Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-01-19
INDUSFRIAL EDUCATION.
WHAT IT IS AND MEANS FINE DIS
PLAY OF HANDIWORK.
Prof. j. G. Kennedy Before the Museum
Association : A Delightful
Lecture.

Those so fortunate as to attend the open
ing lecture of the California Museum Asso-
cations winter series, at the Crocker Art
Gallery last evening will always remem-
Der it as one of the most enjoyable and
profitable entertainments ever given in
Sacramento Professor ]. G. Kennedy, of
the Coggswell Polytechnic College, lectured
| on industrial education. He is a vigor-
Gus, fluent and entertaining speaker SIM
pie in diction. but strong in expression and
rich in thought.
| He spoke in the midst of long tables, tall
easels and elevated frames on which was
| fine display of work of the boys and girls
of the school, in patter making, forging,
| tool making, mechanical and free hand
drawing, designing for carpets, oilcloths,
paper, ETC., wood carving, joinery, framing,
! inlaying, turning wood finishing and panel
| making. These he used freely to illustrate
| his lecture, and he caused the audience
to examine the work in detail, which it did
| with pleasure and great satisfaction. A
! mere synopsis of the lecture can convey but
a faint idea of its orderly arrangement, the
| logical marshaling of proofs and the vigor-
| ous conclusions reached.
| The points made were these: Theoreti-
| cal education is that which is acquired
| from books and abstract statements with
| out the aid of laboratory, shop, or physi- |
cal activities. Practical education is that
which puts physical objects at the base of
| instruction. Europe is full of technical |
schools, we have few; devoted so long to |
conquering land and forest, we have neg |
| lected to teach practically, and as result |
we have few native American skilled work |
ers and send to Europe to supply the need. |
| For this reason, and because by arbitrary |
rules of trades, the American boy has |
small or no opportunity to compete and is |
crowded from industrial pursuits Now,
| however, America is awakening and we |
| have trade training and industrial schools |
and schools in designing in ST. Louis, To-
| ledo Chicago, Washington, Boston, New
York, San Francisco, and industrial teach
| ing in a score of smaller cities, in schools.
The object of education is not the devel-
opment of the mental, moral and physical,
for this may be attained and the being
starve because of I-self-helpfulness.
The youth must be prepared to take his
part in the reciprocal relations he has
with society. Society is a bundle of prac-
tees; the boy must be fitted to understand
them and take his part in them. Hence
dividual for the purposes of reciprocal du-
ties in society.
AT the dawn of humanity man was help
less without clothing or shelter and feed
ing upon what he could gather rudely. His J
physical necessities made him think, and
he developed the power to get things to his
| needs. AS he secured them he began to
| live better, aud with that mental and
| moral activities were manifest, and 50 he
grew.
Thus out of our physical necessities agri-
culture developed, and man was bound to
clothe himself; be wove grasses and thus
| he learned to manufacture raiment, and all |
| the time his mental and moral activities |
were growing stronger and better. Pres
emily one needed what another had and !
exchange was made, and so grew up trade |
and commerce. Then war was known, |
and though great evil it became a great |
good, for it brought into nations meeting |
| the best ideas and arts of other nations. |
| But as physical necessity no longer de- |
mands war for their procurement, we have |
reached the idea of the greater blessings of |
peace as the best protection to what we |
| have.
| From physical necessities came speech, |
and the abandonment Of symbols and ges-
lures for expression by the better forms |
of language was the result of physical ne |
cessity. Hence came literature. As physi- |
| cal necessity builded the man. and his |
moral and mental development kept pace,
science came to the front, and with it the |
| fine arts. For as men went, in thinking |
outside of the physical world, speculation |
began, and forgetting the physical world |
transcendentalism hourishes.
| So speech, law literature, song, religion
itself, came to the world through objective |
| illustration. Science without the objects
| (the laboratory was necromancy; with the
| laboratory 1t became a powerful lever for
good. So the human race developed |
| through activities. All these had physi- |
cal basis, and hence all teaching should be
| through the practices of the human race.
| The child at birth is an epitome of hui |
mainly at its dawn; it must be educated |
| through physical activities, and so on up |
| to moral and mental development. In in |
dustrial education this is the formula:
| Object neutrality-suspicious..
| But in the common schools of California |
we begin at the wrong end, and this is the |
| formula:
Expression-conception
| 1t is sad, wrong, cruel, that this is so. |
Our normal schools are 400 years behind |
| the age with few exceptions. We must |
refrain all our teachers. Why are most |
bad boys and girls the children of good |
people? Because parents don't understand |
how to take advantage of the child's phys |
ical activities they hammer precept into it, |
and repress natural innocent activity; they |
begin with expression, try to beat in con-
ception and then expect the child to love
the object.
But object teaching originates thought
and from that flows expression. You wish,
for example, to teach the child the idea of
clearness. You go about it with express
sion and abstraction and beating in of
ideas (2) and then expect it to understand
and love the method. But take it to the
brook clear as crystal; say that is clear"
how quick the boy grasps the idea of clear
ness, and applies it in all manner of ways.
What are the advantages of industrial
education? 1t develops critical judgment.
The lad who framed this trestle or truss
and no man can make better-or the one
who made this panel learns to judge in
hundred ways, and so his power of judg-
ing is strengthened along the whole line.
1t enables him to choose his calling. Per-
haps he is dissatisfied with his framing.
and he goes to the forge, and finds that
after all he is a better worker in woods, or
he tries the machine shop, or carving, or
designing for special manufacture, and so
chooses.
The best mechanical scholar is the best
in his mathematical, scientific end classical
studies All training schools demonstrate
| that fact. when IdtneT says, MY boy
is good in Latin and Greek, but he has no
mechanical ability" he says his boy is
fool. 1t may sound harsh, but it is true.
The objective, the industrial system fixes
boy into habits of physical labor; fits
him with self.helpfulness, develops orig
inality, trains the perceptive faculties and
makes him keen and strong in observation;
connects for him the physical activities OF
school with the physical activities of life,
and lastly, in accordance with the laws OF
human development, best develops his
mental, moral and physical powers and
makes of the Individual allit is capable of.
The speaker then explained the division
of the hours of labor and study, how one
rests the child and freshens it for the other,
| outlined the curriculum in the best indus
trial schools. OF designing he had strong
word to say, pointing out how drawing en-
tiers into every art and manufacture, and
he declared that the people of Sacramento
had in their School of Design, with its
superior advantages, that which they
should bend every energy to build up, for
out of it they would have cause to take on
pride before the world.
| o1r; 4 -o1 .fr- IL