The Rugby gazette and east Tennessee news. (Rugby, Morgan Co., Tenn.) 1884-188?, 1886-02-06
A POPULAR INSTITUTION.
Tho Chicago Manual Training school and
Its Growing Popularity.

Tho Chicago Manual Training school and
Its Growing Popularity.
Manual training has laid hold upon
the Imagination of the American people
The register of the Chicago Manual
Training School contains the names Of
visitors from all parts of this country,
from Canada, and from England, On
last commencemcnt-day seven hundred
persons visited the school, passing
through the several laboratories and
witnessing the exercises. 1t is true,
many of those visitors were relations
and personal friends of students; but re-
lations and personal friends OF students of
schools of the old regime visit them very
frequently. Many of the visitors of
manual training schools are women,
They arc enthusiasts on the subject of
the new education, Their comprehen-
sion of it is clearer than that of men.
This is doubtless because they are
possessed Of higher degree of intui-
ton, are more imaginative, more UNI
selfish and less ambitious, and have
less aversion to labor. Froebel found
women better adapted to the work of
teaching than men. The kindergarten
and manual training are identical in
principal; but the kindergarten has
struggled long, and as yet unsuccess-
fully, except in few instances, for adj
mission to the schools, while manual
training, thing of yesterday in
its educational aspect, has con.
quered all the educational out
posts, and now waits only the formal
surrender of the garrison of the citadel.
1t possesses the fascination of the con-
crete as opposed to the drowsy etfec,
Of abstract speculation. The Manual
Training School building itself power.
fully attracts the healthy active boy
Smoke issues from the tall chimney that
rises high above the roof, and the hum
of machinery is heard, and the heav,
thud of the sledge resounding ON the
anvil makes music in the ear.
The interior is more attractive still
The rhythmic motion of the polished
Corliss engine responds to the now
throbbing heart of the expected lad
The shafting in the wood-turning labora
tory speaks of mystery. 1t is laby.
rinth of belts, large and small, Of
wheels, big and little, of pulleys anc
lathes. A student moves lever few
inches, and the breath of life is breathet
into the complicated mass of machinery
From the engine far away come the cur
rents of its power. The whir of steam
driven machines salutes the ear, ant
the class of twenty-four students tax,
their places at the lathes. So in tn,
laboratory of forging the furnace fire
give back an answering glow to tn,
gov of the visiting lad flushed checks
All this is in very sharp contrast to tn
monotony of the recitation-room of tn
old regime. The superiority of the new
over the old education consists largel
III the fact that it alternates the purel
mental with the mental and manual eX
ercise combined.
During the pauses of labor in tn
laboratories of the Manual Trainin
School the well equipped instructor de
livers a series of brief lectures ON sui
iects growing logically out of the exei
cises. In the drawing-room he skctche
in bold outline the biographies o. tn
great masters of the graphic art. II
the laboratory of carpentry he disuse
the natural history of certain trees, an
considers the qualities of woods, thei
adaptability and various uses. In tn
wood-turning laboratory the subject c
the history of turnery is found to b
not less delightful than exhaustibe, an
the manipulations of the iron and stee
laboratories are closely allied to all tn
great events of the world S history. Th
moulding and casting laboratory
richly suggestive of subjects for discu.
sion.-CAasleS II. Ham is Haspsr's Nc;
azi,se