The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1891-05-12
Manual Training in the Schools.

The listener advises any one VIII,
has his doubts about tho usefllnes
and practicability Of manual trainin.
in the scools, or who has a friend wht
is yet unconyerted, to go to himsel
and take his fricad to sce the graa
exhibition of the work of scboo
children at the Boston English School
and observe the pupils actually Al
work with their carpentry, their sew.
ing or their cooking. The English
High School is certainly the most in,
structive place in Boston just now
even il it is vacation. There is out.
wardly certain samencss in the cx.
hibits, but little observation will de.
tect many differences. Schools as faI
west as Chicago, and as far south as
Washington, were represented with
all kinds of work-wood carving
joinery, iron work, moulding in clay,
drawing, sewing, cookery and all the
branches of kindergarten work. AT
the head of the whole, as the model,
as yet unapproached, which all other
manual training schools are working
up TO, is the exhibit of the Massachu-
sets Institute of Technology. Here
we find genuine art--and the mechan-
ical skill which is the really trained
dandicraft of this generation. Stand
ing next below the Technology exhibit
is the work of the Manual Training
high School Of The city of Phiadel-
phia. The school is of course not a
special school, where the pupils spend
all their time, like the Institute of
Technology. IT is merely a branch of
the regular public schools, where
pupils from the high and grammar
schools spend five hours a week in
learning how to do something. How
well they learn to do it is proved by
these beautiful examples OF wrought
iron scroll work, which would delight
the eye of John ia kin himself. To
learn such work as this, by the way,
is just what Mr.. Ruskin has been
spending his life in trying to get
British workmon to do; and here are
public school boys doing it, with five
hours a week of practice. The same
boys learn how to file and fit all man
ner of iron castings, as well as TO draw
exquisitely pretty designs for art
decorations. rte TnnauUiFltiu sHal,-
ual Training High School represents
the marriage Of Art and Industry.
The incredulous person, who shifts
with scorn whenever Industrial Art
in schools is mentioned, and thinks of
it as something fancy and new
tangled, might learn more, and scoll
a little less, perhaps, if he saw the
exhibit of the sewing done by girls in
the Boston public schools. There are
some darned stockings and patched
trousers in this department. which are
certainly a work Of art. However a
yellow cotton stocking, with bcaut-
full big darn in the toe, made by a
school girl dozen years Old, entirely
as the result Of instruction obtained in
the schools, may also claim TO belong
to the realm Of the practical; and so
may the symmetrical, comfortable
looking patches on the seat of pair
of boys pantaloons. Here are several
entire suits Of boys clothcs--coats,
waists, trouscrs-wholly made by
school girls. The cooking is equally
practical. Poor girls viii tell you
exactly why you should put flour
in an omclctte, as SO many house
wives ignorantly do; its because the
nun ldhCS lOllSCi ~ .'voiN. lh"h AHN
eggs" says little Maggie O'Brien
brislily; "and if you cook the flour
enough your eggsll be oyerdone, and
if you cook your eggs just enough
your flour viii be half raw and not
fit to eat. No fancy business or mere
book learning about that cnIinently
practical bit of information; yet the
light flaky olnclette that littlc Maggie
O'Brien makes for you in the cooking
class is a work Of art, too. With such
aF she will win her way, sometime,
70 the heart of an honest working
man, by the usual ayenuc--his stom-
ach, and viii give him health and
home attractons.-[Boston Tran
script. "'