The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-05-04
MANUAL TRAINING. IN MARYLAND.
By MRS. BERTHA B. HAMMEi.

Sir,-A reputable writer and teacheh
of history was heard to remark Soou-s
naturedly at summer school for teach-
ers that he couldn't see why so many
OF the teachers forsook his beloved Gu
got and their States history just to make
little pink paper boxes" In the manual
training class.
This very same 'little-pink- box
idea of manual training represents tne
vague impression many have OF THIS
branch of education.
When bench-worl in wood found It's
way year or two ago into few hlsn
schools in the country, the farmer and
the village sto.e-keeper, the blacksmith
and the oyster-dreiger alike protested
| asserting that their boys should not be
! carpenters, nor learn any other trade.
for the matter OF that. why, my John
is to go to college when he gets through
| the high school He is to study law
| and my son. Williams, cut out for
doctor, and I won't have him wasting
lis time savarg and choppinS IN a car
| penter shop,-and as for girls handing
carpenters tools well, times i.ao
| changed nightly
| Neither in this Grades" idea nor In
| the 'rknlck-knack,' idea lies the real
educational manual training. But II Is
with such prejudice as this arraSeu
against it among those whom IL was
| intended most of all to benefit that edu-
| cational manual training was usnefeo
| into the public schools OF Maryland.
Review the history and evolution OIL
| manual training, and we find that even
| the great educators disagreed as 10 a
reason for what, in their hearts, they
| felt to be q. necessity to true educatioh'
| We call it the new education TO-DAY
this educational movement OF winch
! manual training is conceded TO oe =
| most important part. Yet $50 years ago
| Contentious prescribed manual training
/ as a part of the curriculum for ethical
reasons He sought thereby to raise the
| moral standard through stunning ldie-
/ ness-"the DEVILS pillow Other great
educa tors agreed with him in part, but
each saw the uses of hand-training in
| different light Locke considered 1t to
| be of value for practical life and looked
| upon it as a means to that ideal OF his
ga sound mind in a sound BODY. Ba-
| con. that minister of use Rousseau and
| Fichte saw its value in its influence OF
| the mental and physical growth OF the
| child. Pestalozzi believed all eduSation
| to be the generate Of power-not only
the power to think. but the power to do.
| 1t remained for Froebel, the apostle
| of self-activity, to take the best of these
| theories and put them into practice in
| the kindergarten system. But the good
| offices of Froebel stopped there. unfor-
! tunate!y. Though all manual training
and indeed all rational and syste-
| matte education has its basis In the
/ kindergarten, Froebe made no provi-
sion fer the application of his principles
to the educational needs of older chill
| dren. So the little ones were brought
| up in the way they should 60 and
when they were old enough to leave the
/ kindergarten We're turned loose upon
| the three RS and few 'ologies-and the
| way they should 60 was forgotten
In the meantime, a few years previous
to 1876. technical. Industrial, and trades
schools for boys of high school ase had
! been founded in Europe, ard were in
| successful operation as such. Their
| boasted object YVES to turn cut skilled
| lborers. In Special schools drawing
was brought into the system for engineers
| and architects. The Imperial Technical
School, OF Mascow, Russia, made skill
| in tool-work the foundation of reform
| in education. but lost the educative idea
| in teaching the construction of Joints
/ and samples rather than a completed
| article. With 3, view 20 the separation
! Of schoo-work- shops from the Mechnical
| shops, experiments were tried IN Russia
by Victor della Vos. applied in America
| in the massachusetts, Institute Of TECH
nology and in the st Louis Manuel Train
| ing School. and the subject became one
| of living interest to educators both for
! Investigation and criticism. 1t soon be-
| came plain that for boys OF high school
| age manual instruction could be devised
| that would be both practical and dis
| ciplinary, and edca tional as well as
| technical If educational for older boys,
| why not educational for younger ones
| and for girls as we'll? So the minds OF
educators were turned to the considera-
ton of its efficacy in schools of primary
| and grammar grades, and the gap be-
! tween the kindergarten and the high
schools was thus bridged over.
/ There is now scarcely a State in the
| Union that has not & course of manual
training in the curricula of its primary.
grammar and high school grades.
| Though Slow to introduce manual train
| ing into her schools in ali grades as a
purely educa tonal factor, Maryland was
! the second State to engraft manual train
! ing upon the public school system. AS
| far back as 1873 an effort was made to
J accomplish this but it was not until ten
| years later. in 1883, that action was taken
| looking toward the establishment of a
schools for manual education:
On February 26. 1884, what is now
| known as the Baltimore Polytechnic
! Institute was organized and opened
under the name Of The Baltimore
! Manual Training School," The standard
of admission is the same that for the
/
| to Greek and Latin is employed during
! the first two years of the course in car
| pentry, sheet metal and light forging
| exercises. These exercises cover what is
known as manual training, and are given
| with special reference to their educa-
| tive value. In the third and post-gradu-
| ate years are given such studies as math-
| ematlcS, physics and chemistry, and such
| mechanical exercises in applied manual
training as will fit the student to tea oh
in manual training school, to enter.
! II he desires, an institution of technol-
| ogy, as the Massachusetts Institute of
| Technology or the Sibley School, Cor
| nell University, or to engage in imme-
| date and remunerative employment in
| the drafting room, or in the field of
/ electrical and mechanical engineering
/ NO attempt is made to teach trades. The
work in the class shop is correlated to
| the work in the class room, it being be-
lieyed that practical illustration of how
and for what purpose things are done
are Of more value than mere excellence
| IL hand skill.
| Although the educational side of hand
| training is acknowledged to be it's reason
l I~~sr,