Omaha daily bee., 1892-10-16
M1NnAL rRALNlNG.

MANUAL RAINING.
1t is perhaps illustrative of the grow
ing interest in the subject OF manual
training that an eastern political club
has among its declaration OF princi pies
this: "Proper manual training should
be made n part Of the public school sys-
tenn" 1t also declares that reasonable
ana constitutional legislation in the
interest OF manual labor should be con-
stantly urged" There has been a
marked progress in public sentiment
within few years, particularly in the
east, in favor OF making manual training
n part of the public school system and
n considerable advance has been made
in incorporating it as part OF that sys-
tenn. There appears no reason to doubt
that the sentiment favorable to this
movement will continue to grow, be-
cause the conditions that prompt it lrc
steadily growing. The demand is be
coming more and more urgent from
year to year for a place in the mechan-
ical trades for American boys, both for
the reason that other channels of en-
ployment are ovcrcrowded and that the
trades offer better means of livelihood
than most other vocations. Tho mar
ltet for skilled labor expands with the
growth of the industries of the country
and the general development, and the
intelligent youth of the country are be-
ginning to understand that the largest
opportunities and the highest rewards
are to be found in the workshops rather
l,,, -. l,
Europe has furnished this country
valuable instruction and example in tho
matter of manual training Sweden in
stituted it twenty years ago, in what is
known as the "sloid" system, which
technically means the different kinds of
handiwork used educationally BY this
system, which has been carried to great
perfection in Sweden, the children in
the public schools are taught to be
handy with tools from the age of or 10
years 1t is simply preparatory, train
| ing the hand and eye for higher forms
/ of skilled labor to be taught later in
| technical schools, which are the natural
| outgrowth of the system. Manual
| training schools are general in Ger
many, and they abound, also, in Austria,
Belgium, Switzerland and to a less eX-
tent in England. France leads all other
countries in popularizing industrial
education, but it is being extended
everywhere in Europe. There is no
valid reason why it should not be found
as desirable Il system here as there, and
at any rate the time has come when
there must be greater provision made
for the industrial education of American
youth in order that they may be self
sustaining ana enjoy n larger measure
of independence than is possible in the
precarious and poorly paid employments
into which SO large a proportion of them
now drift.
The expediency of making manual
training part of the public school
system is widely approved, though there
are some who object to it. Those who
advocate it, however, have an advantage
| in the fact that wherever it has been in
troduced it has worked well-not every
where with equal merit, but nowhere
without sufficient success to justify it's
continuance. Whatever danger there
may be is in the possibility of the train
ing being carcied beyond legitimate
limitations rs a part of public school in
struction, but this does not present an
insurmountable difficulty and ought not
to the extension of tho principle.