The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1883-07-21
Educate the Hand.

The head of the American youth,
male and female, has been too long
| educated at the expense of the hand.
1t is about time this sort of thing should
| stop, If the claim of the Yankee that he
is nothing if not practical is to be in
future anything more than an idle
| boast.
Let it not be understood that what
is vulgarly known as 'tbook learn
ing is to be despised or neglected:
it ought not to be and must not
be; the more of it the better. But
j n these days of concentration of
wealth and capital, of production by
great corporations, the proportion of
those who work for wages is constantly
growing larger. Agricultural independ-
ence is being encroached upon by in
lustrial dependence, and how to use
his hands in the coming battle of life
is now, more than ever before, becom-
ing the serious question for every
American boy.
Industrial or manual education, then,
is destined to become feature of the
education afforded by our public
schools. Geometry and iack-plane
are NO more incompatible than that
delightful study and blac aboard.
Arithmetic would cease to be stupid if
mechanical education enough were
sandwiched in between recitations to
enable the boys to manufacture-that
is, make with their hands, aided by
proper tools-the conditions of their
problems. Even text books would be
doubly interesting if some of the schol-
ars would spend time enough in a
printing office to learn how it was
made, and be able to describe the pro-
cess intelligently.
There is not a blacksmith shop in
the country but should have two or
three boys in it part of the summer
vacation, if for nothing more than to
consider whether they should like the
business; not q carpenter shop but
should tolerate few school BOYS in it
now and then, that they may learn how
to drive nail correctly; and so on
throughout the trades. Division of
labor, which has come with the intro
duction of machinery, while good and
necessary thing, is derelict in that it
has nothing in the place of the appren.
tice system which it has destroyed
Let the school and the workshop co.
operate in every community in the coun-
try, and the union of text books and
tools will be consummated in Il surpris-
ingly short time with beneficial results.
1t Is not proposed nor is it desirable to
turn all schools into workshops; that
would be as unfortunate as the present
state of affairs, which is all books and
no tools.
Thoughtful men interested in educa.
tional matters are not neglecting these
phases of instruction for youth In this
city the institute of technology is not an
experiment, it is an institution. Its
methods duly modified are applicable to
country high school. 1t does not in
the least interfere or obstruct the CLASH
cal education which distinguishes the
neighboring university at Cambridge.
Its school of mechanic arts admits boys
as young us fifteen. Several schools
for manual education are already started
in New York. st. Louis BOATS of one
of the best in the country. One of the
most significant signs of the times is a
recent circular of the Carriage Build
ers' National Association which has es.
tablished in New York "a school for the
advancement of technical knowledge
among apprentices and mechanics of the
carriage trade Why should not every
trade have like association for like
purposeP-MtniRg Gazette.