The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-06-24
Manual Training In Philadelphia.

course"
Manual Training I'm Philadelphia.
A revolution in educational methods
has occurred in the city of Philadel-
phia. The Spring Garden Institute,
established long ago by Mr.. Charles
G.. Leland, showed the practicability Of
hand-training; Mr.. Edward Il. Steel,
President of the Board of Education,
for years advocated mammal training in
a general way; and Mr.. James MacAl-
lister, who went from Milwaukee, Wis,
in 1888, to accept the superintendency
of the schools of the city, writes that
the Importance of manual training be-
ing added to the public education, but
that nothing had been done to give it
organized shape. 1t is easy to under
stand how, under his magnetic infu-
ence, the movement quickly crystal
lied. Moved by the persuasive force
of his tongue and pen, the Councils"
appropriated money, and the Board of
Education organized manual training
school as part of the educational sys-
tenn of the city, rs free as any other of
the pubic schools; and il went INTO OPP
GRAFTON 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 schools of Boston, st. Louis, and
Chicago. The school is high school,
with manual exercise constituting a feat
ure of equal important with the mental
exercises. The first observation in regard
to this new school made by visitors is that
the pupils take more interest in it's ex
ercises than is usually taken by pupils
in the exercises of schools of that grade.
The school meets with the most un-
qualified approval of the public, and
the Board OF Education designs to es-
tablish three or four more schools of
similar character. 1t is the purpose of
the Superintendent and the board to
furnish the school with a reference
library and a small museum, "illustrat-
ing the raw materials and manufactured
products of the more important indus
tries of the country, and, to some ex-
tent, drawings and models showing the
evolution of the fundamental tools and
machines"
Another feature of the reorganized
oN VI 10
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 design,
modelling, Woodworking, and certain ex
ercises in carpentry and joinery, 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 a system of se1uential steps.
Thirty-two special sewing instructors
are now employed, but it 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. But an association
called the Sub-Primary School Society
has founded twenty eight 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 in the country, consisting of
the kindergarten, the School Of Indus
trial Art for the boys and girls of the
grammar schools, and the Manual
Training School" for boys from four
teen to eighteen years of age.
Superintendent acAlister writes that
the conviction obtains among members
of the Board of Education of Philadel-
phia, and is, in his opinion, growing in
the public mind generally, that every
child should receive manual training;
that a complete education implies the
training of the hand in connection with
the training of the mind, and that this
feature must ultimately be incorporated
into the public education. He con-
clude3: II feel encouraged to go for
ward with the work. The great prin-
ciples which underlie the system are
with me intense convi rs, and they
mean nothing less than revolution in
education. The new system is the
realization of the dream of every great
thinker and reformer in education,
from Comenius. Locke, and Rousseau to
PestalozZi, Froebel, and Spencer. My
conviction and action in connection
with this movement are based upon
what, in my Judgment, should con-
stitute an education designed to pre-
pare human being for the social con-
ditions of to-day, and not merely for
the industrial demands of our time.
And this must be realiz> d in the pub
lie schools, or they will fail in accom-
plishing the ends for which they were
,x.t.&,Ao1 ,~oo,~ko,~oI Tb1..Joo
II. Ham, tr1 Ha,per's Magazine.
EDUCATioN is often valued not for it
self, but merely as stepping stone to
wealth. We give it to the young and
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