The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1888-03-24
PRACTICAL TRAINING
An Innovation in School-Teaching Now
Being Tried in New York.

Being Tried in New York.
Ancvel system OF manual training,
the adoption Of which earnest men
have agitated for several years. and
which is expected to revolutionize
public school education, went into
operation OH an experimental scale in
several city schools recently.
The new system must not be con-
founded with that Of Industrial work,
which is also being agitated In the
lower grades it consists Of few
simple helps to the children. caus-
ing them to use their hands and eyes
in the ordinary studies hitherto
taught.
In the study of geography. for in
stance, they will be supplied with flour
ami water and taught to make chains
of mountains in paste, With rivers of
real water between them. In arith-
metic and geometry the innovations
consist of the use of clay in forming
curves and triangles. and actual
blocks Of wood. to prove their geomet-
rical theorems.
The boys will not be made carpen-
ters or plumbers or iron-workers, nor
the girls taught the complete art of
dressmaking or cooking, but tool
shops and cooking-rooms will be pro-
vided and much valuable instruction
given in the theory of those arts.
The use of the knife, grindstone and
ckplane will be taught to the boys in
the lowest grade during two hours OF
each week. and the older pupils will III
time be initiated into the mysteries Of
the saw, the vice: the hammer and
nails and the plane. The principles OF
dovetailing and making joints will be
explained by special teachers, and in
the highest grades finished boxes will
be constructed, properly sand-papered
and polished.
Two hours per week are set apart for
instruction to the girls in sewing and
hemming, measuring, cutting paper,
patterns and fitting. Two hours weekly
are allotted to the theory Of cooking,
especial attention being given to in
s5ruction in the wholesomeness and de-
gree OF nutrition in the various articles
of food, the care and use Of tin, iron
and copper utensils, tho precautions
necessary TO prevent eerdigris, the
principles Of economy in purchasing
food, the means Of determining the
w}lolesomeness or unwholesomeness
and the names Of the various kinds OF
poultry and the joints Of meat
Ample provision. has been made for
the necessary supplies OF materials.
Each cooking room will have 81 range
and set of utensils costing $500, and
$3.50 will be appropriated for putting
up and supplying each workshop with
tools.
Calico, and muslin, scissors, needles,
patterns, ETC., Will be supplied on
requisition 10 the teachers in the dress
making classes.
Our object" said Principal o Neil,
els not 80 much to create new studies
as to infusss new interest in the teach
ing Of the old studies. Manual train
ing is to education what the telephone
and telegraph have been in the ortlin-
AIRY business of lie.
by building ranges Of mountains
on maps, making economically shaped
models in clay and giving practical IL
Illustrations Of the use Of the needle and
the plane we shall be able to give the
pupils more useful knowledge In one
hour than was possible in two hoars
under the ola aystem. al Y. q :::2e's5sss
Wc751.