The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-10-23
BOTH BODY AND MIND.
THEIR EQUAL DEVELOPMENT BY
MANUAL TRAINING METHODS.

Some Suggestions from a Training School
Director and Expert-How the Hand and
Brain Should Grow Together-No At
tempt to Cultivate Dexterity.
Although manual training schools are no
longer experimental, and the work OF attain
ing symmetrical development Of human
powes has, through their agency, ceased 10
be problem and become an accomplished
fact, there are still to be found mainly among
the advocates of old systems, those who doubt
or at any rate deny the efficacy OF the new
one. These hostile influences have been
powerful enough to retard the progress Of
the new idea Although manual training
schools have become recognized and indls-
pensable part of any perfect system Of educa-
ton, its merits are not realized as fully and
unreservedly as they must and will be IN the
not distant future. Its advocates are now
compelled to defend it against the assaults OF
the old school instructors, and, IN their turn.
to attack the old forms and usages which
have fallen short Of the best possible results
Among the ablest Of these advocates Is PRO
fessor c. VI Woodward, director OF the man
ual training school Of Washington unlVer
sity, st. Louis, o famous seat Of the new
learning paper read by him before the
meeting OF tho superintendent's department
of the National Educational association al
Washington, D. c., has been issued by the
United States bureau Of education In II
Professor Woodward makes All argument IL
support of the manual training system, both
on theoretical and practical lines. His dis
| c,lssion of the question was not intended to
be exhaustive, but for that reason, perhaps,
| it embodies the most striking and salient fea-
lures of the question in way to command
more general reading and to arouse greater
interest than could possibly be hoped for from
a longer and more detailed effort
This candid admission in the early part OF
| the work will strike the unprejudiced reader
| with favor.
"In speaking Of the relation Of manual
training to the mind and body we are all
| forced to make comparisons II the new sys-
tenn has.no fruit which the old does not yield,
If it fails in valuable results where the other
succeeds, or If the new product does not on
the whole outweigh the old, then the new has
no sufficient excuse for being"
Professor Woodward indicates the wide
field of effort and usefulness open to advo-
Gates Of the new education when he says:
The proper education Of today IS prepar-
alton for the duties and responsibilities Of
| life Our students must therefore come out
Of school with the elements Of high charac-
ter, with vigorous, healthy body and mind,
| able to put both hand and brain to work, to
enter readily into sympathetic cooperation
with the institutions Of their country and
time. Practical accomplishments are essen
tial to good education, though they are not
the whole of it. While training to the full
faculties of the Individual, including his me-
chanical powers, and fitting him to act his
part as citizen, home builder and bread
| winner we must not fail to set high value on
! the finest products OF the human mind and to
| give fair introduction to the great fields Of
art and philosophy.
Reference is then made to class Of people
whose opposition to manual training methods
/ Of education arise from misconcepton Of
its objects and purpose. The professor Is
| particularly severe on that class Of objectors
who confound manual training schools with
trades colleges and agricultural institutions
| he corfesses to loss OF patience with people
who remain under such a misrepresentation as
| to the real nature and character Of the work
| of manual training schools when the truth Is
so easily attainable. Although Professor
| Woodward makes no reference to the fact,
E, and is, perhaps, not aware Of it, it is never.
| theess true that the very general misinfor-
nation in this respect year or two ago led
| some of the leading trades unions Of the coun-
| try to an investigation as to the probable ef.
| feet on the value of skilled labor, Of an IN
crease in the labor supply from the ranks Of
| the graduates of these schools. OF course the
| investigation proved that there was nothing
| whatever to fear from that source.
Professor Woodward briefly states the OBJ
| ject of manual training when he says:
| In manual training school, properly 50
4 called, no attempt is made to cultivate de1
| rerity at the expense Of thought No mere
sleght of hand is aimed at, nor is muscular
exercise of itself held to be Of educational
| value. An exercise, whether with tools or
with books, is valuable only in proportion to
the demand it makes upon the mind for In
telligent, thoughtful work In the school
shop the stage of mechanical habit Is never
reached The only habit actually acquired
| is that Of thinking. No blow Is struck, no
| line drawn, no motion regulated, from mus
cular habit The quality Of every act springs
| from the conscious will accompanied by
definite act of Judgment. At the same time
plainly sea that the trade tendency is to be
guarded against. There is plenty Of bad ad-
| vice. foolish schemes and indiscreet haste for
putting manual training where it does not
| belong, and where no adequate preparations
are made for it, But in this respect we are
not singular; every good cause has much to
fear and much to suffer from its friends.
| beg OF YOU not to hold manual training re-
sponsible for all that is said and done in its
name.
And again:
There comes time in the life OF every boy
when he Graves with an irresistible appetite
what may be called food fo- his physical ma
ture: when the senses are most acute; when
he is exquistely conscious Of his growing
strength, his increasing power over the e1.
ternal world when his budding manhood
opens the door into the great workshop OF
| nature. and be is satisfied with nothing less
than actual contact with concrete forms and
| tangible forces
| At this period the records Of the past have
little interest for a healthy boy. He must feel
| and act for himself; he must turn the key
with his own hands, and himself unbar the
gates He has no natural appetite to destroy;
be DESTROYS because he caunot create. He
can destroy without being taught how; but
how to build, how to construct, how to create
be does not know; there he requires in
struction, training, system, and they yield
the keener pleasure.
The boy demands reasons, and arbitrary,
uu,neaning rules arc extremely distasteful
Until he has basis of personal physical e1
perience with which be may digest the e1pe
rience of Others, books hske little meaning
and are OF little value.
Then is the time to give him manual tram
| ing. Give him his saw, plane and chisel;
give him his lathe, his forge and anvil; give
him his blow pipe and his crucible, his mag
net end his engine, and teach him their logic
aad their power His mind will absorb them
oil with infinite relish. In their forms and