Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-03-12
OBJECT OF MANUAL TRAINING
PROF. MORRISON EXPLAINS THE
BENEFITS OF THE SCHOOL.
1t Places the HfEh School Education
OF q Modern Rational Basis-A
Place Where the Boys May
Live Normally.

Professor G. B. Morrison, principal of the
Manual Training high school. addressed
the Young Mems Christian Association last
night. The attendance was small. He de-
voted the short time consumed to the Man.
ual Training school,.
THE Manual Training high school, he
saiG, lis the result of an attempt to place
secondary or high school education on a
modern, rational basis-an attempt to
make for boys and girls, between the ages
of II and 20 years, a good place in which
to grow, a place where for four years a
youth may live normally, may SO live that
when he steps out from the school to
some useful occupation he Will not nave
to be born again. The training high school
work Is not a mere preparation for life;
but IL is lifelike in its most happy, normal
and fruitful stage; a life that when school
days are ended does not collapse into a
period of disenchantment, but will go
right on working in the same way. and in
the same spirit, but on other material. The
manual training discards the dogma that
the best way to learn a thing is the study
of something else, and substitutes the
principal that an activity loses none Of Its
educational value because it is useful.
Our school is not intended for a certain
class of pupils of peculiar constitutions
constitution cut biased and requiring a
corresponding biased training. Or. the
contrary, 1t is intended for the perfectly
normal pupil, who may find full and free
exercise for his normal powers, physical,
lnteliectuai ana moral.
These threefold powers, while spoken Of
separately, cannot proceed apart in any
proper scheme of education. The intellect
has its bud and blossom in sensations and
grows normally only through perceptions
formed by contact with the material world.
Any so-called intellectual process which at
tenpts to appropriate the thought of an
other from a printed page without first
having possession of at least the elements
of the experience of the writer of that
page is not in reality an Intellectual process
at all, but a memoriZed shadow of such a
process, which not only often fails TO yield
TO the pupil actual benefit, but incapaci-
tates him to realize his own mental de-
foi The introduction of manual train
ing into our schools is generally supposed
to be an answer to g. demand for an edu-
cation which will more nearly conform to
the requirements of practical life. This
supposition is true. but this modern move
ment has a far deeper meaning and bears
a certain historic relation to other move
ments more or less remote; but interest
ing as it is time forbids giving a history Of
education.
when the board of education of this
city decided TO build a manual training
school a careful study was made of all
that the results already attained by these
schools was varied and ranged between
almost total failure and marked success.
owing 10 local conditions and individual
management The causes of failure as
well as successes were carefully studied,
In first introducing manual training into
the public schools of this country two mis-
takes have been made. first, by introduce
ing relatively too little manual training;
and second. by introducing relatively too
much.
''Our school comprises fifteen distinct
lines of work. all running parallel through
a period of four years: one in English and
composition. three in sciences. one in math-
ematics, two in drawing. two in manual
training, one in history and economics,
three in foreign languages. one In business
and one in music. This will at first thought
seem excessive, but ii should be remem-
bered that the whole is of course not re-
quired of any one pupil; to a certain ex-
tent 1t is elective"
Concluding. Professor Morrison said:
1.-The educational ideals of the past have
not produced the most satisfactory results.
and We find ourselves in this. the evening
of the nineteenth century, in a state of
dissatisfaction and unrest. We lave grown
to this condition gradually-we must grow
out of 1t gradually by first changing the
ideals. We have made the mistake of re-
instead of a moral one. We must get
closer to the laws of nature and find sal
walton in honesty. sobriety, cleanliness and
industry. We must prepare for war by
making ourselves fit subjects for peace.
War is a disease. and can be cured only
by the daily exercise of the cardinal prin-
ciples of industry and morality. The
strength of a nation is not in its arms,
but in its industries: the former can be
taken away. the latter can produce more.
The technical schools are now regarded
by European countries as the best safe
guards of their supremacy and perpetuity.
TIL Manual Training high school of our
own city Is a good place for boys and girls
to grow in. II dignifies labor and sends the
whole boy and the whole girl to school: 1t
enables them by its varied exercise of hand
and head to find their own powers and
choose their occupation intelligently. 1t fos-