St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-30
HANDS AND BRAINS.
Manual Training in the Schools Oonsid-
cred in the Education Of st.
Paul Youth.
The Arguments Presented by DR.. G.
M. Woodward o the st. Louis
Manual Training School,
Who Delivered an Interesting Lecture
on That Subject at the High
School.

The question or manual training III Iuo
schools has attracted wide attention of late,
and a large and interested audience, COM
posed of intelligent ladies and gentlemen,
completely filed the assembly hall of the
high school last evening, and listened to
the lecture delivered upon that subject by
DR.. c. NJ. Woodward of the st. Louis
manual training school. DR.. Woodward is
q gentleman who has been buslly engaged
in educational pursuits for many years, and
has occupied high position as an Instructor
in the Washington university OF ST. Louis
for nearly twenty years. He founded the
polytechnic department in that institution,
and has since established and brought to its
present high degree of efficiency the
manual training school, which is
part of the system OF education taught there.
He was introduced by Prof. Fogg, presi-
dent of the school board, who said that the
board of education had had under considera-
ton for some time the ACCESSIBILITY, desira-
bility and practicability of ENGRAVING in the
school system the benefits of manual train
ing, and in order to more thoroughly dis
Seminate a knowledge of its system, and
give those interested an opportunity of I'M
derstanding its advantages, they had Sc
cured Dr.. Woodward to address them.
DIR. woODwARD's REMARKS.
Dr. Woodward then stepped to the front
Of the platform and began his remarks,
which were listened to with attention
throughout, and received frequent applause.
1.-THE subject which invites your attention"
jaid he, lisa very important one, and L So
lcit your close attention to my remarks. as
lG is a subject so wide in its scope and de-
tails that ! am conscious of my inability to
thoroughly cover the ground in an hours
i.h tn n
Ear without giving you all the information
In my power. and l ask that you will note
down any points or remarks that you would
like to have more thoroughly eluci-
dated. 1t was about forty years
ego that Ralph Waldo Emerson charged
public education with want OF truthfulness.
We are stuffed full of words. We are shut
Hp in colleges and schools ten or fifteen
gears and crammed until we are full of words
md a mere bag of wind and have no use Ct
Dur hands. In one hundred high schools
and colleges this warfare against common
sense still goes on, and this man has pointed
out the way to remedy the evil In the
manual training school we have only added
to the old educational ways. We have
born down none of their education. We re-
iaIn it and have added two new wings,
natural science and manual labor" The
speaker quoted frequently from many
prominent Writers, and drew many Illus
trations t. snstain his arguments. He COM
pared the present training of boys in school
20 Rluch the same proceeding as that used
y bird trainers to teach their birds to sing.
Speaking of the ordinary school training of
SOyS, he said that they master certain facts
md matters that have been written by
others, and when full of this information
and learning think to use their education
they must go into the counting-rOOm, the
stores, or the learned professions. They
ignore the manual arts from false sense of
pride and reasoning. Of the schools, l
,han say nothing against them.
TO THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
of Massachusetts I owe more than I can
ever repay. From the door of country
high school went up to the door of col
iege, as many boy has done before and
since, but does it not become necessary for
the schooImaster to change? Shall we
make no change in the way of education
in this age of progress? l think that it is
altogether probable that there is too much
committing to memory the words and say
ings of others in the schools, and too little
attention paid to exercising in the thinking
and intellectual powers of the scholar him
self. 1t applies equally to all grades; still
Il
girls and boys of about the age of ID, as
much the girls as the boys, for they are
Just as much in need of manual instruc-
ton in the development of their intellectual
powers as the boys. We already have the
kindergarten for little children. Then let
us have a subordinate manual training
school for those about to enter the
high school. and by that time they
will be ready for the comprehensive work l
am about to describe. will take the St.
Louis manual training school. 1t was
opened five years ago last September, and
now has about $50 pupils. The minimum
age of those attending is ID years,
while the maximum rarely reaches 30
years. The course of instruction is three
years. Their attention is divided between
the manual and the mental. Each pupil
has three Rotations of two hours each, one
recitation of manual, and two mental, di-
vided between five lines of study. three of
which are purely intellectual and two
jointly intellectual and manual. A study
of language runs through the entire course,
either English composition rhetoric, history
or Latin. The last year of the course pro-
vides for a course of French studies. Every
day each boy has his lesson in language,
mathematics and science. Drawing is
taught in all the details of free-hand draw
ing and draughting, such as is ordinarily
Taught in the Office of the architect or the
Engineer.
The school of instruction in the manual
arts receives the attention of every boy
swo hours each day, and the course of in
structlon there is, the first year, devoted to
woodwork; the second year, ten weeks is
given to pattern-making and thirty to
forging iron and steel. You will see that
: e,
broad in all its conception and development.
We put the whole boy to school and we de-
velop and assist all his mental faculties
There is no question of the general educa-
ton; no science can exist without letters.
We only insist that mathematics and letters,
applied without manual training, is not
sufficient to attract the youth and bring out
all his mental forces. If you can hold the
attention of your class for ten minutes, it
is better than to do so for fifteen min
uteS and only retain their attention by
force of authority.
THEIR MENTAL SPIRIT
rebels against long and to them disinter-
eSting session, and they do not as readily
retain knowledge of what they have
studied. Intellectual growth is not to be
judged by the length of the lesson. would
urge the necessity of making school at
tractive and indispensable to large class of
boys who do not like their books. Such
boys may not be blockheads. In speaking
OF them gentleman high in authority in
educational matters Gen. Walker OF Bos-
ton, says: There is absolutely no place
for large class of boys who are strong and
healthy. but who have not the faculty or
disposition of memorizing words and facts
compiled by others. To this class school
offers almost nothing. They may by in
dustry and hard work escape being called
sIOckheadS, but they cannot be COMPARED