The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-04-21
TWELVE PAGES.
MANUAL TRAINING AS AN AUXILIARY.

with the nice adjustment necessary in good
worl1-rough and knotty problems smoothed
out in his mind, one part of the plan of life
fitted into another part with finer adjust
lnent of means to ends. His work became
in some measure a consolation for the ills he
bad to bear, and by analogy led him to a
deeper comprehension of the scheme of life
and more accurate squaring himself to meet
the demands of the higher law and thus, by
successive and natural steps, into truer,
Specification. Occupations classify them
selves into those that grow out of and min
lister to the real wants of humanity, and
those that owe their origin and support to
the artificial needs of men. Both are essen
tial to the framework of society as it exists
in this age, but their moral and intellectual
effect is widely different Education should
fit child for his after life in the world. In
our system of education as it actually exists
in operation the child is educated in abstrac-
tons and is left to find out for himself
their relation to the real things of
life. The present agitation and conse-
quent movement in educational Ideas is to-
ward the real and concrete. This movement
is based upon sound philosophy, and if
evolved IN the right direction will produce
good results Anyone who has watched a
child grow cannot fail to have noticed the
delight of the boy when he he's succeeded in
making house that will stand up, any kind
of machine that will go, a boat that &C.
tually floats upon the water, or the CORE
spending pleasure of girl in the garment
made by her own hands that will go onto
her doll, a handkerchief that she has
hemped, piece of knitting or crochet that
by her mother One has only to tap at some
of the long-shut doors in his own memory to
feel again the glow of satisfaction and the
sense OF moral rectitude which rewarded
some such childish achievement of bis own.
These are the finger-posts which nature has
set up to point out the true road of prog
ress in the development of humanity. The
long disregarded inference is that the handi-
crafts should make part of the course of
study in our schools Last week we consid-
cred the subject in Its economical bearings
as educating the child to get his living. Now
let us indicate some of the ways in which
such training may be made auxiliary to his
moral and mental development. In planning
or saving board boy is handling pro-
duct of nature and making it into product
of his own skill, putting his own brain and
muscle into it, to minister to his own con-
venience or that of another. He learns to use
the eye and hand, lie discerns the relation of
parts to the whole, finds out by experience
that one false line mars the symmetry of the
whole that one weak place is the ruin of the
whole structure. When he goes back to his
books the measurements in his arithmetic
become allied to the real things he has been
dealing with. When he reads in his geog-
raphy of tracts of forest land or great coal
regions his Imagination allies them to the
material which he has just used. He gets
glimpse into vista that will grow even
step by step, OF Che adjustment of means to
ends in the great scale of nature In his
delight in using his hands and skill he will
get sense of mastery over things and of his
own importance as factor in life that will
lead logically to self-discipline and control
No one who knows boys will believe this to
be conscious process; but on the contrary,
no one who knows human nature will deny
that the unconscious training will be going
on day by day and year by year, if the child
be guided by wise and watchful hands, more
rapidly and more intelligently until at last
he is able to take the helm himself and begin
the real work of life, we'll furnished for the
struggle.
A good manager of children or men is one
who knows how to expel pernicious idea or
crush bad habit by skillfully substituting
q better one. There is great deal of friction
in education, and consequently great waste
of force which ought 10 be utilized Fourier,
in his system for the regeneration of the
human race, which, though utopian, con-
tanned many things which we should not will
ingly let die, sought the best good of man
kind in the line of their natural instincts
and desires. In teaching children we do the
reverse, We shut them up in close rooms,
and tie them down to figures and parts of
speech when they are burning 10 be out and
become better acquainted with the things
around them. This surplus energy degener-
ates into mischief when they are let loose,
but it could be easily directed into useful
channels by little training of the hand
and eye and something to expend it upon.