Ethical Character at Industrial Education Facilities

One manifestation of ethical character is respect for public and private property. This area of learning has increased in importance as the population of the United States has grown. Many social agencies are greatly concrned with it. Industrial arts classes involve students in the use of more public property than they will use in any other subject matter area. They work with pieces of equipment that are small and large, inexpensive and costly, crude and precise, and delicate and strong. Micrometers, drafting machines, leather-carving tools, engine test equipment, exposure meters, table saws, hammers, and ceramic kilns are representative of the items used.

Students also use and have aceess to many kinds of materials, some of which are very expensive. Opportunities for waste, damage, and pilferage are endless. Consequently students must act responsibly, as they are being taught to do in industrial arts laboratories all over the nation. Students quickly learn that abusing equipment and wasting materials lead to operating problems, safety hazards, increased costs, and interruptions in class activities. With respect to other facets of the objective of ethical character, industrial arts has obligations similar to those of other instructional areas.

It is in a position to make important contributions. Objectives set forth for industrial arts must give evidence of dedication to all phases of secondary education. Each objective should express a unique contribution to the achievement of one or more goals of "Secondary education. Further, it must represent a contribution that industrial arts, in fact, can make with the equipment, materials, laboratories, teaching talent, and student abilities that are available. The following objectives can be justified on all of the suggested bases. They are teacher objectives, stated in terms of desired student behavior.

To develop in each student:

1. 1. The ability to make skillful use of a variety of materials and pieces of equipment that are common to selected industries, vocations, and professions
2. A fund of technical information concerning equipment, materials, processes, and applications of scientific principles
3. An understanding of the importance of safety and the habit of observing the best safety practices at all times
4. The ability to produce and interpret fundamental types of drawings
5. An interest in creative work and the ability to solve design problems
6. The ability to evaluate consumer products accurately with regard to quality of design and wo:rkmanship
7. Skill in maint'lining consu:'ller products
8. An interest in and the ability to carry on creative leisure timeactivities
9. An understanding of the workings of basic industries, especially their design and productive functions
10. A knowledge of the requirements of and opportunities provided by a variety of important vocations and professions
11. An understanding of his or her interests and abilities as they relate to specific occupations

Collectively these objectives specify the commitment of industrial arts to secondary education and .they define industrial arts, since any instructional area is precisely what its objectives say it will do. The objectives make it evident that industrial arts is not an area of study that encompasses everything known to man and that it is not the anawer to all educational problems. But it can achieve a number of important objectives and this is the task upon which it must concentrate.