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REASONS FOR WITHDRAWAL

It is remarkable that few boys left because of dissatisfaction with the school; this group is less than fifteen per cent. III health was the cause of withdrawal of nine boys or eleven and one tenth per cent, five per cent of the total enrolment. Factory conditions were not responsible for ill health, as the sanitary conditions of employees in the factory of the United Shoe Machinery Company are model. When one considers the conditions under which the large majority of boys have to work in other establishments, I feel that our boys are highly favored. Not- withstanding, this, I hope we shall be able to do more definite work in up building the boys physically. A growing boy at work needs corrective exercises, especially for lung development and body carriage.

OCCUPATION OF WITHDRAWALS

The outstanding fact is this: forty-three and three-tenths per cent. of all withdrawals are now at work in mechanical trades. This may indicate a natural bent on the part of the boys, but we may hope that the training given here helped prepare the boy for his work. The machinist's trade, for which our boys are trained, finds work for eighteen and eight-tenths per cent. Equally - gratifying is the fact that eight and six-tenths per cent. of the withdrawals are now in the regular or in technical schools. We may be sure that their school life has assumed more seriousness of purpose after their "try out" here.

Nearly one-fourth Rave no regular occupation, and it is to this class that two-thirds of those discharged for misconduct or, slack workmanship belong. The weeding out process in the school was evidently along wise lines.
The study of these results will finish much cause for thought and congratulation on the work of the school as maker and conserver of good citizenship.

MEMBERSHIP IN FIVE YEARS

One hundred seventy-nine different boys have been on our list since the opening on August 2, 1909. For the first three years the membership was limited to fifty boys, but has been increased to its present number sixty.

The number of different boys enrolled for the separate years is: First year, 73; second year, 62; third year, 64; fourth year, 77; fifth year, 78. The age of these boys has ranged from fourteen to twenty-one years. The school grades previously attended began with the sixth grade and included the third year of High School. During the first two years the attendance was irregular and reached a low average. On entering your service as Director of the school, I made special effort to bring the attendance up to a good average; this has now become a regular feature of the school, as is shown by the percent of attendance for 1911-12, being 97; for 1912-13, 96.8; for 1913-14, 97.5. There is no difference in the rate of absence between shop-week and school-week, although it is often asserted that boys would prefer the shop week with its earnings to the school week with its studies. I have emphasized the principle that it is all school and one week is as important as the other. To stress this, it is a rule that absence from school counts as much as absence from the factory, although the number of hours per day differs.

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