Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-12-16

square rod etc. This question will be an.
swered In future article.
LEVI DAVIS.
Foreatyille, Sonoma county, Cal.
PROGRESS IN INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION
In the progress of this new system Of
education, note is made Of the fact that
the Industrial Education Society of Boston,
in 1877 rs, made the experiment "to give
| boys that intimacy with tools and that en-.
| couragement to the Unborn inclination oil
| handlcraft, and that guidance in its use,
tor want OF which 80 many young men now
drift into crowded and uncongenial occu.
patloas, or lapse into idleness of vice. u
The city generously gave the use OF one OF
its ward rooms for this new and novel
school, and three gentlemen, photographer
and two practical wood-carvers, gave
their services gratuitously, Tuesday and
Friday evenings of each week, as superin.
tendents and directors of the work. The
experiment was successful, and there were
more applicants than the school could re.
| ceive.
The outfit of the Boston school was
IOT LlITEV-
| two boys, giving to each space four by
two and half feet Each bench had a
wise with wooden jams and an iron screw,
drawer with lock and key in which the
tools were kept, and gas-burner with a
movable arm. Each boy was provided with
work-apron of cotton drilling. Benches,
tools and aprons were numbered, and each
boy held accountable for their care and
f1ll : L i
| regulations E" Be at the bench at o'clock,
according to your number. Do not leave
the bench without permission. Make no
unnecessary noise. Keep your bench neat
and do not deface it. After work place
all the tools in their drawers and return
the key to the teacher. Every boy will be
held accountable for the tools placed for his
| use."
Instruction, not construction, was the
purpose of the school, its object being to
make boys familiar with certain manipula.
tions equally useful in many different
| trades.
This experiment has satisfied those in
terested that manual education may be
made an efficient part of public instruc-
ton. The student may be taught in classes,
rendering it unnecessary, except in rare
cases, to give individual instruction. A
| series of primary lessons in the use of wood.
working hand has been prepared by
specialists in Boston, which contain ex.
actly the information required in order that
these arts may be brought as completely
within reach of ordinary educational meth.
DDS as reading and writing. Eleven les,
sons, of two hours each, embrace the fol
lowing topics Use of the crosscut saw
hammer striking-square blows splitting
saw-sawing to line jack plane-smooth.
ing rough surfaces /; Misunderstanding nails
vertically; splitting saw-sawing az exact
angles to upper surface; jack plare-set.
ting the plane iron hammer driving nails
horizontally; bit and brace-boring IN ex-
act positions; mallet and chisel-mortising
MISUNDERSTANDING surfaces which in.
tersect at exact angles. Auxiliary exercises,
IN laying out the work by measuring and
lining, are incidental to all the lessons.
Since the opening of this Boston school
| an investigation of the whole subject has
been made by committee appointed at
the instance of the associated charities of
that city. This committee reports that it
: believes industrial training, or the training
of the hand and eye and thereby the mind
as well, is an invaluable element OF educa-
ton which deserves recognition and cup.
port such az has been given to so-called lit
erary education that it will interest
many who do not come for purely literary
studies, and that it develops faculties which
other studies do not. They recommend
| that 1t should be adopted as part of the
public school system.
To show how far America is behind the
other great nations in the execution of this
| reform, the committee obtained statistics
showing that Austria has ,O37 schools for
technical instruction, 1926 teachers and
97,7l3 pupils, besides schools of forestry,
mining and agriculture. Bavaria has l, 67l
industrial schools for girls, with 1887
teachers and II, 635 pupils, polytechnical
scnool at Munich, sc chronological schools
and 4 OF agriculture. In Germany there
are "a schools of architecture, % of mining,
IL of forestry, los of commerce, l46 of ag-
riculture, 10 veterinary and sc other tech
nical schools. Denmark has 40 " farmers
| high schools" with 3, 1876 students, of
whom | ,003 are females. In Holland there
are III navigation schools and 30 industrial
aud drawing schools. In Switzerland 1913
| females are employed in schools teaching
needlework. In France commission was
| for long time engaged in the collection of
evidence upon the success of industrial
education elsewhere, and reported strongly
in favor of it. 1t was also declared by the
directors of large industrial establishments
that generally the deplorable absence of
elementary instruction, even among the
most intelligent of the workmen, was one
! OF the greatest obstacles to the improve
ment of the artisan and the progress of
industrial art. In view of these facts it
| appears clear that unless more attention is
given to industrial education in this coun-
try, we may, in time, be obliged to depend
upon foreign artisans. It is not necessary
to carry this training to the extent of
teaching the actual trades, since this would
bring the public into competition with pri.
vate enterprise. The object of the schools
should be TO give a general skill which
may readily be turned to account in diff
| ferent kinds OF work.
| AS to when the industrial branch should
begin in the school course, the Boston COM
| mlttee say that examples are given by the
kindergarten recently started in Philadel.
| phia for teaching the minor arts, the in
dustrial schools in Cambridge, Gloucester
and Boston, and elsewhere, wherein it is
| proved that courses in industrial training
may be devised, so suited for different ages
as that such training might be made to
begin in the primary schools and be con-
| tinued in the grammar schools, possibly
even further, to correspond with the lite
rary training given in the high schools The
committee add that sewing has already
been successfully introduced into the girls
public schools of Boston. As to whether
the proposed industrial training would in
terfere with the other studies, they quote
an authority on the "half time system in
education. who says There is a special
mutual influence between the school and
the factory which improves the quality OF
the work done in each. II Industrial News.