The Portland daily press., 1897-10-23

that of workers in other materials.
Therefore the manual training schools,
with their working in wood, open up at
once training in the most important
and exacting branch of practical develop
ment of hand and mind.
1t is more enobling to be able 10 MAKE
something with ones hands than 10 Do
engaged in trading on the products OF
Others labor. The time ought to come
when this nobility of labor will be recog-
ognized by better hours of labor ana a
| large return. And the manual training
school is an instrument for creating une
proper public sentiment on the suoJec6 OF
labor.
MR.. JOSEPH A. MCGOWAN,
of the Portland School Committee, was
next introduced. He said he had peeh
interested in the subject since mayor
Baxter had SO generously established tne
system in Portland schools. He had VS.
tied the schools often and had been great
ly pleased with the intellectual and man
ual development which the boys were
getting.
And the most important feature Oh IL
all is the lesson of true democracy thab IL
teaches. When we are taught thao 'iie
man who works skillfully with his nanos
is of as great importance as the clerK VI
the lawyer, there will be fewer auuoes
and snobs The muster list OF the prom
I,~ at
the successful men come largely from inc
country. May this not be due somewhat
to the early manual training OF eoun ~
life.
If we study the poems Of Longfellow we
shall lind no nobler character than the
village blacksmith. whose brow lis wet
With honest SWEAT Mr. MCGOWAN COM
mented at length on the lesson taught,
quoting freely from the noble poem.
-Otis M. Warren has said we have too
few trained mechanics in this country.
Many who assume to be such are not
masters of their trades. There is on the
other hand too great rush for positions
as clerks and office boys. But if they are
determined to be clerks and Office boys
the course in manual training will be
very useful to them. The boy who has
been taught that mechanical task can
not be exercised properly without acoura-
cy, will realize also the need of aocura-
cy in balance sheet.
The next subject was
PRIMARY ARITHMETIC.
the discussion being begun by Miss Nell
lie l.. Cloudman, of the Gorham Normal
School. Miss Cloudman's letter was a
discussion of the "Spear Method so
called, whereby the children are taught
ration, comparison and visua izing by
means of objects which they handle and
from which they deduce the arithmetic
facts. Miss Cloudman spoke highly of
the interest which this method excited in
the pupils.
Mr.. T. E. G. Robbins, of Deering. was
to have discussed this paper, but in his
absence Miss Sarah Taylor, of Portland
training school was called upon. She ad-
mitted the excellence Of features of the
| system, but thought it not all new, and
not necessarily all correct in theory.
| Supt. Corthen of Gorham Normal
, School was next called on. He said he
had seen in the Atlantic Monthly an article
describing the technical man as withou 1
judgment, conscience or will. Mr..
Corthell said the object of education was
first, discipline, power and growth. and
ccond, knowledge. There must first be
development of will, at the foundation
Of training. To educate it is necessary
to drill, and the child must be capable
OF accomplishing the drill. In education
the object must always be the same
but the drill must always vary to prevent
wearying the child. This will depend
upon the fertility of the intellect of the
teacher. Talk of normal method 1t il
nonsense. Success in the primary teaching
means fertility of invention Of the teacher
her power to vary the drill while keeping
to the main object. 1t is as foolish to give
the pupil too much of the concrete, as moi
to give him any The boy learns by
counting that mines are fifty -four. But
he does not remember it after he has
counted it out once. He must master il
absolutely. He cannot do this by relying
on the concrete meGhod of attaining the
result. He must learn it absolutely. Mr.
Spears method is defective in relying toe
much on the concrete idea Of proportion.
Two is not twice as great as one, as the
Spear method would show. 1t Is twice az
many. Number is as much @ psychical
relation as magnitude. The boy who
has four apples knows he9 has twice as
many as the boyswho has two, and there
Is just as much fun in it as in compari-
son OF magnitudes.
STATE SUPT. STETSON.
was expected to speak in the afternoon
but as he W as to be called away in the
afternoon, he desired to speak in the fore
noon.
His subject was ''Things to be Taught
Outside OF Text Books" Mr.. Stetson
said that one might be benumbed by
What he learns as we'll as strengthened
by what he does. There were some
Things that might we'll be left out OF the