The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1886-02-12
The Chicago Manual Training
school.

Manual training has laid hold npon
the imagination OF the American peo-
pie The register of the Chicago Man
ual Training School contains the names
of visitors from all parts of this coun-
try, from Canada, and from England.
On last Commencement-day seven hun
dred persons visited the school. passing
through the several laboratories and
witnessing the exercises II is true,
many of those visitors were relations
and personal friends Of students; but
relations and personal friends of sr,;-
dents Of schools of the old regime visit
them very infrequently. Many of the
visitors of manual training schools are
women. They are enthusiasts on the
subject of the new education. Their
comprehension of il is clearer than that
of men. This is doubtless because they
are possessed of higher degree of in
tuition, are more imaginative, more I'M
selfish and less ambitious. and have less
aversion to labor Froebel found wo-
men better adapted TO the work of teach
ing than men. The kindergarten and
manual training are identical in princi.
pie; but the Kindergarten has struggled
long, and as yet unsuccessfully, except
in few instances, for admission 70 the
schools, while manual training. q thing
of yesterday in its educational aspect.
has conquered all the educational out
posts, and now waits only the formal
surrender of the garrison Of the citadel.
II possesses the fascination OF the con-
crete as opposed TO the drowsy effect 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 heavy
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 expectant lad.
The shafting in the wood-turning labor
atory speaks Of mystery. 1t is laby-
rinth Of belts, large and small, Of
wheels, big and little, of pulleys and
lathes. A student moves lever few
inches, and the breath of life is breathed
into the complicated mass of machn-
cry. From the engine far away come
the currents of its power The whir of
steam-driven machines salutes the ear,
and the class of twenty-four students
take their places at the lathes. So in
the laboratory of forging the furnace
fires give back an answering glow to
glow of the visiting lads flushed cheeks.
All this is in very sharp contrast 10 the
monotony of the recitation-room of the
old regime. The superiority Of the new
over the old education consists largely
in the fact that it alternates the purely
mental with the mental and manual ex-
ercise combined.
During the pauses of labor in the
laboratories of the Manual Training
School the well-equipped instructor de-
livers series of brief lectures on sub
jects growing logically out of the exer-
cises. In the drawing-room the sketches
in bold outline the biographies of the
great masters of the graphic art In
the laboratory of carpentry he discusses
the natural history of certain trees,
and considers the qualities Of woods,
their adaptability and various uses. In
the wood-turning laboratory the subject
of the history of turnery is found TO be
not less delightful than inexhaustible,
and the manipulations of the iron and
steel Laboratories are closely allied to all
the great events of the worlds history.
The moulding and casting laboratory is
richly suggestive Of subjects for discus
sion.-C Charles H. Ham. in Hdrper's
Magazine for February.