Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1881-06-15
MANUAL TRAINING IN THE
SCHOOLS.


trades | learned to be brewer
a ooachmaker and q machinist, all be
fore l was 21 years old.
determined to give the world an equiva
lent in some form Of useful labor fo
all that / consumed in it, All th,
J money | ever made was IN mechani
cal business, and not in speculation.
Mr.. Murray Nelson, of New York, il
a late letter to the Tribune, SAYS
"What is to become Of our sons, who
whatever their opportunities for study
have none for work We carry then
IN luxury and idleness to the age of q
and then expect them to understand
the use and value Of money, without
ever having earned or saved dollar
or had any chance to learn its cost.
went to st. Louis and saw the manual
trainingl school which your paper de
scribed. The classes OF boys / saw
there pursuing their trades at one and
tho same time, with apparent interest
and enthusiasm, seemed TO mo TO solve
the problom-what shall we do with
our boys?
Doubtless all parents would dearly
love to make millionaires of their boys.
1t is equally certain that wise parents
would prefer that they should become
millionaires by the Peter Cooper pro.
cess OF giving the world "an equiva
lent in some form of useful labor fol
all that they consume" rather than
| by the Vanderbilt and Gould process
of speculation, by which Mr.. Cooper
said he never made dollar. Very
few of our boys can become millioDaires
in any event. The problem is how
to fit them for the battle of life, how
to give them fair start in the race,
how tomake them usofulto themselves
and to their fellow.men, and hence
strong and selfreliant. There ought
to be some sequential relation between
our system of public education and the
desired result But il seems to be
generally conceded that, in the schools
Of the country, whether of high or low
grade, there is very little adaptability
to this end Charles Francis Adams,
| jr., calls our common school method
ga combination Of the cotton mill and
the railroad with the modern States
Prson-peculiar to our own time and
country" He adds. "Under these
circumstances education is reduced to
mere process of cramming--answer.
ing cOnundrums and remembering
formulas, and concludes "Such de.
nial, in a Republic, of a science of gen.
eral education, is one of the inexplica.
bic facts of the day"
Prof Barbour of Yale College, says
"Our schools are suffering from con.
gestion of the brain too much thought
and too little putting into practice"
An observant Englishman says OF our
schools "Thoy teach apparently for
information, almost regardless of dc.
velopment." In repelling Richard
Grant Whites assaults upon our pub.
lie school system, Professor Swing is
constrained to admit that "our public
schools do, to some degree, build up an
intellectual vanity more rapidly than
they build up wisdom"
The Detroit Free Press says: We
call our boys needless though We have
not taught them to be observing. They
learn allabout planetary systems, and
cannot tell the size of brick" Says
the Northwestern Lumbermdn "Most
boys Of middle class families are ex-
pected to be self.sustaining upon leav.
ing school, though that school has not
taught them single practical prepa-
ration for selfsupport. Mr.. George
A. Walton's report OF last year on the
common schools Of Norfolk county,
Mass, which comprises certain sub
urbs Of Boston, contains startling rev.
Citations, which 90 far to support the
theory Of Richard Grant White. Says
Mr.. Walton at is not too much TO
say that there is not o single utterly
exploded method OF teaching children
to read, write and cipher which was
not found hourishing in full vigor
within ten miles of Boston State
House" Mr.. Adams from whose pa
per IN the November, 1880, number
Of Harpers Magazine We have already
quoted, thus describes tho system
which has led TO the results given by
Mr.. Walton "From one point of view
children are regarded as automatons
from another, as lndia.rubber bags
from third, as so much raw material.
They must move in step and exactly
alike. They must receive the same
mental nutriment in equal quantities
and at fixed times. Its assimilation is
wholly immaterial, but the motions
must be gone through with. Finally,
as raw material, they are emptied in
at the primaries, and marched out at
the grammar grades, and it is well I"
What Mr.. Adams demands for our
common school system is the applica.
tion Of science to the methods of in
struction In a word, in school the
boy should be taught to read as he
will be required to read, TO write as
he will be required to write, and to
cipher as he will want to know how
to cipher when he becomes n man, and
so on. Being interpreted, this means
a practical, instead Of finely thooreti-
cal education. And 1t means manual
as well as intellectual training. The
savage of Australia ID Captain Cooks
time could kill a pigeon with a spear
at thirty yards, but he couldn't count
the fingers on his right hand The
Southern Esquimaux turns somer.
sault in the water in his boat with
ease. But his moro Northern brother
has no canoe, and is ignorant of the
existence of boat, because the sea in
the latitude Of his home is frozen the
entire year. The savage is taught
what he needs TO know in his condi.
ton, and is taught nothing else hence
bis skill in the few avocations he pur-
sues. Tho civilized boy in school is
taught many theories, but is not re.
quired to put any OF them into prac.
tice hence he enters upon the serious
duties Of life unprcpared to discharge
any Of them. II may be said that he is |
in real danger OF the Penitentiary until
he learns a profession Or a trade. "OfI
fS7 convicts consigned to the State
Prison for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania in 1879, fve.sixths had
attended public schools and were with.
out trades" IL is noticeable, also,
that during the same period "not five
were received who were what are
called mechanics" In tho Peniten-
tiary Of New York four out of five of
the convicts have no handierafl The
fact that the skilled workman is far
more apt than the common laborcr to
keep out of the penitentiary is a pow.
-. -