Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1883-08-05
TECHNICAL EpTCATION.

General FRANCIS \. WALKER, the
president Of the Boston Institute Of
Technology and well known rs the ac-
complished statistican of the recent
census Of the I'nited States, has given
lis views OF technical education to The
Boston Herald, and in these days of
agitation for more practical course OF
study in our schools they are not with
ont interest. General WALKER would
have the highest class of schools that
teach industrial or mechanical work,
like the institute over which he presideS,
or the Suliield school at Yale and the
Troy polytechnic school, and the elas-
steal or literary universities or colleges
ia the same grade, the graduates Of the
mechanical schools conceded the same
standing, and as much social reeogni-
ton as the bachelor Of arts receives
from the world. The primary an |
grammar aud high schools should teach
the rudlments of mechanics as they do
the elements Of letters, so that those
who shoOse to enter the industrial
colleges shall have that preparation
that is essential to success in the higher
courses pursued there. \ mechanical
instinct must be born with the child or
acquired very early in life. 1t cannot
be taken on when a boy has almost
reached manhood. If the eye is to be
trained to see at once the plumb line or
IN measure distances or to have any
acute perception of the exact material
Qualities of aD object, its weight or sign,
for example, it must be taught as early
"a the memory is trained to hold the
alphabet. Normal schools might also
be established for the training of those
who expect TO teach manual labor"
Mr.. WALKERS belief j. that the ele-
mentary training Of children in science
and in industrial pursuits, in the use
of the hand and the eye, should begin
as soon as be is taught the letters Of
the alphabet-at any rate, as soon as he
begins to spell and read. He believes,
moreover, that the knowledge acquired
by elementary scientific training is in
finitely more useful and practical than
the burdening Of the memory of child.
rem with the names Of Out-Of-the-way
islands in unfrequented bays, the popu-
lation of distant towns, the height OF
mountains and the lengths Of river.
What manual instruction would be in
trodueed into the common schools
would be mainly for training. He be-
lieves that science and mechanics, a
little chemistry, q little geometry-the
algebraic signs at least-the making OF
Joints in wood, the manipulation ofiron,
would give a better mental training
than many Of the studies that make up
the ordinary course in our common
schools. He believes that the simpler
facts of science should be learned so
early that the child could not recollect
when be did not know that light always
travels in straight line, or the forms
of the triangle, square, cube, etc, or
the fact that column of air has weight,
and why he believes that or the sxiOms
of geometry. This idea of General
WALKERS, it will be noticed, is more
in the nature of instilling the principles
of the practical arts into the minds OF
the Young, than the mere learning of a
trade in the school room. Such a
method of instruction could be more
readily adapted to our present school
system than the very practical method
OF manual training advocated by many
rerormers who see that something is the
matter with our school system, aud who
see no remedy except radical change
toward ulilitaTianiSm.