The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-21

Some Difficulties Which the American Sys-
tenn of Manual Training Must Avoid.

tenn of Manual Training Must Avoid.
Charles fl. Ham, in February Harper.
The most valuable feature of manual training
Its mental and moral Influences very imper-
fecty understood in this country, and not at all
| in Europe, except in Russia, if, indeed. it be
| there where the laboratory method of instruc-
ton in the mechanic arts which bears the Rus
sian name originated. The tradeschools of
Germany. France, and England grew out of in
| dustrial riyalries. They are the product of
struggle for commercial. mercantile and manu-
featuring supremacy. They have their root in
the merchants grim law of necessity-tke neces-
sity of underselling his rival Their purpose
for example, in France. is to make a doll for a
cent less than it can be made in Germany, and
In Germany to make penknife for cent less
than it can be made in France; and they have
the sanction and support of government be-
cause they increase the tax-paying capacity of
the subject in the exact ratio of the increase Of
his productive power.
The trade-school is the vestibule of factory
| or shop, and the trade-schoo pupils an appren-
| tice-an apprentice hundred-fo better trained
than the apprentice of the old regime, but still
| an apprentice. He becomes cog, wheel,
| pinion. lever, or a shaft IN machine adapted
| efficient he is as part of the machine, the less
power he has to determine the share he shall re-
ceive OF its products and the less capacity wisely
to dispose of the fruits of his labor.
Germany has more trade schools than any
country in the world, but her people are thereby
neither enriched nor made contented. Every
| year large numbers OF her labor class bid adieu
] to the fatherland and flock to these shores, and
the drain of the flower Of the labor class of pop
uation is an rreparable loss of national vitality
| The trade-school at its best is special school
which does not aim to give a general education
| 1t is hence one-sided. In establishing or aiding
1t the state places upon its graduates the brand
of inferiority, since it for the universe
ties and other institutions of learning its high
| est honorS
| The trade-schools of Europe are perpetuating
system of caste in education which it is the
chief mission of the civilization of this age to de-
stroy They graduate carpenters blacksmiths
| and turner's, but they fail to equip men for an
| equal chance in the battle of life. In Holland
there is government commission whose duty it
| is to procure situations for the graduates of
trade-schools. and to watch over them for sew
| eral years" The graduates of properly organ
lied and conducted schools will create situations
for themselves and show, by the ability and
| faithfulness with which they discharge the du-
ties thereof, that they require no watching.
There is disposition in this country, in some
quarters to initiate the European system of
trade-schools. Prof. Robt H. Thurston. of Cor
nell University. recommends III drawing and
the modification of methods of instruction in
the direction of the sciences in existing schools;
~ the Institution of special courses of in
struction, and the foundation of trade-schools.
Having for their object the teaching of the
principles and the practice of the leading indus
tries in localities in which such action would be
justified" and ~ the creation of one or more
technical colleges.
There can, of course be no objection to the
establishment OF trade-schools for special pur-
poses but if Professor Thurston's proposition
contemplates the limitation of all technical in
structon to such special schools, it involves the
introduction to the United States of the
European special caste educational system
weaving schools in Massachusetts, ship
ing schools in Maine. schools of mechanism in
Pennsylvania and agricultural schools in the
valley of the Mississippi. Schools, they should
be called, for the promotion of caste, and not
merely the caste of modern Europe, but the more
rigid caste of ancient Egypt which compelled
| the man to follow the occupation of his father
to marry within his class, to IDEAS he was born"
thus making of society an organized injustice.
1t Is pleasant to turn from the Malthusian
theory of the law of life-that brutal theory
which necessitates the starvation of hundreds of
men that one man be we'll fed-to the theory of
humanity and genteness-that bright theory
which contemplateS the salvation and eleya-
ton of the race through the development of
| the best aptitudes of all it's members The Rus
slan-Amerieap system of manual training pro-
notes the humane theory of life, because IL it
dignlfies labor, ~ it is a powerful intellectual
stimulus. and (3) it is the great discoverer of
truth, and hence moral agent of incalculable
force. It should therefore be made a part of
every system of popular education. For if
it is confined to the colleges and UNIVERSE
ties few will avail Of it's advantages since by
the time the student shall have reached that ad-
vaneed stage of his course he will have
contracted feeling of aversion toward labor,
and will have determined to enter one Of the So
called learned professions. The small number
of students enrolled in the several mechanic art
annexes OF the colleges and universities Of the
United States confirms the truth of this observa-
ton. There is, believe, only one exception to
this rule-that of the Manual Training School of
the Washington University of ST. Louis, Mo-,
which has an enrolment Of 229 stu
dents, That school is, however, practi.
cally independent OF the parent institution.
since it was founded and is maintained chiefly.
through the munifcence of private individuals
But when the manual training school is so situ-
ated as to attract the attention Of the grammar
school boys, its register is promptly filed. 1t has
the same fascination for the boy of twelve or
fifteen years of age that the kindergarten has
for the child of four years 1t enchains the at
tention of the student, and it does not weary
him; and these two conditions constitute state
of recaptivity which is an assurance of such in
tellectual growth as is not to be gained in any
school of the old regime.