The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1888-02-28
a confidence in themselves altogether

new"
Writes Ruskin, 'Let youth once
learn to take a straight shaving off a
plank, or draw a fine curve without
! faltering, or lay brick level in its
mortar, and he has learned multi
tude of other matters which no lips OF
man could ever teach him.
1t has been the uniform experience OF
manual training schools, in which the
workshop has been kept true to its
educational purpose, that quite as sat
isfactOry progress is made with the
three hours of classroom drill, as in
other schools where the entire school
time is devoted to the study and use of
books. 1t is claimed in Massachusetts
that even in the reform schools, which
are not supposed to enter the contest
with any marked intellectual advan-
tage, there is as rapid progress with
the morning devoted to the school
room and the afternoon to the shop, as
with scholars who spend six hours
over their books.
Emergency and Hygiene Association
is authority for the statement that "In
England, the half-time system pro-
vides for three hours attendance in
school, and for the rest of the working
hours, employment in factories, in
shops, and on farms. Over one hun
dred thousand children are thus
taught, and it is found that they make
as much progress as those who attend
school six hours day. In the Arti-
sans School at Rotterdam, an eXper-
fence Of seven years has demonstrated
that boys who are occupied One-half the
day with books in the school, and the
remaining half with tools in the labor
atories, make about as rapid intellec-
tual progress as those of equal ability
who spend the whole day in study and
recitation.
The educational value of manual
training depends upon the fidelity
with which that training is conducted
as auxiliary to the work of the school
room. There is right here an import
ant distinction to be drawn between
manual training and industrial train
ing. Manual training is the education
of the hand; industrial training is the
preparation of the individual to follow
a particular trade. One teaches a boy
how to do things and to command the
use of his hand as an instrument of the
brain; the other teaches how to do
some particular thing and how to use
the hand in a single line of construc-
ton. AS these two kinds of training
are seen in actual operation, the line of
demarcation is well-nigh obliterated
between them, for in many manual
training schools special lines of in
dustrial employment come to be en-
phasized, while on the other hand, in
industrial schools, skill in other direc-
lions than of certain special trades
finds encouragement. An industrial
school, however, is more apt to become
productive than instructive. Local
industries color the course in most in
dustrial schools One becomes Il school
for watch making, another for weav-
ing and so on. The tendency is strong
in most manual training schools, how
ever, to make the course in the work
shop constructive rather than instruc-
tive. Thus the Worcester Free Insti-
tute, which was modelled after the so
called Russian system, being mainly
instructive in its features, has gradu-
ally modified its course of workshop
instruction so that it is now largely
There is a preliminary
course in carpentry, which is followed
by employment i'll the Washburn
Machine Works, where the students
for the trade. Undoubt-
edly the existence of the Machine
Works, where mechanics are con-
stantly filling orders for certain classes
of machine work, has had the effect of
narrowing the type of instruction con-
veyed.
1t is undoubtedly harmful to a course
of workshop instruction to make it
This limits its scope to
the manufacture of salable products,
and at once raises the question as to |
which is more profitable from a prac-
teal as well as educational stand |
point, to employ the resources and APP
pliances of q school in the manufacture |
of few lines of salable articles, or in |
the systematic training of the pupils |
in the care and use of tools.
1t is strenuOusly advocated that the |
best way to teach the use of tools is in |
the manufacture of some useful ar
5icle. But is this sound, education
ally? Does not the construction of |
any salable product limit the scope for |
The use of tools, both as to variety of |
tools and the variety of uses of par
IiculaI tools? Does it not concentrate |
The attention on the construction |
rather than on the supposed instruc-
lion to be conveyed? Does not the |
system of teaching the use of tools by |
.he constructive method fail of its end |
Dy reason of local necessities which |
restrict the construction to few ar
5icles because they are salable and in
demand? On the other hand, is not |
hat method sounder, educationally, |
which insists Oh a thorough course of |
DOL instruction Is not the ability to
Use tools accurately better prepare
ion for a mechanical calling than the
ability to construct specified articles ?
Is it not better that boys in work
shops should devote the time that
would be spent in manufacturing GER
ain salable articles, in additional drill
IN the same material in the use of
5ools?
Thus, board an inch thick, twelve
inches wide and three feet long will be
bout enough to make the sides, front
md bottom of an ordinary table
lrawer. To construct sach drawer
he stuff must be Dlanpd sawed and !