Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-11-03
BOTH BODY And MIND.
THEIR EQUAL DEVELOPMENT BY
MANUAL TRAINING METHODS.

eome Suggestions from . Training School
Director and Expert-How the Hand and
Brain Should Grow Together-No At
temp to Cultivate Dexterity.
Although manual training schools are no
longer experimental, and the work OF attain
ing symmetrical development Of human
powers has, through their agency, ceased to
be problem and become an accomplished
fact, there are still to befound 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 ard indis-
pensable part of any perfect system OF educa-
ton, its merits are not realized as fully and
unreservedly as they must and VIII 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.. II. Woodward, director of the man
uaI training school Of Washington univer-
sity, ST. Louis, a famous seat of the new
learning. A paper read By him before the
meeting Of the superintendent's department
of the National Educational association at
Washington, D. c., has been issued by the
United States bureau of education. In it
Professor Woodward makes an argument In
support of the manual training system, both
on theoretical and practical lines. His dis
cussion 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 a
more general reading and TO arouse greater
interest than could possibly be hoped for from
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. If the new sys-
tenn has no fruit which the old does not yield,
if it fails in valuable results where the other
succeeds, or il 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 a school with the clements 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
tia) to a 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 a citizen, u 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 misconception of
its objects and purpose. The professor is
particularly severe on that class of DIRECTORS
who confound manual training schools with
trades colleges and agricultural institutions.
He confesses to a 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 10 reference to the fact,
and is, perhaps, not aware of it, 1t is never
theless 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 eff
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
iect of manual training when he says:
In manual training school, properly 50
called, no attempt is made to cultivate dex
terity at the expense of thought. No mere
sleight 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
telhgent, 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 a
definite act of judgment At the same time
plainly see that the trade tendency is TO be
guarded against There is plenty of bad adj
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 be Graves with an irresistible appetite I
what may be called food for his physical ma
ture, when the senses are most acute; when
he is exquisitely conscious Of his growing
strength, his increasing power over the ex-
ternaI world; when his budding manhood
opens the door into the great workshop Of /
nature, and he is satisfied with nothing less 4
than actual contact with concrete forms and /
tangible forces.
At this period the records Of the past have /
little interest for healthy boy He must feel I
and act for himself: he must turn the key 1
with his own hands. and himself unbar the .
gates. He has no natural appetite To destroy; I
he DESTROYS because he cannot create. He .
can destroy without being taught how; bu. 4
how to build, how TO construct, how TO create
he does not know; there be requires in
struction. training, system, and they yield /
the keener pleasure
The boy demands reasons, and arbitrary,
unmeaninz rules are extremely disaastefuL
Until he has bass Of personal physical e1-
per!ence with which be may digest the expe-
rience Of Others, books have little meaning
and are Of little value.