The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-03-12
NUMBER 3s
EDUCATIONAL.
Manual Training a Feature of the Reorgs.
nixed Educational System or
Philadelphia.
Good Nature and q Disposition to Please,
Indispensable to school MANAGE
ment,

MANUAL TRAINING IN PHILADELPHIA.
A revolution i'm educational methods
has occurred in the city of Philadelphia.
The Spring Garden Institute. established
long ago by Mr.. Charles G.. Leland.
showed the practicability of hand-train-
ing: Mr.. Edward r. Steel. President of
the Board of Education. for years advo-
Gated manual training in a general
way: and Mr.. James McAlister. who
went from Milwaukee. Wis. i'm 1889, to
accept the superintendency Of the schools
of the city. writes that he found public
opinion fully alive to the Importance of
manual training being added to the
public education. but that nothing had
been done to give il organized shape.
Ii j. easy to understand how, under his
magnetic iniluencc.the movement quick
" crystalliZcd. Moved by the persuasive
force of his tongue aud pen, the Conn
ellis" appropriated money. and the
Board of Education organized manual
training school as part of the educa-
tionai system of the city, as free a. any
other of the public schools: and it went
into operation in September last. with
one hundred and thirty pupils all that
could then be accommodated. Its course
of instruction is similar 10 that of the
schools of Boston. st. Louis, and Chicago.
The school is high school. with man
ual exercises constituting feature of
equal Importance with the mental eXer-
| cises. The first observation in regard
To this new school made by visitors is
that the pupils take more interest in its
exercises than is usually taken by pupils
in the exercises of schools of that grade.
The school meets with the most unqiali-
fled approval of the public, and the
Board of Education designs to estab-
fish three OF four more schools of SINH
lar character. II is the purpose of the
Superintendent and the board TO furnish
the school with reference library and
a small museum, illustrating the raw
materials and manufactured products of
the more important industries of the
country, and to some extent drawings
and models showing the evolution of the
fundamental tools and machines"
Another feature of the reorganized
| educational system of Philadelphia is
the School of Industrial Art, which is
open to the grammar-schOOl pupils of
both sexes. who are admitted once a
week for two hours The course of in
struction comprises drawing and de-
sign, modelling. wood-carving. and cer-
tain exercises in carpentry and ioinery
and metal-work.
A third feature is sewing. which is
made part of the regular course of in
structiOn in every girls school above the
primary. The work is graded. and
| forms system Of sequential steps.
| Thirty-two special sewing instructors
are now employed. but il is intended
ultimately to have the instruction given
by the regular class instructors. A
fourth feature is the free kindergarten,
which can not be made part, officially.
of the public-schoOl establishment, be-
cause the legal school age in Pennsyl-
vania is six years. Blu, an association
called the Sub-primary School Society
has founded twenty-eiglit Kindergartens
and supports them, with the aid of an
appropriation from the School Board
as adjuncts to the regular schools.
| Philadelphia has thus the most COM
plete course of manual instruction of
any city i'm the country. consisting of
the kindergarten. the School of Indust-
rial Art for the boys and girls of the
grammar schools. and the Manual
Training school for boys from four
teen TO eighteen wears of age.
| Superintendent McAlister writes that
the conviction obtain, among the MEM
berS of the Board of Education of Phla-
delphia, and is. in his opinion. grow
ing in the public mind generally. that
every child should receive manual train
ing: that Il complete education implies
! the training of the hand in connection
with the training of the mind. and that
this feature must ultimately be incorpo-
rated into the public education. He
concludes: Il ieel encouraged to 60 for
ward with the work. The great princi-
| pies which underlie the system are with
me intense convictions, and they mean
nothing less than a revolution in edit
cation. The new system is the realiza-
ton of the dream Of every great thinker
and reform in education, from Comcn-
ious. Locke. and Rousseau to Pesta-
lozzi. Froebcl. and Spencer. My con-
viction and action in connection with
this movement are based upon what. in
my Judgment, should constitute an ed
ucation designed to prepare human
being for the social conditions of to-day.
and not merely for the industrial de-
mands of our time. And this must be
realized i'm the public schools. or they
will fail in accomplishing the ends for
which they are instituted and are main
tanned. "-Charles H. Ham. ia Harper $
Magazine for February.