A 1930s Printing Class Experiment

By Harold L. Mahnke

Instructor of Printing

Central High School

Superior, Wisconsin

Not much more than 25 years ago Industrial Arts (Or Manual Training, as it was known in those days) was more or less of an experiment in our public schools. Shop subjects were added to the curriculum of the modern high school, not with the idea that high school boys were going to be made into skilled tradesmen in their teens, but because of the foresight of educators worthy of the name who visioned with fears of apprehension the great exit of students from school even several years before attaining the level of an eighth grade education, with the completion of a high school course as only a remote possibility for a selected few. Students of the book-worm type were completing high school, as were a few others whose parents used almost physical force as a motivating power, but the rest dropped out at various stages along the way.

Then came the woodworking shop, and in spite of the early limited equipment, there was a distinct revival of interest in school on the part of the boys. More of them wanted, of their own free will, to stay in school. The almost instant success of the shop in the school brought in rapid succession cooking and sewing for girls, sheet metal, electricity, auto mechanics and other such subjects for boys, and printing as one equally available to both boys and girls. Compulsory education laws demanded a rapid expansion of the industrial arts program, and school administrators were quick to sense the necessity of a new avenue of learning for the many not so book-minded. This new avenue provided an interest not found in the pages of a textbook.

Twenty years ago I began my career as a teacher of printing. As yet the matter of compulsory school attendance had not been seriously considered, and my first semester I enrolled 42 students in four classes. Since then my load has increased to as many as 108 in five classes, and all along this period of years I was dealing with groups of boys and girls whose I.Q. was not in the highest bracket. That meant but one thing to me—they had to be given every opportunity to learn to live through the medium of printing words rather than just reading words. Some had to be encouraged, some prodded, some scolded, some praised—always some motivating force was needed to arouse the latent interest of each individual. 

These twenty years ought to have brought forth (and they have) some successful experiences of value to other teachers of printing, and I am happy to relate just a very few of the plans I have used with successful results. 

The first was a class newspaper edited, composed and printed by the printing classes. It was an immediate success and in a very short time was converted into a school instead of class publication and is still published at regular bi-monthly intervals. The students named it “The Devil’s Pi.”

A later teaching device was a project by beginners in the form of a humorous publication. They brought together their idea of the best in good, clean jokes. This later developed into a search for information on the subject they were interesting in, printing, and today instead of four, six or eight pages of jokes, the beginners print a limited edition of facts about printing and related industries.

Each of these, in its way, provided something to draw the interest of most of my students, yet I always found myself confronted with the problem of what to do with the ones who were essentially lazy or different and who, when opportunity offered, just loafed along. Not a tremendously serious problem, but one which I wanted to eliminate altogether if possible.

How could I provide an inspiration for this type of boy to work, diligently, when I was not watching him. I detested being a policeman or a prison guard. I pondered that question many times, tried various ideas, but could not secure the desires result. Then I began to analyze my job, and what made me put in a full day’s work without being watched by my principal. Of course, I could find numerous reasons, such as my interest in boys and girls, my inner desire to do my best on every job I tackled, etc., but the main reason was that if I did a good piece of work I kept my job and every month I got a check which helped me to keep myself and family alive and enjoy the society in which I lived.

There I had it—REMUNERATION.

Today every one of my students gets a dollar an hour (or period) for his work in the print shop. Provided, of course, he has not done any loafing. If in my judgment he has not given his full time to his work, he may get only 75 cents, or 50 cents, or 25 cents, or nothing. Who furnishes the money, you ask? We print it ourselves, as much as we need. Each class has its banker or perhaps two of them, and every Monday the students deposit the money they have earned the week before. They learn to endorse a check by endorsing the money they deposit, they make out a deposit slip and have a bank pass book much like their elder in real business life have with their bank. They learn to handle and care for money, for lost Print Shop money is not replaced any more than Uncle Sam replaces what you or I may lose.

Payment of $1.00 per house is not a mark of the quality of a student’s work, but recognition of a full period’s service rendered, of attentiveness to his work, of sincere effort to do his best. How often does a boy get less than $1.00? The first few weeks when the system was inaugurated last fall it happened quite a number of times, but not to eh same boy. Today occasions of a deduction from his pay are very rare. At the end of the six-week period, or report card period, each student should have deposited to his credit a total of $30, unless there have been holidays. If he does not have as much as that amount, his grade is, quite naturally, affected. Perhaps he has been absent and not made up his work, perhaps he has had deductions made, or he may have lost some of his money. Regardless of the cause, he has to take it on the chin, and he knows it. 

Students may make extra money by working after school when asked to do so on some school printing, or an advanced student may come down to the shop during his study period and make an extra dollar, but only by request of the instructor. There is grave danger of partiality in such procedure, however, and it must be handled very carefully.  

Perhaps the best tribute that could be paid to the success of the idea is an incident that happened just the other day. All of my boys were busy, abut there was a proof of a job set in the previous class which needed an OK from the principal. Instead of taking one of the boys off of his job, I went to the office personally. At the same time the principal, coming from another part of the building, went to the print shop to see me. Each of us waited perhaps 10 minutes or more for the other to return to his office or classroom, respectively, and when I final did return to the shop I found my principal waiting there for me. Putting his hand on my shoulder, he said, “Harold, I wish every classroom could be like this. I’ve been waiting here for you for fully ten minutes, and those boys undoubtedly knew you were no place in sight, yet every one of them was working on his job as fervently as if you were standing right behind him.”

Give the average boy something to work for, some tangible evidence of remuneration, and I most cases he’ll come through on the right side of the ledger.