The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1888-02-28

calling by which he could earn hi:
bread and become profitable member
of the commonwealth
The schools in Great Britain anC
! the United States were adjusted to the
condition of things under the appren-
ticeship system. But they have not
yet adjusted themselves to the new
conditions induced by the abandon
ment of that system. "The ability tC
do something and not merely to an
swer questions, must still be the back
bone of the education of every boy
who has TO earn his bread by manual
labor.n This conviction has been in
fiuential in the establishment of ma
nual training schools, and in the intro
ductiOn of technical instruction in
such schools as Sibley College, the
School of Mechanical Engineering and
of the Mechanic Arts at Cornell Uni
yersity; the School of Mechanic Arts at
the Massachusetts Institute of Techno-
logy, as also the Lowell School OF
Practical Design in the same institu-
ton; the Manual Training School at
Washington University, st. Louis;
and numerous other schools, notably
State institutions. Successful expert
J.,
New Haven and elsewhere, in prOvid-
ing workshop instruction for certain
hours in the week for a limited num-
Der Of pupils attending the public
schools. Much of the current criti-
cism of American and English public
schools is, that while education is
essentially compulsory, it is not prac-
teal enough to justify this compulsory
attendance on the part of the majC"ity
of school children. 1t is not prep; =
tive enough for the life that the n :
jority of children must enter on leaI
ing school, neither is it productive
best results in the limited training
that the schools are able to furnish the
children of the working classes. Such
children generally drop out of school
during the grammar school course,
with but Indifferent ability TO read,
write and cipher. With some form of
manual training that would in a meas
ure take the place of the abandoned
apprenticeship system, modern public
school training would be more produc-
tive of good results for the classes that
need public schooling most.
Writes Edward Atkinson, owe are
training no American craftsmen, and
unless we devise better methods
than the old and now obsolete appren-
tice system, much of the perfection of
our almost automatic mechanism will
have been achieved at the cost not
only of the manual but also of the
mental development of our men,"
The almost phenomenal development
of manual training in Europe has been
occasioned largely by the industrial
necessities of the various nations. For
example, it was found that the people
of Southern TyrOl were consuming
olive wood for fuel, while their neigh
bors in Italy were manufacturing from
it numerous useful articles. An in
duStrial school was accordingly estab-
lished at Arco and now the olive wood
work of ATco is in great demand all
over the world. Dr. EXner of Vienna,
who has started many trade-schools
throughout Austria, cites facts of the
most convincing character to show
that the immediate effect of trade
schools has been what was hoped and
expected, viz, to revive dropping in
dustries and to make new ones. This
has likewise been the result in France
and Germany, the French above all
people having promoted distinctive
ly industrial training.
1t can hardly be said that industrial
have operated in America
in advancing the cause of manual
Perhaps the only school that
has been established with a view to
improve the quality of the work OF
young mechanics is the New York
Trade School. So far then as the pur-
pose of this paperis concerned manual
may be said to have had its
origin in the two convictions, that
present methods of instruction in pub
lie schools are incomplete, failing to
recognize, as they do, the importance
of hand-training as an essential adjunct
to brain-culture, and that present
methods are not preparative enough
for the life that the majority of public
school children must enter.
1t is in no sense the object of this
paper, in dealing with the educational
value of manual training, to urge that
our schools should become trade
and give instruction in speci-
fed trades, with the avowed purpose
Of fitting pupils for such pursuits
This is not essential in order that
training may be Incorporated
into our courses of study. For, from
IN educational standpoint, manual
training does not mean the manufac-
lure of so many carpenters and machi-
lists and printers, but the acquire
nent of skill and ingenuity in manipu-
alton of objects and tools us part of |
education. 1t is import
mt that the hand should have as
varied a training as the brain, and
hat pupils should be equipped with
MANUAL as well as with mental readi-
ness and power The great COM
of manual training is that |
t practically broadens and enhances
elementary education.
The absorption of food by the
gestive organs is an aimIess and val,
ess thing, physiologically considere,
mless that food is transmitted into
physical energy through the circula-
DRY, and nervous, and muscular sys-
ems. And so knowledge, at least in
is practical bearings, is impotent, un- i
esS the power to utilize and to supple
nent that knowledge 90 along with
t. Mental power will be stimulated |
@ that degree that the eNDreSSinp