The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1886-02-18
EDUCATIONAL.
Manual Training a Feature OF the RssFes.
nIzed Educational System OF
Philadelphia.
Good Nature and Disposition to Please,
Indispensable to school Manage

lnenf.
MANUAL TRAINING IN PHILADELPHIA.
A revolution in 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 T. Steel, President of |
the Board of Education, for years advo- |
Gated manual training in general
way; and MIR. James McAlister. who
went from Milwaukee, Wis, IN 1888, TO
accept the SUPPLEMENTARY 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 it organized shape.
1t is easy TO understand how, under his
magnetic influence, the movement quick
" crystallized. Moved by the persuasive
force of his tongue and pen, the ''Coun-
cils'' appropriated money, and tire
Board of Education organized a manual
training school as part of the educa-
tional system of the city, as free as any
other of the public schools; and 1t went
into operation in September last, with
one hundred and thirty pupils-all that
| could then be accommodated. Its course
of instruction is similar to that of the
/
The school is a high school, with man
ual exercises constituting a 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 unquali-
fed approval of the public, and the
Board of Education designs to estab-
lish three or four more schools of SINH
lar character. 1t 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 GER
tain exercises in carpentry and joinery
and metal-work.
A third feature is sewing. which Is
2 made part of the regular course of in
struction in every girls school above the
primary The work is graded, and
forms Il system of sequential steps.
Thirty-two special sewing instructors
are now employed, but it is intended
2 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
| ,lS-l,, E.u
q cause the legal school age in Pennsyl
o vania is six years. But an association
called the Sub-primary School SOciety
has founded twenty-eight Kindergarten
- and supports them, with the aid of al
appropriation from the School Board
q as adiuncts to the regular schools.
Philadelphia has thus the most com
g plete course of manual instruction o
il any city in the country, consisting o
g the Kindergarten, the School of Indust
rial Art for the boys and girls of tn
grammar schools, and the '.Manua
Training School, for boys from four
u teen to eighteen years of age.
8 Superintendent McAlister writes tina
:, the conviction obtains among the mem
n beers of the Board of Education of Phila
delphia, and is, in his opinion, grow
ing in the public mind generally, tina
every child should receive manual train
g ing; that complete education impie
b the training of the hand in connection
< with the training of the mind. and tina
/ this feature must ultimately be incorpo
, rated into the public Seduction. HI
E concludes: Il feel encouraged to 90 for
ward with the work. The great princi
pies which underlie the system are witt
me intense convictions, and they NEAR
: nothing less than revolution in edu
: cation. The new system is the realiza
r ton of the dream of every great thinker
and reform in education, from Comen
iOus, Locke, and Rousseau to Pesta,
lozzi, Froebel, 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 a 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 in the public schools, or they
will fail in accomplishing the ends for
which they are instituted and are main
tanned. - Charles II. Ham, IN Harper S
Magazine for February.