Smyrna times., 1884-04-30
For the Smyrna Tim
Industrial Education.

lnIoIooO VIC country dC large, equally /
with the point where it may locally |
originate.
By the recent annual report of Presi- !
dent Edward 7. Steel, of the Philadel- /
phia Board of Education, to that body, !
he strongly recommends the establish |
ment in connection with the High /
School, of a building for the accommo-
datiOn of 1000 students and provided |
with suitable machinery and apparatus
for the manipulation of Wood, Metal |
and Textile fabrics. Councils are to be
petitioned, for the city to defray the
expense of the Plant; the Board of
Education assuming entire control of
the plans and management.
When the vast manufacturing inter-
ests of a city such as Philadelphia are
considered either in their extent or
variety, the dissemination of scientific
instruction, bearing directly on the in
cidental status of each trade, marks in
the language of the report, an epoch in
human progress wherever undertaken.
No city of the size Of Philadelphia in
Europe would be without such
school, and Philadelphia, taking the
initiative in so important measure
invests it with general interest to other
manufacturing centres and provincial
towns as well, in this country. On in
quiry into the incidental status of the
trades in this country, it will be
found that the system, or rather the
absence OF any system, is against our
young men for eN en- obtaining partial,
not to say, scientific knowledge of the
various skilled trades. That our young
men are not learning those trades may
be attributed to more causes than one.
That they are prevented from becom-
ing skilled in those trades is traceable
! to one of two causes and they are,
Machinery" as the prime, and
Trades Unions" as the secondary one.
Mental and manual co-education re-
quires to be considered separately be-
fore this can be proven,-before just
conclusion can be reached, that
machinery of itself should be inimical
skill.
A mental education founded on the
abstract theories that we have inherit
ed from the middle ages for
the preparation of philosophers
and metaphysicians, is, in our advance
ment, the leading feature governing
our intellectual training of the young
at the present day. We cannot dis
guise the fact, and it is apparent to
none more than to teachers, that what
is learned to be of value, should have
immediate application to what is real
or else by remaining in the abstract il
loses its value and so is not learned, ren,
dering progress tedious and unsatisfac
/ flhic ie IN -, L.,
and in the studies leading therefrom
and only finds an exception in writing
writing cOnceives and executes {
physical as well as mental display Of
the relation that exists between tho
brain and hand, hence is more easily
learned and the act of writing at schOo
is always accompanied with more sat
isfaction than other studies. Skill il
: writing is not learned in the abstract
but rather from the physical power 0
the hand. Now contra to this-th,
severe and concise language of geome
try gives no such chance for the hanC
to aid the mind, at least under tn
present system; what ever is learne,
1 is done solely by the reasoning facul
5 ties, and wherein lies the fault of this
}. Not certainly in the teachers, for the
4 cannot go beyond the text books an
$ black board, and hardly the fault c
e the pupil when he fails to comprehen,
the uses of the angles of geometry @
4 the use of any study that he finds irR
some and tedious.
:, In a purely manual education as az
$ piled to the skilled trades all tn
S abstract reasoning, so far as the prime
g Piles upon which they are based al
n concerned, are as effectually conceale
n as if they did not exist, because the
Q are never taught in the abstract in tn
q work shop. Take common squar
/ such as carpenter uses almost col
: stantly; look at the wonders attainab
IS in architecture with its use, and pra
y tically how few mechanics can trace
Z to its mathematical synthesis of 4 baS
q OF eight inches, a perpendicular of 81
+ inches, and hypOthenuse of te
)f inches, and in the absence of squal
n how few realize that these lines in tf
ot abstract give no idea what they real
le are. If such be the case mental al
q manual cO-education cannot eXi
IS separately and attain the best resul
l. from such separation, so far as ii
Sc skilled trades are concerned. Al
N the worst enemy to the attainment
a this combined knowledge has been
this country, the general introductiC
of automatic working machinery in q
the trades. However, a distinctiC
with difference must be drawn her
in no sense should the power of stea
20 applied to moving heavy bodies, su,
y as railway trains or ships, be classt
- -, with the machinery that can, with oil
= ~ stamp, produce the entire workil
" We parts of watch. Does it not occur
- any mind that the operator of
- machine that automatically cuts o.
~ ~ one, or a dozen pinion wheels, in
no watch factory, i'll second, is by
-, means the workman that the Swi
y matchmaker is, who can make one,
~ watch entirely by hand? This e
% cellence, to be reached only by hal
~ culture, is not taught by machinery
81 this kind, and does not this kind
az machinery find place wherever t
~ inventors skill can produce it? Al
y does it make skilled artizans? Unft
tuuately it does not; saying nothing
% the stagnation in business broug
nO - about through its means in Over-pl
~ duction, automatic machinery plaC
10 oS the possibilities of our youth becOmi
vi skilled artisans with scientific know
60 .t edge farther away than ever, unless q
Nv Nv vanced educationalists come to th'
90 90 relief, as is proposed by the Philad'
W " phia Board of Education. 1t is safe
as @ say then that in no better hands C
nS the application of scientific instruct
y to the trades be placed than the
ns n structors of our public schools; inste
;"s CS of dry abstract theories, possible on
i'a ioi in the class room, all is made Gle
Le he when explained from the abstract
nc nc the concrete in the work room, a
a Physical Science, Geometry, Mecha
lu W cal and Engineering Drawing becel
20 invested with o charm, and are me
IN readily learned and retained, far me
~ so than among the workshops of {
us ~ trades themselves.
a. a. The possibilities of analytical che
=; ~ istry are every year becoming me
~" important also in the trades. L
signs, symbols and atomic relations
the materials used in these trades fl
ou their value through chemistry, a
ig- through it alone. Mental and manI
co-education is our need; in antal
40 nism to automatic machinery
lot need, which, when supplied me
'se nearly, carries out the fundamental Id
of protection to American industri
lcn than all the legislation in that directi
as that the government has sought
lo- since its formation. We have, it
true, protection in the form of legis
fe tinn to pravant fnraiof, uaoSalS from .