Excerpt from National Council of the Pottery Industry: Second Report, in Regard to the Appropriate Education of Persons Occupied or Interested in the Pottery Industry, July, 1920

The parent of the boy possessing ability naturally looks for some occupation for his son where brains will be valued and opportunity for their use accorded. It has to be admitted that the salary or wage earning possibilities of the industry in the past have compared badly with those of certain other industries: certain conditions and types of work have been and are unattractive: the selective effect has been that for some years recruits to the industry have been of moderate standard, and the industry has become so accustomed to this state of things that it is in some doubt whether it could use better human material if it got it.

A short questionnaire addressed to employers secured some very interesting and valuable replies and suggestions, which will be found in the Summary attached, and the Committee desire to express their thanks to those who went to a good deal of trouble to obtain information. Details of the replies are placed in the appendix, but one important fact demonstrated by the resulting figures is that less than 1% of those engaged in the industry have received education beyond that of the Elementary School this taken into consideration with the evidence (first Report page that the industry is being recruited to a seriously large extent from the 'sub average' child, calls for very careful con sideration.

No industry in these days can afford to disregard ability; least of all the Pottery Industry which demands or ought to demand a very high standard of intelligence and skill. It is recognised that intelligence does not necessarily imply manipulative skill, but a combination of the two is clearly better than either alone - particularly for certain of the higher posts in the industry.

There was not much evidence that in the past encouragement had been given to men who had shewn themselves disposed to improve their knowledge of the industry or make suggestions which appeared likely to be of use. Indeed instances were not wanting where men known to be attending the Pottery School were discharged, or transferred from the Department of which they were trying to acquire special knowledge to some other Department for which they were not necessarily better fitted.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.