The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-06-23

bers will enter next fall, but returns
from the grammar schools indicate an
J entering class Of about 215, ana a to.ai
of not far from $50 pupils-much the
| greater proportion being boys. Inc re-
proach of small numbers, and inciden-
tally great cost to the city, Will there-
fore no longer be justified by facts, anu
it is evident that the problem soon "
be solved at the Boardman school Is not
how to attract pupils, but how to prop
erly accommodate those who wish to at
tend.
The past year has been noteworthy
one and / wish to-day particularly 10
call YOUR attention to some results
which already have attracted wide at
tention and which taken in connection
with similar results obtained elsewhere,
will l think, tend to place manual
training high schools on higher level
educationally and in the estimation Oh
the public.
There has been a general feeling both
Oh the part of the public and those con-
nected with secondary schools that III
manual training high school, the aca-
demic work must necessarily suffer on
account of time given to manual work
and drawing-that however valuable
the latter it must be to considerable
extent at the expense of the former 30
strong has been this feeling that with
very few exceptions, no attempt mas
been made by those in charge OF such
schools to maintain high academic
standing. All agree that a boys mind
is developed and made more mature
through trained use of hand and eye,
but nearly all have hesitated to test
the theory by calling upon him to do
even as much as one who has not had
such training. The matter was earn
estly discussed at the last meeting of
| the American M. II. association and has
been made the subject of many talks
before other educational societies and of
numerous articles in the periodicals.
| At the Boardman schools the boys
taking the scientific or Sheffield prepar-
atory course, have been called upon to
| do not only all the manual work and
drawing required of the others, but also
to meet fully the requirements of the
Sheffield scientific school, which prob
| ably are more exactlng than those of
any other school of technology in the
| United States. Our first classes took
their entrance examinations last June.
| OF the five boys trying the finals" all
passed and entered In September prac-
| tically without conditions. or the eight
who tried the "preliminaries" all re-
ceived qualification papers, and of
| these four passed so many of the exami-
nations that they were advised to study
during the summer and try the remain
der in the fall Three took advantage
of the opportunity and entered without
waiting another year, One boy subse-
quently decided to enter Wesleyan uni
versity, his Yale certificate being ac-
cepted and he is now doing we'll there.
| During thesfall term the Sheffield fresh
men are arranged in classes alphabet
cally, but at the beginning of the win
| ter term those whose standing has
proved highest form what is known as
| the first or "honor" division. Abous
one-third of all those in the freshmen
class succeeded in making this division,
the standing of the other two-thirds not
being sufficiently high.
| The following letter from Professor
| William G. Mixter, chairman Of the
freshman committee, will show the
| standing of the Boardman boys:
| In answer to your letter of January
| 20 | will state that of the seven men,
| bers of the freshman class who were
| prepared at the Boardman manual
| training school, six are now in the first
| division in scholarship. This is a very
| large percentage to attain a position in
this honor division and reflects great
! credit upon the preparatory school
where they are fitted. 1t furnishes sat
| isfactory proof that the instruction CIV
en- In 1t will cradle It's graduates to
maintain a high standard of scholar
ship in this department of the univer-
sity."
We are not likely ] presume, always
| to maintain so high standard in the
following years, but it seems to me
sufficient answer to those who have
claimed that a manual training high
school is necessarily inferior on it's aca-
| demic side
| Mr.. Larkins, principal Of the Brook
| lyn manual training high school, writes
me that his experience has been SINH
lar, giving the following particulars:
| For admission to the teachers normal
| training school in 1899, of all candidates
55 per cent. were successful, but of cam
| didates from his school, rs per cent
We're successful For state scholarships
at Cornell, IS candidates were examined
and of these 81 We're successful, but of
| the five manual training high school
| boys included in the number, all were
| successful, One of his boys took the
| university scholarship at Cornell; no
| other Brooklyn boy was successful. One
was the leader in freshmen mathemat-
| les in the engineering course at Cor
| nell; another was leader in freshmen
architectural drawing and design; an
other leader in sophomore mathematics,
and out of $50 candidates in COMPETE
ton for editorship of the Sipley Me-
chanical Engineering Magazine, one of
the Brooklyn training high school boys
| got it.
| / have heard no complaint Of over
work or seen evidence of it among the
| Boardman boys and strongly feel that
on account of the clearness Of percep-
| ton, care and accuracy which go into
a properly executed piece of hand work
| or drawing, boy is better able to un-
derstand and make faster progress with
his books. Apart from this is the i'm
mense gain which comes from skill in
the use of hands and eye. and a knowl-
edge of many of the processes in COM
mon use about us.
J I have dwelt at length upon the aca-
| demic training given to boys expecting
1