The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-07-03
WORK FOR MIND AND HAND
CONCLUDING SESSION OE TRAINTNG
 E0ROOL dSSoCfATION.

Complete Model system''--Department of Manual Training-w. W. Ker on ''Eiootricity ns Taught in Hebrew Tech- nical Institute"- General Discussion.
 The last day of the meeting of the American Manual Training School as- sociation began yesterday morning at 9:3O o'clock, with paper by Mir. G. H. Bryant, principal of the Townsend in dustriai school of Newport, R. I. MT. Bryant is one of the leading educators Of New England and Is an exponent of tEe newer school Of thought along edu- cat.onal lines His paper created g. lengthy discussion, many members de- siriag to express modified views on the same subject. MT. Bryants sub jsct was 'The Exercise vs. the Com plste Model System" He said in part:
 Tt may seem to many here, especial iy teachers, that in choosing this sub- jsct for a paper, I am simply threshing over old straw; that the subject of shopwork as an element of manual training should, by this tine have ad- vanced as far beyond the experimental stage that the general principles under lying such courses should be fairly es- abolished and that present differences are those of detail and comparatively unimportant.
 And yet I suppose there is hardly a manual training teacher before me who regards his shop course as perfect. Our views regarding the educational values of different exercises and shop processes, and our ideas of their reception and assimilation by the youthful mind are constantly changing. To-day we think that this exercise or that method Of working the proper one to fit on to what has preceded and SUD- ply the necessary step onward in the development of mind and hand. To- morrow we find that the exercise or method does not produce the result ex- pected or required at that point, and it is dropped, reconstructed or changed to some other point in the course.
 These differences of method were es- pecially emphasized to me by a recent tour that I took among the manual training schools of New England and New York. I observed shop courses, especially in wood work, varying so widely for similar grades, not only in the forms of the lessons, but in the principles of instruction involved, that 1t was evident that quite widely differ ent views were held by the various teachers or planners of the courses as to the best methods. Indeed, a careful inspection of the exhibits now in this building will show this also. Of course, no plea is made here for uniform courses of shopwork for similar grades in all schools so far as individual ex- ercises are concerned. Teachers seldom like to copy another teachers methods, whether in Latin or blacksmithing- originality is the thing. And so each teacher of shopwork thinks he must work out an entirely original course Probably no given course of shopwork could be followed in all schools, even if 1t were desirable on other grounds, ow- ing to varying conditions of equip ment, time allowed, etc, etc.
 "In using the word system in my title I do not mean to imply that there are two definite schools of manual training shop work based on these two methods, or even that their principles are essen- tially antagonistic, but imply that these underlying principles are sufficiently distinct to make choice of method de- sirable to fit the stage of development of the pupil i'll nearly all forms of shop work.
 "The primal principles have been, it seems 60 me. too much overlooked in the past Courses had been designed with but little regard for them, tho Idea being that any set of pieces in which the various tools and processes are introduced successvely will do without regard to whether the exercise or combination of exercises will devel- op the pupils powers of thinking, plan ming and forming concepts. es well as his mere manual skill.
 Probably the two most prominent examples of the exercise and complete model system respectively are the Rus sian system and the Swedish sloyd, or in this country the Arericanized sloyd. Indeed these two may be said to be the parents of all the shopwork system now used in manual education in grammar and high schools. The principal idea o; the Russian system was the making by tho pupil of series of pieces or ex = ercises graded as to difficulty and as to buCCcSStCH OI lCOIS tttlO ptoCecSCSb anu on each of which no more time, labor, or material should be spent than was necessary to acquire the skill to per- form the special operation involved in that exercise. So we had a series of joints in wood and iron. each joint be- ing a lesson in itself, an isolated oper" ation. But little attention was paid to the constructive relation of these joints or operations to each other as to gen. eral construction. At the end of the course, if sufficient skill! in the use of the tools had been acquired, construc- ton piece or tive, oon oiMing several of the joints. was allowed; but this was incidental and was sor. of show piece, a graduating thesis, as it were Manual skill was the important thing; the pieces made were of little impor- tance. In the words of Dr. Runkle, 'TEs mnterial products of instruction have seldom any value except as waste
 "yJntil 1888 this system (the Russian) was practically the only one followed, or indeed the only one known as a, de- finite system in this country (not count ing the two or three schools where man. ,ifantcring for the market was carried
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