The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1892-05-12

can have but one meaning, and that is to
teach our boys and girls how to earn an
honest living by the skilled labor of their
own hands. Schools of manual training
first sprang into existence in 1868, when
the faculty Of the Naval Acadamy at An
the officers of our Navy the use Of mechan
ical tools, a system which has steadily gone
forward until the present time. st. Louis
University the Boston Institute of Tech
nology and Cornell University. were the
first institutions to add mechanical labo
ratores to their equipments. The Spring
fourth venture in this direction, and with
such gratifying results that in 1885 they in
troduced manual training into their pub
lie schools and they now enjoy the envl-
able distinction of being the first city
which cave to the world that education
which trains The hand in harmony with
the intellectual faculties. Ann Harbor,
Michigan. in the same year added mechan-
zeal shops to its curriculum. and now
ranks high as a training school. The
Pratt Institute at Brooklyn has well fur
nished departments for the various me-
chancal trades. san Francisco is said to
have the finest manual training schools in
the world The Toledo high school. with
its $50 pupils doing at once it's academic
work and its manual labor, seems to be
what should be sought for in every high
school in the land. Russia did much
coward popularizing the work of these
schools. through her manual school eX-
hibit at the Centennial Exhibition. Dur
inc the last quarter century there have
been gigantic strides in almost every
avenue of public Improvement, and the
question naturally arises. have our public
schools kept pace with this advancement
or do they remain much the same as they
We're a decade OF Years ago? President
Gilman of the John Hopkins University
taking alarm at the plebianism creeping
into neghboring universities, in his late
address calls upon the faculty to stand by
the college curriculum to a man. never al
lowing 4 word of disreSpect in regard to
its management to cross theil lips. And
shall it be said that the public school
system can ever be thus governed?
Tie Republican Journal OF last week
says:
Papers ON manual training We're read
and discussed at the evening session. but
the new ,paper reports afford nothing for
quotation. This is to be regretted as the
subject is one of much interest. and is be
coming of local interest. as at least one
manual training school has been establish
in Maine.
! waited for the report of the late Edu-
cational Association of our own State, but
could lind nothing in regard to manual
training nothing but the old, old story of
Grammar. Arithmetic. Geography. etc.
Does this mean that the subject is pur-
posely avoided. OF does it mean that the
faculty of Maine schools consider it an i'm
practicable scheme. and are thus. at an
| early moment. washing their hands OF the
whole business? Certainly there is a dam
ger of placing the value OF liberal educa
tiNn too low in our laudahle efforts to as
sist those pupils who may not be financial
ly able ~ obtain liberal education, but
must III necessity have the trade We
lose many promising pupils at the close Of
the grammar school course who would
gladly pursue their studies through the
High school only that tbey realize, that
At the end of the four wears. they are no
nearer being competent to take their
| places in the ranks of this fast pushing
! 18th century business world than they are
| to-day. But if this period could be passed
With their minds ON their books. and their
hand Oh the lever which is to enable them
with mind stored with Knowledge and
a profession or trade: then we would
have an educational phase which would
! speedily revolutionize and reform many
veXing social questions OF to-day.
That there must be a pathway thought
ont. happy medium between the intense
~ liberal and the no less partisan mechan-
zeal education, Will give to thoughtful
minds sense of responsibility in asking
for this change While we do not want a
John Hopkins curriculum that is immuta-
Bile, neither do we ask for a modern cur
riculum after this fashion.
Nisitor-''I understand that the public
schools of this city are models of nine
teenth century progress. Little boy
" es' IN, that's wot every one says. | 90
to en- ''What do you study?' ''Oh,
everything and DRAWN an cookin,
and bacterlology, an music, an spectrum
analysis. an SEWN on buttons, an agri-
cultural chemistry, an dishwashin'. an
everything" Street u Smiths Good
News.
But what we want, what the near future
must give if there is to be a future worthy
OF the boys and girls upon whom is to de-
volve the labor of controlling it, is mental
work hand in hand with manual training
Shack, not stack, as many Of our Maine
EXCHANGES have it, is the name of the