New-York tribune., 1885-07-05

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PROGRESS or TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
A Salem letter to The TRIBUNE this morning
gives a brief but interesting account OF the
Bowditch Manual Training School there. In
this institution technical instruction appears
10 have been given wider range than usual,
and it is not so evident that the pupils are
being prepared for the more important
mechanical trades, though the kind of training
given is certainly useful and calculated to
increase the independence and earning capacity
of all who go through the course. Technical
education is spreading rapidly through the
country at present, and is beng gradually
grated on to the public school systems with
satisfactory results. The Manual Training
School of Philadelphia, which has attracted so
much attention, appears 10 have settled steadily
down for a long career Of usefulness. The edu-
cation given here il emincntly practical. The
course is of three years. The pupils come by
promotion from the Boys Grammar, Consol-
dated and Combined schools. The technical in
structon embraces free-hand, mechanical,
gcometrical, machine and architectural draw
ing experimental work in the physical labora-
tory; shop-work i'll carpentry and join
ery, wood carving. wood turning, pattern
making, forging, Welding tcmpering. solder
ing, brazng. moldiDg and casting, bench-work
and fitting, turning drilling planning, screw
cutting, study of the steam engine, including
management and care of steam engines and
boilers, and elementary principles of tho tex
tile and iictile arts, together with Instructions
in the properties of materials.
IL will be seen that this il y thoroughly prac-
n A Al Il. -. .....
through it and worked honestly must possess
fund of technical knowledge sufficient TO fit
them for filling positions such as formerly
could only be obtained after long apprentice
ship, half OF which was wasted IN
repulsive drudgery. But besides all
this technical instruction. tho pupils of the
Manual Training School go through a full
course in mathematics, English language and
literature, United States history and civil gov
ornment, physiology and physical geography,
physics, chemistry, bookkeeping aud general
! history. 1t is clear that boy has here the op-
poriunty to acquire, by his sixteenth year (for
he cannot enter the Manual Training Sc.ool
until he is twclve), the elements of so sound an
education as will enable him if necessary to go
| to work as producer at once, and hold his own
well wi his contemporaries in all matters of
general Information.
In fact the Manual Training School solves
the problem of education for those who cannot
afford TO spare the time required for a college
course. 1t makes the best possible use of the
most prolific years of youth, and gives Q sound
foundation i'll the most easily convertible and
practical kind of knowledge. IL there is any
natural mechanical aptitude in II boy this is the
kind of training to bring it out. The tendency
to connect technical schools with the public
schools il becoming more marked In this
State much remains to be done, however. As
Yet manual training is not provided for by the
State thou gh the one technical school in this
city, maintained by the Society for Ethical Cul-
turc, should have convinced the friends oil
broader education of the desirability of such
an expansion. In Massachusetts end Pcnnsyl-
vania more progress has been made, and in
England the most remarkable IT suits have been
attained, and the system is already national
We cannot afford to treat so large a question
with Indifference any longer.