Tech Tops
As Comprehensive High School
"What is a comprehensive high school and what kind of
job can it do? . . . When the principal of the Arsenal Technical
Schools in Indianapolis calls his school comprehensive, he
means that his school does for every pupil everything a school
can possibly do."
Thus writes Franklin Jefferson
Keller, principal of the Metropolitan Vocational High School in New
York, in his new book, The Com-
PREHENSIVE HIGH SCHOOL.
Making a fact-finding study of a
number of high schools throughout
the country to discover the best in
comprehensive high schools, Mr.
Keller has selected three schools:
Arsenal Tech; Sewanhaka High
School, Floral Park, New York;
and Joliet Township High School,
Joliet, Illinois, for detailed description.
Writing about Tech, Mr. Keller
says, "My earlier visit to the
school, perhaps twenty-five years
ago, along with the reading of
Guidance at Work, by 'Stuart and
Morgan, has shaped, to a considerable extent, the organization of
Metropolitan Vocational High
School.
"For one thing, the so-called
'sponsor system,' which we call the
advisory system, originated at
Arsenal. This homeroom program
and the tremendous emphasis upon
vocational work (seventeen trades
in all) placed Arsenal Tech in the
top bracket as an all-round comprehensive high school."
He further states, "Most of the
shops are well-equipped. The boys
are usefully and diligently employed. The print shop is impressive. It covers a large area and
houses four classes at one time.
There is no confusion. All groups
work at full speed and under expert direction.
"Because of the age of the
buildings the housing of none of
these shops approaches the ideal.
Yet, they give every indication of
being well managed by expert
teachers and supervised by competent and aggressive supervisors."
The author praises the school
highly: "Arsenal rates high in
those elements that make a school
truly comprehensive. Highest of
all is the original conception of
Stuart (Milo H. Stuart) and Morgan (DeWitt S. Morgan) that the
school is organized for the guidance of all pupils of the community
and that one of the most potent-
features of an effective guidance
program is the assignment of each
pupil to a sponsor teacher whom
he keeps as a friend throughout his
high school career.
"In fact, the Arsenal program
is such an excellent approach to
the 'ideal' of a comprehensive high
school that we have reproduced . . .
a chart showing the administrative organization of the guidance
program, as well as the school's
description of its program of
courses."
In the chapter called "A Close
Adult Friend for Every Pupil"
Mr. Keller writes, "In many schools
something quite definite is being
done for the slow learners. Again,
the most striking attempt is being
made in the Arsenal Technical
Schools in Indianapolis.
"Every possible measure is taken
to avoid giving the pupils the impression that they are getting less
than their share of the best kind
of education in what is known as
the Reclassification Department."
