The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-05-04


 men Large Part of English nnd
 Continental Sch ooling Nothing Her,
 to Take the Place of the Failing Alp.
 prentice system.
 John Martin writes to the New York
 Evening Post: Every year there are
 new machines and better methods in-
 vented for our manufactures and com
 nlerce and the firm that refuses to < adopt the improvements would soon fall behind and become bankrupt. So it is
 in education. Wider knowledge of child
 nature, more sympathetic study of it's
 laws of growth and careful experiment
 on the easiest method of developing 1t
 have put the ways of twenty years ago
 entirely out of date. One of the most
 important changes of late years is the { Introduction of training for hand and eye. Teaching used to be too "bookish." x Children read about things instead of
 doing things and seeing things; their j intellect was developed at the expense { of their senses One evil effect was to make manual labor appear less digni- fled than bookkeeping and scrawling, and another to weary the children and make school uninteresting.
 These ills are remedied by making cookery and manual work part of the . curriculum. In London there are one hundred and eighly-one special centers Tor the teaching of cookery, all fur nished with ranges and materials, where more than twenty thousand girls are taking practical lessons extending over two years of their school course. In addition there are ten domestic economy schools, where, besides cooke ", the pupils of the public schools learn simple nursing and housewifery in all its branches. By trained methods the study gives as valuable intellectual ex- ercise as history and geography, and supplies, besides, most useful knowl- edge. Why should New York finger be- hind London? In some schools in Man. haitian cookery-rooms are equipped, but in Brooklyn, Queens and Richmond none of the girls are taught to cook. What sorry prospect for the future homes they are to set up.
 Every boy in the English public schools learns drawing, and in France we know that the art training is so good that French workmen hold the palm for tasteful designs and American stores advertise French patterns as special at- fractions In New York public sechools the foundation teaching in drawing should be given by an adequate staff of special art teachers, which will help to- wards the creation of skill and taste that will make New York independent z of French artisans, as well as give the public sources of lifeling pleasure.
 The acquaintance with tools and ma terials and the habits of self-reliance, accuracy and neatness which workshop practice gives to lads are invaluable Whatever trade or profession they may afterwards follow, they will grapple with it better if they have taken a course of lessons in wood work or met al-work. In London all the boys in the higher classes of the elementary schools attend at the woodwork centers for instruction by special teachers two hours week. They delight in the change, and go away handler and brighter more pleased with their school | life, and fresher for their other studies. | Shops for metal-work also have been 1 started, and will be rapidly multiplied. In Manhattan some boys get similar ad- vantages, but in the remainder of New York no wood working is taught. That is an unfair discrimination.
 TRADE AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS.
 What shall we do with our boys?" is a question that specially torments working class parents of narrow means at the time the lads leave school. The old apprenticeship system has to a great extent broken down, and often the lad cannot get chance to learn trade Even if he can, great part of his time is wasted running errands and doing odd jobs in the shops, and it is nobody's business to give him systematic instruc- ton. Now, unskilled or half-skilled la borers are not only sufferers them but a loss to the country. Con- London, Paris and Berlin are now well supplied with technical and trade schools. Paris has great separate establishments for teaching the wood and iron working trades, the decorative arts, chemical industries, furniture making and upholstery, and printing, and photogravure.
 Prussia has two hundred and forty eight schools giving instruction in painting, shoe-making, tailoring, bak- ing, butchering, smithing, etc. In Ber- lin there are textile and joiners' schools, and fifteen other trade-schools, each for a particular trade. N,, The girls also, are not neglected. In i France, Belgium and Denmark particu- larly, the free tuition for girls in flow designing, lacemaking, embroidery, textile trades, pottery, ,silverwork, etc. is well organ :, zed; and in Germany, toy-makng, weaving, basket-making and agricul- '. .ure find place. Austria has free trade II schools for girls in straw-work, wood- ,arving and musical-instrument mak- ng; and even backward Italy has d in telegraphy and typography. : A typical result of this collective en- erprise and foresight Is this: Before : 870 the Belgians had to import flowers | ut shortly before that they started a ', our-yearS' technical course in flower T making for girls. To-day Belgium ex- ,orts artificial flowers. In Paris there ! Ire six ecoles professionnellss menag- res, where girls who wish to be fleur- stes can have a complete training. The work is thorough and the flowers :. Ire copied from nature. With like pro- q ision New York could help a number !.