The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-01-18
MAMMAL rRA1N1Na aFAD.n

1C ACCOMPLISHMENTS LndL LQeTG Will De
opposition to the manual training
school which it is proposed to erect in
Topeka to relieve the crowded condi-
ton of the high school should cause
people to pause and think. Is the new
manual training schools a good thing?
Or would it be better to return to the
methods of our forefathers when the
child of humble parents was expected
to learn to read, write and bigger and
nothing more; when the teacher who
was best able to ''trounce the big boys"
was considered the most highly quail
fed to teach.
In this connection the St Paul Dis
patch observes that down in Chicago
they have been having an "anti-fad"
epidemic. stimulated by the shortage
in the school funds, which has obliged
retrenchment. The notion that too
much time was given to those innova-
tions of modern methods and too little
to the irreducible minimum" the three
RS, was prevalent among those who
earn their living by manual labor and
get their compensation in day wages,
commonly termed the Tailoring class
es.' The objections were those with
which we were familiar.
The discussions finally led to the Fed
Grafton of Labor taking the matter up.
Instead of joining in an unintelligent
denunciation, that body sensibly decid-
ed to send it's legislative committee out
among the schools to see what these
fads are, what they do for the children,
before demanding their abandonment.
So the chairman of the cigarmal1ers'
union, the chairman of the boxmaker
and sawyers' union and the rest went
hunting fads. The chairman of the
cigarmakers' union said that I'VE had
heard so often about the green-legged
monkey and the blue-eared COW that
we came to believe that method of
teaching was all wrong. The idea of
child Tapping its arms to initiate bird
struck some of the men as outrageous.
and the impression came that the time
was taken from the three RS"
They went into a first grade room.
where reading and spelling by visual
cation was shown them The children
were about six years old. The teacher
wrote sentences on the board, and the
children did what the sentences direct
ed. One, a Swede boy, unable to speak
English, did as well as any. II don't
see anything the matter with a method
of teaching which can be SO readily
comprehended by little children" said
the man of cigars. Then they went into
another first-grade room, where the
fad" method of teaching numbers was
shown them and the cigar man again
saw, with establishment, children doing
number work mentally that would
stagger many grown men of fair edu-
cation" Again they saw spelling taught
usually, and the chairman was the
only one making a mistake in spelling
when he inspected the pupils work. He
thought receipt" should be spelled ''re-
ciept."
Then they struck "fad" for sure.
They found twenty-five young girls
making soup from tomatoes. which they
had canned last fall. After seeing how
the girls were taught, the boxmaker
said, IF that is a fad. then I am for it.
and viii push IL along. We ought to
have those fads in every school" Then
they went over to the high school in the
manual training room and saw the boys
work in wood, make boxes, cut pat
terms, plane boards. Here the boxmak-
er was in his element, and he watched
closely. And he said it is good. And, in
conclusion, the cigar man said: From
the work we have seen done. the view
that these 'fads' are a detriment to the
children, is all wrong. I wish they had
been discovered when was a boy" And
every man who thus investigates this
modern way of teaching joins him in
regretting that he was born too soon.