The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-07-20

/ dropped. Mr. Walter Page declares 1t ths
\ first thoroughly sound plan OF training
| youth since classicism began its careoi
| after the revival of learning in Europe.
/ Both the educational and economic ad.
| vantages arising from manual training
/ are obvious. though It were perhaps In
| appropriate to enter here upon technical
| details.
~. First of all. the Introduction OF
shop work into the public schools would
| find a place for that large number Of
boys who have no great aptitude for
books. for abstract metaphysical learning
that requires close analysis, or for those
masses of facts and figures that are car
ried by the memory. ] am sure that too
much attention has been given by our
school training to the mere anatomy OF
learning. to mental gymnastics and aero
batic feats that may mean nimbleness
rather than strength of mind. Often
times the clever boy with mind stuffed
with all the fight historical from Mara-
thon to Waterloo In order categorical.
| standan mere paralytic in the presence
of a sfaets practical Din the presence Of
something that has to he done. remem-
Der that at college swallowed undigest-
ed. the huge bulk of Bloxhams Chennis-
| try, yet never had a test tube in my hand.
and was utterly incompetent to perform a
simple experiment to determine the pres
ence OF iron in a mineral spring.
On the other hand. have seen a boy
that would pass as dull in the ordinary
studies Of rthe school displaying In the
shop some OF the finest qualities of mind =
a sharp. discriminating perception, that
is, the clear eye. for form. magnitude.
proportfen9 and grace; a steady will: that
is. the trained hand, that guided the keen
edged tool to- the breadth of hair; fine
constructive power, that Is. the will to
do, that turned lot of unrelated frag-
ments Of wood and metal into thing of
beauty and utility. Certainly these are
high qualities worthy of all training and
Of all praise.
C21. "It has been clearly demonstrated
that children who received both mental
and manual training excelled in mental
work those who received only mental
training" Today this is an educational
dctuTh universally accepted; though a de-
cade ago 1t was laughed to scorn.
CD The introduction of shop work pro-
notes wholesome sense of the dignity
of hand labor. and completely emanci-
pates from that false pride and snob-
bishness, unhappily at one time so prev
alent in our section, that regards labor
as badge of social inferiority and a
thing to be despised. One of the most
hopeful sights Of the times is to see a
hundred or more Southern youths in shirt
sleeves and blue overalls skilfully manip-
ulating some complex machine and shap-
ing up some finished product of their own
skill and ingenuity. These young men are
mot too fine for any form of labor, and
are qualified to take useful places in the
industrial world rather than swell the
throng of useless and unhappy applicants
in the overcrowded and underpaid posi-
lions In shops, stores and counting
houses, where a generally poor living
may be obtained without soiling one 8
fingers
General Francis Walker In speaking of
the advantages of industrial education
dwells ID upon the impulse communicate
ed thereby to invention and discovery;
CD upon the disclosure here and there
of rare mechanical genius which, under
the old system might have been hope
lessly lost in a dreary wilderness of
words; 90 upon the value of the arts ac-
quired in saving disrepair about the home,
enabling the thousand needed strokes of
the hammer to be well and promptly
given. securing the insertion of the nail
in time that saves nine; the oiling of the
discordant hinge. the hanging of a pic
ture. or the repair of lock; upon the
virtue which a generous mechanical edu-
cation of the people would have in pre-
| serving and exalting the priceless sense
of social decency, which keeps the fence
along the village street in order, the
gate hung. the glass set. the shutter in
place.
Perhaps nowhere more than in the des-
olate regions of the South is needed this
| sense of neatness and tidiness. Nowhere
| Is more needed this sense of thrift and
| attention to the little practical details
of farm life that make the difference be-
tween happiness and discomfort. success
and failure.
"a And this brings us lastly and chief
ly to the advantages to be derived by
the community at large from the i'm
provement of the industrial quality of its
citizens through the mechanical educa-
ton of our youth and their acquisition
and mastery of the elements which I'M
derlie all mechanic arts"
l. This is not the time to enter upon a
general discussion of industrial educa-
ton. but the words of an eminent Eng
fish author are we'll worth bordering:
Lord Brougham once said he hoped
the day would come when every man in
England would read Bacon; William Cor
bett said he would be contented IL time
came when every man in England would
eat bacon. First and foremost a man
has to earn his living, and the light we
want is the light to help us to work and
find food and clothes and lodging for our
selves" The three RS, If no industrial
training has gone along with them. are
apt. as Miss Nightingale observes, to
produce fourth R-of Rascality.
Every boy born into the world should
be put in the way of maintaining him
self in honest independence. No educa-
ton that does not make this its first aim
is worth anything at all. The being able
to do something is of infinitely more val
ue than the ability to answer question.
OF old, the Hebrews, whose public and
private economy was of divine inspira-
ton, required every boy to know a trade.
The Egyptian apprenticeship Of the Is
raelites in brick making is familiar his
tory Moses was a shepherd; Jacobs
skill in cattle breeding was triumph In
animal industry, and confusion to his
father-in-law; King David was shep-
herd; Paul. the mightiest single factor
In expanding the religion of Christ. main
tanned a splendid independence by his
trade as tent maker; while the great
Master and Teacher, the Light of the
World. pondered for thirty years on the
EN kM ~ -