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The most useful facilities to hand are the existing vocational schools. These institutions have equipment and teachers and can undertake on short notice the training of disabled soldiers. It has been found necessary, however, to organize special classes for the soldiers rather than put them in the same classes as the boys under instruction. The men are mortified at the discrepancy in ages and being some time away from their school days are not as quick to catch on at first to classroom instruction. The necessity for special classes has been clearly demonstrated in Great Britain where the already operating technical institutes have been largely availed of.

The utilization of these facilities is highly logical as it would be folly to purchase and install special mechanical equipment for the temporary need involved in the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers. The only justification for organizing a special school for the disabled is a permanent program for the rehabilitation of the handicapped -- civilian as well as military. In such instances the separate institution is not only permissible but desirable.

The vocational schools have been very ready to come forward with offers of their facilities. In Great Britain most of the great technical institutes have organized special classes in general trade subjects for the returned soldier; for example, the Regent Street Polytechnic and the Northampton Polytechnic in London, the Technical Institute, Birmingham, and the Newport Technical Institute in South Wales. The courses at these schools are approved by the Ministry of Pensions which also pays tuition of the men.

Schools for teaching individual trades have also provided facilities for the war cripple. Examples of this are the school of diamond cutting at Saint-Claude, celluloid industry at Oyonnax, cutlery at Thiers, and watch-making at Cluses, France; tool-making at the Metalcrafts Training Institute, boot repairing and leather work at the Cordwainers' Technical College in London.

Another type of vocational school is represented by the business college or clerical school. These can organize special classes and enlist a fair number of pupils. Clerical instruction is provided in most of the military hospitals, and some of the men taking this work reveal talents and aptitudes which lead to their taking up a clerical specialty as their re-educational subject.

Still another vocational branch is agricultural training, which can be excellently provided by existing agricultural colleges. In France the national schools have made provision for the poilu put out of commission at the front; In Canada provincial schools of agriculture have undertaken the work; in New Zealand the Department of Agriculture is caring for the farm training of returned soldiers.

Still another class of educational organization which can be utilized to advantage is the university. While the vocational school for boys may have its full quota of pupils, the university in war time is denuded of students. And most universities today have engineering or agricultural departments which, otherwise idle, can be made useful indeed. McGill University in Montreal is training under supervision and at the expense of the Invalided Soldiers' Commission a large number of returned men. The University of Saskatchewan at Saskatoon is preparing many for agriculture. In the other Canadian provinces the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia are contributing splendidly to the national program.

In conjunction with every military hospital giving reconstruction or long-time treatment some educational provision is necessary. Of course, this may consist only in teaching ward occupations and simple pre-vocational work. But In many cases it has been found wise to start vocational training during the hospital period. In connection with every "center of physiotherapy" in France is a re-educational school. In England, at the Brighton and Roehampton orthopedic and limb-fitting hospitals, have been organized schools in which the men start their vocational training, which is continued, after hospital care is finished, as a post-graduate course at one of the London polytechnics.

During the early stages of the work in Canada, it was the practice to begin re-education while the men were still under medical care. Under new administration, on the showing of experience, a new ruling was made about the middle of 1918. This provided that no more men were to start industrial training until after discharge, and not then until after medical treatment was finished. Up to this point all occupation has a therapeutic objective and is carried on in curative workshops.

In cities and districts where there are for one reason or another no vocational education facilities which can be turned to the training of disabled soldiers, there becomes necessary the establishment of a special school of re-education to meet the need. There have been founded in this way a number of institutions which it is hoped will continue to train disabled industrial workers after the temporary need for the rehabilitation of soldier cripples has passed.