Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1898-10-26

New what does this hard and eve
training % for the youth OF Menauo-
ME! In the case of the girls it plain
~ teaches them useful things--to cook
and sew. But why should. the boy who
is TO become lawyer or a preacher
spend time in casting metal or turning
OUT doorknobs2 In the first place most
boys are not TO enter the learned pro-
LESSONS, They are to take up the
trades and arts calling for some me-
chanical cleverness. This the school
gives them For some reason a com
mencement day of a high school is re-
sarded as a jubilation. But there is
another side-a pathetic side. A city
like Madison of 10000 people puts on
carnival colors
What for? To see forty or fifty youth
who can say 81 have finished NV
course" But where are the ninety and
nine Nine-tenths of school children are
said to fa.l out by the age of IA. why?
Because the curriculum further ON has
nothing but culture" for them-desir-
able but not intimately related to the
bread and butter problem; and for the
great mass of boys and girls, not at
tractive.
Here manual training steps in. Put
that restless boy into WOODWORKING
room with competent teacher. Give
him a lathe to operate. Let him feel
he is creating something, and he be-
comes interested, awakened, amenabIe
manly. Manual training keeps boys
longer in school. From one city II is
reported the attendance of boys ir the
high school has increased one-third.
TlsaC Vol. 49,
It awakens boys whom the reading
book and algebra fail to reach. The boy
who recites "Horatus at the Bridge
ceases 10 be the whole thing" and
the girl who sat listless and embar-
raised because others could ex-
eel her in literature finds praise await
ing her for her sewing or her cooking.
Manual training keeps boys out Of mis-
chief both in and out of school, The pu-
pills are so in earnest that mischief and
foolishness seem out of place. The
student generally has an auxiliary lab
oratory at home where he spends a
good share of his spare time. Manual
training stimulates love for truth and
simplicity; it gives correct notions of
things, relations and forces; it explains
mathematics and science; it aids boys
in choosing an occupation; it dignifies
mechanical occupations; it brings the
| manually trained employer to appreci-
ate labor; 1t stimulates invention; it in
creases the bread-winning and home
making of the boy for he becomes q
handy 'tinkerer."
Such are the claims for the supple
mentary instruction of manual train
ing schools like the Stout project in
Menomonie.
The design of such schools is not to
teach trades. There are, however, in
some cities trade schools, and it would
be no surprise to see Senator Stout
establish such an institution in Wis
consin. Good roads is also a reform
dear to his heart His practical view OF
things is shown by plan he has in
reserve to provide. instruction through
a well-trained expert in country dis
tricts, each community to experiment
on a given stretch of road-not to build
an expensive. ideal road, but to better
the road they already have. Competi-
tive tests should spur them to excel
lence. A travelling library of pictures
works of art Of the better class-is his
method of Frightening the lives of coun-
try people who live in remote districts
He is eagerly expecting the election of
Superintendent Harvey of the Milwau-
kee normal school, in the confidence
that he will crystalline into practice the
long planned reform of abolishing the
many cross-road schools, substituting
occasional well-equipped grade schools
to which children shall be driven in
public conveyances eight or ten miles,
If necessary. OF Senator Stout's trav-
cling libraries there is no time to speak.
The value of libraries of all kinds has
so possessed him. in fact. that he con-
ceives of a new professor for our coll
leges--an all-round library man-whose
sole business it shall be to lead youth
into love of books and an intimate
knowledge of their uses.
do you know" Senator Stout said,
reyerting to country life, that of the
women in county asylums in our part
OF the state nine-tenths of them are
farmers wives?
What brought them there. ] asked,
work"
That's popular mistake. They were
brought there by loneliness. New,
cheerful, social clements must be intro
duced into their lives
"A man need not wear dirty linen or
grow red in the face making political
speeches to be truly "the farmers
friend" ORLANDO BURNETT.